Childhood and Early Youth 25 stoic ideals! Not satisfied, she put additional rules for herself and carried simplified living farther even than her parents required. She was so hardened that she was hard in her youth, and it is with effort she has learned to have an easy conscience in regard to the en- joyment of the good things of life. Ellen Key was brought up in extreme simplicity. Until she was twelve years old she ate her breakfast and suppers standing with her si.sters and brothers at a table where only bread and milk was served. No waiting on the children was allowed. The servants had been told that if the chil- dren gave orders, they should be led out of the kitchen with the dishrag around their necks. Ellen herself tells us that she was sixteen years old before she opened her lips at table without being spoken to. Com- plaints were considered squeamish, and no phrase was heard oftener than: "He who enters the game must endure the play," and that teaching, Ellen Key says, laid the foun- dation for the endurance with which she has been able to meet the pain and attacks she has suffered. Besides the desire to create happiness, which is one of the fundamental traits of her character—and in her youthful