oolgirl must be able to
think of a dozen other reasons why such and such girls selected each
other as friends.

(And here I may remark in passing that you will find it extremely
interesting to try and find the beginnings, the first causes of the
friendships you have either experienced or witnessed. It will enable you
to form ideas as to the relative weight of circumstances and character,
and it is good to know the reason why things are even little things.)

Well, do these friendships last? In nine cases out of ten they do not,
though by means of fitful correspondence they may drag on a feeble
existence for years. The bond of union which school supplies being once
broken, Lucy and Kate find new interests quite unconnected with each
other, which may be difficult to explain on paper, and the opportunities
of meeting may be few.

Besides, Kate, who was "quite the nicest girl at school," does not seem
so exceptional when brought among Lucy's relations. They think her a
little free and easy, or too particular and strait-laced. She is poor,
and mamma is afraid of "the boys" falling in love with her; or rich, and
may stay "only one week," the seeming significance of which sets the
family back up, and she is not asked again.

There are a hundred trifles which part school friends, whose affection
has been of short, rapid growth, and which must therefore wither in a
new atmosphere, unless its roots have struck deep down into the hearts
of both.

So the letters become shorter and fewer, till there comes so long a
pause that neither can remember who wrote last, and each, of course,
feels that the other is to blame for the silence.

"If Kate really cares about me she will answer my last letter," says
Lucy.

"If Lucy wants to drop the correspondence, I'm sure I shan't force her
to keep it up," says Kate.

So the letter is never written, and the friends part; and though I am a
great admirer of the virtue of constancy, I still hold that there are
cases in which it is a mere mockery, the empty husk which we had much
better fling away when the kernel is gone.

But girls' friendships are often made by propinquity, neighbourhood,
adjacent homes, and constant meetings in the ordinary round of life.

The average girl, especially if living in the country, has not usually a
very large circle of acquaintances from which to choose her friends (and
notwithstanding what is said about the sufficiency of family affections,
I do think a "