[Why I hate Heroes]

When I was younger, reading the popular novel used to make me sad. I
find it vexes others also. I was talking to a bright young girl upon
the subject not so very long ago.

"I just hate the girl in the novel," she confessed. "She makes me
feel real bad. If I don't think of her I feel pleased with myself,
and good; but when I read about her--well, I'm crazy. I would not
mind her being smart, sometimes. We can all of us say the right
thing, now and then. This girl says them straight away, all the
time. She don't have to dig for them even; they come crowding out of
her. There never happens a time when she stands there feeling like a
fool and knowing that she looks it. As for her hair: 'pon my word,
there are days when I believe it is a wig. I'd like to get behind
her and give it just one pull. It curls of its own accord. She
don't seem to have any trouble with it. Look at this mop of mine.
I've been working at it for three-quarters of an hour this morning;
and now I would not laugh, not if you were to tell me the funniest
thing, you'd ever heard, for fear it would come down again. As for
her clothes, they make me tired. She don't possess a frock that does
not fit her to perfection; she doesn't have to think about them. You
would imagine she went into the garden and picked them off a tree.
She just slips it on and comes down, and then--my stars! All the
other women in the room may just as well go to bed and get a good
night's rest for all the chance they've got. It isn't that she's
beautiful. From what they tell you about her, you might fancy her a
freak. Looks don't appear to matter to her; she gets there anyhow.