“I wonder if they will let Wriggly into heaven,” she said.

 

The boys laughed.  They generally laughed at what Baby said.

 

“If they won’t I won’t go in, either,” she added.

 

“Nor me, neither, if they don’t let in my Teddy-bear,” said Dimples.

 

“I’ll tell them it is a nice, clean, blue Wriggly,” said Baby.  “I love my Wriggly.”  She cooed over it and hugged it.

 

“What about that, Daddy?” asked Laddie, in his earnest fashion.  “Are there toys in heaven, do you think?”

 

“Of course there are.  Everything that can make children happy.”

 

“As many toys as in Hamley’s shop?” asked Dimples.

 

“More,” said Daddy, stoutly³.

 

“Oo!” from all three.

 

“Daddy, dear,” said Laddie.  “I’ve been wondering about the deluge⁴.”

 

“Yes, dear.  What was it?”

 

“Well, the story about the Ark.  All those animals were in the Ark, just two of each, for forty days.  Wasn’t that so?”

 

“That is the story.”

 

“Well, then, what did the carnivorous animals eat?”

 

One should be honest with children and not put them off with ridiculous explanations.  Their questions about such matters are generally much more sensible than their parents’ replies.

 

“Well, dear,” said Daddy, weighing his words, “these stories are very, very old.  The Jews put them in the Bible, but they got them from the people in Babylon, and the people in Babylon probably got them from some one else away back in the beginning of things.  If a story gets passed down like that, one person adds a little and another adds a little, and so you never get things quite as they happened.  The Jews put it in the Bible exactly as they heard it, but it had been going about for thousands of years before then.”

分享到：