e continued, "Because Elder Witham tells
me that he is going to take up Darwin's book in his sermon a week from
to-day, to warn people against it. The Elder, who is also very sincere,
believes that this Darwin is a dangerous man who is doing vast harm to
Christianity. I do not go quite so far as that, myself, although I still
hold to the Scriptural account of man's creation. But if Mr. Darwin is
as honest a man as he seems and has published what he thinks to be the
truth, I do not believe his book will in the end do any harm in the
world. But it is always better, in such important matters, not to change
our opinions hastily, but to reflect carefully." After a pause Addison
spoke. "Elder Witham's sermon against Darwin will not change my mind,"
said he, very decidedly. "I think Darwin is right. He is a great man.
Elder Witham is always down on everything that touches his narrow views
of the Bible."

"The Elder is an honest, fearless man," was all the reply the Old Squire
made to that. But Gram exclaimed that she hoped none of us would ever
read that wicked book about mankind being from monkeys--which somehow
made me perversely resolve to read it.

The Old Squire, however, kept _The Origin of Species_ put away in some
secret receptacle known only to himself.

That same Sabbath morning, too, the Old Squire read briefly from one of
the papers of a terrible war that was raging in South America, between
Paraguay on one hand and Brazil and the Argentine Republic on the other.
As usual, after reading anything of this kind at table, the old
gentleman commented on it and generally made some point clear to us.

"The trouble down there in South America," said he, "comes wholly from
an unscrupulous man, named Francisco Lopez, who has contrived to make
himself Dictator of Paraguay. Lopez is an imitator of Napoleon
Bonaparte. He has an insatiate ambition to conquer all South America and
found an empire there, much as Napoleon sought to conquer Europe and
establish a great French empire. Napoleon is Lopez' model. He has
plunged Paraguay in misery and mourning.

"When I was a boy," the Old Squire added, "I had a great admiration for
Napoleon Bonaparte and loved to read of his great battles. Nearly all
young people do admire him. But now that I see his motives and his acts
more clearly, I regard him as a monster of egotism and brutal
ambition."

Halstead had stolen out while the Old Squire was reading to us. We could
not find him d