The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-11-14
An Old Fashioned Little Girl.

She Aourished thirty or forty years
ago.
She was a little girl till she was
fifteen.
She used to help her mother wash the
dishes and keep kitchen tidy. and shs
had an ambition 10 make pies so nice
that papa could not tell the difference
between them and mammals, and vet she
could fry griddle cakes at ten years of
age, and darn her own stockings before
she was twelve, to say nothing OF knit
ting them herself.
She had her hours of play, and en-
joyed herself to the fullest extent She
had no very costly toys, to be sure, but
her rag doll and the little bureau and
chair that Uncle Tom made, were just rs
valuable to her as the $50 wax doll and
elegant doll furniture children have now
a-days.
She never said II can't" and "I don't
want to-" to her mother, when asked to
leave her play, and run up stairs or down
town on an errand, because she had not
been brought up in that way. Obedi-
ence was a cardinal virtue in the OLD
fashioned little girl.
She rose in the morning when she was
called, and went out into the gardM and
saw the dew on the grass, and if she liv-
ed in the country, she fed the chickens
and hunted up the eggs for breakfast.
We do not suppose she had her hair
in curl-papers, crimping pins, or had it
banged" over her forehead, and her
6ounces were no trouble to her.
She learned to sew by making patch
work, and we dare say she could do all
over and over seam as we'll as nine-tenths
of the grown up women can do nova.
days.
The old-fashioned little girl did not
grow into young lady and talk about
beaux before she was in her teens, and
she did not read dime novels, and was
not fancying a hero in every plow-boy
she met.
She learned the solid accomplishments
as she grew up. She was taught the art
of cooking and housekeeping. When
she got husband she knew how to cook
him dinner.
She was not learned in French verbs
or Latin declensions, and her near neigh
bors were spared the agony of.hearing
her pound out "The Maiden's Prayer"
and "Silver Threads Among the Gold,"
twenty times day on the piano, but we
have no doubt she made her family quite
as comfortable as the modern young
lady does hers.
1t may be vulgar assertion, and We
hot y,Nf of1y nm n fhfa
times, but we honestly believe, and our
opinion is based on considerable expert
ence and no small opportunity for obser-
vation, that when it comes to keeping
family happy, good cook and house
keeper is greatly preferred over an ac-
complshed scholar. When both sets cf
qualities are found together, as they
sometimes are, then is the household
over which such a woman has control
blessed.
The old-fashioned little girl was mod.
est in her demeanor, and she never talked
slang or used by.words. She did not flirr.
She did not laugh at old people or make
fun of cripples, as we saw some modern
little girls doing the other day. She had
respect for her elders, and was not above
listening to words of counsel from those
older than herself.
She did not think she knew as much
as her mother, and that her judgment
was as good as her grandmother's.
She did not 90 to parties by the time
she was ten and stay till after midnight
playing euchre, and dancing with any
chance young man who happened to be
present.
She went to bed in season, and doubt
less said her prayers before she went, and
she slept the sleep of innocence, and
rose up in the morning happy and cap
able of giving happiness.
And if there be an old-fashioned lit.
tie girl in the world to-day, may heaven
bless her and keep her, and raise up
others like her.-Er.