There were four children in the home, the little girl
being next to the youngest. The parents had no relation to any church.
The two older children had turned out great disappointments to them and
when a neighbor invited the ten-year-old to go to Sunday-school the
mother gave her consent, saying that perhaps the church could keep her
from following her brother and sister. It did.
In that home there was no moral instruction, no moral suasion. When the
children had told a lie directly to the mother they were punished
severely. When they told a lie to a teacher or neighbor the mother was
their defender and they escaped punishment. They heard their mother lie
to her husband, to her neighbors, to the rent collector and the grocer.
They learned not to fear a _lie_ but to fear being discovered in it.
They became clever liars and the little girl at ten was an adept. For
disobedience, cheating, taking food and pennies they were alternately
turned over to their father for punishment or shielded from his wrath
according to the mother's temper at the time of the offense. They were
not taught or helped to hate sin or to see it in its hideous aspect.
_Thou shalt not_ was a matter of convenience, not of principle.
The teacher into whose class the little girl came was a woman of
experience who before her marriage had been a teacher in the public
school.
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