198 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



long skinny leg, not at all like the elegant instep and 

 ankle of a sweet English girl. She passes her opinion 

 on all subjects, feminine or otherwise, and her husband 

 listens to her as to an oracle. She often looks a mere 

 child, even when she is the mother of several children, 

 and her youthful appearance makes her assumption seem 

 the more ridiculous. Yet, ubiquitous as she is in know- 

 ledge and self-assertion, you must be cautious in speaking 

 freely with her. No kind of nakedness must be men- 

 tioned. I once put my foot into it most terribly by 

 mentioning that I had met a party of German women 

 on a religious pilgrimage, walking with naked legs and 

 feet. Never can I forget the crimson indignation with 

 which the lady flounced out of the room, nor the fury of 

 the gentleman to whom she was engaged, who was fool 

 enough to think 1 had put a deliberate insult on his 

 fiancee. It seems most ridiculous and childish to an 

 Englishman to be told that he must not refer, before 

 ladies, to chanticleer by his ordinary vulgar cognomen. 

 Nor is there such a thing as a bull in the States. Here 

 he is a gentleman-cow. 



But although there is so much silly squeamishness 

 among women in America, they often do and say things 

 that would shock the dear girls of the Old Country — 

 particularly, they are not at all backward in making 

 matrimonial proposals. I have myself, on at least seven 

 or eight occasions, been directly invited to enter the 

 silken (!) bonds, ungracious brute as I am. Looking 

 up some papers for purpose of reference, I have just 

 come across a letter that I may give here. Of course I 

 withhold name and place, but, extraordinary as the story 

 may seem to English ears, it is perfectly true. 



I received a letter from a Mrs. F. K., who some said 

 was a widow, others a divorcee, in which she, in very neat 

 language, proposed that we should join lots. I declined, 

 in a note which I at the time considered a masterpiece of 

 polite diplomacy ; yet I must have had some lurking un- 



