phas the cat when earnestly
prayed for--having been run over by
Pattern in the dog-cart, coming out of
the stables?

2. Send the mechanical steam-boat so long
and earnestly prayed for, with Faith and
Belief?

3. Help the boy to lead a higher and a better
life, to eat up his crusts and fat as directed,
to avoid chivvying the hens, inking his
fingers, haunting the stables, stealing
green apples in the orchard, tearing his
clothes, and generally doing evil with
fire, water, mud, stones and other tempting
and injurious things?

And was it entirely decent of God to be eternally spying on a fellow,
as appeared to be His confirmed habit?

As for that awful heart-rending Crucifixion, was that the sort of
thing for a Father to look on at.... As bad as that brutal old Abraham
with Isaac his son ... were _all_ "Good" Fathers like that ...?

And nightmare dreams of Hell--a Hell in which there was a
_Snake_--wrought no improvement.

And the Bible! How strangely and dully they talked, and what people!
That nasty Jacob and Esau business, those horrid Israelites, the
Unfaithful Steward; the Judge who let himself be pestered into
action; those poor unfortunate swine that were made to rush violently
down the steep place into the sea; Ananias and Sapphira. No--not a
nice book at all.

The truth is that Theology, at the age of seven, is not
commendable--setting aside the question of whether (at any age)
Theology is a web of words, ritual, dogma, tradition, invention,
shibboleth; a web originally spun by interested men to obscure God
from their dupes.

So the boy worshipped Dearest and distrusted and disliked the God she
gave him, a big sinister bearded Man who hung spread-eagled above the
world, covering the entire roof of the Universe, and watched, watched,
watched, with unwinking, all-seeing eye, and remembered with
unforgetting, unrelenting mind. Cruel. Ungentlemanly. _Jealous!_ Cold.

Also the boy fervently hoped it might never be his lot to go to
Heaven--a shockingly dreary place where it was always Sunday and one
must, presumably, be very quiet except when singing hymns. A place
tenanted by white-robed Angels, unsympathetic towards dirty-faced
little sinners who tore their clothes. Angels, cold, superior,
unhuggable, haughty, given to ecstatic throes, singers of _Hallelujah_
and other silly words--always _praising_.

How he loathed and dreaded the idea of Dearest being an Angel! Fancy
sweet Dearest or his own darli