If, unfortunately, you have allowed yourself to be overcome by anger, keep far away from the little one, till you have asked God to still the tempest, and feel that by his grace you are at peace. If in such an unhappy state you dare to perform a mother’s sweetest duty, your child will bring you to repentance before many hours elapse. In early youth we were once compelled to watch by a child in convulsions. This was among our first painful experiences, and when we were absent from home. To our dying day we shall never forget the mother’s dumb anguish when told that the child must die. We afterward learned that she had been furiously angry with her husband. The angry voices frightened the child, and to still its crying, even in the fierce heat of her passion, she put the babe to her breast. The physician knew of her ungovernable temper, and, boarding with her, had been the witness of the morning’s tornado. Over the suffering little creature, he sternly told her that her temper had killed her child. We never saw her but once after that sad trial, but the marks of the penalty which followed so quickly upon her sin were still stamped upon her face. Mothers do not enough understand or believe these facts, because they are not accustomed to trace the effect to the cause; but a physician who looks carefully into the cases which come under his care will assure you that this is no fiction. A mother at all times is called upon to guard well her own actions, and to practice much self-denial for the sake of her offspring, but never more than when her child draws its nourishment from her breast; and never are judgment and care in the clothing, in the fashioning and adjusting of it, more important than while the babe is incapable of making known its wants or discomforts except by crying. LXIII. PERSONAL NEATNESS. THOSE who have the oversight of household affairs, and perhaps are also compelled to perform much of the manual labor themselves, cannot be expected to keep their garments at all times spotlessly clean, still less can they preserve their hands soft and delicate; yet there is far too much inexcusable carelessness about personal appearance, among those who are called upon to be always active and industrious, as well as among those who have fewer responsibilities.