3i8 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



bad health is probably revealed by the school-life ; and if 

 a boy cannot do as others do, some one has to discover 

 the reason why. Hundreds of mothers will own how 

 much healthier, for some cause or another, their boys are 

 at school than they were at home. This limelight of 

 criticism — which, I think, is thrown on the facts of the 

 case at school — ^is, alas 1 never turned upon the unfortu- 

 nate schoolroom girl. She is inclined to think that others 

 suffer as much as she does ; or, at any rate, she would far 

 rather endure almost anything in silence than make com- 

 plaints which often cause the mother and the governess to 

 accuse her of being fanciful, idle, or self-indulgent. It is 

 a problem, never solved through a woman's life, when it 

 is best to disregard her ailments or to attend to them. 



One of the most startling things I know is the 

 ignorance of parents as to what is going on in the lives 

 and minds of their children. I am thankful to say that 

 in all my long experience I have only knovra one or two 

 really bad, indifferent, selfish mothers; but even the 

 kindest mothers, and those who devote most time and 

 thought to the welfare of their children, are sometimes 

 quite blind to the discomforts, the sorrows, and even the 

 tragedies that are being endured in silence under their 

 very eyes. I refer rather to the childhood of girls than 

 of boys, for these last are almost always sent to school 

 when quite young, and from that moment their indepen- 

 dence and consequent outspokenness when at home are 

 generally assured. But numbers of women have 

 mentioned to me the troubles of their childhood, which 

 never were suspected by their mothers, and which they 

 themselves never dreamt of revealing till they were quite 

 grown up, sometimes not till they were married and out 

 of the home altogether. Every young mother says and 

 thinks, ' This sort of thing shall never happen with my 

 children ; ' but it does happen, again and again. The cause 



