and I am strong; but, though he bow his head, crushed into
silence, I may be sure that there is a sullen heart in the little
bosom, and anger the more bitter because it is impotent. I put the
child away from me, and think of what I have done. I am full of
relentings. I long to ask his pardon, for I know that I have
offended and deeply injured one of Christ's little ones. I call
him to me again, press his head to my breast, kiss him, and weep.
No word is spoken, but the little bosom heaves, the little heart
softens, the little eyes grow tenderly penitent, the little hands
come up and clasp my neck, and my relentings and my sorrow have
produced after their kind. The child is conquered, and so am I.

If I utter fretful words, they come back to me like echoes. If I
bristle all over with irritability, the quills will begin to rise
all about me. One thoroughly irritable person in a breakfast-room
spoils coffee and toast, sours milk, and destroys appetite for a
whole family. He produces after his kind.

Generally, a man has around him those who are like him. If he be a
man of strong nature and positive qualities, he will plant his
moods and grow them in the natures next to him. Of course there
must be exceptions to this rule, because the will is free and man
is reasonable, and the motive and power to pluck up unwelcome
seed, and unpleasant growths, inheres in all men. I have known a
good-natured man to live with a pettish, ill-natured, jealous,
fault-finding wife through all the years of my acquaintance with
him, he meantime growing no worse, and she growing no better. They
had voluntarily and effectually shut themselves each from the
influence of the other. He had closed his spirit against that
which was bad in her, and she had closed her spirit against that