Dads or “Duds.”

Do fathers need advice? There are fifty million mothers who will say they do. And yet thousands of fathers are left to grope through fatherhood with not a father-expert within coo-ee to pep up their paternal patter so that they may, in time, become a credit to their children instead of a “thing of duty and a cloy for ever.”

The fact is that few fathers realise what a glorious thing it is to be a father. On the contrary, there are times innumerable when fathers wish that they had been born a bowl of goldfish rather than a father; especially during the stilly A.M.'s, when merry bachelors hibernate, and all is hushed—except the white man's burden who whangs the welkin in its father's arms, and makes a morepork of Morpheus. But there are joys and jubilations attached to fatherhood, even if, at first glance, they seem as remote as Ever-rest.