e them all Christians. I
thought I wouldn't _force_ them or destroy their temples, but I'd have
all my officers real Christians; Americans, of course; and I thought I
_would_ compel them to send the children to Christian schools. I'd have
such grand schools. I had you as principal for the grandest one. And I'd
have the Bible and all our best books, and all our best Sunday School
books translated into Chinese and I _would_ make the Sabbath a holy day
all over the land. I didn't know what I would do about that room in every
large house called the Hall of Ancestors. You know they worship their
grandparents and great-great-grandparents there. I think I should have to
let them read the old books. Isn't it queer that one of the proverbs
should be like the Bible? 'God hates the proud and is kind to the
humble.' Do you know all about Buddha?"

"Is that as far as you got in your prayer?" asked Miss Prudence, gravely.

"About as far. And then I was so contrite that I began to pray for myself
as hard as I could, and forgot all about China."

"Do you wander off in reading the Bible, too?"

"Oh, no; I can keep my attention on that. I read Genesis and Exodus last
Sunday. It is the loveliest story-book I know. I've begun to read it
through. Uncle James said once, that when he was a sea-captain, he
brought a passenger from Germany and he used to sit up all night and read
the Bible. He told me last Sunday because he thought I read so long. I
told him I didn't wonder. Miss Prudence," fixing her innocent,
questioning eyes upon Miss Prudence's face, "why did a lady tell mother
once that she didn't want her little girl to read the Bible through until
she was grown up? It was Mrs. Grey,--and she told mother she ought not to
let me begin and read right through."

"What did your mother say?"

"She said she was glad I wanted to do it."

"I think Mrs. Grey meant that you might learn about some of the sin there
is in the world. But if you live in the world, you will be kept from the
evil, because Christ prayed that his disciples might be thus kept; but
you must know the sin exists. And I would rather my little girl would
learn about the sins that God hates direct from his lips than from any
other source. As soon as you learn what sin is, you will learn to hate
it, and that is not sure if you learn it in any other way. I read the
Bible through when I was about your age, and I think there are some forms
of sin I never should have hated so in