CHAPTER XV.
WILLOWS BY THE WATER-COURSES .-- AGE, 27.
Pennsylvania customs made it unmanly for a man or boy to aid any woman, even mother or wife, in any hard work with which farms abounded at that time.

Dairy work, candle and sausage making were done by women, and any innovation was met with sneers.

I stubbornly refused to yield altogether to a time-honored code, which required women to perform outdoor drudgery, often while men sat in the house, and soon had the sympathy of our own boys; for it was often impossible to obtain any domestic help, though Pittsburg "charitable" people supported hundreds of women in idleness who might have had homes and wages in farmhouses.
Much of the natural beauty of Swissvale had been destroyed by pioneer improvements, which I sought in some degree to replace.

I loved the woods, and with my little grubbing-hoe transplanted many wild and beautiful things.

This my mother-in-law did not approve, as her love for the beautiful was satisfied by a flower border in the garden.