t in
all things, and accustomed to be governed by trained reason alone, it
was never enough to say that a thing was partly done, or well enough
done to pass: only the best possible way had any appeal to me. I
brought my reason to bear on every situation in life. Thus, I studied
an investment carefully, and before going into it, I knew what the
result would be. My investments, therefore, always have prospered,
because they were not based on guess or chance, as nine-tenths of all
the public's business ventures are. In the same way, I had gone
deliberately about the matter of winning the regard of the only woman
I ever saw who seemed to me much worth while. I argued and reasoned
with Helena Emory that she should marry me, proving to her by every
rule of logic that, not only was she the most lovable woman in all the
records of the world, but, also, that love such as mine never had
before been known in the world. Sometimes, as I logically proved the
fitness of our union, and grew warm at my own accuracy, she wavered,
relented, warmed: and then again, forgetting my argument, she would
relapse into womanlike frivolity once more.... I did not like to think
of this, as I sat in the shade with Partial. It cost me much in
self-respect, irritated me.

But, having studied sport and outdoor living deliberately as I had
studied the law and business and Helena, I had rather a thorough
grounding, on life in the open, for I had read every authority
obtainable; whereas my young associates had read none. So cautiously,
now and then, I suggested little things to them, as that the fire need
not be so large, and would do better if confined between two green
side logs. I taught them how to boil the kettle quickly, how to make
tea, and also, more difficult, how to make coffee; how to cook bacon
just enough, and how to cook fish--for I had taken a few trout earlier
in the day--and how to make toast without charring it to cinders.
Again, I delighted them by telling them of little camping devices, and
quite won their hearts when I found among Hiroshimi's packages, a
small camp griddle with folding legs, of my own devising. It was quite
clean and new, but it performed as I felt quite sure it would. In
fact, reason will govern all things--except a woman.

We ate _al fresco_, as true buccaneers of the main, and grew better
and better acquainted. It occurred to me that mayhap the nautical
education of my associates was, after all, somewhat superfici