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As youngest son, Tom felt some importance when the care of

the farhteen, but he was

quite capable of doing everything his father had done And of

course, his rew up very fresh and alert, with zest for

every moment of life He worked and rode and drove to ot tipsy occasionally and played

skittles and went to the little travelling theatres Once, when

he was drunk at a public house, he went upstairs with a

prostitute who seduced hi of a shock to him In the close

intimacy of the farm kitchen, the woman occupied the supreme

position The men deferred to her in the house, on all household

points, on all points of morality and behaviour The woman was

the syion and

love and morality The men placed in her hands their own

conscience, they said to her "Be" And

the woman fulfilled her trust, theher praise or her bla, but never for a ative They depended on her

for their stability Without her, they would have felt like

straws in the wind, to be blown hither and thither at random