"But you have no business to read it at all!"
"Why not?" she said doggedly. "I like it. It seems just as interesting as the Old Testament, and there are more miracles to the page.''
"You wicked girl!" said her brother, overwhelmed by her audacity.
"Surely you know that all these miracles were false?"
"Why were they false?" persisted Esther.
"Because miracles left off after the Old Testament! There are no miracles now-a-days, are there?"
"No," admitted Esther.
"Well, then," he said triumphantly, "if miracles had gone overlapping into New Testament times we might just as well expect to have them now."
"But why shouldn't we have them now?"
"Esther, I'm surprised at you. I should like to set Old Four-Eyes on to you. He'd soon tell you why. Religion all happened in the past. God couldn't be always talking to His creatures."
"I wish I'd lived in the past, when Religion was happening," said Esther ruefully. "But why do Christians all reverence this book? I'm sure there are many more millions of them than of Jews!"