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The Bachelor Girl Confesses Yl ■ :. lei • and I" ■ I • I .-iit.-: bachelor girls. i thai there is still ■ ■\ !. i 1 mid ay it bettei than I .:. • ;.,.-... i bachet< >r girl at .ill I spoke to Amiah about it bui she jusl laughed, — a cheery, sunny lau^h, — one of the kind that starts uj> those ciogtfed brain arheels, that will suspend action in sp'te of you .sometimes, and make you feel that you are lots happier and luckier than you thought you were. Annab. is a dear; hut just the same it's the hardest work i:i the world for her to write a letter, and when I sui^ested that she write jusi a tiny article, it's really no wonder she wouldn't even take the trouble ty refuse Hut she is the author of the most delicious Pies you ever ate. And that's some! Anyhow, this isn't an article. I'm not clever eaougfa for that. It's just something I want to say. Regrets of a Spinster rr JlOJ 101 0 begin with, it is my misfortune to be a spinster, I mean bachelor j^irl. I use that won! advis t-lly; for. though for all the world I would not say it Ootloud.to me it has been, and i». a misfortune. And 1 think, away deep down in their hearts, — • hough not <aX of the others would admit it, either, — that nine teen out of even- twenty of us feel it to be just that. ■ I ° aa Vcr - trutJ^ ul b' assert that we are bachelor g«"l> from choice; for each and everyone of us, even the lain one, has without doubt had chances— at the very least, a chance— to marry, irhicfa we chose to refuse Still, in spke of our title. - bachelor girl.'' •■■ 1J ,' '} s ' j reezily indej.en.lent sound, which has suc <■'■-■•■:■. the opprobrious term, -old maid." equally -UKXestive of corkscrew curls and a tabby cat.— iii »I'ite of our vaunted freedom, arid our tailor made " " b ' ;i!l1 th e occasional outspoken envy of one of Jr } K<l r ° home" ters, there will come crop- I'"i« in sometimes, when we're all alone and idle, a ■ • 1I " ™ " n P of memory, and the tears will come 2 -i spite of us. You see, it's this way: Away back, more year* than most of us care to count, we did not have any idea of being bache "lut'is. though we used airily to tell our boy BY ELIZABETH K. STRATTON friends so Wedrean* en.inthose glorious old teens, and they were dear dream .every one. We would not have mi^ed one of them foi the world. And there were very few "i us one '>ut enty, maybe, as I aid whose dreams did nol include .t bewitching Cupid flying airily aboul 'Aiiii h\> distracting arrows, and his chubby arm- out stretched directly toward us. Bui thai was v long time ago. We had lots of boy friend; , too; and maybe there was one boy we liked l>etterthan the rest. As we re member him now, he was a very nice boy, just the rijjht sort of pal. Maybe in the coui eof ime he married some other girl and we didn't care half so much as we once had imagined we should, in such an event Or maybe he didn't marry, just drifted oui of our lives. Or then again. mayl>e — well, maybe'he volunteered, you know, in '■)>.. and-J-and didn'l come back any more. However it was, he was a long time ago, too. And after thai th< i was work to do. Most oi us are busy people And there were othei men, too, only ive didn't have time to think much aboul them Anyhow, none of them seemed quite to come up to the pal of bur teens; or. what was a really <:reat deal more vital reason, to oui Ideal, either. Yes, vvedid, everyone of us, — we h i'l an Ideal! Sometimes 1 think we may have expected too much of our (deal, and that we unheedingly passed him on the way. Bul I don't know, either, as we ex pected more than we should He was principally to be Good, in a big, road way. and to love us \ery much. There were several other minor considei i tion.-.: but the first two were indispensable. And we didn't expeel to get more than we intended to give; so we were fair about it. anyway. The First Heart Wrench AND then, maybe, a day came when we were sure •^*- we had met him, that Ideal. We were still very young. To be sure, he didn't look quite as we had pictured him, and there were ther things that seemed different, too, someway: but it" we did no) find out quite in time that lie was not, we grew to cry much And thei we least expected it. the awakening i.uik-. and the heart wTench And aftei ! h.it we didn'l plan any more on ideal I • • hard, ttnehi >w . even t< > tak*.- nj> inn daily work t'>i awhile. Then we into ii - and work !>r . i ■ ninth .1 necessity to us as sleep. To tell the truth, we found it much easiei than ' ■ leep f< >i many li >ng m< »nth And after awhile we achieved some miall measure ol Success, and all that. We wont detail that heart wrench. There are different causes; but the effeel is nearly always the same; that i , the first effect. There are other ones latei on Sometimes we grow bitter and cynical; and that is the very sadd( tof all Sometimes our lives are purified and sweetened; and then ■''- not really all in ."ain, the suffering, is it' Or maybe oui [deal nevei did come, and we never even met his double. And we groped blindly, longingly, loi yeai ulone before we realized what we'd missed And when the realization came, it didn't help v ■ any. For to every woman, whether intended oi Destiny lor bacheloi ;;irll 1 or not, no matter how lucrative her position, no matter how gaily independent and enviable he may jeem to t>e, comes ai some period in her career, and in some lives all along t he way, the longing for her own little notch, her own little oli Home, and one on her pathway who !■ > <• • her very much, who helps hei ovet ome of the hard places, ■ho will alway '■< lo ci and friend and a wise con fidant, a.> well a. hu I'.ind. and the clinging ■■! lo\ - ing little arms al»oui ones neck, the sleepy whis [•ering >>t a tender bedtime prayer at mother's knee, the press ol a tiny head against one's In-art' Ha. ba< helor girlhood, and the vaunted in<iepen<ience of the successful business woman, anything to offer in tit return foi ■', all that ' Cousin Sue* Envied Lot £\l I lea: ' ■■: • I ired moi h« i , hai ed bj your daily care , the inevitable over and o ci routine ■ household, wearied by the coi ills for ■ >isy ticad of little feet , iome time when Cousin Sue' lot inlifi eemssomuch n • • desired than youi [wish you could peep for one instant int< ■ n Sue 1 heart i A heart ' 1 am ■ ;:i : ■ ■ ' nvy her again, could you therein the longing for just this life you find s< p dull .t\\'\ wearisome S >mcl :. : . hei Y< >v em }I be crisp