in His arms and blessed 'em, and said of such is the kingdom of
heaven. If the apostles wanted to hunt up one of the kind now, they'd
have to catch it in the cradle. Just think of bringing forward one of
the little things we meet in the avenues here, to be held up as a
monument--all flutings and lace, kid gaiters, pink and blue sashes, long
white feathers, and parasols. Yes, believe it or not, I say parasols
about the size of a poppy. Oh, don't mention it! The whole thing makes
me sick. The children you meet here in York look like little barefooted
scarecrows, or else like motto papers afloat.

But are all the little folks you see painted like a dahlia, and pink as
hollyhocks. You are asking this question in the Society. I know it.
Well, I should rather think not. These whipper-snappers go tipping down
the avenues, and ride with their mothers' lap-dogs in the Park,
a-looking like their own French dolls, and are about as likely to make
men and women.

IV.

MORE ABOUT GIRLS.

Sisters:--My cousin's little girl has just upset me. Remember she is my
own flesh and blood; and genuine honest blood in Vermont is as pure as
the sap in our maple-trees, and ought to keep sweet as the sugar we make
from it, wherever it is found. Being my second cousin in her own right,
I expected to find her a model of what the rising generation ought to
be, and went to that house, exalting myself accordingly. I shall find,
thought I, a genteel, modest, seemly little lady, polite, and cordially
glad to see a relative that wants to love her and exalt her into a
pattern and a monument of female promise. But instead of that, just
read my last report, though it must fall short of giving you any idea
how heavy my heart was, and how my brain burned with disappointment.

_Has_ female modesty died out since you and I came into the world? or
was it burnt over during the war, like the great prairies, where the hot
flames parch up all the sweet green grass and the bright flowers,
killing them root and blossom, snakes likewise? One thing is certain, my
dear sisters in the cause, honesty among men and modesty among women go
hand in hand all over the earth. When women degenerate, it is because
the moral atmosphere which they breathe is tainted and unwholesome.
Something has gone awfully wrong both with the men and women of America
in these latter years. The fraud and demoralization of the thing they
call "shoddy" has settled down upon our social lif