"
_Josephine_.--"Ah! then I know where it came from. The Pastor's
son, and the two sons of the schoolmaster, have got up a Religious
Tract Society, who distribute them in all directions."
_Mark_.--(Reproachfully.)--"And pray why do they scatter them
about in this way? Can't they leave people alone, without cramming
every body's head with their own fancies. Let them keep their
religion to themselves, and leave other people to do the same."
_Josephine_.--"Do you think, Mark, that Andrew and Julia did
wrong to listen to their father and grandmamma, and to follow the
precepts of the Bible in preference to the ridicule of scoffers."
_Mark_.--(Softened.)--"I did not say _that_.... I think
Andrew and Julia were right; but ... come give me back the Tract; I
want to look at something in it again."
Mark then went away, carrying the Tract with him; and shortly after,
Josephine saw him sitting in the garden, behind a hedge of sweet-
briar, reading it attentively.
"Where's that good-for-nothing Mark?" demanded the vinedresser, when
he returned home at night half tipsy. "Did he dare to venture to the
shooting-match? I was told that he was seen sneaking about the
outskirts of the village! where is he now?"
"He went to bed more than an hour ago," answered his mother, "and
was no more at the shooting-match than I was, for I saw him reading
in the garden.
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