a wife does not become a mere
nonentity, or I leave you to journey alone.'

"'Very well, my dear, let us see if we cannot compromise this matter.
Suppose we allow his philosophy to stand as a general truth, making
you an exception. We'll say that wives in general are nobody, but that
you shall be exempt from the general rule, and be considered always
hereafter, and as between ourselves, as somebody.'

"You see the shrewdness of my proposition. Firstly, it saved
Blackstone; secondly, it saved _me_, let me down easy; and thirdly, it
appealed to the womanly vanity of my wife, and it took.

"'Oh, well,' she said, as she brought her pony alongside of me, and we
jogged along cosily together, 'I see no objection to that. Other wives
can take care of themselves. But this compromise, as between _us_, Mr.
W----, must be a _finality_. No Nebraska traps, Mr. W----. No Kansas
bills hereafter. It must be a finality, mind.'

"'Very well,' said I; and a robin that was building its nest on a limb
that hung over the road, paused in its labors, and burst into song,
and the burden of its lay seemed to be a compromise, which, in truth,
should be a FINALITY.

"We were successful in our fishing, and we followed the old-fashioned
custom as to bait. We discarded the fly, using only the angle-worm. At
the foot of the ripples; under the old logs; where the water went
whirling under the cavernous banks; in the eddies; among the
driftwood; everywhere, we found trout--not large, none weighing over
six ounces, and few less than three. We caught my basket full in less
then two hours, and then rode home. It was a day of enjoyment to us,
you may be sure.

"And now I appeal to you, in all seriousness, my friend," the Doctor
continued, addressing himself to Spalding, "if there is not something
due to the wives and mothers of the present generation? Is there not
some relaxation of the law necessary in vindication of the
civilization of the age, against the legal barbarisms still remaining
on the statute books, and adhered to by the common law, in regard to
wives and mothers? Is the current of progress to flow by them for
ever, bearing no reforms which shall affect them? Do not misunderstand
me. I am no advocate of the practices of the 'strong-minded women,'
who hold their conventions and public meetings, who unsex themselves
by mounting the forum, and, throwing off the retiring modesty of the
true woman, seek to secure notoriety at the price of popu