Nancy smiled. She liked its being so said; though really Annie's ease made her seem much the older of the two.
"My father tells me that you want to go to a Bible Class," observed Annie presently.
"I always used to go to one; and it was such a help," said Nancy.
"Yes, I have been thinking about it," said Annie. "There is a class here, held in the Church schoolroom by a lady, for young women and big girls. More than a hundred belong to it."
Nancy looked rather alarmed. Fresh from country life, she did not quite like the notion of such a number.
"There wasn't ever more than twelve in the class I've been used to go to," she said.
"You like that better, perhaps. This class is meant for all sorts of girls, and some of them are terribly ignorant. The teaching has to be very simple, that they may all understand. I have been thinking—" continued Annie. "My father has wanted for a long while to get up another class—quite a small one. We hoped a lady was coming who could take it; but she cannot come. And now my father wants me—we have been wondering whether perhaps I could not do it instead."
Annie blushed a little, and spoke half apologetically. "It seems almost as if I were too young; but I do so love teaching; and of course I have a great deal more time for working up subjects than many can have—those who have to work hard in other ways, I mean. And then there is always my father at hand to help me. So I have been planning whether perhaps you, and three or four other nice girls that I know of, would like to come here for an hour every Sunday afternoon, and read the Bible with me. I think it would be so pleasant—don't you? And I shall want you all to talk as well as myself—to ask questions, or say anything you like. If we get puzzled over a text, I can ask my father about it before the next time. What do you think, Nancy?"
Nancy looked bright. "I should like it ever so much, Miss," she said.
"We can sing hymns together," pursued Annie. "I do so love singing hymns—don't you too? It always seems to me to come nearer than anything else to what the angels do in heaven. We'll begin and end with a hymn. Then will you count it a settled thing to come at half-past three next Sunday afternoon? The lady who has taken my class this afternoon wants to have it again regularly, so that will be all right. I will see about the other girls before the week is over."