"That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along,"

under the keen surveillance of a governess, whose nerves would never be
able to endure the shock of seeing them bound over a stream and scramble
through a fence, or even toss their heads and throw out their limbs as
all young animals, except that oppressed class called young ladies, are
privileged to do. Having ventured, in a fit of my country daring, to
break the ice of this very rigid and frigid subject, I will recount
another instance of the paternal good sense to which I owe, under God,
the physical powers without which my little talent might have been laid
by in a napkin all my days.

One morning, when his daughter was about eight years old, my father came
in, and found sundry preparations going on, the chief materials for
which were buckram, whalebone, and other stiff articles, while the young
lady was under measurement by the hands of a female friend.

"Pray, what are you going to do to the child?"

"Going to fit her with a pair of stays."

"For what purpose?"

"To improve her figure; no young lady can grow up properly without
them."

"I beg your pardon; young gentlemen grow up very well without them, and
so may young ladies."

"O, you are mistaken. See what a stoop she has already; depend on it