IN THE WAY. 35 



"We are afraid not. The national manners need improving. The ameni- 

 ties of home can alone make up for the national disadvantage. It is at the 

 home dinner-table, by the hearth-stone, the evening tiiv>ide. in thenui> 

 the bed-room and the sick-room, that manners must be taught. 



Between parents and children there should never, even with thefonde>t 

 love, be the slightest relaxation in the matter of a respectful obedience. It 

 is not now, as it was in the days of our own fathers and mothers, the fashion 

 to be formally respectful. The son does not rise when his lather niters 

 the room, or stop speaking because his father is speaking. Perhaj 

 would be better if he did. But he can be taught that he should treat his 

 father differently from other men. He can be taught to rise when his 

 mother leaves the table. He can be taught, by looks rather than by w< 

 to assume a certain respectful tone. Undoubtedly, the harassed and trou- 

 bled woman of the New World old before her time; obliged to rush 

 against wind and tide, full of cares which pursue her like scorpions, em- 

 barrassed by ill-trained servants would have a wrinkle less on her fore- 

 head, if she could be treated with a little more respect by her sons and 

 daughters ; and certainly she would be no less happy if her grown-up son 

 w<>uld now and then take her to the theatre or to a picture-gallery, and 

 would not impress it on her mind that she is an old woman, and thnvf..iv 

 left to the solitude of her own thoughts. 



How does her mind go back to those days when she with slee] 

 citude watched his helplessness! How does she think of her patient work 

 by his bedside when he was ailing ! Does he ever wish to sit down and 

 nurse her when she is ill ? He may say that the affections never go back- 

 ward ; but, at least, he might remember what she has done for him 1 

 >he brought home the Christmas-tree, which she decked for him : not ; 

 his daily amusements, how sin- Bought to make his life an 

 n of delights ; how she wrought, in siekm^s and in health, at his 

 " little coat," that he might be line; and how proud she was of him, when, 

 aft'-r her teaching, he took the pri/..- at M hool. 



Now, wrapped in his own pleasures, or I.UMIIC^, Of loV6, how often 



he think of her or her pleasure? Does In- n\ t.. i 



in Iteravm uuy the only way in whieh ny of us be happy ? No, 



the son does n<>t treat hi> mother with much politeness as a general rn 

 nor do her daughters alwa\> en on the side of too much delicate devotion, 

 01 en with a to.. :'ul niann-'i. 



\Veha\-' no power to write a counter-in itant to " Daisy Miller." whose 



U intoi the engagement of 1 



hemaelves the up; 



