l of a savage, but our
civilisation is doing its best to change that. Why, not long ago the
lad asked me whether fishing wasn't cruel. He evidently felt that it
was, and so do I; but I couldn't say so. I laughed it off, and told him
that a fish diet was excellent for the brains!'

'I hope I may have as much courage,' said Harvey.

'Life is a compromise, my dear fellow. If the world at large would
suddenly come round to a cultivation of the amiable virtues--well and
good. But there's no hope of it. As it is, our little crabs must grow
their hard shell, or they've no chance.'

'What about progress? In educating children, we are making the new
world.'

Morton assented.

'But there's no hurry. The growth must be gradual--will be, whether we
intend it or not. The fact is, I try not to think overmuch about my
children. It remains a doubt, you know, whether education has any
influence worth speaking of.'

'To me,' said Harvey, 'the doubt seems absurd. In my own case, I know,
a good system of training would have made an enormous difference.
Practically, I was left to train myself, and a nice job I made of it.
Do you remember how I used to talk about children before I had one? I
have thought it was the talk of a fool; but, perhaps, after all, it had
more sanity than my views nowadays.'

'_Medio tutissimus_,' murmured Basil.

'And what about your girls?' asked the other, when they had smoked in
silence. 'Is the difficulty greater or less?'

'From my point of view, less. For one thing, I can leave them entirely
in the hands of their mother; if they resemble her, they won't do
amiss. And there's no bother about work in life; they will have enough
to live upon--just enough. Of course, they may want to go out into the
world. I shall neither hinder nor encourage. I had rather they stayed
at home.'

'Don't lose sight of the possibility that by when they are grown up
there may be no such thing as "home". The word is dying out.'

Morton's pedantry led him again to murmur Latin----

'_Multa renascentur quoe jam cecidere_.'

'You're the happiest man I know, or ever shall know,' said Rolfe, with
more feeling than he cared to exhibit.

'Don't make me think about Croesus, King of Lydia. On the whole,
happiness means health, and health comes of occupation. In one point I
agree with you about yourself: it would have been better if someone had
found the right kind of work for you, and made you stick to it.
By-the-bye, how does