Davy's Sunday School Rebellion

Davy Keith’s Sunday School rebellion begins as a protest against being bossed and ends with a confession in the dark. By deliberately abandoning church, fishing with the Cotton children, and lying to Rachel Lynde, he discovers that an adventurous morning cannot silence his conscience; only admitting what he has done allows him to feel at peace again.

Background and Provocation

The circumstances leave the twins to represent their household at church. Rachel Lynde, who ordinarily attends Sunday School, has twisted her ankle and is staying home; Anne Shirley is away in Carmody for the day, and Marilla Cuthbert has a headache. Davy and Dora are therefore going without their usual companions, though Rachel remains in charge of seeing them off.

Davy appears prepared to do everything expected of him. He has a cent for the Sunday School collection and a five-cent piece for church, carries both his Bible and Sunday School quarterly, and knows the lesson, Golden Text, and catechism question. His preparation is not voluntary enthusiasm: he had been made to study in Rachel’s kitchen the previous Sunday afternoon. Outwardly equipped for dutiful attendance, he is inwardly furious.

His anger has a specific cause. Since coming to Green Gables, Rachel has repeatedly tried to correct him, and the previous afternoon she had influenced Marilla against letting him go fishing with the Timothy Cottons. To Davy, this latest restriction confirms that Rachel has exceeded her authority. He accepts that Anne and Marilla may boss him, but decides Rachel has no right to do so—and announces that he will do precisely what she has forbidden.

A Rebellion Made Deliberate

Rachel’s instructions cover the ordinary disciplines of the morning: keep out of the dust, do not stop to talk in the church porch, sit still, remember the Golden Text and the collection, avoid whispering during prayer, and listen to the sermon. Once he and Dora are away from the lane, Davy makes disobedience a conscious program. He steps ankle-deep into the road dust and shuffles until a cloud surrounds him, then declares that he will talk in the porch, fidget, whisper, pretend not to know the lesson, and discard both collections.

He makes that last threat real by hurling the cent and nickel over Mr. Barry’s fence. The act is more than a moment of temper: the money had been set aside for two separate church collections, and Davy throws away both contributions in a gesture of defiance. When Dora suggests that Satan made him do it, Davy insists that the decision was his own. He then rejects Sunday School and church altogether in favor of going to the Cottons, who had said that their mother and older sisters would be away and nobody would make them attend.

Dora does not want to join him. Davy overcomes her resistance by threatening to tell Marilla that Frank Bell kissed her at school the previous Monday. This coercion carries the rebellion beyond his own refusal to obey: he makes his sister participate by using a secret that embarrasses her. She follows, distressed and looking back toward the Sunday School she would rather attend, while Davy anticipates the fishing trip.

The Fishing Excursion

At the Cotton home, Davy announces that the group has come to fish. Pete, Tommy, Adolphus, and Mirabel Cotton greet the plan enthusiastically and set off to dig for worms, with Mirabel carrying a tin can. The children cannot use the pond, where people returning from church might see them, so they go instead to a brook in the woods behind the Cotton house.

Davy adapts readily to the outing. He takes off his boots and stockings and borrows Tommy Cotton’s overalls, making it easier to cross the bog, marsh, and undergrowth. Dora, by contrast, remains unhappy: she holds on to her Bible and quarterly, tries to keep her boots clean and her white dress free of damage, and bitterly imagines the class and teacher she has left behind. Mirabel offers her an apron, but Dora refuses it.

The brook supplies plenty of trout, and in about an hour the children have caught all they want. Back at the house, Dora sits primly on a hencoop while the others play tag. The children then climb onto the pig-house roof and cut their initials into the saddleboard. A flat henhouse roof and a pile of straw prompt another game: they climb up and dive off into the straw, whooping and yelling. The sequence gives Davy exactly the unruly pleasures he had promised himself, but the fish remain behind when the rumble of wheels on the pond bridge signals that churchgoers are returning. Davy removes the borrowed overalls, puts his own clothes back on, and leaves the trout rather than risk taking them home.

The Cost of Concealment

Once the excitement has ebbed, Davy’s confidence begins to weaken. He would not admit his discomfort to Dora, but privately considers that going to Sunday School and church might have been better after all. His thoughts turn to Rachel’s kindness as well as her strictness: her kitchen cupboard has cookies, and she had mended his torn school trousers without telling Marilla. Remembering that quiet favor complicates his picture of Rachel as merely a bossy adversary.

At dinner with Rachel, Davy attempts to hide his absence. When she asks whether his whole class attended Sunday School, he claims that everyone was there except one person. He also says that he recited the Golden Text and catechism. Asked what text Mr. Harvey used, he first cannot answer; after gulping water, he recites a Golden Text he learned several weeks earlier. Rachel stops questioning him, but the effort to sustain the lie has spoiled his appetite: he manages only one helping of pudding. When Dora presses him, he snaps at her to be quiet.

The telling of one falsehood has not settled the matter; instead, Davy now has to maintain the appearance that he attended. At last he withdraws behind the woodpile to think over his wrongdoing. His retreat marks a contrast with the morning’s public acts of defiance. The dust, the discarded money, and the games had been visible expressions of rebellion; the lies and the private unease leave him alone with what he knows he has done.

Confession and Resolution

After dark, Anne returns to Green Gables tired from the week’s festivities and nearly asleep when Davy softly opens her door. He flings himself onto her bed, puts his arms around her neck, and says he could not sleep until he had told somebody how miserable he felt. He is afraid that his conduct will make Anne stop liking him, and says he could not pray because he was ashamed to let God know what he had done.

Anne asks what happened, and Davy’s account comes out all at once: he ran away from Sunday School, went fishing with the Cottons, told Rachel nearly half a dozen lies, used a near-swear word, and called God names. Anne does not punish him or threaten to expose him. She says he has already been punished through his unhappiness, identifying that distress as his conscience: the part of a person that signals wrongdoing and makes persistence in it painful.

Davy had noticed the feeling but did not know what to call it, and wonders whether he can get rid of it. Anne locates conscience in the soul rather than the stomach. He then asks whether she will tell Marilla and Rachel. Anne promises not to tell anyone and asks whether he is sorry. Once he has her forgiveness, Davy says he will ask God for forgiveness too. He prays that he is sorry for behaving badly and will try to behave on Sundays, then reports that he no longer feels miserable.

The resolution does not turn Davy into a solemn or fully reformed child: he admits he might be bad in some other way. But he accepts that this particular course of action was not worth its cost and promises not to repeat its central offenses—naughty words, Sunday truancy, and lies to cover his sins. The day’s movement is from imposed obedience, through chosen disobedience and concealment, to a freely acknowledged responsibility. Davy regains his ease not because the rebellion goes undiscovered, but because he chooses to tell the truth to Anne and make amends.