Page 173 - pollyanna

neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are en-
tering to go in.’
‘ ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for
ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long
prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.’
‘ ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omit-
ted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and
faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
undone.’ ‘
It was a bitter denunciation. In the green aisles of the
woods, the minister’s deep voice rang out with scathing ef-
fect. Even the birds and squirrels seemed hushed into awed
silence. It brought to the minister a vivid realization of
how those words would sound the next Sunday when he
should utter them before his people in the sacred hush of
the church.
His people!—they WERE his people. Could he do it?
Dare he do it? Dare he not do it? It was a fearful denuncia-
tion, even without the words that would follow—his own
words. He had prayed and prayed. He had pleaded earnest-
ly for help, for guidance. He longed—oh, how earnestly he
longed!—to take now, in this crisis, the right step. But was
this—the right step?
Slowly the minister folded the papers and thrust them
back into his pocket. Then, with a sigh that was almost a
moan, he flung himself down at the foot of a tree, and cov-
ered his face with his hands.
It was there that Pollyanna, on her way home from the

1 Pollyanna