"But, Femke, how am I to use that for my poem? I don't understand any of it."
Femke didn't understand much of it either. She had been reading the book every day for the past four or five years, and she had always been satisfied with her comprehension of it. But now she saw that she was as ignorant about it as Walter. She was ashamed and closed the book.
"But don't you know what Faith is?" she asked, as if this defect might account for the general ignorance of both.
"Not that way," Walter replied. "I learned it another way."
"Oh, yes. That's God's son. But I didn't learn anything about vessels and towers. Do they belong to faith?"
"Why, certainly! But you know the holy virgin, Maria!"
"I don't know," Walter replied. "You mean, to get to heaven?"
"Why, certainly. That's the point. And you can't do that without the holy virgin and such a book. Shall I teach you the creed, Walter? Then we'll be together in heaven."
That pleased Walter, and Femke and Walter began:
"I don't know. But the people were made wicked by a snake; then the Pope pronounced a curse upon the snake, for the Pope lives in Rome, you know. And then Jesus was crucified to make the people good again. That was a long time ago."
"Yes, I know," Walter said, "Jesus changed the number of the year. At his birth he began at nought."
Femke didn't know again. In this way each supplemented the knowledge of the other; and Walter was proud that he knew something about the creed, even if Femke did think it the wrong creed.
"And so Jesus made the people good again, and if you will pray out of such a book you will be saved. Do you understand, Walter?"
"Why, that's only a name for the virgin. It's as if you were to call the pastor father. Now you understand."
"You have a mother; what do you call her?"
"Correct. What do the other people call her?"
"Just so. When we call the holy virgin 'ivory tower' it's just like calling your mother Juffrouw Pieterse. Ivory gate means that to get to heaven we must go through the holy virgin. That's the main thing."
"That is anybody that has never had a child."
"But Maria was married--and Jesus was her child."
"Ah, that's where the holiness comes in," replied Femke. "And for that reason she is called the ivory gate. Do you understand now, Walter?"