v^ Farm Life of Women. 205 



these same sons, after they have tried the worse treadmill of 

 the store, either as employer or employe; of the vari- 

 ous kinds of mechanical labor in which their hands learn 

 some particular cunning and lose the old familiarity with 

 all kinds of cunning in labor; or of the professions, worse 

 treadmill still; these same sons, who may have made moan 

 that farmers' sons get no time to read, after a few years of 

 unprofitable reading of the mind-enervating daily paper of 

 the city, would gladly return to the farm if they had one to 

 return to. But a woman, once released from her treadmill 

 on the farm seldom desires to return to it. Why is this? 

 Not because the woman works so much harder than the 

 man, I claim, although I acknowledge of course that a wom- 

 an who bears many children, especially if there be a debt on 

 the farm, has greater burdens than her husband, but with 

 average families and average financial success the husband 

 and wife work equally hard upon the farm and in return 

 what do they receive? They ought to receive, true home 

 comforts, independence of thought and life, time to read and 

 think, fine physical health, a home in old age and ability to 

 enjoy it. Just here is where the should be of a woman's life 

 on the farm comes in. Her life is a treadmill generally, be- 

 cause she misses nearly all that makes life endurable to her 

 husband. He is out of doors nearly all the day, drawing in 

 great draughts of life, health, and strength with all his un- 

 remitting toil; he goes to mill and to market, to postoffice 

 and to town meetings and elections, has errands to his neigh- 

 bors; and in each place, from each one he meets, he draws 

 thought, inspiration for his work. His neighbor tells him that 

 the President has vetoed some bill or signed some bill and 

 tells him of the reasons for the veto perchance, and together 

 they discuss the reasons; at mill and at market he meets 

 other neighbors who discuss with him questions of finance, 

 tariff and foreign affairs as they understand them; at the 

 postoffice he finds his political weekly paper, possibly the 

 papers of each political faith, he finds his agricultural paper 

 full to repletion of good things and he, possibly, reads these 

 to himself at home; at town meetings and at elections he 



