Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1918-01-24

Luo pOINus
"Where are the twins?" asked Fairy
softly.
upstairs" was the whispered reply.
"Well?'
| Then Fairy spoke more loudly, conf
| dent that the twins, in their upstairs
room, could hear every word she said.
"Come upstairs, Prue. want to talk
this over with you alone" And then
she whispered, "Now, you just take
your cue from me, and do as / say.
The little sinners! Wen teach them
to be so funny"
In their own room she carefully
closed the door and smiled, as she
noted the creaking Of the closet door
on the twins side of the wall. Eaves-
dropping was not included among the
cardinal sins in the twins private dec
alogue, when the conversation con-
cerned themselves.
"Now, Prudence" Fairy began,
speaking with an appearance of soft
ness, though she took great pains to
turn her face toward the twins room,
and enunciated very clearly indeed.
II know this will hurt you, as 1t does
me, but we've got to face 1t fairly. II
the twins are convinced that Christian
Science is the right kind of religion,
we can't stand in their way. I've been
reading up a little myself this after
noon, and there are some good points
in Christian Science. OF course, for
our sakes and fathers, the twins will
be generous and deny they are Scien-
fists. But at heart, they are. / saw Ii
this afternoon. And you and I, Pru-
dence, must stand together and back
them up. They'll have to leave the
church. think Wen have them go be-
fore the deacons next Sunday while
father is gone-then he will be spared
the pain of it. We must make it as
easy for them as we can. They'll prob
ably dismiss them-I don't suppose
they'll give them letters. But it must
be all over before papa comes back"
Then she Kissed in Prudence's ear,
"Now cry"
Prudence obediently began shifting
and gulping, and Fairy rushed to her
and threw her arms about her. sobbing
in heartbroken accents, There, there,
Prue, I know felt just the same
about 1t. But we can't stand between
the twins and what they think is right.
We daren't have that on our con-
sciences"
The two wept together, encouraged
by the deathlike stiffness in the closet
on the other side of the wall.
Then Fairy said, more calmly,
though still sobbing occasionally, "For
our sakes, they'll try to deny it. But
we can't let the little darlings sacrifice
themselves. They've got to have a
chance to try their new belief. Well
just be firm and insist that they stand
on their rights. We won't mention it
to them for a day or two-we'll fix
it up with the elders first. And we
must surely get it over by Sunday.
Poor old father-and how he loves
Oh, Prudence, dear, don't cry So"
Prudence caught her cue again and
) began weeping afresh. They soothed
and caressed and comforted each
other for while, and then went down
} stairs to finish getting supper.
In the meantime the shocked and
Mortified twins in the closet of their
own room, were clutching each other
with passionate intensity. When their
sisters had gone downstairs they stared
at each other in agony.
"They-they wo-won't p-p-put us out
of the ch-ch-church," gasped Carol.
"They WILL" stammered Lark. "You
know what Prudence is! She'd put
the whole church out if she thought it
would do us any good. Oh, Carol,
told you it was wicked to joke about
religion"
This unexpected reproach on the
part of her twin brought Carol back
to earth. II didn't read a word of it,
did you'll just thought it would be
: such a good joke on Prudence-with
, father out of town."
The good joke was anything but
| funny now.
"They can't make us be Scientists
If we don't want to-" protested Lark
"They can't. Why, wouldn't be any
thing but Methodist for anything on
earth. I'd die first. Wen just go and
tell Prudence 1t was joke-Prudence
is always reasonable. She won't"
: "She'll punish us, and-itll be such
a joke on us, Larkie. Even Conniell
: laugh"
J They squirmed together, wretchedly,
at that.
"1t-it was a good joke while it last
ed" said Carol, with a very faint
shadow Of smile. Don't you re-
member how Prudence gasped? She
kept her mouth open for five minutes /"
TITS still joke" added Lark gloom
, lily, "but it's on u.s."
"They can't put us out of the
church,"
II don't know. Like as not they'll
say we'd be bad influence among the
members"
"Twinsr'
The call outside their door sounded
like the trump of doom to the CON