The Thoughts of Youth

is my opinion, and mine only, which will matter in the long run,” retorted Eric.

“ Confound you, yes, you stubborn off- shoot of a stubborn breed,” growled David, looking at him afiectionately. “ I know that, and that is why I’ll never feel at ease about you until I see you married to the right sort of a girl. She’s not hard to find. Nine out of ten girls in this country of ours are fit for kings’ palaces. But the tenth always has to be reckoned with.”

i “ You are as bad as Clever Alice in the fairy tale who worried over the future of her unborn children,” protested Eric.

“ Clever Alice has been very unjustly laughed at,” said David gravely. “We doctors know that. Perhaps she overdid the worrying business a little, but she was perfectly right in principle. If people worried a little more about their unborn children—at least, to the extent of pro- viding a proper heritage, physically, men- tally, and morally, for them—and then

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