“No matter which of us is most to blame?” asked George.

“You will always be the one that is most to blame,” replied his mother, “or, at least, almost always.  When a boy is playing with a sister younger than himself, he is the one that is most to blame for the quarrelling.  His sister may be to blame by doing something wrong in the first instance; but he is the one to blame for allowing it to lead to a quarrel.  If it is a little thing, he ought to yield to her, and not to mind it; and if it is a great thing, he ought to go away and leave her, rather than to stop and quarrel about it.  So you see you will be the one to blame for the quarrel in almost all cases.  There may possibly be some cases where you will not be to blame at all, and then you will have to be punished when you don’t deserve it, and you must bear it like a man.  This is a liability that happens under all systems.”

“We will try the plan for one fortnight,” she continued.  “So now remember, every single time that I hear you disputing or quarrelling with Amelia, you must take off your jacket and put it on again wrong side out—­no matter whether you think you were to blame or not—­and wear it so a few minutes.  You can wear it so for a longer or shorter time, just as you think is best to make the punishment effectual in curing you of the fault.  By the end of the fortnight we shall be able to see whether the plan is working well and doing any good.”

“So now,” continued his mother, “shut up your eyes and go to sleep.  You are a good boy to wish to cure yourself of such faults, and to be willing to help me in contriving ways to do it.  And I have no doubt that you will submit to this punishment good-naturedly every time, and not make me any trouble about it.”

Let it be remembered, now, that the efficacy of such management as this consists not in the devising of it, nor in holding such a conversation as the above with the boy—­salutary as this might be—­but in the faithfulness and strictness with which it is followed up during the fortnight of trial.

In the case in question, the progress which George made in diminishing his tendency to get into disputes with his sister was so great that his mother told him, at the end of the first fortnight, that their plan had succeeded “admirably”—­so much so, she said, that she thought the punishment of taking off his jacket and turning it inside out would be for the future unnecessarily severe, and she proposed to substitute for it taking off his cap, and putting it on wrong side before.

The reader will, of course, understand that the object of such an illustration as this is not to recommend the particular measure here described for adoption in other cases, but to illustrate the spirit and temper of mind in which all measures adopted by the mother in the training of her children should be carried into effect.  Measures that involve no threats, no scolding, no angry manifestations of displeasure, but are even playful in their character, may be very efficient in action if they are firmly and perseveringly maintained.