A year out of school, spent in a country town with her aunt, where she
had the best of food, fresh air and exercise, cured this indifferent
girl entirely.
Continual headache is often the cause of indifference, and eye strain or
improper food the cause of the headache. The first duty of those in
charge of the indifferent girl, before passing judgment upon her, is to
make sure that the physical condition is not at the bottom of the
trouble. Many a case of indifference and loss of spontaneous interest,
which cannot be cured by punishment, by persuasion, by prayers or
exhortation, _can_ be cured by a wise physician.
Sometimes a girl becomes indifferent from lack of a sympathetic
environment. She feels that others do not care about her and that what
she does makes no real difference to any one. She may be surrounded by
poverty, where the struggle to exist is so keen that there is no time to
think of the girl and her needs, or she may have every luxury yet be
denied the companionship of one who understands.
I am thinking now of a girl of fifteen, who does not seem in any way to
belong in the family where she was born. Her sisters are at work in the
factory and content. They are sweet, attractive and good. But she does
not want to work in the factory. She would "give the world to have a
room alone, that could be all fixed up," as she would like it.
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