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Life in the making: 335 total pages.

physical habits. Few of them, however, realize what an important bearing these early habits have on character develop­ment. Have you ever known a child who was "spoiled"? Did you try to discover what factors contributed to the "spoiling"? Sometimes children form bad habits simply by being left alone to do as they please. Very often, however, the parents themselves unwittingly participate in the development of the undesirable characteristics. A certain child a few months old refused to sleep at night unless some one sat up and held her. Do you suppose that she really found that position more . comfortable than lying in bed? Hardly. It is probable that some one had held her one night when she was particu­larly cross, and so the habit was started. A mother who, whenever her baby cried, gave her a small muslin bag filled with sugar was not only INFANCY 19 ruining her digestion, but she was training her to expect to be bought off with treats every time she was lonesome or annoyed. A child who is not "spoiled" has not usually just grown that way. It is more likely that he has been carefully trained.

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