ath builded high
A home serene, wherein to lay her head,
Earth's noblest thing, a Woman perfected.

"That is a beautiful picture of what a girl may be, and I'd be glad to
see you making it your model."

"Yes," said Helen, slowly. Then, with more enthusiasm, "You know,
father, I've always wished I were a boy. It seems so much grander to be
a man than a woman. A man's life is so much freer, and he can do so much
greater things, you know. Of course, I shall try to be a good woman,
but I wish women could do big things, the way men can."

"What wondrous things can men do that women can't do?" asked Mr. Wayne
with a smile.

"Oh," replied Helen, clasping her hands with enthusiasm, "just see what
men do. They build immense houses, and great bridges--Oh, they make the
world, and women just sit in the house and look on. I'd like to _do_
something."

Mr. Wayne smoothed back the hair from the forehead of his enthusiastic
daughter with a tender smile, as he replied, "It does seem on the
surface as if men did greater things than women, but it is only seeming,
my dear. It is just as grand a thing to be a woman as to be a man. True,
woman's work does not show on the surface so plainly, but she works with
more enduring material than does man in creating the world of things. We
can see the great works of man's hands and they impress us with a sense
of his power; but it is _mind_ that does the real work, and women have
_minds_, or _are_ minds, you know."

"Yes, I know, but they must devote their minds to cooking and
dishwashing."

"I have seen women doing other things. In the old world I saw women
digging ditches, carrying brick and mortar to the top of high buildings,
ploughing in the fields; in fact, working just like men. The great
buildings of the World's Exposition erected in Vienna in 1873, were
largely the work of women's hands. You are not anxious to exchange
dishwashing for such work, are you?"

"O, no, indeed; but it is man who plans such work and superintends its
doing. A woman could not have planned Brooklyn bridge, for example."

"It is quite true that a woman did not plan it, but did you know that it
was completed under a woman's supervision?"

"No, was it? How did that happen? Tell me all about it."

"It happened this way. Mr. Roebling, who was superintending its
construction, was taken ill, and his wife took his place and personally
gave oversight to every part of the work until it was done. You see,