In too many families there is much affection but little justice. Partiality and favoritism shown by father or mother for one child at the cost of another is one of the most detestable of parental crimes. With mothers there are undoubtedly in some cases physiological causes for loving Jacob more than Esau from their birth. Some mothers take a dislike, if not a positive antipathy, for one particular child. The fact is recognized by all pathologists, although different causes are assigned for it. What is most sad to look upon is when the mother takes a prejudice and aversion to the child who more than the others, by reason of its weaker constitution or defect in any sense or organ, needs her tenderest love and care. There is a Cinderella in many households. The kitchen is for her; the drawing-room for her sisters, who think themselves her " betters." The worn and shabby dress.es are for her ; the new and costly ones for them. She LIFE AT HOME. 22 5 is the scullion ; they are the fine ladies. Yet her heart may be the diamond, theirs the paste. The mother has caresses for the others, unmerited rebukes for her. She is the " butt " of every jest, the slave of every petty tyrant in the home. She does not complain of this, perhaps, but her heart bleeds inwardly and the warm fountain of her young affections is checked and frozen at its source. Fathers are, as a rule, less prone than mothers to this unjust dis- crimination. Sometimes the father interposes in behalf of the snubbed and persecuted child, but when his back is turned her tormentors treat her more cruelly than ever in jealousy of his kindly intervention. The pillow of the child-martyr is wet with tears ; no bright sunshine and spontaneous flow of happiness make flowers spring up along her path, and the hardest part of her lot is the reflection that the unkind- ness comes from the parent or sister or brother whom she loves and longs to cling to. Many parents, either from innate narrowness of moral perception or from those servile and tyrannic notions of parental authority and youthful discipline which Christians have inherited from the Jews, have no idea that they commit the wrong of injustice when they show partiality. To make the less favored child the fag and slave of the more favored and more selfish one, is a crime against one's own flesh and blood and the divine rights of children. They are not machines; they are not insensate or passive recipients of unfair treatment. They know when they are unkindly spoken to without a cause and unjustly punished without having committed an adequate offence, and every stripe unjustly laid upon the child's back is an iron nail driven into the child's heart, and an indelible mark branded upon the child's con- sciousness and memory. No after petting and caressing can efface the wrong, remove the scar, or heal the wounded spirit. Years upon years may roll away ; the blow may never be repeated ; much kind- ness may be subsequently shown ; father and boy may never speak of the long past injustice; the father's memory may have forgotten it, but the boy's memory forgets it never, though he forgave it long ago. The memory of wrong done us in childhood is ineffaceable ; it is '5 226 THE hearthstone; or, life at home.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

In too many families there is much affection but little justice. Partiality and favoritism shown by father or mother for one child at the cost of another is one of the most detestable of parental crimes. With mothers there are undoubtedly in some cases physiological causes for loving Jacob more than Esau from their birth. Some mothers take a dislike, if not a positive antipathy, for one particular child. The fact is recognized by all pathologists, although different causes are assigned for it. What is most sad to look upon is when the mother takes a prejudice and aversion to the child who more than the others, by reason of its weaker constitution or defect in any sense or organ, needs her tenderest love and care. There is a Cinderella in many households. The kitchen is for her; the drawing-room for her sisters, who think themselves her " betters." The worn and shabby dress.es are for her ; the new and costly ones for them. She is the scullion ; they are the fine ladies. Yet her heart may be the diamond, theirs the paste. The mother has caresses for the others, unmerited rebukes for her. She is the " butt " of every jest, the slave of every petty tyrant in the home. She does not complain of this, perhaps, but her heart bleeds inwardly and the warm fountain of her young affections is checked and frozen at its source. Fathers are, as a rule, less prone than mothers to this unjust discrimination. Sometimes the father interposes in behalf of the snubbed and persecuted child, but when his back is turned her tormentors treat her more cruelly than ever in jealousy of his kindly intervention. The pillow of the child-martyr is wet with tears ; no bright sunshine and spontaneous flow of happiness make flowers spring up along her path, and the hardest part of her lot is the reflection that the unkindness comes from the parent or sister or brother whom she loves and longs to cling to. Many parents, either from innate narrowness of moral perception or from those servile and tyrannic notions of parental authority and youthful discipline which Christians have inherited from the Jews, have no idea that they commit the wrong of injustice when they show partiality. To make the less favored child the fag and slave of the more favored and more selfish one, is a crime against one's own flesh and blood and the divine rights of children. They are not machines; they are not insensate or passive recipients of unfair treatment. They know when they are unkindly spoken to without a cause and unjustly punished without having committed an adequate offence, and every stripe unjustly laid upon the child's back is an iron nail driven into the child's heart, and an indelible mark branded upon the child's consciousness and memory. No after petting and caressing can efface the wrong, remove the scar, or heal the wounded spirit. Years upon years may roll away ; the blow may never be repeated ; much kindness may be subsequently shown ; father and boy may never speak of the long past injustice; the father's memory may have forgotten it, but the boy's memory forgets it never, though he forgave it long ago. The memory of wrong done us in childhood is ineffaceable ; It is 226 THE hearthstone; or, life at home.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home