"What a funny thing it is, to be sure, that people should quarrel about
their religion! After all, we believe all the same important things; and
as to others, what does it matter, provided we all do our best in the way
that seems right to us?"

But this was too liberal for John. He had been brought up in too strait a
sect to subscribe to such an opinion as this.

"I do think it makes a difference, Walter," he said slowly.

"I don't," Walter said. "It's just a matter of bringing up. If you had
been born in the Castle, and I had been born in your place, you would
have thought as I do, and I should have thought as you do; and of course,
still more if you had been born in a Catholic country like Italy, where
you would never have heard of Protestantism, and I had been born in a
Protestant country like Holland, where I should never have had a chance
of becoming a Catholic. Very few people ever change their religion. They
just live and die as they have been born and educated."

"It seems so," John said after a pause; "but the question is too deep for
us."

"Quite so," Walter laughed, "and I don't want to argue it.

"Well, when are you going to start?"

"I am off tomorrow morning. My father has an acquaintance in Dublin who
is starting for Derry, and I am to go in his charge."

For another hour the boys chatted together, and then, with mutual