In Exodus it was about standing still at the Red Sea and waiting for God’s salvation. It might mean that God would deliver the poor. But that was not just what the cane was talking about. It was about giving gifts to friends. So he went on to Leviticus. But it was about the wave offering, and the sin offering, and the burnt offering. That was not it. And so he went from book to book until he had reached the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the fourteenth chapter of the book of Judges. He was just reading in that place about Samson’s riddle, when his mamma called him to breakfast.
He was afraid to say anything about it at the table for fear of being laughed at. But he was full of what the walking-stick said. And at family worship his father read the twentieth chapter of Acts. When he came to the part about its being more blessed to give than to receive, Willie said, “That’s what the cane said.”
“What did you say?” asked his father.
“I was only thinking out loud,” said Willie.
“Don’t think out loud while I am reading,” said Mr. Blake.
Willie did not find time to look any further for the other verses. He wished his father had happened on them instead of the first text which the cane quoted.
In church he kept thinking all the time about the cane. “Now what could it mean by the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the fourteenth chapter? There isn’t anything in the Bible against giving away presents to one’s friends. It was only a dream anyhow, and maybe there’s nothing in it.”
But he forgot the services, I am sorry to say, in his thoughts. At last Mr. Blake arose to read his text. Willie looked at him, but thought of what the cane said. But what was it that attracted his attention so quickly?
“The twelfth and thirteenth verses”—
“Twelfth and thirteenth!” said Willie to himself.