"But we wuz readin' it by course, mother, we had to read the whole thing."
"Well," sez I, "that hain't the way Nater duz when she sets out to make a white lily: she takes from rich Mother Earth all the qualities necessary to make a lily, she selects what will make the dainty whiteness, the delicious fragrance of the flower; she don't take the blackness of the soil, the dinginess and dirt. No, out of the rich storehouse she selects the best, what she needs. Now, the Bible is so full, Tirzah Ann, of all wisdom, divine knowledge, tenderest love, and divine pity, full of the glory of the Great Father of us all, why can't you select out of it what you and your children need instead of settin' up that puny reason of readin' it by course, and gettin' by that process all the earth of the human natures through which God's inspiration is filtered down into our comprehension? You don't need all that talk about slaughter and vengeance, nor genealogies, etc., though I have seen folks read 'em right through at family prayer, Johab begat Ehod, and Ehod begat Ichabod, and etc. They had to be begot, of course, 'twas necessary to be; but I could never git any good or inspiration out of readin' 'em in the mornin' as food for the spiritual needs of the day. Howsumever, I wuz never one to set up my way as the only way, but I will say that after Delight heard you read about it she might have thought she would foller the example of them old patriarchs with her enemies, for I do spoze the prickin' and jerkin' of the little torment made her feel that he wuz her enemy. And, anyway, if them old prophets are held innocent for talkin' in this way, with the experience of a lifetime and the inspiration of the Lord to lead 'em, what do you think of a little child like De-
