"Oh, do not say so!" exclaimed Ned; "surely you do not mean it."

"I dare say," rejoined Tom, "that I should like the Bible well enough if
I could understand it; but it's so hard! _You_ understand it all, I
suppose?"

"Oh, dear no! that I do not; but grandmother sometimes explains what is
hard, and tells me a great many pleasing things about the manners of the
country where our Saviour and his Apostles lived. I never am happier
than when I read to her, and she talks to me about what I have read."

"Well," said Tom, "mother hears me read a chapter now and then, but she
always seems to think it a trouble; and so I read as fast as I can, to
get it the sooner over. Father commonly says, he's too tired to listen."

Ned said no more on the subject then; but when they had both done work,
he asked Tom if he would like to walk home with him, and look at his
garden.

Tom hesitated at first; there seemed to be something in the idea that
made him uncomfortable. But he had been gradually growing fond of Ned,
and Ned's account of the pleasures and comfort of his home had made him
wish to go there; so he told his companion that he would go with him.

Ned's grandmother received the two boys very kindly, and gave them some
tea and bread and butter. Having learned from Tom that his parents would
not be uneasy at his absence, she asked him to stay with them all the
evening.

The next day Tom looked wistfully at Ned, as if he wished to go home