able to say “no” to the things which proved the downfall of brother and sister; she is a useful, self-supporting, thoroughly respectable member of society and an earnest Christian.  She has been able to lead her younger brother safely past the dangerous places and is helping him through school.  What the church, through its religious instruction, has been able to do for this girl and many others it might do in far larger measure were it equipped with a regular teaching force adequate to its need, if its preachers could come into real contact with the children and youth of the community and present to them with power the thou shalt not which shall give them at least an opportunity to strive to obey.

If the girl herself is reading this chapter I know she will agree with me when I say that a girl respects and honors in her heart the teacher who presents to her, fearlessly and honestly, the things which she believes a girl cannot do with safety, which lead into dangerous places and which make it hard for her to keep pure, true, unselfish in thought and deed; and she respects even more highly the teacher who can give her broad sane reasons for finding substitutes for these things.  She may, as she grows older, come to the conclusion that her teacher was mistaken but she respects her for her honest effort to help.

In every girl’s creed there must be some negative.  The law says you must and you must not.  As she reads this page perhaps some girl will stop for a moment and write out the things to which she believes a girl should say “no.”  Here is such a list, written in the form of a creed by a girl when a sophomore at college.

“I believe that a girl should not indulge in amusements which make her nervous and excited, give her a headache, make it hard for her to study, cost her a good deal of money and crowd out all thoughts of duty and which make her feel envious and jealous of those who are more popular or fortunate than she, and sometimes make her think things she hates to remember.

I believe that a girl should never repeat what she has heard about another person if it could in any way injure that person’s character.

I believe that she should not lie even by looks or by silence.  I believe that she should never deceive another, never make fun of the weaknesses or misfortunes of other people and never treat another girl as she would not herself want to be treated.”

This is a negative creed.  It does not say do, it says don’t, but there are times when every girl needs Don’t.  Put don’t into your own creed, you girls who are thinking over these things.

When you are tempted to lose your head and plunge into things you have been taught are wrong, just because “everybody” that mysterious mischief maker, is doing these things, keep steady and Don’t.

When you are tempted to make things more comfortable, more interesting, more exciting by exaggeration—­Don’t.