"No," sez I, "it's darn foolishness."
"It is stealin'," sez he, "just as much as if I help to waste natural products what can't be replaced—stealin' from the children of the next generation, an' all the followin' generations."
"What rights have they got?" I sez, losin' my patience. "They ain't even born yet."
"Did you ever see a baby?" sez he.
"Yes," I sez, "I bet I've seen a dozen of 'em."
"Well," sez he, "was they polite? Did they beg for what they wanted? Did they have any doubt but that they'd be plenty of everything to go around?"
"Not them what I saw," sez I. "They'd give one little coo, to see if any one was handy, an' then they'd holler an' yell an' scold an' fuss until they got what they wanted."
"Do you suppose if they didn't have any rights they'd have the nerve to carry on that way?" sez he.
"Rights!" sez I. "They didn't have to have rights—they had mothers."
Well, that set him back a good ways, an' by the time he had thought up some new stuff I was asleep; but he shook me awake an' sez, "Of course the child's mother will do all she can; but supposin' she ain't got what the child wants—how'll she explain it to him?"