Page:From the West to the West.djvu/55



"There's not a woman on top o' dirt that *d treat any man as he's treated Sally/ "I guess it's about an even stand-off," rejoined her mother.

"No," cried Jean. "The conditions are not equal. No woman has the power to turn her husband out of doors. Even if it is her own house, he is its lawful master. Women don't stand any show at all compared with men."

"Jean is going to-morrow to see Sam O'Dowd's mother. She can make matters smooth for Sally if anybody can," said the Squire.

"The sale of our effects is only two weeks off, John," said his wife, when they were alone. "I want to reserve a few things that are sacred. There's Baby Jamie's cradle, that you made from the hollow section of that old gum-tree that stood in the back pasture. Do you remember how nicely I lined it with the back breadths of my wedding dress?"

Could I forget it, Annie?"

Then there's my mother's little old spinning-wheel. It was my grandmother's and great-grandmother's. May I keep it for Mary?"

"It won't pay to haul such things over the plains, Annie. Better let your mother keep 'em here till there's a transcontinental railroad."

"But that won't come in my time, John."