little matter that it was not thought necessary to give any reason.
Perhaps he had eaten too much pie and felt cross; and what else were
those women for but to be made stand around on such occasions? Weren't
they his property? Didn't those ten women belong to David? Hadn't he a
perfect right to shut them up and feed them if he wanted to? Don't you
think it was kind of him to feed them? I wonder if he sang any of his
psalms to them through the key-hole. His son Absalom had just been
killed, and he felt miserable about that. He had just delivered himself
of that touching apostrophe we often hear repeated from the pulpit
to-day, to awaken sympathy for God's afflicted prophet: "O my son
Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O
Absalom, my son, my son!" And I haven't a doubt that there were at least
ten women who echoed that wish most heartily. It must have been carried
in the family without a dissenting vote.

To this God of the Bible a woman may not go unless her father or husband
consents. She can't even promise to be good without asking permission.
This God holds no communication with women unless their male relations
approve. He wants to be on the safe side, I suppose. I'll read you
about that. It is in one of the chapters that are not commonly cited as
evidence that God is no respecter of persons, and that the Bible holds
woman as man's equal; nevertheless it is as worthy of belief as any
of the rest of it, and its "Thus saith the Lord" and "as the Lord
commanded Moses" are "frequent and painful and free," as Mr. Bret Harte
might say. The chapter is Numbers xxx.:

And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the
children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord
hath commanded.

2 If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to
bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he
shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.

3 If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself
by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth;

4 And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she
hath; bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at
her; then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith
she hath bound her soul shall stand.

5 But if her father disallow her in the day that he
heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she
ha