at all considered as effected by the step taken by his mother which has been already described.  That was only a beginning—­a right beginning, it is true, but still only a beginning.  It produced in him a cordial willingness to do right, in one instance.  That is a great thing, but it is, after all, only one single step.  The work is not complete until a habit of doing right is formed, which is another thing altogether, and requires special and continual measures directed to this particular end.  Children have to be trained in the way they should go—­not merely shown the way, and induced to make a beginning of entering it.  We will now try to show how the influence of commendation and encouragement may be brought into action in this more essential part of the process.

Habit to be Formed.

Having taken the first step already described, Georgie’s mother finds some proper opportunity, when she can have the undisturbed and undivided attention of her boy—­perhaps at night, after he has gone to his crib or his trundle-bed, and just before she leaves him; or, perhaps, at some time while she is at work, and he is sitting by her side, with his mind calm, quiet, and unoccupied.

“Georgie,” she says, “I have a plan to propose to you.”

Georgie is eager to know what it is.

“You know how pleased I was when you came in so still to-day.”

Georgie remembers it very well.

“It is very curious,” continued his mother, “that there is a great difference between grown people and children about noise.  Children like almost all kinds of noises very much, especially, if they make the noises themselves; but grown people dislike them even more, I think, than children like them.  If there were a number of boys in the house, and I should tell them that they might run back and forth through the rooms, and rattle and slam all the doors as they went as loud as they could, they would like it very much.  They would think it excellent fun.”

“Yes,” says Georgie, “indeed, they would.  I wish you would let us do it some day.”

“But grown people,” continues his mother, “would not like such an amusement at all.  On the contrary, such a racket would be excessively disagreeable to them, whether they made it themselves or whether somebody else made it.  So, when children come into a room where grown people are sitting, and make a noise in opening and shutting the door, it is very disagreeable.  Of course, grown people always like those children the best that come into a room quietly, and in a gentlemanly and lady-like manner.”

As this explanation comes in connection with Georgia’s having done right, and with the commendation which he has received for it, his mind and heart are open to receive it, instead of being disposed to resist and exclude it, as he would have been if the same things exactly had been said to him in connection with censure and reproaches for having acted in violation of the principle.