you. There is never a nerve or fibre in a man's nature but we know it. We
keep six of you dancing in the palm of one little hand," she said,
balancing her outstretched arm gracefully, as though tiny beings disported
themselves in its palm. "There, we throw you away, and you sink to the
devil," she said, folding her arms composedly. "There was never a man who
said one word for woman but he said two for man, and three for the whole
human race."

She watched the bird pecking up the last yellow grains; but Waldo looked
only at her.

When she spoke again it was very measuredly.

"They bring weighty arguments against us when we ask for the perfect
freedom of women," she said; "but, when you come to the objections, they
are like pumpkin devils with candles inside, hollow, and can't bite. They
say that women do not wish for the sphere and freedom we ask for them, and
would not use it!

"If the bird does like its cage, and does like its sugar and will not leave
it, why keep the door so very carefully shut? Why not open it, only a
little? Do they know there is many a bird will not break its wings against
the bars, but would fly if the doors were open?" She knit her forehead and
leaned further over the bars.

"Then they say, 'If the women have the liberty you ask for, they will be
found in positions for which they are not fitted!' If two men climb one
ladder, did you ever see the weakest anywhere but at the foot? The surest
sign of fitness is success. The weakest never wins but where there is
handicapping. Nature, left to herself, will as beautifully apportion a