help him to make a small water-wheel, or any other interesting contrivance, and keep him at it by various devices until he has brought it to a fair degree of completion Your aim is to stretch his will each time he attempts to do something a little further than it tends to go of itself; to let him work a little past his first impulse, so that he may learn by degrees to work when work is needed, and not only when he feels like it.

UNTIDINESS

[Sidenote:  Neatness Not Natural]

Essentially a fault of immaturity as this is, we must beware how we measure it by a too severe adult standard.  It is not natural for any young creature to take an interest in cleanliness.  Even the young animals are cared for in this respect by their parents; the cow licks her calf; the cat, her kittens; and neither calf nor kittens seem to take much interest in the process.  The conscious love of cleanliness and order grows with years, and seems to be largely a matter of custom.  The child who has always lived in decent surroundings by-and-by finds them necessary to his comfort, and is willing to make a degree of effort to secure them.  On the contrary, the street boy who sleeps in his clothes, does not know what it is to desire a well-made bed, and an orderly room.

[Sidenote:  Remedies]

[Sidenote:  Example]

[Sidenote:  Habit]

The obvious method of overcoming this difficulty, then, is not to chide the child for the fault, but to make him so accustomed to pleasant surroundings that he not help but desire them.  The whole process of making the child love order is slow but sure.  It consists in (1) Patient waiting on nature:  first, keep the baby himself sweet and clean, washing the young child yourself, two or three times a day, and showing your delight in his sweetness; dressing him so simply that he keeps in respectable order without the necessity of a painful amount of attention. (2) Example:  He is to be accustomed to orderly surroundings, and though you ordinarily require him to put away some of his things himself, you do also assist this process by putting away a good deal to which you do not call attention.  You make your home not only orderly but pretty, and yourself, also, that his love for you may lead him into a love for daintiness. (3) Habits:  A few set observances may be safely and steadfastly demanded, but these should be very few:  Such as that he should not come to breakfast without brushing his teeth and combing his hair, or sit down to any meal with unwashed hands.  Make them so few that you can be practically certain that they are attended to, for the whole value of the discipline is not in the superior condition of his teeth, but in the habit of mind that is being formed.

IMPUDENCE.

Impudence is largely due to, (1) lack of perception:  (2) to bad example and to suggestion; and (3) to a double standard of morality.