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Anne's House of Dreams · Anne's House of Dreams

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  Chapter one in the Garret of Green Gables. Thanks be. I'm done with
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  geometry, learning or teaching it, said Anne Shirley, a trifle vindictively,
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  as she thumped a somewhat battered volume of Euclid into a big chest of books,
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  banged the lid in triumph, and sat down upon it, looking at
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  Diana Wright across the Green Gables garret with gray eyes that were like a morning
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  sky. The garret was a shadowy, suggestive, delightful place, as all
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  garrets should be. Through the open window by which Anne sat blew the sweet
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  scented sun warm air of the August afternoon. Outside, poplar boughs rustled and
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  tossed in the wind. Beyond them were the woods where lovers Lane wound its
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  enchanted path, and the old apple orchard, which still bore its rosy harvest
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  munificently. And over all was a great mountain range of snowy clouds in the
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  blue southern sky. Through the other window was glimpsed a distant, white capped
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  blue sea, the beautiful Saint Lawrence Gulf on which floats like a jewel abig
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  white, whose softer, sweeter Indian name has long been forsaken for the more
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  prosaic one of Prince Edward Island. Diana Wright, three years older than when
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  we last saw her, had grown somewhat matronly in the intervening time. But
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  her eyes were as black and brilliant, her cheeks as rosy, and her
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  dimples as enchanting as in the long ago days when she and Anne Shirley had
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  vowed eternal friendship in the garden at Orchard Slope. In her arms she held
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  a small, sleeping, black curled creature who, for two happy years had
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  been known to the world of Avonlea as Small and Cordelia. Avonlea folks knew
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  why Diana had called her Anne, of course, but Avonlea folks were puzzled
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  by the Cordelia. There had never been a Cordelia in the Rite or Barry
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  connections. Missus Harmon Andrews said she supposed Diana had found the name in some
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  trashy novel, and wondered that Fred hadn't more sense than to allow it.
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  But Diana and Anne smiled at each other. They knew how small Anne Cordelia
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  had come by her name. You always hated geometry, said Diana, with
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  a retrospective smile. I should think you'd be real glad to be through with
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  teaching anyhow, Oh, I've always liked teaching apart from geometry. These past
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  three years in Summerside have been very pleasant ones. Missus Harmon Andrews told me
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  when I came home that I wouldn't likely find married life as much better than
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  teaching as I expected. Evidently, Missus Harmon is of Hamlet's opinion that it
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  may be better to bear the ills that we have than fly to others that
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  we know not. Of Anne's laugh, as blithe and irresistible as of your,
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  with an added note of sweetness and maturity, rang through the garret.
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  Marilla, in the kitchen below, compounding blue plum Preserve heard it and smiled,
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  then sighed to think how seldom that dear laugh would echo through green gables
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  in the years to come. Nothing in her life had ever given Marilla so
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  much happiness as the knowledge that Anne Anne was going to marry Gilbert blythe But
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  every joy must bring with it its little shadow of sorrow. During the three
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  summer Side years, Anne had been home often for vacations and weekends, but
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  after this a bi annual visit would be as much as could be hoped for.
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  You needn't let what missus Harmon says worry you, said Diana, with
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  the calm assurance of the four years matron. Married life has its ups and
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  downs. Of course, you mustn't expect that everything will always go smoothly.
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  But I can assure you, Anne that it's a happy life when you're married
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  to the right man. Anne smothered a smile. Diana's airs of vast experience
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  always amused her A little, I dare say, I'll be putting them on
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  too when I've been married four years, she thought. Surely my sense of
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  humor will preserve me from it. Though. Is it settled yet where you're
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  going to live, asked Diana, cuddling Small and Cordelia with the inimitable gesture
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  of motherhood, which always sent through Anne's heart filled with sweet, unuttered dreams
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  and hopes, a thrill that was half pure pleasure and half a strange,
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  ethereal pain. Yes, that was what I wanted to tell you when I
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  phoned you to come down to day. By the way, I can't realize
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  that we really have telephones in Avonlea. Now it sounds so preposterously up to
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  date and modernish for this darling, leisurely old place. We can thank the
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  Avs for them, said Diana. We should never have got the line if
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  they hadn't taken the matter up and carried it through. There was enough cold
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  water thrown to discourage any society, but they stuck to it. Nevertheless,
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  you did a splendid thing for Avonlea when you founded that society, Anne,
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  what fun we did have at our meetings. Will you ever forget the blue
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  hall and Judson Parker's scheme for painting medicine advertisements on his fence. I don't
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  know that I'm wholly grateful to the Avis in the matter of the telephone,
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  said Anne. Oh, I know, it's most convenient, even more so
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  than our old devisive signaling to each other by flashes of candle light. And
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  as missus Rachel says, Avonlea must keep up with the procession, that's what.
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  But somehow I feel as if I didn't want Avonleas spoiled by what mister
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  Harrison, when he wants to be witty, calls modern inconveniences. I should
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  like to have it kept always just as it was in the dear old years.
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  That's foolish and sentimental and impossible, so I shall immediately become wise and
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  practical impossible. The telephone, as mister Harrison concedes, is a buster of
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  a good thing, even if you do know that probably half a dozen interested
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  people are listening along the line. That's the worst of it, sighed Diana.
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  It's so annoying to hear the receivers going down whenever you ring any one
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  up, they say. Missus Harmon Andrews insisted that their phone should be put
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  in their kitchen just so that she could listen whenever it rang and keep an
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  eye on the dinner at the same time. To day, when you called
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  me, I distinctly heard that queer clock of the pies striking, So no
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  doubt Josie or Gerty was listening. Oh so that is why you said you've
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  got a new clock at Green Gables, haven't you. I couldn't imagine what
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  you meant. I heard a vicious click as soon as you had spoken.
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  I suppose it was the pie receiver being hung up with profane energy. Well,
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  never mind the pies, as missus Rachel says, Pies they always were,
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  and pies they always will be world without end, Amen, I want
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  to talk of pleasanter things. It's all settled as to where my new home
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  shall be, oh Anne, where I do hope it's near here. No,
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  that's the drawback. Gilbert is going to settle at Four Winds Harbor,
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  sixty miles from here. Sixty it might as well be six hundred, sighed
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  Diana. I never can get further from home now than Charlottetown. You'll have
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  to come to Four Winds. It's the most beautiful harbor on the island.
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  There's a little village called Glen sent Mary at its head, and doctor David
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  Blythe has been practicing there for fifty years. He is Gilbert's great uncle.
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  You know, he's going to retire, and Gilbert is to take over his
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  practice. Doctor Blythe is going to keep his house, though, so we
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  shall have to find a habitation for ourselves. I don't know yet what it
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  is or where it will be in reality, but I have a little house
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  of dreams, all furnished in my imagination, a tiny, delightful castle in
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  Spain. Where are you going for your wedding tour, asked Diana. Nowhere,
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  don't look horrified Diana, dearest, you suggest missus Harmon Andrews, She
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  no doubt will remark condescendingly that people who can't afford wedding towers are real sensible
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  not to take them, and then she'll remind me that Jane went to Europe
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  for hers. I want to spend my honeymoon at four Winds in my own
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  dear house of dreams. And you've decided not to have any bridesmaid. There
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  isn't any one to have. You and Phil and Priscilla and Jane all stole
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  a march on me in the matter of marriage, and Stella is teaching in
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  Vancouver. I have no other kindred soul, and I won't have a bridesmaid
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  who isn't. But you are going to wear a veil, aren't you,
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  asked Diana anxiously. Yes, indeedy, I shouldn't feel like a bride without
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  one. I remember telling Matthew that evening when he brought me to Green Gables,
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  that I never expected to be a bride because I was so homely no
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  one would ever want to marry me unless some foreign missionary did. I had
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  an idea then that foreign missionaries couldn't afford to be finicky in the matter of
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  looks. If they wanted a girl to risk her life among cannibals, you
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  should have seen the foreign missionary Priscilla married. He was as handsome and inscrutable
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  as those day dreams we once planned to marry ourselves, Diana, he was
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  the best dressed man I ever met, and he raved over Priscilla's ethereal golden
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  beauty. But of course there are no cannibals in Japan. Your wedding dress
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  is a dream anyhow, sighed Diana rapturously. You'll look like a perfect queen
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  in it. You're so tall and slender. How do you keep so slim,
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  Anne, I'm fatter than ever. I'll soon have no waste at all.
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  Stoutness and slimness seem to be matters of predestination, said Anne. At
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  all events, Missus Harmon Andrews can't say to you what she said to me
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  when I came home from Summerside. Well, Anne, you're just about as
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  skinny as ever. It sounds quite romantic to be slender, but skinny has
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  a very different tang. Missus Harmon has been talking about your trousseau. She
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  admits it's as nice as Jane's, although she says Jane married a millionaire and
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  you're only marrying a poor young doctor without assent to his name, Anne laughed,
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  My dresses are nice. I love pretty things. I remember the first
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  pretty dress I ever had, the brown Gloria Matthew gave me for our school
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  concert. Before that, everything I had was so ugly. It seemed to
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  me that I stepped into a new world that night. That was the night
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  Gilbert recited beingin on the Rhine and looked at you when he said there's another
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  not a sister, and you were so furious because he put your pink tissue
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  rose in his breast pocket. He didn't imagine then that you would ever marry
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  him. Oh well, that's another instance of predestination, laughed Anne. As
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  they went down the garret stairs end of chapter one, Chapter two, the
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  House of Dreams, there was more excitement in the air of Green Gables than
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  there had ever been before in all its history. Even Marilla was so excited
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  that she couldn't help showing it, which was little short of being phenomenal.
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  There's never been a wedding in this house, she said, half apologetically to
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  missus Rachel Lynde when I was a child, I heard an old minister say
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  that a house was not a real home until it had been consecrated by a
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  berth, a wedding and a death. We've had debts here. My father
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  and mother died here, as well as Matthew. And we've even had a
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  berth here long ago. Just after we moved into this house. We had
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  a married hired man for a little while, and his wife had a baby
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  here. But there's never been a wedding before. It does seem so strange
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  to think of Anne being married. In a way. She just seems to
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  me the little girl Matthew brought home here fourteen years ago. I can't realize
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  that she's grown up. I shall never forget what I felt when I saw
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  Matthew bringing in a girl. I wonder what became of the boy we would
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  have got if there hadn't been a mistake. I wonder what his fate was.
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  Well, it was a fortunate mistake, said missus Rachel Lynde. Though,
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  mind you, there was a time I didn't think so. That evening
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  I came up to see Anne and she treated us to such a scene.
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  Many things have changed since then. That's what Missus Rachel sighed and then brisked
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  up again. When weddings were in order, Missus Rachel was ready to let
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  the dead past bury its dead. I'm going to give Anne two of my
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  cotton warp spreads, she resumed, a tobacco stripe one and an apple leaf
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  one. She tells me they're getting to be real fashionable again. Well fashion
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  or no fashion, I don't believe there's anything prettier for a spare room bed
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  than a nice apple leaf spread. That's what I must see about, getting
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  them bleached. I've had them sewed up in cotton bags ever since Thomas died,
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  and no doubt they're an awful color. But there's a month yet,
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  and dew bleaching will work. Wonders only a month. Marilla sighed and then
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  said proudly. I'm giving Anne that half dozen braided rugs I have in the
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  garret. I never supposed she'd want them. They're so old fashioned, and
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  nobody seems to want anything but hooked mats now. But she asked me for
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  them, said she'd rather have them than anything else for her floors. They
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  are pretty. I made them of the nicest rags and braided them in stripes.
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  It was such company these last few winters. And I'll make her enough
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  blue plum preserved to stock her jam closet for a year. It seems real
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  strange. Those blue plum trees hadn't even a blossom for three years, and
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  I thought they might as well be cut down. And this last spring they
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  were white, and such a crop of plums I never remember at Green Gables.
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  Well, thank goodness that Anne and Gilbert really are going to be married,
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  after all. It's what I've always prayed for, said missus Rachel,
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  in the tone of one who is comfortably sure that her prayers have availed much.
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  It was a great relief to find out that she really didn't mean to
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  take the Kingsport man. He was rich, to be sure, and Gilbert
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  is poor at least to begin with. But then he's an island boy.
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  He's Gilbert blythe said Marilla. Contentedly. Marilla would have died the death before
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  she would have put into words the thought that was always in the background of
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  her mind whenever she had looked at Gilbert from his childhood up, the thought
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  that, had it not been for her own wilful pride long long ago,
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  he might have been her son. Marilla felt that in some strange way,
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  his marriage with Anne would put right that old mistake. Good had come out
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  of the evil of the ancient bitterness. As for Anne herself, she was
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  so happy that she almost felt frightened. The gods, so say the old
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  superstition, do not like to behold two happy mortals. It is certain,
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  at least that some human beings do not. Two of that ilk descended upon
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  Anne one violet dusk, and proceeded to do what in them lay to prick
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  the rainbow bubble of her satisfaction. If she thought she was getting any particular
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  prize in young doctor Blythe or if she imagined that he was still as infatuated
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  with her as he might have been in his salary, it was surely their
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  duty to put the matter before her in another light. Yet these two worthy
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  ladies were not enemies of Anne. On the contrary, they were really quite
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  fond of her, and would have defended her as their own young had any
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  one else attacked her. Human nature is not obliged to be consistent. Missus
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  inglis Nay Jane Andrews, to quote from The Daily Enterprise, came with her
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  mother and missus Jasper Bell. But in Jane the milk of human kindness had
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  not been curdled by years of matrimonial bickerings. Her lines had fallen in pleasant
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  places. In spite of the fact, as missus Rachel Lynde would say that
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  she had married a millionaire, her marriage had been happy, wealth had not
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  spoiled her. She was still the placid, amiable, pink cheeked Jane of
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  the Old Quartet, sympathizing with her old chum's happiness and as keenly interested in
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  all the dainty details of Anne's trousseau, as if it could rival her own
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  silk and and bejeweled splendors. Jane was not brilliant, and probably never made
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  a remark worth listening to in her life. But she never said anything that
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  would hurt any one's feelings, which may be a negative talent, but is
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  likewise a rare and enviable one. So Gilbert didn't go back on you,
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  after all, said Missus Harmon Andrews, contriving to convey an expression of surprise
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  in her tone. Well, the Blithes generally keep their word when once they've
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  passed it, no matter what happens. Let me see you're twenty five,
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  aren't you? Anne? When I was a girl, twenty five was the
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  first corner. But you look quite young. Red headed people always do.
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  Red hair is very fashionable now, said Anne, trying to smile, but
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  speaking rather coldly. Life had developed in her a sense of humor which helped
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  her over many difficulties, but as yet nothing had availed to steel her against
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  a reference to her hair. So it is, so, it is,
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  conceded missus Harmon. There's no telling what queer freak's fashion will take well,
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  Anne, Your things are very pretty and very suitable to your position in life,
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  aren't they. I hope you'll be very happy. You have my best
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  wishes. I'm sure a long engagement doesn't often turn out well, but of
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  course in your case it couldn't be helped. Gilbert looks very young for a
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  doctor. I'm afraid people won't have much confidence in him, said missus jasper
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  Bell gloomily. Then she shut her mouth tightly, as if she had said
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  what she considered it her duty to say, and held her conscience clear.
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  She belonged to the type which always has a stringy black feather in its hat
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  and straggling locks of hair on its neck. Anne's surface pleasure in her pretty
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  bridal things was temporarily shadowed, but the deeps of happiness below could not thus
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  be disturbed, and the little stings of Madame's bell and andrews were forgotten.
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  When Gilbert came later, and they wandered down to the birches of the brook,
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  which had been saplings when Anne had come to Green Gables, but were
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  now tall ivory columns in a fairy palace of twilight and stars in their shadows.
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  Anne and Gilbert talked in lover fashion of their new home and their new
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  life together. I've found a nest for us, ann, Oh, where
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  not right in the village? I hope I wouldn't like that altogether. No,
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  there was no house to be had in the village. This is a
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  little white house on the harbor shore, half way between Glens and Mary and
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  four Winds Point. It's a little out of the way, but when we
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  get a phone in that won't matter so much. The situation is beautiful.
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  It looks to the sunset and has the great blue harbor before it. The
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  sand dunes aren't very far away. The sea winds blow over them, and
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  the sea spray drenches them. But the house itself, Gilbert, our first
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  home. What is it like? Not very large, but large enough for
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  us. There's a splendid living room with a fireplace in it downstairs, and
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  a dining room that looks out on the harbor, and a little room that
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  will do for my office. It is about sixty years old, the oldest
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  and four winds but it has been kept in pretty good repair and was all
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  done over about fifteen years ago, shingled, plaid, ustard and re floored.
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  It was well built to begin with. I understand that there was some
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  romantic story connected with its building, but the man I rented it from didn't
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  know it. He said, Captain Jim was the only one who could spin
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  that old yarn. Now, who is Captain Jim, the keeper of the
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  lighthouse on four Winds point. You'll love that four winds light, Anne.
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  It's a revolving one and it flashes like a magnificent star through the twilights.
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  We can see it from our living room windows and our front door. Who
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  owns the house, well, it's the property of the Glens and Mary Presbyterian
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  Church now, and I rented it from the trustees, But it belonged until
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  lately to a very old lady, Miss Elizabeth Russell. She died last spring,
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  and as she had no near relatives, she left her property to the
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  Glens and Mary Church. Her furniture is still in the house, and I
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  bought most of it for a mere song, you might say, because it
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  was all so old fashioned that the trustees despaired of selling it. Glens and
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  Mary folks prefer plush brocade and sideboards with mirrors and ornamentations. I fancy,
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  but miss Russell's furniture is very good, and I feel sure you'll like it.
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  Anne, So far good, said Anne, nodding cautious approval. But
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  Gilbert, people cannot live by furniture alone. You haven't yet mentioned one very
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  important thing. Are there trees about this house? Heaps of them? Oh,
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  dryad. There is a big grove of fir trees behind it, two
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  rows of Lombardy poplars down the lane, and a ring of white birches around
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  a very delightful garden. Our front door opens right into the garden, but
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  there is another entrance, a little gate hung between two furs. The hinges
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  are on one trunk and the catch on the other. Their boughs form an
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  arch overhead. Oh, I'm so glad. I couldn't live where there were
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  no trees. Something vital in me would starve. Well after that, there's
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  no use asking you if there's a brook anywhere near. That would be expecting
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  too much. But there is a brook, and it actually cuts across corner
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  of the garden, then said Anne, with a long sigh of supreme satisfaction.
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  This house you have found is my house of dreams, and none other.
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  End of chapter two, Chapter three, The Land of Dreams among Have
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  you made up your mind who you're going to have to the wedding, Anne
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  asked Missus Rachel Lynde as she hemstitch table napkins industriously. It's time your invitations
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  were sent, even if they are only to be informal ones. I don't
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  mean to have very many, said Anne. We just want those we love
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  best to see us married. Gilbert's people, and mister and missus Allen,
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  and mister and missus Harrison. There was a time when you'd hardly have numbered
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  mister Harrison among your dearest friends, said Marilla dryly. Well, I wasn't
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  very strongly attracted to him at our first meeting, acknowledged Anne. With a
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  laugh over the recollection. But mister Harrison has improved on acquaintance, and Missus
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  Harrison is really a dear Then, of course there are miss Lavender and Paul.
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  Have they decided to come to the island this summer. I thought they
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  were going to Europe. They changed their minds when I wrote them I was
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  going to be married. I had a letter from Paul to day. He
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  says he must come to my wedding, no matter what happens to Europe.
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  That child always idolized you, remarked, Missus Rachel. That child is a
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  young man of nineteen. Now, Missus Lynde, how time does fly?
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  Was Missus Lynde's brilliant and original response. Carlotta the Fourth may come with them.
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  She sent word by Paul that she would come if her husband would let
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  her. I wonder if she still wears those enormous blue bows, and whether
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  her husband calls her Carlotta or Leonora. I should love to have Carlotta at
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  my wedding. Carlotta and I were at a wedding long sign. They expect
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  to be at Echo Lodge next week. Then they are Phil and the Reverend
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  Joe. It sounds awful to hear you speaking of a minister like that,
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  Anne, said Missus Rachel severely. His wife calls him that she should have
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  more respect for his holy office, then retorted Missus Rachel, I've heard you
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  criticize ministers pretty sharply yourself, teased Anne. Yes, but I do it,
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  reverently, protested Missus Lynde. You never heard me nickname a minister,
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  Anne smothered a smile. Well, there are Diana and Fred and little Fred
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  and small Aunt Cordelia and Jane Andrews. I wish I could have Miss Stacy
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  and Aunt james Zina and Priscilla and Stella. But Stella's in Vancouver, and
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  PRIs is in Japan, and Miss Stacy is married in California, and Aunt
• 22:32
  Jamesina has gone to India to explore her daughter's mission field in spite of her
• 22:36
  horror of snakes. It's really dreadful, the way people get scattered over the
• 22:40
  globe. The Lord never intended it, That's what said Missus Rachel authoritatively.
• 22:45
  In my young days, people grew up and married and settled down where they
• 22:48
  were born or pretty near it. Thank goodness, you've stuck to the island,
• 22:52
  Anne, I was afraid Gilbert would insist on rushing off to the ends
• 22:56
  of the earth when he got through college and dragging you with him. If
• 23:00
  everybody stayed where he was born, places would soon be filled up. Missus
• 23:03
  Lynde, Oh, I'm not going to argue with you, Anne, I
• 23:06
  am not a b a. What time of day is the ceremony to be
• 23:10
  We have decided on noon, high noon, as the Society reporters say.
• 23:14
  That will give us time to catch the evening train to Glens and Mary,
• 23:18
  and you'll be married in the parlor. No, not unless it rains.
• 23:22
  We mean to be married in the orchard, with the blue sky over us
• 23:25
  and the sunshine around us. Do you know when and where I'd like to
• 23:29
  be married? If I could, it would be at dawn, a June
• 23:32
  dawn, with a glorious sunrise and roses blooming in the gardens, and I
• 23:37
  would slip down and meet Gilbert, and we would go together to the heart
• 23:40
  of the beech woods, and there under the green arches that would be like
• 23:44
  a splendid cathedral, we would be married. Marilla sniffed scornfully, and missus
• 23:48
  Lynde looked shocked. But that would be terrible, queer Anne, Why it
• 23:53
  wouldn't really seem legal? And what would missus Harmon Andrews say? Ah,
• 23:59
  there's the rub, sighed Anne. There are so many things in life we
• 24:03
  cannot do because of the fear of what Missus Harmon Andrews would say tis true
• 24:07
  tis pity, and pity tis tis true? What delightful things we might do
• 24:14
  were it not for missus Harmon Andrews. By times, Anne, I don't
• 24:18
  feel quite sure that I understand you altogether, complained Missus Lynde. Anne was
• 24:22
  always romantic, you know, said Marilla, apologetically. Well, married life
• 24:27
  will most likely cure her of that, Missus Rachel responded comfortingly. Anne laughed
• 24:33
  and slipped away to Lover's Lane, where Gilbert found her, and neither of
• 24:37
  them seemed to entertain much fear or hope that their married life would cure them
• 24:41
  of romance. The Echo Lodge people came over the next week, and Green
• 24:47
  Gables buzzed with the delight of them. Miss Lavender had changed so little that
• 24:51
  the three years since her last island visit might have been a watch in the
• 24:55
  night. But Anne gasped with amazement over Paul could this splendor when did six
• 25:00
  feet of manhood be the little Paul of Avonlea school days. You really make
• 25:04
  me feel old, Paul, said Anne. Why I have to look up
• 25:07
  to you now? You'll never grow old, teacher said Paul. You are
• 25:11
  one of the fortunate mortals who have found and drunk from the fountain of youth.
• 25:15
  You and mother Lavender see here. When you're married, I won't call
• 25:19
  you missus blythe to me, You'll always be teacher, the teacher of the
• 25:23
  best lessons I ever learned. I want to show you something. The something
• 25:29
  was a pocket book full of poems. Paul had put some of his beautiful
• 25:33
  fancies into verse and magazine editors had not been as unappreciative as they are sometimes
• 25:37
  supposed to be. Anne read Paul's poems with real delight. They were full
• 25:42
  of charm and promise. You'll be famous, Yet, Paul, I always
• 25:47
  dreamed of having one famous pupil. He was to be a college president,
• 25:51
  but a great poet would be even better. Some day I'll be able to
• 25:53
  boast that I whipped the distinguished Paul Irving. But then I never did whip
• 25:57
  you, did I Paul? What an opportunity lost? I think I kept
• 26:02
  you in at recess. However, you may be famous your self, teacher.
• 26:04
  I've seen a good deal of your work these last three years. No,
• 26:08
  I know what I can do. I can write pretty fanciful little sketches
• 26:12
  that children love and editors send welcome checks for. But I can do nothing
• 26:18
  big. My only chance for earthly immortality is a corner in your memoirs.
• 26:23
  Carlotta the Fourth had discarded the blue bows, but her freckles were not noticeably
• 26:27
  less. I never did think i'd come down to marrying a Yankee, Miss
• 26:30
  Shirley ma'am, she said, But you never know what's before you, and
• 26:34
  it isn't his fault. He was born that way. You're a Yankee yourself,
• 26:37
  Carlotta, since you've married one, Miss Shirley ma'am. I'm not,
• 26:41
  and I wouldn't be if I was to marry a dozen Yankees. Tom's kinda
• 26:45
  nice, And besides, I thought i'd better not be too hard to please,
• 26:49
  for I mightn't get another chance. Tom don't drink, and he don't
• 26:52
  growl because he has to work between meals. And when all's said and done,
• 26:56
  I'm satisfied, Miss Shirley ma'am. Does he call you, Leonora asked
• 27:00
  Anne. Goodness, no, Miss Shirley ma'am, I wouldn't know who he
• 27:03
  meant if he did. Of course, when we got married, he had
• 27:07
  to say I'd take the Leonora, and I declare to you, Miss Shirley
• 27:11
  ma'am. I've had the most dreadful feeling ever since that it wasn't me he
• 27:15
  was talking to. And I haven't been rightly married at all, and so
• 27:18
  you're going to be married yourself, Miss Shirley ma'am. I always thought i'd
• 27:22
  like to marry a doctor. It would be so handy when the children had
• 27:25
  measles and croup. Tom is only a bricklayer, but he's real good tempered.
• 27:29
  When I said to him, says I, Tom, can I go
• 27:32
  to Miss Shirley's wedding. I mean to go anyhow, but i'd like to
• 27:33
  have your consent, he just says, suit yourself, Carlotta, and you'll
• 27:37
  suit me. That's a real pleasant kind of husband to have, Miss Shirley
• 27:41
  ma'am. Philippa and her reverend Joe arrived at Green Gables the day before the
• 27:45
  wedding. Anne and Phil had a rapturous meeting, which presently simmered down to
• 27:49
  a cozy, confidential chat over all that had been and was about to be.
• 27:55
  Queen Anne, you're as queenly as ever. I've got fearfully thin since
• 27:59
  the babies came. I'm not half so good looking, but I think Joe
• 28:03
  likes it. There's not such a contrast between us, you see. And
• 28:06
  Oh, it's perfectly magnificent that you're going to marry Gilbert Roy Gardner wouldn't have
• 28:11
  done at all at all. I can see that now, though I was
• 28:14
  horribly disappointed at the time. You know, Anne, you did treat Roy
• 28:18
  very badly. He has recovered, I understand, smiled Anne. Oh,
• 28:22
  yes, he is married and his wife is a sweet little thing, and
• 28:26
  they're perfectly happy. Everything works together for good Joe and the Bible say that,
• 28:30
  and they're pretty good authorities. Are Alec and Alonzo married? Yet Alec
• 28:36
  is but Alonzo isn't. How those dear old days at Patty's Place come back
• 28:40
  when I'm talking to you, Anne, what fun we had? Have you
• 28:44
  been to Patty's Place lately? Oh? Yes, I go often. Miss
• 28:47
  Patty and Miss Maria still sit by the fireplace and knit, and that reminds
• 28:51
  me we've brought you a wedding gift from them, Anne, guess what it
• 28:55
  is? I never could. How did they know I was going to be
• 28:57
  married? Oh? I told them I was there last week and they were
• 29:00
  so interested. Two days ago, Miss Patty wrote me a note asking me
• 29:04
  to call, and then she asked if I would take her gift to you,
• 29:08
  what would you wish most from Patty's place? Anne, you can't mean
• 29:12
  that. Miss Patty has sent me her China dogs. Go uphead. They're
• 29:17
  in my trunk this very moment, and I've a letter for you. Wait
• 29:19
  a moment and I'll get it, Dear Miss Shirley. Miss Patty had written,
• 29:25
  Maria and I were very much interested in hearing of your approaching nuptials.
• 29:29
  We send you our best wishes. Maria and I have never married, but
• 29:33
  we have no objection to other people doing so. We are sending you the
• 29:37
  China dogs. I intended to leave them to you in my will because you
• 29:41
  seem to have sincere affection for them. But Maria and I expect to live
• 29:45
  a good while yet, d V, so I have decided to give you
• 29:48
  the dogs while you are young. You will not have forgotten that gog looks
• 29:52
  to the right, and may dog to the left. Just fancy those lovely
• 29:56
  old dogs sitting by the fireplace in my house of dreams, said Anne rapturously.
• 30:00
  I never expected anything so delightful. That evening, green Gables hummed with
• 30:07
  preparations for the following day. But in the twilight Anne slipped away. She
• 30:11
  had a little pilgrimage to make on this last day of her girlhood, and
• 30:15
  she must make it alone. She went to Matthew's grave in the little poplar
• 30:19
  shaded avonlea graveyard, and there kept a silent tryst with old memories and immortal
• 30:25
  loves. How glad Matthew would be tomorrow if he were here, she whispered.
• 30:30
  But I believe he does know, and is glad of it. Somewhere
• 30:33
  else, I've read somewhere that our dead are never dead until we have forgotten
• 30:37
  them. Matthew will never be dead to me, for I can never forget
• 30:41
  him. She left on his grave the flowers she had brought, and walked
• 30:45
  slowly down the long hill. It was a gracious evening, full of delectable
• 30:49
  lights and shadows. In the west was a sky of mackerel clouds, crimson
• 30:55
  and amber tinted with long strips of apple green sky between them. Beyond was
• 31:00
  the glimmering radiance of a sunset sea, and the ceaseless voice of many waters
• 31:04
  came up from the tawny shore. All around her, lying in the fine,
• 31:08
  beautiful country silence, were the hills and fields and woods she had known
• 31:14
  and loved so long. History repeats itself, said Gilbert, joining her as
• 31:18
  she passed the blithe gate. Do you remember our first walk down this hill,
• 31:22
  Anne, our first walk together anywhere? For that matter. I was
• 31:26
  coming home in the twilight from Matthew's grave, and you came out of the
• 31:30
  gate, and I swallowed the pride of years and spoke to you, and
• 31:34
  all heaven opened before me, supplemented Gilbert. From that moment I looked forward
• 31:38
  to tomorrow. When I left you at your gate that night and walked home,
• 31:42
  I was the happiest boy in the world. Anne had forgiven me.
• 31:47
  I think you had the most to forgive. I was an ungrateful little wretch,
• 31:51
  And after you had really saved my life that day on the pond,
• 31:53
  too, how I loathed that load of obligation. At first. I don't
• 31:59
  deserve the happiness is come to me Gilbert laughed and clasped tighter the girlish hand
• 32:04
  that wore his ring. Anne's engagement ring was a circlet of pearls. She
• 32:07
  had refused to wear a diamond. I've never really liked diamonds since I found
• 32:12
  out they weren't the lovely purple I had dreamed. They will always suggest my
• 32:15
  old disappointment. But pearls are for tears, the old legend, says Gilbert
• 32:21
  had objected. I'm not afraid of that, and tears can be happy as
• 32:24
  well as sad. My very happiest moments have been when I had tears in
• 32:29
  my eyes, when Marilla told me I might stay at Green Gables, when
• 32:32
  Matthew gave me the first pretty dress I ever had, when I heard that
• 32:36
  you were going to recover from the fever. So give me pearls for our
• 32:39
  troth ring, Gilbert, and I'll willingly accept the sorrow of life with its
• 32:43
  joy. But to night, our lovers thought only of joy and never of
• 32:47
  sorrow, For the morrow was their wedding day, and their house of dreams
• 32:52
  awaited them on the misty purple shore of four Winds Harbor. End of chapter
• 32:58
  three, Chapter four, The first bride of Green Gables. Anne wakened on
• 33:05
  the morning of her wedding day to find the sunshine winking in at the window
• 33:08
  of the little porch gable, and a september breeze frolicking with her curtains.
• 33:14
  I am so glad the sun will shine on me, she thought, happily.
• 33:17
  She recalled the first morning she had wakened in that little porch room,
• 33:22
  when the sunshine had crept in on her through the blossom drift of the old
• 33:24
  snow Queen. That had not been a happy wakening, for it brought with
• 33:29
  it the bitter disappointment of the preceding night. But since then the little room
• 33:34
  had been endeared and consecrated by years of happy childhood dreams and maiden visions to
• 33:39
  which she had come back joyfully after all her absences. At its window,
• 33:44
  she had knelt through that night of bitter agony when she believed Gilbert dying,
• 33:49
  and by it she had sat in speechless happiness the night of her betrothal.
• 33:52
  Many vigils of joy and some of sorrow had been kept there, and to
• 33:58
  day she must leave it forever. Henceforth it would be hers no more.
• 34:02
  Fifteen year old Dora was to inherit it when she had gone, nor did
• 34:07
  Anne wish it otherwise. The little room was sacred to youth and girlhood,
• 34:10
  to the past. That was to close to day before the Chapter of Wifehood
• 34:15
  opened. Green Gables was a busy and joyous house that forenoon. Diana arrived
• 34:21
  early with little Fred and small Aunt Cordelia to lend a hand Davy and Dora,
• 34:25
  the green Gables twins, whisked the babies off to the garden. Don't
• 34:30
  let small Aunt Cordelia spoil her clothes, warned Diana anxiously. You needn't be
• 34:36
  afraid to trust her with Dora, said Marilla. That child is more sensible
• 34:39
  and careful than most of the mothers I've known. She's really a wonder in
• 34:43
  some ways, not much like that other Harm's scam I brought up. Marilla
• 34:47
  smiled across her chicken salad at Anne. It might even be suspected that she
• 34:52
  liked the harm scarum best. After all, those twins are real nice children,
• 34:57
  said missus Rachel, when she was sure they were out of shot.
• 35:00
  Dora is so womanly and helpful, and Davy is developing into a very smart
• 35:05
  boy. He isn't the holy terror for mischief he used to be. I
• 35:08
  never was so distracted in my life as I was the first six months he
• 35:12
  was here, acknowledged Marilla. After that, I suppose I got used to
• 35:15
  him. He's taken a great notion to farming lately, and he wants me
• 35:20
  to let him try running the farm next year. I may, for mister
• 35:22
  Barry doesn't think he'll want to rent it much longer, and some new arrangement
• 35:25
  will have to be made. Well, you certainly have a lovely day for
• 35:30
  your wedding, Anne, said Diana, as she slipped of aluminous apron over
• 35:34
  her silken array. You couldn't have had a finer one if you'd ordered it
• 35:37
  from Eaton's. Indeed, there's too much money going out of this island to
• 35:42
  that same Eaton's, said missus Lynde indignantly. She had strong views on the
• 35:45
  subject of octopus like department stores and never lost an opportunity of airing them.
• 35:52
  And as for those catalogs of theirs, they're the avonlea girl's Bible, now,
• 35:55
  that's what they pour over them on Sundays instead of studying the holy scriptures.
• 36:00
  Well, they're splendid to amuse children. With, said Diana, Fred
• 36:05
  and small Anne look at the pictures. By the hour, I amuse ten
• 36:08
  children without the aid of Eaton's catalog, said Missus Rachel. Severely, Come,
• 36:14
  you two, don't quarrel over Eaton's catalog. Said Anne gaily, this
• 36:17
  is my day of days. You know, I'm so happy. I want
• 36:22
  everyone else to be happy too. I'm sure I hope your happiness will last,
• 36:25
  child, sighed Missus Rachel. She did hope it, truly and believed
• 36:30
  it. But she was afraid it was in the nature of a challenge to
• 36:32
  Providence to flaunt your happiness too openly. Anne, for her own good must
• 36:38
  be toned down a trifle. But it was a happy and beautiful bride who
• 36:43
  came down the old homespun carpeted stairs that September noon, the first Bride of
• 36:49
  Green Gables, slender and shining eyed in the midst of her maiden veil,
• 36:52
  with her arms full of roses. Gilbert waiting for her in the hall below,
• 36:58
  looked up at her with adoring eye. She was his at last,
• 37:01
  this evasive, long sought Anne one. After years of patient waiting. It
• 37:07
  was to him she was coming in the sweet surrender of the bride. Was
• 37:10
  he worthy of her? Could he make her as happy as he hoped?
• 37:15
  If he failed her, if he could not measure up to her standard of
• 37:17
  manhood. Then as she held out her hand, their eyes met, and
• 37:22
  all doubt was swept away in a glad certainty. They belonged to each other,
• 37:28
  and no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter
• 37:30
  that their happiness was in each other's keeping, and both were unafraid. They
• 37:37
  were married in the sunshine of the old orchard, circled by the loving and
• 37:40
  kindly faces of long familiar friends. Mister Allen married them, and the Reverend
• 37:45
  Joe made what missus Rachel Lynde afterwards pronounced to be the most beautiful wedding prayer
• 37:51
  she had ever heard. Birds do not often sing in September, but one
• 37:55
  sang sweetly from some hidden bow while Gilbert and Anne repeat their deathless vows.
• 38:01
  Anne heard it and thrilled to it. Gilbert heard it and wondered only that
• 38:06
  all the birds in the world had not burst into jubilant song. Paul heard
• 38:10
  it and later wrote a lyric about it, which was one of the most
• 38:14
  admired in his first volume of Verse Carlotta the Fourth heard it and was blissfully
• 38:20
  sure it meant good luck for her adored Miss Shirley. The bird sang until
• 38:23
  the ceremony was ended, and then it wound up with one mad, little
• 38:28
  glad little trill. Never had the old gray green house, among its unfolding
• 38:34
  orchards known a blither merrier afternoon. All the old jests and quips that must
• 38:39
  have done duty at weddings since Eden were served up and seemed as new and
• 38:44
  brilliant and mirth provoking as if they had never been uttered before. Laughter and
• 38:49
  joy had their way, and when Anne and Gilbert left to catch the Carmody
• 38:52
  train with Paul as driver, the twins were ready with rice and old shoes,
• 38:57
  in the throwing of which Carlotta the Fourth and mister Harrison bore a valiant
• 39:00
  part. Marilla stood at the gate and watched the carriage, out of sight
• 39:06
  down the long lane with its banks of goldamrod. Anne turned at its end
• 39:10
  to wave her last good bye. She was gone. Green Gables was her
• 39:15
  home no more. Marilla's face looked very gray and old as she turned to
• 39:20
  the house which Anne had filled for fourteen years, and even in her absence
• 39:24
  with light and life. But Diana in her small fry, the Echo Lodge
• 39:29
  people and the Allans had stayed to help the two old ladies over the loneliness
• 39:34
  of the first evening, and they contrived to have a quietly pleasant little supper
• 39:37
  time, sitting long around the table and chatting over all the details of the
• 39:42
  day. While they were sitting there, Anne and Gilbert were alighting from the
• 39:46
  train at Glens and Mary end of chapter four, Chapter five, the home
• 39:52
  coming doctor David Blythe had sent his horse and buggy to meet them, and
• 39:59
  the urchin who had brought it slipped away with a sympathetic grin, leaving them
• 40:02
  to the delight of driving alone to their new home through the radiant evening.
• 40:07
  Anne never forgot the loveliness of the view that broke upon them when they had
• 40:10
  driven over the hill behind the village. Her new home could not yet be
• 40:15
  seen, but before her lay four Winds Harbor, like a great shining mirror
• 40:20
  of rose and silver. Far down, she saw its entrance between the bar
• 40:24
  of sand dunes on the one side and a steep, high, grim red
• 40:28
  sandstone cliff on the other. Beyond the bar, the sea calm and austere
• 40:34
  dreamed. In the after light, The little fishing village nestled in the cove
• 40:38
  where the sand dunes met the harbor shore, looked like a great opal in
• 40:43
  the haze. The sky over them was like a jeweled cup from which the
• 40:46
  dusk was pouring. The air was crisp with the compelling tang of the sea,
• 40:51
  and the whole landscape was infused with the subtleties of a sea evening.
• 40:55
  A few dim sails drifted along the darkening fir clad heart shores. A bell
• 41:00
  was ringing from the tower of a little white church on the far side.
• 41:05
  Mellowly and dreamily sweet, the chime floated across the water, blent with the
• 41:09
  moan of the sea. The great revolving light on the cliff at the channel
• 41:14
  flashed warm and golden against the clear northern sky. A trembling, quivering star
• 41:20
  of good hope. Far out along the horizon was the crinkled gray ribbon of
• 41:24
  a passing steamer's smoke. Oh, beautiful, beautiful, murmured Anne, I
• 41:30
  shall love four winds, Gilbert. Where is our house? We can't see
• 41:35
  it yet. The belt of birch running up from that little cove hides it.
• 41:39
  It's about two miles from Glensent, Mary, and there's another mile between
• 41:44
  it and the lighthouse. We won't have many neighbors, Anne. There's only
• 41:46
  one house near us, and I don't know who lives in it. Shall
• 41:51
  you be lonely when I'm away? Not with that light and that loveliness for
• 41:54
  company? Who lives in that house? Gilbert? I don't know. It
• 41:59
  doesn't look exactly as if the occupants would be kindred spirits, Anne, does
• 42:02
  it? The house was a large, substantial affair, painted such a vivid
• 42:07
  green that the landscape seemed quite faded. By contrast. There was an orchard
• 42:13
  behind it, and a nicely kept long before it, But somehow there was
• 42:16
  a certain bareness about it. Perhaps its neatness was responsible for this. The
• 42:22
  whole establishment house, barns, orchard, garden, lawn and lane was so
• 42:28
  starkly neat It doesn't seem probable that anyone with that taste in paint could be
• 42:32
  very kindred acknowledged, Anne, unless it were an accident like our Blue Hall.
• 42:38
  I feel certain there are no children there. At least it's even neaterer
• 42:42
  than the old cot place on the Tory Road. And I never expected to
• 42:45
  see anything neater than that. They had not met anybody on the moist red
• 42:51
  road that wound along the harbor shore. But just before they came to the
• 42:54
  belt of birch which hid their home, Anne saw a girl who was driving
• 43:00
  a flock of snow white geese along the crest of a velvety green hill.
• 43:02
  On the right, great scattered firs grew along it. Between their trunks,
• 43:07
  one saw glimpses of yellow harvest fields, gleams of golden sand hills, and
• 43:14
  bits of blue sea. The girl was tall and wore a dress of pale
• 43:17
  blue print. She walked with a certain springiness of step and erectness of bearing.
• 43:23
  She and her geese came out of the gate at the foot of the
• 43:27
  hill. As Anne and Gilbert passed, she stood with her hand on the
• 43:30
  fastening of the gate and looked steadily at them with an expression that hardly attained
• 43:35
  to interest, but did not descend to curiosity. It seemed to Anne for
• 43:39
  a fleeting moment that there was even a veiled hint of hostility in it.
• 43:45
  But it was the girl's beauty which made Anne give a little gasp, A
• 43:49
  beauty so marked that it must have attracted attention anywhere. She was hatless,
• 43:54
  but heavy braids of burnished hair the hue of ripe wheat, were twisted about
• 44:00
  her head like a coronet. Her eyes were blue and star like. Her
• 44:04
  figure in its plain print gown was magnificent, and her lips were as crimson
• 44:09
  as a bunch of blood red poppies. She wore at her belt. Gilbert,
• 44:14
  who is the girl we have just passed, asked Anne in a low
• 44:16
  voice. I didn't notice any girl, said Gilbert, who had only eyes
• 44:22
  for his bride. She was standing by that gate. No, don't look
• 44:24
  back, she's still watching us. I never saw such a beautiful face.
• 44:29
  I don't remember seeing any very handsome girls while I was here. There are
• 44:32
  some pretty girls up at the glen, but I hardly think they could be
• 44:37
  called beautiful. This girl is. You can't have seen her, or you
• 44:40
  would remember her. Nobody could forget her. I never saw such a face
• 44:45
  except in pictures. And her hair it made me think of Browning's cord of
• 44:49
  gold and gorgeous snake. Probably she's some visitor in four Winds, likely some
• 44:54
  one from that big summer hotel over the harbor. She wore a white apron,
• 44:59
  and she was dry ving geese. She might do that for amusement.
• 45:02
  Look, Anne, there's our house. Anne looked and forgot for a time,
• 45:07
  the girl with the splendid, resentful eyes. The first glimpse of her
• 45:12
  new home was a delight to eye and spirit. It looked so like a
• 45:15
  big, creamy seashell stranded on the harbor shore. The rows of tall Lombardy
• 45:21
  poplars down its lane stood out in stately purple silhouette against the sky. Behind
• 45:27
  it, sheltering its garden from the too keen breath of sea winds, was
• 45:30
  a cloudy fir wood in which the winds might make all kinds of weird and
• 45:36
  haunting music. Like all woods, it seemed to be holding and enfolding secrets
• 45:40
  in its recesses, secrets whose charm is only to be won by entering in
• 45:45
  and patiently seeking Outwardly, dark green arms keep them in violet from curious or
• 45:52
  indifferent eyes. The night winds were beginning their wild dances beyond the bar,
• 45:57
  and the fishing hamlet across the harbor was gemmed with light. As Anne and
• 46:00
  Gilbert drove up the poplar lane, the door of the little house opened and
• 46:06
  a warm glow of firelight flickered out into the dusk. Gilbert lifted Anne from
• 46:10
  the buggy and led her into the garden through the little gate between the ruddy
• 46:15
  tipped furs, up the trim red path to the sandstone step. Welcome home,
• 46:20
  he whispered, and hand in hand, they stepped over the threshold of
• 46:23
  their house of dreams. End of chapter five, Chapter six. Captain Jim,
• 46:32
  Old Doctor Dave and Missus Doctor Dave had come down to the little house
• 46:37
  to greet the bride and groom. Doctor Dave was a big, jolly,
• 46:40
  white, whiskered old fellow, and Missus Doctor was a trim, rosy cheeked,
• 46:45
  silver haired little lady who took Anne at once to her heart, literally
• 46:50
  and figuratively. I'm so glad to see you, dear. You must be
• 46:53
  real tired. We've got a bite of supper ready, and Captain Jim brought
• 46:58
  up some trout for you. Captain Jim, where are you, oh,
• 47:00
  he slipped out to see to the horse. I suppose come upstairs and take
• 47:05
  your things off. Anne looked about her with bright, appreciative eyes as she
• 47:08
  followed Missus doctor Dave upstairs. She liked the appearance of her new home very
• 47:14
  much. It seemed to have the atmosphere of green gables and the flavor of
• 47:19
  her old traditions. I think I would have found miss Elizabeth Russell a kindred
• 47:22
  spirit, she murmured when she was alone in her room. There were two
• 47:27
  windows in it, the dormer one looked out on the lower harbor and the
• 47:30
  sand bar, and the four winds light, a magic casement opening on the
• 47:35
  foam of perilous seas and fairy lands forlorn, quoted Anne softly. The gable
• 47:40
  window gave a view of a little harvest hued valley through which a brook ran.
• 47:45
  Half a mile up the brook was the only house in sight, an
• 47:49
  old, rambling gray one, surrounded by huge willows, through which its windows
• 47:53
  peered like shy seeking eyes into the dusk. Anne wondered who lived there.
• 48:00
  They would be her nearest neighbors, and she hoped they would be nice.
• 48:02
  She suddenly found herself thinking of the beautiful girl with the white geese. Gilbert
• 48:08
  thought she didn't belong here, mused Anne, But I feel sure she does.
• 48:13
  There was something about her that made her part of the sea and the
• 48:16
  sky and the harbor. Four Winds is in her blood. When Anne went
• 48:22
  downstairs, Gilbert was standing before the fireplace talking to a stranger. Both turned
• 48:27
  as Anne entered. Anne, this is Captain Boyd. Captain Boyd my wife.
• 48:32
  It was the first time Gilbert had said my wife to anybody but Anne,
• 48:37
  and he narrowly escaped, bursting with the pride of it. The old
• 48:40
  captain held out a sinewy hand to Anne. They smiled at each other and
• 48:45
  were friends from that moment. Kindred's spirit flashed recognition to Kindred's spirit. I'm
• 48:51
  downright pleased to meet you, Mistress Blythe, and I hope you'll be as
• 48:54
  happy as the first bride was who came here. I can't wish you no
• 48:58
  better than that. But if your husband doesn't introduce me, just exactly right,
• 49:02
  Captain Jim is my week day name, and you might as well begin
• 49:06
  as you're certain to end up calling me that you certainly are a nice little
• 49:10
  bride, Mistress Blythe. Looking at you sort of makes me feel that I've
• 49:14
  just been married myself. Amid the laughter that followed, missus Doctor Dave urged
• 49:20
  Captain Jim to stay and have supper with them. Thank you kindly, it'll
• 49:23
  be a real treat Mistress, Doctor, I mostly as to eat my meals
• 49:28
  alone with the reflection of my ugly old fizz in a looking glass opposite for
• 49:31
  company. Tisn't often I have a chance to sit down with two such sweet,
• 49:36
  pretty ladies. Captain Jim's compliments may look very bald on paper, but
• 49:40
  he paid them with such a gracious, gentle deference of tone and look,
• 49:45
  that the woman upon whom they were bestowed felt that she was being offered a
• 49:49
  queen's tribute in a kingly fashion. Captain Jim was a high souled, simple
• 49:54
  minded old man, with eternal youth in his eyes and heart. He had
• 50:00
  a tall, rather ungainly figure, somewhat stooped, yet suggestive of great strength
• 50:05
  and endurance, a clean shaven face, deeply lined and bronzed, a thick
• 50:09
  mane of iron gray hair falling quite to his shoulders, and a pair of
• 50:14
  remarkably blue, deep set eyes which sometimes twinkled and sometimes dreamed, and sometimes
• 50:21
  looked out seaward with a wistful question them as of one seeking something precious and
• 50:25
  lost. Anne was to learn one day what it was for which Captain Jim
• 50:30
  looked. It could not be denied that Captain Jim was a homely man.
• 50:36
  His spare jaws, rugged mouth, and square brow were not fashioned on the
• 50:39
  lines of beauty, and he had passed through many hardships and sorrows which had
• 50:45
  marked his body as well as his soul. But though at first sight Anne
• 50:49
  thought him plain, she never thought anything more about it. The spirit shining
• 50:53
  through that rugged tenement beautified it so holy. They gathered around the supper to
• 51:00
  the hearth. Fire banished the chill of the September evening, but the window
• 51:04
  of the dining room was open, and sea breezes entered at their own sweet
• 51:07
  will. The view was magnificent, taking in the harbor and the sweep of
• 51:13
  low purple hills beyond. The table was heaped with Missus Doctor's delicacies, but
• 51:17
  the Piaes de resistance was undoubtedly the big platter of sea trout. Thought they'd
• 51:22
  be sort of tasty after traveling, said Captain Jim. They're fresh as trout
• 51:28
  can be, Mistress blythe two hours ago they were swimming in the glen pond.
• 51:32
  Who was attending to the light tonight, Captain Jim asked Doctor Dave nephew
• 51:37
  alec he understands it as well as I do. Well, now, I'm
• 51:40
  real glad you asked me to stay to supper. I'm proper hungry. Didn't
• 51:45
  have much of a dinner to day. I believe you half starve yourself most
• 51:49
  of the time down at that light, said missus Doctor Dave severely. You
• 51:52
  won't take the trouble to get up a decent meal. Oh I do,
• 51:57
  Mistress, Doctor, I do, protested Captain Jim. Why I live like
• 52:00
  a king generally? Last night I was up to the glen and took home
• 52:05
  two pounds of steak. I meant to have a spanking good dinner to day.
• 52:08
  And what happened to the steak, asked missus Doctor Dave. Did you
• 52:13
  lose it on the way home? No, Captain Jim looked sheepish. Just
• 52:17
  at bedtime, a poor, ordinary sort of dog came along and asked for
• 52:22
  a night's lodging. Guess he belonged to some of the fishermen longshore. I
• 52:27
  couldn't turn the poor cur out. He had a sore foot, so I
• 52:30
  shut him in the porch with an old bag to lie on, and went
• 52:31
  to bed. But somehow I couldn't sleep. Come to think it over.
• 52:37
  I sort of remembered that the dog looked hungry, and you got up and
• 52:40
  gave him that steak. All that steak, said missus Doctor Dave, with
• 52:45
  a kind of triumphant reproof. Well there wasn't anything else to give him,
• 52:50
  said Captain Jim, deprecatingly. Nothing a dog could care for, that is,
• 52:53
  I reckon he was hungry for he made about two bites of it.
• 52:58
  I had a fine sleep the rest of the night, but my dinner had
• 53:00
  to be sort of scanty potatoes and point, as you might say. The
• 53:06
  dog he lit out for home this morning. I reckon he wern't a vegetarian.
• 53:09
  The idea of starving yourself for a worthless dog, sniffed missus Doctor.
• 53:15
  You don't know, but he may be worth a lot to somebody, protested
• 53:19
  Captain Jim. He didn't look of much account, but you can't go by
• 53:22
  looks in judging a dog like myself. He might be a real beauty inside.
• 53:28
  The first mate didn't approve of him. I'll allow his language was right
• 53:31
  down forcible, but the first mate is prejudiced. No use in taking a
• 53:36
  cat's opinion of a dog at any rate. I lost my dinner, so
• 53:39
  this nice spread, in this delightful company is real pleasant. It's a great
• 53:45
  thing to have good neighbors. Who lives in the house among the willows up
• 53:49
  the brook, asked Anne. Missus dick Moore, said Captain Jim and her
• 53:53
  husband. He added, as if by way of an afterthought, Anne smiled
• 53:59
  and deduced a mental picture of Missus dick Moore from Captain Jim's way of putting
• 54:02
  it. Evidently a second, Missus, Rachel Lynde, you haven't many neighbors,
• 54:07
  mistress Blythe Captain Jim went on, this side of the harbor is mighty
• 54:13
  thinly settled. Most of the land belongs to mister Howard up Yander past the
• 54:16
  glen, and he rents it out for pasture. The other side of the
• 54:20
  harbor now is thick with folks, especially mccallister's. There's a whole colony of
• 54:25
  McAllister's. You can't throw a stone, but you hit one. I was
• 54:29
  talking to old Leon Black here the other day. He's been working on the
• 54:32
  harbor all summer, dear nearly all mccallister's over there. He told me there's
• 54:37
  Neil McAllister and Sannie McAllister and William McCallister, and Alec McCallister, and Angus
• 54:44
  McAllister, and I believe there's the devil McAllister. There are nearly as many
• 54:49
  Elliotts and Crawford's, said Doctor Dave, after the laughter had subsided. You
• 54:52
  know, Gilbert, we folk on this side of four winds have an old
• 54:55
  saying, from the conceit of the Elliots, the pride of the McAllister,
• 55:00
  on the vainglory of the Crawfords, Good Lord deliver us. There's plenty of
• 55:04
  fine people among them, though, said Captain Jim. I sailed with William
• 55:07
  Crawford for many a year, and for courage and endurance and truth that man
• 55:13
  hadn't an equal. They've got brains over on that side of four winds.
• 55:16
  Maybe that's why this side is shorter inclined to pick on em Strange, ain't
• 55:22
  it how folks seem to resent any one being born a mite cleverer than they
• 55:25
  bey? Doctor Dave, who had of forty years feud with the over harbor
• 55:30
  people laughed and subsided. Who lives in that brilliant emerald house about half a
• 55:36
  mile up the road, asked Gilbert. Captain Jim smiled delightedly, Miss Cornelia
• 55:40
  Bryant, she'll likely be over to see you soon, seeing your Presbyterians.
• 55:45
  If you were Methodists, she wouldn't come at all. Cornelia has a holy
• 55:50
  horror of Methodists. She's quite a character, chuckled Doctor Dave, a most
• 55:54
  inveterate man hater. Sara Grapes, queried Gilbert, laughing, No, tisn't
• 56:00
  sour grapes, answered Captain Jim. Seriously. Cornelia could have had her pick
• 56:05
  when she was young. Even yet she's only to say the word to see
• 56:08
  the old widower's jump. She just seems to have been born with a chronic
• 56:13
  spide Again men and Methodists. She's got the bitterest tongue and the kindest heart
• 56:17
  in four winds. Wherever there's any trouble, that woman is there, doing
• 56:22
  everything to help in the tenderest way. She never says a harsh word about
• 56:25
  another woman. And if she likes to card us poor scallywags of men down,
• 56:30
  I reckon our tough old heights can stand it. She always speaks all
• 56:34
  of you, Captain Jim, said missus Doctor, yes, I'm afraid so
• 56:37
  I don't half like it. It makes me feel as if there must be
• 56:42
  something sort of unnatural about me. End of chapter six. Chapter seven the
• 56:49
  schoolmaster's bride, who was the first bride who came to this house Captain Jim
• 56:54
  and asked, as they sat around the fireplace after supper, was she part
• 56:59
  of the the story I've heard was connected with this house, asked Gilbert.
• 57:02
  Somebody told me you could tell it. Captain Jim, Well, yes,
• 57:07
  I know it. I reckon. I'm the only person living in four winds
• 57:09
  Now that can remember the schoolmaster's bride as she was when she came to the
• 57:14
  island. She's been dead this thirty year, but she was one of them
• 57:16
  women you never forget. Tell us the story, pleaded Anne. I want
• 57:22
  to find out all about the women who have lived in this house before me.
• 57:25
  Well, there's just been three, Elizabeth Russell and missus Ned Russell and
• 57:30
  the schoolmaster's bride. Elizabeth Russell was a nice, clever little critter, and
• 57:35
  Missus Ned was a nice woman too, But they weren't ever like the schoolmaster's
• 57:38
  bride. The schoolmaster's name was John Selwyn. He came out from the Old
• 57:44
  Country to teach school at the Glen when I was a boy sixteen. He
• 57:46
  wasn't much like the usual run of derelicts who used to come out to p
• 57:51
  e I to teach school in them days. Most of them were clever,
• 57:54
  drunken critters who taught the children the three yards when they were sober, and
• 57:59
  lamb bastard them. There wasn't But John Selwyn was a fine handsome young fellow.
• 58:04
  He board it at my father's and he and me were cronies. Though
• 58:07
  he was ten years older than me. We read and walked and talked a
• 58:10
  heap together. He knew about all the poetry that was ever written I reckon,
• 58:15
  and he used to quote it to me along the shore in the evenings.
• 58:19
  Dad thought it an awful waste of time, but he sorter endured it,
• 58:22
  hoping it had put me off the notion of going to sea. Well,
• 58:25
  nothing could do that. Mother came of a race as seagullin folk,
• 58:29
  and it was born in me. But I loved to hear John read and
• 58:31
  recite. It's almost sixty years ago, but I could repeat yards of poetry
• 58:37
  I learned from him nearly sixty years. Captain Jim was silent for a space,
• 58:43
  gazing into the glowing fire in a quest of the bygones. Then with
• 58:46
  a sigh, he resumed his story. I remember one spring evening I met
• 58:52
  him on the sand hills. He looked sort uplifted, just like you did,
• 58:54
  doctor Blythe, when you brought Mistress Blythe in tonight. I thought of
• 58:59
  him, the man did I seen you? And he told me that he
• 59:01
  had a sweetheart back home, and that she was coming out to him.
• 59:05
  I wasn't more'n half pleased, ornery, young lumpus selfishness that I was.
• 59:09
  I thought he wouldn't be as much my friend after she came, but I'd
• 59:13
  decency enough not to let him see it. He told me all about her.
• 59:16
  Her name was Perseus Lee, and she would have come out with him
• 59:20
  if it hadn't been for her old uncle. He was sick, and he'd
• 59:23
  looked after her when her parents died, and she wouldn't leave him. And
• 59:27
  now he was dead, and she was coming out to marry John Selwyn.
• 59:30
  Twas a no easy journey for a woman in them days. There warn't no
• 59:34
  steamers you must recollect. When'd you expector, says I? She sails on
• 59:38
  the Royal William the twentieth of June, says he, And so she should
• 59:43
  be here by mid July. I must set Carpenter Johnson to building me a
• 59:45
  home for her. Her letter came to day. I knew before I opened
• 59:50
  it that it had good news for me. I saw her a few nights
• 59:52
  ago. I didn't understand him, and then he explained, though I didn't
• 59:57
  understand that much better. He said he he had a gift or a curse
• 1:00:00
  them was his words, Mistress blythe a gift or a curse. He didn't
• 1:00:05
  know which it was. He said a great great grandmother of his it had
• 1:00:08
  it, and they burned her for a witch on account of it. He
• 1:00:12
  said, queer spells trances, I think was the n amy give'em? Come
• 1:00:15
  over him now and again? Are there such things? Doctor? There are
• 1:00:21
  people who are certainly subject to trances, answered Gilbert. The matter is more
• 1:00:25
  in the line of psychical research than medical. What were the trances of this
• 1:00:30
  John Selwyn? Like? Like dreams? Said the old doctor skeptically. He
• 1:00:35
  said he could see things in them, said Captain Jim, slowly, mind
• 1:00:38
  you, I'm telling you just what he said, Things that were happening,
• 1:00:43
  things that were going to happen. He said they were sometimes a comfort to
• 1:00:46
  him, and sometimes a horror. Four nights before this, he'd been in
• 1:00:52
  one went into it while he was sitting looking at the fire, and he
• 1:00:54
  saw an old room he knew well in England, and periselessly in it,
• 1:00:59
  holding out her hands to him and looking glad and happy. So he knew
• 1:01:02
  he was going to hear good news of her. A dream. A dream,
• 1:01:07
  scoffed the old doctor. Likely likely conceded Captain Jim. That's what I
• 1:01:13
  said to him at the time. It was a vast more comfortable to think,
• 1:01:15
  so I didn't like the idea of him seeing things like that. It
• 1:01:20
  was real uncanny, No, says he, I didn't dream it. But
• 1:01:24
  we won't talk of this again. You won't be so much my friend if
• 1:01:28
  you think much about it. I told him nothing could make me any less
• 1:01:30
  his friend. But he just shook his head and says, says he lad.
• 1:01:35
  I know I have lost friends before because of this. I don't blame
• 1:01:38
  him. There are times when I feel hardly friendly to myself because of it.
• 1:01:43
  Such a power has a bit of divinity in it, whether of a
• 1:01:45
  good or an evil divinity. Who shall say? And we mortals all shrink
• 1:01:50
  from too close contact with God or devil them was his words. I remember
• 1:01:54
  them as if twas yesterday, though I didn't know just what he meant.
• 1:01:59
  What do you suppose he did mean? Doctor? I doubt if he knew
• 1:02:01
  what he meant himself, said Doctor Dave testily. I think I understand,
• 1:02:07
  whispered Anne. She was listening in her old attitude of clasped lips and shining
• 1:02:12
  eyes. Captain Jim treated himself to an admiring smile before he went on with
• 1:02:16
  his story. Well, pretty soon all the Glen and Four Winds people knew
• 1:02:21
  the schoolmaster's bride was coming, and they were all glad because they thought so
• 1:02:25
  much of him, And everybody took an interest in his new house. This
• 1:02:29
  house. He picked this site for it because you could see the harbor and
• 1:02:32
  hear the sea from it. He made the garden out there for his bride,
• 1:02:37
  but he didn't plant the lombardies. Missus ned Russell planted them. But
• 1:02:40
  there's a double row of rose bushes in the garden that the little girls who
• 1:02:44
  went to the Glens school set out there for the schoolmaster's bride. He said
• 1:02:47
  they were pink for her cheeks, and white for her brow, and red
• 1:02:52
  for her lips. He'd quoted poetry so much that he sort of got into
• 1:02:54
  the habit of talking it too, I reckon. Almost everybody sent him some
• 1:03:00
  little present to help out the furnishing of the house. When the Russels came
• 1:03:04
  into it, they were well to do and furnished it real handsome as you
• 1:03:07
  can see. But the first furniture that went into it was plain enough.
• 1:03:10
  This little house was rich in love, though. The women sent in quilts
• 1:03:15
  and tablecloths and towels, and one man made a chest for her, and
• 1:03:19
  another a table, and so on. Even blind old aunt Margaret Boyd wove
• 1:03:22
  a little basket for her out of the sweet scented sand hill grass. The
• 1:03:28
  schoolmaster's wife used it for years to keep her handkerchiefs in well. At last
• 1:03:32
  everything was ready, even to the logs in the big fireplace, ready for
• 1:03:36
  lighting. Twasn't exactly this fireplace, though, twas in the same place Miss
• 1:03:42
  Elizabeth had this put him when she made the house over fifteen years ago.
• 1:03:45
  It was a big, old fashioned fireplace where you could have roasted an ox.
• 1:03:50
  Many's the time I've sat here and span yarns, saying's I'm doin tonight?
• 1:03:54
  Again? There was a silence, while Captain Jim kept a passing tryst
• 1:03:59
  with visitans. Anne and Gilbert could not see the folks who had sat with
• 1:04:02
  him around that fireplace in the vanished years, with mirth and bridle joy shining
• 1:04:08
  in eyes long since closed, forever under churchyard sod or heaving leagues of sea.
• 1:04:14
  Here on olden nights, children had tossed laughter lightly to and fro Here
• 1:04:18
  on winter evenings, friends had gathered dance and music, and jest had been
• 1:04:24
  here. Here, youths and maidens had dreamed for Captain Jim. The little
• 1:04:29
  house was tenanted with shapes and treating remembrance. It was the first of July
• 1:04:33
  when the house was finished. The schoolmaster began to count the days. Then
• 1:04:39
  we used to see him walking along the shore, and we'd say to each
• 1:04:42
  other, she'll soon be with him. Now. She was expected the middle
• 1:04:45
  of July, but she didn't come. Then nobody felt anxious. Vessels were
• 1:04:50
  often delayed for days and maybe weeks. The Royal William was a week overdue,
• 1:04:56
  and then two, and then three, And at last we began to
• 1:04:59
  be brightened, and it got worse and worse. Finally I couldn't bear to
• 1:05:03
  look into John Selwyn's eyes, youno, mistress Blythe Captain Jim lowered his voice.
• 1:05:10
  I used to think that they looked just like what his old great great
• 1:05:13
  grandmothers must have been when they were burning her to death. He never said
• 1:05:16
  much, but he taught school like a man in a dream, and then
• 1:05:20
  hurried to the shore. Many a night he walked there from dark to dawn.
• 1:05:25
  People said he was losing his mind. Everybody had given up hope.
• 1:05:29
  The Royal William was eight weeks overdue. It was the middle of September,
• 1:05:33
  and the schoolmaster's bride hadn't come, never would come. We thought there was
• 1:05:40
  a big storm then that lasted three days, and on the evening after it
• 1:05:44
  died away, I went to the shore. I found the schoolmaster there,
• 1:05:47
  leaning with his arms folded against a big rock, gazing out to sea.
• 1:05:53
  I spoke to him, but he didn't answer. His eyes seemed to be
• 1:05:56
  looking at something I couldn't see. His face was set a dead man's John
• 1:06:01
  John, I called out, just like that, just like a frightened child,
• 1:06:04
  Wake up, wake up. That strange, awful look seemed a sort
• 1:06:10
  of fade out of his eyes. He turned his head and looked at me.
• 1:06:14
  I have never forgot his face, never will forget it till I ships
• 1:06:17
  for my last voyage. All is well, lad, he says, I've
• 1:06:21
  seen the Royal William coming around east Point. She'll be here by dawn tomorrow
• 1:06:27
  night. I shall sit with my bride by my own hearth fire. Do
• 1:06:31
  you think he did see it? Demanded Captain Jim abruptly. God knows,
• 1:06:36
  said Gilbert softly. Great love and great pain might compass. We know not
• 1:06:41
  what marvels. I am sure he did see it, said Anne earnestly.
• 1:06:45
  Folderol, said Doctor Dave. But he spoke with less conviction than usual,
• 1:06:50
  because you know, said Captain Jim solemnly. The Royal William came into Four
• 1:06:56
  Winds Harbor at daylight the next morning. Every soul in the glen and along
• 1:07:00
  the shore was of the old wharf to meet her. The schoolmaster had been
• 1:07:03
  watching there all night. How we cheered As she sailed up the channel.
• 1:07:09
  Captain Jim's eyes were shining. They were looking at the Four Winds Harbor of
• 1:07:13
  sixty years agone with a battered old ship sailing through the sunrise, splendor and
• 1:07:18
  pursus. Lee was on board, asked Anne Yes, her and the captain's
• 1:07:24
  wife. They'd had an awful passage storm after storm, and their provisions give
• 1:07:28
  out too, But there they were at last, When Pursesly stepped on to
• 1:07:32
  the old wharf. John Selwyn took her in his arms, and folks stopped
• 1:07:36
  cheering and begun to cry. I cried myself though twas years, mind you,
• 1:07:41
  afore i'd admitted. Ain't it funny how ashamed boys are of tears?
• 1:07:45
  Was purssly beautiful? Asked Anne. Well, I don't know that you'd call
• 1:07:50
  her beautiful exactly? I don't know, said Captain Jim slowly. Somehow you
• 1:07:57
  never got so far along as to wonder she was handsome or not. It
• 1:08:00
  just didn't matter. There was something so sweet and winsome about her that you
• 1:08:05
  had to love her, that was all. But she was pleasant to look
• 1:08:09
  at, big clear hazel eyes, and heaps of glossy brown hair and an
• 1:08:14
  English skin. John and her were married at our house that night, at
• 1:08:17
  early candle lighting. Everybody from far and near was there to see it,
• 1:08:21
  and we all brought them down here. Afterwards, Mistress Selwyn lighted the fire
• 1:08:27
  and we went away and left them sitting here just as John had seen in
• 1:08:30
  that vision of his a strange thing. A strange thing. But I've seen
• 1:08:35
  a terrible lot of strange things in my time. Captain Jim shook his head
• 1:08:40
  sagely. It's a dear story, said Anne, feeling that for once she
• 1:08:45
  had got enough romance to satisfy her. How long did they live here?
• 1:08:49
  Fifteen years. I ran off to sea soon after they were married, like
• 1:08:54
  the young scallawag I was. But every time I come back from a voyage,
• 1:08:59
  I'd head for here, even before I went home, and tell Mistress
• 1:09:01
  Selwyn all about it. Fifteen happy years. They had a sort of talent
• 1:09:08
  for happiness them too. Some folks are like that, if you've noticed,
• 1:09:11
  they couldn't be unhappy for long, no matter what happened. They quarreled once
• 1:09:15
  or twice, for they was both high spirited. But Mistress Selwyn says to
• 1:09:19
  me once, says she, laughing in that pretty way of hers. I
• 1:09:24
  felt dreadful when John and I quarreled, But underneath it all, I was
• 1:09:28
  very happy because I had such a nice husband to quarrel with and make it
• 1:09:31
  up with. Then they moved to Charlottetown and Ned Russell bought this house and
• 1:09:35
  brought his bride here. They were a gay young pair, as I remember
• 1:09:40
  them. Miss Elizabeth Russell was Alec's sister. She came to live with them
• 1:09:44
  a year or so later, and she was a creature of mirth too.
• 1:09:47
  The walls of this house must be sort o soaked with laughing and good times.
• 1:09:51
  You're the third bride I've seen come here, mistress blythe and the handsomest.
• 1:09:57
  Captain Jim contrived to give his some our compliment the delicacy of a violet,
• 1:10:01
  and Anne wore it proudly. She was looking her best that night,
• 1:10:05
  with the bridal rose on her cheeks and the love light in her eyes.
• 1:10:10
  Even gruff old Doctor Dave gave her an approving glance and told his wife,
• 1:10:15
  as they drove home together, that that red headed wife of the boys was
• 1:10:18
  something of a beauty. I must be getting back to the light, announced
• 1:10:23
  Captain Jim. I've enjoyed this evening, something tremendous. You must come often
• 1:10:28
  to see us, said Anne. I wonder if you'd give that invitation if
• 1:10:31
  you knew how likely I'll be to accept it. Captain Jim remarked whimsically,
• 1:10:36
  which is another way of saying, you wonder if I mean it, smiled
• 1:10:40
  Anne, I do cross my heart, as we used to say at school.
• 1:10:44
  Then I'll come. You're likely to be pestered with me at any hour,
• 1:10:47
  and I'll be proud to have you drop down and visit me now and
• 1:10:50
  then too. Generally, I haven't any one to talk to, but the
• 1:10:54
  first mate, bless his sociable heart. He's a mighty good listener and has
• 1:10:58
  forgot more'n any macallus of them all ever knew. But he isn't much of
• 1:11:01
  a conversationalist. You're young and I'm old, but our souls are about the
• 1:11:05
  same age. I reckon we both belong to the race that knows Joseph,
• 1:11:10
  as Cornelia Bryant would say, the race that knows Joseph, puzzled Anne,
• 1:11:15
  Yes, Cornelia divides all the folks in the world into two kinds, the
• 1:11:19
  race that knows Joseph and the race that don't. If a person sort of
• 1:11:24
  sees eye to eye with you and has pretty much the same ideas about things
• 1:11:28
  and the same taste in jokes, why then he belongs to the race that
• 1:11:30
  knows Joseph. Oh, I understand, exclaimed Anne, light breaking in upon
• 1:11:36
  her. It's what I used to call and still call in quotation marks kindred
• 1:11:41
  spirits. Jest. So just so, agreed Captain Jim. Wear it whatever
• 1:11:46
  it is when you come in tonight, Mistress blythe I says to myself,
• 1:11:50
  says I, Yes, she's of the race that knows Joseph, and mighty
• 1:11:55
  glad I was for If it wasn't so, we couldn't have had any real
• 1:11:59
  satisfaction in each other's company. The race that knows Joseph is the salt of
• 1:12:02
  the earth, I reckon. The moon had just risen when Anne and Gilbert
• 1:12:08
  went to the door with their guests, for Wind's Harbor was beginning to be
• 1:12:11
  a thing of dream and glamor and enchantment, a spell bound haven where no
• 1:12:15
  tempest might ever raven. The Lombardies down the lane, tall and somber as
• 1:12:20
  the priestly forms of some mystic band were tipped with silver. Always liked Lombardy's,
• 1:12:27
  said Captain Jim, waving a long arm at them. They're the trees
• 1:12:30
  of princesses. They're out of fashion now. Folks complain that they'd die at
• 1:12:34
  the top and get ragged lookin', so they do so they do if you
• 1:12:39
  don't risk your neck every spring climbing up a light ladder to trim them out.
• 1:12:44
  I always did it for Miss Elizabeth, so her Lombardies never got out
• 1:12:46
  at elbows. She was especially fond of them. She liked their dignity and
• 1:12:50
  standoffishness. They don't hobknob with every Tom, Dick and Harry. If it's
• 1:12:56
  Maples for company, Mistress Blythe, it's Lombardies for society. What a beautiful
• 1:13:01
  night, said missus Doctor Dave, as she climbed into the doctor's buggy.
• 1:13:05
  Most nights are beautiful, said Captain Jim. But I allow that moonlight over
• 1:13:10
  four winds makes me sore to wonder what's left for heaven. The Moon's a
• 1:13:14
  great friend, o mine, Mistress Blythe. I've loved her ever since I
• 1:13:16
  can remember. When I was a little chap of eight, I fell asleep
• 1:13:20
  in the garden one evening, an wasn't missed. I woke up along in
• 1:13:24
  the night, and I was most scared to death. What shadows and queer
• 1:13:28
  noises there was. I durstn't move, just crouched there, quaking, poor
• 1:13:31
  small mite. Seems if there weren't any one in the world but myself,
• 1:13:35
  and it was mighty big. Then all at once I saw the moon lookin
• 1:13:40
  down at me through the apple boughs, just like an old friend. I
• 1:13:43
  was comforted right off, got up and walked to the house, as brave
• 1:13:46
  as a lion lookin at her. Many's the night I've watched her from the
• 1:13:49
  deck of my vessel on seas far away from here. Why don't you folks
• 1:13:54
  tell me to take in the slack of my john go home? The laughter
• 1:13:58
  of the good nights died away. Anne and Gilbert walked hand in hand around
• 1:14:01
  their garden. The brook that ran across the corner dimpled pellucidly in the shadows
• 1:14:06
  of the birches. The poppies along its banks were like shallow cups of moonlight.
• 1:14:12
  Flowers that had been planted by the hands of the schoolmaster's bride flung their
• 1:14:15
  sweetness on the shadowy air, like the beauty and blessing of sacred yesterdays.
• 1:14:20
  Anne paused in the gloom to gather a spray. I love to smell flowers
• 1:14:25
  in the dark, She said, you get hold of their soul. Then,
• 1:14:29
  oh Gilbert, this little house is all I've dreamed it, and I'm
• 1:14:32
  so glad that we are not the first to have kept bridal Tryst here.
• 1:14:38
  End of chapter seven, Chapter eight, Miss Cornelia Bryant comes to call that
• 1:14:45
  month of September was a month of golden mists and purple hazes at Forwind's Harbor,
• 1:14:49
  a month of sun steep days, and of nights that were swimming in
• 1:14:53
  moonlight or pulsating with stars. No storm marred it, no rough wind blew.
• 1:15:00
  Anne and Gilbert put their nest in order, rambled on the shores,
• 1:15:02
  sailed on the harbor, drove about four winds in the glen, or through
• 1:15:06
  the ferny sequestered roads of the woods around the harbor head. In short,
• 1:15:11
  had such a honeymoon as any lovers in the world might have envied them.
• 1:15:15
  If life were to stop short just now, it would still have been richly
• 1:15:19
  worth while, just for the sake of these past four weeks, wouldn't it,
• 1:15:24
  said Anne. I don't suppose we will ever have four such perfect weeks
• 1:15:28
  again, but we've had them. Everything wind Weather, folks house of dreams,
• 1:15:33
  has conspired to make our honeymoon delightful. There hasn't even been a rainy
• 1:15:38
  day since we came here, and we haven't quarreled, once teased Gilbert.
• 1:15:43
  Well that's a pleasure all the greater for being deferred, quoted Anne, I'm
• 1:15:47
  so glad we decided to spend our honeymoon here. Our memories of it will
• 1:15:51
  always belong here in our house of dreams, instead of being scattered about in
• 1:15:56
  strange places. There was a certain and tang of romance and adventure in the
• 1:16:01
  atmosphere of their new home, which Anne had never found in Avonlea. There,
• 1:16:06
  although she had lived in side of the sea, it had not entered
• 1:16:10
  intimately into her life. In four winds, it surrounded her and called to
• 1:16:14
  her constantly. From every window of her new home. She saw some varying
• 1:16:18
  aspect of it. Its haunting murmur was ever in her ears. Vessels sailed
• 1:16:24
  up the harbor every day to the wharf at the glen, or sailed out
• 1:16:28
  again through the sunset, bound for ports that might be half way around the
• 1:16:30
  globe. Fishing boats went white winged down the channel in the mornings and returned
• 1:16:35
  laden in the evenings. Sailors and fisher folk traveled the red winding harbor roads,
• 1:16:42
  light hearted and content. There was always a certain sense of things going
• 1:16:46
  to happen of adventures and farings forth. The ways of four winds were less
• 1:16:51
  stayed and settled and grooved than those of avonlea, winds of change blew over
• 1:16:57
  them. The sea called ever to the dwell on shore, and even those
• 1:17:01
  who might not answer its call felt the thrill and unrest and mystery and possibilities
• 1:17:06
  of it. I understand now why some men must go to sea, said
• 1:17:12
  Anne. That desire which comes to us all at times to sail beyond the
• 1:17:15
  bourne of sunset must be very imperious when it is born in you. I
• 1:17:20
  don't wonder Captain Jim ran away because of it. I never see a ship
• 1:17:25
  sailing out of the channel, or a gull soaring over the sand bar without
• 1:17:29
  wishing I were on board the ship, or had wings, not like a
• 1:17:32
  dove to fly away and be at rest, but like a gull to sweep
• 1:17:36
  out into the very heart of a storm. You'll stay right here with me,
• 1:17:41
  an girl, said Gilbert lazily. I won't have you flying away from
• 1:17:45
  me into the hearts of storms. They were sitting on their red sandstone doorstep
• 1:17:50
  in the late afternoon. Great tranquilities were all about them, and land and
• 1:17:55
  sea and sky. Silvery gulls were soaring over them. The horizon were laced
• 1:18:00
  with long trails of frail, pinkish clouds. The hushtare was threaded with a
• 1:18:04
  murmurous refrain of minstrel winds and waves. Pale asters were blowing in the sere
• 1:18:11
  and misty meadows between them and the harbor. Doctors who have to be up
• 1:18:15
  all night waiting on sick folk don't feel very adventurous. I suppose, Anne
• 1:18:19
  said indulgently. If you had had a good sleep last night, Gilbert,
• 1:18:24
  you'd be as ready as I am for a flight of imagination. I did
• 1:18:28
  good work last night, Anne said Gilbert quietly. Under God, I saved
• 1:18:31
  a life. This is the first time I could ever really claim that.
• 1:18:35
  In other cases I may have helped. But Anne, if I had not
• 1:18:40
  stayed at Allenby's last night and fought death hand to hand, that woman would
• 1:18:44
  have died before morning. I tried an experiment that was certainly never tried in
• 1:18:48
  four Winds before. I doubt if it was ever tried anywhere before outside of
• 1:18:51
  a hospital. It was a new thing in Kingsport Hospital last winter. I
• 1:18:57
  could never have dared try it here. If I had not been atsolutely certain
• 1:19:00
  that there was no other chance. I risked it and it succeeded. As
• 1:19:04
  a result, a good wife and mother is saved for long years of happiness
• 1:19:09
  and usefulness. As I drove home this morning, while the sun was rising
• 1:19:13
  over the harbor, I thanked God that I had chosen the profession I did.
• 1:19:16
  I had fought a good fight, and one think of it, Anne,
• 1:19:20
  one against the great destroyer. It's what I dreamed of doing long ago,
• 1:19:26
  when we talked together of what we wanted to do in life. That
• 1:19:30
  dream of mine came true this morning. Was that the only one of your
• 1:19:33
  dreams that has come true? Asked Anne, who knew perfectly well what the
• 1:19:38
  substance of his answer would be, but wanted to hear it again. You
• 1:19:42
  know, Anne, girl, said Gilbert, smiling into her eyes. At
• 1:19:45
  that moment, there were certainly two perfectly happy people sitting on the doorstep of
• 1:19:50
  a little white house on the Four Winds Harbor shore. Presently, Gilbert said,
• 1:19:56
  with a change of tone, do I or do I not see a
• 1:20:00
  full rigged ship sailing up our lane? Anne looked and sprang up. That
• 1:20:05
  must be either Miss Cornelia Bryant or missus Moore coming to call. She said,
• 1:20:11
  I'm going into the office, and if it is Miss Cornelia, I
• 1:20:14
  warn you that I'll eavesdrop, said Gilbert. From all I've heard regarding Miss
• 1:20:17
  Cornelia, I conclude that her conversation will not be dull. To say the
• 1:20:21
  least. It may be missus Moore, I don't think Missus Moore is built
• 1:20:26
  on those lines. I saw her working in her garden the other day,
• 1:20:30
  and though I was too far away to see clearly, I thought she was
• 1:20:32
  rather slender. She doesn't seem very socially inclined when she has never called on
• 1:20:36
  you yet. Although she's your nearest neighbor. She can't be like missus Lynde
• 1:20:41
  after all, or curiosity would have brought her, said Anne. This caller
• 1:20:45
  is, I think Miss Cornelia? Miss Cornelia. It was moreover, Miss
• 1:20:50
  Cornelia had not come to make any brief and fashionable wedding call. She had
• 1:20:55
  her work under her arm at a substantial parcel, and when Anne asked her
• 1:20:59
  to stay, she promptly took off her capacious sun hat, which had been
• 1:21:02
  held on her head despite irreverent September breezes by a tight elastic band under her
• 1:21:09
  hard little knob of fair hair. No hatpins for miss Cornelia, an it
• 1:21:13
  please you. Elastic bands had been good enough for her mother, and they
• 1:21:16
  were good enough for her. She had a fresh, round, pink and
• 1:21:20
  white face and jolly brown eyes. She did not look in the least like
• 1:21:25
  the traditional old maid, and there was something in her expression which won Anne
• 1:21:29
  instantly, with her old instinctive quickness to discern kindred spirits. She knew she
• 1:21:34
  was going to like Miss Cornelia, in spite of uncertain oddities of opinion and
• 1:21:40
  certain oddities of attire. Nobody but Miss Cornelia would have come to make a
• 1:21:44
  call arrayed in a striped blue and white apron and a wrapper of chocolate print
• 1:21:48
  with a design of huge pink roses scattered over it, and nobody but Miss
• 1:21:54
  Cornelia could have looked dignified and suitably garbed in it. Had Miss Cornelia been
• 1:21:59
  entering up palace to call on a prince's bride, she would have been just
• 1:22:02
  as dignified and just as holy mistress of the situation. She would have trailed
• 1:22:08
  her rose spattered flounce over the marble floors just as unconcernedly, and she would
• 1:22:13
  have proceeded just as calmly to disabuse the mind of the princess of any idea
• 1:22:16
  that the possession of a mere man, be he prince or peasant, was
• 1:22:20
  anything to brag of. I've brought my work, missus blythe deary, she
• 1:22:25
  remarked, unrolling some dainty material. I'm in a hurry to get this done,
• 1:22:29
  and there isn't any time to lose. Anne looked in some surprise at
• 1:22:33
  the white garment spread over Miss Cornelia's ample lap. It was certainly a baby's
• 1:22:38
  dress, and it was most beautifully made, with tiny frills and tucks.
• 1:22:43
  Miss Cornelia adjusted her glasses and fell to embroidering with exquisite stitches. This is
• 1:22:48
  for missus Fred Proctor. Up at the glen, she announced she's expecting her
• 1:22:53
  eighth baby any day now, and not as stitch has she ready for it.
• 1:22:57
  The other seven have wore out all she made for the first, and
• 1:23:00
  she's never had time or strength or spirit to make any more. That woman
• 1:23:03
  is a martyr. Missus blathe believe me. When she married Fred Proctor,
• 1:23:08
  I knew how it would turn out. He was one of your wicked,
• 1:23:11
  fascinating men. After he got married, he left off being fascinating and just
• 1:23:15
  kept on being wicked. He drinks and he neglects his family. Isn't that
• 1:23:19
  like a man? I don't know how Missus Proctor would ever keep her children
• 1:23:23
  decently clothed if her neighbors didn't help her out, As Anne was afterwards to
• 1:23:28
  learn, Miss Cornelia was the only neighbor who troubled herself much about the decency
• 1:23:32
  of the young Proctor's. When I heard this eighth baby was coming, I
• 1:23:36
  decided to make some things for it, Miss Cornelia went on, this is
• 1:23:40
  the last and I want to finish it to day. It's certainly very pretty,
• 1:23:45
  said Anne. I'll get my sewing and we'll have a little thimble party
• 1:23:47
  of two. You're a beautiful sewer, Miss Bryant. Yes, I'm the
• 1:23:51
  best sewer in these parts, said Miss Cornelia, in a matter of fact
• 1:23:56
  tone. I ought to be Lord, I've done more of it than if
• 1:23:59
  i'd had a hunt undred children of my own. Believe me, I suppose
• 1:24:01
  I'm a fool to be putting hand embroider round this dress for an eighth baby.
• 1:24:05
  But Lord, missus blythe deary, it isn't to blame for being the
• 1:24:09
  eighth And I kind of wished it to have one real pretty dress, just
• 1:24:13
  as if it was wanted. Nobody's wanting the poor mite. So I put
• 1:24:16
  some extra fuss on its little things, just on that account. Any baby
• 1:24:20
  might be proud of that dress, said Anne, feeling still more strongly that
• 1:24:25
  she was going to like Miss Cornelia. I suppose you've been thinking I was
• 1:24:29
  never coming to call on you, resumed Miss Cornelia. But this is the
• 1:24:32
  harvest month, you know, and I've been busy and a lot of extra
• 1:24:35
  hands hanging around eating more than they work, just like the men. I'd
• 1:24:40
  have come yesterday, but I went to missus Roderick mc allister's funeral. At
• 1:24:44
  first, I thought my head was aching so badly I couldn't enjoy myself if
• 1:24:46
  I did go. But she was a hundred years old, and I'd always
• 1:24:49
  promised myself that i'd go to her funeral. Was it a successful function,
• 1:24:55
  asked Anne, noticing that the office door was ajar. What's that? Oh?
• 1:25:00
  Yes, it was a tremendous funeral. She had a very large connection.
• 1:25:03
  There was over one hundred and twenty carriages in the procession. There was
• 1:25:08
  one or two funny things happened. I thought that die. I would to
• 1:25:11
  see old job Bradshaw, who is an infidel and never darkens the door of
• 1:25:15
  a church, singing safe in the arms of Jesus, with great gusto and
• 1:25:18
  fervor. He glories in singing. That's why he never misses a funeral.
• 1:25:23
  Poor missus Bradshaw didn't look much like singing, all wore out, slaving.
• 1:25:28
  Old Joe starts out once in a while to buy her a present and brings
• 1:25:31
  home some new kind of farm machinery. Isn't that like a man? But
• 1:25:35
  what else would you expect of a man who never goes to church, even
• 1:25:39
  a Methodist one. I was real thankful to see you and the young doctor
• 1:25:43
  in the Presbyterian church your first Sunday. No doctor for me, who was
• 1:25:45
  in a Presbyterian We were in the Methodist church last Sunday evening, said Anne
• 1:25:50
  wickedly. Oh, I suppose doctor blythe has to go to the Methodist church
• 1:25:55
  once in a while or he wouldn't get the Methodist practice. We liked the
• 1:25:59
  sermon very much, declared Anne boldly. And I thought the Methodist minister's prayer
• 1:26:03
  was one of the most beautiful I ever heard. Oh, I've no doubt
• 1:26:06
  he can pray. I never heard anyone make more beautiful prayers than old Simon
• 1:26:11
  Bentley, who was always drunk or hoping to be. And the drunker he
• 1:26:15
  was, the better he prayed. The Methodist minister is very fine looking,
• 1:26:19
  said Anne, for the benefit of the office door. Yes he's quite ornamental,
• 1:26:24
  agreed Miss Cornelia. Oh, a very lady like, and he thinks
• 1:26:28
  that every girl who looks at him falls in love with him, as if
• 1:26:30
  a Methodist minister wondering about like any jew was such a prize. If you
• 1:26:35
  and the young doctor take my advice, you won't have much to do with
• 1:26:40
  the Methodists. My motto is, if you are a Presbyterian, be a
• 1:26:44
  Presbyterian. Don't you think that Methodists go to heaven as well as Presbyterians,
• 1:26:48
  asked Anne smilelessly. That isn't for us to decide. It's in higher hands
• 1:26:55
  than ours, said Miss Cornelia solemnly. But I ain't going to associate with
• 1:27:00
  them on earth, whatever I may have to do in heaven. This Methodist
• 1:27:03
  minister isn't married. The last one they had was, and his wife was
• 1:27:06
  the silliest, flightiest little thing I ever saw. I told her husband once
• 1:27:12
  that he should have waited till she was grown up before he married her.
• 1:27:15
  He said he wanted to have the training of her. Wasn't that like a
• 1:27:17
  man? It's rather hard to decide just when people are grown up? Laughed
• 1:27:23
  Anne. That's a true word, dearie. Some are grown up when they're
• 1:27:26
  born, and others ain't grown up when they're eighty. Believe me, that
• 1:27:30
  same Missus Roderick I was speaking of never grew up. She was as foolish
• 1:27:33
  when she was a hundred as she was when she was ten. Perhaps that
• 1:27:36
  was why she lived so long, suggested Anne. Maybe twas I'd rather live
• 1:27:42
  fifty sensible years than a hundred foolish ones. But just think what a dull
• 1:27:46
  world it would be if everyone was sensible, pleaded Anne. Miss Cornelia disdained
• 1:27:51
  any skirmish of flippant epigram. Missus Roderick was a mill Grave, and the
• 1:27:57
  mill Graves never had much sense. Her nephew, Ebenezer Millgrave, used to
• 1:28:01
  be insane for years. He believed he was dead, and used to rage
• 1:28:04
  at his wife because she wouldn't bury him. I'd a done it, Miss
• 1:28:09
  Cornelia looked so grimly determined that Anne could almost see her with a spade in
• 1:28:14
  her hand. Don't you know any good husbands, Miss Bryant. Oh,
• 1:28:17
  yes, lots of them over yonder, said Miss Cornelia, waving her hand
• 1:28:23
  through the open window towards the little graveyard of the church across the harbor.
• 1:28:27
  But living going about in the flesh, persisted Anne. Oh, there's a
• 1:28:31
  few, just to show that with God, all things you're possible, acknowledged
• 1:28:35
  Miss Cornelia reluctantly. I don't deny that an odd man here and there,
• 1:28:41
  if he's caught young and trained up proper, and if his mother has spanked
• 1:28:44
  him well beforehand, made turn out a decent being your husband now, isn't
• 1:28:48
  so bad as men go. From all I hear, I suppose Miss Cornelia
• 1:28:53
  looked sharply at Anne over her glasses. You think there's nobody like him in
• 1:28:57
  the world. There isn't, said Anne promptly. Ah, well, I
• 1:29:01
  heard another bride say that, once, sighed Miss Cornelia. Jenny Dean thought
• 1:29:05
  when she married that there wasn't anybody like her husband in the world, and
• 1:29:10
  she was right. There wasn't, and a good thing too, Believe me.
• 1:29:14
  He led her an awful life, and he was courting his second wife
• 1:29:16
  while Jenny was dying. Wasn't that like a man? However, I hope
• 1:29:20
  your confidence will be better justified. Dearie. The young doctor is taking real
• 1:29:25
  well. I was afraid at first he mightn't, for folks hereabouts have always
• 1:29:29
  thought old doctor Dave the only doctor in the world. Doctor Dave hadn't much
• 1:29:33
  tact, to be sure. He was always talking of ropes and houses where
• 1:29:36
  someone had hanged himself. But folks forgot their hurt feelings when they had a
• 1:29:41
  pain in their stomachs. If he'd been a minister instead of a doctor,
• 1:29:45
  they'd never have forgiven him. So Lake doesn't worry folks near as much as
• 1:29:48
  stomach ache. Seeing as we're both Presbyterians and no Methodists around, Will you
• 1:29:54
  tell me your candid opinion of our minister? Well, really, I well,
• 1:30:00
  hesitated, Anne, Miss Cornelia nodded exactly. I agree with you,
• 1:30:04
  deary. We made a mistake when he called him. His face just looks
• 1:30:09
  like one of those long, narrow stones in the graveyard, doesn't it?
• 1:30:12
  Sacred to the memory ought to be written on his forehead. I shall never
• 1:30:15
  forget the first sermon he preached after he came. It was on the subject
• 1:30:19
  of everyone doing what they were best fitted for. A very good subject,
• 1:30:23
  of course, but such illustrations as he used. He said, if you
• 1:30:28
  had a cow and an apple tree, and if you tied the apple tree
• 1:30:30
  in your stable and planted the cow and your orchard with her legs up,
• 1:30:33
  how much milk would you get from the apple tree? Or how many apples
• 1:30:38
  from the cow? Did you ever hear the like in your born days?
• 1:30:41
  Deary? I was so thankful there were no Methodists there that day. They'd
• 1:30:45
  never have been done hooting over it. But what I dislike most in him
• 1:30:49
  is his habit of agreeing with everybody no matter what is said. If you
• 1:30:53
  said to him, you're a scoundrel, he'd say, with that smooth smile
• 1:30:57
  of his, yes, that's so. A minister should have more or backbone.
• 1:31:00
  The long and the short of it is, I consider him a reverend
• 1:31:03
  jackass, But of course this is just between you and me. When there
• 1:31:08
  are Methodists in hearing, I praise him to the skies. Some folks think
• 1:31:12
  his wife dresses too gay, but I say, when she has to live
• 1:31:15
  with a face like that, she needs something to cheer her up. You'll
• 1:31:18
  never hear me condemning a woman for her dress. I'm only too thankful when
• 1:31:23
  her husband isn't too mean and miserly to allow it. Not that I bother
• 1:31:27
  much with dress myself. Women just dress to please the men, and I'd
• 1:31:30
  never stoop to that. I've had a real placid, comfortable life, dearie,
• 1:31:34
  and it's just because I never care to scent what the men thought.
• 1:31:39
  Why do you hate the men so, Miss Bryant, Lord deary, I
• 1:31:43
  don't hate them. They aren't worth it. I just sort of despise them.
• 1:31:46
  I think I'll like your husband if he keeps on as he has begun.
• 1:31:49
  But apart from him, about the only men in the world I've much
• 1:31:53
  use for the old Doctor and Captain Jim. Captain Jim is certainly splendid,
• 1:31:58
  agreed Anne Cordially. Captain Jim is a good man, but he's kind of
• 1:32:02
  vexing in one way. You can't make him mad. I've tried for twenty
• 1:32:06
  years and he just keeps on being placid. It does sort of rile me.
• 1:32:11
  And I suppose the woman he should have married got a man who went
• 1:32:14
  into tantrums twice a day. Who was she? Oh, I don't know.
• 1:32:17
  Dearie, I never remember of Captain Jim making up to anybody. He
• 1:32:21
  was edging on old as far as my memory goes. He's seventy six.
• 1:32:25
  You know, I never heard any reason for his staying a bachelor, but
• 1:32:28
  there must be one. Believe me. He sailed all his life till five
• 1:32:31
  years ago, and there's no corner of the earth he hasn't poked his nose
• 1:32:34
  into. He and Elizabeth Russell were great cronies all their lives, but they
• 1:32:40
  never had any notion of sweethearting. Elizabeth never married, though she had plenty
• 1:32:44
  of chances. She was a great beauty when she was young. The year
• 1:32:47
  the Prince of Wales came to the island, she was visiting her uncle in
• 1:32:50
  Charlottetown and he was a government official, and so she got invited to the
• 1:32:55
  Great Ball. She was the prettiest girl there, and the Prince danced with
• 1:32:59
  her and all the other women he didn't dance with. We're furious about it
• 1:33:01
  because their social standing was higher than hers, and they said he shouldn't have
• 1:33:05
  passed them over. Elizabeth was always very proud of that dance. Mean folks
• 1:33:11
  said that was why she never married. She couldn't put up with an ordinary
• 1:33:14
  man after dancing with the prince. But that wasn't so She told me the
• 1:33:16
  reason once. It was because she had such a temper that she was afraid
• 1:33:20
  she couldn't live peaceably with any man. She had an awful temper. She
• 1:33:25
  used to have to go upstairs and bite pieces out of her bureau to keep
• 1:33:28
  it down by times. But I told her that wasn't any reason for not
• 1:33:31
  marrying if she wanted to. There's no reason why we should let the men
• 1:33:34
  have a monopoly of temper, is there, missus? Blythe deary, I've
• 1:33:39
  a bit of a temper myself, sighed Anne. It's well you have,
• 1:33:43
  deary, you won't be half so likely to be trodden on. Believe me,
• 1:33:47
  my, how that golden glow of yours is blooming. Your garden looks
• 1:33:50
  fine. Poor Elizabeth always took such care of it. I love it,
• 1:33:56
  said Anne. I'm glad it's so full of old fashioned flowers. Speaking of
• 1:34:00
  gardening, we want to get a man to dig up that little lot beyond
• 1:34:03
  the fir grove and set it out with strawberry plants for us. Gilbert is
• 1:34:06
  so busy he will never get the time for it this fall. Do you
• 1:34:10
  know any one we can get? Well, Henry Hammond up at the glen
• 1:34:14
  goes out doing jobs like that he'll do. Maybe he's always a heap more
• 1:34:17
  interested in his wages than in his work, just like a man. And
• 1:34:20
  he's so slow in the uptake that he stands still for five minutes before it
• 1:34:25
  dawns on him that he stopped. His father threw a stump at him when
• 1:34:28
  he was small. Nice, gentle missile, wasn't it so like a man?
• 1:34:31
  Course the boy never got over it. But he's the only one I
• 1:34:34
  can recommend at all. He painted my house for me last spring. It
• 1:34:39
  looks real nice. Now, don't you think Anne was saved by the clock
• 1:34:43
  striking five? Good lord? Is it that late? Exclaimed Miss Cornelia.
• 1:34:47
  How time does slip by when you're enjoying yourself? Well, I must betake
• 1:34:51
  myself home. No, indeed, you're going to stay and have tea with
• 1:34:55
  us, said Anne eagerly. Are you asking me because you think you ought
• 1:34:59
  to or because you really want to, demanded Miss Cornelia. Because I really
• 1:35:03
  want to, then I'll stay. You belong to the race that knows,
• 1:35:08
  Joseph, I know We're going to be friends, said Anne, with the
• 1:35:11
  smile that only they of the household of Faith ever saw. Yes, we
• 1:35:15
  are, Dearie. Thank goodness, we can choose our friends. We have
• 1:35:18
  to take our relatives as they are, and be thankful if there are no
• 1:35:20
  penitentiary birds among them, not that I've many, none nearer than second cousins.
• 1:35:27
  I'm kind of a lonely soul, Missus Blythe, there was a wistful
• 1:35:30
  noted Miss Cornelia's voice. I wish you would call me Anne, exclaimed Anne
• 1:35:34
  impulsively. It would seem more homey. Every one in four winds except my
• 1:35:39
  husband calls me missus Blythe, and it makes me feel like a stranger.
• 1:35:44
  Do you know that your name is very near being the one I yearned after?
• 1:35:46
  When I was a child, I hated Anne, and I called myself
• 1:35:50
  Cordelia in imagination. I like Anne. It was my mother's name. Old
• 1:35:56
  fashioned names are the best and sweetest, in my opinion. If you're going
• 1:36:00
  to get tea, you might send the young doctor to talk to me.
• 1:36:02
  He's been lying on the sofa in that office ever since I came, laughing
• 1:36:05
  fit to kill over what I've been saying. How did you know, cried
• 1:36:10
  Anne, too, aghast at this instance of Miss Cornelia's uncanny prescience to make
• 1:36:15
  a polite denial. I saw him sitting beside you when I came up the
• 1:36:17
  lane, and I know men's tricks, retorted Miss Cornelia. There, I've
• 1:36:23
  finished my little dress, dearie, and the eighth baby can come as soon
• 1:36:26
  as it pleases. End of Chapter eight, Chapter nine, an evening at
• 1:36:32
  four winds Point. It was late September when Anne and Gilbert were able to
• 1:36:38
  pay four winds Light their promised visit. They had often planned to go,
• 1:36:42
  but something always occurred to prevent them. Captain Jim had dropped in several times
• 1:36:46
  at the little House. I don't stand on ceremony, Mistress Blythe He told
• 1:36:51
  Anne, it's a real pleasure to me to come here, and I'm not
• 1:36:55
  going to deny myself just because you haven't got down to see me. There
• 1:36:59
  ought to be no bargaining like that among the race that knows. Joseph,
• 1:37:02
  I'll come when I can, and you come when you can, and so
• 1:37:06
  long as we have our pleasant little chat, it don't matter a mite what
• 1:37:10
  roofs over us. Captain Jim took a great fancy to Gog and Magog,
• 1:37:15
  who were presiding over the destinies of the hearth in the little house with as
• 1:37:18
  much dignity and a plumb as they had done at Patty's place. Aren't they
• 1:37:24
  the cutest little cusses, he would say delightedly, and he bade them greeting
• 1:37:28
  and farewell as gravely and invariably as he did his host and hostess. Captain
• 1:37:32
  Jim was not going to offend household deities by any lack of reverence and ceremony.
• 1:37:39
  You've made this little house just about perfect, he told Anne. It
• 1:37:43
  never was so nice before. Mistress Selwyn had your taste, and she did
• 1:37:46
  wonders. But folks in those days didn't have the pretty little curtains and pictures
• 1:37:51
  and knick knacks you have. As for Elizabeth, she lived in the past.
• 1:37:57
  You've kinda brought the future into it, so to speak. I'd be
• 1:38:00
  real happy even if we couldn't talk at all when I come here, just
• 1:38:02
  to sit and look at you and your pictures and your flowers would be enough
• 1:38:05
  of a treat. It's beautiful, beautiful. Captain Jim was a passionate worshiper
• 1:38:12
  of beauty, every lovely thing heard or seen gave him a deep, subtle
• 1:38:16
  inner joy that irradiated his life. He was quite keenly aware of his own
• 1:38:21
  lack of outward comeliness, and lamented it. Folks say I'm good, he
• 1:38:26
  remarked whimsically upon one occasion, But I sometimes wish the Lord had made me
• 1:38:30
  only half as good and put the rest of it into looks. But there
• 1:38:34
  I reckon he knew what he was about as a good captain. Should some
• 1:38:39
  of us have to be homely or the purty ones like Mistress blytheer wouldn't show
• 1:38:43
  up so well. One evening, Anne and Gilbert finally walked down to the
• 1:38:47
  four winds light. The day had begun somberly and gray, cloud and mist,
• 1:38:53
  but it had ended in a pomp of scarlet and gold. Over the
• 1:38:56
  western hills beyond the harbor were amber deeps and crystalline shadows with the fire of
• 1:39:01
  sunset. Below the north was a mackerel sky of little, fiery golden clouds.
• 1:39:08
  The red light flamed on the white sails of a vessel gliding down the
• 1:39:12
  channel bound to a southern port in a land of palms. Beyond her,
• 1:39:16
  it smote upon and incarnadined the shining, white, grassless faces of the sand
• 1:39:20
  dunes to the right. It fell on the old house among the willows up
• 1:39:26
  the brook and gave it for a fleeting space, casements more splendid than those
• 1:39:30
  of an old cathedral. They glowed out of its quiet and grayness, like
• 1:39:34
  the throbbing blood red thoughts of a vivid soul imprisoned in a dull husk of
• 1:39:40
  environment. That old house up the brook always seems so lonely, said Anne.
• 1:39:45
  I never see visitors there. Of course, It's lane opens on the
• 1:39:48
  upper road, but I don't think there's much coming and going. It seems
• 1:39:53
  odd. We've never met the Moors yet, when they lived within fifteen minutes
• 1:39:56
  walk of us. I may have seen them in church, of course,
• 1:40:00
  but if so, I didn't know them. I'm sorry. They're so unsociable
• 1:40:02
  when there are only near neighbors. Evidently they don't belong to the race,
• 1:40:06
  that knows. Joseph laughed, Gilbert, Have you ever found out who that
• 1:40:11
  girl was whom you thought so beautiful? No? Somehow I have never remembered
• 1:40:15
  to ask about her. But I've never seen her anywhere, so I suppose
• 1:40:18
  she must have been a stranger. Oh, the sun has just vanished,
• 1:40:23
  and there's the light. As the dusk deepened, the great beacon cut swathes
• 1:40:28
  of light through it, sweeping in a circle over the fields in the harbor,
• 1:40:31
  the sand bar, and the gulf. I feel as if it might
• 1:40:34
  catch me and whisk me leagues out to sea, said Anne, as one
• 1:40:39
  drenched them with radiance, And she felt rather relieved when they got so near
• 1:40:43
  the point that they were inside the range of those dazzling recurrent flashes. As
• 1:40:47
  they turned into the little lane that led across the fields to the point,
• 1:40:51
  they met a man coming out of it, a man of such extraordinary appearance
• 1:40:56
  that for a moment they both frankly stared. He was a decidedly fine looking
• 1:41:00
  person, tall, broad shouldered, well featured, with a Roman nose and
• 1:41:05
  frank gray eyes. He was dressed in a prosperous farmer's sunday best in so
• 1:41:11
  far he might have been any inhabit of four Winds or the Glen. But
• 1:41:15
  flowing over his breast nearly to his knees was a river of crinkly brown beard,
• 1:41:20
  and a down his back, beneath his commonplace felt hat was a corresponding
• 1:41:26
  cascade of thick, wavy brown hair, Anne murmured Gilbert when they were out
• 1:41:30
  of earshot. You didn't put what Uncle Dave calls a little of the scot
• 1:41:34
  Act and that lemonade you gave me just before we left home, did you?
• 1:41:39
  No? I didn't, said Anne, stifling her laughter. Lest the
• 1:41:43
  retreating enigma should hear her? Who in the world can he be? I
• 1:41:47
  don't know, But if Captain Jim keeps apparitions like that down at this point,
• 1:41:51
  I'm going to carry cold iron in my pocket when I come here.
• 1:41:56
  He wasn't a sailor, or one might pardon his eccentricity of appearance. He
• 1:42:00
  must belong to the over Harbor clans. Uncle Dave says, they have several
• 1:42:03
  freaks over there. Uncle Dave is a little prejudiced. I think you know,
• 1:42:09
  all the over Harbor people who come to the Glen Church seem very nice,
• 1:42:13
  Oh, Gilbert, isn't this beautiful? The Four Winds Light was built
• 1:42:16
  on a spur of red sandstone cliff jutting out into the gulf. On one
• 1:42:21
  side, across the channel stretched the silvery sand shore of the bar. On
• 1:42:26
  the other extended a long curving beach of red cliffs, rising steeply from the
• 1:42:30
  pebbled coves. It was a shore that knew the magic and mystery of storm
• 1:42:35
  and star. There is a great solitude about such a shore. The woods
• 1:42:40
  are never solitary. They're full of whispering, beckoning, friendly life. But
• 1:42:45
  the sea is a mighty soul, forever moaning of some great, unshareable sorrow,
• 1:42:49
  which shuts it up into itself for all eternity. We can never pierce
• 1:42:55
  its infinite mystery. We may only wonder, odd and spell bound on the
• 1:42:59
  outer fringe of it. The woods call to us with a hundred voices,
• 1:43:03
  but the sea has one, only a mighty voice that drowns our souls in
• 1:43:08
  its majestic music. The woods are human, but the sea is of the
• 1:43:12
  company of the archangels. Anne and Gilbert found Captain Jim sitting on a bench
• 1:43:16
  outside the lighthouse, putting the finishing touches to a wonderful full rigged toy schooner.
• 1:43:23
  He rose and welcomed them to his abode with the gentle, unconscious courtesy
• 1:43:28
  that became him so well. This has been a pretty nice day all through
• 1:43:30
  Mistress blythe and now right at the last, it's brought its best would you
• 1:43:35
  like to sit down here outside a bit while the light lasts. I've just
• 1:43:39
  finished this bit of a plaything for my little grand nephew Joe up at the
• 1:43:43
  glen, after I promised to make it for him. I was kinda sorry
• 1:43:45
  for His mother was vexed. She's afraid he'll be wanting to go to sea
• 1:43:49
  later on, and she doesn't want the notion encouraged in him. But what
• 1:43:53
  could I do, mistress Blythe I'd promised him, and I think it's sort
• 1:43:57
  of reeled dastardly to break a promise you make to a child. Come sit
• 1:44:00
  down, It won't take long to stay an hour. The wind was off
• 1:44:04
  shore and only broke the sea's surface into long, silvery ripples and san cheny
• 1:44:10
  shadows flying out across it from every point and headland like transparent wings. The
• 1:44:15
  dusk was hanging a curtain of violet gloom over the sand dunes and the headlands,
• 1:44:19
  where gulls were huddling. The sky was faintly filmed over with scarves of
• 1:44:25
  silken vapor. Cloud fleets rode at anchor along the horizons. An evening star
• 1:44:30
  was watching over the bar. Isn't that of you worth looking? At,
• 1:44:33
  said Captain Jim, with a loving proprietary pride, nice and far from the
• 1:44:38
  market place, Ain't it no buy in an selling and getting gain. You
• 1:44:43
  don't have to pay anything. All that sea and sky free without money and
• 1:44:47
  without price. There's going to be a moon rise pretty soon too. I'm
• 1:44:51
  never tired of finding out what a moonrise can be over them rocks and sea
• 1:44:56
  and harbor. There's a surprise in it every time they moonrise and watched its
• 1:45:00
  marvel and magic in a silence that asked nothing of the world or each other.
• 1:45:05
  Then they went up into the tower, and Captain Jim showed and explained
• 1:45:10
  the mechanism of the great light. Finally they found themselves in the dining room,
• 1:45:15
  where a fire of driftwood was weaving flames of wavering, elusive, sea
• 1:45:18
  born hues in the open fireplace. I put this fireplace in myself, remarked
• 1:45:25
  Captain Jim. The government don't give lighthouse keepers such luxuries. Looked at the
• 1:45:30
  colors that wood makes. If you'd like some driftwood for your fire, mistress,
• 1:45:33
  blythe I'll bring you up a load some day. Sit down, I'm
• 1:45:36
  going to make you a cup of tea. Captain Jim placed a chair for
• 1:45:41
  Anne, having first removed there from a huge orange colored cat and a newspaper.
• 1:45:46
  Get down, Matie, the sofa is your place. I must put
• 1:45:49
  this paper away safe till I can find time to finish the story in it.
• 1:45:54
  It's called a Mad Love. Tisn't my favorite brand of fiction, but
• 1:45:59
  I'm reading it just to see how long she can spin it out. It's
• 1:46:01
  at the sixty second chapter now, and the wedding ain't any nearer than when
• 1:46:05
  it began. As far as I can see. When little Joe comes,
• 1:46:09
  I have to read him pirate yarns. Ain't it strange how innocent little creatures
• 1:46:14
  like children like the bloodthirstiest stories like my lad Davy at home, said Anne.
• 1:46:18
  He wants tales that reek with gore. Captain Jim's tea proved to be
• 1:46:24
  nectar. He was pleased as a child with Anne's compliments, but he affected
• 1:46:28
  a fine indifference. The secret is I don't skimp the cream, he remarked
• 1:46:32
  airily. Captain Jim had never heard of Oliver Wendell Holmes, but he evidently
• 1:46:38
  agreed with that writer's dictum that big heart never liked little cream pot. We
• 1:46:43
  met an odd looking personage coming out of your lane, said Gilbert as they
• 1:46:45
  sipped. Who was he? Captain Jim grinned, that's Marshal Elliott, a
• 1:46:51
  mighty fine man with just one streak of foolishness in him. I suppose you
• 1:46:56
  wondered what his object was in turning himself into a sort of dyme um useium
• 1:47:00
  freak. Is he a modern Nazarite or a Hebrew prophet left over from olden
• 1:47:04
  times? Asked Anne. Neither of them. It's politics that's at the bottom
• 1:47:10
  of his freak. All those Eliot's and Crawford's and mcallisters are died in the
• 1:47:14
  wool. Politicians. They're born grit or Tory, as the case may be,
• 1:47:18
  and they live grit Or Tory, and they die grit Or Tory.
• 1:47:21
  And what they're going to do in heaven, where there's probably no politics,
• 1:47:26
  is more than I can fathom. This. Marshal Elliot was a born Grit.
• 1:47:30
  I'm a Grit myself in moderation, but there's no moderation about Marshall.
• 1:47:35
  Fifteen years ago there was a specially bitter general election. Marshall fought for his
• 1:47:41
  party tooth and nail. He was dead sure the Liberals would win. So
• 1:47:45
  sure, he got up at a public meeting and vowed that he wouldn't shave
• 1:47:47
  his face or cut his hair until the Grits were in power. Well they
• 1:47:51
  didn't go in, and they've never got in yet, and you saw the
• 1:47:55
  result today for yourselves. Marshall stuck to his word. What does his wife
• 1:48:00
  think of it? Asked Anne. He's a bachelor, But if he had
• 1:48:02
  a wife, I reckon she couldn't make him break that vow. That family
• 1:48:06
  of Eliot's has always been more stubborn than natural. Marshall's brother Alexander had a
• 1:48:12
  dog he set great store by, and when it died, the man actually
• 1:48:15
  wanted to have it buried in the graveyard along with the other Christians. He
• 1:48:19
  said, course he wasn't allowed to, so he buried it just outside the
• 1:48:24
  graveyard fence and never darkened the church door again. But Sundays he'd drive his
• 1:48:29
  family to church and sit by that dog's grave and read his Bible all the
• 1:48:32
  time the service was going on. They say when he was dying, he
• 1:48:36
  asked his wife to bury him beside the dog. She was a meek little
• 1:48:41
  soul, but she fired up at that, She said she wasn't going to
• 1:48:44
  be buried beside no dog, and if he'd rather have his last resting place
• 1:48:47
  beside the dog than beside her, just to say so. Alexander Elliott was
• 1:48:53
  a stubborn mule, but he was fond of his wife, so he give
• 1:48:56
  in and said, well, durn it, bury me where you please.
• 1:48:59
  But when Gabriel's trump blows, I expect my doc to rise with the rest
• 1:49:01
  of us, for he had as much soul as any derned Eliot, or
• 1:49:04
  Crawford or mc allister that ever strutted them. Was his parting words. As
• 1:49:11
  for Marshall, we're all used to him, but he must strike strangers as
• 1:49:14
  right down peculiar lookin'. I've known him ever since he was ten. He's
• 1:49:17
  about fifty now and I like him. Him and me was out codfishing to
• 1:49:21
  day. That's about all I'm good for now, catching trout and caught occasional,
• 1:49:27
  but twarn't always so, not by no manner means I used to do
• 1:49:30
  other things, as you'd admit. If he saw my life book. Anne
• 1:49:33
  was just going to ask what his life book was. When the first mate
• 1:49:38
  created a diversion by springing upon Captain Jim's knee. He was a gorgeous beastie,
• 1:49:43
  with a face as round as a full moon, vivid green eyes,
• 1:49:46
  and immense white double paws. Captain Jim stroked his velvet back gently. I
• 1:49:53
  never fancied cats much till I found the first mate, he remarked, to
• 1:49:57
  the accompaniment of the mate's tremendous purs I saved his life. And when you've
• 1:50:01
  saved a creature's life, you're bound to love it. It's next thing to
• 1:50:04
  giving life. They's some terrible thoughtless people in the world, Mistress Blythe some
• 1:50:10
  of them city folks who have summer homes over the harbor, are so thoughtless
• 1:50:14
  that they're cruel It's the worst kind of cruelty, the thoughtless kind. You
• 1:50:18
  can't cope with it. They keep cats there in the summer and feed em
• 1:50:21
  and pet em and doll em up with ribbons and collars, and then in
• 1:50:26
  the fall they go off and leave em to starve or freeze. It makes
• 1:50:29
  my blood boil, Mistress Blythe one day last winter, I found a poor
• 1:50:32
  old mother cat dead on the shore, lying against the skin and bone bodies
• 1:50:36
  of her three little kittens. She died trying to shelter him. She had
• 1:50:41
  her poor stiff paws around em. Master I cried, then I swore.
• 1:50:46
  Then I carried them poor little kittens home and fed em up and found good
• 1:50:49
  homes for'em. I knew the woman who left the cat, and when
• 1:50:53
  she come back this summer, I just went over the harbor and told her
• 1:50:56
  my opinion of her. It was rank medlin, but I do love them
• 1:51:00
  and a good cause. How did she take it? Asked Gilbert cried and
• 1:51:03
  said she didn't think. I says to her, says, I do you
• 1:51:08
  suppose that'll be held for a good excuse in the day of judgment, when
• 1:51:11
  you'll have to account for that poor old mother's life. The Lord'll ask you
• 1:51:15
  what he gave you brains for if it wasn't to think, I reckon.
• 1:51:17
  I don't fancy she'll leave cats to starve another time? Was the first mate
• 1:51:23
  one of the forsaken, asked Anne, making advances to him, which were
• 1:51:27
  responded to graciously, if condescendingly. Yes, I found him one bitter cold
• 1:51:31
  day in winter, caught in the branches of a tree by his durned,
• 1:51:35
  full ribbon collar. He was almost starving. If you could have seen his
• 1:51:39
  eyes Mistress blythe he was nothing but a kitten, and he'd got his living
• 1:51:43
  somehow since he'd been left until he got hung up. When I loosed him,
• 1:51:46
  he gave my hand a pitiful swipe with his little red tongue. He
• 1:51:51
  wasn't the able seaman, you see now. He was meek as Moses.
• 1:51:56
  That was nine years ago. His life has been long in the land for
• 1:51:59
  a cat. He's a good old pal. The first maid is I should
• 1:52:02
  have expected you to have a dog, said Gilbert. Captain Jim shook his
• 1:52:06
  head. I had a dog once. I thought so much of him that
• 1:52:11
  when he died I couldn't bear the thought of getting another in his place.
• 1:52:14
  He was a friend, you understand, Mistress Blythe Maidie's only a pal.
• 1:52:18
  I'm fond of Maidie, all the fonder on account of the spice a devil
• 1:52:21
  meant that's in him, like there isn't all cats. But I loved my
• 1:52:26
  dog. I always had a sneaking sympathy for Alexander Elliott about his dog.
• 1:52:30
  There isn't any devil and a good dog. That's why they're more lovable than
• 1:52:34
  cats. I reckon, but I'm darned if there is interesting here I am
• 1:52:40
  talking too much. Why don't you check me? When I do get a
• 1:52:43
  chance to talk to any one, I run on terrible. If you've done
• 1:52:45
  your tea, I've a few little things you might like to look at.
• 1:52:48
  Picked em up in the queer corners I used to be poking my nose into.
• 1:52:54
  Captain Jim's few little things turned out to be a most interesting collection of
• 1:52:58
  curios, hideous, quaint and beautiful, and almost every one of them had
• 1:53:02
  some striking story attached to it. Anne never forgot the delight with which he
• 1:53:08
  listened to those old tales, that moonlight evening by that enchanted driftwood fire,
• 1:53:13
  while the silver sea called to them through the open window and sobbed against the
• 1:53:16
  rocks below them. Captain Jim never said a boastful word, but it was
• 1:53:21
  impossible to help seeing what a hero the man had been. Brave, true,
• 1:53:26
  resourceful, unselfish. He sat there in his little room and made those
• 1:53:30
  things live again for his hearers. By a lift of the eyebrow, a
• 1:53:34
  twist of the lip, a gesture, a word, he painted a whole
• 1:53:39
  scene or character so that they saw it as it was. Some of Captain
• 1:53:43
  Jim's adventures had such a marvelous edge that Anne and Gilbert secretly wondered if he
• 1:53:47
  were not drawing a rather long bow at their credulous expense. But in this,
• 1:53:53
  as they found later, they did him injustice. His tales were all
• 1:53:57
  literally true. Captain Jim had the gift of the born story teller, whereby
• 1:54:02
  unhappy, far off things can be brought vividly before the hearer in all their
• 1:54:06
  pristine poignancy. Anne and Gilbert laughed and shivered over his tails, and once
• 1:54:13
  Anne found herself crying, Captain Jim surveyed her tears with pleasure shining from his
• 1:54:18
  face. I like to see folks cry that way, he remarked. It's
• 1:54:23
  a compliment, but I can't do justice to the things I've seen or helped
• 1:54:27
  to do. I've em all jotted down in my life book, but I
• 1:54:30
  haven't got the knack of writing them out properly. If I could hit on
• 1:54:33
  just the right words and string em together proper on paper, I could make
• 1:54:38
  a great book. It would beat a mad love holler, and I believe
• 1:54:42
  jod like it as well as the Pirate yarns. Yes, I've had some
• 1:54:45
  adventures in my time, and you know, Mistress blythe I still lust after
• 1:54:49
  'em. Yes, old and useless as I be, there's an awful longing
• 1:54:54
  sweeps over me at times, to sail out out out there, forever and
• 1:54:59
  ever. Like Ulysses, you would sail beyond the sunset and the baths of
• 1:55:03
  all the western stars until you die, said Anne dreamily. Ulysses, I've
• 1:55:10
  read of him. Yes, that's just how I feel, just how all
• 1:55:14
  us old sailors feel. I reckon, I'll die on land after all,
• 1:55:17
  I suppose, well, what is to be will be. There was an
• 1:55:21
  old William Ford at the Glen who never went on the water in his life
• 1:55:26
  because he was afraid of being drowned. A fortune teller had predicted he would
• 1:55:30
  be, and one day he fainted and fell with his face in the barn
• 1:55:32
  trough and was drowned. Must you go well, come soon, and come
• 1:55:36
  often? The doctor is to do the talking next time. He knows a
• 1:55:41
  heap of things I want to find out. I'm sort o lonesome here by
• 1:55:44
  times. It's been worse since Elizabeth Russell died. Her and me was such
• 1:55:47
  cronies. Captain Jim spoke with the pathos of the aged who see their old
• 1:55:53
  friends slipping from them one by one, friends whose places can never be quite
• 1:55:58
  filled by those of a younger general, even of the race that knows Joseph.
• 1:56:02
  Anne and Gilbert promised to come soon and often. He's a rare old
• 1:56:06
  fellow, isn't he, said Gilbert as they walked home. Somehow I can't
• 1:56:11
  reconcile his simple, kindly personality with the wild, adventurous life he has lived,
• 1:56:15
  mused Anne. You wouldn't find it so hard if you had seen him.
• 1:56:19
  The other day. Down at the fishing village, one of the men
• 1:56:23
  of Peter Gautier's boat made a nasty remark about some girl along the shore.
• 1:56:27
  Captain Jim fairly scorched the wretched fellow with the lightning of his eyes. He
• 1:56:31
  seemed a man transformed. He didn't say much, but the way he said
• 1:56:35
  it, you'd have thought it would strip the flesh from the fellow's bones.
• 1:56:40
  I understand that Captain Jim will never allow a word against any woman to be
• 1:56:44
  said in his presence. I wonder why he never married, said Anne.
• 1:56:47
  He should have sons with their ships at sea now, and grandchildren climbing over
• 1:56:51
  him to hear his stories. He's that kind of a man. Instead,
• 1:56:56
  he has nothing but a magnificent cat. But Anne was mistaken. Captain Jim
• 1:57:01
  had more than that. He had a memory. End of Chapter nine,
• 1:57:08
  Chapter ten, Leslie Moore, I'm going for a walk to the outside shore
• 1:57:13
  tonight, Anne told Gog and Magog one October evening. There was no one
• 1:57:16
  else to tell, for Gilbert had gone over the harbor. Anne had her
• 1:57:20
  little domain in the speckless order one would expect of anyone brought up by Marilla
• 1:57:25
  Cuthbert, and felt that she could gage shoreward with a clear conscience. Many
• 1:57:30
  and delightful had been her shore rambles, sometimes with Gilbert, sometimes with Captain
• 1:57:34
  Jim, sometimes alone with her own thoughts and new, poignantly sweet dreams that
• 1:57:39
  were beginning to span life with their rainbows. She loved the gentle, misty
• 1:57:44
  harbor shore, and the silvery wind haunted sand shore. But best of all
• 1:57:48
  she loved the rock shore, with its cliffs and caves and piles of surf
• 1:57:53
  worn boulders, and its coves where the pebbles glittered under the pools. And
• 1:57:58
  it was to this shore she hied herself to. There had been an autumn
• 1:58:01
  storm of wind and rain, lasting for three days thunderous had been the crash
• 1:58:05
  of billows on the rocks, wild, the white spray and spume that blew
• 1:58:11
  over the bar, troubled and misty and tempest torn the erstwhile blue piece of
• 1:58:15
  four winds harbor. Now it was over, and the shore lay clean washed
• 1:58:19
  after the storm, not a wind stirred. But there was still a fine
• 1:58:24
  surf on, dashing on sand and rock in a splendid white turmoil, the
• 1:58:29
  only restless thing in the great pervading stillness and peace. Oh, this is
• 1:58:33
  a moment worth living through weeks of storm and stress for Anne, exclaimed,
• 1:58:39
  delightedly, sending her far gaze across the tossing waters. From the top of
• 1:58:42
  the cliff where she stood presently, she scrambled down the steep path to the
• 1:58:46
  little cove below, where she seemed shut in with rocks and sea and sky.
• 1:58:51
  I'm going to dance and sing, she said. There's no one here
• 1:58:55
  to see me. The sea gulls won't carry tales of the matter. I
• 1:58:58
  may be as crazy as I like. She caught up her skirt and pirouetted
• 1:59:01
  along the hard strip of sand, just out of reach of the waves that
• 1:59:05
  almost lapped her feet. With their spent foam, whirling round and round,
• 1:59:11
  laughing like a child. She reached the little headland that ran out to the
• 1:59:14
  east of the cove. Then she stopped, suddenly blushing Crimson. She was
• 1:59:18
  not alone. There had been a witness to her dance and laughter. The
• 1:59:23
  girl of the golden hair and sea blue eyes was sitting on a boulder of
• 1:59:27
  the headland, half hidden by a jutting rock. She was looking straight at
• 1:59:30
  Anne with a strange expression, part wonder, part sympathy, part could it
• 1:59:36
  be envy? She was bare headed, and her splendid hair, more than
• 1:59:42
  ever like Browning's gorgeous snake, was bound about her head with a crimson ribbon.
• 1:59:47
  She wore a dress of some dark material, very plainly made, but
• 1:59:51
  swathed about her waist, outlining its fine curves, was a vivid girdle of
• 1:59:56
  red silk. Her hands clasped over her knees were brown and somewhat work hardened,
• 2:00:01
  but the skin of her throat and cheeks was as white as cream.
• 2:00:05
  A flying gleam of sunset broke through a low lying western cloud and fell across
• 2:00:11
  her hair. For a moment she seemed the spirit of the sea personified all
• 2:00:15
  its mystery, all its passion, all its elusive charm. You you must
• 2:00:20
  think me crazy, stammered Anne, trying to recover her self possession. To
• 2:00:25
  be seen by this stately girl in such an abandon of childishness, she missus
• 2:00:30
  doctor Blythe, with all the dignity of the matron to keep up. It
• 2:00:33
  was too bad, no, said the girl. I don't. She said
• 2:00:39
  nothing more. Her voice was expressionless, her manner slightly repellent, But there
• 2:00:44
  was something in her eyes, eager yet shy, defiant yet pleading, which
• 2:00:48
  turned Anne from her purpose of walking away. Instead, she sat down on
• 2:00:53
  the boulder beside the girl. Let's introduce ourselves, she said, with the
• 2:00:58
  smile that had never yet failed. Who win confidence and friendliness. I am
• 2:01:01
  missus Blythe, and I live in that little white house up the harbor shore.
• 2:01:05
  Yes I know, said the girl. I am Leslie Moore, missus
• 2:01:10
  Dick Moore, she added stiffly. Anne was silent for a moment from sheer
• 2:01:15
  amazement. It had not occurred to her that this girl was married. There
• 2:01:18
  seemed nothing of the wife about her, and that she should be the neighbor
• 2:01:23
  whom Anne had pictured as a commonplace. Four winds housewife. Anne could not
• 2:01:27
  quickly adjust her mental focus to this astonishing change. Then then you live in
• 2:01:32
  that gray house up the brook, she stammered. Yes, I should have
• 2:01:36
  gone over to call on you long ago, said the other. She did
• 2:01:41
  not offer any explanation or excuse for not having gone. I wish you would
• 2:01:45
  come, said Anne, recovering herself somewhat. We're such near neighbors, we
• 2:01:48
  ought to be friends. That is the sole fault of four winds. There
• 2:01:53
  aren't quite enough neighbors. Otherwise, it is perfection. You like it,
• 2:01:58
  like it? I love it. It is. It's the most beautiful place
• 2:02:00
  I ever saw. I've never seen many places, said Leslie Moore slowly,
• 2:02:05
  but I've always thought it was very lovely here. I I love it too,
• 2:02:12
  she spoke as she looked shyly yet eagerly. Anne had an odd impression
• 2:02:16
  that this strange girl, the word girl would persist, could say a good
• 2:02:21
  deal if she chose. I often come to the shore, She added,
• 2:02:26
  so do, I said Anne. It's a wonder we haven't met here before.
• 2:02:30
  Probably you come earlier in the evening than I do. It is generally
• 2:02:32
  late, almost dark when I come, and I love to come just after
• 2:02:36
  a storm like this. I don't like the sea so well when it's calm
• 2:02:41
  and quiet. I like the struggle and the crash and the noise. I
• 2:02:45
  love it in all its moods, declared Anne. The sea at four winds
• 2:02:48
  is to me what Lover's Lane was at home. To night. It seemed
• 2:02:53
  so free, so untamed. Something broke loose in me too, out of
• 2:02:57
  sympathy. That was why I danced along the shore in that wild way.
• 2:03:00
  I didn't suppose anybody was looking. Of course, if Miss Cornelia Bryant had
• 2:03:04
  seen me, she would have foreboded a gloomy prospect for poor young doctor Blythe
• 2:03:09
  You know, miss Cornelia, said Leslie, laughing. She had an exquisite
• 2:03:13
  laugh. It bubbled up suddenly and unexpectedly, with something of the delicious quality
• 2:03:17
  of a baby's. Anne laughed too. Oh, yes, she's been down
• 2:03:21
  to my House of Dreams several times. Your house of dreams. Oh that's
• 2:03:27
  a dear, foolish little name Gilbert and I have for our home. We
• 2:03:30
  just call it that between ourselves. It slipped out before I thought, so,
• 2:03:34
  Miss Russell's little white house is your house of dreams, said Leslie wonderingly.
• 2:03:40
  I had a house of dreams once, but it was a palace,
• 2:03:43
  she added, with a laugh, the sweetness of which was marred by a
• 2:03:45
  little note of derision. Oh, I once dreamed of a palace, too,
• 2:03:49
  said Anne. I suppose all girls do. And then we settled down
• 2:03:54
  contentedly in eight room houses that seemed to fulfill all the desires of our hearts.
• 2:03:59
  Because our princess there, you should have had your palace. Really,
• 2:04:01
  though, you're so beautiful, you must let me say it. It has
• 2:04:04
  to be said. I'm nearly bursting with admiration. You are the loveliest thing
• 2:04:10
  I ever saw, missus Moore. If we're to be friends, you must
• 2:04:13
  call me Leslie, said the other, with an awed passion. Of course
• 2:04:15
  I will, and my friends call me Anne. I suppose I am beautiful,
• 2:04:20
  Leslie went on, looking stormily out to see. I hate my beauty.
• 2:04:26
  I wish I had always been as brown and plain as the brownest and
• 2:04:29
  plainest girl of the fishing village over there. Well, what do you think
• 2:04:32
  of miss Cornelia? The abrupt change of subject shut the door on any further
• 2:04:36
  confidences. Miss Cornelia is a darling, isn't she? Said Anne? Gilbert,
• 2:04:42
  And I were invited to her house to estate tea last week. You've
• 2:04:45
  heard of groaning tables. I seem to recall seeing the expression in the newspaper
• 2:04:49
  reports of weddings, said Leslie, smiling, Well, Miss Cornelia's groaned.
• 2:04:55
  At least it creaked positively. You couldn't have believed she would have cooked so
• 2:05:00
  much for two ordinary people. She had every kind of pie you could name,
• 2:05:03
  I think, except lemon pie. She said. She had taken the
• 2:05:06
  prize for lemon pies of the Charlottetown Exhibition ten years ago and had never made
• 2:05:12
  any sense for fear of losing her reputation for them. Were you able to
• 2:05:15
  eat enough pie to please her? I wasn't. Gilbert won her heart by
• 2:05:19
  eating I won't tell you how much, She said. She never knew a
• 2:05:23
  man who didn't like pie better than his Bible. Do you know I love
• 2:05:26
  Miss Cornelia, so do, I said Leslie. She is the best friend
• 2:05:30
  I have in the world. Anne wondered secretly, why, if this were
• 2:05:34
  so, Miss Cornelia had never mentioned missus Dick Moore to her. Miss Cornelia
• 2:05:40
  had certainly talked freely about every other individual in or near four Winds. Isn't
• 2:05:45
  that beautiful, said Leslie, after a brief silence, pointing to the exquisite
• 2:05:48
  effect of a shaft of light falling through a cleft in the rock behind them,
• 2:05:53
  across a dark green pool at its base. If I had come here
• 2:05:57
  and seen nothing but just that, I would go home satisfied. The effects
• 2:06:01
  of light and shadow all along these shores are wonderful, agreed Anne. My
• 2:06:05
  little sewing room looks out on the harbor, and I sit at its window
• 2:06:10
  and feast my eyes. The colors and shadows are never the same two minutes
• 2:06:14
  together. And you're never lonely, asked Leslie abruptly, never when you are
• 2:06:18
  alone. No, I don't think I've ever been really lonely in my life,
• 2:06:24
  answered Anne. Even when I'm alone, I have real good company,
• 2:06:27
  dreams and imaginations and pretendings. I like to be alone now and then,
• 2:06:31
  just to think over things and taste them. But I love friendship and nice
• 2:06:35
  jolly little times with people. Oh won't you come see me often? Please?
• 2:06:41
  Do? I believe, Anne added, laughing, that you'd like me
• 2:06:45
  if you knew me. I wonder if you would like me, said Leslie
• 2:06:48
  seriously. She was not fishing for a compliment. She looked out across the
• 2:06:53
  waves that were beginning to be garlanded with blossoms of moonlit foam, and her
• 2:06:58
  eyes filled with shadows. I'm sure I would, said Anne. And please
• 2:07:01
  don't think I'm utterly irresponsible because you saw me dancing on the shore at sunset.
• 2:07:06
  No doubt I shall be dignified after a time. You see, I
• 2:07:10
  haven't been married very long. I feel like a girl, and sometimes like
• 2:07:14
  a child. Yet I have been married twelve years, said Leslie. Here
• 2:07:19
  was another unbelievable thing. Why you can't be as old as I am?
• 2:07:24
  Exclaimed Anne. You must have been a child when you were married. I
• 2:07:28
  was sixteen, said Leslie, rising and picking up the cap and jacket lying
• 2:07:31
  beside her. I am twenty eight. Now. Well I must go back,
• 2:07:36
  so must I. Gilbert will probably be home, but I'm so glad
• 2:07:41
  we both came to the shore to night and met each other. Leslie said
• 2:07:45
  nothing, and Anne was a little chilled. She had offered friendship frankly,
• 2:07:48
  but it had not been accepted very graciously, if it had not been absolutely
• 2:07:53
  repelled in silence. They climbed the cliffs and walked across a pasture field of
• 2:07:58
  which the feathery blea. Each wild grasses were like a carpet of creamy velvet
• 2:08:03
  in the moonlight. When they reached the shore lane, Leslie turned, I
• 2:08:07
  go this way, missus Blythe. You will come over and see me sometime,
• 2:08:11
  won't you. Anne felt as if the invitation had been thrown at her.
• 2:08:16
  She got the impression that Leslie Moore gave it reluctantly. I will come
• 2:08:20
  if you really want me to, she said, a little coldly. Oh
• 2:08:22
  I do, I do, exclaimed Leslie, with an eagerness which seemed to
• 2:08:26
  burst forth and beat down some restraint that had been imposed on it. Then
• 2:08:31
  I'll come. Good night, Leslie, Good night, missus Blythe. Anne
• 2:08:37
  walked home in a brown study and poured out her tail to Gilbert. So,
• 2:08:43
  missus Dick Moore isn't one of the race, that knows, Joseph,
• 2:08:45
  said Gilbert teasingly. No, not exactly. And yet I think she was
• 2:08:52
  one of them once, but is gone or got into exile, said Anne,
• 2:08:58
  musingly. She's certainly very different from the other women about here. You
• 2:09:03
  can't talk about eggs and butter to her. To think I've been imagining her
• 2:09:07
  a second missus Rachel Lynde, have you ever seen Dick Moore, Gilbert,
• 2:09:11
  No, I've seen several men working about the fields of the farm, but
• 2:09:16
  I don't know which was more. She never mentioned him. I know she
• 2:09:20
  isn't happy from what you tell me. I suppose she was married before she
• 2:09:24
  was old enough to know her own mind or heart, and found out too
• 2:09:28
  late that she had made a mistake. It's a common tragedy, enough,
• 2:09:31
  Anne, a fine woman would have made the best of it. Missus Moore
• 2:09:35
  has evidently let it make her bitter and resentful. Don't let us judge her
• 2:09:39
  till we know pleaded. Anne. I don't believe her case is so ordinary.
• 2:09:43
  You will understand her fascination when you meet her, Gilbert. It is
• 2:09:46
  a thing quite apart from her beauty. I feel that she possesses a rich
• 2:09:50
  nature into which a friend might enter, as into a kingdom. But for
• 2:09:54
  some reason she bars every one out and shuts all her possibility up in herself,
• 2:10:01
  so that they cannot develop and blossom there. I've been struggling to define
• 2:10:05
  her to myself ever since I left her, and that is the nearest I
• 2:10:09
  can get to it. I'm going to ask miss Cornelia about her end of
• 2:10:13
  chapter ten. Chapter eleven, the Story of Leslie Moore. Yes, the
• 2:10:20
  eighth baby arrived a fortnight ago, said Miss Cornelia from a rocker before the
• 2:10:24
  fire of the little house one chilly October afternoon. It's a girl. Fred
• 2:10:28
  was ranting mad, said he wanted a boy, when the truth is he
• 2:10:31
  didn't want it at all. If it had been a boy, he'd have
• 2:10:33
  ranted because it wasn't a girl. They had four girls and three boys before,
• 2:10:37
  so I can't see that it made much difference what this one was.
• 2:10:41
  But of course he'd have to be cantankerous, just like a man. The
• 2:10:45
  baby is real, pretty, dressed up in its nice little clothes. It
• 2:10:48
  has black eyes and the dearest tiny hands. I must go and see it.
• 2:10:52
  I just love babies, said Anne, smiling to herself over a thought
• 2:10:56
  too dear and sacred to be put into words. I don't say but nice,
• 2:11:00
  admitted Miss Cornelia. But some folks seemed to have more than they really
• 2:11:03
  need. Believe me, my poor cousin Flora. But the glen had eleven
• 2:11:07
  and such a slave as she is. Her husband suicided three years ago,
• 2:11:13
  just like a man. What made him do that? Asked Anne, rather
• 2:11:16
  shocked, couldn't get his way over something, so he jumped into the well.
• 2:11:20
  Had good riddance. He was a born tyrant. But of course it
• 2:11:24
  spoiled the well. Flora could never abide the thought of using it again,
• 2:11:26
  poor thing, So she had another dug and a frightful expense. It was,
• 2:11:31
  and the water as hard as nails. If he had to drown himself.
• 2:11:33
  There was plenty of water in the harbor, wasn't there. I've no
• 2:11:37
  patience with a man like that. We've only had two suicides and four winds
• 2:11:41
  in my recollection. The other was Frank West Leslie Moore's father. By the
• 2:11:45
  way, has Leslie ever been over to call on you yet? No?
• 2:11:48
  But I met her on the shore a few nights ago and we scraped an
• 2:11:52
  acquaintance, sat Anne pricking up her ears. Miss Cornelia nodded, I'm glad,
• 2:11:56
  dearie. I was hoping you'd foregather with her. What do you think
• 2:12:00
  of her? I thought her very beautiful? Oh of course there was never
• 2:12:03
  anybody about four winds could touch her. For looks, did you ever see
• 2:12:07
  her hair? It reaches to her feet when she lets it down. But
• 2:12:11
  I meant, how did you like her. I think I could like her
• 2:12:15
  very much if she'd let me, said Anne slowly. But she wouldn't let
• 2:12:18
  you. She pushed you off and kept you at arm's length. Poor Leslie,
• 2:12:22
  you wouldn't be much surprised if he knew what her life has been.
• 2:12:26
  It's been a tragedy, a tragedy, repeated Miss Cornelia emphatically. I wish
• 2:12:31
  you would tell me all about her, that is, if you can do
• 2:12:33
  so without betraying any confidence. Lord Dearie. Everybody in four Winds knows poor
• 2:12:39
  Leslie's story. It's no secret the outside. That is, nobody knows the
• 2:12:43
  inside but Leslie herself. And she doesn't take folks into her confidence. I'm
• 2:12:48
  about the best friend she has on earth, I reckon, and she's never
• 2:12:50
  uttered a word of complaint to me. Have you ever seen Dick More?
• 2:12:54
  No? Well, I may as well begin at the beginning and tell you
• 2:12:58
  everything straight through, so you'll understand. Added as I said, Leslie's father
• 2:13:03
  was Frank West. He was clever and shiftless, just like a man.
• 2:13:05
  Oh, he had heaps of brains and much good they did him. He
• 2:13:09
  started to go to college, and he went for two years, and then
• 2:13:11
  his health broke down. The Wests were all inclined to be consumptive, so
• 2:13:16
  Frank came home and started farming. He married Rose Elliott from over Harbor.
• 2:13:20
  Rose was reckoned, the beauty of four winds. Leslie takes her looks from
• 2:13:24
  her mother, but she has ten times the spirit and go that Rose had,
• 2:13:28
  and a far better figure. Now you know, Anne, I always
• 2:13:31
  take the ground that us women ought to stand by each other. We've got
• 2:13:33
  enough to endure at the hands of the men. The Lord knows, so
• 2:13:37
  I hold. We hadn't not to clapperclaw one another, and it isn't often
• 2:13:39
  you'll find me running down another woman. But I never had much use for
• 2:13:43
  Rose Elliot. She was spoiled to begin with, believe me, and she
• 2:13:48
  was nothing but a lazy, selfish, whining creature. Frank was no hand
• 2:13:52
  to work, so they were as poor as job's turkey poor. They lived
• 2:13:56
  on potatoes in point, believe me. They had two children, Leslie and
• 2:14:00
  Kenneth. Leslie had her mother's looks and her father's brains, and something she
• 2:14:03
  didn't get from either of them. She took after her grandmother West, a
• 2:14:07
  splendid old lady. She was the brightest friendliest, merriest thing. When she
• 2:14:11
  was a child, Anne, everybody liked her. She was her father's favorite,
• 2:14:16
  and she was awful fond of him. They were chums. As she
• 2:14:18
  used to say. She couldn't see any of his faults, and he was
• 2:14:22
  a taking sort of man in some ways. Well, when Leslie was twelve
• 2:14:26
  years old, the first dreadful thing happened. She worshiped little Kenneth. He
• 2:14:30
  was four years younger than her, and he was a dear little chap And
• 2:14:33
  he was killed one day, fell off a big load of hay just as
• 2:14:37
  it was going into the barn, and the wheel went right over his little
• 2:14:39
  body and crushed the life out of it. And mind you, Anne,
• 2:14:43
  Leslie saw it. She was looking down from the loft. She gave one
• 2:14:48
  screech. The hired man said he never heard such a sound in all his
• 2:14:52
  life. He said it would ring in his ears till Gabriel's trump drove it
• 2:14:54
  out. But she never screeched or cried again about it. She jumped from
• 2:14:58
  the law on to the load, and from the load to the floor and
• 2:15:01
  caught up the little, bleeding, warm, dead body. Anne. They
• 2:15:05
  had to tear it from her before she would let it go. They sent
• 2:15:09
  for me. I can't talk of it. Miss Cornelia wiped the tears from
• 2:15:13
  her kindly brown eyes and sewed in bitter silence for a few minutes. Well
• 2:15:18
  she resumed. It was all over. They buried little Kenneth in that graveyard
• 2:15:24
  over the harbor, and after a while Leslie went back to her school and
• 2:15:26
  her studies. She never mentioned Kenneth's name. I've never heard it cross her
• 2:15:31
  lips from that day to this. I reckon that old hurt still aches and
• 2:15:35
  burns at times. But she was only a child, and time is real
• 2:15:39
  kind to children, Anne, dearie. After a while, she began to
• 2:15:43
  laugh again. She had the prettiest laugh. You don't often hear it now.
• 2:15:46
  I heard it once the other night, said Anne. It is a
• 2:15:50
  beautiful laugh. Frank West began to go down after Kenneth's death. He wasn't
• 2:15:54
  strong, and it was a shock to him because he was real fond of
• 2:15:58
  the child. Though I've said Leslie was his favorite. He got MOPy and
• 2:16:03
  melancholy and couldn't or wouldn't work, And one day, when Leslie was fourteen
• 2:16:07
  years of age, he hanged himself, and in the parlor too mind you,
• 2:16:11
  Anne, right in the middle of the parlor from the lamp hook in
• 2:16:13
  the ceiling. Wasn't that like a man? It was the anniversary of his
• 2:16:18
  wedding day. Too nice, tasty time to pick for, it, wasn't
• 2:16:22
  it. And of course that poor Leslie had to be the one to find
• 2:16:24
  him. She went into the parlor that morning, singing with some fresh flowers
• 2:16:28
  for the vases, and there she saw her father hanging from the ceiling,
• 2:16:33
  his face as black as coal. It was something awful, believe me,
• 2:16:37
  Oh, how horrible, said Anne, shuddering. The poor poor child.
• 2:16:43
  Leslie didn't cry at her father's funeral any more than she had cried at Kenneth's.
• 2:16:46
  Rose whooped and howled for two however, and Leslie had all she could
• 2:16:50
  do trying to calm and comfort her mother. I was disgusted with Rose,
• 2:16:54
  and so was every one else. But Leslie never got out of patience.
• 2:16:58
  She loved her mother. Leslie is clannish, her own could never do wrong
• 2:17:03
  in her eyes. Well, they buried Frank West beside Kenneth, and Rose
• 2:17:07
  put up a great monument to him. It was bigger than his character,
• 2:17:09
  believe me, anyhow, it was bigger than Rose could afford, for the
• 2:17:13
  farm was mortgaged for more than its value. But not long after, Leslie's
• 2:17:18
  old grandmother West died and she left Leslie a little money enough to give her
• 2:17:22
  a year at Queen's Academy. Leslie had made up her mind to pass for
• 2:17:24
  a teacher if she could, and then earn enough to put herself through Redmond
• 2:17:28
  College. That had been her father's pet scheme. He wanted her to have
• 2:17:33
  what he had lost. Leslie was full of ambition, and her head was
• 2:17:35
  chalk full of brains. She went to Queen's and she took two years work
• 2:17:39
  in one year and got her first and when she came home she got the
• 2:17:43
  Glens School. She was so happy and hopeful and full of life and eagerness.
• 2:17:46
  When I think of what she was then and what she is now,
• 2:17:50
  I say, drat the man. Miss Cornelia snipped her thread off as viciously
• 2:17:54
  as if Nero, like she was severing the neck of mankind by the stroke.
• 2:17:58
  Dick Moore came into her life that summer. His father, Abner Moore,
• 2:18:03
  kept the store at the Glen, but Dick had a sea going streak
• 2:18:05
  in him from his mother. He used to sail in summer and clerk in
• 2:18:09
  his father's store in winter. He was a big, handsome fellow with a
• 2:18:13
  little ugly soul. He was always wanting something till he got it, and
• 2:18:16
  then he stopped wanting it, just like a man. Oh, he didn't
• 2:18:20
  growl at the weather when it was fine, and he was mostly real pleasant
• 2:18:22
  and agreeable when everything went right. But he drank a good deal, and
• 2:18:26
  there were some nasty stories told of him and a girl down at the fishing
• 2:18:30
  village. He wasn't fit for Leslie to wipe her feet on, That's the
• 2:18:33
  long and short of it. And he was a Methodist, but he was
• 2:18:37
  clean mad about her because of her good looks in the first place, and
• 2:18:39
  because she wouldn't have anything to say to him in the second. He vowed
• 2:18:43
  he'd have her, and he'd got her. How did he bring it abound?
• 2:18:46
  Oh? It was an iniquitous thing. I'll never forgive Rose West,
• 2:18:50
  you see, Anne, Dearie Abner Moore held the mortgage on the West farm,
• 2:18:54
  and the interest was overdue some years, and Dick just went and told
• 2:18:58
  missus West that if Leslie wouldn't marry him, he'd get his father to foreclose
• 2:19:03
  the mortgage. Rose carried on dreadful, fainted and wept and pleaded with Leslie
• 2:19:07
  not to let her be turned out of her home. She said it would
• 2:19:09
  break her heart to leave the home she'd come to as a bride. I
• 2:19:13
  wouldn't have blamed her for feeling bad over it, but you wouldn't have thought
• 2:19:16
  she'd be so selfish as to sacrifice her own flesh and blood because of it,
• 2:19:18
  would you. Well? She was, and Leslie gave in. She
• 2:19:22
  loved her mother so much she would have done anything to save her pain.
• 2:19:26
  She married Dick Moore. None of us knew why at the time. It
• 2:19:30
  wasn't till long afterward that I found out how her mother had worried her into
• 2:19:33
  it. I was sure there was something wrong, though, because I knew
• 2:19:37
  she had snubbed him time and again, and it wasn't like Leslie to turn
• 2:19:39
  face about like that. Besides, I knew that Dick Moore wasn't the kind
• 2:19:43
  of man Leslie could ever fancy, in spite of his good looks and dashing
• 2:19:48
  ways. Of course, there was no wedding, but Rose asked me to
• 2:19:50
  go and see them married. I went, but I was sorry I did.
• 2:19:54
  I'd seen Leslie's face at her brother's funeral and at her father's funeral,
• 2:19:58
  and now it seemed to me I was seeing it at her own funeral.
• 2:20:01
  But Rose was smiling as a basket of chips. Believe me. Leslie and
• 2:20:05
  Dick settled down on the West Place. Rose couldn't bear to part with her
• 2:20:09
  dear daughter and lived there for the winter. In the spring, Rose took
• 2:20:13
  pneumonia and died a year too late. Leslie was heart broken enough over it.
• 2:20:18
  Isn't it terrible the way some unworthy folks are loved while others that deserve
• 2:20:22
  it far more, you'd think, never get much affection. As for Dick,
• 2:20:26
  he'd had enough of quiet married life. Just like a man, he
• 2:20:28
  was for up and off. He went over to Nova Scotia to visit his
• 2:20:31
  relations. His father had come from Nova Scotia, and he wrote back to
• 2:20:35
  Leslie that his cousin, George Moore, was going on a voyage to Havana,
• 2:20:39
  and he was going too. The name of the vessel was the Four
• 2:20:41
  Sisters, and they were to be gone about nine weeks. It must have
• 2:20:46
  been a relief to Leslie, but she never said anything. From the day
• 2:20:48
  of her marriage, she was just what she is now, cold and proud
• 2:20:52
  and keeping everyone but me at a distance. I won't be kept at a
• 2:20:56
  distance, believe me. I've just stuck to Leslie as close as I knew
• 2:21:00
  how in spite of everything. She told me you were the best friend.
• 2:21:03
  She had said, Anne did, she exclaimed Miss Cornelia delightedly. Well,
• 2:21:07
  I'm real thankful to hear it. Sometimes I've wondered if she really did want
• 2:21:11
  me around at all. She never let me think so. You must have
• 2:21:13
  thought her out more than you think, or she wouldn't have said that much
• 2:21:16
  itself to you. Oh, that poor heartbroken girl. I never see Dick
• 2:21:22
  Moore, but I want to run a knife clean through him. Miss Cornelia
• 2:21:24
  wiped her eyes again, and, having relieved her feelings by her bloodthirsty wish,
• 2:21:30
  took up her tail. Well, Leslie was left over there alone.
• 2:21:33
  Dick had put in the crop before he went, and old Abner looked after
• 2:21:37
  it. The summer went by and the four sisters didn't come back. The
• 2:21:41
  Nova Scotia Moors investigated and found she had got to Havana and discharged her cargo
• 2:21:46
  and took on another and left for home. And that was all they ever
• 2:21:48
  found out about her by degrees. People began to talk of Dick Moore as
• 2:21:52
  one that was dead. Almost everyone believed that he was, though no one
• 2:21:56
  felt certain, For men have turned up here at the harbor after they'd been
• 2:22:00
  gone for years. Leslie never thought he was dead, and she was right
• 2:22:05
  a thousand pities too. The next summer, Captain Jim was in Havana,
• 2:22:09
  That was before he gave up the sea. Of course, he thought he'd
• 2:22:11
  poke around a bit. Captain Jim always was meddlesome, just like a man,
• 2:22:15
  and he went to inquiring round among the sailors, boarding houses and places
• 2:22:18
  like that to see if he could find out anything about the crew of the
• 2:22:22
  four Sisters. He'd better have let sleeping dogs lie, in my opinion.
• 2:22:26
  Well, he went to one out of the way place, and there he
• 2:22:28
  found a man he knew at first sight was Dick Moore. Though he had
• 2:22:31
  a big beard. Captain Jim got it shaved off, and there was no
• 2:22:35
  doubt Dick Moore. It was his body, at least his mind wasn't there.
• 2:22:41
  As for his soul, in my opinion, he never had one.
• 2:22:43
  What had happened to him? Nobody knows the rights of it. All the
• 2:22:48
  folks who kept the boarding house could tell was that about a year before,
• 2:22:50
  they had found him lying on their doorstep one morning in an awful condition,
• 2:22:54
  his head battered to a jelly almost They supposed he'd got hurt in some drunken
• 2:22:58
  row, and likely that's the truth of it. They took him in,
• 2:23:01
  never thinking he could live, but he did, and he was just like
• 2:23:05
  a child when he got well. He hadn't memory or intellect or reason.
• 2:23:09
  They tried to find out who he was, but they never could. He
• 2:23:13
  couldn't even tell them his name. He could only say a few simple words.
• 2:23:16
  He had a letter on him beginning dear Dick and signed Leslie, but
• 2:23:20
  there was no address on it, and the envelope was gone. They let
• 2:23:24
  him stay on. He learned to do a few odd jobs about the place,
• 2:23:26
  and there Captain Jim found him. He brought him home. I've always
• 2:23:31
  said it was a bad day's work, though I suppose there was nothing else
• 2:23:33
  he could do. He thought maybe when Dick got home and saw his old
• 2:23:37
  surroundings and familiar faces, his memory would wake up. But it hadn't any
• 2:23:41
  effect. There he's been at the house up the brook ever since, He's
• 2:23:46
  just like a child, no more nor less. Takes fractious spells occasionally,
• 2:23:50
  but mostly he's just vacant and good humored and harmless. He's apt to run
• 2:23:54
  away if he isn't watched. That's the burden Leslie has had to carry for
• 2:23:58
  eleven years, and all all alone. Old Abner Moore died soon after Dick
• 2:24:01
  was brought home, and it was found he was almost bankrupt. When things
• 2:24:05
  were settled up, there was nothing for Leslie and Dick but the old West
• 2:24:09
  Farm. Leslie rented it to John Ward, and the rent is all she
• 2:24:13
  has to live on. Sometimes in summer she takes a boarder to help out,
• 2:24:16
  but most visitors prefer the other side of the harbor, where the hotels
• 2:24:20
  and summer cottages are. Leslie's house is too far from the bathing shore.
• 2:24:24
  She's taking care of Dick, and she's never been away from him for eleven
• 2:24:28
  years. She's tied to that imbecile for life, and after all the dreams
• 2:24:33
  and hopes she once had, you can imagine what it has been like for
• 2:24:35
  her. Anne Dearie, with her beauty and spirit and pride and cleverness,
• 2:24:39
  it's just been a living death. Poor poor girl, said Anne again.
• 2:24:46
  Her own happiness seemed to reproach her. What right had she to be so
• 2:24:50
  happy when another human soul must be so miserable? Will you tell me just
• 2:24:54
  what Leslie said and how she acted the night you met her on the shore,
• 2:24:58
  asked Miss Cornelia. She listened intently and nodded her satisfaction. You thought
• 2:25:03
  she was stiff and cold, Anne, dearie, But I can tell you
• 2:25:07
  she thawed out. Wonderful for her, she must have taken to you real
• 2:25:11
  strong. I'm so glad you may be able to help her a good deal.
• 2:25:15
  I was thankful when I heard that a young couple was coming to this
• 2:25:18
  house, for I hoped it would mean some friends for Leslie, especially if
• 2:25:22
  you belong to the race that knows Joseph. You will be her friend,
• 2:25:24
  won't you, Anne, dearie? Indeed I will if she'll let me,
• 2:25:28
  said Anne with all her own sweet, impulsive earnestness. No, you must
• 2:25:33
  be her friend, whether she'll let you or not, said Miss Cornelia resolutely.
• 2:25:37
  Don't you mind if she's stiff by times? Don't notice it. Remember
• 2:25:41
  what her life has been and is and always must be. I suppose for
• 2:25:46
  creatures like Dick Moore live forever. I understand. You should see how Faddy's
• 2:25:50
  got since he came home. He used to be lean enough. Just make
• 2:25:54
  her be friends. You can do it. You're one of those who have
• 2:25:58
  the knack. Only you mustn't be sensitive and don't mind if she doesn't seem
• 2:26:01
  to want you to go over there much. She knows that some women don't
• 2:26:05
  like to be where Dick is. They complain, He gives them the creeps.
• 2:26:09
  Just get her to come over here as often as she can. She
• 2:26:11
  can't get away so very much. She can't leave Dick long for the Lord
• 2:26:15
  knows what he'd do. Burn the house down. Most likely at nights after
• 2:26:18
  he's in bed and asleep, is about the only time she's free. He
• 2:26:22
  always goes to bed early and sleeps like the dead till next morning. That
• 2:26:26
  is how you came to meet her at the shore. Likely, she wonders,
• 2:26:28
  they're considerable. I will do everything I can for her, said Anne.
• 2:26:33
  Her interest in Leslie Moore, which had been vivid ever since she had
• 2:26:37
  seen her driving her geese down the hill, was intensified a thousandfold by Miss
• 2:26:41
  Cornelia's narration the girl's beauty and sorrow and loneliness drew her with an irresistible fascination.
• 2:26:48
  She had never known any one like her. Her friends had hitherto been
• 2:26:52
  wholesome, normal, merry girls like herself, with only the average trials of
• 2:26:56
  human care and bereavement to shadow their girlish teams. Leslie Moore stood apart a
• 2:27:03
  tragic, appealing figure of thwarted womanhood. Anne resolved that she would win entrance
• 2:27:09
  into the kingdom of that lonely soul and find there the comradeship it could so
• 2:27:13
  richly give, were it not for the cruel fetters that held it in a
• 2:27:16
  prison not of its own making. And mind you this, Anne Dearie,
• 2:27:20
  said miss Cornelia, who had not yet wholly relieved her mind. You mustn't
• 2:27:24
  think Leslie is an infidel because she hardly ever goes to church, or even
• 2:27:28
  that she's a Methodist. She can't take Dick to church, of course,
• 2:27:31
  not that he ever troubled church much in his best days. But you must
• 2:27:35
  remember that she's a real strong Presbyterian at heart, Anne Dearie. End of
• 2:27:41
  chapter eleven. Chapter twelve, Leslie comes over. Leslie came over to the
• 2:27:48
  House of Dreams one frosty October night, when moonlit mists were hanging over the
• 2:27:52
  harbor and curling like silver ribbons along the seaward glens. She looked as if
• 2:27:58
  she repented coming when Gilbert answered her knock, but Anne flew past him,
• 2:28:03
  pounced on her, and drew her in. I'm so glad you picked tonight
• 2:28:05
  for a call, she said gaily. I made up a lot of extra
• 2:28:09
  good fudge this afternoon, and we want someone to help us eat it before
• 2:28:13
  the fire while we tell stories. Perhaps Captain Jim will drop in two.
• 2:28:16
  This is his night. No, Captain Jim is over home, said Leslie.
• 2:28:20
  He he made me come here, she added, half defiantly. I'll
• 2:28:26
  say it thank you to him for that when I see him, said Anne,
• 2:28:28
  pulling easy chairs before the fire. Oh, I don't mean that I
• 2:28:31
  didn't want to come, protested Leslie, flushing a little. I've been thinking
• 2:28:37
  of coming, but it isn't always easy for me to get away. Of
• 2:28:39
  course, it must be hard for you to leave, mister Moore, said
• 2:28:43
  Anne in a matter of fact tone. She had decided that it would be
• 2:28:46
  best to mention Dick Moore occasionally as an accepted fact and not give undue morbidness
• 2:28:52
  to the subject. By avoiding it, she was right, for Leslie's air
• 2:28:56
  of constraint suddenly vanished. Evidently she had been wondering how much Anne knew of
• 2:29:01
  the conditions of her life, and was relieved that no explanations were needed.
• 2:29:05
  She allowed her cap and jacket to be taken and sat down with a girlish
• 2:29:09
  snuggle in the big armchair by magog. She was dressed prettily and carefully,
• 2:29:13
  with the customary touch of color in the scarlet geranium at her white throat.
• 2:29:18
  Her beautiful hair gleamed like molten gold in the warm firelight. Her sea blue
• 2:29:24
  eyes were full of soft laughter and allurement. For the moment, under the
• 2:29:28
  influence of the Little House of Dreams, she was a girl again, a
• 2:29:31
  girl forgetful of the past and its bitterness. The atmosphere of the many loves
• 2:29:37
  that had sanctified the little House was all about her. The companionship of two
• 2:29:41
  healthy, happy, young folks of her own generation encircled her. She felt
• 2:29:46
  and yielded to the magic of her surroundings. Miss Cornelia and Jim would scarcely
• 2:29:50
  have recognized her. Anne found it hard to believe that this was the cold,
• 2:29:54
  unresponsive woman she had met on the shore, this animated girl who talked
• 2:29:58
  and listened with the eagerness of a starved soul, and how hungrily Leslie's eyes
• 2:30:03
  looked at the bookcases between the windows. Our library isn't very extensive, said
• 2:30:09
  Anne, but every book in it is a friend. We've picked our books
• 2:30:11
  up through the years here and there, never buying one until we had first
• 2:30:16
  read it and knew that it belonged to the race of Joseph. Leslie laughed,
• 2:30:20
  beautiful laughter that seemed akin to all the mirth that had echoed through the
• 2:30:24
  little house in the vanished years. I have a few books of my father's,
• 2:30:28
  not many, she said. I've read them until I know them almost
• 2:30:31
  by heart. I don't get many books. There's a circulating library at the
• 2:30:35
  Glen's store, but I don't think the committee who picked the books for mister
• 2:30:39
  Parker know what books are of Joseph's race, or perhaps they don't care.
• 2:30:43
  It was so seldom I got one. I really liked that I gave up
• 2:30:46
  getting any. I hope you'll look on our bookshelves as your own, said
• 2:30:50
  Anne. You are entirely and wholeheartedly welcome to the loan of any book on
• 2:30:56
  them. You're setting a feast of fat things before me, said Leslie joyously.
• 2:31:01
  Then as the clock struck ten, she rose half unwillingly. I must
• 2:31:05
  go. I didn't realize it was so late. Captain jim Is always saying
• 2:31:09
  it doesn't take long to stay an hour, But I've stayed too. And
• 2:31:13
  oh but I've enjoyed them, she added frankly. Come often, said Anne
• 2:31:16
  and Gilbert. They had risen and stood together in the firelight's glow. Leslie
• 2:31:22
  looked at them, youthful, hopeful, happy, typifying all she had missed
• 2:31:26
  and must forever miss. The light went out of her face and eyes.
• 2:31:31
  The girl vanished. It was the sorrowful, cheated woman who answered the invitation
• 2:31:35
  almost coldly, and got herself away with a pitiful haste. Anne watched her
• 2:31:41
  until she was lost in the shadows of the chill and misty night. Then
• 2:31:45
  she turned slowly back to the glow of her own radiant hearthstone. Isn't she
• 2:31:50
  lovely? Gilbert? Her hair fascinates me, Miss Cornelia says it reaches to
• 2:31:54
  her feet. Ruby Gillis had beautiful hair, but Leslie's is alive. Every
• 2:32:00
  thread of it is living gold. She is very beautiful, agreed Gilbert,
• 2:32:05
  so heartily that Anne almost wished he were a little less enthusiastic. Gilbert,
• 2:32:09
  would you like my hair better if it were like Leslie's, she asked wistfully.
• 2:32:15
  I wouldn't have your hair any color, but just what it is for
• 2:32:18
  the world, said Gilbert, with one or two convincing accompaniments. You wouldn't
• 2:32:22
  be Anne if you had golden hair, or hair of any color but red,
• 2:32:26
  said Anne, with gloomy satisfaction. Yes, Red, to give warmth
• 2:32:31
  to that milk white skin and those shining gray green eyes of yours. Golden
• 2:32:37
  hair wouldn't suit you at all, Queen Anne, My Queen Anne, Queen
• 2:32:41
  of my heart and life and home. Then you may admire Leslie's all you
• 2:32:46
  like, said Anne magnanimously. End of Chapter twelve. Chapter thirteen. A
• 2:32:52
  ghostly evening one evening a week later, Anne decided to run over the fields
• 2:32:58
  to the house up the brook for an informal call. It was an evening
• 2:33:03
  of gray fog that had crept in from the gulf, swathed the harbor,
• 2:33:07
  filled the glens and valleys, and clung heavily to the autumnal meadows. Through
• 2:33:11
  it, the seas sobbed and shuddered. Anne saw four Winds in a new
• 2:33:16
  aspect, and found it weird and mysterious and fascinating. But it also gave
• 2:33:20
  her a little feeling of loneliness. Gilbert was away and would be away until
• 2:33:26
  the morrow. Attending a medical pow wow in Charlottetown, Anne longed for an
• 2:33:31
  hour of fellowship with some girl friend. Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia were good
• 2:33:35
  fellows, each in their own way, but youth yearned to youth. If
• 2:33:39
  only Diana or phil or PRIs or Stella could drop in for a chat,
• 2:33:43
  She said to herself, how delightful it would be. This is such a
• 2:33:48
  ghostly night. I'm sure all the ships that ever sailed out of four Winds
• 2:33:52
  to their doom could be seen to night, sailing up the harbor, with
• 2:33:54
  their drowned crews on their decks. If that shrouding fog could be suddenly drawn
• 2:33:58
  aside, I feel as if it concealed innumerable mysteries, as if I were
• 2:34:03
  surrounded by the wraiths of old generations of four Winds, people peering at me
• 2:34:07
  through that gray veil. If ever, the dear dead ladies of this little
• 2:34:11
  house came back to revisit it, they would come on just such a night
• 2:34:16
  as this. If I sit here any longer, I'll see one of them
• 2:34:18
  there opposite me in Gilbert's chair. This place isn't exactly canny tonight. Even
• 2:34:24
  Gog and Magog have an air of pricking up their ears to hear the footsteps
• 2:34:28
  of unseen guests. I'll run over to see Leslie before I frighten myself with
• 2:34:31
  my own fancies, as I did long ago in the matter of the Haunted
• 2:34:35
  Wood. I'll leave my house of dreams to welcome back its old inhabitants.
• 2:34:39
  My fire will give them good will and greeting. They will be gone before
• 2:34:43
  I come back, and my house will be mine once more. Tonight I
• 2:34:46
  am sure it is keeping a tryst with the past. Laughing a little over
• 2:34:50
  her fancy, yet with something of a creepy sensation in the region of her
• 2:34:54
  spine, Anne kissed her hand to Gog and Magog and slipped out into the
• 2:34:58
  fog with some of the new magazines under her arm for Leslie. Leslie's wild
• 2:35:03
  for books and magazines, Miss Cornelia had told her, and she hardly ever
• 2:35:07
  sees one. She can't afford to buy them or subscribe for them. She's
• 2:35:11
  really pitifully poor Anne. I don't see how she makes out to live at
• 2:35:15
  all on the little rent the farm brings in. She never even hints the
• 2:35:18
  complaint on the score of poverty, but I know what it must be.
• 2:35:22
  She's been handicapped by it all her life. She didn't mind it when she
• 2:35:24
  was free and ambitious, but it must gall now, Believe me. I'm
• 2:35:28
  glad she seemed so bright and merry the evening she spent with you. Captain
• 2:35:33
  Jim told me he had fairly to put her cap and coat on and push
• 2:35:35
  her out of the door. Don't be too long going to see her either.
• 2:35:39
  If you are, she'll think it's because you don't like the sight of
• 2:35:41
  Dick, and she'll crawl into her shell again. Dick's a great, big,
• 2:35:45
  harmless baby, but that silly grinnin chuckle of his do get on some
• 2:35:48
  people's nerves. Thank goodness, I've no nerves myself. I like Dick more
• 2:35:52
  better now than I ever did when he was in his right senses, though
• 2:35:56
  the Lord knows that isn't saying much. I was down there one day and
• 2:36:00
  house cleaning time helping Leslie a bed, and I was frying doughnuts. Dick
• 2:36:03
  was hanging round to get one, as usual, and all at once he
• 2:36:07
  picked up a scalding hot one. I just fished out and dropped it on
• 2:36:09
  the back of my neck when I was bending over. Then he laughed and
• 2:36:13
  laughed. Believe me, Anne, it took all the grace of God in
• 2:36:16
  my heart to keep me from just whisking up that stewpan of boiling fat and
• 2:36:20
  pouring it over his head. Anne laughed over Miss Cornelia's wrath as she sped
• 2:36:24
  through the darkness, but laughter recorded ill with That night, she was sober
• 2:36:30
  enough when she reached the house among the willows. Everything was very silent.
• 2:36:33
  The front part of the house seemed dark and deserted, so Anne slipped round
• 2:36:37
  to the side door, which opened from the veranda into a little sitting room.
• 2:36:41
  There she halted noiselessly. The door was open beyond. In the dimly
• 2:36:48
  lighted room sat Leslie Moore with her arms flung out on the table and her
• 2:36:52
  head bent upon them. She was weeping horribly, with low, fierce choking
• 2:36:58
  sobs, as if some agony and her soul were trying to tear itself out.
• 2:37:03
  An old black dog was sitting by her, his nose resting on her
• 2:37:07
  lap, his big doggish eyes full of mute imploring sympathy and devotion. Anne
• 2:37:13
  drew back in dismay. She felt that she could not intermeddle with this bitterness.
• 2:37:18
  Her heart ached with a sympathy, She might not utter. To go
• 2:37:20
  in now would be to shut the door forever on any possible help or friendship.
• 2:37:26
  Some instinct warned Anne that the proud, bitter girl would never forgive the
• 2:37:30
  one who thus surprised her In her abandonment of despair. Anne slipped noiselessly from
• 2:37:35
  the veranda and found her way across the yard beyond. She heard voices in
• 2:37:41
  the gloom, and saw the dim glow of a light at the gate.
• 2:37:45
  She met two men, Captain Jim with a lantern, and another who she
• 2:37:48
  knew must be Dick Moore, a big man badly gone to fat, with
• 2:37:52
  a broad, round red face and vacant eyes. Even in the dull light,
• 2:37:58
  Anne got the impression that there was something unusual about his eyes. Is
• 2:38:03
  this you, mistress? Blythe said Captain Jim. Now now you hadn oughter
• 2:38:07
  be roamin out alone on a night like this, you could get lost in
• 2:38:11
  this fog easier than not. Just you wait till I see Dick safe inside
• 2:38:15
  the door, and I'll come back and light you over the fields. I
• 2:38:18
  ain't goin to have doctor blythe coming home and finding that Jew walked clean over
• 2:38:22
  Cape La Force in the fog. A woman did that once forty years ago.
• 2:38:26
  So you've been over to see Leslie, he said, when he rejoined
• 2:38:30
  her. I didn't go in, said Anne, and told what she had
• 2:38:33
  seen. Captain Jim sighed, poor poor little girl. She don't cry often,
• 2:38:39
  Mistress blythe she's too brave for that. She must feel terrible when she
• 2:38:43
  does cry. A night like this is hard on poor women who have sorrows.
• 2:38:48
  There's something about it that kinda brings up all we've suffered or feared.
• 2:38:52
  It's full of ghosts, said Anne with a shiver. That was why I
• 2:38:56
  came over. I wanted to clasp a human hand and hear a human There
• 2:39:01
  seemed to be so many inhuman presences about to night. Even my own dear
• 2:39:05
  house was full of them. They fairly elbowed me out, so I fled
• 2:39:09
  over here for companionship of my kind. You were right, not to go
• 2:39:13
  in, though, Mistress Blythe Leslie wouldn't have liked it. She wouldn't have
• 2:39:16
  liked me going in with Dick, as I'd have done if I hadn't met
• 2:39:18
  you. I had Dick down with me all day. I keep him with
• 2:39:22
  me as much as I can to help Leslie a bit. Isn't there something
• 2:39:26
  odd about his eyes? Asked Anne. You noticed that? Yes, one
• 2:39:31
  is blue, an t'other is hazel. His father had the same. It's
• 2:39:35
  a more peculiarity. That was what told me he was Dick Moore when I
• 2:39:39
  saw him first down in Cuby. If it hadn't a been for his eyes,
• 2:39:43
  I mightn't a known him with his beard and fat. You know,
• 2:39:46
  I reckon that it was me found him and brought him home. Miss Cornelie
• 2:39:50
  always says I shouldn't have done it, but I can't agree with her.
• 2:39:52
  It was the right thing to do, and so twas the only thing.
• 2:39:56
  There ain't no question in my mind about that. But my old heart aches
• 2:40:01
  for Leslie. She's only twenty eight, and she's eaten more bread with sorrow
• 2:40:05
  than most women do in eighty years. They walked on in silence for a
• 2:40:11
  little while presently, Anne said, do you know, Captain Jim, I
• 2:40:15
  never like walking with a lantern. I always have the strangest feeling that just
• 2:40:18
  outside the circle of light, just over its edge, in the darkness,
• 2:40:22
  I'm surrounded by a ring of furtive, sinister things watching me from the shadows
• 2:40:26
  with hostile eyes. I've had that feeling from childhood. What is the reason
• 2:40:31
  I never feel like that when I'm really in the darkness, when it is
• 2:40:35
  close all around me, I'm not the least frightened. I've something of that
• 2:40:39
  feeling myself, admitted Captain Jim. I reckon. When the darkness is close
• 2:40:45
  to us, it is a friend. But when we sort of push it
• 2:40:46
  away from us, divorce ourselves from it, so to speak, with lantern
• 2:40:50
  light, it becomes an enemy. But the fog is lifting. There's a
• 2:40:54
  smart west wind rising. If you notice, the stars will be out when
• 2:40:58
  you get home. They were out, and when Anne re entered her House
• 2:41:03
  of Dreams, the red embers were still glowing on the hearth, and all
• 2:41:05
  the haunting presences were gone. End of chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen, November
• 2:41:13
  days, the splendor of color, which had glowed for weeks along the shores
• 2:41:18
  of four winds, harbor had faded out into the soft gray blue of late
• 2:41:22
  autumnal hills. There came many days when fields and shores were dim with misty
• 2:41:28
  rain, or shivering before the breath of a melancholy sea wind. Nights too,
• 2:41:33
  of storm and tempest, when Anne sometimes wakened to pray that no ship
• 2:41:37
  might be beating up the grim north shore. For if it were so,
• 2:41:41
  not even the great faithful light, whirling through the darkness, unafraid, could
• 2:41:46
  avail to guide it into save Haven. In November, I sometimes feel as
• 2:41:52
  if spring could never come again, she sighed, grieving over the hopeless unsightliness
• 2:41:56
  of her frosted and bedraggled flower pots. The gay little garden of the Schoolmaster's
• 2:42:01
  Bride was rather a forlorn place now, and the lombardies and birches were under
• 2:42:05
  bare poles, as Captain Jim said, But the fir wood behind the little
• 2:42:09
  house was forever green and staunch, And even in November and December there came
• 2:42:16
  gracious days of sunshine and purple hazes, when the harbor danced and sparkled as
• 2:42:20
  blithely as in midsummer, and the gulf was so softly blue and tender that
• 2:42:26
  the storm and the wild wind seemed only things of a long past dream.
• 2:42:31
  Anne and Gilbert spent many an autumn evening at the lighthouse. It was always
• 2:42:35
  a cheery place, even when the east wind sang in minor and the sea
• 2:42:39
  was dead and gray. Hints of sunshine seemed to be lurking all about it.
• 2:42:45
  Perhaps this was because the first mate always paraded it in panoply of gold.
• 2:42:50
  He was so large and effulgent that one hardly missed the sun, and
• 2:42:54
  his resounding purrs formed a pleasant accompaniment to the laughter and conversation which went on
• 2:43:00
  round Captain Jim's fireplace. Captain Jim and Gilbert had many long discussions and high
• 2:43:05
  converse on matters beyond the ken of cat or king. I like to ponder
• 2:43:11
  on all kinds of problems, though I can't solve em, said Captain Jim.
• 2:43:15
  My father held that we should never talk of things we couldn't understand.
• 2:43:18
  But if we didn't doctor, the subjects for conversation would be mighty few.
• 2:43:24
  I reckon the God's laugh many a time to hear us. But what matters
• 2:43:26
  so long as we remember that we're only men and don't take to fancying that
• 2:43:31
  we're gods ourselves, really knowing good and evil. I reckon our powwows won't
• 2:43:35
  do us or any one much harm. So let's have another whack at the
• 2:43:39
  whence, why, and whither this evening doctor. While they whacked, Anne
• 2:43:45
  listened or dreamed. Sometimes Leslie went to the lighthouse with them, and she
• 2:43:50
  and Anne wandered along the shore in the eerie twilight, or sat on the
• 2:43:54
  rocks below the lighthouse until the darkness drove them back to the cheer of the
• 2:43:58
  driftwood fire. Then Captain Jim would brew them tea and tell them tales of
• 2:44:03
  land and sea and whatsoever might betide the great forgotten world outside. Leslie always
• 2:44:09
  seemed to enjoy those lighthouse carousals very much, and bloomed out for the time
• 2:44:15
  being into ready wit and beautiful laughter or glowing eyed silence. There was a
• 2:44:20
  certain tang and savor in the conversation when Leslie was present, which they missed
• 2:44:24
  when she was absent. Even when she did not talk, she seemed to
• 2:44:28
  inspire others to brilliancy. Captain Jim told his stories better, Gilbert was quicker
• 2:44:35
  in argument and repartee. Anne felt little gushes and trickles of fancy and imagination
• 2:44:41
  bubbling to her lips under the influence of Leslie's personality. That girl was born
• 2:44:46
  to be a leader in social and intellectual circles far away from Four Winds.
• 2:44:50
  She said to Gilbert as they walked home one night. She's just wasted here,
• 2:44:56
  wasted. Weren't you listening to Captain Jim and yours? Truly? The
• 2:45:00
  night when we discussed that subject generally, we came to the comforting conclusion that
• 2:45:05
  the Creator probably knew how to run his universe quite as well as we do,
• 2:45:09
  and that, after all, there are no such things as wasted lives,
• 2:45:13
  saving and accepting when an individual wilfully squanders and wastes his own life,
• 2:45:18
  which Leslie Moore certainly hasn't done. And some people might think that a Redmond
• 2:45:22
  b A whom editors were beginning to honor, was wasted as the wife of
• 2:45:26
  a struggling country doctor in the rural community of Four Winds. Gilbert, if
• 2:45:33
  you had married Roy Gardner, now continued Gilbert, mercilessly, you could have
• 2:45:37
  been a leader in social and intellectual circles far away from Four Winds, Gilbert,
• 2:45:43
  blythe you know you were in love with him at one time, Anne,
• 2:45:46
  Gilbert, that's mean, pis and mean, just like all the men,
• 2:45:50
  As Miss Cornelia says, I never was in love with him. I
• 2:45:54
  only imagined I was. You know that. You know I'd rather be your
• 2:45:58
  wife in our house of dreams and fulfillment then a queen in a palace.
• 2:46:03
  Gilbert's answer was not in words, But I am afraid that both of them
• 2:46:07
  forgot poor Leslie, speeding her lonely way across the fields to a house that
• 2:46:11
  was neither a palace nor the fulfillment of a dream. The moon was rising
• 2:46:16
  over the sad, dark sea behind them and transfiguring it. Her light had
• 2:46:20
  not yet reached the harbor, the further side of which was shadowy and suggestive,
• 2:46:26
  with dim coves and rich glooms and jeweling lights. How the home light
• 2:46:31
  shines out to night through the dark, said Anne. That string of them
• 2:46:35
  over the harbor looks like a necklace. And what a coruscation there is up
• 2:46:39
  at the glen. Oh, look, Gilbert, there is ours. I'm
• 2:46:41
  so glad we left it burning. I hate to come home to a dark
• 2:46:46
  house, our homelight, Gilbert. Isn't it lovely to see just like one
• 2:46:50
  of Earth's many millions of homes a girl, but ours ours our beacon in
• 2:46:56
  a naughty world. When a fellow has a home and a dear little red
• 2:47:01
  haired wife in it, what more need he ask of life? Well he
• 2:47:05
  might ask one thing more, whispered Anne. Happily, Oh, Gilbert,
• 2:47:09
  it seems as if I just couldn't wait for the spring. End of Chapter
• 2:47:15
  fourteen. Chapter fifteen, Christmas at four Winds. At first, Anne and
• 2:47:22
  Gilbert talked of going home to Avonlea for Christmas, but eventually they decided to
• 2:47:26
  stay in Four Winds. I want to spend the first Christmas of our life
• 2:47:30
  together in our own home, decreed Anne. So it fell out that Marilla
• 2:47:35
  and Missus Rachel, Lynde and the twins came to Four Winds for Christmas.
• 2:47:39
  Marilla had the face of a woman who had circumnavigated the globe. She had
• 2:47:43
  never been sixty miles away from home before, and she had never eaten a
• 2:47:46
  Christmas dinner anywhere save at Green Gables. Missus Rachel had made and brought with
• 2:47:52
  her an enormous plum pudding. Nothing could have convinced Missus Rachel that a college
• 2:47:56
  graduate of the younger generation could make a Christmas plum pudding properly, but she
• 2:48:01
  bestowed approval on Anne's house. Anne's a good housekeeper, she said to Marilla
• 2:48:05
  in the spare room the night of their arrival. I've looked into her bread
• 2:48:09
  box and her scrap pail. I always judge a housekeeper by those, that's
• 2:48:11
  what. There's nothing in the pail that shouldn't have been thrown away, and
• 2:48:16
  no stale pieces in the bread box. Of course, she was trained up
• 2:48:18
  with you, but then she went to college afterwards. I notice she's got
• 2:48:22
  my tobacco striped quilt on the bed here, and that big round braided mat
• 2:48:26
  of yours before her living room fire. It makes me feel right at home.
• 2:48:31
  Anne's first Christmas in her own house was as delightful as she could have
• 2:48:35
  wished. The day was fine and bright. The first skin of snow had
• 2:48:39
  fallen on Christmas Eve and made the world beautiful. The harbor was still open
• 2:48:43
  and glittering. Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia came to dinner. Leslie and Dick
• 2:48:48
  had been invited, but Leslie made excuse. They always went to her uncle
• 2:48:52
  Isaac West's for Christmas. She said she'd rather have it. So Miss Cornelia
• 2:48:58
  told Anne she can't bear taking Dick where there are strangers. Christmas is always
• 2:49:01
  a hard time for Leslie. She and her father used to make a lot
• 2:49:05
  of it. Miss Cornelia and missus Rachel Lynde did not take a very violent
• 2:49:11
  fancy to each other. Two sons hold not their courses in one's sphere,
• 2:49:16
  but they did not clash at all. For Missus Rachel was in the kitchen
• 2:49:18
  helping Anne and Marilla with the dinner, and it fell to Gilbert to entertain
• 2:49:22
  Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia, or rather to be entertained by them, For
• 2:49:28
  a dialogue between those two old friends and antagonists was assuredly never dull. It's
• 2:49:33
  many a year since there was a Christmas dinner here, Mistress Blythe, said
• 2:49:37
  Captain Jim. Miss Russell always went to her friends in town for Christmas.
• 2:49:41
  But I was here to the first Christmas dinner that was ever eaten in this
• 2:49:45
  house, and the schoolmaster's bride cooked it. That was sixty years ago to
• 2:49:48
  day, Mistress Blythe, And a day very like this, just enough snow
• 2:49:52
  to make the hills white and the harbor as blue as June I was only
• 2:49:56
  a lad, and I'd never been invited out to dinner before, and I
• 2:50:01
  was too shy to eat enough. I've got all over that most men do,
• 2:50:05
  said Miss Cornelia, sewing furiously. Miss Cornelia was not going to sit
• 2:50:09
  with idle hands even on Christmas. Babies come without any consideration for holidays,
• 2:50:16
  and there was one expected in a poverty stricken household at Glens and Mary.
• 2:50:20
  Miss Cornelia had sent that household a substantial dinner for its little swarm, and
• 2:50:24
  so meant to eat her own with a comfortable conscience. Well, you know
• 2:50:28
  the way to a man's hardest through his stomach, Cornelia, explained Captain Jim.
• 2:50:33
  I believe you when he has a heart, retorted Miss Cornelia. I
• 2:50:37
  suppose that's why so many women kill themselves cooking, just as poor Amelia Baxter
• 2:50:41
  did. She died last Christmas morning, and she said it was the first
• 2:50:46
  Christmas since she was married that she didn't have to cook a big, twenty
• 2:50:48
  plate dinner. It must have been a real pleasant change for her. Well,
• 2:50:52
  she's been dead a year, so you'll soon hear of Horace Baxter taking
• 2:50:56
  notice. I heard he was taking notice already, said Captain Jim, winking
• 2:51:00
  at Gilbert. Wasn't he up to your place one Sunday lately with his funeral
• 2:51:03
  blacks on and a boiled collar. No, he wasn't, and he needn't
• 2:51:09
  come neither. I could have had him long ago, when he was fresh.
• 2:51:11
  I don't want any second hand goods, believe me. As for Horace
• 2:51:16
  Baxter, he was in financial difficulties a year ago last summer, and he
• 2:51:18
  prayed to the Lord for help. And when his wife died and he got
• 2:51:22
  our life insurance, he said he believed it was the answer to his prayer.
• 2:51:26
  Wasn't that like a man? Have you really proved that? He said
• 2:51:30
  that, Cornelia, I have the Methodist minister's word for it. If you
• 2:51:33
  call that proof. Robert Baxter told me the same thing too, but I
• 2:51:37
  admit that isn't evidence. Robert Baxter isn't often known to tell the truth.
• 2:51:43
  Come Come, Cornelia. I think he generally tells the truth, But he
• 2:51:46
  changes his opinion so often it sometimes sounds as if he didn't. It sounds
• 2:51:52
  like it mighty often, believe me. But trust one man to excuse another.
• 2:51:56
  I have no use for Robert Baxter. He turned Methodist just because the
• 2:52:00
  Presbyterian choir happened to be singing Behold the bridegroom cometh for a collection piece when
• 2:52:05
  him and Margaret walked up the aisle the sunday after they were married. Served
• 2:52:09
  him right for being late. He always insisted the choir did it on purpose
• 2:52:11
  to insult him, as if he was of that much importance. But that
• 2:52:16
  family always thought they were much bigger potatoes than they really were. His brother,
• 2:52:20
  a liphlet imagine the devil was always at his elbow. But I never
• 2:52:24
  believed the devil wasted that much time on him. I don't know, said
• 2:52:28
  Captain Jim thoughtfully. A liphle At Baxter lived too much alone, hadn't even
• 2:52:33
  a cat or dog to keep him human. When a man is alone,
• 2:52:37
  he's mighty apt to be with the devil. If he ain't with God,
• 2:52:41
  he has to choose which company he'll keep. I reckon. If the devil
• 2:52:45
  always was at Life Baxter's elbow, it must have been because Life liked to
• 2:52:48
  have him there, man like, said Miss Cornelia, and subsided into silence
• 2:52:54
  over a complicated arrangement of tucks, until Captain Jim deliberately stirred her up again
• 2:52:58
  by remarking in a casual way. I was up to the Methodist church last
• 2:53:03
  Sunday morning. You'd better have been home reading your Bible, was Miss Cornelia's
• 2:53:07
  retort. Come now, Cornelia, I can't see any harm in going to
• 2:53:11
  the Methodist church when there's no preaching in your own I've been a Presbyterian for
• 2:53:16
  seventy six years, and it isn't likely my theology will hoist anchor at this
• 2:53:20
  late day. It's setting a bad example, said Miss Cornelia grimly. Besides,
• 2:53:26
  continued wicked Captain Jim, I wanted to hear some good singing. The
• 2:53:30
  Methodists have a good choir, and you can't deny Cornelia that the singing in
• 2:53:35
  our church is awful. Since the split in the choir, what if the
• 2:53:37
  singing isn't good? They're doing their best, and God sees no difference between
• 2:53:41
  the voice of a crow and the voice of a nightingale. Come, come,
• 2:53:46
  Cornelia, said Captain Jim mildly. I have a better opinion of the
• 2:53:50
  almighties ear for music than that. What caused the trouble in our choir,
• 2:53:54
  asked Gilbert, who was suffering from suppressed laughter. It dates back to the
• 2:54:00
  church three years ago, answered Captain Jim. We had a fearful time over
• 2:54:03
  the building of that church, fell out over the question of a new site.
• 2:54:07
  The two sites wasn't moorn two hundred yards apart, but you'd have thought
• 2:54:11
  there was a thousand. By the bitterness of that fight. We was split
• 2:54:16
  up into three factions. One wanted the east site and one the south,
• 2:54:20
  and one held to the old. It was fought out in bed and ap
• 2:54:24
  board, and in church and at market. All the old scandals of three
• 2:54:28
  generations were dragged out of their graves and aired three matches. Was broken up
• 2:54:31
  by it and the meetings we had to try to settle the question, Cornelia,
• 2:54:37
  will you ever forget the one? When old Luther Burns got up and
• 2:54:39
  made a speech, he stated his opinions. Forcibly call a spade a spade,
• 2:54:45
  Captain, you mean he got red mad and raked them all fore and
• 2:54:48
  aft. They deserved it too, a pack of incapables. But what would
• 2:54:52
  you expect of a committee of men? That building committee held twenty seven meetings,
• 2:54:56
  and at the end of the twenty seventh weren't no near or having a
• 2:55:00
  church than when they begun. Not so near for a fact, For in
• 2:55:03
  one fit of hurrying things along. They'd gone to work and tore the old
• 2:55:07
  church down. So there we were without a church and no place but the
• 2:55:11
  hall to worship in. The Methodists offered us their church, Cornelia, the
• 2:55:16
  Glens and Mary Church wouldn't have been built to this day, went on Miss
• 2:55:18
  Cornelia, ignoring Captain Jim if we women hadn't just started it and took charge.
• 2:55:24
  We said we meant to have a church if the men meant to quarrel
• 2:55:28
  till doomsday. And we were tired of being a laughing stock for the Methodists.
• 2:55:31
  We held one meeting and elected a committee and canvassed for subscriptions. We
• 2:55:37
  got them too. When any of the men tried to sass us, we
• 2:55:41
  told them they'd tried for two years to build a church and it was our
• 2:55:43
  turn. Now. We shut them up close, believe me, and in
• 2:55:46
  six months we had our church. Of course, when the men saw we
• 2:55:50
  were determined, they stopped fighting and went to work manlike. As soon as
• 2:55:54
  they saw they had to or quit bossing. Oh, women can't preach or
• 2:55:58
  be elders, but they can build church and scare up the money for them.
• 2:56:01
  The Methodists allow women to preach, said Captain Jim. Miss Cornelia glared
• 2:56:07
  at him. I never said the Methodists hadn't common sense, Captain. What
• 2:56:11
  I say is I doubt if they have much religion. I suppose you're in
• 2:56:15
  favor of votes for women, miss Cornelia, said Gilbert. I'm not hankering
• 2:56:18
  after the vote, believe me, said Miss Cornelia scornfully. I know what
• 2:56:24
  it is to clean up after the men. But some of these days,
• 2:56:26
  when the men realize they've got the world into a mess they can't get it
• 2:56:30
  out of, they'll be glad to give us the vote and shoulder their troubles
• 2:56:33
  over on us. That's their scheme. Oh, it's well that women are
• 2:56:37
  patient, believe me. What about Job, suggested Captain Jim Job. It
• 2:56:43
  was such a rare thing to find a patient man that when one was really
• 2:56:46
  discovered, they were determined. He shouldn't be forgotten, retorted Miss Cornelia triumphantly.
• 2:56:52
  Anyhow, the virtue doesn't go with the name. There never was such
• 2:56:56
  an impatient man born as old Job Taylor over Harbor. Well, you know
• 2:57:01
  he had a good deal to try him, Cornelia. Even you can't defend
• 2:57:05
  his wife. I always remember what old William mc allister said of her at
• 2:57:09
  her funeral. There's nae doot. She was a Christian woman, but she
• 2:57:13
  had the dale's own temper. I suppose she was trying, admitted Miss Cornelia
• 2:57:18
  reluctantly, But that didn't justify what Job said when she died. He rode
• 2:57:22
  home from the graveyard the day of the funeral with my father. He never
• 2:57:26
  said a word till they got near home. Then he heaved a big sigh
• 2:57:30
  and said, you may not believe it, Stephen, but this is the
• 2:57:33
  happiest day of my life. Wasn't that like a man? I s'pose?
• 2:57:37
  Poor old missus Job did make life kind or uneasy for him, reflected Captain
• 2:57:43
  Jim. Well, there's such a thing as decency, isn't there. Even
• 2:57:46
  if a man is rejoicing in his heart over his wife being dead, he
• 2:57:50
  needn't proclaim it to the four winds of Heaven and happy day or not.
• 2:57:54
  Job Taylor wasn't long in marrying again. You might notice his second wife could
• 2:57:58
  manage him. She made him walk Spanish. Believe me. The first thing
• 2:58:03
  she did was to make him hustle round him put up a tombstone to the
• 2:58:05
  first Missus Job, and she had a place left on it for her own
• 2:58:09
  name. She said, there'd be nobody to make job put up a monument
• 2:58:13
  to her. Speaking of tailor's, how is missus Lewis Taylor up at the
• 2:58:16
  glen, doctor, asked Captain Jim. She's getting better slowly, but she
• 2:58:22
  has to work too hard, replied Gilbert. Her husband works too hard raising
• 2:58:26
  prize pigs, said Miss Cornelia. He's noted for his beautiful pigs. He's
• 2:58:31
  a heap prowder of his pigs than of his children. But then, to
• 2:58:33
  be sure, his pigs are the best pigs possible, while his children don't
• 2:58:37
  amount to much. He picked a poor mother for them and starved her while
• 2:58:41
  she was bearing and rearing them. His pigs got the cream and his children
• 2:58:45
  got the skim milk. There are times, Cornelia, when I have to
• 2:58:48
  agree with you, though it hurts me, said Captain Jim. That's just
• 2:58:52
  exactly the truth about Louis Taylor. When I see those poor miserable children of
• 2:58:58
  his robbed of all child ought to have, it pisons my own bite and
• 2:59:01
  sup for days. Afterwards, Gilbert went out to the kitchen in response to
• 2:59:07
  Anne's beckoning. Anne shut the door and gave him a connubial lecture. Gilbert,
• 2:59:11
  you and Captain Jim must stop baiting Miss Cornelia. Oh, I've been
• 2:59:16
  listening to you, and I just won't allow it. Anne. Miss Cornelia
• 2:59:20
  is enjoying herself hugely. You know she is well. Never mind, you
• 2:59:24
  too, needn't egg her on like that. Dinner is ready now, And
• 2:59:28
  Gilbert, don't let missus Rachel carve the geese. I know she means to
• 2:59:31
  offer to do it because she doesn't think you can do it properly. Show
• 2:59:35
  her you can. I ought to be able to. I've been studying a
• 2:59:39
  B C D diagrams of carving for the past month, said Gilbert. Only
• 2:59:43
  don't talk to me while I'm doing it, Anne, for if you drive
• 2:59:46
  the letters out of my head, I'll be in a worse predicament than you
• 2:59:48
  were in old geometry days when the teacher changed them. Gilbert carved the geese
• 2:59:54
  beautifully. Even missus Rachel had to admit that, and everybody ate of them
• 2:59:58
  and enjoyed them. Anne's first Christmas dinner was a great success, and she
• 3:00:03
  beamed with housewifely pride. Mary was the feast and long, and when it
• 3:00:07
  was over they gathered around the cheer of the red hearth flame, and Captain
• 3:00:11
  Jim told them stories until the red sun swung low over four winds harbor,
• 3:00:16
  and the long blue shadows of the Lombardies fell across the snow in the lane.
• 3:00:20
  I must be getting back to the light, he said, finally,
• 3:00:24
  I'll just have time to walk home before sundown. Thank you for a beautiful
• 3:00:28
  Christmas. Mistress blythe bring Master Davy down to the light some night before he
• 3:00:33
  goes home. I want to see those stone gods, said Davy, with
• 3:00:35
  a relish end of Chapter fifteen, Chapter sixteen, New Year's Eve of the
• 3:00:43
  Light, The Green Gables folk went home after Christmas, Marilla under solemn covenant
• 3:00:50
  to return for a month in the spring. More snow came before New Year's
• 3:00:54
  and the harbor froze over, but the gulf was still free beyond the white
• 3:00:58
  imprisoned fields. The last day of the Old Year was one of those bright,
• 3:01:03
  cold, dazzling winter days which bombard us with their brilliancy and command our
• 3:01:09
  admiration, but never our love. The sky was sharp and blue, the
• 3:01:13
  snow diamonds sparkled insistently. The stark trees were bare and shameless, with a
• 3:01:18
  kind of brazen beauty. The hills shot assaulting lances of crystal. Even the
• 3:01:24
  shadows were sharp and stiff and clear cut, as no proper shadows should be.
• 3:01:30
  Everything that was handsome seemed ten times handsomer and less attractive in the glaring
• 3:01:35
  splendor, and everything that was ugly seemed ten times uglier. And everything was
• 3:01:41
  either handsome or ugly. There was no soft blending, or kind obscurity or
• 3:01:46
  elusive mistiness in that searching glitter. The only things that held their own individuality
• 3:01:52
  were the firs. For the fir is the tree of mystery and shadow,
• 3:01:56
  and yields never to the encroachments of crude radiance. But finally the day began
• 3:02:01
  to realize that she was growing old. Then a certain pensiveness fell over her
• 3:02:05
  beauty, which dimmed yet intensified it sharp angles, glittering points melted away into
• 3:02:13
  curves and enticing gleams. The white harbor put on soft grays and pinks.
• 3:02:18
  The far away hills turned amethyst. The old year is going away, beautifully,
• 3:02:24
  said Anne. She and Leslie and Gilbert were on their way to the
• 3:02:28
  Four Winds Point, having plotted with Captain Jim to watch the new year win
• 3:02:33
  of the light. The sun had set, and in the southwestern sky hung
• 3:02:37
  Venus, glorious and golden, having drawn as near to her Earth's sister as
• 3:02:41
  is possible for her. For the first time, Anne and Gilbert saw the
• 3:02:46
  shadow cast by that brilliant star of evening, that faint, mysterious shadow,
• 3:02:52
  never seen save when there is white snow to reveal it, and then only
• 3:02:56
  with averted vision, vanishing when you gaze at it directly. It's like the
• 3:03:01
  spirit of a shadow, isn't it, whispered Anne. You can see it
• 3:03:05
  so plainly haunting your side when you look ahead, but when you turn and
• 3:03:09
  look at it, it's gone. I have heard that you can see the
• 3:03:11
  shadow of Venus only once in a lifetime, and that within a year of
• 3:03:16
  seeing it, your life's most wonderful gift will come to you, said Leslie,
• 3:03:20
  But she spoke rather hardly. Perhaps she thought that even the shadow of
• 3:03:24
  Venus could bring her no gift of life. Anne smiled in the soft twilight.
• 3:03:30
  She felt quite sure what the mystic shadow promised her. They found Marshal
• 3:03:35
  Elliot at the lighthouse. At first, Anne felt inclined to resent the intrusion
• 3:03:39
  of this long haired, long bearded eccentric into the familiar little circle. But
• 3:03:45
  Marshal Elliot soon proved his legitimate claim to membership in the household of Joseph.
• 3:03:50
  He was a witty, intelligent, well read man, rivaling Captain Jim himself
• 3:03:54
  in the knack of telling a good story. They were all glad when he
• 3:03:58
  agreed to watch the old year out with them. Captain Jim's small nephew,
• 3:04:03
  Joe, had come down to spend New Year's with his great uncle and had
• 3:04:07
  fallen asleep on the sofa with the first mate curled up in a huge golden
• 3:04:11
  ball at his feet. Ainy, a dear little man, said Captain Jim
• 3:04:15
  gloatingly. I do love to watch a little child asleep, Mistress blythe It's
• 3:04:20
  the most beautiful sight in the world. I reckon. Joe does love to
• 3:04:24
  get down here for a night because I have him sleep with me at home.
• 3:04:28
  He has to sleep with the other two boys, and he doesn't like
• 3:04:31
  it. Why can't I sleep with father, Uncle Jim says he everybody in
• 3:04:35
  the Bible slept with their fathers. As for the questions he asks, the
• 3:04:39
  Minister himself couldn't answer them. They fair swamp me. Uncle Jim. If
• 3:04:45
  I wasn't me, who'd I be? And Uncle Jim, what would happen
• 3:04:48
  if God died? He fired them to off at me tonight. Afore he
• 3:04:52
  went to sleep. As for his imagination, it sails away from everything.
• 3:04:58
  He makes up the most remarkable yarns. And then his mother shuts him up
• 3:05:01
  in the closet for telling stories, and he sits down and makes up another
• 3:05:05
  one and has it ready to relate to her when she lets him out.
• 3:05:09
  He had one for me when he come down tonight, Uncle Jim, says
• 3:05:13
  he solemn as a tombstone. I had a venture in the glen today.
• 3:05:16
  Yes, what was it? Says I? Expecting something quite startling, but
• 3:05:20
  nowise prepared for what I really got. I met a wolf in the street,
• 3:05:24
  says he. Enormous wolf with a big red mouth and awful long teeth,
• 3:05:30
  Uncle Jim. I didn't know there was any wolves up at the glen,
• 3:05:33
  says I. Oh, he comed there from far, far away,
• 3:05:37
  says Joe. And I thought he was goin to eat me up, Uncle
• 3:05:39
  Jim. Were you scared? Says I? No, cause I had a
• 3:05:43
  big gun, says Joe, and I shot the wolf dead. Uncle Jim
• 3:05:48
  solid dead, and then he went up to heaven and bit God says he,
• 3:05:52
  well, I was fair staggered Mistress Blythe the hours bloomed into mirth around
• 3:05:58
  the driftwood fire. Captain Jim told tales, and Marshall Elliot sang old Scotch
• 3:06:03
  ballads in a fine tenor voice. Finally Captain Jim took down his old brown
• 3:06:09
  fiddle from the wall and began to play. He had a tolerable knack of
• 3:06:13
  fiddling, which all appreciated, save the first mate, who sprang from the
• 3:06:16
  sofa as if he had been shot, emitted a shriek of protest, and
• 3:06:20
  fled wildly up the stairs. Can't cultivate an ear for music in that cat
• 3:06:24
  nohow, said Captain Jim. He won't stay long enough to learn to like
• 3:06:28
  it. When we got the organ up at the Glen church, old Elder
• 3:06:33
  Richards bounced up from his seat the minute the organist began to play, and
• 3:06:37
  scuttled down the aisle and out of the church at the rate of no man's
• 3:06:39
  business. It reminded me so strong of the first mate tearing loose as soon
• 3:06:43
  as I begin to fiddle, that I come near to laughing out loud in
• 3:06:48
  church than I ever did before or since. There was something so infectious in
• 3:06:52
  the rollicking tunes that Captain Jim played that very soon Marshall Elliott's feet began to
• 3:06:58
  twitch. He had been a notice dancer in his youth. Presently he started
• 3:07:03
  up and held out his hands to Leslie. Instantly she responded round and round
• 3:07:07
  the fire lit room. They circled with a rhythmic grace that was wonderful.
• 3:07:11
  Leslie danced like one inspired. The wild, sweet abandon of the music seemed
• 3:07:16
  to have entered into and possessed her. Anne watched her in fascinated admiration.
• 3:07:22
  She had never seen her like this. All the innate richness and color and
• 3:07:26
  charm of her nature seemed to have broken loose and overflowed in crimson cheek and
• 3:07:31
  glowing eye and grace of motion. Even the aspect of Marshall Elliot, with
• 3:07:35
  his long beard and hair, could not spoil the picture. On the contrary,
• 3:07:41
  it seemed to enhance it. Marshal Elliot looked like a Viking of elder
• 3:07:45
  days dancing with one of the blue eyed, golden haired daughters of the Northland.
• 3:07:50
  The prettiest dancing I ever saw, and I've seen some in my time,
• 3:07:54
  declared Captain Jim, when at last the bow fell from his tired hand.
• 3:07:58
  Leslie dropped into her chair, laughing breathless. I love dancing, she
• 3:08:03
  said a part to Anne. I haven't danced since I was sixteen, but
• 3:08:07
  I love it. The music seems to run through my veins like quicksilver,
• 3:08:11
  and I forget everything, everything except the delight of keeping time to it.
• 3:08:16
  There isn't any floor beneath me, or walls about me, or roof over
• 3:08:20
  me. I'm floating amid the stars. Captain Jim hung his fiddle up in
• 3:08:24
  its place, beside a large frame enclosing several bank notes. Is there anybody
• 3:08:30
  else of your acquaintance who can afford to hang his walls with bank notes for
• 3:08:33
  pictures? He asked. There's twenty ten dollar notes there, not worth the
• 3:08:37
  glass over them. Their old bank of p e Island notes had them buy
• 3:08:43
  me when the bank failed, and I had em framed and hung up,
• 3:08:46
  partly as a reminder not to put your trust in banks, and partly to
• 3:08:50
  give me a real luxurious millionary feeling. Hallo, Mady, don't be scared.
• 3:08:54
  You can come back now. The music and revelry is over for tonight.
• 3:08:58
  The old ar has just another hour to stay with us. I've seen
• 3:09:03
  seventy six new years come in over that gulf yonder, Mistress blythe you'll see
• 3:09:07
  a hundred, said Marshall Elliott. Captain Jim shook his head. Nope,
• 3:09:11
  and I don't want to, at least I think I don't. Death grows
• 3:09:16
  friendlier as we grow older, not that one of us really wants to die,
• 3:09:20
  though. Marshall Tennyson spoke truth when he said that there's old missus Wallace
• 3:09:26
  up at the glen. She's had heaps of trouble all her life, poor
• 3:09:28
  soul, and she's lost almost every one she cared about. She's always saying
• 3:09:33
  that she'll be glad when her time comes, and she doesn't want a sojioer
• 3:09:37
  in any longer in this vale of tears. But when she takes a six
• 3:09:39
  spell, there's a fuss doctor's from town, and a trained nurse, and
• 3:09:43
  enough medicine to kill a dog. Life may be a veil of tears,
• 3:09:46
  all right, but there are some folks who enjoy weeping. I reckon.
• 3:09:52
  They spent the Old Year's last hour quietly around the fire. A few minutes
• 3:09:56
  before twelve, Captain Jim rose and opened the Do we must let the new
• 3:10:01
  year in, he said, Outside was a fine blue night, A sparkling
• 3:10:07
  ribbon of moonlight garlanded the gulf. Inside the bar, the harbor shone like
• 3:10:11
  a pavement of pearl. They stood before the door and waited Captain Jim with
• 3:10:16
  his ripe full experience, Marshal Elliott in his vigorous but empty middle life,
• 3:10:22
  Gilbert and Anne with their precious memories and exquisite hopes, Leslie with her record
• 3:10:28
  of starved years and her hopeless future. The clock on the little shelf above
• 3:10:31
  the fireplace struck twelve. Welcome new year, said Captain Jim, bowing low,
• 3:10:37
  as the last stroke died away. I wish you all the best year
• 3:10:43
  of your lives. Mates, I reckon that whatever the new year brings us
• 3:10:46
  will be the best the great Captain has for us, And somehow or other
• 3:10:50
  we'll all make port in a good harbor. End of Chapter sixteen. Chapter
• 3:10:56
  seventeen of four Winds. Winter winters set in vigorously after New Year's Big white
• 3:11:03
  drifts heaped themselves about the little house, and palms of frost covered its windows.
• 3:11:09
  The harbor eyes grew harder and thicker, until the Four Winds people began
• 3:11:13
  their usual winter traveling over it. The safe ways were bushed by a benevolent
• 3:11:18
  government, and night and day the gay tinkle of the sleigh bells sounded on
• 3:11:22
  it. On moonlight nights, Anne heard them in her house of dreams,
• 3:11:26
  like fairy chimes. The gulf froze over, and the Four Winds light flashed
• 3:11:31
  no more. During the months when navigation was closed, Captain Jim's office was
• 3:11:37
  a sinecure. The first mate and I will have nothing to do till spring
• 3:11:41
  except keep warm and amuse ourselves. The last lighthouse keeper used always to move
• 3:11:46
  up to the glen in winter, but I'd rather stay at the point.
• 3:11:48
  The first mate might get poisoned or chewed up by dogs at the glen.
• 3:11:52
  It's a mite lonely to be sure, with neither the light nor the water
• 3:11:56
  for company. But if our friends come to see us often, we'll weather
• 3:12:00
  it through. Captain Jim had an ice boat and many a wild glorious spin.
• 3:12:05
  Gilbert and Anne and Leslie had over the glib Harbor ice with him.
• 3:12:11
  Anne and Leslie took long snowshoe tramps together too, over the fields, or
• 3:12:15
  across the harbor after storms, or through the woods beyond the glen. They
• 3:12:20
  were very good comrades in their rambles and their fireside communings. Each had something
• 3:12:24
  to give the other. Each felt life the richer for friendly exchange of thought
• 3:12:30
  and friendly silence. Each looked across the white fields between their homes with the
• 3:12:35
  pleasant consciousness of a friend beyond. But in spite of all this, Anne
• 3:12:39
  felt that there was always a barrier between Leslie and herself, a constraint that
• 3:12:43
  never wholly vanished. I don't know why I can't get closer to her,
• 3:12:48
  Anne said one evening to Captain Jim. I like her so much, I
• 3:12:52
  admire her so much. I want to take her right into my heart and
• 3:12:56
  creep right into hers. But I can never cry us the barrier. You've
• 3:13:01
  been too happy all your life, mistress blythe said Captain Jim thoughtfully. I
• 3:13:05
  reckon, that's why you and Leslie can't get real close together. In your
• 3:13:09
  souls. The barrier between you is her experience of sorrow and trouble. She
• 3:13:15
  ain't responsible for it and you ain't, but it's there, and neither of
• 3:13:18
  you can cross it. My childhood wasn't very happy before I came to Green
• 3:13:22
  Gables, said Anne, gazing soberly out of the window at the still sad,
• 3:13:28
  dead beauty of the leafless tree shadows on the moonlit snow. Maybe not,
• 3:13:33
  but it was just the usual unhappiness of a child who hasn't any one
• 3:13:37
  to look after it properly. There hasn't been any tragedy in your life,
• 3:13:41
  Mistress Blythe, and poor Leslie's has been almost all tragedy, she feels,
• 3:13:46
  I reckon, though maybe she hardly knows. She feels it that there's a
• 3:13:50
  vast deal in her life you can't enter nor understand, and so she has
• 3:13:54
  to keep you back from it, hold you off, so to speak,
• 3:13:56
  from hurting her. You know, if we've anything about us that hurts,
• 3:14:01
  we shrink from anyone's touch on or near it. It holds good with our
• 3:14:05
  souls as well as our bodies. I reckon. Leslie's soul must be near
• 3:14:09
  raw. It's no wonder she hides it away. If that were really all,
• 3:14:15
  I wouldn't mind, Captain Jim, I would understand. But there are
• 3:14:18
  times, not always, but now and again, when I almost have to
• 3:14:22
  believe that Leslie doesn't doesn't like me. Sometimes I surprise a look in her
• 3:14:28
  eyes that seems to show resentment and dislike. It goes so quickly, but
• 3:14:33
  I've seen it. I'm sure of that, and it hurts me, Captain
• 3:14:35
  Jim. I'm not used to being disliked, and I've tried so hard to
• 3:14:39
  win Leslie's friendship. You have won it, Mistress Blythe. Don't you go
• 3:14:45
  cherishing any foolish notion that Leslie don't like you. If she didn't, she
• 3:14:48
  wouldn't have anything to do with you, much less chumming with you as she
• 3:14:52
  does. I know Leslie Moore too well not to be sure of that.
• 3:14:58
  The first time I ever saw her her geese down the hill, on the
• 3:15:01
  day I came to four Winds, she looked at me with the same expression
• 3:15:05
  persisted Anne. I felt it, even in the midst of my admiration of
• 3:15:09
  her beauty. She looked at me resentfully. She did. Indeed, Captain
• 3:15:13
  Jim, the resentment must have been about something else, Mistress Blythe, and
• 3:15:18
  you just come in for a share of it because you happened past. Leslie
• 3:15:22
  does take sullen spells now and again, poor girl. I can't blame her
• 3:15:26
  when I know what she has to put up with. I don't know why
• 3:15:30
  it's permitted. The doctor and I have talked a lot about the origin of
• 3:15:33
  evil, but we haven't quite found out all about it yet. There's a
• 3:15:37
  vast of ununderstandable things in life, ain't there, Mistress Blythe Sometimes things seem
• 3:15:43
  to work out real proper like, same as with you and the doctor,
• 3:15:46
  and then again they all seem to go catawampus. There's Leslie, so clever
• 3:15:52
  and beautiful, you'd think she was meant for a queen, and instead she's
• 3:15:56
  cooped up over there, robbed of almost everything, a woman at value with
• 3:16:00
  no prospect except waiting on Dick Moore all her life. Though, mind you,
• 3:16:05
  Mistress blythe I dare say she'd choose her life now, such as it
• 3:16:07
  is, rather than the life she lived with Dick before he went away.
• 3:16:11
  That's something a clumsy old sailor's tongue mustn't meddle with. But you've helped Leslie
• 3:16:18
  a lot. She's a different creature since you come to four winds us old
• 3:16:22
  friends. See the difference in her as you can't miss. Cornelie and me
• 3:16:26
  was talkin it over the other day and it's one of the mighty few pints
• 3:16:28
  that we see eye to eye on. So just you throw overboard any idea
• 3:16:33
  of her not liking you. Anne could hardly discard it completely, for there
• 3:16:39
  were undoubtedly times when she felt, with an instinct that was not to be
• 3:16:43
  combated by reason, that Leslie harbored a queer, indefinable resentment towards her.
• 3:16:48
  At times, this secret consciousness marred the delight of their comradeship. At others
• 3:16:54
  it was almost forgotten, but Anne always felt the hidden thorn was there and
• 3:16:58
  might pricker any moment. She felt a cruel sting from it. On the
• 3:17:03
  day when she told Leslie of what she hoped the spring would bring to the
• 3:17:05
  little House of Dreams, Leslie looked at her with hard, bitter, unfriendly
• 3:17:11
  eyes. So you are to have that too, she said in a choked
• 3:17:15
  voice, and without another word, she had turned and gone across the fields
• 3:17:18
  homeward. Anne was deeply hurt. For the moment, she felt as if
• 3:17:24
  she could never like Leslie again. But when Leslie came over a few evenings
• 3:17:28
  later, she was so pleasant, so friendly, so frank and witty and
• 3:17:31
  winsome, that Anne was charmed into forgiveness and forgetfulness only. She never mentioned
• 3:17:37
  her darling hope to Leslie again, nor did Leslie ever refer to it.
• 3:17:43
  But one evening, when late Winter was listening for the Word of Spring,
• 3:17:46
  she came over to the little House for a twilight chat, and when she
• 3:17:50
  went away she left a small white box on the table. Anne found it
• 3:17:56
  after she was gone and opened it wonderingly. In it was a tiny white
• 3:18:01
  dress of exquisite workmanship, delicate embroidery, wonderful tucking, sheer loveliness. Every
• 3:18:07
  stitch in it was handwork, and the little frills of lace at neck and
• 3:18:11
  sleeves were of real Valencienne. Lying on it was a card with Leslie's love.
• 3:18:18
  What hours of work she must have put on it, said Anne,
• 3:18:22
  and the material must have cost more than she could really afford. It is
• 3:18:26
  very sweet of her, But Leslie was brusque and curt when Anne thanked her,
• 3:18:31
  and again the latter felt thrown back upon herself. Leslie's gift was not
• 3:18:35
  alone in the Little House. Miss Cornelia had for the time being given up
• 3:18:39
  sewing for unwanted, unwelcome eighth babies, and fallen to sewing for a very
• 3:18:45
  much wanted first one whose welcome would leave nothing to be desired. Philippa Blake
• 3:18:50
  and Diana Wright each sent a marvelous garment, and Missus Rachel Lynde sent several
• 3:18:56
  in which good material and honest stitches took the place of roitery and frills.
• 3:19:01
  Anne herself made many desecrated by no touch of machinery, spending over them the
• 3:19:07
  happiest hours of the happy winter. Captain Jim was the most frequent guest of
• 3:19:11
  the little house, and none was more welcome every day. Anne loved the
• 3:19:16
  simple, souled, true hearted old sailor more and more. He was as
• 3:19:20
  refreshing as a sea breeze, as interesting as some ancient chronicle. She was
• 3:19:24
  never tired of listening to his stories, and his quaint remarks and comments were
• 3:19:30
  a continual delight to her. Captain Jim was one of those rare and interesting
• 3:19:33
  people who never speak, but they say something. The milk of human kindness
• 3:19:39
  and the wisdom of the serpent were mingled in his composition in delightful proportions.
• 3:19:45
  Nothing ever seemed to put Captain Jim out or depress him in any way.
• 3:19:48
  I've kind of contracted a habit of enjoying things. He remarked once when Anne
• 3:19:54
  had commented on his invariable cheerfulness. It's God so chronic that I believe I
• 3:19:58
  even enjoyed agreeable things. It's great fun thinking they can't last. Old Rheumatiz,
• 3:20:05
  says I. When it grips me hard, you've got to stop aching
• 3:20:07
  some time. The worse yar, the sooner you'll stop. Maybe I'm bound
• 3:20:11
  to get the better of you in the long run, whether in the body
• 3:20:15
  or out of the body. One night, by the fireside of the light,
• 3:20:18
  Anne saw Captain Jim's life book. He needed no coaxing to show it,
• 3:20:24
  and proudly gave it to her to read. I read it to leave
• 3:20:26
  to little Joe, he said, I don't like the idea of everything I've
• 3:20:31
  done and seen being clean forgot. After I've slipped from my last voyage.
• 3:20:35
  Joe he'll remember it and tell the yarns to his children. It was an
• 3:20:39
  old, leather bound book, filled with the record of his voyages and adventures.
• 3:20:45
  Anne thought what a treasure trove it would be to a writer. Every
• 3:20:48
  sentence was a nugget in itself. The book had no literary merit. Captain
• 3:20:54
  Jim's charm of story telling failed him when he came to pen and ink.
• 3:20:58
  He could only jot rough lead down the outline of his famous tales, and
• 3:21:01
  both spelling and grammar were sadly askew. But Anne felt that if anyone possessed
• 3:21:07
  of the gift could take that simple record of a brave, adventurous life,
• 3:21:11
  reading between the bald lines the tales of dangers staunchly faced and beauty manfully done,
• 3:21:18
  a wonderful story might be made from it. Rich comedy and thrilling tragedy
• 3:21:22
  were both lying hidden in Captain Jim's life book, waiting for the touch of
• 3:21:26
  the master hand to waken the laughter and grief and horror of thousands. Anne
• 3:21:33
  said something of this to Gilbert as they walked home. Why don't you try
• 3:21:37
  your hand at it yourself, Anne Anne shook her head. No. I
• 3:21:41
  only wish I could, but it's not in the power of my gift.
• 3:21:45
  You know what my forte is, Gilbert, the fanciful, the fairy,
• 3:21:48
  like the pretty. To write Captain Jim's life book as it should be written,
• 3:21:52
  one should be a master of vigorous yet subtle style, a keen psychologist,
• 3:21:58
  a born humorous to and a born tragedian. A rare combination of gifts
• 3:22:03
  is needed. Paul might do it if he were older. Anyhow, I'm
• 3:22:07
  going to ask him to come down next summer and meet Captain Jim. Come
• 3:22:11
  to this shore, wrote Anne to Paul. I'm afraid you cannot find here
• 3:22:16
  Nora or the Golden Lady or the Twin Sailors, but you will find one
• 3:22:20
  old sailor who can tell you wonderful stories. Paul, however, wrote back,
• 3:22:24
  saying regretfully that he could not come that year. He was going abroad
• 3:22:28
  for two years study. When I return, I'll come to Four Winds teacher,
• 3:22:33
  he wrote. But meanwhile, Captain Jim is growing old, said Anne
• 3:22:37
  sorrowfully, and there is nobody to write his life book end of Chapter seventeen.
• 3:22:45
  Chapter eighteen Spring days, the ice in the harbor grew black and rotten
• 3:22:50
  in the March suns. In April there were blue waters and a windy,
• 3:22:54
  white capped gulf. Again and again, the Four Winds Light begemmed the Twilights.
• 3:23:00
  I'm so glad to see it once more, said Anne on the first
• 3:23:03
  evening of its reappearance. I've missed it so all winter the northwestern sky has
• 3:23:09
  seemed blank and lonely without it. The land was tender with bran new golden
• 3:23:13
  green baby leaves. There was an emerald mist on the woods beyond the glend.
• 3:23:18
  The seaward valleys were full of fairy mists. At dawn, vibrant winds
• 3:23:24
  came and went, with salt foam in their breath. The sea laughed and
• 3:23:28
  flashed and preamed and allured like a beautiful coquettish woman. The herrings schooled,
• 3:23:33
  and the fishing village woke to life. The harbor was alive, with white
• 3:23:37
  sails making for the channel. The ships began to sail outward and inward again.
• 3:23:43
  On a spring day like this, said Anne, I know exactly what
• 3:23:46
  my soul will feel like on the resurrection morning. There are times in spring
• 3:23:52
  when I sort of feel that I might have been a poet if i'd been
• 3:23:54
  caught young, remarked Captain Jim. I catch myself conning over old line pines
• 3:24:00
  and verses I heard the schoolmaster residing sixty years ago. They don't trouble me.
• 3:24:05
  At other times now, I feel as if I had to get out
• 3:24:07
  on the rocks or the fields, or the water and spout them. Captain
• 3:24:11
  Jim had come up that afternoon to bring Anne a load of shells for her
• 3:24:16
  garden and a little bunch of sweet grass, which he had found in a
• 3:24:18
  ramble over the sand dunes. It's getting real scarce along this shore now,
• 3:24:24
  he said. When I was a boy, there was a plenty of it,
• 3:24:26
  but now it's only once in a while you'll find a plot, and
• 3:24:30
  never when you're looking for it. You just have to stumble on it.
• 3:24:33
  You're walkin along the sand hills, never thinking of sweet grass, and all
• 3:24:37
  at once the air is full of sweetness, and there's the grass under your
• 3:24:41
  feet. I favor the smell of sweet grass. It always makes me think
• 3:24:45
  of my mother. She was fond of it, asked Anne, Not that
• 3:24:50
  I knows on Dunno's she ever saw any sweet grass. No, it's because
• 3:24:54
  it has a kind of motherly perfume. Not too young, you understand something
• 3:24:58
  kind of seasoned and wholesome and dependable, just like a mother. The schoolmaster's
• 3:25:03
  bride always kept it among her handkerchiefs. You might put that little bunch among
• 3:25:07
  yours, Mistress blythe I don't like these botton scents, but awi the sweet
• 3:25:13
  grass belongs anywhere a lady does. Anne had not been especially enthusiastic over the
• 3:25:18
  idea of surrounding her flower beds with cohog shells as a decoration. They did
• 3:25:24
  not appeal to her on first thought, but she would not have hurt Captain
• 3:25:26
  Jim's feelings for anything, so she assumed a virtue she did not at first
• 3:25:31
  feel, and thanked him heartily. And when Captain Jim had proudly encircled every
• 3:25:35
  bed with a rim of the big milk white shells, Anne found, to
• 3:25:39
  her surprise that she liked the effect on a town lawn, or even up
• 3:25:43
  at the glen they would not have been in keeping. But here in the
• 3:25:48
  old fashioned sea bound garden of the little House of Dreams they belonged. They
• 3:25:52
  do look nice, she said, sincerely. The schoolmaster's bride always had cowhogs
• 3:25:58
  round her beds, said Captain Jim. She was a master hand with flowers.
• 3:26:03
  She looked at'em and touched em so and they grew like mad.
• 3:26:07
  Some folks have that knack, I reckon you have it too, Mistress blythe
• 3:26:11
  Oh, I don't know, but I love my garden and I love working
• 3:26:15
  in it. To potter with green growing things. Watching each day to see
• 3:26:18
  the dear new sprouts come up is like taking a hand in creation. I
• 3:26:22
  think just now my garden is like faith, the substance of things hoped for,
• 3:26:28
  but by do we. It always amazes me to look at the little
• 3:26:31
  wrinkled brown seeds and think of the rainbows in'em, said Captain Jim when
• 3:26:37
  I ponder on them seeds, I don't find it no wise heart to believe
• 3:26:41
  that we've got souls that'll live in other worlds. You couldn't hardly believe there
• 3:26:46
  was life in them tiny things, some no bigger than grains of dust,
• 3:26:50
  let alone color and scent. If you hadn't seen the miracle, could you?
• 3:26:54
  Anne, who was counting her days like silver beads on a rosary,
• 3:26:58
  could not now take the long walk to the lighthouse er up the glen road.
• 3:27:03
  But Miss Cornelia and Captain Jim came very often to the little House.
• 3:27:07
  Miss Cornelia was the joy of Anne's and Gilbert's existence. They laughed sighed splittingly
• 3:27:11
  over her speeches after every visit. When Captain Jim and she happened to visit
• 3:27:16
  the little House at the same time, there was much sport for the listening,
• 3:27:20
  they waged wordy warfare, she attacking, he defending. Anne once reproached
• 3:27:26
  the captain for his baiting of Miss Cornelia. Oh, I do love to
• 3:27:30
  set her going, mistress blythe chuckled the unrepentant sinner. It's the greatest amusement
• 3:27:35
  I have in life. That tongue of hers would blister a stone. And
• 3:27:39
  you and that young dog of a doctor and joy listening to her as much
• 3:27:43
  as I do. Captain Jim came along another evening to bring Anne some mayflowers.
• 3:27:48
  The garden was full of the moist scented air of a maritime spring evening.
• 3:27:52
  There was a milk white mist on the edge of the sea, with
• 3:27:56
  a young moon kissing it, and a silver gladness of stone over the glen.
• 3:28:01
  The bell of the church across the harbor was ringing dreamily sweet. The
• 3:28:05
  mellow chime drifted through the dusk to mingle with the soft spring moan of the
• 3:28:09
  sea. Captain Jim's mayflowers added the last completing touch to the charm of the
• 3:28:15
  night. I haven't seen any this spring, and I've missed them, said
• 3:28:18
  Anne, burying her face in them. They ain't to be found around four
• 3:28:22
  winds only in the barrens away behind the glen up yonder. I took a
• 3:28:26
  little trip to day to the land of nothing to do, and hunted these
• 3:28:30
  up for you, I reckon. They're the last you'll see this spring,
• 3:28:33
  for they're nearly done. How kind and thoughtful you are, Captain Jim.
• 3:28:37
  Nobody else, not even Gilbert, with a shake of her head at him,
• 3:28:41
  remembered that I always longed from mayflowers in the spring. Well, I
• 3:28:46
  had another errand too, I wanted to take mister Howard back Yander a messa
• 3:28:50
  trout. He likes one occasional, and it's all I can do for a
• 3:28:54
  kindness. He did me once. I stayed all the afternoon and talked to
• 3:28:58
  him. He likes to talk to me though he's a highly educated man,
• 3:29:01
  and I'm only an ignorant old sailor, because he's one of the folks that's
• 3:29:05
  got to talk or they're miserable, and he finds listeners scarce round here.
• 3:29:11
  The glen folks might shy of him because they think he's an infidel. He
• 3:29:13
  ain't that far gone exactly few men is, I reckon, But he's what
• 3:29:18
  you might call a heretic heretics are wicked, but they're mighty interesting. It's
• 3:29:24
  just that they've got sort of loss lookin for God, beIN under the impression
• 3:29:28
  that he's hard to find, which he ain't. Never most of em blundered
• 3:29:31
  to him. After a while. I guess I don't think listening to mister
• 3:29:35
  Howard's arguments is likely to do me much harm. Mind you, I believe
• 3:29:39
  what I was brought up to believe. It saves a vast bother, and
• 3:29:43
  back of it all, God is good. The trouble with mister Howard is
• 3:29:46
  that he's a little too clever. He thinks that he's bound to live up
• 3:29:50
  to his cleverness, and that it's smarter to thrash out some new way of
• 3:29:54
  getting to Heaven than to go by the old track. The common ignorant folks
• 3:29:58
  is traveling. But he'll get there's some time, all right, and then
• 3:30:01
  you'll laugh at himself. Mister Howard was a Methodist to begin with, said
• 3:30:05
  Miss Cornelia, as if she thought he had not far to go from that
• 3:30:09
  to heresy? Do you know, Cornelia, said Captain Jim Gravely. I've
• 3:30:13
  often thought that if I wasn't a Presbyterian, i'd be a Methodist. Oh
• 3:30:18
  well, conceded Miss Cornelia. If you weren't a Presbyterian, it wouldn't matter
• 3:30:22
  much what you were speaking of. Heresy reminds me, Doctor, I've brought
• 3:30:26
  back that book you lent me, that Natural Law in the spiritual world.
• 3:30:31
  I didn't read more than a word of it. I can read sense and
• 3:30:33
  I can read nonsense. But that book is neither the one nor the other.
• 3:30:37
  It is considered rather heretical in some quarters, admitted Gilbert. But I
• 3:30:41
  told you that before you took it, Miss Cornelia. Oh, I wouldn't
• 3:30:45
  have minded its being heretical. I can stand wickedness, but I can't stand
• 3:30:48
  foolishness, said Miss Cornelia, calmly, and with the air of having said
• 3:30:52
  the last thing there was to say about natural law. Speaking of books,
• 3:30:56
  a mad love come to an end at last? Who weeks ago, remarked
• 3:31:01
  Captain Jim musingly. It run to one hundred and three chapters. When they
• 3:31:05
  got married, the book stopped right off, So I reckon their troubles were
• 3:31:09
  all over. It's real nice that that's the way in books, anyhow,
• 3:31:13
  isn't it, even if tisn't so anywhere else. I never read Nobles said,
• 3:31:16
  Miss Cornelia, did you hear how Geordie Russell was today, Captain Jim,
• 3:31:22
  Yes, I called in on my way home to see him. He's
• 3:31:24
  gettin around all right, but it's stewin in a broth of trouble as usual,
• 3:31:28
  poor man. Course, he bruis up most of it for himself,
• 3:31:31
  but I reckon that don't make it any easier to bear. He's an awful
• 3:31:35
  pessimist. Well, no, he ain't a pessimist exactly, Cornelia. He
• 3:31:39
  only just never finds anything that suits him. And isn't that a pessimist?
• 3:31:45
  No, No, a pessimist is one who never expects to find anything to
• 3:31:50
  suit him. Geordie ain't got that far yet. You'd find something good to
• 3:31:54
  say of the devil himself, Jim Boyd, Well, you've heard the story
• 3:31:58
  of the old lady who said he was persevered. But no, Cornelia,
• 3:32:01
  I've nothing good to say of the devil? Do you believe in him at
• 3:32:05
  all? Asked Miss Cornelia? Seriously? How can you ask that when you
• 3:32:09
  know what a good Presbyterian I am, Cornelia? How could a Presbyterian get
• 3:32:13
  along without a devil? Do you? Persisted? Miss Cornelia? Captain Jim
• 3:32:18
  suddenly became grave. I believe in what I heard a minister once call a
• 3:32:24
  mighty and malignant and intelligent power of evil working in the universe, he said,
• 3:32:30
  solemnly. I do that, Cornelia. You can call it the devil
• 3:32:33
  or the principle of evil, or the old scratch, or any name you
• 3:32:37
  like. It's there, and all the infidels and heretics in the world can't
• 3:32:41
  argue it away any more'n they can argue God away. It's there and it's
• 3:32:46
  working. But mind you, Cornelia, I believe it's going to get the
• 3:32:50
  worst of it in the long run. I am sure, I hope,
• 3:32:52
  so said miss Cornelia, none too hopefully. But speaking of the devil,
• 3:32:58
  I am positive that Billy Booth is zest by him. Now have you heard
• 3:33:01
  of Billy's latest performance? No, what was that? He's gone and burned
• 3:33:05
  up his wife's new brown broadcloth suit that she paid twenty five dollars for in
• 3:33:09
  Charlottown, because he declares the men looked too admiring at her when she wore
• 3:33:13
  it to church the first time? Wasn't that like a man? Mistress Booth
• 3:33:18
  is mighty pretty, and brown's her color, said Captain Jim reflectively, is
• 3:33:22
  that any good reason why you should poke her new suit into the kitchen stove.
• 3:33:26
  Billy Booth is a jealous fool, and he makes his wife's life miserable.
• 3:33:31
  She's cried all the week about her suit. Oh, Anne, I
• 3:33:33
  wish I could write like you believe me, wouldn't I score some of the
• 3:33:37
  men around here? Those booths are all a might queer, said Captain Jim.
• 3:33:43
  Billy seemed the sanest of the lot till he got married, and then
• 3:33:46
  this queer jealous streak cropped out in him. His brother Daniel now was always
• 3:33:50
  on, took tantrums every few days or so, and wouldn't get out of
• 3:33:54
  bed, said Miss Cornelia, with a relish. His wife would have to
• 3:33:58
  do all the barn work till he got over his spell. When he died,
• 3:34:01
  people wrote her letters of condolence. If I'd written anything, it would
• 3:34:03
  have been one of congratulation. Their father, Old Abram Booth, was a
• 3:34:07
  disgusting old sot. He was drunk at his wife's funeral and kept reeling round
• 3:34:13
  and hiccuping. I didn't drink much, but I feel awfully queer. I
• 3:34:18
  gave him a good jab in the back with my umbrella when he came near
• 3:34:22
  me, and it sobered him up until they got the casket out of the
• 3:34:24
  house. Young Johnny Booth was to have been married yesterday, but he couldn't
• 3:34:28
  be because he's gone and got the mumps. Wasn't that like a man?
• 3:34:31
  How could he help getting the mumps? Poor fellow? I'd poor fellow him,
• 3:34:35
  Believe me if I was Kate Stearn's I don't know how he could help
• 3:34:39
  getting the mumps, but I do know the wedding supper was all prepared and
• 3:34:43
  everything will be spoiled before he's well again. Such a waste. He should
• 3:34:46
  have had the mumps when he was a boy. Come, come, Cornelia,
• 3:34:50
  don't you think you are mute? Unreasonable? Miss Cornelia disdained to reply,
• 3:34:56
  and turned instead to Susan Baker, a grim faced, kind hearted elder
• 3:35:00
  spinster of the Glen who had been installed as a maid of all work at
• 3:35:03
  the little House for some weeks. Susan had been up to the Glen to
• 3:35:07
  make a sick call and had just returned. How is poor old aunt Mandy
• 3:35:11
  tonight, asked Miss Cornelia. Susan sighed very poorly, very poorly, Cornelia.
• 3:35:16
  I am afraid she will soon be in heaven, poor thing. Oh
• 3:35:20
  surely it's not so bad as that, exclaimed Miss Cornelia sympathetically. Captain Jim
• 3:35:24
  and Gilbert looked at each other. Then they suddenly rose and went out.
• 3:35:30
  There are times, said Captain Jim, between spasms, when it would be
• 3:35:33
  a sin not to laugh them two excellent women. End of Chapter eighteen.
• 3:35:41
  Chapter nineteen. Dawn and dusk in early June, when the sand hills were
• 3:35:48
  a great glory of pink wild roses and the glen was smothered in apple blossoms,
• 3:35:52
  Marilla arrived at the Little House, accompanied by a black horse hair trunk
• 3:35:56
  patterned with brass nails, which had posed undisturbed in the Green Gables garret for
• 3:36:01
  half a century. Susan Baker, who during her few weeks sojourn in the
• 3:36:07
  Little House had come to worship young missus Doctor, as she called Anne with
• 3:36:11
  blind fervor, looked rather jealously askance at Marilla at first, but as Marilla
• 3:36:16
  did not try to interfere in kitchen matters and showed no desire to interrupt Susan's
• 3:36:20
  ministrations to young missus Doctor, the good handmaiden became reconciled to her presence and
• 3:36:26
  told her cronies at the glen that Miss Cuthbert was a fine old lady and
• 3:36:31
  knew her place. One evening, when the sky's limpid bull was filled with
• 3:36:35
  a red glory and the robins were thrilling the golden twilight with jubilant hymns to
• 3:36:41
  the stars of evening, there was a sudden commotion in the little House of
• 3:36:45
  Dreams. Telephone messages were sent up to the glen. Doctor Dave and a
• 3:36:48
  white capped nurse came hastily down. Marilla paced the garden walks between the cohog
• 3:36:54
  shells, murmuring prayers between her set lips, and Susan sat in the kitchen
• 3:37:00
  with cotton wool in her ears and her apron over her head. Leslie,
• 3:37:03
  looking out from the house up the brook, saw that every window of the
• 3:37:07
  little house was alight, and did not sleep that night. The June night
• 3:37:11
  was short, but it seemed an eternity to those who waited and watched.
• 3:37:16
  Oh will it never end? Said Marilla. Then she saw how grave the
• 3:37:20
  nurse and Doctor Dave looked, and she dared ask no more questions. Suppose
• 3:37:26
  Anne but Marilla could not suppose it. Do not tell me, said Susan
• 3:37:31
  fiercely, answering the anguish in Marilla's eyes. That God could be so cruel
• 3:37:35
  as to take that darling lamp for us, when we all love her so
• 3:37:37
  much He has taken others as well. Beloved, said Marilla hoarsely. But
• 3:37:43
  at dawn, when the rising sun ran to part the mists hanging over the
• 3:37:48
  sand bar and made rainbows of them, joy came to the little house.
• 3:37:52
  Anne was safe, and a wee white lady with her mother's big eyes was
• 3:37:56
  lying beside her. Gilbert, his face gray and haggard from his knight's agony,
• 3:38:01
  came down to tell Marilla and Susan, Thank God, shuddered Marilla.
• 3:38:07
  Susan got up and took the cotton wool out of her ears. Now for
• 3:38:11
  breakfast, she said, briskly. I am of the opinion that we will
• 3:38:15
  all be glad of a bite and sup you tell young missus doctor not to
• 3:38:18
  worry about a single thing. Susan is at the helm. You tell her
• 3:38:22
  just to think of her baby. Gilbert smiled rather sadly as he went away.
• 3:38:28
  Anne, her pale face blanched with its baptism of pain. Her eyes,
• 3:38:31
  aglow with the holy passion of motherhood, did not need to be told
• 3:38:35
  to think of her baby. She thought of nothing else. For a few
• 3:38:39
  hours. She tasted of happiness so rare and exquisite that she wondered if the
• 3:38:43
  angels in heaven did not envy her Little Joyce, she murmured. When Marilla
• 3:38:48
  came in to see the baby. We planned to call her that if she
• 3:38:52
  were a girly. There were so many we would have liked to name her
• 3:38:56
  for we couldn't choose between them, so we decided on Joyce. We can
• 3:39:00
  call her joy for short. Joy. It suits so well. Oh,
• 3:39:05
  Marilla, I thought I was happy before. Now I know that I just
• 3:39:09
  dreamed a pleasant dream of happiness. This is the reality. You mustn't talk,
• 3:39:13
  Anne, Wait till you're stronger, said Marilla, warningly. You know
• 3:39:18
  how hard it is for me not to talk, smiled Anne. At first
• 3:39:22
  she was too weak and too happy to notice that Gilbert and the nurse looked
• 3:39:26
  grave and Marilla sorrowful. Then as subtly and coldly and remorselessly as a sea
• 3:39:33
  fog stealing landward, fear crept into her heart. Why was not Gilbert glad
• 3:39:39
  her. Why would he not talk about the baby? Why would they not
• 3:39:41
  let her have it with her after that first heavenly happy hour? Was Was
• 3:39:46
  there anything wrong? Gilbert whispered Anne, imploringly. The baby is all right,
• 3:39:54
  isn't she? Tell me? Tell me? Gilbert was a long and
• 3:40:00
  turning round. Then he bent over Anne and looked in her eyes. Marilla,
• 3:40:05
  listening fearfully outside the door, heard a pitiful, heart broken moan,
• 3:40:09
  and fled to the kitchen, where Susan was weeping. Oh, the poor
• 3:40:13
  lamb, the poor lamb. How can she bear it? Miss Cuthbert.
• 3:40:16
  I am afraid it will kill her? She has been that built up and
• 3:40:20
  happy, longing for that baby and planning for it. Cannot anything be done,
• 3:40:24
  know how, Miss Cuthbert, I am afraid. Not Susan. Gilbert
• 3:40:28
  says there is no hope. He knew from the first the little thing couldn't
• 3:40:31
  live. And it is such a sweet baby, sobbed Susan. I never
• 3:40:37
  saw one so white. They're mostly red or yellow. And it opened its
• 3:40:41
  big eyes as if it was months old, The little little thing, Oh,
• 3:40:45
  the poor young missus. Doctor at sunset, the little soul that had
• 3:40:50
  come with the dawning went away, leaving heartbreak behind it. Miss Cornelia took
• 3:40:56
  the wee white Lady from the kindly but stranger hands of the nurse and dressed
• 3:41:00
  the tiny waxen form in the beautiful dress Leslie had made for it. Leslie
• 3:41:05
  had asked her to do that. Then she took it back and laid it
• 3:41:09
  beside the poor, broken, tear blinded little mother. The Lord has given,
• 3:41:13
  and the Lord has taken away, Dearie, she said, through her
• 3:41:16
  own tears. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Then she went away,
• 3:41:22
  leaving Anne and Gilbert alone together with their dead. The next day,
• 3:41:26
  the small white Joy was laid in a velvet casket, which Leslie had lined
• 3:41:31
  with apple blossoms, and taken to the graveyard of the church across the harbor.
• 3:41:35
  Miss Cornelia and Marilla put all the little love made garments away, together
• 3:41:39
  with the ruff old basket, which had been befrilled and belaced for dimpled limbs
• 3:41:43
  and downy head. Little Joy was never to sleep there. She had found
• 3:41:48
  a colder and narrower bed. This has been an awful disappointment to me,
• 3:41:52
  sighed Miss Cornelia. I have looked forward to this baby, and I did
• 3:41:56
  want it to be a girl too. I can only be thankful that Anne's
• 3:42:01
  life was spared, said Marilla, with a shiver, recalling those hours of
• 3:42:05
  darkness when the girl she loved was passing through the valley of the Shadow.
• 3:42:09
  Poor, poor Lamb, her heart is broken, said Susan. I envy
• 3:42:13
  Anne, said Leslie, suddenly and fiercely. And I'd envy her even if
• 3:42:18
  she had died. She was a mother for one beautiful day. I'd gladly
• 3:42:22
  give my life for that. I wouldn't talk like that, Leslie, dearie,
• 3:42:26
  said Miss Cornelia deprecatingly. She was afraid that the dignified Miss Cuthbert would
• 3:42:31
  think Leslie quite terrible. Anne's convalescence was long and made bitter for her by
• 3:42:37
  many things. The bloom and sunshine of the four winds world grated harshly on
• 3:42:43
  her, And yet when the rain fell heavily, she pictured it beating so
• 3:42:48
  mercilessly down on that little grave across the harbor. And when the wind blew
• 3:42:52
  around the eaves, she heard sad voices in it that she had never heard
• 3:42:56
  before. Kindly callers heard her too, with the well meant platitudes, with
• 3:43:01
  which they strove to cover the nakedness of bereavement. A letter from Phil Blake
• 3:43:05
  was an added sting. Phil had heard of the baby's birth but not of
• 3:43:09
  its death, and she wrote Anne a congratulatory letter of sweet mirth, which
• 3:43:13
  hurt her horribly. I would have laughed over it so happily if I had
• 3:43:18
  my baby, she sobbed to Marilla. But when I haven't, it just
• 3:43:22
  seems like wanton cruelty. Though I know Phil wouldn't hurt me for the world.
• 3:43:26
  Oh, Marilla, I don't see how I can ever be happy again.
• 3:43:31
  Everything will hurt me all the rest of my life. Time will help
• 3:43:35
  you, said Marilla, who was racked with sympathy but could never learn to
• 3:43:39
  express it in other than age worn formulas. It doesn't seem fair, said
• 3:43:45
  Anne rebelliously. Babies are born and live where they are not wanted, where
• 3:43:48
  they will be neglected, where they will have no chance. I would have
• 3:43:52
  loved my baby so and cared for it so tenderly, and tried to give
• 3:43:56
  her every chance for good, and yet I wasn't allowed to keep it.
• 3:44:01
  Was God's will, Anne, said Marilla, helpless before the riddle of the
• 3:44:05
  universe, the why of undeserved pain, and little Joy is better off.
• 3:44:09
  I can't believe that, cried Anne bitterly. Then, seeing that Marilla looked
• 3:44:15
  shocked, she added passionately, Why should she be born at all? Why
• 3:44:18
  should any one be born at all? If she's better off dead. I
• 3:44:22
  don't believe it is better for a child to die at birth and to live
• 3:44:24
  its life out and love and be loved and enjoy and suffer and do its
• 3:44:30
  work and develop a character that would give it a personality and eternity. And
• 3:44:33
  how do you know that it was God's will? Perhaps it was just a
• 3:44:37
  thwarting of his purpose by the power of evil. We can't be expected to
• 3:44:41
  be resigned to that. Oh, Anne, don't talk, so said Marilla,
• 3:44:45
  genuinely alarmed. Lest Anne were drifting into deep and dangerous waters. We
• 3:44:50
  can't understand, but we must have faith. We must believe that all is
• 3:44:54
  for the best. I know you find it hard to think so just now,
• 3:44:58
  but try to be brave for Gilbert's sake. He's so worried about you.
• 3:45:03
  You aren't getting strong as fast as you should. Oh, I know
• 3:45:07
  I've been very selfish, sighed Anne. I love Gilbert more than ever and
• 3:45:11
  I want to live for his sake, but it seems as if part of
• 3:45:15
  me was buried over there in that little harbor graveyard. And it hurts so
• 3:45:20
  much that I'm afraid of life. It won't hurt so much always, Anne.
• 3:45:24
  The thought that it may stop hurting sometimes hurts me worse than all else.
• 3:45:28
  Marilla. Yes, I know I've felt that too about other things.
• 3:45:33
  But we all love you, Anne. Captain Jim has been up every day
• 3:45:37
  to ask for you, and missus Moore haunts the place, and Miss Bryant
• 3:45:41
  spends most of her time I think, cooking up nice things for you.
• 3:45:46
  Susan doesn't like it very well. She thinks she can cook as well as
• 3:45:48
  Miss Bryant. Dear Susan, Oh, everybody has been so dear and good
• 3:45:54
  and lovely to me. Marilla. I'm not ungrateful, and perhaps when this
• 3:45:58
  horrible eight grows a little less, I'll find that I can go on living.
• 3:46:05
  End of Chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty Lost Margaret. Anne found that she
• 3:46:13
  could go on living. The day came when she even smiled again over one
• 3:46:16
  of Miss Cornelia's speeches. But there was something in the smile that had never
• 3:46:20
  been in Anne's smile before, and would never be absent from it again.
• 3:46:26
  On the first day she was able to go for a drive, Gilbert took
• 3:46:30
  her down to four winds point and left her there while he rode over the
• 3:46:33
  channel to see a patient of the fishing village. A rollicking wind was scudding
• 3:46:37
  across the harbor and the dunes, whipping the water into white caps and washing
• 3:46:41
  the sandshore with long lines of silvery breakers. I'm real proud to see you
• 3:46:46
  here again, Mistress blythe said Captain Jim. Sit down, Sit down.
• 3:46:52
  I'm afeared it's mighty dusty here today. But there's no need of looking at
• 3:46:56
  dust when you can look at such scenery, is there. I don't mind
• 3:46:58
  the dust, said Anne, But Gilbert says I must keep in the open
• 3:47:03
  air. I think I'll go and sit on the rocks down there. Would
• 3:47:07
  you like company or would you rather be alone? If by company you mean
• 3:47:11
  yours, I'd much rather have it than be alone, said Anne, smiling.
• 3:47:16
  Then she sighed she had never before minded being alone. Now she dreaded
• 3:47:20
  it when she was alone. Now she felt so dreadfully alone. Here's a
• 3:47:26
  nice little spot where the wind can't get at you, said Captain Jim when
• 3:47:28
  they reached the rocks. I often sit here. It's a great place to
• 3:47:33
  just sit and dream. Oh, dreams, sighed Anne. I can't dream
• 3:47:37
  now, Captain Jim. I'm done with dreams. Oh no, you're not,
• 3:47:43
  Mistress Blythe. Oh no you're not, said Captain Jim meditatively. I
• 3:47:48
  know how you feel just now. But if you keep on living, you'll
• 3:47:52
  get glad again. And the first thing you know, you'll be dreaming again.
• 3:47:56
  Thank the Good Lord for it. If it wasn't for our dreams,
• 3:47:58
  they might as well. How do we stand living if it wasn't for our
• 3:48:03
  dream of immortality? And that's a dream that's bound to come true. Mistress
• 3:48:07
  Blythe, you'll see your little choice again some day. But she won't be
• 3:48:11
  my baby, said Anne, with trembling lips. Oh she may be as
• 3:48:16
  longfellow says a fair maiden clothed with celestial grace, but she'll be a stranger
• 3:48:22
  to me. God will manage better than that, I believe, said Captain
• 3:48:26
  Jim. They were both silent for a little while. Then Captain Jim said,
• 3:48:31
  very softly, Mistress Blythe, may I tell you about lost Margaret?
• 3:48:37
  Of course, said Anne gently. She did not know who lost Margaret was,
• 3:48:41
  But she felt that she was going to hear the romance of Captain Jim's
• 3:48:46
  life. I've often wanted to tell you about her, Captain Jim went on,
• 3:48:50
  Do you know why, Mistress Blythe, It's because I want somebody to
• 3:48:56
  remember and think of her sometimes after I'm gone. I can't bear that her
• 3:49:00
  name should be forgotten by all living souls. And now nobody remembers lost Margaret
• 3:49:05
  but me. Then Captain Jim told the story, an old, old,
• 3:49:11
  forgotten story, for it was over fifty years since Margaret had fallen asleep one
• 3:49:16
  day in her father's dory and drifted, or so it was supposed, For
• 3:49:20
  nothing was ever certainly known as to her fate out to the channel beyond the
• 3:49:24
  bar, to perish in the black thunder squall which had come up so suddenly
• 3:49:28
  that long ago summer afternoon. But to Captain Jim, those fifty years were
• 3:49:33
  but as yesterday, when it is passed. I walked the shore for months
• 3:49:37
  after that, he said, sadly, looking to find her, dear sweet
• 3:49:41
  little body, But the sea never give her back to me. But I'll
• 3:49:46
  find her sometime, Mistress Blythe, I'll find her sometime she's waitin for me.
• 3:49:52
  I wish I could tell you just how she looked, but I can't.
• 3:49:56
  I've seen a fine silvery mist hanging over the bar sunrise. It seemed
• 3:50:01
  like her. And then again I've seen a white birch in the woods back
• 3:50:05
  yonder that made me think of her. She had pale brown hair and a
• 3:50:09
  little white, sweet face, and long slender fingers like yours, Mistress blythe
• 3:50:15
  only browner, for she was a suore girl. Sometimes I wake up in
• 3:50:18
  the night and hear the sea calling to me in the old way, and
• 3:50:22
  it seems as if lost Margaret called in it. And when there's a storm
• 3:50:26
  and the waves are sobbing and moaning, I hear her lamenting among them.
• 3:50:31
  And when they laugh on a gay day, it's her laugh, Lost Margaret's
• 3:50:35
  sweet, roguish little laugh. The sea took her from me, But some
• 3:50:41
  day I'll find her, Mistress blythe it can't keep us apart forever. I
• 3:50:46
  am glad you've told me about her, said Anne. I've often wondered why
• 3:50:50
  you had lived all your life alone. I couldn't ever care for any one
• 3:50:54
  else. Lost Margaret took my heart with her out there, said the old
• 3:50:58
  lover who had been faithful for fifty years to his drowned sweetheart. You won't
• 3:51:03
  mind if I talk a good deal about her, will you, Mistress Blythe.
• 3:51:07
  It's a pleasure to me, for all the pain went out of her
• 3:51:09
  memory years ago and just left its blessing. I know you'll never forget her,
• 3:51:15
  Mistress Blythe. And if the years, as I hope, bring other
• 3:51:18
  little folks to your home, I want you to promise me that you'll tell
• 3:51:22
  them the story of lost Margaret, so that her name won't be forgotten among
• 3:51:26
  mankind. End of chapter twenty Chapter twenty one, barriers swept away, Anne
• 3:51:35
  said, Leslie, breaking abruptly a short silence. You don't know how good
• 3:51:39
  it is to be sitting here with you again, working and talking and being
• 3:51:43
  silent together. They were sitting among the blue eyed grasses on the bank of
• 3:51:48
  the brook and Anne's garden. The waters sparkled and crooned past them. The
• 3:51:52
  birches threw dappled shadows over them, Roses bloomed among the walks. The sun
• 3:51:58
  was beginning to be low, and the air was full of woven music.
• 3:52:03
  There was one music of the wind in the firs behind the house. And
• 3:52:05
  another of the waves on the bar, and still another from the distant bell
• 3:52:09
  of the church near which the wee white Lady slept. Anne loved that bell,
• 3:52:15
  though it brought sorrowful thoughts. Now she looked curiously at Leslie, who
• 3:52:20
  had thrown down her sewing and spoken with a lack of restraint that was very
• 3:52:22
  unusual with her. On that horrible night when you were so ill, Leslie
• 3:52:28
  went on, I kept thinking that perhaps we'd have no more talks and walks
• 3:52:31
  and works together. And I realized just what your friendship had come to mean
• 3:52:35
  to me, just what you meant, and just what a hateful little beast
• 3:52:39
  I had been, Leslie, Leslie, I never allow anyone to call my
• 3:52:43
  friend's names. It's true. That's exactly what I am, a hateful little
• 3:52:48
  beast. There's something I've got to tell you, Anne. I suppose it
• 3:52:52
  will make you despise me, but I must confess it. Anne. There
• 3:52:58
  have been times this past winter and when I have hated you. I knew
• 3:53:01
  it, said Anne, calmly. You knew it, Yes, I saw
• 3:53:05
  it in your eyes, and yet you went on liking me and being my
• 3:53:09
  friend. Well, it was only now and then you hated me, Leslie.
• 3:53:13
  Between times you loved me. I think I certainly did, but that
• 3:53:18
  other horrid feeling was always there, spoiling it back in my heart. I
• 3:53:22
  kept it down sometimes I forgot it, but sometimes it would surge up and
• 3:53:26
  take possession of me. I hated you because I envied you. Oh.
• 3:53:31
  I was sick with envy of you. At times. You had a dear
• 3:53:35
  little home and love and happiness and glad dreams, everything I wanted and never
• 3:53:41
  had and never could have, Oh, never could have. That was what
• 3:53:46
  stung. I wouldn't have envied you if I'd had any hope that life would
• 3:53:50
  ever be different from me. But I hadn't. I hadn't, and it
• 3:53:54
  didn't seem fair. It made me rebellious and it hurt me, And so
• 3:53:58
  I hated you at times. Oh, I was so ashamed of it.
• 3:54:01
  I'm dying of shame now, but I couldn't conquer it. That night,
• 3:54:07
  when I was afraid you mightn't live, I thought I was going to be
• 3:54:09
  punished for my wickedness. And I loved you so then, Anne, Anne,
• 3:54:15
  I never had anything to love since my mother died except Dick's old dog.
• 3:54:18
  And it's so dreadful to have nothing to love. Life is so empty,
• 3:54:22
  and there's nothing worse than emptiness. And I might have loved you so
• 3:54:26
  much, and that horrible thing had spoiled it. Leslie was trembling and growing
• 3:54:33
  almost incoherent with the violence of her emotion. Don't, Leslie implored Anne.
• 3:54:37
  Oh, don't I understand. Don't talk of it any more. I must,
• 3:54:43
  I must. When I knew you were going to live, I vowed
• 3:54:46
  that I would tell you as soon as you were well, that I wouldn't
• 3:54:50
  go on accepting your friendship and companionship without telling you how unworthy I was of
• 3:54:54
  it. And I've been so afraid it would turn you against me. You
• 3:54:58
  needn't fear that lesson. Oh, I'm so glad, So glad Anne.
• 3:55:03
  Leslie clasped her brown work hardened hands tightly together to still their shaking. But
• 3:55:09
  I want to tell you everything now I've begun. You don't remember the first
• 3:55:13
  time I saw you. I suppose it wasn't that night on the shore.
• 3:55:18
  No, it was the night Gilbert and I came home. You were driving
• 3:55:20
  your geese down the hill. I should think I do remember it. I
• 3:55:24
  thought you were so beautiful. I longed for weeks after to find out who
• 3:55:28
  you were. I knew who you were, although I had never seen either
• 3:55:33
  of you before. I had heard of the new doctor and his bride who
• 3:55:35
  were coming to live in Miss Russell's little house. I I hated you that
• 3:55:41
  very moment, Anne, I felt the resentment in your eyes. Then I
• 3:55:46
  doubted. I thought I must be mistaken, because why should it be.
• 3:55:50
  It was because you looked so happy. Oh, you'll agree with me now
• 3:55:54
  that I am a hateful beast to hate another woman just because she was happy,
• 3:55:58
  and when her happiness didn't take it anything from me. That was why
• 3:56:01
  I never went to see you. I knew quite well. I ought to
• 3:56:05
  go, even our simple four winds customs demanded that, but I couldn't.
• 3:56:09
  I used to watch you from my window. I could see you and your
• 3:56:13
  husband strolling about your garden in the evening, or you running down the poplar
• 3:56:16
  lane to meet him, and it hurt me, And yet in another way,
• 3:56:20
  I wanted to go over. I felt that if I were not so
• 3:56:24
  miserable, I could have liked you and found in you what I've never had
• 3:56:26
  in my life, an intimate, real friend of my own age. And
• 3:56:31
  then you remember that night at the shore. You were afraid I would think
• 3:56:35
  you crazy. You must have thought I was no But I couldn't understand you,
• 3:56:39
  Leslie. One moment you drew me to you, the next you pushed
• 3:56:43
  me back. I was very unhappy that evening. I had had a hard
• 3:56:48
  day. Dick had been very, very hard to manage that day. Generally
• 3:56:52
  he's quite good natured and easily controlled, you know, Anne, But some
• 3:56:56
  days he is very different. I was so oh heartsick. I ran away
• 3:57:01
  to the shore as soon as you went to sleep. It was my only
• 3:57:03
  refuge. I sat there thinking of how my poor father had ended his life,
• 3:57:09
  and wondering if I wouldn't be driven to it some day. Oh my
• 3:57:11
  heart was full of black thoughts. And then you came dancing along the cove
• 3:57:16
  like a glad, light hearted child. I hated you more then than I've
• 3:57:20
  ever done since, and yet I craved your friendship. The one feeling swayed
• 3:57:26
  me one moment, the other feeling the next. When I got home that
• 3:57:31
  night, I cried for shame of what you must think of me. But
• 3:57:33
  it's always been just the same. When I came over here. Sometimes i'd
• 3:57:37
  be happy and enjoy my visit, and at other times that hideous feeling would
• 3:57:41
  mar at all. There were times when everything about you and your house hurt
• 3:57:46
  me. You had so many dear little things I couldn't have, do you
• 3:57:50
  know It's ridiculous? But I had an especial spite at those China dogs of
• 3:57:54
  yours. There were times when I wanted to catch up Gog and may Goog
• 3:57:58
  and bang their perp blackness noses together. Oh, you smile, Anne,
• 3:58:03
  but it was never funny to me. I would come here and see you
• 3:58:05
  and Gilbert with your books and your flowers, and your household goods, and
• 3:58:09
  your little family jokes, and your love for each other showing in every look
• 3:58:13
  and word, even when you didn't know it, and I would go home
• 3:58:18
  to you know what I went home to, Oh, Anne, I don't
• 3:58:22
  believe I'm jealous and envious by nature. When I was a girl, I
• 3:58:26
  lacked many things my schoolmates had, but I never cared. I never disliked
• 3:58:30
  them for it. But I seemed to have grown so hateful. Leslie dearest,
• 3:58:35
  stop blaming yourself. You are not hateful or jealous or envious. The
• 3:58:41
  life you have to live has warped you a little, perhaps, but it
• 3:58:43
  would have ruined a nature less fine and noble than yours. I'm letting you
• 3:58:48
  tell me all this because I believe it's better for you to talk it out
• 3:58:50
  and rid your soul of it. But don't blame yourself any more. Well,
• 3:58:56
  I won't. I just wanted you to know me as I am.
• 3:59:00
  That time you told me of your darling hope for the spring was the worst
• 3:59:03
  of all, Anne. I shall never forgive myself for the way I behaved.
• 3:59:07
  Then I repented it with tears, and I did put many a tender
• 3:59:11
  and loving thought of you into the little dress I made. But I might
• 3:59:15
  have known that anything I made could only be a shroud in the end.
• 3:59:18
  Now, Leslie, that is bitter and morbid. Put such thoughts away.
• 3:59:22
  I was so glad when you brought the little dress, and since I had
• 3:59:26
  to lose Little Joyce, I like to think that the dress she wore was
• 3:59:30
  the one you made for her when you let yourself love me, Anne.
• 3:59:33
  Do you know I believe I shall always love you after this. I don't
• 3:59:37
  think I'll ever feel that dreadful way about you again. Talking it all out
• 3:59:43
  seems to have done away with it. Somehow it's very strange, and I
• 3:59:46
  thought it so real and bitter. It's like opening the door of a dark
• 3:59:50
  room to show some hideous creature you've believed to be there, and when the
• 3:59:54
  light streams in, your monster turns out to have been just a shadow,
• 3:59:58
  vanishing. When the light comes, it will never come between us again.
• 4:00:03
  No, we are real friends now, Leslie, and I am very glad.
• 4:00:07
  I hope you won't misunderstand me if I say something else. And I
• 4:00:13
  was grieved to the core of my heart when you lost your baby, and
• 4:00:16
  if I could have saved her for you by cutting off one of my hands,
• 4:00:18
  I would have done it. But your sorrow has brought us closer together.
• 4:00:24
  Your perfect happiness isn't a barrier any longer. Oh, don't misunderstand,
• 4:00:28
  dearest. I'm not glad that your happiness isn't perfect any longer. I can
• 4:00:31
  say that sincerely. But since it isn't, there isn't such a gulf between
• 4:00:37
  us. I do understand that too, Leslie. Now we'll just shut up
• 4:00:41
  the past and forget what was unpleasant in it. It's all going to be
• 4:00:45
  different. We're both of the race of Joseph. Now I think You've been
• 4:00:48
  wonderful, wonderful, and Leslie, I can't help believing that life has something
• 4:00:54
  good and beautiful for you. Yet Leslie shook her head. No, she
• 4:01:00
  said, Dully, there isn't any hope. Dick will never be better,
• 4:01:03
  and even if his memory were to come back. Oh, Anne, it
• 4:01:07
  would be worse, even worse than it is now. It is something you
• 4:01:11
  can't understand, You happy bride, Anne, Did Miss Cornelia ever tell you
• 4:01:16
  how I came to marry Dick. Yes, I'm glad. I wanted you
• 4:01:20
  to know, but I couldn't bring myself to talk of it if you hadn't
• 4:01:22
  known, Anne. It seems to me that ever since I was twelve years
• 4:01:26
  old, life has been bitter. Before that, I had a happy childhood.
• 4:01:31
  We were very poor, but we didn't mind. Father was so splendid,
• 4:01:35
  so clever, and loving and sympathetic. We were chums as far back
• 4:01:39
  as I can remember. And Mother was so sweet. She was very,
• 4:01:43
  very beautiful. I look like her, but I am not so beautiful as
• 4:01:46
  she was. Miss Cornelia says, you are far more beautiful. She is
• 4:01:50
  mistaken or prejudiced. I think my figure is better. Mother was slight and
• 4:01:56
  bent by hard work, but she had the face of an angel. I
• 4:01:58
  used to just look up at her and worship We all worshiped her father and
• 4:02:03
  Kenneth and I. Anne remembered that Miss Cornelia had given her a very different
• 4:02:07
  impression of Leslie's mother, but had not loved the truer vision. Still,
• 4:02:13
  it was selfish of Rose West to make her daughter marry Dick Moore. Kenneth
• 4:02:18
  was my brother, went on, Leslie. Oh, I can't tell you
• 4:02:22
  how I loved him, And he was cruelly killed, do you know how?
• 4:02:26
  Yes, And I saw his little face as the wheel went over him.
• 4:02:31
  He fell on his back, and and I can see it now,
• 4:02:35
  I shall always see it. And all I ask of Heaven is that that
• 4:02:39
  recollection shall be blotted out of my memory. Oh my god, Leslie,
• 4:02:43
  don't speak of it. I know the story. Don't go into details that
• 4:02:48
  only harrow your soul up Unavailingly, it will be blotted out. After a
• 4:02:54
  moment's struggle, Leslie regained a measure of self control. Then my father's health
• 4:02:58
  got worse, since he grew despondent, his mind became unbalanced. You've heard
• 4:03:03
  all that too, Yes. After that, I just had mother to live
• 4:03:07
  for. But I was very ambitious. I meant to teach and earn my
• 4:03:13
  way through college. I meant to climb to the very top. Oh,
• 4:03:16
  I won't talk of that either. It's no use. You know what happened.
• 4:03:20
  I couldn't see my dear little heartbroken mother, who had been such a
• 4:03:24
  slave all her life, turned out of her home. Of course, I
• 4:03:28
  could have earned enough for us to live on, but Mother couldn't leave her
• 4:03:31
  home. She had come there as a bride, and she had loved my
• 4:03:35
  father so and all her memories were there even yet, Anne, when I
• 4:03:39
  think that I made her last year happy, I'm not sorry for what I
• 4:03:43
  did. As for Dick, I didn't hate him when I married him.
• 4:03:48
  I just felt for him the indifferent, friendly feeling I had for most of
• 4:03:50
  my schoolmates. I knew he drank some, but I had never heard the
• 4:03:54
  story of the girl down at the fishing cove. If I had, I
• 4:03:58
  couldn't have married him, even for mother's sake. Afterwards, I did hate
• 4:04:03
  him, but Mother never knew. She died, and then I was alone.
• 4:04:09
  I was only seventeen, and I was alone. Dick had gone off
• 4:04:13
  in the four sisters. I hoped he wouldn't be home very much more.
• 4:04:18
  The sea had always been in his blood. I had no other hope.
• 4:04:22
  Well, Captain Jim brought him home, as you know, and that's all
• 4:04:26
  there is to say. You know me now, Anne, the worst of
• 4:04:30
  me. The barriers are all down, and you still want to be my
• 4:04:33
  friend. Anne looked up through the birches at the white paper lantern of a
• 4:04:39
  half moon drifting downwards to the gulf of sunset. Her face was very sweet.
• 4:04:43
  I am your friend, and you are mine for always, she said,
• 4:04:48
  such a friend as I never had before. I have had many dear
• 4:04:52
  and beloved friends, but there is a something in you, Leslie, that
• 4:04:56
  I never found in any one else. You have more to offer me in
• 4:05:00
  that rich nature of yours, and I have more to give you than I
• 4:05:03
  had in my careless girlhood. We are both women and friends forever. They
• 4:05:09
  clasped hands and smiled at each other through the tears that filled the gray eyes
• 4:05:13
  and the blue end of Chapter twenty one. Chapter twenty two, Miss Cornelia
• 4:05:20
  Ranges matters. Gilbert insisted that Susan should be kept on at the little House
• 4:05:24
  for the summer. Anne protested, at first, life here with just the
• 4:05:30
  two of us is so sweet, Gilbert, it spoils it a little to
• 4:05:33
  have anyone else. Susan is a dear soul, but she's an outsider.
• 4:05:37
  It won't hurt me to do the work here. You must take your doctor's
• 4:05:41
  advice, said Gilbert. There's an old proverb to the effect that shoemaker's wives
• 4:05:46
  go barefoot and doctor's wives die young. I don't mean that it shall be
• 4:05:50
  true in my household. You will keep Susan until the old spring comes back
• 4:05:54
  into your step and those little hollows on your cheeks fill out. You just
• 4:05:58
  take it easy, missus doctor dear, said Susan, coming abruptly, and
• 4:06:01
  have a good time, and do not worry about the pantry. Susan is
• 4:06:05
  at the helm. There is no use in keeping a dog and doing your
• 4:06:07
  own barking. I am going to take your breakfast up to you every morning.
• 4:06:11
  Indeed, you are not laughed, Anne. I agree with miss Cornelia
• 4:06:16
  that it's a scandal for a woman who isn't sick to eat her breakfast in
• 4:06:18
  bed, and almost justifies the men in any enormities. Oh, Cornelia,
• 4:06:24
  said Susan, with ineffable contempt. I think you have better sense, Missus
• 4:06:28
  doctor dear, than to heed what Cornelia Bryan says. I cannot see why
• 4:06:31
  she must always be running down the men, even if she is an old
• 4:06:35
  maid. I am an old maid, but you never hear me abusing the
• 4:06:37
  men. I like em. I would have married one if I could.
• 4:06:41
  Is it not funny nobody ever asked me to marry him, Missus doctor dear.
• 4:06:45
  I am no beauty, but I am as good looking as most of
• 4:06:48
  the married women you see. But I never had a bow. What do
• 4:06:50
  you suppose is the reason? It may be predestination, suggested Anne, with
• 4:06:56
  unearthly solemnity. Susan nodded. That is what I have often thought, Missus
• 4:07:01
  doctor dear, and a great comfort it is. I do not mind nobody
• 4:07:05
  wanting me, if the Almighty decreed it so for his own wise purposes.
• 4:07:09
  But sometimes doubt creeps in, Missus doctor dear, and I wonder if maybe
• 4:07:13
  the old scratch has not more to do with it than any one else.
• 4:07:16
  I cannot feel resigned then, But maybe, added Susan, brightening up,
• 4:07:20
  I will have a chance to get married. Yet I often and often think
• 4:07:24
  of the old verse my aunt used to repeat, There never was a goose
• 4:07:28
  so gray. But sometime sooner or late, some honest gander came her way
• 4:07:31
  and took her for his mate. A woman cannot ever be sure of not
• 4:07:35
  being married till she is buried, missus, doctor, dear, And meanwhile,
• 4:07:37
  I will make a batch of cherry pies. I notice the doctor favors
• 4:07:41
  them, and I do like cooking for a man who appreciates his victuals.
• 4:07:46
  Miss Cornelia dropped in that afternoon, puffing a little. I don't mind the
• 4:07:50
  world or the devil much, but the flesh does rather bother me. She
• 4:07:52
  admitted, you always look as cool as a cucumber. Anne, dearie,
• 4:07:56
  do I smell cherry pie? If I do? Ask me to state tea.
• 4:08:01
  Haven't tasted a cherry pie this summer. My cherries have all been stolen
• 4:08:03
  by those scamps of Gilmun boys from the glen. Now now, Cornelia remonstrated
• 4:08:09
  Captain Jim, who had been reading a sea novel in a corner of the
• 4:08:11
  living room. You shouldn't say that about those two poor motherless Gilman boys unless
• 4:08:16
  you've got certain proof. Just because their father ain't none too honest, isn't
• 4:08:22
  any reason for calling them thieves. It's more likely it's been the robins took
• 4:08:26
  your cherries. They're terrible thick this year robin's, said Miss Cornelia, disdainfully,
• 4:08:31
  hum two legged robins, believe me, well, most of the four
• 4:08:37
  winds robins are constructed on that principle, said Captain Jim gravely. Miss Cornelia
• 4:08:43
  stared at him for a moment. Then she leaned back in her rocker and
• 4:08:48
  laughed long and ungrudgingly. Well you have got one on me at last,
• 4:08:52
  Jim Boyd, I'll admit, just look how pleased he is, Anne Dearie,
• 4:08:56
  grinning like a chessi cat. As for the robin's legs, if robins
• 4:09:00
  have great big bear's sunburned legs with ragged trousers hanging on him, such as
• 4:09:05
  I saw up in my cherry tree one morning at sunrise last week, I'll
• 4:09:07
  beg the Gilman boy's pardon. By the time I got down, they were
• 4:09:11
  gone. I couldn't understand how they had disappeared so quick, But Captain Jim
• 4:09:16
  has enlightened me. They flew away, of course. Captain Jim laughed and
• 4:09:20
  went away, regretfully, declining an invitation to stay to supper and partake of
• 4:09:24
  cherry pie. I'm on my way to see Leslie and ask her if she'll
• 4:09:28
  take a border. Miss Cornelia resumed. I had a letter yesterday from a
• 4:09:31
  missus Daly in Toronto who boarded a spell with me two years ago. She
• 4:09:35
  wanted me to take a friend of hers for the summer. His name is
• 4:09:39
  Owen Ford, and he's a newspaper man, and it seems he's a grandson
• 4:09:43
  of the schoolmaster who built this house. John Selwyn's oldest daughter married an Ontario
• 4:09:48
  man named Ford, and this is her son. He wants to see the
• 4:09:50
  old place's grandparents lived in. He had a bad spell of typhoid in the
• 4:09:54
  spring and hasn't got rightly over it, so his doctor has ordered him to
• 4:09:58
  the sea. He doesn't want to go to the hotel. He just wants
• 4:10:03
  a quiet home place. I can't take him for I have to be away
• 4:10:05
  in August. I've been appointed a delegate to the w f m S Convention
• 4:10:09
  in Kingsport, and I'm going. I don't know whether Leslie'll want to be
• 4:10:13
  bothered with him either, but there's no one else. If she can't take
• 4:10:16
  him, he'll have to go over the harbor. When you've seen her.
• 4:10:20
  Come back and help us eat our cherry pies, said Anne. Bring Leslie
• 4:10:24
  and Dick to if they can come. And so you're going to Kingsport,
• 4:10:28
  what a nice time you will have. I must give you a letter to
• 4:10:31
  a friend of mine there, missus Jonas Blake. I've prevailed on missus Thomas
• 4:10:35
  Holt to go with me, said Miss Cornelia complacently. It's time she had
• 4:10:39
  a little holiday. Believe me, she has just about worked herself to death.
• 4:10:43
  Tom Holt can crochet beautifully, but he can't make a living for his
• 4:10:46
  family. He never seems to be able to get up early enough to do
• 4:10:50
  any work. But I notice he can always get up early enough to go
• 4:10:54
  fishing. Isn't that like a man? Anne smiled. She had learned to
• 4:10:58
  discount largely Miss Cornelia's opinions of the four winds Men, Otherwise she must have
• 4:11:03
  believed them the most hopeless assortment of reprobates and ne'er dowells in the world,
• 4:11:07
  with veritable slaves and martyrs for wives. This particular Tom hoped, for example,
• 4:11:13
  she knew to be a kind husband, a much loved father, and
• 4:11:16
  an excellent neighbor. If he were rather inclined to be lazy, liking better
• 4:11:20
  the fishing he had been born for than the farming he had not. And
• 4:11:24
  if he had a harmless eccentricity for doing fancy work, nobody save Miss Cornelia,
• 4:11:28
  seemed to hold it against him. His wife was a hustler who gloried
• 4:11:33
  and hustling, His family got a comfortable living off the farm, and his
• 4:11:37
  strapping sons and daughters, inheriting their mother's energy, were all in a fair
• 4:11:41
  way to do well in the world. There was not a happier household and
• 4:11:45
  Glens and Mary than the Holts. Miss Cornelia returned satisfied from the house of
• 4:11:50
  the Brook. Leslie's going to take him, She announced. She jumped at
• 4:11:54
  the chance. She wants to make a little money to shingle the roof of
• 4:11:56
  her house this fall, and she didn't know how she was going to manage.
• 4:12:00
  I expect Captain Jim'll be more than interested when he hears that a grandson
• 4:12:03
  of the Selwyns is coming here. Leslie said to tell you she hankered after
• 4:12:07
  cherry Pie, but she couldn't come to Tea because she has to go and
• 4:12:11
  hunt up her turkeys they've strayed away. But she said, if there was
• 4:12:15
  a piece left for you to put it in the pantry, and she'd run
• 4:12:16
  over in the cat's light when prowling's in order to get it. You don't
• 4:12:20
  know, Anne, dearie, what good it did my heart to hear Leslie
• 4:12:24
  send you a message like that, laughing like she used too long ago.
• 4:12:28
  There's a great change come over her lately. She laughs and jokes like a
• 4:12:31
  girl. And from her talk I gather she's here real often every day,
• 4:12:35
  or else I'm over there, said Anne. I don't know what I'd do
• 4:12:39
  without Leslie, especially just now, when Gilbert is so busy. He's hardly
• 4:12:43
  ever home except for a few hours in the weeze smalls. He's really working
• 4:12:48
  himself to death. So many of the over Harbor people send for him.
• 4:12:50
  Now they might better be content with their own doctor, said Miss Cornelia.
• 4:12:56
  Though, to be sure, I can't blame them for he's a Methodist.
• 4:12:58
  Ever since Doctor Block brought missus allenby round, folks think he can raise the
• 4:13:03
  dead. I believe Doctor Dave is a mute, jealous just like a man.
• 4:13:07
  He thinks Doctor Blythe has too many new fangled notions. Well, I
• 4:13:11
  says to him, it was a new fangled notion, saved Rhoda Allumby.
• 4:13:15
  If you'd been attending her, she'd have died and had a tombstone saying it
• 4:13:18
  had pleased God to take her away. Oh, I do like to speak
• 4:13:20
  my mind to doctor Dave. He's bossed the Glen for years, and he
• 4:13:24
  thinks he's forgotten more than other people ever knew. Speaking of doctors, I
• 4:13:28
  wish Doctor Blythe'd run over and see that boil on Dick Moore's neck. It's
• 4:13:33
  getting past Leslie's skill. I'm sure I don't know what Dick Moore wants to
• 4:13:35
  start in having boils for as if he wasn't enough trouble without that. Do
• 4:13:41
  you know Dick has taken quite a fancy to me, said Anne. He
• 4:13:43
  follows me around like a dog and smiles like a pleased child when I notice
• 4:13:48
  him. Does it make you creepy? Not at all. I rather like
• 4:13:52
  Dick Moore. He seems so pitiful and appealing. Somehow, you wouldn't think
• 4:13:56
  him very appealing if you'd seen him on his cantankerous days, believe me,
• 4:14:00
  But I'm glad you don't mind him. It's all the nicer for Leslie.
• 4:14:03
  She'll have more to do when her boarder comes. I hope you'll be a
• 4:14:07
  decent creature. You'll probably like him. He's a writer. I wonder why
• 4:14:11
  people so commonly suppose that if two individuals are both riders, they must therefore
• 4:14:16
  be hugely congenial, said Anne rather scornfully. Nobody would expect two blacksmiths to
• 4:14:22
  be violently attracted toward each other merely because they were both blacksmiths. Nevertheless,
• 4:14:28
  she looked forward to the advent of owen Ford with a pleasant sense of expectation.
• 4:14:31
  If he were young and likable, he might prove a very pleasant addition
• 4:14:35
  to society. In four winds, the latch string of the little house is
• 4:14:39
  always out for the race of Joseph. End of chapter twenty two. Chapter
• 4:14:45
  twenty three, owen Ford comes. One evening, Miss Cornelia telephoned down to
• 4:14:50
  Anne. The writer man has just arrived here. I'm going to drive him
• 4:14:54
  down to your place and you can show him the way over to Leslie's.
• 4:14:56
  It's shorter than driving round by the other road, and I'm in a mortal
• 4:15:01
  hurry. The rees's baby has gone and fallen into a pail of hot water
• 4:15:03
  at the glen and got nearly scalded to death, and they want me right
• 4:15:07
  off to put a new skin on the child. I presume missus Reese is
• 4:15:11
  always so careless and then expects other people to mend her mistakes. You won't
• 4:15:15
  mind, will you, Dearie. His trunk can go down tomorrow very well?
• 4:15:18
  Said Anne? What is he like, Miss Cornelia? You'll see what
• 4:15:22
  he's like outside when I take him down. As for what he's like inside,
• 4:15:26
  only the lord who made him knows that. I'm not going to say
• 4:15:28
  another word. For every receiver in the glen is down. Miss Cornelia evidently
• 4:15:33
  can't find much fault with mister Ford's looks, or she would find it in
• 4:15:37
  spite of the receivers, said Anne. I conclude, therefore, Susan,
• 4:15:41
  that mister Ford is rather handsome than otherwise well, missus doctor dear, I
• 4:15:45
  do enjoy seeing a well looking man, said Susan, candidly. Had I
• 4:15:50
  not better get up a snack for him, there is a strawberry pie that
• 4:15:52
  would melt in your mouth. No, Leslie is expecting him and has his
• 4:15:56
  supper ready. Besides, I want that strawberry pie for my own. Poor
• 4:16:00
  man, he won't be home till late, So leave the pie and a
• 4:16:03
  glass of milk out for him, Susan, that I will, missus,
• 4:16:06
  doctor Dear Susan is at the helm. After all, it is better to
• 4:16:10
  give pie to your own man than to strangers who may be only seeking to
• 4:16:12
  devour. And the doctor himself is as well looking a man as you often
• 4:16:17
  come across. When owen Ford came, Anne secretly admitted, as Miss Cornelia
• 4:16:22
  towed him in that he was very well looking. Indeed, he was tall
• 4:16:26
  and broad shouldered, with thick brown hair, finely cut nose and chin,
• 4:16:30
  large and brilliant dark gray eyes. And did you notice his ears and teeth,
• 4:16:34
  missus, doctor dear, queried Susan. Later on, he has got
• 4:16:38
  the nicest shaped ears I ever saw on a man's head. I am choice
• 4:16:41
  about ears. When I was young, I was scared that I might have
• 4:16:45
  to marry a man with ears like flaps. But I need not have worried,
• 4:16:48
  for never a chance did I have with any kind of ears. Anne
• 4:16:52
  had not noticed owen Ford's ears, but she did see his teeth, as
• 4:16:56
  his lips parted over them in a frank and friendly smile. Unsmiling, his
• 4:17:00
  face was rather sad and absent in expression, not unlike the melancholy, inscrutable
• 4:17:06
  hero of Anne's own early dreams, but mirth and humor and charm lighted it
• 4:17:11
  up when he smiled. Certainly on the outside, as Miss Cornelia said,
• 4:17:15
  owen Ford was a very presentable fellow. You cannot realize how delighted I am
• 4:17:18
  to be here, missus blythe he said, looking around him with eager,
• 4:17:22
  interested eyes. I have an odd feeling of coming home. My mother was
• 4:17:27
  born and spent her childhood here. You know. She used to talk a
• 4:17:30
  great deal to me of her old home. I know the geography of it
• 4:17:33
  as well as the one I lived in, And of course she told me
• 4:17:37
  the story of the building of the house and of my grandfather's agonized watch for
• 4:17:41
  the Royal William. I had thought that so old a house must have vanished
• 4:17:45
  years ago, or I should have come to see it before this. Old
• 4:17:48
  houses don't vanish easily on this enchanted coast, smiled Anne. This is a
• 4:17:52
  land where all things always seem the same, nearly always, at least.
• 4:17:57
  John Selwyn's house hasn't even been much changed. And outside the rose bushes your
• 4:18:02
  grandfather planted for his bride are blooming this very minute. How the thought links
• 4:18:07
  me with them? With your leave, I must explore the whole place soon.
• 4:18:11
  Our latch string will always be out for you, promised Anne. And
• 4:18:15
  do you know that the old sea captain who keeps the four winds light knew
• 4:18:18
  John Selwyn and his bride well in his boyhood. He told me their story
• 4:18:22
  the night I came here, the third bride of the old house. Can
• 4:18:25
  it be possible? This is a discovery. I must hunt him up.
• 4:18:29
  It won't be difficult. We're all cronies of Captain Jim. He will be
• 4:18:33
  as eager to see you as you could be to see him. Your grandmother
• 4:18:37
  shines like a star in his memory. But I think Missus Moore is expecting
• 4:18:41
  you. I'll show you our cross Lots road. Anne walked with him to
• 4:18:45
  the house up the brook, over a field that was as white as snow
• 4:18:48
  with daisies. A boatload of people were singing far across the harbor. The
• 4:18:52
  sound drifted over the water like faint, unearthly music, wind blown across the
• 4:18:56
  starlit sea. The big light flashed in beaconed owen Ford looked around him with
• 4:19:02
  satisfaction, and so this is four winds, he said. I wasn't prepared
• 4:19:07
  to find it quite so beautiful. In spite of all mother's praises. What
• 4:19:11
  colors, what scenery, what charm? I shall get as strong as a
• 4:19:15
  horse in no time. And if inspiration comes from beauty, I should certainly
• 4:19:19
  be able to begin my great Canadian novel. Here. You haven't begun it
• 4:19:23
  yet, asked Anne a lakkaday. No, I have never been able to
• 4:19:29
  get the right central idea for it. It lurks beyond me. It allures
• 4:19:33
  and beckons and recedes. I almost grasp it, and it is gone.
• 4:19:37
  Perhaps amid this peace and loveliness, I shall be able to capture it.
• 4:19:41
  Miss Bryant tells me that you write. Oh, I do little things for
• 4:19:45
  children. I haven't done much since I was married. And I have no
• 4:19:48
  designs on a great Canadian novel, laughed Anne. That is quite beyond me.
• 4:19:53
  Owen Ford laughed too. I dare say it is beyond me as well.
• 4:19:57
  All the same, I mean to have a try it it some day,
• 4:20:00
  if I can ever get the time. A newspaper man doesn't have much
• 4:20:04
  chance for that sort of thing. I've done a good deal of short story
• 4:20:07
  writing for the magazines. But I've never had the leisure that seems to be
• 4:20:11
  necessary for the writing of a book. With three months of liberty, I
• 4:20:15
  ought to make a start, though, if I could only get the necessary
• 4:20:18
  motif for it, the soul of the book. An idea whisked through Anne's
• 4:20:23
  brain with a suddenness that made her jump, but she did not utter it,
• 4:20:26
  for they had reached the moor house. As they entered the yard,
• 4:20:30
  Leslie came out on the veranda from the side door, peering through the gloom
• 4:20:34
  for some sign of her expected guest. She stood just where the warm yellow
• 4:20:38
  light flooded her from the open door. She wore a plain dress of cheap
• 4:20:44
  cream tinted cotton vois with the usual girdle of crimson. Leslie was never without
• 4:20:48
  her touch of crimson. She had told Anne that she never felt satisfied without
• 4:20:52
  a gleam of red somewhere about her. If it were only a flower,
• 4:20:56
  to Anne, it always seemed to symbolize less Lee's glowing, pent up personality,
• 4:21:02
  denied all expression save in that flaming glint. Leslie's dress was cut a
• 4:21:07
  little away at the neck and had short sleeves. Her arms gleamed like ivory
• 4:21:11
  tinted marble. Every exquisite curve of her form was outlined in soft darkness against
• 4:21:17
  the light. Her hair shone in it like flame. Beyond her was a
• 4:21:21
  purple sky flowering with stars over the harbor. Anne heard her companion give a
• 4:21:26
  gasp. Even in the dusk. She could see the amazement and admiration on
• 4:21:30
  his face. Who is that beautiful creature, he asked? That is missus
• 4:21:36
  Moore, said Anne. She's very lovely, isn't she. I I never
• 4:21:40
  saw anything like her, he answered, rather dazedly. I wasn't prepared.
• 4:21:45
  I didn't expect good Heavens, one doesn't expect a goddess for a landlady.
• 4:21:49
  Why if she were clothed in a gown of sea purple, with a rope
• 4:21:52
  of amethysts in her hair, she would be a veritable sea queen. And
• 4:21:56
  she takes in borders. Even goddesses must live, said Anne. And Leslie
• 4:22:02
  isn't a goddess. She's just a very beautiful woman, as human as the
• 4:22:04
  rest of us. Did Miss Bryant tell you about mister Moore? Yes,
• 4:22:10
  he's mentally deficient or something of the sort, isn't he? But She said
• 4:22:12
  nothing about missus Moore, and I supposed she'd be the usual hustling country housewife
• 4:22:18
  who takes in boarders to earn an honest penny. Well that's just what Leslie
• 4:22:22
  is doing, said Anne crisply. And it isn't altogether pleasant for her either.
• 4:22:26
  I hope you won't mind Dick. If you do, please don't let
• 4:22:30
  Leslie see it. It would hurt her horribly. He's just a big baby,
• 4:22:33
  and sometimes a rather annoying one. Oh, I won't mind him.
• 4:22:37
  I don't suppose I'll be much in the house anyhow, except for meals.
• 4:22:41
  But what a shame it all is. Her life must be a hard one,
• 4:22:45
  it is, but she doesn't like to be pitied. Leslie had gone
• 4:22:48
  back into the house and now met them at the front door. She greeted
• 4:22:52
  owen Ford with cold civility and told him in a business like tone that his
• 4:22:56
  room and his supper were ready for him. Dick, with a pleased grinn,
• 4:23:00
  shambled upstairs with the valise, and owen Ford was installed as an inmate
• 4:23:03
  of the old house among the willows. End of chapter twenty three, Chapter
• 4:23:10
  twenty four, The Life Book of Captain Jim I have a little brown cocoon
• 4:23:15
  of an idea that may possibly expand into a magnificent moth of fulfillment, and
• 4:23:19
  told Gilbert when she reached home he had returned earlier than she had expected and
• 4:23:25
  was enjoying Susan's cherry pie. Susan herself hovered in the background like a rather
• 4:23:30
  grim but beneficent guardian spirit, and found as much pleasure in watching Gilbert eat
• 4:23:36
  pie as he did in eating it. What is your idea, he asked,
• 4:23:40
  I shan't tell you just yet, not till I see if I can
• 4:23:42
  bring the thing about. What sort of a chap is for it? Oh?
• 4:23:45
  Very nice and quite good looking. Such beautiful ears, doctor dear,
• 4:23:51
  interjected Susan with a relish. He is about thirty or thirty five, I
• 4:23:55
  think, and he meditates writing a novel. His voice is pleasant and his
• 4:23:59
  smiled delightful, and he knows how to dress. He looks as if life
• 4:24:03
  hadn't been altogether easy for him somehow. Owen came over the next evening with
• 4:24:07
  a note to Anne from Leslie. They spent the sunset time in the garden
• 4:24:11
  and then went for a moonlit sail on the harbor in the little boat Gilbert
• 4:24:15
  had set up for summer outings. They liked owen immensely and had that feeling
• 4:24:21
  of having known him for many years which distinguishes the freemasonry of the House of
• 4:24:26
  Joseph. He is as nice as his ears, Missus doctor dear, said
• 4:24:29
  Susan. When he had gone, he had told Susan that he had never
• 4:24:33
  tasted anything like her strawberry shortcake, and Susan's susceptible heart was his forever.
• 4:24:38
  He has got away with him, she reflected, as she cleared up the
• 4:24:41
  relics of the supper. It is real queer. He has not married for
• 4:24:45
  a man like that could have anybody for the asking. Well, maybe he
• 4:24:48
  is like me and has not met the right one yet. Susan really grew
• 4:24:52
  quite romantic in her musings as she washed the supper dishes. Two nights later,
• 4:24:57
  Anne took owen Ford down to four Winds Point to introduce him to Captain
• 4:25:02
  Jim. The clover fields along the Harbor shore were whitening in the western wind,
• 4:25:07
  and Captain Jim had one of his finest sunsets on exhibition. He himself
• 4:25:11
  had just returned from a trip over the Harbor. I had to go over
• 4:25:15
  and tell Henry Pollock he was dying. Everybody else was afraid to tell him.
• 4:25:19
  They expected he'd take on terrible for he's been dreadful, determined to live,
• 4:25:23
  and been makin no end of plans for the fall. His wife thought
• 4:25:27
  he ought to be told, and that I'd be the best one to break
• 4:25:30
  it to him that he couldn't get better. Henry and me are old cronies.
• 4:25:34
  We sailed in the Gray Gull for years together. Well, I went
• 4:25:37
  over and sat down by Henry's bed, and I says to him, says,
• 4:25:41
  I just ride out, plain and simple, For if a thing's gotta
• 4:25:45
  be told, it may as well be told first as last, says I.
• 4:25:48
  Mate, I reckon, you've got your sail in orders. This time,
• 4:25:52
  I was sort of quakin inside, for it's an awful thing to have
• 4:25:55
  to tell a man who ain't any idea he's dyin' that he is. But
• 4:25:57
  lo and behold, mistress. Henry looks up at me with those bright,
• 4:26:02
  old black eyes of his and his wizened face and says, says, he
• 4:26:06
  tell me something I don't know, Jim BOYD, if you want to give
• 4:26:07
  me information, I've known that for a week. I was too astonished to
• 4:26:11
  speak, and Henry, he chuckled to see you comin in here, says
• 4:26:15
  he, with your face as solemn as a tombstone. An sittin down there
• 4:26:19
  with your hands clasped over your stomach. An passin me out a blue,
• 4:26:22
  moldy old item of news like that, it'd make a cat laughed, Jim
• 4:26:26
  Boyd, says he who told you, says I stupid like nobody, says
• 4:26:30
  he. A week ago Tuesday night, I was lying here awake, an
• 4:26:34
  I just knew I'd suspicioned it before, But then I knew I've been keepin
• 4:26:38
  up for the wife's sake, and I'd like to have got that barn built
• 4:26:41
  for even I'll never get it right. But anyhow, now that you've eased
• 4:26:45
  your mind, Jim, put on a smile and tell me something interesting.
• 4:26:49
  Well, there it was. They'd been so scared to tell him, and
• 4:26:52
  he knew it all the time. Strange own nature looks out for us,
• 4:26:56
  ain't it? An lets us know what we should know when the time comes.
• 4:27:00
  Did I never tell you the yarn about Henry Gettin the fish shook in
• 4:27:03
  his nose. Mistress blythe no well him and me had a laugh over it
• 4:27:07
  to day. It happened nigh on to thirty years ago. Him and me
• 4:27:11
  and several more was out mackerel fishing one day. It was a great day.
• 4:27:17
  Never saw such a school of mackerel in the gulf. And in the
• 4:27:19
  general excitement, Henry got quite wild and contrived to stick a fish shook clean
• 4:27:23
  through one side of his nose. Well, there he was. There was
• 4:27:27
  barb on one end and a big piece of lead on the other, so
• 4:27:30
  it couldn't be pulled out. We wanted to take him ashore at once,
• 4:27:34
  but Henry was game. He said he'd be jiggered if he'd leave a school
• 4:27:37
  like that for anything short of lockjaw. Then he kept fishing away, hauling
• 4:27:42
  in hand over fist and groaning between times. Finally the school passed and we'd
• 4:27:48
  come in with a load. I got a file and began to try to
• 4:27:51
  file through that hook. I'd tried to be as easy as I could.
• 4:27:53
  But you should have heard Henry, No, no, you shouldn't either.
• 4:27:57
  It was well no ladies were around. Henry wasn't a swearin man, but
• 4:28:02
  he'd heard some few matters of that sort along the shore in his time Annie
• 4:28:04
  fished him all out of his recollection and hurled him at me. Finally he
• 4:28:08
  declared he couldn't stand it, and I had no bowels of compassion. So
• 4:28:12
  we hitched up and I drove him to a doctor in Charlottetown, thirty five
• 4:28:15
  miles. There weren't none nearer in them days, with that blessed hook still
• 4:28:19
  hanging from his nose. When we got there, old doctor Crabbe just took
• 4:28:25
  a file and filed that hook, just the same as I'd tried to do,
• 4:28:27
  only he weren't a mite particular about doing it easy. Captain Jim's visit
• 4:28:33
  to his old friend had revived many recollections, and he was now in the
• 4:28:37
  full tide of reminiscences. Henry was asking me to day if I remember at
• 4:28:41
  the time old Father chinnickwee blessed Alexander mc callister's boat. Another odd yarn,
• 4:28:47
  an true as gospel. I was in the boat myself. We went out
• 4:28:51
  him and me in Alexander mc callister's boat one morning at sunrise. Besides,
• 4:28:55
  there was a French boy in the boat Catholic, of course, you know,
• 4:28:59
  old father Chinick. We had turned Protestant, so the Catholics hadn't much
• 4:29:02
  use for him. Well, we sat out in the gulf in the broiling
• 4:29:06
  sun till noon, and not a bite did we get When we went ashore,
• 4:29:10
  Old father Chinnockwi had to go, so he said, in that polite
• 4:29:12
  way of his, I'm very sorry I cannot go out with you this afternoon,
• 4:29:15
  mister mc allister, but I leave you my blessing you will catch a
• 4:29:19
  thousand this afternoon. Well we did not catch a thousand, but we caught
• 4:29:23
  exactly nine hundred and ninety nine, the biggest catch for a small boat in
• 4:29:27
  the whole North Shore that summer. Curious, wasn't it, Alexandra mc callister.
• 4:29:33
  He says to Andrew Peters, Well, and what do you think of
• 4:29:36
  Father Chinnockwick. Now, well, growled Andrew. I tinked, old devil
• 4:29:40
  has got a blessing left yet. Laws how Henry did laugh over that today.
• 4:29:45
  Do you know who mister Ford is? Captain Jim asked Anne, seeing
• 4:29:48
  that Captain Jim's fountain of reminiscence had run out for the present, I want
• 4:29:52
  you to guess. Captain Jim shook his head. I never was any hand
• 4:29:57
  at guessing, Mistress blythe and yet somehow, when he come in, I
• 4:30:00
  thought, where have I seen them eyes before? For I have seen him.
• 4:30:06
  Think of a September morning many years ago, said Anne softly. Think
• 4:30:11
  of a ship sailing up the harbor, a ship long waited for and despaired
• 4:30:15
  of. Think of the day the Royal William came in, and the first
• 4:30:18
  look you had at the schoolmaster's bride, Captain Jim sprang up their purse is
• 4:30:23
  Selwyn's eyes. He almost shouted, You can't be her son, you must
• 4:30:27
  be her grandson. Yes, I am Alice Selwyn's son. Captain Jim swooped
• 4:30:33
  down on owen Ford and shook his hand over again, Alice Selwyn's son,
• 4:30:38
  Lord, But you're welcome. Many's the time I've wondered where the descendants of
• 4:30:42
  the schoolmaster were living. I knew there was none on the island. Alice,
• 4:30:48
  Alice, the first baby ever born in that little house. No baby
• 4:30:51
  ever brought more joy. I've dandled her a hundred times. It was from
• 4:30:56
  my knee she took her first steps alone. Can't I see her mother's face
• 4:31:00
  watching her? And it was near sixty years ago? Is she living yet?
• 4:31:03
  No? She died when I was only a boy. Oh it doesn't
• 4:31:07
  seem right that I should be living to hear that, sighed Captain Jim.
• 4:31:11
  But I'm heart glad to see you. It's brought back my youth for a
• 4:31:15
  little while. You don't know yet what a boon that is. Mistress blythere
• 4:31:19
  has the trick. She does it quite often for me. Captain Jim was
• 4:31:23
  still more excited when he discovered that Owen Ford was what he called a real
• 4:31:27
  writing man. He gazed at him as at a superior being. Captain Jim
• 4:31:33
  knew that Anne wrote, but he had never taken that fact very seriously.
• 4:31:37
  Captain Jim thought women were delightful creatures who ought to have the vote and everything
• 4:31:41
  else they wanted bless their hearts, but he did not believe they could write.
• 4:31:45
  Just look at a mad love, He would protest, a woman wrote
• 4:31:48
  that, and just look at it one hundred and three chapters, when it
• 4:31:52
  could all have been told in ten. A writing woman never knows when to
• 4:31:56
  stop. That's the trouble. The pind of good writing is to know when
• 4:32:00
  to stop. Mister Ford wants to hear some of your stories, Captain Jim
• 4:32:04
  said, Anne. Tell him the one about the captain who went crazy and
• 4:32:07
  imagined he was the flying Dutchman. This was Captain Jim's best story. It
• 4:32:12
  was a compound of horror and humor, and though Anne had heard it several
• 4:32:17
  times, she laughed as heartily and shivered as fearsomely over it as mister Ford
• 4:32:22
  did. Other tales followed, for Captain Jim had an audience after his own
• 4:32:26
  heart. He told how his vessel had been run down by a steamer,
• 4:32:30
  how he had been boarded by Malay pirates, how his ship had caught fire,
• 4:32:34
  How he had helped a political prisoner escape from a South African republic.
• 4:32:38
  How he had been wrecked one fall on the Magdalens and stranded there for the
• 4:32:41
  winter. How a tiger had broken loose on board ship. How his crew
• 4:32:45
  had mutinied and marooned him on a barren island. These, and many other
• 4:32:49
  tales, tragic or humorous or grotesque, did Captain Jim relate the mystery of
• 4:32:56
  the sea, the fascination of far lands, the lure of adventure, the
• 4:33:00
  laughter of the world. His hearers felt and realized them all owen Ford listened
• 4:33:06
  with his head on his hand, and the first mate purring on his knee,
• 4:33:08
  his brilliant eyes fastened on Captain Jim's rugged, eloquent face. Won't you
• 4:33:14
  let mister Ford see your life book, Captain Jim asked Anne, when Captain
• 4:33:18
  Jim finally declared that yarn spinning must end for the time. Oh, we
• 4:33:22
  don't want to be bothered with that, protested Captain Jim, who was secretly
• 4:33:26
  dying to show it. I should like nothing better than to see it,
• 4:33:30
  Captain Boyd, said Owen. If it is half as wonderful as your tails,
• 4:33:33
  it will be worth seeing. With pretend reluctance, Captain Jim dug his
• 4:33:37
  life book out of his old chest and handed it to Owen. I reckon,
• 4:33:41
  you won't care to wrastle long with my old hand, Aright. I
• 4:33:45
  never had much schooling, he observed, carelessly, just wrote that there to
• 4:33:48
  amuse my nephew Joe, he's always wantin stories, comes here yesterday and says
• 4:33:53
  to me reproachful, like as I was lifting a twenty pound codfish out of
• 4:33:56
  my boat, Uncle Jim ain't a cod fish, a dumb animal. I'd
• 4:34:00
  been a tellin' him. You see that he must be real kind of dumb
• 4:34:03
  animals, and never hurt him in any way. I got out of the
• 4:34:07
  scrape by saying a codfish was dumb enough, but it wasn't an animal.
• 4:34:10
  But Joe didn't look satisfied, and I wasn't satisfied myself. You'd gotta be
• 4:34:15
  mighty careful what you tell them little critters. They can see through you.
• 4:34:18
  While talking, Captain Jim watched owen Ford from the corner of his eye as
• 4:34:22
  the latter examined the Life Book, and presently observing that his guest was lost
• 4:34:27
  in its pages, he turned smilingly to his cupboard and proceeded to make a
• 4:34:32
  pot of tea. Owen Ford separated himself from the Life Book with as much
• 4:34:37
  reluctance as a miser wrenches himself from his gold long enough to drink his tea
• 4:34:41
  and then return to it hungrily. Oh you can take that thing home with
• 4:34:45
  you if you want, said Captain Jim, as if the thing were not
• 4:34:48
  his most treasured possession. I must go down and pull my boat up a
• 4:34:52
  bit on the skids. There's a wind comin'. Did you notice the sky
• 4:34:56
  tonight? Mackerel skies and mare's tails make tall ships carry short sails. Owen
• 4:35:02
  Ford accepted the offer of the life book gladly. On their way home,
• 4:35:06
  Anne told him the story of Lost Margaret. That old captain is a wonderful
• 4:35:11
  old fellow, he said, What a life he has led. Why the
• 4:35:14
  man has had more adventures in one week of his life than most of us
• 4:35:18
  han't a lifetime. Do you really think his tales are all true? I
• 4:35:22
  certainly do. I am sure Captain Jim could not tell a lie. And
• 4:35:26
  besides, all the people about here say that everything happened as he relates it.
• 4:35:30
  There used to be plenty of his old shipmates alive to corroborate him.
• 4:35:33
  He's one of the last of the old type of p e Island sea captains.
• 4:35:37
  They're almost extinct now. End of chapter twenty four, Chapter twenty five,
• 4:35:44
  the writing of the book. Owen Ford came over to the little house
• 4:35:48
  the next morning in a state of great excitement. Missus blythe this is a
• 4:35:52
  wonderful book, absolutely wonderful. If I could take it and use the material
• 4:35:56
  for a book, I feel certain I could make them novel of the year
• 4:36:00
  out of it. Do you suppose Captain Jim would let me do it?
• 4:36:03
  Let you, I'm sure he would be delighted, cried Anne. I admit
• 4:36:07
  that it was what was in my head when I took you down last night.
• 4:36:11
  Captain Jim has always been wishing he could get somebody to write his life
• 4:36:14
  book properly for him. Will you go down to the point with me this
• 4:36:18
  evening, missus blythe I'll ask him about that life book myself, but I
• 4:36:21
  want you to tell him that you told me the story of Lost Margaret and
• 4:36:25
  ask him if you will let me use it as a thread of romance with
• 4:36:26
  which to weave the stories of the life book into a harmonious hole. Captain
• 4:36:32
  Jim was more excited than ever when owen Ford told him of his plan.
• 4:36:37
  At last, his cherished dream was to be realized and his life book given
• 4:36:41
  to the world. He was also pleased that the story of Lost Margaret should
• 4:36:45
  be woven into it. It will keep her name from being forgotten, he
• 4:36:48
  said wistfully. That's why I want it put in. We'll collaborate, cried
• 4:36:53
  Owen delightedly. You will give the soul and I the body. Oh,
• 4:36:56
  we'll write a famous book between us, Captain Jim, and we'll get right
• 4:37:00
  to work, and to think. My book is to be written by the
• 4:37:03
  schoolmaster's grandson, exclaimed Captain Jim, lad your grandfather was my dearest friend.
• 4:37:11
  I thought there was nobody like him. I see now why I had to
• 4:37:14
  wait so long. It couldn't be writ till the right man come. You
• 4:37:18
  belong here. You've got the soul of this old north shore in you.
• 4:37:22
  You're the only one who could write it. It was arranged that the tiny
• 4:37:26
  room off the living room at the lighthouse should be given over to Owen for
• 4:37:29
  a workshop. It was necessary that Captain Jim should be near him as he
• 4:37:33
  wrote, for consultation upon many matters of seafaring and gulf floor, of which
• 4:37:37
  Owen was quite ignorant. He began work on the book the very next morning
• 4:37:42
  and flung himself into it, heart and soul. As for Captain Jim,
• 4:37:47
  he was a happy man that summer. He looked upon the little room where
• 4:37:51
  Owen worked as a sacred shrine. Owen talked everything over with Captain Jim,
• 4:37:56
  but he would not let him see the manuscript. You must wait until it
• 4:38:00
  is published, he said. Then you'll get it all at once in its
• 4:38:03
  best shape. He delved into the treasures of the life book and used them
• 4:38:07
  freely. He dreamed and brooded over lost Margaret until she became a vivid reality
• 4:38:12
  to him and lived in his pages. As the book progressed, it took
• 4:38:17
  possession of him, and he worked at it with feverish eagerness. He let
• 4:38:21
  Anne and Leslie read the manuscript and criticize it, and the concluding chapter of
• 4:38:26
  the book, which the critics later on were pleased to call idyllic, was
• 4:38:30
  modeled upon a suggestion of Leslie's. Anne fairly hugged herself with delight over the
• 4:38:34
  success of her idea. I knew when I looked at owen Ford that he
• 4:38:38
  was the very man for it, she told Gilbert. Both humor and passion
• 4:38:44
  were in his face, and that, together with the art of expression,
• 4:38:48
  was just what was necessary for the writing of such a book. As Missus
• 4:38:51
  Rachel would say, he was predestined for the part owen Ford wrote. In
• 4:38:56
  the mornings, the afternoons were generally spent in some outing with the Blythes.
• 4:39:00
  Leslie often went too, for Captain Jim took charge of Dick frequently. In
• 4:39:06
  order to set her free. They went boating on the harbor and up the
• 4:39:10
  three pretty rivers that flowed into it. They had clam bakes on the bar
• 4:39:14
  and mussel bakes on the rocks. They picked strawberries on the sand dunes.
• 4:39:18
  They went out codfishing with Captain Jim. They shot plover in the shore fields
• 4:39:22
  and wild ducks in the cove. At least the men did. In the
• 4:39:26
  evenings, they rambled in the low lying daisied shore fields under a golden moon.
• 4:39:30
  Or they sat in the living room at the little house, where often
• 4:39:34
  the coolness of the sea breeze justified a driftwood fire, and talked of the
• 4:39:38
  thousand and one things which happy, eager, clever young people can find to
• 4:39:42
  talk about. Ever since the day on which she had made her confession to
• 4:39:47
  Anne Leslie had been a changed creature. There was no trace of her old
• 4:39:52
  coldness and reserve, no shadow of her old bitterness. The girlhood of which
• 4:39:56
  she had been cheated seemed to come back to her with the rightckness of womanhood.
• 4:40:00
  She expanded like a flower of flame and perfume. No laugh was readier
• 4:40:04
  than hers, no wit quicker. In the twilight circles of that enchanted summer,
• 4:40:10
  when she could not be with them, all felt that some exquisite savor
• 4:40:14
  was lacking in their intercourse, her beauty was illumined by the awakened soul within,
• 4:40:18
  as some rosy lamp might shine through a flawless vase of alabaster. There
• 4:40:23
  were hours when Anne's eyes seemed to ache with the splendor of her as for
• 4:40:29
  owen Ford, the Margaret of his book, although she had the soft brown
• 4:40:33
  hair and elfin face of the real girl who had vanished so long ago,
• 4:40:37
  pillowed where lost Atlantis sleeps, had the personality of Leslie Moore, as it
• 4:40:42
  was revealed to him in those halcyon days at four Winds Harbor. All in
• 4:40:47
  all, it was a never to be forgotten summer, one of those summers
• 4:40:51
  which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories
• 4:40:56
  in their going. One of those summers which, in a fortunate combination delightful
• 4:41:00
  weather, delightful friends, and delightful doings, come as near to perfection as
• 4:41:04
  anything can come in this world. Two goods a last, and told herself
• 4:41:10
  with a little sigh on the September day, when a certain nip in the
• 4:41:12
  wind and a certain shade of intense blue on the gulf water, said that
• 4:41:17
  autumn was hard by that evening, owen Ford told him that he had finished
• 4:41:22
  his book and that his vacation must come to an end. I have a
• 4:41:26
  good deal to do to it yet, revising and pruning and so forth,
• 4:41:30
  he said. But in the main it's done. I wrote the last sentence
• 4:41:33
  this morning. If I can find a publisher for it, it will probably
• 4:41:37
  be out next summer or fall. Owen had not much doubt that he would
• 4:41:41
  find a publisher. He knew that he had written a great book, a
• 4:41:45
  book that would score a wonderful success, a book that would live. He
• 4:41:48
  knew that it would bring him both fame and fortune. But when he had
• 4:41:52
  written the last line of it, he had bowed his head on the manuscript,
• 4:41:56
  and so sat for a long time, and his thoughts were not of
• 4:42:00
  the good work he had done. End of Chapter twenty five. Chapter twenty
• 4:42:06
  six, owen Ford's confession. I'm so sorry Gilbert is away, said Anne.
• 4:42:11
  He had to go. Allan Lyons at the Glen has met with a
• 4:42:15
  serious accident. He will not likely be home till very late. But he
• 4:42:18
  told me to tell you he'd be up and over early enough in the morning
• 4:42:22
  to see you before you left. It's too provoking Susan and I had planned
• 4:42:26
  such a nice little jamboree for your last night. Here she was sitting beside
• 4:42:30
  the garden brook on the little rustic seat Gilbert had built. Owen Ford stood
• 4:42:36
  before her, leaning against the bronze column of a yellow birch. He was
• 4:42:40
  very pale, and his face bore the marks of the preceding sleepless night.
• 4:42:45
  Anne, glancing up at him, wondered if, after all, his summer
• 4:42:48
  had brought him the strength it should had he worked too hard over his book.
• 4:42:52
  She remembered that for a week he had not been looking well. I'm
• 4:42:57
  rather glad the doctor is away at Owen slowly. I wanted to see you
• 4:43:02
  alone, missus blythe there is something I must tell somebody, or I think
• 4:43:07
  it will drive me mad. I've been trying for a week to look it
• 4:43:10
  in the face, and I can't. I know I can trust you,
• 4:43:14
  And besides, you will understand. My woman with eyes like yours always understands
• 4:43:19
  you are one of the folks people instinctively tell things to missus Blythe I love
• 4:43:25
  leslie love her. That seems too weak a word. His voice suddenly broke
• 4:43:30
  with the suppressed passion of his utterance. He turned his head away and hid
• 4:43:34
  his face on his arm. His whole form shook. Anne sat looking at
• 4:43:40
  him, pale and aghast. She had never thought of this, And yet
• 4:43:45
  how was it she had never thought of it? It now seemed a natural
• 4:43:48
  and inevitable thing. She wondered at her own blindness. But but things like
• 4:43:53
  this did not happen in four winds. Elsewhere in the world, human passions
• 4:43:57
  might set at defiance human conventions and laws, but not here. Surely Leslie
• 4:44:03
  had kept summer boarders off and on for ten years, and nothing like this
• 4:44:07
  had happened. But perhaps they had not been like owen Ford, and the
• 4:44:12
  vivid living Leslie of this summer was not the cold, sullen girl of other
• 4:44:17
  years. Oh, somebody should have thought of this. Why hadn't Miss Cornelia
• 4:44:22
  thought of it? Miss Cornelia was always ready enough to sound the alarm where
• 4:44:26
  men were concerned. Anne felt an unreasonable resentment against Miss Cornelia. Then she
• 4:44:32
  gave a little inward groan. No matter who was to blame, the mischief
• 4:44:36
  was done, and Leslie, what of Leslie? It was? For Leslie?
• 4:44:40
  Anne felt most concerned. Does Leslie know this, mister Ford? She
• 4:44:45
  asked, quietly. No, no, unless she has guessed it. You
• 4:44:49
  surely don't think I'd be cad and scoundrel enough to tell her. Missus blythe
• 4:44:53
  I couldn't help loving her, that's all, and my misery is greater than
• 4:44:56
  I can bear. Does she care? Asked Anne. The moment the question
• 4:45:03
  crossed her lips, she felt that she should not have asked it. Owen
• 4:45:06
  Ford answered it with over eager protest. No, no, of course not.
• 4:45:11
  But I could make her care if she were free. I know I
• 4:45:12
  could. She does care, and he knows it, thought Anne aloud.
• 4:45:18
  She said sympathetically but decidedly. But she is not free, mister Ford,
• 4:45:23
  and the only thing you can do is to go away in silence and leave
• 4:45:26
  her to her own life. I know, I know, groaned Owen.
• 4:45:32
  He sat down on the grassy bank and stared moodily into the amber water beneath
• 4:45:36
  him. I know there's nothing to do, nothing but to say conventionally good
• 4:45:40
  bye, missus Moore, thank you for all your kindness to me this summer,
• 4:45:44
  just as I would have said it to the sansey, bustling, keen
• 4:45:45
  eyed housewife I expected her to be when I came. Then I'll pay my
• 4:45:49
  board money like any honest boarder, and go. Oh. It's very simple,
• 4:45:53
  no doubt, no perplexity, a straight road to the end of the
• 4:45:57
  world, and I'll walk it. You needn't fear that I won't missus blythe
• 4:46:02
  but it would be easier to walk over red hot plowshares. Anne flinched with
• 4:46:07
  the pain of his voice. And there was so little she could say that
• 4:46:11
  would be adequate to the situation. Blame was out of the question, Advice
• 4:46:15
  was not needed. Sympathy was mocked by the man's stark agony. She could
• 4:46:19
  only feel with him in a maze of compassion and regret. Her heart ached
• 4:46:25
  for Leslie, had not that poor girl suffered enough without this. It wouldn't
• 4:46:30
  be so hard to go and leave her if she were only happy, resumed
• 4:46:33
  Oha passionately. But to think of her living death, to realize what it
• 4:46:38
  is to which I do leave her, that is the worst of all.
• 4:46:42
  I would give my life to make her happy, and I can do nothing
• 4:46:45
  even to help her. Nothing. She is bound forever to that poor wretch,
• 4:46:51
  with nothing to look forward to, but growing old in a succession of
• 4:46:53
  empty, meaningless, barren years. It drives me mad. To think of
• 4:46:57
  it. But I I must go through my life never seeing her, but
• 4:47:02
  always knowing what she is enduring. It's hideous, hideous. It is very
• 4:47:07
  hard, said Anne sorrowfully. We her friends here all know how hard it
• 4:47:14
  is for her. And she's so richly fitted for life, said Owen rebelliously.
• 4:47:19
  Her beauty is the least of her dower. And she is the most
• 4:47:22
  beautiful woman I've ever known. That laugh of hers, I vangled all summer
• 4:47:26
  to evoke that laugh, just for the delight of hearing it. And her
• 4:47:30
  eyes they are as deep and blue as the gulf out there. I never
• 4:47:34
  saw such blueness and gold. Did you ever see her hair down, missus
• 4:47:40
  blythe No? I did. Once. I had gone down to the point
• 4:47:45
  to go fishing with Captain Jim, but it was too rough to go out,
• 4:47:48
  so I came back. She had taken the opportunity of what she expected
• 4:47:52
  to be an afternoon alone to wash her hair, and she was standing on
• 4:47:56
  the veranda in the sunshine to dry it. It fell all about her to
• 4:48:00
  her feet in a fountain of living gold. When she saw me, she
• 4:48:03
  hurried in, and the wind caught her hair and swirled it all around her
• 4:48:07
  daneay and her cloud. Somehow, just then the knowledge that I loved her
• 4:48:12
  came home to me, and realized that I had loved her from the moment
• 4:48:15
  I first saw her standing against the darkness in that glow of light. And
• 4:48:19
  she must live on here, petting and soothing, dick pinching and saving for
• 4:48:25
  a mere existence, while I spend my life longing vainly for her, and
• 4:48:30
  debarred by that very fact from even giving her the little help of friend mine.
• 4:48:34
  I walked the shore last night, almost still dawn, and thrashed it
• 4:48:38
  all out over and over again. And yet, in spite of everything,
• 4:48:42
  I can't find it in my heart to be sorry that I came to four
• 4:48:45
  winds. It seems to me that bad as everything is, it would be
• 4:48:49
  still worse never to have known Leslie. It's burning, searing pain to love
• 4:48:53
  her and leave her, but not to have fluffed her is unthinkable. I
• 4:48:59
  suppose all this sound very crazy. All these terrible emotions always do sound foolish
• 4:49:03
  when we put them into our inadequate words. They are not meant to be
• 4:49:07
  spoken, only felt and endured. I shouldn't have spoken it, but it
• 4:49:11
  has helped some at least it has given me strength to go away respectably tomorrow
• 4:49:18
  morning, without making a scene. You'll write me now and then, won't
• 4:49:22
  you missus blythe and give me what news there is to give of her?
• 4:49:26
  Yes, said Anne. Oh, I'm so sorry you are going. We'll
• 4:49:30
  miss you so. We've all been such friends. If it were not for
• 4:49:33
  this, you could come back other summers, perhaps even yet by and by,
• 4:49:37
  when you've forgotten. Perhaps I shall never forget, and I shall never
• 4:49:41
  come back to four winds, said Owen briefly. Silence and twilight fell over
• 4:49:48
  the garden. Far away, the sea was lapping gently and monotonously on the
• 4:49:52
  bar. The wind of evening in the poplars sounded like some sad, weird
• 4:49:57
  old rone. Some can dream of old memories. A slender, shapely young
• 4:50:03
  aspen rose up before them against the fine maize and emerald and paling rose of
• 4:50:08
  the western sky, which brought out every leaf and twig in dark, tremulous
• 4:50:14
  elfin loveliness. Isn't that beautiful, said Owen, pointing to it with the
• 4:50:18
  air of a man who puts a certain conversation behind him. It's so beautiful
• 4:50:23
  that it hurts me, said Anne softly, perfect Things like that always did
• 4:50:27
  hurt me. I remember I called it the queer ache when I was a
• 4:50:32
  child. What is the reason that pain like this seems inseparable from perfection?
• 4:50:37
  Is it the pain of finality when we realize that there can be nothing beyond
• 4:50:41
  but retrogression? Perhaps, said Owen dreamily. It is the prisoned infinite in
• 4:50:48
  us calling out to its kindred infinite, as expressed in that visible perfection.
• 4:50:52
  You seem to have a cold in the head. Better rupt some tallow on
• 4:50:55
  your nose when you go to bed, said Miss Cornelia, who had come
• 4:50:57
  in through the little gate between thes in time to catch Owen's last remark.
• 4:51:02
  Miss Cornelia liked Owen, but it was a matter of principle with her to
• 4:51:06
  visit any high falutin language from a man with a snub. Miss Cornelia personated
• 4:51:11
  the comedy that ever peeps around the corner at the tragedy of life. Anne,
• 4:51:15
  whose nerves had been rather strained, laughed hysterically, and even Owen smiled.
• 4:51:22
  Certainly, sentiment and passion had a way of shrinking out of sight in
• 4:51:25
  Miss Cornelia's presence, and yet to Anne, nothing seemed quite as hopeless and
• 4:51:30
  dark and painful, as it seemed a few moments before. But sleep was
• 4:51:34
  far from her eyes that night, end of chapter twenty six. Chapter twenty
• 4:51:41
  seven On the sand bar, owen Ford left four winds. The next morning,
• 4:51:48
  in the evening, Anne went over to see Leslie, but found nobody.
• 4:51:52
  The house was locked and there was no light in any window. It
• 4:51:56
  looked like a home left soulless. Leslie did not run over on the following
• 4:52:00
  day, which Anne thought a bad sign. Gilbert, having occasion to go
• 4:52:04
  in the evening to the fishing cove, Anne drove with him to the point,
• 4:52:08
  intending to stay awhile with Captain Jim. But the great light, cutting
• 4:52:12
  its swathes through the fog of the autumn evening was in care of Alec Boyd,
• 4:52:17
  and Captain Jim was away. What will you do? Asked Gilbert.
• 4:52:21
  Come with me. I don't want to go to the cove, but I'll
• 4:52:25
  go over the channel with you and roam about on the sand shore till you
• 4:52:27
  come back. The rock shore is too slippery and grim. Tonight, alone
• 4:52:33
  on the sands of the bar, Anne gave herself up to the eerie charm
• 4:52:36
  of the night. It was warm for September, and the late afternoon had
• 4:52:40
  been very foggy, but a full moon had in part lessened the fog and
• 4:52:45
  transformed the harbor and the gulf and the surrounding shores into a strange, fantastic,
• 4:52:51
  unreal world of pale silver mist, through which everything loomed phantom. Like
• 4:52:56
  Captain Josiah Crawford's black schooner Sailor down the channel, laden with potatoes for blue
• 4:53:02
  nosed ports, was a spectral ship bound for a far uncharted land, ever
• 4:53:07
  receding never to be reached. The calls of unseen gulls overhead were the cries
• 4:53:12
  of the souls of doomed seamen. The little curls of foam that blew across
• 4:53:18
  the sand were elfin things stealing up from the sea caves. The big,
• 4:53:22
  round shouldered sand dunes were the sleeping giants of some old northern tail. The
• 4:53:29
  lights that glimmered palely across the harbor were the delusive beacons on some coast of
• 4:53:33
  Fairyland. Anne pleased herself with a hundred fancies as she wandered through the mist.
• 4:53:40
  It was delightful, romantic, mysterious to be roaming here alone on this
• 4:53:45
  enchanted shore. But was she alone? Something loomed in the mist before her,
• 4:53:51
  took shape and form suddenly moved towards her across the wave rippled sand Leslie
• 4:53:57
  exclaimed Anne in amazement, Whatever are you doing here to night? If it
• 4:54:02
  comes to that, Whatever are you doing here? Said Leslie, trying to
• 4:54:06
  laugh. The effort was a failure. She looked very pale and tired,
• 4:54:11
  but the love locks under her scarlet cap were curling about her face and eyes
• 4:54:15
  like little sparkling rings of gold. I'm waiting for Gilbert. He's over at
• 4:54:21
  the cove. I intended to stay at the light, but Captain Jim is
• 4:54:23
  away. Well. I came here because I wanted to walk and walk and
• 4:54:29
  walk, said Leslie restlessly. I couldn't on the rock shore. The tide
• 4:54:33
  was too high and the rocks prisoned me. I had to come here or
• 4:54:37
  I should have gone mad. I think I rode myself over the channel and
• 4:54:41
  Captain Jim's flat. I've been here for an hour. Come come, let
• 4:54:45
  us walk. I can't stand still, Oh, Anne, Leslie dearest,
• 4:54:49
  what is the trouble? Asked Anne, though she knew too well already.
• 4:54:53
  I can't tell you don't ask me. I wouldn't mind your knowing. I
• 4:54:57
  wish you did know, but I can't tell you. I can't tell anyone.
• 4:55:02
  I've been such a fool, Anne, And oh, it hurts so
• 4:55:04
  terribly to be a fool. There's nothing so painful in the world, she
• 4:55:08
  laughed bitterly. Anne slipped her arm around her. Leslie, is it that
• 4:55:15
  you have learned to care for mister Ford? Leslie turned herself about passionately.
• 4:55:19
  How did you know? She cried Anne? How did you know? Oh?
• 4:55:22
  Is it written in my face for everyone to see? Is it as
• 4:55:26
  plain as that? No, no Ah, I can't tell you how I
• 4:55:30
  knew. It just came into my mind somehow, Leslie. Don't look at
• 4:55:33
  me like that. Do you despise me? Demanded Leslie in a fierce low
• 4:55:38
  tone. Do you think I'm wicked, unwomanly? Or do you think I'm
• 4:55:42
  just a plain fool? I don't think you any of those things. Come
• 4:55:47
  dear, Let's just talk it over sensibly, as we might talk over any
• 4:55:51
  other of the great crises of life. You've been brooding over it and let
• 4:55:55
  yourself drift into a morbid view of it. You know you have a little
• 4:55:59
  tendency to do that about everything that goes wrong, And you promised me that
• 4:56:03
  you would fight against it. But oh, it's so so shameful, murmured
• 4:56:07
  Leslie. To love him unsought and when I'm not free to love anybody,
• 4:56:12
  there's nothing shameful about it. But I'm very sorry that you have learned to
• 4:56:17
  care for Owen, because as things are, it will only make you more
• 4:56:21
  unhappy. I didn't learn to care, said Leslie, walking on and speaking
• 4:56:26
  passionately. If it had been like that, I could have prevented it.
• 4:56:30
  I never dreamed of such a thing until that day a week ago, when
• 4:56:33
  he told me he had finished his book and must soon go away. Then
• 4:56:37
  then I knew. I felt as if some one had struck me a terrible
• 4:56:41
  blow. I didn't say anything. I couldn't speak, but I don't know
• 4:56:45
  what I looked like. I'm so afraid my face betrayed me. Oh,
• 4:56:49
  I would die of shame if I thought he knew or suspected. Anne was
• 4:56:55
  miserably silent, hampered by her deductions from her conversation with Owen. Leslie went
• 4:57:00
  on feverishly, as if she found relief in speech. I was so happy
• 4:57:06
  all this summer, Anne, happier than I ever was in my life.
• 4:57:10
  I thought it was because everything had been made clear between you and me,
• 4:57:12
  and that it was our friendship which made life seem so beautiful and fool once
• 4:57:17
  more. And it was in part, but not all, oh not nearly
• 4:57:22
  all. I know now why everything was so different. And now it's all
• 4:57:26
  over and he has gone. How can I live? Anne? When I
• 4:57:30
  turned back into the house this morning after he had gone, the solitude struck
• 4:57:36
  me like a blow in the face. It won't seem so hard by him,
• 4:57:40
  by dear, said Anne, who always felt the pain of her friends
• 4:57:44
  so keenly that she could not speak easy, fluent words of comforting. Besides,
• 4:57:48
  she remembered how well meant speeches had hurt her in her own sorrow,
• 4:57:52
  and was afraid. Oh, it seems to me it will grow harder all
• 4:57:56
  the time, said Leslie miserably. I've nothing to look forward to. Mourning
• 4:58:03
  will come after morning, and he will not come back. He will never
• 4:58:07
  come back. Oh, when I think that I will never see him again,
• 4:58:10
  I feel as if a great brutal hand had twisted itself among my heart
• 4:58:14
  strings and was wrenching them. Once long ago, I dreamed of love,
• 4:58:19
  and I thought it must be beautiful, And now it's like this. When
• 4:58:25
  he went away yesterday morning, he was so cold and indifferent. He said
• 4:58:29
  good bye, missus Moore in the coldest tone in the world, as if
• 4:58:33
  we had not even been friends, as if I meant absolutely nothing to him.
• 4:58:37
  I know, I don't. I didn't want him to care, but
• 4:58:41
  he might have been a little kinder. Oh I wish Gilbert would come,
• 4:58:45
  thought Anne. She was racked between her sympathy for Leslie and the necessity of
• 4:58:49
  avoiding anything that would betray Owen's confidence. She knew why his good bye had
• 4:58:55
  been so cold, why it could not have the cordiality that their good comradeship
• 4:58:59
  to man, but she could not tell Leslie. I couldn't help it,
• 4:59:03
  Anne, I couldn't help it, said poor Leslie. I know that.
• 4:59:07
  Do you blame me so very much? I don't blame you at all,
• 4:59:11
  And you won't. You won't tell Gilbert, Leslie. Do you think I
• 4:59:17
  would do such a thing. Oh, I don't know. You and Gilbert
• 4:59:19
  are such chums. I don't see how you could help telling him everything,
• 4:59:25
  everything about my own concerns, yes, but not my friend's secrets. I
• 4:59:29
  couldn't have him know, but I'm glad you know I would feel guilty if
• 4:59:33
  there were anything I was ashamed to tell you. I hope Miss Cornelia won't
• 4:59:37
  find out. Sometimes I feel as if those terrible, kind brown eyes of
• 4:59:41
  hers read my very soul. Oh I wish this mist would never lift.
• 4:59:45
  I wish I could just stay in it, forever, hidden away from every
• 4:59:49
  living being. I don't see how I can go on with life. This
• 4:59:53
  summer has been so full. I never was lonely for a moment before Owen
• 4:59:59
  came. There you to be horrible moments when I had been with you and
• 5:00:02
  Gilbert and then had to leave you. You two would walk away together,
• 5:00:07
  and I would walk away alone. After Owen came, he was always there
• 5:00:11
  to walk home with me. We would laugh and talk as you and Gilbert
• 5:00:15
  were doing. There were no more lonely, envious moments for me. And
• 5:00:18
  now, oh, yes, I've been a fool. Let's have done talking
• 5:00:23
  about my folly. I'll never bore you with it again. Here is Gilbert,
• 5:00:29
  and you are coming back with us, said Anne, who had no
• 5:00:32
  intention of leaving Leslie to wander alone on the sand bar on such a night
• 5:00:36
  and in such a mood. There's plenty of room in our boat for three,
• 5:00:38
  and we'll tie the flat on behind. Oh I suppose I must reconcile
• 5:00:42
  myself to being the odd one again, said poor Leslie with another bitter laugh.
• 5:00:48
  Forgive me, Anne, that was hateful. I ought to be thankful,
• 5:00:52
  and I am that I have two good friends who are glad to count
• 5:00:55
  me in as a third. Don't mind my hateful speeches. I just seemed
• 5:00:59
  to be one great pain all over, and everything hurts me. Leslie seemed
• 5:01:04
  very quiet tonight, didn't she, said Gilbert when he and Anne reached home.
• 5:01:08
  What in the world was she doing over there on the bar alone?
• 5:01:11
  Oh, she was tired, and you know she likes to go to the
• 5:01:15
  shore after one of Dick's bad days. What a pity she hadn't met and
• 5:01:18
  married a fellow like Ford long ago, ruminated Gilbert. They'd have made an
• 5:01:22
  ideal couple, wouldn't they. For pity's sake, Gilbert, don't develop into
• 5:01:26
  a match maker. It's an abominable profession for a man, cried Anne,
• 5:01:30
  rather sharply, afraid that Gilbert might blunder on the truth if he kept on
• 5:01:34
  in this strain. Bless us, Anne, girl, I'm not match making,
• 5:01:37
  protested Gilbert, rather surprised at her tone. I was only thinking of
• 5:01:41
  one of the might have beens. Well, don't. It's a waste of
• 5:01:45
  time, said Anne. Then she added suddenly, Oh, Gilbert, I
• 5:01:51
  wish everybody could be as happy as we are. End of Chapter twenty seven,
• 5:01:56
  Chapter twenty eight, Odds and Ends. I've been reading obituary notices,
• 5:02:03
  said Miss Cornelia, laying down the Daily Enterprise and taking up her sewing.
• 5:02:07
  The harbor was lying black and sullen under a dure November sky. The wet
• 5:02:12
  dead leaves clung, drenched and sodden to the window sills. But the little
• 5:02:18
  house was gay with firelight and spring like, with Anne's ferns and geraniums.
• 5:02:22
  It's always summer here, Anne Leslie had said one day, and all who
• 5:02:26
  were the guests of that House of dreams felt the same. The Enterprise seems
• 5:02:30
  to run to obituaries these days, quoth Miss Cornelia. It always has a
• 5:02:36
  couple of columns of them, and I read every line. It's one of
• 5:02:38
  my forms of recreation, especially when there's some original poetry attached to them.
• 5:02:44
  Here's a choice sample for you. She's gone to be with her maker,
• 5:02:47
  never more to Rome. She used to play and sing with joy the song
• 5:02:51
  of Home, Sweet Home. Who says we haven't any poetical talent on the
• 5:02:55
  island. Have you ever noticed what heaps of good people die, Anne Dearie,
• 5:02:59
  It's kind of pitiful. Here's ten obituaries, and every one of them
• 5:03:03
  saints and models, even the men. Here's old Peter Stimson, who has
• 5:03:07
  left a large circle of friends to mourn his untimely loss. Lord Anne,
• 5:03:11
  Dearie, That man was eighty, and everyone who knew him had been wishing
• 5:03:15
  him dead these thirty years. Read obituaries when you're blue, Anne Dearie,
• 5:03:18
  especially the ones of folks you know, if you've any sense of humor at
• 5:03:22
  all, they'll cheer you up. Believe me, I just wish I had
• 5:03:26
  the writing of the obituaries of some people. Isn't obituary an awful ugly word?
• 5:03:32
  This very Peter I've been speaking of had a face exactly like one.
• 5:03:34
  I never saw it, but I thought of the word obituary. Then in
• 5:03:37
  there there's only one uglier word that I know of, and that's relict.
• 5:03:41
  Lord An Dearie, I may be an old maid, but there's this comfort
• 5:03:45
  in it. I'll never be any man's relict. It is an ugly word,
• 5:03:49
  said Anne, laughing. Avonlea graveyard was full of old tombstone sacred to
• 5:03:55
  the memory of so and so, relict of the late so and so.
• 5:03:57
  It always made me think of something worn out and moth eaten. Why is
• 5:04:03
  it that so many of the words connected with death are so disagreeable. I
• 5:04:07
  do wish that the custom of calling a dead body the remains could be abolished.
• 5:04:11
  I positively shiver when I hear the undertaker say at a funeral, all
• 5:04:15
  who wish to see the remains, please step this way. It always gives
• 5:04:18
  me the horrible impression that I am about to view the scene of a cannibal
• 5:04:22
  feast. Well, all I hope, said Miss Cornelia calmly, is that
• 5:04:26
  when I'm dead, nobody will call me our departed sister. I took a
• 5:04:30
  scunner at this sister and brothering business five years ago when there was a traveling
• 5:04:34
  evangelist holding meetings at the Glen. I hadn't any use for him. From
• 5:04:38
  the start. I felt in my bones that there was something wrong with him,
• 5:04:42
  and there was mind you. He was pretending to be a Presbyterian.
• 5:04:47
  Presbyterian he called it, and all the time he was a Methodist. He
• 5:04:51
  brothered and sistered everybody. He had a large circle of relations that man had.
• 5:04:56
  He clutched my hand fervently one night and said, imploringly, my dear
• 5:05:00
  sister Bryant, are you a Christian? I just looked him over a bit,
• 5:05:04
  and then I said, calmly, the only brother I ever had,
• 5:05:07
  mister Fisk, was buried fifteen years ago, and I haven't adopted any since.
• 5:05:11
  As for being a Christian, I was that, I hope and believe
• 5:05:15
  when you were crawling about the floor and petticoats that squelched him. Believe me,
• 5:05:19
  mind you, Anne, dearie. I'm not down on all evangelists.
• 5:05:23
  We've had some real fine, earnest men who did a lot of good and
• 5:05:26
  made the old sinner's squirm. But this Fisk man wasn't one of them.
• 5:05:32
  I had a good laugh all to myself. One evening Fisk had asked all
• 5:05:34
  who were Christians to stand up. I didn't believe me. I never had
• 5:05:38
  any use for that sort of thing, but most of them did. And
• 5:05:42
  then he asked all who wanted to be Christians to stand up. Nobody stirred
• 5:05:47
  for a spell, so Fisks started up a hymn at the top of his
• 5:05:49
  voice, just in front of me. Poor little Ikey Baker was sitting in
• 5:05:52
  the millicom pew. He was a home boy ten years old, and Millicen
• 5:05:56
  just about worked him to death. The poor creature was always so tired he
• 5:06:00
  fell asleep right off whenever he went to church or anywhere he could sit still
• 5:06:04
  for a few minutes. He'd been sleeping all through the meeting, and I
• 5:06:08
  was thankful to see the poor child getting a rest. Believe me well.
• 5:06:12
  When Fisk's voice went soaring skyward and the rest joined in, poor Ikey wakened
• 5:06:18
  with a start. He thought it was just an ordinary singing and that everybody
• 5:06:22
  ought to stand up, so he scrambled to his feet mighty quick, knowing
• 5:06:25
  he'd get a combing down from Maria Millison for sleeping and meeting. Fisks saw
• 5:06:30
  him stopped and shouted another soul saved, Glory, Hallelujah, And there was
• 5:06:36
  poor frightened Ikey, only half awake and yawning, never thinking about his soul
• 5:06:41
  at all. Poor child, he never had time to think of anything but
• 5:06:44
  his tired, overworked little body. Leslie went one night, and the Fisk
• 5:06:48
  man got right after her. Oh he was especially anxious about the souls of
• 5:06:53
  the nice looking girls, believe me, and he hurt her feelings. So
• 5:06:56
  she never went again. And then he prayed every night after that ride in
• 5:07:00
  public that the Lord would soften her hard heart. Finally, I went to
• 5:07:04
  mister Levitt, our minister then, and told him if he didn't make Fisks
• 5:07:07
  stop that I'd just rise up the next night and throw my hymn book at
• 5:07:11
  him. When he mentioned that beautiful but unrepentant young woman, I'd have done
• 5:07:15
  it too, believe me. Mister Levitt did put a stop to it,
• 5:07:18
  but Fisk kept on with his meetings until Charlie Douglas put an end to his
• 5:07:22
  career in the Glen. Missus Charley had been out in California all winter.
• 5:07:26
  She'd been real melancholy. In the fall. Religious melancholy had ran in her
• 5:07:30
  family. Her father worried so much over believing that he had committed the unpardonable
• 5:07:36
  sin that he died in the asylum. So when Rose Douglas got that way,
• 5:07:41
  Charlie packed her off to visit her sister in Los Angeles. She got
• 5:07:44
  perfectly well and came home just when the Fisk revival was in full swing.
• 5:07:48
  She stepped off the train at the Glen Reel, smiling and chipper, and
• 5:07:52
  the first thing she saw staring her in the face on the black gable end
• 5:07:56
  of the freight shed was the question, in big white letters, two feet
• 5:08:00
  high, whither goest thou to Heaven or Hell? That had been one of
• 5:08:04
  Fisk's ideas, and he got Henry Hammond to paint it. Rose just gave
• 5:08:08
  a shriek and fainted, and when they got her home she was worse than
• 5:08:12
  ever. Charley Douglas went to mister Levitt and told him that every Douglas would
• 5:08:17
  leave the church if Fisk was kept there any longer. Mister Levitt had to
• 5:08:21
  give in, for the Douglases paid half his salary, so Fiske departed and
• 5:08:25
  we had to depend on our Bibles once more for instructions on how to get
• 5:08:27
  to heaven. After he was gone, mister Levitt found out he was just
• 5:08:32
  a masquerading Methodist, and he felt pretty sick. Believe me, mister Levitt
• 5:08:37
  fell short in some ways, but he was a good sound Presbyterian. By
• 5:08:41
  the way, I had a letter from mister Ford yesterday, said Anne.
• 5:08:45
  He asked me to remember him kindly to you. I don't want his remembrances,
• 5:08:49
  said Miss Cornelia curtly. Why, said Anne in astonishment. I thought
• 5:08:55
  you liked him well, So I did in a kind of way. But
• 5:08:57
  I'll never forgive him for what he does to Leslie. There's that poor child
• 5:09:02
  eating her heart out about him, as if she hadn't trouble enough, and
• 5:09:04
  him ranting round Toronto. I've no doubt enjoying himself, same as ever,
• 5:09:10
  just like a man. Oh, Miss Cornelia, how did you find out?
• 5:09:14
  Lord Anne? Dearie? I've got eyes, haven't I? And I've
• 5:09:17
  known Leslie since she was a baby. There's been a new kind of heartbreak
• 5:09:21
  in her eyes all the fall, and I know that writer man was behind
• 5:09:23
  it somehow. I'll never forgive myself for being the means of bringing him here.
• 5:09:27
  But I never expected he'd be like he was. I thought he'd be
• 5:09:30
  just like the other men Leslie had boarded, conceited young asses, every one
• 5:09:34
  of them that she never had any use for. One of them did try
• 5:09:38
  to flirt with her once, and she froze him out so bad. I
• 5:09:41
  feel sure he's never got himself thawed since so, I never thought of any
• 5:09:45
  danger. Don't let Leslie suspect you know her secret, said Anne hurriedly.
• 5:09:49
  I think it would hurt her. Trust me, Anne, dearie, I
• 5:09:53
  wasn't born yesterday. Oh, a plague on all the men. One of
• 5:09:56
  them ruined Leslie's life to begin with, and now another of the tribe comes
• 5:10:00
  and makes her still more wretched. Anne, this world is an awful place.
• 5:10:04
  Believe me, there's something in the world a miss will be unriddled by
• 5:10:10
  and by, quoted Anne dreamily. If it is, it'll be in a
• 5:10:14
  world where there aren't any men, said Miss Cornelia gloomily. What have the
• 5:10:18
  men been doing now, asked Gilbert, entering mischief? Mischief? What else
• 5:10:22
  did they ever do? It was Eve eight the apple, Miss Cornelia,
• 5:10:26
  twas a he creature tempted her, retorted Miss Cornelia triumphantly. Leslie, after
• 5:10:33
  her first anguish was over, found it possible to go on with life after
• 5:10:37
  all, as most of us do, no matter what our particular form of
• 5:10:40
  torment has been. It is even possible that she enjoyed moments of it when
• 5:10:45
  she was one of the gay circle in the Little House of Dreams. But
• 5:10:48
  if Anne ever hoped that she was forgetting owen Ford, she would have been
• 5:10:52
  undeceived by the furtive hunger in Leslie's eyes. Whenever his name was mentioned.
• 5:10:56
  Pitiful to that hunger, Anne always contrived to tell Captain Jim or Gilbert bits
• 5:11:02
  of news from Owen's letters when Leslie was with them. The girl's flush and
• 5:11:07
  pallor at such moments spoke all too eloquently of the emotion that filled her being,
• 5:11:11
  But she never spoke of him to Anne, or mentioned that night on
• 5:11:15
  the sand bar. One day, her old dog died, and she grieved
• 5:11:19
  bitterly over him. He's been my friend so long, she said sorrowfully to
• 5:11:23
  Anne. He was Dick's old dog. You know. Dick had him for
• 5:11:27
  a year or so before we were married. He left him with me when
• 5:11:30
  he sailed on the Four Sisters. Carlo got very fond of me, and
• 5:11:36
  his dog love helped me through that first dreadful year after mother died. When
• 5:11:38
  I was alone. When I heard that Dick was coming back, I was
• 5:11:42
  afraid Carlo wouldn't be so much mine. But he never seemed to care for
• 5:11:45
  Dick, though he had been so fond of him. Once he would snap
• 5:11:49
  and growl at him as if he were a stranger. I was glad.
• 5:11:53
  It was nice to have one thing whose love was all mine. That old
• 5:11:57
  dog has been such a comfort to me, Anne. He got so feeble
• 5:12:00
  in the fall that I was afraid he couldn't live long, but I hoped
• 5:12:03
  I could nurse him through the winter. He seemed pretty well this morning.
• 5:12:07
  He was lying on the rug before the fire. Then all at once he
• 5:12:11
  got up and crept over to me. He put his head on my lap
• 5:12:15
  and gave me one loving look out of his big, soft dog eyes,
• 5:12:18
  and then he just shivered and died. I shall miss him. So let
• 5:12:23
  me give you another dog, Leslie said Anne. I'm getting a lovely Gordon
• 5:12:29
  setter for a Christmas present for Gilbert. Let me give you one too,
• 5:12:33
  Leslie shook her head. Not just now, thank you, Anne. I
• 5:12:37
  don't feel like having another dog yet. I don't seem to have any affection
• 5:12:40
  left for another. Perhaps in time I'll let you give me one. I
• 5:12:45
  really need one as a kind of protection. But there was something almost human
• 5:12:48
  about Carlo. It wouldn't be decent to fill his place too hurriedly, dear
• 5:12:52
  old fellow. Anne went to Avonlea a week before Christmas and stayed until after
• 5:12:59
  the hall. Gilbert came up for her, and there was a glad New
• 5:13:03
  Year celebration at green Gables, when Barrys and Blythes and Writes assembled to devour
• 5:13:07
  a dinner which had cost missus Rachel and Marilla much careful thought and preparation.
• 5:13:14
  When they went back to four Winds, the little house was almost drifted over
• 5:13:18
  for the third storm of a winter that was to prove phenomenally Stormy had whirled
• 5:13:22
  up the harbor and heaped huge snow mountains about everything and encountered. But Captain
• 5:13:27
  Jim had shoveled out doors and paths, and Miss Cornelia had come down and
• 5:13:33
  kindled the hearth fire. It's good to see you back, Anne, dearie,
• 5:13:37
  but did you ever see such drifts? You can't see the moor place
• 5:13:40
  at all unless you go upstairs. Leslie'll be so glad you're back. She's
• 5:13:44
  almost buried alive over there. Fortunately, Dick can shovel snow and thinks it's
• 5:13:48
  great fun. Susan sent me word to tell you she would be on hand
• 5:13:52
  tomorrow. Where are you off to now, Captain I reckon I'll plow up
• 5:13:56
  to the glen and sit a bit with old Martin Strong. He's not far
• 5:14:00
  from his end, and he's lonesome. He hasn't many friends, been too
• 5:14:03
  busy all his life to make any He's made heaps of money, though well.
• 5:14:07
  He thought that since he couldn't serve God and Mammon, he'd better stick
• 5:14:11
  to Mammon, said Miss Cornelia crisply. So he shouldn't complain if he doesn't
• 5:14:15
  find Mammon very good company. Now, Captain Jim went out, but remembered
• 5:14:19
  something in the yard and turned back for a moment. I had a letter
• 5:14:23
  from mister Ford, mistress Blythe and he says the life book is accepted and
• 5:14:27
  is going to be published next fall. I felt fair uplifted when I got
• 5:14:32
  the news to think that I'm to see it in print at last. That
• 5:14:36
  man is clean crazy on the subject of his life book, said Miss Cornelia
• 5:14:38
  compassionately. For my part, I think there's far too many books in the
• 5:14:42
  world now. End of Chapter twenty eight. Chapter twenty nine, Gilbert and
• 5:14:49
  Anne disagree. Gilbert laid down the ponderous medical tomb over which he had been
• 5:14:56
  pouring until the increasing dusk of the march evening made him desist. He leaned
• 5:15:00
  back in his chair and gazed meditatively out of the window. It was early
• 5:15:06
  spring, probably the ugliest time of the year. Not even the sunset could
• 5:15:10
  redeem the dead, sodden landscape and rotten black harbor ice upon which he looked.
• 5:15:15
  No sign of life was visible, save a big black crow winging his
• 5:15:21
  solitary way across a leaden field. Gilbert speculated idly concerning that crow. Was
• 5:15:26
  he a family crow with a black but comely crow wife awaiting him in the
• 5:15:30
  woods beyond the glen, Or was he a glossy young buck of a crow
• 5:15:36
  on courting thoughts intent? Or was he a cynical bachelor crow, believing that
• 5:15:41
  he travels the fastest who travels alone. Whatever he was, he soon disappeared
• 5:15:45
  in congenial gloom, and Gilbert turned to the cheerier view indoors. The firelight
• 5:15:52
  flickered from point to point, gleaming on the white and green coats of gog
• 5:15:56
  and Magog, on the sleek brown head of the beautiful sutter, basking on
• 5:16:00
  the rug, on the picture frames, on the walls, on the vase
• 5:16:03
  full of daffodils from the window garden, on Anne herself sitting by her little
• 5:16:08
  table, with her sewing beside her, and her hands clasped over her knee,
• 5:16:12
  while she traced out pictures in the fire castles in Spain, whose airy
• 5:16:17
  turrets pierced moonlit cloud and sunset bar. Ships sailing from the Haven of Good
• 5:16:22
  Hopes straight to four winds harbor with precious burden. For Anne was again a
• 5:16:27
  dreamer of dreams, albeit a grim shape of fear went with her night and
• 5:16:33
  day to shadow and darken her visions. Gilbert was accustomed to refer to himself
• 5:16:38
  as an old married man, but he still looked upon Anne with the incredulous
• 5:16:42
  eyes of a lover. He couldn't wholly believe yet that she was really his.
• 5:16:48
  It might be only a dream, after all, part and parcel of
• 5:16:52
  this magic house of dreams. His soul still went tiptoe before her, lest
• 5:16:56
  the charm be shattered and the dream dispelled. Anne, he said, slowly,
• 5:17:03
  lend me your ears. I want to talk with you about something.
• 5:17:07
  Anne looked across at him through the fire lit gloom. What is it?
• 5:17:11
  She asked gaily, you look fearfully solemn, Gilbert, I really haven't done
• 5:17:15
  anything naughty to day, ask Susan. It's not of you or ourselves.
• 5:17:19
  I want to talk. It's about Dick Moore. Dick Moore, echoed Anne,
• 5:17:25
  sitting up alertly. Why what in the world have you to say about
• 5:17:29
  Dick Moore. I've been thinking a great deal about him lately. Do you
• 5:17:33
  remember that time last summer I treated him for those carbuncles on his neck.
• 5:17:38
  Yes, yes, I took the opportunity to examine the scars on his head
• 5:17:44
  thoroughly. I've always thought Dick was a very interesting case from a medical point
• 5:17:48
  of view. Lately, I've been studying the history of trefining and the cases
• 5:17:52
  where it has been employed. Anne, I have come to the conclusion that
• 5:17:56
  if Dick Moore were taken to a good hostelspital and the operation of trefining performed
• 5:18:02
  on several places in his skull, his memory and faculties might be restored.
• 5:18:07
  Gilbert. Anne's voice was full of protest. Surely you don't mean it.
• 5:18:12
  I do indeed, and I have decided that it is my duty to broach
• 5:18:17
  the subject to Leslie Gilbert blythe you shall not do any such thing, cried
• 5:18:22
  Anne vehemently. Oh Gilbert, you won't. You won't. You couldn't be
• 5:18:26
  so cruel. Promise me you won't. Why, ang girl, I didn't
• 5:18:32
  suppose you would take it like this. Be reasonable. I won't be reasonable.
• 5:18:36
  I can't be reasonable. I am reasonable. It is you who are
• 5:18:40
  unreasonable, Gilbert. Have you ever once thought what it would mean for Leslie
• 5:18:44
  if Dick Moore were to be restored to his right senses? Just stop and
• 5:18:48
  think. She's unhappy enough now. But life is Dick's nurse and attendant is
• 5:18:52
  a thousand times easier for her than life is Dick's wife. I know,
• 5:18:57
  I know it's on thinkable. Don't you meddle with the matter? Leave well
• 5:19:03
  enough alone. I have thought over that aspect of the case thoroughly, Anne,
• 5:19:07
  But I believe that a doctor is bound to set the sanctity of a
• 5:19:11
  patient's mind and body above all other considerations, no matter what the consequences may
• 5:19:17
  be. I believe it is his duty to endeavor to restore health and sanity
• 5:19:22
  if there is any hope whatever of it. But Dick isn't your patient in
• 5:19:26
  that respect, cried Anne, taking another tack. If Leslie had asked you
• 5:19:30
  if anything could be done for him, then it might be your duty to
• 5:19:33
  tell her what you really thought. But you've no right to meddle. I
• 5:19:37
  don't call it meddling. Uncle Dave told Leslie twelve years ago that nothing could
• 5:19:42
  be done for Dick. She believes that, of course, And why did
• 5:19:47
  Uncle Dave tell her that if it wasn't true, cried Anne triumphantly. Doesn't
• 5:19:51
  he know as much about it as you? I think not, though it
• 5:19:55
  may sound conceited and presumptuous to say it. And you know as well as
• 5:19:59
  I that he is rather prejudiced against what he calls these new fangled notions of
• 5:20:03
  cutting and carving. He's even opposed to operating for appendicitis. He's right,
• 5:20:08
  exclaimed Anne, with a complete change affront. I believe myself that you modern
• 5:20:14
  doctors are entirely too fond of making experiments with human flesh and blood. Rhoda
• 5:20:18
  Allenby would not be a living woman to day if I had been afraid of
• 5:20:22
  making a certain experiment, argued Gilbert. I took the risk and saved her
• 5:20:27
  life. I'm sick and tired of hearing about Rhoda Allenby, cried Anne,
• 5:20:33
  most unjustly, for Gilbert had never mentioned missus Allenby's name since the day he
• 5:20:37
  had told Anne of his success in regard to her, and he could not
• 5:20:40
  be blamed for other people's discussion of it. Gilbert felt rather hurt. I
• 5:20:45
  had not expected you to look at the matter as you do, Anne,
• 5:20:48
  he said, a little stiffly, getting up and moving towards the office door.
• 5:20:52
  It was their first approach to a quarrel. But Anne flew after him
• 5:20:56
  and dragged him back. Now, Gilbert, you are not going off mad.
• 5:21:00
  Sit down here, and I'll apologize beautifully. I shouldn't have said that,
• 5:21:03
  but oh if you knew. Anne checked herself just in time. She
• 5:21:08
  had been on the very verge of betraying Leslie's secret. Knew what a woman
• 5:21:14
  feels about it, She concluded lamely. I think I do know. I've
• 5:21:18
  looked at the matter from every point of view, and I've been driven to
• 5:21:22
  the conclusion that it is my duty to tell Leslie that I believe it is
• 5:21:26
  possible that Dick can be restored to himself. There my responsibility ends. It
• 5:21:30
  will be for her to decide what she will do. I don't think you've
• 5:21:34
  any right to put such a responsibility on her. She has enough to bear.
• 5:21:38
  She is poor. How could she afford such an operation? That is
• 5:21:42
  for her to decide, persisted Gilbert stubbornly. You say you think that Dick
• 5:21:48
  can be cured, But are you sure of it? Certainly not. Nobody
• 5:21:52
  could be sure of such a thing. There may have been lesions on the
• 5:21:55
  brain itself, the effect of which can never be removed. But if,
• 5:21:59
  as I believe, his loss of memory and other faculties, is due merely
• 5:22:03
  to the pressure on the brain centers of certain depressed areas of bone, then
• 5:22:07
  he can be cured. But it's only a possibility, insisted Anne. Now
• 5:22:12
  suppose you tell Leslie and she decides to have the operation. It will cost
• 5:22:17
  a great deal. She will have to borrow the money or sell her little
• 5:22:21
  property. And suppose the operation is a failure and Dick remains the same,
• 5:22:26
  how will she be able to pay back the money she borrows or make a
• 5:22:29
  living for herself and that big, helpless creature if she sells the farm.
• 5:22:33
  Oh I know, I know, but it is my duty to tell her.
• 5:22:37
  I can't get away from that conviction. Oh I know. The Blithe's
• 5:22:41
  stubbornness, groaned Anne. But don't do this solely on your own responsibility.
• 5:22:47
  Consult doctor Dave. I have done so, said Gilbert reluctantly. And what
• 5:22:52
  did he say in brief as you say, leave well enough alone? Apart
• 5:22:57
  from his prejudice against new Fangletston surgery. I'm afraid he looks at the case
• 5:23:02
  from your point of view. Don't do it for Leslie's sake there now,
• 5:23:06
  cried Anne triumphantly. I do think, Gilbert, that you ought to abide
• 5:23:11
  by the judgment of a man nearly eighty, who has seen a great deal
• 5:23:15
  and saved scores of lives himself. Surely his opinion ought to weigh more than
• 5:23:18
  a mere boy's. Thank you, don't laugh. It's too serious. That's
• 5:23:25
  just my point. It is serious. Here is a man who is a
• 5:23:29
  helpless burden. He may be restored to reason and usefulness. He was so
• 5:23:33
  very useful before, interjected Anne witheringly. He may be given a chance to
• 5:23:38
  make good and redeem the past. His wife doesn't know this. I do.
• 5:23:42
  It is therefore my duty to tell her that there is such a possibility
• 5:23:48
  that boiled down is my decision. Don't say decision yet, Gilbert, consult
• 5:23:52
  somebody else. Ask Captain Jim what he thinks about it? Very well,
• 5:23:57
  but I'll not promise to a by by his opinion. Anne, this is
• 5:24:02
  something a man must decide for himself. My conscience would never be easy if
• 5:24:06
  I kept silent on the subject. Oh your conscience, moaned Anne. I
• 5:24:11
  suppose that Uncle Dave has a conscience too, hasn't he Yes? But I
• 5:24:15
  am not the keeper of his conscience. Come, Anne, if this affair
• 5:24:19
  did not concern Leslie, if it were a purely abstract case, you would
• 5:24:23
  agree with me. You know you would. I wouldn't, vowed Anne,
• 5:24:27
  trying to believe it herself. Oh you can argue all night, Gilbert,
• 5:24:32
  but you won't convince me. Just you ask Miss Cornelia what she thinks of
• 5:24:34
  it. You're driven to the last ditch, Anne, When you bring up
• 5:24:38
  Miss Cornelia as a reinforcement, she will say, just like a man,
• 5:24:42
  and rage furiously. No matter, this is no affair for miss Cornelia to
• 5:24:48
  settle. Leslie alone must decide it. You know very well how she will
• 5:24:52
  decide it, said Anne, almost in tears. She has ideals of duty
• 5:24:56
  too. I don't see how you can take such a re responsibility on your
• 5:25:00
  shoulders. I couldn't, because right is right to follow. Right were wisdom
• 5:25:06
  in the scorn of consequence, quoted Gilbert, Oh, you think a couplet
• 5:25:10
  of poetry a convincing argument, scoffed Anne. That is so like a man,
• 5:25:15
  And then she laughed in spite of herself. It sounded so like an
• 5:25:18
  echo of miss Cornelia. Well, if you won't accept Tennyson as an authority,
• 5:25:23
  perhaps you will believe the words of a greater than he, said Gilbert,
• 5:25:26
  Seriously, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
• 5:25:30
  free. I believe that, Anne, with all my heart. It's the
• 5:25:34
  greatest and grandest verse in the Bible or in any literature, and the truest
• 5:25:40
  if there are comparative degrees of trueness. And it's the first duty of a
• 5:25:44
  man to tell the truth as he sees it and believes it. In this
• 5:25:48
  case, the truth won't make poor Leslie free, sighed Anne. It will
• 5:25:52
  probably end in still more bitter bondage for her. Oh, Gilbert, I
• 5:25:57
  can't think you are right. End of chapter twenty nine. Chapter thirty,
• 5:26:04
  Leslie decides a sudden outbreak of a virulent type of influenza at the glen and
• 5:26:11
  down at the fishing village. Captain Gilbert so busy for the next fortnight that
• 5:26:15
  he had no time to pay the promised visit to Captain Jim. Anne hoped
• 5:26:19
  against hope that he had abandoned the idea about Dick Moore and resolving to let
• 5:26:23
  sleeping dogs lie. She said no more about the subject, but she thought
• 5:26:29
  of it incessantly. I wonder if it would be right for me to tell
• 5:26:32
  him that Leslie cares for Owen. She thought he would never let her suspect
• 5:26:36
  that he knew, so her pride would not suffer, and it might convince
• 5:26:40
  him that he should let Dick Moore alone. Shall I? Shall? I?
• 5:26:45
  No, after all, I cannot. A promise is sacred, and
• 5:26:48
  I've no right to betray Leslie's secret. But oh, I never felt so
• 5:26:53
  worried over anything in my life as I do over this. It's spoiling the
• 5:26:56
  spring, It's spoiling everything. One evening, Gilbert abruptly proposed that they go
• 5:27:03
  down and see Captain Jim. With a sinking heart, Anne agreed, and
• 5:27:07
  they set forth. Two weeks of kind sunshine had wrought a miracle in the
• 5:27:12
  bleak landscape, over which Gilbert's crow had flown. The hills and fields were
• 5:27:18
  dry and brown and warm, ready to break into bud and blossom. The
• 5:27:22
  harbor was laughter shaken again. The Long Harbor Road was like a gleaming red
• 5:27:26
  ribbon. Down on the dunes, a crowd of boys who were out smelt
• 5:27:30
  fishing were burning the thick, dry sand hill grass of the preceding summer.
• 5:27:36
  The flames swept over the dunes, Rosalie flinging their cardinal banners against the dark
• 5:27:41
  gulf beyond, and illuminating the channel and the fishing village. It was a
• 5:27:45
  picturesque scene which would at other times have delighted Anne's eyes. But she was
• 5:27:49
  not enjoying this walk. Neither was Gilbert. Their usual good comradeship and Josephian
• 5:27:56
  community of taste and viewpoint were sadly lacking. Anne's disapproval of the whole project
• 5:28:02
  showed itself in the haughty uplift of her head and the studied politeness of her
• 5:28:06
  remarks. Gilbert's mouth was set in all the blithe obstinacy, but his eyes
• 5:28:11
  were troubled. He meant to do what he believed to be his duty,
• 5:28:15
  but to be at out with Anne was a high price to pay. Altogether,
• 5:28:19
  they were both glad when they reached the light, and remorseful that they
• 5:28:22
  should be glad. Captain Jim put away the fishing net upon which he was
• 5:28:27
  working and welcomed them joyfully. In the searching light of the spring evening.
• 5:28:33
  He looked older than Anne had ever seen him. His hair had grown much
• 5:28:37
  grayer, and the strong old hand shook a little, but his blue eyes
• 5:28:41
  were clear and steady, and the staunch soul looked out through them, gallant
• 5:28:45
  and unafraid. Captain Jim listened in amazed silence while Gilbert said what he had
• 5:28:51
  come to say. Anne, who knew how the old man worshiped Leslie,
• 5:28:55
  felt quite sure that he would side with her, although she had not much
• 5:28:59
  hope that this would be influence Gilbert. She was therefore surprised beyond measure when
• 5:29:03
  Captain Jim slowly and sorrowfully but unhesitatingly gave it as his opinion that Leslie should
• 5:29:10
  be told. Oh, Captain Jim, I didn't think you'd say that,
• 5:29:14
  she exclaimed, reproachfully. I thought you wouldn't want to make more trouble for
• 5:29:18
  her. Captain Jim, shook his head. I don't want to. I
• 5:29:22
  know how you feel about it, Mistress Blythe, just as I feel myself,
• 5:29:26
  but it ain't our feelings. We have to steer by through life.
• 5:29:30
  No, no, we'd make shipwreck mighty often if we did that. There's
• 5:29:34
  only the one safe compass, and we've got to set our course by that
• 5:29:38
  what it's right to do. I agree with the doctor. If there's a
• 5:29:42
  chance for dick Leslie should be told of it. There's no two sides to
• 5:29:47
  that, in my opinion, Well said Anne, giving up in despair.
• 5:29:51
  Wait until miss Cornelia gets after you two men. Cornelia'll rake us fore and
• 5:29:56
  aft, no doubt, assented Captain Jim. You you women are lovely critters,
• 5:30:00
  Mistress Blythe, but you're just a mity logical. You're a highly educated
• 5:30:04
  lady, and Cornelia isn't. But you're like is two peas when it comes
• 5:30:08
  to that. I dun'no, as you're any the worse for it. Logic
• 5:30:12
  is a sort of hard, merciless thing. I reckon. Now, I'll
• 5:30:17
  brow up a cup of tea and we'll drink it and talk of pleasant things,
• 5:30:19
  just to calm our minds a bit at least, Captain Jim's tea and
• 5:30:23
  conversation calmed Anne's mind to such an extent that she did not make Gilbert suffer
• 5:30:29
  so acutely on the way home, as she had deliberately intended to do.
• 5:30:33
  She did not refer to the burning question at all, but she chatted amiably
• 5:30:37
  of other matters, and Gilbert understood that he was forgiven under protest. Captain
• 5:30:42
  Jim seems very frail and bent this spring. The winter has aged him,
• 5:30:47
  said Anne sadly. I am afraid that he will soon be going to seek
• 5:30:49
  lost Margaret. I can't bear to think of it. Four winds won't be
• 5:30:55
  the same place when Captain Jim sets out to see, agreed Gilbert. The
• 5:31:00
  following evening, he went to the house up the brook. Anne wandered dismally
• 5:31:03
  around until his return. Well what did Leslie say, she demanded when he
• 5:31:08
  came in. Very little. I think she felt rather dazed. And is
• 5:31:12
  she going to have the operation? She is going to think it over and
• 5:31:17
  decide very soon. Gilbert flung himself wearily into the easy chair before the fire.
• 5:31:22
  He looked tired. It had not been an easy thing for him to
• 5:31:26
  tell Leslie and the terror that had sprung into her eyes when the meaning of
• 5:31:30
  what he had told her came home to her. Was not a pleasant thing
• 5:31:33
  to remember. Now. When the die was cast, he was beset with
• 5:31:37
  doubts of his own wisdom. Anne looked at him remorsefully. Then she slipped
• 5:31:42
  down on the rug beside him and laid her glossy red head on his arm.
• 5:31:48
  Gilbert, I've been rather hateful over this. I won't be any more.
• 5:31:51
  Please just call me red headed and forgive me, by which Gilbert understood
• 5:31:56
  that no matter what came of it, there would be no I told you
• 5:31:59
  sos. But he was not wholly comforted. Duty in the abstract is one
• 5:32:03
  thing, duty in the concrete is quite another, especially when the doer is
• 5:32:08
  confronted by a woman's stricken eyes. Some instinct made Anne keep away from Leslie
• 5:32:15
  for the next three days. On the third evening, Leslie came down to
• 5:32:18
  the little house and told Gilbert that she had made up her mind she would
• 5:32:22
  take Dick to Montreal and have the operation. She was very pale and seemed
• 5:32:26
  to have wrapped herself in her old mantle of aloofness, but her eyes had
• 5:32:30
  lost the look which had haunted Gilbert they were cold and bright, and she
• 5:32:36
  proceeded to discuss detales with him in a crisp, businesslike way. There were
• 5:32:40
  plans to be made and many things to be thought over. When Leslie had
• 5:32:44
  got the information she wanted, she went home. Anne wanted to walk part
• 5:32:48
  of the way with her. Better not, said Leslie, curtly. To
• 5:32:52
  day's reign has made the ground damp. Good night, have I lost my
• 5:32:56
  friend? Said Anne with a sigh. If the operation is sixce zessful and
• 5:33:00
  Dick Moore finds himself again, Leslie will retreat into some remote fastness of her
• 5:33:04
  soul where none of us can never find her, perhaps she will leave him,
• 5:33:08
  said Gilbert. Leslie would never do that, Gilbert. Her sense of
• 5:33:12
  duty is very strong. She told me once that her grandmother West always impressed
• 5:33:17
  upon her the fact that when she assumed any responsibility, she must never shirk
• 5:33:22
  it, no matter what the consequences might be. That is one of her
• 5:33:26
  cardinal rules. I suppose it's very old fashioned. Don't be bitter, ane
• 5:33:30
  girl. You know you don't think it old fashioned. You know you have
• 5:33:33
  the very same idea of sacredness of assumed responsibilities yourself, and you are right
• 5:33:38
  shirking responsibilities is the curse of our modern life, the secret of all the
• 5:33:42
  unrest and discontent that is seething in the world. Thus saith The preacher mocked
• 5:33:48
  Anne, but under the mockery, she felt that he was right, and
• 5:33:52
  she was very sick at heart for Leslie. A week later, Miss Cornelia
• 5:33:56
  descended like an avalanche upon the little house. Gilbert was away, and Anne
• 5:34:02
  was compelled to bear the shock of the impact alone. Miss Cornelia hardly waited
• 5:34:06
  to get her hat off before she began, Anne, do you mean to
• 5:34:10
  tell me it's true what I've heard that doctor Blythe has told Leslie Dick can
• 5:34:12
  be cured, and that she is going to take him to Montreal to have
• 5:34:15
  him operated on. Yes, it is quite true, miss Cornelia, said
• 5:34:19
  Anne bravely. Well, it's in human cruelty, that's what it is,
• 5:34:23
  said Miss Cornelia, violently agitated. I did think doctor Blythe was a decent
• 5:34:29
  man. I didn't think he could have been guilty of this. Doctor Blythe
• 5:34:33
  thought it was his duty to tell Leslie that there was a chance for Dick,
• 5:34:37
  said Anne with spirit, and she added loyalty to Gilbert getting the better
• 5:34:41
  of her. I agree with him. Oh no, you don't, deary,
• 5:34:45
  said Miss Cornelia. No person with any bowels of compassion could captain Jim
• 5:34:51
  does. Don't quote that old ninny to me, cried Miss Cornelia. And
• 5:34:55
  I don't care who agrees with him. Think think what it means to that
• 5:34:59
  poor honey, harried girl. We do think of it. But Gilbert believes
• 5:35:03
  that a doctor should put the welfare of a patient's mind and body before all
• 5:35:07
  other considerations. That's just like a man. But I expected better things of
• 5:35:12
  you, Anne, said Miss Cornelia, more in sorrow than in wrath.
• 5:35:17
  Then she proceeded to bombard Anne with precisely the same arguments with which the latter
• 5:35:21
  had attacked Gilbert, and Anne valiantly defended her husband with the weapons he had
• 5:35:26
  used for his own protection. Long was the fray, but miss Cornelia made
• 5:35:30
  an end at last. It's an iniquitous shame, she declared, almost in
• 5:35:34
  tears. That's just what it is, an iniquitous shame, poor poor Leslie.
• 5:35:41
  Don't you think Dick should be considered a little too pleaded? Anne?
• 5:35:45
  Dick, Dick Moore, He's happy enough. He's a better behaved and more
• 5:35:48
  reputable member of society now than he ever was before. Why he was a
• 5:35:52
  drunkard and perhaps worse? Are you going to set him loose again to roar
• 5:35:56
  and to devour? He may reform, said poor Anne, beset by foe
• 5:36:02
  without a traitor within reform, your grandmother retorted Miss Cornelia, dick More got
• 5:36:07
  the injuries that left him as he is in a drunken brawl. He deserves
• 5:36:11
  his fate. It was sent on him for a punishment. I don't believe
• 5:36:15
  the doctor has any business to tamper with the visitations of God. Nobody knows
• 5:36:18
  how dick was hurt, Miss Cornelia. It may not have been in a
• 5:36:22
  drunken brawl at all. He may have been waylaid and robbed. Pigs may
• 5:36:26
  whistle, but they have poor mouths for it, said Miss Cornelia. Well,
• 5:36:30
  the gist of what you tell me is that the thing is settled,
• 5:36:33
  and there's no use in talking. If that's so, I'll hold my tongue.
• 5:36:37
  I don't propose to wear my teeth out gnawing files. When a thing
• 5:36:41
  has to be, I give in to it, but I like to make
• 5:36:44
  mighty sure first that it has to be. Now, I'll devote my energies
• 5:36:48
  to comforting and sustaining Leslie, and after all, added Miss Cornelia brightening up
• 5:36:52
  hopefully, perhaps nothing can be done for Dick. End of chapter thirty Chapter
• 5:37:00
  thirty one, The truth makes free. Leslie, having once made up her
• 5:37:04
  mind what to do, proceeded to do it with characteristic resolution and speed.
• 5:37:10
  House cleaning must be finished with first, whatever issues of life and death might
• 5:37:14
  await beyond the Gray House up the Brook was put into flawless order and cleanliness,
• 5:37:18
  with Miss Cornelia's ready assistance. Miss Cornelia, having said her say to
• 5:37:22
  Anne, and later on to Gilbert and Captain Jim, sparing neither of them,
• 5:37:26
  let it be assured, never spoke of the matter to Leslie. She
• 5:37:30
  accepted the fact of Dick's operation, referred to it when necessary in a business
• 5:37:34
  like way, and ignored it when it was not. Leslie never attempted to
• 5:37:38
  discuss it. She was very cold and quiet during these beautiful spring days.
• 5:37:44
  She seldom visited Anne, and though she was invariably courteous and friendly, that
• 5:37:48
  very courtesy was an icy barrier between her and the people of the little house.
• 5:37:52
  The old jokes and laughter and chumminess of common things could not reach her
• 5:37:56
  over it. Anne refused to feel hurt. She knew that Leslie was in
• 5:38:02
  the grip of a hideous dread, a dread that wrapped her away from all
• 5:38:04
  little glimpses of happiness and hours of pleasure. When one great passion seizes possession
• 5:38:11
  of the soul, all other feelings are crowded aside. Never in all her
• 5:38:15
  life had Leslie Moore shuddered away from the future with more intolerable terror. But
• 5:38:22
  she went forward as unswervingly in the path she had elected as the martyrs of
• 5:38:26
  old walked their chosen way, knowing the end of it to be the fiery
• 5:38:30
  agony of the stake. The financial question was settled with greater ease than Anne
• 5:38:34
  had feared. Leslie borrowed the necessary money from Captain Jim, and at her
• 5:38:40
  insistence, he took a mortgage on the little farm. So that is one
• 5:38:44
  thing off the poor girl's mind, miss Cornelia told Anne, and off mine
• 5:38:48
  too. Now, if Dick gets well enough to work again, he'll be
• 5:38:51
  able to earn enough to pay the interest on it. And if he doesn't,
• 5:38:55
  I know Captain Jim will managed some way that Leslie won't have to.
• 5:38:57
  He said as much to me. I'm getting old Cornelia, he said,
• 5:39:02
  And I've no chick or child of my own. Leslie won't take a gift
• 5:39:04
  from a living man, but maybe she will from a dead one, so
• 5:39:07
  it will be all right as far as that goes. I wish everything else
• 5:39:11
  might be settled as satisfactorily. As for that wretch of a Dick, he's
• 5:39:15
  been awful these last few days. The devil was in him. Believe me,
• 5:39:18
  Leslie and I couldn't get on with our work for the trick seat play.
• 5:39:22
  He chased all her ducks one day round the yard till most of em
• 5:39:26
  died, and not one thing would he do for us. Sometimes you know,
• 5:39:29
  he'll make himself quite handy, bringing him pails of water and wood.
• 5:39:33
  But this week if we send him to the well, he'd try to climb
• 5:39:36
  down into it. I thought once, if you'd only shoot down their head
• 5:39:40
  first, everything would be nicely settled. Oh, miss Cornelia, Now you
• 5:39:44
  needn't miss Cornelia, me Anne, dearie. Anybody would have thought the same.
• 5:39:48
  If the Montreal doctors can make a rational creature out of Dick, more
• 5:39:52
  there wonders. Leslie took Dick to Montreal early in May. Gilbert went with
• 5:39:57
  her to help her and make the nes necessary arrangements for her. He came
• 5:40:02
  home with the report that the Montreal surgeon whom they had consulted, agreed with
• 5:40:06
  him that there was a good chance of Dick's restoration. Very comforting was Miss
• 5:40:11
  Cornelia's sarcastic comment. Anne only sighed Leslie had been very distant at their parting,
• 5:40:18
  but she had promised to write. Ten days after Gilbert's return. The
• 5:40:22
  letter came. Leslie wrote that the operation had been successfully performed and that Dick
• 5:40:27
  was making a good recovery. What does she mean by successfully, asked Anne.
• 5:40:33
  Does she mean that Dick's memory is really restored? Not likely, since
• 5:40:37
  she says nothing of it, said Gilbert. She uses the words successfully.
• 5:40:41
  From the surgeon's point of view, the operation has been performed and followed by
• 5:40:45
  normal results, But it is too soon to know whether Dick's faculties will be
• 5:40:48
  eventually restored wholly or in part. His memory would not be likely to return
• 5:40:52
  to him all at once. The process will be gradual if it occurs at
• 5:40:56
  all. Is that all she says? Yes, there's her letter. It's
• 5:41:00
  very short. Poor girl, She must be under a terrible strain. Gilbert
• 5:41:04
  blythe There are heaps of things I longed to say to you, only it
• 5:41:08
  would be mean. Miss Cornelia says them for you, said Gilbert, with
• 5:41:11
  a rueful smile. She combs me down every time I encounter her. She
• 5:41:17
  makes it plain to me that she regards me as a little better than a
• 5:41:18
  murderer, and that she thinks it a great pity that Doctor Dave ever let
• 5:41:22
  me step into his shoes. She even told me that the Methodist doctor over
• 5:41:26
  the Harbor was to be preferred before me With Miss Cornelia. The force of
• 5:41:30
  condemnation can no further go. If Cornelia Bryant was thick, it would not
• 5:41:34
  be doctor Dave or the Methodist doctor she would send for, sniffed Susan.
• 5:41:38
  She would have you out of your hard earned bed in the middle of the
• 5:41:41
  night, doctor Dear. If she took a spell of misery, that she
• 5:41:44
  would, and then she would likely say your bill was past all reason.
• 5:41:48
  But do not mind her, doctor Dear. It takes all kinds of people
• 5:41:51
  to make a world. No further word came from Leslie for some time.
• 5:41:56
  The may days crept away in a sweet succession, and the shores of Four
• 5:42:00
  Winds Harbor greened and bloomed and purpled. One day in late May, Gilbert
• 5:42:07
  came home to be met by Susan in the stable yard. I'm afraid something
• 5:42:11
  has upset missus, doctor, doctor dear, she said, mysteriously. She
• 5:42:14
  got a letter this afternoon, and since then she has just been walking round
• 5:42:18
  the garden and talking to herself. You know, it is not good for
• 5:42:22
  her to be on her feet so much, doctor dear. She did not
• 5:42:23
  see fit to tell me what her news was, and I am no pride,
• 5:42:27
  doctor Dear, never was, but it is plain something has upset her,
• 5:42:30
  and it is not good for her to be upset. Gilbert hurried rather
• 5:42:34
  anxiously to the garden. Had anything happened at Green Gables? But Anne,
• 5:42:40
  sitting on the rustic seat by the brook, did not look troubled, though
• 5:42:44
  she was certainly much excited. Her eyes were their grayest, and scarlet spots
• 5:42:48
  burned on her cheeks. What has happened, Anne, Anne gave a queer
• 5:42:52
  little laugh. I think you'll hardly believe it when I tell you, Gilbert,
• 5:42:56
  I can't believe it yet. As Susan's said the other day, I
• 5:43:00
  feel like a fly coming to live in the sun. Dazed like, it's
• 5:43:04
  all so incredible. I've read the letter a score of times, and every
• 5:43:07
  time it's just the same. I can't believe my own eyes. Oh Gilbert,
• 5:43:11
  you were right, so right. I can see that clearly enough now.
• 5:43:15
  And I'm so ashamed of myself. And will you ever really forgive me?
• 5:43:19
  Anne? I'll shake you if you don't grow coherent. Redmond would be
• 5:43:22
  ashamed of you. What has happened. You won't believe it. You won't
• 5:43:26
  believe it. I'm going to phone for uncle Dave, said Gilbert, pretending
• 5:43:30
  to start for the house. Sit down, Gilbert, I'll try to tell
• 5:43:33
  you I've had a letter, and oh Gilbert, it's all so amazing,
• 5:43:38
  so incredibly amazing. We never thought, not one of us ever dreamed,
• 5:43:44
  I suppose, said Gilbert, sitting down with a resigned air. The only
• 5:43:48
  thing to do in a case of this kind is to have patience and go
• 5:43:51
  at the matter categorically. Whom is your letter from? Leslie? And oh,
• 5:43:56
  Gilbert, Leslie, whew, what is she to say? What's the
• 5:44:00
  news about Dick? Anne lifted the letter and held it out, calmly,
• 5:44:04
  dramatic in a moment, there is no Dick the man we have thought.
• 5:44:10
  Dick Moore, whom everybody in Four Winds has believed for twelve years to be
• 5:44:15
  Dick Moore, is his cousin, George Moore of Nova Scotia, who it
• 5:44:19
  seems always resembled him very strikingly. Dick Moore died of yellow fever thirteen years
• 5:44:26
  ago in Cuba. End of chapter thirty one, Chapter thirty two, Miss
• 5:44:33
  Cornelia discusses the affair. And do you mean to tell me, Anne Dearie,
• 5:44:37
  that Dick Moore has turned out not to be Dick Moore at all?
• 5:44:41
  But somebody else? Is that what you've phoned up to me to day?
• 5:44:45
  Yes, Miss Cornelia, it's very amazing, isn't it. It's it's just
• 5:44:51
  like a man, said Miss Cornelia helplessly. She took off her hat with
• 5:44:55
  trembling fingers. For once in her life, Miss Cornelia was undeniab up,
• 5:45:00
  staggered. I can't seem to sense it, Anne, she said, I've
• 5:45:03
  heard you say it, and I believe you, but I can't take it
• 5:45:07
  in. Dick Moore is dead, has been dead all these years, and
• 5:45:11
  Leslie is free. Yes, the truth has made her free. Gilbert was
• 5:45:17
  right when he said that verse was the grandest in the Bible. Tell me
• 5:45:21
  everything, Anne, dearie. Since I got your phone, I've been in
• 5:45:23
  a regular muddle. Believe me. Cornelia Bryant was never so kerflumixed before.
• 5:45:30
  There isn't a very great deal to tell. Leslie's letter was short. She
• 5:45:33
  didn't go into particulars. This man, George Moore, has recovered his memory
• 5:45:40
  and knows who he is. He says Dick took yellow fever in Cuba and
• 5:45:44
  the four sisters had to sail without him. George stayed behind to nurse him,
• 5:45:48
  but he died very shortly afterwards. George did not write Leslie because he
• 5:45:52
  intended to come right home and tell her himself. And why didn't he?
• 5:45:56
  I suppose his accident must have intervened. Gilbert says it is quite likely that
• 5:46:02
  George Moore remembers nothing of his accident or what led to it, and may
• 5:46:06
  never remember it. It probably happened very soon after Dick's death. We may
• 5:46:10
  find out more particulars. When Leslie writes again. Does she say what she
• 5:46:14
  is going to do when she is coming home? She says she will stay
• 5:46:18
  with George Moore until he can leave the hospital. She has written to his
• 5:46:21
  people in Nova Scotia. It seems that George's only near relative, as a
• 5:46:25
  married sister much older than himself. She was living when George sailed on the
• 5:46:30
  four sisters. But of course we do not know what may have happened.
• 5:46:33
  Since did you ever see George Moore, miss Cornelia? I did? It
• 5:46:37
  is all coming back to me. He was here visiting his uncle Abner eighteen
• 5:46:41
  years ago, when he and Dick would be about seventeen. They were double
• 5:46:45
  cousins, you see. Their fathers were brothers, and their mothers were twin
• 5:46:48
  sisters. And they did look a terrible lot alike. Of course, added
• 5:46:52
  Miss Cornelia scornfully. It wasn't one of those freak resemblances you read of in
• 5:46:57
  novels, where two people are so much alike they can fill each other's places,
• 5:47:02
  and their nearest and dearest can't tell between them. In those days,
• 5:47:06
  you could tell easy enough which was George and which was Dick if you saw
• 5:47:10
  them together and near at hand, apart or some distance away. It wasn't
• 5:47:14
  so easy. They played lots of tricks on people and thought it great fun.
• 5:47:18
  The two scamps. George Moore was a little taller and a good deal
• 5:47:21
  fatter than Dick, though neither of them was what you would call fat.
• 5:47:25
  They were both of the lean kind. Dick had higher color than George,
• 5:47:29
  and his hair was a shade lighter, but their features were just alike,
• 5:47:33
  and they both had that queer freak of eyes, one blue and one hazel.
• 5:47:37
  They weren't much alike in any other way, though. George was a
• 5:47:40
  real nice fellow, though he was a scallywag for mischief, and some said
• 5:47:45
  he had a liking for a glass even then, but everybody liked him better
• 5:47:48
  than Dick. He spent about a month here. Leslie never saw him.
• 5:47:52
  She was only about eight or nine then, and I remember now that she
• 5:47:56
  spent that whole winter over Harbor with her grandmother West. Captain Jim was away
• 5:48:00
  too. That was the winter he was wrecked on the Magdalens. I don't
• 5:48:04
  suppose either he or Leslie had ever heard about the Nova Scotia cousin looking so
• 5:48:08
  much like Dick. Nobody ever thought of him when Captain Jim brought Dick George,
• 5:48:14
  I should say home. Of course, we all thought Dick had changed
• 5:48:18
  considerable. He'd got so lumpish and fat, but we put that down to
• 5:48:22
  what had happened to him, and no doubt that was the reason. For
• 5:48:25
  as I've said, George wasn't fat to begin with either, and there was
• 5:48:27
  no other way we could have guessed, for the man's senses were clean gone.
• 5:48:33
  I can't see that it is any wonder we were all deceived. But
• 5:48:36
  it is a staggering thing, and Leslie has sacrificed the best years of her
• 5:48:41
  life to nursing a man who hadn't any claim on her. Oh, drat
• 5:48:44
  them in No matter what they do, it's the wrong thing, and no
• 5:48:48
  matter who they are, it's somebody they shouldn't be. They do exasperate me,
• 5:48:52
  Gilbert and Captain Jimmerman, and it is through them that the truth has
• 5:48:56
  been discovered at last, said Anne. Well, I admit that, conceded
• 5:49:00
  Miss Cornelia reluctantly. I'm sorry I raked the doctor off. So it's the
• 5:49:04
  first time in my life I've ever felt ashamed of anything I said to a
• 5:49:07
  man. I don't know as I shall tell him so though, he'll just
• 5:49:11
  have to take it for granted. Well, Anne, dearie, it's a
• 5:49:15
  mercy the Lord doesn't answer all our prayers. I've been praying hard, right
• 5:49:18
  along that the operation wouldn't cure Dick. Of course I didn't put it just
• 5:49:22
  quite so plain, but that was what was in the back of my mind,
• 5:49:26
  and I have no doubt the Lord knew it. Well. He has
• 5:49:30
  answered the spirit of your prayer. You really wish that things shouldn't be made
• 5:49:33
  any harder for Leslie. I'm afraid that, in my secret heart, I've
• 5:49:37
  been hoping the operation wouldn't succeed, and I'm wholesomely ashamed of it. How
• 5:49:42
  does Leslie seem to take it? She writes, like one dazed I think
• 5:49:47
  that, like ourselves, she hardly realizes it. Yet she says, it
• 5:49:52
  all seems like a strange dream to me. Anne, that is the only
• 5:49:55
  reference she makes to herself, poor child. I suppose when the chains are
• 5:50:00
  struck off a prisoner, he'd feel queer and lost without them for a while.
• 5:50:04
  Anne, Dearie, here's a thought keeps coming into my mind. What
• 5:50:08
  about owen Ford. We both know Leslie was fond of him? Did it
• 5:50:12
  ever occur to you that he was fond of her? It did, once,
• 5:50:18
  admitted Anne, feeling that she might say so much. Well, I
• 5:50:22
  hadn't any reason to think he was, but it just appeared to me he
• 5:50:26
  must be now, Anne, dearie, the Lord knows I'm not a match
• 5:50:30
  maker, and I scorn all such things. But if I were you and
• 5:50:33
  writing to that Ford man, I just mention, casual like what has happened.
• 5:50:38
  That is what I'd do. Of course I will mention it when I
• 5:50:41
  write to him, said Anne a trifle distantly. Somehow this was a thing
• 5:50:47
  she could not discuss with Miss Cornelia, and yet she had to admit that
• 5:50:51
  the same thought had been lurking in her mind ever since she had heard of
• 5:50:55
  Leslie's freedom. But she would not desecrate it by free speech. Of course,
• 5:51:00
  course there is no great rush, dearie. But Dick Moore has been
• 5:51:03
  dead for thirteen years, and Leslie has wasted enough of her life for him.
• 5:51:07
  We'll just see what comes of it. As for this George Moore,
• 5:51:10
  who's gone and come back to life when everyone thought he was dead and done
• 5:51:14
  for, just like a man, I'm real sorry for him. He won't
• 5:51:18
  seem to fit in anywhere. He is still a young man, and if
• 5:51:21
  he recovers completely, as seems likely, he will be able to make a
• 5:51:25
  place for himself again. It must be very strange for him, poor fellow.
• 5:51:29
  I suppose all these years since his accident will not exist for him.
• 5:51:33
  End of chapter thirty two. Chapter thirty three, Leslie returns. A fortnight
• 5:51:41
  later, Leslie Moore came home alone to the old house where she had spent
• 5:51:45
  so many bitter years. In the June twilight. She went over the fields
• 5:51:49
  to Anne's and appeared with ghost like suddenness in the scented garden. Leslie cried
• 5:51:55
  Anne in amazement, where have you sprung from? We never knew you were
• 5:51:59
  coming. Why didn't you write? We would have met you. I couldn't
• 5:52:02
  write somehow, Anne, it seemed so futile to try to say anything with
• 5:52:06
  pen and ink, and I wanted to get back quietly, and unobserved.
• 5:52:11
  Anne put her arms about Leslie and kissed her. Leslie returned the kiss warmly.
• 5:52:15
  She looked pale and tired, and she gave a little sigh as she
• 5:52:18
  dropped down on the grasses beside a great bed of daffodils that were gleaming through
• 5:52:22
  the pale, silvery twilight like golden stars. And have you come home alone?
• 5:52:29
  Leslie? Yes. George Moore's sister came to Montreal and took him home
• 5:52:33
  with her, poor fellow. He was sorry to part with me, though
• 5:52:37
  I was a stranger to him when his memory first came back. He clung
• 5:52:41
  to me In those first hard days when he was trying to realize that Dick's
• 5:52:44
  death was not the thing of yesterday that it seemed to him. It was
• 5:52:48
  all very hard for him. I helped him all I could. When his
• 5:52:51
  sister came, it was easier for him because it seemed to him only the
• 5:52:55
  other day that he had seen her last. Fortunately she had not changed much,
• 5:52:59
  and that helped him too. It is all so strange and wonderful,
• 5:53:03
  Leslie. I think we none of us realize it. Yet I cannot.
• 5:53:07
  When I went into the house over there an hour ago, I felt that
• 5:53:11
  it must be a dream, that Dick must be there with his childish smile,
• 5:53:15
  as he had been for so long. And I seem stunned. Yet
• 5:53:19
  I'm not glad or sorry or anything. I feel as if something had been
• 5:53:25
  torn suddenly out of my life and left a terrible hole. I feel as
• 5:53:29
  if I couldn't be I, as if I must have changed into somebody else
• 5:53:33
  and couldn't get used to it. It gives me a horrible, lonely,
• 5:53:37
  dazed, helpless feeling. It's good to see you again. It seems as
• 5:53:41
  if you were a sort of anger for my drifting soul. Oh Anne,
• 5:53:45
  I dread it, all the gossip and wonderment and questioning. When I think
• 5:53:51
  of that, I wish that I need not have come home at all.
• 5:53:53
  Doctor Dave was at the station when I came off the train. He brought
• 5:53:56
  me home. Poor old man. He feels very badly because he told me
• 5:54:00
  years ago that nothing could be done for Dick. I honestly thought so,
• 5:54:04
  Leslie. He said to me to day. But I should have told you
• 5:54:07
  not to depend on my opinion. I should have told you to go to
• 5:54:11
  a specialist. If I had, you would have been saved many bitter years,
• 5:54:15
  and poor George Moore many wasted ones. I blame myself very much,
• 5:54:19
  Leslie. I told him not to do that. He had done what he
• 5:54:22
  thought right. He's always been so kind to me. I couldn't bear to
• 5:54:26
  see him worrying over it. And Dick George, I mean, is his
• 5:54:32
  memory fully restored practically? Of course, there are a great many details he
• 5:54:37
  can't recall yet, but he remembers more and more every day. He went
• 5:54:41
  out for a walk. On the evening after Dick was buried. He had
• 5:54:45
  Dick's money and watch on him. He meant to bring them home to me,
• 5:54:48
  along with my letter. He admits. He went to a place where
• 5:54:52
  the sailor's resorted, and he remembers drinking and nothing else. Anne, I
• 5:54:56
  shall never forget the moment he remembered his own name. I saw him looking
• 5:55:00
  at me with an intelligent but puzzled expression. I said, do you know
• 5:55:06
  me? Dick? He answered, I never saw you before. Who are
• 5:55:08
  you? And my name's not Dick. I'm George Moore? And Dick died
• 5:55:12
  of yellow fever yesterday. Where am I? What has happened to me?
• 5:55:18
  I? I fainted, Anne, and ever since I have felt as if
• 5:55:22
  I were in a dream. You will soon adjust yourself to this new state
• 5:55:26
  of things, Leslie, and you are young. Life is before you.
• 5:55:30
  You will have many beautiful years. Yet perhaps I shall be able to look
• 5:55:34
  at it in that way after a while, Anne, Just now, I
• 5:55:37
  feel too tired and indifferent to think about the future. I'm I'm Anne,
• 5:55:44
  I'm lonely, I miss Dick. Isn't it all very strange? Do you
• 5:55:48
  know? I? Was really fond of poor Dick. George. I suppose
• 5:55:52
  I should say, just as I would have been fond of a helpless child
• 5:55:56
  who depended on me for everything. I would never have admitted it. I
• 5:56:00
  was really ashamed of it, because you see, I had hated and despised
• 5:56:03
  Dick so much before he went away. When I heard that Captain Jim was
• 5:56:07
  bringing him home, I expected I would just feel the same to him.
• 5:56:11
  But I never did, although I continued to loathe him as I remembered him
• 5:56:15
  before, From the time he came home, I felt only pity, a
• 5:56:19
  pity that hurt and wrung me. I supposed then that it was just because
• 5:56:23
  his accident had made him so helpless and changed, but now I believe it
• 5:56:29
  was because there was really a different personality there. Carlo knew it, Anne,
• 5:56:33
  I know now that Carlo knew it. I always thought it strange that
• 5:56:37
  Carlo shouldn't have known Dick. Dogs are usually so faithful, but he knew
• 5:56:41
  it was not his master who had come back, although none of the rest
• 5:56:45
  of us did. I had never seen George Moore, you know. I
• 5:56:48
  remember now that Dick once mentioned casually that he had a cousin in Nova Scotia,
• 5:56:52
  who looked as much like him as a twin. But the thing had
• 5:56:56
  gone out of my memory, and in any case, I would never have
• 5:56:59
  thought it of any importance. You see, it never occurred to me to
• 5:57:03
  question Dick's identity. Any change in him seemed to me just the result of
• 5:57:07
  the accident, oh Anne. That night in April, when Gilbert told me
• 5:57:11
  he thought Dick might be cured, I can never forget it. It seemed
• 5:57:15
  to me that I had once been a prisoner in a hideous cage of torture,
• 5:57:19
  and then the door had been opened and I could get out. I
• 5:57:23
  was still chained to the cage, but I was not in it, and
• 5:57:26
  that night I felt that a merciless hand was drawing me back into the cage,
• 5:57:32
  back to a torture even more terrible than it had once been. I
• 5:57:36
  didn't blame Gilbert. I felt he was right, and he had been very
• 5:57:40
  good. He said that if in view of the expense and uncertainty of the
• 5:57:42
  operation, I should decide not to risk it, he would not blame me
• 5:57:47
  in the least. But I knew how I ought to decide, and I
• 5:57:51
  couldn't face it. All night, I walked the floor like a mad woman,
• 5:57:55
  trying to compel myself to face it. I couldn't, Anne, I
• 5:57:59
  thought I could co And when morning broke, I set my teeth and resolved
• 5:58:03
  that I wouldn't. I would let things remain as they were. It was
• 5:58:07
  very wicked. I know it would have been just punishment for such wickedness if
• 5:58:11
  I had been left to abide by that decision. I kept to it all
• 5:58:15
  that day. That afternoon, I had to go up to the glen to
• 5:58:18
  do some shopping. It was one of Dick's quiet, drowsy days, so
• 5:58:22
  I left him alone. I was gone a little longer than I had expected,
• 5:58:26
  and he missed me. He felt lonely, and when I got home,
• 5:58:30
  he ran to meet me, just like a child, with such a
• 5:58:32
  pleased smile on his face. Somehow, Anne, I just gave way.
• 5:58:37
  Then that smile on his poor, vacant face was more than I could endure.
• 5:58:41
  I felt as if I were denying a child the chance to grow and
• 5:58:45
  develop. I knew that I must give him his chance, no matter what
• 5:58:48
  the consequences might be. So I came over and told Gilbert, Oh,
• 5:58:53
  Anne, you must have thought me hateful in those weeks before I went away.
• 5:58:57
  I didn't mean to be, but I couldn't think of anything except what
• 5:59:00
  I had to do, and everything and everybody about me were like shadows.
• 5:59:06
  I know, I understood, Leslie. And now it is all over.
• 5:59:08
  Your chain is broken. There is no cage. There is no cage,
• 5:59:14
  repeated Leslie, absently, plucking at the fringing grasses with her slender brown hands.
• 5:59:19
  But it doesn't seem as if there were anything else. Anne, you
• 5:59:26
  you remember what I told you of my folly that night on the sand bar.
• 5:59:30
  I find one doesn't get over being a fool very quickly. Sometimes I
• 5:59:33
  think there are people who were fools forever, and to be a fool of
• 5:59:38
  that kind is almost as bad as being a a dog on a chain.
• 5:59:44
  You will feel very differently after you get over being tired and bewildered, said
• 5:59:48
  Anne, who, knowing a certain thing that Leslie did not know, did
• 5:59:52
  not feel herself called upon to waste over much sympathy. Leslie laid her splendid
• 5:59:57
  golden head against Anne. Anyhow I have you, she said, life can't
• 6:00:03
  be altogether empty with such a friend. And pat my head just as if
• 6:00:08
  I were a little girl. Mother me a bit and let me tell you,
• 6:00:11
  while my stubborn tongue is loosed a little, just what you and your
• 6:00:15
  comradeship have meant to me since that night I met you on the rock shore.
• 6:00:21
  End of chapter thirty three, Chapter thirty four, The Ship of Dreams
• 6:00:25
  comes to Harbor. One morning, when a windy, golden sunrise was billowing
• 6:00:30
  over the gulf in waves of light, a certain weary stork flew over the
• 6:00:36
  bar of four Winds Harbor, on his way from the land of evening Stars.
• 6:00:40
  Under his wing was tucked a sleepy, starry eyed little creature. The
• 6:00:44
  stork was tired, and he looked wistfully about him. He knew he was
• 6:00:48
  somewhere near his destination, but he could not yet see it. The big
• 6:00:52
  white lighthouse on the red Sandstone Cliff had its good points, but no stork
• 6:00:56
  possessed of any gumption would leave a new velve the baby there. An old
• 6:01:02
  gray house surrounded by willows in a blossomy brook valley looked more promising, but
• 6:01:07
  did not seem quite the thing either. The staring green abode further on was
• 6:01:11
  manifestly out of the question. Then the stork brightened up. He had caught
• 6:01:17
  sight of the very place, a little white house nestled against a big,
• 6:01:21
  whispering fir wood, with a spiral of blue smoke winding up from its kitchen
• 6:01:26
  chimney, a house which just looked as if it were meant for babies.
• 6:01:30
  The stork gave a sigh of satisfaction and softly alighted on the ridgepole. Half
• 6:01:36
  an hour later, Gilbert ran down the hall and tapped on the spare room
• 6:01:40
  door. A drowsy voice answered him, and in a moment Marilla's pale,
• 6:01:45
  scared face peeped out from behind the door. Marilla, Anne has sent me
• 6:01:49
  to tell you that a certain young gentleman has arrived here. He hasn't brought
• 6:01:52
  much luggage with him, but he evidently means to stay. For pity's sake,
• 6:01:57
  said Marilla blankly. You don't mean to tell me, Gilbert that it's
• 6:02:00
  all over. Why wasn't I called? Anne? Wouldn't let us disturb you
• 6:02:04
  when there was no need? Nobody was called until about two hours ago.
• 6:02:08
  There was no passage perilous this time. And and Gilbert, will this baby
• 6:02:15
  live? He certainly will. He weighs ten pounds, and why listen to
• 6:02:19
  him? Nothing wrong with his lungs is there. The nurse says, his
• 6:02:22
  hair will be red. Anne is furious with her, and I'm tickled to
• 6:02:26
  death. That was a wonderful day in the little House of dreams. The
• 6:02:32
  best dream of all has come true, said Anne, pale and rapturous.
• 6:02:36
  Oh Marilla, I hardly dare believe it. After that horrible day last summer.
• 6:02:41
  I have had a heart ache ever since then. But it is gone
• 6:02:42
  now. This baby will take Joy's place, said Marilla. Oh no,
• 6:02:48
  no, no, Marilla, he can't, nothing can ever do that.
• 6:02:52
  He has his own place, my dear wee man child, But little Joy
• 6:02:56
  has hers and always will have it. If he had lived, she would
• 6:03:00
  have been over a year old. She would have been toddling around on her
• 6:03:03
  tiny feet and lisping a few words. I can see her so plainly,
• 6:03:07
  Marilla. Oh, I know now that Captain Jim was right when he said
• 6:03:11
  God would manage better than that. My baby would seem a stranger to me
• 6:03:15
  when I found her beyond I've learned that this past year I followed her development
• 6:03:19
  day by day and week by week. I always shall, I shall know
• 6:03:25
  just how she grows from year to year, and when I meet her again.
• 6:03:27
  I'll know her. She won't be a stranger. Oh, Marilla,
• 6:03:32
  look at his dear darling toes. Isn't it strange that they should be so
• 6:03:37
  perfect? It would be stranger if they weren't, said Marilla crisply. Now
• 6:03:41
  that all was safely over, Marilla was herself again. Oh I know,
• 6:03:47
  but it seems as if they couldn't be quite finished, you know. And
• 6:03:49
  they are even to the tiny nails and his hands. Just look at his
• 6:03:55
  hands, Marilla, they appear to be a good deal like hands, Marilla
• 6:03:59
  conceded. See how he clings to my finger. I'm sure he knows me
• 6:04:03
  already. He cries when the nurse takes him away. Oh, Marilla,
• 6:04:07
  do you think you don't think? Do you that his hair is going to
• 6:04:11
  be red? I don't see much hair of any color, said Marilla.
• 6:04:15
  I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, until it becomes visible,
• 6:04:18
  Marilla, he has hair. Look at that fine little down all over his
• 6:04:22
  head anyway, nurse says. His eyes will be hazel, and his forehead
• 6:04:26
  is exactly like Gilbert's, and he has the nicest little ears. Missus,
• 6:04:30
  doctor dear, said Susan. The first thing I did was. Look at
• 6:04:33
  his ears. Hair is deceitful, and noses and eyes change, and you
• 6:04:37
  cannot tell what is going to come of them. But ears is ears from
• 6:04:40
  start to finish, and you always know where you are with them. Just
• 6:04:44
  look at their shape, and they are set right back against his precious head.
• 6:04:48
  You will never need to be ashamed of his ears. Missus doctor dear
• 6:04:52
  Anne's convalescence was rapid and happy. Folks came and worshiped the baby as people
• 6:04:56
  have bowed before the kingship of the newborn since law, before the wise men
• 6:05:00
  of the East Nelson homage to the Royal Babe of the Bethlehem. Manger Leslie,
• 6:05:06
  slowly finding herself amid the new conditions of her life, hovered over it
• 6:05:10
  like a beautiful golden crowned madonna. Miss Cornelia nursed it as naccally as could
• 6:05:15
  any mother in Israel. Captain Jim held the small creature in his big brown
• 6:05:19
  hands and gazed tenderly at it with eyes that saw the children who had never
• 6:05:25
  been born to him. What are you going to call him, asked Miss
• 6:05:27
  Cornelia. Anne has settled his name, answered Gilbert James Matthew. After the
• 6:05:33
  two finest gentlemen I've ever known, not even saving your presence, said Anne
• 6:05:37
  with a saucy glance at Gilbert. Gilbert smiled, I never knew Matthew very
• 6:05:42
  well. He was so shy we boys couldn't get acquainted with him. But
• 6:05:47
  I quite agree with you that Captain Jim is one of the rarest and finest
• 6:05:49
  souls god ever clothed in clay. He is so delighted over the fact that
• 6:05:55
  we have given his name to our small lad it seems he has no other
• 6:05:57
  namesake well, James Matthew is a name that will wear well and not fade
• 6:06:02
  in the washing, said Miss Cornelia. I'm glad you didn't load him down
• 6:06:06
  with some high falutin romantic name that he'd be ashamed of when he gets to
• 6:06:08
  be a grandfather. Missus William Drew at the Glen has called her baby Bertie
• 6:06:14
  Shakespeare. Quite a combination, isn't it, And I'm glad you haven't had
• 6:06:18
  much trouble picking on a name. Some folks have an awful time. When
• 6:06:21
  the Stanley Flags first boy was born, there were so much rivalry as to
• 6:06:25
  who the child should be named for that the poor little soul had to go
• 6:06:27
  for two years without a name. Then a brother came along, and there
• 6:06:30
  it was big baby and little baby. Finally they called big baby Peter and
• 6:06:36
  little Baby Isaac after the two grandfathers, and had them both christened together,
• 6:06:40
  and each tried to see if it couldn't howl the other down. You know
• 6:06:44
  that Highland Scotch family of mc NAB's back of the Glen. They've got twelve
• 6:06:48
  boys, and the oldest and the youngest are both called Neil, Big Neil
• 6:06:51
  and Little Neil in the same family. Well, I suppose they ran out
• 6:06:53
  of names. I have read somewhere, laughed Anne that the first child is
• 6:06:59
  a poem, but the tenth is very prosy prose. Perhaps missus mc nabb
• 6:07:03
  thought that the twelfth was merely an old tale re told. Well, there's
• 6:07:07
  something to be set for large families, said miss Cornelia with a sigh.
• 6:07:11
  I was an only child for eight years, and I did long for a
• 6:07:15
  brother and sister. Mother told me to pray for one, and pray I
• 6:07:18
  did. Believe me. Well, one day Aunt Nellie came to me and
• 6:07:22
  said, Cornelia, there is a little brother for you upstairs in your ma's
• 6:07:26
  room. You can go up and see him. I was so excited and
• 6:07:29
  delighted. I just flew upstairs and old missus Flagg lifted up the baby for
• 6:07:33
  me to see. Lord Anne, dearie, I never was so disappointed in
• 6:07:37
  my life. You see, I'd been praying for a brother two years older
• 6:07:40
  than myself. How long did it take you to get over your disappointment,
• 6:07:44
  asked Anne amid her laughter. Well, I had a spite at Providence for
• 6:07:48
  a good spell, and for weeks I wouldn't even look at the baby.
• 6:07:51
  Nobody knew why, for I never told. Then he began to get real
• 6:07:55
  cute and held out his wee hands to me, and I began to get
• 6:07:57
  fond of him. But I didn't get really reconciled to him until one day
• 6:08:02
  a school chum came to see him and said she thought he was awful small
• 6:08:06
  for his aid. I just got boiling mad and sailed right into her and
• 6:08:08
  told her she didn't know a nice baby when she saw one, and ours
• 6:08:11
  was the nicest baby in the world. And after that I just worshiped him.
• 6:08:15
  Mother died before he was three years old, and I was sister and
• 6:08:18
  mother to him both. Poor little lad He was never strong, and he
• 6:08:22
  died when he wasn't much over twenty. Seems to me I'd have given anything
• 6:08:26
  on earth, Anne, dearie, if he'd only lived, Miss Cornelia sighed.
• 6:08:30
  Gilbert had gone down, and Leslie, who had been crooning over the
• 6:08:33
  small James Matthew in the dormer window, laid him asleep in his basket and
• 6:08:37
  went her way. As soon as she was safely out of earshot, Miss
• 6:08:41
  Cornelia bent forward and said, in a conspiratous whisper, and Dearie, I'd
• 6:08:47
  a letter from owen Ford yesterday. He's in Vancouver just now, but he
• 6:08:51
  wants to know if I can board him for a month later on. You
• 6:08:53
  know what that means. Well, I hope we're doing right. We've nothing
• 6:08:57
  to do with it. We couldn't prevent him from coming to Four Winds if
• 6:09:00
  he wanted to, said Anne quickly. She did not like the feeling of
• 6:09:04
  match making Miss Cornelia's whispers gave her, and then she weakly succumbed herself.
• 6:09:10
  Don't let Leslie know he is coming until he is here, she said.
• 6:09:14
  If she found out, I feel sure she would go away at once.
• 6:09:17
  She intends to go in the fall. Anyhow, she told me so.
• 6:09:18
  The other day she is going to Montreal to take up nursing and make what
• 6:09:22
  she can of her life. Oh well, Anne, dearie, said Miss
• 6:09:26
  Cornelia, nodding sagely. That is all as it may be. You and
• 6:09:30
  I have done our part and we must leave the rest to hire her hands.
• 6:09:34
  End of Chapter thirty four. Chapter thirty five, Politics at four Winds.
• 6:09:41
  When Anne came downstairs again, the island, as well as all Canada,
• 6:09:45
  was in the throes of a campaign preceding a general election. Gilbert,
• 6:09:48
  who was an ardent Conservative, found himself caught in the vortex, being much
• 6:09:53
  in demand for speech making at the various county rallies. Miss Cornelia did not
• 6:09:57
  approve of his mixing up in politics and told Anne, so doctor Dave never
• 6:10:03
  did it. Doctor blythe will find he is making a mistake. Believe me,
• 6:10:07
  politics is something no decent man should meddle with. Is the government of
• 6:10:11
  the country to be left solely to the rogues? Then asked Anne, yes,
• 6:10:15
  so long is its conservative rogues? Said Miss Cornelia, marching off with
• 6:10:19
  the honors of war men and politicians are all tarred with the same brush that
• 6:10:25
  grits have laid it on, thicker than the Conservatives. That's all considerably thicker,
• 6:10:29
  but Grit or Tory. My advice to doctor Blythe is to steer clear
• 6:10:33
  of politics. First thing, you know, he'll be running an election himself
• 6:10:37
  and going off to Ottawa for half the year and leaving his practice to go
• 6:10:41
  to the dogs. Ah well, let's not borrow trouble, said Anne.
• 6:10:45
  The rate of interest is too high. Instead, let's look at little Jem.
• 6:10:49
  It should be spelled with a G. Isn't he perfectly beautiful? Just
• 6:10:53
  see the dimples in his elbows. We'll bring him up to be a good
• 6:10:57
  Conservative. You and I, miss Cornelia, bring him up to be a
• 6:11:00
  good man, said Miss Cornelia. They're scarce and valuable, though, mind
• 6:11:04
  you, I wouldn't like to see him a Grit. As for the election,
• 6:11:08
  you and I may be thankful we don't live over harbor. The air
• 6:11:12
  there is blue these days. Every Elliot and Crawford and mc allister is on
• 6:11:17
  the warpath loaded forbear. This side is peaceful and calm, seeing there's so
• 6:11:22
  few men. Captain Jim's a Grit, but it's my opinion he's ashamed of
• 6:11:26
  it, for he never talks politics. There isn't any earthly doubt that the
• 6:11:30
  Conservatives will be returned with a big majority again, Miss Cornelia was mistaken.
• 6:11:36
  On the morning after the election, Captain Jim dropped in at the Little House
• 6:11:40
  to tell the news. So virulent is the microbe of party politics, even
• 6:11:44
  in a peaceable old man that Captain Jim's cheeks were flushed and his eyes were
• 6:11:48
  flashing with all his old time fire Mistress blythe the Liberals are in with a
• 6:11:53
  sweeping majority after eighteen years of Tory mismanagement, This downtrodden country's going to have
• 6:12:00
  a chance at last. I never heard you make such a bitter partisan speech
• 6:12:03
  before, Captain Jim. I didn't think you had so much political venom in
• 6:12:07
  you, laughed Anne, who was not much excited over the tidings. Little
• 6:12:11
  Jem had said, Wow, God that morning, what were principalities and powers?
• 6:12:17
  The rise and fall of dynasties, the overthrow of Grit or Tory?
• 6:12:21
  Compared with that miraculous occurrence. It's been accumulating for a long while, said
• 6:12:26
  Captain Jim with a deprecating smile. I thought I was only a moderate Grit,
• 6:12:30
  But when the news came that we were in I found out how gritty,
• 6:12:34
  I really was. You know, the doctor and I are conservatives.
• 6:12:38
  Ah, well, it's the only bad thing I know of either of you,
• 6:12:42
  Mistress Blythe Cornelie is a Tory too. I called in on my way
• 6:12:47
  from the glen to tell her the news. Didn't you know you took your
• 6:12:49
  life in your hands. Yes, but I couldn't resist the temptation. How
• 6:12:55
  did she take it? Comparatively calm, Mistress Blythe comparatively calm, she says,
• 6:13:00
  says she, Well, Providence sends seasons of humiliation to a country,
• 6:13:04
  same as to individuals. You grits have been cold and hungry for many a
• 6:13:08
  year. Make haste to get warmed and fed, for you won't be in
• 6:13:11
  long well now, Cornelia, I says, maybe Providence thinks Canada needs a
• 6:13:17
  real long spell of humiliation. Ah, Susan, have you heard the news?
• 6:13:22
  The Liberals are in? Susan had just come in from the kitchen,
• 6:13:26
  attended by the odor of delectable dishes, which always seem to hover around her.
• 6:13:30
  Now are they, she said, with beautiful unconcern. Well, I
• 6:13:34
  never could see but that my bread rose just as light when gits were in
• 6:13:37
  as when they were not. And if any party, missus, doctor dear,
• 6:13:41
  will make it rain before the week is out and save our kitchen garden
• 6:13:44
  from entire ruination. That is the party Susan will vote for. In the
• 6:13:48
  meantime, will you just step out and give me your opinion on the meat
• 6:13:52
  for dinner. I am fearing that it is very tough, and I think
• 6:13:55
  that we had better change our butcher as well as our government. One evening
• 6:14:00
  a week later, Anne walked down to the point to see if she could
• 6:14:03
  get some fresh fish from Captain Jim, leaving little Jem for the first time.
• 6:14:07
  It was quite a tragedy. Suppose he cried, Suppose Susan did not
• 6:14:11
  know just exactly what to do for him. Susan was calm and serene.
• 6:14:17
  I have had as much experience with him as you, missus doctor dear,
• 6:14:18
  have I not yes, with him, but not with other babies. Why
• 6:14:23
  I looked after three pairs of twins when I was a child, Susan.
• 6:14:27
  When they cried, I gave them peppermint or castor oil, quite coolly.
• 6:14:32
  It's quite curious now to recall how lightly I took all those babies and their
• 6:14:36
  woes. Oh well, if little Jem cries, I will just clap a
• 6:14:40
  hot water bag on his little stomach, said Susan. Not too hot,
• 6:14:44
  you know, said Anne anxiously. Oh was it really wise to go,
• 6:14:48
  do not you fret? Missus? Doctor? Dear Susan is not the woman
• 6:14:52
  to burn a wee man. Bless him, he has no notion of crying.
• 6:14:56
  Anne tore herself away finally and enjoy her walk to the point. After
• 6:15:00
  all, through the long shadows of the sun setting. Captain Jim was not
• 6:15:04
  in the living room of the lighthouse, but another man was, a handsome,
• 6:15:08
  middle aged man with a strong, clean shaven chin, who was unknown
• 6:15:12
  to Anne. Nevertheless, when she sat down, he began to talk to
• 6:15:17
  her with all the assurance of an old acquaintance. There was nothing amiss in
• 6:15:21
  what he said or the way he said it, but Anne rather resented such
• 6:15:25
  a cool taking for granted and a complete stranger. Her replies were frosty and
• 6:15:30
  as few as decency required. Nothing daunted her companion talked on for several minutes,
• 6:15:36
  then excused himself and went away. Anne could have sworn there was a
• 6:15:40
  twinkle in his eye, and it annoyed her. Who was the creature?
• 6:15:44
  There was something vaguely familiar about him, but she was certain she had never
• 6:15:48
  seen him before. Captain Jim, who was that? Who just went out?
• 6:15:52
  She asked? As Captain Jim came in, Marshal Eliot answered the Captain.
• 6:15:57
  Marshal Elliot cried, Anne, Oh, Captain Jim. It wasn't yes,
• 6:16:03
  it was his voice, Oh, Captain Jim. I didn't know him,
• 6:16:07
  and I was quite insulting to him. Why didn't he tell me?
• 6:16:11
  He must have seen I didn't know him. He wouldn't say a word about
• 6:16:15
  it. He just enjoyed the joke. Don't worry over snubbing him. He'll
• 6:16:18
  think it fun. Yes, Marshall shaved off his beard at last and cut
• 6:16:23
  his hair. His party is in. You know, I didn't know him
• 6:16:26
  myself the first time I saw him. He was up in Carter Flagg's store
• 6:16:30
  at the Glen the night after election day, along with a crowd of others
• 6:16:33
  waiting for the news. About twelve the phone came through. The Liberals were
• 6:16:37
  in. Marshall just got up and walked out. He didn't cheer or shout.
• 6:16:41
  He left the others to do that, and they nearly lifted the roof
• 6:16:45
  off Carter's store. I reckon of course, all the Tories were over in
• 6:16:48
  Raymond Russell's store. Not much cheering there. Marshall went straight down the street
• 6:16:53
  to the side door of Augustus Palmer's barber shop. Augustus was in bed asleep,
• 6:16:57
  but Marshall hammered on the door until he got up and come down,
• 6:17:00
  wanting to know what all the racket was about. Come into your shop and
• 6:17:04
  do the best job you ever did in your life, Gus, said Marshall.
• 6:17:07
  The Liberals are in and you're going to barber a good grit before the
• 6:17:11
  sun rises. Gus was mad as hops, partly because he'd been dragged out
• 6:17:15
  of bed, but more because he's a Tory. He vowed he wouldn't shave
• 6:17:19
  any man after twelve at night. You'll do what I want you to do,
• 6:17:23
  Sonny, said Marshall, or I'll just turn you over my knee and
• 6:17:26
  give you one of those spankings your mother forgot. He'd had done it too,
• 6:17:30
  and Gus knew it, for Marshall is as strong as an ox,
• 6:17:33
  and Gus is only a midget of a man. So he gave in and
• 6:17:37
  towed Marshall into the shop and went to work. Now, says he I'll
• 6:17:41
  barber you up, but if you say one word to me about the grit's
• 6:17:44
  getting in while i'm doing it, I'll cut your throat with this razor,
• 6:17:47
  says he. You wouldn't have thought, mild little Gus could be so bloodthirsty,
• 6:17:51
  would you? Shows what party politics will do for a man. Marshall
• 6:17:56
  kept quiet and got his hair and beard disposed off, and went home.
• 6:17:59
  When his old housekeeper heard him come upstairs, she peeked out of her bedroom
• 6:18:03
  door to see whether twas him or the hired boy, and when she saw
• 6:18:06
  a strange man striding down the hall with a candle in his hand, she
• 6:18:08
  screamed blue murder and fainted dead away. They had to send for the doctor
• 6:18:14
  before they could bring her to and it was several days before she could look
• 6:18:17
  at Marshall without shaking all over. Captain Jim had no fish. He seldom
• 6:18:22
  went out in his boat that summer, and his long tramping expeditions were over,
• 6:18:26
  he spent a great deal of his time sitting by his seaward window,
• 6:18:30
  looking out over the gulf. With his swiftly whitening head leaning on his hand.
• 6:18:34
  He sat there to night for many silent minutes, keeping some tryst with
• 6:18:38
  the past, which Anne would not disturb. Presently, he pointed to the
• 6:18:42
  iris of the west. That's beautiful, isn't it, Mistress Blythe. But
• 6:18:48
  I wish you could have seen the sun rise this morning. It was a
• 6:18:51
  wonderful thing, wonderful. I've seen all kinds of sunrises come over that gulf.
• 6:18:56
  I've been all over the world, Mistress Blythe, and take it all
• 6:19:00
  in all. I've never seen a finer sight than a summer sunrise over the
• 6:19:03
  Gulf. A man can't pick his time for dying, Mistress Blythe, just
• 6:19:08
  gotta go when the great captain gives his sailing orders. But if I could,
• 6:19:14
  I'd go out when the morning comes across that water. I've watched it
• 6:19:17
  many a time and thought what a thing it would be to pass out through
• 6:19:21
  that great white glory to whatever was waiting beyond on a sea that ain't mapped
• 6:19:26
  out on any air fleet chart. I think, Mistress Blythe, that I'd
• 6:19:30
  find lost Margaret there. Captain Jim had often talked to Anne have lost Margaret
• 6:19:36
  since he had told her the old story. His love for her trembled in
• 6:19:38
  every tone, that love that had never grown faint or forgetful anyway. I
• 6:19:45
  hope when my time comes, I'll go quick and easy. I don't think
• 6:19:48
  I'm a coward, Mistress Blythe. I've looked an ugly death in the face
• 6:19:52
  more than once without blenching. But the thought of a lingering death does give
• 6:19:56
  me a queer, sick feeling of horror. Don't talk about leaving us,
• 6:20:00
  dear Captain Jim, pleaded Anne in a choked voice, patting the old brown
• 6:20:06
  hand, once so strong but now grown very feeble. What would we do
• 6:20:11
  without you? Captain Jim smiled beautifully. Oh, you'd get along nicely,
• 6:20:17
  nicely, but you wouldn't forget the old man altogether. Mistress Blythe, no,
• 6:20:22
  I don't think you'll ever quite forget him. The race of Joseph always
• 6:20:26
  remembers one another, but it'll be a memory that won't hurt. I like
• 6:20:30
  to think that my memory won't hurt my friends. It'll always be kind of
• 6:20:33
  pleasant to them. I hope and believe it won't be very long now before
• 6:20:38
  lost Margaret calls me for the last time. I'll be all ready to answer.
• 6:20:44
  I just spoke of this because there's a little favor I want to ask
• 6:20:47
  you. There's this poor old maidie of mine. Captain Jim reached out a
• 6:20:52
  hand and poked the big, warm, velvety golden ball on the sofa.
• 6:20:56
  The first maid uncoiled himself like a spring with a nice roaty comfortable sound,
• 6:21:02
  half per half meow, stretched his paws and air, turned over and coiled
• 6:21:07
  himself up again. He'll miss me when I start on the voyage. I
• 6:21:11
  can't bear to think a leaven the poor critter to starve like he was left
• 6:21:15
  before. If anything happens to me, will you give Matie a bite and
• 6:21:18
  a corner, Mistress Blythe, indeed, I will. Then. That is
• 6:21:22
  all I had on my mind. Your little gem is to have the few
• 6:21:26
  curious things I picked up. I've seen to that, and now I don't
• 6:21:30
  like to see tears in those pretty eyes, Mistress Blythe. I'll maybe hang
• 6:21:34
  on for quite a spell. Yet. I heard you reading a piece of
• 6:21:37
  poetry one day last winter, one of Tennyson's pieces. I'd sort of like
• 6:21:42
  to hear it again, if you could recite it for me, softly and
• 6:21:47
  clearly while the sea wind blew in on them. Anne repeated the beautiful lines
• 6:21:52
  of Tennyson's Wonderful Swan song. Crossing the bar, the old captain kept time
• 6:21:57
  gently with his sinewy hand. Yes, yes, misstress blythe he said,
• 6:22:03
  when she had finished. That's it, that's it. He wasn't a sailor.
• 6:22:07
  You tell me. I dunno how he could have put an old sailor's
• 6:22:11
  feelings and a words like that if he wasn't one. He didn't want any
• 6:22:15
  sadness of farewells, and neither do I misstress blythe for all will be well
• 6:22:19
  with me and mine beyond the bar. End of chapter thirty five, Chapter
• 6:22:26
  thirty six, Beauty for Ashes. Any news from Green Gables? Anne,
• 6:22:32
  Nothing, very especial, replied Anne, folding up Marilla's letter. Jake Dennell
• 6:22:36
  has been there, shingling the roof. He is a full fledged carpenter now.
• 6:22:40
  So it seems he has had his own way in regard to the choice
• 6:22:42
  of a life work. You remember his mother wanted him to be a college
• 6:22:45
  professor. I shall never forget the day she came to the school and rated
• 6:22:49
  me for failing to call him Saint Clair. Does any one ever call him
• 6:22:53
  that? Now? Evidently not. It seems he has completely lived it down.
• 6:22:57
  Even his mother has succumbed I always thought that a boy with Jake's chin
• 6:23:02
  and mouth would get his own way. In the end, Diana writes me
• 6:23:06
  that Dora has a beau. Just think of it, that child Dora is
• 6:23:11
  seventeen, said Gilbert. Charley Sloane and I were both mad about you when
• 6:23:15
  you were seventeen. Anne, Really, Gilbert, we must be getting on
• 6:23:18
  in years, said Anne, with a half rueful smile, when children who
• 6:23:22
  were six when we thought ourselves grown up, are old enough now to have
• 6:23:26
  bows. Dora's is Ralph Andrews, Jane's brother. I remember him as a
• 6:23:32
  little, round, fat, white headed fellow who was always at the foot
• 6:23:34
  of his class. But I understand he is quite a fine looking young man.
• 6:23:38
  Now. Dora will probably marry young. She's of the same type as
• 6:23:42
  Carlotta the Fourth. She'll never miss her first chance, for fear she might
• 6:23:45
  not get another. Well, if she marries Ralph, I hope he'll be
• 6:23:49
  a little more up and coming than his brother Billy, mused Anne. For
• 6:23:53
  instance, said Gilbert, laughing. Let us hope he will be able to
• 6:23:56
  propose on his own account. Anne, would you have married Billy if he
• 6:24:02
  had asked you himself? Instead of getting Jane to do it for him.
• 6:24:04
  I might have. Anne went off into a shriek of laughter over the recollection
• 6:24:10
  of her first proposal. The shock of the whole thing might have hypnotized me
• 6:24:14
  into some such rash and foolish act. Let us be thankful he did it
• 6:24:18
  by proxy. I had a letter from George Moore yesterday, said Leslie,
• 6:24:22
  from the corner where she was reading. Oh how is he asked Anne,
• 6:24:26
  interestedly, yet with an unreal feeling that she was inquiring about some one whom
• 6:24:30
  she did not know. He is well, but he finds it very hard
• 6:24:34
  to adapt himself to all the changes in his old home and friends. He
• 6:24:38
  is going to see again in the spring. It's in his blood, he
• 6:24:41
  says, and he longs for it. But he told me something that made
• 6:24:45
  me glad for him, poor fellow. Before he sailed on the Four Sisters,
• 6:24:48
  he was engaged to a girl at home. He did not tell me
• 6:24:52
  anything about her in Montreal, because he said he supposed she would have forgotten
• 6:24:56
  him and married some one else long ago. And with him, you see,
• 6:24:59
  his engagement and love was still a thing of the present. It was
• 6:25:03
  pretty hard on him. But when he got home he found she had never
• 6:25:06
  married, and still cared for him there to be married this fall. I'm
• 6:25:10
  going to ask him to bring her over here for a little trip. He
• 6:25:12
  says, he wants to come and see the place where he lived so many
• 6:25:15
  years without knowing it. What a nice little romance, said Anne, whose
• 6:25:19
  love for the romantic was immortal. And to think, she added, with
• 6:25:25
  a sigh of self reproach, that if I had had my way, George
• 6:25:27
  Moore would never have come up from the grave in which his identity was buried.
• 6:25:32
  How I did fight against Gilbert's suggestion, Well, I am punished.
• 6:25:36
  I shall never be able to have a different opinion from Gilbert's again. If
• 6:25:40
  I try to have, he will squelch me by casting George Moore's case up
• 6:25:44
  to me, as if even that would squelch a woman mocked Gilbert. At
• 6:25:48
  least, do not become my echo, Anne, A little opposition gives spice
• 6:25:52
  to life. I do not want a wife like John mc callister's over the
• 6:25:55
  harbor, no matter what he says. She at once remarks, in that
• 6:25:57
  drab, lifeless little voice of hers, that is very true, John,
• 6:26:02
  dear me, Anne, and Leslie laughed. Anne's laughter was silver and Leslie's
• 6:26:07
  golden and the combination of the two was as satisfactory as a perfect chord in
• 6:26:11
  music. Susan, coming in on the heels of the laughter, echoed it
• 6:26:15
  with a resounding sigh. Why Susan, what is the matter, asked Gilbert.
• 6:26:21
  There's nothing wrong with little gem, is there? Susan, cried Anne,
• 6:26:23
  starting up in alarm. No, no, calm yourself, missus,
• 6:26:26
  doctor dear. Something has happened though, dear me, everything has gone catawumpus
• 6:26:32
  with me this week. I spoiled the bread, as you know too well,
• 6:26:34
  and I scorched the doctor's best shirt, bosom, and I broke your
• 6:26:37
  big platter. And now on top of all of this comes word that my
• 6:26:41
  sister Matilda has broken her leg and wants me to go and stay with her
• 6:26:45
  for a spell. Oh I'm very sorry, sorry that your sister has met
• 6:26:48
  with such an accident, I mean, exclaimed Anne. Ah well Man was
• 6:26:53
  made to mourn, missus, doctor dear. That sounds as if it ought
• 6:26:56
  to be in the Bible. But they tell me a person named Burns wrote
• 6:26:59
  it. And there is no doubt that we are born to trouble. As
• 6:27:03
  the sparks fly upward, As for Matilda, I do not know what to
• 6:27:06
  think of her. None of our family ever broke their legs before. But
• 6:27:10
  whatever she has done, she is still my sister, and I feel that
• 6:27:12
  it is my duty to go and wait on her, if you can spare
• 6:27:15
  me for a few weeks, missus doctor dear. Of course, Susan.
• 6:27:18
  Of course I can get some one to help me while you are gone.
• 6:27:21
  If you cannot, I will not go, missus doctor dear Matilda's leg to
• 6:27:25
  the contrary, notwithstanding, I will not have you worried and that blessed child
• 6:27:29
  upset in consequence for any number of legs. Oh, you must go to
• 6:27:33
  your sister at once, Susan. I can get a girl from the cove
• 6:27:36
  who will do for a time. Anne, will you let me come and
• 6:27:40
  stay with you while Susan is away, exclaimed Leslie do. I'd love to,
• 6:27:45
  and it would be an act of charity on your part. I'm so
• 6:27:48
  horribly lonely over there in that big barn of a house. There's so little
• 6:27:52
  to do, and at night I'm worse than lonely. I'm frightened and nervous.
• 6:27:56
  In spite of locked doors. There was a tramp around two days ago.
• 6:28:00
  Anne joyfully agreed, and next day Leslie was installed as an inmate of
• 6:28:04
  the Little House of Dreams. Miss Cornelia warmly approved of the arrangement. It
• 6:28:10
  seems providential, she told Anne in confidence. I'm sorry for Matilda Klow,
• 6:28:14
  but since she had to break her leg, it couldn't have happened at a
• 6:28:17
  better time. Leslie will be here while owen Ford is in four winds,
• 6:28:21
  and those old cats up at the glen won't get the chance to me ow
• 6:28:25
  as they would if she was living over there alone, and Owen going to
• 6:28:27
  see her. They're doing enough of it as it is because she doesn't put
• 6:28:30
  on mourning. I said to one of them, if you mean she should
• 6:28:33
  put on mourning for George Moore, it seems to me more like his resurrection
• 6:28:37
  than his funeral. And if it's dick you mean, I confess I can't
• 6:28:41
  see the propriety of going into weeds for a man who died thirteen years ago.
• 6:28:45
  And good riddance then. And when old Louisa Baldwin remarked to me that
• 6:28:48
  she thought it very strange that Leslie should never have suspected it wasn't her own
• 6:28:52
  husband, I said, you never suspected it wasn't Dick Moore, and you
• 6:28:56
  were next door neighbor to him all his life, and by nature you ten
• 6:29:00
  times as suspicious as Leslie. But you can't stop some people's tongues. And
• 6:29:03
  Dearie, and I'm real thankful Leslie will be under your roof while Owen is
• 6:29:07
  courting her. Owen Ford came to the little House one August evening, when
• 6:29:12
  Leslie and Anne were absorbed in worshiping the baby. He paused at the open
• 6:29:18
  door of the living room, unseen by the two within, gazing with greedy
• 6:29:22
  eyes at the beautiful picture. Leslie sat on the floor with the baby in
• 6:29:26
  her lap, making ecstatic dabs at his little fat hands as he fluttered them
• 6:29:30
  in the air. Oh you, dear beautiful beloved baby, she mumbled,
• 6:29:34
  catching one wee hand and covering it with kisses. Yushunjimja darlings little shing,
• 6:29:41
  crooned Anne, hanging over the arm of her chair, adoringly. Dear MeitY,
• 6:29:45
  wee pad ushabury tweety tendies in the whole big world, isn't de you,
• 6:29:49
  darling needy man? Anne. In the months before Little Gem's coming had
• 6:29:55
  poured diligently over several wise volumes and pinned her faith to one and especial Sir
• 6:30:00
  Oracle. On the care and training of children, Sir Oracle implored parents,
• 6:30:06
  by all they held sacred never to talk baby talk to their children. Infants
• 6:30:11
  should invariably be addressed in classical language from the moment of their birth, So
• 6:30:15
  should they learn to speak English undefiled from their earliest utterance, how demanded Sir
• 6:30:21
  Oracle. Can a mother reasonably expect her child to learn correct speech when she
• 6:30:26
  continually accustoms its impressionable gray matter to such absurd expressions and distortions of our noble
• 6:30:32
  tongue as thoughtless mothers inflict every day on the helpless creatures committed to their care.
• 6:30:37
  Can a child who is constantly called tweet idy wee singe ever attained to
• 6:30:42
  any proper conception of his own being and possibilities and destiny. Anne was vastly
• 6:30:48
  impressed with this, and informed Gilbert that she meant to make it an inflexible
• 6:30:52
  rule, never, under any circumstances to talk baby talk to her children.
• 6:30:56
  Gilbert agreed with her, and they made a soft compact on the subject,
• 6:31:00
  a compact which Anne shamelessly violated the very first moment little Jem was laid in
• 6:31:07
  her arms. Oh the darling itty wee sing, she had exclaimed, and
• 6:31:11
  she had continued to violate it ever since. When Gilbert teased her, she
• 6:31:17
  laughed, Sir Oracle to scorn. He never had any children of his own,
• 6:31:21
  Gilbert, I am positive he hadn't, or he would never have written
• 6:31:23
  such rubbish. You just can't help talking baby talk to a baby. It
• 6:31:27
  comes natural, and it's right. It would be inhuman to talk to those
• 6:31:33
  tiny, soft, velvety little creatures as we do to great big boys and
• 6:31:36
  girls. Babies want love and cuddling and all the sweet baby talk they can
• 6:31:41
  get, and little Jem is going to have it. Bless his dear itty
• 6:31:44
  hardums. But you're the worst I ever heard, Anne protested Gilbert, who,
• 6:31:48
  not being a mother but only a father, was not wholly convinced yet
• 6:31:52
  that Sir Oracle was wrong. I never heard anything like the way you talk
• 6:31:56
  to that child. Very likely you never did go go away, go away,
• 6:32:00
  didn't I bring up three pairs of Hammond twins before I was eleven.
• 6:32:04
  You and Sir Oracle are nothing but cold blooded theorists. Gilbert. Just look
• 6:32:10
  at him. He's smiling at me. He knows what we're talking about.
• 6:32:14
  And you dis de guige with every word. Mother's shade, don't you age
• 6:32:17
  your lover. Gilbert put his arm about them. Oh, you mothers,
• 6:32:22
  he said, you mothers. God knew what he was about when he made
• 6:32:26
  you. So. Little Jem was talked to and loved and cuddled, and
• 6:32:30
  he throve as became a child of the House of dreams. Leslie was quite
• 6:32:34
  as foolish over him as Anne was. When their work was done and Gilbert
• 6:32:38
  was out of the way, they gave themselves over to shameless orgies of love
• 6:32:42
  making and ecstasies of adoration, such as that in which owen Ford had surprised
• 6:32:48
  them. Leslie was the first to become aware of him. Even in the
• 6:32:52
  twilight. Anne could see the sudden whiteness that swept over her beautiful face,
• 6:32:56
  blotting out the crimson of lip and cheeks. Owen came forward, eagerly,
• 6:33:02
  blind for a moment to Anne Leslie, he said, holding out his hand.
• 6:33:07
  It was the first time he had ever called her by her name.
• 6:33:10
  But the hand Leslie gave him was cold, and she was very quiet.
• 6:33:14
  All the evening, while Anne and Gilbert and Owen laughed and talked together.
• 6:33:18
  Before his call ended, she excused herself and went upstairs. Owen's gay spirits
• 6:33:23
  flagged, and he went away soon after with a downcast air. Gilbert looked
• 6:33:29
  at Anne, Anne, what are you up to? There's something going on
• 6:33:33
  that I don't understand. The whole air here tonight has been charged with electricity.
• 6:33:37
  Leslie sits like the muse of tragedy. Owen Ford jokes and laughs on
• 6:33:41
  the surface and watches Leslie with the eyes of his soul. You seem all
• 6:33:45
  the time to be bursting with some suppressed excitement. Own up. What secret
• 6:33:49
  have you been keeping from your deceived husband? Don't be a goose, Gilbert
• 6:33:55
  was Anne's conjugal reply. As for Leslie, she is absurd, and I'm
• 6:33:59
  going up to tell her. So. Anne found Leslie at the dormer window
• 6:34:03
  of her room. The little place was filled with the rhythmic thunder of the
• 6:34:07
  sea. Leslie sat with locked hands in the misty moonshine a beautiful, accusing
• 6:34:12
  presence. Anne, She said, in a low, reproachful voice, did
• 6:34:17
  you know owen Ford was coming to four winds? I did said Anne brazenly.
• 6:34:22
  Oh, you should have told me, Anne, Leslie cried passionately.
• 6:34:26
  If I had known, I would have gone away. I wouldn't have stayed
• 6:34:30
  here to meet him. You should have told me. It wasn't fair of
• 6:34:33
  you, Anne, Oh, it wasn't fair. Leslie's lips were trembling,
• 6:34:37
  and her whole form was tense with emotion, but Anne laughed heartlessly. She
• 6:34:41
  bent over and kissed Leslie's upturned, reproachful face. Leslie, you were an
• 6:34:48
  adorable goose. Owen Ford didn't rush from the Pacific to the Atlantic from a
• 6:34:52
  burning desire to see me. Neither do I believe that he was inspired by
• 6:34:56
  any wild and frenzied passion for miss Cornelia. Take off of your tragic airs,
• 6:35:00
  my dear friend, and fold them up and put them away in lavender.
• 6:35:03
  You'll never need them again. There are some people who can see through
• 6:35:07
  a grindstone when there is a hole in it, even if you cannot.
• 6:35:11
  I am not a prophetess, but I shall venture on a prediction. The
• 6:35:14
  bitterness of life is over for you. After this, you are going to
• 6:35:18
  have the joys and hopes, and I dare say the sorrows too, of
• 6:35:22
  a happy woman. The omen of the Shadow of Venus did come true for
• 6:35:26
  you, Leslie. The year in which you saw it brought your life's best
• 6:35:30
  gift for you, your love for owen Ford. Now go right to bed
• 6:35:33
  and have a good sleep. Leslie obeyed orders in so far that she went
• 6:35:38
  to bed, But it may be questioned if she slept much. I do
• 6:35:41
  not think she dared to dream wakingly. Life had been so hard for this
• 6:35:45
  poor Leslie. The path on which she had had to walk had been so
• 6:35:49
  straight that she could not whisper to her own heart the hopes that might wait
• 6:35:53
  on the future. But she watched the great revolving light bestarring the short hours
• 6:35:59
  of the summer night, and her eyes grew soft and bright and young once
• 6:36:03
  more. Nor when owen Ford came next day to ask her to go with
• 6:36:07
  him to the shore, did she say him nay. End of chapter thirty
• 6:36:14
  six. Chapter thirty seven, Miss Cornelia makes a startling announcement. Miss Cornelia
• 6:36:21
  sailed down to the little house one drowsy afternoon, when the gulf was the
• 6:36:25
  faint bleached blue of the August seas, and the orange lilies at the gate
• 6:36:29
  of Anne's garden held up their imperial cups to be filled with the molten gold
• 6:36:33
  of August sunshine. Not that Miss Cornelia concerned herself with painted oceans or sunthirsty
• 6:36:40
  lilies. She sat in her favorite rocker, and unusual idleness she sewed.
• 6:36:45
  Not neither did she spin, nor did she say a single derogatory word concerning
• 6:36:49
  any portion of mankind. In short, Miss Cornelia's conversation was singularly devoid of
• 6:36:56
  spice that day, and Gilbert, who had stayed home to listen to her
• 6:37:00
  instead of going a fishing as he had intended, felt himself aggrieved what had
• 6:37:03
  come over Miss Cornelia. She did not look cast down or worried. On
• 6:37:07
  the contrary, there was a certain air of nervous exaltation about her. Where
• 6:37:12
  is Leslie, she asked, not as if it mattered much either Ohen and
• 6:37:18
  she went raspberrying in the woods back of her farm, answered Anne, they
• 6:37:21
  won't be back before supper time. If then they don't seem to have any
• 6:37:25
  idea that there is such a thing as a clock. Said Gilbert, I
• 6:37:29
  can't get to the bottom of that affair. I'm certain you women pulled strings.
• 6:37:33
  But Anne, undutiful wife, won't tell me, will you, Miss
• 6:37:36
  Cornelia, No, I shall not, but said Miss Cornelia with the air
• 6:37:41
  of one determined to take the plunge and have it over. I will tell
• 6:37:44
  you something else. I came to day on purpose to tell it I am
• 6:37:48
  going to be married. Anne and Gilbert were silent. If Miss Cornelia had
• 6:37:53
  announced her intention of going out to the channel and drowning herself, the thing
• 6:37:57
  might have been believable. This was not, so, they waited. Of
• 6:38:03
  course miss Cornelia had made a mistake. Well you both look sort of chryflumixed,
• 6:38:08
  said Miss Cornelia, with a twinkle in her eyes. Now that the
• 6:38:11
  awkward moment of revelation was over, Miss Cornelia was her own woman again.
• 6:38:17
  Do you think I'm too young and inexperienced for matrimony? You know it is
• 6:38:22
  rather staggering, said Gilbert, trying to gather his wits together. I've heard
• 6:38:26
  you say a score of times that you wouldn't marry the best man in the
• 6:38:30
  world. I'm not going to marry the best man in the world, retorted
• 6:38:33
  Miss Cornelia. Marshal Elliot is a long way from being the best. Are
• 6:38:38
  you going to marry Marshall Elliot? Exclaimed Anne recovering her power of speech under
• 6:38:44
  this second shock. Yes, I could have had him any time these twenty
• 6:38:48
  years if I'd lifted my finger. But do you suppose I was going to
• 6:38:51
  walk into church beside a perambulating haystack like that? I am sure. We
• 6:38:55
  are very glad, and we wish you all possible happiness, said Anne,
• 6:38:59
  very flow and inadequately, as she felt she was not prepared for such an
• 6:39:03
  occasion. She had never imagined herself offering betrothal felicitations to Miss Cornelia. Thanks.
• 6:39:10
  I knew you would, said Miss Cornelia. You are the first of
• 6:39:12
  my friends to know it. We shall be so sorry to lose you,
• 6:39:15
  though, dear Miss Cornelia, said Anne, beginning to be a little sad
• 6:39:19
  and sentimental. Oh you won't lose me, said Miss Cornelia, unsentimentally.
• 6:39:25
  You don't suppose I would live over Harbor with all those mccallisters and Elias and
• 6:39:27
  Crawford's. Do you from the conceit of the Elliots, the pride of the
• 6:39:32
  mcallisters, and the vainglory of the Crawfords. Good Lord deliver us. Marshall
• 6:39:36
  is coming to live at my place. I am sick and tired, of
• 6:39:38
  hired men that Jim Hastings I've got this summer is positively the worst of the
• 6:39:42
  species. He would drive anyone to getting married. What do you think he
• 6:39:47
  upset the churn yesterday and spoiled a big churning of cream over the yard,
• 6:39:51
  and not one whit concerned about it was. He just gave a foolish laugh
• 6:39:56
  and said cream was good for the land. Wasn't that like a man?
• 6:39:59
  I told her him. I wasn't in the habit of fertilizing my back yard
• 6:40:02
  with cream. Well, I wish you all manner of happiness too, Miss
• 6:40:06
  Cornelia, said Gilbert solemnly, but he added, unable to resist the temptation
• 6:40:11
  to tease Miss Cornelia despite Anne's imploring eyes, I fear your day of independence
• 6:40:18
  is done. As you know, Marshall Elliott is a very determined man.
• 6:40:22
  I like a man who can stick to a thing, retorted Miss Cornelia.
• 6:40:26
  Amos Grant who used to be after me long ago. Couldn't you never saw
• 6:40:29
  such a weather vein He jumped into the pond to drown himself once, and
• 6:40:33
  then changed his mind and swum out again. Wasn't that like a man?
• 6:40:37
  Marshall would have stuck to it and drowned. And he has a bit of
• 6:40:40
  a temper, they tell me, persisted Gilbert. He wouldn't be an Elliot
• 6:40:44
  if he hadn't. I'm thankful he has. It will be real fun to
• 6:40:47
  make him mad. And you can generally do something with a temporary man when
• 6:40:51
  it comes to repenting time. But you can't do anything with a man who
• 6:40:53
  just keeps placid and aggravating. You know, he's a grit, Miss Cornelia.
• 6:40:59
  Yes, yes, he is, admitted, Miss Cornelia, rather sadly,
• 6:41:03
  and of course there is no hope of making a conservative of him.
• 6:41:07
  But at least he is a Presbyterian, so I suppose I shall have to
• 6:41:10
  be satisfied with that. Would you marry him if he were a Methodist?
• 6:41:12
  Miss Cornelia, No, I would not. Politics is for this world,
• 6:41:17
  but religion is for both. And you may be a relict after all,
• 6:41:21
  Miss Cornelia, not, I Marshall will live me out. The Elliots are
• 6:41:25
  long lived and the Bryans are not. When are you to be married?
• 6:41:29
  Asked Anne? In about a month's time. My wedding dress is to be
• 6:41:33
  navy blue silk, and I want to ask you, Anne, dearie,
• 6:41:36
  if you think it would be all right to wear a veil with a navy
• 6:41:38
  blue dress. I've always thought i'd like to wear a veil if I ever
• 6:41:41
  got married. Marshall says, to have it if I want to. Isn't
• 6:41:45
  that like a man? Why shouldn't you wear it if you want to,
• 6:41:48
  asked Anne. Well, one doesn't want to be different from other people,
• 6:41:52
  said Miss Cornelia, who was not noticeably like anyone else on the face of
• 6:41:56
  the earth. As I say, I do fancy a veil, but maybe
• 6:42:00
  it shouldn't be worn with any dress but a white one. Please tell me,
• 6:42:03
  Anne, dearie, what you really think. I'll go by your advice.
• 6:42:07
  I don't think veils are usually worn with any butt white dresses, admitted
• 6:42:11
  Anne. But that is merely a convention. And I am like mister Elliot,
• 6:42:15
  Miss Cornelia, I don't see any good reason why you shouldn't have a
• 6:42:18
  veil if you want one. But Miss Cornelia, who made her calls in
• 6:42:22
  calico wrappers, shook her head. If it isn't the proper thing, I
• 6:42:26
  won't wear it, she said, with a sigh of regret for a lost
• 6:42:30
  dream. Since you are determined to be married, miss Cornelia said, Gilbert
• 6:42:34
  solemnly, I shall give you the excellent rules for the management of a husband,
• 6:42:38
  which my grandmother gave my mother when she married my father. Well,
• 6:42:42
  I reckon I can manage, Marshal Elliot, said Miss Cornelia placidly. But
• 6:42:47
  let us hear your rules. The first one is catch him. He's caught,
• 6:42:51
  go on. The second one is feed him well with enough pie?
• 6:42:55
  What next? The third and fourth are keep your eye on him. I
• 6:43:00
  believe you, said Miss Cornelia emphatically, end of Chapter thirty seven. Chapter
• 6:43:07
  thirty eight red roses. The garden of the Little House was a haunt,
• 6:43:11
  beloved of bees and reddened by late roses that August. The Little House folk
• 6:43:18
  lived much in it, and were given to taking picnic suppers in the grassy
• 6:43:21
  corner beyond the brook, and sitting about in it through the twilights when great
• 6:43:26
  night moths sailed athwart the velvet gloom. One evening, owen Ford found Leslie
• 6:43:32
  alone in it. Anne and Gilbert were away, and Susan, who was
• 6:43:36
  expected back that night, had not yet returned. The northern sky was amber
• 6:43:41
  and pale green over the fir tops. The air was cool, for August
• 6:43:45
  was nearing September, and Leslie wore a crimson scarf over her white dress.
• 6:43:51
  Together they wandered through the little friendly flower crowded paths in silence. Owen must
• 6:43:56
  go soon, his holiday was nearly over. Leslie found her heart beating wildly.
• 6:44:03
  She knew that this beloved garden was to be the scene of the binding
• 6:44:07
  words that must seal their as yet unworded understanding. Some evenings, a strange
• 6:44:11
  odor blows down the air of this garden like a phantom perfume, said Owen.
• 6:44:17
  I have never been able to discover from just what flower it comes.
• 6:44:21
  It is elusive and haunting and wonderfully sweet. I like to fancy it is
• 6:44:26
  the soul of grandmother Selwyn, passing on a little visit to the old spot
• 6:44:30
  she loved so well. There should be a lot of friendly ghosts about this
• 6:44:33
  little old house. I have lived under its roof only a month, said
• 6:44:37
  Leslie. But I love it as I never loved the house over there where
• 6:44:41
  I lived all my life. This house was builded and consecrated by love,
• 6:44:45
  said Owen. Such houses must exert an influence over those who live in them.
• 6:44:51
  And this garden, it is over sixty years old and The history of
• 6:44:55
  a thousand hopes and joys is written in its blossoms. Some of those flowers
• 6:45:00
  were actually set out by the schoolmaster's bride, and she has been dead for
• 6:45:03
  thirty years, yet they bloom on every summer. Look at those red roses,
• 6:45:08
  Leslie, how they queen it over everything else. I love the red
• 6:45:12
  roses, said Leslie. Anne likes the pink one's best, and Gilbert likes
• 6:45:18
  the white. But I want the crimson ones. They satisfy some craving in
• 6:45:22
  me as no other flower does. These roses are very late. They bloom
• 6:45:27
  after all the others have gone, and they hold all the warmth and soul
• 6:45:32
  of the summer. Come to fruition, said Owen, picking some of the
• 6:45:34
  glowing half opened buds. The rose is the flower of love. The world
• 6:45:40
  has acclaimed it so for centuries. The pink roses are love, hopeful and
• 6:45:45
  expectant. The white roses are love dead, are forsaken. But the red
• 6:45:49
  roses, Ah, Leslie, what are the red roses? Love triumphant?
• 6:45:56
  Said Leslie in a low voice. Yes, love triumphant and perfect, Leslie.
• 6:46:03
  You know you understand. I have loved you from the first, and
• 6:46:08
  I know you love me. I don't need to ask you, but I
• 6:46:12
  want to hear you say it, My darling, My darling, Leslie said
• 6:46:18
  something in a very low and tremulous voice. Their hands and lips met.
• 6:46:25
  It was life's supreme moment for them, and as they stood there in the
• 6:46:27
  old garden with its many years of love and delight and sorrow and glory,
• 6:46:33
  he crowned her shining hair with the red red rose of a love triumphant.
• 6:46:38
  Anne and Gilbert returned, presently, accompanied by Captain Jim. Anne lighted a
• 6:46:44
  few sticks of driftwood in the fireplace for love of the Pixie Flames, and
• 6:46:48
  they sat around it for an hour of good fellowship. When I sit looking
• 6:46:52
  at a driftwood fire, it's easy to believe I'm young again, said Captain
• 6:46:56
  Jim. Can you read futures in the fire? Captain Jim asked Owen.
• 6:47:02
  Captain Jim looked at them all affectionately, and then back again at Leslie's vivid
• 6:47:06
  face and glowing eyes. I don't need the fire to read your futures,
• 6:47:11
  he said. I see happiness for all of you, all of you,
• 6:47:15
  for Leslie and mister Ford, and the doctor here and Mistress blythe and little
• 6:47:19
  jem and children that ain't been born yet, but will be happiness for you
• 6:47:23
  all though, mind you, I reckon, you'll have your troubles and worries
• 6:47:27
  and sorrows too. They're bound to come, and no house, whether it's
• 6:47:32
  a palace or a little House of dreams, can bar em out. But
• 6:47:36
  they won't get the better of you. If you face them together with love
• 6:47:38
  and trust, you can weather any storm with them too, for compass and
• 6:47:42
  pilot. The old man rose suddenly and placed one hand on Leslie's head and
• 6:47:48
  one on Anne's. Two good, sweet women, he said, true and
• 6:47:53
  faithful, and to be depended on. Your husbands will have honor in the
• 6:47:57
  gates because of you. Your children will rise up and call you blessed in
• 6:48:02
  the years to come. There was a strange solemnity about the little scene.
• 6:48:07
  Anne and Leslie bowed as those receiving a benediction. Gilbert suddenly brushed his hand
• 6:48:12
  over his eyes. Owen Ford was rapt, as one who can see visions.
• 6:48:18
  All were silent for a space. The Little House of Dreams added another
• 6:48:22
  poignant and unforgettable moment to its store of memories. I must be going now,
• 6:48:27
  said Captain Jim slowly. At last, he took up his hat and
• 6:48:32
  looked lingeringly about the room. Good Night, all of you, he said,
• 6:48:36
  as he went out. Anne, pierced by the unusual wistfulness of his
• 6:48:41
  farewell, ran to the door after him. Come back soon, Captain Jim,
• 6:48:45
  she called, as he passed through the little gate hung between the firs.
• 6:48:49
  Ay Aye, he called cheerily back to her, But Captain Jim had
• 6:48:53
  sat by the old fireside of the House of Dreams for the last time.
• 6:49:00
  Anne went slowly back to the others. It's so so pitiful to think of
• 6:49:04
  him going all alone down to that lonely point, she said, And there
• 6:49:08
  is no one to welcome him there. Captain Jim is such good company for
• 6:49:12
  others that one can't imagine him being anything but good company for himself, said
• 6:49:17
  Owen. But he must often be lonely. There was a touch of the
• 6:49:22
  seer about him tonight, he spoke, as one to whom it had been
• 6:49:25
  given to speak. Well, I must be going to Anne, and Gilbert
• 6:49:30
  discreetly melted away. But when Owen had gone, Anne returned to find Leslie
• 6:49:34
  standing by the hearth. Oh Leslie, I know, and I'm so glad,
• 6:49:40
  dear, she said, putting her arms about her. And my happiness
• 6:49:44
  frightens me, whispered Leslie. It seems too great to be real. I'm
• 6:49:48
  afraid to speak of it, to think of it. It seems to me
• 6:49:52
  that it must just be another dream of this house of dreams, and it
• 6:49:55
  will vanish when I leave here. Well, you are not going to leave
• 6:49:59
  here until Owen takes you. You are going to stay with me until that
• 6:50:03
  time comes. Do you think i'd let you go over to that lonely,
• 6:50:06
  sad place again? Thank you, dear. I meant to ask you if
• 6:50:10
  I might stay with you. I didn't want to go back there. It
• 6:50:12
  would seem like going back into the chill and dreariness of the old life again.
• 6:50:18
  An Anne, what a friend you've been to me, A good,
• 6:50:21
  sweet woman, true and faithful, and to be depended on. Captain Jim
• 6:50:25
  summed you up, he said, women, not woman, smiled Anne.
• 6:50:30
  Perhaps Captain Jim sees us both through the rose colored spectacles of his love for
• 6:50:34
  us. But we can try to live up to his belief in us at
• 6:50:37
  least. Do you remember, Anne, said Leslie slowly, that I once
• 6:50:42
  said that night we met on the shore that I hated my good looks.
• 6:50:47
  I did. Then. It always seemed to me that if I had been
• 6:50:51
  homely, Dick would never have thought of me. I hated my beauty because
• 6:50:55
  it had attracted him. But now, oh, I'm glad that I have
• 6:50:59
  it. It's all I have to offer. Owen, his artist's soul delights
• 6:51:03
  in it. I feel as if I do not come to him quite empty
• 6:51:06
  handed. Owen loves your beauty, Leslie, who would not. But it's
• 6:51:11
  foolish of you to say or think that this is all you bring him.
• 6:51:14
  He will tell you that I needn't. But now I must lock up.
• 6:51:18
  I expected Susan back to night, but she has not come. Oh,
• 6:51:22
  yes, here, I am, missus, doctor dear, said Susan,
• 6:51:25
  entering unexpectedly from the kitchen and puffing like a hen, drawing rails at that.
• 6:51:29
  It's quite a walk from the glen down here. I'm glad to see
• 6:51:33
  you back, Susan. How is your sister? She is able to sit
• 6:51:36
  up, but of course she cannot walk yet. However, she is very
• 6:51:38
  well able to get on without me now, for her daughter has come home
• 6:51:41
  for her vacation. And I am thankful to be back, Missus doctor dear.
• 6:51:45
  Matilda's leg was broken and no mistake, but her tongue was not.
• 6:51:49
  She would talk the legs off an iron pot that she would, missus doctor
• 6:51:52
  dear, though I grieve to say it, of my own sister, she
• 6:51:56
  was always a great talker, and yet she was the first of our family
• 6:51:59
  to get married. She really did not care much about marrying James Clow,
• 6:52:03
  but she could not bear to disoblige him. Not. But what James is
• 6:52:06
  a good man. The only fault I have to find with him is that
• 6:52:08
  he always starts in to say grace with such an unearthly groan, Missus doctor
• 6:52:12
  dear. It always frightens my appetite clear away. And speaking of getting married,
• 6:52:17
  missus doctor dear, is it true that Cornelia Bryant is going to be
• 6:52:21
  married to Marshall Elliott. Yes, quite true, Susan Well, missus doctor
• 6:52:25
  dear, it does not seem to me fair. Here is me, who
• 6:52:29
  never said a word against the men, and I cannot get married nohow.
• 6:52:32
  And there is Cornelia Bryant, who has never done abusing them, and all
• 6:52:36
  she has to do is reach out her hand and pick one up as it
• 6:52:38
  were. It is a very strange world. Missus doctor dear, there's another
• 6:52:42
  world, you know, Susan, Yes, said Susan with a heavy sigh.
• 6:52:47
  But missus doctor dear, there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage.
• 6:52:51
  There. End of chapter thirty eight, Chapter thirty nine. Captain Jim crosses
• 6:52:57
  the Bar. One day in late September, owen Ford's book came at last.
• 6:53:03
  Captain Jim had gone faithfully to the Glen Post office every day for a
• 6:53:07
  month, expecting it. This day he had not gone, and Leslie brought
• 6:53:11
  his copy home with hers and Anne's. We'll take it down to him this
• 6:53:15
  evening, said Anne, excited as a schoolgirl. The long walk to the
• 6:53:19
  Point on that clear, beguiling evening along the Red Harbor Road was very pleasant.
• 6:53:25
  Then the sun dropped down behind the western hills into some valley that must
• 6:53:29
  have been full of lost sunsets, and at the same instant the big light
• 6:53:33
  flashed out on the white tower of the Point. Captain Jim is never late
• 6:53:37
  by the fraction of a second, said Leslie. Neither Anne nor Leslie ever
• 6:53:42
  forgot Captain Jim's face when they gave him the book. His book transfigured and
• 6:53:48
  glorified. The cheeks that had been blanched of late suddenly flamed with the color
• 6:53:52
  of boyhood. His eyes glowed with all the fire of youth, but his
• 6:53:56
  hands trembled as he opened it. It was called simply the Life Book of
• 6:54:02
  Captain Jim, and on the title page the names of owen Ford and James
• 6:54:07
  Boyd were printed as collaborators. The frontispiece was a photograph of Captain Jim himself
• 6:54:12
  standing at the door of the lighthouse looking across the gulf. Owen Ford had
• 6:54:17
  snapped him one day while the book was being written. Captain Jim had known
• 6:54:21
  this, but he had not known that the picture was to be in the
• 6:54:22
  book. Just think of it, he said, the old sailor, right
• 6:54:27
  there, in a real printed book. This is the proudest day of my
• 6:54:32
  life. I'm like to bust girls. There'll be no sleep for me to
• 6:54:36
  night. I'll read my book clean through before sun up. We'll go right
• 6:54:40
  away and leave you free to begin, it, said Anne. Captain Jim
• 6:54:44
  had been handling the book in a kind of reverend rapture. Now he decidedly
• 6:54:48
  closed it and laid it aside. No, no, you're not going away
• 6:54:52
  before you take a cup of tea with the old man, he protested.
• 6:54:55
  I couldn't hear to that, could you, Matie? The life book will
• 6:54:57
  keep I reckon. I've waited for it this many a year. I can
• 6:55:02
  wait a little longer while I'm enjoying my friends. Captain Jim moved about,
• 6:55:07
  getting his kettle on to boil and setting out his bread and butter. Despite
• 6:55:11
  his excitement, he did not move with his old briskness. His movements were
• 6:55:15
  slow and halting. But the girls did not offer to help him. They
• 6:55:18
  knew it would hurt his feelings. You just picked the right evening to visit
• 6:55:23
  me, he said, producing a cake from his cupboard. Little Joe's mother
• 6:55:27
  sent me down a big basket full of cakes and pies to day A blessing
• 6:55:32
  on all good cook says, I look at this pretty cake, all frosting
• 6:55:36
  and nuts. Tain't often I can entertain in such style. Setting girls set
• 6:55:40
  in. We'll take a cup of kindness yet for old lang'shine. The girls
• 6:55:45
  set in right merrily. The tea was up to Captain Jim's best brewing.
• 6:55:48
  Little Joe's Mother's cake was the last word in cakes. Captain Jim was the
• 6:55:53
  prince of gracious hosts, never even permitting his eyes to wonder to the corner
• 6:55:57
  where the Life book lay in all its bravery of green and gold. But
• 6:56:03
  when his door finally closed behind Anne and Leslie, they knew that he went
• 6:56:07
  straight to it, And as they walked home they pictured the delight of the
• 6:56:11
  old man poring over the printed pages, wherein his own life was portrayed with
• 6:56:15
  all the charm and color of reality itself. I wonder how he will like
• 6:56:19
  the ending, the ending, I suggested, said Leslie. She was never
• 6:56:25
  to know. Early the next morning, Anne awakened to find Gilbert bending over
• 6:56:29
  her, fully dressed, with an expression of anxiety on his face. Are
• 6:56:33
  you called out, she asked drowsily. No, Anne, I'm afraid there's
• 6:56:37
  something wrong at the point. It's an hour after sunrise now, and the
• 6:56:41
  light is still burning. You know, it has always been a matter of
• 6:56:44
  pride, was Captain Jim to start the light the moment the sun sets,
• 6:56:48
  and put it out the moment it rises. Anne sat up in dismay.
• 6:56:52
  Through her window she saw the light blinking palely against the blue skies of dawn.
• 6:56:57
  Perhaps he has fallen asleep over for his life book, she said,
• 6:57:00
  anxiously, or become so absorbed in it that he has forgotten the light.
• 6:57:04
  Gilbert shook his head. That wouldn't be like Captain Jim anyway, I'm going
• 6:57:10
  down to see. Wait a minute, and I'll go with you, exclaimed
• 6:57:12
  Anne. Oh yes i must. Little Jem will sleep for an hour yet,
• 6:57:17
  and I'll call Susan. You may need a woman's help if Captain Jim
• 6:57:19
  is ill. It was an exquisite morning, full of tints and sounds at
• 6:57:25
  once ripe and delicate. The harbor was sparkling and dimpling like a girl.
• 6:57:30
  White gulls were soaring over the dunes. Beyond the bar was a shining,
• 6:57:34
  wonderful sea. The long fields by the shore were dewy and fresh. In
• 6:57:38
  that first fine, purely tinted light. The wind came dancing and whistling up
• 6:57:45
  the channel to replace the beautiful silence with a music more beautiful still, had
• 6:57:51
  it not been for the baleful star on the white Tower, that early walk
• 6:57:55
  would have been a delight to Anne and Gilbert. But they went softly with
• 6:57:59
  fear. Their knock was not responded to. Gilbert opened the door and they
• 6:58:03
  went in the old room was very quiet. On the table were the remnants
• 6:58:08
  of the little evening feast. The lamp still burned on the corner stand.
• 6:58:12
  The first mate was asleep in a square of sunshine by the sofa. Captain
• 6:58:18
  Jim lay on the sofa with his hands clasped over the life book, open
• 6:58:22
  at the last page, lying on his breast. His eyes were closed,
• 6:58:26
  and on his face was a look of the most perfect peace and happiness,
• 6:58:32
  the look of one who was long sought and found at last. He is
• 6:58:36
  asleep, whispered Anne tremulously. Gilbert went to the sofa and bent over him
• 6:58:41
  for a few moments. Then he straightened up. Yes, he sleeps well,
• 6:58:48
  he added quietly, Anne, Captain Jim has crossed the bar. They
• 6:58:55
  could not know precisely at what hour he had died, but Anne always believed
• 6:58:59
  that he had his wish and went out when the morning came across the gulf.
• 6:59:03
  Out on that shining tide, his spirit drifted over the sunrise sea of
• 6:59:07
  pearl and silver, to the haven where lost Margaret waited, beyond the storms
• 6:59:12
  and calms. End of chapter thirty nine, Chapter forty Farewell to the House
• 6:59:19
  of Dreams. Captain Jim was buried in the little Over Harbor graveyard, very
• 6:59:26
  near to the spot where the wee White Lady slept. His relatives put up
• 6:59:30
  a very expensive, very ugly monument, a monument at which he would have
• 6:59:34
  poked sly fun had he seen it in life. But his real monument was
• 6:59:38
  in the hearts of those who knew him, and in the book that was
• 6:59:42
  to live for generations. Leslie mourned that Captain Jim had not lived to see
• 6:59:48
  the amazing success of it. How he would have delighted in the reviews there,
• 6:59:52
  almost all so kindly, and to have seen his life book heading the
• 6:59:56
  lists of the best sellers. Oh, if he could have just lived to
• 6:59:59
  se see it. Anne. But Anne, despite her grief, was wiser.
• 7:00:03
  It was the book itself he cared for, Leslie, not what might
• 7:00:07
  be said of it. And he had it, He had read it all
• 7:00:11
  through. That last night must have been one of the greatest happiness for him,
• 7:00:15
  with the quick, painless ending he had hoped for. In the morning.
• 7:00:18
  I am glad, for Owen's sake and yours that the book is such
• 7:00:22
  a success. But Captain Jim was satisfied. I know the Lighthouse Star still
• 7:00:27
  kept a nightly vigil. A substitute keeper had been sent to the point until
• 7:00:32
  such time as an all wise government could decide which of many applicants was best
• 7:00:37
  fitted for the place or had the strongest pull. The first mate was at
• 7:00:41
  home in the little house, beloved by Anne and Gilbert and Leslie, and
• 7:00:45
  tolerated by a Susan who had small liking for cats. I can put up
• 7:00:49
  with him for the sake of Captain Jim, Missus, doctor Dear, for
• 7:00:52
  I liked the old man, and I will see that he gets bite and
• 7:00:55
  sup and every mouse the traps account for. But do not ask me to
• 7:00:59
  do more than that, Missus, doctor dear. Cats is cat's and take
• 7:01:02
  my word for it. They will never be anything else. And at least,
• 7:01:06
  missus doctor dear, do keep him away from the blessed we man.
• 7:01:08
  Picture to yourself how awful it would be if he was to suck the darling's
• 7:01:12
  breath. That might fitly be called a catastrophe, said Gilbert. Oh you
• 7:01:18
  may laugh, doctor dear, but it would be no laughing matter. Cats
• 7:01:22
  never suck baby's breaths, said Gilbert. That is only an old superstition.
• 7:01:26
  Susan. Oh, well, it may be a superstition or it may not,
• 7:01:30
  Doctor Dear. All that I know is it has happened. My sister's
• 7:01:36
  husband's nephew's wife's cat sucked their baby's breath, and the poor innocent was all
• 7:01:41
  but gone when they found it. And superstition or not, if I find
• 7:01:45
  that yellow beast blurking near our baby, I will whack him with the poker,
• 7:01:48
  Missus, Doctor Dear. Mister and Missus Marshall Elliott were living comfortably and
• 7:01:52
  harmoniously in the green House. Leslie was busy with sewing for she and Owen
• 7:01:57
  were to be married at Christmas. Anne wondered what she would do when Leslie
• 7:02:02
  was gone. Changes come all the time. Just as soon as things get
• 7:02:07
  really nice, they change, she said, with a sigh. The old
• 7:02:10
  Morgan place up at the Glennis for sale, said Gilbert apropos of nothing in
• 7:02:14
  especial, is it, asked Anne indifferently. Yes, now that mister Morgan
• 7:02:19
  is gone, Missus Morgan wants to go live with her children in Vancouver.
• 7:02:22
  She will sell cheaply for a big place like that in a small village like
• 7:02:26
  the Glen will not be very easy to dispose of. Well, it's certainly
• 7:02:30
  a beautiful place, so it is likely she will find a purchaser, said
• 7:02:33
  Anne, absently, wondering whether she should hemstitch or featherstitch little Gem's short dresses.
• 7:02:40
  He was to be shortened the next week, and Anne felt ready to
• 7:02:42
  cry at the thought of it. Suppose we buy it, anne remarked Gilbert
• 7:02:48
  Quietly. Anne dropped her sewing and stared at him. You're not in earnest,
• 7:02:52
  Gilbert. Indeed I am, dear, and leave this darling spot our
• 7:02:57
  house of dreams, said Anne incredulously. Oh, Gilbert, it's it's unthinkable.
• 7:03:04
  Listen patiently to me, dear. I know just how you feel about
• 7:03:08
  it. I feel the same. But we've always known we would have to
• 7:03:11
  move some day. Oh but not so soon, Gilbert, not just yet.
• 7:03:18
  We may never get such a chance again. If we don't buy the
• 7:03:21
  Morgan place, some one else will. And there is no other house in
• 7:03:23
  the glen we would care to have, and no other really good sight on
• 7:03:26
  which to build. This little house is well, it is and has been
• 7:03:32
  what no other house can ever be to us, I admit, but you
• 7:03:34
  know it is out of the way down here for a doctor. We have
• 7:03:37
  felt the inconvenience though we've made the best of it, and it's a tight
• 7:03:41
  fit for us now. Perhaps in a few years, when Jem wants a
• 7:03:45
  room of his own, it will be entirely too small. Oh I know,
• 7:03:49
  I know, said Anne, tears filling her eyes. I know all
• 7:03:53
  that can be set against it. But I love it so and it's so
• 7:03:57
  beautiful here. You would find it very lonely here after Leslie goes and Captain
• 7:04:03
  Jim has gone too. The Morgan Place is beautiful, and in time we
• 7:04:07
  would love it. You know you have always admired it. Anne. Oh,
• 7:04:11
  yes, But but this has all seemed to come up so suddenly,
• 7:04:15
  Gilbert, I'm dizzy. Ten minutes ago, I had no thought of leaving
• 7:04:19
  this dear spot. I was planning what I meant to do for it in
• 7:04:22
  the spring, what I meant to do in the garden. And if we
• 7:04:26
  leave this place, who will get it? It is out of the way,
• 7:04:29
  so it's likely some poor, shiftless, wandering family will rent it and
• 7:04:33
  overrun it. And oh, that would be desecration. It would hurt me
• 7:04:37
  horribly, I know. But we cannot sacrifice our own interest to such consideration,
• 7:04:42
  Zane girl. The Morgan Place will suit us in every essential particular.
• 7:04:48
  We really can't afford to miss such a chance. Think of that big lawn
• 7:04:52
  with those magnificent old trees, and of that splendid hardwood grove behind it,
• 7:04:56
  twelve acres of it. What a play place for our ChIL There's a fine
• 7:05:00
  orchard too. And you've always admired that high brick wall around the garden with
• 7:05:04
  the door in it. You've thought it was so like a storybook garden.
• 7:05:08
  And there is almost as fine a you of the harbor and the dunes from
• 7:05:11
  the Morgan place as from here. You can't see the lighthouse star from it.
• 7:05:17
  Yes, you can see it from the attic window. There's another advantage,
• 7:05:21
  a girl, you love big garrets. There's no brook in the garden.
• 7:05:26
  Well no, but there is one running through the maple grove into the
• 7:05:29
  glen pond, and the pond itself isn't far away. You'll be able to
• 7:05:33
  fancy you have your own lake of shining waters. Again. Well, don't
• 7:05:37
  say anything more about it just now, Gilbert, give me time to think,
• 7:05:41
  to get used to the idea. All right. There is no great
• 7:05:44
  hurry, of course. Only if we decide to buy it will be well
• 7:05:48
  to be moved in and settled before winter. Gilbert went out, and Anne
• 7:05:52
  put away Little Jem's short dresses with trembling hands she could not sew any more.
• 7:05:57
  That day, With tear wet eyes, she wandered over the little domain
• 7:06:02
  where she had rained so happy a queen. The Morgan Place was all that
• 7:06:06
  Gilbert claimed. The grounds were beautiful, the house old enough to have dignity
• 7:06:11
  and repose and traditions, and new enough to be comfortable and up to date.
• 7:06:15
  Anne had always admired it. But admiring is not loving, and she
• 7:06:19
  loved this house of dreams so much. She loved everything about it. The
• 7:06:23
  garden she had tended, and which so many women had tended before her,
• 7:06:29
  The gleam and sparkle of the little brook that crept so roguishly across the corner,
• 7:06:33
  the gate between the creaking fir trees, the old red sandstone step,
• 7:06:37
  the stately lombardies, the two tiny, quaint glass cupboards over the chimney piece
• 7:06:42
  in the living room, the crooked pantry door in the kitchen, the two
• 7:06:47
  funny dormer windows upstairs, the little jog in the staircase. Why these things
• 7:06:52
  were a part of her How could she leave them. And now this little
• 7:06:56
  house, consecrated aforetime by love and joy, had been reconsecrated for her by
• 7:07:02
  her happiness and sorrow. Here she had spent her bridal moon here wee Joyce,
• 7:07:07
  had lived her one brief day. Here the sweetness of motherhood had come
• 7:07:11
  again with little Gem. Here she had heard the exquisite music of her baby's
• 7:07:15
  cooing laughter. Here beloved friends had sat by her fireside. Joy and grief,
• 7:07:22
  birth and death had made sacred forever this little house of dreams. And
• 7:07:27
  now she must leave it. She knew that, even while she had contended
• 7:07:32
  against the idea to Gilbert, the little house was outgrown. Gilbert's interests made
• 7:07:37
  the change necessary. His work, successful, though it had been, was
• 7:07:41
  hampered by his location. Anne realized that the end of their life in this
• 7:07:45
  dear place drew nigh, and that she must face the fact bravely. But
• 7:07:49
  how her heart ached. It will be just like tearing something out of my
• 7:07:53
  life, she sobbed. And Oh, if I could hope that some nice
• 7:07:59
  folk would come here in our place, or even that it would be left
• 7:08:02
  vacant, that itself would be better than having it overrun with some horde,
• 7:08:06
  who knew nothing of the geography of Dreamland, and nothing of the history that
• 7:08:10
  has given this house its soul and its identity. And if such a tribe
• 7:08:14
  come here, the place will go to rack and ruin in no time.
• 7:08:18
  An old place goes down so quickly if it is not carefully attended to.
• 7:08:22
  They'll tear up my garden and let the lombardies get ragged, and the paling
• 7:08:26
  will come to look like a mouth with half the teeth missing, and the
• 7:08:29
  roof will leak and the plaster fall, and they'll stuff pillows and rags in
• 7:08:33
  broken window panes, and everything will be out at elbows. Anne's imagination pictured
• 7:08:40
  forth so vividly the coming degeneration of her dear little house that it hurt her
• 7:08:44
  as severely as if it had already been an accomplished fact. She sat down
• 7:08:48
  on the stairs and had a long bitter cry. Susan found her there and
• 7:08:52
  inquired with much concern what the trouble was. You have not quarreled with the
• 7:08:56
  doctor, have you, now, missus? Doctor dear? But if you
• 7:09:00
  have, do not worry. It is a thing quite likely to happen to
• 7:09:03
  married couples, I am told, although I have had no experience that way
• 7:09:06
  myself. He will be sorry and you can soon make it up. No,
• 7:09:10
  no, Susan, we haven't quarreled. It's only Gilbert is going to
• 7:09:14
  buy the Morgan place and we'll have to go and live at the Glen,
• 7:09:17
  and it will break my heart. Susan did not enter into Anne's feelings at
• 7:09:22
  all. She was indeed quite rejoiced over the prospect of living at the Glen.
• 7:09:26
  Her one grievance against her place in the little house was its lonesome location.
• 7:09:30
  Why missus doctor dear, it will be splendid. The Morgan house is
• 7:09:34
  such a fine, big one. I hate big houses, sobbed Anne.
• 7:09:40
  Oh well, you will not hate them by the time you have half a
• 7:09:42
  dozen children, remarked Susan calmly. And this house is too small already for
• 7:09:48
  us. We have no spare room since missus Moore is here. And that
• 7:09:51
  pantry is the most aggravating place I ever tried to work in. There is
• 7:09:55
  a corner every way you turn. Besides, it is out of the world
• 7:09:57
  down here. There is really nothing at all but scenery. Out of your
• 7:10:02
  world, perhaps, Susan, but not out of mine, said Anne with
• 7:10:06
  a faint smile. I do not quite understand you, missus doctor dear,
• 7:10:10
  but of course I am not well educated. But if doctor Blythe buys the
• 7:10:12
  Morgan place, he will make no mistake, and that you may tie to.
• 7:10:17
  They have water in it, and the pantrees and closets are beautiful,
• 7:10:19
  and there is not another such cellar in p E Island. So I have
• 7:10:23
  been told. Why the cellar here, missus, doctor dear, has been
• 7:10:26
  a heartbreak to me, as you well know. Oh go away, Susan,
• 7:10:30
  go away, said Anne. Forlornly cellars and pantries and closets don't make
• 7:10:36
  a home. Why don't you weep with those who weep? Well, I
• 7:10:40
  never was much hand for weeping, missus doctor dear. I would rather fall
• 7:10:42
  to and cheer people up than weep with them. Now, do not you
• 7:10:47
  cry and spoil your pretty eyes. This house is very well and has served
• 7:10:51
  your turn, but it is high time you had a better Susan's point of
• 7:10:55
  view seemed to be that of most people. Leslie was the only one who
• 7:10:59
  sympathized understandingly with Anne. She had a good cry too when she heard the
• 7:11:03
  news. Then they both dried their tears and went to work at the preparations
• 7:11:07
  for moving. Since we must go, let us go as soon as we
• 7:11:11
  can and have it over, said poor Anne with bitter resignation. You know
• 7:11:15
  you will like that lovely old place at the glen after you have lived in
• 7:11:18
  it long enough to have dear memories woven about it, said Leslie. Friends
• 7:11:22
  will come there as they have come here. Happiness will glorify it for you.
• 7:11:27
  Now it's just a house to you, but the years will make it
• 7:11:30
  a home. Anne and Leslie had another cry the next week when they shortened
• 7:11:36
  little jem. Anne felt the tragedy of it until evening, when in his
• 7:11:40
  long nighty she found her own dear baby again. But it will be rompers
• 7:11:45
  next, and then trousers, and in no time he will be grown up.
• 7:11:48
  She sighed. Well, you would not want him to stay a baby
• 7:11:52
  always, missus doctor dear would you, said Susan. Bless his innocent heart.
• 7:11:56
  He looks too sweet for anything in his little short dresses, with his
• 7:12:00
  dear feet sticking out. And think of the save in the ironing, missus
• 7:12:03
  doctor, dear Anne. I have just had a letter from Owen, said
• 7:12:08
  Leslie, entering with a bright face, And oh, I have such good
• 7:12:11
  news. He writes me that he is going to buy this place from the
• 7:12:15
  church trustees and keep it to spend our summer vacations in, Anne, Are
• 7:12:19
  you not glad? Oh, Leslie? Glad isn't the word for it.
• 7:12:23
  It seems almost too good to be true. I shan't feel half so badly
• 7:12:27
  now that I know this dear spot will never be desecrated by a vandal tribe
• 7:12:32
  or left a tumble down and decay. Why it's lovely, it's lovely.
• 7:12:37
  One October morning, Anne wakened to the realization that she had slept for the
• 7:12:41
  last time under the roof of her little house. The day was too busy
• 7:12:45
  to indulge regret, and when evening came, the house was stripped and bare.
• 7:12:51
  Anne and Gilbert were alone in it to say farewell. Leslie and Susan
• 7:12:55
  and little Jem had gone to the glem with the last load of furniture.
• 7:12:59
  The sun set light streamed in through the curtainless windows. It has all such
• 7:13:03
  a heart broken reproachful look, hasn't it? Said Anne? Oh, I
• 7:13:07
  shall be so homesick at the glen to night. We have been very happy
• 7:13:11
  here, haven't we? Angirl? Said Gilbert, his voice full of feeling.
• 7:13:17
  Anne choked, unable to answer. Gilbert waited for her at the fir
• 7:13:21
  tree gate while she went over the house and said farewell to every room.
• 7:13:26
  She was going away. But the old house would still be there, looking
• 7:13:30
  seaward through its quaint windows. The autumn winds would blow around it mournfully,
• 7:13:34
  and the gray rain would beat upon it, and the white mists would come
• 7:13:38
  in from the sea to unfold it, and the moonlight would fall over it
• 7:13:41
  and light up the old paths where the schoolmaster and his bride had walked There.
• 7:13:47
  On that old harbor shore, the charm of story would linger, The
• 7:13:51
  wind would still whistle alluringly over the silver sand dunes. The waves would still
• 7:13:56
  call from the red rock coves. But we will be gone, said Anne,
• 7:14:00
  through her tears. She went out, closing and locking the door behind
• 7:14:06
  her. Gilbert was waiting for her with a smile. The lighthouse star was
• 7:14:10
  gleaming northward. The little garden, where only Marigold still bloomed, was already
• 7:14:15
  hooding itself in shadows. Anne knelt down and kissed the worn old step which
• 7:14:21
  she had crossed as a bride. Good Bye, dear little House of Dreams,
• 7:14:25
  she said, end of chapter forty