"She had a good mind. But after a while people outside of her family took up the family's attitude of constantly under-rating everything she said and did. The result was that she lost all confidence in herself. She believed that if older people in whom she had faith thought she was stupid she must be stupid; and she was really becoming stupid."
"What happened?"
"Some one suggested that she go to a certain boarding school. There no one knew of this family attitude toward her and she was treated just like all the other girls. It gave her self-confidence and as she made one success after another in school she developed in every way like a flower in the sunshine."
"I'm going to try to help Ethel Blue if I can; and I guess you're right about being more comfortable with a house-cleaned mind; I feel better already, somehow."
"You'll feel better all the time. Now this coming week I want you to see if you can't be of special help to your grandmother. It's Recognition Week and your grandfather and I will be busy with the graduating class every day so we can't go about with Grandmother as much as we usually do. She will miss it if she doesn't have a companion."
"I'll remember. I'll go whenever she wants me."
"You may have to go with her sometimes when you'd rather go somewhere with the girls."
"I'll do it. When we got up the Service Club we were all telling why it would be good for us and I said then that I liked to do things for people just for selfish reasons."
"You'll be a Service Club member of the right sort when you do kindnesses that you don't like to do."
"So far all the services that the Club has performed have been things that were fun. We haven't been tried out yet."