Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-10-01
The OId.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 could not tell the difference be-
tween them and mammals; and vet she
could fry griddle-cakes at ten years ol
age, 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
doll and little bureau and chair that Uncle
Tom made, were Just as valuable to her
as the twenty dollar wax doll and elegant
doll furniture tho children have now-a-
days.
She never said " can't" and d" | don I
want to" to her mother, when asked to
leave her play, and run up stairs or down
on an errand, because she had not been
brought up in 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 and
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 crimpng pins, or had it
" banged y over her forehead, and her
flounces were no trouble to her.
She learned to sow by making patch
work, and we dare to say she could do an
" over-and-over seam as well rs nine
tenths of the grown up women do nova
days.
The old-fashioned little girl did not
grow into n young lady and talk about
bcauX before she was in her teens, and
she did not read dime novels. and was moi
fancying hero in every plowboy she met
She learned the solid accomplishments
rs she grew up. She was taught tho arts
of cooking and housekeeping. When she
got a husband she knew how to cook him
II dinner.
She was not learned in French verbs or
Latin declensions, and her near neighbors
were spared the agony of hearing her
pound out The Maden's Prayer" and
"Slver Threads Among the Cold" twenty
times day on the piano, but we have nc
doubt she made her family quite as COM
Portable 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 expe.
rience, and no small opportunity for OBJ
servation, that when it comes to keeping
a family happy, n good cook and house
keeper is to be greatly preferred above ar
accomplished scholar. When both sets o
qualities are found together, as they some
times are, then is the household ovel
which such n woman has control blessed.
The old-fashioned little girl was modes
in her demeanor, and she never talked
slang or used by-words. She did not laugl
at old people or make fun of cripples, a
we saw some modern little girls doing tn,
other day. She had respect for elders
and was not above listening to words o
counsel from those older than herself.
She did not think she knew as much a
her mother, and that her judgment was a
good rs her grandmothers
She did not 60 to parties by the time sh
was ten, and stay until after midnigh
playing euchre and dancing with an,
chance young man who happened to b
present.
She went to bed in season and doubles
said her prayers before she went, an
slept the sleep of innocence. and rose u
in the morning happy, and capable c
giving happiness.
And if there be an old-fashioncd It'll
girl in the world to-day, may Heaven bles
her and keep her, and raise up others lik
her.-NeaO York EGansiaoer