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126 how to hold her tongue. You have said foolish things, and folly too often is really criminal. You have talked without thinking, and thoughtlessness has brought about a sad state of affairs. When will you learn to control your silly talk? When will you learn to be a womanly girl?

Until you are quite old enough to comprehend that friendship is more than a name, and that the real friend is one that is tried and not found wanting, you will probably speak of all the girls you like, as your friends, meaning, of course, your acquaintances. Now, I want you to like each other, to be good comrades, but I think it will be wiser if you make this good-fellowship, in number at least, one of three or five, rather than two or four, for then you will not be so likely to discuss your private affairs, or to reach a state of sickly sentimentality that is as undesirable physically as it is mentally. Where there are three girls or five girls there is certain to be one who, healthy in mind and body, will laugh down any inclination to martyrdom, or any other nonsense that may exhibit itself. Possibly you think I am a little hardhearted. Indeed, my dear girl, I am not. Nobody grieves more sincerely than I do when a young girl loses her belief in her companions, but