e, don't do it! Stay here, you'll be happy." He looked the
open-mouthed listener deep in the eyes. "If you ever say a prayer,
let it be the old one, even though it be an insult to a just
God:--'Lead us not into temptation.' Avoid, as you would avoid death,
the love of money, the fever of unrest, the desire to become greater
than your fellows, the thirst to know and to taste all things, which
is the spirit of the city. Live close to Nature, where all is equal
and all is good; where sleep comes in the time of sleep, and work when
it is day. Do that labor which comes to you at the moment, leaving
to-morrow to Nature." He crossed his long legs, and pressed his hat
down over his eyes. "Accept life as Nature gives it, day by day. Don't
question, and you'll find it good." He repeated himself slowly.
"That's the secret. Don't doubt, or question anything."

In the Swede's throat there was a rattling, which presaged speech, but
it died away.

"Do you love children, Ole?" asked Ichabod, suddenly.

The boy face flushed. Ole was very young.

"I--" he lagged.

"Of course you do. Every living human being does. It's the one good
instinct, which even the lust of gain doesn't down. It's the tie that
binds,--the badge of brotherhood which makes the world one." He gently
laid his hand on the broad shoulder beside him.

"Don't be ashamed to say you love children, boy, though the rest of
the world laugh,--for they're laughing at a lie. They'll tell you the
parental instinct is dying out with the advance of civilization; that
the time will come when man will educate himself to his own
extinction. It's false, I tell you, absolutely false." Ichabod had
forgotten himself, and he rushed on, far above the head of the gaping
Swede.

"There's one instinct in the world, the instinct of parenthood,
which advances eternal, stronger, infinitely, as man's mind grows
stronger. So unvarying the rule that it's almost an index of
civilization itself, advancing from a crude instinct of the
body-base and animal--until it reaches the realm of the mind: the
highest, the holiest of man's desires: yet stronger immeasurably, as
with the educated, things of the mind are stronger than things of
the body. Those who deny this are fools, or imposters,--I know not
which. To do so is to strike at the very foundation of human
nature,--but impotently,--for in fundamentals, human nature is
good." Unconsciously, a smile flashed over the long face.

"Talk about depo