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What They Are Missing
No man, not even her own father, may come into the house while the seclusion lasts; for if her father saw her at this time he would certainly have bad luck in his fishing, and would probably smash his canoe the very next time he went out in it.
The local boys are, of course, forbidden.
This leaves only the rare, visiting
 
father, awkward brother, the headmaster,
the boy who bushhogs the pasture,
 
or the chaplain in his telling collar – starched
tooth at the throat – to remind them.

Editor's Note: ‘Environmental Awareness: The Right Whale’, ‘What They Are Missing’, ‘Physical Education’ and ‘Reunion Weekend’ are from a sequence entitled ‘All Girls School’. The epigraphs are from the chapter ‘The Seclusion of Girls at Puberty’ in The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion by Sir George Frazer.