Ginger Pye Read Online Free PDF

about the comers. They must surely have passed Mrs. Widdemeyer's pew by now, and who sat in corners anyway?
    "Whee-ee," said Rachel, sending Uncle Bennie sliding down one long pew.
    And, "Whee-ee," said Jerry, picking him up, putting him on the next pew, and sending him sliding back.
    This was great fun for everybody and particularly for Uncle Bennie who thought it almost as good as sledding. He did not mind at all being turned into a duster. They soon finished the long pews in this pleasant manner and started on the little side pews. When Uncle Bennie got tired of the new game, Rachel and Jerry tied the dusters around their own waists and slid back and forth across the pews themselves. Now the work went so much quicker that they finished the last pew as the clock in the other church, the little white church, on the Green, struck one, two, three, four.

    The light shining through the church windows was growing dim and the children were growing very tired and hungry. There were now only the long choir stalls, two on each side, and the pulpit, and they would be finished.
    "We'll save the pulpit for the end," said Rachel, having an idea the pulpit was the dessert of the job.
    While they were dusting the long choir stalls, in came the altar ladies to arrange the flowers for tomorrow's service, and to polish things up at this end of the church. So the children had to take the dusters off and be businesslike. However, the altar ladies paid no attention to the pew dusters. They said not a word, quietly did their arranging, and tiptoed out.
    Now. There was just one place left to dust and
this was the pulpit. "I'll dust it," said Rachel, anxious to get up in the pulpit and hoping the others did not have the same desire. They were quite content, though, to sit in the front pew and rest while Rachel did this last important dusting.
    At first Rachel felt very timid about going up in the minister's pulpit, standing there, and dusting it. It was quite an awesome thing to do, stand in a minister's pulpit, the place where he delivered his sonorous sermons and read the lessons for the day. She resolved to dust it carefully by hand, so that when the Reverend Gandy was waving his arms and exhorting the congregation, the palms of his hands would not be black with dust and cause consternation among his flock.
    But once Rachel was up there in the pulpit she forgot her timidity. In fact, the more she recalled how the minister looked and sounded doing his exhorting the less timid she became. In the end, she waved her duster in the air and started to exhort her congregation which, in this case, consisted of Jerry and Uncle Bennie. Uncle Bennie was beginning to look sleepy and, like tall Judge Ball and short dumpy Mrs. Widdemeyer on Sundays, he needed a bit of waking up.
    Jerry and Uncle Bennie could not help laughing.
Neither one of them thought they should be laughing in church, but they couldn't help it, and naturally this inspired Rachel to more exciting and dramatic heights.
    "Ca' the Ethiopia' cha'ge his ski' or the leopar' his spo'?" she demanded, remembering a story Gramma told of a certain missionary who, returning from Africa, delivered his text in this fashion, for he had some difficulty with his speech.
    This doubled Uncle Bennie up with joy, for he remembered the story too. "Ca' the Ethiopia'..." he repeated.
    "Hush," said Rachel. "Let me be the minister. And let you be the congregation." Obediently Uncle Bennie kept still, waiting for more fun. This fun Rachel was happy to supply with a rendition that was supposed to represent the Reverend Gandy when he was most eloquent.
    At this triumphant moment, out of a corner of her eye, Rachel thought she glimpsed the Reverend Gandy himself, standing in one of the rear side doorways of the church. She didn't dare to take a good look to make sure. She was frozen with embarrassment, her arms raised to heaven, as still as in a painted picture. Then, with great presence of mind, she switched from her