Josiah sithed; and, right while he wus a sithin', the boy commenced agin on a new tack. “What for a lookin' place was paradise?” And then follered 800 questions about paradise. Josiah sweat, and offered to let the boy come back, and set with me. He had insisted, when we started from the meetin'-house, on havin' the boy set on the front seat between him and Ury. But I demurred about any change, and leaned back, and eat a sweet apple. I don't think it is wrong Sundays to eat a sweet apple. And the boy kep' on. “What did Adam fall off of? Did he fall out of the apple-tree?” “No, no! he fell because he sinned.” But the boy went right on, in a tone of calm conviction,-- “No big man would be apt to fall a walking right along. He fell out of the apple-tree.” And then he says, after a minute's still thought,-- “I believe, if I had been there, and had a string round Adam's leg, I could kep' him from fallin' off;--and say, where was the Lord? Couldn't He have kept him? say, couldn't He?” “Yes: He can do any thing.” “Wall, then, why didn't He?” Josiah groaned, low. “If Adam hadn't fell, I wouldn't have fell, would I?--nor you--nor Ury--nor anybody?” “No: I s'pose not.” “Wall, wouldn't it have paid to kept Adam up? Say, uncle Josiah, say!” “Oh! less talk about sunthin' else,” says my poor Josiah. “Don't you want a sweet apple?” “Yes; and say! what kind of a apple was it that Adam eat? Was it a sweet apple, or a greening, or a sick-no-further? And say, was it _right_ for all of us to fall down because Adam did? And how did _I_ sin just because a man eat an apple, and fell out of an apple-tree, when I never saw the apple, or poked him offen the tree, or joggled him, or any thing--when I wasn't there? Say, how was it wrong, uncle Josiah? When I wasn't _there!_” My poor companion, I guess to sort o' pacify him, broke out kinder a singin' in a tone full of fag, “'In Adam's fall, we sinned all.'” Josiah is sound. “And be I a sinning now, uncle Josiah? and a falling? And is everybody a sinning and a falling jest because that one man eat one apple, and fell out of an apple-tree? Say, is it _right_, uncle Josiah, for you and me, and everybody that is on the earth, to keep a falling, and keep a falling, and bein' blamed, and every thing, when we hadn't done any thing, and wasn't _there?_ And _say_, will folks always keep a falling?” “Yes, if they hain't good.” [Illustration: JOSIAH CLOSING THE CONVERSATION.] “_How_ can they keep a falling? If Adam fell out of the apple-tree, wouldn't he have struck on the ground, and got up agin? And if anybody falls, why, why, mustn't they come to the bottom sometime? If there is something to fall off of, mustn't there be something to hit against? And _say_”-- Here the boy's eyes looked dreamier than they had looked, and further off. “Was I made out of dirt, uncle Josiah?” “Yes: we are all made out of dust.”