PREFACE

This volume contains a few of many talks which the author has given on Sunday afternoons to the students of Bradford Academy. At their request and for their convenience the volume is published. While hundreds of addresses to young women of college age have found their way into print, the books that deal with the problems and needs of younger girls and that look at life from their point of view are few. Though these talks were inspired by the needs of a definite group, the author will be glad if the book finds a wider audience.

CONTENTS

I.[NEW STARTS IN LIFE]
II.[SCHOOL FRIENDSHIPS]
III.[THE ART OF LIVING WITH OTHERS]
IV.[ENDURING HARDNESS]
V.[THE RHYTHM OF LIFE]
VI.[THE USES OF TROUBLE]
VII.[SCHOOL SPIRIT]
VIII.[MAKING THE BEST OF THINGS]
IX.[CONFLICTING LOYALTIES]
X.[THE VALUE OF DISCIPLINE]
XI.[THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE]
XII.[THE PROGRESS OF WOMAN]
XIII.[SOURCES OF HAPPINESS]
XIV.[AFTER GRADUATION]

VESPER TALKS TO GIRLS

I
NEW STARTS IN LIFE

Life is full of opportunities for new beginnings. Courage and hope go out of a person only when he ceases to believe that for him there is one more chance to retrieve the mistakes of the past. George Eliot says, “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” Such a conviction is necessary if we would live lives of power. There is a sonnet by Senator Ingalls in which Opportunity is represented as saying,—