You had no
right to get yourself in such a position. Besides, it wasn't necessary."
"I am afraid I don't understand," he said shortly, turning away. "We
will talk it over later on."
"Look how I get on with the boys," she said, while he paused in the
doorway, stiffly polite, to listen. "There's those two sick boys I am
nursing. They will do anything for me when they get well, and I won't
have to keep them in fear of their life all the time. It is not
necessary, I tell you, all this harshness and brutality. What if they
are cannibals? They are human beings, just like you and me, and they are
amenable to reason. That is what distinguishes all of us from the lower
animals."
He nodded and went out.
"I suppose I've been unforgivably foolish," was her greeting, when he
returned several hours later from a round of the plantation. "I've been
to the hospital, and the man is getting along all right. It is not a
serious hurt."
Sheldon felt unaccountably pleased and happy at the changed aspect of her
mood.
"You see, you don't understand the situation," he began. "In the first
place, the blacks have to be ruled sternly. Kindness is all very well,
but you can't rule them by kindness only. I accept all that you say
about the Hawaiians and the Tahitians.
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