--That Boy stood all this time looking hard at the five-cent piece.
--Take it,--said the Master, with a good-natured smile.
--The Boy made a snatch at it and was off for the purpose of investing
it.
--A child naturally snaps at a thing as a dog does at his meat,--said the
Master.---If you think of it, we've all been quadrupeds. A child that
can only crawl has all the instincts of a four-footed beast. It carries
things in its mouth just as cats and dogs do. I've seen the little
brutes do it over and over again. I suppose a good many children would
stay quadrupeds all their lives, if they didn't learn the trick of
walking on their hind legs from seeing all the grown people walking in
that way.
--Do you accept Mr. Darwin's notions about the origin of the race?--said
I.
The Master looked at me with that twinkle in his eye which means that he
is going to parry a question.
--Better stick to Blair's Chronology; that settles it. Adam and Eve,
created Friday, October 28th, B. C. 4004. You've been in a ship for a
good while, and here comes Mr. Darwin on deck with an armful of sticks
and says, "Let's build a raft, and trust ourselves to that."
If your ship springs a leak, what would you do?
He looked me straight in the eyes for about half a minute.---If I heard
the pumps going, I'd look and see whether they were gaining on the leak
or not.
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