Each year the letters can be a little more grown up and they should
always be frequent.




XXVI

DURING VACATION


When vacation time comes and the children come home for the summer, the
home folks will probably have some trouble at first in understanding
their imperfect speech. Do not be discouraged. The speech will steadily
improve from year to year, and you will soon be able to comprehend it,
even when it is very faulty. But do not accept from the child anything
except the best speech he is capable of. When the boy first arrives you
will, probably, not know just how much to expect of him. To begin with,
it will do him no harm to ask him to repeat what he says, even if you
really did understand him the first time. He will probably speak much
more distinctly the second time than he did the first, and you will see
that you can demand of him more than you at first thought he could do.
He will not be discouraged by being asked to repeat. He is used to it.
The price of good speech, like the price of liberty, is eternal
vigilance. During the school period, teachers and parents should give
unremitting attention to demanding of the children, _every time they
speak_, the best enunciation of which they are at that time capable.

If you do not understand the boy, or he does not understand you, do not
let him resort to gestures, nor use them yourself. Give him pencil and