A String of Amber Beads | Page 2

stream and out of danger. A
flirtation to-day is a ripple merely, but to-morrow it will be a breaker,
and then a whirlpool, and after that comes hopeless loss of character.
Girls, I have seen you gather up your roses from their vases at night and
fold them away in damp paper to protect their loveliness for another
day. I have seen you pluck the jewels like sun sparkles from your
fingers and your ears, and lay them in velvet caskets which you locked
with a silver key for safe beeping. You do all this for flowers which a
thousand suns shall duplicate in beauty, and for jewels for which a
handful of dollars can reimburse your loss; but you are infinitely
careless with the delicate rose of maidenliness, which, once faded, no
summer shining can ever woo back to freshness, and with the unsullied
jewel of personal reputation which all the wealth of kings can never
buy back again, once lost. See to it that you preserve that modesty and

womanliness without which the prettiest girl in the world is no better
than a bit of scentless lawn in a milliner's window, as compared to the
white rose in the garden, around which the honey bees gather. See to it
that you lock up the unsullied splendor of the jewel of your reputation
as carefully as you do your diamonds, and carry the key within your
heart of hearts.

II.
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE."
I received a letter the other day in which the writer said: "Amber, I
want to come to the city and earn my living. What chance have I?" And
I felt like posting back an immediate answer and saying: "Stay where
you are." I didn't do it, though, for I knew it would be useless. The
child is bound to come, and come she will. And she will drift into a
third-rate Chicago boarding-house, than which if there is anything
meaner--let us pray! And if she is pretty she will have to carry herself
like snow on high hills to avoid contamination. If she is confiding and
innocent the fate of that highly persecuted heroine of old-fashioned
romance, Clarissa Harlowe, is before her. If she is homely the doors of
opportunity are firmly closed against her. If she is smart she will
perhaps succeed in earning enough money to pay her board bill and
have sufficient left over to indulge in the maddening extravagance of an
occasional paper of pins or a ball of tape! What if, after hard labor, and
repeated failure, she does secure something like success? No sooner
will she do so, than up will step some dapper youth who will beckon
her over the border into the land where troubles just begin. She won't
know how to sew, or bake, or make good coffee, for such arts are liable
to be overlooked when a girl makes a career for herself, and so love
will gallop away over the hills like a riderless steed, and happiness will
flare like a light in a windy night. Oh, no, my little country maid, stay
where you are, if you have a home and friends. Be content with fishing
for trout in the brook rather than cruising a stormy sea for whales. A
great city is a cruel place for young lives. It takes them as the cider
press takes juicy apples, sun-kissed and flavored with the breath of the

hills, and crushes them into pulp. There is a spoonful of juice for each
apple, but cider is cheap!

III.
A COWARDLY MATE.
I know a wife who is waiting, safe and sound in her father's home, for
her young husband to earn the money single handed to make a home
worthy of her acceptance. She makes me think of the first mate of a
ship who should stay on shore until the captain tested the ability of his
vessel to weather the storm. Back to your ship, you cowardly one! If
the boat goes down, go down with it, but do not count yourself worthy
of any fair weather you did not help to gain! A woman who will do all
she can to win a man's love merely for the profit his purse is going to
be to her, and will desert him when the cash runs low, is a bad woman
and carries a bad heart in her bosom. Why, you are never really wedded
until you have had dark days together. What earthly purpose would a
cable serve that never was tested by a weight? Of what use is the tie
that binds wedded hearts together if like a filament of floss it parts
when the strain is brought to bear upon it? It is not when you are young,
my