but a world of Dora Copperfields!

The working woman is a new development in sociology. She has many
lessons to learn, but one has hopes of her. It is said that she is
unfitting herself to be a wife and mother. If the ideal helpmeet for
a man be an animated Dresden china shepherdess--something that looks
pretty on the table, something to be shown round to one's friends,
something that can be locked up safely in a cupboard, that asks no
questions, and, therefore, need be told no lies--then a woman who has
learnt something of the world, who has formed ideas of her own, will
not be the ideal wife.

[References given--and required.]

Maybe the average man will not be her ideal husband. Each Michaelmas
at a little town in the Thames Valley with which I am acquainted
there is held a hiring fair. A farmer one year laid his hand on a
lively-looking lad, and asked him if he wanted a job. It was what
the boy was looking for.

"Got a character?" asked the farmer. The boy replied that he had for
the last two years been working for Mr. Muggs, the ironmonger--felt
sure that Mr. Muggs would give him a good character.

"Well, go and ask Mr. Muggs to come across and speak to me, I will
wait here," directed the would-be employer. Five minutes went by--
ten minutes. No Mr. Muggs appeared. Later in the afternoon the
farmer met the boy again.

"Mr. Muggs never came near me with that character of yours," said the