It is a duty on our part to seek
and to keep friends, and no occupation should be so absolutely
engrossing as to prevent the performance of this duty.
XI.
YOUTHS AND MAIDENS.
I have discovered an incompleteness, girls, in my talk with you about
your friends, and I feel very depressing qualms of conscience on account
of my discovery. Why, I haven't said one word about the friendships
of boys and girls. Do pardon me! There really is an excuse. The fact
is,--shall I speak it right out loud? No, it might be too dreadful.
Come close, girls, and I will whisper it in your ears,--I am an old
maid! Isn't that deplorable? I have lost one-half the pleasure there
is in friendship, and, perhaps, you think, all there is in love. Yes,
'tis true: I am one of the superfluous sixty thousand women who are
usurping the population in a small state. I had better go to the far
West, and settle in the gold diggings, hadn't I?
So, girls, you do not suppose that, in a condition of such positive
ignorance, I am able to talk with you about the boys? Well, I will
be very discreet, and only suppose, gently suppose, that such a thing
as friendship exists among boys and girls. But if I should venture
on the subject of marriage, which, I am told, often ensues from
something akin to friendship, you will please pardon me, and remember
that, if I am too old to be talking about it, you are too young to be
listening.
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