Dialogue of the Old Women.
I wish I knew which her baby is going to be—a boy or a girl.
Whatever can it matter to you?
Nothing; except that I prefer boys.
And I prefer girls. They sit quietly at home, and make company when one wants a gossip.
Oh, you are so fond of company!
[The Old Women give a chuckle.]
The woman herself is hoping it will be a girl, for she says that boys are too boisterous and headstrong, and too fond of running into danger. While they are little (she says) they are for ever climbing tall trees and bathing in deep water; and when they are grown up they take to. fighting, and killing one another.
Pooh! Does she think that girls never get drowned? Many a drowned girl's corpse have I seen, and they looked as all drowned corpses do—wet and livid and swollen.
And does she think that gauds and jewellery never yet brought a girl to her death?