"Because my friends come here—people who work! I'm going to start a suffrage club for them."
"How grateful they will be!" he said. His amiability when he was bored was very marked.
"But I had to cave," Fred said, "about having Flora here when I stay all night. The Childs family felt they would be compromised if people in Laketon knew that Billy-boy's niece flocked by herself in Lakeville. The Childses are personages in Laketon! Aunt Bessie is the treasurer of the antis, and runs a gambling-den on Thursday afternoons—she calls it her Bridge Club. And Billy-boy has a Baconian Club, Saturday nights. My, how useful they are! As my unconventionality would injure their value to society, I said I would hold Flora's hand. How much use do you suppose Flora would be if thieves broke in to steal?"
"She would be another scream. And you'll like to have her wash the dishes for you."
"Flora is too much in love to wash dishes well," Fred said. "Besides, I don't mind washing 'em, and I do it well. The idea that women who think can't do things like that is silly. We do housework, or any other work, infinitely better than slaves."
"'Slaves' being your mothers and grandmothers?"
Frederica nodded, prying up a piece of moss and snapping the twig off short.
"Oh, Fred, you are very funny!"
"Glad I amuse you. Pitch me that little stick under your foot."
He handed it to her, and she began to dig industriously into the cracks and crevices of the old gray rock. "The idea of calling Mrs. Holmes a slave is delightful," he said.