everybody is self-helpful and capable of
being self-supporting; when there is a fair start for every human
being in the race of life, and all its prizes are, without respect of
persons, to be obtained by the best runner; when every kind of useful
labor is thoroughly respected,--then there will be a clear, just,
wholesome basis of intercourse on which employers and employed can
move without wrangling or discord.

"Renouncing all claims to superiority on the one hand, and all thought
of servility on the other, service can be rendered by fair contracts
and agreements, with that mutual respect and benevolence which every
human being owes to every other. But for this transition period, which
is wearing out the life of so many women, and making so many
households uncomfortable, I have some alleviating suggestions, which I
shall give in my next chapter."

IV

IS WOMAN A WORKER

"Papa, do you see what the 'Evening Post' says of your New Year's
article on Reconstruction?" said Jenny, as we were all sitting in the
library after tea.

"I have not seen it."

"Well, then, the charming writer, whoever he is, takes up for us girls
and women, and maintains that no work of any sort ought to be expected
of us; that our only mission in life is to be beautiful, and to
refresh and elevate the spirits of men by being so. If I get a
husband, my mission is to be always becomingly dressed, to display
most captivating toilettes, and to be always in good spirits,--as,
under the circumstances, I always should be,--and thus 'renew his
spirits' when he comes in weary with the toils of life. Household
cares are to be far from me: they destroy my cheerfulness and injure
my beauty.

"He says that the New England standard of excellence as applied to
woman has been a mistaken one; and, in consequence, though the
girls are beautiful, the matrons are faded, overworked, and
uninteresting; and that such a state of society tends to immorality,
because, when wives are no longer charming, men are open to the
temptation to desert their firesides, and get into mischief generally.
He seems particularly to complain of your calling ladies who do
nothing the 'fascinating _lazzaroni_ of the parlor and boudoir.'"

"There was too much truth back of that arrow not to wound," said
Theophilus Thoro, who was ensconced, as usual, in his dark corner,
whence he supervises our discussions.

"Come, Mr. Thoro, we won't have any of your bitter moralities," sa