id that most church members were
hypocrites and drunkards and--and just generally bad, and the ones
outside the church are nearly always good and moral and kind. She said
Miss Allen joined the Presbyterian church here because most of the
school board are Presbyterians. She said Miss Allen said she didn't
care if people were Catholics or Jews or atheists or--or just ordinary
Protestants, so long as they were kind to one another, and went about
the world doing good works. And that's why Miss Allen wouldn't read
the Bible and say the Lord's prayer in school."

"What do you think of that?" demanded Carol. "Isn't that heresy?
She's as bad as the priest and Levite, isn't she?"

"Did you ask Miss Allen about it?"

"No, indeed, we've just ignored Miss Allen ever since. We have watched
her as closely as we could since then, to see if we could catch her up
again. Of course she has to be careful what she says in school, but we
found several strong points against her. It's a perfectly plain case,
no doubt about it."

"And so you went among the other freshmen influencing them, and telling
tales, and criticizing your----"

"No indeed, Prue, we wouldn't! But you know it says in the Bible to
beware of false doctrines and the sowers of bad seed,--or something
like that--"

"And we bewared as hard as we could!" grinned Carol.

"We have tried to explain these things to the other freshmen so Miss
Allen could not lead them into--into error. Oh, that's Christian
Science, isn't it? Well, Minnie Carlson is a Christian Scientist and
she talks so much about falling into error that--honestly----"

"We can't tell error from truth any more," interjected Carol neatly.
"And so I hope you won't punish us if we accidentally vary from the
truth once in a while."

This was quite beyond Prudence's depth. She knew little of Christian
Science save that it was a widely accepted creed of recent origin. So
she brought the twins back to Miss Allen again. "But, twins, do you
think it was kind, and Christian, and--and like parsonage girls, to
accept all this against Miss Allen without giving her a chance to
defend herself?"

"As I told you, Prue, we have watched her very close since then. She
has never come right out in the open,--she wouldn't dare,--but she has
given herself away several times. Nothing can get by us when we're on
the watch, you know!"

Prudence knew. "What did Miss Allen say?"

The twins thought seriously for a wh