"What is it, Matilda?" he asked.
"I don't want you to think that I am good," she said, looking up earnestly and timidly, "for I am not; but I want to be; and being baptized is a sign of belonging to the Lord Jesus, so I want to be baptized."
"It isn't a sign of anything good," said Norton. "Lots of people are baptized, that aren't anything else, I know. Lots of them, Matilda. That don't change them."
"No, that don't change them, Norton; but when they are changed, then the Bible says they must be baptized."
"What for?"
"It is just telling everybody what they believe, and what they are. It's a sign."
"Then when you are baptized, as you mean to be, that will be telling everybody what you believe and what you are?"
"Yes."
"It would not tell me," said Norton, "be-cause I should not understand the sign. I wish you would tell me now in words, Matilda."
"I don't know if I can, but I'll try. You know water makes things clean, Norton?"