"I _do_ love them, and perhaps they have souls!" rejoined Clare.

"You mustn't believe that! It's quite shocking. It's nowhere in the
Bible."

"Is everything that is not in the Bible shocking, sir?"

"Well, I won't say that; but you're not to believe it."

"I suppose you don't like animals, sir! Are you afraid of their going
to the same place as you when they die?"

"I wouldn't have a boy about me that held such an unscriptural notion!
The Bible says--the spirit of a man that goeth upward, and the spirit
of a beast that goeth downward!"

"Is that in the Bible, sir?"

"It is," answered the baker with satisfaction, thinking he had proved
his point.

"I'm so glad!" returned Clare. "I didn't know there was anything about
it in the Bible! Then when I die I shall only have to go down
somewhere, and look for them till I find them!"

The baker was silenced for a moment.

"It's flat atheism!" he cried. "Get out of my shop! What is the world
coming to!"