Jewel smiled and shook her head. "I don't believe I do yet. We'll have to wait till everybody loves to be good."
"Then the lions and tigers will be pleasant."
"Will they, indeed?" Mr. Evringham laughed. "All those good people won't shut them up in cages then, I fancy."
"No, I don't believe they will," replied Jewel.
"But about those turtles," continued her grandfather. "How would you like it next spring for me to get some for you for the brook?"
Jewel's eyes sparkled. "Wouldn't that be the most _fun_?" she returned,--"but then there's summer again," she added, sobering.
"What's the reason that we couldn't drive with them to the nearest river before the brook ran dry?"
"Perhaps we could," replied Jewel hopefully "Doesn't mother tell the _nicest_ stories, grandpa?"
"She certainly does; and some of the most wonderful you don't hear at all. She tells them to me after you have gone to bed."
"Then you ought to tell them to me," answered Jewel, "just the way I tell mine to you."
Mr. Evringham shook his head. "They probably wouldn't make you open your eyes as wide as I do mine; you're used to them. They're Christian Science stories. Your mother has been treating my rheumatism, Jewel. What do you think of that?"
"Oh, I'm glad," replied the child heartily, "because then you've asked her to."
"Because she wouldn't treat you if you hadn't, and mother says when people are willing to ask for it, then that's the beginning of everything good for them. You know, grandpa," Jewel leaned toward him lovingly and added softly, "you know even _you_ have to meet mortal mind."
"I shouldn't wonder," responded the broker dryly.
"And it's so proud, and hates to give up so," said Jewel.
"I'm an old dog," returned Mr. Evringham. "Teaching me new tricks is going to be no joke, but your mother undertakes it cheerfully. I'm reading that book, 'Science and Health;' and she says I may have to read it through three times before I get the hang of it."
"I don't believe you will, grandpa, because it's just as _plain_," said the child.
"Yes, indeed I will;" the little girl's face was radiant. "And won't Mr. Reeves be glad to see you coming to church with us?"
"I don't know whether I shall ever make Mr. Reeves glad in that way or not. I'm doing this to try to understand something of what you and your mother are so sure of, and what has made a man of your father. More than that, if there is any eternity for us, I propose to stick to you through it, and it may be more convenient to study here than off in some dim no-man's-land in the hereafter. If I remain ignorant, who can tell but the Power that Is will whisk you away from me by and by."