she had a birthday! Perfectly absurd! Quite the most absurd thing that
he had ever heard in his life.

Mrs. Forbes spoke. "Perhaps it is to be the same way about the rubbers,
Mr. Evringham!" she said, much flushed. "Perhaps you will not insist
upon Julia wearing rubbers!"

"Oh yes, yes, certainly," returned Mr. Evringham hastily, anxious
to reinstate himself. "I wish you to have a pair of rubbers at once,
Julia--Jewel. You surely don't mean that your mother has allowed you to
wet your feet."

"I--I never noticed, grandpa, but," hopefully, "she lets me wet my
hands, so why not my feet?"

"Bless me, what ignorance! Because the soles of your feet have large
pores through which to catch cold. Hasn't any one ever told you that?"

Jewel smiled. "That would be a queer arrangement for God to make, don't
you think?" she asked softly. "Just as if He expected us to walk on our
hands."

Mrs. Forbes's eyes widened, and an irrepressible "Well!" escaped from
her lips. "Has that young one reverence for anything in heaven above or
earth beneath?" she queried mentally.

Mr. Evringham managed to recover himself sufficiently to say, "You
shouldn't speak so, Jewel."

"But you know how it was about the tree of knowledge, grandpa," replied