instead of
forever fidgeting to change the state to which they were born."

"Well, I holds with folks getting married," argued Mrs. Bateson; "it
gives 'em something to think about between Sunday's sermon and
Thursday's baking; and if folks have nothing to think about, they think
about mischief."

"That's true, especially if they happen to be men."

"Why do men think about mischief more than women do?" asked Elisabeth,
who always felt hankerings after the why and wherefore of things.

"Because, my dear, the Lord made 'em so, and it is not for us to
complain," replied Mrs. Hankey, in a tone which implied that, had the
role of Creator been allotted to her, the idiosyncrasies of the male sex
would have been much less marked than they are at present. "They've no
sense, men haven't; that's what is the matter with them."

"You never spoke a truer word, Mrs. Hankey," agreed her hostess; "the
very best of them don't properly know the difference between their souls
and their stomachs; and they fancy that they are a-wrestling with their
doubts, when really it is their dinners that are a-wrestling with them.
Now take Bateson hisself, and a kinder husband or a better Methodist
never drew breath; yet so sure as he touches a bit of pork, he begins to
worn hisself about the doctrine of Election till there's no living with
him."

"That's a man all over, to the very life," said Mrs. Hankey
sympathetically; "and he never has the sense to see what's wrong with
him, I'll be bound."

"Not he--he wouldn't be a man if he had. And then he'll sit in the front
parlour and engage in prayer for hours at a time, till I says to him,
'Bateson,' says I, 'I'd be ashamed to go troubling the Lord with a
prayer when a pinch o' carbonate o' soda would set things straight
again.'"

"And quite right, Mrs. Bateson; it's often a wonder to me that the Lord
has patience with men, seeing that their own wives haven't."

"And to me, too. Now Bateson has been going on like this for thirty
years or more; yet if there's roast pork on the table, and I say a word
to put him off it, he's that hurt as never was. Why, I'm only too glad
to see him enjoying his food if no harm comes of it; but it's dreary
work seeing your husband in the Slough of Despond, especially when it's
your business to drag him out again, and most especially when you
particularly warned him against going in."

Mrs. Hankey groaned. "The Bible says true when it tells us that men are
born to