A CHAPTER FOR GIRLS 437 



which makes us blush with shame that its existence 

 should be possible. 



Eeal girls are like the opening buds of beautiful 

 flowers. The beauty and fragrance of the full-blos- 

 somed rose scarcely exceeds the delicate loveliness of 

 the swelling bud which shows between the sections of 

 its bursting calyx the crimson petals tightly folded 

 beneath. So the true girl possesses in her sphere as 

 high a degree of attractive beauty as she can hope to 

 attain in after years, though of a different character. 

 But genuine girls are scarce. Really natural little girls 

 are almost as scarce as real boys. Too many girls 

 begin at a very early age to attempt to imitate the 

 pride and vanity manifested by older girls and young 

 ladies. It is by many supposed that to be ladylike 

 should be the height of the ambition of girls as soon 

 as they are old enough to be taught concerning pro- 

 priety of behavior, which is understood to mean that 

 they must appear as unnatural as possible in attempt- 

 ing to act like grown-up ladies. Many mothers who 

 wish their daughters to be models of perfection, but 

 whose ideas of perfect deportment are exceedingly 

 superficial in character, dress up their little daughters 

 in fine clothing, beautiful to look at, but very far from 

 what is required for health and comfort, and then con- 

 tinually admonish the little ones that they must keep 

 very quiet and ''act like little ladies." Such a course 

 is a most pernicious one. It fosters pride and vanity, 

 and inculcates an entirely wrong idea of what is lady- 

 like, what is true to nature as a girl. Such artificial 

 training is damaging alike to mind and body; and it 

 induces a condition of mind and of the physical system 

 which is very conducive to the encouragement of dan- 

 gerous tendencies. 



