Page:Earl Derr Biggers - Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913).djvu/160

142 "I got you," he said, "and I got your answer, too. Who makes the trouble? Who's made it from the beginning of time? The reformers, Doc. Yes, sir. Who was the first reformer? The snake in the garden of Eden. This hermit guy proba bly has that affair laid down at woman's door. Not much. Everything was running all right around the garden, and then the snake came along. It's a twenty to one shot he'd just finished a series of articles on 'The Shame of Eden' for a maga zine. 'What d'ye mean?' he says to the woman, 'by letting well enough alone? Things are all wrong here. The present administration is run ning everything into the ground. I can tell you a few things that will open your eyes. What's that? What you don't know won't hurt you? The old cry,' he says, 'the old cry against which progres sives got to fight,' he says. 'Wake up. You need change here. Try this nice red apple, and you'll see things the way I do.' And the woman fell for it. You know what happened."

"An original point of view," said the dazed professor.

"Yes, Doc," went on Mr. Cargan, evidently on