How much we thought in that long twelve-miles ride to the town! What anxious thoughts on the return ride, fearing that we had forgotten something, or made some ill-advised purchase; but under it all there was a dull pain to remember that father didn’t quite trust us, which did not leave us until, safe at home, all the purchases laid out and examined, he drew us to his knee, close by mother’s sick-bed, and kissed us, with, “Well done, my brave girl! Hasn’t she done well, mother?” How much good that day’s work did us, giving us courage when duties seemed too hard for us, we can never estimate; but the most precious of all was our mother’s trust and father’s approbation. It is only by love and gentleness that a child can be taught to find real enjoyment in later or important cares. Exact it as a duty; sternly command, watch, with constant suspicion and fault-finding, and labor is a drudgery, and cares of any kind a terror to the young. The child either becomes stubborn, or, if timid and loving, is so nervously fearful of being blamed, that this very fear insures the dreaded results. Ah, if young mothers could know how many hours of self-reproach the grandmothers pass as they look to the time when their little ones were around them, and see, too late, how many mistakes they made simply by their own impatience, over-strictness, and want of confidence in their children’s good intention and desire to do right, it might save them from much regret, and their children from many temptations. But each one must have an experience of her own. When young, we seldom are ready to profit by the experience of the old, or think them of much more importance than “old wives’ fables,” but when, after many mistakes, we arrive at middle age, we are able to estimate their value. XXVI. WHO INVENTED BREAD?