"The house on the sand was finished very soon, and the man furnished it, and took his family to live in it, and everybody said what an industrious worker he had been, and how quick and how clever he was. And they laughed at the rock builder; they said he would be an old man before his house would be finished. But he did not care; he went slowly and steadily on. At last his house, too, was complete, and he went into it to live with his family. "Now, Chuckles, which house would you lived in?" Chuckles had been following this story with open mouth and eyes. "I like sand better than rock," he remarked reflectively; and Sidney was glad his aunt was not there to hear him say it. "Well, you would have chosen a house on sand. What happens to your sand castles?" "Oh!" said Chuckles, with a beaming face. "You're going to make a storm knock it down. I should like to have been there to see it." Sidney went on hurriedly. "Yes; one day the clouds rolled up, and the sky got black, and the wind rolled the waves in with a boom and a crash, and the two men got inside their houses and hoped they would be safe. But, alas! The house on the sand soon began to rock and sway, and the sea rushed in at the bottom, and then suddenly it all crumpled up and fell down with an awful crash, and the man and his family were crushed to death." "And the other house?" Chuckles' eyes were nearly starting out of his head. "Well, the slow man looked out of his window, and saw his neighbour's house destroyed, and his wife began to cry and say: 'It will be our turn next.' And then he said, with a proud smile: 'No; we are built upon the rock, and the ocean itself and all the storms in the world won't wash us away.' "He was right. The waves dashed against his house, and the wind beat it, and the rain poured down; but when the storm was over and the sun shone out there was his house safe and sound, and the other was in ruins. Now, which do you think was best?" "The rock," said Chuckles with conviction. "I'll build a castle on the rocks next time." There was a pause. It was one thing to tell the story, another to apply it; and Sidney began to feel that her subject was above a child's comprehension. "That's a story from the Bible, Chuckles. Jesus told that one, and He said that people who tried to live without Him were like the man who wouldn't build on the rock. He is the Rock of Ages, you know. And God wants us all to be builders; only we must take care we build properly." Chuckles leant over the side of the boat, and began to splash the water with his hands. "I don't know nothing about God," he remarked carelessly, "and I can't live with Jesus. He is up above the stars, millions of miles away. Aunt Dannie told me so." "He is here now, Chuckles—close to us. He sees you, and He hears what you say." Chuckles looked fearfully round; then he shook his curly head. "I would rather He didn't."