MINISTER'S BOY. 275 



presence of the boy that you may know whether 

 they would encourage him to run home whether 

 they abhor lying and swearing and whether they 

 have been at pains to bestow some moral training 

 on their children. The remembrance of such a 

 conference, to which an appeal may be made, is 

 never lost in the giving of subsequent admonitions. 

 Have nothing to do with one that has been at no 

 sort of work before; for, except the worst of idlers, 

 all have been doing something, such as herding 

 cows or hoeing turnips, before they have grown fit 

 for taking care of a horse. Unless well recom- 

 mended, rather have one from a country place than 

 from a town or village, especially the neighbourhood 

 of an inn-stable. Lose no good chance for a slight 

 difference of wages; for what are a few shillings in 

 the year in comparison of killing a horse, or any 

 sort of annoyance which is repeated every day? 



Make great use of the law of kindness: a boy 

 should not feel on his first outset, that on leaving 

 home he is without a friend. Fail not to instruct 

 him in the fear of God. Appear thus in the cha- 

 racter of a guardian, not of a taskmaster: he has 

 no way of avoiding the impression that your ad- 

 monitions are solely for his good, and when spoken 

 kindly and earnestly, they fail not to reach his 

 heart; whereas his ill taught selfish spirit always 

 suspects a selfish end in the issue of every precept 

 that concerns only the quality or the amount of 

 his working. Angry threats provoke hatred and 

 tempt to lying; but gentleness, urging the neces- 



