"No," replied Frederick, coming to my relief,
" Martha's wish is not that of a dreamer, but its
fulfillment is pledged to us. Mankind has grown
better, happier, and more united from primeval
ages to the present, but so slowly, that a little span
of time like a year can mark no perceptible prog-
ress."

" If you are so sure of perpetual progress," ex-
claimed my father, "why are you continually com-
plaining of the re-action, of the relapse into bar-
barism?"

" Because " — and Frederick pulled a pencil from
his pocket and drew on a piece of paper a spiral —
"because the progress of civilization goes on just
like this. Does not this line continually ascend,
though it appears to be tending backward. This
coming year may be represented by one of these
curves, particularly if, as seems only too probable,
a war is forced upon us. Such an event hurls civ-
ilization in material as well as moral things a long
way backward."

"You are not talking like a soldier, Tilling."

" I am talking of a matter of universal interest.
Whether my views are right or wrong, those of a



"GROUND ARMS!" 123

soldier or a civilian, is of no consequence. The
truth is always the same. If a thing is red should
one obstinately maintain that it is blue? "

" A what? " said my father. When a discussion
was disagreeable, he was very apt to be seized by
spasms of deafness. Few people had the patience
to repeat, and most of them preferred to give up
the battle.
