and barter, are trying all
the time to overreach the public and their fellows, in one way and
another. This sort of thing now has a double name; it is called
civilisation, as well as progress, and those who take things as they
find them in their morning newspaper, without going to the trouble to
reflect for themselves, are no doubt duly impressed by terms that are
large enough to fill both the ear and mouth at one and the same time.

Well, whatever serene repose stands for, Shady Dale possessed it in an
eminent degree, and the people there had their full share of the sorrows
and troubles of this world, as Madame Awtry, or Miss Puella Gillum, or
Neighbour Tomlin, or even that cheerful philosopher, Mr. Billy Sanders,
could have told you; but of these Nan and Gabriel and Cephas knew
nothing except in a vague, indefinite way. They heard hints of rumours,
and sometimes they saw their elders shaking their heads as they gossiped
together, but the youngsters lived in a world of their own, a world
apart, and the vague rumours were no more interesting to them than the
reports of canals on Mars are to the average person to-day. He reads in
his newspaper that the markings in Mars are supposed to be canals;
whereat he smiles and reflects that these canals can do him no harm. Nan
and Gabriel and Cephas were as far from contemporary troubles as we are
from Mars. The most serious trouble they had was not greater than that
which they discovered one day on the Bermuda hill. As they were sitting
on the warm grass, wondering how long before peaches would be ripe, they
saw a field mouse cutting up some queer capers. Nan was not very
friendly with mice, and she instinctively gathered up her skirts; but
she did not run; her curiosity was ever greater than her fear. Presently
we found that the troubles of Mother Mouse were very real. A tremendous
black beetle had invaded her nest, and had seized one of her children, a
little bit of a thing, naked and red and about the size of a half-ripe
mulberry. We tried hard to rescue the mouse from the beetle, but soon
found that it was quite dead. Cephas crushed the beetle, which was as
venomous-looking a bug as they had ever seen. Was the beetle preparing
to eat the mouse? Tasma Tid said yes, but Gabriel thought not. His idea
was that the Mother Mouse had attacked the beetle, which was blindly
crawling about, and had fallen in the nest accidentally. The beetle,
striving to defend itself, had seized the m