MINISTER'S BOY. 279 



a retouch of the magnet, are refreshed; and there 

 is no willing return to work after a conversation. 

 To mitigate an evil which cannot be prevented, let 

 the missions of the unfittest person about the house 

 be few not on the spur of the moment, and at the 

 bidding of every body otherwise the solid day, 

 broken in pieces, is thrown away like the fragments 

 of a jar not fit to be mended, but for such loved 

 excursions allot such hours as are followed by a 

 better inducement to return than that which the 

 spade presents. All house work will be found bad 

 for the boy; though trifling -as to time, such jobs 

 are great as to pretence, and all out-of-door work is 

 by them rendered nugatory. Get up early some 

 morning, and see the stable duties sufficiently well 

 done; mark the time that may be requisite; make 

 a liberal allowance for less activity in your absence, 

 and point out the allowance; then fix the hour at 

 which the garden work must commence, and see 

 that the hour is exactly observed, though the work 

 of the broom should be left unfinished. This ne- 

 glect may be noticed at the breakfast hour of rest. 

 There is no harshness in this, but merely what is 

 felt to be just; and such strictness is essential to 

 moral discipline; for what is neglect or idleness but 

 a species of theft? The reasonableness of this even 

 a stubborn youth cannot resist, and he will be 

 brought by a little patience to see that regularity 

 is a saving to himself, and a little perseverance on 

 your part will add to the value of his discovery the 

 force of a habit. 



