Bed Time.—One little chap was constantly being deceived as to his bed hour, which was 7:30 o'clock. He could not tell the time, and his mother or nurse would tell him that it was bedtime when in reality it was only seven o'clock. He would look puzzled and only half convinced as his reason told him it could not be that late; but he had no choice but to obey. It would have been far wiser to set seven o'clock as his bed hour and to have stuck to it.
Little Minds.—Minds of moderate calibre ordinarily condemn everything that is beyond their range.—La Rachefoucauld.
Tea and Coffee.—Don't give your two-year-old child tea and coffee to drink. What if she does cry for them? The crying will harm her far less than the drink.
FOUR THINGS.
Each man has more of four thing than he knows.
What four are these? Sins, debts, fears and woes.
—From the French.
Sanitary Care of Baby's Bottles.—To wash and cleanse baby's bottles satisfactorily, have a good stout bottle brush; make a strong suds of hot water and soap or soap powder; wash the bottles thoroughly, using the brush, then rinse several times, using the hot water and borax, and drain. Before using bottles, always rinse again with hot water. With this care there should be no trouble with sour or cloudy bottles.
Moulded by Circumstances.—In all our reasonings concerning men we must lay it down as a maxim that the greater part are moulded by circumstances.—Robert Hall.
Forming Habits.—The trouble with most bad habits is that they are so quickly formed in small children. The mother relaxes her care for a day or two, and a new trick appears, or the work of weeks on an old one is undone. What is true of physical habits is equally so of the moral habits. A tiny baby of a few months old knows very well if the habit of loud crying will procure for it what it wants, and if not cheeked will develop into the irritable whining adult we are all acquainted with. Habits of disrespect, of indifference to the rights of others, of cruelty, may all be irresistibly formed or dispelled in the first few years of life.
[816 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
Chains of Habit.—The diminutive chains of habit are seldom heavy enough to be felt, till they are too strong to be broken.—Samuel Johnson. Unique Table Protector.—Many mothers prefer to bring their young children to the family table on ordinary occasions when there are no guests. At the same time they dislike to mar the appearance of their table with the tin waiter which is usually set before the children to protect the cloth against the depredations of dropped bread and milk. A clever device for this purpose is made of two oblong pieces of butcher's linen sewed together in the form of a case, with an oilcloth interlining. The linen is hemmed neatly so that it looks like an oblong napkin, and while it protects the cloth and the table it protects the table underneath; being white, like the cloth itself, it does not spoil the looks of the table. When soiled the oilcloth is slipped out and wiped off with a damp cloth, and the linen case goes with the tablecloth and napkin. Several of these cases will be needed, for the ordinary enterprising baby, but one piece of oilcloth will be sufficient for a long time.