(eBook PDF) Adolescence 11th Edition

by Laurence Steinberg
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebooksecure.com/download/ebook-pdf-adolescence-11th-edition-by-laurence-
steinberg/
www.mhhe.com/steinberg11e About the Author vii

In addition to Adolescence, Dr. Steinberg is the author or co-author

of approximately 400 scholarly articles on growth and development dur-
ing the teenage years, as well as the books You and Your Adolescent;
When Teenagers Work: The Psychological and Social Costs of Adolescent
Employment (with Ellen Greenberger); Crossing Paths: How Your Child’s
Adolescence Triggers Your Own Crisis (with Wendy Steinberg); Beyond
the Classroom: Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents Need
to Do (with B. Bradford Brown and Sanford Dornbusch); The 10 Basic
Principles of Good Parenting (which has been published in 10 languages);
Rethinking Juvenile Justice (with Elizabeth Scott); and Age of Opportunity:
Lessons From the New Science of Adolescence. He is co-editor of Studying
Minority Adolescents: Conceptual, Methodological, and Theoretical Issues
(with Vonnie McLoyd) and the Handbook of Adolescent Psychology (with
Richard Lerner).
 Brief Contents

About the Author vi

A Note from the Author xiv
Preface xv

Introduction The Study of Adolescent Development 1

PART 1
The Fundamental Changes of Adolescence 13
1 Biological Transitions 13
2 Cognitive Transitions 42
3 Social Transitions 69

PART 2
The Contexts of Adolescence 95
4 Families 95
5 Peer Groups 122
6 Schools 152
7 Work, Leisure, and Media 181

PART 3
Psychosocial Development During Adolescence 208
8 Identity 208
9 Autonomy 235
10 Intimacy 260
11 Sexuality 290
12 Achievement 320
13 Psychosocial Problems in Adolescence 347

McGraw-Hill Education Psychology’s APA Documentation Style Guide

Glossary G1
References R1
Name Index I1
Subject Index I24

viii
Contents
About the Author vi
A Note from the Author xiv
Preface xv
Introduction
The Study of Adolescent Development
The Boundaries of Adolescence 3
Early, Middle, and Late Adolescence
A Framework for Studying Adolescent
Development 4
The Fundamental Changes of Adolescence 4
The Contexts of Adolescence 5
Psychosocial Development in Adolescence 7
Theoretical Perspectives on Adolescence 8
Biosocial Theories 8
Organismic Theories 9
Learning Theories 9
Sociological Theories 10
Historical and Anthropological Theories
Stereotypes Versus Scientific Study 11
PART 1
The Fundamental Changes
of Adolescence 13
Chapter 1
Biological Transitions 13
Puberty: An Overview 14
The Endocrine System 14
What Triggers Puberty? 16
How Hormones Influence Adolescent
Development 17
Somatic Development 18
Changes in Stature and the Dimensions
of the Body 18
Sexual Maturation 19
The Timing and Tempo of Puberty 21
Variations in the Timing and Tempo
of Puberty 22
Genetic and Environmental Influences
on Pubertal Timing 23
The Psychological and Social Impact
1 of Puberty 26
The Immediate Impact of Puberty 26
4 The Impact of Specific Pubertal Events 30
The Impact of Early or Late Maturation 30
Obesity and Eating Disorders 34
Obesity 34
Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, and Binge Eating
Disorder 36
Physical Health and Health Care
in Adolescence 40
The Paradox of Adolescent Health 40
Causes of Mortality in Adolescence 40
Promoting Adolescent Health 41
11
Chapter 2
Cognitive Transitions 42
Changes in Cognition 43
Thinking About Possibilities 43
Thinking About Abstract Concepts 45
Thinking About Thinking 45
Thinking in Multiple Dimensions 46
Adolescent Relativism 47
Theoretical Perspectives on Adolescent
Thinking 47
The Piagetian View of Adolescent
Thinking 47
The Information-Processing View of Adolescent
Thinking 48
The Adolescent Brain 51
How Your Brain Works 52
The Age of Opportunity 54
What Changes in Adolescence? 55
Implications for Adolescent Behavior 60
ix
x Contents
Individual Differences in Intelligence
in Adolescence 60
The Measurement of IQ 60
Types of Intelligence 61
Culture and Intelligence 61
Adolescent Thinking in Context 62
Social Cognition in Adolescence 62
Adolescent Risk Taking 64
Chapter 3
Social Transitions 69
Social Redefinition and Psychosocial
Development 70
The Elongation of Adolescence 71
Adolescence as a Social Invention 72
The “Invention” of Adolescence 73
Emerging Adulthood: A New Stage
of Life or a Luxury of the Middle
Class? 74
Changes in Status During
Adolescence 77
Drawing a Legal Boundary 77
Inconsistencies in Adolescents’ Legal
Status 78
The Process of Social Redefinition
Common Practices in the Process of
Social Redefinition 79
Variations in Social Transitions 80
Variations in Clarity 81
Variations in Continuity 84
The Transition into Adulthood in
Contemporary Society 87
Special Transitional Problems of Poor
and Minority Youth 88
The Effects of Poverty on the Transition
into Adulthood 89
What Can Be Done to Ease the
Transition? 89
The Influence of Neighborhood
Conditions on Adolescent
Development 90
Processes of Neighborhood
Influences 92
PART 2
The Contexts of Adolescence 95
Chapter 4
Families 95
Is Conflict Between Teenagers and Parents
Inevitable? 96
The Generation Gap: Fact and Fiction 96
What Do Adolescents and Parents
Usually Fight About? 97
Family Relationships at Adolescence 98
A Time of Reorganization and Change 98
The Adolescent’s Parents at Midlife 99
Changes in Family Needs and Functions 100
Transformations in Family Relations 101
Sex Differences in Family Relationships 103
Family Relationships and Adolescent
Development 104
Parenting Styles and Their Effects 105
Ethnic Differences in Parenting
Practices 108
Autonomy and Attachment in the
Adolescent’s Family 109
Adolescents’ Relationships with Siblings 109
79 Behavioral Genetics and Adolescent
Development 110
Genetic and Environmental Influences on
Adolescent Development 111
Why Are Siblings Often So Different? 111
The Adolescent’s Family in a Changing
Society 112
The Changed and Changing Nature of
Family Life 112
Adolescents and Divorce 114
The Specific Impact of Marital Conflict 115
The Longer-Term Effects of Divorce 116
Custody, Contact, and Conflict following
Divorce 116
Remarriage 117
Economic Stress and Poverty 118
Special Family Forms 120
The Importance of the Family in Adolescent
Development 121
www.mhhe.com/steinberg11e
Chapter 5
Peer Groups 122
The Origins of Adolescent Peer Groups in
Contemporary Society 124
Changes in the Size of the Youth Population 124
Is There a Separate Youth Culture? 125
The Nature of Adolescent Peer Groups
Changes in Peer Groups during
Adolescence 127
Cliques and Crowds 128
Changes in Clique and Crowd Structure Over
Time 130
Adolescents and Their Crowds 133
The Social Map of Adolescence 133
Crowds as Reference Groups 133
Adolescents and Their Cliques 135
Similarity among Clique Members 135
Common Interests among Friends 137
Similarity between Friends: Selection or
Socialization? 140
Popularity and Rejection in Adolescent Peer
Groups 142
Determinants of Popularity and Rejection
Relational Aggression 145
Victimization and Harassment 147
The Peer Group and Psychosocial
Development 151
Chapter 6
Schools 152
The Broader Context of U.S. Secondary
Education 154
The Origins of Secondary Education 154
School Reform: Past and Present 155
What Should Schools Teach? 157
Education in the Inner Cities 158
The Social Organization of Schools 158
School Size and Class Size 158
Age Grouping and School Transitions
Tracking 163
Ethnic Composition 167
Alternatives to Public Schools 167
Contents xi
Classroom Climate 169
The Best Classroom Climate for Adolescents 169
Teacher Expectations and Student
Performance 170
The Importance of Student Engagement 171
School Violence 174
Beyond High School 176
127
The College-Bound 176
The Non-College-Bound 178
Schools and Adolescent Development 179
Characteristics of Good Schools 179
The Effects of School on Adolescent
Development 179
Chapter 7
Work, Leisure, and Media 181
Adolescents’ Free Time in Contemporary
Society 182
Patterns of Time Use in Contemporary
America 182
Patterns of Time Use in Other Countries 183
Adolescents and Work 184
142 The Rise and Fall of the Student Worker 184
Teenage Employment in Other Nations 185
The Adolescent Workplace Today 186
Employment and Adolescent Development 186
Youth Unemployment 189
Adolescents and Leisure 190
Adolescents’ Free Time and Their Moods 190
Structured Leisure Activities 191
Unstructured Leisure Time 193
Promoting Positive Youth Development 195
Adolescents, Media, and the Internet 196
Patterns of Media Use 196
Theories of Media Influence and Use 198
Adolescents’ Exposure to Controversial
Media Content 200
Electronic Media and Adolescent
Development 203
160 Mass Media and Adolescent Girls’
Body Image 206
The Adolescent Consumer 206
Free Time and Adolescent Development 207
xii Contents
PART 3
Psychosocial Development During
Adolescence 208
Chapter 8
Identity 208
Identity as an Adolescent Issue 209
Changes in Self-Conceptions 210
Changes in the Content and Structure
of Self-Conceptions 210
Dimensions of Personality in Adolescence
Changes in Self-Esteem 213
Stability and Changes in Self-Esteem 213
Group Differences in Self-Esteem 215
Antecedents and Consequences of High
Self-Esteem 218
The Adolescent Identity Crisis 219
Erikson’s Theoretical Framework 219
Identity Versus Identity Diffusion 219
The Social Context of Identity
Development 220
Resolving the Identity Crisis 221
Problems in Identity Development 221
Research on Identity Development 223
Determining an Adolescent’s Identity
Status 223
Studying Identity Development Over Time 224
Identity and Ethnicity 225
The Development of Ethnic Identity 226
Discrimination and Its Effects 228
Multiethnic Adolescents 230
Identity and Gender 231
Gender-Role Development 232
Gender-Role Socialization
During Adolescence 232
Masculinity and Femininity 233
Chapter 9
Autonomy 235
Autonomy as an Adolescent Issue 237
The Development of Emotional Autonomy 238
Emotional Autonomy and Detachment 238
Emotional Autonomy and Individuation 239
Research on Emotional Autonomy 239
Emotional Autonomy and Parenting
Practices 241
The Development of Behavioral
Autonomy 243
Changes in Decision-Making Abilities 243
When Do Adolescents Make Decisions
as Well as Adults? 244
Changes in Susceptibility to Influence 245
Ethnic and Cultural Differences in
Expectations for Autonomy 248
212
The Development of Cognitive
Autonomy 249
Moral Development During Adolescence 249
Prosocial Reasoning, Prosocial Behavior, and
Volunteerism 252
Political Thinking During Adolescence 255
Religious Beliefs During Adolescence 256
Chapter 10
Intimacy 260
Intimacy as an Adolescent Issue 262
Theoretical Perspectives on Adolescent
Intimacy 262
Sullivan’s Theory of Interpersonal
Development 263
Interpersonal Development during
Adolescence 263
Attachment in Adolescence 264
The Development of Intimacy in
Adolescence 268
Changes in the Nature of Friendship 268
Changes in the Display of Intimacy 269
Sex Differences in Intimacy 271
Changes in the Targets of Intimacy 273
Friendships with the Other Sex 277
Dating and Romantic Relationships 279
Dating and the Development of
Intimacy 280
The Development of Dating
Relationships 282
The Impact of Dating on Adolescent
Development 284
Intimacy and Psychosocial
Development 288
www.mhhe.com/steinberg11e
Chapter 11
Sexuality 290
Sexuality as an Adolescent Issue 291
Sexual Activity During Adolescence 292
Stages of Sexual Activity 293
Sexual Intercourse During Adolescence 293
Changes in Sexual Activity Over Time 296
The Sexually Active Adolescent 297
Psychological and Social Characteristics of
Sexually Active Adolescents 297
Hormonal and Contextual Influences on Sexual
Activity 299
Parental and Peer Influences on Sexual
Activity 300
Sex Differences in the Meaning of Sex 304
Sexual Orientation 305
Sexual Harassment, Rape, and Sexual Abuse
During Adolescence 306
Risky Sex and its Prevention 309
Contraceptive Use 309
AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted
Diseases 311
Teen Pregnancy 312
Adolescent Parenthood 315
Sex Education 318
Chapter 12
Achievement 320
Achievement as an Adolescent Issue 321
The Importance of Noncognitive
Factors 323
Achievement Motivation 323
Beliefs About Success and Failure 324
Environmental Influences on
Achievement 328
The Influence of the Home Environment
The Influence of Friends 331
Educational Achievement 333
The Importance of Socioeconomic Status
Ethnic Differences in Educational
Achievement 335
Changes in Educational Achievement
Over Time 338
Dropping Out of High School 340
Contents xiii
Occupational Achievement 342
The Development of Occupational Plans 342
Influences on Occupational Choices 343
Chapter 13
Psychosocial Problems
in Adolescence 347
Some General Principles about Problems
in Adolescence 348
Psychosocial Problems: Their Nature and
Covariation 350
Comorbidity of Externalizing Problems 350
Comorbidity of Internalizing Problems 352
Substance Use and Abuse 352
Prevalence of Substance Use and Abuse 353
Causes and Consequences of Substance Use
and Abuse 357
Drugs and the Adolescent Brain 360
Prevention and Treatment of Substance Use
and Abuse 361
Externalizing Problems 362
Categories of Externalizing Problems 362
Developmental Progression of Antisocial
Behavior 364
Changes in Juvenile Offending Over Time 365
Causes of Antisocial Behavior 367
Prevention and Treatment of Externalizing
Problems 371
Internalizing Problems 371
The Nature and Prevalence of Depression 372
Sex Differences in Depression 373
Suicide and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury 375
Causes of Depression and Internalizing
Disorders 377
Treatment and Prevention of Internalizing
Problems 378
329
Stress and Coping 378
McGraw-Hill Education
334
Psychology’s APA Documentation Style Guide
Glossary G1
References R1
Name Index I1
Subject Index I24
 A Note from the Author
Two psychopathic killers persuaded me to abandon my
dreams to someday become a comedy writer and study
psychology instead. I did not enter college intending to
become either a psychologist or a professor. I majored in
English, hoping to study creative writing. I became inter-
ested in psychology during the second semester of my
freshman year, because of an introductory course in per-
sonality theory. My professor had assigned the book In
Cold Blood, and our task was to analyze the personalities
of Dick and Perry, the two murderers. I was hooked. I fol-
lowed this interest in personality development to gradu-
ate school in developmental psychology, where I learned
that if you really wanted to understand how we develop
into the people we ultimately become, you have got to
know something about adolescence. That was more than
40 years ago, and I’m still as passionate about studying
this period of life as I was then.
I hope that this book gets you more excited about ado-
lescence, too.
One reason I like teaching and writing about adoles-
cence is that most students find it inherently interesting,
in part because pretty much everyone has such vivid
recollections of what it was like to be a teenager. In fact,
researchers have discovered that people actually remem-
ber events from adolescence more intensely than events
from other times, something that has been referred to as
the “reminiscence bump.”
xiv
The reminiscence bump makes teaching adolescence
both fun and frustrating. Fun, because it isn’t hard to
get students interested in the topic. Frustrating, though,
because it’s a challenge to get students to look at adoles-
cence from a scientific, as well as personal, perspective.
That, above all, is my goal for this book. I don’t want you to
forget or set aside your own experience as an adolescent.
(I couldn’t make that happen, anyway.) But what I hope
I can do is to help you understand adolescence—your own
adolescence as well as the adolescence that is experi-
enced by others around the world—more deeply and more
intelligently, by introducing you to the latest science on the
subject. I still maintain a very active program of research of
my own, and that necessitates staying on top of the field’s
most recent and important developments. There is a lot
of exciting work being done on adolescence these days
(one of my interests is the adolescent brain), and I want to
share this excitement with you. Who knows, maybe you’ll
become hooked, too.
I’ve tried to do my best at covering the most important
topics and writing about them in a way that is not only
informative, but fun and interesting to read. If there’s some-
thing I could have done better, please let me know.
Laurence Steinberg
Temple University
laurence.steinberg@temple.edu
Preface

Steinberg . . . Cutting-edge science, personalized

for today’s students
As a well-respected researcher, Laurence Steinberg connects current research with real-
world application, helping students see the similarities and differences in adolescent devel-
opment across different social, economic, and cultural backgrounds.
Through an integrated, personalized digital learning pro­gram, students gain the insight
they need to study smarter, stay focused, and improve their performance.

Personalized Study, Better Data,

Improved Results
SmartBook is now available for Adolescence!
McGraw-Hill Education’s SmartBook® is an adaptive learning
program designed to help students stay focused and maximize their
study time. Based on metacognition, and powered by McGraw-Hill
LearnSmart®, SmartBook’s adaptive capabilities provide students
with a personalized reading and learning experience that helps
them identify the concepts they know, and more importantly, the
concepts they don’t know.
SmartBook is the first and only adaptive reading experience cur-
rently available.
∙ Make It Effective. SmartBook™ creates a personalized read-
ing experience by highlighting the most impactful concepts a
student needs to learn at that moment in time. This ensures that
every minute spent with SmartBook™ is returned to the student
as the most value-added minute possible.
∙ Make It Informed. The reading experience continuously
adapts by highlighting content based on what the student
knows and doesn’t know. Real-time reports quickly iden-
tify the concepts that require more attention from individual
students—or the entire class. SmartBook™ detects the content
a student is most likely to forget and brings it back to improve
long-term knowledge retention.

Real People, Real World, Real Life

McGraw-Hill Education’s Milestones is a powerful video-based
learning tool that allows students to experience life as it unfolds, from infancy through emerg-
ing adulthood. A limited number of Milestones videos are now available for viewing within the
McGraw-Hill Connect Media Bank for Steinberg’s Adolescence, 11e.

xv
xvi Preface

Studying Adolescence in Context

The primary goal of Adolescence is to help students understand how the context in which
adolescents come of age shapes the way in which they develop. Adolescent development
­cannot be understood apart from the context in which young people live and grow up—­
families, peer groups, schools, neighborhoods, and work and leisure settings. Perhaps the
greatest expansion of knowledge during the past two decades has been about adolescents
from ethnic minority groups, from families that have recently immigrated to a new culture
from parts of the world other than North America, and from studies conducted by scholars
outside the United States. The eleventh edition of Adolescence integrates discussions of eth-
nicity and culture throughout every chapter, focusing not only on ethnic differences in devel-
opment but also on similarities that cut across adolescents from different social, economic,
and cultural backgrounds.

Thinking Critically to Make Connections

Four sets of questions interspersed throughout the text ask students to think more deeply
about particular research findings. “Making the Cultural Connection” asks students to con-
template how particular findings might (or might not) change if the research were carried out
in a different cultural context. “Making the Personal Connection” asks students to think
about their own adolescent experience in the context of the research. “Making the Scientific
Connection” asks students to consider a finding’s scientific implications. “Making the
Practical Connection” challenges students to think about how a finding might inform policy
or practice. Many instructors may want to use these questions as a launching pad for class
discussions or as essay questions on examinations.
 Preface xvii

Analyzing the Latest Research

Adolescence strives to provide students with the most current, most thorough coverage of
the scientific literature on adolescent development. The material in each chapter has been
thoroughly updated. The eleventh edition includes more than 1,000 new studies from over
60 scientific journals from the fields of psychology, education, neuroscience, sociology,
psychiatry, criminology, economics, law, medicine, and public health. I’ve tried to empha-
size studies that break new ground (like studies of brain development), change the way the
field thinks (like studies of why aggressive adolescents are often popular), or update exist-
ing findings with more recent samples or newer methods (like studies of Internet use) in
order to give students the opportunity to review and analyze the latest information the field
has to offer.

Content Changes
The overall organization of Adolescence has not changed since the previous edition.
Specifically, the chapters about psychosocial development during adolescence are separate
from those about the contexts of adolescence. In this way, the psychosocial concerns of
­adolescence—identity, autonomy, intimacy, sexuality, and achievement—are presented as
central developmental concerns that surface across, and are affected by, different settings.
In response to feedback from some instructors that the text had become wordy, I devoted
special attention in this edition to the quality of the writing. Each chapter has been shortened
somewhat without dropping coverage of any major areas of research. I did this by doing what
I teach my students about good writing: To follow Strunk and White’s famous dictum, from
The Elements of Style, to “Omit needless words.”
This book contains an Introduction and 13 chapters, which are grouped into three parts:
the fundamental biological, cognitive, and social changes of the period (Part 1); the con-
texts of adolescence (Part 2); and psychosocial development during the adolescent years
(Part 3). The Introduction presents a model for studying adolescence that serves as both
the organizational framework for the text and an overview of some of the basic disciplinary
perspectives on the period. I have found the framework to be extremely helpful in teaching
adolescent development, and I highly recommend using it. However, if the model does not
fit with your course outline or your own perspective on adolescence, it is possible to use the
text without using the framework. Each chapter is self-contained, and so it is not necessary
to assign chapters in the sequence in which they are ordered in the text. Most users assign
the chapters in the order in which they appear, but some assign the chapters in a sequence
that pairs an aspect of psychosocial development with the context that most influences it (for
example, “Schools” with “Achievement,” or “Peer Groups” with “Intimacy”), and that has
worked well for them.

Theory and Methods

Although the Introduction reviews how different disciplines (such as psychology, neurosci-
ence, sociology, anthropology, and history) approach the study of adolescence, it does not
provide detailed examinations of particular theories or research methods. My preference is
to integrate material on theory and methods when it is most relevant, in a way that shows
students how research and theory are related. At the beginning of the chapter on intimacy,
for instance, several perspectives on close relationships (for example, attachment theory and
Sullivan’s perspective on psychosocial development) are presented, and then the relevant
research is examined. Similarly, the research methods and tools employed in the study of
adolescence are discussed in the context of specific studies that illustrate the powers—or
pitfalls—of certain strategies.
xviii Preface

Chapter-By-Chapter Changes
The eleventh edition of Adolescence features updated and expanded coverage of key issues
in development in every chapter. Below is a complete list of changes in each chapter:

Chapter 1
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 80 new citations)
∙ Expanded discussion of causes of the decline in the age of puberty
∙ Expanded discussion of adolescent sleep
∙ Expanded discussion of adolescent obesity
∙ Expanded discussion of eating disorders
∙ Expanded discussion of the impact of puberty on brain development

Chapter 2
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 90 new citations)
∙ Expanded discussion of memory during adolescence and the “reminiscence bump”
∙ Expanded material on the basics of brain development
∙ Greatly expanded discussion of structural and functional changes in the
adolescent brain
∙ Added discussion of brain plasticity in adolescence
∙ Expansion of material on “the social brain”
∙ Expanded discussion of risk taking in adolescence

Chapter 3
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 50 new citations)
∙ Addition of discussion of the elongation of adolescence
∙ Expanded discussion of mental health problems among emerging adults
∙ Added discussion of the adverse consequences of growing up in affluent communities
∙ Expanded discussion of impact of neighborhood poverty

Chapter 4
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 70 new citations)
∙ Added discussion of dangers of parental overcontrol
∙ Expanded discussion of closeness between adolescents and parents
∙ Revised discussion of sibling relationships
∙ Updated statistics on household composition

Chapter 5
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 100 new citations)
∙ Expanded discussion of unsupervised time with peers
∙ Dropped dated material on study of “nerds to normals”
∙ Added discussion of parental role in managing cross-ethnic friendships
∙ Expanded discussion of relationship between popularity and deviance
∙ Expanded discussion of bullying and victimization
∙ Expanded discussion of cyberbullying

Chapter 6
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 50 new citations)
∙ Updated discussion of big fish-little pond effect
∙ Added material on homeschooling
∙ Expanded discussion of student engagement and its measurement
∙ Expanded discussion of differential treatment of minority adolescents in schools
∙ Updated material on ADHD and medication for the condition
www.mhhe.com/steinberg11e Preface xix

Chapter 7
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 90 new citations)
∙ Condensed discussion of part-time employment
∙ Added discussion of stress associated with organized sports participation
∙ Updating of statistics on Internet use
∙ Updated discussion of the impact of the Internet on adolescent development
∙ Updated discussion of the impact of social networking sites

Chapter 8
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 80 new citations)
∙ Integrated new information on brain science and self-conceptions
∙ Updated material on ethnic identity development and discrimination
∙ Added discussion of differences among sexual identity, sexual orientation, and ­
gender roles
∙ Added discussion of the development of sexual identity, including transgender youth

Chapter 9
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 80 new citations)
∙ Revised discussion of emotional autonomy
∙ Replaced discussion of self-reliance with discussion of self-regulation
∙ Updated discussion of the brain science of peer influence
∙ Added discussion of adolescents’ beliefs about the causes of poverty and affluence
∙ Added material on cohort differences in civic engagement

Chapter 10
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 70 new citations)
∙ Added material on the development of the social brain and implications for adolescent
relationships

Chapter 11
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 90 new citations)
∙ Expanded discussion of sex differences in emotional reactions to sexual debut
∙ Expanded discussion of sexual harassment, especially of LGBTQ youth
∙ Moved material on sexual identity to chapter 8 (Identity)
∙ Added discussion of long-acting reversible contraceptive use among adolescents

Chapter 12
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 70 new citations)
∙ New discussion of noncognitive contributors to academic success
∙ Expanded discussion of importance of parental expectations
∙ Updated statistics on U.S. high school achievement

Chapter 13
∙ Thorough update of all content (more than 130 new citations)
∙ Expanded discussion of comorbidity of internalizing and externalizing problems
∙ Expanded discussion of mental health problems in adolescence and young adulthood
∙ New discussion of suicide contagion among adolescents
∙ Expanded discussion of the relationship between experimentation with substances and adoles-
cent adjustment
∙ Updated discussion of drugs and the adolescent brain
∙ Updated all statistics on prevalence and demographic differences in substance abuse,
crime, and depression
∙ Rewritten all diagnostic criteria tables to be consistent with the DSM-5
∙ Added discussion of abuse of prescription drugs
xx Preface

Supplements
For the Instructor
The supplements for the eleventh edition have been carefully revised and updated. The instruc-
tor resources for the new edition include an Instructor’s Manual, Test Bank, and PowerPoint
presentations for each chapter.

Acknowledgments
Revising Adolescence at a time when so much new information is available is a challenge
that requires much assistance. Over the years, my students (as well as many who have writ-
ten to me from other institutions) have suggested numerous ways in which the text might be
improved, and I have learned a great deal from listening to them. I am especially grateful to
Karol Silva, who ably tracked down and organized much of the new research published in the
three years between editions.
I also wish to thank my colleagues at McGraw-Hill Education, including William Glass,
Managing Director; Krista Bettino, Brand Manager; Dawn Groundwater, Lead Product
Developer; Carly Britton, Editorial Coordinator; Sheila Frank, Content Project Manager;
Christina Yu, Marketing Manager; and Bruce Cantley, Product Developer.
In addition, I am grateful to the many colleagues and students across the country who
took the time during the past 30 years to send me comments and suggestions based on their
firsthand experiences using Adolescence in the classroom. They have improved the text with
each edition.
Laurence Steinberg
 The Study of Adolescent INTRODUCTION
Development

The Boundaries of Adolescence Theoretical Perspectives on Adolescence

Early, Middle, and Late Adolescence Biosocial Theories
A Framework for Studying Adolescent Organismic Theories
Development Learning Theories
The Fundamental Changes of Adolescence Sociological Theories
The Contexts of Adolescence Historical and Anthropological Theories
Psychosocial Development of Adolescence Stereotypes Versus Scientific Study
© Eric Audras/PhotoAlto/Getty Images RF

1
2 Introduction
In the spring of 2015, the world watched closely as
a young man named Dzhokhar Tsarnaev went on trial for
the Boston Marathon bombing. The question before the
jury was not whether Tsarnaev had committed this horrific
crime—he had admitted as much—but whether he should
receive a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty.
Tsarnaev was 19 when the bombing took place. Among
the witnesses called by Tsarnaev’s defense team was Jay
Giedd, a prominent expert in adolescent brain develop-
ment. Giedd testified that recent studies showed that the
brain was still maturing during the late teens and early 20s.
Building on Giedd’s testimony, Tsarnaev’s attorneys argued
that people this age lacked the ability to stand up to a more
powerful peer, like an older brother, and that this immaturity
made Tsarnaev less than fully responsible for his behavior
and, accordingly, less deserving of capital punishment.
Defense attorneys for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the admitted Boston
Marathon bomber, used adolescent brain science to argue that
he should be spared the death penalty. The jury disagreed.
© FBI/Handout/Getty Images News/Getty Images
making the practical
connection
Studies of adolescent brain development have revealed
that the brain continues to mature well into the mid-
20s. This research was used in several U.S. Supreme
Court cases, where the Court ruled that adolescents
should not be as punished as severely as adults, even
when they have been convicted of the same crimes.
But some advocates for youth have worried that this
same research can be used to limit what teenagers are
The jury rejected this argument. On May 15, 2015,
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death. It is almost
certain that his defense attorneys will appeal this
decision.
Although advances in adolescent brain science did
not sway the jury in the Boston Marathon bombing case,
the science of adolescent development is changing the
way in which we think about this stage of life (Steinberg,
2014). Historically, and pretty much around the world, we
have drawn a legal boundary between adolescence and
adulthood at age 18 (even though in the United States there
are some things people are permitted to do at an earlier
age, like driving, and others that are prohibited until several
years later, like purchasing alcohol). But what if the brain is
still maturing in the early 20s? What if things like impulse
control or the ability to fully think through the future con-
sequences of one’s decisions are still developing into the
mid-20s? Should this change how we define adulthood
under the law?
This question is one that I have been studying and
writing about for the past 20 years, and I still don’t have a
simple answer. If science is our guide, where should we
draw the line between adolescence and adulthood? It’s
not just an abstract, academic exercise. How we answer
this question has far-reaching ramifications for society
and, of course, for teenagers. At what age should a preg-
nant adolescent be able to obtain an abortion without
her parents’ permission? How old should individuals
have to be to see a psychologist or have cosmetic sur-
gery without their parents knowing? Have we picked the
right ages in deciding who can drive, see R-rated mov-
ies, or buy cigarettes? And how should we respond to
young offenders? “Do the adult crime, do the adult time”
may sound fair from the perspective of crime victims, but
does it make sense in light of what we know about ado-
lescent development? When he committed the Boston
Marathon bombing, was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev an adoles-
cent or an adult?
allowed to do, such as drive or seek an abortion without
their parents’ knowledge. How would you respond to
someone who, on the basis of this research, says that if
adolescents are too young to be punished like adults,
they are too young to be treated like adults in other
ways as well?
What is the nature of adolescents’ identity develop-
ment in a changing world? How should society deal with
problems of youth unemployment, underage drinking,
www.mhhe.com/steinberg11e INTRODUCTION The Study of Adolescent Development 3

teenage pregnancy, and juvenile crime? What is the best
way to prepare young people for adulthood?
Answering these questions requires a thorough under-
standing of adolescents’ psychological development, and
in this book we will examine how—and why—­people’s
hopes and plans, fears and anxieties, and questions and con-
cerns change as they develop from childhood to adulthood.
Answering these difficult questions requires more than
an understanding of the ways in which individuals change
psychologically as they move through adolescence,
though. It also requires knowledge of how they develop
physically, how their brain matures, how their relation-
ships with others change, how as a group they are viewed
and treated by society, how adolescence in our society
differs from adolescence in other cultures, and how the
nature of adolescence itself has changed over the years.
In other words, a complete understanding of adolescence
in contemporary society depends on being familiar with
biological, social, sociological, cultural, and historical
perspectives on the period (Dahl & Hariri, 2005).
The Boundaries of Adolescence
The word adolescence is derived from the Latin adoles-
cere, which means “to grow into adulthood” (R. Lerner
& Steinberg, 2009). In all societies, adolescence is a
time of growing up, of moving from the immaturity of
childhood into the maturity of adulthood, of prepara-
tion for the future (Larson, Wilson, & Rickman, 2009;
Schlegel, 2009). Adolescence is a period of transitions:
biological, psychological, social, economic. During
adolescence, individuals become interested in sex and
biologically capable of having children. They become
wiser, more sophisticated, and better able to make their
own decisions. They become adolescence
more self-aware, more inde- The stage of development
pendent, and more concerned that begins with puberty and
about what the future holds. ends when individuals make
the transition into adult roles,
Over time, they are permit-
roughly speaking, from about
ted to work, to get married, to 10 until the early 20s.
drive, and to vote. Think for a
moment about how much you
changed between when you finished elementary school
and when you graduated from high school. I’m sure
you’ll agree that the changes you went through were
remarkable.
As you can see in Table 1, there are a variety of
boundaries we might draw between childhood and
adolescence, and between adolescence and adult-
hood. Whereas a biologist would place a great deal of
emphasis on the attainment and completion of puberty,
an attorney would look instead at important age breaks
designated by law, and an educator might draw atten-
tion to differences between students enrolled in different
grades in school. Is a biologically mature fifth-grader
an adolescent or a child? Is a 20-year-old college stu-
dent who lives at home an adolescent or an adult? There
are no right or wrong answers to these questions. It all
depends on the boundaries we use to define the period.
Determining the beginning and ending of adolescence is
more a matter of opinion than of absolute fact.
Rather than argue about which boundaries are the
correct ones, it makes more sense to think of devel-
opment during adolescence as involving a series of
transitions from immaturity into maturity (Howard &
Galambos, 2011; Settersten et al., 2005; Trejos-Castillo
& Vazsonyi, 2011). Some of these passages are long and
some are short; some are smooth and others are rough.

Table 1 The boundaries of adolescence. Here are some examples of the ways in which adolescence has been
distinguished from childhood and adulthood that we examine in this book. Which boundaries make the most
sense to you?

Perspective When Adolescence Begins When Adolescence Ends

Biological Onset of puberty Becoming capable of sexual reproduction

Emotional Beginning of detachment from parents Attainment of separate sense identity
Cognitive Emergence of more advanced reasoning abilities Consolidation of advanced reasoning abilities
Interpersonal Beginning of shift in interest from parental to Development of capacity for intimacy
peer relations with peers
Social Beginning of training for adult work, family, and Full attainment of adult status and privileges
citizen roles
Educational Entrance into junior high school Completion of formal schooling
Legal Attainment of juvenile status Attainment of majority status
Chronological Attainment of designated age of adolescence Attainment of designated age of adulthood
(e.g., 10 years) (e.g., 21 years)
Cultural Entrance into period of training for ceremonial Completion of ceremonial rite of passage
rite of passage
4 Introduction

early adolescence
And not all of them occur at mid-20s are in some sort of psychological or social
The period spanning roughly the same time. Consequently, it limbo (Côté & Bynner, 2008; Kloep & Hendry, 2014).
ages 10–13, corresponding is quite possible—and perhaps Indeed, what is most striking about the transition from
roughly to the junior high or even likely—that an individual adolescence to adulthood today is just how many dif-
middle school years. will mature in some respects ferent pathways there are. Some individuals spend their
middle adolescence before he or she matures in 20s single, dependent on their parents, and bouncing
The period spanning roughly others. The various aspects from job to job, while others leave adolescence and go
ages 14–17, corresponding to of adolescence have different straight into marriage, full-time employment, and eco-
the high school years.
beginnings and different end- nomic independence (Osgood, Ruth, Eccles, Jacobs, &
late adolescence ings for every individual. An Barber, 2005).
The period spanning roughly individual can be a child in
ages 18–21, corresponding
approximately to the college
some ways, an adolescent in
other ways, and an adult in still
years.
others. A Framework for Studying
emerging adulthood
The period spanning roughly
For the purposes of this Adolescent Development
ages 18–25, during which indi- book, we’ll define adolescence
viduals make the transition from as beginning with puberty and This book uses a framework for studying adolescence
adolescence to adulthood. ending when individuals make that is based on a model originally suggested by John
the transition into adult roles, Hill (1983). The model has three basic components:
puberty
The biological changes of roughly from age 10 until the (1) the fundamental changes of adolescence, (2) the con-
adolescence. early 20s. Although at one time texts of adolescence, and (3) the psychosocial develop-
“adolescence” may have been ments of adolescence.
synonymous with the teenage
years (from 13 to 19), the adolescent period has length-
ened considerably in the past 100 years, both because The Fundamental Changes
physical maturation occurs earlier and because so many of Adolescence
individuals delay entering into work and marriage until
their mid-20s (Steinberg, 2014). What, if anything, is distinctive about adolescence as
a period in development? According to Hill, three fea-
tures of adolescent development give the period its spe-
cial flavor and significance: (1) the onset of puberty,
Early, Middle, and Late Adolescence (2) the emergence of more advanced thinking abilities, and
Because so much psychological and social growth (3) the transition into new roles in society. These three
takes place during adolescence, most social scientists sets of changes—biological, cognitive, and social—are
and practitioners view adolescence as composed of a the fundamental changes of adolescence. Importantly,
series of phases rather than one single stage (Samela- they are universal changes; virtually without exception,
Aro, 2011). The 11-year-old whose time and energy all adolescents in every society go through them.
is wrapped up in hip-hop, Facebook, and baseball,
for example, has little in common with the 21-year- Biological Transitions The chief elements of the bio-
old who is involved in a serious romance, worried logical changes of adolescence—which collectively are
about pressures at work, and looking for an affordable referred to as puberty—involve changes in the young
apartment. person’s physical appearance (including breast develop-
Social scientists who study adolescence differentiate ment in girls, the growth of facial hair in boys, and a
among early adolescence (about ages 10–13), middle dramatic increase in height for both sexes) and the devel-
adolescence (about ages 14–17), and late adolescence opment of the ability to conceive children (Bogin, 2011).
(about ages 18–21). In discussing development dur- We’ll look at the biological changes that occur in
ing adolescence, we’ll need to be sensitive not only early adolescence and examine how puberty affects
to differences between adolescence and childhood, or the adolescent’s psychological development and social
between adolescence and adulthood, but also to differ- relationships.
ences among the various phases of adolescence itself.
Some writers also have suggested that a new phase Cognitive Transitions The word cognitive refers to
of life, called emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2004), the processes that underlie how people think. Changes in
characterizes the early and mid-20s. However, despite thinking abilities make up the second of the three funda-
the popularity of this idea in the mass media, there is mental changes of adolescence. Compared with children,
little evidence that “emerging adulthood” is a univer- adolescents are much better able to think about hypotheti-
sal stage or that the majority of young people in their cal situations (that is, things that have not yet happened
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Little Miss
Oddity
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Little Miss Oddity

Author: Amy Ella Blanchard

Illustrator: Ida Waugh

Release date: October 9, 2023 [eBook #71840]

Language: English

Original publication: Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs &

Company, 1902

Credits: Bob Taylor, David Edwards and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MISS

ODDITY ***
LITTLE MISS ODDITY
“‘Tain’t Nothin’ but an Old Weed!”
 Little Miss Oddity
By
AMY E. BLANCHARD
Author of “A Dear Little Girl,” “Mistress May,” etc.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY IDA WAUGH

PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO.
PUBLISHERS
 Copyright, 1902,
By George W. Jacobs & Co.
Published July, 1902.
 Contents
CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. THE BACK YARD 9

II. IN THE GARDEN 29
III. WHERE IS JERRY? 47
IV. A NEW ACQUAINTANCE 67
V. THE VISIT 85
VI. PLEASANT DREAMS 105
VII. HOW CASSY TRIED TO MAKE A FIRE 119
VIII. THE SUMMER LONG 141
IX. NEWS 157
X. PLANS 175
XI. THE SURPRISE 191
XII. UNCLE JOHN ARRIVES 209
 Illustrations

“’Tain’t nothin’ but an old weed” Frontispiece

Every now and then Flora was carried over and
Page 53
shown the geranium
They played all sorts of games ” 99
Cassy’s eyes opened wider and wider ” 133
“What do you think! News! News!” ” 163
THE BACK YARD
 CHAPTER I
THE BACK YARD

It was a queer jumbled up place, that back yard of the house

where Cassy and Jerry Law lived; old barrels tumbled to pieces in
one corner, empty tomato cans rolled against cast-off shoes in
another; here bits of broken crockery wedged themselves in between
a lot of shingles, and there a pile of iron scraps crowded against a
bottomless chair; on a clothes-line flapped several pairs of overalls
and a stunted little tree bore upon its branches sundry stockings of
various sizes and conditions.
It was a discouraging looking place, but Cassy, intently bending
over a pile of dirt near the bottomless chair, did not heed anything
but the fact that two tiny green shoots were poking themselves up
from the unpromising soil. She was a thin-faced, bright-eyed child,
not pretty, but with an eager, wistful expression, and as her face lit
up with a sudden smile she looked unusually intelligent.
“Jerry, come here,” she cried; “I’ve got a garden.”
“Sho!” returned Jerry, “I don’t believe it.”
“I have so; just you come and look at it.” Cassy tossed back the
locks of brown hair that hung over her eyes and softly patted with her
two small hands the dry earth around the springing blades of green.
Jerry came nearer. “It’s truly growing,” Cassy went on. “I didn’t stick it
in the ground myself to make believe; just see.”
Jerry bent his sandy-colored head nearer to the object of his
sister’s admiration.
“’Tain’t nothin’ but a old weed,” he decided at last.
“How do you know?”
“I just believe it.”
 “Well, you don’t know, and I think it is just as good to believe it will
grow to be a beautiful flower.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Jerry said.
“Why not?”
“’Cause.”
“But just maybe,” Cassy insisted pleadingly. “Why couldn’t it? I
don’t see why not.”
“’Cause,” repeated Jerry, “I never saw no flowers growing in this
back yard.”
“But Mrs. Boyle has some right next door, and oh, Jerry, Mrs.
Schaff across the street has some great big lovely red ones. Please
let’s hope this will be a flower.”
“Well,” replied Jerry, doubtfully, “I’ll pretend, but if it isn’t, you
mustn’t say: Now, Jerry, what made you let me believe in it?”
“I won’t; I truly won’t.”
“All the same,” said Jerry, “I don’t see how you can keep it from
being trampled on.”
Cassy looked alarmed.
“You see it’s right out here where anybody can pull it up or do
anything. Billy Miles would rather tear it to pieces than not if he
thought you wanted to keep it.”
Cassy’s distress increased. “Couldn’t we hide it or something?”
“We might for a little while, but if it should grow and grow why then
anybody could find it out.”
“Oh, dear,” sighed Cassy, “it’s like Moses when they had to put him
in the bulrushes. Maybe it will be a little wee bit of a flower and after
a while we could come and dig it up and set it in the window. I know
what I’ll do; I’ll set that old chair over it and then maybe nobody will
notice it.”
 “There’s a piece of chicken wire off over there,” said Jerry, good-
naturedly. “I’ll get that and sort of twist it around the chair, then it will
make a fence for it. Sh! There’s Billy, and if he sees us he will play
the mischief with any fun of ours.”
Cassy arose hastily to her feet and faced the back door from
which Billy’s form was just issuing. There was no love lost between
Billy and the Law children.
“What yer doin’?” questioned Billy, looking suspiciously at Cassy’s
defiant attitude.
“Nothin’.”
“Humph! I don’t believe ye.”
Cassy spread out her hands.
“Well, see, am I doing anything? Did you think I was eating
strawberries or swinging in a hammock?”
“You’re too smart,” returned Billy. He came over and peered
around. “You’ve got somethin’ in among those cans.”
Cassy tossed up her chin.
“You’re welcome to all you find in them.”
Billy turned one over with his foot, looked among the scraps of iron
and then said:
“You’re just bluffin’, but I’ll find out.” And he climbed the fence into
the next yard.
As soon as his stout legs had disappeared Cassy whirled the old
chair around till it stood over her treasured plant. Jerry disengaged
the strip of chicken wire from its surroundings and contrived a sort of
coop-like structure which did not attract the eye, yet kept the small
green shoots safely hidden without excluding the light and air.
“Now let’s go tell mother,” said Cassy, and took to her heels, Jerry
following.
Up the shabby dark stairway they ran, Cassy stepping lightly,
Jerry, boy-like, with clattering tread. Mrs. Law glanced up from her
sewing as they entered. “We’ve got a garden,” said Cassy in a loud
whisper.
“What do you mean?” inquired her mother, breaking off her thread
with a snap.
“We have truly,” Cassy insisted. “It’s under an old chair in the back
yard.”
“That’s a queer place for a garden,” responded her mother,
rethreading her needle and taking swift stitches.
“Yes, but it happened itself, you know, and so we have to have it
there. We’re so afraid Billy Miles will pull it up. Jerry thinks maybe it’s
a weed, but we’re going to hope it’s a flower, a real flower. What
would you like it to be, mother, a rose?”
“I’m afraid that would be setting my hopes too high. Let me see,
perhaps it might be a morning-glory.”
“Are they pretty, morning-glories?”
“Yes, very.”
“What color?”
“All colors, but the common ones are generally purple or blue.”
“I’d like them to be blue. What do they look like?”
“They grow on a vine, and the flowers are little vase-like cups that
open first thing in the morning and close when the sun shines on
them.”
“But they open the next day?”
“No, not the same flower, but others do. They bloom very freely,
although each one lasts only a little while.”
“Do they smell sweet?”
“I never noticed that they did.”
Cassy was not entirely satisfied with this description and sat very
still thinking about it. After awhile she broke out with: “You don’t think
it could be any other kind of a flower?”
 “Oh, I didn’t say so. Of course it might be. We can tell very soon. I
know the leaves of a morning-glory, and when I get time I will go
down and look at your plant. Yes, I know morning-glories well
enough. There used to be a great mass of them over the back fence
where we used to live; all colors, blue and pink and lovely white ones
striped. I used to think they were very beautiful.” She sighed and
worked faster. “Don’t go out, Jerry,” she said presently. “This work
must go home this evening.”
“May I go with Jerry?” asked Cassy.
Her mother hesitated and then replied, “Yes, but don’t stay.”
Spring was well on its way as open windows and doorsteps
swarming with children showed, but in this narrow street there were
no perfume-laden airs; it seemed instead that all the foul odors were
made more evident by the warmer weather, and as the brother and
sister made their way through the slovenly groups of loungers, there
was little to make them realize the beauty of a world where green
trees and sweetly smelling orchards made the heart glad.
They took their way along soberly enough, Jerry lugging the big
bundle and his sister trotting along by his side. From the narrow
street they turned into a broader one where shops of all kinds were
arrayed along the way. Into one of these the children turned,
delivered their bundle and hurried out. They never tarried long at the
place, for they did not feel comfortable under the old Jew’s sharp
eyes, and did not enjoy being stared at by the two big boys who
were always there, too.
“We did hurry,” said Cassy when they reached the corner. “And
see, Jerry, there are trees with tiny green leaves on them behind that
wall. I have always wanted so much to see what was behind that
wall. Do you believe you could climb it?”
“Yes, ’course I could, but the cops wouldn’t let me.”
“I do want to know so much,” repeated Cassy wistfully. “There is a
gate, you know, but it’s boards, and it’s always shut tight. Can’t we
walk around that way now? It won’t take us long and it’s so much
nicer than the other way.”
 “I don’t know why,” said Jerry. “Brick walls ain’t so awful pretty.”
“No, but the trees are getting green; little bits of baby leaves are
coming out on them and we can see them above the wall. Let us go
that way.”
“All right,” agreed Jerry.
They trotted along till the brick wall was reached and then Cassy
exclaimed excitedly: “Oh, Jerry, I believe the gate is open; there is a
man there with a wheelbarrow. Oh, do hurry.”
She ran forward as fast as her legs would carry her and sure
enough the gate was open and beyond it smiled such a garden as
Cassy had never before seen. Tulips, red and yellow, flaunted
themselves in their little round beds, daffodils nodded sunnily from
the borders, primroses and pansies, flowering bush and early shrub
were all in bloom. Cassy drew a long breath of delight. Was ever
anything ever so beautiful? Her eager little face was bent forward
and her big eyes were taking in the whole scene when the gardener
came out trundling his wheelbarrow.
“Take care, sis,” he warned, “don’t stand in the way.”
“Oh!” Cassy exclaimed, scarcely noticing what he said. “Oh, isn’t it
beautiful?”
The gardener smiled.
“’Tain’t so bad. You can step inside the gate out of the way, if you
want to.”
“And Jerry, too?” Cassy asked as her brother came up.
The gardener looked suspiciously at Jerry. He had reasons for not
thinking well of small boys.
“He’d better stay outside,” he said; but seeing Cassy’s
disappointed face he yielded. “If you’ll keep right there by the gate I
guess you’ll do no harm,” he told Jerry, and the two children stepped
inside.
Such a waft of sweet odors as met them, and such a glory of color.
The gardener glanced at Cassy’s rapt face as he trundled in his last
load of sand, and he looked pleased.
“You like it pretty well, don’t you?” he said. “If I had time I’d show
you about, but I’ve got to get some plants potted before night, and
I’ve got to shut the gate now,” he added regretfully.
Cassy turned slowly, her eyes still lingering upon the borders.
“She’s wanted to see the inside of this place more’n anything,”
Jerry confided to the gardener as Cassy’s steps lagged, “but the
gate ain’t ever been open before.”
“Then I’m glad it happened to be this time when you were by,” said
the gardener heartily. “Some day if you happen to see me when I’ve
got time I’ll take you all over the garden.”
“Oh, thank you, sir, thank you. I’d love that. Have you any
morning-glories?”
The man laughed.
“No, pesky things; they grow so fast that they’d get the best of me
in no time; though, now I think of it, there were some by the kitchen
door last year. The cook planted them, and I guess they’ll come up
again this summer too plentiful for my use. Do you like ’em, sis?”
“I never saw any,” Cassy told him. “But I want to.”
She turned away as the gardener made ready to shut the gate,
and all the way home she had scarcely a word to say. “It was like the
garden of Eden,” she said under her breath once.
“I think he might have given us some flowers,” said Jerry.
“Maybe he couldn’t,” returned Cassy. “They aren’t his. I think he
was very good to let us go in. Oh, Jerry, how happy, how happy
people must be who have a garden like that.”
There was excuse enough for their having tarried when they
reached home at dusk to find their simple little supper of mush and
molasses ready for them. Cassy could talk of nothing but the garden,
and all night long she dreamed of nodding flowers and green trees.
 In the morning her first thought was of the two green shoots under
the old chair in the back yard. Perhaps the plant needed water; she
would go down and see before any one was up. Carefully carrying a
cupful of water she went down the rickety steps which led to the
back yard.
The little green shoots had stretched further up out of the dry
earth, to the child’s delight. Lifting the chair with a cautious look
around she poured the water upon the earth and watched it sink into
the ground. She crouched there for some time as if she would
discover the plant’s manner of growing.
At last she arose with a sigh. Such a poor little garden compared
to the one she had seen yesterday, but what possibilities did it not
hold? This tiny plant might yet show gorgeous blooms of red and
yellow, or send forth big bunches of pink. Her thoughts went rioting
along when they were interrupted by a hoarse laugh, and looking up
startled, she saw the grinning face of Billy Miles peering over the
fence.
“I caught ye,” he jeered. “I seen ye. What yer got buried there?”
“Nothing,” returned Cassy stoutly.
“Yer another,” retorted Billy, clambering over the fence. “What yer
got in that cup?”
Cassy turned the cup upside down, but Billy was not satisfied. He
came threateningly towards her, taking no heed of where he was
stepping.
“Oh, take care,” cried Cassy, forgetting caution in her alarm lest
his heavy tread should crush her precious plant.
Billy looked down.
“Ye tried to fool me,” he cried, seeing the moist circle out of which
stretched the green shoots.
“I didn’t, either.”
Billy for answer gave a savage kick and snap went the little stalk.
Cassy burst into tears, picked up her treasured plant and went flying
up-stairs. She laid the tiny stalk before her mother, and hiding her
face in her hands sobbed bitterly.
Jerry, still frowsy and unkempt, issued from his bit of a room.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, looking at Cassy in concern. For
answer Mrs. Law held up the broken stalk, and Jerry looked his
sympathy.
“Never mind, don’t cry so, dear,” Mrs. Law said at last. “Very likely
it wouldn’t have lived anyhow.”
“How did it happen?” whispered Jerry.
“Billy Miles,” Cassy whispered back, choking down her sobs. “He
saw me watering it and he got mad and kicked it to death. Oh, my
poor little flower that was going to be a morning-glory. It was, wasn’t
it, mother?”
Mrs. Law examined the broken leaves.
“I think perhaps it was,” she replied.
“Won’t it live if I plant it in a box?” asked Cassy, this new hope
causing her tears to cease.
“I’m afraid not.”
“I’ll get even with Billy Miles,” muttered Jerry; then louder he said,
“Cheer up, Cass; I’ll get you a real, righty flower, see if I don’t.” He
looked at his mother for encouragement.
“How will you do it?” asked Cassy, interested.
“Never you mind. I will, honest, I will. I’ll tell mother.” And drawing
Mrs. Law to one side he confided to her his plan.
All day long Jerry was absent, and when Cassy asked where he
was, her mother only smiled, though if the truth were known he was
not very far away, for he was keeping watch by the gate in the
garden wall. If that gardener should but once appear Jerry knew well
what he meant to do. He did not come home even to dinner, but
munched a crust he had stuffed in his pocket, and kept his eye on
the gate.