The causing of the little ones to offend hangs a fearful woe about the neck of the causer.

It were a hard, as well as a needless task, seeing there is One who judges, to set forth how far the child is to blame as toward the parent, where the parent first of all is utterly wrong, yea out of true relation, toward the child.

Not, therefore, is the child free; obligation remains--modified, it may be, but how difficult, alas, to fulfill! And, whether Letty and such as act like her are _excusable_ or not in keeping attentions paid them a secret, this sorrow for the good ones of them certainly remains, that, next to a crime, a secret is the heaviest as well as the most awkward of burdens to carry.

It has to be carried always, and all about.

From morning to night it hurts in tenderest parts, and from night to morning hurts everywhere.