He also insisted on having the prospective "bidders" apply to
him in person. He would be the judge. He would look them over, and if
they suited him, all well and good; if not, he would keep the children
until the right and proper persons came along.
His stand was a firm one. He refused to recede an inch from this final
position. In vain they argued that it would be the part of wisdom, in
fact that it would be absolutely imperative to take them to a
comfortable, commodious dormitory where the business end of such
undertakings was attended to in routine order and not in the helter-
skelter fashion that he advocated.
"I have just begun to realise," he said, "what it is to try to bring
other people's children up for them, so, if you please, I submit that
I know more about the business than this society knows or ever can
hope to know. I have given them everything. I have loved them and they
have loved me. In adversity I still love them, but I fear that I
cannot say as much for them. They are not my flesh and blood. They
know it, my friends--they've never been led to believe that anything
else is the case.
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