I was away? How many times must I teach you?" And most of the time we are blind to the many well-done tasks the maid finished in our absence. The poor thing had reckoned, at the moment the bell rang and she hurried to open the door, that she would hear from her mistress the finest words of praise and appreciation. And why not, when she had worked hard the whole two hours — tidied the kitchen cupboard and changed its papers, swept and wiped all the rooms and the bathroom, and forgot nothing except to dust the little bookcase? Does she deserve, for that alone, this whole storm, without one kind word to soothe her feelings? There she is, shrinking in broken humiliation, hiding herself away in the kitchen, having lost every former relish for going on with the work. And for this reason she will not wait a moment before exchanging us for someone else — for a mistress from whom she hears words like these: "Well done, Salma! I am pleased with you today; you have done many fine things. But do you know what you forgot? Look! The dust! You always leave it to spoil the whole appearance! Hurry now, clever girl — where is your dustcloth?"

And Salma hastens at once to wipe away the dust, as sorry as can be for having forgotten it, and full of energy and gladness at our praise and our appreciation of her work... And more than this, she grows attached to us, and will not consent to give up our service... What a vast difference between the atmosphere of the house created by the one treatment and by the other! And what, pray, would we lose if our remarks always came joined to the appreciation that costs nothing?

I was visiting a friend of mine when her child came home from school with his monthly marks. He shouted eagerly from the door: "Mama, Mama! Look — ninety in arithmetic!" The mother took the paper from his hand, read it through, and then

said: "True, you have improved in arithmetic; but look at the English — only sixty? And the handwriting?.. I do not believe that in all your life you will ever manage to write like your classmate Sami"...

And the gleam of joy, which a moment before had been shining from the boy's eyes, faded away; the poor thing went into his room with dragging steps, the walls of his spirit fallen in, every desire and every effort gone from him. What harm would it have done her, that mother, to have met her son with words like these: "It is true you could still improve in English, and take care to perfect your handwriting; but look — ninety in arithmetic! A brilliant success! I am proud of you for it, and I am sure that next month you will do even better. Come here and take a big kiss!.."

With what spirit, with what

energy would that little one then have entered his room and set about his lessons anew! And what would this mother have lost, had she replaced her first remark with this one?

These are simple scenes, drawn from the very heart of our life. I have set them down to show that biting criticism, in most cases, tends more to wrecking than to building, and that it brings no useful result and mends no state of things unless it comes joined to kind words of appreciation.

We in this country — men and women alike — are as far as can be from grasping this truth, for all its simplicity. Could we but grasp it, we should spare ourselves much trouble and turmoil, and we should see our work advance and prosper — at a cost of nothing but a few kind words expressing a sincere appreciation...