of work they do, or leave undone. The despair which settles over many
a girl's days, the indifference, comes from no longer being compelled
to do certain tasks. "Get work, get work: be sure 'tis better than
what you work to get." Do not delay the task that must be done.
Procrastination is worse than the thief of time: it is the robber of
our own character, our own growth and happiness. We need to work
continually to be strong, mentally, physically, or spiritually, even;
and the longer we put off exercise, the less competent we are. I cannot
believe that a lazy person is a real Christian. Who labors, prays.
I know so many girls who delay writing essays, hoping that slight
sickness, or some unforeseen event, may ward off the trouble of thinking
for an hour; then, when the time of necessity comes, and no deliverance
from the hands of tyrannical teachers, a series of nervous attacks
ensue, because of overtaxed minds (?); and the doctors order those
poor girls out of the presence of such cruel task-masters. Medical
science and educational science always do conflict; but eleven-o'clock
suppers, social circles, tri-weekly gad-abouts, and over-anxious
parents, who yearn for a good match for their daughters, disarrange the
brains and stomachs of girls oftener than any undue desire to excel in
study. The average student is never killed by the average school or the
average school-teacher. But shirking work of any kind, delaying it, or
contriving to make it less, will bring about a certain irregularity, and
certain spasmodic efforts that are utterly ruinous.

The cramming system, in schools, or homes, or trades, is deplorable.
You cannot put a whole geometry into your brain three days before
examination, without its bulging and breaking through the cranium in
less than a month's time. You cannot sweep and bake and wash Saturday
morning, without the pies burning, the clothes tearing, and the dust
flying. You cannot do all your book-keeping in just the hour before