g. He is first an egg in the mother's ovary. When this egg
has reached a certain stage of development it passes from the ovary
through a tube into the uterus. If it meets there, or on its way
there, the fertilizing principle of the male, it remains there and
develops into the child. If it does not meet this principle, it passes
out through the vagina and is lost.

But the eggs, or ova--which is the Latin word meaning eggs--do not
begin to ripen until the girl reaches the age of thirteen or fourteen,
or, in other words, until she begins to become a woman. This passing
away of the ovum (singular of ova) is called ovulation, and it occurs
in the woman about every twenty-eight days. The uterus is lined by a
mucous membrane similar to that which lines the mouth, and at this
time of ovulation this membrane becomes swollen and soft, and little
hemorrhages, or bleedings, occur for three or four days, the blood
passing away through the vagina. This is called menstruation.

Sometimes, when girls have not been told beforehand of the facts of
menstruation, they become greatly frightened at seeing this blood and
imagine that they have some dreadful disease. If they have no friend
to whom they can speak freely they sometimes do very injudicious
things in their efforts to remove that which to them seems so strange
and inexplicable. I have known of girls who washed their clothes in
cold water and put them on wet, and so took cold and perhaps checked
the menstrual flow, and as a consequence were injured for life, or may
even have died years after as a result of this unwise conduct.

The girl who is wisely taught will recognize in this the outward sign
of the fact that she has reached womanhood, that she has entered upon
what is called the maternal period of a woman's life, the period when
it is possible for her to become a mother.

This does not mean that she should become a mother while so young. It
only means that the sex organs are so far developed that they are
beginning to take up their peculiar functions. But they are like the
immature buds of the flower, and need time for a perfect development.
If she understands this, and recognizes her added value to the world
through the perfecting of her entire organism, she will desire to take
good care of herself, and during these years of early young womanhood
to develop into all that is possible of sweetness, grace, purity, and
all true womanliness.

Girls who are not wisely taught s