His creditors, he told his wife, had descended on him, seized his business, and threatened to take possession of the boarding house.
"But it is mine," protested the woman, with spirit.

"I bought every bit of furniture with the money my boarders paid me.

Nobody can touch my property or my earnings to satisfy a claim on you.

I am not liable for your debts." One of the boarders was a lawyer, and to him that night she took the case.

"A woman's earnings are her own in Massachusetts, are they not ?" she demanded.
"You are what the law calls a free trader," replied the lawyer, "and whatever you earn is yours, certainly.