"No, never," replied Benny. "But there's no pride in me and my wife. We'll hunt up some gossips and put the thing in train."
"I'll be one, and I'll buy a christening cake, and you shall come into Red House on the way home and eat it," said Margery. Even the prospect of this modest entertainment pleased her.
The parents were much gratified, and still more so when Jacob also agreed to be a godfather.
"Duty's all right, Benny; but we must have law and order also," he explained. "This is a Christian land, and though Christians differ a lot and some take their religion sadly, and some cheerfully, and some so lightly that it doesn't amount to anything at all, yet we must bow to custom and it won't do you much good with any master to say you're no Christian; because the Christian habit is to distrust any who don't subscribe."
It was arranged that when Mrs. Bullstone returned from her holiday to Plymouth, the children should be received into the Church.
Sally declared great gratification and Benny promised Jacob not to declare himself a pagan—if merely as a measure of worldly wisdom.
"And I hope you'll go one better presently," added Bullstone, "and find you can honestly call yourself a member."
"I always keep an open mind," answered the warrener. "I don't quarrel with nobody's opinions if their practice stands for 'em."
"It's all summed up in that," admitted Jacob. "But, because we fall short in practice, you godless men mustn't quarrel with our principles. The principles are loftier than our powers to reach—to make us aim high, Benny. I don't hold with a lot I hear and see; but then I allow for the poverty of human nature, finding it in myself. And when you know how poor you are yourself, you make allowance for others."
Benny listened and so did the women.