"That is admirable," said the Altrurian. "You are truly a practical
people. The ladies come early in the summer, you say?"

"Yes, sometimes in the beginning of June."

"What do they come for?" asked the Altrurian.

"What for? Why, for rest!" I retorted, with some little temper.

"But I thought you told me awhile ago that as soon as a husband could
afford it he relieved his wife and daughters from all household work."

"So he does."

"Then what do the ladies wish to rest from?"

"From care. It is not work alone that kills. They are not relieved from
household care even when they are relieved from household work. There is
nothing so killing as household care. Besides, the sex seems to be born
tired. To be sure, there are some observers of our life who contend that
with the advance of athletics among our ladies, with boating and bathing,
and lawn-tennis and mountain-climbing and freedom from care, and these
long summers of repose, our women are likely to become as superior to the
men physically as they now are intellectually. It is all right. We should
like to see it happen. It would be part of the national joke."

"Oh, have you a national joke?" asked the Altrurian. "But, of course! You
have so much humor. I wish you could give me some notion of it."

"Well, it is rather damaging to any joke to explain it," I replied, "and