"We started talking about white rats--you see it's still
white rats with George--and that started us wondering about God. George
wonders if God really knows about rats. 'Has he ever stuck his face right
down and had a good close look at one? Has God ever watched a rat stand up
and brush his whiskers with both paws? Has he ever really laughed at rats?
And that's another thing, Aunt Deborah--does God ever laugh at all? Does he
know how to take a joke? If he don't, we might as well quit right now!'"
Roger laughed with relish, and his daughter smiled at him:
"Then the talk turned from rats and God to a big dam out in the Rockies.
George has been reading about it, he's thinking of being an engineer. And
there was so much he wanted to know that he was soon upon the verge of
discovering my ignorance--when all of a sudden a dreamy look, oh, a very
dreamy look, came into his eyes--and he asked me this." And over her bright
expressive face came a scowl of boyish intensity: "Suppose I _was_ an
engineer--and I was working on a dam, or may be a bridge, in the Rockies.
And say it was pretty far down south--say around the Grand Canyon. I should
think they'd need a dam down there, or anyhow a bridge,' said George. And
he eyed me in a cautious way which said as plain as the nose on your face,
'Good Lord, she's only a woman, and she won't understand.' But I showed him
I was serious, and he asked me huskily, 'Suppose it was winter, Aunt
Deborah, and the Giants were in Texas.
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