It is true, too, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, that the country boy and the country girl are more resourceful than their city cousins.  Out-of-doors they have had to use their wits and have not been spoiled by all the appliances of city life.  Out-of-doors, too, they have made invaluable friendships with bird and squirrel and rabbit and deer, friendships whose intelligent wood-life has taught them much.  Self-reliance is one of the lessons of the outdoor runway; and wisdom and inspiration come from it when they are needed.  About this truth the work of the poet Wordsworth is one long poem.  Again and again he writes of the perfect woman shaped by the influences of nature.  Of her he says: 

    “Three years she grew in sun and shower;
    Then Nature said, ’A lovelier flower
      On earth was never sown;
    This child I to myself will take;
    She shall be mine, and I will make
      A lady of my own.

    “’Myself will to my darling be
    Both law and impulse:  and with me
      The girl in rock and plain,
    In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,
    Shall feel an overseeing power
      To kindle and restrain.

    “’She shall be sportive as the fawn
    That wild with glee across the lawn
      Or up the mountain springs;
    And hers shall be the breathing balm,
    And hers the silence and the calm
      Of mute, insensate things.

    “’The floating clouds their state shall lend
    To her; for her the willow bend;
      Nor shall she fail to see
    Even in the motions of the storm
    Grace that shall mould the maiden’s form
      By silent sympathy.

    “’The stars of midnight shall be dear
    To her; and she shall lean her ear
      In many a secret place
    Where rivulets dance their wayward round,
    And beauty born of murmuring sound
      Shall pass into her face!’”

No one can afford to neglect all the spiritual influence of nature, and the only way to receive it is to go to nature.  Purity of mind, a clean conception of God’s creative plan, a more active intellectual life are all there for the girl who will seek them.  She cannot afford not to go back to nature for these helps, for every woman is in some sense a burden bearer, and she must needs know all she can of what life means in order to bear these burdens well.

There are various kinds of outdoor life, some one of which is within reach of every human being, even if they are cripples.  Probably most girls when the outdoor life of school and college is spoken of think that athletics is meant.  That is one part of the outdoor runway, and since it is provided in every school, and insisted upon, but little about it need be said.  It is doing its work with more and more inspiration, as the response to its ideals comes in.  And it does something more in every well-equipped school than merely make a girl use her legs and arms:  it gives her a large, sane ideal of health and provides her with the means of keeping well.  There is no more useful profession for the woman seeking one that is useful as well as remunerative than physical culture.