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"Can a mother help her children through her silent mental attitude toward them?"

Certainly; and that is one of the grandest uses to which metaphysical science can be put. When the children are small, their mother can keep them well, happy, and harmonious with others can do much through her silent thought to uplift and develop the higher nature and quicken the moral and spiritual activities that make character. When they have grown older and taken their places in the wide world outside, she can follow them with her loving thought and weave a magic mantle of protection for their unconscious wearing. A mother of our acquaintance, whose son had enlisted as an American soldier in far-off Manila, declared that he would be protected through everything because she was "thinking truth" about him. Many were his escapes, his thrilling and dangerous experiences; but he came home safe and sound, with nothing more than his hat shattered and a bullet-hole in his sleeve. Did her thought do it? We believe so. But in all this thinking for others, even one nearest and dearest, we must not encroach on their individuality. In spiritual things we may not dictate. In material things we may only suggest.

It is important to know that thought given at night is more likely to be received quickly. So the devoted mother can breathe forth in her thought upon the child, near or far, to educate, comfort, and bless.

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"The functions of the home, the church, and the school must be to develop through self-activity the highest selfhood of this child created in the image of God. The child's individuality is not only needed for his own self, but for the world's work, that he may become a supreme agent in the evolution of the race."

HELEN VAN-ANDERSON.

FOR THE CHILDREN.

"ROBINS call robins in tops of trees;

Doves follow doves, with scarlet feet;
Frolicking babies, sweeter than these,
Crowd green corners where highways meet.

"Violets stir and arbutus wakes,

Claytonia's rosy bells unfold;

Dandelion through the meadow makes

A royal road with seals of gold."

-Helen Hunt Jackson.

LOUISE AND HER FRIENDS.

It is quite a long time since I had the pleasure of telling a story to the boys and girls who read MIND. This is a story about a little girl whose name is Louise.

When Louise was very young she would go out in the field, lie on her back and look up to the beautiful sky and the fleecy clouds and think how beautiful they were, and would say: "Dear, beautiful clouds and sky, I am one with you. I am a part of you and you are a part of me; I love you and you love me, dear beautiful clouds and sky."

And when the older children of the family were asked where Louise was, they would say: "Oh, I suppose she is out in the field dreaming!"

But what a wonderful dream it all was! With eyes wide open she would dream that the great mountains and the valleys and the rivers were a part of her and she was a part of them; that the birds that sang, and the crickets that chirped, and the saucy little chipmunks, and the handsome gray squirrels, and the nimble grasshoppers, and the gaudy butterflies were all a part of herself, and that she was a part of them all -that she loved them and they loved her.

There is one great, wonderful Love in all things, and, when any one loves even the smallest thing in God's beautiful world, that love makes him one with that thing. And so Louise's dream was to love everything, and in this way she came to know that she was a part of everything and everything was a

part of her. All the little birds and animals were her little brothers and sisters, and all the larger ones her big brothers and sisters. Louise was very kind and gentle to them all, and for this reason they were all kind and gentle to her.

When she would go to the barnyard (for Louise lived in the country) a great big turkey-gobbler would spread his tail to look like a great fan, to make himself look as handsome as possible, I suppose; and he would say: "Good-morning, Miss Louise; I am delighted to see you." He did not speak just as little girls or boys would, but in his own language of "Gobble, gobble, gobble." Louise knew what he meant, and she talked in her cute little way and told him how well he was looking and how glad she was to see him.

Next she would visit Mr. Gander and his flock, and he would come running up with his neck stretched away out, talking in a funny way and saying, "Hiss-iss, hiss-iss, hiss-iss" --something like college boys do occasionally. Some little girls and boys might have thought that Mr. Gander was angry, but Louise knew better. She had never done anything to hurt his feelings, and of course he was too much of a gentleman to hurt her. She knew that his hiss-iss meant only "Good-morning, Louise"; and this was his way of telling her how glad he was to see her.

Then the visit to the old mother-hen was such a joy! Mother-hen had known Louise for a long time-almost four years. Each year she took great delight in showing Louise her large family of little chickens-such tiny little tots! Old mother-hen would say to her small but numerous family: "Now, you chickens, look just as pretty and peep just as hard as you can, for Miss Louise is coming!" Old mother-hen was very proud of her family, and the chickens would all say, "Peep, peep, peep," and mother-hen would say, "Cluck, cluck, cluck!" This is the way that the chickens and mother-hen say good-morning; and Louise would say: "Thank you, mother-hen and little chickens. I am so pleased to see you."

So Louise would go from one part of the barnyard to another, saying good-morning to the horses, to the sheep, and to the cows, to old mistress pig and the little piggies, and

to all the little and big animals that lived together on the farm. And they all told her in their own language how glad they were to see her and how much better they felt because she loved them.

Louise would then go into the house to learn her lessons; but when the afternoon came and all the lessons were over, with Prince, the big dog, walking close to her side, and Fido, the little one, running about hither and thither and barking for very joy, all three would go out to the fields together, and after walking and running a while Louise would lie down on the soft green grass and Prince would get very close-so close that she would put her little head on his body for a pillow and Fido would nestle close to her feet. Then Louise, with eyes wide open, would look up to the sky and would begin to dream all over again that she was one with the great beautiful world and everything in it; that it loved her as she loved it; that she was a part of everything and that everything was a part of her-and she was very happy because it was so.

After a time the pretty eyes would close and she would go off into real dreamland, and in her sleep a beautiful woman, who looked to Louise as she thought the angels must look, would come to her and hold the little girl in her arms and kiss her and tell her how much she loved her little daughter and how happy it made her because Louise loved everything and everybody-because love was the very best and greatest thing in all the world. Then she would kiss her good-by, and byand-by Fido would bark, because, I suppose, he wanted his little mistress to pay more attention to him. And she would wake up from her beautiful dream and then they would have another romp before going home for supper.

I wonder if the little girls and boys who read MIND ever dream that the sky and the clouds, the mountains and the valleys, the rivers and the ocean, and the animals and the birds of all kinds are a part of themselves; that they are a part of everything; that they love everything and everybody, and that everybody loves them; and that love is the greatest and most beautiful thing in all the wide, wide world?

CHARLES BRODIE PATTERSON.

MERCURY IN TOWN.

There was a great commotion up in the sky. Mercury had his hands full. For several days he and the breezes had been hunting up the clouds that had been driven away, and now the clouds came flying back again, and Mercury was hurrying on the showers that the new spring days were asking for.

Presently the rains fell, and every living thing sang thanks; for the hills and valleys were turning brown and the brooks were running away.

One large, soft, white cloud rested lightly on the side of a mountain, blown there from the west. A rift came in it— just at the edge, against the blue sky; and there appeared two winged feet, then a hand with a winged wand, then a smiling face crowned with a winged hat. Mercury had come.

The children who lived near by had been watching the flying clouds. From babyhood everything in Nature meant something special to Roman children of olden time. They knew that the stir in the clouds meant that Mercury was at work with the rains that would fall in time to wake up the flowers that had been asleep all winter.

And now Mercury took out his shepherd's pipe, which he had made for himself when he gave his lyre to Apollo, and began to play. The children flew to catch the merry sounds, and danced with the new butterflies, and sang with the birds. Such a happy time!

Music was one of Mercury's calls to the children. Sometimes he would have Eros with him, who would bring so much love that there wouldn't be a quarrel for days. Sometimes Mercury would tell all kinds of stories. He loved mischief, but was always in good humor, and had just the right answer ready to smooth away all ill feeling.

The pipe began to play softly. Then the children knew something was coming. They all drew nearer. Mercury's wings began to move, and the children, fearful lest their dear companion would take wing again to his home in Olympia, called out:

"Oh, Mercury, Mercury! Stay, stay with us!"

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