Take 'em all round, the wimin's the bravest at bearin' pain,--they'll smile while they'se burnin' so as it sha'n't ill-convenience anybody.

Wonderful sufferers, is wimin!" "Yet they are selfish enough sometimes," said Helmsley, quickly.
"Selfish?
Wheer was ye born, D.David ?" queried Peke--"An' what wimin 'ave ye know'd?
Town or country ?" Helmsley was silent.
"Arsk no questions an' ye'll be told no lies!" commented Peke, with a chuckle.

"I sees! Ye've bin a gay old chunk in yer time, mebbe! An' it's the wimin as goes in for gay old chunks as ye've made all yer larnin of.
But they ain't wimin--not as the country knows 'em.

Country wimin works all day an' as often as not dandles a babby all night,--they've not got a minnit but what they aint a-troublin' an' a-worryin' 'bout 'usband or childer, an' their faces is all writ over wi' the curse o' the garden of Eden.

Selfish?
They aint got the time! Up at cock-crow, scrubbin' the floors, washin' the babies, feedin' the fowls or the pigs, peelin' the taters, makin' the pot boil, an' tryin' to make out 'ow twelve shillin's an' sixpence a week can be made to buy a pound's worth o' food, trapsin' to market, an' wonderin' whether the larst born in the cradle aint somehow got into the fire while mother's away,--'opin' an' prayin' for the Lord's sake as 'usband don't come 'ome blind drunk,--where's the room for any selfishness in sich a life as that ?--the life lived by 'undreds o' wimin all over this 'ere blessed free country?
Get 'long wi' ye, D.David! Old as y' are, ye 'ad a mother in yer time,--an' I'll take my Gospel oath there was a bit o' good in 'er!" Helmsley stopped abruptly in his walk.
"You are right, man!" he said, "And I am wrong! You know women better than I do, and--you give me a lesson! One is never too old to learn,"-- and he smiled a rather pained smile.