"The human stomach--" he began; but the big man interrupted rather
impatiently.
"I'm letting you talk, you know," he said, "but please avoid stomachs.
I've been feeling mine all day. Anyway, I don't agree with one-half
you've said. Government ownership is the basis of your whole argument,
and it's invariably a beehive of corruption. Men won't work for blue
ribbons, that's all rot."
When he ceased the little man spoke up with a determined nod, as if
resolved this time to have his say out.
"There are certain things which are human nature," he asserted with an
owl-like look, "which always have been and always will be, which can't be
changed."
Amory looked from the small man to the big man helplessly.
"Listen to that! _That's_ what makes me discouraged with progress.
_Listen_ to that! I can name offhand over one hundred natural phenomena
that have been changed by the will of man--a hundred instincts in man
that have been wiped out or are now held in check by civilization.
What this man here just said has been for thousands of years the last
refuge of the associated mutton-heads of the world.
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