Sally Bush--Abraham Lincoln's good step-mother--Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Miss Louisa Alcott, Laura
Bridgman, Charlotte Cushman, Maria Mitchell, Lady Franklin, Mrs. Julia
Ward Howe, and Florence Nightingale.

If the girls of to-day are to have larger rewards in the world's work,
they must fit themselves for the larger responsibilities. Every
prudent girl will, of course, talk over the prospect of her future
years with her parents, her brothers and sisters, her teachers, or
with mature and responsible friends. So very, very much depends on
laying the right foundations. But there are many qualities that must
constitute parts of every enduring foundation.

Attention, application, accuracy, method, punctuality, good behavior,
modesty, gentility, enlightenment, all of these and more are essential
to success and for the highest achievement of the true purpose of
living.

It has been well said that it is the repetition of little acts which
constitutes not only the sum of human character, but which determines
the character of nations; and where men or nations have broken down,
it will almost invariably be found that neglect of little things was
the rock on which they were wrecked.

Every human being has duties to be performed, and, therefore, has need
of cultivating the capacity for doing them--whether the sphere of
action be the management of a household, the conduct of a trade or a
profession, or the government of a nation.

The one fixed truth in the matter of character-building is the fact
that steady attention to the little matters of detail lies at the very
foundation of human progress.

The splendid trees that lift their branches heavenward depend for
their sustenance on the tiny thread-like roots that come into very
close relations with the soil and can thus take in the nourishment
needed for the making of growth. This, the larger roots have not the
capacity for doing. So in the growth of the human intellect and human
character, it is the little actions, day by day, that really do the
permanent building. With patient purpose to do successfully the many
little tasks that confront us we can later on achieve the larger
success awaiting us.

The world's history is full of the triumphs of those who have had to
struggle from beginning to end for recognition. Carey, the great
missionary, began life as a shoemaker; the chemist Vanquelin was the
son of a peasant; the poet Burns was a farm