tural normal
life that will satisfy their physical, mental and moral needs; and that
they should realize early that they are to be supplied with the career
that their natures demand, in order that they may not despair before
they have really begun to live.

A conviction dwells in the minds of many Country Girls that the
quietness and freedom from interruptions on the farm form one of the
chief reasons for desiring the rural life. There certainly is truth in
this. The jaded city worker flees to the calm of the country for relief
from people and things. But it is also true that isolation is not a
good in itself and too much of it is directly harmful. We develop not by
it but in spite of it. No man can be a true man, no woman a true woman,
who has not been molded by human companionship. We should "live in the
House by the Side of the Road" and unite our interests with those of
humanity at large. We do not know ourselves except as we know others.
Whether we are above the level of average human capacity, or below it,
or simply different from others, or, what is more usually the case,
different in some things and like in others, we do not know except by
comparison with others. Companionship with others brings us knowledge
of our defects, our omissions, our weaknesses, sometimes of our strength
and power to give and to help.

Therefore, the normal development of the daughter on the farm depends
largely upon having the heavy weight of rural solitariness lifted. She
may not know this herself; but the quickness with which her spirit
responds to the touch of companionship between herself and a friend of
her own age, when fortunate occasion brings her this pleasure, shows
what her need is. It is now said that the young men and the young women
in college give to each other almost as much education as is given to
them by the teachers themselves. In other words the social contact
possible where many young people are brought together has such power to
quicken energy and to incite noble rivalries that it alone becomes one
of the most effective means of education.

This education and opportunity should be within reach of every Country
Girl, and she may herself do a great deal to bring this about. In
endeavoring to do her share in thus developing the social resources of
the country, the Country Girl must, however, work for a time against a
disadvantage. At present the young girl from the country makes the
impression of being less devel