That is a woman's spear.  

Two gentle sheep upon the hills,  
How sweet the twain did run,  
As I meandered gently on  
And sot down on a stun;  
They seemed to murmur sheepishly  
Oh Betsy Bobbett, dear--  
It is matrimony, it is matrimony,  
That is a woman's spear.  

Sweet wuz the honeysuckle's breath  
Upon the ambient air,  
Sweet wuz the tender coo of doves,  
Yet sweeter husbands are;  
All Nature's voices poured these words  
Into my willing ear,  
B. Bobbett, it is matrimony,  
That is a woman's spear.

TALK ON WIMMEN'S DUTY TO MARRY 

Cephas Slinker stopped yesterday mornin' and had a little talk with me over the barnyard fence. I pitied Cephas; he don't live happy with his wife, she's hard on him, and they have frequent spells. They had one last night, and he got up and started for Jonesville quick as he'd had his breakfast. He said he never stopped to git a stick of wood or a pail of water (they bring their water from a spring under the hill) but he hurried away he said for fear she'd begin on him agin, and aggravate him. He wanted sympathy, and I see he needed it, so he told me about it.

He's been out of a job for some time, and his wife has took in washin' and worked round for the neighbors to keep 'em goin'.

He said he wuz to Jonesville all day yesterday lookin' for a job. He said he thought the best way to find one wuz to set right still in some place where men wuz comin' and goin' all the time, so they could see him handy if they wanted to hire him. But he said he never got a job, or no hopes of one, and he went home completely discouraged and deprested, and he said that if he ever felt the need of tender words from a comfortin' companion it wuz then; he said he felt so bad that he went in and busted these words right out to his 

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