There are other things, too, which one hardly hesitates to declare of more importance than book-learning. First among them are courtesy and good breeding. Even now, one occasionally finds them in young girls, but so seldom as to raise their possessor to a possibly disproportionately high place in one's esteem. The rising generation is so sure of itself, so convinced of its importance, that it has little time and less inclination for thought of the individualities of others. The positive qualities are so much dwelt upon that the negative have almost disappeared from view. One is homesick for them sometimes, or for their possessors. If it were but possible once in a while to be refreshed by meeting the girl whom the young woman of to-day pillories in one scornful phrase! one. "She is not beautiful," they scoff, "and she's not brilliant, but she is a good girl and a great comfort to her mother!" After all, she is not quite so extinct as the dodo. I know She is not pretty, and she is not clever. But she is a good girl!-good all through, gentle, unassuming, unselfish, always thoughtful for others rather than for herself, saying the friendly word, rendering the friendly service: "She doeth little kindnesses That most leave undone or despise, For naught that sets one heart at ease Or giveth happiness or peace Is low esteem'd in her eyes." It goes without saying that she is a comfort to her mother and to all about her. And what a home she will some day make! Like the training in obedience, the girl's course in courtesy must begin at a tender age. The twig is so easily bent then that it scarcely resists the guiding hand. Even with this training the girl may, when half grown, come to a stage where selfassertion shows itself, and when she feels that it is quite the thing for her to force herself upon people's attention. Al growing things have their trying age. But this, too, will pass away, and if the girl has been started right, there is not much difficulty in inducing her to believe that herself and her affairs are not of paramount importance to the public at large; that gentleness and consideration command more love and popularity than self-assertion and carelessness of the concerns and whims of others. So many qualities besides the severely practical go to the composition of the home-maker as she should be, that what might be called the mechanical part of the training almost slips out of sight. Sometimes it is allowed to remain there, and then the home-maker fails of success. Abstract traits are beautiful and indispensable, but 66 "Will the love that you are rich in Build a fire in the kitchen, Or the little god of love turn the spit, spit, spit?" In other words, will a well-trained physique, a thoroughly educated mind, a perfectly balanced moral nature, and a due share of what the Italians call gentilezza, make up for ignorance of household economy, including in this a knowledge of cookery, of the purchase and care of food, the management of servants and the like? Nay, verily! Do the one, but leave not the other undone. In our public schools there is a wise effort in progress to give the girls of the higher grades some practical familiarity with cooking and cognate subjects. I do not think there is any movement of the kind on foot in any college for women. The effort in these is to give the girl the same education her brother would have. Still, in connection with men's universities and colleges, there are opportunities for the pupils to take up the study of the profession which they mean to follow after leaving college. Is it unreasonable to ask that there should be furnished to women the chance to take, as an elective, or as a final study, a course in that science to which most of them will devote their future lives? It will be a long time before such a Utopian state of affairs will be reached as the organized education of women for the work for which God made them. Until that far off and problematical period shall be attained, it behooves the mother to address part of her energies to preparing her daughter for the performance of those duties whose results appear in physical comfort. The college girl will be no whit poorer student if, in her vacations, she learns to make bread, to cook meats and vegetables; receives enough practical instruction in anatomy to know the parts of a four-legged beast of meat, and is taught that one does not buy pepper by the barrel, or potatoes by the pint. Such learning and occupations will not send her back to her studies, or her athletics, too much exhausted to make high records. Neither will she be the worse for having to wash dishes and dust rooms, and it will be in line with her athletic training to "do a turn" in making beds and sweeping. No amount of theories will teach her so well how a refrigerator should be scoured, or a coal fire made, or starch mixed, as the lesson she will learn from standing by to watch the operation, and then trying the task herself. She may never have to take charge of her own range or ice-box, much less do her own washing and ironing, but the knowledge she has gained will make her independent of incompetent help, and aid her in training the ignorant maidservant within her gates. Still another part of home-making remains in which the girl should be instructed. She may have learned to be a housekeeper, and grace may aid her in her duties as a wife. But the home is not the perfect home without children. How much does our girl know of the care and rearing of these? "I feel as if a girl's chief study should be how to bring up children," said a young mother with her first baby. "And I know nothing about them!" The day has happily gone by for false modesty concerning babies. Sensible girls openly recognize the probability that motherhood will be a natural sequence of marriage. The mothers of the rising generation should teach their growing girls that, whatever they gain of health in body and mind, of gentleness and goodness, they may transmit to their childrenthat there is no self-control, no patience, no unselfishness that will not stand them in stead in the rearing of the sons and daughters that may one day come to them. Marrow Harlang |