124 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



iiulcecl, it had similarily done ou 80 man}- kindred occa- 

 sions. 



The Doctor, like most of his profession, has always 

 had an intelligent interest in natural science, and, more- 

 over, cultivated a speciality in ethnology and arche- 

 ology. He is deep in the problem of man 's antiquity ; and 

 what with works on " Preadamites," "Cave-Hunting," 

 "The Epoch of the Mammoth," "The Story of 

 Earth and Man," "The Eaces of Man," etc., has 

 a busy time in keeping his friends of the modern school 

 in harmony with his older friends of the Usherian 

 Bible chronology. He brought over with him, on his 

 present visit, a recent work on " Early Man in Europe," 

 which we had abundantly (not to say thoroughly) dis- 

 cussed during the evening after the lamps had been 

 lit and afire kindled on the hearth. "Just for the 

 wee bit blinkin' o' the ingle," wife said, "and to 

 mellow the night chill of the advancing fall." The 

 frontispiece of the Doctor's book is some ideal scene of 

 troglodytic life. It is a night scene : a fire is burn- 

 ing in front of a rocky cavern, around which the dusky 

 forms of a primitive family are grouped ; a full moon 

 shines in the background, and in the foreground a pack 

 of hungry wolves are pushing up over the rocks as near 

 as they dare come to the fire, which thus, in more than 

 one sense, protects the unconscious cave-men (Fig. 42.) 

 The picture, at least, succeeded in stirring up the im- 

 aginations of our Mistress and the inquisitive School- 

 ma'am, so that the Doctor had lull rtiom to expand 

 upon his favorite theme. 



