Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-10-12
BY MARGARET p. sANGsTER.

not get it. We have tried faithfully t,
 the best of our ability. But we are dis
 appointed. We feel very much as W,
 would if we saw somebody else climb
 ing, without the least trouble, to tn,
 top of a mountain, while we kept slid ing back to the bottom.
 Everybody cannot be equally sue
 cessful, and friend or a classmat,
 often seems to gain without much eff
 fort whatever she wants, while W,
 lose. It is so in many departments O
 life outside of the schoolroom. It i
 not only that another girv wins thu
 gold medal for proficiency, while VI
 have not even mention on the honol
 list; that another always has report'
 enriched with double A, while w
 have only B or c, but there art other failures that try our hearts quit. as much.
 Another girl makes a friendship
 where we have only a slight acquaint
 ance, or goes of on splendid trip tc Europe, while we stay at home with out change of scene. The fact is, if WI choose to disturb ourselves about them
 the small disappointments of life are endless. The great ones, too, occul now and then. It is test of charac ter to meet discouragements bravely and to refuse to be downcast and blue when we fail in an attempt through nc fault of our own. N @
 As I write I am thinking of a girl friend who has had an experience which will show her mettle and dis. close in its later effect the sort of girl she is. Elizabeth is quick and clever girl, who learns without taking much trouble, and who has a reputation in her family circle for extraordinary genius She has always been expected to carry of all the prizes in sight. Her father amuses his friends by the un- conscious vanity which prompts him to boast of Elizabeth's sprightliress, and he is continually repeating her witty speeches and telling any listener whom he can buttonhole the story of her lat est tridmphs. Her mother has less to say, and Is more tactful. but in her quiet, unobtrusive fashion, she is just as proud of her daughter and just as convinced of her superior talents as her good husband is. Both these peo- pie, without meaning 1t, have puffed up Elizabeth from her cradle. with the result that she has come to depend entirely to6 much on her qufckhess and has omitted the hard study which at certain points is indispensable. You may imagine the family consternation and chagrin when Elizabeth failed to pass her senior examinations and was told that she would have to take her last year over If She is finally to bs graduated.
 A year does not look very long to your father and mother, because as people grow older the years seem fair ly to rush along like waves in mill race, but 1t seems tremendous thing to a girl of IF. It looks to her like a long level stretch of eternity If we fail in anything when we are young we are tempted to fancy that we never can make up our loss. That is one reason why young people are blue when they ought to see everything in rose-color. Once we allow ourselves to be discour- aged, we are handicaped. We are very apt in such moods to discourage oth- CTS. If girl in Elizabeth's position happens to be preparing to teach. or has in mind a determination to be an artist, or a journalist, she says to her self, q may as well give 1t up. There is no use in keeping on. I shall never attain what wish.
 Never" is a word one hears on the lips of schoolgirls much oftener than one ought
 Looking over a closet one day ip which a middle-aged woman had packed away many treasures of her came upon a lot of old school books. In one of them found written in very black letters, under. scored, too. on the margin of several pages the word Despair" Have you any idea" I said to the owner of the books, why or when you wrote this word on these pages?
 "oh," she said, with a laugh, When I was 14 had moods. I often used tc think that I had almost reached the place of the world, and fl I failed ia a lesson felt as 1T the dis grace were inscribed upon me in let. ters so large that everybody could see them. l. suppose I scribbled that one day when 1 was blue
 A woman who has been widely known as a successful writer told me that her first work during the first year of her struggle to enter the pro fession was invariably returned. -stor. les. poems, essays" she said, -all eams hurrying back. declined with thanks. and she added. T used literally manJ a time to wet my pillow with tears. Yei the oftener l failed the more deter. mined became not to fail. I woule Just pull myself together and vorh harder next tina"
 In the case of student vho. either Illness or lack of painstskIns pr inability to do her work. misses rear. the delay nay bs c blessing iE : iisguiss. It need not be an irretrisvs Ible loss. One thing you and l should l yuard against is caring too m3rh about l Ehat people say. A hurt to vanity I rounds Ike the thrust of a knife. Ne Irs often @ mortified bec1uss ogf 1 friends think us slov and cozpsrs us Is vs imagine with others uko havs lone better than ve, that re cesss