ld gray jar never
held a bouquet more beautiful than the one of bright, blue "fringed
gentians," gathered by Aunt Sarah in the Fall of the year, several
miles distant from the farm.

CHAPTER VI.

MARY CONFIDES IN AUNT SARAH AND GIVES HER VIEWS ON SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN.

"There's no deny'n women are foolish,
God A'mighty made them to match the men."

A short time after her arrival at the farm Mary poured into the
sympathetic ear of Aunt Sarah her hopes and plans. Her lover, Ralph
Jackson, to whom she had become engaged the past Winter, held a
position with the Philadelphia Electric Company, and was studying hard
outside working hours. His ambition was to become an electrical
engineer. He was getting fair wages, and wished Mary to marry him at
once. She confessed she loved Ralph too well to marry him, ignorant as
she was of economical housekeeping and cooking.

Mary, early left an orphan, had studied diligently to fit herself for
a kindergarten teacher, so she would be capable of earning her own
living on leaving school, which accounted for her lack of knowledge of
housework, cooking, etc.

Aunt Sarah, loving Mary devotedly, and knowing the young man of her
choice to be clean, honest and worthy, promised to do all in her power
to make their dream of happiness come true. Learning from Mary that
Ralph was thin and pale from close confinement, hard work and study,
and of his intention of taking a short vacation, she determined he
should spend it on the farm, where she would be able to "mother him."

"You acted sensibly, Mary," said her Aunt, "in refusing to marry Ralph
at the present time, realizing your lack of knowledge of housework and
inability to manage a home. Neither would you know how to spend the
money provided by him economically and wisely, and, in this age of
individual efficiency, a business knowledge of housekeeping is almost
as important in making a happy home as is love. I think it quite as
necessary that a woman who marries should understand housekeeping in
all its varied branches as that the man who marries should understand
his trade or profession; for, without the knowledge of means to gain a
livelihood (however great his love for a woman), how is the man to
hold that woman's love and affection unless he is able by his own
exertions to provide her with necessities, comforts, and, perhaps, in
later years, luxuries? And in return, the wife should consider it her
duty and pleasure to kn