To this good advice Uncle Jim assented by a decided nod of approval. Now Uncle Jim, I had discovered, had a will of his own and very decided opinions. As Aunt Joe said, “though mild as skim milk in his ways, he is as sot as a rock.” And knowing this I thought it best to do as I was advised. I began my studies at once when the winter term opened, but was discontented, and did not take so much interest in them as usual. When I brought my books home to study, Jot read them eagerly, and asked me many questions about the lessons. I think I learned more in trying to answer his questions than I did by the study of them in the books; for there is a difference between committing a lesson to memory, and giving a sensible answer to questions to one in earnest to know about them--for one is an act of memory, but the other requires thought and reasoning. Our interest in the war was growing in intensity day by day. Our neighbors often came in of an evening to hear the news and discuss the war, and among them there was a Mr. Larkin, who was a pacifist. He was well informed and well read, for a farmer, and though in the main patriotic had as Uncle Jim said, “a pacifist crook in his mind that needed straightening.” At one of the evening gatherings, after we had dwelt upon the relentless cruelty of the German army in dealing with Belgium and France, Larkin said: “They had better stop this war at once; for war is so dreadful that it should not have a place in any Christian country.” “Well,” said Uncle Jim, in his slow and drawling tones, “I don’t much admire war, but if any darned crowd should break into this house and begin smashin’ things and threaten to kill the folks, am I a goin’ to sit here like an idiot and see ’em do it without liftin’ my hand to stop it? No, sir! I am goin’ to stop such works if I break their necks.” “But don’t the Master say that we should return good for evil?” replied Mr. Larkin, “and when smitten on the right cheek that we should turn the left?” “Well,” replied Uncle Jim slowly, “I suppose he did say so; an’ I suppose if the majority of folks would do so, it would be better. But it seems to me that I have read somethin’ about the Master’s getting riled at some wretches that had turned the Temple into a sort of pawnbroker’s shop, and then drivin’ them out with horse whips, because they had made it a den of thieves. Now what do you suppose he would have done, if he had been in Belgium, and had seen them Germans setting fire to churches, and killin’ women and children?” “That,” said Mr. Larkin, “only proves my assertion, that everybody should set themselves against war; you speak, as though to keep the peace with all your power, was degrading.”