2 Showing Off in Sunday School

CHAPTER 2 Showing Off in Sunday School At breakfast the next day, Tom was still in a happy mood. With his belly full of ample portions of Aunt Polly's delicious hotcakes, he couldn't help but reflect on his success with Ben Rogers the day before. Suddenly, Tom remembered that it was Sunday, and Sunday meant much more than a great breakfast. As Aunt Polly got out her gold leaf Bible and announced that it was time for family worship, Tom let out a mournful groan. An agonizing half an hour later, the boy was excused to memorize his verses for

Sunday school. "I done mine yesterday," his brother Sid said. Grinning from ear to ear, Sid then raced out the front door to go play. "Quit fooling around, Tom!" Aunt Polly called. "Your cousin Mary will be here any minute now." Tom trudged off to his room and blew the dust off his tiny Bible. He had five Bible verses to memorize. Tom picked the Sermon on the Mount on account of those being the five shortest verses he could find. An hour later he woke up, facedown in the holy book, with his cousin Mary's voice ringing in his ear. "Hard at work I see." Mary's eyes danced brightly as she took the book from her cousin. "Let me hear you recite." Tom bent all his energies to remembering what he hadn't read.

"Blessed are the a—a—" "Poor," Mary prompted. "Yes—poor. Blessed are the poor—i—i" "In spirit." And on it went, with Tom stuttering through the verses and Mary reminding him gently. After a slow and painful hour, Mary announced it was now time for Tom to get dressed for Sunday school. After another groan from the boy—this one even louder than the one before—Mary helped Tom into his Sunday suit, buttoning his shirt to the top and fastening his necktie tightly. Tom made a face, feeling every bit as uncomfortable as he looked, as Mary brushed him off and crowned him with a speckled straw hat. He growled at Sid, who had come in from playing and was laughing at his brother from the doorway. Although he tried, Tom couldn't think of anything he

hated more than Sunday school. Unlike Tom, his cousin Mary loved going to Sunday school, and she had even won some prizes there. If you could recite two verses from the Bible, you got a blue ticket from the Sunday school teacher, a tall, slim man with blond hair and a deep booming voice named Walters. Ten blue tickets were equal to a red ticket, and ten red tickets were equal to a yellow one. For ten yellow tickets, you could become the proud owner of a plainly bound Bible. Two thousand verses seemed to Tom a heavy price to pay for such a prize. But Mary had won two of the Bibles, and a German-born boy had laid claim to four or five! Although Tom had no use for such a prize, he still longed for the glory that came with earning it. After all, the delivery of the Bibles was a rare and noteworthy event.

The sun shone brightly as Tom slowly walked behind Mary and Sid down the dusty road to Sunday school. At the door of the church, Tom saw Billy, another friend of his who had also been dragged kicking and screaming into his Sunday best. Suddenly, Tom got an idea. "Say, Billy, you got a yeller ticket?" "Yes." "What'll you take for her?" "What'll you give?" "Piece of lickerish and a fishhook." "Let's see 'em." The goods were examined, and the deal was done. Tom had a pile of such treasure in his pockets, and before too long, he had traded all of it for tickets: yellow, red, even blue tickets. When the bell finally rang for church, Tom's pockets were stuffed with

tickets. Mr.Walters' Sunday school class was a restless, noisy, troublesome bunch of children, and Tom was the worst of them all. He couldn't resist pulling the hair of the first boy he saw even though Mr.Walters immediately scolded him. But as soon as Mr.Walters turned his back, Tom poked the boy in front of him with a pin. "Ouch!" yelped the boy, and Mr.Walters was yelling at Tom again. Eventually, both Tom and the class settled down, and Mr.Walters listened patiently as the children stumbled through their verses. Finally, after everyone had finished reciting, Mr.Walters spoke. "Now children," he announced, "I want you all to sit up as straight and pretty as you can and give me all of your attention." As much as he tried to listen to what his