Mrs. Wilsons True Tales Retold

(corresponding to “Boss Boil....”) In an exception to the rule, Mrs. Wilson’s tale shall in this case precede my own rendition of it, partly so that my rendition may conclude this collection, but more importantly so that the distinctive parallels between this tale and my rendition may be known to you before you read it. This tale is a love story of a kind, not sentimental, but its passions are strong. During the life and times of Mrs. Wilson a woman was a commodity of the tribe, not perhaps more than any other person, whose value as a person is principally social, but we see that a woman shall be given as a wife in transactions that are not matters of love, and that she is not diminished therefore, nor necessarily unhappy for it. Nonetheless erotic compulsions matter too. The relations of men and women are not only practical. Men will compete jealously for women; they will kill one another for the possession of them. Women in turn will play men for their own desires and advantages.