212 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



was ever startled by some sudden occurrence, 

 but always "frightened to death." Never a 

 woman because of a delayed meal felt the con- 

 dition of hunger but was " almost starved ;" 

 she is never cold, but "positively frozen ;" and 

 so to the end of the chapter. The frequency 

 of a woman's nearness to death is so marked, 

 in her conversation, that when the critical time 

 comes we imagine she ought from familiarity 

 with the sensation to shuffle off this mortal coil 

 with inexpressible ease and grace. And per- 

 haps it is from this claimed familiarity that she 

 is able to hoodwink the king of terrors, for she 

 lives to be a hundred much more frequently 

 than falls to the lot of men. But most remark- 

 able of all of woman's peculiarities is the fre- 

 quency with which she is "just crazy." The 

 most trivial incident completely unbalances her, 

 and all day long she is "just crazy" to see, to 

 hear, to say, to do ; and it must be admitted 

 that a great deal which she does and says does 

 smack of lunacy. Perhaps it is this lack of 

 absolute sanity that makes them so charming. 

 Certainly there is some cause for it other than 

 exquisitely adjusted mentality. Let us be thank- 



