This well-known short story appears in Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories, one of John Updike's earliest books and isnarrated by a divinity student at his summer job. From the heights of hiswooden throne, the fastidious and aloof young narrator delivers a silent sermonaddressed to the beachgoers-"the middle-aged, burdened with children andaluminum chairs." Though full of himself and his mission, he appeals to us byvirtue of his earnestness and promise, and the call for which he waits. Updikereads with a tender, ironic understanding of his haughty hero.
