 CHAPTER XVII Mrs. Bray and Carrie come to issues. Contention arose in the clay household next day, dawn singing lessons being at the root of the trouble. It was her week in the kitchen, and that she should be two days absent from the cooking, displeased Carrie. Well, if you don't think the place fair, you can go, said Grandma. But I think you're a fool, and you've given me a lot of worry. It's all very fine in other people's places, but some day, when you have a home of your own, you'll know the worry of it. Next time I make our arrangement with a girl, she'll have to take an extra day in the kitchen without humbugging. I'll vote for me Grandma on that, Bill, said Andrew, for I've often been give the pip by who is in the kitchen and who is out of it. Grandma, did you hear the latest? Young Jack Bray's been in another orange orchard, and didn't do a get-quick enough, and has got took up, and his father will have to pay money to keep him out of quad. The old lady bristled. Didn't I tell you? Who knows how to receive these things best now? I've always believed in Rara and the family in my own way, and Mrs Bray is a fine woman, moral and decent, but she's got too many stones to throw at others, and doesn't see to it sharp enough that less stones can't be thrown at her. I thought she didn't take it serious enough. You'd have been in this too only for me dreading the spark. What are they going to do? Pay the money, of course, and Mr Bray is going to turn the hide-off, Jack. Some people don't get frightened of dishonesty unless it costs them something, said the old lady. Well, I'll vote for me Grandma every time, said Andrew, and Jim Clay every second time, as he went out the door. And miss self the most times of all, he concluded in the backyard. Mrs Bray dropped in that afternoon for a chat, and Grandma mentioned that we were without afternoon tea because Carrie had jacked up about getting it, for reasons before mentioned. Just like her, said Mrs Bray, she gives herself as much side as if she was one of us. She's the sort of girl who wouldn't think twice of telling you to do a thing yourself, and you've made an awful fool of her by making so much of her. Then things of girls, earning their own living, ought to be kept in their place more. Was the utterance of a woman who believed herself a storage advocate for the freedom of her sex? But when Mrs Bray spoke of sex, she meant self. That ain't no point, said Grandma. I never think at anything but a credit to a girl to be earned in her living, and would never be narrow enough to make them feel it. I always make a practice of treating the girls as near equal as within reason, for Carrie's every bit as fine looking and good a girl as me own. And if I wasn't here, wouldn't Dawn have to be foraging for herself too? But there's reason in everything, and Carrie might be a bit obliging. Of course she ought to be, but what could you expect of her? Took up with that Larry Whitcombe, and does the ass think he really wants her? He's only got her on a string for his own amusement. He goes to see that Dora Kapa at the same time. Jack's seen him there. I wonder will he be scared off by being thought a catch before the pots boiled, so to speak? Good catches, eh? I don't see nothing in none of them. They're only thought something because men are scarce here. They've all cleared out to the far out places, and west Australia. It's like a year the pumpkins are scarce. You can sell little things you'd hardly throw to the pigs another time. And that's the way it is with the few poultry fellas round here. It makes me mad to see the girls after them. The foals, and the men grinning behind their backs. There's that Ada Grovner. If you had just calls up and talks to her, she tells you about it as if it was something. And inviting him down there, and then the blessed fellas gets to think they're gods. It makes me sick. Yes, said Grandma. I see the girls after fellas now. There's that Danby, for instance. He's a fine lump of a man. But when I was a girl, I wouldn't have made toe rags of a policeman. Yes, a blessed fella strolling up and down the street, looking at his toes or running in a drunk. I say, did you hear the latest about old Rooney Molyneux? He didn't believe in women having the vote. Didn't consider they have the intellect to vote. So he says. Not as much brain as he has, don't you see, to marry a woman and a baby to be coming, and nothing to put on its back, while he strolls round and gets drunk? But now they've got the vote, he says. The great Lord Mark Rooney Molyneux says it, remember, that it is their duty to use it, and he intends to make. Mind you, make. I'd like to hear a man say he'd make me do anything. I'd scold him, see if I wouldn't. And that's what wants doing with half the men, anyhow, for the way they carry on to women. And he's going to make his wife go round canvassing. Now, men make me sick. When they're boys, they're that troublesome they ought to be kept under a tub, and when they get older, they're that cantankerous and self-important they all want killing off. I'll bet Mrs Rooney won't be working for a different man to him. If her convictions led her that way, you'd see he'd have a flute about her not being fit to be out of her home, said Grand Mara Stutley. Yes, that's the way with them. First, they thought the world would tumble to pieces if women stirred out of the house for a minute to vote, and now that we've got the vote in spite of them, they'd make their wives walk round after votes for their side, whether they was able or not. They kicked again us having the vote, and now we've got it, they think we ought to vote with them like as if we were the appendage of theirs. Men will be learnt different to that by and by, but it's best to go gradual, they've had as much as they can swallow for a time. Ain't it just the very devil to them to think women is considered as important as themselves now, instead of something they could just do as they like with? Old Hollis there says he won't vote this year because the women have one. Did you ever hear of an insult like that? He says the monkeys will have a vote next, and that shows you what men think of women, like as if they were some sort of animals. Well, if you ask me, said Grand Mara, the monkeys have been having a vote all along in the case of Old Hollis. Any further discussion in this line was terminated by the entrance of Carrie, with her good-looking face flushed and hard set, as rolling down her sleeve and buttering it aggressively as the finishing touch to her toilette after completing her afternoon's work. She confronted Mrs. Bray on battle-bent. Well, Mrs. Bray, I'd like to have given my opinion of you to your teeth long ago, but I held my tongue, as it wasn't my house, and some people have different tastes and have folk around that I'd be a long time having anything to do with. Now I think things do concern me, and I'm going to have my say. I couldn't have it sooner, because I am a thing earning my living, and had to finish my work. I haven't got a home of my own, and like some people, if I had, I'd be in it teaching my dirty rude brats not to be thieves. I wouldn't for everlasting be at other people's places scandalising people twice as good as myself. I didn't think Mrs. Clay was the sort of person to go to do tattling. She can please herself, but it doesn't concern you if I do put on airs. I want to know what you mean by that I should be kept in my place. I swear I know how to carry my day as well as you do, and to keep in my place too well to be going round meddling with other people's business. I didn't say nothing, but was correct, and what right have you to come bullying me? It's like your impudence. You are hussy out to work for your living at a few shillings a week, and calling yourself a lady-help when you're a servant, that's what you are. To bully me, a woman with a good home, and the mother of a family, Carrie snorted contemptuously. That old mother of a family racket needn't be brought forward, it doesn't hold as much water as it used to. Women are thought just as much of now who are good useful workers in the world, and not tied up to some man and the mother of a few weedy kids that aren't any credit to king or country. Mercy! exclaimed Grandma. What am I to do? Let them find it out, I laconically advised in an aside, and she seemed disposed to take my advice. You dare, blusted Mrs. Bray, and what else have you got to say? I want an explanation of the aspersion on my character when you said I had taken up with Larry Whitcomb. I'm not going to stand anything on my character in that line, if I am earning my living, and you are the mother of one or fourteen families, all as great a credit to you as the one Jack represents. And, as for me, earning my living, what are you doing? If a man wasn't keeping you to suit himself, how would you be earning your living? I could earn my living the same way as you are doing tomorrow, if I liked it, but of the two, I think my present occupation is the decentest and less dependent. Apart from your bullying, selfishness, a nice sensible way you have of talking. If you killed off the men, who would you have to keep you, and that's a nice civilised way to speak about your fellow creatures anyhow, whether they be men or black jins, they've just as much place in the scheme of creation as you have. There would have been a long time getting the vote, or any other decent right if the men were like you. It's because you are the same stamp as so many of the men that we've been kept down so long as we have. And now, what about me taking up with Larry Whitcombe? Well, it's well known what Larry is. Well, what is he? You ask him about Mrs. Park's divorce case. I hope you don't think your old man is a saint, do you? As big a fool as you are. You're surely not full enough for that, are you? Perhaps he isn't as clean a potato as Larry if it was all brought out. But he's a married man this many a year, with a married daughter, and his young days are lived down long ago. Well, so would Larry be married many a year and have things lived down in time, and not as many to live down either as your husband has it present, if things are true, for all your everlasting shepherding he gets off the chain sometimes. Hoity-toity, this was putting a fuse to gunpowder. You, hussy, what have you got to say about my husband? Prove it, and I'll make sure it work of him, and if it's lies, I'll bring you into court for it. I'll leave it for you to prove. You're one of those who thinks every yarn entertaining till they touch yourself. Two to one on Carrie every time when we grandmasse the umpire, grand Andrew, round the corner. Carrie, you've had enough to say. I forbid any more in my house, said Grandma, rising to order. I declare this a drawn fight, said Andrew. You can have it out with Mrs. Bray in her own house if you want to, but no more of it here, continued Grandma. Don't you dare come to my house, said Mrs. Bray. Your house? No fear. I never associate with scandal-mongers, contemptuously retorted Carrie, as Mrs. Bray made a precipitant departure, omitting something about a hussy who didn't know her place as she went. I'm surprised at you, said Grandma. Her tongue does run on a little sometimes, but you ought to remember she's old enough to be your mother, and girls do owe something to women with families. And women with families and homes ought to remember they owe something to girls that aren't settled, because they haven't got a man caught yet to keep them. Well, this ain't my quarrel, and don't you bring it up to me again. It's rare to family, and two of them, like I have done, has enough with her own dissensions. It was a rather sullen party at tea that evening, so Dawn's return from Sydney, immediately after, with her cheeks radiant from travel in the quick evening express, and herself brimming over with her day's adventures, formed a welcome relief. I had a great time coming home, said she. Mr. Ernest and Dora Eward both went to Sydney this morning, and Mr. Ernest and I raced into a carriage to escape Dora, and we did, and he must have asked the guard, for he found our carriage, but he only had a second-class ticket, and wouldn't be let in. And how came you to be in a first-class carriage, inquired Grandma? I can't stand that, there's expense enough as it is, and you'll better travel second. It wasn't my fault, Mr. Ernest bought the tickets like a gentleman should. It says in the etiquette book, and I couldn't fight with him there and then. You're always telling me to be more genteel. But I don't want strangers paying anything for my granddaughter. You needn't mind in this instance," I interposed. Mr. Ernest probably wished to be gentlemanly to Dawn, because she has been so good to me. Once more I saw the little derisive smile flit across the exquisite face, but she said, Yes, he said that you are looking so well, it must be our blessing, and that he will try and get Grandma to take him in if he falls ill. I wonder if he's going to get took bad, love-sick, like the other blokes, said Andrew. Dawn cast a murderous glance at him, and covered the remark by making a bustle in sitting to her tea, and in retailing minute details of her singing lessons. We retired early, and she produced from the basket in which she carried her music a most pretentious box of sweets and various society papers. Mr. Ernest said you might like some of these, and I was to have a share because I carried them home, though he got the bus and brought me to the door, so I hadn't to walk a step. Good boy! What did he talk about today? I asked him about all the actresses he has seen. He's going to give me the autographed photos he has of them. You wouldn't think he'd like to part with them, but he says he's tired of them all now. We're nearly all married, and are back numbers. Actresses are only thought of for a little while, he says. That is the natural order of things, and applies to others as well as actresses. Pretty young girls are not pretty for long. They should see to it that they are plucked by the right fingers while their bloom is attractive. The old order falls ill-fittingly on some, but is fair in the main. We each have our fleeting hour. Yes, but where is there a desirable plucker?" said the practical girl. There are scarcely any good matches, and the few there are have so many running after them that I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of thinking I wanted them to. True! Good matches are few. In these luxurious times the generality of girls' ideas of a good match, being very advanced, in short, a man of sufficient wealth to keep them in petted idleness. There can be no shade of approach on women for this ambition. It is but one outcome of the evolution of civilisation, and is merely a species of common sense on their part. For the ordinary routine of marriage, as instanced by the testimony of thousands of women ranked among the comfortably and happily married, is so trying that girls do well to try for the most comfortable births ere putting their heads in the noose. Dora! Where was he all this time?" I asked. Oh! He brought Ada Grovener home. Thought that would spike me. She was in town, too, and you should just hear her after this. The silly rabbit can't open her mouth, but she tells you what this man did, and that one said to her, when all the time it's nothing but some ordinary courtesy they ought to extend to even black gins. End of CHAPTER XVII CHAPTER XVIII of some every-day folk and dawn by Miles Franklin. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Foundation of the Poultry Industry Peace was restored in the clay household through my interviewing Carrie and offering to teach her music and allow her the use of my piano if she would do some of dawn's work for two days during every second week. The next irritation arose from the male portion of the family. Now we had all been so vigorously on political entertainment bent that no one had given a thought to Uncle Jake and his doings or political opinions, or whether he had any. But it transpired, though a mere man, he had been pursuing his course with as much attention to electioneering technique as the most emancipated woman among us. On the afternoon following Carrie's little difference with Mrs. Bray, Ada Grovener called to invite us to accompany her to hear Oliver Henderson, the ministerial candidate who was to address the women at the hall first, and the men at Jiminy's pub afterwards. And we all went. Next morning at breakfast, when we had set to work upon the dozed porridge, Andrew again catatised his grandma concerning the casting of her vote. "'I'm going for young Walker, of course,' as for that other fellow,' said she calorically, "'I was that sick of his stuttering and muttering and holding his meeting at Jiminy's. We all know that that means free drinks. And after waiting all my life for it, I'm not going to cast the only vote that maybe I'll live to have. For a fellow that buys his votes with grog, there's precious little to choose between them. They only want the glory of being in parliament for themselves, and for the time being, have rose afloat about the country, go into the dogs, and then be in the people to save it. But once the election's over, that's all we'll hear of them, and though they'd lick our boots now, they're so glad to know us they'd forget all about us then. The one who can blow the loudest will get in, and as it must be one, it might as well be this fellow that can talk, and could keep up his end of the stick in parliament, as there's no doubt this talk and a blow has become such a great trade, one has to go to the wall without it. "'Well, I'm going for Walker, too, because here's something to look at,' said Carrie. "'The women was going to put in clean men and do strokes,' sneered Uncle Jake. "'And it turns out they'd vote for the best-looking man. "'Nice state of affairs, that is.' "'Ah, it's all very fine for a man to buck when a thing "'treads on his own toes. "'It would be thought a terrible thing for a woman to vote "'for a good-looking man and pass over merit, "'but that's what's been done to women all the time. "'The good-looking ones got all the honours, "'whether they deserved them or not, and those "'complaining again this was geared at and called "'freakin' sisters, but it's a different tune now. "'Uncle, darling, who are you going to vote for?' "'inquired Andrew. "'A Henderson, of course, and I reckon all the women "'ere with vote thought, too. "'And while I pray,' asked Grandma, her eyes flushing "'a challenge, while her faithful guard's women, "'Carrie and Dawn, suspended work to see "'how the argument ended. "'For the look of the thing to start with, "'it don't look well to see the women of the family "'going against the men. "'No, it don't look like nature, "'as men make believe it ought to be. "'For once, to see a woman have an opinion of her own, "'and not the man just telling that his opinion "'was hers, too, without knowing anything about it, "'and women having to hold their tongues for peace's sake "'because they wasn't in a position to help their selves, "'and if it seems so dreadful that way, "'you'd better come over to our side, "'as there's more of us than you, a majority ought to rule. "'What did you do at your meeting last night, Uncle?' "'Inquired Dawn.' "'Old Hollis is head of the committee, "'and he says the first thing for all the committee men to do "'was to see the women of the men going for Henderson "'was the same way,' he replied. "'Oh, and so you thought you could come the Tsar on us, "'did you?' "'And the government, according to Hollis's make-out, "'is a fool to give women a vote, "'like in your case, instead of giving me and Carrie a vote each, "'he ought to have given you three.' "'Oh, Mr. Zorrell,' said I, "'what a joke! Was he really so ignorant as that? "'Surely he was joking, too.' "'Uncle Jake had sufficient wit to take this opportunity "'of changing his tactics. "'No,' he said. "'Some people are terrible-narrow. "'For my part, I always believe in women "'holding their own opinion.' "'So long as they didn't run contrary to yours,' said Grandma with a sniff. "'This heaps more like you. "'Women can always think as much as they like, "'and they could get up on a platform and talk till they bust, "'as long as they didn't want the world to be made no better, "'and they wouldn't be thought unwomenly. "'It's soon as a woman wants any practical good done "'that she has considered our unwomenly creature.' "'Uncle Jake was outdone and relapsed into silence.' "'And that's just what I would have expected of old Hollis,' continued Grandma, "'who seemed to have a knowledge of people's doings "'rivaling that necessary to an efficient police officer. "'I'll tell you what he is, and the old dame directed her remarks to me. "'He is the old chap,' Mrs. Bray was saying, "'aint going to vote this time, "'because the women has got one, "'and the monkeys will be having one next. "'Just what the likes of him would say. "'His old crawler, his wife does all the work, "'while he walks around and tells how he killed the bear. "'And that's the sort of man who's always to be heard, "'saying woman is an inferior animal "'that ought to be kept on a chain as he thinks fit. "'You'll never hear the kind of man like Bray, "'who is a man and keeps his wife like a princess, "'saying that sort of thing. "'It's only the old Hollis's and such.' "'I'll tell you what old Hollis is. "'He got out of work here a few years back "'when things was terrible dull, "'and so his wife had to keep him, "'and with a child for every year they had been married. "'She raided chickens and plucked them "'and sold them round the town, "'and went without necessaries when she was nursing "'to keep him in tobacco. "'That's the kind of man he is, if you want to know. "'Of course, bear an animal twice her superior, "'he had to go about sucking a pipe, "'and of course he couldn't deny himself anything. "'What do you think of that? "'That its pathos lies in its commonness. "'I reckon you didn't hear of him going out "'and plucking the fowls then and saying, "'wife, a woman's place, when she has a young family, "'is in the house. "'No fear.' "'She worked at this poultry business, "'and it was surprising how she got on, "'worked it up to a big poultry farm "'till he took a hand in doing a little of the work "'and taken all the credit. "'Now they live by it together, "'and he was interviewed by the papers a little while ago, "'and it was blew about the reward of enterprise, "'how he had started from nothing, "'and it never said a word how she started "'and read his babies and done it all, "'and as most now, while he walks about to illustrate "'what a superior being he is, "'that's the way with all the poultry industry. "'Women was the pioneers in it, "'and now it's worked up to be paying, "'men has took it over and think they have done a stroke. "'Not so far back, a man would consider himself disgraced, "'but knew one kind of fowls from another. "'He would be thought a old molly-cottle. "'The women tried to keep a few hens, "'and the men always tried to kill them "'and said they'd ruin the place, "'and at the same time they'd hunt them, "'was always crying out and grunting "'that there wasn't enough eggs to eat, "'and why didn't the hens lay the same as they used to "'when they was boys? "'They expected the women to rare them on nothing "'or at odd moments, "'the same way as they expect them to do everything else. "'Now, even the swells has gone hen-mad, "'and the papers are full of poultry being a great industry, "'but it was women started it. "'Upon strolling abroad that morning, "'we found a huge placard bearing the advice. "'Vote for Oliver Henderson, MLA, the local candidate, "'decorating the post of the gateway "'through which we gained to the high road. "'Uncle Jake was credited with this erection, "'so Andrew made himself absent "'at a time when there was need of his presence, "'and thereby caused a deal of friction "'in the vicinity of Grandma, "'but with the result that by midday, "'Uncle Jake's placard was covered by another, reading, "'Vote for Leslie Walker, the opposition candidate, "'and save the country. "'At three o'clock this was obscured "'by a reappearance of Henderson's advertisement, "'which was the cause of Uncle Jake "'being too late to catch that evening's train "'with a load of oranges he had been set to pack. "'At the risk of leaving the milking late, "'Andrew was setting out to once more eclipses "'by Walker's poster, "'only that Grandma rejudicated regarding the matter. "'Jake, you have one side of the gate, "'and Andrew, you take the other. "'Put up your papers side by side, "'and that will be a good advertisement "'of liberty of opinion. "'And Jake, if you haven't got sense "'to stick to this at your time of life, "'I'm sorry for you. "'And if you haven't, Andrew, at yours, "'I'll have to knock it into you with a strap. "'Now mind, and if you don't get your work done, "'you'll go to no more meetings. "'Rado, I'll vote for the Grandma every time,' responded Andrew. "'This proved an effective threat, "'for political meetings had become the joy of life "'to the electors of Nanoon. "'As a tallow candle, if placed near, "'can obscure the light of the moon, "'so the approaching election, lying at the door, "'shut out all other worldly doings. "'The Russo-Japanese War became a movement of no moment. "'The season, the price of lemons and oranges, "'the doings of Mrs. Tinker, "'the inability of the municipal council to make the roads good, "'and all other happenings became tame by comparison with politics. "'They were disgust, with unabating interest, "'all day and every day, "'and by every one, upon all occasions. "'Even the children battled out differences "'regarding their respective candidates "'on the way home from school. "'Rival committees worked with unflagging energy, "'and all buildings and fences were plastered "'with opposing placards. "'The picture for enthusiasm was reached long "'before the sitting parliament had dissolved "'or a polling day had been fixed. "'For this state election was contested "'with unprecedented energy all over the country, "'but in no electorate was it more vigorously, "'and to its credit, more could humbly fought "'than in the fertile old valley of Nanoon. "'It was the only chance the unfortunate electors had "'of bullying the lordly MPs and would-be MPs, "'who, once elected, would fatten on the parliamentary "'screw and pickings, without showing any return, "'and right eagerly the electors took their present opportunity. "'Zest was added to the contest by both the contestants "'being wealthy men, and with youth, "'as well as means to carry it out on expensive lines. "'They were equally independent of parliament "'as a means of living, and being men of leisure, "'were merely anxious for office to raise them "'from the rank and file of non-entityism. "'Independent means are a great advantage "'to a member of parliament. "'The penellous man elected on sheer merit, "'to whom the country could look for good things, "'becomes dependent upon politics for a living, "'is often handicapped by a family "'who allot to leave the society in comfort "'to which their breadwinner's official position "'has raised them, and he, held by his affection, "'is ready to sacrifice all convictions "'and principle to remain in power. "'To this man politics becomes a desperate gamble, "'and the country's interests can go to the dogs "'so long as he can ensure re-election.' "'Another advantage in the Nanune candidates, "'which should have silenced the pessimists, "'who averred there were no good clean men "'to enter parliament, was that these men "'were both such exemplary citizens, "'morally, physically, and socially, "'but it seemed a sheer waste of goodness "'that only one could be elected. "'The newspapers went politically mad, "'and those not any hysterical country rags, "'but the big metropolitan dailies. "'And there was one thing to be noted "'in regard to their statements "'that seriously needed rectifying. "'What is the purpose of the Great Dailies "'but to keep the people correctly informed "'as to the progress of public affairs "'and events of the community at large? "'Most of the people are too hard at work "'to forage information for themselves, "'or even to be thoroughly cognizant "'of that collected in the newspapers, "'and therefore parliamentary candidates, "'if not correct in their figures and statements, "'should be publicly arraigned for perjury. "'The ministerialists gave one set of figures "'dealing with national financial statistics, "'and the oppositionists gave widely different. "'How was an elector to act "'when the platform of the former "'contained nothing but a few false statements "'and glowing promises? "'And the policy of the latter "'was only a few counteracting war-woops, "'and there was no honesty, common sense, "'or matter-of-fact business in the campaign "'from end to end. "'In this connection, that remote rag, "'the Nanoon advertiser, "'shown as a reproach to its great contemporaries, "'not by their grandeur and acclamations "'shall they be judged, "'but by the qualities of their fruits. "'No bias or spleen seemed to sway "'the mind of this journal to one side or the other. "'It recognized itself as a newspaper, "'not as a political tout for this party or that, "'and so kept its head cool and its honor bright and shining. "'Three days after Leslie Walker's second speech, "'he sent up a woman advocate to address the ladies "'and start the business of house-to-house canvassing. "'This plenipotentiary, "'a person of rather plethoric appearance, "'made herself extremely popular "'by assuring every second vote, lady, "'she met, that she was sure she, "'the vote, lady, was intended by nature for a public speaker. "'This worked without a hitch until the vote-treasers "'began to tell each other what the great speaker had said, "'when it nuturally followed that Mrs. Dash, "'though she thought that Mrs. Speaker had been discerning "'to discover this latent oratorical talent in herself, "'immediately had the effervescence taken out "'of her self-complacence on finding "'that that stupid Mrs. Blank had been assured of equal ability. "'Then the ministerialists discovered "'Mr. Speaker's place of a vote in Sydney, "'and avert her children ran about so untended "'as to be undistinguishable from aboriginals, "'and that her housekeeping was sending her husband to perdition, "'and such is the texture of human nature unearthed "'at political crises, that some even went so far "'as to suggest that she was a weakness of Walker's, "'and sneered at the lady's candidate "'who had to be wet-nosed in his campaign by women speakers. "'Henderson, they avert, had not to do this, "'but fought his own battle. "'Yes,' said Grandma Clay, "'he mightn't be wet-nosed, but he is bottled, "'brandy bottled, by the men, "'and this could not be denied.' "'The women rally drowned Walker "'because he was a temperance candidate, "'whereas the tag-rag rolled up on mass for Henderson, "'who shouted free drinks and carried the publican's flag. "'Each candidate, while praising his opponent, "'wound up with Bart, "'and after that conjunction, "'spoke most damningly of his policy. "'Underneath the ostensible war-woops, "'many private and personal crossfires "'were at work to intensify the contest. "'The people on the land, quite naturally, "'had a grudge against the railway folk, "'who only had to work eight hours per day "'for more than a farmer could make in sixteen. "'Further, the perquisites of the railway employees "'were inconceivable. "'By an unwritten, but nevertheless imperative etiquette, "'farmers had to render them tribute "'in the form of a portion "'of whatever fruit or vegetables were consigned at Noon, "'and the town's people also had little to say "'in favour of them, "'evereing they were a floating population "'who had no interest in the welfare of the town "'in which they resided, "'were bad customers, "'patronising the publicans more than the storekeepers, "'and by means of their connection with the railway, "'were able to buy their meat and other necessities "'where they listed, "'where it was cheapest, "'and frequently this was otherware than Noon, "'and yet they were in such numbers "'that they could rule the political market.' "'Then the men on the ministerial side "'were nearly gang-green with disgust, "'because, as one put it, "'nearly all Walker's men were women, "'and Rully drowned him thick and strong, "'and with a thoroughness and energy worthy "'of their risen emancipation.' "'Dawn's next day for Sydney fell on another night "'when Leslie Walker was speaking, "'but she and I did not attend this meeting, "'the family being represented on this occasion by Andrew, "'and we went to bed and discussed the Sydney trip "'while waiting for his return. "'Earnest Breslaw, it appeared, "'had again had urgent business in Sydney that day. "'Dawn,' I said, "'this is somewhat suspicious. "'Are you sure you are not flirting with Ernest? "'I can't have his wings singed. "'I think too much of him, "'and she'll have to warn him that you were booked "'for Dora Ewood.' "'This was said experimentally, "'for to do dawn justice, "'though she had every temptation, "'she had nothing of the flirt in her composition. "'I can't go and say to him, "'don't you fall in love with me?' said Dawn contentiously. "'Are you sure he has never in any way attempted "'to pay you a love as attentions?' "'Well, it's this way,' she said confidentially. "'You won't think me conceited "'if I tell you everything straight. "'There have been two or three men in love with me, "'and I was always able to see it straight away, "'long before they knew. "'But with Ernest, "'sometimes he seems to be like they were, "'and then I'm afraid he's not. "'At least, not afraid. "'I don't care a hang. "'Only I wonder does he think he can flirt with me "'when he is so nice and just walks "'around the subject without coming up to it.' "'Aha!' "'In that afraid, which she sought to recover, "'the young lady betrayed her affections, "'were in danger of leaving her, "'undertaking themselves to a new ruler, "'and this sudden inability to see "'through another state of mind, "'towards her, was a further sign "'that they were not secure. "'We are very clear of vision "'as to the affection tended to us "'so long as we remain unmoved. "'But once our feelings are stirred, "'their palpitating fears so smear our sight "'that it becomes unreliable. "'Oh, well, it does not matter to you, I said. "'You are not likely to think of him. "'He's so unattractive, "'but I must take care that he does not grow fond of you. "'If I see any danger of it, "'I'll tell him something about you "'that will nip his affections in the bud. "'You won't mind me doing that? "'Just some little thing that won't hurt you "'but will save him unnecessary pain. "'And to this she replied with seeming indifference. "'I wish you'd told Dora you had something "'that would shoo him off, that he'd never come back, "'and then I would have seen the last of him, "'which would be a treat. "'After this we were silent, "'and I thought she had gone to sleep, "'for there was no sound until Andrew came "'tumbling up the stairs leading from his room. "'I say,' he called, "'have you got any more of that toothache stuff "'from the dentist? "'Come along,' I answered. "'I'll put some in for you. "'I think it's the oranges that's doing it. "'I eat nearly eight dozen today.' "'Enough to give you the pip. "'You ought to slack off a little,' I said, extending him the courtesy of his own vernacular. "'I bet I'd vote for Henderson after all if I could,' he continued, in referring to the meeting, "'only I'll gammon I wouldn't just to gnaw, Uncle Jake. "'Henderson is the men's man. "'That other bloke belongs to women. "'You should have heard him to-night. "'The fellas behind was tip-top, "'and made such a noise, at last, "'that Walker could only talk to the women in the front. "'We gave him slops, "'because he gets women up to speak for him, "'and we can't give them jip.' "'One man asked him, "'was he in favour of Brunbeck and Thistles? "'And another wanted to know, "'was he in favour of putting attacks on caterpillars?' "'He thinks no end of himself, "'because he's one of these Johnny's the woman always runs after,' gravely explained Andrew, aged sixteen. "'We cock-a-doodled and pip-pip, "'till you couldn't hear your ears. "'Half couldn't get in. "'They was climbed up and hanging in the windows. "'Little girls, too, along with the boys.' "'I suppose, now that there is near "'got a vote as we have, "'they'll be poked everywhere just the same, "'as if they had as good a right as us,' said the boy with the despondence of one to whom all is lost. "'It's a terrible thing they can't be made to stay at home "'out of all the fun like boys think they ought to be. "'No mistake, the woman having a vote "'is a terrible night to the men. "'Almost too much for them to bear,' said Dawn, whom I thought had gone to sleep. "'I reckon I'm going to every meeting. "'They're all right fun,' continued Andrew. "'At the both committee room, "'they're given out tickets with the men's names on, "'and whoever likes can get them and wear them in their hats. "'Me and Jack Bray went to this Johnny Walker's rooms "'and gam and wee was for him, and got a dozen tickets, "'and when we got outside, tore them to smithereens. "'That's what we'll do all the time.' After this, Andrew disappeared down the stairs, spilling grease, and being admonished by Dawn as he went as the clumsiest creature she had ever seen. Silence reigned between us for some time, and in listening to the trains I had forgotten the girl, till her voice came across the room. "'I say, don't tell that earnest anything not nice about me, will you? "'I'll take care not to flirt with him, and I wouldn't like him to think me not nice. "'I wouldn't care about anyone else's crap, "'but he's such a great friend of yours, "'and as I hope to be with you a lot, it would be awkward. "'And, you know, he has said nothing. "'It might only be my conceit to think he's going the way of other men. "'He took me to afternoon tea today at such a lovely place. "'He said he wanted to be good to your friends. "'That's why he is nice to me. "'I don't suppose he ever thinks of me at all any other way,' she said, with the despondence of love. So this had been chasing sleep from Beauty's eyes, as such trifles have a knack of doing. "'Very likely,' I said complacently, and smiled to myself, "'the only thing to be discovered now was if the young athletes' emotions were at the same ebb, and then what was there against plain sailing to the heavy port where honey-moons are spent. "'Fortune favours the persevering, and next afternoon an opportunity "'occurred for procuring the desired knowledge. "'Earnest and Ada Grovner came in together, "'and to the casual observer seemed much engrossed with each other. "'But I noticed that Dawn could not speak or move. "'But a pair of quick dark eyes caught every detail. "'So far so good, but it was necessary for Dawn to think "'the prize just a little farther out of reach than it was, "'to make it attractive to her disposition. "'So I set about attaining this end by a very simple method.' "'Miss Grovner had called to invite us to a meeting she had convened, "'to listen to a public address by a lady who was going to "'head a deputation to Walker afterwards, and we had decided to go. "'Mrs. Bray's husband also dropped in, and to my surprise "'proved not the hen-pecked non-entity one would expect, "'after hearing his wife's aggressive diatribes, "'but a stalwart man of six feet, with a cumbly face for speaking solid determination in every line. "'And when one comes to think of it, it is not the big blustering man or woman that rules, that the quiet, apparently inane specimens that look so meek that they are held up as models of propriety and gentleness. "'Miss Grovner immediately nailed him for her meeting, "'and politics being the only subject discussed, "'he had his particular bug. "'This was his disgust at the top heaviness of the labor party's demands, and the railway people's easy times "'as compared with that of the farmer. "'I believe,' said he, in every man, if he can, "'working only eight hours a day, though I have to work "'sixteen myself for precious little return, that these "'fellows are running the country to blazers. "'The rules of supply and demand must sway the labor "'or any other market all the world over, "'and they'll have to see that and haul in their sales. "'Who are you going to vote for?' inquired Andrew. "'I'm going for Henderson and the Misses for Walker. "'It's a wonder you don't compel Mrs. Bray to vote for your man. "'No fear, I'm pleased she's taking the opposite chap, "'just to illustrate my opinion on what liberty of opinion "'should be. "'But I won't deny,' he concluded with a humorous smile. "'But I mightn't be so pleased with her going against me "'if I was set on either of them. "'But as it is, neither are worth a vote, "'so that I'm pretty well sitting on a rail myself.' "'I thought your first announcement almost too liberal "'to be true,' laughed Miss Grovener. "'No, I will say that Mr. Bray as a man does treat his women "'proper than give him liberty,' said Grandma. "'And a nice way they use it,' sniffed Carrie, sought a vote say. "'As we set out to the meeting, "'Miss Grovener mentioned to me that she was endeavoring "'to find suitable speakers to address her association, "'and asked, did I know of any one. "'Here was an opening for a thrust in the game of parry "'I was setting on foot between Dorn and Ernest Breslau. "'Ask my friend Mr. Ernest to deliver an address. "'Women in politics,' I said. "'That is his particular subject. "'Here's a most fluent speaker and loves speaking in public. "'Nothing will delight him more.' "'I'll ask him at once,' said she. "'This was as foundational as a fairytale as ever was spun, "'for Ernest could not say two words in public upon any occasion. "'That he was usually tended a dinner, "'and was called upon to make a speech. "'He considered the drawback of resting any athletic owners. "'Whether women were in politics or the wash house "'was a sociological obstrucity beyond his line of thought, "'and not though it cost him all his fortune to refuse, "'could he have decently addressed any association, "'even on beloved sporting matters. "'Hence his consternation when Miss Grovener approached him. "'At first he was nonplussed, and next thing, "'taking it as a joke on my part, was highly amused. "'Miss Grovener, on her side, thought he was joking, "'with the result that there was the lightest "'and most laughable conversation between them. "'Dorn did not know the reason of it. "'She could only see that Ernest and Miss Grovener were engrossed, "'and at first curious, a little later she was annoyed with the former. "'I think,' she whispered to me, "'it's Mr. Ernest you'll have to see doesn't flirt with every girl he comes across. "'Perhaps he isn't flirting,' I coolly replied. "'Not now, perhaps,' she said pointedly, "'perhaps he's in earnest with one and practices with others.' "'Arrived at the hall we found the women swarming around Walker-like bees. "'Good Lord, well look what Les has let himself in for,' laughed Ernest. "'I wouldn't stand in their shoes for a tenner. "'Go on, surely you two are partial to the ladies?' "'Yes, but—' "'But there must be reason in everything,' I quoted. He laughed. "'Yes, and reason in this sort of thing to suit my taste "'would be a small medium. "'But what a fine old sport the old Dame Clay would have made. "'No danger of her not standing up to a mauling or balking at any of her fences, eh?' "'Dawn would not look at Ernest after the meeting and deputation came to an end, but walked home with Dora Eewood, laughing and talking in ostentatious enjoyment, while Ernest and the Grosvenor girl were nonetheless entertained. "'Pon my soul, I couldn't make a speech to save my life,' he reiterated. "'My friend only laid you on for a lark, did you not?' He said turning to me, whom he gallantly insisted upon supporting on his arm, that splendid arm in which the muscles could expand till they were like iron bands. "'Don't you believe him, Miss Grosvenor?' I replied. "'He's a born orator, but is unaccountably lazy in vain, and only wants to be pressed. Insist upon his speaking, his longing to do so. And then his merry protesting laugh, and the girl's equally happy, rang out on the crisp starlight air as they went over and over the same ground. As we neared Clay's, I suggested that he should see Miss Grosvenor home, while I had touched myself to Dorn and Dora, and I invited him to come and sing some songs with us afterwards, for the night was yet young. To this he agreed, and supposed to be with the other young couple, I slipped behind, and could hear their conversation as they progressed. "'You're not struck on that red-headed mug, are you?' said Eward. For general, though political talk had become, there was still another branch of politics more vitally interesting to some of the electors. I'm not the style to be struck on a fellow that doesn't care for me. But he does. Looks like it, doesn't it?' she said sarcastically. "'Yes, it does, or what would he be hanging around here so long for?' I perhaps to see Aida Grosvenor. I suppose she'd have him, red hair and all. Poo! He never goes there, but he comes to your place, though, to deduce it often for my pleasure. He comes to see the border. He's a great friend of hers. Huh! That's all in my eye. He'd be a long time coming to see her if you weren't there, if she was twice as great a friend. What sort of old party is she? Must have some means. Oh, lovely! I suppose the red-headed mug thinks so, too, as she is touting for him. For him and Aida Grosvenor. Have it that way, if you like, but you know what I mean, all right. I don't. Oh, don't you? I say, Dawn, just stop out here a moment, will you? I want to tell you something else, I mean. Oh, tell it to me some other time, said she. It's too beastly cold to stay out another minute. Come and tell it to me while we are having supper round the fire. I'd have a pretty show of telling it there. I don't want to put in them a noon advertiser, but that's what I'll have to do if you won't give me a chance. If you keep pretending you don't get my letters, I'll write all that I put in them to your grandma, and tell her to tell you," he said jokingly. But the girl took him up shortly. If you dare do that, said she, aroused from her indifference, I'd never speak to you again the longest day I live, so you needn't think you'll get over me that way. You'd better tell Uncle Jake and Andrew, too, while you're about it, and Dora Kalfa might be fixed if you don't tell her." Well, I bet you'd listen to what the red-headed mug said quick enough, replied Dora Eewitt, in an injured tone. The red-headed mug, as you call him, and his hair isn't much redder than yours, and is twice as nice, she retaliated. He would be a gentleman anyhow, and not a bear with a scolded head. By this time they had reached the gate, and Dorn was carelessly inviting him to enter, but he declined, in rather a crestfallen tone. Better invite red-head, not me, if you won't listen to what I say, and pretend you never received my letters. Thank you for the good advice! I hope he'll accept my invitation, because he is always pleasant and agreeable," she retorted. End of Chapter 18 Chapter 19 of some everyday folk and Dorn by Miles Franklin. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. An Opportunly in Opportune Douche It was just as well that Dora Eewitt had been too chop-fallen to come in, for we found the place in what Grandma termed a uproar. As we had gone out, Mrs. Bray had arrived to relate her speculations in regard to Mrs. Rooney Mollinio. Mrs. Bray did not live a great distance from the latter's cottage, and as she had not seen her about during the day, wondered had she come to her travail. Andrew decided the matter when he came home by relating what he had heard when passing the cottage, and he supplemented the statement by the deplorable information that the old bloke is up at Jiminy's, trying if he can get a free drink. I must go to her, said Grandma, rising in haste. I wouldn't if I was you, said Mrs. Bray. You don't never get no thanks for nothing like that, and might get yourself into a mess. I believe in leaving people to manage their own affairs. Carrie sniffed in the background. I'll risk all that, said Grandma, for shame's sake, and the sake of mid-orders, and every other woman, I couldn't leave one of my sex in that predicament. Oh, well, some people is wonderful strong in the nerve that way. Said Mrs. Bray, and Carrie interjected in an aside, and others are mighty strong in the nerve of selfishness. Of course, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to go, continued Mrs. Bray, but I would be of no use. I'm so pitiful, sensitive, and nervous that way. It's a grand thing, then, that some are hard and not so sensitive, or people could die and no one would help them. Said Carrie, no longer able to contain her measure of Mrs. Bray. Uncle Jake had the sulky in readiness, and Grandma, with a collection of requisites, appeared with a great old shawl about her, Irish fashion. Come, you dawn, I want your help. I'm not as strong as I once was. And Andrew, you come too, you'll do to send for the doctor, and who'll take care of the pony? I volunteered, and though a rotten stick to depend on was accepted, and with three women rode in the sulky while Andrew ran behind. Having arrived at the little cottage halfway between clays and town, we found it was too sadly true that the poor little woman was alone in her trouble, and worse, she had not had the means to prepare for it, while most ghastly of all, there was no trace of her having had any nourishment that day. These are the sad cases of poverty, when the helpless victim is not of the caliber which can beg, and suffers an empty larder in silence, and behind an appearance of respectability. The capable old grandmother had prepared herself for this possibility, and from under her capacious shawl produced a bottle of broth, which she set about warming. She may not have been at first hand acquainted with the few silk-wrapped lives run according to the methods scheduled in first-class etiquette books, but she had a very resourceful and far-seeing grip of that style of existence, into which, regardless of inclinational capability, the great majority are forced by domineering circumstance, and being competent to grapple with its emergencies, she took hold of this case without humbug, and with the fortitude and skill of a Japanese general. As though the main trouble were not enough, the poor little wife was further smitten with the two-edged mental anguish, which is the experience of sensitive women, whose husbands neglect them at this crisis of the maternal gift-saminy. Dr. Smalley, who soon appeared after receiving Andrew's message, was not sufficiently finely strung to fully estimate the evil effect of Rooney Mollinier's behaviour at this juncture, but not so the final woman of the ranks, with her quick perceptions and high and sensitive sentiment regarding the bedrock relations of life. Calling the doctor out during an interval, she discussed the matter within my hearing. Poor little thing, she's just heartbroken with the way her husband's carrying on. I wish I could deliver him up to Mrs. Bray to school. He's one of them deserves it. Pure and simple. If Jim Clay had foresook me and demeaned me like this, I would have died. But he was always tenderer than a mother. Something will have to be done. I'll send Andrew to Jimine's with a sulky to get him. He can get Dambi to help him if he can't manage him himself, and take the old garment down to my place and keep him there secure. Tell Jake there it's got to be done. And I'll make up a yarn to pacify the poor thing. And returning to her patient, to the old dame's credit, truthful though she was, I heard her say, Your husband's been fidgeting me, and I never can stand anyone but the doctor about it these times. So I bundled him off down to stay with Jake, and gave him strict instructions not to poke his nose back here till he's sent for. What diplomat could have made it more kindly tactful than that? Quite right, too, said the doctor, upholding her. When I see it's going to be a good case like this, I always banish the man, too. But I could have seen him, and the poor fellow, I'm sure, is overwhelmed with anxiety, said the hapless little Marta, in the brave, made belief that is a compulsory science with most women. Well, we ain't so anxious about him as we are about you, said the valiant old woman. You're the chief person now. He ain't no consideration at all, and can go and bag his head for all we care while we get you out of this fix. I sat upon the veranda until Andrew passed, taking home with him the noble Rune Mollignieu, Lord Lee Scion, of an ancient and doubtless, afet house, and then the doctor banished Dawn from the house, giving her into my charge, with instructions to take her home and calm her down. Had she been the heroine of a romance, she would have been a born nurse. Without any training or experience, she could have surpassed Florence Nightingale. But alas, she was merely an everyday girl in real life, and this being her first actual experience of the tragedy of birth, and the terror of it being intensified and aggravated by the pitiable surrounding circumstances, she was beside herself. She clung to me, choked with a flood of tears, and palpitating in an unbearable tumult of emotion. This case so pathetically ordinary that most of us are debased by acquaintance with similar, to this girl was fresh, and striking her in all its inexcusable barbarity, without any extenuating glows, made her furious with pain and righteous indignation. I let her about by devious ways, that her heart might cool ere we reached clays. The cloudless, breezeless night, though not yet severely cold, is crisp with the purity of frost, and sweet with the exquisite scent of flowering loquats. The only sounds breaking its stillness, were the trains passing along the long viaduct, approaching the bridge, and the rumble of the vehicles as they ground their homeward way along the stony road, their lights flushing as they passed, and snatchers of the occupants' conversation bridging us where we walked on a path beside the main thoroughfare. The heavens were a spangled glory, and the dark sleeping lands gave forth a fresh, pleasant odor. Man provided the only discordant note, but for the jarring of his misdoings, there would have been perfect peace. Oh, the hot young heart that raged by my side! I too had forwarded the cruel torrent of facts that was torturing her mind. I knew, I understood. By and by she would arrive at my face, and have somewhat of my calmness, but to tell her so would merely have been the preaching so deservedly and naturally abhorred by the young, and except for holding a hand in a tight clasp, I was apparently unresponsive. As she grew quieter, I steered for home, and eventually we arrived at the door of the kitchen, and found there, Jake, Andrew, and the Rooney-Mollinieu, a small man with a large beard, and the type of aristocratic face furnished with a long protruding nose, and a narrow, retreating forehead. Carrie, upper loft like the angels, could be heard practising on my piano, and the soiled utensils scattered on the table illustrated that the gentleman had had refreshments. It being dawn's week in the kitchen, she set about collecting the cups in the wash-up dish, and presently some mortal an expression of sentiment on the part of the Rooney-Mollinieu reopened the vials of her indignation. Oh, not too lancious that it may be a sun, he driveled, as there are so few male representatives of the old name now. And the sooner there's numb, the better, there is no excuse for the likes of you being alive. I'd like to assist in the extermination of your family by putting you in the boiling copper on washing-day, that would give you a taste of your desserts, raged the girl. She was speaking without restraint in the light of the high demands of crude, impetuous, merciless youth. I had once felt as she did, but now I could see the cruel train of conditions behind certain characters, forcing them into different positions, and in place of dawn's wholesome, justifiable, hot-headed rage against the likes of Rooney-, I felt for him a contempt so immeasurable that it almost toppled over and became pity. Seeing the little sense of responsibility that is inculcated regarding the laws of being, instead of being shocked at the familiarity of the Rooney-Molloneer type of husband and father, I gave myself up to a greable surprise, owing to the large number of noble and worthy parents I had discovered. The world dissoil our minds, and we soil it. Time brings the tolerance that hides the truth. But dawn had not yet sunk to the apathy engendered by experience and familiarity. She had judged to the case on its merits, as it would be handled by an administrator of the law, the common law we must all keep. She did not imagine a network of exculpatory conditions, or go squinting round corners to draw it into line as an act for which circumstances, rather than the culprit, were responsible. She gazed straight and honestly, and saw a crime. Dawn, you shameless hussy, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, said her uncle. Oh yes, I'm well aware that any girl who says the straight truth about the things that concern them most in life ought to be ashamed of herself. They should hold their tongues, except a flat of the men who trample them in the dust. That's the proper and womanly attitude for a girl, I know, she said desperately. I'm sure this is uncalled for, simpered the hero of the act, rising and showing signs of looking for his hat. You'd better run and tell your wife you've been insulted, poor little dear, said Dawn. Look, said Andrew to me uneasily. Tell Dawn to dry up, will you? She'll take no notice of me, and if that fellow goes home acting the goat, I'll get the blame, and he ain't drunk enough to be shut up. Blown him, I say. I'm sure, said Mr Rooney Mollneur, who apparently had various things mixed with politics, that some men, though the women have taken the votes, and their manhood, still have some rights. Bless me, it must be acknowledged that they have some rights in creation. Here he made an ineffectual grab for his hat, and a sprawling plunge in the direction of the door, saying, I've never been so insulted. Blow you, sit down, Mr Mooney Mollneur, or whatever you are, said Andrew. You've got to stay here, and Dawn, hold your mag, you'd give anyone the pip with your infernal gab. I'm sure it must be conceded, that men have some rights. Mr Rooney Mollneur appealed to me. I was the most responsible person present, Uncle Jake did not count, the other three were children, and so it behoved me to take a grip of the situation. Rights in creation, I should rather think so. In creation men have the rights, or perhaps duties, of gods, to protect, to nurture, to guard, and to love, and when as a majority, men rise to them, we shall be a great people, but for the present the only rights many of them rest and assert by mere superior brute force are those of bullies and selfish cowards. Sit down immediately. He sat without delay. All that Dawn says of you is deserved. The least you can do now to repair matters is to swallow your pill noiselessly, and give no further trouble until you are called upon to obstruct the way again in semblance of discharging responsibilities of which a cat would be twice as capable. Yes, said Dawn, if you dare to talk of going home to worry your wife, I'll throw this dish of water right on you, and when I come to think of things, I feel like throwing a hot one on every man. As she said this, she swelled her dishcloth to clean the bowl, and turning to toss the water into the drain outside the door, confronted Ernest Breslau. Quite two hours had elapsed since he had parted from us to conduct Miss Grovener to her home, where he had been long delayed in argument, concerning whether he could or could not address a public meeting. I discovered later that an opportunity to gracefully take his leave from Grovenus had not occurred earlier, and that he had quite relinquished hope of calling it place that night. But to his surprise, seeing the place lighted as he was passing, he came towards the kitchen door. Dawn was doubtless peaked that he should have spent so much time with Miss Grovener, which, considering his previous attentions to her, and the rules of the game as observed in this stratum of society, gave him the semblance of flirting—perfidious action, worthy of the miscreant man in the beginning of a career, which at a mature stage should cover cruelty and cowardice, equaling that of Rooney Molleneux. Dawn lacked restraint in her emotional outbursts. The poor girl's state of nervousness bordered on hysteria. The water was nearly out of her hand, in any case. And with a smack of that irritated divergence, from lawful and decorous conduct, of which the sanest of us are at times the victim, she pitched the dish of greasy warm water fairly on the immaculate young athlete, accompanying the action with the ejaculation. That's what you deserve, too! I demand, he exclaimed, but further utterance was drowned by a hearty guffaw from Andrew, which fully confirmed the outrageous insult. Just what I should expect of you, sneered Uncle Jake, while Mr Rooney Molleneux, his attention thus diverted from his own affairs, gazed in watery eyed surprise at a second victim of the retributive dawn. Well, that's about what you'd expect from a thing earning her living, but never of a young lady in a good home of her own, and living with the mother of a family, said Carrie, appearing in time to witness the accident. I said nothing to the white-faced girl, for there was more urgent work to be done in repairing the damage. Hurrying through the house and writhing my skirts on the naked rose-bushes under Miss Flipp's window, where the dead girl's skirts had caught as she went out to die, I gained a point intercepting Ernest as he strode along the path leading to the bridge. Ernest! You must excuse me to-night, he said, showing that my intervention was most unwelcome. Ernest, if you have any friendship for me, stop. I must speak to you, and I'm not feeling able for much more to-night. Thus I did make a lever of my invalidism, and in the gentleness of his strength he's admitted to be detained. Some men would have covered their annoyance with humourous satire, but Ernest was not furnished with this weapon. He only had physical strength, and that could not avail him in such an instance. I placed my hand on his arm, ostensibly for support, but in reality to be sure of his detention, and found that he was saturated. Not a pleasant experience on a frosty night, but there was no danger of it proving deleterous to one in his present state of excitement. Being one of those natures whose emotions, though not subtle, make up for this deficiency in wholesome thoroughness, he was furious with the rage of heated youth, not given to spending itself on every adventitious excuse for annoyance, and barred by conditions from any sort of retaliation. In addition to being bitterly wounded, his sporting instinct was bruised, and he chafed under the unfairness of the blow. The beauty of the cloudless, briseless night had been supplemented by a lopsided moon, risen sufficiently to show the exquisite mists hanging like great swaths of white gosma in the hollows, and to cast the shadows of the buildings and trees in the silent river, at this time of the year looking so cold and treacherous in its ripplerous flow. The wet grass was stiffening with frost, and the only sounds disturbing the chilly purity of advancing night were the erratic bell at the bridge, and the fire-off rumble of a train on the mountain side. Man still afforded the discordant note, and the only heat in the surroundings was that in the burning young heart that raged by my side. Oh youth, youth, you must each look back and see for yourselves in the oft-light cast by later experience, the mountains and fiery ordeals you made for yourselves out of molehills in the matter of heartbreak. We, whose hair is white, cannot help you, though we have gone before, and know so well the cruel stretches on the road you travel. Ernest waited for me to take the initiative, and as everything that rose to my lips seemed banal, we stood awkwardly silent till he was forced into saying, I'm afraid you are overdoing yourself. Can I not help you to your room? You will be ill. The only thing that would overdo me is that you should be upset about this. It must not make any difference. Difference between you and me? Nothing short of an earthquake could do that, he replied. I'm in with Dawn. It must not make any difference with her. It was only a freak. Certainly I would be a long time retaliating upon a lady, no matter what she did to me. But when, when, he could not bring himself to name it, it struck him as so disgraceful. She intimates to me, as plainly as was done to-night, that she disapproves of my presence in her house. Well, a fellow would want pollaxing if he hadn't pried to take a hint like that. She did not mean anything. She will be more hurt than you are. Mean anything? Had it been a joke I could have managed to endure it, or an accident about which she would have worried, I would have been amused. But it was deliberate. And if it had been clean water. But, ugh, it was greasy slop water, to make it as bad as it could be, and if a man had done it. The muscles of his arm expanded under my interested touch, as he made a fist of the strong brown hand. But being a girl, I can only put up with it, he said, with the helplessness of the athlete in dealing with such a delinquent. Did you hear what she said, too? Great Scott! It is not as though I had done her any harm. I merely came here to see a friend, and made myself agreeable because you said she was good to you. And, dear me! His voice broke with the fervour of his perturbation. He had been wounded to the core of his manly amour prop. And to state that he was not more than twenty-five gives a better idea of his state of mind than could any amount of laborious diagnosis. What can I have done? he further ejaculated. Can someone have told her falsely that I am a cad in any way? She might have waited until she proved it. I would not have believed had anyone spoken badly of her. Here an inadvertent confession of the growing affection he felt for her. Even if I were deserving of such ignominy, it was none of her business. I only came to see you. She had nothing to do with me. Then I took hold of this splendidly muscular young creature wounded to the quick. I determinedly usurped to mother's privilege in regard to the situation, and glancing back over my barren life, I would that I had been the mother of just such a son. What a kingdom twot have been! And in the order of things, being forced to surrender him to another's keeping, I could not have chosen a better or more suitable than dawn. Entering his principality to reign as queen, while his manhood was yet an unsacked stronghold, she was of the character and determination to steer him in the way of uprightness to the end. Whistfulness upsprung, as I reviewed my empty life, but rude reality suddenly uproads an obliterated ideality. It put on the scroll a picture of motherhood, and mother love wantonly squandered, trodden in the mire, and, instead of being recognized as a kingdom, treated only as a weakness, and traded upon to enslave women. I turned with a sigh, and we walked round a corner of the garden, where, in one recent instance, appallingly common, a poor frail woman had crept out in the dead of night to pay alone the penalty of a crime incurred by two. One foolish and weak, the other murderously, selfishly, a coward. I addressed Ernest Breslaw regarding the painful effect this tragedy had produced on the mind of dawn, and how it had been further overstrung by the later one, and concluded, Had I expressed my inward feelings in outward actions at dawn's age, and being armed with a dish of water, to have thrown it on the nearest individual would have been a very mild ebullition. But I set my teeth against outward expression, and let it fester in my heart, while the beauty of dawn's disposition is that her feelings all come out. She has disgraced herself by making outward demonstration of what many inwardly feel. But understanding what I have put before you, you must not hold the girl responsible for her action. With masculine simplicity he was unable to comprehend the complexity of feminine emotions engendered by the exigencies of the more artificial and suppressed conditions of life, as forced upon women. I understand about old Rooney. I feel as disgusted with him as anyone does. But I am not going to emulate him. I'd jolly well cut my throat first. And if I could lay my hand on the snake at the root of the drowning case, I'd make one to roast him alive. What made Miss Dawn confound me with that sort? She doesn't, for an instant, do so. On the contrary, she would be the first to repudiate such a suggestion. Good Lord, then why did she throw that stuff on me? It was only fit for a criminal. Can you not grasp that she was irritated beyond endurance with the unwholesomeness of the whole system of life in relation to women, and that for the moment you appeared as one of the army of oppressors? But that isn't fair. I know enough of women, some women, to make one shudder with repulsion. But there would be no sense or justice inventing my disgust on you or the other good ones. He contended. Quite so. But our moral laws are such that some issues are more repulsive to a woman than a man, and you must admit there are heavy arguments could be brought in extenuation of Dawn's attitude of mine when the water slipped out of her hand. There's no doubt women do have to swallow a lot, he said. You don't feel so angry on account of the impetuous Dawn's act now, do you? It doesn't look so bad in the teeth of your argument, and if she would only say something to explain it, I won't mind. But otherwise I'll have sense to make myself scarce in this neighbourhood. I'm afraid her vanity will be too wounded for her to give in. I'll make it as easy for her as I can. But good Lord, I can't go to her and apologise because she threw dirty water on me. Well, I'll bid you good night. I must run to Dawn. I expect she is sobbing her heart out by this, biting her pretty cold lips to relieve her feelings, her lips that were meant for kisses, not cruel usage. Good heavens, do you really think she'll feel like that? He asked in astonishment, uncertain. But I can't see why she might have had reason had I been the aggressor. If you had hurt her, she would not feel half so bad. You would be a hopeless booby if you could not understand that. Really? Now, if I thought she would take it that way, it would make all the difference in the world, but had she desired to dispatch me, half that energy of insult would do. He said, drawing up, while hardness crept into his voice, but it softened again as he concluded. I wouldn't like her to be upset about it, though, if she didn't quite mean it. Well, you can be sure that in regard to you, she was very far from meaning it, and that she will be dreadfully upset about it. So think of what I've said, and come and see me in the morning. Now that he had grown calm, he was shivering with the cold, so I bait him run home. On returning to the house I found Andrew, the solitary watcher of his charge, who, covered by an old cloak, was snoring on the kitchen sofa. Dear me, where are they all? In bed? And look at his nibs there. I reckon I took a wrinkle from Dorne as how to manage him. Soon as everyone's back was turned, he began to act in the goat again, and make him for home, and I thought, here goes, I don't care a hang if all the others roused on me like blazers, so long as grandma don't. She's the only one that makes me sit up. So I flung water on him, not warm water, but real cold. It took seven years' growth out of him, and then I gave him a drink of hot coffee and undressed him, and he was jolly glad to lay down there. Why, you'll give the man a cold. No jolly fear. I took his clothes off. I've got him dry in here. I couldn't find any of my gear, and wasn't game to ask Uncle Jake, so I clapped him into a nightdress of grandma's. Look, he's got his hand out. I reckon the frill looks all so gay, don't you? I bet grandma will rouse, but I'll have a little piss with him now, and chance the ducks. Said the resourceful water. His charge really looked so absurd that I was provoked to laughter. How did you manage him? Was he tractable? He soon dropped that there was no good in being nothing else. He spluttered something about me, disgracing him, because something on his crest said he was brave or something. But I told him I didn't care a hang if you had a crest the size of a clock or two, or was as bald as Uncle Jake, that I was full of him acting the goat, and that finished him. Enough too, I laughed, as I bade the Australian lad, with the very Australian estimate of the unimportance of some things sacred to English minds, the Australian parting salute. So long! End of Chapter 19 Chapter 20 of Some Everyday Folk and Dawn by Miles Franklin This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Alas! how easily things go wrong! On ascending to my room, I did not, as expected, find Dawn sobbing, but she had her face so determinedly turned away that I refrained from remark. I was none the worse for the diverting incidents of the evening, because the excitement of them had come from without, instead of within. The rush of the train soon became a far away sound, and the light that flushed from their engine doors as they climbed to the first zig of the mountain, and which could be seen from my bed, had been shut from my sight by the fogs of approaching sleep, when I was aroused by heartbroken sobbing from the bed by the opposite wall. After a while I got out of bed, bent on an attempt to comfort. Dawn, what is it? Um, sorry I waked you, I thought you were sound asleep, she said, pulling in with a violent effort, but speedily breaking into renewed sobs. I was thinking of poor little Mrs. Rooney Molyneux, and how my mother died, said the girl, rolling over and burying her lovely head in her tear-drenched pillow. I can't help thinking about the sadness and cruelty of life to women. I felt certain that a matter less deep and lying farther from the core of being was perturbing her more, but as she chose to ignore it, I did likewise. Well, we must not dwell too sadly on that, for which we are not responsible, and women are privileged in being able to repay the cost of their being. Yes, I always remember that, and often shudder to think I might have been a man, with their greater possibilities of cowardliness and selfish cruelty, as illustrated by old Rooney and Miss Flip's destroyer. Not a word concerning her action to Ernest. Thought of it stung too much for mention, so there was nothing to do but comfort her till she fell asleep, and await from Ernest the next turn of events bearing on the situation. The next turn of events in the clay household bore down upon us next morning after breakfast, when Grandma came home, having left the first board of Rooney Mollignure comfortably asleep in the swaddling clothes which had contained dawn at the date when she had been a little whinge and thing, with whom everything had disagreed, and which garments were lent to the newborn babe until Grandma could provide him with others. The hail-old dame was not too fatigued to be in a state of lively ire, and opened fire upon her circle with. I met old Hollis on the way home, and do you believe, he says to me, Well Mrs Clay, so I believe you took to rabbit-catching in your old days. It was like his cheek, the same as when he said the monkeys would be having a vote next. Rabbit-catching indeed. No wonder women has got sense at last to make the birth rate decline, when you see cases like that, and even the people that go to help them out of the fix, and that out of kindness, not for no reward nor pleasure, is demeaning to their face and called rabbit-catchers, if you please. I reckon all women ought to be compelled to be rabbit-catchers for a time, and it would be such an eye-opener to them, that if there wasn't some alterations made in the tone of the whole business, they would all strike, so there'd be no need of rabbit-catching, as some call it, to make things more disagreeable. And that's what has been going on lately in an underhand way, but some people concluded the intelligent old lady with her custom recolor, coming to a full stop, air recapitulating the misdoings of these unmentionable members of society. Rabbit-catching, as midwifery is contemptuously termed in the vernacular, does require a status, and those who have need of it, merit some consideration. Civilisation, stretching up to recognise that every child is a portion of state wealth, may presently make some movement to recognise maternity as a business or office needing time and strength, not as a mere passing detail thrown in among mountains of other slavery. During the whole forenoon, I busied myself with the construction of garments for the new arrival in this Vale of Woe, and at the same time was on the alert for the commanded appearance of Ernest Breslau. Instead of himself, he sent as a messenger a well-spoken lad who presented Mr. Ernest's compliments, and hoped that I was not feeling any ill effects from my unusual exertion during the previous evening. I sent her a quest, per return, that he should call upon me during the afternoon, but he did not regard it. The next being dawn's day for Sydney, I waited for this event to hatch some progress in the case, but upon her return she had no favours to share with me or merry tale to tell of being taken to afternoon tea by Ernest. He would figure in this account, and so prominently, as to suggest that her talk of the fun she had had with him was a little forced. So, on the following morning, I took it upon myself to call upon the backward knight in his own castle. Unmooring one of the boats, I rode with great caution, obliquely across the stream, till reaching for the desired pier, I tethered my craft and ascended among an orange grove laden with its golden fruit, and between the ruttling canes of the vineyard, dismantled by winter, till I reached the house where at present my young friend sojourned, and I was thankful that bleached as well as unfaded locks, having their own peculiar privileges, I was able to make this call with propriety. The young gentleman was in, and without delay, appeared to the beautiful lady's self-directed and appointed ambassadors. I suppose I may pay you a visit, I said, with a smile, as he seated me in the drawing-room, which we had to ourselves. As you didn't seem to care whether I were dead or alive, I have come over to practically illustrate that I am still above ground. Why did you not come to see me? Ernest reddened and fidgeted, and said, haltingly, You know, if you had been ill, I would have been the first to go to you, but I knew you were quite well, and I've been so busy, he finished lamely. Now you know that I know that you have been idle, quite unendurably idle, I retorted, a remark he received in embarrassed silence, which endured till I broke it with. Well, I suppose you are waiting for me to divulge the real object of my pilgrimage, and that is to know why you haven't kept your agreement about making that little mistake as easy as you could for Miss Dawn. She is fretting herself pale about it. Ernest stood up, his colour flaming into his tan cheeks till they were as bright as his locks, while he made as though to speak once or twice, but hesitated, and at length exclaimed, This is not fair. You must—you have no reason to bother—you—and there he founded. Ernest could neither lie, snub, nor evade. He was totally devoid of all the attributes of a smart politician. Have you not sufficient faith in my regard for you, to trust my motive in thus apparently seeking to pry into your private life? I asked. You know, I think more of you than any one, and I'll tell you the whole thing, he replied, taking a seat beside me. You have made a mistake in assuming that Miss Clay, or whatever her real name might be, is in difference who was well assumed, did not fully mean her action, and I was a fool to believe you when I had more than sufficient proof to the contrary. Yesterday morning I happened to go to Sydney in the same train as she did, and as I happened, entirely by chance and quite unexpectedly, to meet her on the platform, I lifted my hat as usual to make it easy for her, and a nice fool I made of myself. She didn't merely pretend not to see me, but hurried by me in contempt, and came back with that EWOOD, who glared at me as though I were a tramp who had attempted to molest her. I am sure you could not expect me to go farther than that, and I only did that because you call her a friend of yours. Perhaps EWOOD doesn't do things that necessitate the throwing of dirty water on him. It was rather an uncalled-for thing to do to any one. Perhaps the old dame doesn't allow her boarders to have visitors, and that is the polite way they have of informing one to the contrary. The sky looked rather murky. I said nothing, having nothing ready to say. Oh, by the way, I am leaving here to Murrow for Adelaide, where I am to play in some inter-colonial football matches against the New Zealanders. Is there anything I could do for you over there? he said, as though having dismissed that other unworthy trifle from his mind. Going to run away because a girl, half accidentally, and half out of nervous irritation, threw a little water on you. There, I had said what I really thought, and half expected the snub, which, according to the rules of tact, I deserved for my divergence therefrom. But it did not come. He was a man of the field, and in this type of encounter had not a chance against one of my perceptions. He laughed forcibly. That would be something to turn tail for, wouldn't it? But are you not doing so? If a beautiful girl did such a thing to me, it would only make me the more set to woo her to graciousness, I said. Perhaps so, if she were some girl you specially considered. But in the case of a passing stranger that I may never meet again, it would not be worth wasting time, especially as her action was so uncalled for and unwombly. But you are sure to meet her again if you continue our friendship, as I hope to have her with me, and that is why I am taking the trouble to thus interfere in what does not apparently concern either you or me very much. I don't consider Dawn as a passing stranger. I think her especially honest, and especially beautiful, and it worries me to think she has thus erred. Her action was unwombly, if you lie, but peculiarly feminine, with the unavoidable hysterical femininity engendered in women by their subjected environment. Are you quite sure you considered Dawn merely a passing stranger, not worth consideration? I asked, looking him fair in the eyes, and the quick lowering of them, and the tightening of his mouth satisfied me that he could not truthfully answer in the affirmative. It is a matter of what she considers me, he said. Oh, well, I said indifferently, now that I had gained my point. It doesn't matter to me, but I'll be sorry to lose your company. And I thought you were taking an interest in Leslie's candidature, and we could have enjoyed it together. So I do. Well, come back as soon as you get these matches played, and we'll have some good times together again, and I'll keep the reprehensible Dawn out of the way. And anyhow, remember she didn't throw cold water on you, and that's something. Very well. I'll be back in about three weeks' time to see how Leslie's gets on. Polling Day hasn't been fixed yet. I'd like to see it through now, I've started. Of course, said I, considering it a good move that he should disappear for a short time, and after this he rode me on the Nanoon till Clay's dinner bell sounded, and I went up to eat. That evening Dora Ewood came into tea and remained afterwards. He informed us that the redheaded chap who had been loafing around Kelmans had gone to Europe. Has he? Did he tell you? Interestedly inquired Andrew. He mentioned that he would leave for South Australia by the express this evening, I replied, but did not add that his going to Europe was a little stretched. Dawn was quiet. Her merry impudence did not enliven the company that night, and after tea, when Ewood caught her alone for a few moments as I was leaving the room, he said, so you cleared the redhead mug out after all, and Andrew says it was all right. Don't listen to me, but you haven't chucked the wash up water on me yet. That's one thing. His complacence was very pronounced. To his surprise Dawn made no reply, but biting her lip to keep back her tears walked out of the room, and in the dark of the passage smote her dimpled palms together, exclaiming, What to heaven I had thrown the water over this colluding stead of him, and the thermometer of Dora's self-satisfaction fell considerably when she did not appear again that evening. That night, when the waning moon got far enough on her westward way to surmount the old house on the knoll beside the noon, and cast its shadow in the deep clear water, the silver beam strayed through a little window facing the great rangers, and found the features of a beautiful sleeper disfigured by weeping. But youth's rest was sound, despite the tear stains, and the old moon smiled at such ephemeral sorrow. The night wind, coming down the gorges with the river, sighed along the valley as the moon remembered all the faces, which, though tearless under the nocturnal inspection, yet were pale from the inward sobs, only giving outward evidence in bleaching locks and shadowy eyes. Even within the sound of the engines roaring down the spur, many of the little night-wrapped houses, hard set upon the plain, had inmates kept from sleep by deeper sorrows than dawn had ever known. The first fortnight of Ernest's absence, believed by his doubting young lady to be final, was a stirring time in noon, and particularly full at clays. Jam-making was the star item on the latter's domestic bill. Baskets and baskets of a golden oranges and paler lemons, and shattux were converted into jam and marmalade, and ranged on the shelves of the already replete storehouse, in readiness to tempt the summer pallet of the weekend borders, which should appear when the days stretched out again. We were occupied in this business to such an extent that the sight of oranges became a weariness, and Andrew avert that the very name of marmalade gave him the pip. At night we enjoyed the diversion of the meetings, and talk and gossip of them made conversation for the days. The previously mentioned political addresses were but mild fanfares by comparison with the flamboyance of the gas-gonadine now in progress, and in its reports of these bursts of oratory, the noon advertiser gave further evidence of its broad-minded liberality. Mrs. Gasfranta, it reported, addressed a packed meeting in the Citizens Hall last night, and proved herself the best public speaker who has been heard in the noon during the present campaign, and so on. It recognised worth and gamely gave the palm to the deserving, irrespective of party or sex, did not so much as insert the narrow quibble that she was the best for a woman. Among other incidents, the Lady Candice has called it clays and received a piece of grandma's mind. Thanks. I don't want no one to tell me how to vote. I've read two or three families and gave a hand with more, and have intelligence the same as others, and at my time of life don't want no one to tell me of a business. I reckon I could tell a good many others how to vote. The pity of it was that it was immaterial how any electors cast their vote. Neither party had a sensible group of affairs, and besides, love of country in a patriotic way is not a trait engendered in Australians. In politics, as in private life, all is selfishness. The city people thought only of building a greater Sydney. The residents of Nanoon and other little towns had mine for nothing but their own small centre, all seeing no farther than their noses, or that what directly benefitted their little want might not be good for the country at large, and that legislature must, to be successful, better the living conditions of the masses, not merely of one class or section. Then, city men, unacquainted with the practical working of the land, could not possibly handle the land question effectively, and moreover, a man might understand how to manage the coastal district and remain at sea, regarding the great areas west of the watershed. Another big mistake lay in overrepresentation of the city, and the underrepresentation of the man on the land. The producer should be the first care, and while he is woefully disregarded and ill-considered, a country cannot thrive. The reason of this state of affairs was the division of electorates on a population basis. This meant that a city electorate covered a very small area, and that practically all its wants were attended by the municipality, so that the city member had leisure to apply the trade of merchant, doctor, or barrister within a few minutes of the House of Parliament. Whereas the country member, to become acquainted with the vast area he represented, and the requirements of its inhabitants, and attend parliamentary sittings, had no time left to be anything but a member of Parliament, precariously depending upon re-election for livelihood. Dawn threw herself into the contest with great enthusiasm, and also industriously pursued her vocal studies, but for her was exceptionally subdued, and inclined to be cross on the smallest provocation. She had become so engrossed in political meetings that Dora Eewitt, who was continually at clays since the retreat of Ernest, one day remonstrated with her. She had made a political meeting the excuse for declining to go rowing with him, whereupon he remarked, Oh, leave them to the old maids, Dawn. You'll grow into a scarecrow that would frighten any man away if you hang on to politics much more. Well, if it would frighten some men away, I'd go in for them twice as much, snapped the girl. I suppose you admire the style of girls who are going around now saying after some straightforward women have said what we all feel and got the vote. Oh, I don't care for the vote. Let men rule. They are the strong vessel. Politics don't belong to women, and so on. You'd think me a sweet little womanly deer if I croaked like that. But you keep your brightest eye on that sort of squaca, and for all her noise about being content with her rights, you'll see that she takes more than her share of the good of the reforms that other women have worked for. Oh, Lord! good-temperedly giggled Dora, for home truths that would be considered sheer spleen from a plain girl are taken as fine fun when uttered by a girl as physically attractive as dawn. During the second week of the footballer's absence, who should appear to lend a hand on the side of Leslie Walker but Mr. Paunch, uncle of the late Miss Flip? He arrived with the callousness worthy of a certain department of man's character, and addressed a meeting with as much pomp and self-confidence and talk of bettering the morals of the people as though he had been an Elise Hopkins. He had the further effrontery to visit Claes and feign crocodile grief for the deplorable fate of his niece. He protested his shame and horror, together with the desire for revenge, so loudly that I resolved that he should not be disappointed, that the dead girl should be in a slight measure avenged, and he should not only know but feel it. I ain't got my voting paper. Me and Carrie will go up for them tomorrow, said Grandma, one evening, from her armchair near the fireplace. There had been the usual meeting, and Ada Grovner and others had called in to discuss it. Why, didn't the police deliver yours? inquired Miss Grovner. No, we was missed somehow. Easy to see, Danby wasn't on the racket of delivering electors' rights, or you would have had two or three apiece, Andrew chipped in. I'm going for Walker Strait, announced Grandma. His temperance at all events, and that is something when there ain't any common sense in any of them. If I had twenty votes, I wouldn't give one to that Walker, said Andrew. All the women are after him because they think he's could look him, and he's got bandied legs. They clap him like fury, and look around like that as he'd anyone that goes to ask him a question. They seem to reckon he's an angel that oughtn't to be asked nothing he can't answer. I believe they'd all kiss him and marry him if they could. I hate him. Vote for Henderson. He wouldn't give women the vote, and only men are working on his committee. Oh, my, what's this? exclaimed Dawn. Well, you know the women are making fools of themselves about this Walker, said Ada Grovner, with her intelligently humorous laugh. I don't think much of him myself, in spite of his choice phrasing of the usual hustings bellowing. If women had not already the franchise, he would be slow to admit them on a footing of equality with men as regards being. There are two extremes of men, you know. One thinks that woman's position in life is to act score to her lord and master. The other regards her as a toy, an article to be handed in and out of carriages like Twist China, a drawing room ornament to be decked in wonderful gowns, and whose whole philosophy of existence should be to add to the material delight of men. Walker is representative of the latter type, and Old Hollis, who thinks that monkeys have as good a right to vote as women, belongs to the other. Had a service glance, their views regarding women seem to be diametrically opposed, but to me it has always appeared that they equally serve the purpose of degrading the position of women. You should have seen how cruel Walter looked tonight when an old man asked if he approved of women entering the Senate. He said no, like a club of thunder. It was probably this perspicacity on the part of Ada Groverner, coupled with a sense of humour that earned for her the reputation of trying to ape the swells. Well, good night everybody, and Mrs Clay, don't forget to apply for your right in time, or you won't be able to vote, she said in parting. No fear, responded Grandma. I've not been counted among mad people and criminals, and done out of me simple rights till this time of life without appreciating them when I've got them at last. Next day, true to intention, the old dayman Kerry went uptown for their voting papers, and to repeat the former's words, was downright insulted, so to speak. The civil servant whose duty it was to give rights to those electors who were not already in possession of such, was carrying affairs with a high hand, and had the brazen of frontry to tell Grandma Clay that it was a disgrace to see a woman of her years running after a vote, as he elegantly expressed it. And he also suggested to Kerry that it would suit her better to be at home doing her housework, and to put the cap on his gross misconduct, he persuaded them that they had left it too late to obtain the coveted document, the first outward and visible proof that men considered their women complete rational beings. Kerry had retorted that it would suit him better to do the work he was paid for than to exhibit his ignorance in meddling with the private affairs of others, and that if he could discharge his duties as well as she did her housework, he wouldn't make an ass of himself by showing his fangs about women having the vote in the way he did. The two electresses, thus bluffed, came down the street and told their grievance to Mr. Oscar Lawyer, for the noncehead of the opposition league, and at ordinary seasons a father of his people, to whom all the town made, in times of necessity, whether it was an old bell dame requiring assistance from the Benevolent Society, or a lad seeking a situation and requiring a testimonial of character. With Mr. Oscar Lawyer they also ran upon Mr. Paunch, and it was discovered that the Chalice Clark's statement was utterly false, and made because he was on the side of Henderson, and these two women were not. There was more talk than there is space for here. But the upshot of it was, the Clark was routed, and Grandma and Carrie came home triumphantly, each in possession of one of the magic sheets of blue paper, which they spread out on the table for us all to see. Well, well, said Grandma. I've seen the convicts flogged two days when this was nothing but a colony to ship them to, and I drove coaches when the line was only as far out of Sydney as here. And to think I should have lived to see the last of the convicts gone, coaches nearly become a novelty of the past, us calling ourselves a nation, and here are paper in me hand to show I can vote a man into this parliament, and the other that the king's son his self come out to open. I'm glad to see us lived that we can have our say in the laws now, same as the men, and not have to swallow anything they like to put upon us to suit their selves, said the old dame, with a splendid light in her eye, rubbed the creases out of the paper and spread it out again. Poo, it's the same as we've had all along. You didn't think our elector's right was anything to be grinning at when the men had it. I never seen you gaping at mine. You'd think it was something wonderful now when you've got one of your own, said Uncle Jake coming in. Well, I never, Jake Sorrell. Of course we don't think much of other people's things. What is the good of another woman's baby or a husband or frying pan? That is, if it was equally a thing you couldn't borrow. And if you was blind, what pleasure would you get out of someone else seeing the blue sky, or warning that there was a snake there to be trot on? And that's what it's been like with the elector's rights. Well, but what difference does that better paper make to you now? You won't live no longer, no finer appetite, no better, and it won't pay the taxes for you, contended uncle. Then if it is of so little account, why does it growl you so much to see me with it? And little as it is, there ain't that paper's reason why we shouldn't have always voted. And little though it is, that's all the difference has stood all these years between men voting and women not. And little as you think it is, for a woman to have done without. It's what men would shed their blood for if they was done out of it. It ain't what things actually are, it's all they stand for, and Grandma gathered up her right, and went to take off her bonnet, and change the bristling black dress which she donned for public appearance. I sat musing while she was away. It ain't what things actually are, it's all they stand for, as the old dame had said. And her delight in being a freed citizen no longer ranked with criminals and lunatics had touched my higher self more profoundly than anything had had power to do for years. Though taking a vivid interest in the electioneering, owing to the large distillation of the essence of human nature it afforded, as neither of the candidates had a practical group of public business, I cared not which should poll the highest. But now I resolve to procure my right and go to the ballot, and if nothing more make an informal vote for the sake of all that it stood for. At back of the simple paper were arrayed the spirits of countless noble and fearless men and women who had so loved justice and their fellows that they had spent their lives in working for this betterment of the conditions of living. And the little paper further stood for an improvement in the position of women, and consequently of all humanity, inconceivable to cursory observation. As for a woman going to the poll and voting for Jones or Smith, that was harmless in either case, and would not help her live or die or pay her debts, as Uncle Jake expressed it. But accepting the female vote for the House of Keys in the Isle of Man, the enfranchisement of women spreading from one to the other of the Australian States represented the first time that woman, even in our vauntedly great and highly civilised British Empire, was constitutionally, statutably recognised as a human being equal with her brothers. That women shall compete equally with men in the utilitarian industrialism of every walk of life is not the ultimate ideal of a universal adult franchise. Such emancipation is sought as the most condensed and direct method of abolishing the female sex disability, which in time shall bring the human intelligence, regardless of sex, to an understanding of the superiority of the mother sex as it concerns the race. As it is the race, the whole race, and consequently worthy of the status in life where it shall neither have to battle at the polls for its rights, nor be sold in the marketplace for bread. The empty headed cannot be expected to perceive the magnitude of this upward step in the evolution of man, and its machinery may not run smoothly for a span. We, nor our children's children, may not know much benefit from what it symbolises, but shall we who are comfortable in rights rested from ignorance and prejudice, but never enjoyed by past generations, be too selfish and small to rejoice in the possibility of bettered conditions. Those ahead may live under as the fruits of the self-sacrificing labour of those now fighting for their ideals? No.