Part 13 (1/2)

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 G.o.d?”

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.”

He gave up trying to make conversation; instead, he watched the clock.

Mary had said that David must go to bed at eight, and as the clock began to strike, Dr. Lavendar, with some eagerness, opened his lips to say good night--and closed them. ”Guess he'd rather run his own rig,”

he thought. But to his relief, at the last stroke David got up.

”It's my bedtime, sir.”

”So it is! Well, it will be mine after a while. Good night, my boy!”

Dr. Lavendar blinked nervously. Young persons were generally kissed.

”I should not wish to be kissed,” he said to himself, and the two shook hands gravely.

Left alone, he felt so fatigued he had to have that other pipe. Before he had finished it his senior warden looked in at the study door.

”Come in, Samuel,” said Dr. Lavendar. ”Samuel, I feel as if I had driven ten miles on a corduroy road!”

Mr. Wright looked blank; sometimes he found it hard to follow Dr.

Lavendar.

”Sam, young persons are very exciting.”

”Some of them are, I can vouch for that,” his caller a.s.sured him grimly.

”Come, come! They are good for us,” said Dr. Lavendar. ”I wish you'd take a pipe, Sam; it would cheer you up.”

”I never smoke, sir,” said Samuel reprovingly, ”Well, you miss a lot of comfort in life. I've seen a good many troubles go up in smoke.”

Mr. Wright sat down heavily and sighed.

”Sam been giving you something to think about?” Dr. Lavendar asked cheerfully.

”He always gives me something to think about. He is beyond my comprehension! I may say candidly, that I cannot understand him. What do you think he has done now?”