child from his occupation.]

We frequently tell the children that we want them to obey "for their
own good." If this were true, we should have little difficulty in
obtaining obedience, for most children instinctively follow orders and
suggestions. It is only when we abuse this instinct by too _frequent_
and _capricious_ and _thoughtless_ commands for our own convenience
that the children come to revolt at our orders.

There are great differences among children in the readiness with
which they adopt suggestions or follow orders. Some children are
easily dissuaded from a line of action in which they are engaged.
Their attention is not very closely filed, and they are easily
distracted, and may be sent from one thing to another without
resenting the interruptions. Such children quickly learn to obey,
and some seldom offer resistance to suggestion; but they deserve no
special praise or credit for their perfect obedience, neither do
their parents deserve special credit for having "trained" such
children. On the other hand, there are children who set their hearts
very firmly upon the objects of their desire, and who cannot easily
stop in the middle of a game or in the middle of a sentence just to
put some wood in the stove. Such children will appear to be
"disobedient," although they are just as affectionate and as loyal
and as dutiful as the others. When you see a child that is a model
of obedience, you cannot conclude that he has been well trained; nor
is frequent disobedience an indication of neglect on the part of the
parents. But the majority of children will fall in the class of
those whose obedience or disobedience is a matter of habit resulting
from the firmness and consistency and considerateness of the
parents.