"Here, here, Allan!" cried the old man. "Here, bless my soul, didn’t you ought to see someone?"
"Have you never heard of re-incarnation, the re-incarnation of the soul, father?"
"No, I can’t say as I ever have and I don’t know as I ever want to. I’ve only got one life and though I mayn’t succeed in many little things none too well, I’m trying to do the best I can with it. Looking back—" the old man went on, "looking back, Allan, I can say and thank God as I can say it that I can’t remember ever having done a dirty act or ever having played a mean trick on a man or a woman in my life. I accepted my body like it was, a loan from God; I’ve used it and kept it clean and when the time comes for me to hand it back to Him, why then I want to feel as I can hand it back in good condition and good order—fair wear and tear excepted, Allan, and that’s how I look at things. I don’t pretend to know, there’s some as does, yet they are only men, the same as me and you, dear lad, and they don’t know—no one knows—and it’s as well for us, maybe, we don’t! It’s a beautiful world and a wonderful world and God lent it to us the same as He lent us our bodies to use properly, to admire and to make the most of and enjoy. Beyond that, I don’t seek to know anything, but when my time comes, I want to be able to think to myself a prayer, that goes somehow this way—’God, this is the body You lent to me, I’m done with it and now I’m giving it back; I’ve tried to keep it clean and honest, I’ve treated it as if it was something belonging to You more than to me—and that I was in honour bound obliged to deal with carefully. If there’s a Heaven and You know best, I hope you’ll find a place in it for my soul, because in keeping my body clean, oh Lord, I’ve kept my soul clean along with it!’ That’s how I look at things, Allan, I ain’t good at talk of this sort. Maybe you’ll think I’ve got funny ideas, so I have, but don’t tell me nothing about this re-incarnation of yours; I don’t hold with it, boy, I don’t believe in it; if it’s true, and it may be, mind you, it may be, it isn’t for us to know if it’s true or not. If it was right, we should know, then God would find some way of telling us."
"Perhaps He has!" Allan thought, but he said no more. No, he could not tell his father, for his father would never understand!