u have
homer things to think of than politics. 'Politics is fiddle-sticks' was
what men of my age used to say; sensible men with a house and freehold,
and a pig of their own, and experience. And such a man I might have had,
and sensible children by him, children as never would have whistled at
their mother, if it hadn't been for your poor father, Dan. Misguided he
may be, and too much of his own way, and not well enough in his own mind
to take in a woman's--but for all that he hath a right to be honoured by
his children, and to lead their minds in matters touching of the King,
and Church, and true religion. Why only last night, no, the night afore
last, I met Mrs. Prater, and I said to her--"

"You told me all that, mother; and it must have been a week ago; for I
have heard it every night this week. What is it you desire that I should
do, or say, or think?"

"Holy mercy!" cried Mrs. Tugwell, "what a way to put things, Dan! All
I desire is for your good only, and so leading on to the comfort of the
rest. For the whole place goes wrong, and the cat sits in the corner,
when you go on with politics as your dear father grunts at. No doubt it
may all be very fine and just, and worth a man giving his life for, if
he don't care about it, nor nobody else--but even if it was to keep the
French out, and yourn goeth nearer to letting them in, what difference
of a button would it make to us, Dan, compared to our sticking together,
and feeding with a knowledge and a yielding to the fancies of each
other?"

"I am sure it's no fault of mine," said Daniel, moved from his high
ropes by this last appeal; "to me it never matters twopence what I have
for dinner, and you saw me give Tim all the brown of the baked potatoes
the very last time I had my dinner here. But what comes above all those
little bothers is the necessity for insisting upon freedom of opinion. I
don't pretend to be so old as my father, nor to know so much as he knows
about the world in general. But I have read a great deal more than he
has, of course, because he takes a long time to get a book with the
right end to him; and I have thought, without knowing it, about what I
have read, and I have heard very clever men (who could have no desire
to go wrong, but quite the other way) carrying on about these high
subjects, beyond me, but full of plain language. And I won't be forced
out of a word of it by fear."

"But for love of your mother you might keep it under, and think