Part 14 (1/2)

Mark began to read, but he could not proceed far; his father got up and went out, without saying a word, and his mother began to remove the dinner-things.

But as soon as the family re-a.s.sembled in the evening, the father said to Mark, ”Go on with your reading, Mark, I want to hear the end, for I like the story.”

Mark read, and when he came to that part of the tract, in which the Bible is mentioned, the vinedresser looked up to a high shelf on the wall, where were some old books, and said, ”wife, had we not once a Bible?”

”Fifteen years ago,” she answered, ”you exchanged it for a pistol.”

The vinedresser blushed, and listened with out farther interruption until Mark had done reading. When the tract was finished, he remained silent, his head leaning on his hands, and his elbows on his knees.

Josephine thought this was the time to speak about the Bible, which she had so long wished to possess, and she went up to her father, and stood for some time by his side without speaking.

Her father perceived her, and raising his head, he said to her, ”What do you want, Josephine, tell me, my child, what do you want to ask me?”

”Dear papa,” said the child, ”I have long desired to read the Bible, would you be so kind as to buy me one?”

”A Bible,” cried her mother, ”what can _you_ want with a Bible, at _your_ age?”

”Oh! wife, wife,” said the vinedresser, much vexed, ”when will you help me to do what is right?” ”Yes, my child,” he added, kissing Josephine's cheek, ”I will buy you one to-morrow. Do you think there are any to be had at the pastor's house?”

”Oh! yes, plenty,” cried Josephine, ”and very large ones too!”

”Very well then,” said the father, as he got up, and went out of the house, ”you shall have a very large one.”

”But,” said his wife, calling after him, ”you don't know how much it will cost.”

”It will not cost so much as the wine I mean no longer to drink!”