i e6a2876c557e1281 by Unknown Read Free Book Online

table. Many of the books he never read, not even the first page, for the subjects were as foreign to him as would have been books in French or German.
    There was one word though that the pin picked out which really did catch his attention, and he did read the book that he got from the library on this subject, although when my dad picked the book up he laughed and exclaimed.
    "My God, he's not going to tell me he understands this." The subject was evolution, and in some measure Ronnie did understand it, and one day he brought forth my awful admiration even while I was astounded at his temerity of daring to argue with the priest.
    It was Friday tea-time, and Father Ellis was on his weekly visit, and work or no work my mother still greeted him with the slab of lardy cake, although the week after my father came out he admonished her saying, "No, no. Now we'll have no more of this... a cup of tea and that is all."
    My mother had spoken to him in the same tone she used to us, as if he wasn't a priest at all.
    "Get it down you," she! said, 'and let it stop your noise. " He had laughed and got it| down him. | My dad liked Father Ellis although he was often chided by| him for not going to mass on a Sunday; he wouldn't take thej excuse that his clothes weren't decent enough. I heard Dad|
    comment on Father Ellis one day, saying, " He's a priest asl God and me self would have them. "
    This linking of himself|| to God added to my father's importance in my eyes and gavej Father Ellis the prestige usually allocated to angels.
    And her&J we were this Friday, all of us around the table, and we were listening not so much to Father Ellis as to our Ronnie.
    He had brought my mother's mouth agape by saying flatly there was no such thing as the Garden of Eden; he had brought my eyes popping by talking about chimpanzees and orang outangs and gorillas. At one point he became embarrassed, buti recovered himself and went on, grimly this time, about ape men and prehistoric men, whatever they were. My father's face was straight, but his eyes were alive with laughter and I knew he was finding difficulty in suppressing it. Father Ellis's face was serious, and he looked deeply impressed as if he was drinking in every word that fell from Ronnie's lips, and when finally and quite abruptly Ronnie stopped and dug his thumb into the palm of his hand as if making a full- stop to his oration, the priest nodded thoughtfully at him and | said in a deeply serious tone, with not a hint of laughter in it, "You're right, you're right." Ronnie came back, bumptious and arrogant: "Yes, I know I'm right, Father, and them what doesn't believe in evolution are ignorant."
    He cast a defiant yet scared glance around the table, but nobody spoke except the priest, and he said, "Well I for one believe in evolution, quite firmly. Now look, let's get it down to ordinary level and ordinary meaning. For instance, take Mrs. McKenna, you know; her who sings above everybody in church."
    All our faces answered this with a smile, and Father Ellis followed the smile from one to the other and brought us all into this discussion by saying, "Now you're a sensible family, there's not a more sensible one.
    Now ask yourselves, would J the good God have made Mrs. McKenna just as she is, feet, hands and all? No, when he first made her she was as bonnie a thing as ever stepped out of Paradise, but evolution has done this to her. She's got worse and worse until she is, as you know, a bit out of the ordinary, God help her. Now mind, I'm not blaming her and dont any one of you speak a word of what I've said, do you hear me?
    But I'm just using her as an illustration. She is a good woman, God bless her, although she has a voice like a corncrake We all tittered, all except Ronnie. He sat there, straight of face, and there was a deep furrow between his brows, and he screwed in his chair before leaning towards Father Ellis and saying sharply, "It's no use. Father, turning it funny and going on about Mrs.