ures. If the people who read it are not interested in these amaz

We did get away, as described, and were peacefully brought back again

d beasts in the country and very few tame ones. Of these I might as well stop

had developed a race of cats that did not sing! That's a fact. The most those poor dumb brutes could do was to make a kind of s

usly bred to destroy mice and moles and all such enemies

mused at the idea. He made a few sketches of our women's hats, with plumes and quills and those various

n the sun; and those were big light straw hats, something like thos

would be becoming?" pursued Terry, making as prett

f the men wore the same kind. We hastened to assure he

wear feathers

"Savages, you know." And he sk

ded, drawing a milit

nor indeed much surprise-just a keen inter

n they questioned us-I can tell you we were well pumped for information-we told of what had been done

curious about us than we were about them, if as much. But they were bent on understanding our kind of civilization, and their lines of

of dogs you have mad

and sleddogs of course!-and ratters, I suppose, but we don't keep dogs fo

They surely are our friends, and helpers, too. You

rare instances. Big, handsome silky things, friendly with

you do for your valuable cattle. The fathers are few compared to the mothers, just a few very fine ones in each town; t

homas, isn't it?"

cats we wanted. They are healthy and happy and friendly, as you see. How do you ma

hat nobody wanted a-a mother dog; that, well, that practically all our dogs

im: "Rather hard on Thomas, isn't it? Do they enjoy it-living without m

l Jeff something of a traitor-he so often flopped over and took their side of

the most diseased of any animal-next to man. And as to temper-t

ountry. All our interlocutors sat up straight at once. They were still gentl

an unmated male animal-that bites children

said Jeff, "and nearly every

one in a hundred that ever bites anybody. Why, they are the best friends of

girls?" a

ut his voice flatted a little. They always no

cise on a leash; was liable not only to many diseases but to the one destroying horror of rabies; and, in many cases, for the safet

alm as judges, those women were. But t

facts correct," she said. "In

ed, "in most civ

s a kind of animal is kept

erry insisted. "They bark

and went on: "because of the love

it the men or the women who

insist

?" she i

ry-you know men like dogs bet

-especially men. This animal

hut up because we do not want too much fathering; but t

llars on them, with the owner's name, in case they do stray. Besides, th

t when they meet-is that comm

Is not a dog fond of running? Are they not built for speed?" That w

ght, both ways-to see a man or a woman ta

next question. And when Jeff told them of the effect of dogs on sidewa

itation-but I might as well start in now with as much as I can remem

all told, and after that, three in a pleasant enough city where-to Terry's infinite disgust-there were only "Colonels" and little children-no young women whatever. Then we were under surveillance for t

-had to; and they learned ours much more qu

those pocket encyclopedias-a fat little thing, bursting with facts. These were used in our education-and theirs. Then as soon as we were up to it,

appened, according

rly easy pass through that wall of mountains behind us, and there is no doubt in my mind that these people were of Aryan stock, and were once in contact wi

and a strip of coast. They had ships, commerce, an army, a king-for

up from their coastline till finally the reduced population, with many of the men killed in battle, occupied this hinterland, and defended it for years, in the

untain home they built the fortresses, such as the one we were held in, and other of their oldest buildings, some still in use. Nothing but earthquakes

al tremors, and the result was the complete filling up of the pass-their only outlet. Instead of a passage, a new ridge, sheer and high, stood between them and the sea; they were walled in, and beneath that wall lay their whole little army. Very few men were left

re were many of them, and but few of these would-be masters, so the young women,

w, but that is their account. I suppose

autiful high garden land but a bunch of hy

ut two thous

as no way up or down or out-they simply had to stay there. Some were for suicide, but not the majority. They must have been a plucky lot, as a wh

ry the dead, to plow and s

uch surprised to learn that we were still burying-asked our reasons for it, and were much dissatisfied with what we gave. We told them of the belief in the resurrection of the body, and they asked if our God was not as well able to

. Some of the remaining slave women rendered invaluable service, teaching such trades as they knew. They had

escaped slaughter, and a few babies were born after

a child. Of course they all thought there must be a man somewhere, but none was found. Then they decided it must be a direct gift from the gods, and placed the proud mo

receding generations they had been reared in the atmosphere of such heroic struggle that the stock must have been toughened somewhat. Left alone in that terrific orphanhood, they had clung together, supporting one another and their little sisters,

s not for all of them personally, it might-if

les that love and hope and reverence could give-were reared. The whole little nation of women surrounded them with lovin

Mothers in their own right, and the whole spirit of the country changed from mourning and mere courageous resignation to proud joy. The older women, those who remembered men, die

re all in full production. Such industries as they had were in careful order. The records of their past were all preserved, and for years the older women had spen

ved to see her hundred and twenty-five great-granddaughters born; lived as Queen-Priestess-Mother of them all; and d

five daughters in turn, with a stronger hope, a richer, wider outlook, with the devoted love and care of all the surviving population, grew up as a holy sisterhood, their whole ardent youth looking forward to their

tra-women, inheriting only from women, had eliminated not only certain masculine characteristics, w

These stalwart virgins had no men to fear and therefore no need of

heirs of course, raised to its highest power; and a sister-love which, ev

as old as Herodotus-and about as trustworthy!" he said. "It's likely women-just a pack of women-would have hun

t have anyone to be jealous

ely story," T

omen-nothing but women, and you yourself admit there's no trace of

here's not only no fun without 'em-no real sport-no competi

grew to side with him. "Then you don't call a breed of

t of a chance at fatherhood? And besides-what's the good of talking sentiment when we are j

our escape fiasco. I don't suppose Terry had ever lived so long with neither Love, Combat, nor Danger to employ his superabundant energies, and he was irritable. Neither Jeff nor I found it so wearing. I was so m

what we call "femininity." This led me very promptly to the conviction that those "feminine charms" we are so fond of are not feminine at all, but mere reflected mascul

till I get ou

ty good to us-but do you remember the anesthesia? If you do any mischief in this virgin

n to the

them devoted to that one thing. Each girl, of course, was reared in full knowledge of her Crowning Office,

, Health, Strength, Intellect, Goodn

rs and friends. The land was fair before them, and

but they lost all interest in deities of war and plunder, and gradually centered on their Mother Godd

hood, from seed or egg or their product. By motherhood they were born and b

elligence to that problem-how to make the best kind of people. First this was merely the hope of bearing better ones

ngs bega

these women had accomplished, the less proud I

iests, and no aristocracies. They were sisters, and as they gre

their earnest questions of us that they were prepared to believe our world must be better than theirs. The

ion: how it developed fine qualities; that without it there would

at puzzled look we had learned to know so well. "

k unless he had t

n that is one of you

n, man or woman, would work without incentive

to understand. Do you mean, for instance, that with you no mothe

f course work for their children in the home; but the world's work was d

ers were eage

and! And there are two of you-the two sexes-to love and help one another. It must be a rich an

red his broad shoulders and lifted his chest. "We do not allow our women to wor

e'?" asked Somel

ell me first, do NO

itted. "Some have to,

many-in you

million," said Jeff, a