ACCIDENT VERSUS DISOBEDIENCE.
By Margaret Montgomery
"Didn't you see that child tumble?" "Oh, yes; but she didn't hurt herself!" "Are you going to take no notice of it?" "Notice of it? Why, she didn't hurt herself one particle!" "Do you mean to say you are not going to punish her at all? She was very awkward. Don't you think you ought to break her of it?" "The idea of punishing a child for getting a fall! She is no more awkward than other children. Every child has its bumps. They are so close to the ground that little falls don't hurt them." "But for the child's good you surely will take some notice of it. She ought to be taught to look where she is stepping, and this habit of falling be broken up. Don't you think you ought to send her to bed, or not let her go out driving this afternoon, or at least go and shake her? I think it is dreadful for her to be so careless." "I don't understand you. How could I be so unjust? Shake my baby, and punish her because her precious little feet have walked the earth too short a time to take firm steps! You have strange ideas of right, and it is very evident you do not know a mother's heart." "Hum—yes—but yesterday afternoon your baby fell and you shook her, and called her a naughty, naughty girl, and kept her at home from the little tea party, and sent her out of the room in disgrace! Why was she naughty yesterday and not to-day?" "It was not for falling yesterday that I punished her, you know very well, but because she was disobedient, and had broken my lovely jar that I had told her not to touch." "Then you punished her because she disobeyed you, and not because she was so unlucky as to fall and break the jar?" "Certainly I did. I cannot and will not have a disobedient child." "My dear, you are mistaken. You told her not to take anything on that table. She took that box off and you saw her take it and told her to put it back. She took that book and you let her have it. Then she started to take your handsome jar, and when you called, she turned and fell and broke the jar, and you know what followed. If she had put it back on the table in safety, would you have punished her for disobedience? She was no more disobedient in touching the jar than the box or book. Baby eyes don't gauge obedience by money value. Honestly, did you punish her for disobedience or for an accident? For all the handsome jars you own, I would not have a child feel me so unjust as yours must you, for I heard the sobbing lips say, 'I didn't mean to break it, I slipped.' Children understand justice well, and, alas for us and them! injustice as well." Does the little incident need location or names? Could its location never have been your home? Could the mother never have borne your name, the child that of your little one? No? Happy mother and blessed child!—Home Maker.