Year: 1866

Inc 1alfy snoOk ner neau.


We have a bad report o.day, / am
afraid. Mamma has been sulky. dis.
obliglng, impertinent and rebellious.--
| am really panied by her pervcrH.
ty.'


Are you?' cried mamma. why
then did you take such pains to bring
about all these fno results? You com.
menced the day by disagrecable and
perfectly unnecessary restriction about
my dress. Because | did not endure
it with smiling face you proceeded
to infict upon me grievous and ire
parable disappointment; and not salts
fed with that, you called the family
attention to my i'll humor, emitting all
mention of the cause, and forbidding
me to explain. You have worried me
through the day with ceaseless reproofs
and commands, and then rehuke me
because did not .ook cheerful under
the discipline. You spoiled an entire
afternoon BY refusing me moments
attention.. You broke in on my occu-
pations on the most absurd pretexts,
and then exclaim that am irritated.
You yourself have been the cause Of
what you so much dislike. You wor-
ry and cross and fret with continual
and vcxatious supervision. that would
strain 10 their utmost the principles
end patience Of saint


You acknowledge, then, said the
fairy, that you, a grown woman, would
be frctted out of amiability and self.
control By my system; but pray, Mad
am, is it not your own? and when did
you ever find fault with 1T before?-
When yon inflicted on. your son dis.
appointment as unbearable as the one
you yourself have suffered, you never
asked what caused the ill-tcmper for
which you punished him, or if the pun
ishmout was not too great for the Of
fensc. When you follow him about all
day, with continual fault-fnding about
very small matters, you expect that he
will hear with smiling face and mend
his ways at once, but when you are
pursued in the same way, you find that
it only makes one cross, and stirs up
the worst part of your nature; and yet
he is little boy, and you are grown
woman. When Willie's game or pro-
ject is spoiled, because little boys must
not interrupt, and you will not hear
him till it is too late, you arc shocked
thut he is sulky and aggrieved; and
yet how intolerable it was 10 sit, while
your pudding was spelling, for want Of
an answer to a simple question and
you are grown mamma and he is on
ly n little boy. You insist that he, a
little boy, must leave his most delight
full occupation, at the height of his in
tcrest, without even look Of dissatis-
faction; and yet how hard you, grown
. woman, found it to practice what you
preach! You say / am the cause OF
your shortcomings of to-day: If that
is so, then, in limited degree, you are
the cause of much ofyour sons naugh.
tiness; fer l thought | could not do
better than initiate the system of such
an experienced and sensible mamma
as yourself, and l have simply copied
you to the letter; and if the system
works SO i'll when tried on yourself, is
it not just possible that, though rules
and steady and firm system of dis
ciplinc, are absolutely required in a
family, that system of discipline, en-.
forced with an utter disregard of the
tastes and feelings of its object, is q
tyranny, even when enforced by a
mamma--that a few guiding rules are
as Indispensable as boundary fence
but that restrictions and regulations,
thickset all through the day, are SC
many traps and stumbling-blocks for
unwary littlc Willics; and that nam
ma ought not to require moro patience
self and fortitude of little
child than she could use herself in pro
cseIy similar circumstances


Papa smiled, mamma pouted; and l
Willie, having heard it all, have writ
len it all down for the benefit of those
poor grown people, who have been sc
busy all their lives in teaching US, that
they have never had any time to teach
themselves.