The evident danger of undue deliberation of action must be met by another cure of the personal-conflict spirit; that is, the substitution of games of rivalry and skill for the unorganized rivalry and "game" of fighting. The transition from the bloody arena to the excitement of a game is very easy and natural. But the game is the boy's great chance to learn life as a game to be played according to the rules. All that the fight calls for--courage, endurance, skill, quickness of action, and grim persistence--comes out in a good game. Here is a suitable youthful realization of the fight that is worth waging. Our participation in the youths' games, our appreciation of their points, our joy in honestly won success, is the best possible way to lead up to their taking life in terms of a good fight, a grand game, a real chance to call out the heroic qualities. Turn every fighting instinct into the good fight that will clarify and elevate them all. I. References for Study W.L. Sheldon, _Ethics in the Home_, chaps. xi, xii, xiii. Welch & Co., $1.25. E.A. Abbott, _Training of Parents_, chap. v. Houghton Mifflin Co., $1.00. II. Further Reading Ella Lyman Cabot, _Every Day Ethics_. Holt, $1.25. M. Wood-Allen, _Making the Best of Our Children_. 2 vols. McClurg, $1.00 each. III. Topics for Discussion 1. Do all children quarrel? Should one punish for small quarrels? 2. What are the facts which ought to be ascertained regarding any quarrel? 3. What special opportunities do children's differences offer? 4. What are the causes of habitual petulance? What are the dangers of this habit of mind? 5. Is fighting necessarily wrong? What part does it play in the lives of men? 6. What are the dangerous elements in boys' fights? 7. What special quality of character needs development in this connection? 8. What are the valuable possibilities in the fighting tendency? CHAPTER XXI DEALING WITH MORAL CRISES (_Continued_) § 1. LYING Parents are likely to be wilfully blind to the faults of their children. But some faults cannot be ignored; they must surely quicken the most indifferent parent to thought. We suffer a shock when our own child appears as a wilful liar. "What shall I do when I catch the child in an outright lie? Surely he knows that is wrong and that he is wilfully doing the wrong!"