¶ One instance in which Fate took a hand was very interesting. A New York widow, whose husband had left his large fortune entirely to her, nursed definite ambitions for her son and daughter. Richard, she had decided, should become a stock-raiser and farmer on the several-thousand-acre ranch they owned in Texas. Dorothy should study art in Paris. But it so happened that Richard and Dorothy disliked the respective vocations laid out for them, while each wanted to do the very thing the other was being driven to do. Richard was small, dark, sensitive, esthetic--and bent on being an artist. Dorothy, who was six feet in her stockings, laughed at art and wanted to be a farmer. But mother was obdurate and mother held the family purse. So, in the spring of 1914, Dorothy was sent to Paris to study the art Richard loved, and Richard was sent to the Texas ranch that Dorothy wanted. Then the War broke and Dorothy hurried from Paris to avoid German shells, while Richard enlisted to escape the Texas ranch. Dorothy, in her element at last, took over the ranch (of which Richard had made a failure), turned it into one vast war garden, became a farmerette and is there now--a shining success. Richard got to Paris during the War and when it closed refused to come home. He wrote his mother that the war had taught him he could earn his own living--an accomplishment he is achieving today with his art. The mother herself is happier than she ever was before, and proud of her children's success. Three Kinds of Parents ¶ Parents can be divided into three classes--those who over-estimate their children, those who under-estimate their children, and those who do not estimate them at all. The great majority are in the first group. This accounts for the fact that most fathers and mothers are disillusioned, as their children, one by one, fall short of their cherished hopes. Those who under-estimate their children are in that small group--of parents who live to be happily surprised at their achievements. The best parents of all are those who allow their children to follow their natural talents. Don'ts for Parents ¶ Don't push your child into any vocation he dislikes. Don't be like the parents we dined with recently. As we sat around the table they pointed out their four children as follows: "There's Georgie--we're going to make a doctor of him. Our best friend is a doctor. We'll make a lawyer out of Johnnie. There's been a lawyer in the family for generations. Jimmie is to be a minister. We thought it was about time we had one of them in the family." "What about Helen?" we asked. "Oh, Helen--why, she's going to marry and have a nice home of her own."