One may worship from a distance, and the capacity to justly estimate excellence grows with maturity.

But the child knows best those who serve his needs most intimately and gives his love to that person.
=The Mother's Compensation for Personal Service.=--There is much compensation, therefore, for the woman who gives herself to her child in old-fashioned ways of personal service.

She gets the charm and the allurement of the growing bud on life's tree.

If she misses that she loses something of her birthright and some "substitute-mother" gets something of satisfaction from the child that she does not.
=Early Drill in Personal Habits.=--The third essential of the inherited obligation of mothers to their children is the early drill in personal habits that are required for health and decency and propriety in any given time and place.

For this it is an absolute necessity that either the mother so serve herself or that she secure some substitute-mother of refinement, knowledge, affection and devotion which make her an equal in the family circle.