"Well, now," said Dr. Lavendar that Sunday evening when he and David
came into the study after tea; "I suppose you'd like me to tell you a
story before you go to bed?"
"A Bible story?"
"Why, yes," Dr. Lavendar admitted, a little taken aback.
"No, sir," said David.
"You don't want a Bible story!"
The little boy shook his head.
"David," said Dr. Lavendar chuckling, "I think I like you."
David made no response; his face was as blank as an Indian's. He sat
down on a stool by the fire, and once he sighed. Danny had sniffed
him, slowly, and turned away with a bored look; it was then that he
sighed. After a while he got up and wandered about the room, his hands
gripped in front of him, his lips shut tight. Dr. Lavendar watched him
out of the tail of his eye, but neither of them spoke. Suddenly David
climbed up on a chair and looked fixedly at a picture that hung
between the windows.
"That is a Bible picture," Dr. Lavendar observed.
"Who," said David, "is the gentleman in the water?"
Dr. Lavendar blew his nose before answering. Then he said that that
was meant to be our Saviour when He was being baptized. "Up in the
sky," Dr. Lavendar added, "is His Heavenly Father."
There was silence until David asked gently, "Is it a good photograph
of God?"
Dr. Lavendar puffed three times at his pipe; then he said, "If you
think the picture looks like a kind Father, then it is. And David, I
know some stories that are not Bible stories. Shall I tell you one?"
"If you want to, sir," David said. Dr. Lavendar began his tale rather
doubtfully; but David fixed such interested eyes upon his face that he
was flattered into enlarging upon his theme. The child listened
breathlessly, his fascinated eyes travelling once or twice to the
clock, then back to the kind old face.
"You were afraid bedtime would interrupt us?" said Dr. Lavendar, when
the tale was done. "Well, well; you are a great boy for stories,
aren't you?"
"You've talked seven minutes," said David, thoughtfully, "and you've
not moved your upper jaw once."
Dr. Lavendar gasped; then he said, meekly, "Did you like the story?"
David made no reply, "I think," said Dr Lavendar, "I'll have another pipe."