"Contented with yourself," retorted Agellius.

"Of course," Juba replied; "whom ought one to wish rather to content?"

"I suppose, your Creator."

"Creator," answered Juba, tossing back his head with an air of
superiority; "Creator;--that, I consider, is an assumption."

"O, my dear brother," cried Agellius, "don't go on in that dreadful way!"

" 'Go on!' who began? Is one man to lay down the law, and not the other
too? Is it so generally received, this belief of a Creator? Who have
brought in the belief? The Christians. 'Tis the Christians that began it.
The world went on very well without it before their rise. And now, who
began the dispute but you?"

"Well, if I did," answered Agellius; "but I didn't. You began in coming
here; what in the world are you come for? by what right do you disturb me
at this hour?"

There was no appearance of anger in Juba; he seemed as free from feeling
of every kind, from what is called _heart_, as if he had been a stone. In
answer to his brother's question, he quietly said, "I have been down
there," pointing in the direction of the woods.

An expression of sharp anguish passed over his brother's face, and for a
moment he was silent. At length he said, "You don't mean to say you have
been down to poor mother?"

"I do," said Juba.

There was again a silence for a little while; then Agellius renewed the
conversation. "You have fallen off sadly, Juba, in the course of the last
several years."

Juba tossed his head, and crossed his legs.

"At one time I thought you would have been baptized," his brother
continued.

"That was my weakness," answered Juba; "it was a weak moment: it was just
after the old bishop's death. He had been kind to me as a child; and he
said some womanish words to me, and it was excusable in me."

"Oh that you had yielded to your wish!" cried Agellius.

Juba looked superior. "The fit passed," he said. "I have come to a juster
view of things. It is not every one who has the strength of mind. I
consider that a logical head comes to a very different conclusion;" and he
began wagging his own, to the right and left, as if it were coming to a
great many.

"Well," said Agellius, gaping, and desiring at least to come to a
conclusion of the altercation, "what brings you here so late?"

"I was on my way to Jucundus," he answered, "and have been delayed by the
Succoth-benoth in the grove across the river."

Here they were thrown back upon their controversy. Ag