y do not destroy the unborn--"

The look of ghastly horror she gave me I shall never forget. She started
from her chair, pale, her eyes blazing.

"Destroy the unborn--!" she said in a hard whisper. "Do men do that in
your country?"

"Men!" I began to answer, rather hotly, and then saw the gulf before
me. None of us wanted these women to think that OUR women, of whom we
boasted so proudly, were in any way inferior to them. I am ashamed
to say that I equivocated. I told her of certain criminal types of
women--perverts, or crazy, who had been known to commit infanticide. I
told her, truly enough, that there was much in our land which was
open to criticism, but that I hated to dwell on our defects until they
understood us and our conditions better.

And, making a wide detour, I scrambled back to my question of how they
limited the population.

As for Somel, she seemed sorry, a little ashamed even, of her too
clearly expressed amazement. As I look back now, knowing them better, I
am more and more and more amazed as I appreciate the exquisite courtesy
with which they had received over and over again statements and
admissions on our part which must have revolted them to the soul.

She explained to me, with sweet seriousness, that as I had supposed, at
first each woman bore five children; and that, in their eager desire
to build up a nation, they had gone on in that way for a few centuries,
till they were confronted with the absolute need of a limit. This fact
was equally plain to all--all were equally interested.

They were now as anxious to check their wonderful power as they had
been to develop it; and for some generations gave the matter their most
earnest thought and study.

"We were living on rations before we worked it out," she said. "But we
did work it out. You see, before a child comes to one of us there is a
period of utter exaltation--the whole being is uplifted and filled with
a concentrated desire for that child. We learned to look forward to that
period with the greatest caution. Often our young women, those to whom
motherhood had not yet come, would voluntarily defer it. When that deep
inner demand for a child began to be felt she would deliberately engage
in the most active work, physical and mental; and even more important,
would solace her longing by the direct care and service of the babies we
already had."

She paused. Her wise sweet face grew deeply, reverently tender.

"We soon grew to see tha