“Yes,” sez I, “men made that law, and girls and wimmen have to stand it. But,” sez I, lookin’ and actin’ considerable fierce, as the mighty shame and disgrace of that law come over me, “it is a law so infamus that I should think the old Atlantic herself (bein’ a female, as is spozed) would jest rare herself up and wash over the hull land, to try to wipe out or bury the horrible disgrace that has been put upon her sect—would swash up and cover your little State completely up—it ort to, and hide it forever from the heavens and the eye of females.”
BABE.
That man begun to quail, I see he did. But the thought of Snow, the darlin’, and our dear Babe at Jonesville nerved me up agin—the thought of them, our own treasures, and the hosts of pretty children all over our land, beloved by some hearts jest as dearly as our children wuz.
And I went on more fiery than I had went, as I thought, why Babe is old enough now, and Snow will be in a little while, to lay their sweet little lives down under this Jugernut built up by the vile passions of men, and goin’ ahead of Isaac, lay themselves on the altar, take their own lives, and build up the fire to consume ’em.
“The idee of law-makers who call themselves wise makin’ such laws as these!”
He stopped a handlin’ that watch-chain of hisen, his head drooped, his hands dropped demutely into his lap. He murmured sunthin’ almost mechanically about “the law being on the statute-book.”
“I know it is,” sez I. “I know the law is there. But let wimmen have a chance to vote; let a few mothers and grandmothers get holt of that statute-book, and see where that law would be.”
Sez I eloquently, “No spring cleanin’ and scourin’ wuz ever done by females so thorough as they would cleanse out them old law books and let a little of God’s purity and justice shine into their musty old pages.”
Sez I, “You made a great ado about Raymond losin’ that locket because it wuz precious with the memories of your lost wife—you treasured it as your most dear possession because it held a lock of her hair, because she gin it to you, and her love and tenderness seemed shinin’ out of every jewel in it.