his body. This, by way of manifesting a practical interest in his
welfare, and paving our way to his heart by a form of kindness which
he can thoroughly appreciate. But there is more in such an act than
this,--we change his mood. From a mood of despair or discouragement,
we translate him into a mood of cheerfulness and hopefulness; and
then we have a soul to deal with that is surrounded by the
conditions of improvement. There is much more than divine duty and
Christian forgiveness in the injunction: "if thine enemy hunger, feed
him; if he thirst, give him drink." The highest wisdom would dictate
such a policy for changing his mood, and bringing him into a condition
in which he could entertain a sense of his meanness.

It is curious to see how much fulness and emptiness of stomach
have to do with moods. A business man who has been at work hard
all day, will enter his house for dinner as crabbed as a hungry
bear--crabbed because he is as hungry as a hungry bear. The wife
understands the mood, and, while she says little to him, is
careful not to have the dinner delayed. In the mean time, the
children watch him cautiously, and do not tease him with
questions. When the soup is gulped, and he leans back and wipes
his mouth, there is an evident relaxation, and his wife ventures
to ask for the news. When the roast beef is disposed of, she
presumes upon gossip, and possibly upon a jest; and when, at last,
the dessert is spread upon the table, all hands are merry, and the
face of the husband and father, which entered the house so pinched
and savage and sharp, becomes soft and full and beaming as the
face of the round summer moon. Children are very sensitive to the
influence of hunger; and often when we think that we are
witnessing some fearful proof of the total depravity of human
nature in a young child, we are only witnessing the natural