ooks wise and "makes the other fellows think
that he is a Harry of a fellow,--but he isn't!"

The desire to be considered worldly-wise--"tough"--is rampant in the
masculine mind between the ages of fifteen and twenty. The boy who has
been to a strict preparatory boarding-school and is just entering upon
his college course, whose theatre-goings have been limited to the
"shows" to which his father has given him tickets, or to which he has
escorted his mother or sisters, and whose wildest dissipations have
consisted in a surreptitious cigarette and glass of beer, neither of
which he enjoyed, but both of which he pretended to revel in for the
sake of being "mannish,"--will talk knowingly of "the latest
soubrette," "a jolly little ballet-dancer," "the wicked ways of this
world," and "the dens of iniquity in our large cities." Dickens tells
us that "when Mr. Feeder spoke of the dark mysteries of London, and
told Mr. Toots that he was going to observe it himself closely in all
its ramifications in the approaching holidays, and for that purpose
had made arrangements to board with two old maiden aunts at Peckham,
Paul regarded him as if he were the hero of some book of travel or
wild adventure, and was almost afraid of such a slashing person."

Why it is considered manly to be "tough" is one of the unsolved
mysteries of the boyish mind. Any uneducated, weak fool can go wrong.
It takes a man to be strong enough to keep himself pure and good.

Another "fresh" characteristic of this age is the pretence of doubt. A
fellow under twenty-one is likely to have doubts, to find articles in
the creed of his church "to which he cannot agree. That kind of thing
is well enough for women and children, but for a man of the
world,"--and then follows an expressive pause, accompanied by a shrug
of the shoulders and lift of the brows.

With a girl this trying age is often given over to sentimental musings
and blues. She is convinced that nobody understands her, her mother
least of all, that she is too sensitive for this harsh world, that she
will never receive the love and consideration due her. Cynicism
becomes her main characteristic, and she bitterly sneers at friendship
and gratitude, declaring that true, disinterested affection exists
only in the imagination. Is it any wonder that mothers sometimes
become discouraged? Poor mothers! whose combined comfort and distress
is the knowledge that the time is fast approaching when their boys and
gi