'
'That's a foolish thing to say. People here are very kind, and you
are seeing a great deal more of the world than you would ever see
at home. I am having a very good time. What do you say, Bell?'
'I wish I could have kept my stockings clean.'
'But what about the young men?'
'Young men are pretty much the same everywhere, I guess. They
never have their wits about them. They never mean what they say,
because they don't understand the use of words. They are generally
half impudent and half timid. When in love they do not at all
understand what has befallen them. What they want they try to
compass as a cow does when it stands stretching out its head
towards a stack of hay which it cannot reach. Indeed there is no
such thing as a young man, for a man is not really a man till he
is middle-aged. But take them at their worst they are a deal too
good for us, for they become men some day, whereas we must only be
women to the end.'
'My word, Bella!' exclaimed the mother.
'You have managed to be tolerably heavy upon God's creatures,
taking them in a lump,' said the father.
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