Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-01
FRIENDSHIPS OF
THE SCHOOL GIRL
By MARGARET e. sANGsTER.

(Copyright, 1905, by Joseph u. EoNtee5
HOOsING' partners" sounds as IL
~ we were going to play a game,
and, In fact. that is just what we
are doing every day of our lives, whether
we are in school or at home. busy or idle.
happy or sorrowful, we are always playing
the great game that begins when we are
babies and goes on TIL we are grandmoth-
ers.
1t IS very funny, isn't It, to think Of ever
being a grandmother when one is only four
teen or fifteen, or may be younger? But
have been looking at the picture Of girl
who Is q grandmother, picture taken
when she was school girl. with dancing
eyes and coal black hair and merry dtn1ples,
when she was as gay and lisht-nearted as
any OF you She wore a yellow silk frock
and a black silk apron with pockets and
ruf,es, a ruff1ed silk mantila over her
shoulders and she had a little bonnet tied
under her chin It was a droll way or
dressing but 1t was the fashion then, ana
it loked as pretty as your fashions 90 now
It Is always the face that matters most
and fashions have little to do with the
looks of sweet girls. This GIL has never
lost her beauty nor her trick OF smllng
with dinples that chase one another over
her face, and she is bewitching grand
mother and fairy godmother to a beVy OF
young people.
Choosing partners Is what 7 thought Of
when 1 looked at her, for she was one tnat
every body wanted to choose. She had her
chums and her comrades, and generally
there was one a wee bit dearer than the
others.
On the day that school opens there may
be sixty girls in a class, and they may be
total strangers one to another. But very
soon they will drift into groups ana INTO
circles of threes and fours and finally you
will see them walking home together or
e.fr al the playground or the
campus two and two. Nothing Is so unlnt-
ural in school girl as TO have no friends
Our friendships mean great deal TO US
when we are growing up, great deal more
than older people dream.
TO share ones desk or ones room with
dsagreeabie girl, or with girl VINO Is
not in sympathy with one. Is a real misery.
The next worst thing Is to have chum
forced on one against her will. Occasion
ally a teacher insists on putting together
two girls who belong apart. The result
IL seldom blissful. Once In awhile mother
makes the mistake of harping on the grace
and the amiahiity and the cleyerness of
Maude or Mabel to Mary and Jane, who
very probably wish nothing to do with
either of the paragons There Is no surer
way of antagonizing a girl and setting her
against somebody else than the way of con-
tinually praising the somebody and show
ing off her good qualities at the expense OF
the other.
l remember two girls who ought to have
been the best of friends, but who were
driven into q condition very much like en-
nifty because the one was forever held up
to the other as a bright and shining ex-
ample.
II
we have to choose our partners on the
road. We do 1t in the school room. we do
1t In the playground. we do 1t everywhere.
Our partners and chums are the ones who
best suit US. They do not misunderstood
us We do not have to talk with them all
the time, or entertain them. or make any
particular effort to be pleasing when in
their society. They and we may sit In ST.
lence for hours and yet have a very good
time.
Our friends are our best helpers. They
may not always like the same studies and
the same recreations, but there Is one thing
in which they do not differ from ourselves