Chapter 7 Summary

That night Marilla discovers that Anne does not know how to say her nightly prayers. As enchanted as the young girl is by words and poetry, Anne has as much enthusiasm for prayer as she does for her own red hair. A life of toil and hardship has little space for prayer in Anne's estimation. Obliging Marilla, Anne makes an earnest attempt at prayer, thankful for the Lake of Shining Waters and the White Way, asking to remain at Green Gables and to be good-looking when she is all grown up. Marilla is stricken by the youthful prayer, but reasons that it is ignorance and not wickedness that made the young girl pray so. In exasperation, Marilla deems Anne to be "next door to a perfect heathen," and sets to take Anne to Sunday school and begin her proper religious education.

Chapter 7 Analysis