is concerned
today, the solution of which involves every phase of social, religious
and economic life, is the providing of ways and means by which the
unprivileged girl may, in large numbers, be promoted into the privileged
class.

IV

THE GIRL WHO IS EASILY LED

She is a chameleon sort of girl but she is not rare. So often she is
sweet and lovable. Almost without exception she is obliging, a jolly
companion, fearless and frank. One often finds her a girl of talent and
natural ability. She is the very opposite of the indifferent girl for
she responds to everything. The girl she will finally become depends
upon the companions whose lead she follows. Her safety lies in the
establishment of the habit of going in the right way. She is the girl
who most needs care and guardianship. So much depends upon her choice of
friends that parents and teachers must be wise for her.

A little ten-year-old, in whom all her teachers were interested because
of her versatility and quick response to every interest, moved into a
new neighborhood. Some weeks later because of her ability to learn
rapidly she was put into a higher grade. Her new home and new
classmates in a short time entirely changed the character of her
environment. Before long the girl herself began to show the result of
the change. She had always been too much interested in her studies to
waste time or disobey the school rules. Following the leadership of some
of the newly made friends she entered into all the little conspiracies
of a group of girls and boys who made things hard for the teacher, a
rather weak disciplinarian. One day, the girl hitherto perfectly honest,
told a lie to get out of the trouble into which the following of the new
leaders had brought her. It troubled her conscience and she cried on the
way home from school, but her companions laughed at her, told her she
was "all right," and had stood by them splendidly. They made her feel
heroic and she dried her eyes and stifled her desire to tell her mother.
Before the year was over the child had entirely changed. Her studies
suffered, she seemed to lose her ambition, her naturalness and
spontaneity vanished. Her mother began to discover increasing
untruthfulness. One day, toward the close of the school year, the child
asked to wear her best dress to school, saying there was to be an
entertainment. There was no entertainment. Instead there was a party at
the home of one of the girls of whom her moth