The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sowing and Reaping, by Frances Ellen Watkins
Harper, Edited by Frances Smith Foster

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Title: Sowing and Reaping

Author: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Release Date: February 10, 2004 [eBook #11022]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

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SOWING AND REAPING

A Temperance Story

A Rediscovered Novel by

Frances E.W. Harper

Edited by Frances Smith Foster

Chapter I

"I hear that John Andrews has given up his saloon; and a foolish thing
it was. He was doing a splendid business. What could have induced him?"

"They say that his wife was bitterly opposed to the business. I don't
know, but I think it quite likely. She has never seemed happy since John
has kept saloon."

"Well, I would never let any woman lead me by the nose. I would let her
know that as the living comes by me, the way of getting it is my affair,
not hers, as long as she is well provided for."

"All men are not alike, and I confess that I value the peace and
happiness of my home more than anything else; and I would not like to
engage in any business which I knew was a source of constant pain to my
wife."

"But, what right has a woman to complain, if she has every thing she
wants. I would let her know pretty soon who holds the reins, if I had
such an unreasonable creature to deal with. I think as much of my wife
as any man, but I want her to know her place, and I know mine."

"What do you call her place?"

"I call her place staying at home and attending to her own affairs. Were
I a laboring man I would never want my wife to take in work. When a
woman has too much on hand, something has to be neglected. Now I always
furnish my wife with sufficient help and supply every want but how I