"I'd asked Letty to spend the night with me, and Elbert walked home with us. And just as we got there, he says to her again:—
"'Oh, Letty—you ain't strong enough to help carry things along!'
"'You've got more strength,' she says to him, 'and more brains. But it isn't so much the strength or the brains in women that is going to help when the time comes. It's the—mother in them.'
"And I says to myself:—
"'And it's the—human beingness of them.' But Letty didn't know that yet.
"Elbert answered, after a minute:—
"'You may be right and you may be wrong, but, Letty, Letty, what a woman you are!'
"And at that Letty looked up at him, just as she had looked at him that morning—just for a minute, and then she dipped down the brim of her big hat. I donno what she answered him. I didn't care. I didn't care. For what I see was the old wild joy of a woman in being glorified by a male creature. And I knew then, and I know now, that that won't never die, no matter what.
"Elbert put out his hand.
"'Good night, Letty,' he said.