But
the astonishment soon passed off, the scales seemed to drop from his
eyes, and the book became at once and for ever to him the great human
and divine book, and the men and women, whom he had looked upon
as something quite different from himself, became his friends and
counsellors.
For our purposes, however, the history of one night's reading will be
sufficient, which must be told here, now we are on the subject, though
it didn't happen till a year afterwards, and long after the events
recorded in the next chapter of our story.
Arthur, Tom, and East were together one night, and read the story of
Naaman coming to Elisha to be cured of his leprosy. When the chapter was
finished, Tom shut his Bible with a slap.
"I can't stand that fellow Naaman," said he, "after what he'd seen and
felt, going back and bowing himself down in the house of Rimmon, because
his effeminate scoundrel of a master did it. I wonder Elisha took the
trouble to heal him. How he must have despised him!"
"Yes; there you go off as usual, with a shell on your head," struck
in East, who always took the opposite side to Tom, half from love of
argument, half from conviction. "How do you know he didn't think better
of it? How do you know his master was a scoundrel? His letter don't look
like it, and the book don't say so."
"I don't care," rejoined Tom; "why did Naaman talk about bowing down,
then, if he didn't mean to do it? He wasn't likely to get more in
earnest when he got back to court, and away from the prophet.
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