Ned had a deep dislike to being beaten by these absurd questions. His detestation of intellectual defeat was as deep as his brother’s disgust at physical discomfiture. He hesitated, flushed, and replied:
“It couldn’t be at all, father, because it says in the Bible that the world will be destroyed, and, if there was an impenetrable, that couldn’t be at all,—I say it couldn’t be.”
“Shade of Confucius!” exclaimed Anne.
“But suppose.”
“I can’t.” He had a sense of wrath at the question. At last he said, “You might as well ask a fellow what would happen if the impossible met the incomprehensible.”
“Glory! what dictionary words!” cried Dick.
“Pretty well, old fellow,” said Lyndsay, laughing as they rose.
“Oh, I hate things like that.”
“Rose, Rose, put some lunch in a basket. We shall make a day of it. We will take the skiff and Tom. Put my note-book and pencils in the basket, and your sketch-book; and don’t forget my field-glass. Won’t you come, Margaret?”
“No; I am going to Mrs. Maybrook’s this morning, and, Archie, I want Hiram to attend to something at the church where Harry is. Don’t trouble about me.”