"The Advance of Positivism and Pure Reason," which formed part of that schedule of study which his father had previously insisted upon.
Before his illness Lionel had become close friends with the village sexton, Reuben Dale, and that worthy's little daughter, Jessamine. It had been the boy's keenest joy to romp and talk with Jessamine, and so, on being afforded a holiday by the Professor's thoughtfulness, he proceeds with a light heart in search of his former playmate. He finds Reuben at work in the churchyard, and "the significant hollow in the ground was shaped slowly in a small dark square, to the length of a little child."
The old man's sobs betray the truth—during Lionel's absence his baby sweetheart has fallen a prey to diphtheria. The boy's anguish is terrible: the sexton's simple faith in God's way being the best way has no comfort for the helpless little pagan who has been taught that such faith as this is sheer nonsense. "No, no!" he cries; "there is no God; you have not read,—you have not studied things, and you do not know,—but you are all wrong. There is no God,—there is only the Atom which does not care."
Distracted with grief, Lionel tears away into the woods, his bewildered and weary head full of
