the struggle, it was not fought in vain.




IV.

WHAT CAN I DO?


"But what can I do?" you ask. Oh, I hear that so many, many times,
and I feel the deepest sympathy for the girl who asks it. Usually,
when the question is put, there is no marked ability in the
asker,--I mean, no special power to do a particular work. I have hardly
the right to say this, however, since we are all endowed in some way,
and each girl must have a work in which she can do better than any
other. Perhaps, girls, you belong to the great middle class,--the people
who have no large fortunes, no particular influence; and, maybe, you
think if you only had a rich relative, or some acquaintance, who stood
in authority, you might do a good work, or, at least, earn a livelihood.
Do you remember that this very class of people have been the greatest
reformers, thinkers, workers, rulers, everywhere? The United States
owes its existence to people who had to depend upon themselves.

But let us see about this question, what to do. In the first place,
if a girl has a decided inclination towards this or that honorable
calling, she should foster every opportunity for pursuing it. If she
can do a nurse's work better than a teacher's, and if no home ties
of an imperative nature restrain her, she ought to become a nurse.
A large field for the special work of nursing has been opened during