early carry us. Think of that--supporting a full-grown
woman all that weary road. I saw the feeling begin to grow in them
that we were burdens. I watched it develop. Understand me, a beautiful
burden, a beloved burden, but still a burden, a burden that it would be
good to slip off the back for the hours of the working day. I could not
blame them. For we were burdens. Then, under one pretext or another,
they began to suggest to us not to go daily to the New Camp with them.
The sun was too hot; we might fall; insects would sting us; the sudden
showers were too violent. Finally, that if we did not watch the New Camp
grow, it would be a glorious surprise to us when it was finished.

"At first, you were all touched and delighted with their gallantry--but
I--I knew what it meant."

"I tried to stem the torrent of their strange, absorption, but I could
not. It grew and grew. And now you see what has happened. It has been
months since one of us has been to the New Camp and all of you,
except Peachy and myself, have entirely lost interest in it. It is not
surprising. It is natural. I, too, would lose interest if I did not
force myself to talk with Billy about it every night of my life.
Lulu said yesterday that it seemed strange to her that, after working
together all day, they should want to get together in the Clubhouse at
night. For a long time that seemed strange to me--until I discovered
that there is a chain binding them to each other even as there is a
chain binding them to us. And the Bond of Work is stronger than the Bond
of Sex because Work is a living, growing thing."

"In the meantime, we have our work too--the five children. But it is a
little constructive work--not a great one. For in this beautiful, safe
island, there is not much that we can do besides feed them. And so,
here we sit day after day, five women who could once fly, big, strong,
full-bodied, teeming with various efficiencies and abilities--wasted. If
we had kept our wings, we could have been of incalculable assistance to
them. Or if we could walk--."

"But I won't go further into our situation. I want to consider
Angela's."

"You are wondering what all this has to do with the matter of Angela's
flying. And now I am going to tell you. Don't you see if they wait until
she is a woman before they cut her wings, she will be in the same case
that we are in, unable either to fly or to walk. Rather would I myself
cut her wings to-night and force her to wal