rvice for her. At twenty she is a truthful and truth-loving
girl, she has been able to say "no" to the things which proved the
downfall of brother and sister; she is a useful, self-supporting,
thoroughly respectable member of society and an earnest Christian. She
has been able to lead her younger brother safely past the dangerous
places and is helping him through school. What the church, through its
religious instruction, has been able to do for this girl and many others
it might do in far larger measure were it equipped with a regular
teaching force adequate to its need, if its preachers could come into
real contact with the children and youth of the community and present to
them with power the _thou shalt not_ which shall give them at least an
opportunity to strive to obey.

If the girl herself is reading this chapter I know she will agree with
me when I say that a girl respects and honors in her heart the teacher
who presents to her, fearlessly and honestly, the things which she
believes a girl cannot do with safety, which lead into dangerous places
and which make it hard for her to keep pure, true, unselfish in thought
and deed; and she respects even more highly the teacher who can give
her broad sane reasons for finding substitutes for these things. She
may, as she grows older, come to the conclusion that her teacher was
mistaken but she respects her for her honest effort to help.

In every girl's creed there must be some negative. The _law_ says you
must and you must not. As she reads this page perhaps some girl will
stop for a moment and write out the things to which she believes a girl
should say "no." Here is such a list, written in the form of a creed by
a girl when a sophomore at college.

"I believe that a girl should not indulge in amusements which make her
nervous and excited, give her a headache, make it hard for her to study,
cost her a good deal of money and crowd out all thoughts of duty and
which make her feel envious and jealous of those who are more popular or
fortunate than she, and sometimes make her think things she hates to
remember.

I believe that a girl should _never_ repeat what she has heard about
another person if it could in any way injure that person's character.

I believe that she should not lie even by looks or by silence. I
believe that she should never deceive another, never make fun of the
weaknesses or misfortunes of other people and never treat another girl
as she would not