Many a kitchen knows her.  Neat, clean, honest, capable, happy in her work, resisting all the temptations that come through loneliness and deadly routine, she clings to her ideals with courage.

Every set in society knows her; turning her back upon temptations to excess, vanity, pride, scorning all forms of gossip, neither listening to, nor repeating the words that “they” say, she keeps her mind and heart fixed upon the undimmed ideals she has set for herself.

Many a schoolroom and office know her, the girl who does her best work though no one sees and none commend, refusing to lower her ideals in obedience to subtile suggestions or definite temptations; a girl who does what is expected of her and more, who puts her heart into her work and glorifies it.

The girl, whatever her station in life, whatever her occupation, who has kept her ideals high has the right to be happy.  She can afford to be light-hearted, to enjoy fun and frolic and to get the most out of everything, for she need not spend days in regret, nor wet her pillow with tears of remorse.  Nothing in the world can make up for the loss of a pure and high ideal.  If girls could see the sad faces and know the suffering hearts of the women who in girlhood forsook their ideals, they would understand.

If a girl of high ideals is thinking about them now and knows that she has of late been tempted to lower them a little, let me ask her to look at them very earnestly before she consents to tarnish them even a little.  Perhaps it is only to wear upon the street the sort of dress which attracts attention and causes remarks to fall from the lips of loafers as she passes, perhaps to accept invitations from those who do not measure up to the standard, perhaps to engage in a dance in which the ideal could not join, to repeat gossip which is interesting but may not be true or to be mean and unkind.  Let me beg of every girl to cling with all her might to the highest ideal of her mind and heart.  Never let it go.  Pay the cost of keeping it whatever that cost may be.

X

THE AVERAGE GIRL

The average girl does not want to be average.  She wants to stand for something, to excel, to be beautiful, to do great good in the world, to sing, to play, to be a social leader, to dress well, to be very popular, to be something, so that people will single her out and say, “That is Charlotte Gray; she is the prettiest girl in town,” or “That is Charlotte Gray; she has a most wonderful voice,” or “She is the most popular girl in the office,” or “She is the finest girl athlete in the city.”  In her day dreams she pictures herself the center, but in real life she does not find herself there—­she is just plain Charlotte Gray.

The average girl has all the elemental powers of the race; there are always undeveloped resources in her, always the possibility that she may bless the world by new ministries, enrich it by the discovery of the art of living nobly amid the common-place, that she may be the mother of the great.