Part 22 (1/2)

Rougher and hotter grew his repartee till, by sheer abuse, he gained the ascendancy; but there was no sane statement of what he would propose as a remedy. Grandma Clay happened to rise as he neared the finish to see about a reticule she had dropped, and proved a target for those at the rear.

”h.e.l.lo, grandma! are you going to contradict him? Give us a straight tip about women's rights while you're up;” and poor grandma sat down very precipitately with an exceedingly deep blush.

”If I could only get the chance,” she gasped, ”I'd give 'em a piece of me mind.”

Third on the list came Leslie Walker, whose improvement was beyond belief. No notes or hesitation this time. Each sentence was crisp and clear, and in every detail he evinced the facility for enacting his _role_ which is supposedly a feminine accomplishment.

The chairman, in closing the meeting, rose to say--

”In reference to the interjector who said the speaker was mad--”

”Oh, that's what every one said about _you_ when you were in the council, and so you were too, and so are they all. Look at the roads we've got in the munic.i.p.ality,” said a voice.

So the chairman had to let the meeting terminate with the candidates thanking the electors for the extraordinarily good hearing they had been accorded; it being part of the humour of politics that the worse a candidate is boo-hooed the more stress he lays upon the _good hearing_ given him, and the more scurrilous he is regarding his opponent the more frantically he a.s.sures one that he is a bosom _personal_ friend.

Andrew and I had the distinction of going home under grandma's tutelage, while Carry and Dawn stayed behind to go to the ladies'

committee rooms, and Ernest lingered to escort them.

”I say, grandma, are you goin' to vote for that bloke?” inquired Andrew.

”I'm goin' to hear the other side first, and give me opinion after.

There wasn't one of the swells there, was there?”

”Dr Smalley and Dr Tinker both was.”

”Yes; but I mean the wimmen: an' how on earth did old Tinker ever get away from Mrs Tinker for that length of time? You'll never see one of them kind of wimmen at anythink that makes for progress. That's the way they make theirselves superior to the likes of you an' me--by never doin' nothink only for theirselves. 'Oh, we've got all we want as it is, an' don't want the vote; a woman's place is home,' they say if you ask 'em. It's all very fine for them as has a man to keep them like in a band-box; they would have found it different if they had to act on their own like me. I'm sick of this intelligence in women they make a fuss about all of a sudden. I've rared a family and managed me business better than a man could; and what's there been all along to prevent a woman from stroking out a name on a paper I never could see.

And it never seems to me much difference which name was struck out, for they're mostly a lot of impostors that only think of featherin'

their own nests. You'll always hear of wimmen not bein' intelligent enough to do this and that, and these things is only what men like doin' best theirselves, and the things they make out G.o.d intended women to do is them the men don't like doin'. You don't ever hear of them thinkin' women ain't intelligent enough to do seven things at once.” Grandma was in great form that night, and not only led but maintained the conversation.

”I rather like this young feller, but he ain't no sense much either.

All he thinks of is b.u.t.toning for the railway people, and it's the people on the land that ought to be legislated for first. They are the foundation of everythink; other things would work right after. Every one can't live in Sydney, an' that's what they're all makin' for now.

Every one is getting some little agency--parasite business. They've got sense to see the people on the land is the most despised and sat upon. You don't hear no squallin' about they'll protect the farmer.

No, he's a despised old party that them scuts of fellers on the railway would grin at and think theirselves above, and scarcely give him a civil answer if he asked a question about his business what he's payin' them fellers there to do for him, and which only for the prodoocers wouldn't be there at all. Things is gettin' pretty tight on farms now. It means about sixteen hours hard graft a-day to make not half what a railwayman makes in eight hours. If you happen to have grapes or oranges, if they manage to escape the frost, an' hail, an'

caterpillar, then the blight ketches 'em, or there's a drewth, and there ain't none; an' if there's any, there's so much that there ain't no sale for 'em; and the farmer's life I reckon ought to be stopped as gamblin', for a gambler's life ain't one bit more precarious.”

”Then why the jooce do you want me to go on the land?” said Andrew.

”That ain't the point.”

”It's the most sticking out point to me,” protested the lad. ”I reckon bein' on the land is a mug's game; sc.r.a.pin' like a fool when a feller could be sittin' in an office an' gettin' all they want twice as easy.”

”Here, you don't know what's good. It's more respectabler bein' on the land. You get the pony out, an' make the coffee, an' hold your tongue.”

Andrew and I had undertaken to make the coffee for supper, and thus give Carry, whose week in the kitchen it was, a chance to go to the meeting.

They all arrived from it after a time--Dawn and the knight together, Carry and Larry Witcom following. Oh, where was ”Dora”?

”Who's that with you, Carry?” asked Andrew. ”There was a young lady named Carry, who had a sweetheart named Larry; at the gate they often would tarry, to talk about when they would marry.”