But it happened that she and Marigold talked the same language - liked the same things. They could both have supped on a saucer of moonshine and felt no hunger - for a time, anyhow. They both understood the stories the wind told. They both liked silk-soft kittens and the little fir woods that ran venturesomely down to the shore and the dancing harbour ripples like songs. A bluebird singing on the point of a picket in the Yarrow Lane thrilled them and an imaginary trip to the moon was all in the evening's work. And they made every day a gay adventure for themselves.
"You'll find out she isn't as good as you think her," Babe told Marigold with sinister significance. But that, Marigold believed, was only Babe's jealousy.
3
Then one night Marigold and Bernice had the supreme bliss of sleeping together. And not only of sleeping together but sleeping in the granary-loft - the little white granary across the small, hollow field carpeted with sheets of green moss and full of birch- trees. Such a romantic thing.
Aunt Marcia had told Marigold to ask Bernice to stay all night with her. And soon after Bernice's arrival two loaded automobiles came out from Charlottetown. The guests must be put up somehow for the night. The little house was taxed to its limit. Marigold's room must be commandeered in the emergency. But what was the matter with sleeping in the neat little granary-loft this warm September night? Aunt Marcia would make them up a comfortable bed. If they wouldn't be afraid!
Afraid! Bernice and Marigold hooted at the idea. They were all for it at once. So after they had prowled about till nearly ten - Bernice had gone to bed at eight every night of her life and Marigold was supposed to go - they went through the moonlit birches with their nighties under their arms and a huge piece of apple-pie in their paws. Aunt Marcia actually let people eat pie at night. Perhaps that accounted for some of Uncle Jarvis's religious gloom. They took a drink from the truly delightful stoned-up spring behind the granary, which Uncle Jarvis called the barn-well, and then mounted the outside granary stairs to the loft. Its bare boards were beautifully white-washed, and Aunt Marcia had made up a bed on the floor and covered it with a charming white quilt that had red "rising suns" all over it. And she had set a lighted candle on a barrel for them, feeling that it would never do to give them a kerosene lamp in the granary.
They bolted the door - more romance - and blew out the candle to have the fun of undressing by moonlight.
It was when they were ready for bed that Marigold made her shocking discovery.
"Now, let's say our prayers and snuggle down for a good jaw," she said. "We can talk just as long as we like to-night and nobody to pound on the wall and tell us to stop."
Bernice turned from the loft window whence she had been gazing rapturously on the glimpse of moonlit bay over the birches.
"I never say any prayers," she announced calmly.
Marigold gasped.
"Why, Bernice Willis, that is wicked. Aren't you afraid God will punish you?"
"There isn't any God," said Bernice, "and I won't pray to any one I don't believe in."
Marigold stared at her. This thing had been SAID - and yet the granary still stood and Bernice still stood, a slim, white sceptic in the moonlight.
"But - but - Bernice, there MUST be a God."
"How do you know?"
"Mother told me," said Marigold, gasping at the first argument that presented itself to her dumbfounded mind.
"She told you there was a Santa Claus, too, didn't she?" asked Bernice relentlessly. "Mind you, I'd like to believe in God. But I can't."
"Why not?" wondered Marigold helplessly.
"Because - because I haven't ANYBODY. Nobody but Aunt Harriet - and she's only a half-aunt and she doesn't like me a bit. Father and mother are dead - and she won't even talk to me about them. I had a kitten and it died and she won't let me have another. As for this praying-business, I used to pray. Once when I was so small I can just remember it Aunt Harriet sent me down to the store on an errand. The wind was awful cold. And I knelt right down on the road behind a little spruce-bush and asked God to make the wind warmer before I came out of the store. He DIDN'T - it was colder than ever and right in my face. And when my kitten took sick I asked God to make it well. But it died. And then I knew there was no God. Because if there had been He wouldn't have let my kitten die when it was the only thing I had to love. So I never prayed any more. Of course I have to kneel down when Aunt Harriet has family prayers. But I just kneel and make faces at God."
"You just said you didn't believe in Him," cried Marigold.
"Well - " Bernice was not going to be posed, "I just make faces at the idea of Him."
So this, Marigold reflected bitterly, was what Babe Kennedy had meant.
"Besides, look at me," continued Bernice rebelliously. "See how ugly I am. Look at the size of my mouth. Why did God make me ugly? Babe Kennedy says I've got a face like a monkey's."
"You haven't. And think how clever you are," cried Marigold.
"I want to be pretty," said Bernice stubbornly. "Then people might like me. But I don't believe in God and I'm not going to pretend I do."
Marigold got up with a long sigh of adjustment and flung her arms about Bernice.
"Never mind. I love you. I love you whether you believe in God or not. I only wish you did. It's - it's so much nicer."
"I won't have YOU long," said Bernice, determinedly pessimistic. "Something'll happen to take you away, too."
"Nothing can happen," Marigold challenged fate. "Oh, of course I'll have to go home when my visit's ended - but we'll write - and I'll get Mother to ask you to Cloud of Spruce. We'll be friends forever."
Bernice shook her head.
"No. Something will happen. You'll see. This is too good to last."
A new fear assailed Marigold.
"Bernice, if you don't believe in God how can you expect to go to heaven?"
"I don't. And I don't want to," Bernice answered defiantly. "Aunt Harriet read about heaven in the Bible. All shut in with walls and gates. I'd hate that."
"But wouldn't it be better than - than - "
"Hell? No. You wouldn't have to pretend you liked hell if you didn't. But I don't believe in either place."
"Bernice, don't you believe in the Bible AT ALL?"
"Not one word of it. It's all about God and there isn't any God. It's just a - just a fairy-tale."
Somehow, this seemed more terrible to Marigold than not believing in God. God was far-away and invisible but the Bible was right in your hand, so to speak. She sighed again as she knelt to say her own prayers. It seemed a very lonely performance - with that little sceptic of a Bernice standing rigidly by the window, disbelieving. But Marigold prayed for her very softly. "Please, dear God, make Bernice believe in You. Oh, PLEASE, make Bernice believe in You."
4
At dinner-time next day Marigold made the mistake of her life. Aunt Marcia asked what she was worrying about. And Marigold confessed that she was - not exactly worrying about Bernice but so sorry for her.
"Because, you see, she doesn't believe in God. And it must be terrible not to believe in God."
"What's that?" Uncle Jarvis shot at her suddenly. "What's that about Bernice Willis not believing in God?"
"She says she doesn't," said Marigold mournfully.
"Poor child," said Aunt Marcia.
"Poor child? Wicked child!" thundered Uncle Jarvis. "If she doesn't believe in God you'll not play with her again, Marigold."