“But, mother, you have not told me what this blood is for. It seems as if it would not be necessary for women to go through such an experience every month.”
“Perhaps we do not fully know why it should be so, but we do know when the little child is growing in its little room, the mother does not have the menstrual flow; so we may suppose that it goes to nourish the child.”
“O, I see, and when not needed for the child, it just passes away.”
“Yes, and every time this occurs it says to the woman that she is a perfect woman, capable of all the duties of the wife and mother. This thought should make her think very sacredly of herself.”
For a few moments there was silence between mother and daughter, broken only by the sound of the falling rain. At length Helen spoke. “Mother, there is something I want to ask you about. You remember last summer, when Mrs. Vale and Mrs. Odell called on you, I was in the library and they did not see me. While they 60 were waiting for you they began to talk of Edith Chenowyth and of something dreadful she had been doing. They called her a very bad girl. When you came in they spoke to you about her and you said ‘Poor child, I am sorry for her;’ and they were quite angry that you should pity her. Just before they left I made some slight noise, and Mrs. Vale said, ‘I hope no one heard what we’ve said,’ and you said, ‘I hope not, I am sure.’ So I thought you would not want me to know of it or I should have asked you about what it all meant.
“Yesterday I heard some of the girls talking and one said, ‘Did you know that Edith Chenowyth had a baby last night? She is down at old Mrs. Fein’s. Her folks have turned her out of the house.’ Then Clara Downs said, ‘Well, they ought to turn her out, acting as she has.’ Then they all said such dreadful things of her! And while they were talking, Cora Lee came up and said, ‘O, girls, I am an Auntie! My sister Ada had the loveliest baby boy last night and my father gave her $500 because it is his first grandson; and the baby’s father opened a bank account in the name of Charles Wyndham Bell. Ada is just as happy as she can be and we are all so proud.’
“Now, mother, Ada Lee and Edith Chenowyth were in the same class at school; they sang a duet together on the day of their graduation and Edith was just as lovely as Ada. Now she has a 61 baby and every one scorns her, while Ada has one and she is honored and loved. I wish you’d explain this to me.”
“Well, my daughter, you see Ada is married and Edith is not.”
“Yes, I know that; and yet that does not explain to me why a child should be an honor to one and a disgrace to the other. I know people think so, but I want to know why.”
“In order to make you understand why, I shall have to take you back to your lessons in botany. You recall how you learned there of the reproduction of plants. You learned that the pollen must pass down the style and fertilize the seed before it would grow; and you learned that the stamen, anther and pollen were the male part of the plant and the ovary, style and stigma the female part of the plant.”