At five-thirty in the afternoon, baby should be undressed, rubbed or bathed, made perfectly comfortable, and fed; then, my mother reader, he should be laid down in his little bed and allowed to go to sleep, without any coaxing, singing, rocking, or even holding his hand. Babies will do this very thing and continue to do it if you never begin to rock, jolt, bounce, or sing to them; and, mind you, if you do sing to them or rock them, or even sit near without doing anything but "just hold their tiny hands," there will come a time when you greatly desire to do something else--you have many urgent duties awaiting you--and baby not being old enough to understand the circumstances, begins to wail out his feeling of neglect and abuse. It is nothing short of wicked thus to spoil a child. We have seen so many beautiful babies go to sleep by themselves without any patting, dangling, or rocking, that we encourage and urge every mother to begin right, for if the little one never knows anything about rocking and pattings he will never miss them; and even if the baby is spoiled through extra attention which sickness often makes necessary, then at the first observance of the tendency on the part of the child to insist on the rocking, or the presence of a light in the sleeping-room, or the craving for a pacifier, we most strongly urge the mothers to stick to the heroic work of "letting him cry it out." The notion that the household must move about on tiptoes is not only unnecessary but perfectly ridiculous. From the very hour of his birth, let the child become accustomed to the ordinary noises of the home, and if this plan is early started he will prove a blessing and a ray of sunshine to the family and not an autocrat to whom all must bow and bend the knee. BEDTIME AND SLEEPING POSITION Bedtime is regulated somewhat by the hour of rising in the morning. Usually, up to two years, baby is put to bed from five to six P. M. Regularity is urged in maintaining the bedtime hour. The seven o'clock bedtime hour is later established and continued until the young child attains school age, when retiring at the curfew hour of eight o'clock gives our boy or girl from ten to eleven hours of sleep, which is essential to proper growth, calm nerves, and an unruffled temper. The first few days finds our little fellow sleeping nine-tenths of his time. Let him lie on his right side, for this favors the complete closure of the fetal heart valve, the foramen ovale. Whether baby lies on his stomach, his side, or with the hands over his head is of little or no consequence. His position should be changed first from one side to the other until he is old enough to turn himself. WAKING UP AT NIGHT