Unless a child has become altogether submissive, he will not obey
all orders with equal readiness. Alice, who is not very active, does
not display any great virtue if she sits still when you tell her to.
On the other hand, sitting still means to Harry a supreme effort as
well as a great sacrifice; to demand this of him we should have a
very good reason. I know children who are models of obedience in
most matters, but who scream with protest and resentment when it
comes to taking medicine or even to being examined by a physician.
On the other hand, a little boy I know, to whom obedience in general
comes very hard, has such respect for the wisdom of physicians and
for the helpfulness of medicines that he will undergo a thorough
examination and will swallow the bitterest of drugs without even
making a wry face.

If you will look about among your acquaintances, I think you will
find that those who get really intelligent obedience from their
children are the ones who make the least ado about it, and perhaps
never use the time-worn phrase, "Now you _must_ mind me." It is
the weak person who is constantly forced to make appeals to his
authority. It is the weak person who is constantly threatening the
child with terrible retributions for his disobedience. Yet none are
quicker to detect the weakness, none know better that the threats
will not be carried out, than those very children whose obedience we
desire thus to obtain.

Many of us get into the habit of placing too many of our wishes in
the form of commands or orders to do or not to do, instead of
requesting as we would of an equal. Wherever possible we should
suggest to the child a line of conduct, so as to make the child feel