You might know, Mate? I was hoping all the time that he would find
it quite impossible to leave such a nice biddable wife at home.
But I learn something new about Jack every day. After rather
heated discussion it was decided that I should stay in the little
home. That is, the heat and the discussion was all on my side.
The decision lay in the set of Jack's mouth, despite the tenderness
in his eyes. He thought the risks of the journey too great for me;
the hardships of the rough life too much. Dear me! Will men never
learn that hardship and risk are double cousins to loneliness, and
not even related to love by marriage?

But just as well paint on water as to argue with a scientist when
he has reached a conclusion.

Besides, said Jack, the fatherly Government has no intention that
petticoats, even hobbled ones, should be flitting around while the
habits and the methods of the busy insect were being examined
through a microscope or a telescope. The choice of instrument
depending, of course, upon the activity of the bug.

Black Charity was to be my chief-of-police and
comforter-in-general. Parties--house, card and otherwise--were to
be my diversion, and I was to make any little trips I cared for.
Well, that 's just what I am doing. Of course, there might be a
difference of opinion as to whether a journey from Kentucky to
Japan is a _little_ trip.

I am held by a vague uneasiness today. Possibly it 's because I am
not certain as to Jack's attitude, when he learns through my