emed wholly indifferent to any
moral appeal and conscience was evidently dead. She would make no
promises for future good-behavior, she showed no evidence of shame. She
was unmoved by the matron's words of appeal. When she found that she was
to be detained through the day she begged the woman probation officer
to go with her to her home saying that her mother was ill and she feared
the result if she did not return as usual. With a great desire to
befriend the girl the officer went. She found a sweet pale-faced woman
suffering from incurable heart trouble, a bright beautiful girl of
sixteen who was taking the business course in the high school and a
ten-year-old boy. The flat was airy, neatly furnished and seemed a very
happy home. The girl told her mother that she had had breakfast and must
be away that day on business but would return for supper. The love of
that mother for the daughter who bade her good-by so tenderly, the
evident affection of the younger sister and the admiration of the boy
greatly impressed the officer.

The girl walked in silence back to the station, then she broke down.

"Now, you see why I chose the street to make a living," she said. "We
used father's life insurance and mother had to have things. She will not
live a month now, the doctor says. My sister can soon earn her own
living and I can help Fred until he is old enough to help himself, by
working in my old position. But for a while I _must_ have money! I hate
myself, you understand, but I had to have the money. Oh, mother,
mother, it is the last thing you would have me do, but I did it for you
and the children," she sobbed. This was the hard, indifferent girl who
didn't care for anything. The matron and officer looking at the sobbing
girl recorded one more tragedy upon the annals of their experience and
set about helping one more girl back into the straight way.

In how many types we find her, the indifferent girl and the girl who
does not care, and for what varied reasons indifference and the don't
care spirit have fallen upon her. Whatever the cause of her indifference
she is a problem. One of the High School girls in a group discussing
another girl put it quite forcefully when she said, "Yes, I'd like to
help Alice, but she doesn't want to be helped. She just doesn't care
about anything. If you don't invite her she doesn't seem to mind, if you
do she doesn't care whether she goes or not. I'd rather die than not
care about _anything_."