d take a boat
ride. You were foolish.' And I said, 'I don't want to walk with young
men, especially if I don't know them.' And she laughed and said, 'O,
you'll get over that when you're older and learn what fun it is. My,
he's a gentleman! See how nice he dressed and what pretty teeth he had
and what nice words he used.' Now, I thought maybe I was silly, but
after what you have told me to-day, I think she is going in dangerous
places and maybe don't know it. I am so glad you told me."

"Yes, poor child! It was just so that Edith began. She met a handsome
young man. She thought him a gentleman because he dressed fine. She let
him hold her hand, then put his arm around her and kiss her, and so,
little by little, he led her on, and she thought it was all so
nice,--and now she is friendless and in great trouble."

"Mother, it makes me think of a little girl I saw at the seaside last
summer. She was dancing on the edge of the waves. They came up and
washed over her little pink toes and she laughed with delight. After a
time the tide rose a little higher and the waves dashed over her feet
and still she thought it fun; and then came one big wave and threw her
down and carried her out to sea, and if there hadn't been some sailors
right there with a boat she would have been drowned,--and all the time
she thought it fun till the last wave came, and then she was frightened
awfully."

"Your illustration is a very good one, my daughter, and I fear that poor
Belle is dancing in the gentle foam of a wave that will grow in power
till it carries her out to sea, a lost girl."

"Mother, I really don't see how a girl can let a man become so familiar
with her. I should think it would disgust her at once; and yet Edith
seemed like a perfect lady."

"No doubt you will understand this puzzling matter better after a few
years than you do now, but I can explain it to you partly. It is a part
of human nature that men and women are very attractive to each other,
and in a way that does not exist between men and men or women and women.
It may be called a sort of personal magnetism. As they begin to develop
into men and women, they begin to feel this new attraction. They want to
please each other. New feelings and emotions are felt. If their hands
touch, they feel a sort of electric thrill, even the glance of the eye
may cause the same thrill. They enjoy it, and they do not know what it
means. They do not know that, while it is pleasant, it is a