7.  THE FIRST LESSONS.—­Should you be asked by your four or five-year old, “Mamma, where did you get me?” Instead of saying, “The doctor brought you,” or “God made you and a stork brought you from Babyland on his back,” tell him the truth as you would about any ordinary question.  One mother’s explanation was something like this:  “My dear, you were not made any more than apples are made, or the little chickens are made.  Your dolly was made, but it has no life like you have.  God has provided that all living things such as plants, trees, little chickens, little kittens, little babies, etc., should grow from seeds or little tiny eggs.  Apples grow, little chickens grow, little babies grow.  Apple and peach trees grow from seeds that are planted in the ground, and the apples and peaches grow on the trees.  Baby chickens grow inside the eggs that are kept warm by the mother hen for a certain time.  Baby boys and girls do not grow inside an egg, but they start to grow inside of a snug warm nest, from an egg that is so small you cannot see it with just your eye.”  This was not given at once, but from time to time as the child asked questions and in the simplest language, with many illustrations from plant and animal life.  It may have occupied months, but in time the lesson was fully understood.

8.  THE SECOND LESSON.—­The second lesson came with the question, “But where is the nest?” The ice is now broken, as it were; it was an easy matter for the mother to say, “The nest in which you grew, dear, was close to your mother’s heart inside her body.  All things that do not grow inside the egg itself, and which are kept warm by the mother’s body, begin to grow from the egg in a nest inside the mother’s body.”  It may be that this mother had access to illustrations of the babe in the womb which were shown and explained to the child, a boy.  He was pleased and satisfied with the explanations.  It meant nothing out of the ordinary any more than a primary lesson on the circulatory system did, it was knowledge on nature in its purity and simplicity taught by mother, and hence caused no surprise.  The subject of the male and female generative organs came later; the greatest pains and care was taken to make it clear, the little boy was taught that the sexual organs were made for a high and holy purpose, that their office at present is only to carry off impurities from the system in the fluid form called urine, and that he must never handle his sexual organs nor touch them in any way except to keep them clean, and if he does this, he will grow up a bright, happy and healthy boy.  But if he excites or abuses them, he will become puny, sickly and unhappy.  All this was explained in language pure and simple.  There is now in the boy a sturdy base of character building along the line of virtue and purity through knowledge.