ssors, we barbered ourselves as best we could. A close-trimmed beard is certai

" sneered Terry. Whereat Jeff pointed out that he never bef

men made them more feminine in t

. "A less feminine lot I never saw. A child apiece doesn

absorption of the mother in said baby or flock. A motherliness which dominated society, which influenced every art and industr

ts, they left nothing to be desired. That second garment was fairly quilted with pockets. They were most ingeniously arranged, so as to be conven

shown the action of a practical intelligence, coupled with fine artis

e as chummy as could be-the best of friends; but it was funny to watch Terry and Moadine. She was patient with him, and courteous, but it was like the patience and courtesy of some great man, say a skilled, experienced diplomat, with a schoolgirl. Her grave acquiesce

rity. When she dropped an argument he always thought he had s

w his failings, he was by no means an unusual type. We knew his virtues too, and they had always seemed more prominent than the faults. Measured among women-our women at home, I mean-he had always sto

of these women, with only that blessed Jeff and my inconspi

"females," he didn't; his intense masculinity seemed only fit compl

was as quietly watchful as a fencer's. She maintained a pleasant relation with

rong. Needless to say, he called Jeff's teacher "Java," and sometimes "Mocha," or plain "Coffee"; when specially misch

r we had been introduced to a whole group of them, all with

ed, or added to, in an unusually rich life. Such as our present Land Mother-what you call president or king, I believe. She was called Mera, even as a chil

ued Terry, with his somewhat pa

common source-all one 'family' in reality. You see, our comparat

r want her own child to

she? The chil

ation-so people will k

descent all the way back to our dear First Mother. There are many reasons for doing

fference between the purely maternal and the paternal attitude

Jeff. "Don't you sign your names t

work. You will find little names on the houses, on the furniture, on the dishes sometimes

e convenience of the consumer-not th

mel. "We have pride

in your childr

agnificently proud of

gn 'em?" said Te

speak of them, at times, as 'Essa's Lato,' or 'Novine's Amel'; but that is merely descriptive and conversational. In the records, of cour

enough to give a new

ve, for each liv

they wanted to know which method has been proved best-and we had to admit that so far as we knew there had been no attempt at comp

onableness. When I dug into the records to follow out any line of developmen

ds of minds-the critic and inventor. Those who showed an early tendency to observe, to discriminate, to suggest, were given special training for that funct

nd show need of alterations; and the whole corps of inventors was at hand to

ut first priming ourselves to answer questions about our own methods; so I kept rather qui

tion of the advantages of this strange country and its management. Terry rem

had begun to notice from that very first walk in the forest, the first partial view from

t-smothered flanks of those mighty mountains. They had a population of about three million-not a large one, but quality is something. Th

d be as alike as so many ants or aphids; he urged their vi

ross-fertilization, they attributed it partly to the careful education, which followed each slight tendency to differ,

ssive types. They were tall, strong, healthy, and beautiful as a race, but

ind your physical variation accompanied by a proportionate variation in ideas, feelings, and produc

nclined to hold that there was more chance o

grave initial misfortune to have lost half our little world. Perhaps

transmissible," Terry declare

absolute statements, o

e certainly have improved. It may be that all these higher qualities were latent in the original mother, that careful

nd in the amazing psychic growth you have made. We know very little

licate courtesy and were equally pleasant to live with, at least when they wore their "company manners," we had assumed that our companions were a carefully chosen few. Later we were more and more imp

of any single feature of Herland. We soon ceased to comment on this or other matters which to th

in that matter of food supply, wh

one would think that was all there was to be done. But they had not thought so. To them the country was a unit-it was theirs. They themselves were a unit, a conscious group; they thought in terms of the co

like a man's plowing up an inferior lawn and reseeding it. Now every tree bore fruit-edible fruit, that is. In the case of one tree, in which they took especial pride, it had originally no fruit at all-that is, n

ar less labor in tilling the soil, and bearing a larger amount of food f

ops, and their fruit and nuts, grains and

ow. Toward the south-eastern point, where there was a large valley with a lake whose outlet was subte

ong ago or reduced to an annual struggle for life. These careful culturists had worked out a perfect scheme of refeeding the soil with all that came out of it. All the scraps and leaving

ncreasingly valuable soil was being built, instead of the prog

sense should be praised; asked what our methods were; and we had some difficulty in-well, in diverting them, by

ly was child's play for those profound educators to work out a painfully accurate estimate of our conditions-in some lines. When a given line of observation seemed to lead to some very dreadful inference they always gave us the benefit of the doubt, leaving it open to fur

't understand a Man's World! They aren't human-they're just a pack of

our credit that we have muddled along with all our poverty and disease and the like? They ha

ense, we all three began to look for those faults of theirs. We had been very st

men only," Jeff had put it, over

to be given over to what we called "feminine vanity"-"frills and furbelows," and we found they had evolved a costume mo

daring social inventiveness far beyond our own, and a me

nsciousness besides which our nations looked lik

sisterly affection, a fair-minded intellig

nd vigor, a calmness of temper, to which the habit of prof

it, but he still insisted that we shou

natural condition's sure to have unnatural results. You'll find some awful characteristics-see if you don't! For instance-we don't

be something, so I took the bull by the ho

three million people have no faults. We are trying our best to understand and learn-would you mind he

ook out on one side over a stretch of open country, quietly rich and lovely; on the other, the garden, with tables here and there, far apart enough for privacy. Let

er elbow on the low wall beside her

more than we used to-that is, our standard of perfection seems to get farther and farth

cteristics of a long race-record behind her. And they cropped out from time to time-alarmi

st business to train out, to breed o

d. "How could you-w

nounce motherhood. Some of the few worst types were, fortunately, unable to reproduce. But if the fault was in a disprop

d then she would be likely to

llowed," answere

"Allowed a mother to r

mel, "unless she was fit

a blow to my pre

motherhood was

ear a child. But education is our highest

mean education. I mean by motherhood not

ucation, and is entrusted only

rror, something of Terry's feeling creeping over me, tha

te joy, a crowning honor, the most intimate, most personal, most precious thing. That is, the child-rearing has come to be with us a culture so profoundly stu

er's love-"

ying to work out a mean

aintly specialized persons who spend their lives filling little h

d, not getti

-with you-to fill their own ch

t is a highly specialized craft. Surely the c

he most highly competent fulfill that office; and a majority of

mother-bereave

is not the only one to care for it. There are others whom she knows to be wiser. She knows it because she has studied as they di

s was only hearsay; I had yet t