actual
experiment the value of her labor in the commercial rating of the
community. It is only by trying that she can thus standardize her labor.
If she offers cabbage plants from her growing patch, honey from her
bee-colonies, wild fruit that she has gathered from God's free gardens,
if she takes boarders, weaves hair, embroiders, or mends, if she takes
advantage of postal service and builds up a business in fine
lace-laundering, or silk and lingerie waist cleansing, whatever she
takes in hand, she is not only earning a little money, but she has
gained skill in manipulation, developed taste, compelled herself to seek
excellence, and strengthened her character by putting her work--and that
means herself--to the test of comparison with the work of others to
stand or fall by the decision. If she has failed in this test, she has
the chance to try harder and gain more character in further struggle.

All this should be looked upon as a part of the girl's training for
life. When parents have presented to the human family a highly developed
and trained young woman as their contribution, they should expect her to
desire to be a worker and to take up some form of activity as the
beginning, in turn, of her personal contribution. Professor Nearing says
that every girl should occupy the years between the latest school days
and her marriage in some wage-earning pursuit. There should be two or
three years there that she could spend in this part of her education.
She should thus learn business law, the stringency of markets, the
balance of purchase and sale, the interchange of commercial motive, and
the art of salesmanship. Here will be a great field of training for her,
and every part of it will be useful to her when she enters upon the
duties of her own house and home.

The best way for any girl to start upon this means of discipline, is to
think over what she can already do well. What have you been praised for
doing? Take that and try to do it still better. What you best like to do
will be the easiest to start with. Do this so well that people will
desire the product. People buy what they think is most excellent:
therefore make something so excellent that people will want to buy it.
And remember this principle: the _appearance_ of anything offered for
sale has a great deal to do with whether people will take a liking to it
or not. Do up all things nicely; make all packages neat and shipshape;
use color if possible; have the box a