Will She?

When the coming woman gets here

     Will she offer up her seat?

Will she offer her umbrella,

     When there’s rain or snow or sleet?

Will she help us in the wagon,

     Will she bait our fishing hook?

Will she spread her costly sealskin

     When we want to cross a brook?

Will she seize a rail and rescue

     When the bully chases us?

Will she push her wheezy mower,

     Every eve and make no fuss?

Will she run the locomotive,

     Shovel coal and handle brakes?

Will she level mount and forest,

     Carry bitters for the snakes?

Will she march to bloody battle,

     Snap her fingers at the hurts?

Well, I guess not; she will merely

     Hide behind her husband’s skirts.

July 8, 1895

Pub. in The

N.Y. Sun,

     1895