Marjon smiled, and gave him a gentle look.
"Exactly as I know you to be a good boy—one who does not lie. I can tell that about you in various ways I could not explain—by one thing and another. So, too, I can see that my Father means well by me. By the flowers, the clouds, the sparkling water. Sometimes it makes me cry—it is so plain."
Then Johannes remembered how he had once been taught to pray, and his troubled thoughts grew calmer. Yet he could not refrain from asking—because he had been so much with Pluizer:
"Why might not that be a cheat?"
Suddenly Keesje waked up and looked behind him at Johannes, in a frightened way.
"Ah, there you are!" exclaimed Marjon, impatiently. "That's exactly as if you asked why the summer might not perchance be the winter. You can ask that, any time. I know my Father just for the very reason that He does not deceive. If Markus was only here he would give it to you!"
"Yes, if he was only here!" repeated Johannes, not appearing to be afraid of what Markus might do to him.
Then in a milder way, Marjon proceeded:
"Do you know what Markus says, Jo? When the Devil stands before God, his heart is pierced by genuine trust."
"Should I trust the Devil, then?" asked Johannes.