CHAPTER XXXI.
MASCULINE AND FEMININE.
There are men who suppose they have all the annoyances.

They say it is the store that ruffles the disposition; but if they could only stay at home as do their wives, and sisters, and daughters, they would be, all the time, sweet and fair as a white pond lily.

Let some of the masculine lecturers on placidity of temper try for one week the cares of the household and the family.

Let the man sleep with a baby on one arm all night, and one ear open to the children with the whooping-cough in the adjoining apartment.
Let him see the tray of crockery and the cook fall down stairs, and nothing saved but the pieces.

Let the pump give out on a wash-day, and the stove pipe, when too hot for handling, get dislocated.