If I am asked to explain why I learned the bicycle I should say I did it as an act of grace, if not of actual religion. The cardinal¹ doctrine² laid down by my physician was, “Live out of doors and take congenial exercise;” but from the day when, at sixteen years of age, I was enwrapped in the long skirts that impeded³ every footstep, I have detested⁴ walking and felt with a certain noble disdain⁵ that the conventions of life had cut me off from what in the freedom of my prairie home had been one of life’s sweetest joys. Driving is not real exercise; it does not renovate⁶ the river of blood that flows so sluggishly⁷ in the veins⁸ of those who from any cause have lost the natural adjustment of brain to brawn⁹. Horseback-riding, which does promise vigorous exercise, is expensive. The bicycle meets all 73the conditions and will ere long come within the reach of all. Therefore, in obedience¹⁰ to the laws of health, I learned to ride. I also wanted to help women to a wider world, for I hold that the more interests women and men can have in common, in thought, word, and deed, the happier will it be for the home. Besides, there was a special value to women in the conquest of the bicycle by a woman in her fifty-third year, and one who had so many comrades in the white-ribbon army that her action would be widely influential¹¹. Then there were three

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