VIII

THE RIGHT SORT OF LEISURE


The right sort of leisure ought to help as much in the development of
the girl as the right sort of work. If it is leisure worthy the name, it
will bring refreshment; it will not leave one physically and mentally
jaded. Neither mind nor body should ever be exhausted because of the way
in which freedom has been used. Leisure is as important to work as work
is to leisure. A person who has not worked cannot appreciate freedom,
while the one who has had no leisure is not best fitted for work. "All
work and no play makes Jack a dull boy;" it is just as true that it
makes Jill a dull girl. The girl who works all the time, not realizing
the importance of free moments, becomes fagged in body and mind. She is
a tool that is dull, and would do well to remember that even a machine
is better for an occasional rest.

Some mistaken ideas about leisure have grown up, making it difficult to
say anything on this subject without being misunderstood. Stories--whole
books of them--about "spreads" and more or less lawless escapades in
school and college, have given girls and other people, too, the
impression that this is the sort of thing school leisure is. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. Midnight feasts may occur in school,
and most of us, unless we are too good to be average girls, have taken
part in them. But such stories are vicious, for they misrepresent the
life by suggesting that eating inferior and unwholesome food is the real
freedom most girls desire. There is something repulsive in the very
thought. Feasts that leave a girl with a coated tongue and a dull head