Latest / Rainbow Valley / Rainbow Valley

Transcript

Rainbow Valley · Rainbow Valley

• 0:00
  Chapter one, Home Again. It was a clear, apple green evening in
• 0:05
  May, and for Wynd's Harbor was mirroring back the clouds of the golden West
• 0:10
  between its softly dark shores. The sea moaned eerily on the sand bar,
• 0:15
  sorrowful even in spring. But a sly, jovial wind came piping down the
• 0:21
  red harbor road, along which Miss Cornelia's comfortable, matronly figure was making its
• 0:26
  way towards the village of Glen Saint Mary. Miss Cornelia was rightfully Missus Marshall
• 0:32
  Elliot and had been Missus Marshall Elliot for thirteen years, but even yet more
• 0:37
  people referred to her as Miss Cornelia than as Missus Eliot. The old name
• 0:41
  was dear to her old friends. Only one of them contemptuously dropped it.
• 0:46
  Susan Baker, the gray and grim and faithful handmaiden of the Blithe family at
• 0:51
  Ingleside, never lost an opportunity of calling her Missus Marshall Elliot with the most
• 0:56
  killing and pointed emphasis, as if to say you wanted to be missus,
• 1:00
  and Missus you shall be with a vengeance. As far as I'm concerned,
• 1:03
  Miss Cornelia was going up to Ingleside to see Doctor and missus blythe who were
• 1:08
  just home from Europe. They had been away for three months, having left
• 1:12
  in February to attend a famous medical congress in London, and certain things which
• 1:18
  Miss Cornelia was anxious to discuss, had taken place in the Glen during their
• 1:22
  absence. For one thing, there was a new family in the manse,
• 1:26
  and such a family Miss Cornelia shook her head over them several times as she
• 1:30
  walked briskly along. Susan Baker and the Anne Shirley of other days saw her
• 1:37
  coming as they sat on the big veranda at Ingleside, enjoying the charm of
• 1:41
  the cat's light, the sweetness of sleepy robins swhistling among the twilight maples,
• 1:46
  and the dance of a gusty group of daffodils blowing against the old, mellow
• 1:49
  red brick wall of the lawn. Anne was sitting on the steps, her
• 1:55
  hands clasped over her knee, looking in the kind dusk, as girlish as
• 1:59
  a mother of many has any right to be, and the beautiful gray green
• 2:02
  eyes gazing down the harbor road were as full of unquenchable sparkle and dream as
• 2:07
  ever behind her in the hammock, Rilla Blythe was curled up, a fat,
• 2:13
  roly poly little creature of six years, the youngest of the Ingleside children.
• 2:17
  She had curly red hair and hazel eyes that were now buttoned up after
• 2:22
  the funny, wrinkled fashion in which Rilla always went to sleep. Surely,
• 2:27
  the little brown boy, as he was known in the family who's who was
• 2:30
  asleep in Susan's arms. He was brown haired, brown eyed, and brown
• 2:35
  skinned, with very rosy cheeks, and he was Susan's especial love. After
• 2:39
  his birth. Anne had been very ill for a long time, and Susan
• 2:44
  mothered the baby with a passionate tenderness which none of the other children, dear
• 2:47
  as they were to her, had ever called out. Doctor Blythe had said
• 2:52
  that but for her, he would never have lived. I gave him life
• 2:55
  just as much as you did, missus. Doctor Dear Susan was wont to
• 2:59
  say, he is just as much my baby as he is yours. And
• 3:02
  indeed it was always to Susan that Shirley ran to be kissed for bumps and
• 3:07
  rock to sleep and protected from well deserved spankings. Susan had conscientiously spanked all
• 3:13
  the other Blithe children when she thought they needed it for their soul's good,
• 3:16
  but she would not spank Shirley, nor allow his mother to do it.
• 3:21
  Once Doctor Blythe had spanked him, and Susan had been stormily indignant that man
• 3:25
  would spank an angel. Missus doctor dear that he would, she had declared
• 3:30
  bitterly, and she would not make the poor doctor a pie. For weeks,
• 3:34
  she had taken Shirley with her to her brother's home during his parents' absence,
• 3:38
  while all the other children had gone to Avonlea, and she had three
• 3:42
  blessed months of him all to herself. Nevertheless, Susan was very glad to
• 3:46
  find herself back at Ingleside with all her darlings around her. Again. Ingleside
• 3:52
  was her world, and in it she reigned supreme. Even Anne seldom questioned
• 3:57
  her decisions, much to the disgust of Missus Rachel Lynde of green Gables,
• 4:00
  who gloomily told Anne whenever she visited Four Winds that she was letting Susan get
• 4:04
  to be entirely too much of a boss and would live to ruin. Here
• 4:09
  is Cornelia Bryant coming up the harbor road, Missus Doctor Dear, said Susan,
• 4:14
  she will be coming to unload three months of gossip on us. I
• 4:16
  hope, so said Anne, hugging her knees. I'm starving for glence and
• 4:21
  merry gossip, Susan. I hope Miss Cornelia can tell me everything that has
• 4:26
  happened while we've been away. Everything who has got born or married or drunk,
• 4:30
  who has died or gone away or come or fought or lost a cow
• 4:34
  or found a bow. It's so delightful to be home again with all the
• 4:39
  dear Glen folks, and I want to know all about them. Why.
• 4:43
  I remember wondering as I walked through Westminster Abbey, which of her two especial
• 4:46
  bows Millicent Drew would finally marry. Do you know, Susan, I have
• 4:50
  a dreadful suspicion that I love gossip. Well, of course, missus doctor
• 4:55
  Dear, admitted Susan. Every proper woman likes to hear the news. I
• 4:59
  am rather in to the Millicent Drew's case myself. I never had a bow
• 5:02
  much less too, and I do not mind now, for being an old
• 5:05
  man does not hurt you when you get used to it Millicent's hair always looked
• 5:10
  to me as if she had swept it up with a broom. But the
• 5:12
  men do not seem to mind that they see only her pretty, piquant,
• 5:15
  mocking little face. Susan, that may very well be, missus doctor dear.
• 5:20
  The Good Book says that favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. But
• 5:24
  I should not have minded finding that out for myself if it had been so
• 5:28
  ordained. I have no doubt we will all be beautiful when we are angels.
• 5:31
  But what good will it do us? Then? Speaking of gossip,
• 5:34
  however, they do say that poor missus Harrison Miller over Harbor tried to hang
• 5:39
  herself last week. Oh, Susan, calm yourself, missus doctor dear.
• 5:44
  She did not succeed, But I really do not blame her for trying,
• 5:47
  for her husband is a terrible man, But she was very foolish to think
• 5:51
  of hanging herself and leaving the way clear for him to marry some other woman.
• 5:56
  If I had been in her shoes, Missus doctor dear, I would
• 5:59
  have gone to work to worry him so that he would try to hang himself
• 6:01
  instead of me. Not that I hold with people hanging themselves under any circumstances.
• 6:05
  Missus, doctor dear, what is the matter with Harrison Miller anyway?
• 6:11
  Said Anne impatiently. He is always driving someone to extremes. Well, some
• 6:15
  people call it religion, and some call it cussedness, pegging your pardon,
• 6:18
  missus doctor dear, for using such a word. It seems they cannot make
• 6:23
  out which it is. In Harrison's case, there are days when he growls
• 6:27
  at everybody because he thinks he is fore ordained to eternal punishment. And then
• 6:30
  there are days when he says he does not care and goes and gets drunk.
• 6:34
  My own opinion is that he has not sound in his intellect, for
• 6:38
  none of that branch of the Miller's were his grandfather went out of his mind.
• 6:43
  He thought he was surrounded by big black spiders. They crawled over him
• 6:46
  and floated in the air about him. I hope I shall never go insane,
• 6:49
  missus doctor dear, And I do not think I will, because it
• 6:53
  is not a habit of the Baker's. But if an all wise providence should
• 6:57
  decree it, I hope it will not take the form of big black spy,
• 7:00
  for I loathe the animals. As for Missus Miller, I do not
• 7:03
  know whether she really deserves pity or not. There are some who say she
• 7:06
  just married Harrison despite Richard Taylor, which seems to me a very peculiar reason
• 7:12
  for getting married. But then, of course I am no judge of things
• 7:15
  matrimonial, missus doctor dear. And there is Cornelia Bryant at the gate,
• 7:18
  So I will put this blessed brown baby on his bed and get my knitting.
• 7:24
  End of chapter one, Chapter two, sheer gossip. Where are the
• 7:29
  other children, asked miss Cornelia when the first greetings cordial on her side,
• 7:33
  rapturous on Anne's, and dignified on Susan's. Whereover Shirley is in bed,
• 7:39
  and Gem and Walter and the twins are down in their beloved Rainbow Valley?
• 7:43
  Said Anne. They just came home this afternoon, you know, and they
• 7:46
  could hardly wait until supper was over before rushing down to the valley. They
• 7:49
  love it above every spot on earth. Even the Maple Grove doesn't rival it
• 7:54
  in their affections. I am afraid they love it too well, said Susan
• 7:59
  gloomily. Little Gem said once he would rather go to Rainbow Valley than to
• 8:03
  heaven. When he died, and that was not a proper remark. I
• 8:07
  suppose they had a great time in Avonlea, said Miss Cornelia. Enormous.
• 8:11
  Marilla does spoil them terribly. Gem in particular, can do no wrong in
• 8:16
  her eyes. Miss Cuthbert must be an old lady now, said Miss Cornelia,
• 8:20
  getting out her knitting so that she could hold her own with Susan.
• 8:24
  Miss Cornelia held that the woman whose hands were employed always had the advantage over
• 8:28
  the woman whose hands were not. Marilla is eighty five, said Anne,
• 8:33
  with a sigh. Her hair is snow white, but strange to say her
• 8:37
  eyesight is better than it was when she was sixty. Well, Dearie,
• 8:41
  I'm real glad you're all back. It's been dreadful lonesome, but we haven't
• 8:46
  been dull in the glen. Believe me, there hasn't been such an exciting
• 8:48
  spring in my time. As far as church matters go. We've got settled
• 8:52
  with a minister at last, Anne, Dearie, the Reverend John Knox Meridith,
• 8:58
  missus doctor Deere said Susan resolved not to let Miss Cornelia tell all the
• 9:01
  news. Is he nice? Asked Anne interestedly. Miss Cornelia sighed, and
• 9:07
  Susan groaned. Yes he's nice enough, if that were all, said the
• 9:13
  former. He is very nice, and very learned, and very spiritual.
• 9:16
  But oh, Anne, dearie, he has no common sense. How was
• 9:22
  it you called him? Then? Well, there's no doubt he is by
• 9:26
  far the best preacher we ever had in Glens at Mary's Church, said Miss
• 9:30
  Cornelia, veering a tack or two. I suppose it is because he is
• 9:33
  so moony and absent minded that he never got a town call. His trial
• 9:37
  sermon was simply wonderful, Believe me, everyone went mad about it. And
• 9:41
  his looks. He is very comely, missus, doctor dear, and when
• 9:46
  all is said and done, I do like to see a well looking man
• 9:50
  in the pulpit, broke in Susan, thinking it was time she asserted herself
• 9:54
  again. Besides, said Miss Cornelia, we were anxious to get settled,
• 9:58
  and mister Meredith was It was the first candidate we were all agreed on.
• 10:01
  Somebody had some objection to all the others. There was some talk of calling
• 10:05
  mister fulsom He was a good preacher too, but somehow people didn't care for
• 10:11
  his appearance. He was too dark and sleek. He looked exactly like a
• 10:15
  great black tomcat. That he did. Missus doctor dear, said Susan.
• 10:18
  I never could abide such a man in the pulpit every Sunday. Then mister
• 10:22
  Rogers came, and he was like a chip in porridge. Neither harm nor
• 10:26
  good, resumed Miss Cornelia. But if he had preached like Peter and Paul,
• 10:31
  it would have profited him nothing. For that was the day Old Caleb
• 10:35
  Ramsey's sheep straight into church and gave a loud bah just as he announced his
• 10:39
  text. Everybody laughed, and poor Rogers had no chance. After that,
• 10:43
  some thought we ought to call mister Stewart because he was so well educated he
• 10:48
  could read the New Testament in five languages. But I do not think he
• 10:52
  was any surer than other men of getting to heaven. Because of that,
• 10:56
  interjected Susan. Most of us didn't like it, delivery, said Miss Cornelia,
• 11:01
  ignoring Susan. He talked in grunts, so to speak, and mister
• 11:05
  Arnett couldn't preach at all, and he picked about the worst candidating text there
• 11:11
  is in the Bible, curse ye Merrows. Whenever he got stuck for an
• 11:15
  idea, he would bang the Bible and shout very bitterly, curse ye Merrow's.
• 11:20
  Poor Merrow's got thoroughly cursed that day, whoever he was, Missus doctor
• 11:24
  Dear, said Susan. The minister who is candidating can't be too careful about
• 11:28
  what text he chooses, said Miss Cornelia solemnly. I believe mister Pearson would
• 11:33
  have got the call if he had picked a different text. But when he
• 11:37
  announced I will lift my eyes to the hills, he was done for every
• 11:41
  one, grinned for every one. Knew that those two hill girls from the
• 11:46
  harbor Head have been setting their caps for every single minister who came to the
• 11:50
  glen for the last fifteen years. And mister Newman had too large a family.
• 11:56
  He stayed with my brother in law, James Klow, said, Susan,
• 12:00
  how many children have you got? I asked him, nine boys and
• 12:03
  a sister for each of them, he said eighteen. Said I dear me,
• 12:07
  what a family, And then he laughed and laughed. But I do
• 12:11
  not know why, missus doctor dear, And I am certain that eighteen children
• 12:15
  would be too many for any man's. He had only ten children, Susan
• 12:20
  explained, Miss Cornelia with contemptuous patience, and ten good children would not be
• 12:24
  much worse for the man's and the congregation than the four who are there now.
• 12:30
  Though I wouldn't say, Anne, dearie, that they are so bad
• 12:33
  either. I like them. Everybody likes them. It's impossible to help liking
• 12:37
  them. They would be real, nice little souls if there were any one
• 12:41
  to look after their manners and teach them what is right and proper. For
• 12:45
  instance, at school, the teacher says they are model children, but at
• 12:48
  home they simply run wild. What about missus Meredith, asked Anne. There's
• 12:54
  no missus Meredith. That is just the trouble. Mister Meredith is a widow.
• 13:00
  His wife died four years ago. If we had known that, I
• 13:03
  don't suppose we would have called him, for a widower is even worse in
• 13:07
  a congregation than a single man. But he was heard to speak of his
• 13:11
  children, and we all supposed there was a mother too, And when they
• 13:16
  came, there was nobody but old Aunt Martha, as they call her.
• 13:20
  She's a cousin of mister Meredith's mother, I believe, and he took her
• 13:22
  in to save her from the poorhouse. She is seventy five years old,
• 13:26
  half blind and very deaf, and very cranky, and a very poor cook.
• 13:33
  Missus doctor Tear, the worst possible manager for a manse, said miss
• 13:37
  Cornelia bitterly. Mister Meredith won't get any other housekeeper because he says it would
• 13:41
  hurt Aunt Martha's feelings. And Dearie, believe me, the state of that
• 13:46
  manse is something terrible. Everything is thick with dust, and nothing is ever
• 13:50
  in its place. And we had painted and papered it all so nice before
• 13:56
  they came. There are four children, you say, asked Anne, beginning
• 14:00
  to mother them already in her heart. Yes, they run up, just
• 14:03
  like the steps of a stair. Gerald's the oldest. He's twelve, and
• 14:07
  they call him Jerry. He's a clever boy. Faith is eleven. She
• 14:11
  is a regular tomboy, but pretty as a picture. I must say,
• 14:16
  she looks like an angel. But she is a holy terror for mischief,
• 14:18
  Missus doctor dear, said Susan solemnly. I was at the manse one night
• 14:22
  last week, and missus James Millson was there too. She had brought them
• 14:26
  up a dozen eggs and a little pail of milk, a very little pale
• 14:31
  missus doctor dear Faith took them and whisked down the cellar with them. Near
• 14:35
  the bottom of the stairs, she caught her toe and fell the rest of
• 14:37
  the way Milk and eggs and hal you can imagine the result, missus doctor
• 14:41
  dear, But that child came up laughing. I don't know whether I'm myself
• 14:46
  or a custard pie, she said, and Missus James Millson was very angry.
• 14:52
  She said she would never take another thing to the manse if it was
• 14:54
  to be wasted and destroyed in that fashion. Maria Millison never heard herself taking
• 14:58
  things the manse, sniffed Miss Cornelia. She just took them that night as
• 15:03
  an excuse for curiosity. But poor Faith is always getting into scrapes. She
• 15:07
  is so heedless and impulsive, just like me. I'm going to like your
• 15:13
  faith, said Anne decidedly. She is full of spunk, and I do
• 15:16
  like spunk. Missus doctor dear, admitted Susan, there's something taking about her,
• 15:22
  conceded Miss Cornelia. You never see her, but she's laughing, and
• 15:26
  somehow it always makes you want to laugh too. She can't even keep a
• 15:31
  straight face in church. Una is ten. She's a sweet little thing,
• 15:35
  not pretty but sweet. And Thomas Carlyle is nine. They call him Carl
• 15:41
  and he has a regular mania for collecting toads and bugs and frogs and bringing
• 15:46
  them into the house. I suppose he was responsible for the dead rat that
• 15:50
  was lying on a chair in the parlor the afternoon. Missus Grant called it.
• 15:54
  Gave her a turn, said Susan, and I do not wonder,
• 15:58
  for man's parlors are are no places for dead rats. To be sure,
• 16:02
  it may have been the cat who left it there. He is as full
• 16:04
  of the old knick as he can be stuffed, Missus doctor Dear, a
• 16:07
  man's cat should at least look respectable, in my opinion, whatever he really
• 16:11
  is. But I never saw such a rakish looking beast. And he walks
• 16:15
  along the ridgepole of the man's almost every evening at sunset, Missus doctor Dear,
• 16:19
  and waves his tail. And that is not becoming the worst of it
• 16:25
  is. They are never decently dressed, sighed Miss Cornelia. And since the
• 16:30
  snow went, they go to school barefooted. Now you know, Anne,
• 16:33
  dearie, that isn't the right thing for man's children, especially when the Methodist
• 16:37
  minister's little girl always wears such nice buttoned boots, and I do wish they
• 16:42
  wouldn't play in the old Methodist graveyard. It's very tempting when it's right beside
• 16:48
  the man's said Anne. I've always thought graveyards must be delightful places to play
• 16:52
  in. Oh no, you did not, missus, Doctor dear, said
• 16:56
  loyal Susan, determined to protect Anne from herself. You have too much good
• 17:00
  sense and decorum. Why did they ever build that manse beside the graveyard in
• 17:06
  the first place, asked Anne. Their lawn is so small, there's no
• 17:10
  place for them to play except in the graveyard. It was a mistake,
• 17:14
  admitted Miss Cornelia. But they got the lot cheap, and no other man's
• 17:18
  children ever thought of playing there. Mister Meredith shouldn't allow it. But he
• 17:22
  has always got his nose buried in a book. When he is home,
• 17:26
  he reads and reads, or walks about in his study in a day dream.
• 17:30
  So far he hasn't forgotten to be in church on Sundays, but twice
• 17:33
  he has forgotten about the prayer meeting, and one of the elders had to
• 17:37
  go over to the manse and remind him. And he forgot about Fanny Cooper's
• 17:41
  wedding. They rang him up on the phone, and then he rushed ride
• 17:45
  over just as he was carpet slippers and all. One wouldn't mind if the
• 17:48
  Methodists didn't laugh so about it. But there's one comfort. They can't criticize
• 17:55
  his sermons. He wakes up when he's in the pulpit, believe me,
• 17:57
  and the Methodist minist can't breach at all, so they tell me I have
• 18:02
  never heard him. Thank goodness. Miss Cornelia's scorn of men had abated somewhat
• 18:07
  since her marriage, but her scorn of Methodists remained untinged of charity, Susan
• 18:12
  smiled slyly. They do, say, missus Marshall Elliot, that the Methodists
• 18:17
  and Presbyterians are talking of uniting. She said, well, all I hope
• 18:22
  is that I'll be under the sod if it ever comes to pass. Retorted
• 18:26
  Miss Cornelia, I shall never have truck or trade with Methodists, and mister
• 18:30
  Meredith will find that he'd better steer clear of them too. He is entirely
• 18:34
  too sociable with them, believe me. Why he went to the Jacob Drew
• 18:40
  Silver wedding supper and got into a nice scrape as a result, what was
• 18:44
  it? Missus Drew asked him to carve the roast goose, for Jacob Drew
• 18:48
  never did or could carve well. Mister Meredith tackled it and in the process
• 18:53
  he knocked it clean off the platter into Missus Rhese's lap, who was sitting
• 18:57
  next to him. And he just said, dreamily, missus Reese, will
• 19:02
  you kindly return me that goose. Missus Reese returned it as meek as Moses.
• 19:07
  But she must have been furious, for she had on her new silk
• 19:10
  dress. The worst of it is she was a Methodist. But I think
• 19:15
  that is better than if she was a Presbyterian, interjected Susan. If she
• 19:18
  had been a Presbyterian, she would most likely have left the church. And
• 19:22
  we cannot afford to lose our members. And Missus Reese is not liked in
• 19:26
  her own church because she gives herself such great airs, so that the Methodists
• 19:30
  would be rather pleased that mister Merideth spoiled her dress. The point is he
• 19:36
  made himself ridiculous, and I, for one, do not like to see
• 19:40
  my minister made ridiculous in the eyes of the Methodists, said Miss Cornelia stiffly,
• 19:45
  if he had had a wife, it would not have happened. I
• 19:48
  do not see if he had a dozen wives, how they could have prevented
• 19:52
  missus Drew from using up her old tough gander on the wedding feast, said
• 19:56
  Susan stubbornly. They say that was her her husband's doing, said Miss Cornelia.
• 20:02
  Jacob Drew as a conceited, stingy, domineering creature. And they do
• 20:07
  say he and his wife detest each other, which does not seem to me
• 20:11
  the proper way for married folks to get along. But then, of course
• 20:15
  I have had no experience along that line, said Susan, tossing her head.
• 20:18
  And I am not one to blame everything on the men. Missus Drew
• 20:22
  is mean enough herself. They say that the only thing she was ever known
• 20:26
  to give away was a crock of butter made out of cream a rat had
• 20:30
  fell into. She contributed it to a church social Nobody found out about the
• 20:33
  rat until afterwards. Fortunately, all the people the Merediths have offended so far
• 20:40
  are Methodists, said Miss Cornelia. That Jerry went to the Methodist prayer meeting
• 20:45
  one night about a fortnight ago, and sat beside Old William marsh who got
• 20:49
  up as usual and testified with fearful groans. Do you feel any better now,
• 20:55
  whispered Jerry when William sat down. Poor Jerry meant to be sympathetic,
• 21:00
  but mister marsh thought he was impertinent and is furious at him. Of course,
• 21:03
  Jerry had no business to be in a Methodist prayer meeting at all.
• 21:07
  But they go where they like. I hope they will not offend missus.
• 21:11
  Alec Davis of the Harbor Head, said Susan. She is a very touchy
• 21:15
  woman, I understand, but she is very well off and pays the most
• 21:19
  of any one to the salary. I have heard that she says the Merediths
• 21:23
  are the worst brought up children she ever saw. Every word you say convinces
• 21:29
  me more and more that the Merediths belong to the race that knows. Joseph
• 21:33
  said Mistress Anne. Decidedly, when all is said and done, they do
• 21:37
  admitted Miss Cornelia, and that balances everything anyway. We've got them now,
• 21:41
  and we must just do the best we can by them and stick up for
• 21:45
  them to the Methodists. Well, I suppose I must be getting down Harbor.
• 21:51
  Marshall will soon be home. He went over harbor to day and wanting
• 21:55
  his supper. Madike, I'm sorry, I haven't seen the other children,
• 21:59
  and where is the doctor up at the harbor head. We've only been home
• 22:03
  three days, and in that time he has spent three hours in his own
• 22:06
  bed and eaten two meals in his own house. Well, everybody who had
• 22:11
  been sick for the last six weeks had been waiting for him to come home,
• 22:15
  and I don't blame them. When that over harbor doctor married the undertaker's
• 22:18
  daughter at Lowbridge, people felt suspicious of him. It didn't look well.
• 22:22
  You and the doctor must come down soon and tell us all about your trip.
• 22:26
  I suppose you've had a splendid time. We had agreed, Anne,
• 22:30
  it was the fulfillment of years of dreams. The old world is very lovely
• 22:36
  and very wonderful, but we have come back very well, satisfied with our
• 22:40
  own land. Canada is the finest country in the world, Miss Cornelia.
• 22:44
  Nobody ever doubted that, said Miss Cornelia complacently. And old p e I
• 22:49
  is the loveliest province in it, and four Winds the loveliest spot in p
• 22:53
  e I, laughed Anne, looking adoringly out over the sunset, splendor of
• 22:57
  glen and harbor and gulf. She waved her hand at it. I saw
• 23:03
  nothing more beautiful than that in Europe, Miss Cornelia. Must you go.
• 23:07
  The children will be sorry to have missed you. They must come and see
• 23:11
  me soon. Tell them the doughnut jar is always full. Oh, at
• 23:15
  supper they were planning a descent on you. They'll go soon. But they
• 23:18
  must settle down to school again now. And the twins are going to take
• 23:22
  music lessons. Not from the Methodist minister's wife, I hope, said Miss
• 23:26
  Cornelia anxiously. No from Rosemary West. I was up last evening to arrange
• 23:32
  it with her. What a pretty girl she is. Rosemary holds her own
• 23:36
  well. She isn't as young as she once was. I thought her very
• 23:38
  charming. I've never had any real acquaintance with her, you know. Their
• 23:42
  house is so out of the way, and I've seldom ever seen her except
• 23:45
  at church. People have always liked Rosemary West, though they don't understand her,
• 23:51
  said Miss Cornelia, quite unconscious of the high tribute she was paying to
• 23:55
  Rosemary's charm. Ellen has always kept her down, so to speak, she
• 24:00
  has tyrannized over her. And yet she has always indulged her in a good
• 24:03
  many ways. Rosemary was engaged once, you know, to young Martin Crawford.
• 24:07
  His ship was wrecked in the Magdalen's and all the crew were drowned.
• 24:11
  Rosemary was just a child, only seventeen, but she was never the same
• 24:15
  afterwards. She and Ellen have stayed very close at home since their mother's death.
• 24:21
  They don't often get to their own church at Lowbridge, and I understand
• 24:23
  Ellen doesn't approve of going too often to a Presbyterian church. To the Methodist
• 24:29
  she never goes. I'll say that much for her. That family of Wests
• 24:33
  have always been strong Episcopalians. Rosemary and Ellen are pretty well off. Rosemary
• 24:37
  doesn't really need to give music lessons, she does it because she likes to.
• 24:41
  They are distantly related to Leslie, you know. Are the Fords coming
• 24:45
  to the Harbor this summer. No, They're going on a trip to Japan
• 24:48
  and will probably be away for a year. Owen's new novel is to have
• 24:52
  a Japanese setting. This will be the first summer that the dear Old House
• 24:56
  of Dreams will be empty since we left it. I should think owen Ford
• 25:00
  might find enough to write about in Canada without dragging his wife and his innocent
• 25:06
  children off to a heathen country like Japan, grumbled Miss Cornelia. The Life
• 25:11
  book was the best book he's ever written, and he got the material for
• 25:14
  that right here in Four Winds. Captain Jim gave him most of that,
• 25:18
  you know, and he collected it all over the world. But Owen's books
• 25:22
  are all delightful. I think, Oh, they're well enough as far as
• 25:26
  they go. I make it a point to read every one he writes,
• 25:29
  though I've always held, Anne, dearie, that reading novels is a sinful
• 25:32
  waste of time. I shall write and tell him my opinion of this Japanese
• 25:36
  business. Believe me? Does he want Kenneth and Purse's to be converted into
• 25:41
  pagans? With which unanswerable conundrum, Miss Cornelia took her departure. Susan proceeded
• 25:47
  to put Rilla in bed, and Anne sat on the veranda steps under the
• 25:51
  early stars and dreamed her incorrigible dreams, and learned all over again for the
• 25:56
  hundredth happy time, what a moonrise splendor in sheen could be on Four Winds
• 26:00
  Harbor. End of chapter two, Chapter three, The Ingleside Children In daytime,
• 26:10
  the blithe children liked very well to play in the rich, soft greens
• 26:12
  and glooms of the big maple grove between Ingleside and Glens at Mary Pond.
• 26:18
  But for evening rebels there was no place like the little valley behind the maple
• 26:22
  grove. It was a fairy realm of romance to them. Once, looking
• 26:26
  from the attic windows of Ingleside, through the mist and aftermath of a summer
• 26:30
  thunderstorm, they had seen the beloved spot arched by a glorious rainbow, one
• 26:36
  end of which seemed to dip straight down to where a corner of the pond
• 26:40
  ran up into the lower end of the valley. Let us call it Rainbow
• 26:44
  Valley, said Walter, delightedly. And Rainbow Valley thenceforth it was outside of
• 26:51
  Rainbow Valley the wind might be rollicking and boisterous, here it always went gently.
• 26:56
  Little winding fairy paths ran here and there over spruce roots cushioned with moss.
• 27:03
  Wild cherry trees that in blossom time would be misty white, were scattered
• 27:07
  all over the valley, mingling with the dark spruces. A little brook with
• 27:12
  amber waters ran through it from the glen village. The houses of the village
• 27:18
  were comfortably far away. Only at the upper end of the valley was a
• 27:22
  little tumble down, deserted cottage, referred to as the Old Bailey House.
• 27:26
  It had not been occupied for many years, but a grass grown dike surrounded
• 27:30
  it, and inside was an ancient garden where the Ingleside children could find violets
• 27:36
  and daisies and june lilies still blooming in season. For the rest the garden
• 27:41
  was overgrown with carraway that swayed and foamed in the moonshine of summer eaves like
• 27:48
  seas of silver. To the south lay the pond, and beyond it the
• 27:52
  ripened distance lost itself in purple woods, save where on a high hill a
• 27:57
  solitary, old gray homestead looked down on Glen and Harbor. There was a
• 28:03
  certain wild woodsiness and solitude about Rainbow Valley, in spite of its nearness to
• 28:07
  the village, which endeared it to the children of Ingleside. The valley was
• 28:12
  full of dear, friendly hollows, and the largest of these was their favorite
• 28:17
  stamping ground. Here they were assembled. On this particular evening, there was
• 28:22
  a grove of young spruces in this hollow with a tiny grassy glade in its
• 28:26
  heart, opening on the bank of the brook. By the brook grew a
• 28:30
  silver birch tree, a young, incredibly straight thing, which Walter had named
• 28:36
  the White Lady. In this glade too were the tree lovers, as Walter
• 28:41
  called a spruce and maple, which grew so closely together that their boughs were
• 28:45
  inextricably intertwined. Jem had hung an old string of sleigh bells given him by
• 28:51
  the Glen Blacksmith on the tree lovers, and every visit and breeze called out
• 28:56
  sudden fairy tinkles from it. How nice it is to be back, said
• 29:00
  Nan. After all, none of the Avonlea places are quite as nice as
• 29:06
  Rainbow Valley. But they were very fond of the Avonlea places. For all
• 29:10
  that, a visit to Green Gables was always considered a great treat. Aunt
• 29:15
  Marilla was very good to them, and so was missus Rachel Lynde, who
• 29:18
  was spending the leisure of her old age in knitting cotton warp quilts against the
• 29:23
  day when Anne's daughter should need us setting out. There were jolly playmates there
• 29:29
  too. Uncle Davie's children and Aunt Diana's children. They knew all the spots
• 29:34
  their mother had loved so well in her girlhood at Old Green Gables, the
• 29:38
  long Lover's Lane that was pink hedged in wild rose time, the always neat
• 29:45
  yard with its willows and poplars, the Dryad's Bubble, loosened and lovely as
• 29:49
  of yore, the Lake of Shining Waters, and Willowmere. The twins had
• 29:55
  their mother's old porch gable room, and Aunt Marilla used to come in at
• 29:59
  night when she thought they were asleep, to gloat over them. But they
• 30:03
  all knew she loved Jem the best. Jem was at present busily occupied in
• 30:07
  frying a mess of small trout which he had just caught in the pond.
• 30:11
  His stove consisted of a circle of red stones with a fire kindled in it,
• 30:17
  and his culinary utensils were an old tin can hammered out flat, and
• 30:21
  a fork with only one tine left. Nevertheless, ripping good meals had before
• 30:26
  now been thus prepared. Jem was the child of the House of Dreams.
• 30:32
  All the others had been born at Ingleside. He had curly red hair like
• 30:36
  his mother's and frank hazel eyes. Like his father's. He had his mother's
• 30:41
  fine nose and his father's steady, humorous mouth, and he was the only
• 30:45
  one of the family who had ears nice enough to please Susan. But he
• 30:49
  had a standing feud with Susan because she would not give up calling him little
• 30:53
  Jem. It was outrageous thought thirteen year old Jem. Mother had more sense.
• 31:00
  I'm not little any more, mother, he had cried indignantly on his
• 31:03
  eighth birthday. I'm awful big Mother had sighed and laughed and sighed again,
• 31:11
  and she never called him little Jem again in his hearing. At least,
• 31:15
  he was and always had been a sturdy, reliable little chap. He never
• 31:21
  broke a promise. He was not a great talker. His teachers did not
• 31:25
  think him brilliant, but he was a good all around student. He never
• 31:29
  took things on faith. He always liked to investigate the truth of a statement
• 31:33
  for himself. Once Susan had told him that if he touched his tongue to
• 31:37
  a frosty latch, all the skin would tear off it. Jem had promptly
• 31:41
  done it just to see if it was so. He found it was so,
• 31:45
  at the cost of a very sore tongue for several days, but Jem
• 31:48
  did not grudge suffering in the interests of science. By constant experiment and observation,
• 31:55
  he learned a great deal, and his brothers and sisters thought his extensive
• 31:59
  knowledge of their little world quite wonderful. Jem always knew where the first and
• 32:04
  ripest berries grew, where the first pale violets shyly awakened from their winter's sleep,
• 32:09
  and how many blue eggs were in a given robin's nest in the maple
• 32:13
  grove. He could tell fortunes from daisy petals, and suck honey from red
• 32:17
  clovers, and grub up all sorts of edible roots on the banks of the
• 32:22
  pond, while Susan went in daily fear that they would all be poisoned.
• 32:27
  He knew where the finest spruce gum was to be found in pale amber knots
• 32:31
  on the lichened bark. He knew where the nuts grew thickest in the beech
• 32:36
  woods around the harbor head, and where the best trouting places up the brooks
• 32:39
  were. He could mimic the call of any wild bird or beast in four
• 32:44
  winds, and he knew the haunt of every wild flower from spring to autumn.
• 32:50
  Walter Blythe was sitting under the White Lady, with a volume of poems
• 32:53
  lying beside him, But he was not reading. He was gazing now at
• 32:58
  the emerald misted wille by the pond, and now at a flock of clouds,
• 33:02
  like little silver sheep herded by the wind, that were drifting over Rainbow
• 33:07
  Valley, with rapture in his wide, splendid eyes. Walter's eyes were very
• 33:13
  wonderful. All the joy and sorrow, and laughter and loyalty and aspiration of
• 33:19
  many generations lying under the sod looked out of their dark gray depths. Walter
• 33:24
  was a hop out of kin. As far as looks went. He did
• 33:28
  not resemble any known relative. He was quite the handsomest of the Ingleside children,
• 33:34
  with straight black hair and finely modeled features. But he had all his
• 33:37
  mother's vivid imagination and passionate love of beauty. Frost of winter, invitation of
• 33:45
  spring, dream of summer, and glamor of autumn all meant much to Walter.
• 33:51
  In school, where Jem was a chieftain, Walter was not thought highly
• 33:54
  of. He was supposed to be girly and milk shoppish because he never fought
• 34:00
  and seldom joined in the school sports, preferring to herd by himself in out
• 34:05
  of the way coroners, and read books, especially poetry books. Walter loved
• 34:09
  the poets and pored over their pages from the time he could first read.
• 34:15
  Their music was woven into his growing soul, the music of the immortals.
• 34:20
  Walter cherished the ambition to be a poet himself. Some day the thing could
• 34:24
  be done. A certain Uncle Paul, so called out of Courtesy, who
• 34:30
  lived now in that mysterious realm called the States, was Walter's model. Uncle
• 34:35
  Paul had once been a little schoolboy in Avonlea, and now his poetry was
• 34:39
  read everywhere. But the Glens schoolboys did not know of Walter's dreams, and
• 34:45
  would not have been greatly impressed if they had. In spite of his lack
• 34:49
  of physical prowess, however, he commanded a certain unwilling respect because of his
• 34:53
  power of talking book talk. Nobody in Glen Saint Mary's school could talk like
• 34:59
  him. She sounded like a preacher, one boy said, And for this
• 35:02
  reason he was generally left alone and not persecuted, as most boys were who
• 35:07
  were suspected of disliking or fearing fisticuffs. The ten year old Ingleside twins violated
• 35:15
  Twin tradition by not looking in the least alike. Anne, who was always
• 35:20
  called Nan, was very pretty, with velvety nut brown eyes and silky nut
• 35:24
  brown hair. She was a very blithe and dainty little maiden, blithe by
• 35:30
  name and blithe by nature. One of her teachers had said her complexion was
• 35:34
  quite faultless, much to her mother's satisfaction. I am so glad to have
• 35:38
  one daughter who can wear pink, Missus Blythe was wont to say jubilantly.
• 35:44
  Diana Blythe, known as Dye, was very like her mother, with gray
• 35:47
  green eyes that always shone, with a peculiar luster, and brilliancy in the
• 35:52
  dusk and red hair. Perhaps this was why she was her father's favorite.
• 35:58
  She and Walter were a special chums. Die was the only one to whom
• 36:01
  he would ever read the verses he wrote himself, the only one who knew
• 36:06
  that he was secretly hard at work on an epic, strikingly resembling Marmion in
• 36:10
  some things, if not in others. She kept all his secrets, even
• 36:15
  from Nan and told him all hers. Won't you soon have those fish ready,
• 36:19
  Jem, said Nan, sniffing with her dainty nose. The smell makes
• 36:22
  me awfully hungry. They're nearly ready, said Jem, giving one a dexterous
• 36:29
  turn. Get out the bread and the plates, girls, Walter, wake
• 36:31
  up. How the air shines to night, said Walter dreamily, not that
• 36:37
  he despised fried trout either by any means, but with Walter, food for
• 36:42
  the soul always took first place. The flower angel has been walking over the
• 36:45
  world today, calling to the flowers. I can see his blue wings on
• 36:50
  that hill by the woods. Any angel's wings I ever saw were white,
• 36:53
  said Nan. The flower angels aren't. They were pale, misty blue,
• 37:00
  like the haze in the valley. Oh, how I wish I could fly.
• 37:04
  It must be glorious. One does fly in dreams, sometimes, said
• 37:07
  Die. I never dream that I'm flying, exactly, said Walter. But
• 37:13
  I often dream that I just rise up from the ground and float over the
• 37:16
  fences in the trees. It's delightful, and I always think this isn't a
• 37:22
  dream like it's always been before, This is real, And then I wake
• 37:25
  up after all, and its heart breaking. Hurry up, Nan ordered jem
• 37:30
  Nan had produced the banquet board, a board literally as well as figuratively,
• 37:36
  from which many a feast, seasoned as no viands were elsewhere, had been
• 37:39
  eaten. In Rainbow Valley. It was converted into a table by propping it
• 37:44
  on two large mossy stones. Newspapers served as tablecloth, and broken plates and
• 37:50
  handleless cups from Susan's discard furnished the dishes. From a tin box secreted at
• 37:55
  the root of a spruce tree, Nan brought forth bread, and the brook
• 38:00
  gave Adam's ale of unsurpassed crystal. For the rest. There was a certain
• 38:06
  sauce compounded of fresh air and appetite of youth, which gave to everything a
• 38:10
  divine flavor. To sit in Rainbow Valley, steeped in a twilight half gold,
• 38:15
  half amethyst, rife with the odors of balsam fir and wood sea,
• 38:21
  growing things in their springtime prime, with the pale stars of wild strawberry blossoms
• 38:25
  all around you, and with the sough of the wind and tinkle of bells
• 38:30
  and the shaking tree tops, and eat fried trout and dry bread with something
• 38:35
  which the Mighty of Earth might have envied them. Sit in, invited Nan
• 38:39
  as Jem placed his sizzling tin platter of trout on the table. It's your
• 38:44
  turn to say grace, Jem. I've done my part frying the trout,
• 38:47
  protested Jem, who hated saying grace. Let Walter say it. He likes
• 38:52
  saying grace, and cut it short too, Walt, I'm starving. But
• 38:57
  Walter said, no, grace short or long. Just then an interruption occurred.
• 39:01
  Who's coming down from the mans hill? Said Die? End of chapter
• 39:07
  three, Chapter four. The man's children, and Martha might be and was
• 39:15
  a very poor housekeeper. The Reverend John Knox Meredith might be and was a
• 39:20
  very absent minded, indulgent man. But it could not be denied that there
• 39:24
  was something very homelike and lovable about the Glens and Mary mance. In spite
• 39:30
  of its untidiness. Even the critical housewives of the Glen felt it, and
• 39:34
  were unconsciously mellowed in judgment because of it. Perhaps its charm was in part
• 39:38
  due to accidental circumstances. The luxuriant vines clustering over its gray clabbered walls,
• 39:45
  the friendly acacias and bomb of gileads that crowded about it, with the freedom
• 39:50
  of old acquaintance, and the beautiful views of harbor and sand dunes from its
• 39:54
  front windows. But these things had been there in the reign of mister Meredith's
• 39:59
  predecess when the manse had been the primmest, neatest and dreariest house in the
• 40:04
  glen. So much of the credit must be given to the personality of its
• 40:07
  new inmates. There was an atmosphere of laughter and comradeship about it. The
• 40:13
  doors were always open, and inner and outer worlds joined hands. Love was
• 40:19
  the only line glens at Merrymance. The people of his congregation said that mister
• 40:23
  Meredith spoiled his children. Very likely he did. It is certain that he
• 40:29
  could not bear to scold them. They have no mother, he used to
• 40:32
  say to himself with a sigh, when some unusually glaring peggadillo forced itself upon
• 40:37
  his notice. But he did not know half of their goings on. He
• 40:43
  belonged to the sect of dreamers. The windows of his study looked out on
• 40:46
  the graveyard, But as he paced up and down the room, reflecting deeply
• 40:52
  on the immortality of the soul, he was quite unaware that Jerry and Carl
• 40:55
  were playing leap frog hilariously over the flat stone in that abode of dead Methodists.
• 41:01
  Mister Meredith had occasional acute realizations that his children were not so well looked
• 41:07
  after physically or morally as they had been before his wife died, and he
• 41:12
  had always a dim sub consciousness that house and meals were very different under Aunt
• 41:17
  Martha's management from what they had been under Cecilia's. For the rest, he
• 41:22
  lived in a world of books and abstractions, and therefore, although his clothes
• 41:28
  were seldom brushed, and although the Glen housewives concluded from the ivory like pallor
• 41:32
  of his clear cut features and slender hands that he never got enough to eat,
• 41:37
  he was not an unhappy man. If ever a graveyard could be called
• 41:42
  a cheerful place, the old Methodist graveyard at Glen Saint Mary might be so
• 41:46
  called. The new graveyard at the other side of the Methodist church was a
• 41:52
  neat and proper and doleful spot. But the old one had been left so
• 41:55
  long to nature's kindly and gracious ministries that did it become very pleasant. It
• 42:01
  was surrounded on three sides by a dike of stones and sod, topped by
• 42:06
  a gray and uncertain paling. Outside the dike grew a row of tall fir
• 42:10
  trees with thick balsamic boughs. The dike, which had been built by the
• 42:15
  first settlers of the glen, was old enough to be beautiful, with mosses
• 42:20
  and green things growing out of its crevices, violets purpling at its base in
• 42:24
  the early spring days, and asters, and golden rod making an autumnal glory.
• 42:30
  In its corners. Little ferns clustered companionably between its stones, and here
• 42:35
  and there a big bracken grew. On the eastern side. There was neither
• 42:39
  fence nor dike. The graveyard there straggled off into young fir plantation, ever
• 42:45
  pushing nearer to the graves and deepening eastward into a thick wood. The air
• 42:51
  was always full of the harp like voices of the sea and the music of
• 42:54
  gray old trees, And in the spring mornings, the choruses of birds in
• 42:59
  the ear elms around the two churches sang of life and not of death.
• 43:04
  The Meredith children loved the old graveyard. Blue eyed ivy garden, spruce and
• 43:10
  mint ran riot over the sunken graves. Blueberry bushes grew lavishly in the sandy
• 43:16
  corner next to the fir wood. The varying fashions of tombstones for three generations
• 43:22
  were to be found there, from the flat oblong red sandstone slabs of old
• 43:27
  settlers, down through the days of weeping willows and clasped hands, to the
• 43:31
  latest monstrosities of tall monuments and draped urns. One of the latter, the
• 43:37
  biggest and ugliest in the graveyard, was sacred to the memory of a certain
• 43:42
  Alec Davis, who had been born a Methodist, but had taken to himself
• 43:46
  a Presbyterian bride of the Douglas clan. She had made him turn Presbyterian and
• 43:52
  kept him towing the Presbyterian mark all his life, but when he died she
• 43:57
  did not dare to doom him to a lonely grave in the present by Tyrian
• 44:00
  graveyard over Harbor. His people were all buried in the Methodist cemetery, so
• 44:05
  Alec Davis went back to his own in death, and his widow consoled herself
• 44:08
  by erecting a monument which cost more than any of the Methodists could afford.
• 44:15
  The Meredith children hated it without just knowing why, but they loved the old
• 44:19
  flat bench like stones, with the tall grasses growing rankly about them. They
• 44:23
  made jolly seats for one thing. They were all sitting on one now.
• 44:29
  Jerry, tired of leap frog, was playing on a Jew's harp. Karl
• 44:32
  was lovingly poring over a strange beetle he had found. Una was trying to
• 44:37
  make a dollstress, and Faith, leaning back on her slender brown wrists,
• 44:43
  was swinging her bare feet in lively time to the jews harp. Jerry had
• 44:46
  his father's black hair and large black eyes, but in him the latter were
• 44:52
  flashing instead of Dreamy Faith, who came next to him, wore her beauty
• 44:57
  like a rose, careless and glowing. She had golden brown eyes, golden
• 45:01
  brown curls, and crimson cheeks. She laughed too much to please her father's
• 45:06
  congregation, and had shocked old Missus Taylor, the disconsolate spouse of several departed
• 45:12
  husbands, by saucily declaring in the church porch at that the world isn't a
• 45:16
  veil of tears, Missus Taylor, it's a world of laughter. Little dreamy
• 45:22
  Una was not given to laughter. Her braids of straight dead black hair betrayed
• 45:27
  no lawless kings, and her almond shaped, dark blue eyes had something wistful
• 45:31
  and sorrowful in them. Her mouth had a trick of falling open over her
• 45:36
  tiny white teeth, and a shy, meditative smile occasionally crept over her small
• 45:40
  face. She was much more sensitive to public opinion than faith, and had
• 45:45
  an uneasy consciousness that there was something askew in their way of living. She
• 45:51
  longed to put it right, but did not know how now. And then
• 45:54
  she dusted the furniture, but it was so seldom she could find the duster
• 45:59
  because it was never in the same place twice, And when the clothes brush
• 46:02
  was to be found, she tried to brush her father's best suit on Saturdays,
• 46:07
  and once sewed on a missing button with coarse white thread. When mister
• 46:10
  Meredith went to church next day, every female eye saw that button, and
• 46:15
  the peace of the lady's aid was upset for weeks. Carl had the clear,
• 46:21
  bright, dark blue eyes, fearless and direct of his dead mother,
• 46:25
  and her brown hair with its glints of gold. He knew the secrets of
• 46:30
  bugs and had a sort of free masonry with bees and beetles. Una never
• 46:35
  liked to sit near him, because she never knew what uncanny creature might be
• 46:38
  secreted about him. Jerry refused to sleep with him because Carl had once taken
• 46:44
  a young garter snake to bed with him. So Carl slept in his old
• 46:47
  cot, which was so short that he could never stretch out, and had
• 46:51
  strange bedfellows. Perhaps it was just as well that Aunt Martha was half blind
• 46:55
  when she made that bed. Altogether, they were a joll lovable little crew.
• 47:00
  Aunt Cecilia Meredith's heart must have ached bitterly when she faced the knowledge that
• 47:06
  she must leave them. Where would you like to be buried if you were
• 47:08
  a Methodist? Asked Faith cheerfully. This opened up an interesting field of speculation.
• 47:15
  There isn't much choice. The place is full, said Jerry. I'd
• 47:19
  like that corner near the road. I guess I could hear the teams going
• 47:22
  past and the people talking. I'd like that little hollow under the weeping birch,
• 47:27
  said Una. That birch is such a place for birds, and they
• 47:30
  sing like mad in the mornings. I'd take the porter lot, where there's
• 47:35
  so many children buried. I like lots of company, said Faith. Karl
• 47:38
  where'd you. I'd rather not be buried at all, said Karl, But
• 47:43
  if I had to be, i'd like the ant bed answer. Awfully interesting,
• 47:49
  How very good all the people who are buried here must have been,
• 47:52
  said Una, who had been reading the laudatory old epitaphs. There doesn't seem
• 47:55
  to be a single bad person in the whole graveyard. That his must be
• 48:00
  better than Presbyterians. After all, maybe the Methodists bury their bad people just
• 48:05
  like they do cats, suggested Carl. Maybe they don't bother bringing them to
• 48:08
  the graveyard at all. Nonsense, said Faith. The people that are buried
• 48:14
  here aren't any better than any other folks. Una. But when any one
• 48:17
  is dead, you mustn't say anything of him but good, or he'll come
• 48:20
  back and haunt you. Aunt Martha told me that. I asked father if
• 48:23
  it was true, and he just looked through me and muttered, true,
• 48:27
  true, What is truth? What is truth? Oh, jesting pilot,
• 48:30
  I concluded from that that it must be true. I wonder if mister Alec
• 48:35
  Davis would come back and haunt me if I threw a stone at the urn
• 48:37
  on top of his tombstone, said Jerry. Missus Davis would gig old Faith,
• 48:44
  she just watches us in church like a cat watching mice. Last Sunday
• 48:47
  I made a face at her nephew, and he made one back at me,
• 48:51
  and you should have seen her glare. I'll bet she boxed his ears
• 48:54
  when they got out. Missus Marshall Elliott told me we mustn't offend her on
• 48:58
  any account, or I'd have made a face at her too. They say
• 49:02
  Jem Blythe stuck his tongue out at her once, and she would never have
• 49:06
  his father again, even when her husband was dying, said Jerry. I
• 49:09
  wonder what the Blithe gang will be like. I liked their looks, said
• 49:14
  Faith. The man's children had been at the station that afternoon when the Blithe
• 49:17
  small fry had arrived. I like Jem's looks especially. They say in school
• 49:23
  that Walter's a sissy, said Jerry. I don't believe it, said Una,
• 49:28
  who had thought Walter very handsome. Well, he writes poetry anyhow,
• 49:32
  he won the prize the teacher offered last year for writing a poem. Bertie
• 49:36
  Shakespeare Drew told me Bertie's mother thought he should have got the prize because of
• 49:39
  his name, But Bertie said he couldn't write poetry to save his soul.
• 49:43
  Name or no name. I suppose we'll get acquainted with them asoon as they
• 49:46
  begin going to school, mused Faith. I hope the girls are nice.
• 49:52
  I don't like most of the girls around here. Even the nice ones are
• 49:54
  poky. But the blithe twins looked jolly. I thought twins always looked alike,
• 50:00
  but they don't. I think the red haired one is the nicest.
• 50:04
  I like their mother's looks, said Una, with a little sigh. Una
• 50:07
  envied all children their mothers. She had been only six when her mother died,
• 50:13
  but she had some very precious memories treasured in her soul, like jewels
• 50:16
  of twilight, cuddlings and morning frolics, of loving eyes, a tender voice,
• 50:22
  and the sweetest, gayest laugh. They say she isn't like other people,
• 50:25
  said Jerry. Missus Elliot says that is because she never really grew up,
• 50:30
  said Faith. She's taller than missus Elliot. Yes, yes, but
• 50:35
  it is inside, missus Eliot says Missus blythe just stayed a little girl inside.
• 50:39
  What do I smell? Interrupted Karl, sniffing. They all smelled it
• 50:44
  now, a most delectable odor. Came floating up on the still evening air
• 50:49
  from the direction of the little woodsy dell below the Man's hill. That makes
• 50:53
  me hungry, said Jerry. We only had bread and molasses for supper,
• 50:58
  and cold ditto for dinner, said Una plaintively. Aunt Martha's habit was to
• 51:04
  boil a large slab of mutton early in the week and serve it up every
• 51:07
  day, cold and greasy, as long as it lasted. To this,
• 51:12
  Faith, in a moment of inspiration, had given the name of ditto,
• 51:15
  and by this it was invariably known at the Man's Let's go and see where
• 51:20
  the smell is coming from, said Jerry. They all sprang up, frolicked
• 51:24
  over the lawn with the abandon of young puppies, climbed a fence, and
• 51:28
  tore down the mossy slope, guided by the savory lure that ever grew stronger.
• 51:34
  A few minutes later there arrived breathlessly in the Sanctum sanctorum of Rainbow Valley,
• 51:38
  where the blithe children were just about to give thanks and eat. They
• 51:42
  halted shyly. Una wished they had not been so precipitate, but di blythe
• 51:46
  was equal to that, and any occasion, she stepped forward with a comrade
• 51:51
  smile. I guess I know who you are. She said. You belong
• 51:54
  to the Manse, don't you. Faith nodded, her face creased by dimples.
• 52:00
  We smelled your trout cooking and wondered what it was. You must sit
• 52:02
  down and help us eat them, said die. Maybe you haven't got any
• 52:07
  more than you want yourselves, said Jerry, looking hungrily at the tim platter.
• 52:12
  We've heaps three apiece, said Jem. Sit down. No more ceremony
• 52:15
  was necessary. Down They all sat on mossy stones. Mary was that feast
• 52:21
  and long. Nan and I would probably have died of horror had they known
• 52:25
  what Faith and Una knew perfectly well that Karl had two young mice in his
• 52:30
  jacket pocket, but they never knew it, so it never hurt them.
• 52:34
  Where can folks get better acquainted than over a meal table. When the last
• 52:38
  trout had vanished, the Man's children and the Ingleside children were sworn friends and
• 52:44
  allies. They had always known each other and always would. The race of
• 52:47
  Joseph recognized its own. They poured out the history of their little pasts.
• 52:52
  The Man's children heard of Avonlea and green gables, of Rainbow Valley traditions,
• 52:58
  and of the little house by the harbor shore where Jem had been born.
• 53:00
  The Ingleside children heard of Maywater, where the Merediths had lived before coming to
• 53:06
  the glen of UNA's beloved one eyed doll and Faith's pet rooster. Faith was
• 53:12
  inclined to resent the fact that people laughed at her for petting a rooster.
• 53:15
  She liked the Blithes because they accepted it without question. A handsome rooster like
• 53:21
  Adam is just as nice a pet as a dog or cat. I think,
• 53:23
  she said, if he was a canary, nobody would wonder. And
• 53:27
  I brought him up from a little wee yellow chicken. Missus Johnson at Maywater
• 53:31
  gave him to me. A weasel had killed all his brothers and sisters.
• 53:35
  I called him after her husband. I never liked dolls or cats. Cats
• 53:39
  are too sneaky, and dolls are dead. Who lives in that house away
• 53:44
  up there, asked Jerry. The miss wests Rosemary and Ellen answered, Nan
• 53:49
  Dian, I are going to take music lessons from Miss Rosemary this summer.
• 53:52
  Una gazed at the lucky twins with eyes whose longing was too gentle for Envy.
• 53:59
  Oh, if only sh she could have music lessons. It was one
• 54:01
  of the dreams of her little hidden life. But nobody ever thought of such
• 54:06
  a thing. Miss Rosemary is so sweet, and she always dresses so pretty,
• 54:09
  said Die. Her hair is just the color of new molasses taffy,
• 54:14
  she added wistfully. For Die, like her mother before her, was not
• 54:17
  resigned to her own ruddy tresses. I like miss Ellen too, said Nan.
• 54:22
  She always used to give me candies when she came to church. But
• 54:25
  Die is afraid of her. Her brows are so black, and she has
• 54:30
  such a great deep voice, said Die. Oh, how scared of her.
• 54:34
  Kenneth Ford used to be when he was little, Mother says. The
• 54:37
  first Sunday missus Ford brought him to church, Miss Ellen happened to be there,
• 54:40
  sitting right behind them, and the minute Kenneth saw her, he just
• 54:44
  screamed and screamed until missus Ford had to carry him out. Who is missus
• 54:49
  Ford, asked Una, wonderingly. Oh, the Fords don't live here.
• 54:53
  They only come here in the summer, and they're not coming this summer.
• 54:57
  They live in that little house way way down on the harb shore where father
• 55:00
  and mother used to live. I wish you could see pursus Ford. She's
• 55:04
  just like a picture I've heard of. Missus Ford broke in faith. Bertie
• 55:08
  Shakespeare Drew told me about her. She was married fourteen years to a dead
• 55:13
  man, and then he came to life. Nonsense, said Nan. That
• 55:16
  isn't the way it goes at all. Bertie Shakespeare can never get anything straight.
• 55:21
  I know the whole story, and I'll tell it to you sometime,
• 55:23
  but not now, for it's too long, and it's time for us to
• 55:27
  go home. Mother doesn't like us to be out late these damp evenings.
• 55:30
  Nobody cared whether the man's children were out in the damp or not. Aunt
• 55:35
  Martha was already in bed, and the Minister was still too deeply lost in
• 55:38
  speculations concerning the immortality of the soul to remember the mortality of the body.
• 55:45
  But they went home too, with visions of good times coming in their heads.
• 55:50
  I think Rainbow Valley is even nicer than the graveyard, said Una.
• 55:53
  And I just love those dear blythes. It's so nice when you can love
• 55:58
  people, because so often you can't. Father said in his sermon last Sunday
• 56:02
  that we should love everybody, But how can we how could we love missus?
• 56:07
  Alec Davis? Oh father only said that in the pulpit, said Faith
• 56:10
  airily. He has more sense than to really think it. Outside, the
• 56:15
  blithe children went up to Ingleside, except Jem, who slipped away for a
• 56:19
  few moments on a solitary expedition to a remote corner of Rainbow Valley. Mayflowers
• 56:24
  grew there, and Jem never forgot to take his mother a bouquet as long
• 56:29
  as they lasted. End of Chapter four, Chapter five, The Advent of
• 56:35
  Mary Vance. This is just the sort of day you feel as if things
• 56:38
  might happen, said Faith. Responsive to the lure of crystal air and blue
• 56:44
  hills, she hugged herself with delight and danced a hornpipe on Old Hezekiah Pollock's
• 56:49
  bench tombstone, much to the horror of two ancient maidens who happened to be
• 56:52
  driving past. Just as Faith hopped on one foot around the stone, waving
• 56:58
  the other and her arms in the air. And that groaned one ancient maiden
• 57:02
  is our minister's daughter. What else would you expect of a widower's family,
• 57:07
  groaned the other ancient maiden, And then they both shook their heads. It
• 57:13
  was early on Saturday morning, and the Merediths were out in the dew drenched
• 57:16
  world with a delightful consciousness of the holiday. They had never had anything to
• 57:21
  do on a holiday. Even Nan and Die Blithe had certain household tasks for
• 57:25
  Saturday mornings, but the daughters of the Manse were free to roam from blushing
• 57:30
  morn to dewy eve if it so pleased them. It did please Faith,
• 57:34
  but Una felt a secret, bitter humiliation because they never learned to do anything.
• 57:39
  The other girls in her class at school could cook and sew and knit.
• 57:44
  She was only a little ignoramous. Jerry suggested that they go exploring,
• 57:50
  So they went lingeringly through the fir grove, picking up Karl on the way,
• 57:52
  who was on his knees in the dripping grass studying his darling aunts.
• 57:58
  Beyond the grove, they came out in mister Taylor's pasture field, sprinkled over
• 58:02
  with the white ghosts of dandelions. In a remote corner was an old tumble
• 58:07
  down barn where mister Taylor sometimes stored his surplus hay crop, but which was
• 58:12
  never used for any other purpose. Thither the Meredith's children trooped and prowled about
• 58:17
  the ground floor for several minutes. What was that, whispered Una. Suddenly
• 58:22
  they all listened. There was a faint but distinct rustle in the hayloft above.
• 58:28
  The Merediths looked at each other. There's something up there, breathed Faith.
• 58:31
  I'm going to see what it is, said Jerry resolutely. Oh,
• 58:36
  don't begged Una, catching his arm. I'm going. We'll all go too,
• 58:39
  then said Faith. The whole four climbed the shaky ladder, Jerry and
• 58:45
  Faith quite dauntless, Una pale from fright, and Karl rather absent mindedly speculating
• 58:50
  on the possibility of finding a bat up in the loft. He longed to
• 58:53
  see a bat in daylight. When they stepped off the ladder, they saw
• 58:58
  what had made the rustle, and the sight struck them dumb for a few
• 59:01
  moments. In a little nest in the hay, a girl was curled up,
• 59:06
  looking as if she had just wakened from sleep. When she saw them,
• 59:09
  she stood up rather shakily, as it seemed, and in the bright
• 59:13
  sunlight that streamed through the cobwebbed window behind her, they saw that her thin
• 59:16
  sunburned face was very pale under its tan. She had two braids of lank,
• 59:22
  thick, tow colored hair, and very odd eyes. White eyes,
• 59:27
  the man's children thought, as she stared at them, half defiantly, half
• 59:30
  piteously, they were really of so pale a blue that they did seem almost
• 59:35
  white, especially when contrasted with the narrow black ring that circled the iris.
• 59:40
  She was barefooted and bare headed, and was clad in a faded, ragged
• 59:45
  old plaid dress much too short and tight for her as for years. She
• 59:49
  might have been almost any age, judging from her wizened little face, but
• 59:53
  her height seemed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve. Who are you?
• 59:58
  Asked Jerry. The The girl looked about her as if seeking a way
• 1:00:01
  of escape. Then she seemed to give in with a little shiver of despair.
• 1:00:06
  I'm Mary, Vance, she said, where'd you come from? Pursued
• 1:00:09
  Jerry, Mary, instead of replying, suddenly sat or fell down on the
• 1:00:15
  hay and began to cry. Instantly, Faith had flung herself down beside her
• 1:00:20
  and put her arm around the thin, shaking shoulders. You stop bothering her,
• 1:00:24
  she commanded Jerry. Then She hugged the waif. Don't cry, dear,
• 1:00:29
  just tell us what's the matter. We are friends. I'm so so
• 1:00:32
  hungry, wailed Mary. I hain't had a thing to eat since Thursday morning,
• 1:00:37
  sept a little water from the brook out there. The man's children gazed
• 1:00:40
  at each other in horror. Faith sprang up. You come right up to
• 1:00:45
  the manse and get something to eat before you say another word, Mary shrank.
• 1:00:49
  Oh, I can't. What will your pond Ma say. Besides,
• 1:00:52
  they'd send me back. We've no mother and father won't bother about you,
• 1:00:57
  neither will Aunt Martha. Come, I say, Faith stamp her foot impatiently.
• 1:01:00
  Was this queer girl going to insist on starving to death? Almost at
• 1:01:04
  their very door, Mary yielded. She was so weak that she could hardly
• 1:01:08
  climb down the ladder, but somehow they got her down and over the field
• 1:01:13
  and into the man's kitchen. And Martha, muddling through her Saturday cooking,
• 1:01:17
  took no notice of her faith, and Una flew to the pantry and ransacked
• 1:01:22
  it for such eatables as it contained some ditto bread, butter, milk,
• 1:01:25
  and a doubtful pie. Mary vance attacked the food ravenously and uncritically, while
• 1:01:31
  the man's children stood around and watched her. Jerry noticed that she had a
• 1:01:36
  pretty mouth and very nice, even white teeth. Faith decided, with secret
• 1:01:40
  horror that Mary had not one stitch on her except that ragged, faded dress.
• 1:01:45
  Una was full of pure pity. Karl of amused wonder, and all
• 1:01:50
  of them of curiosity. Now come out to the graveyard and tell us about
• 1:01:53
  yourself, ordered Faith. When Mary's appetite showed signs of failing her, Mary
• 1:01:59
  was now nothing. Low food had restored her natural vivacity and unloosed her by
• 1:02:04
  no means reluctant tongue. You won't tell your power or anybody if I tell
• 1:02:07
  you, she stipulated. When she was enthroned on mister Pollock's tombstone. Opposite
• 1:02:12
  her, the man's children lined up on another. Here was spice and mystery
• 1:02:16
  and adventure. Something had happened. No, we won't cross your hearts,
• 1:02:22
  cross our hearts. Well, I've run away. I was livin with Missus
• 1:02:25
  Wiley over Harbor. Do you know missus Wyley? No, Well, you
• 1:02:30
  don't want to know her. She's an awful woman. My how I hate
• 1:02:32
  her. She worked me to death and wouldn't give me half enough to eat,
• 1:02:37
  and she used to larup me most every day. Look ahere, Mary
• 1:02:39
  rolled up her ragged sleeves and held up her scrawny arms and thin hands chapped
• 1:02:45
  almost to rawness. They were black with bruises. The man's children shivered.
• 1:02:50
  Faith flushed Crimson with indignation. UNA's blue eyes filled with tears. She licked
• 1:02:55
  me Wednesday night with a stick, said Mary, indifferently. It was cause
• 1:02:59
  I let the cow kick over a pale of milk. How'd I know the
• 1:03:01
  darn old cow was going to kick? A not unpleasant thrill ran over her
• 1:03:07
  listeners. They would never dream of using such dubious words, but it was
• 1:03:10
  rather titillating to hear some one else use them, and a girl at that.
• 1:03:15
  Certainly, this merry vance was an interesting creature. I don't blame you
• 1:03:20
  for running away, said Faith. Oh I didn't run away cause she lickd
• 1:03:22
  me. A licking was all in the day's work with me. I was
• 1:03:25
  darn well used to it. Nope, I'd meant to run away for a
• 1:03:29
  week cause I'd found out that missus Wyley was going to rent her farm and
• 1:03:32
  go to Lowbridge to live and give me to a cousin o hers up Charlottetown
• 1:03:36
  way. I wasn't going to stand for that. She was a worse sortin
• 1:03:39
  Missus Wiley. Even Missus Wyley lent me to her for a month last summer,
• 1:03:44
  and I'd rather live with the devil himself Sensation number two. But Una
• 1:03:49
  looked doubtful, so I made up my mind i'd beat it. I had
• 1:03:52
  seventy cents saved up that Missus John Crawford give me in the spring for planting
• 1:03:55
  potatoes for her. Missus Wyley didn't know about it. She was away visiting
• 1:04:00
  her cousin when I planted them. I thought I'd sneak up here to the
• 1:04:02
  glen and buy a ticket to Charlottetown and try to get work there. I'm
• 1:04:05
  a hustler, let me tell you, there ain't a lazy bone in my
• 1:04:09
  body. So I let out Thursday morning for Missus Wyley, was up and
• 1:04:13
  walked to the glen six miles And when I got to the station, I
• 1:04:15
  found I'd lost my money. Don't know how, don't know where. Anyhow,
• 1:04:19
  it was gone. I didn't know what to do if I went back
• 1:04:23
  to old Lady Wyley, she'd take the hide off me. So I went
• 1:04:26
  and hid in that old barn. And what will you do now, asked
• 1:04:29
  Jerry Dunno. I s'pose I'll have to go back and take my medicine.
• 1:04:33
  Now that I've got some grubbin my stomach, I guess I can stand it.
• 1:04:36
  But there was fear behind the bravado in Mary's eyes. Una suddenly slipped
• 1:04:41
  from the one tombstone to the other and put her arm about Mary. Don't
• 1:04:45
  go back, just stay here with us, Oh, missus Wyley'll hump me
• 1:04:48
  up, said Mary. It's likely she's on my trail before this. I
• 1:04:53
  might stay here till she finds me. I s'pose if your folks don't mind,
• 1:04:57
  I was a darn fool ever to think a skippin' out. She'd run
• 1:05:00
  a weasel to earth. But I was so miserable. Mary's voice quivered,
• 1:05:04
  but she was ashamed of showing her weakness. I ain't had the life of
• 1:05:09
  a dog for these four years, she explained defiantly. You've been four years
• 1:05:14
  with missus Wyley. Yep. She took me out of the asylum over in
• 1:05:16
  Hopetown when I was eight. That's the same place, missus blythe came from,
• 1:05:20
  exclaimed faith. I was two years in the asylum. I was put
• 1:05:25
  there when I was six. My mide hung herself and my pie'd cut his
• 1:05:29
  throat. Holy cats, why, said Jerry Booze, said Mary laconically.
• 1:05:34
  And you've no relations, not a darn one that I know of. Must
• 1:05:39
  have had some ones, though I was called after half a dozen of them.
• 1:05:42
  My full name is Mary Martha Lucilla Moore baal Vance. Can you beat
• 1:05:46
  that? My grandfather was a rich man. I'll bet he was richer than
• 1:05:49
  your grandfather. But Pa drunk it all up, and Ma she did her
• 1:05:54
  part. They used to beat me too, laws I've been licked so much,
• 1:05:57
  I kinda like it, Mary tossed her. She divined that the man's
• 1:06:00
  children were pitying her for her many stripes, and she did not want pity.
• 1:06:04
  She wanted to be envied. She looked gaily about her. Her strange
• 1:06:09
  eyes, now that the dullness of famine was removed from them, were brilliant.
• 1:06:14
  She would show these youngsters what a personage she was. I've been sick
• 1:06:16
  and awful lot, she said proudly. There's not many kids could have come
• 1:06:20
  through what I have. I've had scarlet fever and measles and ersipellas and mumps
• 1:06:25
  and whooping cough and pumonia. Were you ever fatally sick? Asked Una.
• 1:06:30
  I don't know, said Mary doubtfully. Of course she wasn't, scoffed Jerry.
• 1:06:35
  If you're fatally sick, you'd die. Oh well, I never died,
• 1:06:40
  exactly, said Mary, But I came blame near at once. They
• 1:06:43
  thought I was dead, and they were getting ready to lay me out when
• 1:06:45
  I up and come too. What was it like to be half dead,
• 1:06:48
  asked Jerry curiously. Like nothing. I didn't know it for days afterwards.
• 1:06:54
  It was when I had the pomonia. Missus Wiley wouldn't have the doctor,
• 1:06:57
  she said, You wasn't going to know such expense for her home girl.
• 1:07:00
  Oh Aunt Christina mc allister nursed me with poultices, she brung me round.
• 1:07:04
  But sometimes I wish I'd just died the other half an done with it.
• 1:07:08
  I'd a been better off if you went to heaven, I suppose you would,
• 1:07:12
  said Faith rather doubtfully. Well what other place is there to go,
• 1:07:16
  demanded Mary in a puzzled voice. There's hell, you know, said Una,
• 1:07:21
  dropping her voice and hugging Mary to lessen the awfulness of the suggestion.
• 1:07:26
  Hell. What's that? Why? It's where the devil lives, said Jerry.
• 1:07:30
  You've heard of him, you spoke about him. Oh? Yes,
• 1:07:32
  But I didn't know he lived anywhere. I thought he just roamed around.
• 1:07:36
  Mister Wiley used to mention Hell when he was alive. He was always tellin
• 1:07:41
  folks to go there. I thought it was some place over in New Brunswick
• 1:07:45
  where he come from. Hell is an awful place, said Faith, with
• 1:07:48
  the dramatic enjoyment that is born of telling dreadful things. Bad people go there
• 1:07:54
  when they die and burn in fire forever and ever and ever. Who told
• 1:07:59
  you that? Demanded Mary incredulously. It's in the Bible. And mister Isaac
• 1:08:03
  Cruthers at Maywater told us too in Sunday School. He was an elder and
• 1:08:08
  a pillar in the church and knew all about it. But you needn't worry.
• 1:08:11
  If you're good, you'll go to heaven. And if you're bad,
• 1:08:14
  I guess you'd rather go to Hell. I wouldn't, said Mary positively,
• 1:08:17
  no matter how bad I was. I wouldn't want to be burned and burned
• 1:08:20
  I know what it's like. I picked up a red hot poker once by
• 1:08:24
  accident. What must you do to be good? You must go to church
• 1:08:28
  and Sunday school and read your Bible and pray every night and give to missions,
• 1:08:31
  said Una. It sounds like a large order, said Mary. Anything
• 1:08:35
  else you must ask God to forgive the sins you've committed. But I've never
• 1:08:41
  com committed any, said Mary. What's a sin anyway? Oh Mary,
• 1:08:45
  you must have? Everybody does. Did you never tell a lie? Heaps
• 1:08:49
  of em? Said Mary. That's a dreadful sin, said Una. Solemnly,
• 1:08:55
  do you mean to tell me? Demanded Mary that I'd be sent to
• 1:08:59
  hell for telling a lie? Now and then? Why I had to?
• 1:09:01
  Mister Wiley would have broken every bone in my body one time if I hadn't
• 1:09:05
  told them a lie. Liz have saved me many a whack, I can
• 1:09:09
  tell you, Una sighed. Here were too many difficulties for her to solve.
• 1:09:14
  She shuddered as she thought of being cruelly whipped. Very likely she would
• 1:09:17
  have lied too, She squeezed Mary's little calloused hand. Is that the only
• 1:09:23
  dress you've got? Asked Faith, whose joyous nature refused to dwell on disagreeable
• 1:09:28
  subjects. I just put on this dress because it was no good, cried
• 1:09:30
  Mary, flushing. Missus Wyley bought my clothes, and I wasn't going to
• 1:09:34
  be beholden to her for anything. And I'm honest, if I was going
• 1:09:38
  to run away, I wasn't going to take what belonged to her that was
• 1:09:41
  worth anything. When I grow up, I'm gonna have a blue satting dress.
• 1:09:45
  Your own clothes don't look so stylish. I thought Minister's children were always
• 1:09:47
  dressed up. It was plain that Mary had a temper and was sensitive on
• 1:09:53
  some points, but there was a queer, wild charm about her which captivated
• 1:09:57
  them all. She was taken to Rainbow all that afternoon and introduced to the
• 1:10:01
  Blythes as a friend of ours from over Harbor who was visiting us. The
• 1:10:05
  Blithes accepted her unquestioningly, perhaps because she was fairly respectable. Now, after
• 1:10:11
  dinner, through which Aunt Martha had mumbled and mister Meridith had been in a
• 1:10:15
  state of semi unconsciousness while brooding his Sunday sermon, faith had prevailed on Mary
• 1:10:19
  to put on one of her dresses, as well as certain other articles of
• 1:10:23
  clothing with her hair neatly braided. Mary passed muster tolerably well. She was
• 1:10:29
  an acceptable playmate, for she knew several new and exciting games, and her
• 1:10:32
  conversation lacked not spice. In fact, some of her expressions made Nan and
• 1:10:38
  Di look at her rather askance. They were not quite sure what their mother
• 1:10:42
  would have thought of her, but they knew quite well what Susan would.
• 1:10:45
  However, she was a visitor at the manse, so she must be all
• 1:10:48
  right. When bedtime came, there was the problem of where Mary should sleep.
• 1:10:54
  We can't put her in the spare room, you know, said Faith
• 1:10:56
  perplexedly to Una. I haven't got anything in my head, cried Mary in
• 1:11:00
  an injured tone. Oh I didn't mean that, protested Faith. This spare
• 1:11:04
  room is all torn up. The mice have gnawed a big hole in the
• 1:11:08
  feathered tick and made a nest in it. We never found out till Aunt
• 1:11:11
  Martha put the reverend mister Fisher from Charlottetown there to sleep last week. He
• 1:11:15
  soon found it out. Then Father had to give him his bed and sleep
• 1:11:17
  on the study lounge. Aunt Martha hasn't had time to fix the spare room
• 1:11:21
  bed up yet, so she says, so nobody can sleep there, no
• 1:11:25
  matter how clean their heads are. And our room is so small, and
• 1:11:29
  the bed's so small, you can't sleep with us. I can go back
• 1:11:31
  to the hay in the old barn for the night, if you'll lend me
• 1:11:33
  a quilt, said Mary philosophically. It was kind of chilly last night,
• 1:11:38
  But except for that, I've had worse beds. Oh no, no,
• 1:11:41
  you mustn't do that, said Una. I've thought of a plan, faith.
• 1:11:44
  You know that little trestle bed in the garret room with the old mattress
• 1:11:46
  on it, that the last minister left there. Let's take up the spare
• 1:11:50
  room bedclothes and make Mary a bed there. You won't mind sleeping in the
• 1:11:54
  garret, will you, marry? It's just above our room. Any place'll
• 1:11:58
  do me, laws. I never had a decent place to sleep in my
• 1:12:00
  life. I slept in the loft over the kitchen at missus Winley's. The
• 1:12:04
  roof leaked rain in the summer and the snow rub in in winter. My
• 1:12:08
  bed was a straw tick on the floor. You won't find me a mite
• 1:12:11
  huffy about where I sleep. The man's garret was a long, low,
• 1:12:15
  shadowy place, with one gable and partitioned off. Here a bed was made
• 1:12:19
  up for Mary of the dainty hemstitch sheets and embroidered spread which Cecilia Meredith had
• 1:12:26
  once so proudly made for her spare room, and which still survived Aunt Martha's
• 1:12:30
  uncertain washings. The good nights were said, and silence fell over the man's
• 1:12:34
  Una was just falling asleep when she heard a sound in the room just above
• 1:12:40
  that made her sit up suddenly listen Faith Mary's crying, She whispered, Faith
• 1:12:45
  replied, not being already asleep, Una slipped out of bed and made her
• 1:12:49
  way in her little white gown down the hall and up the garret stairs.
• 1:12:54
  The creaking floor gave ample notice of her coming, and when she reached the
• 1:12:58
  corner room, all was moonlit, silence, and the trestle bed showed only
• 1:13:01
  a hump in the middle. Mary whispered Una. There was no response.
• 1:13:08
  Una crept close to the bed and pulled at the spread. Mary. I
• 1:13:11
  know you're crying. I heard you. Are you lonesome? Mary suddenly appeared
• 1:13:15
  to view, but said nothing. Let me in beside you. I'm cold,
• 1:13:19
  said Una, shivering in the chilly air for the little garret window was
• 1:13:23
  open, and the keen breath of the north shore at night blew in.
• 1:13:28
  Mary moved over, and Una snuggled down beside her. Now you won't be
• 1:13:31
  lonesome. We shouldn't have left you here alone the first night. I wasn't
• 1:13:35
  lonesome, sniffed Mary. What were you crying for? Then? Oh?
• 1:13:40
  I just got to thinking of things when I was here alone. I thought
• 1:13:44
  of having to go back to missus Wiley, and of being licked for running
• 1:13:46
  away, and and and of going to Hell for telling lies. It all
• 1:13:50
  worried me something scandalous, oh Mary, said poor Una, in distress.
• 1:13:56
  I don't believe God will send you to hell for telling lies When you didn't
• 1:13:59
  know it was wrong. He couldn't why he's kind and good. Of course
• 1:14:02
  you mustn't tell any more now that you know it's wrong. If I can't
• 1:14:06
  tell lies, what's to become of me? Said Mary with a sob.
• 1:14:10
  You don't understand. You don't know anything about it. You've got a home
• 1:14:14
  and a kind father, though it does seem to me that he isn't more'n
• 1:14:16
  about half there. But anyway, he doesn't lick you, and you get
• 1:14:20
  enough to eat such as it is, though that old aunt of yours doesn't
• 1:14:24
  know anything about cooking. Why this is the first day I ever remember feeling
• 1:14:28
  as if I'd had enough to eat. I've been knocked about all my life,
• 1:14:31
  except for the two years I was at the asylum. They didn't lick
• 1:14:34
  me there, and it wasn't too bad, though the matron was cross.
• 1:14:38
  She always looked ready to bite the head off and nail. But missus Wyley's
• 1:14:41
  a holy terror, that's what she is, and I'm just scared stiff when
• 1:14:45
  I think of going back to her. Perhaps he won't have to. Perhaps
• 1:14:48
  we'll be able to think of a way out. Let's both ask God to
• 1:14:53
  keep you from having to go back to Missus Wiley. You say your prayers,
• 1:14:56
  don't you, Mary? Oh? Yes, I always go over an
• 1:14:59
  old rhyme for gettin to bed, said Mary indifferently. I never thought of
• 1:15:02
  asking for anything in particular, though nobody in this world ever bothered themselves about
• 1:15:06
  me, so I didn't s'pose God would he might take more trouble for you,
• 1:15:11
  seeing your administer's daughter, he'd take every bit as much trouble for you,
• 1:15:15
  Mary, I'm sure, said Una. It doesn't matter whose child you
• 1:15:18
  are. You just ask him and I will too, all right, agreed,
• 1:15:23
  Mary, It won't do any harm if it doesn't do much good.
• 1:15:26
  If you knew missus Wiley as well as I do, you wouldn't think God
• 1:15:29
  would want to meddle with her anyhow. I won't cry any more about it.
• 1:15:32
  This is a big sight, better an last night down in that old
• 1:15:35
  barn with the mice running about. Look at the four winds light. Ain't
• 1:15:40
  it pretty? This is the only window we can see it from, said
• 1:15:44
  Una. I love to watch it, do you so do? I?
• 1:15:46
  I could see it from the wily loft, and it was the only comfort
• 1:15:49
  I had when I was all sore from beIN licked. I'd watch it an
• 1:15:54
  forget about the places that hurt. I'd think of the ships sailin away an
• 1:15:58
  away from it, and wish I was on one of them, sailin far
• 1:16:00
  away, too, away from everything. On winter nights when it didn't shine,
• 1:16:04
  I just felt real lonesome, Say Una, what makes all you folks
• 1:16:09
  so kind o me when I'm just a stranger, Because it's right to be.
• 1:16:13
  The Bible tells us to be kind to everybody, does it? Well?
• 1:16:16
  I guess most folks, jes don't mind it much. Then, I
• 1:16:19
  never remember anyone beIN kind o me before, true as you live, I
• 1:16:23
  don't say, Una, ain't them shadows on the walls pretty? They look
• 1:16:28
  just like a flock a little dancing birds, And say Una, I like
• 1:16:31
  all you folks, and then blithe boys an die. But I don't like
• 1:16:34
  that, Nan, she's a proud one. Oh no, Mary, she
• 1:16:39
  isn't a bit proud, said Una eagerly, not a single bit. Don't
• 1:16:43
  tell me any one that holds her head like that is proud. I don't
• 1:16:45
  like her. We all like her very much. Oh I s'pose you like
• 1:16:49
  her better, an me, said Mary jealously. Do you why? Mary?
• 1:16:54
  We've known her for weeks and we've only known you a few hours,
• 1:16:57
  stammered Una. So you do like better, then, said Mary in a
• 1:17:00
  rage. All right, like her all you want to. I don't care.
• 1:17:03
  I can get along without you. She flung herself over against the wall
• 1:17:08
  of the garret with a slam. Oh Mary, said Una, pushing a
• 1:17:12
  tender arm over Mary's uncompromising back. Don't talk like that. I do like
• 1:17:16
  you ever so much, and you make me feel so bad. No answer
• 1:17:21
  presently Una gave a sob. Instantly, Mary squirmed around again and engulfed Una
• 1:17:27
  in a bear's hug. Hush up, she ordered, don't go crying over
• 1:17:30
  what I said. I was as mean as the devil to talk that way.
• 1:17:33
  I order be skinned alive, and you all so good to me,
• 1:17:36
  I should think you would like anyone better'n me. I deserve every lickin I
• 1:17:41
  ever got. Hush now, if you cry any more, I'll go and
• 1:17:44
  walk right down to the harbor in this night dress and drown myself. This
• 1:17:47
  terrible threat made Una choke back her sobs. Her tears were wiped away by
• 1:17:53
  Mary with the lace frill of the spare room pillow, and Forgiver and Forgiven
• 1:17:57
  cuddled down together again. Harmony restored to watch the shadows of the vine leaves
• 1:18:01
  on the moonlit wall until they fell asleep. And in the study below,
• 1:18:05
  Reverend John Meredith walked the floor with rapt face and shining eyes, thinking out
• 1:18:11
  his message of the morrow, and knew not that under his own roof there
• 1:18:15
  was a little forlorn soul stumbling in darkness and ignorance, beset by terror,
• 1:18:20
  and compassed about with difficulties too great for it to grapple in its unequal struggle
• 1:18:25
  with a big, indifferent world. End of chapter five, Chapter six,
• 1:18:31
  Mary stays at the man's. The man's children took Mary Van's to church with
• 1:18:36
  them the next day. At first Mary objected to the idea. Didn't you
• 1:18:41
  go to church over harbor, asked Una, you bet, Missus Wiley never
• 1:18:45
  troubled church much, but I went every sunday I could get off. I
• 1:18:48
  was mighty thankful to go someplace I could sip down for a spell. But
• 1:18:51
  I can't go to church in this old, ragged dress. This difficulty was
• 1:18:57
  removed by Faith offering the loan of her second best dress. It's faded a
• 1:19:00
  little, and two of the buttons are off, but I guess it'll do.
• 1:19:03
  I'll sew the buttons on in a jiffy, said Mary, not on
• 1:19:06
  sunday, said Una, shocked. Sure, the better the day, the
• 1:19:11
  better the deed. You just give me an eelinth thread and look the other
• 1:19:14
  way if you're squeamish. Faith's school boots and an old black velvet cap that
• 1:19:18
  had once been Cecilia Meredith's completed Mary's costume, and to church she went.
• 1:19:24
  Her behavior was quite conventional and though some wondered who the shabby little girl with
• 1:19:28
  the man's children was, she did not attract much attention. She listened to
• 1:19:32
  the sermon with outward decorum and joined lustily in the singing. She had.
• 1:19:36
  It appeared a clear, strong voice and a good ear. His blood can
• 1:19:42
  make the violets clean, caroled Mary blithely. Missus Jimmy Milgrave, whose pew
• 1:19:47
  was just in front of the man's pew, turned suddenly and looked the child
• 1:19:51
  over from top to toe. Mary, in a mere superfluity of naughtiness,
• 1:19:56
  stuck her tongue out at Missus Milgrave, much to UNA's horror. I couldn't
• 1:20:00
  help it, she declared after church. What did she want to stare at
• 1:20:03
  me like that? For such manners? I'm glad I stuck my tongue out
• 1:20:08
  at her. I wish I'd stuck it further out. Say, I saw
• 1:20:11
  Rob mc allister from over harbor there. Wonder if you'll tell Missus Wyley on
• 1:20:15
  me. No. Missus Wiley appeared, however, and in a few days
• 1:20:18
  the children forgot to look for her. Mary was apparently a fixture at the
• 1:20:23
  manse, but she refused to go to school with the others. Nope,
• 1:20:26
  I've finished my education, she said, when Faith urged her to go.
• 1:20:30
  I went to school four winters since I came to missus Wyley's, and I've
• 1:20:33
  had all I want of that. I'm sick and tired of being everlastingly jawed
• 1:20:38
  at because I didn't get my home lessons done. I'd no time to do
• 1:20:42
  home lessons. Our teacher won't jaw you, he's awfully nice, said Faith.
• 1:20:46
  Well, I ain't going. I can read and write an cipher up
• 1:20:49
  to fractions. That's all I want. You fellows go and I'll stay home.
• 1:20:54
  You needn't be scared. I'll steal anything, I swear, I'm honest.
• 1:20:58
  Mary employed herself while the others were at school, in cleaning up the
• 1:21:01
  manse. In a few days, it was a different place. Floors were
• 1:21:04
  swept, furniture dusted, everything straightened out. She mended the spare room bedtick,
• 1:21:11
  She sewed on missing buttons, She patched clothes neatly. She even invaded
• 1:21:15
  the study with broom and dustpan and ordered mister Meredith out while she put it
• 1:21:18
  to rights. But there was one department with which Aunt Martha refused to let
• 1:21:24
  her interfere. Aunt Martha might be deaf and half blind and very childish,
• 1:21:29
  but she was resolved to keep the Commissariat in her own hands in spite of
• 1:21:32
  all Mary's wiles and stratagems. I can tell you if Old Martha let me
• 1:21:39
  cook, you'd have some decent meals, she told the man's children indignantly.
• 1:21:43
  There'd be no more ditto, and no more lumpy porridge blue milk either.
• 1:21:47
  What does she do with all the cream? She gives it to the cat.
• 1:21:51
  He's hers, you know, said Faith. I'd like to cat her,
• 1:21:55
  exclaimed Mary bitterly. I've no use for cats anyhow. They belonged to
• 1:21:59
  the old nick. You can tell that by their eyes. Well, if
• 1:22:02
  old Martha won't, she won't, I suppose. But it gets on my
• 1:22:06
  nerves to see good fiddles spoiled. When school came out, they always went
• 1:22:12
  to Rainbow Valley. Mary refused to play in the graveyard. She declared.
• 1:22:15
  She was afraid of ghosts. There's no such thing as ghosts, declared jem
• 1:22:20
  blythe oh ain't there? Did you ever see any hundreds of'em? Said
• 1:22:26
  Mary promptly. What are they like? Said Carl, awful looking dressed all
• 1:22:31
  in white with Skellington hands and heads, said Mary, What did you do?
• 1:22:36
  Asked Una. Run like the devil, said Mary. Then she caught
• 1:22:41
  Walter's eyes and blushed. Mary was a good deal in awe of Walter.
• 1:22:45
  She declared to the man's girls that his eyes made her nervous. I think
• 1:22:48
  of all the lies I've ever told when I look into them, she said,
• 1:22:51
  and I wish I hadn't. Jem was Mary's favorite. When he took
• 1:22:56
  her to the attic at Ingleside and showed her the museum of Curio that Captain
• 1:23:00
  Jim Boyd had bequeathed to him, she was immediately pleased and flattered. She
• 1:23:04
  also won Karl's hart entirely by her interest in his beetles and aunts. It
• 1:23:10
  could not be denied that Mary got on rather better with the boys than with
• 1:23:14
  the girls. She quarreled bitterly with Nan blythe the second day. Your mother's
• 1:23:18
  a witch, she told Nan scornfully. Red haired women are always witches.
• 1:23:23
  Then she and Faith fell out about the rooster. Mary said its tail was
• 1:23:27
  too short. Faith angrily retorted that she guessed God knew what length to make
• 1:23:31
  a rooster's tale. They did not speak for a day, over this,
• 1:23:35
  Mary treated UNA's hairless one eyed doll with consideration. But when Una showed her
• 1:23:41
  other prized treasure, a picture of an angel carrying a baby, presumably to
• 1:23:45
  heaven, Mary declared that it looked too much like a ghost for her.
• 1:23:48
  Una crept away to her room and cried over this, but Mary hunted her
• 1:23:53
  out, hugged her repentantly, and implored forgiveness. No one could keep up
• 1:23:58
  a quarrel long with Mary, not even Nan, who was rather prone to
• 1:24:00
  hold grudges and never quite forgave the insult to her mother. Mary was jolly.
• 1:24:05
  She could and did tell the most thrilling ghost stories. Rainbow Valley seances
• 1:24:11
  were undeniably more exciting. After Mary came, she learned to play on the
• 1:24:15
  jew's harp and soon eclipsed Jerry. Never struck anything yet I couldn't do if
• 1:24:20
  I put my mind to it, she declared. Mary seldom lost a chance
• 1:24:24
  of tooting her own horn. She taught them how to make blow bags out
• 1:24:28
  of the thick leaves of the live forever that flourished in the old Bailey garden.
• 1:24:31
  She initiated them into the toothsome qualities of the sours that grew in the
• 1:24:35
  niches of the graveyard Dyke, and she could make the most wonderful shadow pictures
• 1:24:40
  on the walls with her long, flexible fingers. And when they all went
• 1:24:45
  picking gum and rainbow valley, Mary always got the biggest chew and bragged about
• 1:24:49
  it. There were times when they hated her and times when they loved her,
• 1:24:54
  but at all times they found her interesting. So they submitted quite meekly
• 1:24:58
  to her bossing, and by the end of a fortnight had come to feel
• 1:25:01
  that she must always have been with them. It's the queerest thing that Missus
• 1:25:04
  Wyley ain't been after me, said Mary. I can't understand it. Maybe
• 1:25:09
  she isn't going to bother about you at all, said Una. Then you
• 1:25:12
  can just go on staying here. This house ain't hardly big enough for me
• 1:25:15
  and old Martha, said Mary darkly. It's a very fine thing to have
• 1:25:19
  enough to eat. I've often wondered what it would be like, but I'm
• 1:25:24
  particular about my cooking, and Missus Wyley'll be here yet. She's got a
• 1:25:29
  rod in pickle for me, all right. I don't think about it so
• 1:25:31
  much in daytime, But say, girls up there in that garret at night.
• 1:25:34
  I get to thinkin an thinkin of it till I almost just wish she'd
• 1:25:39
  come and have it over with. I dunno, as one real good whipping
• 1:25:43
  would be much worse than all the dozen I've lived through in my mind ever
• 1:25:45
  since I run away. Were any of you ever looked? No, of
• 1:25:49
  course, not, said Faith indignantly. Father would never do such a thing.
• 1:25:54
  You don't know you're alive, said Mary, with a sigh, half
• 1:25:57
  of envy, half of superiority. You don't know what I've come through,
• 1:26:00
  and I s'pose the blithes were never licked either, No, I guess not,
• 1:26:05
  but I think they were sometimes spanked when they were small. A spanking
• 1:26:11
  doesn't amount to anything, said Mary contemptuously. If my folks had just spanked
• 1:26:15
  me, i'd a thought they were petting me. Well, it ain't a
• 1:26:18
  fair world. I wouldn't mind taking my share of wallobins, but I've had
• 1:26:23
  a darn sight too many. It isn't right to say that word, Mary
• 1:26:27
  said, Una reproachfully. You promised me you wouldn't say it, Gooway,
• 1:26:31
  responded Mary. If you knew some of the words I could say if I
• 1:26:35
  liked, you wouldn't make such a fuss over darn and you know very well
• 1:26:40
  I hain't ever told any lie since I come here. What about all those
• 1:26:44
  ghosts you said you saw, asked faith Mary blushed. That was different,
• 1:26:48
  she said, defiantly. I knew you wouldn't believe them, yarns, and
• 1:26:51
  I didn't intend you to. And I really did see something queer one night
• 1:26:55
  when I was passing the over Harbor graveyard, True's you live. I don't
• 1:26:59
  know whether which was a ghost or Sandy Crawford's old white nag, but it
• 1:27:02
  looked blamed queer. And I tell you, I scooted at the rate of
• 1:27:05
  no man's business. End of chapter six. Chapter seven, a fishy episode,
• 1:27:13
  Rilla blithe walked proudly and perhaps a little primly, through the main street
• 1:27:17
  of the Glen and up the Man's Hill, carefully carrying a small basketful of
• 1:27:21
  early strawberries, which Susan had coaxed into lusciousness in one of the sunny nooks
• 1:27:27
  of Ingleside. Susan had charged Rilla to give the basket to nobody except Aunt
• 1:27:31
  Martha or mister Meridith, and Rilla, very proud of being entrusted with such
• 1:27:35
  an errand was resolved to carry out her instructions to the letter. Susan had
• 1:27:41
  dressed her daintily in a white, starched and embroidered dress, with sash of
• 1:27:45
  blue and beaded slippers. Her long ruddy curls were sleek and round, and
• 1:27:49
  Susan had let her put on her best hat out of compliment to the manse.
• 1:27:55
  It was a somewhat elaborate affair, wherein Susan's taste had had more to
• 1:27:59
  say than Anne's, and Rilla's small soul gloried in its splendors of silk and
• 1:28:02
  lace and flowers. She was very conscious of her hat, and I'm afraid
• 1:28:08
  she's strutted up the man's hill. The strut or the hat, or both
• 1:28:13
  got on the nerves of Mary Van's, who was swinging on the lawn gate.
• 1:28:16
  Mary's temper was somewhat ruffled. Just then into the bargain, Aunt Martha
• 1:28:21
  had refused to let her peel the potatoes and had ordered her out of the
• 1:28:25
  kitchen. Ya, you'll bring the potatoes to the kitchen with strips of skin
• 1:28:29
  hanging to them and half boiled as usual. My, but it'll be nice
• 1:28:32
  to go to your funeral shrieked Mary. She went out of the kitchen,
• 1:28:36
  giving the door such a bang that even Aunt Martha heard it, and mister
• 1:28:41
  Meredith, in his study felt the vibration and thought absently that there must have
• 1:28:45
  been a slight earthquake shock. Then he went on with his sermon. Mary
• 1:28:48
  slipped from the gate and confronted the spick and span damsel of Ingleside. What
• 1:28:53
  you got there, she demanded, trying to take the basket. Rilla resisted,
• 1:28:58
  it's for mister Meredith. She lisped, give it to me. I'll
• 1:29:01
  give it to him, said Mary. No, Susan said that I wasn't
• 1:29:04
  to give it to anybody, but mister Meredith or Aunt Martha, insisted Rilla.
• 1:29:10
  Mary eyed her sourly. You think you're something, don't you? All
• 1:29:14
  dressed up like a doll. Look at me. My dress is all rags,
• 1:29:17
  and I don't care. I'd rather be ragged than a doll. Baby.
• 1:29:21
  Go home and tell them to put you in a glass case. Look
• 1:29:25
  at me, Look at me, Look at me. Mary executed a wild
• 1:29:28
  dance around the dismayed and bewildered Rilla, flirting her ragged skirt and vociferating,
• 1:29:32
  look at me, look at me until poor Rilla was dizzy. But as
• 1:29:36
  the latter tried to edge away towards the gate, Mary pounced on her again.
• 1:29:41
  You give me that basket, she ordered with a grimace. Mary was
• 1:29:45
  past mistress of the art of making faces. She could give her countenance a
• 1:29:48
  most grotesque and unearthly appearance, out of which her strange, brilliant white eyes
• 1:29:54
  gleamed with weird effect. I won't gasped Marilla, frightened but staunch. You'll
• 1:29:59
  let me go, Mary vance. Mary let go for a minute and looked
• 1:30:02
  around her. Just inside the gate was a small flake on which half a
• 1:30:08
  dozen large codfish were drying. One of mister Meredith's parishioners had presented him with
• 1:30:13
  these one day, perhaps in near of the subscription he was supposed to pay
• 1:30:16
  to the stipend, and never did. Mister Meredith had thanked him and then
• 1:30:20
  forgotten all about the fish, which would have promptly spoiled had not the indefatigable
• 1:30:25
  Mary prepared them for drying, and rigged up the flake herself on which to
• 1:30:29
  dry them. Mary had a diabolical inspiration. She flew to the flake,
• 1:30:33
  seized the largest fish there, a huge flat thing nearly as big as herself.
• 1:30:39
  With a whoop, she swooped down on the terrified Roula, brandishing her
• 1:30:43
  weird missile. Rilla's courage gave way to be lambasted with a dried codfish with
• 1:30:48
  such an unheard of thing that Rilla could not face it with a shriek.
• 1:30:53
  She dropped her basket and fled the beautiful berries which Susan had so tenderly selected
• 1:30:58
  for the Minister wrote and a rosy torrent over the dusty road, and were
• 1:31:02
  trodden on by the flying feet of pursuer and pursued. The basket and contents
• 1:31:08
  were no longer in Mary's mind. She thought only of the delight of giving
• 1:31:11
  Rilla blythe the scare of her life. She would teach her to come,
• 1:31:15
  giving herself airs because of her fine clothes. Rilla flew down the hill and
• 1:31:19
  along the street. Terror lent wings to her feet, and she just managed
• 1:31:25
  to keep ahead of Mary, who was somewhat hampered by her own laughter,
• 1:31:28
  but who had breath enough to give occasional blood curdling whoops as she ran,
• 1:31:32
  flourishing her codfish in the air through the glen street. They swept while everybody
• 1:31:38
  ran to the windows and gates to see them. Mary felt she was making
• 1:31:42
  a tremendous sensation and enjoyed it. Rilla, blind with terror and spent of
• 1:31:47
  breath, felt that she could run no longer in another instant, that terrible
• 1:31:51
  girl would be on her with the codfish. At this point, the poor
• 1:31:56
  mite stumbled and fell into the mud puddle at the end of the street,
• 1:32:00
  just as Miss Cornelia came out of Carter Flag's store. Miss Cornelia took the
• 1:32:03
  whole situation in at a glance, so did Mary. The latter stopped short
• 1:32:08
  in her mad career, and before Miss Cornelia could speak, she had whirled
• 1:32:12
  around and was running up as fast as she had run down. Miss Cornelia's
• 1:32:16
  lips tightened ominously, but she knew it was no use to think of chasing
• 1:32:19
  her, so she picked up poor, sobbing, disheveled Rilla instead and took
• 1:32:25
  her home. Rilla was heart broken. Her dress and slippers and hat were
• 1:32:30
  ruined, and her six year old pride had received terrible bruises. Susan White,
• 1:32:34
  with indignation, heard Miss Cornelia's story of Mary Vance's exploit. Oh the
• 1:32:40
  hussy, Oh the little hussy, she said, as she carried Rilla away
• 1:32:45
  for purification and comfort. This thing has gone on far enough, Anne Dearie,
• 1:32:49
  said Miss Cornelia resolutely, something must be done. Who is this creature
• 1:32:54
  who was staying at the Man's and where does she come from? I understood
• 1:32:59
  she was a little girl from over Harbor who was visiting at the manse,
• 1:33:01
  answered Anne, who saw the comical side of the codfish chase and secretly thought
• 1:33:05
  Rilla was rather vain and needed a lesson or two. I know all the
• 1:33:11
  over Harbor families who come to our church, and that imp doesn't belong to
• 1:33:15
  any of them, retorted Miss Cornelia. She is almost in rags, and
• 1:33:18
  when she goes to church she wears Faith Meredith's old clothes. There's some mystery
• 1:33:23
  here, and I'm going to investigate it, since it seems nobody else will.
• 1:33:28
  I believe she was at the bottom of their goings on in Warren Mead's
• 1:33:30
  spruce Bush the other day? Did you hear of their frightening his mother into
• 1:33:34
  a fit? No? I knew Gilbert had been called to see her,
• 1:33:38
  but I did not hear what the trouble was. Well, you know,
• 1:33:42
  she has a weak heart, and one day last week when she was all
• 1:33:45
  alone on the veranda. She heard the most awful shrieks of murder and help
• 1:33:49
  coming from the bush, positively frightful sounds. Anne Dearie, her heart gave
• 1:33:54
  out at once. Warren heard them himself at the barn and went straight to
• 1:33:58
  the bush to investigate, and there he found all the man's children sitting on
• 1:34:01
  a fallen tree and screaming murder at the top of their lungs. They told
• 1:34:05
  him they were only in fun and didn't think any one could hear them.
• 1:34:09
  They were just playing Indian ambush. Warren went back to the house and found
• 1:34:13
  his poor mother unconscious on the Verandah Susan, who had returned, sniffed contemptuously.
• 1:34:18
  I think she was very far from being unconscious, missus Marshall Elliot,
• 1:34:23
  and that you may tie to. I have been hearing of Amelia Warren's weak
• 1:34:26
  heart for forty years. She had it when she was twenty. She enjoys
• 1:34:30
  making a fuss and having the doctor and any excuse will do. I don't
• 1:34:33
  think Gilbert thought her attack very serious, said Anne. Oh, that very
• 1:34:39
  well may be, said, miss Cornelia. But the matter has made an
• 1:34:42
  awful lot of talk, and the meeds being Methodists makes it that much worse.
• 1:34:45
  What is going to become of those children? Sometimes I can't sleep at
• 1:34:49
  nights for thinking about the man, Dearie, I really do question if they
• 1:34:53
  get enough to eat, even for their father is so lost in dreams that
• 1:34:56
  he doesn't often remember he has a stomach, and that lazy old woman doesn't
• 1:35:00
  bother cooking what she ought. They are just running wild, and now that
• 1:35:03
  school is closing, they'll be worse than ever. They do have jolly times,
• 1:35:08
  said Anne, laughing over the recollections of some Rainbow Valley happenings that had
• 1:35:13
  come to her ears. And they are all brave and frank and loyal and
• 1:35:16
  truthful. That's a true word, Anne, dearie. And when you come
• 1:35:20
  to think of all the trouble in the church, those two tattling, deceitful
• 1:35:24
  youngsters of the last Minister's made, I am inclined to overlook a good deal
• 1:35:28
  in the Merediths. When all is said and done, missus, doctor dear
• 1:35:30
  they are very nice children, said Susan. They have got plenty of original
• 1:35:34
  sin in them, and that I will admit. But maybe it is just
• 1:35:38
  as well, for if they had not they might spoil from oversweetness only.
• 1:35:42
  I do think it is not proper for them to play in a graveyard,
• 1:35:45
  and that I will maintain. But they really play quite quietly there, excused
• 1:35:49
  Anne. They don't run and yell as they do elsewhere. Such howls as
• 1:35:54
  drift up here from Rainbow Valley sometimes, though I fancy my own small fry
• 1:35:59
  bear of valiant. Pardon them. They had a sham battle there last night
• 1:36:02
  and had to roar themselves because they had no artillery to do it. So
• 1:36:06
  Jem says. Jem is passing through the stage where all boys hanker to be
• 1:36:11
  soldiers. Well, thank goodness, he'll never be a soldier, said Miss
• 1:36:15
  Cornelia. I never approved of our boys going to that South African fracaw,
• 1:36:18
  but it's over and not likely anything of the kind will ever happen again.
• 1:36:24
  I think the world is getting more sensible. As for the merediths, I've
• 1:36:28
  said many a time, and I say it again. If mister Meredith had
• 1:36:30
  a wife, all would be well. He called twice at the Kirks last
• 1:36:34
  week, so I am told, said Susan. Well, said Miss Cornelia
• 1:36:39
  thoughtfully. As a rule, I don't approve of a minister marrying in his
• 1:36:43
  congregation, it generally spoils him, but in this case it would do no
• 1:36:46
  harm. For every one likes Elizabeth Kirk, and nobody else is hankering for
• 1:36:50
  the job of stepmothering those youngsters. Even the Hill girls balk at that they
• 1:36:56
  haven't been found laying traps for mister Meredith. Elizabeth would make him a good
• 1:37:00
  wife if he only thought so. But the trouble is she really is homely
• 1:37:04
  and Anne, Dearie, Mister Meredith, abstracted as he is, has an
• 1:37:09
  eye for a good looking woman, man like he isn't so otherworldly when it
• 1:37:14
  comes to that. Believe me, Elizabeth Kirk is a very nice person.
• 1:37:17
  But they do say that people have nearly frozen to death in her mother's spare
• 1:37:21
  room bed before now, missus doctor dear, said Susan darkly. If I
• 1:37:26
  felt that I had any right to express an opinion concerning such a solemn matter
• 1:37:30
  as a minister's marriage, I would say that I think Elizabeth's cousin, Sarah
• 1:37:33
  over Harbor, would make mister Meredith a better wife. Why Sarah Kirk is
• 1:37:38
  a Methodist, said Miss Cornelia, much as if Susan had suggested a Hottentot
• 1:37:43
  as a man's bride. She would likely turn Presbyterian if she married mister Meredith,
• 1:37:46
  retorted Susan, Miss Cornelia shook her head evidently with her. It was
• 1:37:51
  once a Methodist, always a Methodist. Sarah Kirk is entirely out of the
• 1:37:57
  question, she said, positively, And so as Emmeline Drew. Though the
• 1:38:00
  Drews are all trying to make the match. They are literally throwing poor Emmeline
• 1:38:05
  at his head, and he hasn't the least idea of it. Emmeline Drew
• 1:38:10
  has no gumption, I must allow, said Susan. She is the kind
• 1:38:14
  of woman, missus doctor dear, who would put a hot water bottle in
• 1:38:16
  your bed on a dog night and then half her feelings hurt because you were
• 1:38:19
  not grateful. And her mother was a very poor housekeeper. Did you ever
• 1:38:25
  hear the story of her dishcloth? She lost her dishcloth one day, but
• 1:38:29
  the next day she found it. Oh yes, missus doctor dear, she
• 1:38:31
  found it in the goose at the dinner table, mixed up with the stuffing.
• 1:38:36
  Do you think a woman like that would do for a minister's mother in
• 1:38:40
  law? I do not, but no doubt I would be better employed in
• 1:38:43
  mending little Gem's trousers than in talking gossip about my neighbors. He tore them
• 1:38:47
  something scandalous last night in Rainbow Valley? Where is Walter asked Anne, he
• 1:38:54
  is up to no good? I fear, missus doctor dear. He is
• 1:38:56
  in the attic writing something in an exercise book, and he has not done
• 1:39:00
  as well in arithmetic this term as he should. So the teacher tells me
• 1:39:02
  too, well, I know the reason why he has been writing silly rhymes
• 1:39:06
  when he should have been doing his sums. I am afraid that boy is
• 1:39:10
  going to be a poet, missus doctor dear. He is a poet now,
• 1:39:13
  Susan, Well, you take it real, calm, missus doctor dear.
• 1:39:16
  I suppose it is the best way when a person has the strength.
• 1:39:19
  I had an uncle who began by being a poet and ended up by being
• 1:39:23
  a tramp. Our family were dreadfully ashamed of him. You don't seem to
• 1:39:28
  think very highly of poets, Susan, said Anne, laughing. Who does,
• 1:39:31
  missus, doctor dear, asked Susan, in genuine astonishment. What about
• 1:39:35
  Milton and Shakespeare and the poets of the Bible? They tell me, Milton
• 1:39:41
  could not get along with his wife, and Shakespeare was no more than respectable
• 1:39:44
  by times. As for the Bible, of course, things were different in
• 1:39:46
  those sacred days. Although I never had a high opinion of King David,
• 1:39:50
  say what you will, I never knew any good to come of writing poetry,
• 1:39:55
  and I hope and pray that blessed boy will outgrow the tendency. If
• 1:39:58
  he does not, we am I see what emulsion of coddle of royal will
• 1:40:01
  do. End of chapter seven, Chapter eight, Miss Cornelia intervenes. Miss
• 1:40:09
  Cornelia descended upon the man's the next day and cross questioned Mary, who,
• 1:40:13
  being a young person of considerable discernment and astuteness, told her story simply and
• 1:40:17
  truthfully, with an entire absence of complaint or bravado. Miss Cornelia was more
• 1:40:23
  favorably impressed than she had expected to be, but deemed it her duty to
• 1:40:27
  be severe. Do you think, she said, sternly, that you showed
• 1:40:30
  your gratitude to this family, who have been far too kind to you by
• 1:40:34
  insulting and chasing one of their little friends as you did yesterday. Say it
• 1:40:40
  was rotten mean of me, admitted Mary easily. I don't know what possessed
• 1:40:44
  me that old codfish seemed to come in. So blamed Handy, But I
• 1:40:47
  was awful. Sorry. I cried last night after I went to bed about
• 1:40:50
  it. Honest, I did you ask Una. If I didn't, I
• 1:40:54
  wouldn't tell her what for, because I was ashamed of it. And then
• 1:40:57
  she cried too, because she was afraid someone had hurt my feelings. Laws,
• 1:41:00
  I ain't got no feelin's to hurt. Worth speakin of What worries me
• 1:41:03
  is why missus Wyley ain't been huntin for me. It ain't like her.
• 1:41:08
  Miss Cornelia herself thought it rather peculiar, but she merely admonished Mary Sharply not
• 1:41:13
  to take any further liberties with the Minister's codfish, and went to report progress
• 1:41:16
  at Ingleside. If the child's story is true, the matter ought to be
• 1:41:20
  looked into, she said, I know something about that wily woman. Believe
• 1:41:25
  me. Marshall used to be well acquainted with her when he lived over Harbor.
• 1:41:29
  I heard him say something last summer about her and a home child she
• 1:41:32
  had, likely this very merry creature, he said. Some one told him
• 1:41:36
  she was working the child to death, and not half feeding and clothing it,
• 1:41:41
  you know, Anne, dearie. It has always been my habit,
• 1:41:44
  neither to make nor meddle with those over harbor folks. But I shall send
• 1:41:47
  Marshall over tomorrow to find out the rights of this if he can, and
• 1:41:50
  then I'll speak to the minister. Mind you, Anne, dearie. The
• 1:41:55
  Meritiths found this girl literally starving in James Taylor's old hay barn. She had
• 1:42:00
  been there all night, cold and hungry and alone, and us sleeping warm
• 1:42:03
  in our beds after our good suppers. That poor little thing, said Anne,
• 1:42:08
  picturing one of her own dear babies, cold and hungry and alone in
• 1:42:12
  such circumstances. If she has been ill used, Miss Cornelia, she mustn't
• 1:42:15
  be taken back to such a place. I was an orphan once in a
• 1:42:18
  very similar situation. We'll have to consult the Hopetown Asylum folks, said Miss
• 1:42:24
  Cornelia. Anyway, she can't be left at the man's dear knows what those
• 1:42:28
  poor children might learn from her. I understand that she has been known to
• 1:42:31
  swear, but just think of her being there two whole weeks and mister Meridith
• 1:42:35
  never waking up to it. What business has a man like that to have
• 1:42:40
  a family, why Anne Dearie, he ought to be a monk. Two
• 1:42:44
  evenings later, Miss Cornelia was back at Ingleside. It's the most amazing thing,
• 1:42:48
  she said. Missus Wiley was found dead in her bed the very morning
• 1:42:53
  after this merry creature ran away. She has had a bad heart for years,
• 1:42:57
  and the doctor had warned her it might happen at any time. She
• 1:43:00
  had sent away her hired man and there was nobody in the house. Some
• 1:43:03
  neighbors found her the next day. They missed the child, it seems,
• 1:43:08
  but supposed missus Wyley had sent her to her cousin near Charlottetown, as she
• 1:43:12
  had said she was going to do. The cousin didn't come to the funeral,
• 1:43:15
  and so nobody ever knew that Mary wasn't with her. The people Marshall
• 1:43:18
  talked to told him some things about the way missus Wiley used this Mary that
• 1:43:21
  made his blood boil. So he declares, you know, it puts Marshall
• 1:43:26
  in a regular fury to hear of a child being ill used. They said
• 1:43:30
  she whipped her mercilessly for every little fault or mistake. Some folks talked of
• 1:43:33
  writing to the asylum authorities. But everybody's business is nobody's business, and it
• 1:43:39
  was never done. I am sorry that wiley person is dead, said Susan
• 1:43:43
  fiercely. I should like to go over harbor and give her a piece of
• 1:43:45
  my mind. Starving and beating a child, missus doctor dear. As you
• 1:43:49
  know, I hold with lawful spanking, but I go no further. And
• 1:43:53
  what is to become of this poor child now, missus Marshall Elliott. I
• 1:43:57
  suppose she must be sent back to Hopetown, said Mary Cornelia. I think
• 1:44:00
  every one hereabouts who wants a home child has one. I'll see mister Meredith
• 1:44:04
  tomorrow and tell him my opinion of the whole affair, and no doubt she
• 1:44:09
  will, missus doctor dear, said Susan. After Miss Cornelia had gone.
• 1:44:13
  She would stick at nothing, not even at shingling the church spire if she
• 1:44:15
  took it into her head. But I cannot understand how even Cornelia Bryant can
• 1:44:20
  talk to a minister as sheetas you would think he was just any common person.
• 1:44:26
  When Miss Cornelia had gone, nan blythe uncurled herself from the hammock where
• 1:44:30
  she had been studying her lessons, and slipped away to Rainbow Valley. The
• 1:44:33
  others were already there. Jem and Jerry were playing quoits with old horseshoes borrowed
• 1:44:39
  from the glen. Blacksmith Karl was stalking ants on a sunny hillock. Walter,
• 1:44:44
  lying on his stomach among the fern, was reading aloud to Marry and
• 1:44:46
  Die, and Faith and Una from a wonderful book of myths, wherein were
• 1:44:50
  fascinating accounts of Prester John and the Wondering Jew, divining rods and tailed men,
• 1:44:57
  of Schamir, the worm that split rocks and open the way to golden
• 1:45:00
  treasure, of fortunate isles, and swan maidens. It was a great shock
• 1:45:04
  to Walter to learn that William Tell and Gellert were myths also, and the
• 1:45:09
  story of Bishop Hatto was to keep him awake all that night. But best
• 1:45:14
  of all, he loved the stories of the Pied Piper and the Sangreal.
• 1:45:17
  He read them thrillingly while the bells on the tree, lovers tingled in the
• 1:45:21
  summer wind, and the coolness of the evening shadows crept across the valley.
• 1:45:26
  Say ain't them interestin lies? Said Mary admiringly. When Walter had closed the
• 1:45:31
  book, They aren't lies, said Di indignantly. You don't mean they're true,
• 1:45:36
  asked Mary incredulously. No, not exactly. They're like those ghost stories
• 1:45:43
  of yours. They weren't true, but you didn't expect us to believe them,
• 1:45:46
  so they weren't lies. That yarn about the divining rod is no lie,
• 1:45:50
  anyhow, said Mary. Old Jake Crawford over Harbor can work it.
• 1:45:55
  They send for him everywhere they want to dig a well. And I believe
• 1:45:59
  I know the wondering Jew, oh, Mary said, una, awestruck,
• 1:46:03
  I do, true as you're alive. There was an old man at Missus
• 1:46:06
  Wyley's one day last fall. He looked old enough to be anything. She
• 1:46:10
  was asking him about cedar posts if he thought they'd last well, and he
• 1:46:14
  said, last well, they'll last a thousand years. I know, for
• 1:46:17
  I've tried him twice now. If he was two thousand years old, who
• 1:46:20
  was he but your wondering Jew. I don't believe the wondering Jew would associate
• 1:46:26
  with a person like Missus Wiley, said faith decidedly. I love the Pied
• 1:46:30
  Piper story, said Die, and so does mother. I always feel so
• 1:46:33
  sorry for the poor little lame boy who couldn't keep up with the others and
• 1:46:36
  got shut out of the mountain. He must have been so disappointed. I
• 1:46:41
  think all the rest of his life he'd be wondering what wonderful thing he had
• 1:46:45
  missed, and wishing he could have got in with the others. But how
• 1:46:47
  glad his mother must have been, said Una softly. I think she had
• 1:46:51
  been sorry all her life that he was lame. Perhaps she even used to
• 1:46:55
  cry about it. But she would never be sorry again. Ever, she
• 1:46:59
  would be glad he was laying, because that was why she hadn't lost him.
• 1:47:03
  Some day, said Walter dreamily, looking afar into the sky, the
• 1:47:08
  pied piper will come over the hill up there and down Rainbow Valley, piping
• 1:47:12
  merrily and sweetly. And I will follow him, follow him down to the
• 1:47:16
  shore, down to the sea, away from you all. I don't think
• 1:47:20
  I'll want to go. Jem will want to go. It will be such
• 1:47:25
  an adventure, but I won't. Only I'll have to. The music will
• 1:47:30
  call and call and call me until I must follow. We'll all go,
• 1:47:34
  cried Di, catching fire at the flame of Walter's fancy and half believing she
• 1:47:40
  could see the mocking, retreating figure of the mystic piper in the far dim
• 1:47:44
  end of the valley. No, you'll sit here and wait, said Walter,
• 1:47:48
  his great splendid eyes full of strange glamor. You'll wait for us to
• 1:47:53
  come back, and we may not come, for we cannot come. As
• 1:47:57
  long as the piper plays. He may pipe us around the world, and
• 1:48:00
  still you'll sit here and wait and wait. Oh, dry up, said
• 1:48:04
  Mary, shivering. Don't look like that, Walter, blythe you give me
• 1:48:08
  the creeps? D'ye wanna set me bawling? I could just see that horrid
• 1:48:12
  old piper going away on and you boys followin him, an us girls sittin
• 1:48:15
  here, waitin' all alone. I don't know why it is. I never
• 1:48:18
  was one of the blubbering kind, but as soon as you start your speeling,
• 1:48:21
  I always want a cry. Walter smiled in triumph. He liked to
• 1:48:27
  exercise this power of his over his companions, to play on their feelings,
• 1:48:30
  waken their fears, thrill their souls. It's satisfied some dramatic instinct in him.
• 1:48:35
  But under his triumph was a queer little chill of some mysterious dread.
• 1:48:41
  The pied Piper had seemed very real to him, as if the fluttering veil
• 1:48:45
  that hid the future had for a moment been blown aside in the starlit dusk
• 1:48:48
  of Rainbow Valley, and some dim glimpse of coming years granted to him.
• 1:48:53
  Karl coming up to their group with a report of the doings in ant Land
• 1:48:57
  brought them all back to the realm of facts. Answer darned interesting, exclaimed
• 1:49:01
  Mary, glad to escape the shadowy piper's thrall. Carl and me watched that
• 1:49:06
  bed in the graveyard all Saturday afternoon. I never thought there was so much
• 1:49:10
  in bugs say. But they're quarrelsome little cusses. Some of em like to
• 1:49:14
  start a fight without any reason as far as we could see. And some
• 1:49:17
  of em are cowards. They got so scared they just doubled their selves up
• 1:49:20
  into a ball and let the other fellows bang em. They wouldn't put up
• 1:49:25
  a fight at all. Some of them are lazy and won't work. We
• 1:49:28
  watched em shirking, And there was one aunt died a grief cause another aunt
• 1:49:31
  got killed. Wouldn't work, wouldn't it just died? It did, honest
• 1:49:36
  to gout oodness. A shocked silence prevailed. Every one knew that Mary had
• 1:49:43
  not started out to say goodness, Faith and Die exchanged glances that would have
• 1:49:47
  done credit to Miss Cornelia herself. Walter and Carl looked uncomfortable, and UNA's
• 1:49:54
  lip trembled. Mary squirmed uncomfortably. That slipped out, for I thought it
• 1:49:59
  did a honest to I mean true as you live, and I swallowed half
• 1:50:02
  of it. You folks over here a mighty squeamish. Seems to me.
• 1:50:05
  Wish you could have heard the wilies when they had a fight. Ladies don't
• 1:50:11
  say such things, said Faith, very primly for her. It isn't right,
• 1:50:15
  whispered Una. I ain't a lady, said Mary. What chance have
• 1:50:19
  I ever had a beIN a lady? But I won't say that again if
• 1:50:23
  I can help it, I promise you. Besides, said Una, you
• 1:50:26
  can't expect God to answer your prayers if you take his name in vain.
• 1:50:30
  Mary, I don't expect him to answer him anyhow, said Mary of little
• 1:50:33
  faith. I've been asking him for a week to clear up this wily affair,
• 1:50:38
  and he hasn't done a thing. I'm going to give up at this
• 1:50:41
  juncture. Nan arrived breathless. Oh Mary, I've news for you. Missus
• 1:50:45
  Elliot has been over harbor, and what do you think she found out?
• 1:50:48
  Missus Wiley is dead. She was found dead in bed the morning after you
• 1:50:53
  ran away. So you'll never have to go back to her dead, said
• 1:50:57
  Mary, stupefied. Then she shivered. Do you s'pose my praying had anything
• 1:51:00
  to do with that, she cried imploringly to Una. If it had,
• 1:51:04
  I'll never pray again as long as I live. Why she may come back
• 1:51:08
  and help me? No, no, Mary said Una comfortingly. It hadn't
• 1:51:12
  why Missus Wiley died long before you ever began to pray about it at all.
• 1:51:16
  That's so, said Mary, recovering from her panic. But I'd tell
• 1:51:20
  you it gave me a start. I wouldn't like to think I'd prayed anybody
• 1:51:24
  to death. I never thought of such a thing as her dying when I
• 1:51:27
  was praying. She didn't seem much like the dying kind. Did Missus Eliot
• 1:51:30
  say anything about me? She said, You would likely have to go back
• 1:51:33
  to the asylum. I thought as much, said Mary drearily. And then
• 1:51:39
  they'll give me out again, likely to some one just like Missus Wiley.
• 1:51:43
  Well, I s'pose I can stand it. I'm tough. I'm going to
• 1:51:46
  pray that you won't have to go back, whispered Una as she and Mary
• 1:51:50
  walked home to the man's You can do as you like, said Mary decidedly,
• 1:51:55
  but I vow I won't. I'm good and scared o this praying business.
• 1:51:59
  See what's come of it? If missus Wiley had died after I started
• 1:52:01
  praying, it would have been my doings. Oh no, it wouldn't,
• 1:52:05
  said Una. I wish I could explain things better, Father, could I
• 1:52:10
  know if you'd talk to him, Mary, catch me. I don't know
• 1:52:13
  what to make o your father. That's the long and short of it.
• 1:52:15
  He goes by me and never sees me in broad daylight. I ain't proud,
• 1:52:19
  but I ain't a door mat neither, Oh Mary, It's just father's
• 1:52:24
  way most o the time. He never sees us either. He's thinking deeply,
• 1:52:28
  that's all. And I am going to pray that God will keep you
• 1:52:30
  in four winds because I like you, Mary, all right. Only don't
• 1:52:35
  let me hear of any more people dying on account of it, said Mary.
• 1:52:39
  I'd like to stay in four winds fine. I like it, and
• 1:52:42
  I like the harbor and the lighthouse, and you and the Blithes, You're
• 1:52:45
  the only friends I ever had, and I'd hate to leave you. End
• 1:52:48
  of Chapter eight. Chapter nine, Una intervenes. Miss Cornelia had an interview
• 1:52:56
  with mister Meridith which proved something of a shock to that abstracted gentleman. She
• 1:53:00
  pointed out to him, none too respectfully his dereliction of duty in allowing a
• 1:53:04
  waif like Mary Vance to come into his family and associate with his children without
• 1:53:10
  knowing or learning anything about her. I don't say there is much harm done,
• 1:53:14
  of course, she concluded, This merry creature isn't what you might call
• 1:53:17
  bad when all is said and done. I've been questioning your children and the
• 1:53:20
  Blithes, and from what I can make out, there's nothing much to be
• 1:53:24
  said against the child except that she's slangy and doesn't use very refined language.
• 1:53:29
  But think what might have happened if she'd been like some of those home children
• 1:53:32
  we know of. You know yourself what that poor little creature the Jim Flaggs
• 1:53:35
  had taught and told the Flagged children. Mister Meredith did know, and was
• 1:53:41
  honestly shocked over his own carelessness in the matter. But what is to be
• 1:53:45
  done, missus elliot, he asked helplessly. We can't turn the poor child
• 1:53:48
  out. She must be cared for. Of course, we'd better write to
• 1:53:53
  the Hopetown authorities at once. Meanwhile, I suppose she might as well stay
• 1:53:57
  here for a few more days until we hear from them. But keep your
• 1:54:00
  eyes and ears open, mister Meredith. Susan would have died of horror on
• 1:54:04
  the spot if she had heard Miss Cornelia so admonishing a minister. But Miss
• 1:54:09
  Cornelia departed in a warm glow of satisfaction over duty done. And that night
• 1:54:14
  mister Meredith asked Mary to come into a study with him. Mary obeyed,
• 1:54:18
  looking literally ghastly with fright. But she got the surprise of her poor,
• 1:54:24
  battered little life. This man of whom she had stood so terribly in awe,
• 1:54:29
  was the kindest, gentlest soul she had ever met. Before she knew
• 1:54:32
  what happened, Mary found herself pouring all her troubles into his ear, and
• 1:54:36
  receiving in return such sympathy and tender understanding as it had never occurred to her
• 1:54:43
  to imagine. Mary left the study with her face and eyes so softened that
• 1:54:46
  Una hardly knew her Your father's all right when he does wake up, she
• 1:54:50
  said, with a sniff, that just escaped being a sob. It's a
• 1:54:54
  pity he doesn't wake up oftener, he said, I wasn't to blame for
• 1:54:58
  missus Wiley dying, but that I I must try to think of her good
• 1:55:00
  points and not of her bad ones. I don't know what good points she
• 1:55:03
  had, unless it was keeping her house clean and making first class butter.
• 1:55:09
  I know I most wore my arms out scrubbing her old kitchen floor with the
• 1:55:12
  knots in it. But anything your father says goes with me. After this,
• 1:55:16
  Mary proved a rather dull companion. In the following days, however,
• 1:55:20
  she confided to Una that the more she thought of going back to the asylum,
• 1:55:25
  the more she hated it. Una racked her small brains for some way
• 1:55:28
  of averting it. But it was Nan blythe who came to the rescue with
• 1:55:31
  a somewhat startling suggestion. Missus Elliot might take Mary herself. She has a
• 1:55:36
  great, big house, and mister Elliot is always wanting her to have help.
• 1:55:41
  It would just be a splendid place for Mary, only she'd have to
• 1:55:45
  behave herself. Oh, Nan, do you think Missus Elliot would take her.
• 1:55:48
  It wouldn't do any harm if you asked her, said Nan. At
• 1:55:51
  first, Una did not think she could. She was so shy that to
• 1:55:56
  ask a favor of anybody was agony to her. And she was very much
• 1:56:00
  in awe of the bustling, energetic Missus Eliot. She liked her very much
• 1:56:03
  and always enjoyed a visit to her house. But to go and ask her
• 1:56:06
  to adopt Mary Vance seemed such a height of presumption that UNA's timid spirit quailed
• 1:56:14
  when the Hopetown authorities wrote to mister Meredith to send Mary to them without delay.
• 1:56:18
  Mary cried herself to sleep in the man's attic that night, and Una
• 1:56:23
  found a desperate courage. The next evening, she slipped away from the manse
• 1:56:27
  to the harbor road far down in Rainbow Valley. She heard joyous laughter,
• 1:56:31
  but her way lay not there. She was terribly pale and terribly in earnest,
• 1:56:36
  so much so that she took no notice of the people she met,
• 1:56:40
  and old missus Stanley Flagg was quite huffed and said Una Meredith would be as
• 1:56:45
  absent minded as her father when she grew up. Miss Cornelia lived half way
• 1:56:48
  between the Glen and Four Winds Point in a house whose original glaring green hue
• 1:56:55
  had mellowed down to an agreeable greenish gray. Marshal Elliot had planned trees about
• 1:57:00
  it, and set out a rose garden and a spruce hedge. It was
• 1:57:03
  quite a different place from what it had been in years agone. The man's
• 1:57:08
  children and the ingleside children liked to go there. It was a beautiful walk
• 1:57:12
  down the old harbor road, and there was always a well filled cookie jar
• 1:57:15
  at the end. The misty sea was lapping softly far down on the sands.
• 1:57:20
  Three big boats were skimming down the harbor like great white sea birds.
• 1:57:25
  A schooner was coming up the channel. The world of Four Winds was steeped
• 1:57:30
  in glowing color and subtle music and strange glamor, and everybody should have been
• 1:57:34
  happy in it. But when Una turned in at Miss Cornelia's gate, her
• 1:57:39
  very legs had almost refused to carry her. Miss Cornelia was alone on the
• 1:57:44
  veranda. Una had hoped mister Elliot would be there. He was so big
• 1:57:47
  and hearty and twinkly that there would be encouragement in his presence. She sat
• 1:57:51
  on the little stool. Miss Cornelia brought out and tried to eat the doughnut.
• 1:57:56
  Miss Cornelia gave her it stuck in her throat, but she swa followed
• 1:58:00
  desperately lest Miss Cornelia be offended. She could not talk. She was still
• 1:58:04
  pale, and her big, dark blue eyes looked so piteous that Miss Cornelia
• 1:58:09
  concluded the child was in some trouble. What's on your mind, dearie,
• 1:58:13
  she asked, There's something that's plain to be seen. Una swallowed the last
• 1:58:17
  twist of doughnut with a desperate gulp. Missus Elliot, won't you take Mary
• 1:58:23
  Vance? She said, beseechingly. Miss Cornelia stared blankly. Me take Mary
• 1:58:28
  Vance? Do you mean keep her? Yes? Keep her? Adopt her,
• 1:58:31
  said Una, eagerly, gaining courage now that the ice was broken.
• 1:58:36
  Oh, missus Elliot, please do. She doesn't want to go back to
• 1:58:40
  the asylum. She cries every night about it. She's so afraid of being
• 1:58:44
  sent to another hard place. And she's so smart. There isn't anything she
• 1:58:48
  can't do. I know you wouldn't be sorry if you took her. I
• 1:58:51
  never thought of such a thing, said Miss Cornelia rather helplessly. Won't you
• 1:58:57
  think of it? Implored Una, But Dearie, I don't want help.
• 1:59:01
  I'm quite able to do all the work here, and I never thought i'd
• 1:59:04
  like to have a home girl if I didn't need help. The light went
• 1:59:08
  out of UNA's eyes, her lips trembled. She sat down on her stool
• 1:59:12
  again, a pathetic little figure of disappointment, and began to cry. Don't,
• 1:59:16
  Dearie, don't, exclaimed miss Cornelia, in distress. She could never
• 1:59:20
  bear to hurt a child. I don't say I won't take her, but
• 1:59:25
  the idea is so new to me. It is just cherflumixed me. I
• 1:59:29
  must think it over. Mary is so smart, said Una again. Hum
• 1:59:33
  so I've heard I've heard she swears too. Is that true? I've never
• 1:59:39
  heard her swear exactly, faltered Una uncomfortably. But I'm afraid she could,
• 1:59:45
  I believe you. Does she always tell the truth? I think she does,
• 1:59:49
  except when she's afraid of a whipping. And yet you want me to
• 1:59:53
  take her. Someone has to take her, sobbed Una. Someone has to
• 1:59:58
  look after her. Missus elliot, that's true. Perhaps it is my duty
• 2:00:02
  to do it, said miss Cornelia with a sigh. Well, I'll have
• 2:00:06
  to talk it over with mister Elliot, so don't say anything about it just
• 2:00:11
  yet. Take another doughnut, dearie, Una took it, and ate it
• 2:00:15
  with a better appetite. I'm very fond of doughnuts, she confessed. Aunt
• 2:00:19
  Martha never makes any, but Miss Susan at Ingleside does, and sometimes she
• 2:00:24
  lets us have a plateful and rainbow valley. Do you know what I do
• 2:00:28
  when I'm hungry for doughnuts and can't get any, missus Elliot, No,
• 2:00:30
  dearie, what I get out mother's old cookbook and read the doughnut recipe and
• 2:00:36
  the other recipes. They sound so nice. I always do that when I'm
• 2:00:41
  hungry, especially after we've had ditto for dinner. Then I read the fried
• 2:00:45
  chicken and the roast goose recipes. Mother could make all those nice things.
• 2:00:50
  Those manse children will starve to death. Yet, if mister Meridith doesn't get
• 2:00:55
  married, Miss Cornelia told her husband indignantly after Una had gone, And you
• 2:01:00
  won't, And what's to be done? And shall we take this merry creature?
• 2:01:03
  Marshal? Yes, take her, said Marshal laconically, just like a
• 2:01:09
  man said his wife, despairingly, take her, as if that was all.
• 2:01:13
  There are a hundred things to be considered. Believe me, take her
• 2:01:15
  and we'll consider them afterwards, Cornelia said her husband. In the end,
• 2:01:20
  Miss Cornelia did take her and went up to announce her decision to the Ingleside
• 2:01:25
  people. First, Splendid, said Anne, delightedly. I've been hoping you
• 2:01:29
  would do that very thing, Miss Cornelia. I want that poor child to
• 2:01:32
  get a good home. I was a homeless little orphan just like her once.
• 2:01:36
  I don't think this merry creature is, or ever will be much like
• 2:01:41
  you, retorted Miss Cornelia gloomily. She's a cat of another color, but
• 2:01:45
  she's also a human being with an immortal soul to save. I've got a
• 2:01:49
  shorter catechism and a small tooth comb, and I'm going to do my duty
• 2:01:54
  by her now that I've set my hand to the plow. Believe me.
• 2:01:57
  Mary received the news with chastened satisfaction. It's better luck than I expected,
• 2:02:01
  she said. You'll have to mind your peas and cues with missus. Elliott
• 2:02:04
  said, Nan well, I can do that, flashed Mary. I know
• 2:02:09
  how to behave when I want to, just as well as you, Nan
• 2:02:11
  blythe you mustn't use bad words, you know, Mary said, Una anxiously.
• 2:02:16
  I suppose she'd die of horror if I did, grinned Mary, her
• 2:02:19
  white eyes shining with unholy glee over the idea. But you needn't worry,
• 2:02:24
  Una, Butter won't melt in my mouth after this. I'll be all prunes
• 2:02:28
  and prisms, nor tell lies, added Faith, not even to get off
• 2:02:32
  from a whipping, pleaded Mary. Missus Elliott will never whip you, never
• 2:02:38
  exclaimed DI won't, she said Mary skeptically. If I ever find myself in
• 2:02:43
  a place where I ain't licked, I'll think it's heaven, all right.
• 2:02:45
  No fear of me telling lies? Then, I ain't fond of tellin''em.
• 2:02:48
  I'd rather not if it comes to that. The day before Mary's departure
• 2:02:53
  from the Man's they had a picnic in her honor in Rainbow Valley, and
• 2:02:57
  that evening all the Man's children gave her something for their scanty store of treasured
• 2:03:00
  things for a keepsake. Karl gave her his Noah's ark, and Jerry his
• 2:03:04
  second best Jew's harp. Faith gave her a little hair brush with a mirror
• 2:03:09
  in the back of it, which Mary had always considered very wonderful. Una
• 2:03:13
  hesitated between an old beaded purse and a gay picture of Daniel in the lions
• 2:03:17
  den, and finally offered Mary her choice. Mary really hankered after the beaded
• 2:03:23
  purse, but she knew Una loved it, so she said, gimme Daniel.
• 2:03:27
  I'd rather have it because I'm partial to lions only. I wish they'd
• 2:03:30
  et Daniel up. It would have been more exciting. At bedtime, Mary
• 2:03:34
  coaxed Una to sleep with her. It's for the last time, she said,
• 2:03:38
  And it's raining tonight, and I hate sleepin up there alone when it's
• 2:03:42
  raining on account of that graveyard. I don't mind it on fine nights,
• 2:03:45
  but a night like this, I can't see anything but the rain pouring down
• 2:03:48
  on them old white stones, and the wind round the window sounds as if
• 2:03:51
  them dead people were trying to get in and crying cause they couldn't. I
• 2:03:56
  like rainy nights, said Una, when they were cuddled down together in the
• 2:04:00
  little attic room. And so do the blithe girls. I don't mind em
• 2:04:03
  when I'm not handy to graveyards, said Mary. If I was alone here,
• 2:04:06
  i'd cry my eyes out. I'd be so lonesome. I feel awful
• 2:04:11
  bad to be leaving you all. Missus Elliot will let you come up and
• 2:04:14
  play in Rainbow Valley quite often, I'm sure, said Una. And you
• 2:04:17
  will be a good girl, won't you. Mary? Oh, I'll try,
• 2:04:21
  sighed Mary. But it won't be as easy for me to be good
• 2:04:25
  inside, I mean as well as outside as it is for you. You
• 2:04:29
  hadn't such scallywags of relations as I had. But your people must have had
• 2:04:32
  some good qualities as well as bad ones, argued Una. You must live
• 2:04:38
  up to them and never mind their bad ones. I don't believe they had
• 2:04:42
  any good qualities, said Mary gloomily. I never heard of any. My
• 2:04:45
  grandfather had money, but they say he was a rascal. No, I'll
• 2:04:49
  just have to start out on my own hook and do the best I can.
• 2:04:54
  And God will help you, you know, Mary, if you ask
• 2:04:56
  him. I don't know about that. Oh, Mary, you know we
• 2:05:00
  asked God to get a home for you, and he did. I don't
• 2:05:02
  see what he had to do with it, retorted Mary. It was you
• 2:05:05
  put it into missus Elliot's head, but God put it into her heart to
• 2:05:10
  take you all. My putting it into her head wouldn't have done any good
• 2:05:14
  if he hadn't, well, there may be something in that, admitted Mary.
• 2:05:18
  Mind you, I haven't got anything against God. Una, I'm willing
• 2:05:21
  to give him a chance, But honest I think he's an awful lot like
• 2:05:26
  your father, just absent minded and never taking any notice of a body most
• 2:05:30
  of the time, but sometimes wakin up all of a sudden and beIN awful
• 2:05:33
  good and kind and sensible. Oh Mary, no, exclaimed horrified. Una.
• 2:05:39
  God isn't a bit like father. I mean, he's a thousand times
• 2:05:42
  better and kinder. If he's as good as your father, he'll do for
• 2:05:45
  me, said Mary. When your father was talking to me, I felt
• 2:05:48
  as if I never could be bad any more. I wish you'd talk to
• 2:05:53
  father about him, sighed Una. He can explain it all so much better
• 2:05:57
  than I can. Why so I will next time he wakes up, promised
• 2:06:00
  Mary. That night he talked to me in the study. He showed me
• 2:06:03
  real clear that my praying didn't kill missus Wyley. My mind's been easy since,
• 2:06:09
  but I'm real curious about praying. I guess the old rhyme is the
• 2:06:12
  safest, say Una. It seems to me if one has to pray to
• 2:06:15
  anybody, it'd be better to pray to the devil than to God. God's
• 2:06:19
  good anyhow, so you say so, he won't do you any harm.
• 2:06:23
  But from all I can make out, the devil needs to be pacified.
• 2:06:26
  I think the sensible way would be to say to him, good, devil,
• 2:06:30
  please don't tempt me. Just leave me alone, please, now,
• 2:06:32
  don't you? Oh no, no, Mary, I'm sure it wouldn't be
• 2:06:35
  right at all to pray to the devil, and it wouldn't do any good
• 2:06:39
  because he's bad. It might aggravate him and he'd be worse than ever.
• 2:06:44
  Well. As to this God matter, said Mary stubbornly. Since you and
• 2:06:46
  I can't settle it, there ain't no use in talkin more about it till
• 2:06:49
  we've had a chance to find out the rights of it. I'll do the
• 2:06:53
  best I can alone till then. If mother was alive, she could tell
• 2:06:57
  us everything, said Una, with a sigh. I wish she was alive,
• 2:07:00
  said Mary. I don't know what's going to become of you youngsters when
• 2:07:03
  I'm gone. Anyhow, do try and keep the house a little tiny.
• 2:07:08
  The way people talks about it is scandalous. And the first thing you know,
• 2:07:11
  your father will be getting married again, and then your noses will be
• 2:07:14
  out of joint. Una was startled. The idea of her father marrying again
• 2:07:18
  had never presented itself to her before. She did not like it, and
• 2:07:21
  she lay silent under the Chilovin. Stepmothers are awful creatures. Mary went on,
• 2:07:28
  I could make your blood run cold if I was to tell you all
• 2:07:30
  I know about him. The Wilson kids crossed the road from Wiley's had a
• 2:07:33
  stepmother and she was just as bad to him as Missus Wiley was to me.
• 2:07:38
  It'll be awful if you get a stepmother. I'm sure we won't,
• 2:07:42
  said Una tremulously. Father won't marry anybody else. You'll be hounded into it,
• 2:07:46
  I expect, said Mary darkly. All the old maids in the settlement
• 2:07:50
  are after him. There's no being up to them. And the worst of
• 2:07:54
  stepmothers is they always set your father against you. He'd never care anything about
• 2:07:59
  you again. He'd always take her part and her children's part. You see,
• 2:08:01
  she'd make him believe you were all bad. I wish you hadn't told
• 2:08:05
  me this, Mary cried Una. It makes me feel so unhappy. I
• 2:08:09
  only wanted to warn you, said Mary, rather repentantly. Of course,
• 2:08:13
  your father's so absent minded he mightn't happen to think of getting married again.
• 2:08:16
  But it's better to be prepared. Long after Mary slept serenely, little Una
• 2:08:22
  lay awake, her eyes smarting with tears. Oh, how dreadful it would
• 2:08:26
  be if her father should marry somebody who would make him hate her and Jerry
• 2:08:31
  and Faith and Karl. She couldn't bear it. She couldn't. Mary had
• 2:08:35
  not instilled any poison of the kind Miss Cornelia had feared into the man's children's
• 2:08:39
  minds. Yet she had certainly contrived to do a little mischief with the best
• 2:08:43
  of intentions. But she slept dreamlessly while Una lay awake, and the rain
• 2:08:48
  fell, and the wind wailed around the old gray manse, and the Reverend
• 2:08:52
  John Meredith forgot to go to bed at all, because he was absorbed in
• 2:08:56
  reading a Life of Saint Augustine. It was gray dawn when when he finished
• 2:09:00
  it and went upstairs, wrestling with the problems of two thousand years ago,
• 2:09:05
  the door of the girl's room was open, and he saw Faith lying asleep,
• 2:09:09
  rosy and beautiful. He wondered where Una was. Perhaps she had gone
• 2:09:13
  over to stay all night with the blithe girls. She did this occasionally,
• 2:09:16
  deeming it a great treat. John Meredith sighed. He felt that UNA's whereabouts
• 2:09:22
  ought not to be a mystery to him. Cecilia would have looked after her
• 2:09:24
  better than that, if only Cecilia were still with him. How pretty and
• 2:09:30
  gay she had been, How the old man's up at Maywater had echoed to
• 2:09:33
  her songs, and she had gone away so suddenly, taking her laughter and
• 2:09:39
  music and leaving silence, so suddenly that he had never quite got over his
• 2:09:43
  feeling of amazement. How could she, the beautiful and vivid, have died?
• 2:09:48
  The idea of a second marriage had never presented itself seriously to John Meredith.
• 2:09:54
  He had loved his wife so deeply that he believed he could never care
• 2:09:58
  for any woman again. He he'd had a vague idea that before very long,
• 2:10:01
  Faith would be old enough to take her mother's place. Until then,
• 2:10:05
  he must do the best he could alone. He sighed, and went to
• 2:10:09
  his room, where the bed was still unmade. Aunt Martha had forgotten it,
• 2:10:13
  and Mary had not dared make it because Aunt Martha had forbidden her to
• 2:10:16
  meddle with anything in the Minister's room, but mister Meredith did not notice that
• 2:10:20
  it was unmade. His last thoughts were of Saint Augustine. End of chapter
• 2:10:26
  nine, Chapter ten, The Man's Girl's Clean House, Ugh said Faith,
• 2:10:31
  sitting up in bed with a shiver. It's raining. I do hate a
• 2:10:35
  rainy Sunday. Sunday is dull enough, even when it's fine. We oughtn't
• 2:10:39
  to find Sunday dull, said Una sleepily, trying to pull her drowsy wits
• 2:10:43
  together, with an uneasy conviction that they had overslept. But we do,
• 2:10:48
  you know, said Faith candidly. Mary Vance says most Sundays are so dull
• 2:10:52
  she could hang herself. We ought to like Sunday better than Mary Vance,
• 2:10:56
  said Una remorsefully. We're the minister's children. I wish we were a blacksmith's
• 2:11:01
  children, protested Faith, angrily hunting for her stocking. Then people wouldn't expect
• 2:11:07
  us to be better than other children. Just look at the holes in my
• 2:11:11
  heels. Mary darned them all before she went away, but they're as bad
• 2:11:15
  as ever now. Uhna, get up, I can't get the breakfast alone.
• 2:11:18
  Oh dear, I wish father and Jerry were home. You wouldn't think
• 2:11:22
  we'd miss father much. We don't see much of him when he is home,
• 2:11:26
  and yet everything seems gone. I must run in and see how Aunt
• 2:11:30
  Martha is. Is she any better, asked Una, when Faith returned,
• 2:11:33
  No, she isn't. She's groaning with the misery still. Maybe we ought
• 2:11:39
  to tell doctor Blythe, but she says not. She never had a doctor
• 2:11:41
  in her life, and she isn't going to begin now. She says,
• 2:11:45
  doctors just live by poisoning people. Do you s'pose they do now? Of
• 2:11:48
  course, not, said Una, indignantly. I'm sure doctor Blyth wouldn't poison
• 2:11:52
  anybody. Well, we'll have to rub Aunt Martha's back again after breakfast.
• 2:11:58
  We'd better not make the flannels as hot as we did yesterday. Faith giggled
• 2:12:01
  over the remembrance they had nearly scalded the skin off poor Aunt Martha's back.
• 2:12:05
  Una sighed, Mary Vance would have known just what the precise temperature of flannels
• 2:12:11
  for a misery back should be. Mary knew everything. They knew nothing,
• 2:12:16
  and how could they learn save by bitter experience, for which, in this
• 2:12:20
  instance, unfortunate Aunt Martha had paid. The preceding Monday, mister Meredith had
• 2:12:24
  left for Nova Scotia to spend his short vacation, taking Jerry with him.
• 2:12:30
  On Wednesday, Aunt Martha was suddenly seized with a recurring and mysterious ailment,
• 2:12:35
  which she always called the misery, and which was tolerably certain to attack her
• 2:12:39
  at the most inconvenient times. She could not rise from her bed any movement,
• 2:12:43
  causing agony. A doctor. She flatly refused to have Faith and Una
• 2:12:48
  cooked the meals and waited on her. The less set about the meals,
• 2:12:52
  the better. Yet they were not much worse than Aunt Martha's had been.
• 2:12:56
  There were many women in the village who would have been glad to come and
• 2:12:58
  help, but Aunt Martha refused to let her plight be known. You must
• 2:13:03
  worry on till I can get around, she groaned. Thank goodness, John
• 2:13:07
  isn't here. There's a plenty of cold biled meat and bread, and you
• 2:13:11
  can try your hand at making porridge. The girls had tried their hand,
• 2:13:15
  but so far without much success. The first day it had been too thin,
• 2:13:20
  the next day so thick that you could cut it in slices, and
• 2:13:22
  both days it had been burned. I hate porridge, said Faith viciously.
• 2:13:28
  When I have a house of my own. I'm never going to have a
• 2:13:31
  single bit of porridge in it. What'll your children do, then, asked
• 2:13:35
  Una. Children have to have porridge or they won't grow. Everybody says,
• 2:13:39
  so they'll have to get along without it or stay Runts, retorted Faith stubbornly.
• 2:13:43
  Here, Una, you stir it while I set the table. If
• 2:13:46
  I leave it for a minute, the horrid stuff will burn. It's half
• 2:13:50
  past nine, will be late for Sunday school. I haven't seen any one
• 2:13:54
  going past yet, said Una. There won't likely be many out. Just
• 2:13:58
  see how it's pouring, and when there's no preaching, the folks won't come
• 2:14:01
  from a distance to bring the children. Go and call Karl, said Faith.
• 2:14:05
  Carl, it appeared, had a sore throat induced by getting wet in
• 2:14:09
  the Rainbow Valley marsh the previous evening while pursuing dragonflies. He had come home
• 2:14:13
  with dripping stockings and boots and had sat out the evening in them. He
• 2:14:18
  could not eat any breakfast, and Faith made him go back to bed again.
• 2:14:22
  She and Una left the table as it was and went to Sunday school.
• 2:14:26
  There was no one in the school room when they got there, and
• 2:14:28
  no one came they waited until eleven and then went home. There doesn't seem
• 2:14:33
  to be anybody at the Methodist Sunday school either, said Una. I'm glad,
• 2:14:37
  said Faith. I'd hate to think the Methodists were better at going to
• 2:14:41
  Sunday school or mainy Sundays than the Presbyterians. But there's no preaching in their
• 2:14:46
  church to day either, so likely their Sunday school is in the afternoon.
• 2:14:50
  Una washed the dishes, doing them quite nicely for so much had she learned
• 2:14:54
  from Mary Vance. Faith swept the floor after a fashion and peeled the potatoes
• 2:14:58
  for dinner, cutting her finger in the process. I wish we had something
• 2:15:03
  for dinner besides ditto, sighed Una. I'm so tired of it. The
• 2:15:07
  Blithe children don't know what ditto is, and we never have any pudding.
• 2:15:11
  Nan says Susan would faint if they had no pudding on Sundays. Why aren't
• 2:15:16
  we like other people, Faith, I don't want to be like other people,
• 2:15:20
  laughed Faith, tying up her bleeding finger. I like being myself.
• 2:15:22
  It's more interesting. Jesse Drew is as good a housekeeper as her mother,
• 2:15:26
  But would you want to be as stupid as she is? But our house
• 2:15:31
  isn't right, Mary Vance says, so she says, people talk about it
• 2:15:33
  being so untidy. Faith had an inspiration. We'll clean it all up,
• 2:15:39
  she cried. We'll go right to work tomorrow. It's a real good chance.
• 2:15:41
  When Aunt Martha's laid up and can't interfere with us, we'll have it
• 2:15:45
  all lovely and clean when father comes home, just like it was when Mary
• 2:15:48
  went away. Anyone can sweep and dust and wash windows. People won't be
• 2:15:52
  able to talk about us any more. Jem Blythe says, it's only old
• 2:15:56
  cats that talk, but their talk hurts just as much as anybody's. I
• 2:16:01
  hope it will be fine tomorrow, said Una, fired with enthusiasm. Oh,
• 2:16:05
  Faith, it will be splendid to be all cleaned up and like other
• 2:16:07
  people. I hope Aunt Martha's misery will last over tomorrow, said Faith.
• 2:16:13
  If it doesn't, we won't get a single thing done. Faith's amiable wish
• 2:16:16
  was fulfilled. The next day found Aunt Martha still unable to rise. Carl
• 2:16:22
  too, was still sick and easily prevailed on to stay in bed. Neither
• 2:16:26
  Faith nor Una had any idea how sick the boy really was. A watchful
• 2:16:30
  mother would have had a doctor without delay, but there was no mother.
• 2:16:33
  And poor little Karl, with his sore throat and aching head, and Crimson
• 2:16:37
  Cheeks rolled himself up in his twisted bedclothes and suffered alone, somewhat comforted by
• 2:16:43
  the companionship of a small green lizard in the pocket of his ragged nightie.
• 2:16:48
  The world was full of summer sunshine after the rain. It was a peerless
• 2:16:52
  day for house cleaning, and Faith and Una went gaily to work well clean
• 2:16:56
  the dining room and the parlor, said Faith, it wouldn't do to meddle
• 2:16:58
  with the study, and it doesn't matter much about the upstairs. The first
• 2:17:03
  thing is to take everything out. Accordingly, everything was taken out. The
• 2:17:07
  furniture was piled on the veranda and lawn, and the Methodist graveyard fence was
• 2:17:11
  gaily draped with rugs. An orgy of sweeping followed with an attempt at dusting
• 2:17:18
  on UNA's part, while Faith washed the windows of the dining room, breaking
• 2:17:22
  one pane and cracking two in the process. Una surveyed the streaked result dubiously.
• 2:17:26
  They don't look right somehow, she said, missus Elliot's and Susan's windows
• 2:17:31
  just shine and sparkle. Never mind, they let the sunshine through just as
• 2:17:37
  well, said Faith cheerfully. They must be clean after all the soap and
• 2:17:39
  water I've used, and that's the main thing. Now it's past eleven,
• 2:17:43
  so I'll wipe up this mess on the floor and we'll go outside. You
• 2:17:48
  dust the furniture, and I'll shake the rugs. I'm going to do it
• 2:17:50
  in the graveyard. I don't want to send dust flying all over the lawn.
• 2:17:54
  Faith enjoyed the rug shaking to stand on Hezekiah Pollock's tombstone. Flapping and
• 2:18:00
  shaking rugs was real fun, to be sure. Elder Abraham Klow and his
• 2:18:05
  wife, driving past in their capacious double seated buggy, seemed to gaze at
• 2:18:09
  her in grim disapproval. Isn't that a terrible sight, said Elder Abraham solemnly.
• 2:18:16
  I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own
• 2:18:18
  eyes, said missus Elder Abraham, more solemnly. Still, Faith waved a
• 2:18:24
  door mat cheerily at Theklow party. It did not worry her that the elder
• 2:18:28
  and his wife did not return her greeting. Everybody knew that Elder Abraham had
• 2:18:31
  never been known to smile since he had been appointed superintendent of the Sunday School
• 2:18:35
  fourteen years previously, but it hurt her that Minnie and Adela Klow did not
• 2:18:41
  wave back. Faith liked Minnie and Adela next to the Blithes. They were
• 2:18:45
  her best friends in school, and she always helped Adela with her sums.
• 2:18:48
  This was gratitude for you. Her friends cut her because she was shaking rugs
• 2:18:54
  in an old graveyard, where as Mary Vance had said, not a living
• 2:18:58
  soul had been buried for years. Faith flounced around to the veranda, where
• 2:19:01
  she found Una, grieved in spirit because the Clow girls had not waved to
• 2:19:05
  her either. I suppose they're mad over something, said Faith. Perhaps they're
• 2:19:09
  jealous because we play so much in Rainbow Valley with the Blinthes. We'll just
• 2:19:13
  wait till school opens, and Adela wants me to show her how to do
• 2:19:16
  her sums. We'll get square. Then, come on, let's put the
• 2:19:20
  things back in. I'm tired to death, and I don't believe the rooms
• 2:19:24
  will look much better than before we started, though. I shook out pecks
• 2:19:28
  of dust in the graveyard. I hate house cleaning. It was two o'clock
• 2:19:31
  before the tired girls finished the two rooms. They got a dreary bite in
• 2:19:37
  the kitchen and intended to wash the dishes at once, but Faith happened to
• 2:19:41
  pick up a new story book Di blithe At lent her and was lost to
• 2:19:43
  the world until sunset. Una took a cup of rank tea up to Karl,
• 2:19:48
  but found him asleep, so she curled herself up on Jerry's bed and
• 2:19:52
  went to sleep too. Meanwhile, a weird story flew through Glens and Mary,
• 2:19:56
  and folks asked each other seriously what to be done with those manse youngsters?
• 2:20:01
  That is past laughing at. Believe me, said Miss Cornelia to her
• 2:20:05
  husband with a heavy sigh. I couldn't believe it at first. Miranda Drew
• 2:20:09
  brought the story home from the Methodist Sunday school this afternoon, and I simply
• 2:20:13
  scoffed at it. But missus Elder Abraham says she and the elder saw it
• 2:20:18
  with their own eyes. Saw what asked Marshall, Faith and Una. Meredith
• 2:20:22
  stayed home from Sunday school this morning and cleaned house, said Miss Cornelia,
• 2:20:28
  in accents of despair. When Elder Abraham went home from the church, he
• 2:20:33
  had stayed behind to straighten out the library books. He saw them shaking rugs
• 2:20:37
  in the Methodist graveyard. I can never look a Methodist in the face again.
• 2:20:41
  Just think what a scandal it will make. A scandal it assuredly did
• 2:20:46
  make, growing more scandalous as it spread, until the over harbor people heard
• 2:20:50
  that the man's children had not only cleaned house and put out a washing on
• 2:20:54
  Sunday, but it wound up with an afternoon picnic in the graveyard while the
• 2:20:58
  Methodists Sunday school was going on. The only household which remained in blissful ignorance
• 2:21:05
  of the terrible thing was the Manse itself. On what Faith and Una fondly
• 2:21:09
  believed to be Tuesday, it rained again. For the next three days it
• 2:21:13
  rained. Nobody came near the Manse. The Manse folk went nowhere. They
• 2:21:18
  might have waded through the misty rainbow valley up to Ingleside, but all the
• 2:21:22
  Blithe family, save Susan and the doctor, were away on a visit to
• 2:21:24
  Avonlea. This is the last of our bread, said Faith, and the
• 2:21:28
  ditto is done. If Aunt Martha doesn't get better soon, what will we
• 2:21:33
  do. We can buy some bread in the village and there's the codfish merry
• 2:21:37
  dried, said Una, but we don't know how to cook it. Oh
• 2:21:39
  that's easy, laughed Faith. He just boil it. Boil it they did,
• 2:21:45
  but as it did not occur to them to soak it beforehand, it
• 2:21:48
  was too salty to eat. That night they were very hungry, But by
• 2:21:52
  the following day their troubles were over. Sunshine returned to the world, Carl
• 2:21:56
  was well, and Aunt Martha's misery left her as suddenly as it had come.
• 2:22:01
  The butcher called at the manse and chased famine away to crown. All
• 2:22:05
  the Blikes returned home, and that evening they and the man's children and Mary
• 2:22:09
  Vance kept sunset tryst once more in Rainbow Valley, where the daisies were floating
• 2:22:13
  upon the grass like the spirits of the dew, and the bells on the
• 2:22:16
  tree lovers rang like fairy chimes in the scented twilight. End of chapter ten,
• 2:22:22
  Chapter eleven, A dreadful discovery. Well you kids have gone and done
• 2:22:28
  it now, was Mary's greeting as she joined them in the valley. Miss
• 2:22:31
  Cornelia was up at ingleside, holding agonized conclave with Anne and Susan and Mary
• 2:22:37
  hoped that the session might be a long one, for it was all of
• 2:22:39
  two weeks since she had been allowed to revel with her chums in the dear
• 2:22:43
  valley of Rainbow's done? What, demanded everybody but Walter, who was daydreaming
• 2:22:48
  as usual. It's you, manse, young ones, I mean, said
• 2:22:52
  Mary. It was just awful of you. I wouldn't have done such a
• 2:22:54
  thing for the world, and I weren't brought up in a manse, weren't
• 2:22:58
  brought up anywhere. Just come up? What have we done? Asked Faith
• 2:23:01
  blankly, done, you'd better ask the talk is something terrible. I expect
• 2:23:07
  it's ruined your father and his congregation. He'll never be able to live it
• 2:23:11
  down, poor man. Everybody blames him for it, and that isn't fair,
• 2:23:15
  But nothing is fair in this world. You ought to be ashamed of
• 2:23:18
  yourselves. What have we done? Asked Una again, despairingly. Faith said
• 2:23:24
  nothing, but her eyes flashed golden Brown's scorn at Mary. Oh, don't
• 2:23:28
  pretend innocence, said Mary witheringly. Everybody knows what you have done, I
• 2:23:33
  don't, interjected jem blythe indignantly. Don't let me catch you making Una crime.
• 2:23:37
  Mary vance, what are you talking about. I suppose you don't know,
• 2:23:41
  since you're just back from up West, said Mary, somewhat subdued.
• 2:23:46
  Jem could always manage her. But everybody else knows. You'd better believe knows
• 2:23:50
  what that. Faith and Una stayed home from Sunday school last Sunday and cleaned
• 2:23:54
  house. We didn't, cried, Faith and Una am passionate denyle. Mary
• 2:24:01
  looked haughtily at them. I didn't suppose you'd deny it, after the way
• 2:24:05
  you've combed me down for lying, She said, what's the goodest saying you
• 2:24:09
  didn't. Everybody knows you did. Elder Klow and his wife saw you.
• 2:24:13
  Some people say it will break up the church, but I don't go that
• 2:24:16
  far. You are nice ones. Nan Blythe stood up and put her arms
• 2:24:22
  around the dazed Faith and Una. They were nice enough to take you in
• 2:24:26
  and feed you and clothe you when you were starving in mister Taylor's barn.
• 2:24:28
  Mary vance, She said, you are very grateful. I must say I
• 2:24:33
  am grateful, retorted Mary. You'd know it if you'd heard me standing up
• 2:24:37
  for mister Meridith through thick and thin. I've blistered my tongue talking for him.
• 2:24:41
  This week, I've said it again and again that he isn't to blame
• 2:24:43
  if his young ones did clean house on Sunday. He was away and they
• 2:24:48
  knew better. But we didn't, protested Una. It was Monday we cleaned
• 2:24:52
  house. Wasn't it? Faith? Of course it was, said Faith,
• 2:24:56
  with flashing eyes. We went to Sunday school in spite of the rain,
• 2:25:00
  and no one came, not even Elder Abraham for all his talk about fair
• 2:25:03
  weather Christians. It was Saturday, it rained, said Mary. Sunday was
• 2:25:09
  as fine as silk. I wasn't at Sunday school because I had toothache,
• 2:25:13
  but everyone else was. And they saw all your stuff out on the lawn,
• 2:25:16
  and Elder Abraham and missus Elder Abraham saw you shaking rugs in the graveyard.
• 2:25:22
  Una sat down among the daisies and began to cry. Look here,
• 2:25:26
  said Jem resolutely. This thing must be cleared up. Somebody has made a
• 2:25:30
  mistake. Sunday was fine, Faith, How could you have thought Saturday was
• 2:25:33
  Sunday. Prayer meeting was Thursday night, cried Faith. And Adam flew into
• 2:25:37
  the soup pot on Friday when Aunt Martha's cat chased him and spoiled our dinner.
• 2:25:43
  And Saturday there was a snake in the cellar and Carl caught it with
• 2:25:46
  a forked stick and carried it out. And Sunday it rained. So there
• 2:25:50
  prayer meeting was Wednesday night, said Mary. Elder Baxter was to lead,
• 2:25:54
  and he couldn't go Thursday night, and it was changed to Wednesday. You
• 2:25:58
  were just a day, he Faith, Meredith, and you did work on
• 2:26:01
  Sunday. Suddenly Faith burst into a peal of laughter. I suppose we did.
• 2:26:07
  What a joke. It isn't much of a joke for your father,
• 2:26:11
  said Mary, sourly. It'll be all right when people found out it was
• 2:26:15
  just a mistake, said Faith carelessly. We'll explain. You can explain till
• 2:26:20
  you're black in the face, said Mary. But a lie like that'll travel
• 2:26:24
  faster and further than you ever will. I've seen more of the world than
• 2:26:28
  you, and I know. Besides, there are plenty of folks won't believe
• 2:26:31
  it was a mistake. They will if I tell them, said Faith.
• 2:26:35
  You can't tell everybody, said Mary, No, I tell you. You've
• 2:26:39
  disgraced your father. Oone as evening was spoiled by this dire reflection. But
• 2:26:45
  faith refused to be made uncomfortable. Besides, she had a plan that would
• 2:26:48
  put everything right. So she put the past with its mistake, behind her
• 2:26:52
  and gave herself over to the enjoyment of the present. Jem went away to
• 2:26:56
  fish, and Walter came out of his reverie and proceeded to describe the woods
• 2:27:01
  of heaven. Mary pricked up her ears and listened respectfully. Despite her awe
• 2:27:05
  of Walter, she reveled in his book talk it always gave her a delightful
• 2:27:11
  sensation. Walter had been reading his Collridge that day, and he pictured a
• 2:27:15
  heaven where there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, where blossomed many an incense
• 2:27:20
  bearing tree, and there were forests ancient as the hills, enfolding sunny spots
• 2:27:24
  of greenery. I didn't know there was any woods in heaven, said Mary,
• 2:27:28
  with a long breath. I thought it was all streets and streets and
• 2:27:33
  streets. Of course, there are woods, said Nan. Mother can't live
• 2:27:37
  without trees, and I can't, So what would be the use of going
• 2:27:41
  to heaven if there weren't any trees. There are cities, too, said
• 2:27:45
  the young dreamer. Splendid cities colored just like the sunset, with sapphire towers
• 2:27:50
  and rainbow domes. They're built out of gold and diamonds, whole streets of
• 2:27:56
  diamonds flashing like the sun. In the squares. There were chris Still fountains
• 2:28:00
  kissed by the light, and everywhere the Asphodel blooms the flower of heaven.
• 2:28:05
  Fancy, said Mary. I saw the main street in Charlottetown once, and
• 2:28:09
  I thought it was real grand. But I suppose it's nothing to heaven.
• 2:28:13
  Well, it all sounds gorgeous the way you tell it, But won't it
• 2:28:16
  be kinda dull too? Oh? I guess we can have some fun when
• 2:28:18
  the angel's backs are turned, said Faith comfortably. Heaven is all fun,
• 2:28:22
  declared Die. The Bible doesn't say so, cried Mary, who had read
• 2:28:28
  so much of the Bible on Sunday afternoons under Miss Cornelia's eye that she now
• 2:28:31
  considered herself quite an authority on it. Mother says the Bible language is figurative,
• 2:28:37
  said Nan. Does that mean that it isn't true, asked Mary hopefully.
• 2:28:41
  No, not exactly, But I think it means that heaven will be
• 2:28:46
  just like what you'd like it to be. I'd like it to be just
• 2:28:48
  like Rainbow Valley, said Mary, with all you kids to gas and play
• 2:28:52
  with. That's good enough for me. Anyhow, we can't go to heaven
• 2:28:56
  till we're dead, and maybe not then, So what's the use of worrying.
• 2:29:00
  Here's Jem with a string of trout, and it's my turn to fry
• 2:29:03
  them. We ought to know more about heaven than Walter does when we're the
• 2:29:07
  minister's family, said Una, as they walked home that night. We know
• 2:29:11
  just as much, but Walter can imagine, said Faith. Missus Elliot says
• 2:29:15
  he gets it from his mother. I do wish we hadn't made that mistake
• 2:29:18
  about Sunday, sighed Una. Don't worry over that. I've thought of a
• 2:29:22
  great plan to explain so that everybody will know, said Faith. Just wait
• 2:29:26
  till tomorrow night. End of chapter eleven. Chapter twelve an explanation and a
• 2:29:33
  dare. The Reverend Doctor Cooper preached in Glen sent Mary the next evening,
• 2:29:37
  and the Presbyterian church was crowded with people from near and far. The Reverend
• 2:29:43
  Doctor was reputed to be a very eloquent speaker, and bearing in mind the
• 2:29:46
  old dictum that a minister should take his best clothes to the city and his
• 2:29:50
  best sermons to the country. He delivered a very scholarly and impressive discourse.
• 2:29:56
  But when the folks went home that night, it was not of doctor Cooper's
• 2:30:00
  sermon they talked. They had completely forgotten all about it. Doctor Cooper had
• 2:30:05
  concluded, with a fervent appeal, had wiped the perspiration from his massive brow,
• 2:30:11
  had said, let us pray as he was famed for saying it,
• 2:30:13
  and had duly prayed. There was a slight pause in glensent Mary Church.
• 2:30:20
  The old fashion of taking the collection after the sermon instead of before still held,
• 2:30:24
  mainly because the Methodists had adopted the new fashion first, and Miss Cornelia
• 2:30:28
  and Elder Clow would not hear of following where Methodists had led. Charles Baxter
• 2:30:33
  and Thomas Douglas, whose duty it was to pass the plates, were on
• 2:30:37
  the point of rising to their feet. The organist had got out the music
• 2:30:41
  of her anthem, and the choir had cleared its throat. Suddenly, Faith
• 2:30:46
  Meredith rose in the man's pew, walked up to the pulpit platform and faced
• 2:30:50
  the amazed audience. Miss Cornelia half rose in her seat and then sat down
• 2:30:56
  again. Her pew was far back, and it occurred to her that whatever
• 2:31:00
  Faith meant to do or say would be half done or said before she could
• 2:31:05
  reach her. There was no use making the exhibition worse than it had to
• 2:31:07
  be. With an anguished glance at missus Doctor Blythe, and another at Deacon
• 2:31:13
  Warren of the Methodist Church, Miss Cornelia resigned herself to another scandal if the
• 2:31:18
  child was only dressed decently itself, she groaned in spirit. Faith, having
• 2:31:24
  spelled ink on her good dress, had serenely put on an old one of
• 2:31:28
  faded pink print, a catty cornered rent in. The skirt had been darned
• 2:31:33
  with scarlet tracing cotton, and the hem had been let down, showing a
• 2:31:37
  bright strip of unfaded pink around the skirt. But Faith was not thinking of
• 2:31:41
  her clothes at all. She was feeling suddenly nervous. What it seemed easy
• 2:31:46
  in imagination was rather hard in reality. Confronted by all those staring, questioning
• 2:31:52
  eyes, Faith's courage almost failed her. The lights were so bright, the
• 2:31:56
  silence so awesome. She thought she could not speak after all, But she
• 2:32:01
  must, her father must be cleared of suspicion. Only the words would not
• 2:32:05
  come. UNA's little pearl pure face gleamed up at her beseechingly from the man's
• 2:32:11
  pew. The blithe children were lost in amazement. Back under the gallery,
• 2:32:16
  Faith saw the sweet graciousness of Miss Rosemary West's smile and the amusement of Miss
• 2:32:22
  Ellen's, but none of these helped her. It was Bertie Shakespeare Drew who
• 2:32:26
  saved the situation. Bertie Shakespeare sat in the front seat of the gallery and
• 2:32:31
  he made a derisive face at Faith. Faith promptly made a dreadful one back
• 2:32:35
  at him, and in her anger over being grimaced at by Bertie Shakespeare,
• 2:32:41
  forgot her stage fright. She found her voice and spoke out clearly and bravely.
• 2:32:46
  I want to explain something, she said, and I want to do
• 2:32:48
  it now because everybody will hear it. That heard. The other people are
• 2:32:52
  saying that Uona and I stayed home last Sunday and cleaned house instead of going
• 2:32:58
  to Sunday school. Well we did, but we didn't mean to. We
• 2:33:01
  got mixed up in the days of the week. It was all Elder Baxter's
• 2:33:05
  fault, sensation and the Baxter pew because he went and changed a prayer meeting
• 2:33:09
  to Wednesday night, and then we thought Thursday was Friday, and so on
• 2:33:13
  till we thought Saturday was Sunday. Karl was laid up sick and so was
• 2:33:18
  Aunt Martha, so they couldn't put us right. We went to Sunday school
• 2:33:22
  and all that rain on Saturday and nobody came. And then we thought we'd
• 2:33:26
  clean house on Monday and stop old cats from talking about how dirty the manse
• 2:33:30
  was. General sensation all over the church, and we did. I shook
• 2:33:35
  the rugs in the Methodist graveyard because it was such a convenient place, and
• 2:33:39
  not because I meant to be disrespectful of the dead. It isn't the dead
• 2:33:43
  folks who have made the fuss over this, it's the living folks. And
• 2:33:46
  it isn't right for any of you to blame my father for this, because
• 2:33:50
  he was away and didn't know, and anyhow we thought it was Monday.
• 2:33:54
  He's just the best father that ever lived in the world, and we love
• 2:33:58
  him with all our hearts. Faith's bravado ebbed out in a sob. She
• 2:34:03
  ran down the steps and flashed out of the side door of the church.
• 2:34:05
  There, the friendly starlit summer night comforted her and the ache went out of
• 2:34:11
  her eyes and throat. She felt very happy. The dreadful explanation was over,
• 2:34:15
  and everybody knew now that her father wasn't to blame, and that she
• 2:34:18
  and Una were not so wicked as to have cleaned house knowingly. On Sunday,
• 2:34:24
  inside the church, people gazed blankly at each other, but Thomas Douglas
• 2:34:28
  rose and walked up the aisle with a set face. His duty was clear.
• 2:34:33
  The collection must be taken if the skies fell taken. It was The
• 2:34:37
  choir sang the anthem with a dismal conviction that it felt terribly flat, and
• 2:34:41
  Doctor Cooper gave out the concluding hymn and pronounced the benediction with considerably less unction
• 2:34:48
  than usual. The Reverend Doctor had a sense of humor, and Faith's performance
• 2:34:52
  tickled him. Besides, John Meredith was well known in Presbyterian circles. Mister
• 2:34:58
  Meredith returned home the next afternoon, but before his coming, Faith contrived to
• 2:35:03
  scandalize Glens and Mary again. In the reaction from Sunday evenings intensity and strain,
• 2:35:09
  She was especially full of what Miss Cornelia would have called devilment. On
• 2:35:13
  Monday. This led her to dare Walter blythe to ride through main street on
• 2:35:18
  a pig while she rode another one. The pigs in question were two tall,
• 2:35:22
  lank animals supposed to belong to Bertie Shakespeare, Drew's father, which had
• 2:35:26
  been haunting the roadside by the manse for a couple of weeks. Walter did
• 2:35:31
  not want to ride a pig through Glens and Mary, but whatever Faith Meredith
• 2:35:35
  dared him to do must be done. They tore down the hill and through
• 2:35:39
  the village. Faith bent double with laughter over her terrified courser Walter Crimson with
• 2:35:45
  shame. They tore past the Minister himself, just coming home from the station.
• 2:35:50
  He being a little less dreamy and abstracted than usual, owing to have
• 2:35:54
  had a talk on the train with Miss Cornelia, who always wakened him up,
• 2:35:56
  temporarily noticed them and thought he really must speak to Faith about it and
• 2:36:01
  tell her that such conduct was not seemly, But he had forgotten the trifling
• 2:36:05
  incident by the time he reached home. They passed missus Alec Davis, who
• 2:36:11
  shrieked in horror, and they passed Miss Rosemary West, who laughed and sighed.
• 2:36:16
  Finally, just before the pigs swooped into Bertie Shakespeare Drew's back yard,
• 2:36:20
  never to emerge therefrom again. So great had been the shock to their nerves.
• 2:36:24
  Faith and Walter jumped off as doctor and missus blythe drove swiftly by.
• 2:36:30
  So that is how you bring up your boys, said Gilbert with mock severity.
• 2:36:33
  Perhaps I do spoil them a little, said Anne contritely. But oh
• 2:36:37
  Gilbert, when I think of my own childhood before I came to Green Gables,
• 2:36:41
  I haven't the heart to be very strict, how hungry for love and
• 2:36:46
  fun. I was an unloved little drudge with never a chance to play.
• 2:36:50
  They do have such good times with the man's children. What about the poor
• 2:36:54
  pigs, asked Gilbert. Anne tried to look sober and failed. Do you
• 2:36:58
  really think it hurt them? She said, I don't think anything could hurt
• 2:37:03
  those animals. They've been the plague of the neighborhood this summer, and the
• 2:37:05
  Drews won't shut them up. But I'll talk to Walter if I can keep
• 2:37:09
  from laughing when I do it. Miss Cornelia came up to Ingallside that evening
• 2:37:15
  to relieve her feelings. Over Sunday night, to her surprise, she found
• 2:37:18
  that Anne did not view Faith's performance in quite the same light as she did.
• 2:37:22
  I thought there was something brave and pathetic in her getting up there before
• 2:37:26
  that church full of people to confess. She said. You could see she
• 2:37:30
  was frightened to death, yet she was bound to clear her father. I
• 2:37:33
  loved her for it. Oh, of course the poor child meant well,
• 2:37:37
  sighed Miss Cornelia. But just the same, it was a terrible thing to
• 2:37:41
  do and is making more talk than the house cleaning on Sunday that had begun
• 2:37:46
  to die away, and this has started it all up again. Rosemary West
• 2:37:50
  is like you. She said last night as she left the church, that
• 2:37:52
  it was a plucky thing for Faith to do, but it made her feel
• 2:37:56
  sorry for the child too. Miss Ellen thought it was all a good joke
• 2:38:00
  and said she hadn't had as much fun in church for years. Of course
• 2:38:03
  they don't care, they are Episcopalians, but we Presbyterians feel it. And
• 2:38:09
  there were so many hotel people there that night, and scores of Methodists.
• 2:38:13
  Missus Leander Crawford cried she felt so bad, and Missus Alec Davis said the
• 2:38:18
  little huzzy ought to be spanked. Missus Leander Crawford is always crying in church,
• 2:38:24
  said Susan contemptuously. She cries over every affecting thing the minister says.
• 2:38:28
  But you do not often see her name on a subscription list, Missus doctor
• 2:38:31
  Dear, tears come cheaper. She tried to talk to me one day about
• 2:38:35
  Aunt Martha being such a dirty housekeeper, and I wanted to say, every
• 2:38:39
  one knows that you have been mixing up cakes in the kitchen wash pan,
• 2:38:43
  Missus Leander Crawford. But I did not say it, Missus doctor Dear,
• 2:38:46
  because I have too much respect for myself to condescend to argue with the likes
• 2:38:50
  of her. But I could tell worse things than that of Missus Leander Crawford
• 2:38:54
  if I was disposed to gossip. And as for Missus Alec Davis, if
• 2:39:00
  she had said that to me, Missus doctor Dear, do you know what
• 2:39:03
  I would have said. I would have said, I have no doubt that
• 2:39:05
  you would like to spank Faith, Missus Davis, but you will never have
• 2:39:09
  the chance to spank a minister's daughter, either in this world or in that
• 2:39:13
  which is to come. If poor Faith had only been decently dressed, lamented
• 2:39:18
  Miss Cornelia again, it wouldn't have been quite that bad, But that dress
• 2:39:22
  looked dreadful as she stood there upon the platform. It was clean, though,
• 2:39:26
  Missus doctor Dear, said Susan. They are clean children. They may
• 2:39:31
  be very heedless and reckless, Missus doctor Dear, and I am not saying
• 2:39:35
  they are not, but they never forget to wash behind their ears. The
• 2:39:39
  idea of faith forgetting what day was Sunday persisted Miss Cornelia. She will grow
• 2:39:43
  up just as careless and impractical as her father. Believe me. I suppose
• 2:39:48
  Carl would have known better if he hadn't been sick. I don't know what
• 2:39:52
  was wrong with him, but I think it very likely he had been eating
• 2:39:54
  those blueberries that grew in the graveyard. No wonder they made him sick.
• 2:39:58
  If I was a Methodist, I I try to keep my graveyard cleaned up.
• 2:40:01
  At least. I am of the opinion that Karl only ate the sours
• 2:40:05
  that grow on the dike, said Susan, hopefully. I do not think
• 2:40:09
  any minister's son would eat blueberries that grew on the graves of dead people.
• 2:40:13
  You know, it would not be so bad, missus doctor Dear, to
• 2:40:16
  eat things that grew on the dike. The worst of last night's performance was
• 2:40:20
  the face Faith made at somebody in the congregation before she started in, said
• 2:40:24
  Miss Cornelia Elder Cloud. Declare, she made it at him? And did
• 2:40:30
  you hear that she was seen riding on a pig? To day? I
• 2:40:33
  saw her. Walter was with her. I gave him a little, a
• 2:40:37
  very little scolding about it. He did not say much, but he gave
• 2:40:39
  me the impression that it had been his idea and that Faith was not to
• 2:40:43
  blame. I do not believe that, missus doctor Dear, cried Susan up
• 2:40:48
  in arms. That is just Walter's way to take the blame on himself.
• 2:40:52
  But you know as well as I do, missus doctor Dear, that that
• 2:40:54
  blessed child would never have thought of writing on a pig, even if he
• 2:40:56
  does write poetry. Oh, there's no doubt the notion was hatched in faith
• 2:41:01
  Meredith's brain, said Miss Cornelia. And I don't say that I'm sorry that
• 2:41:05
  Amos Drew's old pigs did get their come uppance for once. But the minister's
• 2:41:09
  daughter and the doctor's son, said Anne, mimicking Miss Cornelia's tone. Then
• 2:41:15
  she laughed, Dear, Miss Cornelia, they're only little children, and you
• 2:41:18
  know they've never yet done anything bad. They're just heedless and impulsive as I
• 2:41:24
  was myself. Once they'll grow sedate and sober as I've done. Miss Cornelia
• 2:41:28
  laughed too. There are times, Anne, dearie, when I know by
• 2:41:33
  your eyes that your soberness is put on like a garment, and you're really
• 2:41:37
  aching to do something wild and young again. Well, I feel encouraged somehow.
• 2:41:41
  A talk with you always does have that effect on me. Now when
• 2:41:45
  I go to see Barbara Samson, it's just the opposite. She makes me
• 2:41:48
  feel that everything's wrong and always will be. But of course, living all
• 2:41:52
  your life with a man like Joe Samson wouldn't be exactly cheering. It is
• 2:41:58
  a very strange thing to think that she married Joe Sampson. After all her
• 2:42:01
  chances, remarked Susan, she was much sought after when she was a girl.
• 2:42:05
  She used to boast to me that she had twenty one bows and mister
• 2:42:07
  Pethick. What was mister Pethick. Well, he was a sort of hanger
• 2:42:13
  on missus, doctor dear, but you could not exactly call him a bow.
• 2:42:16
  He did not really have any intentions. Twenty one bows and me that
• 2:42:20
  never had one, But Barbara went through the woods and picked up the crooked
• 2:42:24
  stick after all. And yet they say her husband can make better baking powder
• 2:42:28
  biscuits than she can, and she always gets him to make them when company
• 2:42:31
  comes to tea, which reminds me that I have company coming to tea tomorrow,
• 2:42:35
  and I must go home and set my bread, said Miss Cornelia.
• 2:42:39
  Mary said she could set it, and no doubt she could. But while
• 2:42:43
  I live and move and have my being, I set my own bread.
• 2:42:46
  Believe me, how is Mary getting on? Asked Anne. I've no fault
• 2:42:50
  to find with Mary, said Miss Cornelia, rather gloomily. She's getting some
• 2:42:54
  flesh on her bones, and she's clean and respectful. Though there's more in
• 2:42:58
  her than I and fathom. She's a sly puss. If you dug for
• 2:43:03
  a thousand years, you couldn't get to the bottom of that child's mind.
• 2:43:05
  Believe me. As for work, I never saw anything like her. She
• 2:43:09
  eats it up. Missus Wyley may have been cruel to her, but folks
• 2:43:13
  needn't say she made merry work. Mary's a born worker. Sometimes I wonder
• 2:43:18
  which will wear out first, her legs or her tongue. I don't have
• 2:43:22
  enough to do to keep me out of mischief these days. I'll be real
• 2:43:24
  glad when school opens, for then i'll have something to do again. Mary
• 2:43:28
  doesn't want to go to school, but I put my foot down and said
• 2:43:31
  that go she must. I shall not have the Methodist saying that I kept
• 2:43:35
  her out of school while I lolled in idleness. End of Chapter twelve,
• 2:43:41
  Chapter thirteen, The House on the Hill. There was a little unfailing spring,
• 2:43:46
  always icy cold and crystal pure, in a certain birch screened hollow of
• 2:43:50
  Rainbow Valley in the lower corner near the marsh. Not a great many people
• 2:43:56
  knew of its existence. The man sent Ingleside children knew, of course,
• 2:44:00
  as they knew everything else about the magic valley. Occasionally they went there to
• 2:44:03
  get a drink, and it figured in many of their plays as a fountain
• 2:44:07
  of old romance. Anne knew of it and loved it, because somehow it
• 2:44:11
  reminded her of the beloved Dryad's bubble at Green Gables. Rosemary West knew of
• 2:44:16
  it. It was her fountain of romance too. Eighteen years ago she had
• 2:44:20
  sat behind it one spring twilight and heard young Martin Crawford stammer out a confession
• 2:44:26
  of fervent, boyish love. She had whispered her own secret in return,
• 2:44:31
  and they had kissed and promised by the wild wood spring. They had never
• 2:44:35
  stood together by it again. Martin had sailed on his fatal voyage soon after.
• 2:44:41
  But to Rosemary West it was always a sacred spot, hallowed by that
• 2:44:46
  immortal hour of youth and love. Whenever she passed near it, she turned
• 2:44:50
  aside to hold a secret tryst with an old dream, a dream from which
• 2:44:54
  the pain had long gone, leaving only its unforgettable sweetness. The spring was
• 2:45:00
  a hidden thing. You might have passed within ten feet of it and never
• 2:45:03
  have suspected its existence. Two generations passed, a huge old pine had fallen
• 2:45:09
  almost across it. Nothing was left of the tree but its crumbling trunk,
• 2:45:15
  out of which the ferns grew thickly, making a green roof and a lacy
• 2:45:18
  screen for the water. A maple tree grew beside it, with a curiously
• 2:45:22
  gnarled and twisted trunk, creeping along the ground for a little way before shooting
• 2:45:28
  up into the air and so forming a quaint seat. And September had flung
• 2:45:33
  a scarf of pale smoke blue asters around the hollow. John Meredith, taking
• 2:45:39
  the cross lots through Rainbow Valley on his way home from some pastoral visitations around
• 2:45:43
  the harbor head one evening, turned aside to drink from the little spring.
• 2:45:48
  Walter Blythe had shown it to him one afternoon only a few days before,
• 2:45:52
  and they had had a long talk together on the maple seat. John Meredith,
• 2:45:56
  under all his shyness and aloofness, had the heart of a boy.
• 2:46:00
  He had been called Jack in his youth, though nobody in Glen Saint Mary
• 2:46:03
  would ever have believed it. Walter and he had taken to each other and
• 2:46:07
  had talked unreservedly. Mister Meredith found his way into some sealed and sacred chambers
• 2:46:13
  of the Lad's soul, wherein not even Die had ever looked. They were
• 2:46:16
  to be chums from that friendly hour, and Walter knew that he would never
• 2:46:20
  be frightened of the Minister again. I never believed before that it was possible
• 2:46:26
  to get really acquainted with the Minister, he told his mother. That night,
• 2:46:30
  John Meredith drank from his slender white hand, whose grip of steel always
• 2:46:35
  surprised people who were unacquainted with it, and then sat down on the maple
• 2:46:39
  seat. He was in no hurry to go home. This was a beautiful
• 2:46:43
  spot, and he was mentally weary after a round of rather uninspiring conversations with
• 2:46:48
  many good and stupid people. The moon was rising, Rainbow valley was wind
• 2:46:52
  haunted, and star sentineled only where he was, but afar from the upper
• 2:46:56
  end came the gay notes of children's lafe and voices, The ethereal beauty of
• 2:47:03
  the astors in the moonlight, the glimmer of the little spring, the soft
• 2:47:07
  croon of the brook, the wavering grace of the brackens, all wove a
• 2:47:11
  white magic round John Meredith. He forgot congregational worries and spiritual problems. The
• 2:47:16
  years slipped away from him. He was a young divinity student again, and
• 2:47:20
  the roses of June were blooming red and fragrant on the dark, queenly head
• 2:47:26
  of his cecilia. He sat there and dreamed like any boy. And it
• 2:47:30
  was at this propitious moment that Rosemary West stepped aside from the by path and
• 2:47:35
  stood beside him in that dangerous, spell weaving place. John Meredith came up
• 2:47:41
  as she came in, and he saw her, really saw her. For
• 2:47:43
  the first time. He had met her in his church once or twice,
• 2:47:48
  and shaken hands with her abstractedly, as he did with anyone he happened to
• 2:47:52
  encounter on his way down the aisle. He had never met her elsewhere,
• 2:47:56
  for the Wests were Episcopalians with church affinities and lowers, and no occasion for
• 2:48:01
  calling upon them had ever arisen before tonight. If any one had asked John
• 2:48:05
  Meredith what Rosemary West looked like, he would not have had the slightest notion.
• 2:48:11
  But he was never to forget her as she appeared to him in the
• 2:48:13
  glamor of kind moonlight by the spring. She was certainly not in the least
• 2:48:18
  like Cecilia, who had always been his ideal of womanly beauty. Cecilia had
• 2:48:22
  been small and dark and vivacious. Rosemary West was tall and fair and placid.
• 2:48:28
  Yet John Meredith thought he had never seen so beautiful a woman. She
• 2:48:33
  was bare headed, and her golden hair, hair of a warm gold molasses
• 2:48:37
  taffy color, as Dye Blithe had said, was pinned in sleek, close
• 2:48:41
  coils over her head. She had large, tranquil blue eyes that always seemed
• 2:48:48
  full of friendliness. A high white forehead and a finely shaped face. Rosemary
• 2:48:54
  West was always called a sweet woman. She was so sweet that even her
• 2:48:58
  high bred, stately air had never gained for her the reputation of being stuck
• 2:49:01
  up, which it would inevitably have done in the case of any one else
• 2:49:05
  in Glens and Mary life had taught her to be brave, to be patient,
• 2:49:09
  to love, to forgive. She had watched the ship on which her
• 2:49:13
  lover went sailing out of four Winds Harbor into the sunset, But though she
• 2:49:18
  watched long, she had never seen it coming sailing back. That vigil had
• 2:49:22
  taken girlhood from her eyes. Yet she kept her youth to a marvelous degree.
• 2:49:28
  Perhaps this was because she always seemed to preserve that attitude of delighted surprise
• 2:49:33
  towards life which most of us leave behind in childhood, an attitude which not
• 2:49:37
  only made Rosemary herself seem young, but flung a pleasing illusion of youth over
• 2:49:43
  the consciousness of everyone who talked to her. John Meredith was startled by her
• 2:49:46
  loveliness, and Rosemary was startled by his presence. She had never thought she
• 2:49:52
  would find anyone by that remote spring, least of all the recluse of Glens
• 2:49:56
  and Mary Mance. She almost dropped the heavy armful of books she was carrying
• 2:50:00
  home from the Glen Lending Library. And then, to cover her confusion,
• 2:50:05
  she told one of those small FIBs which even the best of women do tell
• 2:50:09
  at times. I I came for a drink, she said, stammering a
• 2:50:13
  little, in answer to mister Meredith's grave good evening, Miss West. She
• 2:50:16
  felt that she was an unpardonable goose, and she longed to shake herself.
• 2:50:20
  But John Meredith was not a vain man, and he knew she would likely
• 2:50:24
  have been as much startled had she met old elder Klow in that unexpected fashion.
• 2:50:30
  Her confusion put him at ease, and he forgot to be shy.
• 2:50:33
  Besides, even the shyest of men can sometimes be quite audacious in moonlight.
• 2:50:39
  Let me get you a cup, he said, smiling. There was a
• 2:50:41
  cup near by, if he had only known it, a cracked handleless blue
• 2:50:46
  cup secreted under the maple by the Rainbow Valley children. But he did not
• 2:50:50
  know it. So he stepped out to one of the birch trees and stripped
• 2:50:52
  a bit of its white skin away. Deftly, he fashioned this into a
• 2:50:56
  three cornered cup, filled it from the spring, and handed it to Rosemary.
• 2:51:01
  Rosemary took it and drank every drop to punish herself for her fib for
• 2:51:05
  she was not in the least thirsty, and to drink a fairly large cupful
• 2:51:09
  of water when you are not thirsty is somewhat of an ordeal. Yet the
• 2:51:15
  memory of that draft was to be very pleasant to Rosemary in after years.
• 2:51:18
  It seemed to her that there was something sacramental about it. Perhaps this was
• 2:51:24
  because of what the minister did. When she handed him back the cup.
• 2:51:26
  He stooped again and filled it and drank of it himself. It was only
• 2:51:31
  by accident that he put his lips just where Rosemary had put hers, and
• 2:51:35
  Rosemary knew it. Nevertheless, it had a curious significance for her, they
• 2:51:39
  too had drunk of the same cup. She remembered idly that an old aunt
• 2:51:43
  of hers used to say that when two people did this, their after lives
• 2:51:48
  would be linked in some fashion, whether for good or ill. John Meredith
• 2:51:52
  held the cup uncertainly. He did not know what to do with it.
• 2:51:56
  The logical thing would have been to toss it away, but some how he
• 2:52:00
  was disinclined to do this, Rosemary held out her hand for it. Will
• 2:52:03
  you let me have it? She said, you made it so nackily.
• 2:52:07
  I never saw any one make a birch cup, so since my little brother
• 2:52:11
  used to make them long ago before he died, I learned how to make
• 2:52:15
  them. When I was a boy camping out one summer, an old hunter
• 2:52:18
  taught me. Said, mister Meredith, let me carry your books, miss
• 2:52:22
  West. Rosemary was startled into another fib and said, oh, they were
• 2:52:26
  not heavy. But the minister took them from her with quite a masterful air,
• 2:52:31
  and they walked away together. It was the first time Rosemary had stood
• 2:52:35
  by the valley spring without thinking of Martin Crawford. The mystic tryst had been
• 2:52:39
  broken. The little by path wound around the marsh and then struck up the
• 2:52:45
  long wooded hill on the top of which Rosemary lived. Beyond. Through the
• 2:52:50
  trees, they could see the moonlight shining across the level summer fields, but
• 2:52:54
  the little path was shadowy and narrow trees crowded over it, and trees are
• 2:52:58
  never quite as friendly to human beings after nightfall as they are in daylight.
• 2:53:03
  They wrapped themselves away from us they whisper and plot furtively. If they reach
• 2:53:07
  out a hand to us, it has a hostile tentative touch. People walking
• 2:53:13
  amid trees after night always draw closer together, instinctively and involuntarily, making an
• 2:53:18
  alliance physical and mental against certain alien powers around them. Rosemary's dress brushed against
• 2:53:26
  John Meredith as they walked. Not even an absent minded minister, who was
• 2:53:31
  after all a young man still, though he firmly believed he had outlived Romance,
• 2:53:35
  could be insensible to the charm of the night, and the path and
• 2:53:39
  the companion. It is never quite safe to think we have done with life
• 2:53:43
  when we imagine we have finished our story. Fate has a trick of turning
• 2:53:48
  the page and showing us yet another chapter. These two people each thought their
• 2:53:52
  hearts belonged irrevocably to the past, but they both found their walk up that
• 2:53:58
  hill very pleasant. Rosemary thought the Glen minister was by no means as shy
• 2:54:03
  and tongue tied as he had been represented. He seemed to find no difficulty
• 2:54:07
  in talking easily and freely. Glen housewives would have been amazed had they heard
• 2:54:11
  him, But then so many Glen housewives talked only gossip and the price of
• 2:54:16
  eggs, and John Meredith was not interested in either. He talked to Rosemary
• 2:54:22
  of books and music and wide world doings and something of his own history,
• 2:54:26
  and found that she could understand and respond. Rosemary, it appeared, possessed
• 2:54:31
  a book which mister Meredith had not read and wished to read. She offered
• 2:54:35
  to lend it to him, and when they reached the old homestead on the
• 2:54:37
  hill, he went in to get it. The house itself was an old
• 2:54:41
  fashioned gray one hung with vines through which the light in the sitting room winked
• 2:54:46
  in friendly fashion. It looked down the glen over the harbor, silvered in
• 2:54:50
  the moonlight, to the sand dunes and the moaning ocean. They walked in
• 2:54:56
  through a garden that always seemed to smell of roses, even when no roses
• 2:55:00
  were in bloom. There was a sisterhood of lilies at the gate, and
• 2:55:03
  a ribbon of asters on either side of the broad walk, and a lacery
• 2:55:07
  of fir trees on the hill's edge. Beyond the house. You have the
• 2:55:11
  whole world at your doorstep. Here, said John Meredith with a long breath.
• 2:55:15
  What a view, What an outlook? At times I feel stifled down
• 2:55:18
  there in the glen. You can breathe up here. It is calm to
• 2:55:22
  night, said Rosemary, laughing. If there were a wind, it would
• 2:55:26
  blow your breath away. We get ah the arts. The wind can blow
• 2:55:30
  up here. This place should be called four winds instead of the Harbor.
• 2:55:33
  I like wind, he said. A day when there is no wind seems
• 2:55:37
  to meet dead. A windy day wakes me up, he gave a conscious
• 2:55:41
  laugh. On a calm day, I fall into day dreams. No doubt
• 2:55:45
  you know my reputation, Miss West. If I cut you dead the next
• 2:55:48
  time we meet, don't put it down to bad manners. Please understand that
• 2:55:50
  it is only abstraction, and forgive me and speak to me. They found
• 2:55:56
  Ellen West in the sitting room. When they went in, she laid her
• 2:56:00
  glasses down on the book she had been reading and looked at them in amazement,
• 2:56:03
  tinctured with something else. But she shook hands amiably with mister Meredith,
• 2:56:07
  and he sat down and talked to her while Rosemary hunted out his book.
• 2:56:11
  Ellen West was ten years older than Rosemary, and so different from her that
• 2:56:16
  it was hard to believe they were sisters. She was dark and massive with
• 2:56:20
  black hair, thick black eyebrows, and eyes of the clear, salty blue
• 2:56:26
  of the gulf water in a north wind. She had a rather stern forbidding
• 2:56:30
  look, but she was in reality very jolly, with a hearty, gurgling
• 2:56:33
  laugh and a deep, mellow, pleasant voice with a suggestion of masculinity about
• 2:56:39
  it. She had once remarked to Rosemary that she would really like to have
• 2:56:43
  a talk with that Presbyterian minister at the Glen to see if he could find
• 2:56:46
  a word to say to a woman when he was cornered. She had her
• 2:56:48
  chance now, and she tackled him on world politics. Miss Ellen, who
• 2:56:54
  was a great reader, had been devouring a book on the Kaiser of Germany,
• 2:56:58
  and she demanded mister Meredith's opinion of him. A dangerous man? Was
• 2:57:01
  his answer, I believe you, Miss Ellen, nodded. Mark my words,
• 2:57:05
  mister Meredith. That man is going to fight somebody, yet he's aching
• 2:57:09
  to he is going to set the world on fire. If you mean that
• 2:57:11
  he will wantonly precipitate a great war. I hardly think so, said mister
• 2:57:16
  Meredith. The day has gone by for that sort of thing, Bless you,
• 2:57:20
  it hasn't rumbled. Ellen the day never goes by from men and nations
• 2:57:24
  to make asses of themselves and take to the fists. The millennium isn't that
• 2:57:28
  near, mister Meredith. And you don't think it is any more than I
• 2:57:31
  do. As for this Kaiser, mark my words, he is going to
• 2:57:35
  make a heap of trouble. And Miss Ellen prodded her book emphatically with her
• 2:57:39
  long finger. Yes, if he isn't nipped in the bud, he is
• 2:57:43
  going to make trouble. We'll live to see it. You and I will
• 2:57:46
  live to see it, mister Meredith. And who is going to nip him?
• 2:57:48
  England should but she won't. Who is going to nip him? Tell
• 2:57:52
  me that, mister Meredith. Mister Meredith couldn't tell her. But they plunged
• 2:57:56
  into a discussion of German militaries that lasted long after Rosemary had found the book.
• 2:58:01
  Rosemary said nothing, but sat in a little rocker behind Ellen and stroked
• 2:58:05
  an important black cat meditatively. John Meredith hunted big game in Europe with Ellen,
• 2:58:11
  but he looked oftener at Rosemary than at Ellen, and Ellen noticed it.
• 2:58:16
  After Rosemary had gone to the door with him and come back. Ellen
• 2:58:20
  rose and looked at her accusingly, Rosemary West, that man has a notion
• 2:58:24
  of courting you, Rosemary quivered. Ellen's speech was like a blow to her.
• 2:58:30
  It rubbed all the bloom off the pleasant evening. But she would not
• 2:58:33
  let Ellen see how it hurt her. Nonsense, she said, and laughed
• 2:58:37
  a little too carelessly. You see a bow for me in every bush,
• 2:58:41
  Ellen, Why he told me all about his wife tonight, how much she
• 2:58:45
  was to him, how empty her death had left the world. Well,
• 2:58:48
  that may be his way of courting, retorted Ellen. Men have all kinds
• 2:58:52
  of ways, I understand, But don't forget your promise, Rosemary. There
• 2:58:56
  is no need of my either forgetting or remembering it, said Rosemary a little
• 2:59:01
  wearily. You forget that I'm an old maid, Ellen. It's only your
• 2:59:05
  sisterly delusion that I am still young and blooming and dangerous. Mister Meredith merely
• 2:59:11
  wants to be a friend. If he wants that much itself, he'll forget
• 2:59:15
  us both long before he gets back to the manse I've no objection to your
• 2:59:20
  being friends with him, conceded Ellen. But it mustn't go beyond friendship.
• 2:59:24
  Remember, I'm always suspicious of widowers. They are not given to romantic ideas
• 2:59:28
  about friendship, they are apt to mean business. As for this Presbyterian man,
• 2:59:33
  what do they call him shy for? He's not a bit shy,
• 2:59:37
  though he may be absent minded, so absent minded that he forgot to say
• 2:59:41
  good night to me when you started to go to the door with him.
• 2:59:45
  He's got brains too. There's so few men around here that can talk sense
• 2:59:48
  to a body. I've enjoyed the evening. I wouldn't mind seeing more of
• 2:59:52
  him. But no philandering, Rosemary, mind you, no philandering. Rosemary
• 2:59:58
  was quite used to being warned by Ellen from philandering if she so much as
• 3:00:03
  talked five minutes to any marriageable man under eighty or over eighteen. She had
• 3:00:07
  always laughed at the warning with unfeigned amusement. This time it did not amuse
• 3:00:13
  her. It irritated her a little. Who wanted to philander? Don't be
• 3:00:16
  such a goose, Ellen, she said, with unaccustomed shortness. As she
• 3:00:20
  took her lamp. She went upstairs without saying good night. Ellen shook her
• 3:00:24
  head dubiously and looked at the black cat. What is she so cross about,
• 3:00:30
  Saint George, she asked, When you howl your hit I've always heard
• 3:00:33
  George, but she promised. Saint, she promised, and we Wests always
• 3:00:37
  keep our word, so it won't matter if he does want to filander George,
• 3:00:41
  she promised, I won't worry. Upstairs, in her room, Rosemary
• 3:00:46
  sat for a long while, looking out of the window across the moonlit garden
• 3:00:50
  to the distant shining harbor. She felt vaguely upset and unsettled. She was
• 3:00:56
  suddenly tired of outworn dreams. And in the garden the petals of the last
• 3:01:01
  red rose were scattered by a sudden little wind. Summer was over. It
• 3:01:07
  was autumn. End of chapter thirteen. Chapter fourteen, Missus Alec Davis makes
• 3:01:13
  a call. John Meredith walked slowly home. At first he thought a little
• 3:01:18
  about Rosemary, but by the time he reached Rainbow Valley he had forgotten all
• 3:01:22
  about her and was meditating on a point regarding German theology which Ellen had raised.
• 3:01:28
  He passed through Rainbow Valley and knew it not the charm of Rainbow Valley
• 3:01:33
  had no potency against German theology. When he reached the manse, he went
• 3:01:37
  to his study and took down a bulky volume in order to see which had
• 3:01:41
  been right he or Ellen. He remained immersed in its mazes until dawn struck
• 3:01:45
  a new trail of speculation, and pursued it like a sleuth hound. For
• 3:01:48
  the next week. Utterly lost to the world, his parish and his family,
• 3:01:52
  he read day and night. He forgot to go to his needls when
• 3:01:56
  Una was not there to drag him to them. Ever thought about Rosemary or
• 3:02:01
  Ellen again. Old Missus Marshall over Harbor was very ill and sent for him,
• 3:02:05
  but the message lay unheeded on his desk and gathered dust. Missus Marshall
• 3:02:11
  recovered, but never forgave him. A young couple came to the manse to
• 3:02:15
  be married, and mister Meredith, with unbrushed hair, in carpet slippers and
• 3:02:18
  faded dressing gown, married them. To be sure, he began by reading
• 3:02:22
  the funeral service to them, and got along as far as ashes to ashes
• 3:02:26
  and dust to dust, before he vaguely suspected that something was wrong. Dear
• 3:02:31
  me, he said, absently, that is strange, very strange. The
• 3:02:37
  bride, who was nervous, began to cry. The bridegroom, who was
• 3:02:39
  not in the least nervous, giggled, Please, sir, I think you're
• 3:02:43
  burying us instead of marrying us. He said. Excuse me, said mister
• 3:02:48
  Meredith, as if it did not matter much. He turned up the marriage
• 3:02:52
  service and got through with it, but the bride never felt quite properly married
• 3:02:56
  for the rest of her life. He forgot his prayer meeting again, but
• 3:03:00
  that did not matter, for it was a wet night and nobody came.
• 3:03:03
  He might even have forgotten his Sunday service if it had not been for missus
• 3:03:07
  Alec Davis Aunt Martha came in on Saturday afternoon and told him that missus Davis
• 3:03:13
  was in the parlor and wanted to see him. Mister Meredith sighed. Missus
• 3:03:18
  Davis was the only woman in Glens at Mary Church whom he positively detested.
• 3:03:22
  Unfortunately, she was also the richest, and his board of managers had warned
• 3:03:28
  mister Meredith against offending her. Mister Meredith seldom thought of such a worldly matter
• 3:03:33
  as is stipend, but the managers were more practical. Also, they were
• 3:03:37
  astute. Without mentioning money, they contrived to instill into mister Meredith's mind a
• 3:03:41
  conviction that he should not offend missus Davis, otherwise he would likely have forgotten
• 3:03:48
  all about her as soon as Aunt Martha had gone out. As it was,
• 3:03:52
  he turned down his yuled with a feeling of annoyance, and went across
• 3:03:54
  the hall to the parlor. Missus Davis was sitting on the sofa, looking
• 3:03:58
  at her with an air of scornful disapproval. What a scandalous room. There
• 3:04:03
  were no curtains on the window. Missus Davis did not know that Faith and
• 3:04:07
  Una had taken them down the day before to use his court trains in one
• 3:04:11
  of their plays, and had forgotten to put them up again. But she
• 3:04:15
  could not have accused those windows more fiercely if she had known. The blinds
• 3:04:18
  were cracked and torn, The pictures on the walls were crooked, the rugs
• 3:04:22
  were awry, the vases were full of faded flowers. The dust lay in
• 3:04:26
  heaps, literally in heaps. What are we coming to, Missus Davis asked
• 3:04:33
  herself, and then primmed up her unbeautiful mouth. Jerry and Carl had been
• 3:04:37
  whooping and sliding down the banisters as she came through the hall. They did
• 3:04:41
  not see her and continued whooping and sliding, and Missus Davis was convinced they
• 3:04:46
  did it on purpose. Faith's pet rooster ambled through the hall, stood in
• 3:04:50
  the parlor doorway and looked at her. Not liking her looks, he did
• 3:04:54
  not venture in. Missus Davis gave a scornful sniff, a pretty man's indeed
• 3:05:00
  where roosters paraded the halls and stared people out of countenance. Shoo there,
• 3:05:05
  commanded Missus Davis, poking her flounced, changeable silk parasol at him. Adam
• 3:05:11
  showed he was a wise rooster, and Missus Davis had wrung the necks of
• 3:05:15
  so many roosters with her own fair hands in the course of her fifty years
• 3:05:18
  that an air of the executioner seemed to hang around her. Adams scuttled through
• 3:05:24
  the hall as the minister came in. Mister Meredith still wore slippers and dressing
• 3:05:28
  gown, and his dark hair still fell and uncared for locks over his high
• 3:05:33
  brow. But he looked the gentleman he was, and Missus Alec Davis,
• 3:05:37
  in her silk dress and beplumed bonnet and kid gloves and gold chain, looked
• 3:05:41
  the vulgar, coarse souled woman she was. Each felt the antagonism of the
• 3:05:46
  other's personality. Mister Meredith shrank, but missus Davis girded up her loins for
• 3:05:52
  the fray. She had come to the Manse to propose a certain thing to
• 3:05:56
  the Minister, and she meant to lose no time in proposing it. She
• 3:06:00
  was going to do him a favor, a great favor, and the sooner
• 3:06:03
  he was made aware of it, the better. She had been thinking about
• 3:06:05
  it all summer and had come to a decision at last. This was all
• 3:06:09
  that mattered, Missus Davis thought. When she decided a thing, it was
• 3:06:13
  decided. Nobody else had any say in the matter. That had always been
• 3:06:16
  her attitude. When she had made up her mind to marry Alec Davis,
• 3:06:20
  she had married him and that was the end to it. Alec had never
• 3:06:24
  known how it happened, but what odds? So in this case Missus Davis
• 3:06:28
  had arranged everything to her own satisfaction. Now it only remained to inform mister
• 3:06:33
  Meridith, will you please shut that door, said missus Davis, unprimming her
• 3:06:39
  mouth slightly to say it, but speaking with asperity, I have something important
• 3:06:43
  to say and I can't say it with that racket in the hall. Mister
• 3:06:46
  Meredith shut the door meekly, then he sat down before Missus Davis. He
• 3:06:52
  was not wholly aware of her, yet his mind was still wrestling with Eule's
• 3:06:56
  arguments. Missus Davis sensed his detachment, and it annoyed her. I have
• 3:07:01
  come to tell you, mister Meredith, she said aggressively, that I have
• 3:07:03
  decided to adopt Una. To adopt Una, Mister Meredith gazed at her blankly,
• 3:07:09
  not understanding in the least. Yes, I have been thinking it over
• 3:07:13
  for some time. I have often thought of adopting a child since my husband's
• 3:07:16
  death, but it seemed so hard to get a suitable one. It is
• 3:07:20
  very few children I would want to take into my home. I wouldn't think
• 3:07:24
  of taking a home child, some outcast of the slums in all probability,
• 3:07:28
  and there is hardly ever any other child to be got. One of the
• 3:07:31
  fishermen down at the harbor died last fall and left six youngsters. They tried
• 3:07:35
  to get me to take one, but I soon gave them to understand that
• 3:07:37
  I had no idea of adopting trash like that. Their grandfather stole a horse.
• 3:07:43
  Besides, they were all boys, and I wanted a girl, a
• 3:07:46
  quiet, obedient girl that I could train up to be a lady. Una
• 3:07:48
  will suit me exactly. She would be a nice little thing if she was
• 3:07:52
  properly looked after. So different from Faith. I would never dream of adopting
• 3:07:56
  Faith. But I'll take Una, and I'll give her a good home and
• 3:07:58
  bring up mister Meredith. And if she behaves herself, I'll leave her all
• 3:08:03
  my money when I die. Not one of my own relatives shall get a
• 3:08:05
  scent of it. In any case, I'm determined on that it was the
• 3:08:09
  idea of aggravating them that set me to thinking of adopting a child, as
• 3:08:11
  much as anything. In the first place. Una shall be well dressed and
• 3:08:15
  educated and trained, mister Meredith, and I shall give her music and painting
• 3:08:18
  lessons, and treat her as if she was my own. Mister Meredith was
• 3:08:22
  wide enough awake by this time. There was a faint flush in his pale
• 3:08:26
  cheek and a dangerous light in his fine dark eyes. Was this woman whose
• 3:08:31
  vulgarity and consciousness of money oozed out of her every pore, actually asking him
• 3:08:37
  to give her Una, his dear little wistful Una with Cecilia's own dark blue
• 3:08:41
  eyes, the child whom the dying mother had clasped to her heart. After
• 3:08:46
  the other children had been led weeping from the room, Cecilia had clung to
• 3:08:50
  her baby until the gates of death had shut between them. She had looked
• 3:08:54
  over the little dark head to her husband. Take good care of her,
• 3:08:58
  John, she had entreated, she is so small and sensitive. The others
• 3:09:01
  can fight their way, but the world will hurt her. Oh John,
• 3:09:05
  I don't know what you and she are going to do. You both need
• 3:09:09
  me so much. But keep her close to you, Keep her close to
• 3:09:13
  you. These had almost been her last words, except a few unforgettable ones
• 3:09:18
  for him alone. And it was this child whom Missus Davis had coolly announced
• 3:09:22
  her intention of taking from him. He sat up straight and looked at Missus
• 3:09:28
  Davis. In spite of the worn dressing gown and the frayed slippers, there
• 3:09:31
  was something about him that made Missus Davis feel a little of the old reverence
• 3:09:35
  for the cloth in which he had been brought up. After all, there
• 3:09:39
  was a certain divinity hedging a minister, even a poor, unworldly, abstracted
• 3:09:45
  one. I thank you for your kind intentions, Missus Davis, said mister
• 3:09:48
  Meredith, with a gentle, final, quite awful courtesy, but I cannot
• 3:09:54
  give you my child. Missus Davis looked blank. She had never dreamed of
• 3:09:58
  his refuse. Using why, mister Meredith, she said in astonishment. You
• 3:10:03
  must be You can't mean it. You must think it over, think of
• 3:10:07
  all the advantages I can give her. There is no need to think it
• 3:10:11
  over, Missus Davis. It is entirely out of the question. All the
• 3:10:15
  worldly advantages it is in your power to bestow on her could not compensate for
• 3:10:18
  the loss of a father's love and care. I thank you again, but
• 3:10:22
  it is not to be thought of. Disappointment angered Missus Davis, beyond the
• 3:10:28
  power of old habit to control her. Broad red face turned purple and her
• 3:10:33
  voice trembled. I thought you'd be only too glad to let me have her,
• 3:10:37
  she sneered. Why did you think that, asked mister Meredith quietly,
• 3:10:41
  Because nobody ever supposed you cared anything about any of your children, retorted Missus
• 3:10:46
  Davis contemptuously. You neglect them scandalously. It is the talk of the place.
• 3:10:50
  They aren't fed and dressed properly, and they are not trained at all.
• 3:10:54
  They have no more manners than a pack of wild Indians. You never
• 3:10:58
  think of doing your duty as a father. You let a stray child come
• 3:11:01
  here among them for a fortnight, and never took any notice of her,
• 3:11:05
  a child that swore like a trooper. I am told you wouldn't have cared
• 3:11:07
  if they'd caught smallpox from her. And Faith made an exhibition of herself,
• 3:11:13
  getting up and preaching and making that speech, and she rid a pig down
• 3:11:16
  the street under your very eyes. I understand the way they act is past
• 3:11:22
  belief. And you never lift a finger to stop them or try to teach
• 3:11:24
  them anything. And now when I offer one of them a good home and
• 3:11:28
  good prospect, you refuse it and insult me. A pretty father, you
• 3:11:31
  to talk of loving and caring for your children. That will do, woman,
• 3:11:35
  said mister Meridith. He stood up and looked at Missus Davis with eyes
• 3:11:39
  that made her quail. That will do, he repeated. I desire to
• 3:11:45
  hear no more, Missus Davis. You have said too much. It may
• 3:11:48
  be that I have been remiss in some respects in my duty as a parent,
• 3:11:52
  but it is not for you to remind me of it in such terms
• 3:11:54
  as you have used. Let us say good afternoon, Missus Davis did not
• 3:12:00
  say anything half so amiable as good afternoon. But she took her departure.
• 3:12:05
  As she swept past the minister, a large, plump toad, which Karl
• 3:12:09
  had secreted under the lounge, hopped out almost under her feet. Missus Davis
• 3:12:13
  gave a shriek, and, in trying to avoid treading on the awful thing,
• 3:12:16
  lost her balance and her parasol. She did not exactly fall, but
• 3:12:20
  she staggered and reeled across the room in a very undignified fashion, and brought
• 3:12:26
  up against the door with a thud that jarred her from head to foot.
• 3:12:28
  Mister Meredith, who had not seen the toad, wondered if she had been
• 3:12:33
  attacked with some kind of apoplectic or paralytic seizure, and ran in alarm to
• 3:12:37
  her assistance. But missus Davis, recovering her feet, waved him back furiously.
• 3:12:43
  Don't you dare touch me, she almost shouted. This is some more
• 3:12:46
  of your children's doings. I suppose this is no fit place for a decent
• 3:12:50
  woman. Give me my umbrella and let me go. I'll never darken the
• 3:12:54
  doors of your manse or your church again. Mister Meredith picked up the gorgeous
• 3:12:58
  paris all meekly enough and gave it to her. Missus Davis seized it and
• 3:13:03
  marched out. Jerry and Carl had given up banister sliding and were sitting on
• 3:13:07
  the edge of the verandah with faith. Unfortunately, all three were singing at
• 3:13:13
  the tops of their healthy, young voices, There'll be a hot time in
• 3:13:16
  the old town tonight. Missus Davis believed the song was meant for her and
• 3:13:20
  her only. She stopped and shook her paris all at them. Your father
• 3:13:24
  is a fool, she said, And you are three young varmints that ought
• 3:13:28
  to be whipped within an inch of your lives. He isn't cried, Faith,
• 3:13:33
  We're not cried the boys. But Missus Davis was gone. Goodness,
• 3:13:37
  isn't she mad? Said Jerry? And what is a varmint? Anyhow?
• 3:13:43
  John Meredith paced up and down the parlor for a few minutes. Then he
• 3:13:46
  went back to his study and sat down. But he did not return to
• 3:13:50
  his German theology. He was too grievously disturbed for that Missus Davis had wakened
• 3:13:56
  him up with a vengeance. Was he such a remiss careless father as she
• 3:14:00
  had accused him of being? Had he so scandalously neglected the bodily and spiritual
• 3:14:05
  welfare of the four little motherless creatures dependent on him. Were his people talking
• 3:14:11
  of it as harshly as Missus Davis had declared? It must be so,
• 3:14:13
  since Missus Davis had come to ask for una in the full and confident belief
• 3:14:18
  that he would hand the child over to her as unconcernedly and gladly as one
• 3:14:22
  might hand over a strayed, unwelcome kitten. And if so, what then
• 3:14:28
  John Meredith groaned and resumed his pacing up and down the dusty, disordered room.
• 3:14:33
  What could he do? He loved his children as deeply as any father
• 3:14:37
  could, and he knew passed the power of Missus Davis or any of her
• 3:14:41
  ilk to disturb his conviction that they loved him devotedly. But was he fit
• 3:14:46
  to have charge of them? He knew none better his weaknesses and limitations.
• 3:14:52
  What was needed was a good woman's presence and influence and common sense. But
• 3:14:56
  how could that be arranged? Even were he a to get such a housekeeper.
• 3:15:01
  It would cut Aunt Martha to the quick. She believed she could still
• 3:15:05
  do all that was meet and necessary. He could not, so hurt and
• 3:15:09
  insult the poor old woman who had been so kind to him and his how
• 3:15:13
  devoted she had been to Cecilia, and Cecilia had asked him to be very
• 3:15:16
  considerate of Aunt Martha to be sure, he suddenly remembered that Aunt Martha had
• 3:15:22
  once hinted that he ought to marry again. He felt she would not resent
• 3:15:26
  a wife as she would a housekeeper, but that was out of the question.
• 3:15:31
  He did not wish to marry. He did not and could not care
• 3:15:35
  for any one. Then what could he do? It suddenly occurred to him
• 3:15:39
  that he would go over to Ingleside and talk over his difficulties with Missus Blythe
• 3:15:43
  Missus Blythe was one of the few women he never felt shy or tongue tied
• 3:15:48
  with. She was always so sympathetic and refreshing. It might be that she
• 3:15:52
  could suggest some solution of his problems. And even if she could not,
• 3:15:56
  mister Meredith felt that he needed a little DearS and human companionship. After his
• 3:16:01
  dose of Missus Davis something to take the taste of her out of his soul.
• 3:16:05
  He dressed hurriedly and ate his supper less abstractedly than usual. It occurred
• 3:16:11
  to him that it was a poor meal. He looked at his children.
• 3:16:13
  They were rosy and healthy looking enough, except Una, she had never been
• 3:16:18
  very strong even when her mother was alive. They were all laughing and talking.
• 3:16:22
  Certainly they seemed happy. Karl was especially happy because he had two most
• 3:16:28
  beautiful spiders crawling around his supper plate. Their voices were pleasant, their manners
• 3:16:33
  did not seem bad. They were considerate of and gentle to one another.
• 3:16:37
  Yet Missus Davis had said their behavior was the talk of the congregation. As
• 3:16:41
  mister Meredith went through his gate, doctor Blythe and Missus Blythe drove past on
• 3:16:46
  the road that led to Lowbridge. The minister's face fell. Missus Blythe was
• 3:16:50
  going away. There was no use in going to Ingleside, and he craved
• 3:16:54
  a little companionship more than ever. As he gazed rather hopelessly over the landscape,
• 3:17:01
  the sunset light struck on a window of the old West homestead on the
• 3:17:05
  hill. It flared out Rosalie like a beacon of good hope. He suddenly
• 3:17:09
  remembered Rosemary and Ellen West. He thought that he would relish some of Ellen's
• 3:17:13
  pungent conversation. He thought it would be pleasant to see Rosemary's slow, sweet
• 3:17:18
  smile and calm, heavenly blue eyes. Again, what did that old poem
• 3:17:24
  of Sir Philip Sidney say? Continual comfort in a face that just suited her?
• 3:17:28
  And he needed comfort? Why not go and call? He remembered that
• 3:17:33
  Ellen had asked him to drop in sometimes, and there was Rosemary's book to
• 3:17:37
  take back. He ought to take it back before he forgot. He had
• 3:17:41
  an uneasy suspicion that there were a great many books in his library which he
• 3:17:45
  had borrowed at sundry times and in divers places, and had forgotten to take
• 3:17:48
  back. It was surely his duty to guard against that in this case.
• 3:17:52
  He went back into his study, got the book, and plunged downward into
• 3:17:56
  Rainbow Valley. End of Chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen, more gossip. On
• 3:18:03
  the evening, after missus Myra Murray of the over Harbor Section had been buried,
• 3:18:09
  Miss Cornelia and Mary Vance came up to Ingleside. There were several things
• 3:18:13
  concerning which Miss Cornelia wished to unburden her soul. The funeral had to be
• 3:18:18
  all talked over. Of course, Susan and Miss Cornelia thrashed this out between
• 3:18:22
  them, and took no part or delight in such ghoulish conversations. She sat
• 3:18:26
  a little apart and watched the autumnal flame of Dahlia's in the garden and the
• 3:18:31
  dreaming, glamorous harbor of the September sunset. Mary Vance sat beside her,
• 3:18:37
  knitting meekly. Mary's heart was down in the rainbow valley whence came sweet,
• 3:18:43
  distant, softened sounds of children's laughter. But her fingers were under Miss Cornelia's
• 3:18:46
  eye. She had to knit so many rounds of her stocking before she might
• 3:18:50
  go to the valley. Mary knit and held her tongue, but used her
• 3:18:54
  ears. I never saw a nicer looking corpse, said Miss Cornelia judicially.
• 3:19:01
  Myra Murray was always a pretty woman. She was a Cory from Lowbridge,
• 3:19:05
  and the Corries were noted for their good looks. I said to the corpse
• 3:19:11
  as I passed it, poor woman, I hope you are as happy as
• 3:19:13
  you look, sighed Susan. She had not changed much. That dress she
• 3:19:18
  wore was the black satin she got for her daughter's wedding fourteen years ago.
• 3:19:22
  Her aunt told her then to keep it for her funeral, but Myra laughed
• 3:19:26
  and said, I may wear it to my funeral. Auntie, but I
• 3:19:28
  will have a good time out of it first, and I may say she
• 3:19:31
  did. Myra Murray was not a woman to attend her own funeral before she
• 3:19:35
  died. Many a time afterwards, when I saw her enjoying herself out in
• 3:19:39
  company, I thought to myself, you are a handsome woman, Myra Murray,
• 3:19:43
  and that dress becomes you, but it will likely be your shroud at
• 3:19:48
  last. And you see my words have come true, missus Marshall Elliot,
• 3:19:50
  Susan sighed again heavily. She was enjoying herself hugely. A funeral was really
• 3:19:56
  a delightful subject of conversation. I always liked to meet Myra, said Miss
• 3:20:01
  Cornelia. She was always so gay and cheerful. She made you feel better
• 3:20:05
  just by her handshake. Myra always made the best of things, that is
• 3:20:11
  true, asserted Susan. Her sister in law told me that when the doctor
• 3:20:15
  told her at last he could do nothing for her and she would never rise
• 3:20:18
  from that bed again. Myra said, quite cheerfully. Well, if that
• 3:20:22
  is so, I'm thankful that preserving is all done and I will not have
• 3:20:24
  to face the fall house cleaning. I always liked house cleaning in the spring,
• 3:20:28
  she says. But I always hated it. In the fall. I
• 3:20:31
  will get clear of it this year, thank goodness. There are people who
• 3:20:35
  would call that levity Missus Marshall Elliot, and I think her sister in law
• 3:20:37
  was a little ashamed of it. She said perhaps her sickness had made Myra
• 3:20:41
  a little light headed. But I said, no, Missus Murray, do
• 3:20:45
  not worry over it. It was just Myra's way of looking at the bright
• 3:20:48
  side. Her sister Luella was just the opposite, said miss Cornelia. There
• 3:20:54
  was no bright side for Luella. There was just black and shades of gray.
• 3:20:58
  For years, she always to be declaring she was going to die in
• 3:21:01
  a week or so. I won't be here to burden you long, she
• 3:21:05
  would tell her family with a groan, And if any of them ventured to
• 3:21:09
  talk about their little future plans, she'd grown also and say, ah,
• 3:21:13
  I won't be here. Then. When I went to see her, I
• 3:21:16
  always agreed with her, and it made her so mad. She was always
• 3:21:20
  quite a lot better for several days afterwards. She has better health now,
• 3:21:24
  but no more cheerfulness. Myra was so different. She was always doing or
• 3:21:28
  saying something to make someone feel good. Perhaps the men they married had something
• 3:21:35
  to do with it. Luella's man was a tartar, believe me. While
• 3:21:39
  Jim Murray was decent as men go, he looked heartbroken today. It isn't
• 3:21:43
  often I feel sorry for a man at his wife's funeral, but I did
• 3:21:46
  feel for Jim Murray. No wonder he looked sad. He will not get
• 3:21:50
  a wife like Myra again in a hurry, said Susan. Maybe he will
• 3:21:54
  not try, since his children are all grown up and Mirabella is able to
• 3:21:58
  keep house. But there is no predicting what a widower may or may not
• 3:22:01
  do, and I, for one, will not try. Will miss Myra
• 3:22:05
  terrible? In church? Said Miss Cornelia. She was such a worker.
• 3:22:09
  Nothing ever stumped her. If she couldn't get over a difficulty, she'd get
• 3:22:13
  around it, And if she couldn't get around it, she'd pretend it wasn't
• 3:22:16
  there, and generally it wasn't. I'll keep a stiff upper lip to my
• 3:22:22
  journey's end, she said to me once. Well she has ended her journey,
• 3:22:26
  do you think so? Asked Anne, suddenly coming back from dreamland.
• 3:22:31
  I can't picture her journey as being ended. Can you think of her sitting
• 3:22:35
  down and folding her hands? That eager asking spirit of hers with its fine,
• 3:22:39
  adventurous outlook. No, I think in death she just opened a gate
• 3:22:43
  and went through on on to new shining adventures, maybe maybe assented Miss Cornelia.
• 3:22:50
  Do you know, Anne, dearie, I never was much taken with
• 3:22:54
  this everlasting rest doctrine myself, though I hope it isn't heresy to say so.
• 3:22:58
  I want to bustle round in heaven the same as here, and I
• 3:23:03
  hope there'll be a celestial substitute for pies and doughnuts, something that has to
• 3:23:07
  be made. Of course, one does get awful tired at times, and
• 3:23:11
  the older you are, the tireder you get. But the very tiredest could
• 3:23:15
  get rested in something short of eternity, you'd think, except perhaps a lazy
• 3:23:18
  man. When I meet Myra Murray again, said Anne. I want to
• 3:23:22
  see her coming towards me, brisk and laughing, just as she always did.
• 3:23:26
  Hear. Oh, missus, doctor dear, said Susan in a shocked
• 3:23:30
  tone. You surely do not think that Myra would be laughing in the world
• 3:23:33
  to come? Why not, Susan, do you think we will be crying
• 3:23:37
  there? No? No, missus doctor dear, do not misunderstand me.
• 3:23:41
  I do not think we shall be either crying or laughing? What then,
• 3:23:46
  well, said Susan, driven to it. It is my opinion, Missus
• 3:23:48
  Doctor Dear, that we shall just look solemn and holy. And do you
• 3:23:54
  really think, Susan, said Anne, looking solemn enough that either Myra Murray
• 3:23:58
  or I could looks solemn and holy all the time, all the time,
• 3:24:03
  Susan well, admitted Susan reluctantly. I might go so far as to say
• 3:24:09
  that you both would have to smile now and again, but I could never
• 3:24:11
  admit that there will be laughing in heaven. The idea seems really irreverent,
• 3:24:16
  Missus doctor Dear Well to come back to earth, said Miss Cornelia. Who
• 3:24:22
  can we get to take Myra's class in Sunday School? Julia Klow has been
• 3:24:26
  teaching it since Myra took ill, but she's going to town for the winter
• 3:24:30
  and we'll have to get somebody else. I heard that Missus Lorrie Jamison wanted
• 3:24:35
  it, said Anne. The Jamiesons have come to church very regularly since they
• 3:24:39
  moved to the Glen from Lowbridge New Brooms, said Miss Cornelia, dubiously.
• 3:24:43
  Wait till they've gone regularly for a year. You cannot depend on Missus Jamieson
• 3:24:48
  a bit, Missus doctor dear, said Susan solemnly. She died once,
• 3:24:54
  and when they were measuring her for her coffin, after laying her out just
• 3:24:56
  beautiful, did she not go and come back to life? Now? Missus
• 3:25:01
  doctor dear, you know you cannot depend on a woman like that. She
• 3:25:05
  might turn Methodist at any moment, said miss Cornelia. They tell me they
• 3:25:09
  went to the Methodist church at Lowbridge quite as often as to the Presbyterian.
• 3:25:13
  I haven't caught them at it here yet, but I would not approve of
• 3:25:16
  taking missus Jamieson into the Sunday school. Yet we must not offend them.
• 3:25:20
  We are losing too many people by death or bad temper. Missus Alec Davis
• 3:25:24
  has left the church. No one knows why. She told the managers that
• 3:25:28
  she would never pay another cent to mister Meridith's salary. Of course, most
• 3:25:33
  people say that the children offended her, but somehow I don't think so.
• 3:25:37
  I tried to pump faith, but all I could get out of her was
• 3:25:39
  that Missus Davis had come seemingly in high good humor to see her father and
• 3:25:43
  had left in an awful rage, calling them all varmints varmins. Indeed,
• 3:25:50
  said Susan, furiously does missus Alec Davis forget that her uncle on her mother's
• 3:25:54
  side was suspected of poisoning his wife, not that it was ever proved,
• 3:25:58
  Missus doctor dear, And it does not do to believe all you hear.
• 3:26:01
  But if I had an uncle whose wife died without any satisfactory reason, I
• 3:26:05
  would not go about the country calling innocent children varmints. The point is,
• 3:26:11
  said miss Cornelia, that missus Davis paid a large subscription, and how its
• 3:26:16
  loss is going to be made up is a problem. And if she turns
• 3:26:18
  the other Douglases against mister Meredith, as she will certainly try to do,
• 3:26:22
  he will just have to go. I do not think Missus Alec Davis is
• 3:26:26
  very well liked by the rest of the clan, said Susan. It is
• 3:26:30
  not likely she will be able to influence them. But those Douglases all hang
• 3:26:35
  together, so if you touch one, you touch all. We can't do
• 3:26:37
  without them. So much is certain. They pay half the salary. They
• 3:26:41
  are not mean, whatever else may be said of them. Norman Douglas used
• 3:26:46
  to give a hundred a year long ago before he left, What did he
• 3:26:48
  leave for? Asked Anne. He declared a member of the session cheated him
• 3:26:52
  in a cow deal. He hasn't come to church for twenty years. His
• 3:26:56
  wife used to come regular while she was alive, poor thing, but he
• 3:27:00
  would never let her pay anything except one red cent every Sunday. She felt
• 3:27:03
  dreadfully humiliated. I don't know that he was any too good a husband to
• 3:27:07
  her, though. She was never hurt to complain, but she always had
• 3:27:11
  a cowed look. Norman Douglas didn't get the woman he wanted thirty years ago,
• 3:27:16
  and the Douglases never liked to put up with second best. Who was
• 3:27:20
  the woman he did want, Ellen West. They weren't engaged exactly, I
• 3:27:24
  believe, but they went about together for two years and then they just broke
• 3:27:28
  off. Nobody ever knew why, just some silly quarrel, I suppose.
• 3:27:31
  And Norman went and married Hester Reese before his temper had time to cool,
• 3:27:35
  married her just to spite Ellen. I haven't a doubt so like a man.
• 3:27:39
  Hester was a nice little thing, but she never had much spirit and
• 3:27:43
  he broke what little she had. She was too meek for Norman. He
• 3:27:48
  needed a woman who could stand up to him. Ellen would have kept him
• 3:27:50
  in fine order, and he would have liked her all the better for it.
• 3:27:54
  He despised Hester, that is the truth, just because she always gave
• 3:27:56
  in to him. I used to hear him say, any a time long
• 3:28:01
  ago, when he was a young fellow, give me a spunky woman,
• 3:28:03
  spunk for me every time. Then he went and married a girl who couldn't
• 3:28:07
  say boo to a goose man like that. Family of Reese's were just vegetables.
• 3:28:13
  They went through the motions of living, but they didn't live. Russell
• 3:28:16
  Rhese used his first wife's wedding ring to marry his second, said Susan reminiscently,
• 3:28:22
  that was too economical in my opinion, missus. Doctor dere and his
• 3:28:24
  brother John has his own tombstone put up in the over Harbor graveyard with everything
• 3:28:30
  on it but the date of death, and he goes and looks at it
• 3:28:33
  every Sunday. Most folks would not consider that much fun, but it is
• 3:28:35
  plain he does. People do have such different ideas of enjoyment. As for
• 3:28:41
  Norman Douglas, he is a perfect heathen. When the last minister asked him
• 3:28:45
  why he never went to church, he said, too many ugly women down
• 3:28:48
  there, Parson, too many ugly women. I should like to go to
• 3:28:52
  such a man, missus doctor dear, and say to him solemnly, there
• 3:28:54
  is a hell. Oh Norman doesn't believe there is such a place, said
• 3:28:58
  miss Cornelia. I hope you'll find out his mistake when he comes to die
• 3:29:03
  there. Mary, you've knit your three inches and you can go and play
• 3:29:07
  with the children for half an hour. Mary needed no second bidding. She
• 3:29:11
  flew to Rainbow Valley with a heart as light as her heels, and in
• 3:29:13
  the course of conversation told Faith Meredith all about missus Alec Davis and missus Elliot
• 3:29:20
  says that she'll turn all the Douglases against your father, and then you'll have
• 3:29:24
  to leave the glen because his salary won't be paid. Concluded Mary, I
• 3:29:28
  don't know what is to be done, honest to goodness. If only old
• 3:29:31
  Norman Douglas would come back to church and pay, it wouldn't be so bad.
• 3:29:33
  But he won't, and the Douglases will leave and you all will have
• 3:29:37
  to go. Faith carried a heavy heart to bed with her that night.
• 3:29:41
  The thought of leaving the glen was unbearable. Nowhere else in the world were
• 3:29:46
  there such chums as the Blithes. Her little heart had been wrung when they
• 3:29:50
  had left Maywater. She had shed many bitter tears when she parted with Maywater
• 3:29:54
  chums and the old man's there where her mother had lived and died. She
• 3:29:58
  could not contemplate calmly the thought of such another and harder wrench. She couldn't
• 3:30:03
  leave Glen Saint Mary and dear Rainbow Valley and that delicious graveyard. It's awful
• 3:30:09
  to be Minister's family. Grown Faith into her pillow. Just as soon as
• 3:30:13
  you get fond of a place, you're torn up by the roots. I'll
• 3:30:16
  never, never, never marry a minister, no matter how nice he is.
• 3:30:20
  Faith sat up in bed and looked out of the little vine hung window.
• 3:30:26
  The night was very still, the silence broken only by UNA's soft breathing.
• 3:30:30
  Faith felt terribly alone in the world. She could see Glen Saint Mary
• 3:30:33
  lying under the starry blue meadows of the autumn night over the valley. A
• 3:30:39
  light shone from the girl's room at Ingleside, and another from Walter's room.
• 3:30:43
  Faith wondered if poor Walter had toothache again then she sighed with a little passing
• 3:30:48
  sigh of envy of Nan and I. They had a mother and a settled
• 3:30:52
  home. They were not at the mercy of people who got angry without any
• 3:30:56
  reason and called you a varmint. Away beyond the glen amid fields that were
• 3:31:01
  very quiet with sleep, another light was burning, Faith knew, which shone
• 3:31:05
  in the house where Norman Douglas lived. He was reputed to sit up all
• 3:31:09
  hours of the night reading. Mary had said, if he could only be
• 3:31:13
  induced to return to the church, all would be well. And why not?
• 3:31:18
  Faith looked at a big low star hanging over the tall pointed spruce at
• 3:31:22
  the gate of the Methodist church and had an inspiration. She knew what ought
• 3:31:26
  to be done, and she faith Meredith would do it. She would make
• 3:31:31
  everything right. With a sigh of satisfaction, she turned from the lonely dark
• 3:31:35
  world and cuddled down beside Una. End of chapter fifteen. Chapter sixteen tit
• 3:31:43
  for Tat with Faith to decide was to act. She lost no time in
• 3:31:46
  carrying out the idea. As soon as she came home from school the next
• 3:31:50
  day, she left the manse and made her way down the Glen Walter blythe
• 3:31:54
  joined her as she passed the post office. I'm going to missus Eliot's on
• 3:31:58
  an errand for mother, He said, where are you going? Faith?
• 3:32:01
  I am going somewhere on church business, said Faith loftily. She did not
• 3:32:05
  volunteer any further information, and Walter felt rather snubbed. They walked on in
• 3:32:11
  silence for a little while. It was a warm, windy evening with a
• 3:32:15
  sweet, resinous air. Beyond the sand dunes were gray seas, soft and
• 3:32:18
  beautiful. The glen Brook bore down a freight of gold and crimson leaves,
• 3:32:24
  like fairy shallops in mister James Rhyese's buckwheat stubble Land, with its beautiful tones
• 3:32:28
  of red and brown. A crow Parliament was being held Whereat. Solemn deliberations
• 3:32:33
  regarding the welfare of Crowland were in progress. Faith cruelly broke up the August
• 3:32:39
  assembly by climbing up on the fence and hurling a broken rail at it.
• 3:32:43
  Instantly the air was filled with flapping black wings and indignant cause why did you
• 3:32:48
  do that? Said Walter reproachfully. They were having such a good time.
• 3:32:52
  Oh I hate crows, said Faith airily. They're so black and sly.
• 3:32:56
  I feel sure they are hypocrites. They steal little bird's eggs out of their
• 3:33:01
  nests. You know. I saw one do it on our lawn last spring.
• 3:33:05
  Walter, what makes you so pale to day? Did you have the
• 3:33:07
  toothache again last night? Walter shivered, Yes, a raging one. I
• 3:33:11
  couldn't sleep a wink, so I just paced up and down the floor and
• 3:33:16
  imagined I was an early Christian martyr being tortured at the command of Nero.
• 3:33:20
  That helped ever so much for a while, and then I got so bad
• 3:33:22
  I couldn't imagine anything. Did you cry, asked faith anxiously. No,
• 3:33:28
  but I lay down on the floor and groaned, admitted Walter. Then the
• 3:33:31
  girls came in and Nan put cay m pepper in it, and that made
• 3:33:35
  it worse. Di made me hold a swallow of cold water in my mouth,
• 3:33:39
  and I couldn't stand it, so they called Susan. Susan said it
• 3:33:43
  served me right for sitting up in the cold garret yesterday writing poetry trash.
• 3:33:46
  But she started up the kitchen fire and got me a hot water bottle,
• 3:33:50
  and it stopped the toothache. As soon as I felt better, I told
• 3:33:52
  Susan my poetry wasn't trash, and she wasn't any judge, and she said,
• 3:33:56
  no, thank goodness, she was not. And she did not know
• 3:34:00
  anything about poetry except that it was mostly a lot of lies. Now you
• 3:34:03
  know, Faith, that isn't So that is one reason why I like writing
• 3:34:07
  poetry. You can say so many things in it that are true in poetry
• 3:34:11
  but wouldn't be true in prose. I told Susan so, but she said
• 3:34:15
  to stop my jawing and go to sleep before the water got cold, or
• 3:34:18
  she'd leave me to see if my rhyming would cure toothache, and she hoped
• 3:34:20
  it would be a lesson to me. Why don't you go to the dentist
• 3:34:24
  at Lowbrish and get the tooth out? Walter shivered again. They want me
• 3:34:28
  to, but I can't. It would hurt. So are you afraid of
• 3:34:31
  a little pain, asked Faith contemptuously. Walter flushed. It would be a
• 3:34:37
  big pain. I hate being hurt. Father said he wouldn't insist on my
• 3:34:41
  going. He'd wait until I made up my own mind to go. It
• 3:34:45
  wouldn't hurt as long as the toothache, argued Faith, you've had five spells
• 3:34:48
  of toothache. If you'd just go and have it out, there'd be no
• 3:34:52
  more bad nights. I had a tooth out once. I yelled for a
• 3:34:56
  moment, but it was all over then. Only the bleeding, the blea
• 3:35:00
  eating is the worst of all. It's so ugly, cried Walter. It
• 3:35:03
  just made me sick. When Jem cut his foot last summer, Susan said,
• 3:35:07
  I looked more like fainting than Jem did. But I couldn't bear to
• 3:35:09
  see Jem hurt either. Somebody is always getting hurt, Faith, and it's
• 3:35:13
  awful. I just can't bear to see things hurt. It makes me just
• 3:35:18
  want to run and run and run till I can't hear or see them.
• 3:35:22
  There's no use making a fuss over anyone getting hurt, said Faith, tossing
• 3:35:26
  her curls. Of course, if you've hurt yourself very bad, you have
• 3:35:30
  to yell, and blood is messy. And I don't like seeing other people
• 3:35:33
  hurt either. But I don't want to run. I want to go to
• 3:35:35
  work and help them. Your father has to hurt people lots of times to
• 3:35:39
  cure them. What would they do if he ran away? I didn't say
• 3:35:43
  I would run, I said, I wanted to run. That's a different
• 3:35:46
  thing. I want to help people too. But oh, I wish there
• 3:35:48
  weren't any ugly, dreadful things in the world. I wish everything was glad
• 3:35:52
  and beautiful. Well, don't, let's think of what isn't, said Faith.
• 3:35:58
  After all, there's lots of fun in being alive. You wouldn't have
• 3:36:01
  toothache if you were dead. But still wouldn't you lots rather be alive than
• 3:36:05
  dead. I would a hundred times. Oh, here's Dan Reese. He's
• 3:36:09
  been down to the harbor for fish. I hate Dan Reese, said Walter,
• 3:36:13
  So do I, all us girls do. I'm just going to walk
• 3:36:16
  past and never take the least notice of him. You watch me, Faith
• 3:36:20
  accordingly, stalked past Dan with her chin out and an expression of scorn that
• 3:36:24
  bit into his soul. He turned and shouted after her, pig girl,
• 3:36:28
  pig girl, pig girl, in a crescendo of insult. Faith walked on,
• 3:36:33
  seemingly oblivious, but her lip trembled slightly with a sense of outrage.
• 3:36:37
  She knew she was no match for Dan Reese. When it came to an
• 3:36:39
  exchange of epithets, she wished jem blythe had been with her instead of Walter.
• 3:36:43
  If Dan Reese had dared to call her a pig girl in Gem's hearing,
• 3:36:48
  Jem would have wiped up the dust with him. But it never occurred
• 3:36:50
  to Faith to expect Walter to do it or blame him for not doing it.
• 3:36:54
  Walter, she knew, never fought other boys. Neither did Charlie Klow
• 3:37:00
  the North Road. The strange part was that while she despised Charlie for a
• 3:37:03
  coward, it never occurred to her to disdain Walter. It was simply that
• 3:37:07
  he seemed to her an inhabitant of a world of his own, where different
• 3:37:11
  traditions prevailed. Faith would as soon have expected a starry eyed young angel to
• 3:37:16
  pummel dirty, freckled face Dan Reese for her as Walter Blythe. She would
• 3:37:20
  not have blamed the angel, and she did not blame Walter Blythe. But
• 3:37:24
  she wished that sturdy Gem or Jerry had been there, and Dan's insult continued
• 3:37:28
  to wrangle in her soul. Walter was pale no longer he had flushed Crimson,
• 3:37:33
  and his beautiful eyes were clouded with shame and anger. He knew that
• 3:37:37
  he ought to have avenged Faith. Jem would have sailed right in and made
• 3:37:41
  Dan eat his words with bitter sauce. Ritchie Warren would have overwhelmed Dan with
• 3:37:46
  worse names than Dan had called Faith, but Walter could not. Simply could
• 3:37:50
  not call names. He knew he would get the worst of it. He
• 3:37:54
  could never conceive or utter the vulgar, ribbled insults of which Dan Reese had
• 3:37:58
  unlimited command. And as for the trial by fist, Walter couldn't fight.
• 3:38:03
  He hated the idea. It was rough and painful, and worst of all,
• 3:38:07
  it was ugly. He never could understand Jem's exultation in an occasional conflict,
• 3:38:13
  but he wished he could fight Dan Reheese. He was horribly ashamed because
• 3:38:18
  Faith Meredith had been insulted in his presence, and he had not tried to
• 3:38:20
  punish her insulter. He felt sure she must despise him. She had not
• 3:38:26
  even spoken to him since Dan had called her pig girl. He was glad
• 3:38:30
  when they came to the parting of the ways. Faith too was relieved,
• 3:38:33
  though for a different reason. She wanted to be alone because she suddenly felt
• 3:38:37
  rather nervous about her errand impulse had cooled, especially since Dan had bruised her
• 3:38:43
  self respect. She must go through with it, but she no longer had
• 3:38:46
  enthusiasm to sustain her. She was going to see Norman Douglas and ask him
• 3:38:50
  to come back to church, and she began to be afraid of him.
• 3:38:54
  What it seemed so easy and simple up at the glen seemed very different down
• 3:38:58
  here. She had heard a good deal about Norman Douglas, and she knew
• 3:39:03
  that even the biggest boys in school were afraid of him. Suppose he called
• 3:39:07
  her something nasty. She had heard he was given to that. Faith could
• 3:39:11
  not endure being called names. They subdued her far more quickly than a physical
• 3:39:15
  blow. But she would go on, Faith, Meredith always went on.
• 3:39:18
  If she did not, her father might have to leave the glen. At
• 3:39:22
  the end of the long lane, Faith came to the house, a big,
• 3:39:26
  old fashioned one, with a row of soldierly lombardies marching past it on
• 3:39:31
  the back veranda. Norman Douglas himself was sitting reading a newspaper. His big
• 3:39:35
  dog was beside him. Behind in the kitchen, where his housekeeper, Missus
• 3:39:39
  Wilson, was getting supper, there was a clatter of dishes, an angry
• 3:39:43
  clatter for Norman Douglas had just had a quarrel with Missus Wilson, and both
• 3:39:46
  were in a very bad temper over it. Consequently, when Faith stepped on
• 3:39:52
  the veranda and Norman Douglas lowered his newspaper, she found herself looking into the
• 3:39:56
  choleric eyes of an irritated man. Norman Douglas was rather a fine looking personage
• 3:40:01
  in his way. He had a sweep of long red beard over his broad
• 3:40:05
  chest, and a mane of red hair ungrizzled by the years on his massive
• 3:40:09
  head. His high white forehead was unwrinkled, and his blue eyes could flash
• 3:40:15
  still with all the fire of his tempestuous youth. He could be very amiable
• 3:40:18
  when he liked, and he could be very terrible. Poor Faith, so
• 3:40:22
  anxiously bent on retrieving the situation in regard to the church, had caught him
• 3:40:26
  in one of his terrible moods. He did not know who she was,
• 3:40:31
  and he gazed at her with disfavor. Norman Douglas liked girls of spirit and
• 3:40:35
  flame and laughter. At this moment, Faith was very pale. She was
• 3:40:39
  of the type to which color means everything. Lacking her crimson cheeks, she
• 3:40:43
  seemed meek and even insignificant. She looked apologetic and afraid, and the bully
• 3:40:48
  in Norman Douglas's heart stirred. Who the dickens are you? And what do
• 3:40:52
  you want here? He demanded in his great, resounding voice, with a
• 3:40:56
  fierce scowl. For once in her life, Faith had nothing to say.
• 3:41:01
  She had never supposed Norman Douglas was like this. She was paralyzed with terror
• 3:41:05
  of him. He saw it, and it made him worse. What's the
• 3:41:09
  matter with you? He boomed. You look as if you wanted to say
• 3:41:13
  something and was scared to say it. What's troubling you? Confounded? Speak
• 3:41:16
  up? Can't you? Nope? Faith could not speak up. No words
• 3:41:22
  would come, but her lips began to tremble. For Heaven's say, don't
• 3:41:26
  cry, shouted Norman. I can't stand sniveling. If you've anything to say,
• 3:41:31
  say it and have done great? Kitty, is the girl possessed of
• 3:41:35
  a dumb spirit. Don't look at me like that. I'm human, I
• 3:41:37
  haven't got a tale. Who are you? Who are you? I say?
• 3:41:41
  Norman's voice could have been heard at the harbor. Operations in the kitchen
• 3:41:46
  were suspended. Missus Wilson was listening open eared and eyed. Norman put his
• 3:41:50
  huge brown hands on his knees and leaned forward, staring into Faith's pallid,
• 3:41:56
  shrinking face. He seemed to loom over her, like some evil giant out
• 3:42:00
  of a fairy tale. She felt as if you would eat her up next,
• 3:42:03
  thing, body and bones. I am Faith, Meredith, she said,
• 3:42:09
  in little more than a whisper. Meredith, Eh, one of the
• 3:42:13
  Parsons youngsters. Eh, I've heard of you. I've heard of you riding
• 3:42:16
  on pigs and breaking the sabbath a nice lot. What do you want here?
• 3:42:22
  Huh? What do you want with the old pagan Eh? I don't
• 3:42:24
  ask favors of parsons, and I don't give any What do you want?
• 3:42:28
  I say, Faith wished yourself a thousand miles away? She stammered out her
• 3:42:33
  thought, in its naked simplicity. I came to ask you to go to
• 3:42:37
  church and pay to the salary. Norman glared at her. Then he burst
• 3:42:43
  forth again, you impude and huzzy. You who put you up to it?
• 3:42:46
  Jade? Who put you up to it? Nobody said, poor Faith,
• 3:42:50
  that's a lie. Don't lie to me. Who sent you here?
• 3:42:54
  It wasn't your father? He hasn't the smetam of a flea. But he
• 3:42:56
  wouldn't send you to do what he doesn't do himself. I suppose it was
• 3:43:00
  some of them, confounded old maid to the glen. Was it was it?
• 3:43:03
  Hey, no I I just came myself. Do you take me for
• 3:43:07
  a fool, shouted Norman. No I thought you were a gentleman, said
• 3:43:11
  Faith, faintly and certainly, without any thought of being sarcastic. Norman bounced
• 3:43:16
  up, Mind your own business. I don't want to hear another word from
• 3:43:20
  you. If you wasn't such a kid, i'd teach you to interfere in
• 3:43:24
  what doesn't concern you. When I want parsons or pill dozers, I'll send
• 3:43:28
  for them till I do, I'll have no truck with them. Do you
• 3:43:31
  understand? Now? Get out, cheese face, Faith got out. She
• 3:43:35
  stumbled blindly down the steps out of the yard gate and into the lane.
• 3:43:39
  Half Way up the lane, her daze of fear passed away, and a
• 3:43:43
  reaction of tingling anger possessed her. By the time she reached the end of
• 3:43:48
  the lane, she was in such a furious temper as she had never experienced
• 3:43:52
  before. Norman Douglas's insults burned in her soul, kindling a scorching flame.
• 3:43:58
  Go home, not she She would go straight back and tell that old ogre
• 3:44:03
  just what she thought of him. She would show him, Oh, wouldn't
• 3:44:05
  she cheese face? Indeed, unhesitatingly, she turned and walked back. The
• 3:44:11
  verandah was deserted and the kitchen door shut. Faith opened the door without knocking
• 3:44:16
  and went in. Norman Douglas had just sat down at the supper table,
• 3:44:20
  but he still held his newspaper. Faith walked inflexibly across the room, caught
• 3:44:24
  the paper from his hand, flung it on the floor, and stamped on
• 3:44:28
  it. Then she faced him with her flashing eyes and scarlet cheeks. She
• 3:44:33
  was such a handsome young fury that Norman Douglas hardly recognized her. What's brought
• 3:44:37
  you back, he growled, but more in bewilderment than rage. Unquailingly,
• 3:44:41
  she glared back into the angry eyes against which so few people could hold their
• 3:44:46
  own. I have come back to tell you exactly what I think of you,
• 3:44:50
  said Faith, in clear, ringing tones. I am not afraid of
• 3:44:54
  you. You are a rude, unjust, tyrannical, disagreeable old man.
• 3:44:58
  Susan says, you are sure to go to hell, and I was sorry
• 3:45:01
  for you, but I am not now. Your wife never had a new
• 3:45:03
  hat for ten years, no wonder she died. I'm going to make faces
• 3:45:07
  at you whenever I see you after this, every time I am behind you,
• 3:45:11
  you will know what is happening. Father has a picture of the devil
• 3:45:15
  in a book in his study, and I mean to go home and write
• 3:45:16
  your name under it. You are an old vampire, and I hope you'll
• 3:45:20
  have the Scotch fiddle. Faith did not know what a vampire meant any more
• 3:45:24
  than she knew what the scotch fiddle was. She had heard Susan use the
• 3:45:28
  expressions and gathered from her tone that both were dire things. But Norman Douglas
• 3:45:33
  knew what the latter meant. At least, he had listened in absolute silence
• 3:45:37
  to Faith's tirade. When she paused for breath with a stamp of her foot,
• 3:45:41
  he suddenly burst into loud laughter. With a mighty slap of hand on
• 3:45:46
  knee, he exclaimed, I vow you've got spunk, after all. I
• 3:45:50
  like spunk. Come sit down, sit down, I will not. Faith's
• 3:45:56
  eyes flashed more passionately. She thought she was being made fun of, treated
• 3:46:01
  contemptuously. She would have enjoyed another explosion of rage, but this cut deep.
• 3:46:07
  I will not sit down in your house. I am going home.
• 3:46:09
  But I am glad I came back here and told you exactly what my opinion
• 3:46:13
  of you is. So am I? So am? I chuckled Norman.
• 3:46:16
  I like you. You're fine, You're great. Such roses such vim Did
• 3:46:22
  I call her cheese face? Why she never smelt a cheese? Sit down
• 3:46:26
  if you'd looked like that at first, girl. So you'll write my name
• 3:46:31
  under the devil's picture, will you? But he's black, girl, He's
• 3:46:33
  black, and I'm red. It won't do. It, won't do.
• 3:46:37
  And you hope I'll have the Scotch fiddle? Do you? Lord? Love
• 3:46:41
  you girl? I had it when I was a boy. Don't wish it
• 3:46:43
  on me again. Sit down, Sit in, We'll take a cup of
• 3:46:46
  kindness. No, thank you, said faith haughtily. Oh yes you will
• 3:46:50
  come. Come now. I apologize, girl, I apologize. I made
• 3:46:54
  a fool of myself and I'm sorry. Man can't say fairer, forget and
• 3:46:58
  forgive. Shake hands, girl, I'll shake hands. She won't. No,
• 3:47:01
  she won't, but she must look a here girl, If you'll shake
• 3:47:05
  hands and break bread with me, I'll pay what I used to to the
• 3:47:09
  salary, and I'll go to church the first Sunday and every month, and
• 3:47:11
  i'll make Kitty Alec hold her jaw. I'm the only one in the clan
• 3:47:16
  can do it. Is it a bargain, girl? It seemed a bargain.
• 3:47:20
  Faith found herself shaking hands with the ogre and then sitting at his board.
• 3:47:24
  Her temper was over. Faith's tempers never lasted very long, but its
• 3:47:28
  excitement still sparkled in her eyes, and crimsoned her cheeks. Norman Douglas looked
• 3:47:33
  at her admiringly. Go get some of your best preserves, Wilson, he
• 3:47:37
  ordered, And stop sulking, woman, Stop sulking. What if we did
• 3:47:41
  have a quarrel? Woman, A good squaw clears the air and briskens things
• 3:47:45
  up. But no drizzling and fogging afterwards. No drizzling and fogging woman.
• 3:47:48
  I can't stand that temper in a woman. But no tears for me.
• 3:47:52
  Here, girl, is some messed up meat and potatoes for you. Begin
• 3:47:56
  on that. Wilson has some fancy name for it. But I call it
• 3:47:58
  machina caddy. Anything I can't analyze in the eating line I call macanacaddy,
• 3:48:03
  And anything wet that puzzles me I call shalam Agousselam. Wilson's tea is shalam
• 3:48:07
  agouslam. I swear she makes it out of Burdock's. Don't take any of
• 3:48:11
  the ungodly black liquid. Here's some milk for you. What did you say?
• 3:48:15
  Your name was Faith? No name that? No name that I can't
• 3:48:20
  stomach. Such a name, got any other? No, sir, don't
• 3:48:22
  like the name. Don't like it. There's no smeadum to it. Besides,
• 3:48:26
  it makes me think of my aunt Jinny. She called her three girls,
• 3:48:30
  Faith, Hope and Charity. Faith didn't believe in anything. Hope was
• 3:48:33
  a borm pessimist, and Charity was a miser. You ought to be called
• 3:48:37
  red Rose. You look like one. When you're mad, I'll call you
• 3:48:39
  red Rose. And you've robed me into promising to go to church, but
• 3:48:43
  only once a month. Remember only once a month? Come now, girl,
• 3:48:48
  will you let me off? I used to pay a hundred to the
• 3:48:50
  salary every year and go to church. If I promise to pay two hundred
• 3:48:54
  a year, will you let me off going to church? Come now?
• 3:48:56
  No, no, sir, said Faith, dimpling roguish. I want you
• 3:49:00
  to go to church too. Well, A bargain is a bargain, I
• 3:49:03
  reckon. I can stand it twelve times a year. What a sensation it'll
• 3:49:07
  make the first Sunday I go, and Old Susan Baker says, I'm going
• 3:49:11
  to Hell? Eh? Do you believe I'll go there? Come now?
• 3:49:15
  Do you? I hope not? Sir, stammered Faith, in some confusion.
• 3:49:18
  Why do you hope not? Come now? Why do you hope not?
• 3:49:22
  Give us a reason? Girl, give us a reason. It It
• 3:49:24
  must be a very uncomfortable place, sir. Uncomfortable. All depends on your
• 3:49:30
  tasting comfortable, girl, I'd soon get tired of angels. Fancy old Susan
• 3:49:33
  in a halo. Now, Faith did fancy it, and it tickled her
• 3:49:37
  so much that she had to laugh. Norman eyed her approvingly. See the
• 3:49:41
  fun of it? Hey, Oh, I like you. You're great about
• 3:49:45
  this church business. Now can your father preach? He is a splendid preacher,
• 3:49:50
  said loyal Faith. He is. Eh, I'll see, I'll watch
• 3:49:54
  out for flaws. He'd better be careful when he says before me. I'll
• 3:49:56
  catch him, I'll trip him up, I'll keep tabs on his arguments.
• 3:50:01
  I'm bound to have some fun out of this church going business. Does he
• 3:50:03
  ever preach hell? No? I don't think so, too bad. I
• 3:50:09
  like sermons on that subject. You tell him that if he wants to keep
• 3:50:13
  me in good humor, to preach a good rip roaring sermon on hell once
• 3:50:16
  every six months, and the more brimstone the better. I like em smoking.
• 3:50:22
  And think of all the pleasure he'd give the old maids too. They'd
• 3:50:24
  all keep looking at old Norman Douglas and thinking, that's for you, you
• 3:50:28
  old reprobate, that's what's in store for you. I'll give an extra ten
• 3:50:31
  dollars every time you get your father to preach on hell. Here's Wilson and
• 3:50:35
  the jam like that. Hey, it isn't machina caddy taste. Faith obediently
• 3:50:41
  swallowed the big spoonful Norman held out to her. Luckily it was good,
• 3:50:46
  best plum jam in the world, said Norman, filling a large saucer and
• 3:50:50
  plumping it down before her. Glad you like it. I'll give you a
• 3:50:52
  couple jars to take home with you. There's nothing mean about me, never
• 3:50:56
  was. The devil can't catch me at that corner anyhow. It wasn't my
• 3:51:00
  fault that Hester didn't have a new hat for ten years. It was her
• 3:51:03
  own. She pinched on hats to save money to give yellow fellows over in
• 3:51:07
  China. I never gave a cent to missions in my life, never will.
• 3:51:11
  Never you try to bamboozle me into that. A hundred a year to
• 3:51:15
  the salary in church once a month. But no spoiling good heathens to make
• 3:51:18
  poor Christians. Why, girl, they wouldn't be fit for Heaven or Hell,
• 3:51:22
  clean spoiled for either place, clean spoiled. Hey, Wilson, haven't
• 3:51:26
  you got a smile on yet? Beats all how you women can sulk.
• 3:51:31
  I never sulked in my life. It's just one big flashing crash with me,
• 3:51:35
  and then poof, the squall's over and the sun is out, and
• 3:51:37
  you could eat out of my hand. Norman insisted on driving Faith home after
• 3:51:41
  supper, and he filled the buggy up with apples, cabbages, potatoes,
• 3:51:46
  and pumpkins and jars of jam. There's a nice little tompussy out in the
• 3:51:50
  barn. I'll give you that too, if you'd like it, say the
• 3:51:52
  word. He said, no, thank you, said Faith decidedly. I
• 3:51:56
  don't like cats, and besides, I have a rooster. Listen to her.
• 3:51:58
  You can't cuddle a rooster as you can a kitten. Whoever heard of
• 3:52:01
  petting a rooster? Better take little Tom. I want to find a good
• 3:52:05
  home for him. No, Aunt Martha has a cat, and he would
• 3:52:09
  kill a strange kitten. Norman yielded the point rather reluctantly. He gave Faith
• 3:52:15
  an exciting drive home behind his while two year old, and when he had
• 3:52:18
  led her out at the kitchen door of the manse and dumped his cargo on
• 3:52:22
  the back veranda, he drove away, shouting, it's only once a month,
• 3:52:26
  Only once a month. Mind. Faith went up to bed feeling a
• 3:52:30
  little dizzy and breathless, as if she had just escaped from the grasp of
• 3:52:33
  a genial whirlwind. She was happy and thankful, no fear now that they
• 3:52:39
  would have to leave the glen and the graveyard in Rainbow Valley. But she
• 3:52:43
  fell asleep, troubled by a disagreeable subconsciousness that Dan Rheese had called her pig
• 3:52:48
  girl, and that having stumbled on such a congenial epithet. He would continue
• 3:52:52
  to call her so whenever opportunity offered. End of Chapter sixteen, Chapter seventeen,
• 3:52:58
  a double victory. Norman Douglas came to church the first Sunday in November
• 3:53:03
  and made all the sensation he desired. Mister Meredith shook hands with him absently
• 3:53:09
  on the church steps and hoped dreamily that missus Douglas was well. She wasn't
• 3:53:15
  very well just before I buried her ten years ago, but I reckon she
• 3:53:18
  has better health now, boomed Norman, to the horror and amusement of everyone,
• 3:53:22
  except mister Meredith, who was absorbed in wondering if he had made the
• 3:53:26
  last head of his sermon as clear as he might have, and hadn't the
• 3:53:28
  least idea what Norman had said to him, or he to Norman. Norman
• 3:53:33
  intercepted faith at the gate. Kept my ward, Ucy, kept my word,
• 3:53:37
  read Rose, I'm free now till the first Sunday in December. Fine
• 3:53:41
  sermon, girl, Fine sermon. Your father has more in his head than
• 3:53:46
  he carries on his face. But he contradicted himself once. Tell him he
• 3:53:50
  contradicted himself, And tell him I want that Brimstone sermon in December. Great
• 3:53:56
  way to wind up the old year with a taste of hell, you know,
• 3:53:58
  and what's it's the matter? With a nice tasty discourse on heaven for
• 3:54:01
  New Year's though it wouldn't be half as interesting as hell, girl, not
• 3:54:05
  half only I'd like to know what your father thinks about heaven. He can
• 3:54:11
  think rarest thing in the world, a person who can think. But he
• 3:54:15
  did contradict himself. Ha ha, here's a question you might ask him sometime
• 3:54:20
  when he's awake. Girl, Can God make a stone so big he couldn't
• 3:54:24
  lift it himself? Don't forget now. I want to hear his opinion on
• 3:54:28
  it. I've stumped many a minister with that. Girl. Faith was glad
• 3:54:31
  to escape him and run home. Dan Reese, standing among the crowd of
• 3:54:35
  boys at the gate, looked at her and shaped his mouth into pig girl,
• 3:54:39
  but dared not utter it aloud. Just there. Next day in school
• 3:54:45
  was a different matter. At noon recess, Faith encountered Dan in the little
• 3:54:48
  spruce plantation behind the school, and Dan shouted once more, Big girl,
• 3:54:54
  big girl, rooster girl Walter blythe suddenly rose from a mossy cushion behind a
• 3:55:00
  little clump of furs where he had been reading. He was very pale,
• 3:55:03
  but his eyes blazed. You hold your tongue, Dan Reese, he said,
• 3:55:09
  Oh hello, miss Walter, retorted Dan, not at all abashed.
• 3:55:13
  He vaulted airily to the top of the rail fence and chanted insultingly. Cowardy,
• 3:55:18
  cowardy, cuss stirred, stole the pod of mustard. Cowardy, cowardy,
• 3:55:22
  cuss stirred. You are a coincidence, said Walter, scornfully, turning
• 3:55:28
  still wider. He had only a very hazy idea what a coincidence was,
• 3:55:33
  but Dan had none at all and thought it must be something peculiarly opprobrious.
• 3:55:37
  Yeah, cowardy, he yelled again. Your mother writes lies, lies,
• 3:55:43
  lies, and Faith Meredith is a big girl, a pig girl, a
• 3:55:46
  pig girl. And she's a rooster girl, a rooster girl, a rooster
• 3:55:50
  girl. Yeah, cowardy, cowardy cut. Dan got no further. Walter
• 3:55:54
  had hurled himself across the intervening space and knocked Dan off the fence backward with
• 3:56:01
  one well directed blow. Dan's sudden, inglorious sprawl was greeted with a burst
• 3:56:07
  of laughter and a clapping of hands from Faith. Dan sprang up purple with
• 3:56:11
  rage and began to climb the fence. But just then the school bell rang,
• 3:56:16
  and Dan knew what happened to boys who were late during mister Hazzard's regime.
• 3:56:20
  We'll fight this out, he howled, cowardy any time you like,
• 3:56:24
  said Walter. Oh no, no, Walter protested Faith. Don't fight him.
• 3:56:30
  I don't mind what he says. I wouldn't condescend to mind the like
• 3:56:33
  of him. He insulted you, and he insulted my mother, said Walter,
• 3:56:37
  with the same deadly calm. Tonight after school, Dan, I've got
• 3:56:41
  to go right home from school to pictators after the harrows, dad says,
• 3:56:45
  answered Dan sulkily. But tomorrow night'll do all right here tomorrow night, agreed
• 3:56:50
  Walter, and I'll smash your sissy face for you, promised Dan. Walter
• 3:56:56
  shuddered, not so much from fear of the threat as from repulsion over the
• 3:57:01
  ugliness and vulgarity of it, but he held his head high and marched into
• 3:57:05
  school. Faith followed in a conflict of emotions. She hated to think of
• 3:57:11
  Walter fighting that little sneak, But oh, he had been splendid and he
• 3:57:15
  was going to fight for her, Faith, Meredith, to punish her insulter.
• 3:57:20
  Of course he would win. Such eyes spelled victory. Faith's confidence in
• 3:57:24
  her champion had dimmed a little by evening, however, Walter had seemed so
• 3:57:28
  very quiet and dull the rest of the day in school. If only it
• 3:57:33
  were jem, she sighed to Una as they sat on Hezekiah Pollock's tombstone in
• 3:57:37
  the graveyard. He is such a fighter. He could finish Dan off in
• 3:57:41
  no time. But Walter doesn't know much about fighting. I'm so afraid he'll
• 3:57:46
  be hurt, sighed Una, who hated fighting and couldn't understand the subtle,
• 3:57:50
  secret exultation she divined in Faith. He oughtn't to be, said Faith,
• 3:57:54
  uncomfortably. He's every bit as big as Dan. But Dan's so much older,
• 3:57:58
  said Una. Why he's nearly a year older. Dan hasn't done much
• 3:58:03
  fighting when you come to count up, said Faith. I believe he's really
• 3:58:07
  a coward. He didn't think Walter would fight, or he wouldn't have called
• 3:58:11
  names before him. Oh, if you could have just seen Walter's face when
• 3:58:15
  he looked at him, Una, it made me shiver with a nice shiver.
• 3:58:18
  He looked just like Sir Galahad in that poem father read us on Saturday.
• 3:58:22
  I hate the thought of them fighting, and I wish it could be
• 3:58:26
  stopped, said Una. Oh it's got to go on now, cried Faith.
• 3:58:30
  It's a matter of honor. Don't you dare tell any one, Una.
• 3:58:33
  If you do, I'll never tell you secrets again. I won't tell,
• 3:58:37
  agreed, Una. But i won't stay tomorrow to watch the fight.
• 3:58:39
  I'm coming right home. Oh all right, I have to be there.
• 3:58:43
  It would be mean not to when Walter is fighting for me. I'm going
• 3:58:46
  to tie my colors on his arm. That's the thing to do when he's
• 3:58:50
  my night. How lucky missus Blythe gave me that pretty blue hair ribbon for
• 3:58:54
  my birthday. I've only worn it twice, so it will be almost new.
• 3:58:58
  But I wish I was sure Walter would win. It will be so
• 3:59:01
  so humiliating if he doesn't. Faith would have been yet more dubious if she
• 3:59:07
  could have seen her champion just then. Walter had gone home from school with
• 3:59:11
  all his righteous anger at a low ebb and a very nasty feeling in its
• 3:59:16
  place. He had to fight Dan Reyese the next night, and he didn't
• 3:59:20
  want to. He hated the thought of it, and he kept thinking of
• 3:59:22
  it all the time. Not for a minute could he get away from the
• 3:59:26
  thought. Would it hurt much? He was terribly afraid that it would hurt,
• 3:59:31
  and would he be defeated and shamed? He could not eat any supper
• 3:59:33
  worth speaking of. Susan had made a big batch of his favorite monkey faces,
• 3:59:39
  but he could only choke down one. Jem ate four. Walter wondered
• 3:59:43
  how he could, how could anybody eat? And how could they all talk
• 3:59:46
  gaily as they were doing. There was mother with her shining eyes and pink
• 3:59:50
  cheeks. She didn't know her son had to fight next day. Would she
• 3:59:54
  be so gay if she knew, Walter wondered darkly. Jem had taken Susan's
• 3:59:58
  picture with his new camera, and the result was passed around the table,
• 4:00:03
  and Susan was terribly indignant over it. I am no beauty, missus,
• 4:00:07
  doctor dear, and well I know it and have always known it, she
• 4:00:09
  said, in an aggrieved tone, But that I am as ugly as that
• 4:00:13
  picture makes me out. I will never, no, never believe. Jem
• 4:00:18
  laughed over this, and Anne laughed again with him. Walter couldn't endure it.
• 4:00:22
  He got up and fled to his room. That child has got something
• 4:00:26
  on his mind, missus doctor dear, said Susan, he has it next
• 4:00:28
  to nothing. Do you suppose he is plotting another poem? Poor Walter was
• 4:00:33
  very far removed in spirit from the starry realms of Poesy. Just then he
• 4:00:37
  propped his elbow on his open window sill and leaned his head drearily on his
• 4:00:43
  hands. Come on down to the shore, Walter cried, Jem, busting
• 4:00:46
  in. The boys are going to burn the sand hill grass to night.
• 4:00:48
  Father says we can go. Come on. At any other time Walter would
• 4:00:54
  have been delighted. He gloried in the burning of the sand hill grass.
• 4:00:56
  But now he flatly refused to go, and no arguments or entreaties could move
• 4:01:01
  him. Disappointed, Jem, who did not care for the long dark walk
• 4:01:05
  to four winds point alone, retreated to his museum in the garret and buried
• 4:01:09
  himself in a book. He soon forgot his disappointment, reveling with the heroes
• 4:01:15
  of old Romance and pausing occasionally to picture himself a famous general leading his troops
• 4:01:20
  to victory on some great battlefield. Walter sat at his window until bedtime.
• 4:01:26
  Die crept in, hoping to be told what was wrong, But Walter could
• 4:01:30
  not talk of it, even to die. Talking of it seemed to give
• 4:01:33
  it a reality from which he shrank. It was torture enough to think of
• 4:01:37
  it. The crisp, withered leaves rustled on the maple trees outside his window.
• 4:01:41
  The glow of rose and flame had died out of the hollow silvery sky,
• 4:01:46
  and the full moon was rising gloriously over Rainbow Valley. Afar off,
• 4:01:50
  a ruddy wood fire was painting a page of glory on the horizon beyond the
• 4:01:54
  hills. It was a sharp, clear evening when far away sounds were heard
• 4:02:00
  distinctly. A fox was barking across the pond. An engine was puffing down
• 4:02:05
  at the glen station. A blue jay was screaming madly in the maple grove.
• 4:02:09
  There was laughter over on the man's lawn. How could people laugh?
• 4:02:13
  How could foxes, in blue jays and engines behave as if nothing were going
• 4:02:16
  to happen on the morrow? Oh? I wish it was over, groaned
• 4:02:20
  Walter. He slept very little that night and had hard work choking down his
• 4:02:26
  porridge. In the morning, Susan was rather lavish in her platefuls. Mister
• 4:02:31
  Hazzard found him an unsatisfactory pupil. That day, Faith Meredith's wits seemed to
• 4:02:35
  be wool gathering too. Dan Rhees kept drawing surreptitious pictures of girls with pig
• 4:02:41
  or rooster heads on his slate and holding them up for all to see.
• 4:02:45
  The news of the coming battle had leaked out, and most of the boys
• 4:02:48
  and many of the girls were in the spruce plantation when Dan and Walter sought
• 4:02:52
  it after school. Una had gone home, but Faith was there, having
• 4:02:56
  tied her blue ribbon around Walter's arm. Walter was thankful that neither gem nor
• 4:03:01
  Die nor Nan were among the crowd of spectators. Somehow they had not heard
• 4:03:05
  of what was in the wind and had gone home too. Walter faced Dan
• 4:03:09
  quite undauntedly. Now at the last moment, all his fear had vanished,
• 4:03:15
  but he still felt disgust at the idea of fighting Dan. It was noted,
• 4:03:18
  was really paler under his freckles than Walter was. One of the older
• 4:03:22
  boys gave the word and Dan struck Walter in the face. Walter reeled a
• 4:03:28
  little. The pain of the blow tingled through all his sensitive frame for a
• 4:03:31
  moment. Then he felt pain no longer. Something such as he had never
• 4:03:37
  experienced before seemed to roll over him like a flood. His face flushed,
• 4:03:41
  Crimson, his eyes burned like flame. The scholars of Glen Saint Mary's School
• 4:03:46
  had never dreamed that Miss Walter could look like that. He hurled himself forward
• 4:03:52
  and closed with Dan like a young wild cat. There were no particular rules
• 4:03:56
  in the fights of the Glens schoolboys. It was catch as catch can,
• 4:04:00
  and get your blows in. Anyhow, Walter fought with a savage fury and
• 4:04:03
  a joy in the struggle against which Dan could not hold his ground. It
• 4:04:07
  was all over speedily. Walter had no clear consciousness of what he was doing,
• 4:04:13
  until suddenly the red mist cleared from his side, and he found himself
• 4:04:16
  kneeling on the body of the prostrate Dan, whose nose, oh horror,
• 4:04:20
  was spouting blood. Have you had enough? Demanded Walter through his clenched teeth.
• 4:04:26
  Dan sulkily admitted that he had. My mother doesn't write lies, no
• 4:04:31
  faith, Meredith isn't a pig girl no, nor a rooster girl no.
• 4:04:37
  And I'm not a coward no. Walter had intended to ask, and you
• 4:04:41
  are a liar, But pity intervened and he did not humiliate Dan further.
• 4:04:46
  Besides, that blood was so horrible. You can go, then, he
• 4:04:50
  said, contemptuously. There was a loud clapping from the boys who were perched
• 4:04:54
  on the rail fence, but some of the girls were crying. They were
• 4:04:58
  frightened. They I had seen schoolboy fights before, but nothing like Walter.
• 4:05:03
  As he had grappled with Dan, there had been something terrifying about him.
• 4:05:07
  They thought he would kill Dan now that all was over. They sobbed hysterically,
• 4:05:11
  except Faith, who still stood tense and Crimson cheeked. Walter did not
• 4:05:16
  stay for any conqueror's mead. He sprang over the fence and rushed down the
• 4:05:20
  spruce hill to Rainbow Valley. He felt none of the victor's joy, but
• 4:05:24
  he felt a certain calm satisfaction in duty'd done and honor avenged. Mingled with
• 4:05:30
  a sickish qualm when he thought of Dan's gory nose. It had been so
• 4:05:35
  ugly, and Walter hated ugliness. Also, he began to realize that he
• 4:05:41
  himself was somewhat sore and battered up. His lip was cut and swollen,
• 4:05:45
  and one eye felt very strange. In Rainbow Valley, he encountered mister Meredith,
• 4:05:50
  who was coming home from an afternoon call on the miss Wests. The
• 4:05:54
  reverend Gentleman looked gravely at him. It seems to me that you have been
• 4:05:58
  fighting, Walter, Yes, Sir, said Walter, expecting a scolding.
• 4:06:01
  What was it about, Dan Rhes said, my mother wrote lies and that
• 4:06:05
  Faith was a pig girl, answered Walter bluntly. Oh, then you were
• 4:06:09
  certainly justified, Walter. Do you think it's right to fight, sir,
• 4:06:13
  asked Walter curiously. Not always and not often, but sometimes, yes,
• 4:06:20
  sometimes, said John Meredith, when women kind are insulted, for instance,
• 4:06:24
  as in your case. My motto, Walter is don't fight till you're sure
• 4:06:28
  you ought to, and then put every ounce of you into it in spite
• 4:06:33
  of sundry discolorations. I infer that you came off best. Yes, I
• 4:06:37
  made him take it all back, very good, very good. Indeed,
• 4:06:41
  I didn't think you were such a fighter, Walter. I never fought before,
• 4:06:46
  and I didn't want to right up to the last. And then,
• 4:06:48
  said Walter, determined to make a clean breast of it. I liked it.
• 4:06:52
  While I was at it, the Reverend John's eyes twinkled. You were
• 4:06:56
  a little frightened at first. I was a whole lot frightened, said honest
• 4:07:01
  Walter. But I'm not going to be frightened any more, sir. Being
• 4:07:05
  frightened of things is worse than the things themselves. I'm going to ask father
• 4:07:09
  to take me over to Lowbridge tomorrow to get my tooth out right again.
• 4:07:13
  Fear is more pain than is the pain it fears. Do you know who
• 4:07:16
  wrote that, Walter? It was Shakespeare. Was there any feeling or emotion
• 4:07:22
  or experience of the human heart that that wonderful man did not know? When
• 4:07:26
  you go home, tell your mother I am proud of you. Walter did
• 4:07:30
  not tell her that, however, but he told her all the rest,
• 4:07:33
  and she sympathized with him and told him she was glad he had stood up
• 4:07:37
  for her in faith. And she anointed his sore spots and rubbed cologne on
• 4:07:41
  his aching head. Are all mothers as nice as you, asked Walter,
• 4:07:45
  hugging her. You're worth standing up for. Miss Cornelia and Susan were in
• 4:07:50
  the living room when Anne came downstairs and listened to the story with much enjoyment.
• 4:07:54
  Susan in particular was highly gratified. I am real glad to hear he
• 4:07:58
  has had a good fight, Missus doctor dear Perhaps it may knock that poetry
• 4:08:03
  nonsense out of him, and I never know, never could bear that little
• 4:08:07
  viper of a dan Rheese. Will you not sit nearer to the fire,
• 4:08:11
  Missus Marshall Elliot, These November evenings are very chilly, Thank you, Susan.
• 4:08:15
  I'm not cold. I called at the manse before I came here and
• 4:08:18
  got quite warm, though I had to go to the kitchen to do it,
• 4:08:20
  for there was no fire anywhere else. The kitchen looked as if it
• 4:08:24
  had been stirred up with a stick. Believe me, mister Meredith wasn't home.
• 4:08:28
  I couldn't find out where he was, but I have an idea that
• 4:08:31
  he was up at the wests. Do you know, Anne, dearie.
• 4:08:35
  They say he has been going there frequently all the fall, and people are
• 4:08:37
  beginning to think he is going to see Rosemary. He would get a very
• 4:08:41
  charming wife if he married Rosemary, said Anne, piling driftwood on the fire.
• 4:08:46
  She is one of the most delightful girls I've ever known. Truly one
• 4:08:50
  of the race of Joseph. Yes, only she is an Episcopalian, said
• 4:08:54
  Miss Cornelia. Doubtfully. Of course that is better than if she was a
• 4:08:58
  Methodist. But I do think mister Meredith could find a good enough wife in
• 4:09:03
  his own denomination. However, very likely there is nothing in it. It's
• 4:09:07
  only a month ago that I said to him, you ought to marry again,
• 4:09:09
  mister Meredith. He looked as shocked as if I had suggested something improper.
• 4:09:15
  My wife is in her grave, missus Eliot, he said, in
• 4:09:16
  that gentle, saintly way of his. I suppose so, I said,
• 4:09:20
  or I wouldn't be advising you to marry again. Then he looked more shocked
• 4:09:24
  than ever. So I doubt if there is much in this Rosemary story.
• 4:09:28
  If a single minister calls twice at a house where there is a single woman,
• 4:09:33
  all the gossips have it that he is courting her. It seems to
• 4:09:35
  me, if I may presume to say so, that mister Meredith is too
• 4:09:39
  shy to go courting a second wife, said Susan solemnly. He isn't shy,
• 4:09:43
  believe me, retorted Miss Cornelia, absent minded, yes, but shy,
• 4:09:48
  no, and for all he is so abstracted and dreamy, he has
• 4:09:52
  a very good opinion of himself man like, and when he is really awake,
• 4:09:56
  he wouldn't think it much of a chore to ask any woman to have
• 4:10:00
  no. The trouble is he's deluding himself into believing that his heart is buried,
• 4:10:05
  while all the time it's beating away in sight of him, just like
• 4:10:07
  anybody else's. He may have a notion of Rosemary West, and he may
• 4:10:11
  not. If he has, we must make the best of it. She
• 4:10:15
  is a sweet girl and a fine housekeeper, and would make a good mother
• 4:10:18
  for those poor neglected children. And concluded, Miss Cornelia resignedly. My own
• 4:10:24
  grandmother was an episcopalian. End of Chapter seventeen. Chapter eighteen, Mary Brings
• 4:10:31
  Evil Tidings. Mary Vance, whom missus Elliot had sent up to the Manse
• 4:10:37
  on an errand came tripping down Rainbow Valley on her way to Ingleside, where
• 4:10:41
  she was to spend the afternoon with Nan and Di as a Saturday treat.
• 4:10:45
  Nan and I had been picking spruce gumb with Faith and Una in the Manse
• 4:10:48
  woods, and the four of them were now sitting on a fallen pine by
• 4:10:52
  the brook all it must be admitted chewing rather vigorously. The Ingleside twins were
• 4:10:58
  not allowed to chew spruce gumb anywhere but in the seclusion of Rainbow Valley.
• 4:11:01
  But Faith and Una were unrestricted by such rules of etiquette, and cheerfully chewed
• 4:11:05
  it everywhere at home and abroad, to the very proper horror of the glen.
• 4:11:11
  Faith had been chewing it in church one day, but Jerry had realized
• 4:11:13
  the enormity of that and had given her such an older brotherly scolding that she
• 4:11:18
  never did it again. I was so hungry. I just felt as if
• 4:11:22
  I had to choose something, She protested. You know well enough what breakfast
• 4:11:26
  was like, Jerry Meredith. I couldn't eat scorched porridge, and my stomach
• 4:11:31
  just felt so queer and empty. The gum helped a lot, and I
• 4:11:33
  didn't chew very hard. I didn't make any noise, and I never cracked
• 4:11:37
  the gum once. You mustn't chew gum in church, anyhow, insisted Jerry.
• 4:11:41
  Don't let me catch you at it again. You chewed yourself in prayer
• 4:11:46
  meeting last week, cried Faith. That's different, said Jerry, loftily prayer
• 4:11:50
  meeting isn't on Sunday. Besides, I sat away at the back in a
• 4:11:56
  dark seat, and nobody saw me. You were sitting right up front where
• 4:11:58
  everyone saw you. And I took the gum out of my mouth for the
• 4:12:01
  last hymn and stuck it on the back of the pew in front of me.
• 4:12:05
  Then I came away and forgot it. I went back to get it
• 4:12:07
  next morning, but it was gone. I suppose Rod Warrens swiped it,
• 4:12:11
  and it was a dandy chew. Mary Vance walked down the valley with her
• 4:12:16
  head held high. She had on a new blue velvet cap with a scarlet
• 4:12:20
  rosette in it, a coat of navy blue cloth, and a little squirrel
• 4:12:24
  fur muff. She was very conscious of her new clothes and very well pleased
• 4:12:28
  with herself. Her hair was elaborately crimped, her face was quite plump,
• 4:12:33
  her cheeks rosy, her white eyes shining. She did not look much like
• 4:12:37
  the forlorn and ragged waif the Merediths have found in the old tailor barn.
• 4:12:43
  Una tried not to feel envious. Here was Mary with a new velvet cap,
• 4:12:46
  but she and Faith had to wear their shabby old gray tams again this
• 4:12:50
  winter. Nobody ever thought of getting them new ones, and they were afraid
• 4:12:54
  to ask their father for them, for fear he might be short of money
• 4:12:58
  and then he would feel badly. Mary had told them once that ministers were
• 4:13:01
  always short of money and found it awful hard to make ends meet. Since
• 4:13:07
  then Faith and Una would have gone in rags rather than ask their father for
• 4:13:09
  anything if they could help it. They did not worry a great deal over
• 4:13:13
  their shabbiness, but it was rather trying to see Mary Vance coming out in
• 4:13:18
  such style and putting on such airs about it too. The new squirrel muff
• 4:13:22
  was really the last straw. Neither Faith nor Una had ever had a muff,
• 4:13:26
  counting themselves lucky if they could compass mittens without holes in them. Aunt
• 4:13:31
  Martha could not see to darn hole's, and though Una tried to, she
• 4:13:35
  made sad cobbling. Somehow, they could not make their greeting of Mary very
• 4:13:39
  cordial. But Mary did not mind or notice that she was not overly sensitive.
• 4:13:45
  She vaulted lightly to a seat on the pine tree and laid the offending
• 4:13:48
  muff on a bough. Una saw that it was lined with shred red satin
• 4:13:52
  and had red tassels. She looked down at her own rather purpled, chapped
• 4:13:56
  little hands and wondered if she would ever ever be able to put them into
• 4:14:00
  a muff like that. Give us it chew, said Mary, companionably,
• 4:14:03
  nan Di and Faith all produced an amber hued not or two from their pockets
• 4:14:09
  and passed them to Mary. Una sat very still. She had four lovely
• 4:14:13
  big knots in the pocket of her tight, threadbare little jacket, but she
• 4:14:16
  wasn't going to give one of them to Marry Vance. Not one. Let
• 4:14:20
  Mary pick her own gum. People with squirrel muffs needn't expect to get everything
• 4:14:24
  in the world. Great day, isn't it, said Mary, swinging her
• 4:14:28
  legs. The better perhaps to display new boots with very smart cloth tops.
• 4:14:33
  Una tucked her feet under her. There was a hole in the toe of
• 4:14:37
  one of her boots, and both laces were much knotted, but they were
• 4:14:41
  the best she had. Oh, this Merry Vance. Why hadn't they left
• 4:14:45
  her in the old barn? Una never felt badly because the Ingleside twins were
• 4:14:50
  better dressed than she and Faith were. They wore their pretty clothes with careless
• 4:14:54
  grace and never seemed to think about them at all. Somehow they did not
• 4:14:58
  make other people feel shabby. But when Mary Vance was dressed up, she
• 4:15:01
  seemed fairly to exude clothes, to walk in an atmosphere of clothes, to
• 4:15:07
  make everybody else feel and think clothes. Una, as she sat there in
• 4:15:11
  the honey tinted sunshine of the gracious December afternoon, was acutely and miserably conscious
• 4:15:18
  of everything she had on, the faded tam which was yet her best,
• 4:15:22
  the skimpy jacket she had worn for three winters, the holes in her skirt
• 4:15:26
  and her boots, the shivering insufficiency of her poor little undergarments. Of course,
• 4:15:31
  Mary was going out for a visit, and she was not. But
• 4:15:33
  even if she had been, she had nothing better to put on. And
• 4:15:37
  in this lay the sting. Say this is great gum. Listen to me
• 4:15:41
  cracking it. There ain't any gum spruces down at four winds, said Mary.
• 4:15:45
  Sometimes I just hanker after a chew. Missus Elliot won't let me chew
• 4:15:48
  gum. If she sees me, she says, it ain't ladylike this.
• 4:15:52
  Lady business puzzles me. I can't get on to all its kinks, say
• 4:15:56
  Una, what's the matter with you? Cat got your tongue? No,
• 4:16:00
  said Una, who could not drag her fascinated eyes from that squirrel muff.
• 4:16:03
  Mary leaned past her, picked it up and thrust it into UNA's hands.
• 4:16:07
  Stick your paws in that for a while, she ordered, They look short
• 4:16:11
  of pinched? Ain't that a dandy muff? Missus Elliot give it to me
• 4:16:14
  last week for a birthday present. I'm to get the collar at Christmas.
• 4:16:18
  I heard her telling mister Elliot that Missus Elliott is very good to you,
• 4:16:21
  said Faith. And I'm good to her too, retorted Mary. I work
• 4:16:26
  like a nigger to make it easy for her and have everything just as she
• 4:16:27
  likes it. We was made for each other, tisn't everyone could get along
• 4:16:32
  with her as well as I do. She's piesin neat, but so am
• 4:16:34
  I, and so we agree fine. I told you she would never whip
• 4:16:37
  you, so you did. She's never tried to lay a finger on me,
• 4:16:41
  and I ain't never told a lie to her, not one true.
• 4:16:44
  As you live. She combs me down with her tongue sometimes, though,
• 4:16:47
  but that just slips off me like water off a duck's back, say Una,
• 4:16:51
  Why didn't you hang on to the muff? Una had put it back
• 4:16:53
  on the bow. My hands aren't cold, thank you, she said stiffly.
• 4:16:57
  Well, if you're satisfied, I am say. Old Kitty Aleck has
• 4:17:02
  come back to church as meek as Moses, and nobody knows why, but
• 4:17:04
  everybody is saying it was Faith brought Norman Douglas out. His housekeeper says,
• 4:17:08
  you went there and gave him an awful tongue lashing, did you? I
• 4:17:12
  went and asked him to come to church, said Faith, uncomfortably. Fancy
• 4:17:17
  you're spunk, said Mary, admiringly. I wouldn't have dared to do that,
• 4:17:21
  and I'm not so slow. Missus Wilson says, the two of you
• 4:17:23
  jowed something scandalous, but you come off best. And then he just turned
• 4:17:27
  round and liked to eat you up. Say, is your father going to
• 4:17:32
  preach her tomorrow? No, he's going to exchange with mister Perry from Charlottetown.
• 4:17:37
  Father went to town this morning, and mister Perry's coming out to night.
• 4:17:41
  I thought there was somethin in the wind. Though Old Martha wouldn't give
• 4:17:44
  me any satisfaction, but I felt sure She wouldn't have been killin' that rooster
• 4:17:48
  for nothing. What rooster? What do you mean? Cried Faith, turning
• 4:17:52
  pale. I don't know what rooster. I didn't see it. When she
• 4:17:55
  took the butter. Missus Elliott sent up. She said she'd been out to
• 4:17:57
  the barn killin' a rooster for dinner tomorrow. Faith sprang down from the pine.
• 4:18:02
  It's Adam. We have no other rooster. She's killed Adam. Now,
• 4:18:06
  don't fly off the handle. Martha said. The butcher at the glen
• 4:18:08
  had no meat this week, and she had to have something an The hens
• 4:18:11
  were all layin and too poor. If she's killed Adam, Faith began to
• 4:18:17
  run up the hill. Mary shrugged her shoulders. She'll go crazy now.
• 4:18:22
  She was so fond of that Adam. He ought to have been in the
• 4:18:23
  pot long ago. He'll be as tough as soul leather. But I wouldn't
• 4:18:27
  like to be in Martha's shoes. Faith's just white with rage. Una,
• 4:18:32
  you'd better go after her and try to pacify her. Mary had gone a
• 4:18:34
  few steps with the blithe girls when Una suddenly turned and ran after her.
• 4:18:38
  Here's some gum for you, Mary, she said, with a little repentant
• 4:18:41
  catch in her voice, thrusting all her four knots into Mary's hands. And
• 4:18:47
  I'm glad you have such a pretty muff. Why thanks, said Mary,
• 4:18:49
  rather taken by surprise to the blithe girls. After Una had gone, she
• 4:18:53
  said, ain't she a queer little mite? But I've always said she had
• 4:18:57
  a good heart. End of Chapter eighteen, Chapter nineteen, Poor Adam.
• 4:19:04
  When Una got home, Faith was lying face downwards on her bed, utterly,
• 4:19:08
  refusing to be comforted. Aunt Martha had killed Adam. He was reposing
• 4:19:15
  on a platter in the pantry that very minute, trussed and dressed, encircled
• 4:19:18
  by his liver and heart and gizzard. Aunt Martha heeded Faith's passion of grief
• 4:19:23
  and anger. Not a whit. We had to have something for the strange
• 4:19:27
  minister's dinner. She said, you're too big a girl to make such a
• 4:19:32
  fuss over an old rooster. You knew he'd have to be killed sometime.
• 4:19:36
  I'll tell father when he comes home what you've done, sobbed Faith. Don't
• 4:19:40
  you go bothering your poor father. He has troubles enough, and I'm housekeeper
• 4:19:45
  here. Adam was mine. Missus Johnson gave him to me, you had
• 4:19:49
  no business to touch him, stormed Faith. Don't you get sassy? Now
• 4:19:53
  the rooster's killed and there's an end of it. I ain't going to set
• 4:19:56
  no strange minister down to a dinner of cold, old boiled mutton. I
• 4:20:00
  was brought up to know better than that. If I have come down in
• 4:20:03
  the world, Faith would not go down to supper that night, and she
• 4:20:07
  would not go to church the next morning. But at dinner time she went
• 4:20:11
  to the table, her eyes swollen with crying, her face sullen. The
• 4:20:15
  Reverend James Perry was a sleek, rubicund man with a bristling white mustache,
• 4:20:21
  bushy white eyebrows, and a shining bald head. He was certainly not handsome,
• 4:20:26
  and he was a very tiresome, pompous sort of person. But if
• 4:20:30
  he had looked like the archangel Michael and talked with the tongues of men and
• 4:20:33
  angels, Faith would still have utterly detested him. He carved Adam up dexterously,
• 4:20:38
  showing off his plump white hands and very handsome diamond ring. Also,
• 4:20:44
  he made jovial remarks all through the performance. Jerry and Karl giggled, and
• 4:20:48
  even Una smiled. Wanly because she thought politeness demanded it, but Faith only
• 4:20:52
  scowled darkly. The Reverend James thought her manners shockingly bad. Once, when
• 4:20:59
  he was delivering himself of an unctuous remark to Jerry, Faith broke in rudely
• 4:21:03
  with a flat contradiction. The Reverend James drew his bushy eyebrows together at her.
• 4:21:07
  Little girls should not interrupt, he said, and they should not contradict
• 4:21:12
  people who know far more than they do. This put Faith in a worse
• 4:21:17
  temper than ever to be called little girl, as if she were no bigger
• 4:21:22
  than Chubby Rilla blythe over at Ingleside, it was insufferable, and how that
• 4:21:26
  abominable mister Perry did eat. He even picked poor Adam's bones. Neither Faith
• 4:21:33
  nor Una would touch a mouthful, and looked upon the boys as little better
• 4:21:37
  than Cannibal's. Faith felt that if that awful repast did not soon come to
• 4:21:41
  an end, she would wind it up by throwing something at mister Perry's gleaming
• 4:21:45
  head. Fortunately, mister Perry found Aunt Martha's leathery apple pie too much even
• 4:21:51
  for his powers of mastication, and the meal came to an end after a
• 4:21:56
  long grace in which mister Perry offered up devout thanks for the food, which
• 4:22:00
  a kind and beneficent providence had provided for sustenance and temperate pleasure. God hadn't
• 4:22:06
  a single thing to do with providing Adam for you, muttered Faith rebelliously under
• 4:22:10
  her breath. The boys gladly made their escape to outdoors. Una went to
• 4:22:15
  help Aunt Martha with the dishes, though that rather grumpy old dame never welcomed
• 4:22:18
  her timid assistance, and Faith betook herself to the study, where a cheerful
• 4:22:23
  wood fire was burning in the grate. She thought she would thereby escape from
• 4:22:27
  the hated mister Perry, who had announced his intention of taking a nap in
• 4:22:32
  his room during the afternoon. But scarcely had Faith settled herself in a corner
• 4:22:37
  with a book when he walked in and, standing before the fire, proceeded
• 4:22:41
  to survey the disorderly study with an air of disapproval. Your father's book seemed
• 4:22:45
  to be in somewhat deplorable confusion, my little girl, he said severely.
• 4:22:51
  Faith darkled in her corner and said not a word. She would not talk
• 4:22:56
  to this, this creature. You should try to them in order, mister
• 4:23:00
  Perry went on, playing with his handsome watch chain and smiling patronizingly. On
• 4:23:06
  faith, you are quite old enough to attend to such duties. My little
• 4:23:11
  daughter at home is only ten, and she is already an excellent little housekeeper
• 4:23:15
  and the greatest help and comfort to her mother. She is a very sweet
• 4:23:19
  child. I wish you had the privilege of her acquaintance. She could help
• 4:23:23
  you in many ways. Of course, you have not had the inestimable privilege
• 4:23:29
  of a good mother's care and training. A sad lack, a very sad
• 4:23:33
  lack. I have spoken more than once to your father in this connection and
• 4:23:37
  pointed out his duty to him faithfully, but so far with no effect.
• 4:23:42
  I trust he may awaken to a realization of his responsibility before it is too
• 4:23:47
  late. In the meantime, it is your duty and privilege to endeavor to
• 4:23:52
  take your sainted mother's place. You might exercise a great influence over your brother's
• 4:23:56
  and your little sister. You might be a true to them. I fear
• 4:24:00
  that you do not think of these things as you should, My dear child,
• 4:24:04
  allow me to open your eyes in regard to them. Mister Perry's oily
• 4:24:10
  complacent voice trickled on. He was in his element. Nothing suited him better
• 4:24:15
  than to lay down the law, patronize, and exhort. He had no
• 4:24:18
  idea of stopping, and he did not stop. He stood before the fire,
• 4:24:23
  his feet planted firmly on the rug, and poured out a flood of
• 4:24:26
  pompous platitudes. Faith heard not a word. She was really not listening to
• 4:24:33
  him at all, but she was watching his long black coat tails with impish
• 4:24:37
  delight growing in her brown eyes. Mister Perry was standing very near the fire.
• 4:24:44
  His coat tails began to scorch, his coat tails began to smoke.
• 4:24:48
  He still prosed on, wrapped up in his own eloquence. The coat tail
• 4:24:52
  smoked worse. A tiny spark flew up from the burning wood and alighted in
• 4:24:57
  the middle of one. It clung and caught and spread into a smoldering flame.
• 4:25:03
  Faith could restrain herself no longer and broke into a stifled giggle. Mister
• 4:25:07
  Perry stopped short, angered over this impertinence. Suddenly he became conscious that a
• 4:25:14
  reek of burning cloth filled the room. He whirled round and saw nothing.
• 4:25:18
  Then he clapped his hands to his coat tails and brought them around in front
• 4:25:22
  of him. There was already quite a hole in one of them, and
• 4:25:26
  this was his new suit. Faith shook with helpless laughter over his pose and
• 4:25:30
  expression. Did you see my coat tails burning? He demanded angrily. Yes,
• 4:25:36
  Sir, said Faith demurely. Why didn't you tell me, he demanded,
• 4:25:40
  glaring at her. You said it wasn't good manners to interrupt, Sir,
• 4:25:44
  said Faith, more demurely. Still, if if I was your father,
• 4:25:49
  I would give you a spanking that you would remember all your life,
• 4:25:52
  Miss, said a very angry Reverend Gentleman, as he stalked out of the
• 4:25:56
  study. The coat of mister Meredith's second best suit would not fit mister Perry,
• 4:26:03
  so he had to go to the evening service with his singed coat tail,
• 4:26:07
  But he did not walk up the aisle with his usual consciousness of the
• 4:26:10
  honor he was conferring on the building. He never would agree to an exchange
• 4:26:15
  of pulpits with mister Meredith again, and he was barely civil to the latter
• 4:26:18
  when they met for a few minutes at the station the next morning, but
• 4:26:22
  Faith felt a certain gloomy satisfaction. Adam was partially avenged. End of chapter
• 4:26:29
  nineteen. Chapter twenty Faith makes a friend. Next day in school was a
• 4:26:34
  hard one for Faith. Mary Vance had told the tale of Adam, and
• 4:26:38
  all the scholars except the Blythes thought it quite a joke. The girls told
• 4:26:44
  Faith between giggles that it was too bad, and the boys wrote sardonic notes
• 4:26:48
  of condolence to her. Poor Faith went home from school feeling her very soul
• 4:26:52
  raw and smarting within her I'm going over to Ingleside to have a talk with
• 4:26:56
  missus Blythe, She sobbed. She won't laugh at me as everybody else does.
• 4:27:02
  I've just got to talk to somebody who understands how bad I feel.
• 4:27:06
  She ran down through Rainbow Valley. Enchantment had been at work the night before.
• 4:27:11
  A light snow had fallen, and the powdered firs were dreaming of a
• 4:27:15
  spring to come and a joy to be. The long hill beyond was richly
• 4:27:18
  purple with leafless beeches. The rosy light of sunset lay over the world like
• 4:27:23
  a pink kiss of all the airy fairy places, full of weird elfin grace.
• 4:27:30
  Rainbow Valley that winter evening was the most beautiful, but all its dream
• 4:27:33
  like loveliness was lost on poor sore hearted little Faith by the brook. She
• 4:27:40
  came suddenly upon Rosemary West, who was sitting on the old pine tree.
• 4:27:44
  She was on her way home from Ingleside, where she had been giving the
• 4:27:47
  girls their music lesson. She had been lingering in Rainbow Valley quite a little
• 4:27:52
  time, looking across its white beauty, and roaming some byways of dream.
• 4:27:56
  Judging from the expression of her face, her thought were pleasant ones. Perhaps
• 4:28:00
  the faint occasional tinkle from the bells on the tree lovers brought the little lurking
• 4:28:06
  smile to her lips. Or perhaps it was occasioned by the consciousness that John
• 4:28:10
  Meredith seldom failed to spend Monday evening in the gray house on the white wind
• 4:28:15
  swept hill. Into Rosemary's dreams burst Faith Meredith, full of rebellious bitterness.
• 4:28:21
  Faith stopped abruptly when she saw Miss West. She did not know her very
• 4:28:25
  well, just well enough to speak to when they met, and she did
• 4:28:29
  not want to see any one just then except missus blythe She knew her eyes
• 4:28:33
  and nose were red and swollen, and she hated to have a stranger know
• 4:28:37
  she had been crying good evening. Miss West, She said, uncomfortably,
• 4:28:41
  what is the matter Faith, asked Rosemary gently. Nothing, said Faith rather
• 4:28:45
  shortly. Oh, Rosemary smiled, you mean nothing you can tell to outsiders,
• 4:28:51
  don't you. Faith looked at Miss West with sudden interest. Here was
• 4:28:55
  a person who understood things, and how pretty she was, how golden her
• 4:29:00
  hair was under her plumy hat, how pink her cheeks were over her velvet
• 4:29:03
  coat, how blue and companionable her eyes were. Faith felt that Miss West
• 4:29:08
  could be a lovely friend, if only she were a friend instead of a
• 4:29:11
  stranger. I I'm going up to tell missus Blythe, said Faith. She
• 4:29:17
  always understands. She never laughs at us. I always talk things over with
• 4:29:21
  her. It helps, dear girlie. I'm sorry to have to tell you
• 4:29:25
  that missus Blythe isn't home, said Miss West sympathetically. She went to Avonlea
• 4:29:29
  today and isn't coming back till the last of the week. Faith's lip quivered.
• 4:29:33
  Then I might as well go home again, she said miserably. I
• 4:29:37
  suppose so, unless you think you could bring yourself to talk it over with
• 4:29:41
  me instead, said Miss Rosemary gently. It is such a help to talk
• 4:29:45
  things over. I know. I don't suppose I can be as good at
• 4:29:49
  understanding at missus Blythe. But I promise you that I won't laugh. You
• 4:29:53
  wouldn't laugh outside, hesitated Faith, but you might inside. No, I
• 4:30:00
  wouldn't laugh inside either. Why should I something has hurt you. It never
• 4:30:03
  amuses me to see anybody hurt, no matter what hurts them. If you
• 4:30:07
  feel that you'd like to tell me what has hurt you, I'll be glad
• 4:30:11
  to listen. But if you think you'd rather not, that's all right too.
• 4:30:14
  Dear Faith took another long, earnest look into miss West's eyes. They
• 4:30:18
  were very serious. There was no laughter in them, not even far far
• 4:30:23
  back. With a little sigh, she sat down on the old pine beside
• 4:30:27
  her new friend and told her all about Adam and his cruel fate. Rosemary
• 4:30:33
  did not laugh or feel like laughing. She understood and sympathized. Really,
• 4:30:37
  she was almost as good as missus Blythe. Yes, quite as good.
• 4:30:41
  Mister Perry is a minister, but he should have been a butcher, said
• 4:30:45
  Faith bitterly. He is so fond of carving things up. He enjoyed cutting
• 4:30:48
  poor Adam to pieces. He just sliced into him as if he were any
• 4:30:52
  common rooster. Between you and me, Faith, I don't like mister Perry
• 4:30:56
  very well myself, said Rosemary, laughing a little. But at mister Perry,
• 4:31:00
  not at Adam, as Faith clearly understood, I never did like him.
• 4:31:04
  I went to school with him. He was a glen boy, you
• 4:31:07
  know, and he was a most detestable little prig even then. Oh how
• 4:31:11
  we girls used to hate holding his fat clammy hands in the ring around games.
• 4:31:17
  But we must remember, Dear, that he didn't know that Adam had
• 4:31:19
  been a pet of yours. He thought he was just a common rooster.
• 4:31:23
  We must be just, even when we are terribly hurt. I suppose so,
• 4:31:29
  admitted Faith. But why does everybody seem to think it funny that I
• 4:31:33
  should have loved Adam so much, Miss West? If it had been a
• 4:31:36
  horrid old cat, nobody would have thought it queer. When Lottie Warren's kitten
• 4:31:41
  had its legs cut off by the binder, everybody was sorry for her.
• 4:31:45
  She cried two days in school and nobody laughed at her, not even Dan
• 4:31:48
  Reese and all her chums went to the kitten's funeral and helped her bury it.
• 4:31:52
  Only they couldn't bury its poor little paws with it, because they couldn't
• 4:31:56
  find them. It was a horrid thing to have happen, of course,
• 4:31:59
  but I don't think it was as dreadful as seeing your pet eaten up.
• 4:32:03
  Yet everybody laughs at me. I think it is because the name rooster seems
• 4:32:07
  rather a funny one, said Rosemary gravely. There is something in it that
• 4:32:12
  is comical. Now chicken is different. It doesn't sound so funny to talk
• 4:32:17
  of loving a chicken. Adam was the dearest little chicken, Miss West.
• 4:32:22
  He was just a little goldum ball. He would run up to me and
• 4:32:25
  peck out of my hand. And he was handsome when he grew up,
• 4:32:27
  too white as snow, with such a beautiful curving white tail. Though Mary
• 4:32:33
  Van said it was too short. He knew his name and always came when
• 4:32:36
  I called him. He was a very intelligent rooster, and Aunt Martha had
• 4:32:40
  no right to kill him. He was mine. It wasn't fair, was
• 4:32:44
  it, Miss West. No, it wasn't, said Rosemary decidedly. Not
• 4:32:48
  a bit fair. I remember I had a pet hen when I was a
• 4:32:52
  little girl. She was such a pretty little thing, all golden brown and
• 4:32:56
  speckley. I loved her as much as I ever loved any pet. She
• 4:33:00
  was never killed. She died of old age. Mother wouldn't have killed her
• 4:33:03
  because she was my pet. If my mother had been living, she wouldn't
• 4:33:07
  have let Adam be killed, said Faith. For that matter, father wouldn't
• 4:33:11
  have either, if he'd been home and known of it. I'm sure he
• 4:33:14
  wouldn't miss West. I'm sure too, said Rosemary. There was a little
• 4:33:18
  added flush on her face. She looked rather conscious, but Faith noticed nothing.
• 4:33:23
  Was it very wicked of me not to tell mister Perry his coat tails
• 4:33:26
  were scorching, she asked anxiously. Oh terribly wicked, answered Rosemary with dancing
• 4:33:33
  eyes. But I would have been just as naughty, Faith, I wouldn't
• 4:33:37
  have told him they were scorching. And I don't believe I would ever have
• 4:33:40
  been a bit sorry for my wickedness either. Una thought I should have told
• 4:33:44
  him because he was a minister. Dearest, if a minister doesn't behave as
• 4:33:48
  a gentleman, we are not bound to respect his coat tails. I know
• 4:33:52
  I would have just loved to see Jimmy Perry's coat tails burning up. It
• 4:33:56
  must have been fun. Both laughed, but Faith ended with a bitter little
• 4:34:00
  sigh. Well, anyway, Adam is dead, and I am never going
• 4:34:06
  to love anything again. Don't say that, dear. We miss so much
• 4:34:08
  out of life. If we don't love. The more we love, the
• 4:34:12
  richer life is, even if it is only some little furry or feathery pet.
• 4:34:18
  Would you like a canary, Faith, a little golden bit of a
• 4:34:21
  canary? If you would, I'll give you one. We have two up
• 4:34:25
  home. Oh, I would like that, cried Faith. I love birds.
• 4:34:29
  Only would Aunt Martha's cat eat it? It's so tragic to have your
• 4:34:33
  pets eaten. I don't think I could endure it a second time. If
• 4:34:37
  you hang the cage far enough from the wall, I don't think the cat
• 4:34:41
  could harm it. I'll tell you just how to take care of it,
• 4:34:44
  and I'll bring it to Ingleside for you next time I come down to herself.
• 4:34:48
  Rosemary was thinking it will give every gossip in the glen something to think
• 4:34:52
  of, But I will not care. I want to comfort this poor little
• 4:34:56
  heart. Faith was comforted. Sympathy and understand were very sweet. She and
• 4:35:02
  Miss Rosemary sat on the old pine until the twilight crept softly down over the
• 4:35:06
  white valley, and the evening star shone over the gray maple Grove. Faith
• 4:35:11
  told Rosemary all her small history and hopes, her likes and dislikes, the
• 4:35:15
  ins and outs of life at the Manse, the ups and downs of school
• 4:35:18
  society. Finally they parted firm friends. Mister Meredith was, as usual,
• 4:35:25
  lost in dreams when supper began that evening, but presently a name pierced his
• 4:35:29
  abstraction and brought him back to reality. Faith was telling Una of her meeting
• 4:35:33
  with Rosemary. She is just lovely, I think, said Faith, just
• 4:35:37
  as nice as missus blythe but different. I felt as if I wanted to
• 4:35:41
  hug her. She did hug me, such a nice, velvety hug,
• 4:35:45
  and she called me dearest. It thrilled me. I could tell her anything.
• 4:35:49
  So you liked miss Westfaith, mister Meredith asked, with a rather odd
• 4:35:53
  intonation. I love her, cried Faith. Ah, said mister Meredith.
• 4:36:00
  Ah. End of Chapter twenty Chapter twenty one, The Impossible Word. John
• 4:36:07
  Meredith walked meditatively through the clear, crispness of a winter night in Rainbow Valley.
• 4:36:11
  The hills beyond glistened with the chill, splendid luster of moonlight on snow.
• 4:36:17
  Every little fir tree in the long valley sang its own wild song to
• 4:36:21
  the harp of wind and frost. His children and the blithe lads and lasses
• 4:36:26
  were coasting down the eastern slope and whizzying over the glassy pond. They were
• 4:36:30
  having a glorious time, and their gay voices and gayer laughter echoed up and
• 4:36:34
  down the valley, dying away in elfin cadences among the trees. On the
• 4:36:40
  right, the lights of Ingleside gleamed through the maple grove with the genial lure
• 4:36:45
  and invitation which seems always to glow in the beacons of a home where we
• 4:36:48
  know there is love and good cheer and a welcome for all kin, whether
• 4:36:52
  of flesh or spirit. Mister Meredith liked very well on occasion to spend an
• 4:36:57
  evening arguing with the doctor by the driftwood fire, where the famous China dogs
• 4:37:03
  of Ingleside kept ceaseless watch and ward as became deities of the hearth. But
• 4:37:07
  to night he did not look that way. Far on the western hill gleamed
• 4:37:11
  a paler but more alluring star. Mister Meredith was on his way to see
• 4:37:15
  Rosemary West, and he meant to tell her something which had been slowly blossoming
• 4:37:21
  in his heart since their first meeting, and had sprung into full flower on
• 4:37:25
  the evening when Faith had so warmly voiced her admiration for Rosemary. He had
• 4:37:30
  come to realize that he had learned to care for Rosemary, not as he
• 4:37:33
  had cared for Cecilia. Of course, that was entirely different. That love
• 4:37:37
  of romance and dream and glamor could never, he thought, return. But
• 4:37:42
  Rosemary was beautiful and sweet and dear, very dear. She was the best
• 4:37:48
  of companions. He was happier in her company than he had ever expected to
• 4:37:52
  be again. She would be an ideal mistress for his home, a good
• 4:37:56
  mother to his children. During the years of his widhood, mister Meredith had
• 4:38:00
  received innumerable hints from brother members of presbytery, and from many parishioners who could
• 4:38:07
  not be suspected of any ulterior motive, as well as from some who could,
• 4:38:11
  that he ought to marry again. But these hints never made any impression
• 4:38:15
  on him. It was commonly thought he was never aware of them, but
• 4:38:18
  he was quite acutely aware of them, and in his own occasional visitations of
• 4:38:23
  common sense, he knew that the common sensible thing for him to do was
• 4:38:27
  to marry. But common sense was not the strong point of John Meredith,
• 4:38:33
  and to choose out deliberately and cold bloodedly some suitable woman, as one might
• 4:38:38
  choose a housekeeper or a business partner, was something he was quite incapable of
• 4:38:42
  doing. How he hated that word suitable. It reminded him so strongly of
• 4:38:48
  James Perry, a suitable woman of suitable age, that unctuous brother of the
• 4:38:55
  Cloth had said in his far from subtle hint for the moment John Meredith had
• 4:39:00
  had a perfectly unbelievable desire to rush madly away and propose marriage to the youngest,
• 4:39:07
  most unsuitable woman it was possible to discover. Missus Marshall Elliot was his
• 4:39:11
  good friend, and he liked her, But when she had bluntly told him
• 4:39:15
  he should marry again, he felt as if she had torn away the veil
• 4:39:18
  that hung before some sacred shrine of his innermost life. And he had been
• 4:39:22
  more or less afraid of her ever since he knew there were women in his
• 4:39:26
  congregation of suitable age who would marry him. Quite readily. That fact had
• 4:39:33
  seeped through all his abstraction very early in his ministry, and glens at Mary.
• 4:39:37
  They were good, substantial, uninteresting women, one or two fairly comely,
• 4:39:42
  the others not exactly so. And John Meredith would as soon have thought
• 4:39:47
  of marrying any one of them as of hanging himself. He had some ideals
• 4:39:52
  to which no seeming necessity could make him false. He could ask no woman
• 4:39:56
  to fill Cecilia's place in his home unless he could offer her at least some
• 4:40:00
  of the affection and homage he had given to his girlish bride. And where
• 4:40:06
  in his limited feminine acquaintance was such a woman to be found. Rosemary West
• 4:40:11
  had come into his life on that autumn evening, bringing with her an atmosphere
• 4:40:15
  in which his spirit recognized native air. Across the gulf of Strangerhood. They'd
• 4:40:21
  clasped hands of friendship. He knew her better in that ten minutes by the
• 4:40:25
  Hidden Spring than he knew Emmeline Drew or Elizabeth Kirk or amy Anetta Douglas in
• 4:40:30
  a year, or could know them in a century. He had fled to
• 4:40:33
  her for comfort when missus Alec Davis had outraged his mind and soul, and
• 4:40:37
  had found it. Since then he had gone often to the House on the
• 4:40:41
  Hill, slipping through the shadowy paths of night in Rainbow Valley so astutely that
• 4:40:47
  Glen Gossip could never be absolutely certain that he did go to see Rosemary West
• 4:40:52
  once or twice he had been caught in the West living room by other visitors.
• 4:40:56
  That was all the ladies aid had to go by. But when Elizabeth
• 4:41:00
  Kirk heard it, she put away a secret hope she had allowed herself to
• 4:41:03
  cherish without a change of expression on her kind, plain face, and Emmeline
• 4:41:08
  Drew resolved that the next time she saw a certain old bachelor of Lowbridge,
• 4:41:12
  she would not snub him as she had done at a previous meeting. Of
• 4:41:17
  course, if Rosemary West was out to catch the Minister, she would catch
• 4:41:21
  him. She looked younger than she was, and men thought her pretty.
• 4:41:25
  Besides, the West girls had money. It is to be hoped that he
• 4:41:29
  won't be so absent minded as to propose to Ellen by mistake. Was the
• 4:41:33
  only malicious thing she allowed herself to say to a sympathetic sister Drew. Emmeline
• 4:41:37
  bore no further grudge towards Rosemary. When all was said and done, an
• 4:41:41
  unencumbered bachelor was far better than a widower with four children. It had been
• 4:41:47
  only the glamor of the manse that had temporarily blinded Emmeline's eyes to the better
• 4:41:52
  part. A sled with three shrieking occupants sped past mister Meredith to the pond.
• 4:41:57
  Faith's long curls stream in the wind, and her laughter rang above that
• 4:42:02
  of the others. John Meredith looked after them kindly and longingly. He was
• 4:42:07
  glad that his children had such chums as the Blythes, glad that they had
• 4:42:11
  so wise and gay and tender a friend as missus Blythe But they needed something
• 4:42:15
  more, and that something would be supplied When he brought Rosemary West as a
• 4:42:19
  bride to the old man's There was in her a quality essentially maternal. It
• 4:42:26
  was Saturday night, and he did not often go calling on Saturday night,
• 4:42:30
  which was supposed to be dedicated to a thoughtful revision of Sunday's sermon. But
• 4:42:34
  he had chosen this night because he had learned that Ellen West was going to
• 4:42:38
  be away and Rosemary would be alone. Often, as he had spent pleasant
• 4:42:42
  evenings in the house on the Hill, he had never, since that first
• 4:42:47
  meeting at the Spring, seen Rosemary alone. Ellen had always been there.
• 4:42:52
  He did not precisely object to Ellen being there. He liked Ellen West very
• 4:42:56
  much, and they were the best of friends. Ellen had an almost masculine
• 4:43:00
  understanding and a sense of humor which his own shy, hidden appreciation of fun
• 4:43:06
  found very agreeable. He liked her interest in politics and world events. There
• 4:43:11
  was no man in the Glen, not even accepting doctor Blythe who had a
• 4:43:15
  better grasp of such things. I think it is just as well to be
• 4:43:18
  interested in things as long as you live, she had said. If you're
• 4:43:21
  not, it doesn't seem to me that there's much difference between the quick and
• 4:43:25
  the dead. He liked her pleasant, deep rumbly voice. He liked the
• 4:43:29
  hearty laugh with which she always ended up some jolly and well told story.
• 4:43:33
  She never gave him digs about his children, as other Glen women did.
• 4:43:37
  She never bored him with local gossip. She had no malice and no pettiness.
• 4:43:41
  She was always splendidly sincere. Mister Meredith, who had picked up Miss
• 4:43:47
  Cornelia's way of classifying people, considered that Ellen belonged to the race of Joseph
• 4:43:52
  altogether an admirable woman for a sister in law. Nevertheless, a man did
• 4:43:56
  not want even the most admirable of women around. When he was proposing to
• 4:44:00
  another woman, and Ellen was always around, she did not insist on talking
• 4:44:06
  to mister Meredith herself all the time. She let Rosemary have a fair share
• 4:44:10
  of him. Many evenings, indeed, Ellen effaced herself almost totally, sitting
• 4:44:15
  back in the corner with Saint George in her lap, and letting mister Meredith
• 4:44:18
  and Rosemary talk and sing and read books together. Sometimes they quite forgot her
• 4:44:22
  presence. But if their conversation or choice of duets ever betrayed the least tendency
• 4:44:29
  to what Ellen considered philandering, Ellen promptly nipped that tendency in the bud and
• 4:44:33
  blotted Rosemary out for the rest of the evening. But not even the grimmest
• 4:44:38
  of amiable dragons can altogether prevent a certain subtle language of eye and smile and
• 4:44:45
  eloquent silence. And so the minister's courtship progressed after a fashion. But if
• 4:44:51
  it was ever to reach a climax, that climax must come when Ellen was
• 4:44:55
  away. And Ellen was so seldom away, especially in winter, she found
• 4:45:00
  her own fireside the pleasantest place in the world. She vowed Gadding had no
• 4:45:04
  attraction for her. She was fond of company, but she wanted it at
• 4:45:08
  home. Mister Meredith had almost been driven to the conclusion that he must write
• 4:45:12
  to Rosemary what he wanted to say when Ellen casually announced one evening that she
• 4:45:18
  was going to a silver wedding next Saturday night. She had been bridesmaid when
• 4:45:22
  the principals were married. Only old guests were invited, so Rosemary was not
• 4:45:26
  included. Mister Meredith pricked up his ears a trifle and a gleam flashed into
• 4:45:32
  his dreamy dark eyes. Both Ellen and Rosemary saw it, and both Ellen
• 4:45:37
  and Rosemary felt with a tingling shock that mister Meredith would certainly come up the
• 4:45:41
  hill next Saturday night, might as well have it over with Saint George.
• 4:45:47
  Ellen sternly told the black Cat after mister Meredith had gone home and Rosemary had
• 4:45:52
  silently gone upstairs. He means to ask her Saint George. I'm perfectly sure
• 4:45:56
  of that, so he might as well have his chance to do it and
• 4:46:00
  find out he can't get her George. She'd rather like to take him Saint
• 4:46:03
  I know that, but she promised, and she's got to keep her promise.
• 4:46:07
  I'm rather sorry in some way, Saint George. I don't know of
• 4:46:11
  a man i'd sooner have for a brother in law if a brother in law
• 4:46:15
  was convenient. I haven't a thing against him, Saint, not a thing,
• 4:46:18
  except that he won't see, and can't be made to see, that
• 4:46:21
  the Kaiser is a menace to the peace of Europe. That's his blind spot.
• 4:46:25
  But he's good company, and I like him. A woman can say
• 4:46:27
  anything she likes to a man with a mouth like John Meredith's and be sure
• 4:46:32
  of not being misunderstood. Such a man is more precious than Ruby, Saint,
• 4:46:37
  and much rarer George. But he can't have Rosemary. And I suppose
• 4:46:41
  when he finds out he can't have her, he'll drop us both, and
• 4:46:45
  we'll miss him, Saint, we'll miss him something scandalous, George. But
• 4:46:48
  she promised, and I'll see that she keeps her promise. Ellen's face looked
• 4:46:52
  almost ugly in its lowering resolution. Up Stairs, Rosemary was crying into her
• 4:46:59
  pillow, so mister Meredith found his lady alone and looking very beautiful. Rosemary
• 4:47:04
  had not made any special toilet for the occasion. She wanted to, but
• 4:47:08
  she thought it would be absurd to dress up for a man you meant to
• 4:47:11
  refuse. So she wore her plain, dark afternoon dress and looked like a
• 4:47:15
  queen in it. Her suppressed excitement colored her face to Brilliancy. Her great
• 4:47:21
  blue eyes were pools of light, less placid than usual. She wished the
• 4:47:26
  interview were over. She had looked forward to it all day with dread.
• 4:47:30
  She felt quite sure that John Meredith cared a great deal for her after a
• 4:47:33
  fashion, and she felt just as sure that he did not care for her
• 4:47:37
  as he had cared for his first love. She felt that her refusal would
• 4:47:41
  disappoint him considerably, but she did not think it would altogether overwhelm him.
• 4:47:45
  Yet she hated to make it. Hated for his sake, and Rosemary was
• 4:47:49
  quite honest with herself for her own. She knew she could have loved John
• 4:47:55
  Meredith if if it had been permissible. She knew that life would be a
• 4:47:59
  blank thing if rejected as lover. He refused longer to be a friend.
• 4:48:03
  She knew that she could be very happy with him, and that she could
• 4:48:07
  make him happy. But between her and happiness stood the prison gate of the
• 4:48:11
  promise she had made to Ellen years ago. Rosemary could not remember her father.
• 4:48:17
  He had died when she was only three years old. Ellen, who
• 4:48:19
  had been thirteen, remembered him, but with no special tenderness. He had
• 4:48:25
  been a stern, reserved man, many years older than his fair, pretty
• 4:48:29
  wife. Five years later, their brother of twelve died also. Since his
• 4:48:33
  death, the two girls had always lived alone with their mother. They had
• 4:48:37
  never mingled very freely in the social life of the glenor Lowbridge, though where
• 4:48:42
  they went the wit and spirit of Ellen and the sweetness and beauty of Rosemary
• 4:48:47
  made them welcome guests. Both had what was called a disappointment in their girlhood.
• 4:48:52
  The sea had not given up Rosemary's lover, and Norman Douglas, then
• 4:48:56
  a handsome, red haired young giant noted for wild driving and noisy, though
• 4:49:03
  harmless escapades, had quarreled with Ellen and left her in a fit of peak.
• 4:49:07
  There were not lacking candidates for both Martin's and Norman's places, but none
• 4:49:11
  seemed to find favor in the eyes of the west girls, who drifted slowly
• 4:49:15
  out of youth and bellhood without any seeming regret. They were devoted to their
• 4:49:21
  mother, who was a chronic invalid. The three had a little circle of
• 4:49:25
  home interests, books, pets, and flowers, which made them happy and
• 4:49:29
  contented. Missus West's death, which occurred on Rosemary's twenty fifth birthday, was
• 4:49:34
  a bitter grief to them. At first, they were intolerably lonely. Ellen
• 4:49:40
  especially continued to grieve and brood, her long, moody musings broken only by
• 4:49:45
  fits of stormy passionate weeping. The old Lowbridge doctor told Rosemary that he feared
• 4:49:51
  permanent melancholy or worse. Once, when Ellen had sat all day refusing either
• 4:49:56
  to speak or eat, Rosemary had flung herself her knees by her sister's side.
• 4:50:02
  Oh Ellen, you have me yet, she said, imploringly. Am
• 4:50:04
  I nothing to you? We have always loved each other, so I won't
• 4:50:10
  have you always, Ellen had said, breaking her silence with harsh intensity.
• 4:50:14
  You will marry and leave me. I shall be left all alone. I
• 4:50:17
  cannot bear the thought. I cannot. I would rather die. I will
• 4:50:21
  never marry, said Rosemary, never Ellen. Ellen bent forward and looked searchingly
• 4:50:26
  into Rosemary's eyes. Will you promise me that? Solemnly? She said,
• 4:50:30
  promise it on mother's bible. Rosemary assented at once, quite willing to humor
• 4:50:36
  Ellen, what did it matter. She knew quite well she would never want
• 4:50:40
  to marry any one. Her love had gone down with Martin Crawford to the
• 4:50:42
  deeps of the sea, and without love she could not marry any one.
• 4:50:47
  So she promised readily, though Ellen made rather a fearsome right of it.
• 4:50:52
  They clasped hands over the Bible in their mother's vacant room and both vowed to
• 4:50:56
  each other that they would never marry and would always lived together. Ellen's condition
• 4:51:02
  improved from that hour. She soon regained her normal, cheery poise. For
• 4:51:07
  ten years, she and Rosemary lived in the old house, happily, undisturbed
• 4:51:11
  by any thoughts of marrying or giving in marriage. Their promise sat very lightly
• 4:51:17
  on them. Ellen never failed to remind her sister of it whenever any eligible
• 4:51:22
  male creature crossed their paths, but she had never been really alarmed until John
• 4:51:26
  Meredith came home that night with Rosemary. As for Rosemary, Ellen's obsession regarding
• 4:51:32
  that promise had always been a little matter of mirth to her, until lately.
• 4:51:37
  Now it was a merciless fetter, self imposed, but never to be
• 4:51:41
  shaken off. Because of it. To night she must turn her face from
• 4:51:45
  happiness It was true that the shy, sweet rosebud love she had given to
• 4:51:51
  her boy lover she could never give to another. But she knew now that
• 4:51:56
  she could give to John Meredith a love richer and more womanly. She knew
• 4:52:00
  that he touched deeps in her nature that Martin had never touched, that had
• 4:52:04
  not perhaps been in the girl of seventeen to touch. And she must send
• 4:52:08
  him away to night, send him back to his lonely hearth and his empty
• 4:52:12
  life and his heart breaking problems. Because she had promised Ellen ten years before,
• 4:52:18
  on their mother's Bible, that she would never marry John Meredith did not
• 4:52:22
  immediately grasp his opportunity. On the contrary, he talked for two good hours
• 4:52:27
  on the least lover like of subjects. He even tried politics, though politics
• 4:52:33
  always bored Rosemary. The latter began to think that she had been altogether mistaken,
• 4:52:37
  and her fears and expectations suddenly seemed to her grotesque. She felt flat
• 4:52:42
  and foolish. The glow went out of her face and the luster out of
• 4:52:47
  her eyes. John Meredith had not the slightest intention of asking her to marry
• 4:52:51
  him, and then quite suddenly he rose came across the room, and standing
• 4:52:56
  by her chair, he asked it. The room had grown terribly still.
• 4:53:00
  Even Saint George ceased to purr. Rosemary heard her own heart beating and was
• 4:53:06
  sure John Meredith must hear it too. Now was the time for her to
• 4:53:10
  say no, gently but firmly. She had been ready for days with her
• 4:53:14
  stilted, regretful little formula, and now the words of it had completely vanished
• 4:53:18
  from her mind. She had to say no, and she suddenly found she
• 4:53:22
  could not say it. It was the impossible word. She knew now that
• 4:53:27
  it was not that she could have loved John Meredith, but that she did
• 4:53:30
  love him. The thought of putting him from her life was agony. She
• 4:53:36
  must say something. She lifted her bowed golden head and asked him, stammeringly,
• 4:53:41
  to give her a few days for for consideration. John Meredith was a
• 4:53:47
  little surprised. He was not vainer than any man has a right to be,
• 4:53:51
  but he had expected that Rosemary West would say yes. He had been
• 4:53:53
  tolerably sure she cared for him. Then why this doubt, this hesitation.
• 4:54:00
  She was not a schoolgirl to be uncertain as to her own mind. He
• 4:54:03
  felt an ugly shock of disappointment and dismay, but he assented to her request
• 4:54:07
  with his unfailing gentle courtesy, and went away at once. I will tell
• 4:54:12
  you in a few days, said Rosemary, with downcast eyes and burning face.
• 4:54:18
  When the door shut behind him, she went back into the room and
• 4:54:21
  wrung her hands. End of Chapter twenty one. Chapter twenty two, Saint
• 4:54:26
  George knows all about it. At midnight, Ellen West was walking home from
• 4:54:32
  the Pollock's silver wedding. She had stayed a little while after the other guests
• 4:54:36
  had gone to help the gray haired bride wash the dishes. The distance between
• 4:54:40
  the two houses was not far and the road good, so that Ellen was
• 4:54:44
  enjoying the walk back home in the moonlight. The evening had been a pleasant
• 4:54:48
  one. Ellen, who had not been to a party for years, found
• 4:54:51
  it very pleasant. All the guests had been members of her old set,
• 4:54:53
  and there was no intrusive youth to spoil the flavor, for the only son
• 4:54:57
  of the bride and groom was far away at college and could not be present.
• 4:55:02
  Norman Douglas had been there, and they had met socially for the first
• 4:55:04
  time in years, though she had seen him once or twice in church that
• 4:55:08
  winter. Not the least sentiment was awakened in Ellen's heart by their meeting.
• 4:55:14
  She was accustomed to wonder when she thought about it at all, how she
• 4:55:17
  could have ever fancied him or felt so badly over his sudden marriage. But
• 4:55:21
  she had rather liked meeting him again. She had forgotten how bracing and stimulating
• 4:55:26
  he could be. No gathering was ever stagnant when Norman Douglas was present.
• 4:55:30
  Everybody had been surprised when Norman came. It was well known he never went
• 4:55:34
  anywhere. The Pollocks had invited him because he had been one of the original
• 4:55:37
  guests, but they never thought he would come. He had taken his second
• 4:55:41
  cousin, Amy and Etta Douglas out to supper, and seemed rather attentive to
• 4:55:45
  her. But Ellen sat across the table from him and had a spirited argument
• 4:55:51
  with him, an argument during which all his shouting and banter could not fluster
• 4:55:55
  her, and in which she came off best, flooring Norman so composedly and
• 4:55:59
  so completely that he was silent for ten minutes, at the end of which
• 4:56:03
  time he had muttered in his ruddy beard spunky as ever, Spunky as ever,
• 4:56:07
  and began to hector Amy and Etta, who giggled foolishly over his sallies,
• 4:56:11
  where Ellen would have retorted bitingly. Ellen thought these things over as she
• 4:56:17
  walked home, tasting them with reminiscent relish. The moonlit air sparkled with frost,
• 4:56:22
  the snow crisped under her feet. Below her lay the glen with the
• 4:56:26
  white harbor. Beyond there was a light in the man's study. So John
• 4:56:30
  Meredith had gone home. Had he asked Rosemary to marry him? And after
• 4:56:36
  what fashion had she made her refusal known? Ellen felt that she would never
• 4:56:40
  know this, though she was quite curious. She was sure Rosemary would never
• 4:56:44
  tell her anything about it, and she would not dare to ask. She
• 4:56:48
  must just be content with the fact of the refusal, after all, that
• 4:56:52
  was the only thing that really mattered. I hope you'll have enough sense to
• 4:56:56
  come back once in a while and be friendly, she said to herself.
• 4:57:00
  She disliked so much to be alone that thinking aloud was one of her devices
• 4:57:03
  for circumventing unwelcome solitude. It's awful never to have a man body with some
• 4:57:08
  brains to talk to once in a while, and like as not, he'll
• 4:57:11
  never come near the house again. There's Norman Douglas too. I like that
• 4:57:15
  man, and I'd like to have a good rousing argument with him now and
• 4:57:18
  then. But he'd never dare come up for fear people would think he was
• 4:57:22
  courting me again. For fear I'd think it too. Most likely, though
• 4:57:26
  he's more a stranger to me now than John Meredith. It seems like a
• 4:57:30
  dream that we could ever have been beaus. But there it is. There's
• 4:57:33
  only two men in the glen i'd ever want to talk to, and what
• 4:57:37
  with gossip and this wretched love making business, it's not likely I'll ever see
• 4:57:41
  either of them again. I could, said Ellen, addressing the unmoved stars
• 4:57:45
  with a spiteful emphasis. I could have made a better world myself. She
• 4:57:49
  paused at her gait with a sudden, vague feeling of alarm. There was
• 4:57:53
  still a light in the living room, and to and fro across the window
• 4:57:56
  shades went the shadow of a woman walking, looking restlessly up and down.
• 4:58:02
  What was Rosemary doing up at this hour of the night, and why was
• 4:58:04
  she striding about like a lunatic? Ellen went softly in As she opened the
• 4:58:10
  hall door, Rosemary came out of the room. She was flushed and breathless.
• 4:58:15
  An atmosphere of stress and passion hung about her like a garment. Why
• 4:58:18
  aren't you in bed, Rosemary demanded. Ellen. Come in here, said
• 4:58:22
  Rosemary intensely. I want to tell you something. Ellen composedly removed her wraps
• 4:58:29
  and overshoes and followed her sister into the warm, fire lighted room. She
• 4:58:33
  stood with her hand on the table and waited. She was looking very handsome
• 4:58:37
  herself in her own grim, black browed style. The new black velvet dress,
• 4:58:41
  with its train and v neck, which she had made purposely for the
• 4:58:45
  party, became her stately massive figure. She wore coiled around her neck the
• 4:58:49
  rich, heavy necklace of amber beads, which was a family heirloom. Her
• 4:58:53
  walk in the frosty air had stung her cheeks into a glowing scarlet, but
• 4:58:59
  her steel blue eyes were as icy and an yielding as the sky of the
• 4:59:02
  winter night. She stood waiting in a silence which Rosemary could break only by
• 4:59:07
  a convulsive effort. Ellen, mister Meredith was here this evening. Yes,
• 4:59:11
  and and he asked me to marry him, so I expected, of course,
• 4:59:17
  she refused him. No, Rosemary. Ellen clenched her hands and took
• 4:59:22
  an involuntary step forward. Do you mean to tell me that you accepted him?
• 4:59:26
  No? No, Ellen recovered her self. Command what did you do
• 4:59:30
  then? I I asked him to give me a few days to think it
• 4:59:33
  over. I hardly see why that was necessary, said Ellen, coldly,
• 4:59:37
  contemptuous. When there is only one answer, you can make him. Rosemary
• 4:59:41
  held out her hands, beseechingly. Ellen, She said, desperately, I
• 4:59:45
  love John Meredith. I want to be his wife. Will you set me
• 4:59:49
  free from that promise? No, said Ellen, merciless, because she was
• 4:59:53
  sick from fear. Ellen Ellen Listen interrupted Ellen. I did not ask you
• 5:00:00
  for that promise. You offered it. I know, I know, but
• 5:00:03
  I did not think then that I could ever care for any one again.
• 5:00:07
  You offered it, went on Ellen, unmovably. You promised it over our
• 5:00:11
  mother's bible. It was more than a promise. It was an oath.
• 5:00:15
  Now you want to break it. I only asked you to set me free
• 5:00:18
  from it, Ellen, I will not do it. A promise is a
• 5:00:21
  promise in my eyes. I will not do it. Break your promise be
• 5:00:25
  forsworn if you will, but it shall not be with any assent of mine.
• 5:00:29
  You are very hard on me, Ellen, hard on you? And
• 5:00:32
  what of me? Have you ever given a thought to what my loneliness would
• 5:00:36
  be if you left me? I could not bear it. I would go
• 5:00:37
  crazy. I cannot live alone. Haven't I been a good sister to you?
• 5:00:41
  Have I ever opposed any wish of yours? Haven't I indulged you in
• 5:00:45
  everything? Yes? Yes? Then why do you want to leave me for
• 5:00:48
  this man whom you hadn't seen a year ago? I love him, Ellen,
• 5:00:53
  love you talk like a school miss instead of a middle aged woman.
• 5:00:57
  He doesn't love you. He wants a housekeeper and a governess. You don't
• 5:01:02
  love him. You want to be missus. You are one of those weak
• 5:01:04
  minded women who think it's a disgrace to be ranked as an old maid.
• 5:01:07
  That's all there is to it, Rosemary quivered. Ellen could not or would
• 5:01:14
  not understand. There was no use arguing with her. So you won't release
• 5:01:18
  me? Ellen? No, I won't, and I won't talk of it
• 5:01:22
  again. You promised, and you've got to keep your word. That's all.
• 5:01:26
  Go to bed. Look at the time you're all romantic and worked up.
• 5:01:30
  Tomorrow you'll be more sensible at any rate. Don't let me hear any
• 5:01:33
  more of this nonsense, go, Rosemary went without another word. Pale and
• 5:01:37
  spiritless, Ellen walked stormily about the room for a few minutes, then paused
• 5:01:42
  before the chair where Saint George had been calmly sleeping through the whole evening.
• 5:01:48
  A reluctant smile overspread her dark face. There had only been one time in
• 5:01:52
  her life, the time of her mother's death, when Ellen had not been
• 5:01:56
  able to temper tragedy with comedy. Even in that long ago bitterness, when
• 5:02:00
  Norman Douglas had, after a fashion, jilted her, she had laughed at
• 5:02:03
  herself quite as often as she had cried. I expect there'll be some sulking,
• 5:02:07
  said George, Yes, Saint, I expect we are in for a
• 5:02:11
  few unpleasant, foggy days. Well we'll weather them through, George. We've
• 5:02:15
  dealt with foolish children before. Saint Rosemary'll sulk awhile, and then she'll get
• 5:02:19
  over it and all will be as before, George. She promised, and
• 5:02:23
  she's got to keep her promise. And that's the last word on the subject.
• 5:02:26
  I'll say to you or her or any one, Saint. But Ellen
• 5:02:32
  lay savagely awake till morning there was no sulking. However, Rosemary was pale
• 5:02:37
  and quiet the next day, but beyond that Ellen could detect no difference in
• 5:02:42
  her. Certainly she seemed to bear Ellen no grudge. It was stormy,
• 5:02:47
  so no mention was made of going to church. In the afternoon, Rosemary
• 5:02:51
  shut herself in her room and wrote a note to John Meredith. She could
• 5:02:55
  not trust herself to say no in person. She felt quite sure that if
• 5:02:59
  he suspected you she was saying no reluctantly, he would not take it for
• 5:03:02
  an answer, and she could not face pleading or entreaty. She must make
• 5:03:07
  him think she cared nothing at all for him, and she could do that
• 5:03:10
  only by letter. She wrote him the stiffest, coolest little refusal imaginable.
• 5:03:15
  It was barely courteous. It certainly left no loophole of hope for the boldest
• 5:03:18
  lover, and John Meredith was anything but that. He shrank into himself,
• 5:03:23
  heard and mortified when he read Rosemary's letter next day in his dusty study.
• 5:03:29
  But under his mortification, a dreadful realization presently made itself felt. He had
• 5:03:34
  thought he did not love Rosemary as deeply as he had loved Cecilia. Now
• 5:03:38
  when he had lost her, he knew that he did. She was everything
• 5:03:42
  to him, everything, and he must put her out of his life completely.
• 5:03:47
  Even friendship was impossible. Now life stretched before him an intolerable dreariness.
• 5:03:52
  He must go on. There was his work, his children, but the
• 5:03:56
  heart had gone out of him. He sat all alone that evening in his
• 5:04:00
  dark, cold, comfortless study, with his head bowed in his hands.
• 5:04:04
  Up on the hill, Rosemary had a headache and went early to bed,
• 5:04:07
  while Ellen remarked to Saint George, purring his disdain of foolish human kind who
• 5:04:12
  did not know that a soft cushion was the only thing that really mattered.
• 5:04:17
  What would women do if headaches had never been invented, Saint George. But
• 5:04:19
  never mind, Saint, We'll just wink the other eye for a few weeks.
• 5:04:23
  I admit I don't feel comfortable myself, George. I feel as if
• 5:04:26
  I had drowned a kitten. But she promised, Saint, and she was
• 5:04:30
  the one to offer it. George Bismillah, end of chapter twenty two,
• 5:04:36
  Chapter twenty three, The Good Conduct Club. A light rain had been falling
• 5:04:41
  all day, A little, delicate, beautiful spring rain that somehow seemed to
• 5:04:45
  hint and whisper of mayflowers and wakening violets. The harbor and the gulf and
• 5:04:51
  the low lying shore fields had been dim with pearl gray mists. But now
• 5:04:56
  in the evening the rain had ceased and the mists had blown out to sea.
• 5:05:00
  Clouds sprinkled the sky over the harbor like little fiery roses. Beyond it,
• 5:05:04
  the hills were dark against a spendthrift splendor of daffodil and crimson. A
• 5:05:10
  great, silvery evening star was watching over the bar. A brisk, dancing,
• 5:05:15
  new sprung wind was blowing up from Rainbow Valley, Resinous with the odors
• 5:05:19
  of fir and damp mosses. It crooned in the old spruces around the graveyard
• 5:05:25
  and ruffled Faith's splendid curls as she sat on Hezekiah Pollock's tombstone with her arms
• 5:05:30
  round. Mary Vance and Una, Karl and Jerry were sitting opposite them on
• 5:05:34
  another tombstone, and all were rather full of mischief after being cooped up all
• 5:05:40
  day. The air just shines to night, doesn't it. It's been washed
• 5:05:45
  so clean, you see, said Faith happily. Mary Vance eyed her gloomily,
• 5:05:49
  knowing what she knew or fancied she knew. Mary considered that Faith was
• 5:05:55
  far too light hearted. Mary had something on her mind to say, and
• 5:05:59
  she meant to say it before she went home. Missus Elliot had sent her
• 5:06:03
  up to the manse with some new laid eggs and had told her not to
• 5:06:06
  stay longer than half an hour. The half hour was nearly up, so
• 5:06:10
  Mary uncurled her cramped legs from under her and said, abruptly, never mind
• 5:06:15
  about the air. Just you listen to me, you mance young ones,
• 5:06:18
  have just got to behave yourselves better than you've been doing this spring. That's
• 5:06:22
  all there is to it. I just come up to night a purpose to
• 5:06:25
  tell you. The way people are talking about you was awful. What have
• 5:06:29
  we been doing now? Cried Faith in amazement, pulling her arm away from
• 5:06:33
  Mary. UNA's lips trembled and her sensitive little soul shrank within her. Mary
• 5:06:38
  was always so brutally frank. Jerry began to whistle out of bravado. He
• 5:06:44
  meant to let Mary see he didn't care for her tirades. Their behavior was
• 5:06:48
  no business of hers anyway. What right had she to lecture them on their
• 5:06:51
  conduct doing. Now you doing all the time, retorted Mary. Just as
• 5:06:56
  soon as the talk about one of your dido's fades away, you do some
• 5:07:00
  anything else to start it up again. It seems to me you haven't any
• 5:07:03
  idea of how man's children ought to behave. Maybe you can tell us,
• 5:07:07
  said Jerry, killingly sarcastic sarcasm was quite thrown away on Mary. I can
• 5:07:12
  tell you what will happen if you don't learn to behave yourselves. The session
• 5:07:17
  will ask your father to resign. There now, Master Jerry know it all.
• 5:07:21
  Missus Alec Davis said so to Missus Elliott. I heard her. I
• 5:07:23
  always have my ears pricked up when Missus Alec Davis comes to tea. She
• 5:07:27
  said you were all going from bad to worse, and that though it was
• 5:07:30
  only what was to be expected when you had nobody to bring you up,
• 5:07:33
  still the congregation couldn't be expected to put up with it much longer, and
• 5:07:37
  something would have to be done. The Methodist just laugh and laugh at you,
• 5:07:41
  and that hurts the Presbyterian feelings. She says, you won't need a
• 5:07:45
  good dose of birch tonic Laura, if that would make folks good. I
• 5:07:48
  ought to be a young saint. I'm not telling you this because I want
• 5:07:52
  to hurt your feelings. I'm sorry for you. Mary was past mistress of
• 5:07:56
  the Gentle Art of Condescension. I understand that you haven't much chance the way
• 5:08:00
  things are, but other people don't make as much allowance as I do.
• 5:08:04
  Miss Drew says. Karl had a frog in his pocket in Sunday school last
• 5:08:08
  Sunday and it hopped out while she was hearing the lesson. She says she's
• 5:08:11
  gonna give up the class. Why don't you keep your insects home? I
• 5:08:15
  popped it right back in again, said Carl. It didn't hurt anybody,
• 5:08:19
  A poor little frog. And I wish old Jane Drew would give up our
• 5:08:22
  class. I hate her. Her own nephew had a dirty plug at tobacco
• 5:08:26
  in his pocket and offered us fellows a shew when Elder Kla was praying.
• 5:08:30
  I guess that's worse than a frog, no, cause frogs are more unexpected,
• 5:08:34
  like they make more of a sensation. Besides, he wasn't caught at
• 5:08:38
  it. And then that praying competition you had last week is made a fearful
• 5:08:42
  scandal. Everybody's talking about it. Why the Blythes were in that as well
• 5:08:47
  as us, cried Faith indignantly. It was Nan Blythe who suggested it in
• 5:08:52
  the first place, and Walter took the prize. Well, you get the
• 5:08:56
  credit of it anyway. It wouldn't have been so bad if you hadn't had
• 5:08:59
  it in the graveyard. I should think a graveyard was a very good place
• 5:09:02
  to pray in, retorted Jerry, Deacon Hazard drove past when you were praying,
• 5:09:07
  said Mary, and he saw and heard you with your hands folded over
• 5:09:10
  your stomach and groaning after every sentence. He thought you were making fun of
• 5:09:14
  him. So I was declared unabashed Jerry. Only I didn't know he was
• 5:09:18
  going by. Of course, that was just a mean accident. I wasn't
• 5:09:22
  praying in real earnest I knew I had no chance of winning the prize,
• 5:09:26
  so I was just getting what fun I could out of it. Walter Blythe
• 5:09:29
  can pray, Bully why he can pray as well as Dad? Una is
• 5:09:33
  the only one of us who really likes praying, said Faith pensively. Well,
• 5:09:37
  if praying scandalizes people so much, we mustn't do it any more,
• 5:09:41
  sighed Una. Shucks, you can pray all you want to, only not
• 5:09:45
  in the graveyard, and don't make a game of it. That was what
• 5:09:48
  made it so bad. That and having a tea party on the tombstones.
• 5:09:52
  We hadn't well a soap bubble party. Then you had something the over harbor.
• 5:09:57
  People swear you had a tea party, but I'm to take your word.
• 5:10:00
  And you used this tombstone as a table. Well, Martha wouldn't let
• 5:10:04
  us blow bubbles in the house. She was awful cross that day, explained
• 5:10:08
  Jerry. And this old slab made such a jolly table, weren't they pretty,
• 5:10:14
  cried Faith, her eyes sparkling over the remembrance. They reflected the trees
• 5:10:18
  and the hills and the harbor like little fairy worlds. And when we shook
• 5:10:22
  them loose, they floated away down to Rainbow Valley, all but one,
• 5:10:26
  and it went over and bust up on the Methodists fire, said Carl.
• 5:10:30
  I'm glad we did it once, anyhow, before we found out it was
• 5:10:33
  wrong, said Faith. It wouldn't have been wrong to blow them on the
• 5:10:37
  lawn, said Mary, impatiently. Seems like I can't knock any sense into
• 5:10:41
  your heads. You've been told often enough. You shouldn't play in the graveyard.
• 5:10:45
  The Methodists are sensitive about it. We forget, said Faith dolefully.
• 5:10:49
  And the lawn is so small and so caterpillary, and so full of shrubs
• 5:10:55
  and things. We can't be in Rainbow Valley all the time. And where
• 5:10:59
  are we to go? It's the things you do in the graveyard. It
• 5:11:02
  wouldn't matter if you just sat here and talked quiet, same as we're doing
• 5:11:06
  now. Well, I don't know what is going to come of it all,
• 5:11:08
  but I do know that Elder Warren is going to speak to your pa
• 5:11:11
  about it. Deacon Hazard is his cousin. I wish they wouldn't bother father
• 5:11:17
  about us, said Una, Well, people think he ought to bother himself
• 5:11:21
  about you a little more. I don't I understand him. He's a child
• 5:11:25
  in some ways himself, that's what he is, and needs some one to
• 5:11:27
  look after him as bad as you do. Well, perhaps you'll have some
• 5:11:30
  one before long, if all tales is true? What do you mean,
• 5:11:34
  asked Faith. Haven't you got any idea? Honest demanded Mary, No,
• 5:11:40
  No, what do you mean? Well, you are a lot of innocence
• 5:11:45
  upon my word? Why everybody is talking of it? Your Pa goes to
• 5:11:48
  see Rosemary West. She is going to be your stepma. I don't believe
• 5:11:52
  it, cried Una Flushing Crimson. Well, I dunno. I just go
• 5:11:57
  by what folks say. I don't give it for a fact, but it
• 5:12:02
  would be a good thing. Rosemary West did make you toe the mark if
• 5:12:04
  she came here. I'll bet a scent for all. She's so sweet and
• 5:12:07
  smiley on the face of her. They're always that way till they've caught em.
• 5:12:11
  But you need someone to bring you up. You're disgracing your paw,
• 5:12:15
  and I feel for him. I've always thought an awful lot o your pa
• 5:12:18
  ever since that night he talked to me so nice. I've never said a
• 5:12:21
  single swear word since, or told a lie. And I'd like to see
• 5:12:25
  him happy and comfortable, with his buttons on and his meals decent, and
• 5:12:27
  you young ones licked into shape. And that old cat of a Martha put
• 5:12:30
  in her proper place. The way she looked at the eggs I brought her
• 5:12:34
  to night, I hope they're fresh, says she. I just wish they
• 5:12:38
  was rotten. But just you mind. She gives you all one for breakfast,
• 5:12:41
  including your Pa. Make a fuss if she doesn't. That was what
• 5:12:45
  they was sent up for. But I don't trust old Martha. She's quite
• 5:12:48
  capable of feeding him to her cat. Mary's tongue being temporarily tired. A
• 5:12:53
  brief silence fell over the graveyard. The man's children did not feel like talking.
• 5:12:59
  They were digesting the new and not altogether palatable ideas Mary had suggested to
• 5:13:03
  them. Jerry and Carl were somewhat startled, but after all, what did
• 5:13:08
  it matter, and it wasn't likely there was a word of truth in it.
• 5:13:11
  Faith on the whole was pleased. Only Una was seriously upset. She
• 5:13:17
  felt that she would like to get away and cry. Will there be any
• 5:13:21
  stars in my crown? Sang the Methodist choir beginning to practice in the Methodist
• 5:13:25
  church. I just want three, said Mary, whose theological knowledge had increased
• 5:13:30
  notably since her residence with missus Elliot. Just three settin' up on my head
• 5:13:34
  like a coronet, a big one in the middle and a small one each
• 5:13:37
  size. Are there different sizes and souls? Asked Karl, of course,
• 5:13:42
  why little babies must have smaller ones than big men. Well, it's gettin
• 5:13:48
  dark and I must scoot home. Missus Elliot doesn't like me to be out
• 5:13:51
  after dark. Laws. When I lived with Missus Wiley, the dark was
• 5:13:53
  just the same as the daylight to me. I didn't mind it no more'n
• 5:13:56
  a gray cat. Them days seem a hundred years ago. Now you mind
• 5:14:02
  what I've said and try to behave yourselves for your PAW's sake. I'll always
• 5:14:04
  back you up and defend you. You can be dead sure of that.
• 5:14:08
  Missus Elliot says she never saw the like of me for sticking up for my
• 5:14:11
  friends. I was real sassy to missus Alec Davis about you, and Missus
• 5:14:15
  Elliott combed me down for it afterwards. The fair Cornelia has a tongue of
• 5:14:19
  her own and no mistake, but she was pleased underneath for all cause she
• 5:14:22
  hates ol Kitty Alec, and she's real fond of you. I can see
• 5:14:26
  through, folks. Mary sailed off excellently, well pleased with herself, leaving
• 5:14:32
  a rather depressed little group behind her. Mary Vance always says something that makes
• 5:14:37
  us feel bad when she comes up, said Una resentfully. I wish we'd
• 5:14:41
  left her to starve in the old barn, said Jerry vindictively. Oh that's
• 5:14:45
  wicked, Jerry rebuked Una, may as well have the game as the name,
• 5:14:51
  retorted unrepentant Jerry. If people say we're so bad, let's be bad.
• 5:14:55
  But not if it hurts father pleaded Faith. Jerry's squirm and uncomfortably he
• 5:15:00
  adored his father. Through the unshaded study window, they could see mister Meredith
• 5:15:06
  at his desk. He did not seem to be either reading or writing.
• 5:15:10
  His head was in his hands, and there was something in his whole attitude
• 5:15:12
  that spoke of weariness and dejection. The children suddenly felt it. I dare
• 5:15:18
  say somebody has been worrying him about us to day, said Faith. I
• 5:15:22
  wish we could get along without making people talk. Oh, jem blythe how
• 5:15:26
  you scared me? Jem blythe had slipped into the graveyard and sat down beside
• 5:15:30
  the girls. He had been prowling about Rainbow Valley and had succeeded in finding
• 5:15:36
  the first little star white cluster of Arbutus for his mother. The man's children
• 5:15:41
  were rather silent after his coming. Jem was beginning to grow away from them
• 5:15:45
  somewhat. This spring, he was studying for the entrance examination of Queen's Academy
• 5:15:49
  and stayed after school with the older pupils for extra lessons. Also, his
• 5:15:53
  evenings were so full of work that he seldom joined the others in Rainbow Valley.
• 5:15:59
  Now to be drifting away into grown up land. What is the matter
• 5:16:03
  with you all tonight? He asked? There's no fun in you? Not
• 5:16:07
  much, agreed Faith dolefully. There wouldn't be much fun in you either if
• 5:16:11
  you knew you were disgracing your father and making people talk about you. Who's
• 5:16:15
  been talking about you now? Everybody? So, Mary Vance says, and
• 5:16:19
  Faith poured out her troubles to sympathetic Jem. You see, she concluded dolefully,
• 5:16:26
  we've nobody to bring us up, and so we get into scrapes and
• 5:16:29
  people think we're bad. Why don't you just bring yourselves up, suggested Jem.
• 5:16:33
  I'll tell you what to do, form a good conduct club and punish
• 5:16:37
  yourselves every time you do anything that's not right. That's a good idea,
• 5:16:41
  said Faith, Struck by it, but she added, doubtfully, things that
• 5:16:47
  don't seem a bit of harm to us seem simply dreadful to other people.
• 5:16:51
  How can we tell we can't be bothering father all the time? And he
• 5:16:55
  has to be away a lot. Anyhow, You could mostly tell if you
• 5:16:57
  stop to think a thing over before doing it and ask yourselves what the congregation
• 5:17:02
  would say about it, said Jem. The trouble is you just rush into
• 5:17:06
  things and don't think them over it all. Mother says you're all too impulsive,
• 5:17:10
  just as she used to be. The Good Conduct Club would help you
• 5:17:14
  to think if you were fair and honest about punishing yourselves when you broke the
• 5:17:18
  rules, you'd have to punish in some way that really hurt, or it
• 5:17:22
  wouldn't do any good. Whip each other, not exactly. You'd have to
• 5:17:26
  think up different ways of punishment to suit the person. You wouldn't punish each
• 5:17:30
  other, you'd punish yourselves. I've read all about such a club in a
• 5:17:33
  story book. You try it and see how it works, let's, said
• 5:17:37
  Faith, And when Jem was gone, they agreed they would. If things
• 5:17:42
  aren't right, we just got to make them right, said Faith resolutely.
• 5:17:48
  We've got to be fair and square, as Jem says, said Jerry,
• 5:17:51
  this is a club to bring ourselves up. Seeing there's nobody else to do
• 5:17:55
  it. There's no use in having many rules. Let's just have one and
• 5:17:59
  any of us that bring it has got to be punished hard. But how
• 5:18:03
  we'll think that up as we go along. We'll hold a session of the
• 5:18:06
  club here in the graveyard every night and talk over what we've done through the
• 5:18:10
  day. And if we think we've done anything that isn't right or that would
• 5:18:12
  disgrace Dad, the one that does it or is responsible for it must be
• 5:18:17
  punished. That's the rule. We'll all decide on the kind of punishment.
• 5:18:21
  It must be made to fit the crime, as mister Flagg says, and
• 5:18:23
  the one that's guilty will be bound to carry it out. And no shirking.
• 5:18:29
  There's going to be fun in this, concluded Jerry with a relish.
• 5:18:32
  You suggested the soap bubble party, said faith. But that was before we'd
• 5:18:37
  form the club, said Jerry hastily. Everything starts from tonight. But what
• 5:18:41
  if we can't agree on what's right or what the punishment ought to be?
• 5:18:45
  S'pose two of us thought of one thing and two of another. There ought
• 5:18:48
  to be five in a club like this. We can ask jem blythe to
• 5:18:52
  be umpire. He's the squarest boy in Glens and Mary, but I guess
• 5:18:56
  we can settle our own affairs. Mostly, we want to keep this as
• 5:18:59
  much of a secret as we can. Don't breathe a word to marry Vance.
• 5:19:03
  She'd want to join and do the bringing up. I think, said
• 5:19:07
  Faith, that there's no use in spoiling every day by dragging punishments in.
• 5:19:11
  Let's have a punishment day. We'd better choose Saturday, because there's no school
• 5:19:15
  to interfere, suggested Una, and spoil the one holiday in the week,
• 5:19:19
  cried Faith, not much. No, let's take Friday. That's fish Day
• 5:19:23
  anyhow, and we all hate fish. We may as well have all the
• 5:19:26
  disagreeable things in one day. Then other days we can go ahead and have
• 5:19:30
  a good time. Nonsense, said Jerry authoritatively. Such a scheme wouldn't work
• 5:19:36
  at all. We'll just punish ourselves as we go along and keep a clear
• 5:19:40
  slate. Now we all understand, don't we, This is a good conduct
• 5:19:44
  club for the purpose of bringing ourselves up. We agree to punish ourselves for
• 5:19:48
  bad conduct, and always to stop before we do anything, no matter what,
• 5:19:52
  and ask ourselves if it is likely to hurt Dad in any way.
• 5:19:55
  And anyone who shirks is to be cast out of the club and never allowed
• 5:19:59
  to play with the rest of us at Rainbow Valley again, jem blythe to
• 5:20:02
  be umpire in case of disputes. No more taking bugs to Sunday school,
• 5:20:06
  Karl, and no more chewing gum in public, if you please, Miss
• 5:20:08
  Faith, no more making fun of elders praying or going to the Methodist prayer
• 5:20:14
  meeting, retorted Faith. Why it isn't any harm to go to the Methodist
• 5:20:18
  prayer meeting, protested Jerry in amazement. Missus Elliott says it is. She
• 5:20:22
  says, Mann's children have no business to go anywhere but to Presbyterian things.
• 5:20:26
  Darn it. I won't give up going to Methodist prayer meeting, cried Jerry.
• 5:20:30
  It's ten times more fun than ours is. You said a naughty word,
• 5:20:34
  cried Faith. Now you've got to punish yourself, not till it's all
• 5:20:38
  down in black and white. We're only talking the club over. It isn't
• 5:20:41
  really formed until we've written it out and signed it. There's got to be
• 5:20:45
  a constitution and by laws, and you know there's nothing wrong in going to
• 5:20:49
  a prayer meeting. But it's not only the wrong things we're to punish ourselves
• 5:20:55
  for, but anything that might hurt Father. It won't hurt anybody. You
• 5:21:00
  know, Missus Elliott is cracked on the subject of Methodists. Nobody else makes
• 5:21:03
  any fuss about my going. I always behave myself. You ask jem or
• 5:21:08
  Missus blythe and see what they say. I'll abide by their opinion. I'm
• 5:21:12
  going for the paper now, and I'll bring out the lantern and we'll all
• 5:21:15
  sign. Fifteen minutes later, the document was solemnly signed on Hezekiah Pollock's tombstone,
• 5:21:22
  on the center of which stood the smoky Man's lantern while the children knelt
• 5:21:26
  around it. Missus Elder Klow was going past the moment, and next day
• 5:21:30
  all the glen heard that the man's children had been having another praying competition and
• 5:21:36
  had wound it up by chasing each other all over the graves with a lantern.
• 5:21:41
  This piece of embroidery was probably suggested by the fact that after the signing
• 5:21:45
  and sealing was completed, Karl had taken the lantern and had walked circumspectully to
• 5:21:49
  the little hollow to examine his ant hill. The others had gone quietly into
• 5:21:53
  the man sent to bed. Do you think it is true that father is
• 5:21:57
  going to marry Miss West Una had tremulously asked of faith after their prayers had
• 5:22:03
  been said. I don't know, but i'd like it, said Faith.
• 5:22:06
  Oh, I wouldn't, said Una chokingly. She's nice the way she is.
• 5:22:11
  But Mary Vance says it changes people all together to be made stepmothers.
• 5:22:15
  They get horrid, cross and mean and hateful, then and turn your father
• 5:22:19
  against you. She says they're sure to do that. She never knew it
• 5:22:22
  to fail in a single case. I don't believe miss west would ever try
• 5:22:27
  to do that, cried Faith. Mary says, anybody would. She knows
• 5:22:32
  all about stepmother's faith. She says, she's seen hundreds of them, and
• 5:22:36
  you've never seen one. Oh. Mary has told me blood curdling things about
• 5:22:41
  them. She says she knew of one who whipped her husband's little girls on
• 5:22:44
  their bare shoulders till they bled, and then shut them up in a cold,
• 5:22:48
  dark coal cellar all night. She says, they're all aching to do
• 5:22:52
  things like that. I don't believe miss Westwood. You don't know her as
• 5:22:56
  well as I do. Una. Just think of that sweet little bird,
• 5:22:59
  she said me. I love it far more than even Adam. It's just
• 5:23:03
  being as stepmother changes them. Mary says they can't help it. I wouldn't
• 5:23:07
  mind the whippings as much as having father hate us. You know, nothing
• 5:23:12
  could make father hate us. Don't be silly, Una, I dare say,
• 5:23:15
  there's nothing to worry over. Likely if we run our club bright and
• 5:23:19
  bring ourselves up properly, Father won't even think of marrying any one. And
• 5:23:23
  if he does, I know Miss West will be lovely to us. But
• 5:23:27
  Una had no such conviction, and she cried herself to sleep. End of
• 5:23:33
  chapter twenty three. Chapter twenty four, A charitable impulse for a fortnight.
• 5:23:40
  Things ran smoothly in the Good Conduct Club. It seemed to work admirably.
• 5:23:44
  Not once was jem blythe called in as an umpire. Not once did any
• 5:23:48
  of the man's children set the glen gossips by the ears. As for their
• 5:23:52
  minor peccadillos at home, they kept sharp tabs on each other and gamely underwent
• 5:23:57
  their self imposed punishment, generally a voluntary absence from some gay Friday night frolic
• 5:24:03
  in Rainbow Valley, or a sojourn in bed on some spring evening when all
• 5:24:07
  young bones ached to be out and away faith for whispering in Sunday school condemned
• 5:24:12
  herself to pass a whole day without speaking a single word unless it was absolutely
• 5:24:18
  necessary, and accomplished it. It was rather unfortunate that mister Baker from over
• 5:24:22
  Harbor should have chosen that evening for calling at the manse, and that Faith
• 5:24:26
  should have happened to go to the door. Not one word did she reply
• 5:24:30
  to his genial greeting, but went silently away to call her father. Briefly.
• 5:24:34
  Mister Baker was slightly offended and told his wife when he went home that
• 5:24:38
  the biggest Meredith girl seemed a very shy, sulky little thing, without manners
• 5:24:44
  enough to speak when she was spoken to. But nothing worse came of it,
• 5:24:48
  and generally their penances did no harm to themselves or anybody else. All
• 5:24:52
  of them were beginning to feel quite cocksure that, after all, it was
• 5:24:56
  a very easy matter to bring yourself up. I guess people will soon see
• 5:25:00
  that we can behave ourselves properly as well as anybody, said Faith jubilantly,
• 5:25:04
  It isn't hard when we put our minds to it. She and Una were
• 5:25:08
  sitting on the Pollock tombstone. It had been a cold, raw wet day
• 5:25:12
  of spring's storm and Rainbow Valley was out of the question for girls, though
• 5:25:17
  the Manse and the Ingleside boys were down there fishing. The rain had held
• 5:25:21
  up, but the east wind blew mercilessly in from the sea, cutting to
• 5:25:25
  bone and marrow. Spring was late, in spite of its early promise,
• 5:25:30
  and there was even yet a hard drift of old snow and ice in the
• 5:25:33
  northern corner of the graveyard. Lyda Marsh, who had come up to bring
• 5:25:37
  the Manse a mess of herring, slipped in through the gates, shivering.
• 5:25:41
  She belonged to the fishing village at the harbor mouth, and her father had
• 5:25:45
  for thirty years made a practice of sending a mess from his first spring catch
• 5:25:48
  to the Manse. He never darkened a church door. He was a hard
• 5:25:52
  drinker and a reckless man, But as long as he sent those herrying up
• 5:25:56
  to the Manse every spring, as his father had done before him, he
• 5:26:00
  felt comfortably sure that his account with the powers that govern was squared for the
• 5:26:03
  year. He would not have expected a good mackerel catch if he had not
• 5:26:07
  sent the first fruits of the season. Lida was a mite of ten and
• 5:26:11
  looked younger because she was such a small, wizened little creature to night.
• 5:26:17
  As she sidled boldly enough up to the man's girls, she looked as if
• 5:26:21
  she had never been warm since she was born. Her face was purple,
• 5:26:23
  and her pale blue, bold little eyes were red and watery. She wore
• 5:26:27
  a tattered print dress and a ragged woolen comforter tied across her thin shoulders and
• 5:26:33
  under her arms. She had walked the three miles from the harbor mouth barefooted,
• 5:26:37
  over a road where there was still snow and slush and mud. Her
• 5:26:41
  feet and legs were as purple as her face, but Lida did not mind
• 5:26:45
  this much. She was used to being cold, and she had been going
• 5:26:48
  barefooted for a month already. Like all the other swarming young fry of the
• 5:26:52
  fishing village, there was no self pity in her heart as she sat down
• 5:26:56
  on the tombstone and grinned cheerfully at Faith and Una. And Una grinned cheerfully
• 5:27:00
  back. They knew Lida slightly, having met her once or twice the preceding
• 5:27:04
  summer, when they had gone down the harbor with the blythes. Hullo said,
• 5:27:08
  Lida, ain't this a fierce kind of night? Tain't fit for a
• 5:27:12
  dog to be out, is it? Then? Why are you out?
• 5:27:15
  Asked Faith, Pa made me bring you up some herring, returned Lida.
• 5:27:21
  She shivered, coughed, and stuck out her bare feet. Lida was not
• 5:27:25
  thinking about herself or her feet, and was making no bid for sympathy.
• 5:27:29
  She held her feet out instinctively to keep them from the wet grass around the
• 5:27:33
  tombstone. But Faith and Una were instantly swamped with a wave of pity for
• 5:27:37
  her. She looked so cold, so miserable. Oh why are you barefooted
• 5:27:41
  on such a cold night, cried Faith. Your feet must be almost frozen
• 5:27:47
  pretty near, said Lida proudly. I tell you it was fierce walkin' up
• 5:27:51
  that harbor road. Why didn't you put on your shoes and stockings? Asked
• 5:27:55
  Una. Hain't none to put on. All I had was wore out by
• 5:27:57
  the time winter was over, said Lida indifferently. For a moment, Faith
• 5:28:03
  stared in horror. This was terrible. Here was a little girl, almost
• 5:28:07
  a neighbor, half frozen because she had no shoes or stockings in this cruel
• 5:28:12
  spring weather. Impulsive Faith thought of nothing but the dreadfulness of it. In
• 5:28:18
  a moment, she was pulling off her own shoes and stockings. Here,
• 5:28:22
  take these and put them right on, she said, forcing them into the
• 5:28:25
  hands of the astonished Lida. Quick, now you'll catch your death of cold.
• 5:28:29
  I've got others. Put them right on. Lida, recovering her wits,
• 5:28:33
  snatched at the offered gift with a sparkle in her dull eyes. Sure
• 5:28:37
  she would put them on, and that mighty quick, before any one appeared
• 5:28:41
  with authority to recall them. In a minute, she had pulled the stockings
• 5:28:45
  over her scrawny little legs and slipped Faith's shoes over her thick little ankles.
• 5:28:48
  I'm obliged to you, she said. But won't you folks be cross?
• 5:28:52
  No, and I don't care if they are, said Faith. Do you
• 5:28:56
  think I could see anyone freezing to death without helping them? If I could,
• 5:29:00
  it wouldn't be right, especially when my father's a minister. Will you
• 5:29:03
  want them back? It's awful cold down at the harbor mouth, long after
• 5:29:07
  it's warm up here, said Lila, slyly. No, you're to keep
• 5:29:10
  them, of course, that is what I meant when I gave them.
• 5:29:12
  I have another pair of shoes and plenty of stockings. Lida had meant to
• 5:29:17
  stay awhile and talk to the girls about many things, but now she thought
• 5:29:21
  she had better get away before somebody came and made her yield up her booty.
• 5:29:26
  So she shuffled off through the bitter twilight in the noiseless, shadowy way
• 5:29:30
  she had slipped in. As soon as she was out of sight of the
• 5:29:33
  Man's she sat down, took off the shoes and stockings, and put them
• 5:29:36
  in her herring basket. She had no intention of keeping them on down that
• 5:29:40
  dirty harbor road. They were to be kept good for gala occasions. Not
• 5:29:45
  another little girl down at the harbor mouth had such fine black cashmere stockings and
• 5:29:49
  such smart, almost new shoes. Liida was furnished forth for the summer.
• 5:29:55
  She had no qualms in the matter. In her eyes, the Man's people
• 5:29:59
  were quite fabulous rich, and no doubt those girls had slathers of shoes and
• 5:30:03
  stockings. Then Lyda ran down to the glen village and played for an hour
• 5:30:07
  with the boys before mister Flagg's store, splashing about in a pool of slush
• 5:30:11
  with the maddest of them, until missus Elliot came along and bade her be
• 5:30:15
  gone. Home. I don't think faith that you should have done that,
• 5:30:18
  said Una, a little reproachfully, after Lida had gone. You'll have to
• 5:30:22
  wear your good boots every day now, and they'll soon scuff out. I
• 5:30:26
  don't care, cried Faith, still in the fine glow of having done a
• 5:30:30
  kindness to a fellow creature. It isn't fair that I should have two pairs
• 5:30:33
  of shoes, and poor little Lida Marsh not have any. Now we both
• 5:30:38
  have a pair. You know perfectly well, Una, that father said in
• 5:30:41
  his sermon last Sunday that there was no real happiness in getting or having,
• 5:30:47
  only in giving. And it's true. I feel far happier now than I
• 5:30:51
  ever did in my whole life before. Just think of Lida walking home this
• 5:30:56
  very minute, with her poor little feet, all nice and warm and comfy.
• 5:31:00
  You know you haven't another pair of black cashmere stockings, said Una.
• 5:31:04
  Your other pair were so full of holes that Aunt Martha said she couldn't darn
• 5:31:07
  them anymore, and she cut the legs up for stove dusters. You've nothing
• 5:31:11
  but those two pairs of striped stockings you hate, so all the glow and
• 5:31:17
  uplift went out of faith her gladness collapsed like a pricked balloon. She sat
• 5:31:22
  for a few dismal minutes in silence, facing the consequences of her rash act.
• 5:31:26
  Oh Una, I never thought of that, she said dolefully. I
• 5:31:30
  didn't stop to think at all. The striped stockings were thick, heavy,
• 5:31:36
  coarse ribbed stockings of blue and red, which Aunt Martha had knit for Faith
• 5:31:40
  in the winter. They were undoubtedly hideous. Faith loathed them, as she
• 5:31:45
  had never loathed anything before. Wear them she certainly would not. They were
• 5:31:49
  still unworn in her bureau drawer. You'll have to wear the striped stockings after
• 5:31:55
  this, said Una. Just think how the boys in school will laugh at
• 5:31:59
  you. You know how they laugh at Maimie Warren for her striped stockings and
• 5:32:03
  call her barber pole, And yours are far worse. I won't wear them,
• 5:32:07
  said Faith. I'll go barefooted first, cold as it is. You
• 5:32:11
  can't go barefooted to church tomorrow. Think what people would say. Then I'll
• 5:32:15
  stay home. You can't. You know very well, Aunt Martha will make
• 5:32:19
  you go. Faith did know this. The one thing on which Aunt Martha
• 5:32:25
  troubled herself to insist was that they must all go to church rain or shine.
• 5:32:30
  How they were dressed, or if they were dressed at all, never
• 5:32:32
  concerned her. But go they must. That was how Aunt Martha had been
• 5:32:37
  brought up seventy years ago, and that was how she meant to bring them
• 5:32:40
  up. Haven't you got a pair you can lend me, Una said poor
• 5:32:44
  Faith piteously. Una shook her head. No, you know, I only
• 5:32:48
  have the one black pear, and they're so tight I can hardly get them
• 5:32:52
  on. They wouldn't go on you. Neither would my gray ones. Besides,
• 5:32:56
  the legs of them are all darned and darned. I won't wear those
• 5:33:00
  striped stockings, said Faith stubbornly. The feel of them is even worse than
• 5:33:06
  the looks. They make me feel as if my legs were as big as
• 5:33:08
  barrels, and they're so scratchy. Well, I don't know what you're going
• 5:33:12
  to do. If father was home, i'd go and ask him to get
• 5:33:15
  me a new pair before the store closes, But he won't be home till
• 5:33:19
  too late. I'll ask him Monday, and I won't go to church tomorrow.
• 5:33:23
  I'll pretend I'm sick and Aunt Martha'll have to let me stay home.
• 5:33:27
  That would be acting a live Faith cried Una. You can't do that.
• 5:33:32
  You know it would be dreadful. What would father say if he knew.
• 5:33:36
  Don't you remember how we talked to us after mother died and told us we
• 5:33:38
  must always be true, no matter what else we failed in. He said
• 5:33:42
  we must never tell or act a lie. He said he'd trust us not
• 5:33:47
  to. You can't do it, Faith, Just wear the striped stockings.
• 5:33:51
  It'll lonely be for once. Nobody'll notice them in church. It isn't like
• 5:33:55
  school. And your new brown dress is so long they won't show much,
• 5:34:00
  isn't it Lucky? Aunt Martha made it big so you'd have room to grow
• 5:34:03
  in for all you hated it so when she finished it, I won't wear
• 5:34:06
  those stockings, repeated Faith. She uncoiled her bare white legs from the tombstone
• 5:34:11
  and deliberately walked through the wet, cold grass to the bank of snow,
• 5:34:15
  setting her teeth. She stepped upon it and stood there. What are you
• 5:34:19
  doing, cried Una, aghast you'll catch your death of cold. Faith,
• 5:34:23
  Meredith, I'm trying to, answered Faith. I hope I'll catch a fearful
• 5:34:29
  cold and be awful sick tomorrow. Then I won't be acting a lie.
• 5:34:33
  I'm going to stand here as long as I can bear it. But Faith,
• 5:34:37
  you might really die. You might get pneumonia. Please Faith, don't.
• 5:34:41
  Let's go into the house and get something for your feet. Oh here's
• 5:34:45
  Jerry. I'm so thankful, Jerry. Make Faith get off that snow.
• 5:34:48
  Look at her feet. Holy cats, Faith, what are you doing?
• 5:34:52
  Demanded Jerry, are you crazy? No? Go away, snapped Faith.
• 5:34:57
  Then are you punishing yourself for something? It isn't right. If you are,
• 5:35:00
  you'll be sick. I want to be sick. I'm not punishing myself.
• 5:35:04
  Go away. Where's her shoes and stockings, asked Jerry of Una.
• 5:35:08
  She gave them to light a marsh light to marsh what for? Because Lida
• 5:35:14
  had none and her feet were so cold. And now she wants to be
• 5:35:17
  sick so that she won't have to go to church tomorrow and wear her striped
• 5:35:19
  stockings. But Jerry, she may die, Faith said, Jerry, get
• 5:35:25
  off that ice bank, or I'll pull you off. Pull away, dared
• 5:35:29
  Faith. Jerry sprang at her and caught her arms. He pulled one way,
• 5:35:33
  and Faith pulled another. Una ran behind Faith and pushed Faith stormed at
• 5:35:38
  Jerry to leave her alone. Jerry stormed back at her not to be a
• 5:35:41
  dizzy idiot, and Una cried. They made no end of noise, and
• 5:35:47
  they were close to the road fence of the graveyard. Henry Warren and his
• 5:35:49
  wife drove by and heard and saw them. Very soon the glen heard that
• 5:35:53
  the man's children had been having an awful fight in the graveyard and using the
• 5:35:57
  most improper language. Meanwhile, Faith had allowed herself to be pulled off the
• 5:36:03
  ice because her feet were aching so sharply that she was ready to get off
• 5:36:07
  anyway. They all went in amiably and went to bed. Faith slept like
• 5:36:11
  a cherub and woke in the morning without a trace of a cold. She
• 5:36:15
  felt that she couldn't feign sickness and act a lie after remembering that long ago
• 5:36:18
  talk with her father. But she was still as fully determined as ever that
• 5:36:23
  she would not wear those abominable stockings to church. End of chapter twenty four.
• 5:36:30
  Chapter twenty five, another scandal and another explanation. Faith went early to
• 5:36:36
  Sunday school and was seated in the corner of her class pew before anyone came.
• 5:36:40
  Therefore, the dreadful truth did not burst upon anyone until Faith left the
• 5:36:44
  class pew near the door to walk up to the man's pew. After Sunday
• 5:36:48
  school, the church was already half filled, and all who were sitting near
• 5:36:52
  the aisle saw that the minister's daughter had boots on but no stockings. Faith's
• 5:36:57
  new brown dress, which Aunt Martha had made from an ancient pattern, was
• 5:37:02
  absurdly long for her, but even so it did not meet her boot tops.
• 5:37:07
  Two good inches of bare white leg showed plainly. Faith and Karl sat
• 5:37:11
  alone in the man's pew. Jerry had gone into the gallery to sit with
• 5:37:15
  a chum, and the Blithe girls had taken Una with them. The Meredith
• 5:37:19
  children were given to sitting all over the church in this fashion, and a
• 5:37:23
  great many people thought it very improper. The gallery, especially where irresponsible lads
• 5:37:29
  congregated and were known to whisper and suspected of chewing tobacco during service, was
• 5:37:33
  no place for a son of the manse. But Jerry hated the man's pew
• 5:37:37
  at the very top of the church, under the eyes of Elder Klow and
• 5:37:41
  his family. He escaped from it whenever he could. Karl, absorbed in
• 5:37:45
  watching a spider spinning its web at the window did not notice Faith's legs.
• 5:37:51
  She walked home with her father after church and he never noticed them. She
• 5:37:55
  got on the hated striped stockings before Jerry and Una arrived, so that for
• 5:37:59
  the time being none of the occupants of the manse knew what she had done,
• 5:38:03
  but nobody else in glensent Mary was ignorant of it. The few who
• 5:38:07
  had not seen soon heard. Nothing else was talked of. On the way
• 5:38:11
  home from church, missus Alec Davis said it was only what she expected,
• 5:38:15
  and the next thing you would see some of those young ones coming to church
• 5:38:18
  with no clothes on at all. The president of the Ladies ad decided that
• 5:38:22
  she would bring the matter up at the next aid meeting and suggests that they
• 5:38:26
  wait in a body on the minister and protest. Miss Cornelia said that she,
• 5:38:30
  for her part, gave up. There was no use worrying over the
• 5:38:33
  man's fry any longer. Even Missus Doctor Blythe felt a little shocked, though
• 5:38:38
  she attributed the occurrence solely to fate's forgetfulness. Susan could not immediately begin knitting
• 5:38:44
  stockings for Faith because it was Sunday, but she had once set up before
• 5:38:48
  any one else was out of bed at Ingleside the next morning. You need
• 5:38:51
  not tell me anything but that it was old Martha's fault, Missus doctor dear,
• 5:38:55
  She told Anne. I suppose that poor little child had no decent stockings
• 5:38:59
  to wear. I suppose every stocking she had was in holes, as you
• 5:39:02
  know very well they generally are. And I think, missus doctor Dear,
• 5:39:06
  that the lady's aid would be better employed in knitting some for them than in
• 5:39:10
  fighting over the new carpet for the pulpit platform. I am not a lady's
• 5:39:14
  aider, but I shall knit faith two pairs of stockings out of this nice
• 5:39:18
  black yarn as fast as my fingers can move, and that you may tie
• 5:39:22
  to. Never shall I forget my sensations, missus doctor Dear. When I
• 5:39:25
  saw a minister's child walking up the aisle of our church with no stockings on,
• 5:39:30
  I really did not know what way to look. And the church was
• 5:39:33
  just full of Methodists. Yesterday too, groaned Miss Cornelia, who had come
• 5:39:37
  up to the glen to do some shopping and run into Inglesy to talk the
• 5:39:41
  affair over. I don't know how it is, but just as sure as
• 5:39:45
  those man's children do something especially awful. The church is sure to be crowded
• 5:39:51
  with Methodists. I thought missus Deacon Hazzard's eyes would drop out of her head.
• 5:39:56
  When she came out of church. She said, well, that exhibition
• 5:39:59
  was no more than decent. I do pity the Presbyterians, and we just
• 5:40:03
  had to take it. There was nothing one could say. There was something
• 5:40:07
  I could have said, Missus doctor dear. If I had heard her,
• 5:40:11
  said Susan grimly, I would have said, for one thing, that,
• 5:40:14
  in my opinion, clean bare legs were quite as decent as holes. And
• 5:40:18
  I would have said, for another that the Presbyterians did not feel greatly in
• 5:40:22
  need of pity, seeing that they had a minister who could preach, and
• 5:40:25
  the Methodists had not. I could have quelched, Missus Deacon Hazard, Missus
• 5:40:29
  doctor Dear, and that you may tie to I wish mister Meredith didn't preach
• 5:40:33
  quite so well and looked after his family a little better, retorted Miss Cornelia.
• 5:40:38
  He could at least glance over his children before they went to church and
• 5:40:41
  see that they were properly clothed. I'm tired of making excuses for him,
• 5:40:47
  believe me. Meanwhile, Faith's soul was being harrowed up in Rainbow Valley.
• 5:40:52
  Mary Vance was there, and as usual, in a lecturing mood, she
• 5:40:56
  gave Faith to understand that she had disgraced herself and her father beyond redemption,
• 5:41:02
  and that she Mary Vance was done with her. Everybody was talking, and
• 5:41:06
  everybody said the same thing. I simply feel that I can't associate with you
• 5:41:11
  any longer. She concluded, We are going to associate with her, then
• 5:41:15
  cried Nan blithe Nan secretly thought Faith had done an awful thing, but she
• 5:41:19
  wasn't going to let Mary Vance run matters in this high handed fashion. And
• 5:41:25
  if you are not, you needn't come any more to Rainbow Valley. Miss
• 5:41:27
  Vance, Nan and I both put their arms around Faith and glared defiance at
• 5:41:33
  Mary. The latter suddenly crumpled up, sat down on a stump, and
• 5:41:37
  began to cry. It ain't that I don't want to, she wailed,
• 5:41:41
  But if I keep in with Faith, people will be saying I put her
• 5:41:44
  up to doing things. Some are sayin' it now true as you live,
• 5:41:48
  I can't afford to have such things said of me now that I'm in a
• 5:41:51
  respectable place in tryin to be a lady. And I never went bare legged
• 5:41:55
  in church in my toughest days. I never a thought O doin such a
• 5:41:59
  thing, But that hateful old kitty, Alec says, Faith has never been
• 5:42:02
  the same girl since that time I stayed in the manse, She says,
• 5:42:06
  Cornelia Elliott will live to rue the day she took me in. It hurts
• 5:42:08
  my feelings, i'd tell you, but it's mister Meredith, I'm really worried
• 5:42:12
  over. I think you needn't worry about him, said Die scornfully. It
• 5:42:18
  isn't likely necessary now, Faith, darling, stop crying and tell us why
• 5:42:22
  you did it, Faith explained tearfully. The blithe girl sympathized with her,
• 5:42:27
  and even Mary Vance agreed that it was a hard position to be in.
• 5:42:32
  But Jerry, on whom the thing came like a thunderbolt, refused to be
• 5:42:37
  placated. So this was what some mysterious hints he had got in school that
• 5:42:41
  day meant. He marched Faith and Una home without ceremony, and the Good
• 5:42:45
  Conduct Club held an immediate session in the graveyard to sit in judgment on Faith's
• 5:42:49
  case. I don't see that it was any harm, said Faith defiantly.
• 5:42:55
  Not much of my legs showed it wasn't wrong, and it didn't hurt anybody.
• 5:42:59
  It will hurt Dad, you know it will. You know, people
• 5:43:03
  blame him whenever we do anything queer. I didn't think of that, muttered
• 5:43:07
  Faith. That's just the trouble. You didn't think, and you should have
• 5:43:10
  thought. That's what our club is for, to bring us up and make
• 5:43:14
  us think. We promised we'd always stop and think before doing things. You
• 5:43:18
  didn't. And you've got to be punished, Faith, and real hard too.
• 5:43:22
  You'll wear those striped socks to school for a week for punishment. Oh,
• 5:43:26
  Jerry won a day? Do two days? Not a whole week?
• 5:43:30
  Yes, a whole week, said inexorable Jerry. It is fair, ask
• 5:43:36
  jem Blythe if it isn't, Faith felt. She would rather submit than ask
• 5:43:40
  jem Blythe about such a matter. She was beginning to realize that her offense
• 5:43:44
  was quite a shameful one. I'll do it, then, she muttered a
• 5:43:48
  little sulkily. You're getting off easy, said Jerry severely. And no matter
• 5:43:52
  how we punish you, it won't help father. People will always think you
• 5:43:56
  just did it for mischief, and they'll blame Father for not stopping it.
• 5:44:00
  We can never explain it to everybody. This aspect of the case weighed on
• 5:44:04
  Faith's mind. Her own condemnation she could bear, but it tortured her that
• 5:44:08
  her father should be blamed. If people knew the true facts of the case,
• 5:44:14
  they would not blame him. But how could she make them known to
• 5:44:17
  all the world? Getting up in church as she had once done and explaining
• 5:44:21
  the matter was out of the question. Faith had heard from Mary Vance how
• 5:44:23
  the congregation had looked upon that performance and realized that she must not repeat it.
• 5:44:29
  Faith worried over the problem for half a week. Then she had an
• 5:44:33
  inspiration and promptly acted upon it. She spent that evening in the garret with
• 5:44:37
  a lamp and an exercise book, writing busily with flushed cheeks and shining eyes.
• 5:44:42
  It was the very thing, how clever she was to have thought of
• 5:44:45
  it. It would put everything right and explain everything, and yet cause no
• 5:44:49
  scandal. It was eleven o'clock when she had finished to her satisfaction, and
• 5:44:55
  crept down to bed, dreadfully tired but perfectly happy. In a few two
• 5:45:00
  days, the little weekly published in the Glen under the name of the Journal,
• 5:45:03
  came out as usual, and the Glen had another sensation. A letter
• 5:45:07
  signed Faith Meredith occupied a prominent place on the front page and ran as follows,
• 5:45:14
  to whom it may concern, I want to explain to everybody how it
• 5:45:18
  was I came to go to church without stockings on, so that everybody will
• 5:45:21
  know that Father was not to blame one bit for it. And the old
• 5:45:25
  gossips need not say he is, because it is not true. I gave
• 5:45:29
  my only pair of black stockings to light a marsh because she hadn't any,
• 5:45:32
  and her poor little feet were awful cold, and I was so sorry for
• 5:45:36
  her. No child ought to have to go without shoes and stockings in a
• 5:45:38
  Christian community before the snow is all gone. And I think the w f
• 5:45:42
  M s ought to have given her stockings. Of course, I know they
• 5:45:47
  are sending things to the little heathen children, and that is all right and
• 5:45:49
  a kind thing to do. But the little heathen children have lots more warm
• 5:45:53
  weather than we have, and I think the women of our church ought to
• 5:45:56
  look after Lida and not leave it all to me. When I gave her
• 5:46:00
  my stockings, I forgot they were the only black pear I had without holes.
• 5:46:04
  But I'm glad I did give them to her, because my conscience would
• 5:46:07
  have been uncomfortable if I hadn't. When she had gone away looking so proud
• 5:46:11
  and happy, the poor little thing, I remembered that all I had to
• 5:46:15
  wear were the horrid red and blue things Aunt Martha and at last winter for
• 5:46:18
  me out of some yarn that Missus Joseph Burr of Upper Glen sent us.
• 5:46:22
  It was dreadfully coarse yarn and all knots, and I never saw any of
• 5:46:26
  Missus Burr's own children wearing things made of such yarn. But Mary Vance says
• 5:46:30
  Missus Burr gives the minister stuff that she can't use or eat herself, and
• 5:46:34
  thinks it ought to go as part of the salary her husband signed to pay,
• 5:46:37
  but never does. I just couldn't bear to wear those hateful stockings.
• 5:46:41
  They were so ugly and rough and felt so scratchy. Everybody would have made
• 5:46:47
  fun of me. I thought at first I'd pretend to be sick and just
• 5:46:49
  not go to church next day, But I decided I couldn't do that because
• 5:46:53
  it would be acting a lie. And father told us after mother died,
• 5:46:56
  that was something we must never never do. It. It is just as
• 5:47:00
  bad to act a lize to tell one though I know some people right here
• 5:47:03
  in the glen who act them and never seem to feel a bit bad about
• 5:47:07
  it. I will not mention any names, but I know who they are,
• 5:47:10
  and so does Father. Then I tried my best to catch cold and
• 5:47:14
  really be sick by standing on the snow bank in the Methodist graveyard with my
• 5:47:17
  bare feet until Jerry pulled me off. But it didn't hurt me a bit,
• 5:47:21
  and so I couldn't get out of going to church, so I just
• 5:47:23
  decided I would put my boots on and go that way. I can't see
• 5:47:27
  why it was so wrong, and I was so careful to wash my legs
• 5:47:30
  just as clean as my face. But anyway, Father wasn't to blame for
• 5:47:33
  it. He was in the study thinking of his sermon and other heavenly things,
• 5:47:37
  and I kept out of his way before I went to Sunday school.
• 5:47:41
  Father does not look at people's legs in church, so of course he did
• 5:47:44
  not notice mine, but all the gossips did and talked about it. And
• 5:47:48
  that is why I'm writing this letter to the journal to explain. I suppose
• 5:47:52
  I did very wrong, since everybody says so, and I am sorry.
• 5:47:55
  And I am wearing those awful stockings to punish myself, although Father bought me
• 5:47:59
  two nice black pears as soon as mister Flagg's doore opened on Monday morning.
• 5:48:03
  But it was all my fault. And if people blame Father for it after
• 5:48:07
  they read this, they are not Christians, and so I do not mind
• 5:48:10
  what they say. There is another thing I want to explain about before I
• 5:48:14
  stop. Mary Vance told me that mister Evan Boyd is blaming the low Baxters
• 5:48:18
  for stealing potatoes out of his field last fall. They did not touch his
• 5:48:22
  potatoes. They are very poor, but they are honest. It was us,
• 5:48:26
  did it, Jerry and Karl and I Una was not with us at
• 5:48:30
  the time. We never thought it was stealing. We just wanted a few
• 5:48:33
  potatoes to cook over a fire in Rainbow Valley one evening to eat with our
• 5:48:37
  fried trout. Mister Boyd's field was the nearest, just between the valley and
• 5:48:41
  the village, so we climbed over his fence and pulled up some stalks.
• 5:48:45
  The potatoes were awfully small because mister Boyd did not put enough fertilizer on them,
• 5:48:49
  and we had to pull up a lot of stalks before we got enough,
• 5:48:52
  and then they were not much bigger than Marble's. Walter and I blithe
• 5:48:56
  helped us eat them, but they did not come along until we had them
• 5:49:00
  cooked, and did not know where we got them, so they were not
• 5:49:02
  to blame at all, only us. We didn't mean any harm, but
• 5:49:06
  if it was stealing, we are very sorry, and we will pay mister
• 5:49:08
  Boyd for them if you will wait until we grow up. We never have
• 5:49:11
  any money now because we are not big enough to earn any. And Aunt
• 5:49:15
  Martha says it takes every cent of poor father's salary, even when it is
• 5:49:18
  paid up regularly, and it isn't often to run this house. But mister
• 5:49:22
  Boyd must not blame the lou Baxters anymore when they were quite innocent, and
• 5:49:26
  give them a bad name. Yours respectfully, Faith Meredith. End of chapter
• 5:49:33
  twenty five. Chapter twenty six, Miss Cornelia gets a new point of view.
• 5:49:38
  Susan, after I'm dead, I'm going to come back to Worth every
• 5:49:41
  time when the daffodils blow in this garden, said Anne rapturously. Nobody may
• 5:49:47
  see me, but I'll be here if anybody is in the garden at the
• 5:49:49
  time. I think I'll come on an evening just like this. But it
• 5:49:53
  might be just at dawn, a lovely, pale, pinky spring dawn.
• 5:49:57
  They'll just see the daffodils nodding wildly, as if an extra gust of wind
• 5:50:00
  had blown past them. But it will be I indeed, missus doctor dear,
• 5:50:06
  you will not be thinking of flaunting worldly things like Daffy's after you are
• 5:50:10
  dead, said Susan. And I do not believe in ghosts, seen or
• 5:50:12
  unseen, Oh, Susan, I shall not be a ghost that has a
• 5:50:17
  horrible sound. I shall just be me, and I shall run around in
• 5:50:21
  the twilight, whether it is morn or eve, and see all the spots
• 5:50:23
  I love. Do you remember how badly I felt when I left our little
• 5:50:27
  house of dreams, Susan. I thought I could never love Ingleside so well.
• 5:50:33
  But I do. I love every inch of the ground and every stick
• 5:50:36
  and stone on it. I am rather fond of the place myself, said
• 5:50:40
  Susan, who would have died if she had been removed from it. But
• 5:50:44
  we must not set our affections too much on earthly things, missus, doctor
• 5:50:47
  dear. There are such things as fires and earthquakes, we should always be
• 5:50:51
  prepared. That Tom mc callisters over Harbor were burned out three nights ago.
• 5:50:56
  Some say Tom mc callister set the house on fire himself to get the insurance.
• 5:51:00
  May or may not be. But I advise the doctor to have our
• 5:51:03
  chimneys seen to it once. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
• 5:51:07
  cure. But I see missus Marshall Elliot coming in at the gate, looking
• 5:51:10
  as if she had been sent for and couldn't go. Anne, dearie,
• 5:51:14
  have you seen the journal to day? Miss Cornelia's voice was trembling, partly
• 5:51:18
  from emotion, partly from the fact that she had hurried up from the store
• 5:51:22
  too fast and lost her breath. Anne bent over the daffodils to hide a
• 5:51:26
  smile. She and Gilbert had laughed heartily and heartlessly over the front page of
• 5:51:30
  the journal that day. But she knew that to dear Miss Cornelia it was
• 5:51:33
  almost a tragedy, and she must not wound her feelings by any display of
• 5:51:38
  levity. Isn't it dreadful? What is to be done? Asked Miss Cornelia
• 5:51:44
  despairingly. Miss Cornelia had vowed that she was done with worrying over the pranks
• 5:51:48
  of the man's children, but she went on worrying just the same. Anne
• 5:51:52
  led the way to the verandah, where Susan was knitting, with Shirley and
• 5:51:56
  Rilla conning their primers on either side. Susan was already on her second pair
• 5:52:00
  of stockings for faith. Susan never worried over poor humanity. She did what
• 5:52:06
  in her lay for its betterment, and serenely left the rest of the higher
• 5:52:10
  powers. Cornelia Elliott thinks she was born to run this world, missus doctor
• 5:52:14
  dear, she had once said to Anne. And so she is always in
• 5:52:18
  a stew over something I have never thought that I was, And so I
• 5:52:22
  go calmly along. Not but what It has sometimes occurred to me that things
• 5:52:26
  might be run a little better than they are. But it is not for
• 5:52:29
  us, poor worms, to nourish such thoughts. They only make us uncomfortable
• 5:52:33
  and do not get us anywhere. I don't see that anything can be done
• 5:52:37
  now, said Anne, pulling out a nice cushiony chair for miss Cornelia.
• 5:52:41
  But how in the world did mister Vickers allow that letter to be printed?
• 5:52:45
  Surely he should have known better. Why he's away, Anne, dearie,
• 5:52:48
  He's been away to New Brunswick for a week, and that young scallywag of
• 5:52:52
  a Joe Vickers is editing the journal in his absence. Of course, mister
• 5:52:56
  Vickers would never have put it in, even if he is a Methodist.
• 5:53:00
  But Joe would just think it a good joke. As you say, I
• 5:53:03
  don't suppose there is anything to be done now, only live it down.
• 5:53:07
  But if I ever get Joe Vickers cornered somewhere, I'll give him a talking
• 5:53:11
  to. He won't forget in a hurry. I wanted Marshal to stop our
• 5:53:15
  subscription to the journal instantly, but he only laughed and said that to day's
• 5:53:18
  issue was the only one that had had anything readable in it for a year.
• 5:53:22
  Marshall never will take anything seriously, just like a man. Fortunately,
• 5:53:26
  Evan Boyd is like that too. He takes it as a joke and is
• 5:53:30
  laughing all over the place about it, and he's another Methodist. As for
• 5:53:34
  Missus Burr of Upper Glen, of course she will be furious and they will
• 5:53:38
  leave the church. Not that it will be a great loss from my point
• 5:53:41
  of view. The Methodists are quite welcome to them. It served Missus Burr
• 5:53:45
  Wright, said Susan, who had an old feud with the lady in question,
• 5:53:49
  and had been hugely tickled over the reference to her in Faith's letter.
• 5:53:53
  She will find that you will not be able to cheat the Methodist parson out
• 5:53:56
  of his salary with bad yarn. The worst of it is, there is
• 5:54:02
  not much hope of things getting any better, said Miss Cornelia gloomily. As
• 5:54:06
  long as mister Meridith was going to see Rosemary West, I did hope the
• 5:54:10
  manse would soon have a proper mistress. But that is all off. I
• 5:54:14
  suppose she wouldn't have him on account of the children, at least everybody seems
• 5:54:18
  to think so. I do not believe that he ever asked her, said
• 5:54:22
  Susan, who could not conceive of any one refusing a minister. Well,
• 5:54:25
  nobody knows anything about that, but one thing is certain. He doesn't go
• 5:54:30
  there any longer. And Rosemary didn't look well all the spring. I hope
• 5:54:33
  her visit to Kingsport will do her good. She's been gone for a month
• 5:54:37
  and will stay another month. I understand. I can't remember when Rosemary was
• 5:54:41
  away from home before. She and Ellen could never bear to be parted,
• 5:54:45
  but I understand Ellen insisted on her going this time, and meanwhile Ellen and
• 5:54:51
  Norman Douglas are warming up the old soup. Is that really, so,
• 5:54:55
  asked Anne, laughing. I heard a rumor of it, but I hardly
• 5:54:57
  believed it. Believe it. You may believe it all right, Anne,
• 5:55:02
  dearie. Nobody is in ignorance of it. Norman Douglas never left anybody in
• 5:55:07
  doubt as to his intentions in regard to anything. He always did his courting
• 5:55:11
  before the public. He told Marshall that he hadn't thought about Ellen for years,
• 5:55:15
  but the first time he went to church last fall he saw her and
• 5:55:18
  fell in love with her all over again. He said he'd clean forgot how
• 5:55:22
  handsome she was. He hadn't seen her for twenty years. If you can
• 5:55:25
  believe it. Of course, he never went to church, and Ellen never
• 5:55:27
  went anywhere else around here. Oh we all know what Norman means, but
• 5:55:32
  what Ellen means is a different matter. I shan't take it upon me to
• 5:55:36
  predict whether it will be a match or not. He jilted her once,
• 5:55:40
  but it seems that does not count with some people. Missus doctor dear Susan
• 5:55:42
  remarked rather acidly. He jilted her in a fit of temper and repented it
• 5:55:48
  all his life, said Miss Cornelia. That is different from a cold blooded
• 5:55:52
  jilting. For my part, I never detested Norman as some folks do.
• 5:55:56
  He could never overcrow me. I do wonder what started him coming to church.
• 5:56:02
  I have never been able to believe missus Wilson's story that Faith Meredith went
• 5:56:06
  there and bullied him into it. I've always intended to ask Faith herself,
• 5:56:10
  but I've never happened to think of it. Just when I saw her,
• 5:56:12
  What influence could she have over Norman Douglas. He was in the store when
• 5:56:18
  I left, bellowing with laughter over that scandalous letter. You could have heard
• 5:56:22
  him at four winds point, the greatest girl in the world. He was
• 5:56:25
  shouting, she's that full of spunk, she's bursting with it. And all
• 5:56:29
  the old grannies want to tame her, darn them, but they'll never be
• 5:56:33
  able to do it. Never, They might as well try to drown a
• 5:56:36
  fish. Boyd see that you put more fertilizer on your potatoes next year,
• 5:56:40
  Ho ho ho, And then he laughed till the roof shook. Mister Douglas
• 5:56:45
  pays well to the salary, at least remarked Susan, Oh, Norman isn't
• 5:56:48
  mean in some ways. He'd give a thousand without blinking, a lash and
• 5:56:52
  roar like a bull of Bashan if he had to pay five cents too much
• 5:56:55
  for anything. Besides, he likes mister Meredith's sermons, and Norman dug was
• 5:57:00
  always willing to shell out if he got his brains tickled up. There is
• 5:57:03
  no more Christianity about him than there is about a black naked heathen in Africa,
• 5:57:07
  and never will be. But he's clever and well read, and he
• 5:57:11
  judges sermons as you would lectures. Anyhow, it's well he backs up mister
• 5:57:15
  Meredith and the children as he does, for they'll need friends more than ever
• 5:57:18
  after this. I am tired of making excuses for them, believe me,
• 5:57:23
  do you know, dear miss Cornelia said Anne, seriously, I think we
• 5:57:27
  have all been making too many excuses. It is very foolish, and we
• 5:57:30
  ought to stop it. I'm going to tell you what I'd like to do.
• 5:57:34
  I shan't do it. Of course, Anne had noted a glint of
• 5:57:37
  alarm in Susan's eye. It would be too unconventional, and we must be
• 5:57:41
  conventional or die. After we reach what is supposed to be a dignified age.
• 5:57:45
  But I'd like to do it. I'd like to call a meeting of
• 5:57:48
  the Lady's Aid and w m S and the Girl's Sewing Society and include in
• 5:57:52
  the audience all and any Methodists who have been criticizing the Merediths. Although I
• 5:57:57
  do think if we Presbyterian and stopped criticizing and excusing, we would find that
• 5:58:02
  other denominations would trouble themselves very little about our mansfolks, I would say to
• 5:58:07
  them, dear Christian friends, with marked emphasis on Christian, I have something
• 5:58:11
  to say to you, and I want to say it good and hard that
• 5:58:15
  you may take it home and repeat it to your families. You Methodists need
• 5:58:18
  not pity us, and we Presbyterians need not pity ourselves. We are not
• 5:58:23
  going to do it any more. We are going to say boldly and truthfully
• 5:58:29
  to all critics and sympathizers, we are proud of our minister and his family.
• 5:58:33
  Mister Meredith is the best preacher Glen Saint Mary Church ever had. Moreover,
• 5:58:38
  he is a sincere, earnest teacher of truth and Christian charity. He
• 5:58:42
  is a faithful friend, a judicious pastor in all essentials, and a refined,
• 5:58:47
  scholarly, well bred man. His family are worthy of him. Gerald
• 5:58:52
  Meredith is the cleverest pupil in the Glen School, and mister Hazzard says that
• 5:58:56
  he is destined to a brilliant career. He is a manly, honorable,
• 5:59:00
  truthful little fellow. Faith Meredith is a beauty, and as inspiring and original
• 5:59:04
  as she is beautiful, there is nothing commonplace about her. All the other
• 5:59:08
  girls in the Glen put together, haven't the vim and wit and joyousness and
• 5:59:12
  spunk she has. She has not an enemy in the world. Everyone who
• 5:59:18
  knows her loves her. Of how many children or grown ups can that be
• 5:59:22
  said? Una Meredith is sweetness personified. She will make a most lovable woman.
• 5:59:27
  Karl Meredith, with his love for aunts and frogs and spiders, will
• 5:59:32
  someday be a naturalist whom all Canada, nay, all the world will delight
• 5:59:37
  to honor. Do you know of any other family in the Glen or out
• 5:59:41
  of it, of whom all these things can be said away with shamefaced excuses
• 5:59:45
  and apologies. We rejoice in our minister, and as splendid boys and girls.
• 5:59:49
  Anne stopped partly because she was out of breath after her vehement speech,
• 5:59:55
  and partly because she could not trust herself to speak further. In view of
• 5:59:59
  Miss Cornelius, that good lady was staring helplessly at Anne, apparently engulfed in
• 6:00:04
  billows of new ideas, but she came up with a gasp and struck out
• 6:00:08
  for shore gallantly. Anne Blithe, I wish you would call that meeting and
• 6:00:14
  say just that you've made me ashamed of myself for one and far be it
• 6:00:18
  from me to refuse to admit it. Of course, that is how we
• 6:00:22
  should have talked, especially to the Methodists. And it's every word of it,
• 6:00:26
  true, every word. We've just been shutting our eyes to the big
• 6:00:30
  worth while things and squinting them on the little things that don't really matter at
• 6:00:33
  Pinsworth. Oh and Dearie, I can see a thing when it's hammered into
• 6:00:38
  my head. No more apologizing for Cornelia Marshall. I shall hold my head
• 6:00:44
  up after this. Believe me, though, I may talk things over with
• 6:00:48
  you as usual, just to relieve my feelings if the Merediths do any more
• 6:00:52
  startling stunts. Even that letter I felt so bad about. Why it's only
• 6:00:56
  a good joke. After all, as Norman says, not many girls would
• 6:01:00
  have been cute enough to think of writing it, and all punctuated so nicely,
• 6:01:03
  and not one word misspelled. Just let me hear any Methodists say one
• 6:01:08
  word about it, though, all the same, I'll never forget Joe Vickers,
• 6:01:11
  believe me, Where are the rest of your small fry? To night?
• 6:01:17
  Walter and the twins are in Rainbow Valley. Jem is studying in the
• 6:01:19
  garret. They are all crazy about Rainbow Valley. Mary Vance thinks it's the
• 6:01:23
  only place in the world. She'd be off up here every evening if I
• 6:01:27
  let her, But I don't encourage her in gadding. Besides, I miss
• 6:01:32
  the creature when she isn't around. Anne Dearie, I never thought I'd get
• 6:01:34
  so fond of her, not but what I see her faults and try to
• 6:01:38
  correct them. But she has never said one saucy word to me since she
• 6:01:41
  came to my house, and she is a great help for when all is
• 6:01:45
  said and done, Anne Dearie, I am not so young as I once
• 6:01:48
  was, and there is no sense denying it. I was fifty nine my
• 6:01:52
  last birthday. I don't feel it, but there is no gain, saying
• 6:01:56
  the family Bible end of chapter twenty six, Chapter twenty seven a sacred concert.
• 6:02:03
  In spite of Miss Cornelia's new point of view, she could not help
• 6:02:07
  feeling a little disturbed over the next performance of the Man's children. In public,
• 6:02:12
  she carried off the situation splendidly, saying to all the gossips the substance
• 6:02:17
  of what Anne had said in Daffodil Time, and saying it so pointedly and
• 6:02:21
  forcibly that her hearers found themselves feeling rather foolish and began to think that,
• 6:02:26
  after all, they were making too much of a childish prank. But in
• 6:02:30
  private, Miss Cornelia allowed herself the relief of bemoaning it to Anne. Anne
• 6:02:34
  dearie, they had a concert in the graveyard last Thursday evening, while the
• 6:02:40
  Methodist prayer meeting was going on there. They sat on Hesekiah Pollock's tombstone and
• 6:02:45
  sang for a solid hour. Of course, I understand it was mostly hymns
• 6:02:49
  they sang, and it wouldn't have been quite so bad if they'd done nothing
• 6:02:52
  else. But I'm told they finished up with Polly Wally Doodle at full length,
• 6:02:57
  and that just when Deacon Baxter was praying. I was there that night,
• 6:03:02
  said Susan, And although I did not say anything about it to you,
• 6:03:06
  missus doctor Dear, I could not help thinking that it was a great
• 6:03:08
  pity they picked that particular evening. It was truly blood curdling to hear them
• 6:03:14
  sitting there in that abode of the dead, shouting that frivolous song at the
• 6:03:17
  tops of their lungs. I don't know what you were doing in a Methodist
• 6:03:21
  prayer meeting, said miss Cornelia acidly. I have never found that Methodism was
• 6:03:26
  catching, retorted Susan stiffly. And as I was going to say, when
• 6:03:30
  I was interrupted badly, as I felt, I did not give in to
• 6:03:33
  the Methodists. When missus Deacon Baxter said as we came out, what a
• 6:03:37
  disgraceful exhibition, I said, looking her fairly in the eye. They are
• 6:03:41
  all beautiful singers, and none of your choir, Missus Baxter, ever bother
• 6:03:45
  themselves coming out to your prayer meeting. It seems their voices appear to be
• 6:03:49
  in tune only on Sundays. She was quite meek, and I felt that
• 6:03:53
  I had snubbed her properly, but I could have done it much more thoroughly,
• 6:03:56
  missus doctor, dear, if only they had left out out Polly Wallydoodle.
• 6:04:00
  It is truly terrible to think of that being sung in a graveyard.
• 6:04:04
  Some of those dead folks sang Polly Wallydoodle when they were living, Susan,
• 6:04:08
  perhaps they like to hear it, yet, suggested Gilbert. Miss Cornelia looked
• 6:04:12
  at him reproachfully and made up her mind that on some future occasion she would
• 6:04:18
  hint to Anne that the doctor should be admonished not to say such things.
• 6:04:22
  They might injure his practice. People might get it into their heads that he
• 6:04:26
  wasn't orthodox. To be sure, Marshall said even worse things habitually, but
• 6:04:30
  then he was not a public man. I understand that their father was in
• 6:04:34
  his study all the time with his windows open, but never noticed them at
• 6:04:38
  all. Of course, he was lost in a book as usual, But
• 6:04:41
  I spoke to him about it yesterday when he called. How could you dare,
• 6:04:45
  missus Marshall, Elliott asked Susan, rebukingly, dare It's time somebody dared
• 6:04:51
  something. Why they say he knows nothing about that letter of faith to the
• 6:04:55
  journal because nobody liked to mention it to him. He never looks at a
• 6:04:59
  journal, of course, but I thought he ought to know of this to
• 6:05:00
  prevent any such performances in future. He said he would discuss it with them,
• 6:05:06
  but of course he'd never think of it again after he got out of
• 6:05:07
  our gate. That man has no sense of humor. And believe me,
• 6:05:12
  he preached last Sunday on how to bring up children. A beautiful sermon,
• 6:05:15
  it was, too, and everybody in church thinking, what a pity,
• 6:05:19
  you can't practice what you preach. Miss Cornelia did mister Meredith an injustice in
• 6:05:25
  thinking he would soon forget what she had told him. He went home much
• 6:05:27
  disturbed, And when the children came from Rainbow Valley that night, at a
• 6:05:32
  much later hour than they should have been prowling in it, he called them
• 6:05:36
  into his study. They went in somewhat odd. It was such an unusual
• 6:05:40
  thing for their father to do. What could he be going to say to
• 6:05:42
  them? They racked their memories for any recent transgression of sufficient importance, but
• 6:05:48
  could not recall any. Karl had spilled a saucerful of jam on Missus Peter
• 6:05:52
  Flagg's silk dress two evenings before, when at Aunt Martha's invitation, she had
• 6:05:56
  stayed to supper, but mister Meredith had not noticed it, and missus Flagg,
• 6:06:00
  who was a kindly soul, had made no fuss. Besides, Karl
• 6:06:04
  had been punished by having to wear UNA's dress all the rest of the evening.
• 6:06:08
  Una suddenly thought that perhaps her father meant to tell them he was going
• 6:06:11
  to marry Miss West. Her heart began to beat violently and her legs trembled.
• 6:06:18
  Then she saw that mister Meredith looked very stern and sorrowful. No,
• 6:06:22
  it could not be that, children, said mister Meredith, I have heard
• 6:06:26
  something that has pained me very much. Is it true that you sat out
• 6:06:30
  in the graveyard all last Thursday evening and sang ribbled songs while the prayer meeting
• 6:06:33
  was being held in the Methodist church? Great Caesar, Dad, we forgot
• 6:06:37
  all about it being their prayer meeting night, exclaimed Jerry in dismay. Then
• 6:06:42
  it is true you did do this thing. Why, Dad, I don't
• 6:06:47
  know what you mean by ribbled songs. We sang hymns. It was a
• 6:06:51
  sacred concert. You know what harm was that? I tell you? We
• 6:06:53
  never thought about its being Methodist prayer meeting night. They used to have their
• 6:06:57
  prayer meeting Tuesday nights, and since they've changed to Thursdays, it's hard to
• 6:07:00
  remember. Did you sing nothing but hymns? Why, said Jerry, turning
• 6:07:07
  red. We did sing Polly Wallydoodle at the last. Faith said let's have
• 6:07:11
  something cheerful to wind up with. But we didn't mean any harm, Father,
• 6:07:15
  truly we didn't. The concert was my idea, Father said, Faith
• 6:07:18
  afraid that mister Meridith might blame Jerry too much. You know, the Methodists
• 6:07:22
  themselves had a sacred concert in their church three Sunday nights ago. I thought
• 6:07:26
  it would be good fun to get one up in imitation of it. Only
• 6:07:30
  they had prayers at theirs, and we left that part out because we heard
• 6:07:33
  that people thought it awful for us to pray in a graveyard. You were
• 6:07:37
  sitting in here all the time, she added, and never said a word
• 6:07:41
  to us. I did not notice what you were doing. That is no
• 6:07:44
  excuse for me. Of course, I am more to blame than you,
• 6:07:47
  I realize that. But why did you sing that foolish song at the end?
• 6:07:52
  We didn't, think, muttered Jerry, feeling that it was a very
• 6:07:55
  lame excuse, seeing that he had lectured Faith so strongly in the Good Conduct
• 6:07:59
  Club sessions for her lack of thought. We're sorry, father, truly,
• 6:08:03
  we are pitch in to us hard. We deserve a regular combing down.
• 6:08:07
  But mister Meredith did no combing down or pitching into. He sat down and
• 6:08:12
  gathered his small culprits close to him and talked a little to them, tenderly
• 6:08:17
  and wisely. They were overcome with remorse and shame, and felt that they
• 6:08:21
  could never be so silly and thoughtless again. We've just got to punish ourselves
• 6:08:26
  good and hard for this, whispered Jerry as they crept upstairs. We'll have
• 6:08:30
  a session of the club first thing tomorrow and decide how we'll do it.
• 6:08:33
  I never saw father so cut up, but I wish to goodness the Methodist
• 6:08:37
  would stick to one night for their prayer meeting and not wonder all over the
• 6:08:40
  week. Anyhow, I'm glad it wasn't what I was afraid it was,
• 6:08:45
  murmured Una to herself. Behind them in the study, mister Meredith had sat
• 6:08:49
  down at his desk and buried his face in his arms. God help me,
• 6:08:53
  he said, I'm a poor sort of father. Oh Rosemary, if
• 6:08:57
  you had only cared end of chapter twenty seven. Chapter twenty eight A fast
• 6:09:03
  day. The Good Conduct Club had a special session the next morning before school.
• 6:09:10
  After various suggestions, it was decided that a fast day would be an
• 6:09:12
  appropriate punishment. We won't eat a single thing for a whole day, said
• 6:09:18
  Jerry. I'm kinda curious to see what fasting is like. Anyhow, this
• 6:09:21
  will be a good chance to find out what day will we choose for it,
• 6:09:25
  asked Una, who thought it would be quite an easy punishment and rather
• 6:09:29
  wondered that Jerry and Faith had not devised something harder. Let's pick Monday,
• 6:09:33
  said Faith. We mostly have a pretty filling dinner on Sundays, and Monday's
• 6:09:37
  meals never amount to much anyhow. But that's just the point, exclaimed Jerry.
• 6:09:41
  We mustn't take the easiest day to fast, but the hardest, and
• 6:09:45
  that's Sunday, because, as you say, we mostly have roast beef that
• 6:09:48
  day instead of cold ditto. It wouldn't be much punishment to fast from Ditto.
• 6:09:52
  Let's take next Sunday. It'll be a good day for Father is going
• 6:09:56
  to exchange for the morning service with the Upper Lowbridge Minister. Father will be
• 6:10:00
  away till evening. If Aunt Martha wonders what's got into us, we'll tell
• 6:10:03
  her ride up that we're fasting for the good of our souls, and it
• 6:10:07
  is in the Bible, and she is not to interfere, and I guess
• 6:10:10
  she won't. Aunt Martha did not. She merely said, in her fretful,
• 6:10:14
  mumbling way, what foolishness are you young rips up to now? And
• 6:10:18
  thought no more about it. Mister Meredith had gone away early in the morning
• 6:10:22
  before any one was up. He went without his breakfast too, but that
• 6:10:26
  was, of course of common occurrence. Half of the time he forgot it,
• 6:10:30
  and there was no one to remind him of it. Breakfast Aunt Martha's
• 6:10:33
  breakfast was not a hard meal to miss. Even the hungry young rips did
• 6:10:38
  not feel that any great deprivation to abstain from the lumpy porridge and blue milk
• 6:10:42
  which had aroused the scorn of Mary Van's. But it was different at dinner
• 6:10:47
  time. They were furiously hungry then, and the odor of roast beef which
• 6:10:51
  pervaded the man's and which was wholly delightful in spite of the fact that the
• 6:10:55
  roast beef was badly underdone was almost more than they could stand. In desperation,
• 6:11:00
  they rushed to the graveyard, where they couldn't smell it. But Una
• 6:11:03
  could not keep her eyes from the dining room window, through which the upper
• 6:11:07
  Lowbridge minister could be seen placidly eating. If I could only just have a
• 6:11:11
  weeny teeny piece, she sighed. Now you stop that, commanded Jerry.
• 6:11:17
  Of course it's hard, but that's the punishment of it. I could eat
• 6:11:19
  a graven image this very minute. But am I complaining? Let's think of
• 6:11:22
  something else. We've just got to rise above our stomachs. At supper time,
• 6:11:27
  they did not feel the pangs of hunger which they had suffered earlier in
• 6:11:30
  the day. I suppose we're getting used to it, said Faith. I
• 6:11:33
  feel an awfully queer, all gone sort of feeling, but I can't say
• 6:11:37
  I'm hungry. My head is funny, said Una, It goes round and
• 6:11:42
  round sometimes. But she went gamely to church with the others. If mister
• 6:11:47
  Meredith had not been so wholly wrapped up in and carried away with his subject,
• 6:11:52
  he might have noticed the pale, little face and hollow eyes in the
• 6:11:55
  man's pew beneath. But he noticed nothing, and his sermon was something longer
• 6:12:00
  unusual. Then, just before he gave out the final hymn, Una Meredith
• 6:12:04
  tumbled off the seat of the man's pew and lay in a dead faint on
• 6:12:07
  the floor. Missus Elder Klow was the first to reach her. She caught
• 6:12:11
  the thin little body from the arms of white faced, terrified Faith and carried
• 6:12:15
  it into the vestry. Mister Meredith forgot the hymn and everything else, and
• 6:12:21
  rushed madly after her. The congregation dismissed itself as best it could. Oh,
• 6:12:25
  Missus Klow, gasped, Faith. Is Una dead? Have we killed
• 6:12:29
  her? What is the matter with my child? Demanded the pale father.
• 6:12:33
  She has just fainted, I think, said missus Klow. Oh, here's
• 6:12:36
  the doctor, Thank goodness. Gilbert did not find it a very easy thing
• 6:12:40
  to bring Una back to consciousness. He worked over her for a long time
• 6:12:44
  before her eyes opened. Then he carried her over to the Man's, followed
• 6:12:48
  by Faith, sobbing hysterically in her relief. She's just hungry, you know.
• 6:12:52
  She didn't need a thing to day, None of us did. We
• 6:12:55
  were all fasting, fasting, said mister Meredith, and fasting, said the
• 6:13:00
  doctor. Yes to punish ourselves for singing Polly Wally in the graveyard, said
• 6:13:04
  Faith, my child. I don't want you to punish yourselves for that,
• 6:13:08
  said mister Meredith in distress. I gave you your little scolding, and you
• 6:13:12
  were all penitent, and I forgave you. Yes, but we have to
• 6:13:15
  be punished, explained Faith. It's our rule in our good conduct club.
• 6:13:19
  You know, if we do anything wrong or anything that is likely to hurt
• 6:13:23
  Father in the congregation, we have to punish ourselves. We are bringing ourselves
• 6:13:27
  up, you know, because there is nobody to do it. Mister Meredith
• 6:13:30
  groaned, but the doctor got up from UNA's side with an air of relief.
• 6:13:34
  Then this child simply fainted from lack of food, and all she needs
• 6:13:38
  is a good square meal, he said, missus Klow. Will you be
• 6:13:41
  kind enough to see she gets it? And I think from Faith's story that
• 6:13:45
  they would all be the better for something to eat, or we shall have
• 6:13:48
  more faintings. I suppose we shouldn't have made Una fast, said Faith remorsefully.
• 6:13:52
  When I think of it, only Jerry and I should have been punished.
• 6:13:56
  We got up the concert and we were the oldest I sang Polly Wally,
• 6:14:00
  just the same as the rest of you, said UNA's weak little voice.
• 6:14:03
  So I had to be punished too. Missus Klow came with a glass
• 6:14:07
  of milk. Faith and Jerry and karl sneaked off to the pantry, and
• 6:14:11
  John Meredith went to his study, where he sat in the darkness for a
• 6:14:15
  long time, alone with his bitter thoughts. So his children were bringing themselves
• 6:14:21
  up because there was nobody to do it, struggling along amid their little perplexities,
• 6:14:26
  without a hand to guide or a voice to counsel. Faith's innocently uttered
• 6:14:30
  phrase wrangled in her father's mind like a barbed shaft. There was nobody to
• 6:14:34
  look after them, to comfort their little souls and care for their little bodies.
• 6:14:40
  How frail Una had looked, lying there on the vestry sofa in that
• 6:14:44
  long faint How thin were her tiny hands, How pallid her little face.
• 6:14:48
  She looked as if she might slip away from him in a breath, Sweet
• 6:14:52
  little Una, of whom Cecilia had begged him to take such special care.
• 6:14:57
  Since his wife's death, he had not felt felt such an agony of dread
• 6:15:00
  as when he had hung over his little girl in her unconsciousness. He must
• 6:15:04
  do something. But what should he ask Elizabeth Kirk to marry him. She
• 6:15:10
  was a good woman, she would be kind to his children. He might
• 6:15:14
  bring himself to do it if it were not for his love for Rosemary West.
• 6:15:18
  But until he had crushed that out, he could not seek another woman
• 6:15:21
  in marriage. And he could not crush it out. He had tried,
• 6:15:25
  and he could not. Rosemary had been in church that evening for the first
• 6:15:29
  time since her return from Kingsport. He had caught a glimpse of her face
• 6:15:33
  in the back of the crowded church just as he had finished his sermon.
• 6:15:36
  His heart had given a fierce throb. He sat while the choir sang the
• 6:15:41
  collection piece, with his head bent and tingling pulses. He had not seen
• 6:15:45
  her since the evening upon which he had asked her to marry him. When
• 6:15:48
  he had risen to give out the hymn, his hands were trembling and his
• 6:15:52
  pale face was flushed. Then UNA's fainting spell had banished everything from his mind
• 6:15:56
  for a time. Now, in the dark darkness and solitude of the study,
• 6:16:00
  it rushed back. Rosemary was the only woman in the world for him.
• 6:16:06
  It was of no use for him to think of marrying any other.
• 6:16:08
  He could not commit such a sacrilege, even for his children's sake. He
• 6:16:12
  must take up his burden alone. He must try to be a better,
• 6:16:17
  a more watchful father. He must tell his children not to be afraid to
• 6:16:21
  come to him with all their little problems. Then he lighted his lamp and
• 6:16:25
  took up a bulky new book, which was setting the theological world by the
• 6:16:29
  ears. He would read just one chapter to compose his mind. Five minutes
• 6:16:33
  later he was lost to the world and the troubles of the world. End
• 6:16:38
  of chapter twenty eight. Chapter twenty nine A weird tale. On an early
• 6:16:45
  June evening, Rainbow Valley was an entirely delightful place, and the children felt
• 6:16:49
  it to be so as they sat in the open glade, where the bells
• 6:16:52
  rang elfishly on the tree lovers, and the white lady shook her green tresses.
• 6:16:57
  The wind was laughing and whistle about them like a loale, glad hearted
• 6:17:02
  comrade. The young ferns were spicy in the hollow. The wild cherry trees
• 6:17:07
  scattered over the valley among the dark firs were mistily white. The robins were
• 6:17:11
  whistling over in the maples behind Ingleside. Beyond on the slopes of the glen
• 6:17:17
  were blossoming orchards, sweet and mystic and wonderful, veiled in dusk. It
• 6:17:22
  was spring, and young things must be glad in spring. Everybody was glad
• 6:17:26
  in Rainbow Valley that evening until Mary Vance froze their blood with the story of
• 6:17:30
  Henry Warren's Ghost. Jem was not there. Jem spent his evenings now studying
• 6:17:37
  for his entrance examination in the Ingleside garret. Jerry was down near the pond
• 6:17:41
  trouting. Walter had been reading Longfellow Sea poems to the others, and they
• 6:17:47
  were steeped in the beauty and mystery of the ships. Then they talked of
• 6:17:51
  what they would do when they were grown up, where they would travel the
• 6:17:53
  far fair shores, they would see Nan and Di meant to go to Europe.
• 6:17:59
  Walter longed for the Nile, moaning past its Egyptian sands and a glimpse
• 6:18:03
  of the Sphinx faith. The pined rather dismally that she supposed she would have
• 6:18:07
  to be a missionary. Old Missus Taylor told her she ought to be,
• 6:18:11
  and then she would at least see India or China, those mysterious lands of
• 6:18:15
  the Orient. Karl's heart was set on African jungles. Una said nothing.
• 6:18:21
  She thought she would just like to stay at home. It was prettier here
• 6:18:23
  than anywhere else. It would be dreadful when they were all grown up and
• 6:18:27
  had to scatter over the world. The very idea made Una feel lonesome and
• 6:18:32
  homesick. But the others dreamed on delightedly until Mary Vance arrived and vanished Poesy
• 6:18:38
  in dreams at one fell swoop loss. But I'm out of puff, she
• 6:18:42
  exclaimed. I've run down that hill like sixty I've got an awful scare up
• 6:18:47
  there at the old Bailey place. What frightened you, asked I I dunno.
• 6:18:52
  I was pokin about under them lilacs in the old garden, trying to
• 6:18:55
  see if there was any lilies of the valley out. Yet it was dark
• 6:18:57
  as a pocket there and all Once I seen something stirring and rustling around at
• 6:19:02
  the other side of the garden, in those cherry bushes. It was white.
• 6:19:06
  I'd tell you. I didn't stop for a second look. I flew
• 6:19:08
  over the die quicker than quick. I was sure it was Henry Warren's ghost?
• 6:19:12
  Who was Henry Warren? Asked I, and why should he have a
• 6:19:15
  ghost? Asked Nan, Laws did you never hear the story? And you
• 6:19:21
  brought up in the glen? Well, wait a minute till I get my
• 6:19:23
  breath all back, and I'll tell you. Walter shivered delightsomely. He loved
• 6:19:29
  ghost stories, their mystery, their dramatic climaxes, their eeriness gave him a
• 6:19:33
  fearful, exquisite pleasure. Longfellow instantly grew tame and commonplace. He threw the
• 6:19:40
  book aside and stretched himself out, propped upon his elbows to listen wholeheartedly,
• 6:19:44
  fixing his great luminous eyes on Mary's face. Mary wished he wouldn't look at
• 6:19:48
  her. So she felt that she could make a better job of the ghost
• 6:19:52
  story. If Walter were not looking at her. She could put on several
• 6:19:56
  frills and invent a few artistic details to enhance the horror. As it was,
• 6:20:00
  she had to stick to the bear truth, or what had been told
• 6:20:03
  to her. For the truth, well, she began, You know,
• 6:20:07
  old Tom Bailey and his wife used to live in that house up there,
• 6:20:08
  thirty years ago. He was an awful old rip, they say and his
• 6:20:12
  wife wasn't much better. They'd no children of their own, but a sister
• 6:20:17
  of Old Tom's died and left a little boy, this Henry Warren, and
• 6:20:21
  they took him. He was about twelve when he came to them, and
• 6:20:23
  kind of undersized and delicate, they say. Tom and his wife used him
• 6:20:27
  awful from the start, whipped him and starved him. Folks said they wanted
• 6:20:32
  him to die so's they could get the little bit of money his mother left
• 6:20:33
  for him. Henry didn't die right off, but he begun having fits epileps
• 6:20:38
  they called him, and he grew up kind o simple till he was about
• 6:20:41
  eighteen. His uncle used to thrash him in that garden up there, cause
• 6:20:45
  it was back of the house where no one could see him, but folks
• 6:20:48
  could hear, and they say it was awful sometimes here, and poor Henry
• 6:20:52
  plead with his uncle not to kill him, but nobody dared interfere, cause
• 6:20:56
  Old Tom was such a reprobate he'd have been sure to get square them.
• 6:21:00
  Some way. He burned the barns of a man at harbor Head who offended
• 6:21:03
  him. At last Henry died, and his uncle and aunt gave out he
• 6:21:07
  died in one of his fits, and that was all anybody ever knowed.
• 6:21:11
  But everybody said Tom had just up and killed him for keeps at last.
• 6:21:15
  And it wasn't long till it got around that Henry walked that old garden was
• 6:21:18
  haunted. He was heard there at nights, moaning and crying. Old Tom
• 6:21:23
  and his wife got out, went out west and never came back. The
• 6:21:26
  place got such a bad name nobody'd buy or rented. That's why it's all
• 6:21:30
  gone to ruin. That was thirty years ago, But Henry Warren's ghost haunts
• 6:21:34
  it. Yet. Do you believe that, asked Nan scornfully. I don't.
• 6:21:40
  Well, good people have seen him and heard him, retorted Mary.
• 6:21:44
  They say he appears and grovels on the ground and holds you by the legs
• 6:21:48
  and gibbers and moans like he did when he was alive. I thought of
• 6:21:51
  that as soon as I seen that white thing in the bushes, and thought,
• 6:21:53
  if it caught me like that and moaned, I'd drop down dead on
• 6:21:56
  the spot, so I cut and run. It mightn't have been his ghost,
• 6:22:00
  but I wasn't going to take any chances with a hunt. It was
• 6:22:03
  likely old missus Stimson's white calf, laughed. I it pastures in that garden.
• 6:22:08
  I've seen it, maybe so, but I'm not gonna go home through
• 6:22:11
  the bailey garden any more. Here's Jerry with a big string of trout,
• 6:22:15
  and it's my turn to cook em. Jem and Jerry both sam the best
• 6:22:18
  cook in the glen, and Cornelia told me I could bring up this batch
• 6:22:22
  of cookies. I all but dropped em when I saw Henry's ghost. Jerry
• 6:22:26
  hooted when he heard the ghost story, which Mary repeated as she fried the
• 6:22:30
  fish, touching it up a trifle or so. Since Walter had gone to
• 6:22:33
  help Faith to set the table, it made no impression on Jerry, but
• 6:22:37
  Faith and Una and Karl had been secretly much frightened, though they would never
• 6:22:41
  have given in to it. It was all right as long as the others
• 6:22:45
  were with them in the valley, But when the feast was over and the
• 6:22:48
  shadows fell, they quaked with remembrance. Jerry went up to Ingleside with the
• 6:22:52
  Blythes to see Jem about something, and Mary Vance went around that way home,
• 6:22:57
  so Faith and Una and Karl had to go back to the manse alone.
• 6:23:02
  They walked very close together, and gave the Old Bailey Garden a wide
• 6:23:06
  berth. They did not believe that it was haunted, of course, but
• 6:23:10
  they would not go near it for all that end of Chapter twenty nine,
• 6:23:15
  Chapter thirty, The Ghost on the Dike. Somehow, Faith and Karl and
• 6:23:19
  Una could not shake off the hold which the story of Henry Warren's ghost had
• 6:23:23
  taken upon their imaginations. They had never believed in ghosts. Ghost tales they
• 6:23:29
  had heard a plenty. Mary Vance had told some far more blood curdling than
• 6:23:33
  this, But those tales were all of places and people and spooks far away
• 6:23:37
  and unknown. After the first half awful, half pleasant thrill of awe and
• 6:23:42
  terror, they thought of them no more. But this story came home to
• 6:23:47
  them. The Old Bailey Garden was almost at their very door, almost in
• 6:23:51
  their beloved Rainbow Valley. They had passed and repassed it constantly. They had
• 6:23:56
  hunted for flowers in it. They had made short cuts through it when they
• 6:23:59
  wished to go straight from the village to the valley. But never again.
• 6:24:03
  After the night when Mary Vance told them its gruesome tale, they would not
• 6:24:07
  have gone through or near it on pain of death. Death, What was
• 6:24:11
  death? Compared to the unearthly possibility of falling into the clutches of Henry Warren's
• 6:24:15
  groveling ghost. One warm July evening, the three of them were sitting under
• 6:24:21
  the tree lovers, feeling a little lonely. Nobody else had come near the
• 6:24:25
  valley that evening. Jem Blythe was away in Charlottetown, riding on his entrance
• 6:24:29
  examinations. Jerry and Walter Blythe were off for a sail on the harbor with
• 6:24:33
  Old Captain Crawford. Nan and Di and Rilla and Shirley had gone down the
• 6:24:38
  Harbor road to visit Kenneth and persus Ford, who had come with their parents
• 6:24:41
  for a flying visit to the little Old House of Dreams. Nan had asked
• 6:24:47
  Faith to go with them, but Faith had declined. She would never have
• 6:24:49
  admitted it, but she felt a little secret jealousy of pursus Ford, concerning
• 6:24:53
  whose wonderful beauty and city glamor she had heard a great deal. No,
• 6:24:59
  she was in going to go down there and play second fiddle to anybody.
• 6:25:03
  She and Una took their story books to Rainbow Valley and read while Karl investigated
• 6:25:07
  bugs along the banks of the brook and All three were happy until they suddenly
• 6:25:11
  realized that it was twilight and that the old Bailey Garden was uncomfortably near by.
• 6:25:18
  Karl came and sat down close to the girls. They all wished they
• 6:25:21
  had gone home a little sooner, but nobody said anything. Great velvety purple
• 6:25:26
  clouds heaped up in the west and spread over the valley. There was no
• 6:25:30
  wind, and everything was suddenly strangely dreadfully still. The marsh was full of
• 6:25:36
  thousands of fireflies. Surely some fairy parliament was being convened that night. Altogether,
• 6:25:42
  Rainbow Valley was not a canny place. Just then Faith looked fearfully up
• 6:25:48
  the valley to the old Bailey Garden. Then, if anybody's blood ever did
• 6:25:52
  freeze, Faith Meredith certainly froze at that moment. The eyes of Karl and
• 6:25:56
  Una followed her entranced gaze, and chills began galloping up and down their spines.
• 6:26:03
  Also, for there, under the big tamarack tree, on the tumble
• 6:26:07
  down, grass grown dike of the Bailey Garden was something white, shapelessly white,
• 6:26:11
  in the gathering gloom. The three Merediths sat and gazed as if turned
• 6:26:17
  to stone. It's it's the calf, whispered Una. At last, it's
• 6:26:22
  too big for the calf, whispered Faith. Her mouth and lips were so
• 6:26:26
  dry she could hardly articulate the words. Suddenly, Karl gasped, it's coming
• 6:26:32
  here. The girls gave one last agonized glance. Yes, it was creeping
• 6:26:38
  down over the dike, as no calf ever did or could creep. Reason
• 6:26:42
  fled before sudden overmastering panic. For the moment, every one of the trio
• 6:26:48
  was firmly convinced that what they saw was Henry Warren's ghost. Karl sprang to
• 6:26:53
  his feet and bolted blindly with a simultaneous shriek. The girls followed him like
• 6:27:00
  mad creatures. They tore up the hill, across the road and into the
• 6:27:03
  manse. They had left Aunt Martha sewing in the kitchen. She was not
• 6:27:07
  there. They rushed to the study. It was dark and tenantless. As
• 6:27:11
  with one impulse, they swung around and made for Ingleside, but not across
• 6:27:15
  Rainbow Valley. Down the hill and through the glen street. They flew on
• 6:27:19
  the wings of their wild terror, Karl in the lead, Una bringing up
• 6:27:23
  the rear. Nobody tried to stop them, though everybody who saw them wondered
• 6:27:27
  what fresh devilment those man's youngsters were up to now. But at the gates
• 6:27:32
  of Ingleside they ran into Rosemary West, who had just been in for a
• 6:27:36
  moment to return some borrowed books. She saw their ghastly faces and staring eyes.
• 6:27:41
  She realized that their poor little souls were wrung with some awful and real
• 6:27:45
  fear, whatever its cause. She caught Karl with one arm and Faith with
• 6:27:49
  the other. Una stumbled against her and held on desperately. Children, Dear,
• 6:27:55
  what has happened? She said? What has frightened you? Henry Warren's
• 6:27:59
  ghost, answered Karl through his chattering teeth. Henry Warren's ghost said, amazed
• 6:28:04
  Rosemary, who had never heard the story. Yes, sobbed Faith hysterically.
• 6:28:10
  It's there on the bailey Dyke. We saw it, and it started to
• 6:28:14
  chase us. Rosemary herded the three distracted creatures to the Ingleside Veranda. Gilbert
• 6:28:19
  and Anne were both away, having also gone to the House of Dreams,
• 6:28:23
  but Susan appeared in the doorway, gaunt and practical and unghostlike. What is
• 6:28:29
  all this rumpus about? She inquired again. The children gasped out their awful
• 6:28:33
  tale, while Rosemary held them close to her and soothed them with wordless comfort.
• 6:28:38
  Likely it was an owl, said Susan, unstirred. An owl.
• 6:28:42
  The merit of children never had any opinion of Susan's intelligence. After that,
• 6:28:48
  it was bigger than a million owls, said Karl sobbing. Oh, how
• 6:28:52
  ashamed Karl was of that sobbing in after days and it it groveled just as
• 6:28:57
  Mary said, And it was crawling down over the dyke to get at us.
• 6:29:02
  Do owls crawl? Rosemary looked at Susan. They must have seen something
• 6:29:07
  to frighten them, so she said, I will go and see, said
• 6:29:11
  Susan coolly. Now, children, calm yourselves. Whatever you have seen,
• 6:29:14
  it was not a ghost. As for poor Henry Warren, I feel sure
• 6:29:18
  he would be only too glad to rest quietly in his peaceful grave once he
• 6:29:21
  got there. No fear of him venturing back. And that you may tie
• 6:29:25
  to if you can make them see reason, Miss West, I will find
• 6:29:27
  out the truth of the matter. Susan departed for Rainbow Valley, valiantly grasping
• 6:29:33
  a pitchfork which she found leaning against the back fence where the doctor had been
• 6:29:37
  working in his little hay field. A pitchfork might not be much use against
• 6:29:41
  Hans, but it was a comforting sort of weapon. There was nothing to
• 6:29:45
  be seen in Rainbow Valley when Susan reached it. No white visitants appeared to
• 6:29:49
  be lurking in the shadowy, tangled old Bailey Garden. Susan marched boldly through
• 6:29:55
  it and beyond it, and wrapped with her pitchfork on the door of the
• 6:29:57
  little cottage on the other side, where Missus Stimson lived with her two daughters.
• 6:30:03
  Back at Ingleside, Rosemary had succeeded in calming the children. They still
• 6:30:07
  sobbed a little from shock, but they were beginning to feel a lurking and
• 6:30:11
  salutary suspicion that they had made dreadful geese of themselves. This suspicion became a
• 6:30:17
  certainty when Susan finally returned. I have found out what your ghost was,
• 6:30:22
  she said with a grim smile, sitting down on a rocker and fanning herself.
• 6:30:26
  Old Missus Stimpson has had a pair of factory cotton sheets bleaching in the
• 6:30:30
  Bailey garden for a week. She spread them on the dike under the tamarac
• 6:30:33
  tree, because the grass was clean and short there. This evening she went
• 6:30:37
  out to take them in. She had her knitting in her hands, so
• 6:30:41
  she hung the sheets over her shoulders by way of carrying them. And then
• 6:30:44
  she must have dropped one of her needles and find it she could not and
• 6:30:48
  has not yet, but she went down on her knees and crept about to
• 6:30:51
  hunt for it. And she was at that when she heard awful yells down
• 6:30:55
  in the valley and saw the three children tearing up the hill past her.
• 6:30:59
  She thought they had been bit by something, and it gave her poor old
• 6:31:02
  heart such a turn that she could not move or speak, but just crouched
• 6:31:06
  there till they disappeared. Then she staggered back home. And they have been
• 6:31:08
  applying stimulants to her ever since, and her heart is in a terrible condition,
• 6:31:14
  and she says she will not get over this fright. All summer.
• 6:31:17
  The Meredith sat Crimson with a shame that even Rosemary's understanding sympathy could not remove.
• 6:31:22
  They sneaked off home, met Jerry at the Man's Gate and made remorseful
• 6:31:27
  confession. A session of the Good Conduct Club was arranged for next morning.
• 6:31:33
  Wasn't miss West's sweet to us tonight, whispered Faith in bed. Yes,
• 6:31:37
  admitted Una. It is such a pity. It changes people so much to
• 6:31:41
  be made stepmothers. I don't believe it does, said Faith loyally, end
• 6:31:45
  of chapter thirty Chapter thirty one, Karl does penance. I don't see why
• 6:31:52
  we should be punished at all, said Faith rather sulkily. We didn't do
• 6:31:55
  anything wrong. We couldn't help being frightened, and it won't do father any
• 6:31:59
  harm. It was just an accident. You were cowards, said Jerry,
• 6:32:03
  with judicial scorn, and you gave way to your cowardice. That is why
• 6:32:07
  you should be punished. Everybody will laugh at you about this, and that
• 6:32:11
  is a disgrace to the family. If you knew how awful the whole thing
• 6:32:15
  was, said Faith with a shiver, you would think we'd been punished enough
• 6:32:18
  already. I wouldn't go through it again for anything in the whole world.
• 6:32:23
  I believe you'd have run yourself if you'd been there, muttered Karl. From
• 6:32:27
  an old woman in a cotton sheet, mocked Jerry. Ho, ho ho.
• 6:32:32
  It didn't look a bit like an old woman, cried Faith. It
• 6:32:36
  was just a great big white thing crawling about in the grass, just as
• 6:32:40
  Mary Vance said Henry Warren did. It's all very fine for you to laugh,
• 6:32:44
  Jerry Meredith, but you'd have laughed on the other side of your mouth
• 6:32:47
  if you'd been there. And how are we to be punished? I don't
• 6:32:49
  think it's fair. But let's know what we have to do, Judge Meredith.
• 6:32:53
  The way I look at it, said Jerry, frowning, is that
• 6:32:57
  Karl was the most to blame. He bolted first, as I understand it.
• 6:33:02
  Besides, he was a boy, so he should have stood his ground
• 6:33:04
  to protect you girls, whatever the danger was. You know that, Karl,
• 6:33:07
  don't you? I suppose so, growled Karl, shamefacedly. Very well,
• 6:33:14
  this is to be your punishment to night. You'll sit on mister Hezekiah
• 6:33:17
  Pollock's tombstone in the graveyard alone until twelve o'clock. Karl gave a little shudder.
• 6:33:23
  The graveyard was not so very far from the old Bailey garden. It
• 6:33:27
  would be a trying ordeal, but Karl was anxious to wipe out his disgrace
• 6:33:32
  and prove that he was not a coward after all. All right, he
• 6:33:36
  said sturdily, But how'll I know when it's twelve The study windows are open,
• 6:33:41
  and you'll hear the clock striking, And mind that you are not to
• 6:33:44
  budge out of that graveyard until the last stroke. As for you girls,
• 6:33:48
  you've got to go without jam at supper for a week. Faith and Una
• 6:33:52
  looked rather blank. They were inclined to think that even Karl's comparatively short,
• 6:33:56
  though sharp agony was lighter punishment than the long drawn out ordeal. A whole
• 6:34:02
  week of soggy bread without the saving grace of jam. But no shirking was
• 6:34:07
  permitted in the club. The girls accepted their lot with such philosophy as they
• 6:34:11
  could summon up. That night, they all went to bed at nine,
• 6:34:15
  except Carl, who was already keeping vigil on the tombstone. Una slipped in
• 6:34:19
  to bid him good night. Her tender heart was wrung with sympathy. Oh
• 6:34:23
  Carl, are you much scared? She whispered. Not a bit, said
• 6:34:27
  Carl. Airily. I won't sleep a wink till after twelve, said Una.
• 6:34:33
  If he get lonesome, just look up at our window and remember that
• 6:34:36
  I'm inside, awake and thinking about you. That will be a little company,
• 6:34:40
  won't it. I'll be all right, don't you worry about me,
• 6:34:42
  said Carl. But in spite of his dauntless words, Karl was a pretty
• 6:34:47
  lonely boy when the lights went out in the manse. He had hoped his
• 6:34:51
  father would be in the study, as he so often was. He would
• 6:34:55
  not feel alone then. But that night mister Meredith had been summoned to the
• 6:34:57
  fishing village at the he Barborough Mouth to see a dying man. He would
• 6:35:02
  not likely be back until after midnight. Karl must dree his weird alone.
• 6:35:07
  A glen man went past carrying a lantern. The mysterious shadows caused by the
• 6:35:11
  lantern light went hurtling madly over the graveyard, like a dance of demons or
• 6:35:17
  witches. Then they passed and darkness fell again. One by one, the
• 6:35:22
  lights in the glen went out. It was a very dark night, with
• 6:35:26
  a cloudy sky and a raw east wind that was cold in spite of the
• 6:35:30
  calendar. Far away on the horizon was the low, dim luster of the
• 6:35:34
  Charlottetown lights. The wind wailed and sighed in the old fir trees. Mister
• 6:35:40
  Alec Davis's tall monument gleamed whitely through the gloom, the willow beside it tossed
• 6:35:45
  long, writhing arms spectrally. At times, the gyrations of its boughs made
• 6:35:49
  it seem as if the monument were moving too. Karl curled himself up on
• 6:35:55
  the tombstone with his legs tucked under him. It wasn't precisely pleasant to hang
• 6:35:59
  them over the edge of the stone. Just suppose, just suppose bony hands
• 6:36:04
  should reach up out of mister Pollock's grave under it and clutch him by the
• 6:36:08
  ankles. That had been one of Mary Vance's cheerful speculations one time, when
• 6:36:14
  they had all been sitting there. It returned to haunt Karl. Now.
• 6:36:18
  He didn't believe those things. He didn't even really believe in Henry Warren's ghost.
• 6:36:22
  As for mister Pollock, he had been dead sixty years, so it
• 6:36:26
  wasn't likely he cared who sat on his tombstone now. But there is something
• 6:36:30
  very strange and terrible in being awake when all the rest of the world is
• 6:36:34
  asleep. You are alone, then, with nothing but your own feeble personality
• 6:36:40
  to pit against the mighty principalities and powers of darkness. Karl was only ten,
• 6:36:45
  and the dead were all around him, and he wished, oh,
• 6:36:48
  he wished that the clock would strike twelve. Would it never strike twelve?
• 6:36:53
  Surely Aunt Martha must have forgotten to wind it. And then it struck eleven,
• 6:36:59
  only eleven. He must stay yet another hour in that grim place.
• 6:37:03
  If only there were a few friendly stars to be seen. The darkness was
• 6:37:07
  so thick it seemed to press against his face. There was a sound as
• 6:37:11
  of stealthy passing footsteps all over the graveyard. Karl shivered, partly with prickling
• 6:37:18
  terror, partly with real cold. Then it began to rain, a chill,
• 6:37:22
  penetrating drizzle. Karl's thin little cotton blouse and shirt were soon wet through.
• 6:37:27
  He felt chilled to the bone. He forgot mental terrors in his physical
• 6:37:32
  discomfort. But he must stay there till twelve. He was punishing himself,
• 6:37:37
  and he was on his honor. Nothing had been said about rain, but
• 6:37:40
  it did not make any difference. When the clock finally struck twelve, a
• 6:37:45
  drenched little figure crept stiffly down off mister Pollock's tombstone, made its way into
• 6:37:49
  the manse and upstairs to bed. Karl's teeth were chattering. He thought he
• 6:37:53
  would never get warm again. He was warm enough. When morning came,
• 6:37:57
  Jerry gave one startled look at his crimson face, and then rushed to call
• 6:38:03
  his father. Mister Meredith came hurriedly, his own face ivory white from the
• 6:38:07
  pallor of his long night vigil by a deathbed. He had not got home
• 6:38:11
  until daylight. He bent over his little lad anxiously. Carl, are you
• 6:38:17
  sick? He said, That tombstone over there, said Karl, it's moving
• 6:38:22
  about. It's coming at me. Keep it away, please. Mister Meredith
• 6:38:27
  rushed to the telephone. In ten minutes, doctor Blythe was at the man's
• 6:38:32
  Half an hour later, a wire was sent to town for a trained nurse,
• 6:38:36
  and all the Glen knew that Karl Meredith was very ill with pneumonia,
• 6:38:40
  and that doctor Blythe had been seen to shake his head. Gilbert shook his
• 6:38:44
  head more than once. In the fortnight that followed. Karl developed double pneumonia.
• 6:38:48
  There was one night when mister Meredith paced his study floor, and Faith
• 6:38:52
  and Una huddled in their bedroom and cried, and Jerry, wild with remorse,
• 6:38:57
  refused to budge from the floor of the hall outside Carl's door. Doctor
• 6:39:02
  Blythe and the nurse never left the bedside. They fought death gallantly until the
• 6:39:07
  red dawn, and they won the victory. Carl rallied and passed the crisis
• 6:39:11
  in safety. The news was phoned about the waiting Glen, and people found
• 6:39:15
  out how much they really loved their minister and his children. I haven't had
• 6:39:21
  one decent night's sleep since I heard the child was sick, Miss Cornelia told
• 6:39:25
  Anne and Mary Vance has cried till those queer eyes of hers looked like burnt
• 6:39:29
  holes in a blanket. Is it true that Carl got pneumonia from staying out
• 6:39:33
  in the graveyard that wet night for a deer. No, he was staying
• 6:39:37
  out there to punish himself for cowardice in that affair of the Warren ghost.
• 6:39:41
  It seems they have a club for bringing themselves up, and they punished themselves
• 6:39:45
  when they do wrong. Jerry told mister Meredith all about it. The poor
• 6:39:49
  little souls, said Miss Cornelia. Carl got better rapidly, for the congregation
• 6:39:56
  took enough nourishing things to the man's to furnish forth the hospit Norman Douglas drove
• 6:40:02
  up every evening with a dozen fresh eggs and a jar of jersey cream.
• 6:40:06
  Sometimes he stayed an hour and bellowed arguments on predestination with mister Meredith in the
• 6:40:11
  study oftener. He drove on up to the hill that overlooked the glen.
• 6:40:15
  When Karl was able to go again to Rainbow Valley, they had a special
• 6:40:18
  feast in his honor, and the doctor came down and helped them with the
• 6:40:22
  fireworks. Mary Vance was there too, but she did not tell any ghost
• 6:40:26
  stories. Miss Cornelia had given her a talking on that subject, which Mary
• 6:40:30
  would not forget. In a hurry. End of chapter thirty one, Chapter
• 6:40:37
  thirty two, Two Stubborn People. Rosemary West, on her way home from
• 6:40:41
  a music lesson at Ingleside, turned aside to the hidden spring in Rainbow Valley.
• 6:40:47
  She had not been there all summer. The beautiful little spot had no
• 6:40:49
  longer any allurement for her. The spirit of her young lover never came to
• 6:40:53
  the tryst now, and the memories connected with John Meredith were too painful and
• 6:40:59
  poignant. But she had happened to glance backward up the valley and had seen
• 6:41:03
  Norman Douglas vaulting as airily as a stripling over the old stone dike in the
• 6:41:07
  Bailey Garden, and thought he was on his way up the hill. If
• 6:41:11
  he overtook her, she would have to walk home with him, and she
• 6:41:14
  was not going to do that. So she slipped at once behind the maples
• 6:41:17
  of the Spring, hoping he had not seen her and would pass on.
• 6:41:21
  But Norman had seen her, and what was more, was in pursuit of
• 6:41:23
  her. He had been wanting for some time to have a talk with Rosemary,
• 6:41:27
  but she had always so it seemed avoided him. Rosemary had never,
• 6:41:33
  at any time liked Norman Douglas very well. His bluster, his temper,
• 6:41:37
  his noisy hilarity had always antagonized her. Long ago. She had often wondered
• 6:41:42
  how Ellen could possibly be attracted to him. Norman Douglas was perfectly aware of
• 6:41:48
  her dislike and he chuckled over it. It never worried Norman if people did
• 6:41:52
  not like him. It did not even make him dislike them in return,
• 6:41:55
  for he took it as a kind of extorted compliment. He thought Rosemary a
• 6:41:59
  fine girl, and he meant to be an excellent, generous brother in law
• 6:42:03
  to her. But before he could be her brother in law, he had
• 6:42:06
  to have a talk with her. So, having seen her leaving ingleside as
• 6:42:10
  he stood in the doorway of a Glen's store. He had straight away plunged
• 6:42:14
  into the valley to overtake her. Rosemary was sitting pensively on the maple seat
• 6:42:18
  where John Meredith had been sitting on that evening nearly a year ago. The
• 6:42:22
  tiny spring shimmered and dimpled under its fringe of ferns. Ruby red gleams of
• 6:42:27
  sunset fell through the arching boughs. A tall clump of perfect asters grew at
• 6:42:33
  her side. The little spot was as dreamy and witching and evasive as any
• 6:42:37
  retreat of fairies and dryads and ancient forests into it. Norman Douglas bounced,
• 6:42:42
  scattering and annihilating its charm. In a moment, his personality seemed to swallow
• 6:42:48
  the place up. There was simply nothing there but Norman Douglas, big,
• 6:42:52
  red bearded, complaisant. Good evening, said Rosemary, coldly, standing up
• 6:42:59
  evening. Sit down again, Sit down again. I want to have a
• 6:43:02
  talk with you. Bless the girl. What she looking at me like that
• 6:43:04
  for? I don't want to eat you. I've had my supper. Sit
• 6:43:07
  down and be civil. I can hear what you have to say quite as
• 6:43:11
  well. Here, said Rosemary. So you can, girl, if you
• 6:43:15
  use your ears. I only wanted you to be comfortable. You look so
• 6:43:18
  durned uncomfortable standing there. Well, I'll sit anyway. Norman accordingly sat down
• 6:43:23
  in the very place John Meredith at once sat. The contrast was so ludicrous
• 6:43:27
  that Rosemary was afraid she would go off into a peal of hysterical laughter over
• 6:43:32
  it. Norman cast his hat aside, placed his huge red hands on his
• 6:43:37
  knees, and looked up at her with eyes a twinkle. Come, girl,
• 6:43:41
  don't be so stiff, he said, ingratiatingly, when he liked he
• 6:43:45
  could be very ingratiating. Lads have a reasonable, sensible, friendly chat.
• 6:43:49
  There's something I want to ask you, Ellen, says she won't, so
• 6:43:52
  it's up to me to do it. Rosemary looked down at the spring,
• 6:43:56
  which seemed to have shrunk to the size of a dew tree. Norman gazed
• 6:44:00
  at her in despair. Durn it all, you might help a fellow out
• 6:44:03
  a bit, he burst forth. What is it you want me to help
• 6:44:07
  you say? Asked Rosemary scornfully. You know as well as I do,
• 6:44:11
  girl, don't be putting on your tragedy airs. No wonder. Ellen was
• 6:44:15
  scared to ask you. Look here, girl, Ellen and I want to
• 6:44:18
  marry each other. That's plain English, isn't it? Got that? And
• 6:44:22
  Ellen says she can't unless you give her back some tom fool promise she made.
• 6:44:27
  Come now, will you do it? Will you do it? Yes?
• 6:44:30
  Said Rosemary. Norman bounced up and seized her reluctant hand. Good.
• 6:44:36
  I knew you would. I told Ellen you would. I knew it would
• 6:44:38
  only take a minute. Now, girl, you go home and tell Ellen,
• 6:44:42
  and we'll have a wedding in a fortnight, and you'll come and live
• 6:44:45
  with us. We shan't leave you to roost on that hilltop like a lonely
• 6:44:48
  crow. Don't you worry. I know you hate me, but lord,
• 6:44:52
  it'll be great fun living with someone that hates me. Life'll have some spice
• 6:44:55
  in it. After this, Ellen will roast me and you'll freeze me.
• 6:44:59
  I won't have a dull moment. Rosemary did not condescend to tell him that
• 6:45:03
  nothing would ever induce her to live in his house. She let him go,
• 6:45:07
  striding back to the glen oozing delight and complacency, and she walked slowly
• 6:45:12
  up the hill home she had known this was coming ever since she had returned
• 6:45:15
  from Kingsport and found Norman Douglas established as a frequent evening caller. His name
• 6:45:22
  was never mentioned between her and Ellen, but the very avoidance of it was
• 6:45:26
  significant. It was not in Rosemary's nature to feel bitter, or she would
• 6:45:30
  have felt very bitter. She was coldly civil to Norman, and she made
• 6:45:34
  no difference in any way with Ellen. But Ellen had not found much comfort
• 6:45:38
  in her second courtship. She was in the garden attended by Saint George when
• 6:45:44
  Rosemary came home. The two sisters met in the dahlia walk. Saint George
• 6:45:48
  sat down on the gravel walk between them and folded his glossy black tail gracefully
• 6:45:52
  around his white paws, with all the indifference of a well fed, well
• 6:45:56
  bred, well groomed cat. Did you ever see such dahlia's? Demanded Ellen,
• 6:46:03
  proudly. They are just the finest we've ever had. Rosemary had never
• 6:46:07
  cared for dahlias. Their presence in the garden was her concession to Ellen's taste.
• 6:46:11
  She noticed one huge mottled one of crimson and yellow that lorded it over
• 6:46:15
  all the others. That dahlia, she said, pointing to it is exactly
• 6:46:21
  like Norman Douglas. It might easily be his twin brother. Ellen's dark browed
• 6:46:26
  face flushed. She admired the dahlia in question, but she knew Rosemary did
• 6:46:30
  not, and that no compliment was intended, but she dared not resent Rosemary's
• 6:46:36
  speech. Poor Ellen dared not resent anything just then, and it was the
• 6:46:40
  first time Rosemary had ever mentioned Norman's name to her. She felt that this
• 6:46:44
  portended something. I met Norman Douglas in the valley, said Rosemary, looking
• 6:46:48
  straight at her sister, and he told me you and he wanted to be
• 6:46:52
  married if I would give you permission. Yes, what did you say?
• 6:46:56
  Asked Ellen, trying to speak naturally off handedly and failing completely. She could
• 6:47:03
  not meet Rosemary's eyes. She looked down at Saint George's sleek back and felt
• 6:47:07
  horribly afraid Rosemary had either said she would or she wouldn't. If she would,
• 6:47:12
  Ellen would feel so ashamed and remorseful that she would be a very uncomfortable
• 6:47:18
  bride elect. And if she wouldn't, well. Ellen had once learned to
• 6:47:22
  live without Norman Douglas, but she had forgotten the lesson and felt that she
• 6:47:26
  could never learn it again. I said that, as far as I was
• 6:47:29
  concerned, you were at full liberty to marry each other as soon as you
• 6:47:32
  liked, said Rosemary. Thank you, said Ellen, still looking at Saint
• 6:47:37
  George. Rosemary's face softened. I hope you'll be happy, Ellen, she
• 6:47:41
  said, gently, Oh, Rosemary, Ellen looked up in distress. I'm
• 6:47:45
  so ashamed. I don't deserve it, after all I said to you.
• 6:47:49
  We won't speak about that, said Rosemary, hurriedly and decidedly, but but
• 6:47:55
  persisted. Ellen. You are free now too, and it's not too late.
• 6:47:59
  John Merridan if Ellen West Rosemary had a little spark of temper under all
• 6:48:03
  her sweetness, and it flashed forth now in her blue eyes. Have you
• 6:48:07
  quite lost your senses in every respect? Do you suppose for an instant that
• 6:48:12
  I am going to go to John Meredith and say, meekly, please,
• 6:48:15
  sir, I've changed my mind, And please, sir, I hope you
• 6:48:18
  haven't changed yours. Is that what you want me to do? No?
• 6:48:22
  No, but a little encouragement he would come back. Never he despises me,
• 6:48:29
  and rightly, no more of this, Ellen, I bear you no
• 6:48:32
  grudge. Marry whom you like but no meddling in my affairs. Then you
• 6:48:36
  must come and live with me, said Ellen. I shall not leave you
• 6:48:38
  here alone. Do you really think that I would go and live in Norman
• 6:48:42
  Douglas's house? Why not, cried Ellen half angrily. Despite her humiliation,
• 6:48:48
  Rosemary began to laugh. Ellen. I thought you had a sense of humor.
• 6:48:53
  Can you see me doing it? Why don't you? Why you wouldn't
• 6:48:56
  His house is big enough, you'd have your share of it to your You
• 6:49:00
  wouldn't interfere, Ellen, The thing is not to be thought of. Don't
• 6:49:03
  bring this up again, then, said Ellen, coldly and determinedly. I
• 6:49:08
  shall not marry him. I shall not leave you here alone. That is
• 6:49:11
  all there is to be said about it. Nonsense, Ellen, it is
• 6:49:15
  not nonsense. It is my firm decision. It would be absurd for you
• 6:49:18
  to think of living here by yourself, a mile from any other house.
• 6:49:22
  If you won't come with me, I'll stay with you now. We won't
• 6:49:25
  argue the matter, So don't try. I shall leave Norman to do the
• 6:49:29
  arguing, said Rosemary. I'll deal with Norman. I can manage him.
• 6:49:33
  I would never have asked you to give me back my promise. Never but
• 6:49:37
  I had to tell Norman why I couldn't marry him, and he said he
• 6:49:40
  would ask you. I couldn't prevent him. You need not suppose you are
• 6:49:44
  the only person in the world who possesses self respect. I never dreamed of
• 6:49:48
  marrying and leaving you here alone, and you'll find I can be as determined
• 6:49:51
  as yourself. Rosemary turned away and went into the house with a shrug of
• 6:49:56
  her shoulders. Ellen looked down at Saint George, who had never linked an
• 6:50:00
  eyelash or stirred a whisker during the whole interview. Saint George, this world
• 6:50:04
  would be a dull place without the men, I'll admit, but I'm almost
• 6:50:07
  tempted to wish there wasn't one of a minute. Look at all the trouble
• 6:50:11
  and bother they've made right here. George torn our happy old life completely up
• 6:50:15
  by the roots. Saint John Meredith began it, and Norman Douglas has finished
• 6:50:21
  it, and now both of them have to go into limbo. Norman is
• 6:50:25
  the only man I ever met who agrees with me that the Kaiser of Germany
• 6:50:27
  is the most dangerous creature alive on this earth. And I can't marry this
• 6:50:32
  sensible person, because my sister is stubborn and I'm stubborner mark my words.
• 6:50:37
  Saint George, the minister would come back if she raised her little finger.
• 6:50:41
  But she won't, George. She'll never do it. She won't even crook
• 6:50:45
  it. And I don't dare meddle, Saint. I won't sulk, George.
• 6:50:49
  Rosemary didn't sulk, so I'm determined I won't either. Saint Norman will
• 6:50:53
  tear up the turf. But the long and short of it is, Saint
• 6:50:56
  George, that all of us old fools must just stop thinking of marrying well
• 6:51:00
  well, Despair is a free man, hope is a slave, Saint.
• 6:51:03
  So now come into the house, George, and I'll solace you with a
• 6:51:07
  saucerful of cream. Then there will be one happy and contented creature on this
• 6:51:11
  hill. At least end of chapter thirty two Chapter thirty three, Karl is
• 6:51:18
  not whipped. There is something I think I ought to tell you, said
• 6:51:22
  Mary Vance mysteriously. She and Faith and Una were walking arm in arm through
• 6:51:26
  the village, having four gathered at mister Flagg's store. Una and Faith exchanged
• 6:51:32
  looks which said, now something disagreeable is coming. When Mary Vance thought she
• 6:51:37
  ought to tell them things. There was seldom much pleasure in the hearing.
• 6:51:41
  They often wondered why they kept on liking Mary Vance, for like her they
• 6:51:45
  did in spite of everything. To be sure, she was generally a stimulating
• 6:51:49
  and agreeable companion. If only she would not have those convictions that it was
• 6:51:53
  her duty to tell them things. Do you know that Rosemary West won't marry
• 6:51:57
  your pa because she thinks you are sick's a wild lot. She's afraid she
• 6:52:00
  couldn't bring you upright, and so she turned him down. UNA's heart thrilled
• 6:52:06
  with secret exultation. She was very glad to hear that miss West would not
• 6:52:10
  marry her father. But Faith was rather disappointed. How do you know,
• 6:52:15
  she asked, Oh, everybody's saying it. I heard Missus Elliot talking it
• 6:52:18
  over with Missus Doctor. They thought I was too far away to hear.
• 6:52:22
  But I've got ears like a cat's. Missus Elliot said she hadn't a doubt
• 6:52:26
  that Rosemary was afraid to try stepmother in you because you'd got such a reputation.
• 6:52:30
  Your Pa never goes up the hill now, neither does Norman Douglas.
• 6:52:33
  Folks say Ellen has jilted him, just to get square with him for jilting
• 6:52:37
  her ages ago. But Norman is going about declaring he'll get her yet.
• 6:52:41
  And I think you ought to know. You've spoiled your PAW's match. And
• 6:52:45
  I think it's a pity, for he's bound to marry somebody before long,
• 6:52:48
  and Rosemary West would have been the best wife I know of for him.
• 6:52:52
  You told me all stepmothers were cruel and wicked, said Una. Oh,
• 6:52:56
  well, said Mary, rather confusedly. They're mostly awful cranky, I know,
• 6:53:02
  But Rosemary West couldn't be very mean to any one. I tell you,
• 6:53:04
  if your pad turns round and Mary's Emmeline drew, you'll wish you'd behaved
• 6:53:08
  yourselves better and not frightened Rosemary out of it. It's awful that you've got
• 6:53:12
  such a reputation that no decent woman'll marry your pawn account of you. Of
• 6:53:17
  course, I know that half the yarns that are told about you ain't true,
• 6:53:21
  but give a dog a bad name. Why some folks are saying that
• 6:53:25
  it was Jerry and Carl that threw the stones through Missus Dimson's window the other
• 6:53:27
  night, when it was really them two boyd boys. But I'm afraid it
• 6:53:32
  was Karl that put the eel in old Missus Carr's buggy, though I said
• 6:53:34
  at first I wouldn't believe it until i'd better proof than old Kitty Alec's word.
• 6:53:38
  I told Missus Elliot so right to her face. What did Carl do?
• 6:53:42
  Cried faith Well, they say, now mind, I'm only telling you
• 6:53:47
  what people say, so there's no use in your blaming me for it.
• 6:53:51
  That Carl and a lot of other boys were fishing eels over the bridge one
• 6:53:55
  evening last week, Missus Carr drove past in that old rattle trap buggy hers
• 6:53:59
  with the open back, and Carl he just up an threw a big eel
• 6:54:03
  into the back. When poor old missus Carr was driving up the hill by
• 6:54:07
  Ingleside, that eel came squirmmin out between her feet. She thought it was
• 6:54:11
  a snake, and she just gave one awful screech and stood up and jumped
• 6:54:15
  clean over the wheels. The horse bolted, but it went home and no
• 6:54:18
  damage was done. But Missus Carr jarred her legs most terrible and has had
• 6:54:22
  nervous spasms ever since. Whenever she thinks of the eel, say it was
• 6:54:26
  a rotten trick to play on the poor old soul. She's a decent body
• 6:54:30
  if she is as queer as Dick's hat band. Faith and Una looked at
• 6:54:33
  each other again. This was a matter for the Good Conduct Club. They
• 6:54:37
  would not talk it over with Mary. There goes your pa, said Mary,
• 6:54:41
  as mister Meredith passed them, and never seein us no more'n if we
• 6:54:45
  weren't there, well, I'm gettin so us. I don't mind it,
• 6:54:48
  but there are folks who do. Mister Meredith had not seen them, but
• 6:54:52
  he was not walking along in his usual dreamy and abstracted fashion. He strode
• 6:54:57
  up the hill in agitation and distress. Missus Alec Davis had just told him
• 6:55:02
  the story of Karl and the Eel. She had been very indignant about it.
• 6:55:06
  Old Missus Carr was her third cousin. Mister Meredith was more than indignant.
• 6:55:11
  He was hurt and shocked. He had not thought Karl would do anything
• 6:55:15
  like this. He was not inclined to be hard on pranks of heedlessness or
• 6:55:18
  forgetfulness, but this was different. This had a nasty tang in it.
• 6:55:23
  When he reached home, he found Karl on the lawn patiently studying the habits
• 6:55:27
  and customs of a colony of wasps. Calling him into the study, mister
• 6:55:32
  Meredith confronted him with a sterner face than any of his children had ever seen
• 6:55:36
  before, and asked him if the story were true. Yes, said Karl,
• 6:55:41
  flushing, but meeting his father's eyes bravely. Mister Meredith groaned. He
• 6:55:45
  had hoped that there had been at least exaggeration. Tell me the whole matter,
• 6:55:49
  he said. The boys were fishing for eels over the bridge, said
• 6:55:53
  Carl. Link drew a cat a whopper, I mean, an awful,
• 6:55:56
  big one, the biggest eel I ever saw. He caught it right at
• 6:56:00
  the start and had been lying in his basket a long time still as still,
• 6:56:04
  I thought it was dead, honest I did. Then old missus Carr
• 6:56:07
  drove over the bridge, and she called us all young varmints and told us
• 6:56:11
  to go home. And we hadn't said a word to her father, truly,
• 6:56:15
  So when she drove back again after going to the store, the boys
• 6:56:18
  dared me to put Link's eel in her buggy. I thought it was so
• 6:56:22
  dead it couldn't hurt her, and I threw it in. Then the eel
• 6:56:25
  came to life on the hill, and we heard her scream and saw her
• 6:56:27
  jump out. I was awful. Sorry, that's all, father. It
• 6:56:32
  was not quite as bad as mister Meredith had feared, but it was quite
• 6:56:36
  bad enough. I must punish you, Carl, he said, sorrowfully.
• 6:56:41
  Yes, I know, father, I I must whip you. Carl winced
• 6:56:45
  he had never been whipped. Then, seeing how badly his father felt,
• 6:56:51
  he said, cheerfully, all right. Father. Mister Meredith misunderstood his cheerfulness
• 6:56:56
  and thought him insensible. He told Carl to come to the study after supper,
• 6:57:00
  and when the boy had gone out, he flung himself into his chair
• 6:57:03
  and groaned again. He dreaded the evening sevenfold more than Karl did. The
• 6:57:10
  poor minister did not even know what he should whip his boy with. What
• 6:57:14
  was used to whip boys. Ron's Cain's No, that would be too brutal.
• 6:57:18
  A timber switch, then, and he John Meredith must tie him to
• 6:57:22
  the woods and cut one. It was an abominable thought. Then a picture
• 6:57:27
  presented itself, unbidden to his mind. He saw missus Carr's wizzened nutcracker little
• 6:57:33
  face at the appearance of that reviving eel. He saw her sailing witch like
• 6:57:37
  over the buggy wheels before he could prevent himself. The minister laughed. Then
• 6:57:42
  he was angry with himself, and angrier still with Karl. He would get
• 6:57:47
  that switch at once, and it must not be too limber after all.
• 6:57:52
  Karl was talking the matter over in the graveyard with Faith and Una, who
• 6:57:56
  had just come home. They were horrified at the idea of his being whish
• 6:58:00
  and by father, who had never done such a thing, but they agreed
• 6:58:03
  soberly that it was just you know, it was a dreadful thing to do,
• 6:58:07
  sighed Faith. And you never owned up in the club. I forgot,
• 6:58:12
  said Carl. Besides, I didn't think any harm came of it.
• 6:58:15
  I didn't know she jarred her legs. But I'm to be whipped, and
• 6:58:18
  that will make things square? Will it hurt? Very much? Said Una,
• 6:58:23
  slipping her hand into Carl's. Oh not so much, I guess,
• 6:58:27
  said Carl gamely. Anyhow, I'm not going to cry, no matter how
• 6:58:32
  much it hurts. It would make Father feel so bad if I did.
• 6:58:34
  He's all cut up now. I wish I could whip myself hard enough and
• 6:58:38
  save him doing it. After supper, at which Karl had eaten little and
• 6:58:42
  mister Meredith nothing at all. Both went silently into the study. The switch
• 6:58:48
  lay on the table. Mister Meredith had had a bad time getting a switch
• 6:58:52
  to suit him. He caught one, then felt it was too slender.
• 6:58:56
  Carl had done a really indefensible thing. Then he cut another. It was
• 6:59:00
  far too thick. After all, Karl had thought the eel was dead.
• 6:59:03
  The third one suited him better, but as he picked it up from the
• 6:59:07
  table, it seemed very thick and heavy, more like a stick than a
• 6:59:11
  switch. Hold out your hand, he said to Karl. Karl threw back
• 6:59:17
  his head and held out his hand unflinchingly. But he was not very old,
• 6:59:21
  and he could not quite keep a little fear out of his eyes.
• 6:59:25
  Mister Meredith looked down into those eyes. Why they were Cecilia's eyes, her
• 6:59:30
  very eyes, and in them was the self same expression he had once seen
• 6:59:33
  in Cecilia's eyes when she had come to him to tell him something she had
• 6:59:37
  been a little afraid to tell him. Here were her eyes in Karl's little
• 6:59:41
  white face. And six weeks ago he had thought, through one endless terrible
• 6:59:47
  night, that his little lad was dying John Meredith threw down the switch,
• 6:59:52
  go, he said, I cannot whip you. Karl fled to the graveyard,
• 6:59:57
  feeling that the look on his father face was worse than any whipping.
• 7:00:02
  Is it over so soon, asked Faith. She and Una had been holding
• 7:00:06
  hands and setting teeth on the Pollock tombstone. He he didn't whip me at
• 7:00:11
  all, said Karl, with a sob And I wish he had. And
• 7:00:15
  he's in there feeling just awful. Una slipped away. Her heart yearned to
• 7:00:21
  comfort her father. As noiselessly as a little gray mouse. She opened the
• 7:00:25
  study door and crept in. The room was dark with twilight. Her father
• 7:00:30
  was sitting at his desk. His back was towards her, his head was
• 7:00:33
  in his hands. He was talking to himself broken anguished words. But Una
• 7:00:38
  heard, heard, and understood with the sudden illumination that comes to sensitive,
• 7:00:44
  unmothered children. As silently as she had come in, she slipped out and
• 7:00:48
  closed the door. John Meredith went on talking out his pain in what he
• 7:00:53
  deemed his undisturbed solitude. End of chapter thirty three. Chapter thirty four,
• 7:01:00
  Una visits the hill. Una went upstairs. Karl and Faith were already on
• 7:01:06
  their way through the early moonlight to Rainbow Valley. Having heard therefrom the elfin
• 7:01:11
  lilt of Jerry's jew's harp, and having guessed that the blights were there and
• 7:01:15
  fun afoot, Una had no wish to go. She sought her own room
• 7:01:18
  first, where she sat down on her bed and had a little cry.
• 7:01:22
  She did not want anybody to come in her dear mother's place. She did
• 7:01:26
  not want a stepmother who would hate her and make her father hate her.
• 7:01:30
  But father was so desperately unhappy, and if she could do anything to make
• 7:01:34
  him happier, she must do it. There was only one thing she could
• 7:01:38
  do, and she had known the moment she had left the study that she
• 7:01:42
  must do it. But it was a very hard thing to do. After
• 7:01:48
  Una cried her heart out, she wiped her eyes and went to the spare
• 7:01:52
  room. It was dark and rather musty, for the blind had not been
• 7:01:55
  drawn up nor the window opened for a long time. Aunt Martha was no
• 7:02:00
  fresh air fiend, but as nobody ever thought of shutting a door in the
• 7:02:03
  manse, this did not matter so much, save when some unfortunate minister came
• 7:02:07
  to stay all night and was compelled to breathe the spare room atmosphere. There
• 7:02:11
  was a closet in the spare room, and far back in the closet a
• 7:02:15
  gray silk dress was hanging. Una went into the closet and shut the door,
• 7:02:21
  went down on her knees and pressed her face against the soft silken folds.
• 7:02:25
  It had been her mother's wedding dress. It was still full of a
• 7:02:29
  sweet, faint, haunting perfume, like lingering love. Una always felt very
• 7:02:33
  close to her mother there, as if she were kneeling at her feet with
• 7:02:37
  her head in her lap. She went there once in a long while when
• 7:02:41
  life was too hard. Mother, she whispered to the gray's silk gown.
• 7:02:45
  I will never forget you, mother, and I'll always love you best.
• 7:02:49
  But I have to do it, mother, because father is so very unhappy.
• 7:02:53
  I know you wouldn't want him to be unhappy. And I'll be very
• 7:02:57
  good to her mother and try to love her, even if she is like
• 7:03:00
  Mary Vance said stepmothers always were. Una carried some fine spiritual strength away from
• 7:03:07
  her secret shrine. She slept peacefully that night, with the tear stained still
• 7:03:11
  glistening on her sweet, serious little face. The next afternoon, she put
• 7:03:17
  on her best dress and hat. They were shabby enough. Every other little
• 7:03:21
  girl in the glen had new clothes that summer, except Faith and Una.
• 7:03:26
  Mary Vance had a lovely dress of white embroidered lawn with scarlet silk sash and
• 7:03:30
  shoulder bows. But to day, Una did not mind her shabbiness. She
• 7:03:36
  only wanted to be very neat. She washed her face carefully. She brushed
• 7:03:40
  her black hair until it was as smooth as satin. She tied her shoelaces
• 7:03:44
  carefully, having first sewed up two runs in her one pair of good stockings.
• 7:03:48
  She would have liked to black her shoes, but she could not find
• 7:03:52
  any blacking. Finally, she slipped away from the manse, down through Rainbow
• 7:03:56
  Valley, up through the Whispering woods, and down to the road that ran
• 7:04:00
  past the house on the hill. It was quite a long walk, and
• 7:04:03
  Una was tired and warm. When she got there, she saw Rosemary West
• 7:04:08
  sitting under a tree in the garden, and stole past the dahlia beds to
• 7:04:11
  her. Rosemary had a book in her lap, but she was gazing afar
• 7:04:17
  across the harbor, and her thoughts were sorrowful enough. Life had not been
• 7:04:21
  pleasant lately, in the house on the hill. Ellen had not sulked.
• 7:04:25
  Ellen had been a brick. But things can be felt that are never said,
• 7:04:29
  and at times the silence between the two women was intolerably eloquent. All
• 7:04:33
  the many familiar things that had once made life sweet had a flavor of bitterness.
• 7:04:38
  Now. Norman Douglas made periodical eruptions, also bullying and coaxing Ellen by
• 7:04:45
  turns. It would end, Rosemary believed, by his dragging Ellen off with
• 7:04:49
  him some day, and Rosemary felt that she would almost be glad when it
• 7:04:53
  happened. Existence would be horribly lonely then, but it would no longer be
• 7:04:57
  charged with dynamite. She was roused from her unpleasant reverie by a timid little
• 7:05:03
  touch on her shoulder. Turning, she saw Una, Meredith, Why Una,
• 7:05:07
  dear, did you walk up here in all this heat? Yes,
• 7:05:11
  said Una, I came too. I came too. But she found it
• 7:05:17
  very hard to say what she had come to do. Her voice failed,
• 7:05:19
  her eyes filled with tears. Why, Una, little girl, what is
• 7:05:23
  the trouble? Don't be afraid to tell me. Rosemary put her arm around
• 7:05:27
  the thin little form and drew the child close to her. Her eyes were
• 7:05:33
  very beautiful. Her touch so tender that Una found courage. I came to
• 7:05:37
  ask you to marry father, she gasped. Rosemary was silent for a moment
• 7:05:42
  from sheer dumbfoundment. She stared at Una blankly. Oh, don't be angry.
• 7:05:48
  Pleased, dear, Miss West, said Una pleadingly. You see,
• 7:05:52
  everybody is saying that you wouldn't marry father because we are so bad. He
• 7:05:56
  is very unhappy about it. So I thought I would come and tell you
• 7:05:59
  that we are never bad on purpose, and if you will only marry Father,
• 7:06:03
  we will all try to be good and do just what you tell us.
• 7:06:06
  I'm sure you won't have any trouble with us, please, Miss West.
• 7:06:10
  Rosemary had been thinking rapidly, gossiping surmise she saw had put this mistaken
• 7:06:15
  idea into UNA's mind. She must be perfectly frank and sincere with the child.
• 7:06:21
  Una, dear, she said softly, It isn't because of you poor
• 7:06:23
  little souls that I cannot be your father's wife. I never thought of such
• 7:06:27
  a thing. You are not bad. I never supposed you were there.
• 7:06:32
  There was another reason altogether, Una. Don't you like father? Asked Una,
• 7:06:37
  lifting reproachful eyes, oh, miss West, you don't know how nice
• 7:06:41
  he is. I'm sure he'd make you a good husband. Even in the
• 7:06:45
  midst of her perplexity and distress, Rosemary couldn't help a twisted little smile.
• 7:06:51
  Oh don't laugh, miss West, Una cried passionately. Father feels dreadful about
• 7:06:56
  it. I think you're mistaken, dear, said Rosemary. I'm not.
• 7:07:00
  I'm sure i'm not, oh, miss West. Father was going to whip
• 7:07:03
  Karl yesterday. Karl had been naughty and Father couldn't do it because, you
• 7:07:07
  see, he had no practice in whipping. So when Karl came out and
• 7:07:11
  told his father felt so bad, I slipped into the study to see if
• 7:07:15
  I could help him. He likes me to comfort him, Miss West,
• 7:07:18
  and he didn't hear me come in, and I heard what he was saying.
• 7:07:22
  I'll tell you, miss West, if you'll let me whisper it in
• 7:07:25
  your ear, Una whispered earnestly. Rosemary's face turned crimson. So John Meredith
• 7:07:32
  still cared. He hadn't changed his mind, and he must care intensely if
• 7:07:36
  he had said that, care more than she had ever supposed he did.
• 7:07:40
  She sat still for a moment, stroking UNA's hair. Then she said,
• 7:07:45
  will you take a little letter from me to your father? Una? Oh?
• 7:07:49
  Are you going to marry him? Miss West, asked Una eagerly.
• 7:07:52
  Perhaps if he really wants me to, said Rosemary, blushing again. I'm
• 7:07:57
  glad, I'm glad, said Una bravely. Then she looked up with quivering
• 7:08:03
  lips. Oh, Miss West, you won't turn father against us. You
• 7:08:07
  won't make him hate us, will you? She said, beseechingly. Rose
• 7:08:11
  Mary stared again, Una, Meredith, do you think I would do such
• 7:08:15
  a thing? Whatever puts such an idea into your head? Mary Vance said
• 7:08:21
  stepmothers were all like that, and that they all hated their step children and
• 7:08:25
  made their father hate them. She said, they just couldn't help it.
• 7:08:27
  Just being stepmothers made them like that. You poor child, and yet you
• 7:08:33
  came up here and asked me to marry your father because you wanted to make
• 7:08:36
  him happy. You're a darling, a heroine, as Ellen would say,
• 7:08:41
  you're a brick. Now listen to me very closely, Dearest Mary Vance is
• 7:08:45
  a silly little girl who doesn't know very much, and she is dreadfully mistaken
• 7:08:51
  about some things. I would never dream of trying to turn your father against
• 7:08:55
  you. I would love you all dearly. I don't want to take your
• 7:08:59
  own mother's place. She must always have that in your hearts. But neither
• 7:09:03
  have I any intention of being a stepmother. I want to be your friend
• 7:09:07
  and help her and chum. Don't you think that would be nice? Una?
• 7:09:11
  If you and Faith and Karl and Jerry could just think of me as
• 7:09:14
  a good, jolly chum, a big older sister. Oh, it would
• 7:09:18
  be lovely, cried Una with a transfigured face. She flung her arms impulsively
• 7:09:23
  around Rosemary's neck. She was so happy that she felt as if she could
• 7:09:27
  fly on wings. Do the others do Faith and the boys have the same
• 7:09:33
  idea you had about stepmothers. No? Faith never believed Mary vance. I
• 7:09:38
  was dreadfully foolish to believe her. Either. Faith loves you already, She
• 7:09:42
  has loved you ever since poor Adam was eaten. And Jerry and Karl will
• 7:09:45
  think it is jolly, Oh, Miss West, When you come to live
• 7:09:48
  with us, will you could you teach me to cook a little and sew
• 7:09:52
  and and and do things. I don't know anything. I won't be much
• 7:09:57
  trouble. I'll try to learn fast, Darling, I'll teach you and help
• 7:10:02
  you all I can. Now, you won't say a word to anybody about
• 7:10:04
  this? Will you not even to faith until your father himself tells you you
• 7:10:08
  may, and you'll stay and have tea with me? Oh? Thank you,
• 7:10:11
  But but I think I'd rather go right back and take the letter to
• 7:10:15
  father faltered. Una, You see, he'll be glad that much sooner,
• 7:10:18
  Miss West, I see, said Rosemary. She went to the house,
• 7:10:23
  wrote a note and gave it to Una. When that small damsel had run
• 7:10:27
  off a palpitating bundle of happiness, Rosemary went to Ellen, who was shelling
• 7:10:33
  peas on the back porch. Ellen, she said, Una, Meredith has
• 7:10:37
  just been here to ask me to marry her father. Ellen looked up and
• 7:10:41
  read her sister's face. Are you going to? She said, It's quite
• 7:10:45
  likely. Ellen went on shelling peas for a few minutes. Then she suddenly
• 7:10:51
  put her hands up to her own face. There were tears in her black
• 7:10:53
  browed eyes. I I hope we'll all be happy, she said, between
• 7:10:59
  a sob and a lie down at the manse. Una. Meredith, warm,
• 7:11:03
  rosy triumphant, marched boldly into her father's study and laid a letter on
• 7:11:08
  the desk before him. His pale face flushed as he saw the clear,
• 7:11:12
  fine handwriting he knew so well. He opened the letter. It was very
• 7:11:17
  short, but he shed twenty years as he read it. Rosemary asked him
• 7:11:22
  if he could meet her that evening at sunset by the Spring and Rainbow Valley.
• 7:11:26
  End of chapter thirty four, Chapter thirty five. Let the piper come,
• 7:11:32
  And so said Miss Cornelia. The double wedding is to be some time
• 7:11:36
  about the middle of this month. There was a faint chill in the air
• 7:11:40
  of the early September evening. So Anne had lighted her ever ready fire of
• 7:11:44
  driftwood in the big living room, and she and Miss Cornelia basked in its
• 7:11:48
  very flicker. It is so delightful, especially in regard to mister Meredith and
• 7:11:52
  Rosemary, said Anne. I am as happy in the thought of it as
• 7:11:56
  I was when I was getting married myself. I felt exactly like a bride
• 7:12:00
  again last evening when I was up on the hill seeing Rosemary's trousseau. They
• 7:12:04
  tell me her things are fine enough for a princess, said Susan from a
• 7:12:07
  shadowy corner where she was cuddling her brown boy. I have been invited up
• 7:12:11
  to see them also, and I intend to go some evening. I understand
• 7:12:15
  that Rosemary is to wear white silk and a veil, but Ellen is to
• 7:12:18
  be married in navy blue. I have no doubt, missus doctor Dear,
• 7:12:22
  that that is very sensible of her. But for my own part, I
• 7:12:26
  have always felt that if I were ever married, I would prefer the white
• 7:12:29
  and the veil as being more bride like. A vision of Susan in white
• 7:12:33
  and a veil presented itself before Anne's inner vision and was almost too much for
• 7:12:37
  her. As for mister Meridith, said Miss Cornelia, even his engagement has
• 7:12:42
  made a different man of him. He isn't half so dreamy and absent minded.
• 7:12:47
  Believe me. I was so relieved when I heard that he had decided
• 7:12:51
  to close the manse and let the children visit round while he was away on
• 7:12:53
  his honeymoon. If he had left them and old Aunt Martha there alone for
• 7:12:57
  a month, I should have expected to wake every morning and see the place
• 7:13:00
  burned down. Aunt Martha and Jerry are coming here, said Anne. Karl
• 7:13:06
  is going to Elder Clows. I haven't heard where the girls are going.
• 7:13:10
  Oh I'm going to take them, said miss Cornelia. Of course I was
• 7:13:12
  glad to, but Mary would have given me no peace till I asked them.
• 7:13:17
  Anyway, The lady's aid is going to clean the manse from top to
• 7:13:21
  bottom before the bride and groom come back, and Norman Douglas has arranged to
• 7:13:25
  fill the cellar with vegetables. Nobody ever saw or heard anything quite like Norman
• 7:13:30
  Douglas these days. Believe me, he's so tickled that he's going to marry
• 7:13:33
  Ellen West after wanting her all his life. If I was Ellen, but
• 7:13:37
  then I'm not. And if she is satisfied, I can very well be.
• 7:13:41
  I heard her say years ago when she was a schoolgirl, that she
• 7:13:45
  didn't want a tame puppy for a husband. There's nothing tame about Norman,
• 7:13:48
  believe me. The sun was setting over Rainbow Valley. The pond was wearing
• 7:13:53
  a beautiful tissue of purple and gold and green and crimson. A faint blue
• 7:13:59
  haze rested on the eastern hill, over which a great pale, round moon
• 7:14:03
  was just floating up like a silver bubble. They were all there, squatted
• 7:14:07
  in the little open glade, Faith and Una, Jerry and Carl Jem and
• 7:14:12
  Walter Nan and Di and Mary Vance. They had been having a special celebration,
• 7:14:18
  for it would be Jem's last evening in Rainbow Valley. On the morrow
• 7:14:22
  he would leave for Charlottetown to attend Queen's Academy. Their charmed circle would be
• 7:14:26
  broken, and in spite of the jollity of their little festival, there was
• 7:14:30
  a hint of sorrow in every gay young heart. See there is a great
• 7:14:36
  golden palace over there in the sunset, said Walter, pointing. Look at
• 7:14:40
  the shining tower and the crimson banners streaming from them. Perhaps a conqueror is
• 7:14:45
  riding home from battle, and they are hanging them out to do honor to
• 7:14:48
  him. Oh, I wish we had the old days back again, exclaimed
• 7:14:52
  Jem. I'd love to be a soldier, a great triumphant general. I'd
• 7:14:56
  give everything to see a big battle. Well, Jem was to be a
• 7:15:02
  soldier and see a greater battle than had ever been fought in the world.
• 7:15:06
  But that was as yet far in the future. And the mother whose first
• 7:15:10
  born son he was was wont to look on her boys and thank God that
• 7:15:12
  the brave days of old which Jem longed for, were gone. Forever,
• 7:15:18
  and that never would it be necessary for the sons of Canada to ride forth
• 7:15:21
  to battle for the ashes of their fathers and the temples of their gods.
• 7:15:26
  The shadow of the great conflict had not yet made felt any forerunner of its
• 7:15:30
  chill. The lads who were to fight and perhaps fall on the fields of
• 7:15:33
  France and Flanders, Glipoli and Palestine were still roguish schoolboys with a fair life
• 7:15:40
  in prospect. Before them. The girls whose hearts were to be wrung were
• 7:15:45
  yet fair little maidens, a star with hopes and dreams. Slowly the banners
• 7:15:49
  of the Sunset City gave up their crimson and gold. Slowly the conqueror's pageant
• 7:15:55
  faded out, Twilight crept over the valley, and the little group grew so
• 7:16:00
  island. Walter had been reading again that day in his beloved book of Myths,
• 7:16:03
  and he remembered how he had once fancied the pied piper coming down the
• 7:16:07
  valley on an evening just like this. He began to speak dreamily, partly
• 7:16:12
  because he wanted to thrill his companions a little, partly because something apart from
• 7:16:18
  him seemed to be speaking through his lips. The piper is coming nearer,
• 7:16:22
  he said. He is nearer than he was that evening. I saw him
• 7:16:25
  before. His long shadowy cloak is blowing around him. He pipes, he
• 7:16:30
  pipes, and we must follow Jem and Carl and Jerry and I round and
• 7:16:36
  round the world. Listen, listen, can't you hear his wild music?
• 7:16:41
  The girls shivered. You know you're only pretending, protested Mary Vance. And
• 7:16:48
  I wish you wouldn't you make it too real? I hate that old piper
• 7:16:51
  of yours. But Jem sprang up with a gay laugh. He stood up
• 7:16:55
  on a little hillock, tall and splendid with his open brow and his fearless
• 7:16:59
  eye. There were thousands like him all over the land of the maple.
• 7:17:03
  Let the piper come and welcome, he cried, waving his hand. I'll
• 7:17:07
  follow him gladly round and round the world. End of Chapter thirty five.
• 7:17:14
  End of Rainbow Valley by Lucy Maud Montgomery