ordinary energy
and persistence which perpetuates them. He never could learn a lesson,
but he could, and did, pinch the boy next to him into adept prompting,
and would intimidate any one into doing his sums. Indeed, the man of
whom he was the promise had no need for ordinary learning. The lighter
accomplishments of life had no appeal, nor would the deeper lessons
have any meaning for him. He is simply a big, physical appetite,
untrammelled by anything like introspection or conscience, and working
in perfect innocence for the fulfilment of its simple wants. For at
base his species are surely the most simple of human creatures. In
spite of their complex physical structure they are one-celled organisms
driven through life with only a passionate hunger as their motive
power, and with no complexities of thought or emotion to hamper their
loud progressions. None but those of their own kind can suffer from
their ravages, and, even so, they fly the contact of each other with
horror.

Doubtless by this time Bull is a prosperous and wealthy citizen
somewhere, the proprietor of a curved waistcoat and a gold watch.
Possessions other than these he would regard with the amiable tolerance
of a philosopher regarding a child with toys. So strongly acquisitive
a nature must win the particular little battles which it is fitted to
wage. When a conscienceless mind is buttressed by a pugnacious
temperament then houses and land, and cattle and maidservants, and
such-like, the small change of existence, are easily gotten.

II

The sunlight of youth has a special quality which will never again be
known until we rediscover it in Paradise. What a time it was! How the
sun shone, and how often it shone! I remember playing about in a
parched and ragged field with a leaf from a copy-book stuck under my
cap to aid its quarter-inch peak in keeping off the glare of that
tremendous sunshine.

Tip-and-Tig, Horneys and Robbers, Relievo we played, and another game,
the name of which did not then seem at all strange, but which now wears
an amazing appearance--it was, Twenty-four Yards on the Billy-Goat's
Tail. I wonder now what was that Billy-Goat, and was he able to wag the
triumphant tail of which twenty-four yards was probably no more than an
inconsiderable moiety. There were other games: Ball-in-the-Decker,
Cap-on-the-Back, and Towns or Rounders. These were all summer games.

With the lightest effort of imagination I can see myself and other
tir