"Well, whoever he is he's a mighty smart fellow."

"Maybe it's a 'she,'" suggested Maggie, as she proceeded to sweep off
the board the two kings of Tim that had got in the path of her single
one.

"Fudge! no woman can write such good sense as that. Besides, some of
them have been on the tariff, the duties of voters, the Monroe Doctrine
and politics: what does any woman know about such themes as those?"

"Don't some women write about them?"

"I haven't denied that, but that doesn't prove that they know anything
of the subjects themselves."

The miss could make no suitable response to this brilliant remark and
did not attempt to do so, while Tim said nothing at all, as if the
subject had no attraction to him.

By and by the parent uttered a contemptuous sniff. He was reading
"Mit's" contribution, and for the first time came upon something with
which he did not agree.

"He's 'way off there," remarked the elder, as if speaking to himself.

"What is it, father?" asked Maggie, ceasing her playing for the moment,
for her affection always led her to show an interest in whatever
interested him.

"The article is the best I have read until I get toward the end.
Listen: 'No greater mistake can be made than for a parent to force a
child into some calling or profession for which he has no liking. The
boy will be sure to fail.' Now, what do you think of _that_?"

"The latter part sounds very much like what you said to me this
afternoon."

"It isn't that, which is true enough, but the idea that a boy knows
better than his father what is the right profession for him to follow.
That doctrine is too much like Young America who thinks he knows it
all."

"Read on, father; let me hear the rest."

The father was silent a minute or two, while he skimmed through the
article.

"It isn't worth reading," he remarked impatiently, thereby proving that
he had been hit by the arguments which he found difficult to refute.
Maggie made no comment, but smiled significantly at Tim across the
board, as they resumed their game.

In truth, Mr. Hunter had come upon some sentiments that set him to
thinking, such, for instance, as these: "It may be said with truth in
many cases, that the father is the best judge of what the future of his
son should be. In fact no one can question this, but the father does
not always use that superior knowledge as he should. Perhaps he has
yielded to the dearest wish of the mother that their son should