ABSTRACT
It seems to be a law of our being that one of the conditions of health and happiness consists in the due exercise of our various powers. Even in young children we observe an instinctive love of occupation. A healthy child will not be satisfied without employment: condemn it to idleness and it will iuevita.bly take refnge in mischief, as many a scratched table and torn book testifies! and mothers and nurses know this, and if they are at all judicious, they do not try to crush out the spirit of activity, but only to direct and employ it. Who has not heard from a child the excuse for some piece of mischief, sobbed out perhaps with tears and penitence, "I had nothing to do!" and do we not all feel there is some force in the excuse' There is nature our best instructor.
