The Tupelo journal., 1906-07-06

BY MARGARET Z. SANGSTER.
Copyright, 1906, by Joseph B.. Bowles.)
Speaking of birthdays, do you re-
member how proud you were on the
day when you slipped out OF II n
10? That was a real milestone on the
road, and you felt a good deal taller
and much more important when you
were fairly in the teens than you did
in the first dozen years of your life.
Then, when 16 came and three more
of the wonderful white mile-stones
had been passed, you were again in a
different world. Girlhood has many
phases and changes and is altogether
a most interesting and fascinating pc
Rod both to those who stand by and
watch it, and to those who are in the
midst of it's pleasant time.
l suppose that you have a birthday
book. Every girl should have one, so
that she may keep in mind the birth
days of the deal people at home, OF
teachers, friends, chums and every
body in whom she has some measure
of interest. 1t does not so much mat
q MHuL Tx aI1l VI IhS R&A
birthday book is, but it should have
a sentiment in prose or verse for every
day in the year, and a blank space I'M
der each date, where names of friends
may be written.
Nothing gives more pleasure to a
friend at a distance than to receive
a letter from Bessie or Marjorie on
Al .~-~~ ~ n hsrth1nv a tnttnr
carrying good wishes, a message of
cheer and an assurance of love. If
Wilhelmina in South Dakota on a
ranch, ten miles from a neighbor,
shall have dropped into her lap on
the morning of her fifteenth birthday
a letter from Caroline in Tennessee,
containing a pressed flower, a book
mark, or merely four pages of merry
chat, her heart will glow with new
warmth the live-long day. b will
know that Caroline took trouble for
her and that she went to the post
Office and found out precisely how
many days 1t would take for her let
ter to reac1 it's destination. Caroline,
living in a village with neighbors
close by, could hardly appreciate how
lonely Wilhelmina sometimes felt, but
she had bridged over the space be-
tween by her word in season.
= n
Does there happen to be among your
acquaintance a girl whom everybody
loves, or a girl who has few relatives
and is far from home, or a girl who
is tired and dropping, or still another
shut in by illness and compelled to sit
still by the hour instead of going
about as you do at her own sweet
will? Any one of these girls would
be made extremely happy if her class
mates or her friends should send her a
birthday shower. Suppose you begin
to plan it two or three weeks in ad-
vance of the date. You will then
choose the place where the shower is
to be given. If at the girls own home,
her friends will meet there and take
her by surprise, although they will be
wise if they give a hint beforehand to
her mother or older sister as to their
intention.
Surprises may fall on a household
at an i~nconvenient moment, and 1t is
generally better to take the head of
the family into confidence before pro-
ceeding with them. The girl herself
may be kept very properly in ignor-
ance of the compliment that is to be
paid her. Brides often have showers
of linen or china before their wedding
days, but l see no reason why other
people may not have showers, too.
Yours to your friend who has a birth
day may include plants, photographs,
flowers in bloom, books, bon bons or
anything else that you choose to
bring, and the greater the variety the
more pleasing the occasion will be.
A girl l knew had a birthday show
er given her and years after 1t, look
ing over a box of souvenirs, she found
among other little things that had
been put away, a bit of cardboard with
q Latin motto worked in steel beads
and stitched carefully to a piece of
white satin ribbon. The girl who had
worked it for her. was by that time
on the other side of the globe and they
had not seen or heard from one an
other in a long time, but the motto
with it's quaint message of unchang-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS