"We shall have to face it, whatever it is," Ralph said doggedly.
"But think of what it would mean to us if the parson's son should die! Poor mother is that troubled that she has not been able to eat a mouthful of breakfast!"
"She seems scarcely able to talk about it," Ralph said, glancing at the door through which his mother and Ruth had disappeared.
"She's a little bit disposed to look on the dark side of things generally," David said slowly. "For myself, I keep hoping for the best. It doesn't seem possible that God can strip us of everything at a blow."
"It doesn't seem to me as though God had any hand in the business," Ralph answered doggedly.
"Hush, Ralph, my boy! The issues of life and death are in His hands."
"And you believe also that He is the author of the leasehold system that obtains in this country?"
"I did not say that, Ralph; but He permits it."
"Just as He permits lying and theft, and murder and war, and all the other evil things there are in the world. But that is nothing to the point. You can't make me believe that the Almighty ever meant a few people to parcel out the world among themselves, and cheat all the rest out of their rights."
"The world is what it is, my boy, and neither you nor I can alter it."