uld work out, the world would lose all its
color, all its piquancy. Hungary would be like Scotland, Scotland would
be Cornwall, Cornwall would duplicate London, and London reflect New
York. Beautiful scheme for tailors, shoe-makers, and preachers, but
depressing to artists."

"You must be one of those chaps the missionaries tell about, who would
keep men savage just to please your sense of the picturesque."

"Savage! There's a fine word. What is a savage?"

"A man who needs converting to our faith," said Jennie.

"A man to exercise the army on," said Maynard.

"A man to rob in the name of the Lord," said Parker.

"You're stealing all my oratorical thunder," complained Lawson. "When a
speaker asks a question like that he doesn't want a detailed answer--he
is pausing for effect. Speaking seriously--"

"Oh!" said Maynard, "then you were _not_ serious."

Lawson went his oratorical way. "My conviction is that savagery held
more of true happiness than we have yet realized; and civilization, as
you begin to see, does not, by any construction, advance the sum of
human happiness as it should do."

"What an advantage it is to have an independent income!" mused Maynard,
looking about the table. "There's a man who not only has opinions, but
utters them in a firm tone of voice."

"I am being instructed," remarked Elsie. "I used to think no one took
the Indian's side; now every one seems opposed to the cattlemen."

"When we are civilized enough to understand this redman, he will have
disappeared," said Curtis, very soberly.

"Judging from the temper of this State at present, I reckon you're about
right," replied Maynard. "Well, it's out o' my hands, as the fellah
says; I'm not the Almighty; if I were I'd arrange things on a different
basis."

"We are all transition types," remarked Curtis, harking back to a remark
of Lawson's making.

"Even these settlers are immortal souls," said Parker.

"Consider!" exclaimed Lawson. "How could we live without the Indian
question? Maynard would be like Othello--occupation gone. Curtis would
cease to be a philanthropist. Elsie Bee Bee would go sadly back to
painting 'old hats' and dead ducks. I alone of all this company would be
busy and well paid. I would continue to study the remains of the race."

Jennie rose. "Put a period there," said she, "till we escape, and,
remember, if we hear any loud talk we'll come out and fetch you away,"
and she hurried out into the sitting-room, wh