Once more, then, we would beg “our housewife” to study what are her duties towards children. We would entreat mothers so to train their daughters that they may never have cause to blush and tremble for their grandchildren. It is no figure of speech to say that “the child is father of the man;” study diligently, therefore, how best “—to render the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot; To pour fresh instruction o’er the mind, To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing breast.” Nor let children, who should be our blessings, become our torments: “While young our folly, and when old our fear.” Lastly, but not least in importance in the good training of children, it should be rigidly observed by parents never to show any difference of opinion in their treatment before them. Nothing can be more pernicious to their moral culture, engendering in them habits of disobedience, for they cannot obey one parent without disobeying the other. We earnestly recommend attention to this observance, for, besides the evil of disobedience that is almost sure to follow a difference in opinion from those in authority over the child, the latter is sometimes prone to disregard the instructions and admonitions of both, and set up principles of his own more in accordance with his inclinations, however erroneous they may be. CHAPTER VII. Care of the Sick—Management of the Sick-Room—Food of Invalids—Adaptation of Management to Particular Cases—Nurses, and Things essential to Nursing—Importance of Calmness and Patience. Another duty of great importance devolves on woman, namely, the care of the sick. From the highest to the lowest none are, properly speaking, exempt from this charge. It is true that those who are rich can hire experienced nurses; but still the responsibility, the anxiety, rests with the mistress, for she cannot hire affection, thoughtful care, and all those little attentions which make the sole comfort of an invalid; she can merely secure a species of human machine which mechanically performs its duties, and between whiles eats, drinks, sleeps, and comforts itself. There are many excellent and kind-hearted professional nurses; but there are also more who become, as it were, petrified by the habitual contemplation of suffering, and who merely regard the patient with a business-like eye.