04.03A Elements of Style
Amelia Setser
Advice to Little Girls
Mark Twain
Good little girls ought not to make mouths at their teachers for every trifling offence. This retaliation
should only be resorted to under pec
...
04.03A Elements of Style
Amelia Setser
Advice to Little Girls
Mark Twain
Good little girls ought not to make mouths at their teachers for every trifling offence. This retaliation
should only be resorted to under peculiarly aggravated circumstances.
If you have nothing but a rag-doll stuffed with sawdust, while one of 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 unless your conscience would justify you in it, and you
know you are able to do it.
You ought never to take your little brother’s “chewing-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 simplicity natural to his time of life, he will regard it as a perfectly fair
transaction. In all ages of the world this eminently plausible fiction has lured the 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 scold him a little, for then you
obtain desirable results. You secure his immediate attention to the lessons you are inculcating, and at the
same time your 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 reply that you won’t. It is better and more becoming
to intimate that you will do as she bids you, and then afterwards act quietly in the matter according to
the dictates of your best judgment.
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 for 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 whims,
and put up with their little foibles until they get to crowding you too much.
Good little girls always show marked deference for the aged. You ought never to “sass” old people unless
they “sass” you first.
Style Analysis
Directions: There are two part
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