"You've not failed."
"No time for kindness." He shook Ben's arm. "Ben—if God liveth he is far away."
"... for thine is the kingdom ..."
"Ben, hear me," said Goodman Cory. "I say God is far away, no whit concerned with man."
"Deliver us," said Adna Cory—"deliver us from evil...."
"I wanted learning, Ben. Find more than I did."
The good oak was barely quivering under the petulant fury of the stone axe. "But Father, you know so much——"
"I? Learning—oh, a key to so many doors! Why, I never found but a few, sniffing at the threshold, a fool, a bumpkin. And Reuben must find learning too." He pulled Ben close, crouching, whispering: "Ben, hear me. I fear for Reuben. I pray you, keep him from being too much wounded. I can't understand him, Ben. Thou art mine own, I know thee—while he—nay, I haven't words...."
"But Father, you will——"
The pounding ceased. Sudden footsteps thumped rhythmically on snow. Something different smashed against the oak with the gross dullness of the invincible. Goodman Cory pushed his son into the front room. "The devils have found a log. Why, Ben, I shall live if I may."