HELPS. 135 



an active interest in its growth and prosperity. In the 

 second place we must be prepared for inconstancy and 

 defection, to a certain extent, in despite of our most 

 conscientious efforts to maintain interest; and, when 

 it comes, \ve must neither be indignant nor discour- 

 aged. We must not be indignant, because steady, perse- 

 vering- action is not natural in young- persons, but 

 comes as the result of unusual native endowment or of 

 careful training-- The interest boys take even in their 

 sports is fitful. They have 'fevers;' the baseball fever, 

 the kite fever, the collecting- fever, the Ag-assiz Asso- 

 ciation fever. Moreover many causes conspire to make 

 the interest less at some times than others, the fluctu- 

 ations of the weather, the inequalities of health, the 

 presence of unusual outside attractions, the pressure 

 of approaching- examinations. We must not be dis- 

 courag-ed, because all these causes of a lack of interest 

 are transient. Baseball will be played just as vigorous- 

 ly when next season comes around; the now neglected 

 kites are sure to be tugging again at their strings by 

 and by; the collection, now forgotten and covered with 

 dust, will be cleaned and put in order after a time; and 

 the interest in our Association work that languishes in 

 December, will certainly bloom again in May. More 

 than this, when the next wave of interest comes, it will 

 come with more staying power; we shall all be a little 

 older; we shall have profited by the errors of the past. 

 The best chapters we have to-day, many of them, are 

 chapters that have disbanded once or twice, and once 

 and again reorganized. It is from these considerations 

 that we were led to insert that clause in our rules, by 

 which so long as even one member retains his interest, 

 he is allowed to retain the name and number of a chap- 

 ter, once properly organized, and maintained for six 



