"Yes," answered Sterling.
"And you say he went there to have some water sprinkled on him instead of being put under the water?"
"Certainly he did."
"Do people generally go to rivers now to be sprinkled?" asked Dorothy.
"I do not know that they do, but they could certainly do so if they should so desire."
"Did you ever hear of anybody doing so?" asked the father.
"Why, possibly not; but that doesn't prove that it never has been done; but let us have the rest of the passage."
She read: "'And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.'"
"Hello!" said the father, "that sounds curious. Why did he go down into the water, Sterling, if he was simply to be sprinkled?"
"Why, he simply walked a little way into the stream and stood there while John gently sprinkled the water on him. It must have been a beautiful ceremony."