"
"And to my unborn children, mother."
"To be sure. It is a sin and a shame, both ways. It is that! The last
time she was here, she told me as a bit of news, that Mary Fairfax had
died that morning of cancer, and I said, 'Not she. She killed herself.'
Then Jane said, 'You are mistaken, mother, she died of cancer.' I
replied a bit hotly, 'She gave herself cancer. I have no doubt of that,
and so she died as she deserved to die.' And when Jane said, 'No one
could give herself cancer,' I told her plain and square that she did it
by refusing the children God sent her to bear and to bring up for Him,
taking as a result the pangs of cancer. She knew very well what I
meant."
"What did she say?"
"Not a word. She was too angry to speak wisely and wise enough not to
speak at all."
"Well, mother?"
"I said much more of the same kind. I told her that no one ever abused
Nature and got off scot-free. _'Why-a!'_ I said, 'it is thus and so in
the simplest matters. If you or I eat too much we have a sick headache
or dyspepsia.
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