This Department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor.
The secret of being at ease wherever you are is a very simple one. It is only this—Do not think about yourself. Bashfulness, awkwardness, and clumsiness are caused by what we call self-consciousness, and as soon as we entirely forget ourselves these pass away. A girl who writes to me complains that she is so tall for her age that she cannot help being awkward. "The moment I enter a room," she says, "I look about to see if any other girl is as tall as I am, and I am always the tallest—a perfect bean-pole. Then I fancy that everybody is sorry for me, and I cannot fix my attention on anything which is going on. It makes me quite wretched. What shall I do?"
In the first place, my dear, your height, if you carry yourself well and hold your head up, is a great advantage. Far from being a thing to regret, it is something to be glad of.
Tall, or short, fat, and dumpy, or thin and pale, let the young girl never think of this when she meets her friends. Instead, let her try her very best to make the rest happy. If there is a girl in the room who is a stranger, or who seems not to be having a pleasant time, single her out and entertain her. Your hostess will be pleased with this sort of unobtrusive help, if it is kindly given.
A summer or two ago I happened to be paying a visit in a country house where there were a half-dozen young guests. Among them were several lovely girls from the South. I noticed that these girls had each some useful social accomplishment. One played very sweetly, and she was always ready to go to the piano and to play accompaniments for the violinist of the house party, as well as to give us her dreamy nocturnes and slow sonorous marches when we asked for them. Another sang, and she needed no urging when there was a wish to hear songs. Still another played chess, and lent herself to be partner to any one who wished that diversion. It was beautiful to watch the sweet unconscious way in which these girls entertained the rest, never putting themselves forward, but always to be depended on when it was a question of how to pass an evening delightfully.
These are the days of out-door enjoyment, and my girls are playing golf and tennis, and riding their wheels, and spending some portion of every day in healthful exercise. Perhaps some of you like work out-of-doors as well as play, and if there is a garden where you can dig and plant seeds and watch flowers grow, or you have a poultry-yard with chickens and hens, or your talent for the practical leads you to raise vegetables—radishes, pease, and lettuce which grow for you will taste as no common market vegetables can. Keep in the sunshine, girls. Sunshine means brightness and bloom for every one of you.
