Debts of Honor. 29 



you intend, landing him on the out-going ship while ijou 

 are left to pay for advertising for a runaway hoy. 



Second: There is the dead pressure system of my will's 

 stronger than your will, and I say weed that hed out and 

 you weed it. This, like the other, is apt to do the work too 

 thoroughly, it presses down so upon the boy that it presses 

 the very best there is in him out of him — his individuality. 

 It leaves him an I-don't care- lurap-of- humanity, that gets 

 through the days automatically. If father says weed, he 

 weeds, and then he stops, and if father says hoe, he hoes, 

 aud then he stops, and finally he develops into a sort of 

 wooden man. Men, that like the dancing Jack, work very 

 well when some one else is near to pull the wires, but the 

 moment the hand controlling the wires drops he drops. 

 There is a better way than this, and now you've brought 

 Jack into the world it's only fair that you give him the benefit 

 of the most approved methods of development. This third 

 way is the steady draw of sympathetic magnetism. But in 

 order to make this plan successful you must have faith in 

 your boy, faith in the requirements of his nature, as they 

 were stamped by the Giver of Life and pronounced fit for 

 use; without this you can do nothing. More, you must have 

 faith in yourself. These assured, use your magnet of lov- 

 ing sympathy; first to draw your boy to you as the sun' 

 draws the flower, make him believe in you, believe that 

 what father says is so because father says it's so and father 

 knoivs. This done and you will find it comparatively easy 

 work to interest him in nature found at the end of the hoe 

 as found in results our own labor bring forth. 



But every plant needs stimulating. Stimulate Jack by 

 appreciation. When he has done well with the onion 

 weeding show him your appreciation of it by an hour in the 

 woods for the things he loves so well, as a reivard. " You 

 don't believe in rewards! Believe children should be taught 

 the higher way." Oh, yes, yes, that's all very well in the 

 main, but when you stick those grape cuttings down in the 

 sand you told them that if they'd take root and grow you'd 

 give them some better soil by-and-by, and those that didn't 

 root you didn't give any better soil to. And Our Great 



