y few of them, even when mature
and hard-working young women, are receiving definite pay for their
service to the household. They are doing a wage-worthy work but they are
not paid for it. Instead the fathers think their duty is done when they
give to the daughters as a benevolence what they, the fathers, think the
daughters should have for their needs and pleasures. Meantime there is a
new thing under the sun, namely, an awakening of the desire for economic
independence in the soul of woman, and the younger women on the farms
are partaking of this spirit. Result, the cityward procession! Some
medieval daughters have not heard of this new spirit, but they will hear
of it and they also will be stirred with a divine discontent.

Many girls gain time and permission to enter into some earning work
outside of the home. The money that they thus gain they generally feel
that they may lay claim to and use it as they think best. At any rate,
the fear that it will not be understood that they do have what they earn
leads them sometimes to emphasize the fact that they do positively
consider what they earn outside of the home as their very own. Public
opinion is ahead of law in this respect. A father who took legal means
to take the earnings of a son under age, was quietly told that the
village would be too small for him hereafter. Perhaps we have not come
to the point where this would invariably happen in the case of a
daughter.

The daughter as she grows up should have a reasonable sum of money to
spend as she likes; this is essential as a matter of education, to
prepare her for the responsibilities that are to be hers as one of the
great body of spenders. She should grow up with a fully trained power to
spend money wisely. And when she becomes mature, if she is strong enough
to do a full-grown woman's work, she should have her self-respect
educated and cultivated by receiving the sum of money that would be her
fair wage if she were not a member of the family. Moreover, a father may
attach his children to himself in a very real and spontaneous service,
if he will allow each child, including the daughters, to be responsible
for some part of the farm business, to own a piece of land or some of
the livestock, and to control the produce thereof. This will be the best
way to train them not only to understand the problems of the farm but to
feel that interest that comes only through possession and
responsibility. The daughter will be a