r,
an' see what we can make on 't."

"Oh, I know you of old, Reuben Goodenough," replied the girl; "you'd be
every bit as bad as my mother."

"You'll be every bit as bad yerself, lass, when ye've as much sense;
but now just let me ask you a question or two. T' Owd Book says, if I
remember right, when t' father came out to talk to t' sulky brother:
'It was meet to make merry an' be glad,' an' I take that to mean 'at it
was t' right an' proper thing to do. Now why were they glad, think ye?"

"Just because he'd come home," replied Jane bitterly, "an' his brother,
like me, had never gone away. I don't wonder 'at he was sulky. But
that prodigal hadn't killed his father."

"Well, now, Jane," replied the farmer, "'cordin' to my way o' sizin'
that tale up, you've got hold of a wrong notion altogether. I don't
know what t' parsons 'ud make of it, but it seems to me 'at t' owd man
was glad, not so much because t' lad had come back, but because he'd
come to hisself, an' that's a very deal different thing."

"I don't see no difference," said Jane.

"You will do if you think a minute, lass. Suppose a lad loses his
senses an' runs away from 'ome, an' comes back one fine day as mad as
ever. There'll be as much sorrow as joy, won't there, think ye, in
that 'ome? But suppose while he's away his reason comes back to 'im,
an' he gets cured, an' as soon as he's cured he says: 'I must go 'ome
to t' owd folks,' an' he goes, an' they see 'at he's in his right mind,
don't you think they'll make merry an' be glad? Wouldn't you?"

"Our Joe didn't lose his senses," the girl replied sullenly; "he was as
clear-headed then as he is now. It's a different thing when they're
mad."

"Nay, lass," he replied, "but unless I'm sadly mista'en all sin is a
sort o' madness. You said just now 'at Joe went wrong. Now where did
he go wrong--I mean what part of 'im?"

Jane made no reply.

"You'd say he was wrong in his 'ead to have treated his father as he
did, but if 'is 'ead wasn't wrong 'is 'eart was, an' that's a worse
kind o' madness. Doesn't t' Owd Book talk about 'em bein' possessed
wi' devils? They mightn't be t' sort 'at has 'orns on, but they were
t' sort 'at tormented 'em into wrong-doin', an' surely it was summat o'
that sort 'at got hold o' your Joe. Now, if his wife has brought him
to hisself, an' he's come 'ome to say he's sorry, 'it was meet to make
merry an' be glad.'"

"It's hard on them that don't go wrong," said Jan