that kind of medicine, without making up
a face, ought to say, 'Thank you, ever so much,' and always wear
pinafores, and stay in the kindergarten, and if he ever grows up and
goes into business he better become a he-milliner, or a manicure, say?
It's up to you, now, Uncle Ike, and I am ready to listen, and to follow
your advice, and be a boy or a girl, just as you say, but I don't
know any girl in my set that would let anybody smite her much, without
pulling hair a little, at least."

Uncle Ike had been thinking pretty hard, as the boy talked, had let his
pipe go out, and his face had taken on a serious look, a look also of
pride as he listened to the boy, but he was trying to think how to steer
him right on that turning the other cheek also business. He fumbled for
the tobacco bag, and as he emptied some tobacco into the pipe, his hand
was unsteady, and he spilled a good deal on the floor, and he had to
scratch two or three matches on his pants before he could get one that
wouldn't break off, or go out. Finally he got the pipe lighted, and he
puffed a long time, and looked at himself in the big mirror over the
mantel, to see if he was looking his best, and finally he said:

"I'll tell you, my boy, I don't think they are turning the other cheek
also when smote, as much as they used to. The theory is all right, and
if everybody would do so, there would not be any trouble, and all would
be peace. I suppose that verse in the Bible was written when the Jews
were trying to get along without having scraps all the time. There
were people there, Jew-baiters, I suppose, who just laid for them, and
knowing them to be opposed to a fight, they would smash them, and on the
advice of leaders they would turn the other cheek, and go home with a
black eye. I don't suppose I could write a Bible half as good as the old
one, but I think if that verse had been changed a little, so the Jews
would have stood up for their rights, and everlastingly lambasted
anybody that came around jarring them on the cheeks, and been brought up
to fight their way through, from Jerusalem to France, things would have
been different. But, as I say, things have changed a good deal since
Bible times. I think, now, if I was a boy, growing up to take my place
in the business world, I might try to forget that verse, or think of it
as we do of the Golden Rule, or the 'love one another' verse. You may
try as hard as you like and you can't love your neighbor as yoursel