"
But Mary was somewhat affected with Woodcock's seriousness, and, with no
reply to Holyoke, beyond a smile, she asked Woodcock's reasons for the
statement he had made.
"I didn't come up here to talk about this, and p'raps it ain't the right
time to do it, but there's no use backin' down when you begin. I've got
a consait that men and women ain't built out of the same kind of timber.
Look at my hand--a great pile o' bones covered with brown luther, with
the hair on,--and then look at yourn. White oak ain't bass, is it? Every
man's hand ain't so black as mine, and every woman's ain't so white as
yourn, but there's always difference enough to show, and there's just as
much odds in their doin's and dispositions as there is in their hands. I
know what women be. I've wintered and summered with 'em, and take 'em by
and large, they're better'n men. Now and then a feller gets hitched to a
hedgehog, but most of 'em get a woman that's too good for 'em. They're
gentle and kind, and runnin' over with good feelin's, and will stick to
a fellow a mighty sight longer'n he'll stick to himself. My woman's dead
and gone, but if there wan't any women in the world, and I owned it, I'd
sell out for three shillin's, and throw in stars enough to make it an
object for somebody to take it off my hands.
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