Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 



163 



Miss Day. 



THE PROBLEM OF THE DAUGHTER. 



(Dr. Edna D. Day, Professor of Home Economics, University of Kansas.) 



I am indeed glad to have the opportun- 

 ity to be back in Missouri, and especially to 

 be with you at this Home Makers' Confer- 

 ence. I have read with interest the reports 

 of your meetings since I have left, and have 

 been very glad to see the attention you are 

 giving to the care of young children. Today 

 I want to talk to you about the problem of 

 the older daughter, and the unnecessary 

 waste of time and energy by the average 

 girl while she waits. 



Every year, as young women and 

 anxious parents come to me for advice, I am 

 led to a fuller appreciation of the situation. 

 Since many of you, also, have the responsibility of giving advice to 

 young women, perhaps you will be interested in my analysis of the 

 problem and my suggestion of a remedy. May I begin by reading a 

 quotation from OHve Schreiner's "Dreams?" 



"All day where the sunshine played on the seashore Life sat. 

 "All day the soft wind played with her hair, and the young, 

 young face looked out across the water. She was waiting — ^she 

 was waiting, but she could not tell for what. 



"All day the waves ran up and up on the sand, and ran back 

 again, and the pink shells rolled ; Life sat waiting. All day with the 

 sunlight in her eyes she sat there, till, grown weary, she laid her 

 head upon her knee and fell asleep, waiting still. 



"Then a keel grated on the sand, and then a step was on the 

 shore — Life woke and heard it. A hand was laid upon her and a 

 great shudder passed through her. She looked up and saw over 

 her the strange wide eyes of Love — and Life now knew for whom 

 she had sat there waiting." 



"All day Life sat waiting!" Were it only a day, or a year, 

 or even a few years, it would not make so much difference; but 

 when, as often happens these days, Life must wait five, ten, or even 

 fifteen or twenty years, the problem of what to do while she waits 

 becomes a serious one. Twenty, fifteen, ten, five, or even one of 

 the best years of life, is too much to spend sitting idly on the shore 



