250 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



rules : a full hour of rest twice within the ordinary 

 period of lahour ; and if you have a message to any 

 considerable distance, let the requisite time be taken 

 from the working hours. This adds greatly to 

 willingness, which, if it be gained, will make all 

 right ; for the physical powers are quite adequate to 

 all that you want ; the difficulty is to enlist the moral 

 powers ; and with regard to these there is as often a 

 mistake on the part of the master as there is a failure 

 on the part of the servant. Your boy wants to go 

 home to see his parents ; and his idea is that you 

 cannot grudge him the Sabbath for that purpose. 

 But give him rather any other day. He will be 

 surprised that you do not value his work so much as 

 you do his morals ; he will carry, by his visit, a lesson 

 to his brothers and sisters-^ it may be to his parents 

 also ; and whilst you prevent as much Sabbath pro- 

 fanation as might spoil a whole week's instructions, 

 you are effectually making more useful hands by 

 providing first for a better heart. 



The want of something to do in leisure hours is a 

 perpetual cause of running to idle companions. The 

 poor boy has learned to read ; but it is only in the 

 best schools, and of late years, that children have 

 discovered any connection between the words of a 

 book and the ideas which they are meant to convey ; 

 and the probability is that your boy has never read a 

 page either for his instruction or amusement. To 

 what a flood of light might his mind be at once 

 opened by giving him a little book, and requiring 

 him to tell what he had read of. He has learned to 

 write and do accounts by rote, but has no notion of the 

 use of either. The gift of a few sheets of paper and 



