pon us; I refer to slavery. I'm not defending slavery, I'm glad it's
done, but we had lived under a government that guaranteed to protect our
rights and property. No matter if slavery was wrong--was it right for
one-half of the people of a country to insist the other half impoverish
themselves--give up all their possessions?

"Slavery was handed down to us and--well, there's nothing in threshing
this matter over; slavery was the cause of the war, the negro was the
issue. If the negro had been a commercial product in the north there
would have been no war. The south lost because it was ordained they
should lose. That does not lessen my pride in the fact that I fought for
the cause I thought was right; we were right in the fact that we fought
for the property this government promised to protect us in, and that's
just what the north would have done if conditions had been reversed."

"Uncle Madison, do you believe in the majority rule?"

"The majority, if you mean the greater number of people, never did rule
and never will. It's the few that does the thinking, does the ruling.
Why, my boy, there are times in our lives when God and one are a
majority."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Mornin' little dreamer
With sunshine in your eyes,
The stars were talking to you
Ere they left the brightening skies.

"The Care of Children, by Dr. Holt," is the title of the book by which
the baby is being reared. On the care of feeding bottles it recommends:
"When the baby is done it must be unscrewed and put in a cool place
under a tap. If the baby does not thrive, it must be boiled."

[Illustration: An Evening at Maple Villa]

Hattie remarked afterwards she "never reckoned the poor, measley little
thing would stay with us." _It was_ little, _it was_ puny, but it
brought a happiness into the household never before experienced--brought
a happiness into the lives of Uncle Al and Aunt Tillie--that only those
who love children and have never been blessed with them can appreciate.

Alfred with his usual assurance undertook to instruct the family,
including the doctor and the nurse as to how the baby should be
handled--yes, that's the term he used, "handled." Aunt Tillie reminded
him the baby was not a colt. He was advised that the old fashioned way
of nursing babies was obsolete. He was not permitted to up-de-doo baby,
that is, throw him up and catch him coming down, notwithstanding he
asserted this was the only way to p