Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the eleventh chapter of Rainbow Valley.
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Be continuing rainbow Valley by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
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Chapter Eleven.
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A dreadful discovery.
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Well, you kids have gone and done it now, was Mary's greeting as she joined them in the Valley.
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Miss Cornelia was up at Ingle side, holding agonized conclave with Anne and Susan, and Mary hoped that the session might be a long one, for it was all of two weeks since she had been allowed to revel with her chums in the Deer Valley of Rainbows.
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Done what?
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Demanded everybody but Walter, who was daydreaming as usual.
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It's the romance, young ones.
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I mean, said Mary, it was just awful of you.
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I wouldn't have done such a thing for the world.
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And I weren't brought up in a mance.
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Weren't brought up anywhere.
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Just come up.
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What have we done?
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Asked faith blankly Done?
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You'd better ask.
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The talk is something terrible.
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I expect it to ruin your father in his congregation.
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He'll never be able to live it down, poor man.
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Everybody blames him for it, and that isn't fair.
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But nothing is fair in this world.
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You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
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What have we done?
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Asked una again.
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Despairingly.
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Faith said nothing, but her eyes flashed golden brown, scorn at Mary.
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Oh, don't pretend innocence, said Mary witheringly everybody knows what you have done.
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I don't, interjected Jim blythe indignantly.
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Don't let me catch you making una cry, mary Vance.
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What are you talking about?
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I suppose you don't know since you're just back from up west, said Mary, somewhat subdued.
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Jim could always manage her, but everybody else knows.
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You'd better believe.
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Knows what?
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That Faith and Una stayed home from Sunday school last Sunday and cleaned house.
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We didn't.
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Cried faith and una in passionate denial.
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Mary looked haughtily at them.
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I didn't suppose you'd deny it after the way you've combed me down for lying.
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She said.
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What's the good of saying you didn't?
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Everybody knows you did.
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Elder Clowned, his wife, saw you.
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Some people say it will break up the church, but I don't go that far.
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You are nice ones.
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Anne Blood stood up and put her arms around the dazed Faith and Una.
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They were nice enough to take you in and feed you and clothe you when you were starving in Mr.
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Taylor's barn.
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Merry Vance, she said.
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You are very grateful.
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I must say I am grateful, retorted Mary.
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You'd know it if you'd heard me standing up for Mr.
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Meredith.
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Through thick and thin.
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I've blistered my tongue talking for him this week.
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I've said again and again that he isn't to blame if his young ones did clean house on Sunday.
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He was away and they knew better.
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But we didn't, protested una.
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It was Monday we cleaned house, wasn't it, Faith?
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Of course it was, said Faith with flashing eyes.
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We went to Sunday school in spite of the rain and no one came.
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Not even Elder Abraham for all his talk about fairweather Christians.
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It was Saturday.
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It rained, said Mary.
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Sunday was as fine as silk.
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I wasn't at Sunday school because I had a toothache, but everyone else was and they saw all your stuff out on the lawn.
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And Elder Abraham and Mrs.
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Elder Abraham saw you shaking rugs in the graveyard.
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Oona sat down among the daisies and began to cry.
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Look here, said Jim Resolutely, this thing must be cleared up.
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Somebody has made a mistake.
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Sunday was fine.
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Faith, how could you have thought Saturday was Sunday?
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Prayer meeting was Thursday night.
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Cried Faith.
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And Adam flew into the soup pot on Friday when Aunt Martha's cat chased him and spoiled our dinner.
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And Saturday there was a snake in the cellar and Carl caught it with a forked stick and carried it out.
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And Sunday.
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It rained.
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So there prayer meeting was Wednesday night, said Mary.
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Elder Baxter was to lead and he couldn't go Thursday night and it was changed to Wednesday.
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You were just a day out, Faith Meredith, and you did work on Sunday.
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Suddenly Faith burst into a peel of laughter.
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I suppose we did.
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What a joke.
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It isn't much of a joke for your father, said Mary sourly.
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It'll be all right when people find out.
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It was just a mistake, said Faith carelessly.
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We'll explain.
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You can explain till you're black in the face, said Mary.
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But a lie like that'll travel faster and further than you ever will.
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I've seen more of the world than you and I know.
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Besides, there are plenty of folks who won't believe it was a mistake.
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They will if I tell em, said Faith.
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You can't tell everybody, said Mary.
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No, I tell you.
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You've disgraced your father.
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Una's evening was spoiled by this dire reflection, but Faith refused to be made uncomfortable.
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Besides, she had a plan that would put everything right.
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So she put the past with its mistake behind her and gave herself over to enjoyment of the present.
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Jim went away to fish, and Walter came out of his reverie and proceeded to describe the woods of heaven.
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Mary pricked up her ears and listened respectfully.
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Despite her awe of Walter, she revelled in his book talk.
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It always gave her a delightful sensation.
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Walter had been reading his Colridge that day, and he pictured a heaven where there were gardens bright with sinuous rills or blossomed many an incense bearing tree.
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And there were forests ancient as the hills, unfolding sunny spots of greenery.
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I didn't know there was any woods in heaven, said Mary with a long breath.
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I thought it was all streets and streets and streets.
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Of course there are woods, said NAN.
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Mother can't live without trees and I can't.
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So what would be the use of going to heaven if there weren't any trees?
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There are cities, too, said the young dreamer.
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Splendid cities, colored just like the sunset, with sapphire towers and rainbow domes.
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They're built of gold and diamonds, whole streets of diamonds flashing like the sun in the squares.
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There are crystal fountains kissed by the light, and everywhere the asphotal blooms the flowers of heaven.
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Fancy, said Mary.
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I saw the main street in Charlottetown once, and I thought it was real grand, but I suppose it's nothing to heaven.
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Well, it all sounds gorgeous the way you tell it, but won't it be kind of dull, too?
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Oh, I guess we can have some fun when the angel's backs are turned, said Faith comfortably.
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Heaven is all fun, declared Die.
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The Bible doesn't say so, cried Mary, who had read so much of the Bible on Sunday afternoons under Miss Cornelia's eye.
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But she now considered herself quite an authority on it.
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Mother says the Bible language is figurative, said NAN.
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Doesn't that mean that it isn't true?
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Asked Mary.
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Hopefully.
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No, not exactly.
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But I think it means that heaven will be just like what you'd like it to be.
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I'd like it to be just like Rainbow Valley, said Mary.
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With all you kids going to gas and play with, that's good enough for me.
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Anyhow, we can't go to heaven till we're dead, and maybe not then.
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So what's the use of worrying?
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Here's JeM with a string of trout, and it's my turn to fry them.
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We ought to know more about heaven than Walter does when we're the minister's family, said Una as they walked home that night.
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We know just as much.
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But Walter can imagine, said Faith.
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Mrs.
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Elliot says he gets it from his mother.
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I do wish we hadn't made that mistake about Sunday, sighed una.
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Don't worry over that.
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I've thought of a great plan to explain so that everybody will know, said Faith.
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Just wait till tomorrow night.
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Thank you for joining Bite at Time Books.
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Today we'll be read a bite of one of your favorite classics again.
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My name is Brie Carlyle and I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite of Rainbow Valley.
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