206 FARM HOMES, IK-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS. 



deception and mean "putting off" in our conduct with 

 the confiding, earnest-hearted children. They are not 

 slow to see through sham excuses and lying subterfuges ; 

 and woe unto you as a parent, if you succeed in estab- 

 lishing yourself in their clear judgment as a " humbug." 



Do not shame and humiliate a child before strangers, 

 or even before other members of the family. Punish- 

 ment or rebuke ought to be between just the two persons, 

 the parent and the child. Yet it is a common thing to 

 see ill-bred parents " showing off " their authority before 

 visitors, and making children perfectly wretched and 

 overwhelmed with confusion about little misdemeanors 

 that need but a word, and that word privately addressed 

 to them. 



I shall never forget the sight of a sensitive little girl to 

 whom her mother called the attention of a tea-tableful of 

 yisifcors, because she had taken a too large bite of some 

 yery nice jelly-cake she was eating. The child first 

 glanced appealingly at her mother, with eyes that might 

 have pierced the heart of a savage, then turned her shy 

 gaze around upon the circle of smiling faces, and dropping 

 her face into her napkin, began to sob as if her heart was 

 breaking. There are plenty of children who would not 

 have minded such speech and such looks directed to them, 

 and would have serenely munched on. But this little 

 lady, being so sensitive to rudeness, felt differently. I 

 expected that the mother would at least leave her to her- 

 self, or allow her to leave the room, now the mischief was 

 done ; but, no, she was compelled to stop crying, hold up 

 her head, and finish her supper. The feat required some 

 time, it seemed as if the poor thing would burst a blood- 

 vessel in trying to swallow her sobs and appear calm, but 

 in three or four minutes she was indeed holding her head 

 up and " finishing" her supper, fumbling through a blur 

 of silent tears for the toothsome cake that was now no 

 more to her than so much saw-dust. The mother, with 



