"Did I buy it?" said Mark, sullenly. "Do you suppose I should spend my money in such nonsense as that?"
Josephine.—"Then how did you get it? Did any one give it you?"
Mark.—(Slyly.)—"Ah! they have often tried to give me some, but I tore them to pieces, and threw them away, before their faces!"
Josephine.—"So much the worse, Mark! for the truth of God is written in them, and it is very sinful to tear the truth of God in pieces."
Mark.—(Rudely.)—"But you see I have not torn this, for it is quite whole! And as you are so anxious to know how I came by it, I found it on the ground, near the road, and just beyond the brushwood."
Josephine.—"Ah! then I know where it came from. The Pastor's son, and the two sons of the schoolmaster, have got up a Religious Tract Society, who distribute them in all directions."
Mark.—(Reproachfully.)—"And pray why do they scatter them about in this way? Can't they leave people alone, without cramming every body's head with their own fancies. Let them keep their religion to themselves, and leave other people to do the same."
Josephine.—"Do you think, Mark, that Andrew and Julia did wrong to listen to their father and grandmamma, and to follow the precepts of the Bible in preference to the ridicule of scoffers."
Mark.—(Softened.)—"I did not say that.... I think Andrew and Julia were right; but ... come give me back the Tract; I want to look at something in it again."
Mark then went away, carrying the Tract with him; and shortly after, Josephine saw him sitting in the garden, behind a hedge of sweet-briar, reading it attentively.