If you can dress to make yourself attractiveAnd not make puff and curls your chief delight;If you can swim and row, be strong and activeBut of the gentler graces lose not sight.If you can dance without a craze for dancingPlay, without giving play too strong a hold,Enjoy the love of friends without romancing;Care for the weak, the friendless and the old.If you can master French and Greek and Latin,And not acquire as well a priggish mien;If you can feel the touch of silk and satinWithout despising calico and jean;If you can ply a saw and use a hammer,Can do man's work when the need occurs;Can sing when asked without excuse and stammer,Can rise above unfriendly snubs and slurs.If you can make good bread as well as fudges,Can sew with skill and have an eye for dust,If you can be a friend and hold no grudges,A girl whom all will love because they must.If sometime you should meet and love anotherAnd make a home with faith and peace entwinedAnd you it's soul - a loyal wife and mother -, You'll work out pretty nearly to my mind.The plan that's been developed through the agesAnd win the best that life can have in store,You'll be, my girl, a model for the sagesA woman whom the world will bow before.Rupyard Kipling
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