The problem of education is seriously complicated by the peculiarities of womanhood. If we suppose two souls, exactly alike, sent into bodies, the one of man, the other of woman, that mere fact alone alters the whole mental and mortal history of the two. SAM LAWSON’S STORIES. [Sidenote: “Keep straight on.”] “Wal, ye see, boys, that ’ere’s jest the way to fight the Devil. Jest keep straight on with what ye’re doin’, an’ don’t ye mind him, an’ he can’t do nothin’ to ye.” * * * * * [Sidenote: Letting go.] “Lordy massy! what can any on us do? There’s places where folks jest lets go ’cause they hes to. Things ain’t as they want ’em, an’ they can’t alter ’em.” PEARL OF ORR’S ISLAND. [Sidenote: A mutual education.] Those who contend against giving woman the same education as man do it on the ground that it would make the woman unfeminine,—as if Nature had done her work so slightly that it could be so easily raveled and knit over. In fact, there is a masculine and feminine element in all knowledge, and a man and a woman, put to the same study, extract only what their nature fits them to see—so that knowledge can be fully orbed only when the two unite in the search and share the spoils. * * * * * [Sidenote: Baiting the boy.] “But don’t you think Moses shows some taste for reading and study?” “Pretty well, pretty well!” said Zephaniah. “Jist keep him a little hungry, not let him get all he wants, you see, and he’ll bite the sharper. If I want to catch cod I don’t begin with flingin’ over a barrel o’ bait. So with the boys, jist bait ’em with a book here an’ a book there, an’ kind o’ let ’em feel their own way, an’ then, if nothin’ will do but a feller must go to college, give in to him,—that’d be my way.” * * * * * [Sidenote: A natural education.] “Colleges is well enough for your smooth, straight-grained lumber, for gen’ral buildin’; but come to fellers that’s got knots an’ streaks, an’ cross-grains, like Moses Pennel, an’ the best way is to let ’em eddicate ’emselves, as he’s a-doin’. He’s cut out for the sea, plain enough, an’ he’d better be up to Umbagog, cuttin’ timber for his ship, than havin’ rows with tutors, an’ blowin’ the roof off the colleges, as one o’ them ’ere kind o’ fellers is apt to, when he don’t have work to use up his steam. Why, mother, there’s more gas got up in them Brunswick buildin’s from young men that are spilin’ for hard work than you could shake a stick at.” LITTLE FOXES. [Sidenote: Recreation.] The true manner of judging of the worth of amusements is to try them by their effects on the nerves and spirits the day after. True amusement ought to be, as the word indicates, _recreation_,—something that refreshes, turns us out anew, rests the mind and body by change, and gives cheerfulness and alacrity to our return to duty. * * * * * [Sidenote: Making the best of it.]