Herland | Page 8

a swarm of mosquitoes."
I laughed as I thought of it. "We've made a great mistake not to let
Mr. Yellow Press in on this. Save us! What headlines!"

"Not much!" said Terry grimly. "This is our party. We're
going to find that place alone."

"What are you going to do with it when you do find it--if
you do?" Jeff asked mildly.

Jeff was a tender soul. I think he thought that country--if
there was one--was just blossoming with roses and babies and
canaries and tidies, and all that sort of thing.

And Terry, in his secret heart, had visions of a sort of
sublimated summer resort--just Girls and Girls and Girls--and
that he was going to be--well, Terry was popular among women even
when there were other men around, and it's not to be wondered
at that he had pleasant dreams of what might happen. I could see
it in his eyes as he lay there, looking at the long blue rollers
slipping by, and fingering that impressive mustache of his.

But I thought--then--that I could form a far clearer idea of
what was before us than either of them.

"You're all off, boys," I insisted. "If there is such a place--and
there does seem some foundation for believing it--you'll find it's
built on a sort of matriarchal principle, that's all. The men have
a separate cult of their own, less socially developed than the
women, and make them an annual visit--a sort of wedding call.
This is a condition known to have existed--here's just a survival.
They've got some peculiarly isolated valley or tableland up there,
and their primeval customs have survived. That's all there is to it."

"How about the boys?" Jeff asked.

"Oh, the men take them away as soon as they are five or six, you see."

"And how about this danger theory all our guides were so sure of?"

"Danger enough, Terry, and we'll have to be mighty careful.
Women of that stage of culture are quite able to defend themselves
and have no welcome for unseasonable visitors."

We talked and talked.

And with all my airs of sociological superiority I was no
nearer than any of them.

It was funny though, in the light of what we did find, those
extremely clear ideas of ours as to what a country of women
would be like. It was no use to tell ourselves and one another that
all this was idle speculation. We were idle and we did speculate,
on the ocean voyage and the river voyage, too.

"Admitting the improbability," we'd begin solemnly, and
then launch out again.

"They would fight among themselves," Terry insisted.
"Women always do. We mustn't look to find any sort of order
and organization."

"You're dead wrong," Jeff told him. "It will be like a nunnery
under an abbess--a peaceful, harmonious sisterhood."

I snorted derision at this idea.

"Nuns, indeed! Your peaceful sisterhoods were all celibate, Jeff,
and under vows of obedience. These are just women, and mothers, and
where there's motherhood you don't find sisterhood--not much."

"No, sir--they'll scrap," agreed Terry. "Also we mustn't look
for inventions and progress; it'll be awfully primitive."

"How about that cloth mill?" Jeff suggested.

"Oh, cloth! Women have always been spinsters. But there
they stop--you'll see."

We joked Terry about his modest impression that he would
be warmly received, but he held his ground.