"Why, don't you see? The serpent is one of the Bible words for the devil; here, it is a child of the devil who, coming to the earth, has enveloped the whole world in his toils. The Bible says, I know, somewhere, that those who are not saved by Christ are '_in_ the Wicked one.' How did they know so much, and so little, those old people?" "Where did you find all those Bible verses just now about the sword, Ditto?" "References here, Maggie." "Well, go on, Ditto. There were three children of the devil." "The third was the goddess Hel or Hela. She was the goddess of the lower world, and was half black and half blue. I wonder! that must be where our word 'hell' comes from. What dreadful old times! And times now are just as bad, for a great part of the world. The goddess Hel was very like the horrible Hindoo goddess Kali, they say here." "I don't believe those times were so much worse than these times," said Flora. "You think human sacrifices are a pleasant religious feature?" "Not to the victims; but I suppose the rest were all accustomed to it, and didn't feel so shocked as you do." "Landolf seems to have been a good deal shocked." "Are you going to read us anything more, Ditto, about those queer old gods?" "There isn't much more that I need read, Maggie. I have told you about the principal deities. They believed in quantities of lesser ones--really, personifications of the good and evil powers of nature. The elves and their king, and the dwarfs living inside the hills. The dwarfs owned the treasures of the mines, and worked in metals and precious stones." "I should like to believe in elves and fairies," said Flora. "Why?" "Oh, it's pretty and poetical. Fairy rings, and all that." "Would you like to think there were hidden powers in every piece of water, and rock, and hill, which might feel kindly disposed towards you and might not? which might suddenly play you an ill trick and make you most mischievous trouble, for nothing but mischief." "Did people believe so, Ditto?" "Certainly. A great many people, in various parts of the world." "I would rather believe that God has it all in His hand," said Maggie contentedly. "So would I, Maggie. And that Jesus has the keys of hell and of death." "I wonder when Fenton will be here," remarked Esther. "I hope--he won't come--till--Uncle Eden gets here," said Maggie very deliberately. "Why not?" said Esther sharply. "He is uneasy," said Maggie, with a corresponding shrug of her shoulders; "I never know what Fenton will take it into his head to do." "That is a nice way to speak of your brother." Maggie considered that. "I can't find any nicer," she said at length. "Then I wouldn't speak at all." "Never mind," said Flora. "One's brothers are always a mixture of comfort and plague. And that is true of the best of them, Esther; you never know what they will take into their heads to do." "Oh, Flora!"----Maggie began, and stopped.