and went on:

"We were speaking of self-made men, I think," says I; "such men have
drifted away from New England, like shooting stars. Wherever they may
shine, New England is proud of them, and claims them as her own; for
this reason; and because I love my country, I am glad Horace Greeley is
on the highway to be its next President. With him and Grant running neck
to neck, I shan't care much which beats."

LXI.

WOMEN AND THINGS.

Dear sisters:--I wish you could have seen that stuck-up thing, with all
the color taken out of her hair, perking herself up for an argument with
me. All the people in the room had crowded round us, which set her all
in a flutter.

"Oh, pray excuse me," says she, a-shaking her curls, "we are broaching
into politics, and I assure you," says she, a-primming herself up, "I
know nothing about such subjects."

"Why," says I, "you speak as if ignorance were something to be proud
of."

"I--I do not pretend to know anything of politics, at any rate," says
she, a-coloring up with inward madness.

"Indeed, what is politics," says I. "The history of the present? Why
should the most refined lady on earth be ignorant of one period of
history more than another?"

"Politics are things going on at the present time, and no real lady is
expected to take interest in them," says she.

"What is the present time? The breath we are drawing--nothing more. That
very breath has now gone into the past, which is history. All the rest
is guess-work and prophecy," says I.

"Dear me, how strong-minded you are," says she, giving her curls a toss;
"I suppose you would be splendidly eloquent on Woman's Rights too."

"No," said I, "all my life I have had more rights than I have known how
to use, so I leave that question to persons who have no better field of
ambition. Mine happens to be of a different kind. I want to make women
wise, good, generous, faithful to duties that come down to them from
their mothers. I want to improve women, miss, not turn them into
contemptible men."

"By talking politics?" says she, as saucy as a sour apple; "what is the
good of that if you don't go in for voting?"

"What is the good of any knowledge which may be turned into blessings by
woman's influence?" says I, blandly.

"Then you believe that women ought to have influence in politics," says
she.

"I think that women should have influence everywhere," said I, "but only
as women. We are governed through the heart, and