DO SUMMER GIRLS MAKE GOOD WIVES?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 207, 22 August 1908, Page 4

DO SUMMER GIRLS MAKE GOOD WIVES?

I say *.' Yes"; the very best. For the qualities of temperament that produce the summer girl whom all men adore, are precisely those that produce the wife who is the apple of her husband's eye.

The summer girl is essentially sunny. She has a smile .that is irresistibly : heart-cheering, and her laugh rings out like joybells in the breeze. Nothing daunts her. Hers is the attitude of trust, instead of the attitude of worry, which possesses her opposite in types; hence, in even the most trying circumstances, she is still her sweet and sunny self, determined to extract enjoyment from the most unpromising materials, and to make every minute of her time and other people's a thorough realisation of delight. Can you not trace in such a character as this the fundamental makings of a good wife? Men do not want helpmates who are always doleful and looking out for trouble. They want brightness in their homes, not misery. Instead of everlastingly expecting disaster, as her lugubrious' sister will, the summer girl relies upon the constant attendance of good fortune. She is a philosopher, horn, so she says, under a lucky star, and her fairy godmother, Happy Chance, bestowed upon her the gift of _ always hoping for the best, which is tantamount to bringing it along. Snatch at happiness, and It rushes right into your arms, says "the summer girl, and she practises what the preaches, with the hapipest results. Yet, with all this to her credit, you will find many people who hold 'the view that the summer girl is not the one to make a good wife. She is not domesticated enough, they will say. She would be one of those expensive wives who are always wanting to gad about and wear -pretty clothes, neglecting their homes for the sake of enjoyment, and stinting their children in the necessaries of life lo add new hats and frocks to their own wardrobes. One of the salient charms of the summer, girl is her instinctive affection for Nature in her happiest moods. The damsel who welcomes the sun and revels In the wind is the sort of girl wjio would never willingly be lazy in her husband's home.

She would want lt> rise with the lark and set things going in her new abode; would live with open windows everywhere, so that the sweet breath of heaven might permeate every corner ■•!' the homstead; and would ask nothing better than to go about her work with a gladsome desire to perform it well and, expeditiously, so as to be able to take her share in the task of nuking the little garden pretty and productive when her husband worked in it in the evening. Nhe would be well aware of the need there is to feed the brute with wholesome food, if his temper and his health are to 'be preserved sweet and long. That argument as to her desire roing. She would be well aware of the ground with a thud. It is she does not wear expensive clothes that the summer girl remnius so absolutely unperturbed when the rain fails and the mud splashes her pretty raiment. She knows it will wash. She looks bewitchingly charming in her dainty hat and her white frock, but both hat and frock cost her a few shillings only, for she trimmed the former and made the latter all with her own fair hands!

Men who woo and wed summer girls are apt to do very well for themselves. They need tremble under no apprehension as to the future, so long as they bring to the bargain a sincere intention to make it a success. For beneath the delightful frivolities of these sunny sirens lie the best and most lasting of womanly attributes. And, what is more, the time of courtship is singularly conducive to harmony in double harness after marriage. The happy pair find many more opportunities of discovering mutual sympathies and individual idiosyncrasies in the open-air life of the sweet year than under the doleful conditions of winter. And, furthermore, do they not store Up together a host of tender memories, the joy of which will never dwindle, even after the wife has no further right to dub herself a summer girl, though she will always be regarded as such with gratitude by her proud and happy ■husband?