Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-10-12
How to Make New Acquaintance.
BY REV. K K. HALE.

There is good deal of the life Of boys
and girls which passes when they are with
other boys and girls, and involves some
difficulties, with great many pleasures
all its own.
1t ia generally taken for granted that If
the young people are by themselves all
will go we'll. And if you boys and girls
did but know it, msny very compliments
ny things are said about you In this very
matter. "Children do understand escn
other so we'll" Children get along 80
well with each other" ~ feel quite re-
lieved when the children find compan.
ions" This sort of thing is said behind
the children's back, at the very moment
when the same children, quite rangers to
each other, are wishing that they were at
home themselves, or, al least, that these
sudden new companions were.
There is a well studied picture of this
mixed up life OF boys and girls with other
boys and girls who are quite strangers TO
them, in the end of Miss Edgeworth's
"Sequel to Frank" a book which cannot
get the young people to read as much as ]
wish they would.
OF course, in the first place, you are to
do as you would be done by. But when
volved. For a minute you do not know
how you would be done by; or, if you
| do know, you know simply that
you would like to be let off from the
company of these new-found friends
If did as would be done by" said
| Clara, g should turn round and walk to
the other end of the piazza, and / should
leave the whole party of these strange
girls alone. | was having q good time
without them, and dare say they would
have better time without me. But papa
brought me to them, and said that their
father was in college with him, and that
he wanted that we should know each
| other. So could not do in that case ex-
actly as i would be- done by, without dis
pleasing papa-and that would not be do
| ing TO him at all as | would be done by"
The English Of all that is, my dear
Clara, that in that particular ex gency on
the piazza, at Newbury, you had a nice
book, and You would have been glad TO
have been left alone; nay, at the bottom
OF your heart would be glad to be left
alone good deal Of your life. But you
do not wish TO be left alone all your life.
And if your father had taken you to Old
| Point Comfort for a month, instead of
| NeWbury, and you were as much strang
er there as this shy Lucy Pcrcival is to
our Northern waysat NewbuTy, you would
be very much obliged to any nice Vir.
| ginian girl who swa lowed down her dis.
like Of Yankees in general, and come and
| welcomed you as prettily as you did the
| Perciyals when your father brought you
| TO them. The doing as you would be done
by requires study OF all the conditions
not Of the mere outside accident Of the
moment.
The direction Familiarity given is, that
We should meet strangers half way. But
| do not find that this wholly answers
These strangers may be represented by
globules Of quic ,silvr, or, indeed, Of
water, on marble table.
Suppose you pour out two little glo-
bulcs of quicksilver at each Of two points,
:. . like these two. Suppose you make
the glooules just so large that they meet
halt way, thus, 90. At these points
where they touch they only touch. 1t
even seems as If they were little
repulsive, so that they they shrink away
from each other.
Blu ii you will enlarge one of the drops
never so little, that 1t EhAlt meet the other
very little beyond half way, why the
two will gladly ran together into one, and
parted.
That is the rule for meeting strangers.
Met them little bit more than half way
You will fad in life that the people who
do this are the cheerful people and happy,
who get the most out Of society, and, In
deed are everywhere praised aud loved.
"But I am sure do not know what to
say 10 them" says Robert, who, with
good deal Of difficulty, has been made TO
read this paper thus far.
My dear Bob, lave ! said that you must
talk TO them ] know you pretended you
could not talk To people, though yester-
day, when ! was trying 10 get my nap in
the hammock, | certainly heard good
deal Of rattle from somebody who was fig
ing his boat with Glenn Waters In the
wood house. But have never supposed
that you were 10 sit in agreeable converse
ton about the weather, or the onera, with
these strange boys and girls Nobody but
prigs would do that, and am glad to say
you are not prig. But If you were turned
ia ON two or three boys, as Clara was on
the Percval girls, a good thing to say
would be-
"Would you like to go In swimmings'
or, How would you like TO see us clt an
our fishl' or, II am going up To set
snares Tor rabbits; how would you like to
GO"
Give them piece Of yourself. That is
what mean by meeting them more than
half way. Frankly, honorably, without
reserve-which Is to say, like gentle
man: share with these strangers some
part of your own life which makes you
happy.
Clara, there, will do the same thing.
She will take these girls to ride, or she
will teach them how to play "copack," or
she will tell them about her play Of the
Sleeping b 9auty, and enlist some of them
to take parts. This liz what / mean by
meeting people more than half way
Youths Companion.