r table! Send out and
ask all the forlorn creatures we can find, and feed them on game and
sweetbreads. It looks like it!"

"And give up entertaining our friends," added Mrs. Laval.

"What friends do we entertain, aunt Zara?" David asked. "You do not
care much for most of them."

"You are a ridiculous, absurd, fanatical boy!" said Judy. "What
nonsense you do talk!"

"Nonsense that would make an end of all civilization," said Mrs. Laval;
not quite logically.

"But do you care much for these people you invite?" David persisted.

"Not singly," Mrs. Laval admitted; "but taken together, I care a great
deal. At least they are people of our own rank and standing in society,
and we can understand what they talk about."

"But what do the words mean?" Mrs. Lloyd asked.

"Why mother," said Mrs. Bartholomew, "you have read them a thousand
times. They mean what they always did."

"I don't think I ever raised the question till this minute," said Mrs.
Lloyd. "In fact, I don't think I knew the words were there. And I
should like to know now what they mean."

"Grandmother," said David, "isn't it safe to conclude they mean just
what they say?"

"Then we should never ask anybody to dinner!" cried his mother.

"And we should never have a party again," said Judy.

"Society would be at an end," said Mrs. Laval.

"And we should fill our house with horrid wretches," cried Judy, "and
have to take up our carpets and clean house every time."

David was silent while these various charges were eagerly poured out.
Norton looked at him a little scornfully; Matilda anxiously; but he was
only sorrowfully quiet, till his grandmother turned to him with her
question.

"What _would_ you do, Davy?"

"He'd do anything absurd and ridiculous," said Judy; "the more the
better. He is just fit for it. What's the use of asking him, grandma?"

"I would like to hear, my dear, if you will let him speak. I would like
to know what the words say to you, Davy."

"Grandmother," said David thoughtfully, "it seems to me the words
forbid that we should ask people just that they may ask us;--or do
anything of that sort."

"But society would fall to pieces," said Mrs. Bartholomew.

"I never heard of the strictest Christians refusing to do polite things
in that way, when they can," added Mrs. Laval.

"But what do the words say?" David answered. "And then, I think, the
Lord meant to forbid our making expensive entertainments for anybody,
_except_ tho