“A long, long time. Little children are so precious they cannot be made in a hurry.” “How long did I take?” “Nearly a year--nine whole months.” “Did baby take as long?” “Yes, just the same time. Baby is just as precious as you are.” “I’m bigger.” “Now you are, but you were baby’s size when you were baby’s age. You are bigger because you have grown since your first birthday.” Again the subject may perhaps drop, or it may be carried directly forward. “What is being born?” “Being born is being shown to the world and seeing the world for the first time. At the end of nine months after God and Daddy and Mummy started to make you, you were ready to open your eyes and breathe and cry, and be a real live baby, and that day they showed you to somebody and you saw the world. That was being born.” “Where was I before you finished making me?” “Mummy kept you hidden away so that nobody at all should see you.” “_Where_ was I hidden?” “You were hidden in a most wonderful place, in the place where only quite little babies can be while God and their mummies are making them.” “Show me; I want to go back there.” “You can never go back; it is only while you are being made you can be there. After your first birthday, you can never go back.” “Where was I?” “Well, you know, little babies that are being made are very, very delicate, and they have to be kept very warm and comfortable, and nobody must see them, and they must be close, close up to their mummies.” The child may interject, “And their daddies too?” “Yes, if they have got loving daddies, the daddy keeps close to the mummy; but while babies are being made it is God and mummy that have most of the work to do. That is why you must always love your mummies and obey them.” The child may be temporarily satisfied, or may continue at once:-- “But where _was_ it that I was while you were making me?” “What is the warmest, softest, safest place you can think of? Mummy’s heart: that is all warm with love. The place Mummy hid you while God and she were making you was right underneath her heart.” “Her real heart--the heart that beats like a clock ticking?” “Yes, her real heart, just here.” The mother should lay the child’s hand on her heart and let him feel it beating. “And just inside, right underneath here, Mummy kept you while God was helping her to make you.”