CHAPTER V

THE TWINS STICK UP FOR THE BIBLE

Prudence had been calling on a “sick member.”  Whenever circumstances permitted she gladly served as pastoral assistant for her father, but she always felt that raising the family was her one big job, and nothing was allowed to take precedence of it.  As she walked that afternoon down Maple Street,—­seemingly so-called because it was bordered with grand old elms,—­she felt at peace with all the world.  The very sunshine beaming down upon her through the huge skeletons of the leafless elms, was not more care-free than the daughter of the parsonage.  Parsonage life had been running smoothly for as much as ten days past, and Prudence, in view of that ten days’ immunity, was beginning to feel that the twins, if not Connie also, were practically reared!

“Mount Mark is a dear old place,—­a duck of a place, as the twins would say,—­and I’m quite sorry there’s a five-year limit for Methodist preachers.  I should truly like to live right here until I am old and dead.”

Then she paused, and bowed, and smiled.  She did not recognize the bright-faced young woman approaching, but she remembered just in time that parsonage people are marked characters.  So she greeted the stranger cordially.

“You are Miss Starr, aren’t you?” the bright-faced woman was saying.  “I am Miss Allen,—­the principal of the high school, you know.”

“Oh, yes,” cried Prudence, thrusting forth her hand impulsively, “oh, yes, I know.  I am so glad to meet you.”

Miss Allen was a young woman of twenty-six, with clear kind eyes and a strong sweet mouth.  She had about her that charm of manner which can only be described as winsome womanliness.  Prudence gazed at her with open and honest admiration.  Such a young woman to be the principal of a high school in a city the size of Mount Mark!  She must be tremendously clever.  But Prudence did not sigh.  We can’t all be clever, you know.  There must be some of us to admire the rest of us!

The two walked along together, chatting sociably on subjects that meant nothing to either of them.  Presently Miss Allen stopped, and with a graceful wave of her hand, said lightly: 

“This is where I am rooming.  Are you in a very great hurry this afternoon?  I should like to talk to you about the twins.  Will you come in?”

The spirits of Prudence fell earthward with a clatter!  The twins!  Whatever had they been doing now?

She followed Miss Allen into the house and up the stairs with the joy quite quenched in her heart.  She did not notice the dainty room into which she was conducted.  She ignored the offered chair, and with a dismal face turned toward Miss Allen.

“Oh, please!  What have they been doing?  Is it very awful?”

Miss Allen laughed gaily.  “Oh, sit down and don’t look so distressed.  It’s nothing at all.  They haven’t been doing anything.  I just want to discuss them on general principles, you know.  It’s my duty to confer with the parents and guardians of my scholars.”