So, since you know it is best for him to be in school, and that it is the only possible road to happiness and usefulness, why not lead him to anticipate the going; to look forward to it as a treat, and to feel that to be a schoolboy is really the great end of existence?

One of the first steps in this direction will be to help him understand a little what kind of a place he is bound for.

Very likely the school you have decided on publishes an illustrated catalogue, and weeks before school opens begin to show him the pictures of the school buildings and grounds, and make him understand that on a certain day in September, which you mark on the calendar with bright crayon, you and he will go there.  Let him see one of the little white beds where he will sleep after you return home, the sunny dining room where he will eat his morning porridge and his Sunday ice cream; the playground full of rollicksome youngsters, with whom he will seesaw and play tag by and by, and the busy schoolroom, where so many delightful and interesting things are sure to happen.

Talk about all these things often and brightly and you will find that school has become a most desirable and fascinating place, and that every night there will be a great satisfaction in climbing on a chair to scratch off from the calendar another day done before the joy of going there.

Then you can buy such delightful things to be put into that waiting trunk—­things often to be looked at, but never to be used till that wonderful place is reached—­long red and blue pencils, with rubbers on the ends; boxes of writing paper, all gay with pictures and exactly right for the first letters home; a foot rule, and, if you are a truly brave mother, a real jackknife to sharpen the same red and blue pencils and add to the joy of living.

It is absorbing work, too, to mark them all with one’s name, so they may never be mistaken for any other little boy’s property, and to make a place for a new toy or two, though if you are wise you will not buy many playthings now, but will save them to send later, one by one, by parcel post, to be received with a joy it is a pity you cannot be there to see, it will be so out of proportion to any other pleasure you could give by such simple means.

Of course, you must have some kodak pictures taken—­ever so many of them—­showing the family, the house, and the pets, as well as the boy himself.  These are to be kept, too, to go in letters.  They will be not only very precious possessions, but if they are labeled carefully they will be extremely useful in the classroom when your boy begins to learn to speak the names of the people at home.

Since they are to be used for this double purpose, be sure that each member of the family group is very distinctly marked, or the names of Aunt Mary and sister Helen may get hopelessly mixed in the boy’s mind!