Mr. Welson laughingly commended Correliana and the prætor for their successful essay in the professorial art, offering to recommend their talents to the Dominican College of Guatemala, or its Jesuitical propagandic rival institution of Chinandagua of Nicaragua, which were devoted to the education of parrots for the dissemination of their tenets among the people, if disposed to enlarge their sphere of usefulness. Declining, in the same vein, his intercession in their behalf, the members of the corps were invited to join the family of the prætor at the table, where they could have the advantage of seeing and hearing the Manatitlans, as the Dosch was desirous of joining in the conversation. The voice of Correliana aroused chirping murmurs from the leafy coverts of tree and bush, but with such drowsy pipes of recognition it was easy to discover that the notes were muffled in the head’s feathery couch beneath the wings. When seated, the Dosch addressed the padre as follows, “Your race claim that the chief object of their lives is to obtain present and future happiness; now I would like to ask you whether your ‘system of education,’ founded upon the parotic rehearsal of progenitorial self-inflicted woes, has any tendency for the fulfillment of their hopes? Then answer, with thoughtful consideration drawn from your day’s experience, whether you have ever approached so near the shrine of an enjoyment, so pure and unadulterated, in joyful impression, as that of to-day?” _Padrex._ “I declare to gracious, never!” _Dosch._ “But would you not relapse at the sight of a priest, as the converted Jew did at the chink of the shekels?” _Padre._ (Scratching his head.) “Well, you know it’s a hard thing for one to abjure his religion, altogether?” _Dr. Baāhar._ (Testily.) “He’s doomed to blind martyrdom in defense of his idols!” _Padre._ “But I know those that belong to my own creed, and am not willing to be caught with mousetraps! Besides, when we were together on board of the _Tortuga_, after our good luck, I asked you to advise me about the education of my children; and you replied, ‘Let them glean all the knowledge they can from the schools of their country, until they arrive at the age of twenty; then send them to Germany, and they will then be able to appreciate the rudimentary principles of our philosophical course of study, if they are well posted in physical gymnastics and sword exercise.’ Of course the Manatitlans are well acquainted with the gigantic self-esteem of the French ideas of education, which is expressed in the proverb, ‘Live in Paris a year, and then die, content.’”