Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/156

 a wood-cutter by trade, and spent the whole week at work in the woods. He had come into the garden to gather flowers to stick in his coat when he went to church. He saw the boy, and breaking off the most beautiful of his carnations (it was streaked with red and white), he gave it to him. Neither the giver nor the receiver spoke a word, and with bounding steps the boy ran home. And now, here, at a vast distance from that home, after so many events of so many years, the feeling of gratitude which agitated the breast of that boy, expressed itself on paper. The carnation has long since faded, but it now bloometh afresh."

The hearty ringing laugh of a child is sweet music to the ear. There are three most joyous sounds in nature—the hum of a bee, the purr of a cat, and the laugh of a child. They tell of peace, of happiness, and of contentment, and make one for awhile forget that there is so much misery in the world.

A man who dislikes children is unnatural; he has no "milk of human kindness" in him; he should be shunned. Give me, for a friend, a man—

"Who takes the children on his knee, And winds their curls about his hand."

166. If a child be peevish, and apparently in good health, have you any plan to offer to allay his irritability?

A child's troubles are soon over—his tears are soon dried; "nothing dries sooner than a tear"—if not prolonged by improper management:

"The tear down childhood's cheek that flows, Is like the dewdrop on the rose; When next the summer breeze comes by, And waves the bush, the flower is dry."

Never allow a child to be teased; it spoils his temper. If he be in a cross humor take no notice of it, but divert