n't work fairly and didn't want to share?"

"I'd let him and all like him go out into the bush to see how they could
get on alone. They'd soon get tired. Men must co-operate to live
civilised."

"Then Socialism is co-operation?" remarked Ned.

"Co-operation as against competition is the main industrial idea of
Socialism. But there are two Socialisms. There is a socialism with a
little 's' which is simply an attempt to stave off the true Socialism.
This small, narrow socialism means only the state regulation of the
distribution of wealth. It has as its advocates politicians who seek to
modify the robbery of the workers, to ameliorate the horrors of the
competitive system, only in order to prevent the upheaval which such men
recognise to be inevitable if things keep on unchanged."

"But true Socialism? I asked Nellie last night what Socialism was, but
she didn't say just what."

"What did she say?"

"Well! We were coming through the Domain last night, this morning I mean.
It was this morning, too. And on a seat in the rain, near a lamp, was a
poor devil of a woman, a regular hardtimer, you know, sleeping with her
head hung over the back of the seat like a fowl's. I'd just been asking
Nellie what Socialism was when we came to the poor wretch and she stopped
there. I felt a bit mean, you know, somehow, but all at once Nellie bent
her head and kissed this street-walking woman on the cheek, softly, so
she didn't wake her. 'That's Socialism,' says Nellie, and we didn't speak
any more till we got to her place, and then she told me to ask you what
Socialism was." Ned had shifted his position again and was sitting now on
his heels. He had pulled out his knife and was digging a little hole
among the grass roots.

Geisner, who hardly moved except to roll cigarettes and light them, lay
watching him. "I think she's made you a Socialist," he answered, smiling.

"I suppose so," answered Ned, gravely. "If Socialism means that no matter
what you are or what you've been we're all mates, and that Nellie's going
to join hands with the street-walker, and that you're going to join hands
with me, and that all of us are going to be kind to one another and have
a good time like we did at Mrs. Stratton's last night, well, I'm a
Socialist and there's heaps up in the bush will be Socialists too."

"You know what being a Socialist means, Ned?" asked Geisner, looking into
the young man's eyes.

"I've got a notion," said Ned, looking straig