=Child and Parent.= In England at least there did not at times seem to have been a great, strong affection between parents and children. This may have been caused in part from the custom of boarding out the children or sending them out to be servants or ladies-in-waiting to the persons with whom they were sent to live, as children who would thus go out from parents at an early age and not getting to see them often would not have the opportunity of showing affection for them and they would naturally take up with the people with whom they came in daily contact. The children who were sent to boarding-school were there throughout the entire year, being at home only a few days at a time, on holidays. Another cause for the lack of affection between parents and children may have been from the custom of the remarriage of parents, the new husband or the new wife drawing the affection away from the children. Although the children showed outward respect to their parents, which was well portrayed in the letters they wrote to them, yet it would seem there was not so deep an inward respect. =Care and Treatment of Children.= Children were brought up quite strictly during the Middle Ages. They were punished very much, minor offenses often bringing a severe punishment, for it was held that every child needed correction and that quite frequently. The children of the poor were usually put to work when very young and had to undergo much suffering. Orphans had the hardest lot of all, for if parents cared so little for their own children and often neglected them, they would care still less for the children of other people, and so would neglect them or treat them cruelly. If the orphans were heirs, they were often despoiled of their possessions by their guardians or married to parties unfit for them in order to have control of their estate. Of course, all parents were not lacking in affection and all guardians were not knaves. Yet it would seem that children during the Middle Ages did not have the happiest of times and they often lived miserable lives. =Apprenticeship.= There arose during the Middle Ages a belief that every child should be trained to do something. As was stated under feudalism, it was the custom for boys of the upper classes to be sent into the homes of nobles and churchmen to serve a number of years in order to become learned in chivalry and to acquire the use of arms. In like manner there grew up for the boys of the common classes the apprenticeship system, whereby they were placed under a master to spend a number of years to learn a trade or to carry on agriculture.