There is something in this graphic narrative which appears to tickle my young cavalier’s fancy immensely, for whenever he says “Mister Adam, he, Clum up a tree,” he opens his big blue eyes very widely, claps his tiny hands very loudly, and gives vent to ecstatic shrieks of laughter. It is quite evident that he entirely understands and appreciates Adam’s position. Young as he is, he has the instinctive knowledge within him that when the time comes, he will likewise adopt the “Clum up a tree” policy. For Adam is the same Adam still, and nothing will ever change him. And when things are getting rather “mixed” in his career, and the forbidden fruit he has so readily devoured turns out to be rather more sour and tasteless than he had anticipated,--when his Garden of Eden is being searched through and through for the causes of the folly and disobedience which have devastated its original fairness, the same old story may be said of him--“Mister Adam, he, Clum up a tree.” Perhaps if he only climbed a tree one might excuse him,--but unfortunately he talks while climbing,--talks as though he were an old babbling grandam instead of a lord of creation,--and grandam-like puts the blame on somebody else. He says--“The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.” Coward Adam! Observe how he at once transfers the fault of his own lack of will and purpose to the weaker, more credulous, more loving and trusting partner;--how he leaves her defenceless to brave the wrath which he himself dreads,--and how he never for one half second dreams of admitting himself to be the least in the wrong! But there is always one great satisfaction to be derived from the perusal of the strange old Eden story, and this is that “Mister Sarpint” was of the male gender. Scripture leaves no room for doubt on this point. It says: “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And _he_ said unto the woman----” So that a “he” tempted a woman, before “she” ever tempted a “he.” Women should be duly thankful for the sex of “Mister Sarpint,” and should also bear in mind that this particular “he” was “more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” On many an occasion it will be found a salutary and useful fact to remember.