Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/199

 blacket a' owre we dirt, by the laddies frae the schule?"

"I would have said," returned Mrs Mason, "what I said before, that all that bent to mischief in the children, arises from the neglect of the parents, in not directing their activity into proper channels. Do you not think that each of these boys would, if properly trained, find as much amusement in works that would tend to ornament the village, or in cultivating a few shrubs and flowers to adorn the walls of their own cottages, as they now appear to find in mischief and destruction? Do you not think, that that girl of yours might have been so brought up, as to have had more pleasure in cleaning a window of her father's house, than in bedaubing it with mud? Allowing the pleasure of being mischievously active, and the pleasure of being usefully active, to be at present equal; do you think that the consequenccs will not be different? 'Train up a child in the way he should