“What is a spirit?”
“Don’t you know what a spirit is, what your own spirit is?”
“No.”
“Oh, dear! What shall we do with him, Mr. Whitman? We shall be accountable for him; we must get the minister to come and talk with him.”
“Tut, the minister would not do any better with him than yourself, not as well. Wait till he goes to school, and when he comes to obtain knowledge in general, he’ll find out the distinction between flesh and spirit. All will come about in proper time and place, as it has with our children—they had to learn it, and so will he.”
“What else did Mr. Holmes tell you?” said Mrs. Whitman.
“He told me the prayer and said God made it, said you must remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Mustn’t work that day nor play; that you mustn’t lie nor steal nor swear for God didn’t like it, and if you did he wouldn’t like you. He told me the commandments. Then I promised him I would say the prayer every night and morning, and I have. I promised him I would never lie nor steal nor swear, and I never did. I would be cut in pieces first.”
“Where do you think you will go to when you die?”
“I shall go to heaven. Mr. Holmes said he expected to go there, and if I did as he told me, I would go there and be with him. I want to go there to see him. He’ll take me on his knees and kiss me just as he used to do; nobody ever loved me only Mr. Holmes, and I never loved anybody else only him.”
“Didn’t he never tell you about your mother?”