"Oh, father, why do you speak so jokingly about these Bible matters?"
"You are right, Dorothy. Forgive me. I always make a muss of it when I tackle religion. I'd better call in my tongue before I get into trouble."
"I repeat my question," said Dorothy: "Who did the baptizing on that day?"
"I guess that Peter, one of the apostles, did it."
"Oh, yes," said Dorothy, "there were twelve apostles, were there not? And if they all took part in the baptizing, that would have made it much easier. And I notice back here in the fifteenth verse of the preceding chapter it says there were one hundred and twenty disciples there when Peter preached his sermon and that three thousand were converted."
"Hello," said the father with a smile, "you keep on and you will get more than enough people to baptize two or three times three thousand persons."
"You don't imagine," said Sterling with a smile, "that the one hundred and twenty disciples all took a hand in putting the three thousand under water? That would have been a spectacle indeed."
"I think it would have been a spectacle no matter how it was done," said Dorothy.
"Another thing," said Sterling: "Supposing that they had enough administrators for the ordinance that day, where could they have performed the baptisms? Do you think they all marched off to the river Jordan? Of course not. But they did not need to go off anywhere in order to be sprinkled. Besides, what about a change of clothing for the three thousand persons if they were all put under water? Remember most of them—according to the account—were strangers from different countries visiting Jerusalem."
"I hope," said Dorothy, "that they had not come from their different countries without some change of clothing."