at I say. I think it changes but little
through all the ages, and it is probably the same to-day that it was in
old Babylon. I find in my schoolroom that the youth of this year is just
like the youth of ten years ago, just as the youth of ten years ago was
exactly like the youth of twenty, thirty and forty years ago."

"And what are the cardinal points of this formative age, Alexander?"
asked Master Jacobus.

"Speaking mildly, I would call it concentration upon self. The horizon
of youth is bounded by its own eye. It looks no farther. As it sees and
feels it, the world exists for youth. We elders, parents, uncles,
guardians and such, live for its benefit. We are merely accessories to
the great and main fact, which is youth."

"Do you believe that to be true, Robert?" asked Master Benjamin Hardy, a
twinkle in his eye.

"I hope it's not, sir," replied Robert, reddening again under his tan.

"But it's true and it will remain true," continued the schoolmaster
judicially. "It was equally true of all of us who passed our youth long
ago. I do not quarrel with it. I merely state a fact of life. Perhaps if
I could I would not strip youth of this unconscious absorption in self,
because in doing so we might deprive it of the simplicity and
directness, the artless beliefs that make youth so attractive."

"I hold," said Mr. Hervey, "that age is really a state of mind. We
believe certain things at twenty, others at thirty, others at forty, and
so on. The beliefs of twenty are true at twenty, we must not try them by
the tests of thirty, nor must we try those of thirty by the tests of
forty or fifty. So how are we to say which age is the wiser, when every
age accepts as true what it believes, and, so makes it true? I agree,
too, with Mr. McLean, that I would not change the character of youth if
I could. Looking back upon my own youth I find much in it to laugh at,
but I did not laugh at it at the time. It was very real to me then, and
so must its feelings be to the youth of to-day."

"We wade into deep waters," said Mynheer Jacobus, "and we may go over
our heads. Ah, here are the oysters! I hope that all of you will find
them to your liking."

A dozen were served for every guest--it was the day of plenty, the
fields and woods and waters of America furnishing more food than its
people could consume--and they approached them with the keen appetites
of strong and healthy men.

"Perhaps we do not have the sea food here that you h