Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/144

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132
Side Talks with Girls

tirely, or to be so clogged that the wheels move slowly and in a way that is irritating to everyone.

In many homes the cause for this differs. But a very common one is the introduction of a poor or an old relation: one who is queer, possibly tiresome, and yet who has the claim that blood and poverty always have on kindred and kindness. The boys fret the old lady, father sees so little of her that she doesn't trouble him, and yet she worries mother. It may be that she is your grandmother, and because she is an old lady she doesn't realize the material or mental changes that have taken place, and she exacts from the daughter of forty-five what she had from the daughter of fifteen—that is, continual consideration and obedience.

Mother, whose views of life have broadened, and who is a very busy woman, is irritated by these demands. Here comes one of your opportunities. You have left school; you have a good bit of time on your hands; devote as much of that as you can to grandmamma; make the hours that you spend with her pleasant to her, and when you grow weary in well-doing stand in front of the looking-glass by grandmamma's side and remember that some day you will be as old as she is and will want patience and consideration shown to you. Find out what she likes to have done for her, and do it; see if she fancies walking with