something, to _excel_, to be beautiful, to do great good in the world,
to sing, to play, to be a social leader, to dress well, to be very
popular, to be _something_, so that people will single her out and say,
"That is Charlotte Gray; she is the prettiest girl in town," or "That is
Charlotte Gray; she has a most wonderful voice," or "She is the most
popular girl in the office," or "She is the finest girl athlete in the
city." In her day dreams she pictures herself the center, but in real
life she does not find herself there--she is just plain Charlotte Gray.

The average girl has all the elemental powers of the race; there are
always undeveloped resources in her, always the possibility that she may
bless the world by new ministries, enrich it by the discovery of the art
of living nobly amid the common-place, that she may be the mother of
the great.

The average girl has some handicaps and some privileges, in some things
she is easily led, she is often misunderstood, she has periods of being
indifferent, she spends too much time following the dictates of fashion
and too much strength endeavoring to have a good time, she means to do
things that never get done, she has times of drifting, she has some high
ideals to which she clings with more or less tenacity--she is a
combination girl.

The average girl is in many ways the most important member of society,
for what the average girl is, that society is. Society cannot be more
generous-hearted, pure, altruistic, content and happy than its average
girl.

I am thinking of two towns whose inhabitants number between three and
four thousand. In one, the girls are careless in dress, vulgar in