E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Diane Monico, and the Project Gutenberg
Online Distributed Proofreading Team
by
"I sing the Obsolete"
New and Enlarged Edition
Longmans, Green, and Co.39 Paternoster Row,London New York and Bombay
1903
"An unlessoned girl, unschool'd, unpractis'd,
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn."
What is the awkward age?
Certainly not any special number of years. It is most frequently foundbetween the ages of thirteen and twenty-seven, but some girls never gothrough it, and some never emerge from it!
I should be inclined to define it as the age during which girls areasked—and cannot answer—varying forms of the question which soembarrassed the Ugly Duckling: "Can you purr—can you lay eggs?"
Most girls on growing up pass through an uncomfortable stage like this, inwhich neither they nor their friends quite know what niche in life theycan best fill—sometimes, because of their own undisciplined characters;sometimes, because the niche itself seems to be lacking. Whether thisstage be their misfortune or their fault, it is an unpleasant one—bothfor themselves and for their friends. With much sympathy for both, Idedicate these few suggestions to my known and unknown friends who arepassing through it.
L. H. M. SOULSBY.
OXFORD, April 4, 1893.
In bringing out a new edition, the book has been enlarged by adding paperson "Making Plans," "Conversation," "Get up, M. le Comte!" "Sunday," and "Agood Time;" "Coming out" has been omitted, and "Friendship and Love"somewhat altered. The present form has been adopted in order to make itmatch the other volumes of "Stray Thoughts."
L. H. M. SOULSBY.
BRONDESBURY, Nov. 23, 1903.
"The Sweet, Sweet Love of Daughter,
"I have discovered a thing very little known, which is, that in one's whole life one can never have more than a single mother. You may think this obvious and (what you call) a trite observation…. You are a green gosling! I was at the same age (very near) as wise as you, and yet I never discovered this (with full evidence and conviction, I mean) till it was too late."—Gray's Letters...