Argument rages among women — and the heated argument today turns upon the subject of the new dress and its insistence on the encroachment of skirts ... the ladies' new ... to fourteen inches as their height above the ground. The model below is made of blue wool, and there remains in the detailing ... models ...

mother-in-law used to bewail her luck and say I would never let her see a child in her house? Here they are—five! Do you suppose she has had her fill?"

Then she told me the tale of the fifth child's birth. She said:

We were then—our house like the houses of the destitute—with no capital to work with, and we did not know the language of the country! Some relatives had given us temporary help, and we had rented a wretched little shop. When I felt the pains of labor come on, I had nothing by me to meet the next day's expenses! I got up at once, lit the fire in the hearth, and set the tin of water upon it. My husband came and said:

"Let me call our kinswoman So-and-so for you."

I said:

"Stay where you are. Here—outside the room, by the door."

My pains grew worse, and the ter-rible hour drew near, and he began calling to me, keeping to his place:

"Woman, have pity on me! We have four children—what will become of them if you die?"

"Nothing. They will live, or they will die, and that will be the better for them."

"You good woman! God preserve your people to you—let me call a midwife for you."

"I told you to stand fast where you are and leave me be."

At noon exactly the child cried out, and I did what midwives do at such an hour. Then I called my husband to bring the hot water, while he