evident bad
humor, gossiping openly of the shiftless, lazy ways of folks they could
mention, if they wished to name names.

The six little children, whom the neighbor women had dressed in their
best clothes, sat dazed and silent, fascinated by the draped black
coffin; but the baby, the tiny one who had just entered the race,
gathered up the feeling of the meeting, and cried incessantly in a room
upstairs. It was a hard rebellious cry, too, as if the little one
realized that an injustice had been done.

Just above the coffin hung an enlarged picture of "Jane" in her wedding
dress, and it was a bright face that looked out at the world from the
heavy gold frame, a sweet girlish face, which seemed to ask a question
with its eager eyes. And there below, in the black draped coffin, was
the answer--the same face, only a few years older, but tired, so
inexpressibly tired, cold and silent; its light gone out--the power
gone off. Jane had been given her answer. And upstairs Jane's baby
cried its bitter, insistent cry.

Just then the minister began to read the words of the funeral service:

"Inasmuch as it hath _pleased_ the Lord...."

This happened in the fall of the year, and the next spring, just before
the busy time came on, the bereaved husband dried his eyes, painted his
buggy, and went out and married one of the neighbor's daughters, a good
strong one--and so his house is still running on woman-power.

If men had to bear the pain and weariness of child-bearing, in addition
to the unending labors of housework and caring for children, for one
year, at the end of that time there would be a perfect system of
cooperation and labor-saving devices in operation, for men have not the
genius for martyrdom that women have; and they know the value of
cooperative labor. No man tries to do everything the way women do. No
man aspires to making his own clothes, cleaning his own office,
pressing his own suits, or even cleaning his own shoes. All these
things he is quite willing to let people do for him, while he goes
ahead and does his own work. Man's work is systematized well and
leaves a man free to work in his own way. His days are not broken up
by details.

On the other hand the home is the most haphazard institution we have.
Everything is done there. (I am speaking now of the homes in the
country.) In each of the homes there is a little bit of washing done,
a little dressmaking, a little butter-making, a little bakin