The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-01-19

1AoSSu, uSdNe any lcelluS dUOuI duy-
thing" she added flippantly, readjust-
ing her dainty little arms. "When was
a baby, fancy my parents left me out
In the frost one night, and got nip
ped internally. 1t feels So"
II have only few old thoughts" he
said, ''and think them over and
over again, always beginning where l
left off. never get any further. am
weary Of them"
''Like an old hen that sits on it's eggs
month after month and they never
come out?" she said quickly. Il am so
pressed in upon by new things that,
lest they should trip one another up, I
have to keep forcing them back. My
head swings sometimes. But this one
thought stands, never goes-if might
but be one Of those born in the future;
then perhaps to be born woman will
not be to be born branded"
Waldo looked at her. 1t was hard to
say whether she were in earnest or
hooking.
81 know it is foolish. Wisdom never
kicks at the iron walls it can't bring
Waldo, born cursed from the time our
mothers bring us into the world till
the shrouds are put on us. Do not look
at me as though were talking non
sense. Everything has two sides-the
outside that is ridiculous, and the in
side that is solemn"
II am not laughing" said the boy
sedately enough. "But what curses
you?"
He thought she would not reply to
him, she waited so long.
ut is not what is done to us, but
what is made Of u.s." she said at last,
chat wrongs us. No man can be real
ly injured but by what modifies him
self. We all enter the world little
plastic beings, with so much natural
force perhaps, but for the rest-blank,
and the world tells us what we are to
be and shapes us by the ends it sets be-
fore u.s. To you it says-work, and to
us it says-seem! To you it says, AS
you approximate to mans highest
ideal of God. as your arm is strong and
your knowledge great, and the power
to labor is with you, SO you shall gain
all that human heart desires. To us it
says: Strength shall not help you, nor
knowledge, nor labor You shall gain
what men gain, but by other means.
And so the world makes men and wo-
men.
Look at this little chin of mine,
Waldo, with the dimple in it. 1t is but
small part of my person, but though
had knowledge of all things under
the sun and the wisdom to use 1t and
the deep, loving heart of an angel, it
would not stand me through life like
this little chin. l can win money with
1t, can win love; l can win power
with it, l can win fame What would
knowledge help me? The less wom-
an has in her head the lighter she is
for climbing. once heard an old man
say that he never saw intellect help q
woman so much as a pretty ankle, and
1t was the truth. They begin to shape
us to our cursed end,' she said, with
her lips drawn in to look as though
they smiled, when we are tiny things
In shoes and socks. We sit with our
little feet drawn up under us in the
window and look out at the boys in
their happy play. We want to go.
Then a loving hand is laid on us.
Little one, you cannot co. they say,
your little face will burn and your
nice white dress be spoiled We feel
it must be for our good, it is so loving
~ said, but we cannot understand, and
we kneel still with one little cheek
wistfully pressed against the pane.
Afterward we go and thread blue
beads and make string for our neck,
and we go and stand before the glass.
We see the complexion we were not to
spoil and the white frock, and we look
into our own great eyes. Then the
curse begins to act on us. 1t finishes
its work when we are grown women,
who no more look out wistfully at
more healthy Hfe-we are contented.
We fit our sphere as a Chinese wom-
ans foot fits her shoe, exactly, as
though God had made both-and yet he
knows nothing Of either. In some of
us the shaping to our end has been
quite completed. The parts we are not
to use have been quite atrophied and
have even dropped off, but in others,
and we are not less to be pitied, they
have been weakened and left. We wear
the bandages, but our limbs have not
grown to them; we know that we are
compressed, and chafe against them.
"But what does it help? A little bit
terness, q little longing when we are
young, little futile searching for
work, a little passionate striving for
room for the exercise Of our powers,
and then we go with the drove. A wo-
man must march with her regiment.
In the end she must be trodden down
or go with it, and IL she Is wise she
goes.
II See in your great eyes what you
are thinking" she said, glancing at
him. 81 always know what the per-
son I am talking to is thinking of.
How is this woman who makes such q
fuss worse off than I? will show you
by very little example. We stand
here at this gate this morning, both