ing. But the smile was
not for him but for her own cleverness.

"You hear?" the Major turned to Applebaum. "And those young colonels
fought with the same ardor, the same unselfish courage as your ancestor,
though he battled for freedom and they gave their lives that men might
go on buying black people as they bought horses and sheep."

Applebaum looked indignant but made no further attempt at an answer.

"It's a strange world!" The old man spoke now more to himself than to
the others. "I have known men of every color and caste, I have eaten the
coolie's rice and slept in the black man's hut, I have been a commander
and ruled my kingdom, but everywhere life looms the same. Nature makes a
few leaders and of these the crafty and unscrupulous become the lords of
all. First they win to their side those of ability, giving them high
places. Next they turn to the stupid, and in the name of God show them
how to do the devil's bidding. And last they find a few whom they cannot
down or deceive, men who see goodness so clearly that nothing can blind
them to its light, and these they imprison or kill. It's a simple method
and has been practised since the caveman drew his gods upon his cavern
walls. Man has a finer mentality than the beast, and he uses it to give
this wilderness of beauty that we call the earth to the few. Why, the
foxes have holes----"

He stopped, ashamed of his emotion, and as he stopped looked into
Hertha's face. He had aroused her attention by his words upon the Negro
and she was following him now, eagerly, questioningly. Was this terrible
thing that he was saying true? Would Ellen's and Kathleen's dreams
remain always dreams? Would the few forever bruise the hearts of the
many?

"What are you thinking about?" the Major's tone, though kindly, held a
command. He had ceased to be interested in his other listeners, he knew
their types too well; but this silent, beautiful girl piqued his
curiosity.

She on her part felt impelled to answer him. The picture had flashed
before her eyes of other Sunday evenings with her colored father reading
from the New Testament as they sat about the table at home. She could
see his finger moving slowly down the page.

"Don't you believe," she questioned the old soldier, "that the meek
shall inherit the earth?"

He answered gravely: "That was the prophecy of a noble youth, whose life
was soon blotted out. But before his day a wiser man, wiser because he
lived in a kindlier