uld be urged to support
themselves, the majority must do so, or they will burden others. There
is also a large class of women who do not absolutely need to earn money,
who nevertheless will be better and happier to do so. Independence is
very sweet, and even if for love's sake a woman chooses to give it up,
it is more inspiring to make a deliberate sacrifice of it than to be
dependent because she must be. All homes are not happy, even where the
members of the family love each other and have a general purpose to do
right. Perhaps it may be said that few young people are satisfied
thoroughly with their homes. Would it not mean the destruction of the
ideal if they were? It would be terrible to them to have the home broken
up, and they do love their parents, but they think they could manage
better, and may be right in thinking so.

Now, if a girl at home has this feeling of unrest, she may be too ready
to marry the first suitor, because she thinks more about the ideal home
she can make than about the husband. If, on the contrary, she goes away
and earns her living, she will look around her with less prejudiced
eyes. If her home is really unhappy, she will be free from it. If its
troubles are merely superficial, she will find this out as soon as she
compares it with other homes. If she has not been willing to meet her
share of trial and responsibility, she will now find that a change of
place has not set her free, for the trouble was in herself. When she
does go back to her home it will be with very different appreciation of
it.

When a girl has become a woman her instinct leads her to long to be at
the head of her own home, whether she is married or unmarried. To be
absolute mistress even of one room in a lodging-house at the end of a
day's labor is often better to her than to be at the call of everybody
in her father's beautiful home where she is supposed to be at leisure
all day. And this is right. If a girl has been badly trained, how can
she help thinking she may do better than her mother does? If she has
been well trained, she ought to be able to do better than her mother,
for every generation begins at a higher point than the preceding. She
has much of her mother's experience to help her while she is still fresh
and strong and enthusiastic. There are very few women between the ages
of twenty-five and forty who can be thoroughly contented in any home of
which they are not the mistress, however patiently and nobly they