sufficient means it would be a good thing if boys were taught, as far as may be, how things are made and the amount of toil that goes into the simplest article.  I remember giving a small printing-press to a boy of ours—­an excellent gift, by the by, for a lad, and it can be had for five or six shillings—­and his coming to me soon after with a match-box in his hand, exclaiming with wonderment, “Why, auntie, there are six different kinds of type on this match-box!” If they could learn how to build, how rafters and joists are put in, and construct as much as a miniature summer-house in the garden, how useful this being able to turn their hands to anything might prove to them in their after-life.  And with what added respect they would look upon all labor if they had never looked upon it as the part of a “gentleman” to stand aloof from it.

Lastly, but not least, I would plead most earnestly for the frequent home-letter, should your boy be sent to a boarding-school.  If you would have him resist the temptations of school life, keep the home as close to his heart and as present to his mind as you can.  Make it your first and paramount duty to write every day if you can, if not every other day, at least twice a week.

Do not misunderstand me here.  God knows I do not go in for the devoted mother who thinks of nothing but her boys and to whom the whole world besides is nothing but an empty flourish of the pen about their names.  Such mothers are like Chinese teacups, with no perspective and everything out of proportion; where the Mandarin is as big as the Pagoda, and suffers from a pathetic inability to get in at his own door.  You must see things in moral perspective in order to train character on large and noble lines.  And it is from the rough quarry of the outside world, with its suffering and sin, that you must fetch the most precious stones for the building up of true manhood or womanhood.  The sooner children are taught that their small concerns must be subordinated at times to the needs of the sick, the poor, and the suffering, the better for them.  For a mother, therefore, to undertake some outside work may and will prove the best element in their education, enabling them in their turn to live in relation with the world in which God has placed them and do their part in the service of humanity.

All that I mean is, do not so crowd your life with outside work or social engagements as to have no time to spare for this daily or at least bi-weekly letter to the boys at school.  Bear in mind that the most important work you can do for the world is the formation of noble character, building it up stone by stone as you alone can do.  Do not be too busy to make yourself your boy’s friend and throw yourself heartily into all that interests him.  I have known philanthropic mothers to whom cricket was nothing but an unmeaning scurrying backwards and forwards, and who scarcely knew the stern of a boat from its bows!