Recently I met a young woman whom I had seen only once and that was twelve
years ago. She came to me after a service and said, "Will you tell Van
Dyke's 'Lump of Clay' to-night? Twelve years ago I heard you tell it. I
was so discouraged at the time, for everything seemed going wrong and life
seemed so useless. But I dropped into a church and heard you tell the
story. You have no idea what it has done for me. I am teaching in the
college near by and I should like to have my girls hear the story. Perhaps
they need it as I did."

Many of the workers with girls have seen this need and have wanted to meet
it and yet have been unable to find the story that was needed by the girl.
It is because of this very need in my own work that I am sending out these
stories, most of which I have told over and over to my girls. Many of them
have been written because of special problems that needed to be
met--problems peculiar to adolescence--problems found in every class and
club of girls the country over.

The stories are not to amuse, for we have no time to amuse girls in the
story hour. We have little enough time, at the best, for implanting ideals
and every story hour should leave a vital message. That is the thing the
girls want and why should we give them less.

The stories are not to be read. They need the personal touch, the
sympathetic voice, the freedom of eye that tells the story-teller which
girls are finding the message of the story. Some of them will hurt--but
experience has shown me that these are the very ones that one has to tell
over and over. Can you imagine the Master reading to the groups gathered
about him the stories that you and I love to read in his word? When you go
into the heart life of a girl, let all your personality help you to carry
the message. It was the Master's way of story-telling.

"'Twas only a little story,
Yet it came like a ray of light;
And it gave to the girl who heard it
Real courage to do the right."

CONTENTS

PAGE
I Would Be True 15
The Appeal to the Great Spirit 22
A Parable of Girlhood 29
The House of Truth 32
Marked for a Mast 39
Her Need 44
The Message of the Mountain 47
The Winning of an Honor 51
Daddy Gray's Test