"To eat up people, and make the places where they live a terror," said Norton.
"I don't know," said Matilda, with a very puzzled look on her little face. "It seems so strange, when you think of it. And those great serpents, Norton, that live where the lions and tigers live; they are worse yet."
"Little and big," said Norton. "I do despise a snake!"
"And crocodiles," said Matilda. "And wolves, and bears. I wonder if the Bible tells anything about it."
"The Bible don't tell everything, Pink," said Norton laughing.
"No, but I remember now what it does say," said Matilda. "It says that God saw everything that he had made, and it was very good."
Norton looked with a funny look at his little companion, amused and yet with a kind of admiration mixed with his amusement.
"I wonder how you and David would get along," he remarked. "He is as touchy on that subject as you are."
"What subject?" said Matilda. "The Bible?"
"The Old Testament. The Jewish Scriptures. Not the New! Don't ever bring up the New Testament to him, Pink, unless you want stormy weather."