s of human misery with
their little pails; their children's shelters, day nurseries, homes for
friendless girls, relief boards, and innumerable public and private
charities; but the big taps of intemperance and ignorance and greed are
running night and day. It is weary, discouraging, heart-breaking work.

Let us have a chance at the taps!

CHAPTER IX

THE SORE THOUGHT

The toad beneath the harrow knows
Everywhere the tooth mark goes;
The butterfly upon the road
Preaches contentment to the toad.

Women have had to do a lot of waiting--long, weary waiting. The
well-brought-up young lady diligently prepares for marriage; makes
doilies, and hemstitches linen; gets her blue trunk ready and--waits.
She must not appear anxious or concerned--not at all; she must
just--wait. When a young man comes along and shows her any attention,
she may accept it, but if after two or three years of it he suddenly
leaves her, and devotes himself to some other girl, she must not feel
hurt or grieved but must go back and sit down beside the blue trunk
again and--wait! He has merely exercised the man's right of choosing,
and when he decides that he does not want her, she has no grounds for
complaint. She must consider herself declined, "not from any lack of
merit, but simply because she is unavailable." If her heart breaks, it
must break quietly, and in secret.

She may see a young man to whom she feels attracted, but she must not
show it by even so much as the flicker of an eyelash. Hers is the
waiting part, and although marriage and homemaking are her highest
destiny, or at least so she has been told often enough--she must not
raise a hand to help the cause along. No more crushing criticism can
be made of a woman, than that she is anxious to get married. It is all
right for her to be passively willing, but she must not be anxious.

At dances she must _wait_ until someone asks her to dance; _wait_ until
someone asks her to go to supper. She must not ever make the move--she
must not ever try to start something. Her place is to wait!

At last her waiting is rewarded and a young man comes by who declares
he would like to marry her, but is not in a position to marry just yet.
Then begins another period of waiting. She must not hurry him--that is
very indelicate--she must wait. Sometimes, in this long period of
waiting, the young man changes his mind, but she must not complain. A
man cannot help it if he grows