excited, but wear the look of quiet contentment which seems to come from
contact with primitive things. This look alone on a girl's face gives a
beauty of its own, something becoming, and fitting, and full of promise.
No expression is equal to it in the truest charm, for quiet contentment
is the atmosphere which in the future, whatever may be her lot, ought to
be diffused by her presence, an atmosphere of security and rest.

Perhaps at first sight it seems an exaggeration to link so closely
together the highest natural graces of a woman with those lowliest
occupations, but let the effects be compared by those who have examined
other systems of instruction. If they have considered the outcome of an
exclusively intellectual education for girls, especially one loaded with
subjects in sections to be "got up" for purposes of examination, and
compared it with one into which the practical has largely entered, they
can hardly fail to agree that the latter is the best preparation for
life, not only physically and morally but mentally. During the stress of
examinations lined foreheads, tired eyes, shallow breathing, angular
movements tell their own story of strain, and when it is over a want of
resourcefulness in finding occupation shows that a whole side has
remained undeveloped. The possibility of turning to some household
employments would give rest without idleness; it would save from two
excesses in a time of reaction, from the exceeding weariness of having
nothing to do, the real misery of an idle life, and on the other hand
from craving for excitement and constant change through fear of this
unoccupied vacancy.

One other point is worth consideration. The "servant question" is one
which looms larger and larger as a household difficulty. There are
stories of great and even royal households being left in critical
moments at the mercy of servants' tempers, of head cooks "on strike" or
negligent personal attendants. And from these down to the humblest
employers of a general servant the complaint is the same--servants so
independent, so exacting, good servants not to be had, so difficult to
get things properly done, etc. These complaints give very strong warning
that helpless dependence on servants is too great a risk to be accepted,
and that every one in ordinary stations of life should be at least able
to be independent of personal service. The expansion of colonial life
points in the same direction. The "simple life" is tal