Courting Miss Amsel (17 page)

Chapter
TWENTY-FOUR

“But that isn’t fair!”

Edythe had sent grades one through five to the back half of the classroom and brought the older students to the front for a lesson on government. She’d read the article about English parliament’s change in property ownership laws and then explained the laws that existed in America. Her explanation had prompted Jane’s uncharacteristic outburst.

Ordinarily, Edythe discouraged the children from speaking out of turn, but she’d never seen Jane so passionate. She sat on the edge of her desk and flipped her palm toward the girl. “Why isn’t it fair, Jane?”

Jane’s dark eyes flashed. “What’s mine should be mine an’ what’s yours should be yours. If a lady has somethin’ that’s hers, it isn’t fair that she has to hand it over to her husband just ’cause they got married. It should still be hers.”

William Sholes, the only boy in the group, snorted.

Jane whirled on him. “I s’pose you think it’s fine for a wife to have to hand over her belongings.”

He shrugged, examining a hangnail on this thumb. “Yep, I do.”

Edythe shook her head. “That isn’t a sufficient answer, William.
Why
do you think it’s right for a husband to take possession of his wife’s property?”

The boy sent Edythe a sardonic look. “ ’Cause women don’t know how to take care of anything.”

The girls erupted with a torrent of protests. Edythe waved her hands. “Class! Quiet now!” Another few seconds of chaos reigned, but then the girls fell silent. They continued to scowl at William, however. Even Missy looked perturbed.

“William, I’d like to hear your reasoning.” Edythe ignored the girls’ aghast expressions. “A further explanation is needed for us to understand.”

William threw his arms wide. “Who works the fields? The men. Who feeds an’ waters an’ curries the horses? The men. Who builds the barns an’ sharpens the plow blades an’ harvests the corn?” He sent a triumphant look around the circle of irritated female faces. “The men do the work. So why shouldn’t they own the land an’ the animals an’ the buildings?”

The girls exploded with another round of arguments. The younger children lifted their heads and looked toward the front of the room. Although Edythe wanted the older students to each have their say, she would have to insist upon some semblance of order.

She clapped her hands sharply. “Girls, one at a time.” All five waved their hands in the air, each eager face begging to be chosen first. Edythe pointed at Louisa Bride.

Louisa faced William. “Sure the men take care of the plowin’ and plantin’, but what about the house? What man takes care of the house?”

From the back of the room, a childish voice piped up. “My uncle Joel.”

Titters sounded in response.

Edythe gave Robert Townsend a nod. “Thank you, Robert. But you need to finish your arithmetic assignment.”

With a sigh, Robert bent back to his work.

Louisa poked William on the shoulder. “What
married
man” – she whisked a frowning glance toward Robert – “takes care of the house?”

William let out another derisive snort. “Wife
oughtta
take care of her husband’s house considerin’ all the work he does.”

Martha’s hand shot into the air. “But, William, using your reasoning, if a man should have ownership of the things he takes care of, then it only makes sense that a woman should have ownership of the things she takes care of.”

The other girls voiced their agreement. William rolled his eyes and slumped in his seat.

Sophie Jeffers, the youngest of the group, raised her hand, waggling her fingers at Edythe. “Can I ask you somethin’?”

“Certainly.”

“How come the law’s set up that way?”

“ ’Cause a bunch of selfish men made the laws,” Missy mumbled.

William leaned sideways to sneer into her face. “That’s ’cause men know best.”

“Says who?” Missy challenged.

“Says me.” His chest puffed up. “But not just me. Even God says so.”

“God?” Missy yelped. “He does not!”

“Does too.” William folded his arms over his chest, looking smug. “Miss Amsel, you got a Bible in your desk. Look it up. There’s a verse in Ephesians that says the husband is the head of the wife.” He smirked at Missy. “An’ if he’s the head of the wife, then he’s the head of everything she’s got.”

“Well, you’d never be the head of anything of
mine
.” Missy stuck her nose in the air.

William slapped his knee and laughed loudly.

The discussion was moving in a direction Edythe didn’t intend to pursue. “That’s enough for today. Before class tomorrow, I want each of you to write a three-paragraph essay on property ownership laws. Express your opinion, but also give reasons to support your opinion. We’ll share our essays tomorrow, but now it’s time for us to take out our readers.”

She raised her voice to address all of the students. “Everyone, back to your own seats.”

Edythe carefully turned the pages of her new Bible. Thanks to the table of contents, she’d easily located the book of Ephesians. But the book contained six chapters and many, many verses. How would she locate the verse William had mentioned?

On the opposite side of Luthenia’s kitchen table, Missy
scritch-scritched
her pen across a piece of paper. With the tip of her tongue peeking from the corner of her mouth and her eyebrows crunched together, she was a picture of concentration. Edythe wanted to ask Luthenia to leave the dishwashing long enough to help her find the Scripture passage, but she hated to disrupt Missy’s focus. Rarely did Missy take schoolwork so seriously.

So she turned pages, her eyes seeking, wondering if she might be pursuing a fruitless chase. William wasn’t the most trustworthy source. However, the fact that he attended church regularly made her think he might be speaking the truth. But she wanted to verify it for herself.

Missy slapped her pen onto the table and sat up. “Done!” She lifted the paper and gave Edythe a triumphant grin.“You assigned three paragraphs. I wrote
five
. They’re long ones, too.”

Luthenia hung the damp towel over a rod and turned, wiping her hands on her apron. “Five long paragraphs? Well, I reckon the schoolmarm’ll have to give you some extra points for extra work.” She winked at Edythe.

Missy waved the page at Luthenia. “It’s about why I think property laws in America should be changed.” She wrinkled her nose. “William thinks it’s just fine and dandy that a woman’s property goes to her husband when they get married. You should’ve heard him in class, sayin’ women don’t know how to take care of things.” She huffed with indignation. “But look at you, Mrs. Kinsley! You have this house an’ a little barn an’ a horse – you take care of all of it. So I think a woman should get to keep her property.”

Luthenia tilted her head, squinting at Missy’s essay. “Sounds like you all had a lively discussion.”

“Sure did. It’ll be more lively tomorrow if Edie lets us girls speak our minds. We had a talk at recess, an’ we intend to put William in his place.” Missy hopped up, gathering her books. “I’m gonna do the rest of my studying in our room.” She pounded up the stairs.

Luthenia retrieved her mending basket and sank into the chair Missy had vacated, her throaty chuckle rumbling. “That’s one fired-up young’un.”

Edythe nodded absently, her gaze following her sister. “I can’t say I’m unhappy to see her siding with the girls in class instead of with William.” She began scanning her Bible again. Where was the verse about men being in charge of women?

Luthenia threaded a needle. “Does my heart good to see you readin’ your Bible. Not that I thought you’d break a promise, but – ”

Edythe smacked her palm on the table, a frustrated huff exploding from her lips.

“Ouch!” Luthenia stuck her finger in her mouth.

“Did you poke yourself?” Edythe sent the older woman an apologetic look.

“Yes, I did, ’cause you startled me.”

“I’m sorry.” Edythe slumped against the chair’s high back. “I suppose I’m getting impatient. I’ve been hunting for a particular Scripture for over half an hour.” She shared William’s statement. “I’m beginning to think the verse doesn’t exist.”

Luthenia dropped the apron back into the basket and reached for Edythe’s Bible. After a few deft flicks with her fingers on the pages, she turned the book around to face Edythe again. “Ephesians five, verse twenty-three.”

Edythe bent over the Bible, both grateful to Luthenia for locating the verse and annoyed with herself for being so helpless. When she finished her silent reading of the verse, she released a little sigh. “Well, at least I know William wasn’t telling tales – the verse does seem to indicate that men have been placed in a position of authority over their wives.”

Luthenia resumed stitching. “ ’Course, you can’t just read that all by itself. Need to study it along with the whole section from verses twenty-two on to the end of the chapter. Otherwise it sounds like men’re supposed to be bossy an’ lordin’ things over their wives. I don’t think that’s what the Almighty had in mind.”

Edythe looked up. “You don’t?”

Luthenia chuckled. “Nope, I don’t.” Her expression turned serious. “I believe God made man to be the head of his household, but not to stomp all over his family – to protect an’ nurture his family, the same way God protects an’ nurtures His own. God loves us into obedience. A good husband an’ father’ll lead his family with lots of love.”

Edythe considered her father’s style of leadership: manipulative whining and self-centered demands. She pushed aside the memories and pressed her palms to the Bible’s smooth, cool pages. “Knowing that our founding fathers built this country’s government using the Bible as one of their sources, I’m surprised at how many laws place restrictions on women.”

Luthenia’s hands paused, but her eyebrows arched. “You one of them suffragists, are you?”

Edythe had never attended a women’s temperance convention, and she wasn’t a member of the National Woman Suffrage Association, although a few of her classmates at the normal school had invited her to join. Still, she’d been inspired by that article about the new British property act. She wanted to change the laws in America in ways that would benefit women – but did that make her a suffragist? “I’m not sure.”

Luthenia set the needle to work again, clicking her tongue against her teeth. Edythe couldn’t discern the older woman’s reaction – did she disapprove of the suffragist movement, or did she lament Edythe’s uncertainty?

“I would like to see the property laws changed.” Edythe felt safe in sharing that much with her landlady. A property owner herself, surely Luthenia would be sympathetic toward other women forced to forfeit their holdings. “Being forced to relinquish purchased or inherited property simply because they’ve married places women in a precarious position.” She felt a pang in her chest, recalling what Mama had lost.

Luthenia’s fingers busily closed a tear in the apron’s skirt. “S’pose it could make a woman wonder if a man was askin’ for her hand only ’cause he wanted to take control of the things she owns. Now, when Cyrus asked for my hand, he knew what he was gettin’ – nothin’ more’n me.” A tender smile curved her lips and erased years from her face. “An’ that was plenty, he said.”

“Did he leave you this home?” Edythe gestured to indicate the walls around them.

“He surely did.”

“But the way the law is now, if you were to marry again, your new husband would take possession of it.” Edythe’s voice rose in fervor as she remembered her pa signing away Grandfather’s land. “Even though it originally belonged to Cyrus and you, it would be your new husband’s. That isn’t right!”

“Right or not, it’s the way things is.” Luthenia nipped off the thread and set the apron aside. “Sitting here hollering won’t change it.” She reached into the basket for another article of clothing.

“Someone’s hollering needs to change it.” Edythe flicked the Bible’s pages with her thumb, the subsequent
thwip-thwip
an angry sound.

Luthenia turned the skirt she held inside out and laid it across her knees. “Maybe you oughtta go to that meetin’ in North Fork.”

Edythe stopped fiddling with the Bible. “What meeting?”

“That one bein’ held by Susan Anthony. Didn’t you see the article about it in the paper?” Luthenia grinned sheepishly. “Hope you don’t mind me readin’ your paper before I give it to you – kind of enjoy readin’ it while sippin’ a cup o’ tea midway through the day.”

Her heart leaping with excitement, Edythe raced to the parlor and scooped up the newspaper from the sofa’s seat. She dashed back to the kitchen and spread the paper flat on the table.

“Second page,” Luthenia advised.

Her fingers shook as they flipped the paper to the second page and found the article at the top of the first column. She scanned the opening paragraph while standing, too agitated to sit. Susan B. Anthony, co-founder of the Women’s State Temperance Society of New York, was coming to Nebraska! “North Fork,” Edythe mused aloud. “Only a stage ride away . . .”

“An’ a ferry ride,” Luthenia added. “Other side o’ the river, y’know. Cold as it’s been, they’d probably slide you across. Never cared much for crossin’ that river in the winter – always worry the ice’ll give way.”

“I know it could be treacherous this time of year, but . . .” Edythe slipped into her chair and finished reading the article. Apparently Miss Anthony intended to speak in support of the proposed amendment to the Nebraska constitution concerning women’s right to vote. Desire coursed through Edythe’s veins. “I want to go.”

“Meeting’s on a Thursday – that’s a school day.”

Edythe flicked her hand, dismissing Luthenia’s protest the way she’d shoo away a fly. “School could close for a couple of days. Maybe I could take a few of the older students with me.” She jumped up and paced the room. “Missy would want to go. And Jane and Martha. It would do William a world of good to hear a different viewpoint than his own.”

“Edythe?”

“Of course, it would be best if another parent also accompanied us. I wonder if Mrs. Sterbinz would be interested? We’d need to make arrangements to stay in a hotel. Or perhaps a schoolteacher would offer us a night of shelter.”