“I think the cover ought to be bright and gay, so that it will attract the children,” went on the authoress. “Don’t you think so, too?”
Yes, Susan and Phil thought so, too.
“But what’s inside?” asked Philip again.
How was that little boy going to play soldier, and never once shout or fire off a gun?
“The name of the book is ‘Scripture for Little Ones,’” continued Miss Lunette. “I will read parts of it to you if you like.” And opening at page one, she began to read.
A is for Absalom who hung by his hair
From a tree—How painful to be left swinging there.
B is for Baalam—He had a donkey who spoke—
If we heard it to-day we would think it a joke.
C is for Cain—His brother Abel he slew—
He was a murderer—May it never be true of you!
D is for Daniel who, in the lion’s den,
Suffered no harm from beasts or from men.
E is for—
But whom E stood for the children never knew, for Miss Liza appeared in the doorway bearing a tray.
“Here is your dinner, Lunette,” said she gently. “Children, you creep downstairs now. You don’t want to overdo, Lunette,” she added, as she placed the invalid’s substantial dinner before her. “You’ve been talking for an hour now.”
Downstairs Miss Liza closed the stairway door that led up to Miss Lunette’s room.
“Now you can talk out as loud as you like,” said she, “and you won’t disturb any one. What’s the news up at your house, Susan? Have you and Phil found the buried ten cents yet?”