BY L. A. TEREBEL.
When first we moved into this street
My Mamma wouldn't let me meet
The other little girls and boys
Out on the sidewalk with their toys.
She said perhaps some naughty child
Would teach me to be bad and wild;
And so for several weeks I stood
At the window being good.
Until a lady came to see
My Mamma, and she said to me:
"My little boy is good and sweet;
We live near by, across the street."
She told my Mamma I must meet
Her little boy across the street;
And so they sent me out one day
To find that little boy and play.
They said he was so very good
He could not be bad if he would.
I almost thought he must have wings,
And other holy sorts of things.
But when the nurse left us at play,
He said to me: "Let's run away;
I know a pond where, if you please,
We both can wade up to our knees!"
[THE GIRL WHO COMES TO EARN A LIVING IN NEW YORK.]
BY ELIZABETH BISLAND.
To-day in many families of modest means the daughters, as well as the sons, begin, as the school days draw to a close, to consider seriously the question of a career and the best means of earning a living. Every wise girl interests herself not only in the possibilities for success held out by the various professions, but the best method of so ordering her working life that it may result not only in success, but in pleasure and happiness as well. The one does not necessarily imply the other. One may rise in one's profession and earn an excellent income, and yet miss happiness and fail of true success. A wise old lady writing to a young girl of great wealth about to make her début in society, said:
"The really important matter is to succeed. Don't make the mistake of thinking that I mean mere success of fashion, money, and rank—though they are all most desirable and delightful things too. I am speaking of the success of being loved, of being popular, useful, and important. To my mind a woman is a success when she holds such a place in the world that her going out of it, at any age, is a severe loss to many people. There must be many so dependent upon her for love, for help, for advice, for pleasure and amusement, that her death leaves a wide gap and a bitter grief. Thousands of women die every day whose going affects no one deeply, except, perhaps, with a sense of relief, and such women I consider failures, whether they were rich or poor, humble or proud."
This is an excellent piece of advice for the girl about to enter on a life of labor, as well as for one destined for a fashionable career. Let a girl then fix her ambition upon a real all-round success, and be content with nothing less.
The most important thing to settle in the beginning is her way of living, which—while the style of it depends in large measure upon her earnings; or upon the allowance she receives from home while she is preparing herself to earn—is capable of infinite variations between the levels of comfort and discomfort, according to her own skill.