The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

The "P. R." Letter Bag.

[The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of correspondents.]

Dear Editor,--It is so difficult to find a punishment exactly to fit a misdeed, and seeming to be the natural result of it. The following seemed to me to be one of those "happy thoughts" that I should be glad more often to have, and I relate it in case it should help other mothers.

My little girl of three and a half began one day to call me ugly names. It was a new offence, and for a moment I was perplexed what method to use to stop its recurrence. Suddenly, as an inspiration almost, came to me, a story I had heard of a drummer-boy in the United States army, whose colonel, hearing him use foul language, made him rinse his mouth with soap-suds. I said, in a very regretful voice, "My baby, when you make your little hands dirty, what do you have to do? You have to wash them: now these naughty words to mother have made your mouth so dirty that it has to be washed clean. I am very sorry, but we must get some soap and water and we must wash it." And we did!
E. V.

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Dear Editor,--Miss Youman's book on Botany is excellent; but perhaps M. A. R. might find Anne Pratt's book, Wild Flowers (two vols.), more suitable for her purpose. Miss Pratt has also written, Haunts of the Wild Flowers (25.; Geo. Routledge & Sons).

Mr. J. T. ["Tom"] Burgess has written a very nice little book on Old English Wild Flowers, price 1$., published by F. Warne & Co. These all give the simple old-fashioned names.

I have heard of many useful books through the Parents' Review and should be glad to mention any which may not be well enough known. The Children's Sunday Hour and Sunday Evenings with my Children, by the Rev. B. [Benjamin] Waugh, are both books I can heartily recommend as useful, and are much liked by children of all ages.
J. P.

Proofread by LNL, August, 2023