Advice To Little Girls

by Mark Twain

　　Good little girls ought not to make mouths at their teachers forevery trifling offense. This retaliation should only be resortedto under peculiarly aggravated circumstances.If you have nothing but a rag-doll stuffed with sawdust, while oneof your more fortunate little playmates has a costly China one,you should treat her with a show of kindness nevertheless.And you ought not to attempt to make a forcible swap with her unlessyour conscience would justify you in it, and you know you are ableto do it.You ought never to take your little brother's "chewing-gum" awayfrom him by main force; it is better to rope him in with the promiseof the first two dollars and a half you find floating down theriver on a grindstone. In the artless simplicity natural to thistime of life, he will regard it as a perfectly fair transaction.In all ages of the world this eminently plausible fiction has luredthe obtuse infant to financial ruin and disaster.If at any time you find it necessary to correct your brother,do not correct him with mud--never, on any account, throw mud at him,because it will spoil his clothes. It is better to scald him a little,for then you obtain desirable results. You secure his immediateattention to the lessons you are inculcating, and at the same timeyour hot water will have a tendency to move impurities from his person,and possibly the skin, in spots.If your mother tells you to do a thing, it is wrong to replythat you won't. It is better and more becoming to intimatethat you will do as she bids you, and then afterward act quietlyin the matter according to the dictates of your best judgment.You should ever bear in mind that it is to your kind parents that youare indebted for your food, and for the privilege of staying homefrom school when you let on that you are sick. Therefore you oughtto respect their little prejudices, and humor their little whims,and put up with their little foibles until they get to crowding youtoo much.Good little girls always show marked deference for the aged.You ought never to "sass" old people unless they "sass" you first.