Scripture lesson?'

'About St Thomas?'

'Yes. What did the teacher say St Thomas was?'

'She said he was a bad example; and she said I was worse than him
because I asked too many foolish questions. She always gets in a wax
if I talk too much.'

'Well, why did she call St Thomas a bad example?'

'Because he wouldn't believe what he was told.'

'Exactly: well, when you told Dad about it what did he say?'

'Dad told me that really St Thomas was the only sensible man in the
whole crowd of Apostles. That is,' added Frankie, correcting himself,
'if there ever was such a man at all.'

'But did Dad say that there never was such a man?'

'No; he said HE didn't believe there ever was, but he told me to just
listen to what the teacher said about such things, and then to think
about it in my own mind, and wait till I'm grown up and then I can use
my own judgement.'

'Well, now, that's what YOU were told, but all the other children's
mothers and fathers tell them to believe, without thinking, whatever
the teacher says. So it will be no wonder if those children are not
able to think for themselves when they're grown up, will it?'

'Don't you think it will be any use, then, for me to tell them what to
do to the Idlers?' asked Frankie, dejectedly.

'Hark!' said his mother, holding up her finger.

'Dad!' cried Frankie, rushing to the door and flinging it open. He ran
along the passage and opened the staircase door before Owen reached the
top of the last flight of stairs.

'Why ever do you come up at such a rate,' reproachfully exclaimed
Owen's wife as he came into the room exhausted from the climb upstairs
and sank panting into the nearest chair.

'I al-ways-for-get,' he replied, when he had in some degree recovered.
As he lay back in the chair, his face haggard and of a ghastly
whiteness, and with the water dripping from his saturated clothing,
Owen presented a terrible appearance.

Frankie noticed with childish terror the extreme alarm with which his
mother looked at his father.

'You're always doing it,' he said with a whimper. 'How many more times
will Mother have to tell you about it before you take nay notice?'

'It's all right, old chap,' said Owen, drawing the child nearer to him
and kissing the curly head. 'Listen, and see if you can guess what
I've got for you under my coat.'

In the silence the purring of the kitten was distinctly audible.

'A kitten!' cried the boy, taking it out of its hiding