V. _The Madness of Debt._ 1. "You will be ashamed to see your creditor." 2. "Lying rides upon debt's back." 3. "It's hard for an empty bag to stand upright." 4. "Creditors have better memories than debtors." 5. "Those have short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter." VI. "Job suffered and was afterward prosperous." VII. "They that won't be counselled can't be helped." "If you will not hear reason, she'll surely rap your knuckles." CHAPTER VI FATHER AND SON Properly enough, the responsibility for health and development of young children rests upon the mother, and in most families this care remains with her till the children are able to look out for themselves. However, upon the father devolves more responsibility than the mere providing for the daily need of his children. Especially is it true that the boys of a family need the personal influence of the father fully as much as that of the mother. However patient, wise and devoted a mother may be, there comes a time in every boy's life when he ought to be under the influence and subject to the control of a man. _Every boy looks to men for his models and for a time follows them blindly, in spite of the most careful training a mother can give._ Curiously enough it is often to a man other than his father that the boy looks for advice and direction. It is some other man who influences his thought and through his thought his actions and the development of his character. Even when the relations between father and son are of the closest the boy begins to look around him and often, for no other reason than the novelty of the influence, he falls under the tutelage of another to whom he gives a confidence that his father could never secure. As they enter the period of adolescence, boys will often talk on many subjects with strangers with a freedom that parents, especially fathers, can never hope to see equalled unless the most perfect confidence has existed from the earliest childhood. Those who have taught for many years and who have had growing boys in their charge know how true this fact is and try to make it of service by seeing that someone of strong character shall be at hand for the boys to lean upon. They are impressionable, these men in embryo, and will go to such lengths for persons they happen to admire and who have secured their confidence, that those who know tremble when they find evil or trifling influences gathering about their charges.