HALF PORTIONS




THE MATERNAL FEMININE


Called upon to describe Aunt Sophy you would have to coin a term or fall
back on the dictionary definition of a spinster. "An unmarried woman,"
states that worthy work, baldly, "especially when no longer young."
That, to the world, was Sophy Decker. Unmarried, certainly. And most
certainly no longer young. In figure she was, at fifty, what is known in
the corset ads as a "stylish stout." Well dressed in blue serge, with
broad-toed health shoes and a small, astute hat. The blue serge was
practical common sense. The health shoes were comfort. The hat was
strictly business. Sophy Decker made and sold hats, both astute and
ingenuous, to the female population of Chippewa, Wisconsin. Chippewa's
East-End set bought the knowing type of hat, and the mill hands and
hired girls bought the naïve ones. But whether lumpy or possessed of
that indefinable thing known as line, Sophy Decker's hats were honest
hats.

The world is full of Aunt Sophys, unsung. Plump, ruddy, capable women
of middle age. Unwed, and rather looked down upon by a family of married
sisters and tolerant, good-humoured brothers-in-law, and careless nieces
and nephews.