Pigeonwing, and could sing cavatinas and galop galops with the best of
them. Ma said I was an angel, and Pa declared I was perfect. But none of
the young men said so. My dear Fourteen, it may be just so with you.
Your ma and pa may say you are angelic and perfect; but where's the use
of it, if nobody else can be made to see it? I tried my best to catch
the young men in my net. But, provoking things, they wouldn't be caught.
Between ourselves--mind, don't blab it out--young men are the greatest
noodles that were ever put upon the face of the earth. I never yet saw
one that could be depended upon to stand by. I am sure, as you know, no
one ever stood by me--when there was a parson at hand. At fourteen I
didn't much care where they stood, if it wasn't on my corns. Twenty
years later I shouldn't have been so particular. But I don't much mind
now, bless you! _You_ wont at forty-four. There's nothing to these young
men. All talk, pretence, audacity, and paper collar, I assure you. I've
studied all of them. They are the same now as then. Human nature, you
know, my dear Fourteen, is the same yesterday, to-day, and week after
next. I used to think it wasn't; now I know it is. These young
men--monsters that they are--will pour the nectar of compliments over
your face, and the acid and canker of abuse down your back; and all in
the same breath, if they get a chance. Pray have an eye and an ear out
for them. If you go to Long Branch, or Newport, or Saratoga, or the
White Mountains this summer, just look out for them. They are dreadful
creatures at home in the cities, but doubly dreadful at these resorts.
You are young, simple, unsophisticated. I was at your age. But I soon
got over such weaknesses. You must very soon, or be a ninny. "Simple,"
"artless," "unsophisticated," and such terms mean simply softness.
Whatever else you are, or are not, don't be soft. The mistake of my
fruitless life has been that I believed, in other years, all that was
told me by the other sex. They said to my face that I was a beauty; at
Mr. Jones's, they said I was a fright. They said I sang like a Patti; at