I have a friend, who, after his wife really had been injured by bringing water from a well, did at last, by reason of her importunity, put a pump in the sink. And, ever since that great job was accomplished, whenever she asks for any thing which can possibly be done without, “that pump” serves as an excuse for refusing. Yes, and probably “that pump” will be made to throw cold water on dress, carpet, magazine, or melodeon for many a year to come. Now, my friend was interested in “that pump” just as much as his wife, only she never had allowed him to find it out. If, when the pailful he brought in the morning--and which he “didn’t understand” why it should not last all day--was used up, if then she had let the dinner stop cooking, why, that would have made him “understand.” But, instead of doing this, she went to the well herself, knowing that he would “expect his dinner, whatever,” to quote Mrs. Melendy. And observation has shown me that the majority of men, both in Tweenit and out of Tweenit, expect a great deal of women “whatever.” They expect a woman will always be good-natured; will keep the whole house in order; will let nothing be wasted; will bear to be found fault with; will never find fault; will have the children look neat; will cook three meals a day; will always have light bread; will wash and iron, make and mend, entertain company, and, if possible, get along without hired help. Yet they do not, as a general thing, exert themselves overmuch to provide her with conveniences, still less with pleasures. Really, this is something like “expecting light victuals from green pine-wood”! And, now I think of it, I wonder if there be not in the lives of some women too much “green pine;” if some husbands don’t “forget the kindling” all the way through. Mrs. Melendy said that “light wood” would make the heavy wood go better. I wonder if a little “light wood” now and then, in the shape of a pleasure-trip, or of books, music, conveniences, sets of furs, and pretty things in the house, or even of an appreciative or commendatory word, would not make woman’s heavy burden of work go better. VIII. MR. MCKIMBER RISES TO EXPLAIN.