'And does everybody have it except children?' asked Betty with a solemn face.
'I think as how most folks have it in one form or t'other; the saints get it surely, for "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.'"
'What does "chasteneth" mean?'
'Punish, I take it, dearie, your father and mother punishes you at times, don't they?'
'No, never; only nurse.'
'Ah, well; and doesn't she desire your good? She don't do it just to spite you.'
'I s'pose it's for my good,' said Betty doubtfully.
'Tribbylation will allays be a mystery,' went on the old woman, speaking more to Reuben than the child. 'We must bow our heads and take it, whether we like it or no; and it's wonderful strange how differently folks take it! Seems to me, as the Bible puts it, it's just a fire, and whiles some like wax gets melted and soft by it, t'others are like the clay, they gets hard and unbendable. I've known lots o' both those sorts in my time; 'tis only by keeping close to the Hand that smites that you feels the comfort and healing that goes along with it. If you keeps a distance off, and lets the devil come a-sympathisin' and a-groanin' with you, then it's all bitterness through and through.'
'Ay,' said Reuben, 'me and the devil have oft sat down together over my troubles; and he do know how to make 'em werry black!'
Betty's round eyes and puzzled gaze at this assertion made Reuben adopt another tone.