Page:Orange Grove.djvu/67

 She was the first to speak.

"Father, what kind of a place do you think heaven is?"

"Why child, what makes you ask such a question?"

"It must be a place With a good many different apartments in it, to admit all the various sorts of people who expect to get there to the exclusion of all others who differ from them, and with whom they would not wish to associate."

"What have you heen reading or puzzling over now to put that in your head?"

"Oh, nothing particular. How is it that so many sects, as wide apart as the poles, all claiming the Bible on their side, preaching that there is no Other way but their own through which we can expect to be happy, can all be right, or any of them wrong?"

"Oh Rosa," said Walter, "you are a genius certainly! It would take more than a philosopher to understand you. There are as many sides to your character as a cameleon has colors, and as many oddities in your brain as a monkey could act out in six months. I suppose it is on the same principle you draw your comparison between Robinson Crusoe and Pilgrim's Progress. What kind of a problem do you call that where all sides cannot be right and yet none of them wrong?"

"I give it to you as a mathematical problem to solve after you have finished your equation."

"Don't talk any'-more, for I am very busy,—3x plus 4y—"

"Equals the summit of all earthly ambition, and