een made of _brass_, impudent fellow that he
was--was called Zedekiah."

Other Bible stories were called for, which were found so interesting,
and, as the younger children confessed, so _new_ to many of them, that
all agreed to begin a more systematic mode of reading the
Scriptures--that treasury of historic truth, of varied biography, and of
poetic beauty. John Wyndham remarked that the best thing about the
romantic incidents in the Bible was, that you could be sure they had all
really happened: and the events were told with so much simplicity, and
the characters were so natural and life-like, that even a dull fellow
like him, who had no more imagination than a door-post, could see it as
if it were passing before his eyes. And another thing that struck him
was, that all was related without the exclamations, and the comments
upon the incidents and the people, which you find in common books: you
were treated as if you had both sense and conscience enough to find out
the moral intention of the narrative, and that made you think a great
deal more than if it was explained out in full. The young people all got
their Bibles, and counting the chapters, formed a plan for reading
through the whole book once a year. They found that if they read three
chapters a day, and occasionally an extra one, they could accomplish it:
and resolved to begin in Genesis, the Psalms, and St. Matthew's Gospel,
in order to give more variety. When this point was settled, Amy proposed
capping Bible verses: she said they could have their books before them
to help them a little, if their memories failed. One was to recite a
verse, and the next another, beginning with the letter which ended the
preceding passage; and if the person, whose turn it was, hesitated, any
one else who first thought of a suitable sentence should recite it. But
it ought to be something which made good sense, when disconnected from
the adjoining verses: and it was a rule of the game, that if any one
present did not understand the meaning of a quotation, they should talk
it over until they got some light upon the subject.

Amy began: "'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'"

"Stop!" cried Lewis. "For if that means that gentle, patient, forgiving
people, shall become rich and great, I don't understand it at all."

"Certainly it cannot mean that," replied his sister Ellen. "I have heard
it explained in this way:--they shall possess the best blessings of
earth,