judging from his letters," wrote Ruby. "I don't think
Charlie is so stuck on it."

So Gilbert was writing to Ruby! Very well. He had a perfect right to,
of course. Only--!! Anne did not know that Ruby had written the first
letter and that Gilbert had answered it from mere courtesy. She tossed
Ruby's letter aside contemptuously. But it took all Diana's breezy,
newsy, delightful epistle to banish the sting of Ruby's postscript.
Diana's letter contained a little too much Fred, but was otherwise
crowded and crossed with items of interest, and Anne almost felt herself
back in Avonlea while reading it. Marilla's was a rather prim and
colorless epistle, severely innocent of gossip or emotion. Yet somehow
it conveyed to Anne a whiff of the wholesome, simple life at Green
Gables, with its savor of ancient peace, and the steadfast abiding love
that was there for her. Mrs. Lynde's letter was full of church news.
Having broken up housekeeping, Mrs. Lynde had more time than ever to
devote to church affairs and had flung herself into them heart and soul.
She was at present much worked up over the poor "supplies" they were
having in the vacant Avonlea pulpit.

"I don't believe any but fools enter the ministry nowadays," she wrote
bitterly. "Such candidates as they have sent us, and such stuff as
they preach! Half of it ain't true, and, what's worse, it ain't sound
doctrine. The one we have now is the worst of the lot. He mostly takes
a text and preaches about something else. And he says he doesn't believe
all the heathen will be eternally lost. The idea! If they won't all the
money we've been giving to Foreign Missions will be clean wasted, that's
what! Last Sunday night he announced that next Sunday he'd preach on the
axe-head that swam. I think he'd better confine himself to the Bible and
leave sensational subjects alone. Things have come to a pretty pass if
a minister can't find enough in Holy Writ to preach about, that's what.
What church do you attend, Anne? I hope you go regularly. People are apt
to get so careless about church-going away from home, and I understand
college students are great sinners in this respect. I'm told many of
them actually study their lessons on Sunday. I hope you'll never sink
that low, Anne. Remember how you were brought up. And be very careful
what friends you make. You never know what sort of creatures are in them
colleges. Outwardly they may be as whited sepulchers and inwardly as
ravening wolves,