"How are they to be avoided? Every time you send for the doctor you run a risk! You can't order a clean doctor every time!"
"A joke's all very well! but it is our duty to take care of ourselves."
"In reason, yes," replied Hester.
"You may think," said the major, "that God takes special care of you because you are about his business—and far be it from me to say you are not about his business or that he does not take care of you; but what is to become of me and the like of me if we take the small-pox from you?"
Hester had it on her lips to say that if he was meant to die of the small-pox, he might as well take it of her as of another; but she said instead that she was sure God took care of her, but not sure she should not die of the small-pox.
"How can you say God takes care of you if he lets you die of the small-pox!"
"No doubt people would die if God forgot them, but do you think people die because God forgets them?"
"My dear cousin Hester, if there is one thing I have a penchant for, it is common sense! A paradox I detest with my whole soul!"
"One word, dear major Marvel: Did God take care of Jesus?"
"Of course! of course! But he wasn't like other men, you know."