a policy in my company, the
International Mutual Tontine Life Insurance Company of Paw Paw,
Indiana, the aspect to-day would have been different, and Bolivar
Bowers and his callow brood of little Bowerses would have reason to
bless the rod that smote them. Ah, friend Baker, the International
Mutual Tontine has done a glorious work toward mitigating the wrath of
the grim destroyer; under the grace of its soothing balm bereavement
becomes an actual pleasure, death loses its sting, and the grave its
victory."

From this small, casual beginning followed that train of explanation
and argument upon Mr. Smith's part which led to Alice's taking out a
life policy in the Indiana company. Mr. Smith is a man of broad and
deep human sympathies. Had he not happened upon that newspaper item,
had his heart not gone out in passionate sympathy toward the bereaved
Bolivar Bowers and his little ones, had he not wandered in an
irresponsible paroxysm of grief in the direction of my house that
evening, and had he not confided his sorrow to me--why, then we should
not have known of the greatest of human benefactors, and Alice would
not now be safe (so to speak) in the bosom of the International Mutual
Tontine Life Insurance Company of Paw Paw.

I do not regard these things as accidental; they are special
providences.

XVIII

I STATE MY VIEWS ON TAXATION

Of the many friends who hastened to congratulate us when they heard
that we had acquired a home, none was more delighted than Gamlin
Harland. I take it for granted that you have read Mr. Harland's
numerous books, and that you know all about Mr. Harland himself. Not
to know of him is to argue one's self unknown.

My first meeting with Mr. Harland was at a single-tax convention six
years ago; he was a delegate to that convention from Wisconsin, and I
was a delegate from Illinois. I was a delegate because the manager of
the party, who lives in New York, could n't find anybody else to serve
as the delegate from the congressional district in which I lived. I
thought that rather than have that district unrepresented I ought to
serve, and so I did. The acquaintance I then made with Gamlin Harland
soon ripened into friendship, and this intimacy has lasted ever since.
Mr. Harland insists that I am a single-tax man, and it may be that I am
in theory, although I certainly am not in practice; for I never have
paid any tax of any kind, be it single or double.

As soon as he heard of