"But when you think on the essentials of a real lady--and then picture me patching,with a First Reader propped before me;facing Indians,Gypsies,wild animals--and they used to be bad enough--why,I mind one time in Ohio when our first baby was only able to stand beside a chair,and through the rough puncheon floor a copperhead stuck up its gleam of bronzy gold,and shot its darting tongue within a foot of her bare leg.By all accounts,a lady would have reached for her smelling salts and gracefully fainted away;in fact,a lady never would have been in such a place at all.It was my job to throw the first thing Icould lay my hands on so straight and true that I would break that snake's neck,and send its deadly fangs away from my baby.
I did it with Paul's plane,and neatly too!Then I had to put the baby on the bed and tear up every piece of the floor to see that the snake had not a mate in hiding there,for copperheads at that season were going pairs.Once I was driven to face a big squaw,and threatened the life of her baby with a red-hot poker while she menaced mine with a hunting knife.There is not one cold,rough,hard experience of pioneer life that I have not endured.Shoulder to shoulder,and heart to heart,I've stood beside my man,and done what had to be done,to build this home,rear our children,save our property.Many's the night I have shivered in a barn doctoring sick cattle and horses we could ill afford to lose.Time and again I have hung on and brought things out alive,after the men gave up and quit.A lady?How funny!""The amusement is all on your part,Madame."
"So it seems!"said mother."But you see,I know so well how ridiculous it is.When I think of the life a woman must lead in order to be truly a lady,when I review the life I have been forced to live to do my share in making this home,and rearing these children,the contrast is too great.I thank God for any part I have been able to take.Had I life to live over,I see now where I could do more;but neighbour,believe me,my highest aspiration is to be a clean,thrifty housekeeper,a bountiful cook,a faithful wife,a sympathetic mother.That is life work for any woman,and to be a good woman is the greatest thing on earth.Never mind about the ladies;if you can honestly say of me,she is a good woman,you have paid me the highest possible tribute.""I have nothing to change,in the face of your argument,"said Mr.Pryor."Our loved Queen on her throne is no finer lady."That time mother didn't laugh.She looked straight at him a minute and then she said:"Well,for an Englishman,as I know them,you have said the last word.Higher praise there is none.
But believe me,I make no such claim.To be a good wife and mother is the end toward which I aspire.To hold the respect and love of my husband is the greatest object of my life.""Then you have succeeded.You stand a monument to wifehood;your children prove your idea of motherhood,"said Mr.Pryor."How in this world have you managed it?The members of your family whom I have seen are fine,interesting men and women,educated above the average.It is not idle curiosity.I am deeply interested in knowing how such an end came to be accomplished here on this farm.I wish you would tell me just how you have gone about schooling your children.""By educating ourselves before their coming,and with them afterward.Self-control,study,work,joy of life,satisfaction with what we have had,never-ending strife to go higher,and to do better--Dr.Fenner laughs when I talk of these things.He says he can take a little naked Hottentot from the jungle,and educate it to the same degree that I can one of mine.I don't know;but if these things do not help before birth,at least they do not hinder;and afterward,you are in the groove in which you want your children to run.With all our twelve there never has been one who at nine months of age did not stop crying if its father lifted his finger,or tapped his foot and told it to.
From the start we have rigorously guarded our speech and actions before them.From the first tiny baby my husband has taught all of them to read,write and cipher some,before they went to school at all.He is always watching,observing,studying:the earth,the stars,growing things;he never comes to a meal but he has seen something that he has or will study out for all of us.
There never has been one day in our home on which he did not read a new interesting article from book or paper;work out a big problem,or discuss some phase of politics,religion,or war.
Sometimes there has been a little of all of it in one day,always reading,spelling,and memory exercises at night.He has a sister who twice in her life has repeated the Bible as a test before a committee.He,himself,can go through the New Testament and all of the Old save the books of the generations.
He always says he considers it a waste of gray matter to learn them.He has been a schoolmaster,his home his schoolroom,his children,wife and helpers his pupils;the common things of life as he meets them every day,the books from which we learn.
"I was ignorant at first of bookish subjects,but in his atmosphere,if one were no student,and didn't even try to keep up,or forge ahead,they would absorb much through association.
Almost always he has been on the school board and selected the teachers;we have made a point of keeping them here,at great inconvenience to ourselves,in order to know as much of them as possible,and to help and guide them in their work.When the children could learn no more here,for most of them we have managed the high school of Groveville,especially after our daughter moved there,and for each of them we have added at least two years of college,music school,or whatever the peculiar bent of the child seemed to demand.
