Secondly, there are your friends.  Do not let one person monopolize you, or you her; do not have friends given to secrets, and do not let any one trap you into a promise not to tell.  If her secret is all right, she cannot object to your telling your mother, and if it is silly you had better be clear of it.  And do not forget that nice people do not deal in secrets, they keep their family affairs to themselves.  It is the Rosa Matildas at “Young Ladies’ Academies” who have secrets in a corner.

Thirdly, choose your book friends carefully.  You live with people in books, so have a conscience about your choice in this just as much as with living friends.  Some books are bad for any one; a great many more would do harm to you, but perhaps not touch an older person.  When I was your age, many an argumentative book (which seems thin and empty to me now) might have upset my faith.  Many an exciting, passionate book (which I now read with a calm and critical mind) would have filled my whole heart and soul!  Be thankful if you are kept under direction about books; but if you are not, use common sense and conscience.  Manage yourself sensibly, and since you know that you are in a very mouldable, impressionable stage, it stands to reason that you had better steadily read classics now, to form and strengthen your mind.

When a girl reads sentimental and passionate poetry, neglecting Scott, Milton, and Wordsworth, I call it the same sort of wrong mismanaging of herself as if she ruined her digestion with a greedy love of pastry.  Poetry and pastry are often the same sort of weak self-indulgence.

I do not say read no novels that are exciting and romantic, or even that are silly, but I do say, sandwich them.  Face the fact that a silly or passionate novel is likely to have great power over you at this stage, and therefore read very few of them, and read many of Scott, Thackeray, Dickens, Miss Austen, and Mrs. Gaskell.

Do not read society novels that make you live with flippant, irreverent, or coarse people, or those who take sin lightly.

It is not right for a girl to live with people in books who would not be good friends for her in life, and she ought to make a conscience of not doing it, even though there may be no definite bad scenes in the book to shock her.

Books should give you nice ideas.  You have got the making of your own mind and character in your own hands, and you are responsible for the books on which you choose to feed yourself, for each one of them alters you for good or bad.  Your book list is a very good help to self-examination.