“Do You like being a minister?”
The Rev. Paul Ford looked up now, very quickly.
“Do I like—Why, what an odd question! Why do you ask that, my dear?”
“Nothing—only the way you looked. It made me think of my father. He used to look like that—sometimes.”
“Did he?” The minister's voice was polite, but his eyes had gone back to the dried leaf on the ground.
“Yes, and I used to ask him just as I did you if he was glad he was a minister.”
The man under the tree smiled a little sadly.
“Well—what did he say?”
“Oh, he always said he was, of course, but 'most always he said, too, that he wouldn't STAY a minister a minute if 'twasn't for the rejoicing texts.”
“The—WHAT?” The Rev. Paul Ford's eyes left the leaf and gazed wonderingly into Pollyanna's merry little face.