There is something to be said on both sides, and we may as well face the facts without prejudice.  No woman, however tender, can really take an own mother’s place.  Her step-children may think that she does, and this is one of the instances where ignorance is such genuine bliss that it would be cruel folly to enlighten it.  It would not be natural if actual mother-love could be felt by a woman toward any children save those for whom she has braved the danger of death and the mightiest pain mortal can know.  With this suffering comes a love far greater than the anguish, a passionate devotion which, we are certain, must reach beyond the grave itself.  That mother who, having young children, still wishes to die, is an anomaly rarely met with.  No matter how much she may be forced to endure, she still prays to live for her sons’ and daughters’ sakes.  A poor sufferer once said: 

“If I had no child I would beg the good Lord to let me die.  But while my baby lives, I beg Him to spare this life which is too valuable to Him to be lost.”

It is not possible that an outsider “whose own the sheep are not” should know this heaven-given feeling.  Still, every unselfish mother will acknowledge that were she dying, she would be comforted to know that her children would find some conscientious, true foster-mother who would bring them up just as faithfully and tenderly as she knew how to do.

There is no more forlorn being on this wide earth than a widower with little children, and with no woman-relative to help him look after them.  Why then this rooted hatred and horror of step-mothers?

You—­my step-mother reader—­are sadly unfortunate if anyone has been so cruel to you and your charges as to instil into their minds an aversion for you with whom they must live for years, perhaps all their lives.  But, perhaps, after all, the case is not so bad as you fear.  You may have a morbid sensitiveness on the subject which makes it look very dark to you.  Even if matters are as you think, if you try conscientiously to overcome the children’s prejudice, and your husband aids you in your efforts, you are bound to live down their dislike.  Children are tender-hearted and clear-sighted.  They will soon judge for themselves, and the one rule against which they will not rebel is that of love.  The first thing for you to do is to begin with your own feelings. Make yourself love the little ones.  Unless they are unusually unattractive the task will not be a difficult one.  Perhaps you love them already.  If so, half the battle is won.  In driving a restless horse, it is absolutely essential that you should not be at all nervous yourself.  Every horseman will tell you that the animal knows instinctively the character of the person managing him.  If a thrill of fear touches him who holds the reins, the horse responds to it as to an electric shock, and becomes almost beside himself with nervousness.  If a firm, steady, yet gentle grasp is on the lines,