FEAR OF NOISES
How frequently some unusual noise leads a parent to say: "Keep still! What was that? Did you hear that noise?" The little folks of the family are startled, their eyes grow large and their faces pale, while they cling to the frightened mother. Of course, investigation usually shows that the strange and alarming noise was merely the slamming of a cellar door, the rattling of a curtain in the wind, some one walking about downstairs, or the action of the new furnace regulator in the basement. But meantime the harm is done to the children—fear, the worst enemy of childhood, has been unconsciously planted in the mind by the thoughtless and nervous parent.