d by the young
men if she does not permit them to approach too closely. A girl is very
much mistaken if she fancies that a young man thinks more of her if she
lets him be familiar. On the other hand, it is always true that he
thinks more of her if she makes him feel that she is not to be
carelessly approached. As one boy said to me, 'Girls ought to know that
boys always want most that which is hardest to get.'"

"But, father, if it's so difficult for boys and girls to be together and
act as they should, wouldn't it be best to keep them entirely apart
until they are old enough to marry?"

"That is what they think in the old world, and girls are kept shut up
in schools and convents until they are grown; then their parents select
a husband for them, and after they are married they are allowed to go
into society. I am afraid our girls wouldn't like that,--they'd want to
select their own husbands."

"They could do that after they got out of school."

"My observation is that the girl who has been shut up away from young
men, is the very one who doesn't know how to act when she comes out of
school. She has very romantic ideas, and is quite apt to be misled by a
glittering exterior. She is less able to judge wisely or to guide her
own conduct judiciously than the girl who, having been educated with
boys, has less romantic ideas concerning them. No, I believe in
co-education and in the common social life for both sexes; but with it I
should ask that all young people should be taught to respect themselves
and each other, and to understand their responsibility to future
generations."

"And what is that responsibility? What have we young people to do with
future generations?"

"Just exactly what we older people once had. We didn't think of it in
our youth, but we can see now that even then we were creating our own
characters and at the same time the characters of our future children.
Now, I can see in you many of my own youthful characteristics. I can
understand why you find it hard to do things that I'd like you to do,
and easy to do some I'd rather you wouldn't do. And if, in the years to
come, you have a daughter, she will be apt to be largely what you are
now. All the efforts you make now to overcome your own faults are in
reality helping to overcome those faults for her also. Suppose the young
people knew and thought of these things; don't you think they would
judge more wisely of what they ought to do?"

"Why, yes, I