tations, but dismissed her doubts as cowardly.

"After all," she explained to Jan, "we only play the very human bits. I
never let them pretend to be anybody divine ... and you know the
people--in the Old Testament, anyway--were most of them extremely human,
not to say disreputable at times."

It is possible that "Clipture's" supreme attraction for the children was
that it conveyed the atmosphere of the familiar East. The New Testament
was more difficult to play at, but, being equally dramatic, the children
couldn't see it.

"Can't we do one teeny miracle?" Tony would beseech, but Meg was firm;
she would have nothing to do with either miracles nor yet with angels.
Little Fay ardently desired to be an angel, but Meg wouldn't have it at
any price.

"You're not in the least _like_ an angel, you know," she said severely.

"What for?"

"Because angels are _perfectly_ good."

"I could _pletend_ to be puffectly good."

"Let's play Johnny Baptist," suggested the ever-helpful Tony, "and we
could pittend to bring in his head on a charger."

"Certainly not," Meg said hastily. "That would be a horrid game."

"Let me be the daughter!" little Fay implored, "and dance in flont of
Helod."

This was permitted, and Tony, decorated with William's chain, sat
gloomily scowling at the gyrations of "the daughter," who, assisted by
William, danced all over the nursery: and Meg, watching the
representation, decided that if the original "daughter" was half as
bewitching as this one, there really might have been some faint excuse
for Herod.

Hannah had no idea of these goings-on, or she would have expected the
roof to fall in and crush them. Yet she, too, was included among the
children's prophets, owing to her exact and thorough knowledge of
"Clipture." Hannah's favourite part of the Bible was the Book of Daniel,
which she knew practically by heart; and her rendering of certain
chapters was--though she would have hotly resented the phrase--extremely
dramatic.

It is so safe and satisfying to know that your favourite story will run
smoothly, clause for clause, and word for word, just as you like it
best, and the children were always sure of this with Hannah.

Anne Chitt would listen open-mouthed in astonishment, exclaiming
afterwards, "Why, 'Annah, wot a tremenjous lot of Bible verses you 'ave
learned to be sure."

The children once tried Anne Chitt as a storyteller, but she was a
failure.

As she had been present at several