n a nut would fall with a tiny crisp thud,
and a squirrel would whisk from a limb overhead. They were very quiet,
and let the beauty of the spot sink deep into their souls. Then at
last Julia Cloud took up her Bible, and began to talk.

CHAPTER XII

There were tiny slips of paper in Julia Cloud's well-worn Bible, and
she turned to the first one shyly. It was such new work to her to be
talking about these things to any but her own worshipful soul.

The two young people settled back in comfortable attitudes on the
blanket, and put their gaze upon the far sky overhead. They were
embarrassed also, but they meant to carry this thing through.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them," read Julia Cloud; and straightway the shining blue above them
took on a personality, and became a witness in the day's proceedings.
It was as if some one whom they had known all their lives, quite
familiar in their daily life, should suddenly have stood up and
declared himself to have been an eye-witness to most marvellous
proceedings. The hazy blue with its floating clouds was no longer a
diversion from the subject in hand. Their eyes were riveted with
mysterious thoughts as they lay and listened, astonished, fascinated.
It was the first time it had ever really entered into their
consciousness that there had been a time when there was no blue, no
firm earth, no anything. Whether it were true or not had not as yet
become a question with them. They were near enough to their
fairy-story days to accept a tale while it was being read, and revel
in it.

The quiet voice went on:

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he
rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God
blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had
rested from all his work which God created and made."

"What did He have to rest for? A God wouldn't get tired, would He?"
burst forth Leslie, turning big inquiring eyes on Julia Cloud.

"I don't know, unless He did it for our sakes to set us an example,"
she answered slowly, "although that might mean He rested in the sense
of stopped doing it, you know. And that would imply that He had some
reason for doing so. I'm not very wise, you know, and because I may
not be able to answer your questions doesn't mean they can't be
answered by some one who has studied it all out. I've often wished I
could have gone to college and s