class="sidenote">One of the most massive and enduring gratifications is the feeling of personal worth, ever afresh, brought into consciousness by effectual action; and an idle life is balked of its hopes partly because it lacks this.—Herbert Spencer. In the same spirit the great French savant, Emile Zola, penned these words: "Let each one accept his task, a task which should fill his life. It may be very humble; it will not be the less useful. Never mind what it is, so long as it exists and keeps you erect! When you have regulated it, without excess—just the quantity you are able to accomplish each day—it will cause you to live in health and in joy."

Truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out.—Tillotson. Some wise observer has said that one of the chief aims of life should be to learn how to grow old gracefully. This knowledge is deemed by many to be a great secret and a most valuable one. Yet it can hardly be called a secret since every girl and boy as well as every person He that is choice of his time will be choice of his company and choice of his actions.—Jeremy Taylor. of maturer years must know that it is but the working out of the laws of cause and effect. When character-building is begun on the right lines and those lines are followed to the end the result is as certain as it is beautiful. When we see a grandmother whose life has been lived on the happy plane of pure thoughts and kind deeds we ought not to wonder that her old age is as exquisite as was the perfect bloom of her youth. We need not marvel how it has come about that her life has been a long and happy one. Here is the "secret:"

She knew how to forget disagreeable things.

She kept her nerves well in hand and inflicted them on no one.

She mastered the art of saying pleasant things.

Our character is our will; for what we will we are.—Archbishop Manning. She did not expect too much from her friends.

She made whatever work came to her congenial.

She retained her faith in others and did not believe all the world wicked and unkind.

He overcomes a stout enemy that overcomes his own anger.—Chilo. She relieved the miserable and sympathized with the sorrowful.

She never forgot that kind words and a smile cost nothing, but are priceless treasures to the discouraged.

Good company and good conversation are the sinews of virtue.—Stephen Allen. She did unto others as she would be done by, and now that old age has come to her, and there is a halo of white hair about her brow, she is loved and considered. This is the "secret" of a long life and a happy one.

If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency. Nothing is denied to well directed labor; nothing is to be obtained without it.—Joshua Reynolds. Fortunate is the girl who is permitted to dwell within the living presence of such a matron and to be directed by her into the paths of usefulness and sunshine. And thrice fortunate is every girl who has for her guide and counselor a loving mother to whom she can go for light and wisdom with which to meet all the problems of life.

"Mother knows." Her earnest, loving words are to be cherished above all others as many men and many women have learned after the long miles and If you are doing any real good you cannot escape the reward of your service.—Patrick Flynn. the busy years have crept between them and "the old folks at home." Do not, O Girl! I pray you, ever grow impatient, as boys sometimes do, to be set beyond the protecting care of

MOTHER’S APRON-STRINGS

Simplicity and plainness are the soul of elegance.—Dickens. When I was but a careless youth,
    I thought the truly great
Were those who had attained, in truth,
    To man’s mature estate.
And none my soul so sadly tried
    Or spoke such bitter things
As he who said that I was tied
    To mother’s apron-strings.

I loved my mother, yet it seemed
    That I must break away
And find the broader world I dreamed
    Beyond her presence lay.
But I have sighed and I have cried
    O’er all the cruel stings
I would have missed had I been tied
    To mother’s apron-strings.

Happiness is one of the virtues which the people of all nationalities and every pursuit appreciate.—Joe Mitchell Chapple. O happy, trustful girls and boys!
    The mother’s way is best.
She leads you ’mid the fairest joys,
    Through paths of peace and rest.
If you would have the safest guide,
    And drink from sweetest springs,
Oh, keep your hearts forever tied
    To mother’s apron-strings.

QUEEN VICTORIA

CHAPTER II
ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Only to the pure and the true does Nature resign herself and reveal her secrets.—Goethe. I am sure that every girl wishes to become accomplished, and I am quite as certain that every girl can become so if she will.

My dictionary defines an accomplishment as an "acquirement or attainment that tends to perfect or equip in character, manners, or person."

Every man carries with him the world in which he must live, the stage and the scenery for his own play.— F. Marion Crawford. Surely every girl can do something, or has acquired some special line of knowledge, that is covered by this broad definition.

It means that every girl who can sweep a room; read French or German The best is yet unwritten, for we grow from more to more.—Sam Walter Foss. or English as it should be read; bake a loaf of bread; play tennis; darn a stocking; play the violin or pianoforte; give the names of flowers and birds and butterflies; write a neat, well-composed letter, either in longhand or shorthand; draw or paint pictures; make a bed or Notwithstanding a faculty be born with us, there are several methods for cultivating and improving it.—Addison. do one or more of a thousand and one other things is accomplished. The more things she can do and the greater the number of subjects on which she is informed, the more highly is she accomplished.

It is understood, as a matter of course, that thoroughness in one’s accomplishments is the true measure of his worth. One who knows a few subjects very well is no doubt more accomplished than one who has only a superficial "smatter" of knowledge concerning many.

Every truth in the universe makes a close joint with every other truth.—Melvin L. Severy. We can