The supper of the school-child while young should be a simple one, something on the order of the breakfast. In the early days children were fed at night on hasty pudding, or mush-and-milk, (cornmeal), which is an ideal food when thoroughly prepared, the meal being slowly sprinkled into the pot, which was stirred constantly all the while. The North Italians prepare cornmeal in this fashion; the mush, which they call "polenta," forms an accompaniment of meat stews, thus affording all the elements of a "perfect ration." American cooks should employ cornmeal far more than they do. Mush in particular has the advantage possessed by King Arthur's bag-pudding, what cannot be eaten at night may be served "next morning fried." While fried food is, as a rule, not good at breakfast for any save one who has hard manual labor or physical exercise to perform, an exception may be made of fried mush and fried eggs, because their base is so nutritious that the heated fat can do little to impair their digestibility, while it certainly whets the appetite before eating, and pleases the palate when the food is in the mouth. It should be borne in mind that those foods which require much mastication ought especially to be made palatable in order to be chewed thoroughly. Therefore, starchy materials ought to be prepared in appetizing ways; on the other hand, meats, which require less mastication, may dispense with high seasoning and rich sauces, especially as they have their own natural flavors. The mother should closely follow the work of the child at school and aid this in every way at home. She should patiently answer his many questions, except when she is convinced that he is not really in search of information, but is asking them merely for the sake of asking. Wherever the child ought to be able to reason out the answer, the mother should assist him to do so by asking him guiding questions in turn. This is the method that Socrates, the greatest of teachers and philosophers, employed with his pupils, and, indeed, with his own children. It is as useful in inculcating moral lessons as in teaching facts. When one of the sons of Socrates, Lamprocles, came to him complaining that the mother, Xanthippe, treated him so hardly that he could not bear it, the philosopher, by kindly questions, led the boy to acknowledge his great debt to her for her care of him in infancy and in sickness, and, by showing the many things Xanthippe had to try her patience, persuaded him to bear with her and to give her that love which was her due. Where manual training is taught in the schools, the mother should give every opportunity to her children to practice it at home. Where it is not a part of the school course, parents should study to devise home substitutes for it, the mother teaching the girls sewing, embroidery, etc., and the father instructing the boys in carpentry and the like.