The very tone of the voice has a tendency to influence and control character. I wonder so many parents train their voices as they do. They have a kind of snap to the tone which they evidently think makes the children and the servants "get a move" on them. Perhaps it does, but at the same time it falls upon a family like frost upon a field of flowers. You pay three dollars to have your piano tuned, yet you train your voice to sound harsh and hard.
How the tone of the voice controls was illustrated in my own home several years ago. I went home in the early spring and found some one had been among my bees and had left the lids of the hives lifted at the time the bees were making brood. Going to the house I said to my wife:
"Where is Charlie?" He was the colored man in charge of the barn and garden.
Mrs. Bain replied: "I suppose he is about the barn; he doesn't stay in the house." I knew that, but somehow we Adams will go to our Eves with anything that goes wrong.
"What's the trouble?" my wife asked.
I told her about the exposure of the bees, (about the effect of which I knew very little) and said:
"I want Charlie to keep out of that apiary. He'll kill every bee I have."
Mrs. Bain in a very gentle manner said: "I did that myself. That's the way father used to do. I was afraid your bees might starve during the long cold spell, so I made some syrup and placed it in the upper compartments. I lifted the lids so that the light would attract the bees up to the syrup. I'm very sorry I did it, but I thought it would please you."
I said: "Well, I believe you did the right thing, my dear, and I am very much obliged to you."
If my wife had said in a harsh tone: "I did that, sir. What are you going to do about it?" then I would have said something.