ake it up to you when I'm big. My
prince husband--I guess he'd better be a king by that time--will go over
to your country an' kill your husband's father an' his grandfather an'
all the kings an' princes until there's nobody only your husband to be
king. Then you'll be a queen you see, an' live in a palace. So now hush
up." And one future majesty was rocked upside down by another until the
royal face of the younger queen was purple and her voice was still.

Mary found it more difficult to quiet her new and painful agnosticism,
and in her efforts to reconcile dogma with manifestation she evolved a
series of theological and economical questions which surprised her
father and made her mother's head reel. She further manifested a
courteous attention when the minister came to call, and she engaged him
in spiritual converse until he writhed again. For a space her
investigations led her no whither, and then, without warning, the man of
peace solved her dilemma and shed light upon her path.

A neighbor ripe in years and good works had died. The funeral was over
and the man of God had stopped to rest in the pleasant shade of Mrs.
Buckley's trees and in the pleasant sound of Mrs. Buckley's voice. Mary,
the gocart, and Theodora completed the group, and the minister spoke.

"A good man," he repeated, "Ah, Mrs. Buckley, he will be sadly missed!
But the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be--"

"When?" demanded Mary breathlessly. "When does he take away?"

"In His own good time."

"When's that?"

"'Tis not for sinful man to say. He sends His message to the man in the
pride of his youth or to the babe in its cradle. He reaches forth His
hand and takes away."

"But when--" Mary was beginning when her mother, familiar with the
Socratic nature of her daughter's conversation and its exhaustive effect
upon the interlocutor, interposed a remark which guided the current of
talk out of heavenly channels and back to the material plain.

But Mary had learned all that she cared to know. It was not necessary
that she should suffer the exactions of the baby or subject her family
to them. The Lord had given and would take away! The minister had said
so, and the minister knew all about the Lord. And if the powers above
were not ready to send for the baby, it would be easy enough to deposit
it in the Lord's own house, which showed its white spire beyond the
first turn in the road which led to Camelot. There the Lord would find
it