Diana's children are of a distinctly religious turn of mind. I
think most children are, and what wonderful, curious thing their
religion is! Looking back to my own childhood, I remember
thinking, or rather knowing, that the Holy Ghost was a Shetland
shawl. We called our shawls "comforters"; we wore them when we
went to parties in the winter. I will not leave you comfortless,"
could mean nothing else. To complete the illusion, we had in the
nursery a picture of the Pentecost, the Holy Ghost descending in
the form of a cloudy substance, not unlike a Shetland shawl. I
was so sure that I was right, that I never thought of asking any
one. When I grew older and told my mother, she said, "But why
didn't you ask me, darling?" forgetting that when a child knows a
thing it never asks; when in doubt it will ask, but not when it
knows. It is a difficult and dangerous thing to shake a child's
belief, and a pity, too. For if we could all believe as simply as
a child does, how different it would make life! If Diana has a
fault, it is that she takes her children too seriously. She
thinks it is wrong to tell them, "Children should be seen and not
heard," simply because they have asked a question she can't
answer. Aunts have been known to do it as a last resource, on
occasions of great danger.

Hugh wants to know if God put in the quack before he made the
duck. It is difficult, isn't it, to answer that sort of question?

On another occasion he asked Betty if God was alive. Betty, eager
to instruct, said, "My dear Hugh, God is a Spirit."

"Then we can boil our milk on him." That was a poser for Betty.