"
"Decidedly."
"Well, but his mother was an angel, and his father the dirtiest scamp
that ever cheated the halter."
"I should advise you to strike a mean. What of the child himself?"
"He does nothing but eat."
"It appears to me that, striking a mean between the two extremes you
mention, we arrive at mere man. I perceive a great opportunity.
Suppose you teach him exactly what Adam was taught."
"Gardening?"
"Precisely. He will start with some advantage over Adam, there being
no Eve to complicate matters."
"He shall be taught gardening," the little Captain decided.
"The pursuit will accord well with his temperament, which is notably
pacific. The child seldom or never cries. At the same time we
cannot quite revert to the Garden of Eden. His life will, almost
certainly, bring him more or less into contact with his fellow-men."
"We must expect that."
"Therefore, as a mere measure of precaution, it might be as well to
instruct him in the use of the small-sword."
"I will look after that. There is nothing I shall enjoy more
than teaching him--precaution. We have now, I think, settled
everything--"
"By no means." The Doctor put a hand into his tail-pocket, and after
some difficulty with the lining pulled out a small book bound in
green leather and tied with a green ribbon.
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