_Answer_. No, he saved eight, to start with again. _Question_. Were these eight persons totally de- praved? _Answer_. Yes. _Question_. Why did he not kill them, and start over again with a perfect pair? Would it not have been better to have had his flood at first, before he made anybody, and drowned the snake? _Answer_. "God's way are not our ways;" and besides, you must remember that "a thousand years "are as one day" with God. _Question_. How did God destroy the people? _Answer_. By water; it rained forty days and forty nights, and "the fountains of the great deep were "broken up." _Question_. How deep was the water? _Answer_. About five miles. 374 _Question_. How much did it rain each day? _Answer_. About eight hundred feet; though the better opinion now is, that it was a local flood. In- fidels have raised objections and pressed them to that degree that most orthodox people admit that the flood was rather local. _Question_. If it was a local flood, why did they put birds of the air into the ark? Certainly, birds could have avoided a local flood? _Answer_. If you take this away from us, what do you propose to give us in its place? Some of the best people of the world have believed this story. Kind husbands, loving mothers, and earnest patriots have believed it, and that is sufficient. _Question_. At the time God made these people, did he know that he would have to drown them all? _Answer_. Of course he did. _Question_. Did he know when he made them that they would all be failures? _Answer_. Of course. _Question_. Why, then, did he make them? _Answer_. He made them for his own glory, and no man should disgrace his parents by denying it. _Question_. Were the people after the flood just as bad as they were before? 375 _Answer_. About the same. _Question_. Did they try to circumvent God? _Answer_. They did. _Question_. How? _Answer_. They got together for the purpose of build- ing a tower, the top of which should reach to heaven, so that they could laugh at any future floods, and go to heaven at any time they desired. _Question_. Did God hear about this? _Answer_. He did. _Question_. What did he say? _Answer_. He said: "Go to; let us go down," and see what the people are doing; I am satisfied they will succeed. _Question_. How were the people prevented from succeeding? _Answer_. God confounded their language, so that the mason on top could not cry "mort'!" to the hod-carrier below; he could not think of the word to use, to save his life, and the building stopped. _Question_. If it had not been for the confusion of tongues at Babel, do you really think that all the people in the world would have spoken just the same language, and would have pronounced every word precisely the same? 376 _Answer_. Of course. _Question_. If it had not been, then, for the con- fusion of languages, spelling books, grammars and dictionaries would have been useless? _Answer_. I suppose so.