t to know
so much," and go with their hair about their faces and themselves at
"sixes and sevens," generally. "And why can't she wear her hair put
up?" "Sit down, and I will tell you why," she said, one day, rather out
of sorts; he did not yield very ready compliance. But she persuaded him
to permit her to illustrate her "why." He sat down, and she began by
twisting his abundant curls into a knot as tight as could well be held
by a strong hair-pin. This was the "underpinning" on which to rear the
structure. So, with "switch" upon "switch," and "braid" surrounding
"braid," a "frizz" here and a "frizz" there, with a few bows for
capitals, and a few curls for streamers, and twenty-four hair-pins for
fastenings and bracing-rods, the tower was finished, in less than half
the time, as she assured him, owing to the advantageous position she
enjoyed in her work, that it would take her to rear the same structure
on her own head, and it was precisely like what other ladies of their
acquaintance wore.

"Good gracious!" he exclaimed, "you do not pretend that women wear all
this false pile on their heads!" "Yes, I not only pretend, but solemnly
assure you that I have not exceeded by a braid or a curl what most of
the ladies of our acquaintance wear on their heads." "Well, what do
women want to be such fools for?" he asked impatiently. "What did you
want me to be such a fool for?" she answered. "Well, take down the thing
and let me go," he said, "you may wear your hair as you please, I have
learned _why_ enough for one day." "No, stay and let us read that
chapter of Mill on 'Liberty' that we were going to read together
sometime," she said. "Liberty! I think so. I wouldn't wear that thing
half a day for all the profits of my business for a year!" "Well, then,
we'll let Mill go, for I think if I have taught you _why_, with all that
toggery on my head, I can't do anything, I have done enough for one
day," she said.

Think of a girl thus burdened working through a problem in mathematics,
or arranging, in her mind, an analysis of it, which will be called for
in five minutes; or, of her thinking over, so as to give clearly, with
its heads and deductions, an abstract of a chapter in some branch of
science! She will say, perhaps, that "one gets used to it and thinks
nothing about it," and she thinks, no doubt, that what she says is quite
true. But go to her room in the evening after the world is shut out, and
you will, in all probability,