Advice for Good Little Girls

　　If you have nothing but a rag doll stuffed with saw-dust, while one of your more fortunate little playmates has a costly⁵ china one, you should treat her with a show of kindness, nevertheless. And you ought not to attempt to make a forcible swap⁶ with her unless your conscience would justify⁷ you in it, and you know you are able to do it.

　　You ought never to take your little brother's "chawing-gum" away from him by main force; it is better to rope him in with the promise of the first two dollars and a half you find floating down the river on a grindstone. In the artless simplicity⁸ natural to his time of life, he will regard it as a perfectly⁹ fair transaction. In all ages of the world this eminently¹⁰ plausible¹¹ fiction has lured¹² the obtuse¹³ 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 soil his clothes. It is better to scald him a little; for then you attain¹⁴ two desirable results -- you secure his immediate¹⁵ attention to the lesson you are inculcating, and, at the same time, your hot water will have a tendency to remove impurities¹⁶ from his person -- and possibly the skin also, in spots.

　　If your mother tells you to do a thing, it is wrong to reply that you won't. It is better and more becoming to intimate that you will do as she bids you, and then afterward¹⁷ act quietly in the matter according to the dictates¹⁸ of your better judgment¹⁹.

　　You should ever bear in mind that it is to your kind parents that you are indebted for your food and your nice bed and your beautiful clothes, and for the privilege of staying home from school when you let on that you are sick. Therefore you ought to respect their little prejudices and humor their little whims²⁰ and put up with their little foibles, until they get to crowding you too much.

　　Good little girls should always show marked deference²¹ for the aged²². You ought never to "sass" old people -- unless they "sass" you first.

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