The girls had a great deal to say about this letter, and as it was sewing afternoon, Miss Walsh allowed them to talk over their work instead of having any reading.
“Somebody told me,” said little Daisy Roberts, “that in India they don't care as much about girls as boys, and sometimes they kill the girl babies. Is that so?”
“Yes,” replied Miss Walsh. “It used to be a very common custom, and is still so to some extent, though the British Government has done much to stop it.”
“They must be very cruel to want to kill their own dear little babies. Why, if anybody should hurt our little Nellie, we'd all fly at him and nearly tear him to pieces,” and Daisy's face got very red and she doubled up her little fist at the very thought of such a thing.
“It isn't always, nor perhaps often, done in a spirit of cruelty. Sometimes it is because the parents are poor and cannot afford to marry their daughters, for weddings cost a great deal, and according to the notions of the country everybody must be married. Often it ruins a man to get his daughters married, and he lives in poverty all the rest of his life. Then very ignorant and superstitious parents sometimes sacrifice their children to please their gods, and as girls are not as much thought of as boys, it is frequently the girls who are killed. But, as I told you, the Government does not allow such doings, and when people are found breaking the law they are punished. Besides, as Christianity spreads these wicked things cease.”
“I think that way they have of making little girls get married is awful,” said Edith. “Just think of being dragged off to be married when you're only a little mite of a thing, and having to leave your own mamma and live with a cross old mother-in-law who abuses you!”
“Don't their fathers and mothers love them at all, Miss Agnes, that they send them off that way and allow them to be miserable?” asked Marty, who was ready to cry over the miseries of the poor little India girl.
“Of course there are many cruel parents—heathenism, you know, does not teach people to be kind and loving—but many love their children as much as your parents love you. In fact they are over-indulgent to them, and let them do just what they please when they are small. And you may imagine that the mother especially has a very sore heart when her little daughter is taken from her and when she hears of her being ill-treated in her new home. But it is considered a disgrace if girls are not married when mere children; and a loving mother wishes to keep her daughters from disgrace.”
“And how if the little girl's husband dies?” Rosa Stevenson inquired.
“Oh, then the poor little widow leads a miserable life.”