"I should advise you to strike a mean. What of the child himself?"
"He does nothing but eat."
"It appears to me that, striking a mean between the two extremes you mention, we arrive at mere man. I perceive a great opportunity. Suppose you teach him exactly what Adam was taught."
"Gardening?"
"Precisely. He will start with some advantage over Adam, there being no Eve to complicate matters."
"He shall be taught gardening," the little Captain decided.
"The pursuit will accord well with his temperament, which is notably pacific. The child seldom or never cries. At the same time we cannot quite revert to the Garden of Eden. His life will, almost certainly, bring him more or less into contact with his fellow-men."
"We must expect that."
"Therefore, as a mere measure of precaution, it might be as well to instruct him in the use of the small-sword."
"I will look after that. There is nothing I shall enjoy more than teaching him—precaution. We have now, I think, settled everything—"