iple that can't bear being laughed
at, frowned on, and cold-shouldered, is n't worthy of the name."

"I want to be strong-minded in the real sense of the word, but I don't
like to be called so by people who don't understand my meaning; and
I shall be if I try to make the girls think soberly about anything
sensible or philanthropic. They call me old-fashioned now, and I 'd
rather be thought that, though it is n't pleasant, than be set down as
a rampant woman's rights reformer," said Polly, in whose memory many
laughs, and snubs, and sarcasms still lingered, forgiven but not
forgotten.

"This love and thought and care for those weaker, poorer, or worse than
ourselves, which we call Christian charity, is a very old fashion, my
dear. It began eighteen hundred years ago, and only those who honestly
follow the beautiful example set us then, learn how to get genuine
happiness out of life. I 'm not a 'rampant woman's rights reformer,'"
added Miss Mills, with a smile at Polly's sober face; "but I think that
women can do a great deal for each other, if they will only stop fearing
what 'people will think,' and take a hearty interest in whatever is
going to fit their sisters and themselves to deserve and enjoy the
rights God gave them. There are so many ways in which this can be done,
that I wonder they don't see and improve them. I don't ask you to go and
make speeches, only a few have the gift for that, but I do want every
girl and woman to feel this duty, and make any little sacrifice of time
or feeling that may be asked of them, because there is so much to do,
and no one can do it as well as ourselves, if we only think so."

"I 'll try!" said Polly, influenced more by her desire to keep Miss
Mills' good opinion than any love of self-sacrifice for her sex. It was
rather a hard thing to ask of a shy, sensitive girl, and the kind old
lady knew it, for in spite of the gray hair and withered face, her heart
was very young, and her own girlish trials not forgotten. But she
knew also that Polly had more influence over others than she herself
suspected, simply because of her candid, upright nature; and that while
she tried to help others, she was serving herself in a way that would
improve heart and soul more than any mere social success she might gain
by following the rules of fashionable life, which drill the character
out of girls till they are as much alike as pins in a paper, and have
about as much true sense and sentiment in th