my meeting with freckles only served to confirm me in the belief, almost amounting to a conviction, that the female of our species reaches its full mental development at an extraordinarily early age compared to that of the male. in the male the receptive and elastic or progressive period varies greatly; but judging from the number of cases one meets with of men who have continued gaining in intellectual power to the end of their lives, in spite of physical decay, it is reasonable to conclude that the stationary individuals are only so because of the condition of their lives having been inimical. in fact, stagnation strikes us as an unnatural condition of mind. the man who dies at fifty or sixty or seventy, after progressing all his life, doubtless would, if he had lived a lustrum or a decade longer, have attained to a still greater height. "how disgusting it is," cried ruskin, when he had reached his threescore years and ten, "to find that just when one's getting interested in life one has got to die!" many can say as much; all could say it, had not the mental machinery been disorganised by some accident, or become rusted from neglect and carelessness. he who is no more in mind at sixty than at thirty is but a half-grown man: his is a case of arrested development.
it is hardly necessary to remark here that the mere accumulation of knowledge is not the same thing as power of mind and its increase: the man who astonishes you with the amount of knowledge stored in his brain may be no greater in mind at seventy than at twenty.
comparing the sexes again, we might say that the female mind reaches perfection in childhood, long before the physical change from a generalised to a specialised form; whereas the male retains a generalised form to the end of life and never ceases to advance mentally. the reason is obvious. there is no need for continued progression in women, and nature, like the grand old economist she is, or can be when she likes, matures the mind quickly in one case and slowly in the other; so slowly that he, the young male, goes crawling on all fours as it were, a long distance after his little flying sister—slowly because he has very far to go and must keep on for a very, very long time.
i met freckles in one of those small ancient out-of-the-world market towns of the west of england—somerset to be precise—which are just like large old villages, where the turnpike road is for half a mile or so a high street, wide at one point, where the market is held. for a short distance there are shops on either side, succeeded by quiet dignified houses set back among trees, then by thatched cottages, after which succeed fields and woods.
i had lunched at the large old inn at noon on a hot summer's day; when i sat down a black cloud was coming up, and by-and-by there was thunder, and when i went to the door it was raining heavily. i leant against the frame of the door, sheltered from the wet by a small tiled portico over my head, to wait for the storm to pass before getting on my bicycle. then the innkeeper's child, aged five, came out and placed herself against the door-frame on the other side. we regarded one another with a good deal of curiosity, for she was a queer-looking little thing. her head, big for her size and years, was as perfectly round as a dutch cheese, and her face so thickly freckled that it was all freckles; she had confluent freckles, and as the spots and blotches were of different shades, one could see that they overlapped like the scales of a fish. her head was bound tightly round with a piece of white calico, and no hair appeared under it.
just to open the conversation, i remarked that she was a little girl rich in freckles.
"yes, i know," she returned, "there's no one in the town with such a freckled face."
"and that isn't all," i went on. "why is your head in a night-cap or a white cloth as if you wanted to hide your hair? or haven't you got any?"
"i can tell you about that," she returned, not in the least resenting my personal remarks. "it is because i've had ringworms. my head is shaved and i'm not allowed to go to school."
"well," i said, "all these unpleasant experiences—ringworm, shaved head, freckles, and expulsion from school as an undesirable person—do not appear to have depressed you much. you appear quite happy."
she laughed good-humouredly, then looked up out of her blue eyes as if asking what more i had to say.
just then a small girl about thirteen years old passed us—a child with a thin anxious face burnt by the sun to a dark brown, and deep-set, dark blue, penetrating eyes. it was a face to startle one; and as she went by she stared intently at the little freckled girl.
then i, to keep the talk going, said i could guess the sort of life that child led.
"what sort of life does she lead?" asked freckles.
she was, i said, a child from some small farm in the neighbourhood, and had a very hard life, and was obliged to do a great deal more work indoors and out than was quite good for her at her tender age. "but i wonder why she stared at you?" i concluded.
"did she stare at me!—why did she stare?"
"i suppose it was because she saw you, a mite of a child, with a nightcap on her head, standing here at the door of the inn talking to a stranger just like some old woman."
she laughed again, and said it was funny for a child of five to be called an old woman. then, with a sudden change to gravity, she assured me that i had been quite right in what i had said about that little girl. she lived with her parents on a small farm, where no maid was kept, and the little girl did as much work or more than any maid. she had to take the cows to pasture and bring them back; she worked in the fields and helped in the cooking and washing, and came every day to the town with a basket of butter, and eggs, which she had to deliver at a number of houses. sometimes she came twice in a day, usually in a pony-cart, but when the pony was wanted by her father she had to come on foot with the basket, and the farm was three miles out. on sunday she didn't come, but had a good deal to do at home.
"ah, poor little slave! no wonder she gazed at you as she did;—she was thinking how sweet your life must be with people to love and care for you and no hard work to do."
"and was that what made her stare at me, and not because i had a nightcap on and was like an old woman talking to a stranger?" this without a smile.
"no doubt. but you seem to know a great deal about her. now i wonder if you can tell me something about this beautiful young lady with an umbrella coming towards us? i should much like to know who she is—and i should like to call on her."
"yes, i can tell you all about her. she is miss eva langton, and lives at the white house. you follow the street till you get out of the town where there is a pond at this end of the common, and just a little the other side of the pond there are big trees, and behind the trees a white gate. that's the gate of the white house, only you can't see it because the trees are in the way. are you going to call on her?"
i explained that i did not know her, and though i wished i did because she was so pretty, it would not perhaps be quite right to go to her house to see her.
"i'm sorry you're not going to call, she's such a nice young lady. everybody likes her." and then, after a few moments, she looked up with a smile, and said, "is there anything else i can tell you about the people of the town? there's a man going by in the rain with a lot of planks on his head—would you like to know who he is and all about him?"
"oh yes, certainly," i replied. "but of course i don't care so much about him as i do about that little brown girl from the farm, and the nice miss langton from the white house. but it's really very pleasant to listen to you whatever you talk about. i really think you one of the most charming little girls i have ever met, and i wonder what you will be like in another five years. i think i must come and see for myself."
"oh, will you come back in five years? just to see me! my hair will be grown then and i won't have a nightcap on, and i'll try to wash off the freckles before you come."
"no, don't," i said. "i had forgotten all about them—i think they are very nice."
she laughed, then looking up a little archly, said: "you are saying all that just for fun, are you not?"
"oh no, nothing of the sort. just look at me, and say if you do not believe what i tell you."
"yes, i do," she answered frankly enough, looking full in my eyes with a great seriousness in her own.
that sudden seriousness and steady gaze; that simple, frank declaration! would five years leave her in that stage? i fancy not, for at ten she would be self-conscious, and the loss would be greater than the gain. no, i would not come back in five years to see what she was like.
that was the end of our talk. she looked towards the wet street and her face changed, and with a glad cry she darted out. the rain was over, and a big man in a grey tweed coat was coming across the road to our side. she met him half-way, and bending down he picked her up and set her on his shoulder and marched with her into the house.
there were others, it seemed, who were able to appreciate her bright mind and could forget all about her freckles and her nightcap.
