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“What did the people who didn’t escape think about it?”

“Well, we can’t tell that.”

“They wouldn’t be very grateful, would they?”

“Their time was come,” said Daddy, who was a bit of a Fatalist. “I expect it was the best thing.”

“It was jolly hard luck on Noah being swallowed by a fish after all his trouble,” said Dimples.

“Silly ass! It was Jonah that was swallowed. Was it a whale, Daddy?”

“A whale! Why, a whale couldn’t swallow a herring!”

“A shark, then?”

“Well, there again you have an old story which has got twisted and turned a good deal. No doubt he was a holy man who had some great escape at sea, and then the sailors and others who admired him invented this wonder.”

“Daddy,” said Dimples, suddenly, “should we do just the same as Jesus did?”

“Yes, dear; He was the noblest Person that ever lived.”

“Well, did Jesus lie down every day from twelve to one?”

“I don’t know that He did.”

“Well, then, I won’t lie down from twelve to one.”

“If Jesus had been a growing boy and had been ordered to lie down by His Mumty and the doctor, I am sure He would have done so.”

“Did He take malt extract?”

“He did what He was told, my son–I am sure of that. He was a good man, so He must have been a good boy–perfect in all He did.”

“Baby saw God yesterday,” remarked Laddie, casually.

Daddy dropped his paper.

“Yes, we made up our minds we would all lie on our backs and stare at the sky until we saw God. So we put the big rug on the lawn and then we all lay down side by side, and stared and stared. I saw nothing, and Dimples saw nothing, but Baby says she saw God.”

Baby nodded in her wise way.

“I saw Him,” she said.

“What was He like, then?”

“Oh, just God.”

She would say no more, but hugged her Wriggly.

The Lady had entered and listened with some trepidation to the frank audacity of the children’s views. Yet the very essence of faith was in that audacity. It was all so unquestionably real.

“Which is strongest, Daddy, God or the Devil?” It was Laddie who was speculating now.

“Why, God rules everything, of course.”

“Then why doesn’t He kill the Devil?”

“And scalp him?” added Dimples.

“That would stop all trouble, wouldn’t it, Daddy?”

Poor Daddy was rather floored. The Lady came to his help.

“If everything was good and easy in this world, then there would be nothing to fight against, and so, Laddie, our characters would never improve.”

“It would be like a football match with all the players on one side,” said Daddy.

“If there was nothing bad, then, nothing would be good, for you would have nothing to compare by,” added the Lady.

“Well, then,” said Laddie, with the remorseless logic of childhood, “if that is so, then the Devil is very useful; so he can’t be so very bad, after all.”

“Well, I don’t see that,” Daddy answered. “Our Army can only show how brave it is by fighting the German Emperor, but that does not prove that the German Emperor is a very nice person, does it now?

“Besides,” Daddy continued, improving the occasion, “you must not think of the Devil as a person. You must think of all the mean things one could do, and all the dirty things, and all the cruel things, and that is really the Devil you are fighting against. You couldn’t call them useful, could you?”

The children thought over this for a little.

“Daddy,” said Laddie, “have you ever seen God?”

“No, my boy. But I see His works. I expect that is as near as we can get in this world. Look at all the stars at night, and think of the Power that made them and keeps each in its proper place.”

“He couldn’t keep the shooting stars in their proper place,” said Dimples.