When complimented on this accomplishment he explained that his mother
had had a piano in India and had taught him how.

But nobody in Green Valley dreamed of seeing old Mrs. Rosenwinkle
marketing right in the madly busy heart of town all on a Saturday
morning. But there she was in her wheel chair, with the minister
alongside to see that the road was safe and clear.

And they say that every little while, right in the midst of her
bargaining, she would look around and say:

"My, but the world is big and pretty."

And when somebody reminded her of her belief that the world was flat
and ended on the far side of Petersen's pasture she never argued the
matter fiercely, as was her wont, but said instead that it _had_ ended
for her with Petersen's pasture until the day the new minister came.

And her daughter told how the paralyzed old body prayed day and night
for this new minister's salvation, he being other than a Lutheran.
Somebody thought that too good a joke to keep and told Cynthia's son
how hard old Mrs. Rosenwinkle was praying for his soul. They expected
him to laugh. But he didn't. He looked suddenly serious just as his
mother used to do when something touched the deep down places in her
heart.

All he said was that no man could ever have too many women praying for
him and that he was grateful as only a man whose mother was sleeping
thousands of miles away in a foreign land could be grateful.