Half an hour passed quietly, and then a timid voice at the foot of the stairs called out: "'Mamma, are you there ?' "'Yes, darling.' "'All right, then!' and the child went back to its play.
"By-and-by the little voice was heard again, repeating, "'Mamma, are you there ?' "'Yes.' "'All right, then;' and the little ones returned again, satisfied and reassured, to their toys." The sense of their mother's presence, or at least the certainty of her being near at hand, was necessary to their security and contentment in their plays.

But this feeling was not the result of any teachings that they had received from their mother, or upon her having inculcated upon their minds in any way the necessity of their keeping always within reach of maternal protection; nor had it been acquired by their own observation or experience of dangers or difficulties which had befallen them when too far away.

It was a native instinct of the soul--the same that leads the lamb and the calf to keep close to their mother's side, and causes the unweaned babe to cling to its mother's bosom, and to shrink from being put away into the crib or cradle alone.
_The Responsibility rests upon the Mother_.
The mother is thus to understand that the principle of obedience is not to be expected to come by nature into the heart of her child, but to be implanted by education.

She must understand this so fully as to feel that if she finds that her children are disobedient to her commands--leaving out of view cases of peculiar and extraordinary temptation--it is _her_ fault, not theirs.

Perhaps I ought not to say her _fault_ exactly, for she may have done as well as she knows how; but, at any rate, her failure.