We wait for the rose to open;
but if we allow the atmosphere to become impure, or otherwise prevent
its development, its life will stagnate, it will refuse to give out
odor, and the world will lose that beauty it might have enjoyed.
Susceptible as girls are, vigorous, affectionate, cheerful and aspiring,
if they are deprived suddenly of good influence and encouragement,
the very conditions of their growth will be removed, and they, like
the rose, will shut their lives within their lives.
There is no time in a girl's life so neglected, and yet so dependent
upon sympathy, as that when she is first thrown upon her own efforts.
Too old to be any longer led, she is not old enough to be left without
guidance. This time usually comes when she has finished the ordinary
school course and finds herself, all at once, waiting, either for an
entrance into what is called society, or for an opportunity to earn
her living.
There is a certain lightness of heart, carelessness, _abandon_,
maybe, about girls while they are still in school, which is both
delightful and natural, however provoking to teachers. Every thing
is very bright now; and if the girl learns her lessons, is obedient,
and tries to think, she believes that somehow things will all come
around right with time. All at once she is confounded. She awakes in
the morning, and finds that school does not keep to-day,--no, nor
to-morrow! What is to be done? Going and coming, which get to be more
going and coming; dish-washing, which daily increases into dish-washing;
or _ennui_, which degenerates into melancholy, ensue.
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