the girl who does her best work
though no one sees and none commend, refusing to lower her ideals in
obedience to subtile suggestions or definite temptations; a girl who
does what is expected of her and more, who puts her heart into her work
and glorifies it.

The girl, whatever her station in life, whatever her occupation, who has
kept her ideals high has the right to be happy. She can afford to be
light-hearted, to enjoy fun and frolic and to get the most out of
everything, for she need not spend days in regret, nor wet her pillow
with tears of remorse. Nothing in the world can make up for the loss of
a pure and high ideal. If girls could see the sad faces and know the
suffering hearts of the women who in girlhood forsook their ideals, they
would understand.

If a girl of high ideals is thinking about them now and knows that she
has of late been tempted to lower them a little, let me ask her to look
at them very earnestly before she consents to tarnish them _even a
little_. Perhaps it is only to wear upon the street the sort of dress
which attracts attention and causes remarks to fall from the lips of
loafers as she passes, perhaps to accept invitations from those who do
not measure up to the standard, perhaps to engage in a dance in which
the ideal could not join, to repeat gossip which is interesting but may
not be true or to be mean and unkind. Let me beg of every girl to cling
with all her might to the highest ideal of her mind and heart. Never let
it go. Pay the cost of keeping it whatever that cost may be.

X

THE AVERAGE GIRL

The average girl does not want to be average. She wants to stand for
something, to _excel_, to be beautiful, to do great good in the world,
to sing, to play, to be a social leader, to dress well, to be very
popular, to be _something_, so that people will single her out and say,
"That is Charlotte Gray; she is the prettiest girl in town," or "That is
Charlotte Gray; she has a most wonderful voice," or "She is the most
popular girl in the office," or "She is the finest girl athlete in the
city." In her day dreams she pictures herself the center, but in real
life she does not find herself there--she is just plain Charlotte Gray.

The average girl has all the elemental powers of the race; there are
always undeveloped resources in her, always the possibility that she may
bless the world by new ministries, enrich it by the discovery of the art
of living nobly amid the common-pla