“But beasts ain’t got souls, and you can’t love them. And if you could, that’s no reason why you should see them again.”
“I do love them, and perhaps they have souls!” rejoined Clare.
“You mustn’t believe that! It’s quite shocking. It’s nowhere in the Bible.”
“Is everything that is not in the Bible shocking, sir?”
“Well, I won’t say that; but you’re not to believe it.”
“I suppose you don’t like animals, sir! Are you afraid of their going to the same place as you when they die?”
“I wouldn’t have a boy about me that held such an unscriptural notion! The Bible says—the spirit of a man that goeth upward, and the spirit of a beast that goeth downward!”
“Is that in the Bible, sir?”
“It is,” answered the baker with satisfaction, thinking he had proved his point.
“I’m so glad!” returned Clare. “I didn’t know there was anything about it in the Bible! Then when I die I shall only have to go down somewhere, and look for them till I find them!”