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DOWN THE RIVER.
Look at the flower of a morning-glory the evening before the dawn which is to see it unfold.

The delicate petals are twisted into a spiral, which at the appointed hour, when the sunlight touches the hidden springs of its life, will uncoil itself and let the day into the chamber of its virgin heart.

But the spiral must unwind by its own law, and the hand that shall try to hasten the process will only spoil the blossom which would have expanded in symmetrical beauty under the rosy fingers of morning.
We may take a hint from Nature's handling of the flower in dealing with young souls, and especially with the souls of young girls, which, from their organization and conditions, require more careful treatment than those of their tougher-fibred brothers.

Many parents reproach themselves for not having enforced their own convictions on their children in the face of every inborn antagonism they encountered.