Probably in these days, when there is more intermingling of the sexes, the girl’s outlook is franker, and, so far as this is concerned, healthier, than it was forty or fifty years ago.  It is very amusing to elders to hear a boy scarcely in his teens talking of “his best girl,” or to see the little lass wearing the colour or ornament that her chosen lad admires.  It is true that the “best girl” varies from week to week if not from day to day, but this special regard for a member of the opposite sex announces the dawn of a simple sentiment that will, a few years later, blossom out into the real passion which may fix a life’s destiny.

The mental and moral changes that occur during the early years of adolescence call for help and sympathy of an even higher order than do the changes in physical structure and function.  Some of these changes, such as shyness and reticence, may be the cause of considerable suffering to the girl and a perplexity to her elders, but on the whole they are comparatively easy of comprehension, and are more likely to elicit sympathy and kindness than blame.  It is far otherwise with such changes as unseemly laughter, rough manners, and a nameless difference in the girl’s manner when in the presence of the other sex.  A girl who is usually quiet, modest, and sensible in her behaviour may suddenly become boisterous and self-asserting, there is a great deal of giggling, and altogether a disagreeable transformation which too frequently involves the girl in trouble with her mother or other guardian, and is very frequently harshly judged by the child herself.  In proportion as self-discipline has been taught and self-control acquired, these outward manifestations are less marked, but in the case of the great majority of girls there are, at any rate, impulses having their origin in the yet immature and misunderstood sex impulse which cause the young woman herself annoyance and worry although she is as far from understanding their origin as her elders may be.  The remedies for these troubles are various.  First in order of time and in importance comes a habit of self-control and self-discipline that ought to be coeval with conscious life.  Fathers and mothers are themselves to blame if their girl lapses from good behaviour when they have not inculcated ideals of obedience, duty, and self-discipline from babyhood.  It seems such a little thing to let the child have its run of the cake-basket and the sweet-box; it is in the eyes of many parents so unimportant whether the little one goes to bed at the appointed time or ten minutes later; they argue that it can make no difference to her welfare in life or to her eternal destiny whether her obedience is prompt and cheerful or grudging and imperfect.  One might as well argue that the proper planting of a seed, its regular watering, and the influences of sun and wind make no difference to the life of a tree.  We have to bear carefully in mind that those who sow an act reap a habit, who sow a habit reap a character, who sow