Ramsey tossed the racket away, disposed himself in an easy chair with his feet upon the table, and presently chuckled.  “You remember the time I had the fuss with Wesley Bender, back in the ole school days?”

“Yep.”

“All the flubdub this Werder girl got off to-night puts me in mind of the way I talked that day.  I can remember it as well as anything!  Wesley kept yelpin’ that whoever mentioned a lady’s name in a public place was a pup, and of course I didn’t want to hit him for that; a boy’s got a reg’lar instinct for tryin’ to make out he’s on the right side in a scrap, and he’ll always try to do something, or say something, or he’ll get the other boy to say someting to make it look as if the other boy was in the wrong and began the trouble.  So I told poor ole Wes that my father spoke my mother’s name in a public place whenever he wanted to, and I dared him to say my father was a pup.  And all so on.  A boy startin’ up a scrap, why, half the time he’ll drag his father and mother if there’s any chance to do it.  He’ll fix up some way so he can say, ’Well, that’s just the same as if you called my father and mother a fool,’ or something like that.  Then, afterward, he can claim he was scrappin’ because he had to defend his father and mother, and of course he’ll more than half believe it himself.

“Well, you take a Government—­it’s only just some men, the way I see it, and if they’re goin’ to start some big trouble like this war, why, of course they’ll play just about the same ole boy trick, because it’s instinct to do it, just the same for a man as it is for a boy—­or else the principle’s just the same, or something.  Well, anyhow, if you want to know who started a scrap and worked it up, you got to forget all the talk there is about it, and all what each side says, and just look at two things:  Who was fixed for it first, or thought they were, and who hit first?  When you get the answer to those two questions everything’s settled about all this being ‘attacked’ business.  Both sides, just the same as boys, they’ll both claim they had to fight; but if you want to know which one did have to, why forget all the arguing and don’t take your eye off just what happened.  As near as I can make out, this war began with Germany and Austria startin’ in to wipe out two little countries; Austria began shootin’ up Serbia, and Germany began shootin’ up Belgium.  I don’t need to notice any more than that, myself—­all the Werder girls in the country can debate their heads off, they can’t change what happened and they can’t excuse it, either.”

He was silent, appearing to feel that he had concluded conclusively, and the young gentleman on the window seat, after staring at him for several moments of genuine thoughtfulness, was gracious enough to observe, “Well, ole Ram, you may be a little slow in class, but when you think things out with yourself you do show signs of something pretty near like real horse-sense sometimes.  Why don’t you ever say anything like that to—­to some of your pacifist friends?”