BY
MARGARET SLATTERY
The Pilgrim Press
Boston—Chicago
Copyright 1920
By A. W. Fell
THE JORDAN AND MORE PRESS
BOSTON
CONTENTS
- CHAPTER I—THE TEEN PERIOD
- CHAPTER II—THE PHYSICAL SIDE
- CHAPTER III—THE MENTAL SIDE
- CHAPTER IV—THE SPIRITUAL SIDE
- CHAPTER V—THE SOCIAL SIDE
- CHAPTER VI—HER RELATION TO THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL
- CHAPTER VII—HER RELATION TO THE CHURCH
- CHAPTER VIII—HER RELATION TO THE BIBLE
- CHAPTER IX—HER RELATION TO THE EVERYDAY
- CHAPTER X—HER TEACHER
She was a beautiful, well-developed girl of thirteen. Her bright, eagerface, with its changing expression, was a fascination at all times. Itseemed unusually earnest and serious that particular morning as shestood waiting the opportunity to speak to me. She had asked to waituntil the others had gone, and her manner as she hesitated even then tospeak made me ask, “Are you in trouble, Edith?”
“No, not exactly trouble,—I don’t know whether we ought to ask you, butall of us girls think,—well, we wish we could have a mirror in thelocker-room. Couldn’t we? It’s dreadful to go into school withoutknowing how your hair looks or anything!”
I couldn’t help laughing. Her manner was so tragic that the mirrorseemed the most important thing in the educational system just then. Isaid I would see what could be done about it, and felt sure that what“all the girls” wanted could be supplied. She thanked me heartily, andwhen she entered her own room nodded her head in answer to inquiring2glances from the other girls.
As I made a note of the request, I remembered the Edith of a year ormore ago. Edith, whose mother found her a great trial; she didn’t “carehow she looked.” It was true. She wore her hat hanging down over herblack braids, held on by the elastic band around her neck; she lost hairribbons continually, and never seemed to miss them. She was a goodscholar, wide-awake, alert, always ready for the next thing. She lovedto recite, and volunteered information generously. In games she was theleader, and on the playground always the unanimous choice for thecoveted “it” of the game. She was never in the least self-conscious,and, as her mother had said, how she looked never seemed to occur toher.
And now she came asking for a mirror! Her hair ribbons are alwayspresent and her hat securely fastened by hat pins of hammered brass. Shespends a good deal of time in school “arranging” her hair. Sometimesspelling suffers, sometimes algebra. Before standing to recite, shecarefully arranges her belt. Contrary to her previous custom, she rarelyvolunteers, although her scholarship is very good. If unable to give the3correct answer, or when obliged to face the school, she blushespainfully. One day recently, when the class were reading “As You LikeIt,” she sat with a dreamy look upon her sweet face, far, far away fromthe eighth-grade class-room; could not find her place when called uponto read, and, although confused and ashamed, lost it again within tenminutes.
What has happened to Edith, the child of a year ago? She has gone. Thedoor has opened. Edith is thirteen. The door opened slowly, and thosewho knew her best were perhaps least conscious of the changes, sogradual had they been. But a new Edith is here. One by one the chiefcharacteristics of the childhood of