“Ah, thin, get out iv me way, ye divil’s bastes. Sure, if it wasn’t bad luck to kill cats, I’d haive the whole iv yez into the say, so I would!” she cried, lifting them one by one upon her foot, and tossing them away as fast and as far as she could. And then she went in turn to all the staterooms except Britomarte’s. “Sure, I suppose I may help meself to everything that you doesn’t want here? For, sure, what you won’t take lies betwane meself and the say. And if meself don’t take it, the say will. And the rightful owners will niver want it at all, at all! Say, ma’am!” “Judith,” said Miss Conyers, doubtfully, “if I understand what you mean by so many ‘selfs,’ you are asking my leave to take what you want from this cabin?” “Sure, yes, ma’am, that’s just what I mane itself!” “Then I have no right either to give or withhold leave. Here we have equal privileges, and you must do as you please; or, rather, you must act according to the dictates of your own conscience.” “Sure, ma’am, I know betther than that intirely. Sure, I’m not going to act according to the dictates iv what’s-its-name, nor anything else, at all, at all. I’m going to do as ye bid me. Faix, meself knows we are both depinding on the gintleman to save us from perishing intirely. And, troth, ye can wind the gintleman around yer finger, so ye can; and so, bedad, it behooves me to do as ye say, since he’s king and you’re quane.” “So,” thought the man-hater to herself, “what power I possess in virtue of superior intellect and education goes for nothing with this, my only female companion; but what power I possess, through my interest with this one able-bodied male creature, is all in all, because, forsooth, we are both dependent upon him (with his physical superiority) to save us from perishing. Why, the physical superiority is a quality he possesses in common with the ox and the ass! Yes; but the ox and the ass have not physical superiority united to intellectual power as he has. A drove of oxen or asses could not save us, as this one man can! Bah! nature has been very unjust to women, and that is the sacred truth! She should have given us strong bodies to match our strong hearts and heads!” “And ye have niver tould me whether or no I may take what I like,” said Judith. “Then I tell you now: Judith, help yourself.” “Thanky, ma’am! Sure, it’s a privilege I nivir had before in all me life; but, thanks to the shipwrack, I have it now! Sure, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good,” said Judith, going into Mrs. Ely’s room and beginning to rummage over that poor woman’s finery with great satisfaction. Mary Ely, having been the daughter of a wealthy merchant, had as large and as rich a stock of wearing apparel as any woman in the middle class of life could wish to possess; and Judith overhauled it with great enjoyment.