Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-09-15
NO. 222.
Mistellaneous.
THE OLD.FASHIONED GIRL.

| She flourished thirty or forty years ago.
She was little girl until she was fifteen.
She used to help her mother wash the
dishes and keep the kitchen tidy. and she
had an ambition to make pies so nicely
that papa conld not tell the difference be-
tween them and mama's; and yet she
could frv griddle-cakes at ten years ofage
and darn her own stockings before she
was twelve, to say nothing Of knitting
them herself.
She had her hours of play. and enjoyed
herself to the fullest extent. She had no
very costly TOYS, to be sure, but her rag
baby and little bureau and chair that Un-
Gle Tom made were Just as valuable 10
her as the $40 wax doll and elegant doll
furniture the children have nowadays.
She never said Il can't and II don't
want to- to her mother, when asked 10
leave her play and run up stairs or down
on an errand because she had not been
brought up i'm that way. Obedience was
cardinal virtue in the old-fashioned little
girl.
She rose in the morning when she was
called and went out into the garden ana
saw the dew on the grass, and If she lived
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. or crimping pins, or had II
banged" over her forehead, and her
flounces were no trouble to her.
She learned to sew by making patch
work, and we dare say she could do an
..over-and-over" seam as well as nine.
tenIhs of the grOwn-up women do now-a-
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 fan
ewing hero in every plowboy she met
She learned the solid accomplishments
as she grew up. She was taught the arts
of cooking and housekeeping. When she
got husband she knew how to cook him
dinner.
She was not learned i'm Fernch verbs, or
Latin declensions. and her near neigh
bOrs were spared the agony of hearing
her pound out 1.-The Maiden's Prayer"
and "Silver Threads Among the Cold
twenty times day on the piano, but have
no doubt she made her family quite as
comfortable as the modern young lady
does hers.
1t may be vulgar assertion, and we
suppose that we are not exactly up with
the times, but we honestly believe, and
our opinion is based on considerable ex-
perience, and no small opportunity for OBJ
servati0n, that when it comes to keeping
a family happy. a good cook and house,
keeper is to be greatly preferred above
an accomplished scholar. When both
sets of qualities are found together. as
they sometimes are. then is the household
ever which such woman has control
blessed.
The od-fashioned little girl was modest
in her demeanor, and she never talked
slang or used by-words. She did not
laugh at old people or make fun of Grip
pies, as we saw some modern little girls
doing the other day. She had respect for
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 Judgement was
as good as her grandmothers.
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
slept the sleep of innocence. and rose up
in the morning happy and capable OF Civ
ing happiness.
And if there be an old fashioned little
girl in the world to-day, may heaven bless
her and keep her. and raise up others like
hor-N Y Eru,1inay