life, as well as the mental and physical, is as we shall see in a later
chapter, a matter of cultivation.

If the girl herself reads this chapter she will stop a moment to examine
the triad which makes up her own life. Perhaps the physical side is
weak. She may strengthen it if she will. Now is the time, while she is
young and it will obey her. When habit has written its words in iron on
muscle, heart and nerves it will be harder for her to control it.
Perhaps she has been careless about fresh air, perhaps has been tempted
to let pie and cake and coffee make a lunch, perhaps to neglect rubbers,
to get only half the sleep she needs or to dress foolishly on cold
winter days. If the physical side of the triad is weak a girl must
suffer. The body is a despotic master and it is a splendid servant. Even
if others have failed to help her and circumstances have been against
her, a girl can if she will, improve her physical condition and every
little improvement is worth the cost. It may not seem to her at first a
part of her religion to keep her body well and to strengthen it by every
means in her power, but it is.

It may be that the mental side is weak; that it is lazy and does not
want to think; that the only food it craves is the sensational, and
light, _very light_ reading and not much of that. But the girl who is in
earnest can refuse to gossip and learn to talk and think about the great
needs and problems of our day. She can turn quickly the pages where
crime and accidents are recorded and read carefully those that tell of
the progress in science and the happenings among the nations of the
world. She can read a great book once a month or once in three months
according to the time she has and she can think and talk about what she
reads. She can find some hobby in which to be interested. The effort
she makes to compel her mind to work will bring a very real reward.