Part 26 (1/2)

But as a guarantee of peace and happiness throughout life she had better be taught many specific lessons in self-mastery. And it seems certain that the farm home offers many more advantages for developing a poised character in the young woman than does the city home. So let it be seen to by country parents that their girls be trained from childhood to meet life's stress and storm with calm composure and sweet serenity. Only such training will suffice to tide the latter over the great crus.h.i.+ng ordeals that tend at some time to fall to the lot of every good woman.

Conditions in the well-ordered country home may be made to contribute to another form of self-mastery in the growing girl. That is, she may be made supreme over the conventionalities of dress and the social customs that touch her life. By this it is not intended to prescribe in respect to such things as the style or appearance of the young woman's clothing.

She may be first or last or medium in the list of the well-dressed. But it is here contended that she can be trained to subordinate these matters to a personal charm that is her very own, and that emanates from a beautiful and well-poised life within. It is quite as destructive to good character for one to be meanly clothed through necessity and at the same time envy and despise those who are better dressed as it is to be among the richly adorned and try to make mere adornment a mark of better and superior rank in society, or a means of lacerating the feelings of one's a.s.sociates.

The country mother will let pa.s.s one of the rarest forms of opportunity for refining and beautifying the character of her daughter if she does not educate the latter rightly in respect to these conventionalities.

Train her to be neat and attractive in appearance, but at the same time teach her that no manner of outer adornment can cover up or subst.i.tute for sweetness and purity of the inner life. The splendid effects of such an education will reveal themselves to best advantage in the young woman when she has finally entered a home of her own. If she cannot then and there s.h.i.+ne in a light that emanates from her own soul, the sacrificial work of ministering to the needs of her own household will never be well performed.

AN OUTLOOK FOR SOCIAL LIFE

Provision will by all means be made that the growing country girl be introduced to the best social life within reach. She must mingle with those of her own age and learn how others think and act. She must attend parties and the other social gatherings, especially the literary societies if there be any available. For the sake of her training, if for no better reason, she may be brought into close relation to the Sunday school and the church. It will be good, indeed, if she find some congenial work in one or both of these organizations. Let it be remembered that the healthy-minded, well-matured woman is very probably at her best and is most highly satisfied and contented with life only when she has opportunities to perform some kind of worthy social service. Farm parents may well bring it about, therefore, that their young daughter have some specific deeds of altruism to perform. Let her carry a small gift or a word of cheer to the door of the sick or the infirm. Let her make with her own hands some simple, inexpensive present to be carried to the one who needs it most and whose heart will be made glad by it.

Above all things else, it must be provided that something more than the mere grasping nature of the young country girl be indulged and developed. Some there are who still contend that life for men is, at its best, a game of chance and contention. But such an ideal, if held up to the growing girl, will tend to check or destroy all that is best and most beautiful in the feminine nature. Young women especially must learn through practice that the best and most beautiful character is altogether consistent with the performance of deeds of service and altruism.

Finally, educate into the daughter as much habitual cheerfulness as possible, let her heart be made glad again and again, not merely because of what she has, and because of what she receives day by day, but also and especially on account of what she gives out of the best and sweetest of her own nature in behalf of those whom she may find occasion to help and cheer on their way over the journey of life. All this will help to make her a creature of whom not only the other members of her family, but also the entire community will be most proud.

REFERENCES

My Escape from Household Drudgery. Mary Patterson. _Success Magazine_, August, 1911.

Proceedings of Child Conference of Research and Welfare.

Beulah Kennard. Page 47, ”The Play Life of Girls.” G. E.

Stechert & Co., New York.

Women's School of Agriculture. I. H. Harper. _Independent_, June 29, 1911.

The Girl of To-morrow--Her Education. E. H. Baylor. _World's Work_, July, 1911. Prize essay.

Education of Women for Home Making. Mrs. W. N. Hutt. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1910, p. 122.

Give the Girls a Chance. Canfield. _Collier's_, March 12, 1910.

The Durable Satisfactions of Life. Charles W. Eliot. Pages 11-57, ”The Happy Life.” Crowell.

The Kind of Education Best Suited for Girls. Anna J.

Hamilton. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1907. p. 65.

Parasitic Culture. Dr. George E. Dawson. _Popular Science Monthly_, September, 1910.

Training the Girl to help in the Home. William A. McKeever.

Pamphlet. 2 cents. Published by the author. Manhattan, Kan.

CHAPTER XVIII

_THE FARM BOY'S CHOICE OF A VOCATION_