"I seem to forget about them; but fire away, and we'll hope there's a
story in it."

Ruth began to read: "_And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which
she had born unto Abraham, mocking her. Wherefore she said unto
Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman_. . ."

She read on. Before she ended Dicky had raised himself to a sitting
posture. "The whole business was a dirty shame," he declared.
"This Ishmael was his own son, eh? Then why should he cast out one son
more than another?"

"There's a long explanation in the New Testament," said Ruth. "It's by
St. Paul; and I dare say that Mr. Hichens too, if he sees anything
difficult in it, will say that Ishmael stands for the bond and Isaac for
the free, and Abraham had to do it, or the teaching wouldn't come
right."

"He can't make out it was fair; nor St. Paul can't neither, not if you
read it to him like you did to me," asserted Dicky.

"But I shall not," answered Ruth after a pause, "and it was rather
clever of you to guess."

"Why not?"

"Because it would shock him. I used to find the Bible just as dull as
he makes it out: but one day I heard Mr. Langton standing up for it.
Mr. Langton said it was the finest book in the world and the most
fascinating, if only you read it in the proper way; and the proper way,
he said, is to forget all about its being divided into verses and just
take it like any other book. I tried that, and it makes all the
difference."

"You mean to say you like it?" asked Dicky, incredulous.

"I love it. I can't get away from the people in it. They are so
splendid, one moment; and, the next, they are just too mean and petty
for words; and the queer part of it is, they never see. They tell
falsehoods, and they cheat, and the things they do to get into Palestine
are simply disgusting--even if they had the shadow of a right there,
which they haven't."

"But the land was promised to them."

She had a mind to criticise that promise, but checked her lips.
He was a child, and she would do no violence to the child's mind.

Getting no answer, he considered for a while, and harked back.
"But I don't see," he began, and halted, casting about to express
himself. "I don't see why, if you read it like that to yourself, you
should read it differently to old Hichens. That's a sort of pretending,
you know."

She turned her eyes on him, and they were straight and honest, as
always. "Oh," said she, "you are a man, of course!"

Master Dic