"Mama," Mary Ellen asked the next morning at breakfast, "do I have to go to church today?"
"Yes, Mary Ellen, you do," Olivia answered.
"Daddy doesn't go to church," Mary Ellen argued.
"Your father is a grown man and he can make his own decisions about going to church," Olivia said,
at the same time giving John her why won't you go to church? look.
Grandma put in, "Now, Mary Ellen, you know that you've already done something very wrong, don't you? You
don't," she added, "want to add another sin to it by skipping church."
"Please pass the bacon and eggs," said Jim-Bob.
####
Church that morning was uncomfortable, not only for Mary Ellen, but for the rest of the family as well.
The nudges. The looks. The whispers. The heads shaking in disapproval.
It was almost time for the service to begin. Grandma sat down at the organ.
Reverend Fordwick announced the opening hymn, The Old Rugged Cross, and Grandma began to play.
As the Waltons walked out after the service, they heard one woman whisper to another, "I don't see how
Esther Walton could sit there playing that organ after what her granddaughter did."
Mary Ellen's face grew hot.
"I should think," the other woman said, "that she'd..."
"Excuse me? You should think that I'd what?"
The women turned around, looking very confused and embarrassed.
"Maybe," Grandma suggested pointedly, "you should think about what the Bible says about gossip."
"See that? "They're even talking about Grandma because of you!"
"That's enough, Erin."
"Yes, Mama."
####
The next morning, the Walton schoolchildren did not linger outside the schoolhouse talking with their schoolmates
They went right inside, hoping to avoid any confrontations.
But they could not escape the words written in large letters on the blackboard:
MARY ELLEN WALTON IS A CHEAT!
Miss Hunter entered, looked at the blackboard, and swiftly erased the words.
But she could not erase the words, and the feeling that they were all too true, from Mary Ellen's heart.
School began a few minutes later.
Martha Rose Coverdale walked by Mary Ellen's desk on the way to her own. Mary Ellen noticed some traces
of chalk dust on Martha Rose's fingers.
Martha Rose reached her desk, sat down, and then raised her hand.
"Yes, Martha Rose?"
"Miss Hunter," Martha Rose asked, "are you going to punish Mary Ellen for cheating in that poetry contest?"
Everyone waited to hear what Miss Hunter would say.
Mary Ellen was more determined than ever to get revenge on Martha Rose.
