Hold Up Your Heads, Girls!

Hold Up Your Heads, Girls!
(Helps for Girls, In School and
Out.)

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Title: Hold Up Your Heads, Girls!
Author: Annie H. Ryder
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HOLD UP YOUR HEADS, GIRLS!
HELPS FOR GIRLS, IN SCHOOL AND OUT.
BY ANNIE H RYDER.
"'Handsome is that handsome does,--hold up your heads, girls!' was the
language of Primrose in the play when addressing her daughters."
WHITTIER

COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY D. LOTHROP & Co.

To My Girls Everywhere.

CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION I. HOW TO TALK II. HOW TO GET
ACQUAINTED WITH NATURE III. HOW TO MAKE THE MOST
OF WORK IV. WHAT CAN I DO? V. WHAT TO STUDY VI.
ENGLISH LITERATURE AND OTHER STUDIES VII. THE
COMMONPLACE VIII. MOODS IX. WOMANLINESS X. GIRLS
AND THEIR FRIENDS XI. YOUTHS AND MAIDENS

HOLD UP YOUR HEADS, GIRLS!
INTRODUCTION.
When we make an object with our hands, we frequently notice that the
most care is needed as we near its completion. A false stroke of the

brush will change an angel into a demon, a misguided blow of the
mallet will shiver the statue into fragments: so, in the work which
attempts to form a noble womanhood, all the efforts of years of training
will be marred or rendered ineffectual, if the right influence, proper
occupation, and wholesome encouragement are not given to a girl in
the period which borders on womanhood. We wait for the rose to open;
but if we allow the atmosphere to become impure, or otherwise prevent
its development, its life will stagnate, it will refuse to give out odor,
and the world will lose that beauty it might have enjoyed.
Susceptible as girls are, vigorous, affectionate, cheerful and aspiring, if
they are deprived suddenly of good influence and encouragement, the
very conditions of their growth will be removed, and they, like the rose,
will shut their lives within their lives.
There is no time in a girl's life so neglected, and yet so dependent upon
sympathy, as that when she is first thrown upon her own efforts. Too
old to be any longer led, she is not old enough to be left without
guidance. This time usually comes when she has finished the ordinary
school course and finds herself, all at once, waiting, either for an
entrance into what is called society, or for an opportunity to earn her
living.
There is a certain lightness of heart, carelessness, _abandon_, maybe,
about girls while they are still in school, which is both delightful and
natural, however provoking to teachers. Every thing is very bright now;
and if the girl learns her lessons, is obedient, and tries to think, she
believes that somehow things will all come around right with time. All
at once she is confounded. She awakes in the morning, and finds that
school does not keep to-day,--no, nor to-morrow! What is to be done?
Going and coming, which get to be more going and coming;
dish-washing, which daily increases into dish-washing; or _ennui_,
which degenerates into melancholy, ensue. Life is not what the
school-girl supposed. Six months of it make her older than a whole
school-year.
Girls look upon graduation day as a grand portal through which they
are to enter into a palace glistening with splendor; but, lo! when they
reach that portal, they see only a very low gate-way, while a hedge,
thorny and high, shuts out the palace. How to get through? Rather, how
are their elders to make them see that, with the patience and energy of

the prince