even when they were set on mine. 'I know of it, yes.'
'Have you seen it?'
'I have no desire to see it.'
I was not surprised. Reverend Jones showed no curiosity about anything other than what would soon be on his plate. 'The specimen does not look like any creature that lives now,' I said.
'Miss
Philpot--'
'Someone--a member of this congregation, in fact--has suggested that it is an animal that God rejected in favour of a better design.'
Reverend Jones looked aghast. 'Who said that?'
'It is not important who said it. I just wondered if there was any truth in the theory.'
Reverend Jones brushed down the sleeves of his coat and pursed his lips.'Miss Philpot, I am surprised. I thought you and your sisters were well versed in the Bible.'
'We
are--'
'Let me make it clear: you need only look to Scripture for answers to your questions. Come.' He led the way back to the pulpit, where the Bible he had read from lay.
As he began flipping through the pages, the girl approached. 'Reverend Jones, sir, I done the sweeping.'
'Thank you, Fanny.' Reverend Jones regarded her for a moment, then said,
'There is something else I would like you to do for me, child. Come over to the Bible. I want you to read something out to Miss Philpot. There's another penny in it for you.' He turned to me. 'Fanny Miller and her family joined St Michael's a few years ago from the Congregationalists, for they were deeply disturbed by the Annings' fossil hunting. The Church of England is clearer in its biblical interpretation than some of the Dissenters'
churches. You have found much comfort here, haven't you, Fanny?'
Fanny nodded. She had wide, crystal blue eyes topped with smooth, dark eyebrows that contrasted with her fair hair. She would never lead with her eyes, though they were her best feature, but with her brow, which was wrinkled with apprehension as she gazed at the Bible.
'Don't be frightened, Fanny,' Reverend Jones said to soothe her. 'You are a very good reader. I have heard you at Sunday school. Start here.' He laid a finger on a passage.
She read in a halting whisper:'And God said, 'Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.' And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.'
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
'Excellent, Fanny, you may stop there.'
I thought he had finished patronising me by having an ignorant girl read out from Genesis, but Reverend Jones himself continued, 'And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind,' and it was so.'
I stopped listening after a few lines. I knew them anyway, and couldn't bear his oboe voice, which lacked the depth one expected of a man in his position. I actually preferred Fanny's unschooled recitation. While he read I let my eye rest on the page. To the left of the Biblical words were annotations in red of Bishop Ussher's chronological calculations of the Bible. According to him, God created Heaven and Earth on the night preceding the 23rd October 4004 BC. I had always wondered at his precision.
'...And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.'
When Reverend Jones finished we were silent.
'You see, Miss Philpot, it really is very simple,' Reverend Jones said. He seemed much more confident now that he
