The beautiful heron, mad with a maternal love, blind to all dangers from without, bent only on protecting her brood, giving her life to her little ones, was killed by the woman who wears the graceful aigrette--that marvel of Nature's embroidery woven for a nuptial robe to the gracious bird. She, and none other, is responsible for that life, for it was for her sake that the bloody deed was done. THE SCHOOL (Page 29). The highest task that life holds for men and women is the choosing of an ideal to grow toward. It should be sufficiently far away to require a whole lifetime to pursue it. It has taken a hundred years of agony and study to prove even in advanced America a man's right to his own body; a woman's right to her old soul; and the child's right to the development of his mind as of his muscle. I plead for the true perspective in the training of your children. I believe, of course, in good bodies, comfortable and beautiful clothing, generous houses, and all the learning of the schools; I believe in intellectual joy and all the powers of thought, but only when they are subordinated to high affections and strong wills. There is a power at work in the world that estimates gifts, not by the amount, but by the purpose that dictated them. The kindergarten contains the seed of the gospel for children in its terminology when it seeks to develop the child by its "occupations."... WORK (Page 111). There can be no development, mental, spiritual, or physical, except by exercise. Through labor we became creators, co-workers with God. Labor can be transfigured into a habit. In the scales of the universe, a day's work will always weigh more than the dollar that pays for that day's work. The tradesman who strives to know all about his own business and cares but little about any other, will not have much business of his own to absorb his attention after a while. Blessed word is that,--"occupation." The new education is bound up in it. The health of the child is contained in it. The safety of the saint is represented by it, and the progress of humanity is dependent upon it. When labor becomes the pride of the laborer, then he becomes fit object for the envy of kings. The most disordered explosions of pent-up passions and unreleased power follow in the wake of enforced idleness. There is no release from toil, and the only escape from the burdens of labor must come, not by its cessation, but by its glorification. There is an overwork that is killing, but the danger from work, any work, all work, is trifling compared to the greater dangers of indolence. There is always a large physical element in distances. It is always farther from the breakfast table to the field than it is from the field to the dinner table.