't you?"

"But I should think about the cross. I should think that the city was
destroyed in 79 and be rejoiced that the inhabitants had heard of the
Cross and knew its story before swift destruction overtook them. It was
destroyed about forty-five years after the Crucifixion."

"I _like_ to know that," said Marjorie. "Perhaps some of the people in it
had seen St. Paul and heard him tell about the Cross."

"I see some use in that date," said Linnet, picking up her shuttle.

"Suppose I should tell you that once on a time a laborer would have to
work fifteen years to earn enough to buy a Bible and then the Bible must
be in Latin, wouldn't you like to know when it was."

"I don't know when the Bible was printed in English," confessed Marjorie.

"If you did know and knew several other things that happened about that
time you would be greatly interested. Suppose I should tell you about
something that happened in England, you would care very much more if you
knew about something that was linked with it in France, and in Germany.
If I say 1517 I do not arouse your enthusiasm; you don't know what was
happening in Germany then; and 1492 doesn't remind you of anything--"

"Yes, it does," laughed Marjorie, "and so does 1620."

"Down the bay on an island stand the ruins of a church, and an old lady
told me it was built in 1604. I did not contradict her, but I laughed
all to myself."

"I know enough to laugh at that," said Linnet.

"But I have seen in America the spot where Jamestown stood and that dates
almost as far back. Suppose I tell you that Martin Luther read _Pilgrims
Progress_ with great delight, do you know whether I am making fun or not?
If I say that Queen Elizabeth wrote a letter to Cleopatra, do you know
whether I mean it or not? And if I say that Richard the Third was
baptized by St. Augustine, can you contradict it? And Hannah More wrote a
sympathetic letter to Joan of Arc, and Marie Antoinette danced with
Charlemagne, and George Washington was congratulated on becoming
President by Mary Queen of Scots."

The girls could laugh at this for they had an idea that the Queen of
Scots died some time before the first president of the United States was
born; but over the other names and incidents they looked at each other
gravely.

"Life is a kind of conglomeration without dates," said Linnet.

"I wonder if you know how long ago the flood was!" suggested Miss
Prudence, "or if Mahomet lived before the flood or a