a good friend who held her to the truth, and made a companion of the
girl who helped her invent the things she told her mother when she came
home very late. She let go of the good books little by little and read
the foolish stories that were exciting and absolutely impossible. She
let go of the little courtesies and one by one of the laws that good
society demands that its girls shall obey. She let go of modesty and in
dress and speech allowed herself to drift into the current where it is
swift and black.

If only parents had watched more closely, if girl friends had been
stronger, and older friends wiser, it would have been so easy when the
current just touched her and she was still near to all that is pure and
good. But she is drifting--drifting more and more rapidly farther and
farther downstream. Now and then she looks back, remembers all the
ideals she once dreamed to reach and makes a feeble struggle to resist
but the current bears her on. Only some mighty Power can save her.

To the girl who "means to," and "intends," to the girl who dreams and
waits and dreams again, to the girl who has let go and is in the current
this chapter throws out the challenge--_Act now._ You can! There is
help. Take it.




IX

THE GIRL WITH HIGH IDEALS