The Birth House

Bertine Tupper comes to visit Dora, bringing her two children, and invites herself to tea. Bertine eventually notices the hole in the wall and doesn’t believe the lie Dora tells about trying to hang a picture and accidentally causing the hole. Miss B. always liked Bertine best because she was “just as fierce with her honesty” as Miss B. was (180).

Dora confesses that she was tired with marriage and Archer and blames herself for the hole and for him leaving. Bertine tells Dora that she has “every right to feel any which way you like” (180). She also says her husband used to get angry and mean, too, until they had children. Dora seizes on the idea that a baby would help calm Archer down. Bertine says she’ll return the next Thursday evening under the pretense that they have formed the Occasional Knitters Society to make socks for soldiers.

Later, Hart comes over to help Dora with the house in Archer’s absence. He brings his collie, Pepper, who is limping. Dora removes a burr from the dog’s foot and offers to keep her while she heals. Dora suspects that Hart doesn’t believe the story.

Dora writes in her journal of her disappointment that she has gotten her period and so is not pregnant. She is sure that Archer will return home soon, once he runs out of money and is tired of being on the move. When he returns, Dora is determined that “I’ll welcome him with my affection, my love and my body” because “once there’s a child inside me, nothing else will matter” (184).

Bertine, Mabel, and Sadie start visiting Dora every Thursday for the Occasional Knitters Society meetings. Bertine teaches them to knit using the “lover’s hook” or “thrumming” method, which gives socks twice as much warmth (185). These socks are highly prized by the soldiers who receive them.

More than knitting, the meetings are a chance for them all to talk and spend time together without their men. They talk about sex freely—Sadie says that she has been enjoying sex since she was 14. Bertine is dissatisfied with her husband and laments how easily she seems to get pregnant. Mabel thinks “no man can do you better than you can do for yourself” (187).

They also advise Dora on how to get pregnant: by putting a pillow under her hips and not getting up until morning. Sadie recommends she “think of dancing: think of reaching for him from the inside out” (188).

In response to the Occasional Knitters Society, Aunt Fran starts hosting family teas on Sundays. Although Dora tries to refuse, she attends for Precious’s birthday and brings her a book of Aunt Fran-appropriate stories and a new sewing basket. Aunt Fran is politely insulting to Dora about Archer and asks when he will be returning. Dora’s mother also asks for details about Archer, making Dora uncomfortable. They notice that Dora looks flushed and suggest she see Dr. Thomas to determine if she might be pregnant, despite Dora assuring them that she is not.

At Aunt Fran’s insistence, Dora goes to see Dr. Thomas, who diagnoses her with neurasthenia, “a female disorder that presents itself through hysterical tendencies” (194). He also determines that the reason she has not become pregnant yet is due to her “premature exposure to the primitive and sometimes unseemly regenerative aspects of womanhood, coupled with your current desire to have children,” which has caused nervousness (194). Additionally, her “fragile psyche has forced your female organs to collapse” (194).

He orders her not to attend any more births and says he will “administer the treatment. It prepares the womb” for pregnancy (195). The result of the treatment should be “sending blood rushing to your congested parts, releasing inner stress, relieving you of your suffering” (196).

Dora lies on the table and Dr. Thomas uses an electric machine called “The Swedish Movement Health Generator” to stimulate her sexually. Despite trying to relax and concentrate on wholesome thoughts, Dora’s “blood ran hot, gathering strength, pulsing with life” until she has an orgasm (196-97).

Afterward, Dora starts to laugh uncontrollably, which Dr. Thomas takes as a sign of the seriousness of her condition. He writes to her to implore her to come to him for regular treatments of this kind, which Aunt Fran offers to pay for. Without treatment, he warns, “this kind of situation can quickly go wrong and leave even the strongest of women wrecked, helpless and in need of hospitalization” (199).

However, Dora “cannot face him again” and so does not return for treatment. Instead, she orders her own White Cross Home Vibrator from an ad in the “Ladies’ Rural Companion” (200). She begins home treatments and is pleased with the results, wondering if she’s “stumbled upon yet another exercise that is better attended to by the fairer sex” (201). She is sure that regular use of her vibrator as a treatment will make her “ready (and more than willing) when Archer returns home” (202).

Dora receives a letter from Archer telling her that he is on his way home. She searches through the Willow Book to make sure she’s taken all the remedies possible to “help to bring a child into my womb” (203).

Hart returns for Pepper, whose paw has been healed for a while. As he’s leaving, he asks Dora to come with her to see something. Despite the cold, she goes with him and he shows her the northern lights, which light up the mountains at night—a rare occurrence in the Bay. Hart offers to go out and bring Archer home. Dora does not tell him about the recent letter and says: “No. Better he comes home on his own” (206).

Dora’s Granny Mae Loveless used to say: “When you fail to cure, the maggots set in,” which applies to food, raising children, and marriage, among other things. Granny Mae also used to tell the story of her mother, Dahlia Rare, who lived in the Bay when men from Halifax came and founded the Great Seine Company. This company employed the men of the Bay as fishermen but paid them in rum instead of money. Dahlia gathered the women together to go and bring their drunk men home. Together, the women smashed all the rum bottles and reclaimed their husbands, setting fire to the company building.

Dora determines that if she wants Archer back, “I’d have to bring him home myself” (209). In exchange for home-cooked food, Jack Tupper tells her that Archer was seen at a bar a few nights before. While there, he gambled more than he had and was badly beaten as a result.

Dora’s brother Charlie drives her to the apothecary who has taken Archer in, Mr. T.L. Gordon. There, she finds him in bed “still moaning over his bruises” (211). She and Charlie stay the night rather than drive Archer home in the dark.