XV THE SCHOOL BOARDS 391 



catch him and get him quietly to face his trainer ; 

 to know his voice and bear his hand ; to learn that 

 colts have something else to do with their heels 

 than to kick them up whenever they feel so 

 inclined ; and to discover that the dreadful human 

 figure has no desire to devour, or even to beat 

 him, but that, in case of attention and obedience, 

 he may hope for patting and even a sieve of oats. 



But, your " street Arabs," and other neglected 

 poor children, are rather worse and wilder than 

 colts ; for the reason that the horse-colt has only 

 his animal instincts in him, and his mother, the 

 mare, has been always tender over him, and never 

 came home drunk and kicked him in her life ; while 

 the man-colt is inspired by that very real devil, per- 

 verted manhood, and .his mother may have done 

 all that and more. So, on the whole, it may 

 probably be even more expedient to begin your 

 attempt to get at the higher nature of the child, 

 than at that of the colt, from the physical side. 



2. Next in order to physical training I put the 

 instruction of children, and especially of girls, in 

 the elements of household work and of domestic 

 economy ; in the first place for their own sakes, 

 and in the second for that of their future 

 employers. 



Every one who knows anything of the life of the 

 English poor is aware of the misery and waste 

 caused by their want of knowledge of domestic 

 economy, and by their lack of habits of frugality 



85 



