Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/105

 kind of an oyster, she felt that he was indeed lost.

"Nice ideas, I must say," she said, "to put into the head of an innocent child who is destined to go into the church."

But John smiled and said:

"You do believe that the world is getting better, don't you, mother?"

"Through faith and prayer, yes."

"And that if it keeps on getting better and better it's bound to be perfect in the end?"

"That will take a long time, I fear."

"But you admit that it's bound to happen if we keep on improving?"

Mrs. Eaton admitted that.

"And you feel, mother, don't you, that even the best people alive today are far from perfect?"

Mrs. Eaton admitted this very readily.

"Then you believe in evolution," said John. "Father's the best man I know, but I believe there's more difference between father and a perfect man than there is between the highest type of ape and father."

"Man," asserted Mrs. Eaton sweepingly, "has a soul. That is what makes the difference."

John smiled very sweetly at his mother, and gave up. There was no arguing with her, or with Sarah, for that matter. Sarah snubbed him con-