MATURE TRUANTS 



whaling master and thought Nantucket was con 

 ventional. He came here and tried to shiver 

 timbers and pipe all the affections on deck, after 

 the affections had died of the scurvy. Then the 

 loneliness of it killed him, and none of his heirs 

 have had the decency to take that sign down.&quot; 



Then he chuckled, as he always did, to take 

 the edge off an absurdity. 



&quot;Perhaps,&quot; I ventured to remark, &quot;if we could 

 get at the heart of these old farmers who never 

 die, we should find that they had a similar inten 

 tion, to end their days on a whaler.&quot; 



&quot; No,&quot; said the Doctor, &quot;it will not work both 

 ways. What you have called the homing instinct 

 is universal, but the migratory instinct is not. 

 The trouble with the homing instinct is, with 

 most men, that it is unaccompanied by a homing 

 capacity. It is so with all of us. As we grow 

 old, the desire to return is irresistible, but the 

 capacity to return is gone. I say, old fellow, if 

 you want to do the prodigal-son business, don t 

 wait until you are old. What do you suppose 

 was the age of that young man in the Bible 

 story ? &quot; 



&quot;Judging from his recklessness, I should say 

 he was about sixty-two.&quot; 



The Doctor sat down on the edge of the foun 

 tain. &quot; By the way,&quot; he said, &quot; I wonder how 

 that old germ story would have survived if it had 

 been told realistically and not dramatically.&quot; 



&quot; Dramatically ? &quot; 



&quot; Certainly. Notice how it falls, away back 



