50 The Country Mother and the Children 



was too late. There are many men of this same 

 general class who are willing and even anxious to 

 protect the women of the home from the crush of 

 over-work, but who know not how to do it. Such 

 faults as we have just named might easily have been 

 avoided had these men, during very early boyhood, 

 been brought into an intimate acquaintance with the 

 burdensome tasks of the household. Especially 

 should they have been drilled time after time in the 

 performance of deeds of love and sympathy in respect 

 to their mother. It may seem a little thing for a 

 younger child to rush to the table, call for and par- 

 take of the best the table provides and, inattentive 

 to the wants of any other members of the family, 

 hurry off to his play full fed and happy. And yet 

 this very thing may be indicative of a serious lack 

 of attention to the rights and requirements of others, 

 such as may be carried over into his future home life 

 and there amount to serious abuse. Again, it must 

 be insisted that deeds of sympathy and altruism are 

 acquired through the actual and continued practice 

 of the performance of such deeds. 



7. Planning for the children. Among the other 

 splendid results of the conservation of the nerve 

 energy and the vital interests of the house mother 

 may be mentioned that of her ability to plan thought- 

 fully for the instruction of the boys and girls. It is 

 not an easy task to select appropriate stories and 

 readings for the young. It is neither an easy nor 



