“Trumet!” she repeated. “Trumet ain't nothin'. Nobody's anything in Trumet. We're in Scarford now, and Scarford's a progressive, up-to-date place. We've all changed since we've been here, and I'm changin' much as anybody. I've been hearin' your papers, when you read 'em to Gertie and the cap'n, and I've been readin' 'The Voice,' too. Yes ma'am, I've read it and I've found out what a back number I've been. But, I ain't goin' to be so no more. I'm goin' to be as up-to-date as the next one, even if I do have to wash dishes for a livin'. Serena—Mrs. Dott, I mean—I'd like first rate to join that Chapter of yours. You put my name in to-night and maybe it can be voted on next meetin'.”
“But—but, Azuba, are you sure you know what it means? Do you think your husband would want you to—”
“My husband! What's he got to do with it? If we free women have got to be slaves to our husbands it's a pretty state of things, I must say. You don't ask your husband every time you go to meetin' whether he likes it or not. No, ma'am, you don't! You're above that, I cal'late. And I shan't ask Labe neither—even if he was where I could ask him, which he ain't. Husbands! Don't talk to me about husbands! THEY don't count.”
Serena said that she would see what could be done and hurried away to discuss the new development with the family.
“Of course she can't join,” she declared. “It is ridiculous. The idea! I supposed she had more sense.”
Daniel chuckled. “So did I,” he observed, “until she got shoutin' independence to me the other day. But it looked then as if she'd got it bad. All right, Serena, if Zuba Jane Ginn is goin' to make speeches at your Chapter meetin's, I'll go any time. You won't have to ask me but once.”
He laughed aloud. His wife was vexed.
“Of course you think it's a great joke,” she said. “Anything that makes trouble for me is a joke to you. She can't join. What do you suppose Annette and Mrs. Lake and the rest would say if I proposed my servant girl as a member? Do stop being silly, if you can. What are you grinning at now?”
Captain Dan, repressing his grin with difficulty, explained that he was thinking of what they would say. Serena, giving him up in disgust, turned to her daughter.
“Gertie,” she begged, “why don't you say something? Azuba can't join that Chapter and you know it.”