Was the breakfast-room door much more likely to be shut the next morning?
No. The lesson was pushed aside by the pain, the motive to resolve was
dulled by the antagonism. If that father had called his son, and, putting
his arm round him, (oh! the blessed and magic virtue of putting your arm
round a child's neck!) had said, "Good-morning, my little man;" and then,
in a confidential whisper in his ear, "What shall we do to make this
forgetful little boy remember not to leave that door open, through which
the cold wind blows in on all of us?"--can any words measure the
difference between the first treatment and the second? between the success
of the one and the failure of the other?
Scores of times in a day, a child is told, in a short, authoritative way,
to do or not to do such little things as we ask at the hands of older
people, as favors, graciously, and with deference to their choice. "Would
you be so very kind as to close that window?" "May I trouble you for that
cricket?" "If you would be as comfortable in this chair as in that, I
would like to change places with you.
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