you,” nor any nuisance of the sort; nor any risk in consequence; and I remarked, with my friend’s entire acquiescence, that, often as I had observed them, both in their home and at my own table, never had I seen them so apparently satisfied in every respect, from the beginning to the end of a meal; that, in fact, they had never enjoyed a meal in so utterly unrestricted a manner; and at the same time, they arose from the table with no indication of surfeit——no heaviness, nor succeeding sleepiness or peevishness, as we often witness with children after an ordinary dinner. Here was a delicious and ample midwinter dinner for six at a total cost of less than the meat alone for a mixed meal,——with no brewing, baking or fuming-up the home, or heating up and using up its mistress in the preparation, and clearing away of the meal, not to mention the other injurious effects of an ordinary “company dinner.” A few weeks later, in response to an invitation from my little guests, I had the pleasure of a return-dinner of the same sort, and a Christmas (1882) dinner at that, at which a larger company assembled, and all pronounced it complete; and the servants did not complain of being overworked——nor underfed. One of these was overheard to say, “_Dessert_’s good enough for me!” I would ask all prudent parents, Are you not often disturbed about the little ones’ diet——about the pie, cake, pudding, etc., and are they not frequently made ill by “over-indulgence,” as it is called, in these things? How can you expect a little, growing child, with an appetite like that of a shark (if hot, melting viands, or artificial sweets are before them), with no sort of physiological knowledge, in fact a normal and proper disgust for anything of the sort, no idea of prudence, but only a dread of your frequent and necessary cautions,——how can you expect a child, with mouth full of hot bread,——or any bread,——with butter, milk, or sauce, or mashed potatoes, garnished with gravy turkey, stuffing, and cranberry, all melting in his mouth, to “chew” what requires no chewing and can not be made wholesome by chewing, and “hold” what will rush away into the stomach as though impelled by an all-controlling force? It can not be done, you can not do it yourselves, and as for the young ones, it is the refinement of cruelty to attempt it;——it means dissatisfaction, discomfort, and, often, the destruction of what should be a happy season, to be perpetually badgering them about it; it is unnatural and wrong. Give your children the sort of food you think best for them, and let them enjoy it. If this can not be done with safety, the fault is with the food, not with them.