"But supposing I was too heavy and yet you still held on and I dragged you down under the water with me and you couldn't breathe and became quite still--then you'd have given the thing that had made you run to the bank and jump into the water, you'd have given it back to God."
"That would have been worth while, Mummy," said he.
"Would it, John?"
"Well, what would have been the good of going on looking for birds' eggs or making the hay or getting up in the morning if you'd been quite still?"
"So I fill your life, do I?" she whispered.
"No fun if you were like the moles," said he without sentiment.
And this, she thought of a sudden, is what so many women are denied, this actual virtue of being the very essence of the whole world to one little, living body that had not a lover's sentiments and passions to urge upon its mind, but stood alone absorbed, contained in its beliefs.
"Well, then, if you gave it back to God for something like that that seemed worth while, it would not be because you were tired then--would it?"
"No--I shouldn't want no rest. Shouldn't want to be quite still for long."
She lifted him up swiftly into her arms, a sudden sight of him quite still chilling through her blood.