The Lord 's Prayer is on it and you 'll devote your spare time this afternoon to learning it off by heart . There 's to be no more of such praying as I heard last night . '' `` I suppose I was very awkward , '' said Anne apologetically , `` but then , you see , I 'd never had any practice . You could n't really expect a person to pray very well the first time she tried , could you ? I thought out a splendid prayer after I went to bed , just as I promised you I would . It was nearly as long as a minister 's and so poetical . But would you believe it ? I could n't remember one word when I woke up this morning . And I 'm afraid I 'll never be able to think out another one as good . Somehow , things never are so good when they 're thought out a second time . Have you ever noticed that ? '' `` Here is something for you to notice , Anne . When I tell you to do a thing I want you to obey me at once and not stand stock-still and discourse about it . Just you go and do as I bid you . '' Anne promptly departed for the sitting-room across the hall ; she failed to return ; after waiting ten minutes Marilla laid down her knitting and marched after her with a grim expression . She found Anne standing motionless before a picture hanging on the wall between the two windows , with her eyes astar with dreams . The white and green light strained through apple trees and clustering vines outside fell over the rapt little figure with a half-unearthly radiance . `` Anne , whatever are you thinking of ? '' demanded Marilla sharply . Anne came back to earth with a start .
`` That , '' she said , pointing to the picture -- a rather vivid chromo entitled , `` Christ Blessing Little Children '' -- `` and I was just imagining I was one of them -- that I was the little girl in the blue dress , standing off XXXXX herself in the corner as if she did n't belong to anybody , like me .
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