A single woman’s presence transformed the emotional character of a bachelor settlement

Evidence

I was in the kitchen after dinner making rolled puddings, young Lyman was eating up the relics as usual, “Jim” was singing one of Moore’s melodies, the others being in the living-room, when Mr. Kavan and Mr. Buchan came from “up the creek” to wish me good-bye. They said it was not half so much like home now, and recalled the “good time” we had had for three weeks. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 547

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: ‘the economy of domesticity in a bachelor camp’ — how one woman’s presence shifted labor division, meals, and mood in an all-male household.
• XREF: connects to: Woman serves man as a risk-free stage for performing his own emotions