OCR Text |
Show I Woman's Page I' Her Side and His Sures Way to Have House Spick and Span Suede Leather Used in Tailored Suits Two-Toned 1 Satin Slippers for Evening Wear. f - ! ONE'S SON AND ONE'S DAUGHTER j "But why would you rather have It a girl than a boy?" asked Beth Wood-( Wood-( f ford. "It's just like you. Cora, to go Ij taking the opposite side of a question like that. Anybody else would be wishing and praying for a son. Everybody Ev-erybody wants the first baby to be a bov, whether they admit it or not. Why, I often suspect they say .they want girls just to stave off the disappointment disap-pointment if they have one. Girls," i added Beth, "have such a hard time j in the world." : A faraway smile touched Cora's f face; a face .beautiful with an inde- f finable new quality, a spiritual some thing. "That's just why," she answered, looking past Beth, past the confines of the sunny room, out Into the world beyond her chamber windows. "That's just the reason, Beth. I want a girl because I believe I could keep her from having a hard time. It's because girls are taught wrong that they have a hard time in life. I long to make a companion of my dauchtcr. Bethle; to get close to her and'be her dearest friend. "Somehow I understand women. I ' know woman nature through and through its hardships, its limitations, its weaknesses. You see I've never I been a man," she added with a smile. 1 'T know naturally just what a girl I longs for and hopes for, and fears and shrinks from, and Is drawn to all l her emotions, in short I would give my girl all tjie dear things she longs for things, some of them I never had, Beth, "because well, all mothers ' don't understand perhaps." Cora paused a moment, then resumed with a quickly suppressed sigh. "I understand under-stand women better than I do men, she repeated. "That's why I feel 1 : , could do more for a daughter than for a son." "Fiddlesticks!" cried Beth impati-entlv. impati-entlv. "A sensible mother can do a 1 thousand times more with a boy than with a girl. Think of the careers open to a male that the female of the species can only nlblc at. Think of the possibilities in business, in poll- tics, law, medicine, everything. Men alwavs have the best chances." "Of course they do," agreed Cora i spiritedly. "That's why it is so I much bigger an undertaking to launch i a girl successfully in life, and so ' I much more worth trying for." i 5 ' "Oh, very well. If you're looking i, for the hardest job In the world in- ; stead of the easiest, why go ahead I and have you daughter," snorted Mrs. ' 1 Wocdford. I ;! Cora laughed goodnaturedly. Deep ' in her heart she had a real pity for this childless, aimless cousin of hers, j who seemed always looking for the soft berths in life. "I'm not exactly looking for a hard job," smiled Cora, carefiilly turning the corner of a wee pink sack on which obe was embroidering a border. "But while I'm about it, Both, I might as well do all I can for the world. Every successful woman helps to, make the world better for every other oth-er woman. The more well-educated, well-equipped girls there are the easier eas-ier it grows for women to take their places In whatever lines their talents fit them to follow. Why, Beth, dear. If I had a self-reliant, Independent, successful suc-cessful daughter I'd feel a lot prouder than to have a successful son. Almost Al-most any boy can suceed. It takes real fighting qualities for a girl to get on." "Huh! How does David feel about it?" queried Beth. "Ah, that's another matter," said Cora softly. "He'd rather have the boy. Men always do. I wonder why? And so, either way, I shall be satis-fled, satis-fled, I guess. Oh, Beth, I think wo women think more about the actual bringing into life than we do about the sex of the little creature! We love anything that comes." |