Page 171 - pollyanna

CHAPTER XXII. SERMONS

AND WOODBOXES

n the afternoon that Pollyanna told John Pendleton
Oof Jimmy Bean, the Rev. Paul Ford climbed the hill
and entered the Pendleton Woods, hoping that the hushed
beauty of God’s out-of-doors would still the tumult that His
children of men had wrought.
The Rev. Paul Ford was sick at heart. Month by month,
for a year past, conditions in the parish under him had
been growing worse and worse; until it seemed that now,
turn which way he would, he encountered only wrangling,
backbiting, scandal, and jealousy. He had argued, pleaded,
rebuked, and ignored by turns; and always and through all
he had prayed—earnestly, hopefully. But to-day miserably
he was forced to own that matters were no better, but rather
worse.
Two of his deacons were at swords’ points over a sil-
ly something that only endless brooding had made of any
account. Three of his most energetic women workers had
withdrawn from the Ladies’ Aid Society because a tiny
spark of gossip had been fanned by wagging tongues into
a devouring flame of scandal. The choir had split over the
amount of solo work given to a fanciedly preferred singer.
Even the Christian Endeavor Society was in a ferment of

1 0 Pollyanna