The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-31
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: FROM GIRLHoOD :
! TO MOTHERHOOD !
By Mary Lowe Dickinson.
PAPER NO. 4.
Comradeship-The Big Brother Stage
The Little Brother Stage-The
Other Girl-The Other Girls
Brother.
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! Stage" in girls desire for compan
ionship; but those of us who have livec
through all the stages know better. i
begins very early with most of us.
have known it to start as early as the
mud-pie period, before the little lac
had discovered that making mud pies
was not only a feminine but a menia
occupation, and when his chubby little
hands stirred and battered his gritty
pastry as contentedly as later he broils
the trout in his fishing camp. AT this
stage, right down there in the sand
his little sister gets as close to him as
she possibly can with her little shovel
and makes her own pie exactly like
J his if she can.
remember little girl who content
edly played at housekeeping in a cor
ner of the garden with a xeighbor OF
her own sex and age until a pair Of
knickerbockers inclosing small
brother swooped down upon their ar
ray of broken china, and declared il
no good, and announced his purpose
TO build store in the other corner OF
the garden and stock it with everything
that truly, truly housekeepers could
need"
Then the little neighbor was deserted
and the sister flew to help him to
ever could be begged borrowed or
cOaXed from the house to set him UP
in business" She even cut up the
robes of her paper dolls into bright
colored pieces of money, and found her
chief delight in stripping her own
playhouse that his stock might be en-
larged.
Of course she became his only pur-
chaser, multiplying visits to prolong
in H. -
back every one of her donations, pay
ing him in money which she had her
self supplied. Nor was this all. When
the treasures were loaded into the lad S
little wheel barrow, and he explained
TO her that no 'first-class' stoSekeeper
but had a horse she consented to be
harnessed between the shafts, to give
him the added pleasure of cracking
his whip behind her while she ratified
over the gravel walk to her own cor
ner of the garden. Once there, she
could play she was the mother" and
refurnish her little house But on the
way she must be the horse, and not
because in Der little brain there was
not dim consciousness of the one
sldedness of her giving away her play
things, and then paying to redeem
them, and then dragging them home
herself, but because if she had de-
DIOInGl
would refuse to play. And even at
that age, to play an hour with him
was worth all day with half a dozen
girls.
This instance is only one of the be-
ginnings, but from these beginnings
the thing goes with US all the way.
Nobody knows, least of all the big
brother, how much the younger sister
enjoys the sharing of his life or how
hn lnEac
granted that she isn't strong enough
or brave enough for comradeship She
may not care to go hunting and fish
ing with him, because--Weak or not
1t takes some time for the average
girl to enjoy wounded bird or a
gasping, writhing fish
But II the comradeship means row.
ing, the bicycle, a good walk in field
or forest, or that best of all sports.
the bounding along the countrv roads
on the back Of a good horse, to say
nothing of tennis and golf, then the
average Wide-aWake and alive girl is
ready for it with all her heart. and
not only ready for it. but good at it.
and able to make any one or all Of
these sports a jOllier and brighter
thing than it could possibly be with
out her. Her love for these is, in a
sense, a part of what we have called
the big brother stage, - for usually she
learns to enjoy these first with him. In
them all he is her natural cavalier
and through them she comes to a bet
ter comradeship with him in other
phases of his life. In all these outward
things he captures her admiration for
his courage, his gallantry, his dash
and daring. The manliness of his char
acter appeals strongly to her whenever
he appears before her in an aspect
that would claim the admira ton of
others. He can tyrannize over her just
in proportion as he seems lovely and
lovable to her, and perhaps that doesn't
since her own time is not sc,
very far off.
The best preparation, therefore, for a
full grown, big brother stage as life
is this out-of-doOr comrade-
ship of the childhood and the very
early youth.
After experiences like this it is no
marvel that the young girl follows her
brother through college, with a belief
in his greatness and an admiration for
his achievements, whether in scholar
ship or athletics. Of all the fellows
there, it is easy to believe her big
brother to be the best fellow in his
class and the best in his college. She
for his vacation time. More
and more the question of what brother
will say and think with reference to
herself influences and holds her. When
he comes home not even his mother is
as proud of him as this younger sister,
who takes for granted that he has
learned already, in his freshman year,
as much as any man ever need to
know. She crowns him with big
bright halo of her own, which, it goes
without saying, is generally an awful
misft.
Ordinarily our young man doesn't
realize just how his sister regards him,
but now and then they have sense
enough to recognize that they are get
ting a whole-hearted admiration and
loyal following such as in later years
they would be very glad to be able to
inspire. The young fellow who doesn't
find this out loses one of the greatest
chances of his life for making of this
ldmiring younger sister a Stanch and
faithful friend.
And the same kind of a heart in a
young girl that reaches 10 with a
warmth of reverent appreciation to the !
pig brother, reaches down with an al
most motherly, protectiveness to the |
little fellow who adores her in his turn. |
She is like his mother only she is |
lrettier.
There are a good many times when
he small boy, especially the unmiti
gated small boy, is a bore. He has
IN inconvenient habit of being where |
lie isn't wanted, and of staying just |
when you wish he would go and of /
lever being anywhere when you hunt
or him. When you feel as if you
wanted to show your friends how love-
Y he is, he appears soiled from his
,lay and gunmy from his sweetmeats.
from him the unexpected may invari-
IDLY be expected. 1t is the young mas
uline creature attempting TO adjust