of
anything that it's not a child at all, but one of the Good People, so
I think there's no harm done. I don't know what would happen any of
the Good People if he was to be rightly christened. I think he'ld not
be able to stand it and would be driven out, so that they'ld have to
send back the real child. Now, if a priest ever sees that creature
that we've just seen, and asks: 'Has this child been christened?'
they'll have to answer 'Yes,' and he cannot be christened again. And
yet, with the jump that he gave out of my arms when I sprinkled the
water, it's not sure I am that a drop of it touched him."

[Illustration: ]

VII

A CHAPTER THAT YOU CAN SKIP

This is a chapter that you can skip, if you want to. And really I
should advise you to. Nothing of importance happened in the next
eighteen years. Of course I am obliged to write a little something to
fill in all that time, but you are not obliged to read it. That is
where you have such an advantage. I think it is much better for a book
to have some parts that can be skipped just as well as not, you get
through it so much faster. I have often thought what a good thing it
would be if somebody would write a book that we could skip the whole
of. I think a good many people would like to have such a book as that.
I know I should.

Then there is another reason why it will be well for you to skip a
little about here. When you get farther on, if you happen to come to
something that you don't understand, you can say: "Oh, this is
probably all explained by something in that part that I skipped," and
you can go right on. But if you had not skipped anything and then came
to something that you did not understand, you would have to say:
"There, now, I must have been reading carelessly and missed
something," and you would have to go back and read the book all
through again.

In these eighteen years Kathleen O'Brien and Terence Sullivan were
growing up. I don't suppose there ever was another such child as
Kathleen. And I should hope there never was another such child as
Terence. Kathleen's grandmother had the most of the care of her, of
course, but it was really no care at all. It would have been a
pleasure for anybody to have the care of Kathleen. Even when she was a
baby she was a perfect delight, and you know what babies are
sometimes. At any rate, you would know, if you had known Terence. And
when she got to be a few years older, say seven or eight--

Well, it is p