“Don’t sigh over the matter so terribly, Martha,” spoke up the husband.  “We shall get them right in the end.  Never give up the ship, is my motto in this and every thing else.  But I wouldn’t have our brother and sister here think for a moment that the scenes they have witnessed are enacted every day.  Their visit is an occasion of some excitement to our young folks, and they had to show off a little.  They will cool down again, and we shall get on pleasantly enough.”

“That is all very true,” said Mrs. Laurie, more cheerfully.  “I never saw them act quite so outrageously before, when any one came in.  There is much good in them, and you will see it before you leave us.”

“No doubt in the world of that,” replied Mr. Fleetwood; “there is good in all children, and it is our duty to exercise great forbearance towards their evils, and be careful lest, by what we do or say, we strengthen, rather than break them.”

And the good that was in Mrs. Laurie’s children was clearly seen by Mr. and Mrs. Fleetwood during their stay; but, that good was, alas! not strengthened as it might have been, nor were the evils they inherited kept quiescent, as they would to a great extent have remained, had the mother been more patient and forbearing—­had her practice been as good as her theory.

It is easy for us to see how others ought to act toward their children, but very hard for us to act right toward our own.

THE MOTHER AND BOY.

“Tom, let that alone!” exclaimed a mother, petulantly, to a boy seven years old, who was playing with a tassel that hung from one of the window-blinds, to the imminent danger of its destruction.

The boy did not seem to hear, but kept on fingering the tassel.

“Let that be, I tell you!  Must I speak a hundred times?  Why don’t you mind at once?”

The child slowly relinquished his hold of the tassel, and commenced running his hand up and down the venitian blind.

“There! there!  Do for gracious sake let them blinds alone.  Go ’way from the window this moment, and try and keep your hands off of things.  I declare! you are the most trying child I ever saw.”

Tom left the window and threw himself at full length into the cradle, where he commenced rocking himself with a force and rapidity that made every thing crack again.

“Get out of that cradle!  What do you mean?  The child really seems possessed!” And the mother caught him by the arm and jerked him from the cradle.

Tom said nothing, but, with the most imperturbable air in the world, walked twice around the room, and then pushing a chair up before the dressing-bureau, took therefrom a bottle of hair lustral, and, pouring the palm of his little hand full of the liquid, commenced rubbing it upon his head.  Twice had this operation been performed, and Tom was pulling open a drawer to get the hair-brush, when the odour of the oily compound reached the nostrils of the lad’s mother, who was sitting with her back toward him.  Turning quickly, she saw what was going on.