And in that week there was one
day when all humanity seemed nailed to the cross; on that day the whole
planet must have been agroan with universal convulsion; everywhere the
hearts of men were failing them for fear.
It dawned calmly and coldly and greyly at Ingleside. Mrs. Blythe and
Rilla and Miss Oliver made ready for church in a suspense tempered by
hope and confidence. The doctor was away, having been summoned during
the wee sma's to the Marwood household in Upper Glen, where a little
war-bride was fighting gallantly on her own battleground to give life,
not death, to the world. Susan announced that she meant to stay home
that morning--a rare decision for Susan.
"But I would rather not go to church this morning, Mrs. Dr. dear," she
explained. "If Whiskers-on-the-moon were there and I saw him looking
holy and pleased, as he always looks when he thinks the Huns are
winning, I fear I would lose my patience and my sense of decorum and
hurl a Bible or hymn-book at him, thereby disgracing myself and the
sacred edifice. No, Mrs. Dr. dear, I shall stay home from church till
the tide turns and pray hard here."
"I think I might as well stay home, too, for all the good church will do
me today," Miss Oliver said to Rilla, as they walked down the
hard-frozen red road to the church. "I can think of nothing but the
question, 'Does the line still hold?'"
"Next Sunday will be Easter," said Rilla.
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