"We must take things as we find them," said David. "There is no end to the poor creatures; so the question is a big one."
"What is the question?" said Mrs. Laval.
In answer to which, David told the story of Mrs. Binn and Josh.
"There are hundreds of such people!" said Norton.
"Aunt Zara," said David, "I wanted Norton to agree to submit the question to the Bible. Isn't that fair?"
"Ye-s," said Mrs. Laval cautiously; "I suppose it is. But, my dear Davy, we shouldn't do anything extravagant; the Bible does not require that."
"Shall we see what it does require?"
"Yes; go on," said Mrs. Lloyd. "Let us hear what you children can find about it."
"Among my people it was the law,"—David began, but his utterance of the words "my people" was no longer lofty; rather tender and subdued;—"it was the law, 'When thou dost complete to tithe all the tithe of thine increase in the third year, the year of the tithe, then thou hast given it to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, and they have eaten within thy gates and been satisfied;' and in the feast of booths, the feast of ingathering, the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow were to share in the rejoicing."
"The tithe is the tenth," remarked Mrs. Laval.