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Show e New Year Dreamer i A woman fell nslcep, one New Year's eve, and dreamed u strange dream. And when sho woke, she told a neighbor neigh-bor nbout It, In somo such words as these: "I thought I was In a strange country," coun-try," sho said, "which belonged to us all. Thero was no king. And I thought that In that country shoes were ready-made, not fashioned clumsily ot leathers, as wo fnshlon them now, and that the flax was" all spun for us, and tho Hour all ground. I thought that the very cows were milked without our aid, and thnt we lived In cities with cleun pavements between clean, bright bouses, and that milk and meat and bread and cggH were brought to our doors, day after day. I thought that thero was something some-thing called gas, that made our cooking cook-ing clean and quick, and thliiKS called cars that carried us safely from placo to place. "And In my dream wo wero all taught, taught to rend and even to write, as only the scribes do now, and that we read books, books about strango things nnd wonderful places and saw pictures the greatest In the world ! and thnt wo could hear music whenever we chose. And there wero wise doctors to keep us well, and to give us magic sleep In our putn. "But best of all," she said, In a low tone still tinged with the radiance of her dream, "bent of all, was that tho children were safe. There wero no nobles to seize our girls for their own pleasure, and to send our boys like cnttlo into tho wars. No man could kill nnotherrnnd even women wero of value, and children were beloved. It scorned to me a world of pence, nnd sunshine nnd safety I" "You dreamed of heaven I" said tho listener, her Incredulous laughter changed to wistful nwe. Tho other 6lghcd nnd shook her head. "No," sho said sadly, "for In that country they were all mad I" "Mad?" enmo the nstonlshed echo. "Well, better our hardships than such n state. Better tho Ullage well thnt poisons our children nnd the tnx that holds our men In bondage, nnd the pestilences pes-tilences that sweep usl Better tho dnrk houses, nnd tho smoking coal tires, the heats of summer uud the freezing winters, better even tho agony nnd terror of bearing, unhclped. But tell, how were they mad?" "They do not see tho sunshine, they do not hear the music, and they do not tasto their freedom," said tho dreamer. "Their thoughts are chained to little things the stitches in a skirt, tho chopped nuts that must go Into , a dish they cook, tho shape of n chair. They long for Idleness who have ( nothing to dot They long for pleasure, pleas-ure, who lle In n world that might be heaven! They look at this ono enviously envi-ously because sho can come nnd go to another city nt will nnd at that ono enviously because her picture Is printed print-ed in tho hooks they read. They weep because they must buy flax spun on their side of the ocean rather than that which comes to them In ships, and they weep becnuso tho papers they have pasted on tho walls of their rooms nre too green or too bluet" "Mod quite mnd!" ngreed tho neighbor, struck. "Did they live lotig ago?" "No, their tlmo lias not yet come," tho dreaming woman answered. "They will not live for another thousand years. They will spring from us, who live and work and die without the touch of fine linen on our bodies, or the help of n single hund with the planting and roasting and spinning nnd brewing, tho bearing and r en ring. We aro their mothers, who will never read a book or write a letter, or enter a playhouse. Let us make them a New Year's wish, thnt their eyes may bo opened and that they mny see I" They knelt down together. Kathleen Kath-leen Morris In Pictorial Review. |