systematized as possible so that he may know what to expect; and do
not under any circumstances nag him nor allow other children to tease
him.




SULLENNESS.


This fault likewise often has a physical cause, seated very frequently
in the liver. See that the child's food is not too heavy. Give him
much fruit, and insist upon vigorous exercise out of doors. Or he may
perhaps not have enough childish pleasures. For while most children
are overstimulated, there still remain some children whose lives are
unduly colorless and eventless. A sullen child is below the normal
level of responsiveness. He needs to be roused, wakened, lifted out of
himself, and made to take an active interest in other persons and in
the outside world.

[Sidenote: Inheritance and Example]

In many cases sullenness is an inherited disposition intensified by
example. It is unchildlike and morbid to an unusual degree and very
difficult to cure. The mother of a sullen child may well look to her
own conduct and examine with a searching eye the peculiarities of her
own family and of her husband's. She may then find the cause of the
evil, and by removing the child from the bad example and seeing to it
that every day contains a number of childish pleasures, she may win
him away from a fault that will otherwise cloud his whole life.