'Pitt, why do you not speak to a clergyman? He could set you right
better than I can.'

'I have, mamma.'

'To what clergyman?'

'To Dr. Calcott of Oxford, and to Dr. Plympton, the rector of the
church to which Uncle Strahan goes.'

'What did they say?'

'Dr. Calcott said I had been studying too hard, and wanted a little
distraction; he thought I was morbid, and warned me against possible
listening to Methodists. Said I was a good fellow, only it was a
mistake to try to be _too_ good; the consequence would be a break-down.
Whether physical or moral, he did not say; I was left to apprehend
both.'

'That is very much as I think myself, only not the fear of break-downs.
I see no signs of that in you, my boy. What did the other, Dr.--whom
did you say?--what did he tell you?'

'Dr. Plympton. He said he did not understand what I would be at.'

'I agree with him too,' said Mrs. Dallas, laughing a little. Pitt did
not laugh.

'I quoted some words to him out of the Bible, and he said he did not
know what they meant.'

'I should think he ought to know.'

'So I thought. But he said it was for the Church to decide what they
meant.'

Mrs. Dallas was greatly at a loss, and growing more and more uneasy.
Pitt went on in such a quiet, meditative way, not asking help of her,
and, she fancied, not intending to ask it of anybody. Suddenly,
however, he lifted his head and turned himself far enough round to
enable him to look in her face.

'Mother,' said he, 'what do you think those words mean in one of the
psalms,--"Thou hast made me exceeding glad with thy countenance"?'

'Are they in the Psalms? I do not know.'

'You have read them a thousand times! In the psalter translation the
wording is a little different, but it comes to the same thing.'

'I never knew what they meant, my boy. There are a great many things in
the Bible that we cannot understand.'

'But is this one of them? "Exceeding glad--_with thy countenance_."
David knew what he meant.'

'The Psalmist was inspired. Of course he understood a great many things
which we do not.'

'We ought to understand some things that he did not, I should think.
But this is a bit of personal experience--not abstruse teaching. David
was "exceeding glad"--and what made him glad? that I want to know.'

Pitt's thoughts were busy with the innocent letter he had once
received, in which a young and unlearned girl had given precisely the
same testimony as the inspired royal si