Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/90

 Edward nodded.

"Then I will," said Alice. "We'll go to the South Seas."

"Why?" asked Edward.

Alice quoted from a more famous Alice. Why not? she said.

This floored Edward completely and also delighted him so that he burst out laughing and received a reproving glance from his mother.

She had interrupted the conversation in which she was engaged, signaling peremptorily for silence in order that the reproving glance might be the more telling. She turned to Mr. Ruggles and said with a certain reproachfulness:

"At least, Mr. Ruggles, you will agree with me that some of the old sayings still hold water; as for instance, 'Little children should be seen and not heard.

"Bless me," said Mr. Ruggles—the agnostic—"I don't know which I'd rather give up—looking at the children or listening to them. I like to do both."

"Our children," said Mrs. Eaton, "will have to take up the burden of civilization where we leave off. That is where good training will tell."

"Don't you think it is a pity, Mrs. Eaton, that we should have allowed civilization to become such a burden? We have been reading Herman Mel-