ssures a grand maturity.

Dear girls who read this book, the mother-heart has gone out to you
with great tenderness with every line herein written, with many an
unspoken prayer that you will be helped, uplifted, inspired by its
reading, and made more and more to feel

"A sacred burden is this life ye bear.
Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly;
Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly;
Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin,
But onward, upward, till the goal ye win."

MARY WOOD-ALLEN.
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN.

PART I.

THE VALUE OF HEALTH, AND RESPONSIBILITY IN MAINTAINING IT.

WHAT A YOUNG WOMAN OUGHT TO KNOW.

CHAPTER I.

WHAT ARE YOU WORTH?

MY DAUGHTER DEAR:

When I see you with your young girl friends, when I look into your
bright faces and listen to your merry laughter and your girlish
chatter, I wonder if any one of you understands how much you are
worth. Now you may say, "I haven't any money in the bank, I have no
houses or land, I am worth nothing," but that would only be detailing
what you possess. It is not what you possess but what you are that
determines what you are worth. One may possess much wealth and be
worth very little.

I was reading the other day that the first great lesson for a _young
man_ to learn, the first fact to realize, is that he is of some
importance; that upon his wisdom, energy and faithfulness all else
depends, and that the world cannot get along without him. Now if this
is true of young men, I do not see why it is not equally true of young
women.

It is not after you have grown old that you will be of value to the
world; it is now, in your young days, while you are laying the
foundation of your character, that you are of great importance. We
cannot say that the foundation is of no importance until the building
is erected, for upon the right placing of the foundation depends the
firmness and stability of the superstructure. Dr. Conwell, in his
little book, "Manhood's Morning," estimates that there are twelve
million young men in the United States between fourteen and
twenty-eight years of age; that these twelve million young men
represent latent physical force enough to dig the iron ore from the
mines, manufacture it into wire, lay the foundation and construct
completely the great Brooklyn Bridge in three hours; that they
represent force enough, if rightly utilized, to dig the clay from the
earth, manufa