Why should I rust, and be stupid, and sit in inaction because I am a girl?
What would happen to me if thee should lose thy property and die?
What one useful thing could I do for a living, for the support of mother and the children?
And if I had a fortune, would thee want me to lead a useless life ?" "Has thy mother led a useless life ?" "Somewhat that depends upon whether her children amount to anything," retorted the sharp little disputant.

"What's the good, father, of a series of human beings who don't advance any ?" Friend Eli, who had long ago laid aside the Quaker dress, and was out of Meeting, and who in fact after a youth of doubt could not yet define his belief, nevertheless looked with some wonder at this fierce young eagle of his, hatched in a Friend's dove-cote.

But he only said, "Has thee consulted thy mother about a career, I suppose it is a career thee wants ?" Ruth did not reply directly; she complained that her mother didn't understand her.

But that wise and placid woman understood the sweet rebel a great deal better than Ruth understood herself.

She also had a history, possibly, and had sometime beaten her young wings against the cage of custom, and indulged in dreams of a new social order, and had passed through that fiery period when it seems possible for one mind, which has not yet tried its limits, to break up and re-arrange the world.
Ruth replied to Philip's letter in due time and in the most cordial and unsentimental manner.