Attend the numerous lectures,
exhibits, etc., which are provided free of expense in all large cities.
Do not be afraid of useful fancy work. One can rest delightfully while
making a row on an afghan, or knitting on a bed slipper. I always pity
a boy who never seems to have any way of occupying himself while he
rests. He whistles, puffs a cigarette, perhaps, or whittles away the
window-seat. Girls have no need of being lazy while they rest. They
certainly will not sit in lawless indifference if they know the blueness
of discontent. Cheerful people are workers; and, when they find any
tendency to go "mooning" over their tasks, they shake themselves into
broad daylight.
I have suggested but a few of the things girls can do with greatest
profit to themselves and to others. Form reading associations, hygiene
societies, relief clubs, emergency clubs, horticultural unions, charity
bureaus, science clubs, painting clubs. Why are they not just as
entertaining as progressive euchre clubs? You know a girl never does
as well when no incentive is placed before her; so I have hinted at
the value of organization for general improvement, for work, and for
larger usefulness in every sense. The modern sewing-circle, the
missionary associations, even the temperance organizations in churches,
have frequently been most efficient means of holding churches together.
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