Qualities for an efficient administrator of a household:
| Knowledge of the business and training for it either at home or in some school |
| Power to systematize work, to apportion out labor, and to keep accounts and make budgets; power to purchase and to save wisely |
| Ability to carry things through in a business-like way; courage to undertake things; ability to make both ends meet |
| Resourcefulness; ability to act promptly when things go wrong, to adapt oneself to changes, to show reserve in emergencies |
| Power to save time and avoid dawdling; to avoid unnecessary motions and waste of energy; to avoid unnecessary waste of materials |
| Passion for cleanliness in rooms, furniture, utensils, linen; passion for personal cleanliness |
| A real love of the work itself, a love to create good things; a love to see things done and to do them |
If you, dear Country Girl, will take a score card similar to this, go away by yourself and think it all over, then conscientiously take the examination, mark yourself on all the points honestly and fairly, desiring strongly to be just with yourself and to see yourself as you really are, there will perhaps come to you an illuminated hour when you will dare to set yourself down in the group called "meritorious" or in the next group called "not-quite-meritorious-but-almost." Perhaps, however, you may feel that you ought to descend into the group named "inferior" or even into the "deficient" class. But this attempt at self-examination will spur you to greater effort, whatever your decision. For if you must say "inferior" or "deficient," there is no doubt some reason for the lacks, and the examination will help you to find these and to strive earnestly to make up for them. And if you feel that you can honestly say "meritorious," you must remember that all good qualities are but the stepping-stones to higher struggle and that life affords us many more advanced degrees to which we may aspire.
The Country Girl's Score Card may afford an appreciation of how much the young woman in rural life means to her environment. That appreciation will only make you see the more clearly the claims that country life has upon you. For you must realize that there is one link in the chain of American life that the Country Girl alone can forge. If you fail, the chain must break; but if you do your allotted part, the chain will be one of those that Milton loves to sing about, that bind the whole round earth about the throne of God.