your age, that many things occurred which I omitted to mention to my
mother, but which it would have been much better for me, if I had told
her. Sometimes these concerned my bodily health, and I am sure that if I
had informed her of them at the time, I should now have a much better
constitution than I possess. At other times, I neglected to ask her
advice about what I thought were small matters; but the result proved
that I should have been saved much trouble had I consulted her."

"In fact," continued Mrs. S., "the command to honor thy father and thy
mother, is far more comprehensive, and exacts many more duties, than the
young, and, I am sorry to say, the old too, are willing to recognize.
The young are too apt to think, when they get into their teens, that
there are a great many things about which there is no need of asking
their parents' advice and counsel; that they know, _then, about_ as well
as their parents what they ought to do; and, by the time they get to be
eighteen or nineteen years of age, _a good deal better_. But, my dear
children, it is not so. And the young who reason and act thus, will soon
cease to honor their father and mother. No! The Almighty Father, in
giving this as one of the ten commandments to the children of Israel,
knew the vanity of our nature. He knew how unwilling the young are to
learn from the experience of the old, and he therefore proclaimed this
command, that they might have it constantly before their eyes.

"I have said, this is a comprehensive command. To honor thy father and
thy mother is not merely to show them outward respect. It embraces
numberless duties, and among them this; the duty, while you are young,
of doing nothing without their knowledge and consent, when you are in a
situation to ask it.

"Be assured of one thing. If you are about to go anywhere, or do