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Anne of Avonlea · Anne of Avonlea

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  Dedication to my former teacher, Hattie Gordon Smith, in grateful remembrance of her
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  sympathy and encouragement. Flowers spring to blossom where she walks the careful ways of
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  duty. Our hard, stiff lines of life with her are flowing curves of
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  beauty. Wittier, Chapter one. An irate neighbor, a tall, slim
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  girl half past sixteen with serious gray eyes and hair which her friends called auburn,
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  had sat down on the broad red sandstone doorstep of a Prince Edward Island
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  farm house one ripe afternoon in August, firmly resolved to construe so many lines
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  of Virgil. But in August afternoon, with blue hazes scarfing the harvest slopes,
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  little winds whispering elfishly in the poplars, and a dancing splendor of red
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  poppies out flaming against the dark coppice of young firs in a corner of the
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  cherry orchard, was fitter for dreams than dead languages. The Virgil soon slipped
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  unheeded to and Anne, her chin propped on her clasped hands, and her
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  eyes on the splendid mass of fluffy clouds that were heaping up just over mister
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  J. A. Harrison's house, like a great white mountain, was far
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  away in a delicious world, where a certain school teacher was doing a wonderful
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  work shaping the destinies of future statesmen and inspiring youthful minds and hearts with high
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  and lofty ambitions. To be sure, if you came down to harsh facts,
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  which it must be confessed, Anne seldom did until she had to,
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  It did not seem likely that there was much promising material for celebrities in Avonleas
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  School. But you could never tell what might happen if a teacher used her
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  influence for good. Anne had certain rose tinted ideals of what a teacher might
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  accomplish if she only went the right way about it, And she was in
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  the midst of a delightful scene forty years hence, with a famous personage.
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  Just exactly what he was to be famous for was left in convenient haziness.
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  But Anne thought it would be rather nice to have him a college president or
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  Canadian premier, bowing low over her wrinkled hand and assuring her that it was
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  she who had first kindled his ambition, and that all his success in life
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  was due to the lessons she had instilled so long ago in Avonlea school.
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  This pleasant vision was shattered by a most unpleasant interruption. A demure little jersey
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  cow came scuttling down the lane, and five seconds later mister Harrison arrived.
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  If arrived be not too mild a term to describe the manner of his eruption
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  into the yard. He bounced over the fence without waiting to open the gate,
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  and angrily confronted astonished Anne, who had risen to her feet and stood
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  looking at him in some bewilderment. Mister Harrison was their new right hand neighbor,
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  and she had never met him before, although she had seen him once
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  or twice in early April, before Anne had come home from Queen's, mister
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  Robert Bell, whose farm had joined the Cuthbert Place on the west, had
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  sold out and moved to Charlottetown. His farm had been bought by a certain
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  mister J. A. Harrison, whose name and the fact that he was
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  a new brunswick Man for all that was known about him. But before he
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  had been a month in Avonlea, he had won the reputation of being an
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  odd person, a crank Missus Rachel Lynde said, Missus Rachel was an outspoken
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  lady. As those of you who may have already made her acquaintance will remember,
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  mister Harrison was certainly different from other people, and that is the essential
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  characteristic of a crank, as everybody knows. In the first place, he
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  kept house for himself and had publicly stated that he wanted no fools of women
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  around his diggings. Feminine Avonlea took its revenge by the gruesome tales it related
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  about his housekeeping and cooking. He had hired Little John Henry Carter of White
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  Sands, and John Henry started the stories. For one thing, there was
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  never any stated time for meals in the Harrison establishment. Mister Harrison got a
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  bite when he felt hungry, and if John Henry were around at the time,
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  he came in for a share, but if he were not, he
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  had to wait until mister Harrison's next hungry spell. John Henry mournfully averred that
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  he would have starved to death if it were that he got home on Sundays
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  and got a good filling up, and that his mother always gave him a
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  basket of grub to take back with him on Monday mornings. As for washing
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  dishes, mister Harrison never made any pretense of doing it unless a rainy Sunday
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  came. Then he went to work and washed them all at once in the
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  rainwater hogshead and left them to drain dry again. Mister Harrison was close.
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  When he was asked to subscribe to the Reverend mister Allen's salary, he said
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  he'd wait and see how many dollars worth of good he got out of his
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  preaching. First, he didn't believe in buying a pig and a poke.
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  And when Missus Lynde went to ask for a contribution to missions, and incidentally
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  to see the inside of the house, he told her there were more heathens
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  among the old women gossips in Avonlea than anywhere else he knew of, and
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  he'd cheerfully contribute to a mission for christianizing them if she'd undertake it. Missus
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  Rachel got herself away and said it was a mercy. Poor Missus Robert Bell
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  was safe in her grave, for it would have broken her heart to see
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  the state of her house, in which she used to take so much pride.
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  Why she scrubbed the kitchen floor every second day, Missus Lynde told Marilla
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  Cuthbert indignantly, and if you could see it now, I had to hold
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  up my skirts as I walked across it. Finally, mister Harrison kept a
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  parrot called Ginger. Nobody in Avonlea had ever kept a parrot before. Consequently,
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  that proceeding was considered barely respectable, and such a parrot, if you
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  took John Henry Carter's word for it, never was such an unholy bird,
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  it swore terribly. Missus Carter would have taken John Henry away at once if
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  she had been sure she could get another place for him. Besides, Ginger
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  had bitten a piece right out of the back of John Henry's neck one day
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  when he had stooped down too near the cage. Missus Carter showed everybody the
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  mark when the luckless John Henry went home on Sundays. All these things flashed
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  through Anne's mind as mister Harrison stood quite speechless, with Roth apparently before her
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  in his most amiable mood. Mister Harrison could not have been considered a handsome
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  man. He was short and fat and bald, and now with his round
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  face purple with rage, and his prominent blue eyes almost sticking out of his
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  head. Anne thought he was really the ugliest person she had ever seen.
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  All at once, mister Harrison found his voice. I'm not going to put
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  up with this, he spluttered. Not a day longer, do you hear,
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  Miss, bless my soul? This is a third time, Miss,
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  the third time patience has ceased to be a virtue. Miss. I warned
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  your aunt the last time not to let it occur again, and she's let
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  it. She's done it. What does she mean by it? That's what
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  I want to know. That is what I'm here about. Miss. Will
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  you explain what the trouble is? Asked Anne in her most dignified manner.
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  She had been practicing it considerably of late to have it in good working order
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  when school began, but it had no apparent effect on the irate J.
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  A. Harrison. Trouble is it, bless my soul? Trouble enough?
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  I should think. Trouble is Miss, that I've found that jersey cow of
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  your aunt's in my oats again, not half an hour ago, the third
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  time, mark you. I found her in last Tuesday, and I found
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  her in yesterday. I came here and told your aunt not to let it
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  occur again. She has let it occur again. Where's your aunt? Miss?
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  I just want to see her for a minute and give her a piece
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  of my mind, a piece of J. A. Harrison's mind. Miss
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  if you mean miss Marilla Cuthbert, She is not my aunt, and she
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  has gone down to East Grafton to see a distant relative of hers who is
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  very ill. Said Anne, with due increase of dignity at every word.
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  I am very sorry that my cow should have broken into your oats. She
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  is my cow and not miss Cuthbert's. Matthew gave her to me three years
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  ago when she was a little calf, and he bought her from mister Bell.
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  Sorry, Miss sorry isn't going to help matters. Ammy. You'd better
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  go and look at the havoc that animal has made in my oats, trampled
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  them from center to circumference. Miss I am very sorry, repeated Anne firmly.
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  But perhaps if you kept your fences in better repair, Dolly might not
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  have broken in. It is your part of the line fence that separates your
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  oat field from our pasture, and I noticed the other day that it was
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  not in very good condition. My fence is all right, snapped mister Harrison,
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  angrier than ever at this carrying of the war into the enemy's country.
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  The jail fence couldn't keep a even of a cow like that out. And
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  I can tell you, you, red headed snippet, that if that cow
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  is yours, as you say, you'd be better employed in watching her out
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  of other people's grain than in sitting round reading yellow covered novels with a scathing
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  glance of the innocent tan colored Virgil by Anne's feet. Something at that moment
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  was red, besides Anne's hair, which had always been a very tender point
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  with her. I'd rather have red hair than none at all, except a
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  little fringe round my ears, she flashed the shot told for mister Harrison was
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  really very sensitive about his bald head. His anger choked him up again,
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  and he could only glare speechlessly at Anne, who recovered her temper and followed
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  up her advantage. I can make allowance for you, mister Harrison, because
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  I have an imagination. I can easily imagine how very trying it must be
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  to find a cow in your oats. And I shall not cherish any hard
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  feelings against you for the things you've said, I promise you that Dolly shall
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  never break into your oats again. I give you my word of honor on
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  that point. Well, mind you. She doesn't, muttered mister Harrison in
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  a somewhat subdued tone, but he stamped off angrily enough, and Anne heard
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  him growling to himself until he was out of earshot. Grievously disturbed in mine,
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  Anne marched across the yard and shut the naughty jersey up in the milking
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  pen. She can't possibly get out of that unless she tears the fence down,
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  she reflected. She looks pretty quiet now, I dare say she has
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  sickened herself on those oats. I wish i'd sold her to mister Shearer when
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  he wanted her last week, but I thought it was just as well to
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  wait until we had the auction of the stock and let them all go together.
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  I believe it is true about mister Harrison being a crank. Certainly,
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  there's nothing of the kindred spirit about him. Anne had always a weather eye
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  open for kindred spirits. Marilla Cuthbert was driving into the yard as Anne returned
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  from the house, and the latter flew to get Tea ready. They discussed
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  the matter at the tea table. I'll be glad when the auction is over,
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  said Marilla. It is too much responsibility, having so much stock about
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  the place, and nobody but that unreliable Martin to look after them. He
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  has never come back yet, and he promised that he would certainly be back
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  last night if I'd give him the day off to go to his aunt's funeral.
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  I don't know how many aunts he has got. I am sure that's
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  the fourth that's died since he hired here a year ago. I'll be more
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  than thankful when the crop is in and mister Barry takes over the farm.
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  We'll have to keep Dolly shut up in the pen till Martin comes, for
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  she must be put back in the pasture, and the fences there have to
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  be fixed. I declare it is a world of trouble. As Rachel says,
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  here's poor Mary Keith dying, and what is to become of those two
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  children of hers is more than I know. She has a brother in British
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  Columbia, and she has written to him about them, but she hasn't heard
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  from him yet. What are the children like? How old are they six?
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  Past? They're twins? Oh, I've always been especially interested in twins,
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  ever since Missus Hammond had so many, said Anne eagerly. Are they
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  pretty goodness? You couldn't tell they were too dirty. Davy had been out
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  making mud pies, and Dora went out to call him in. Davy pushed
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  her head first into the biggest pie, and then because she cried, he
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  got into it himself and wallowed in it. To show her it was nothing
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  to cry about. Mary said, I was really a very good child,
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  but that Davy was full of mischief. He has never had any bringing up.
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  You might say his father died when he was a baby, and Mary
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  has been sick almost ever since. I'm always sorry for children that have no
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  bringing up, said Anne soberly. You know I hadn't any until you took
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  me in hand. I hope their uncle will look after them. Just what
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  relation is missus Keith to you, Mary, None in the world. It
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  was her husband. He was our third cousin. There's missus Lynde coming through
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  the yard. I thought she'd be up to hear about Mary. Don't tell
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  her about mister Harrison and the cow, implored Anne. Marilla promised, but
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  the promise was quite unnecessary. For missus Lynde was no sooner fairly seated than
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  she said. I saw mister Harrison chasing your jersey out of his oats to
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  day when I was coming home from Carmody. I thought you looked pretty mad.
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  Did he make much of a rumpus? Anne and Marilla furtively exchanged amused
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  smiles. Few things an Avonlea ever escaped missus Lynde. It was only that
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  morning. Anne had said, if you went to your own room at midnight,
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  locked the door, pulled down the blind, and sneezed, missus Lynde
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  would ask you the next day how your cold was. I believe he did,
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  admitted Marilla. I was away, he gave Anne a piece of his
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  mind. I think he is a very disagreeable man, said Anne, with
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  a resentful toss of her ruddy head. You never said a truer word,
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  said missus Rachel solemnly. I knew there'd be trouble when Robert Bell sold his
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  place to a new Brunswick man. That's what I don't know what Avonlea is
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  coming to. With so many strange people rushing into it, it'll soon not
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  be safe to go to sleep in our beds. Why what other strangers are
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  coming in, asked Marilla. Have you heard, Well, there's a family
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  of Donnell's. For one thing, they've rented Peter Sloane's old house. Peter
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  has hired the man to run his mill. They belong down east and nobody
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  knows anything about them. Then that shiftless Timothy Cotton family are going to move
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  up from White Sands and they'll simply be a burden on the public. He
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  is in consumption when he isn't stealing, and his wife is a slack twisted
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  creature that can't turn her hand to a thing. She watches her dishes sitting
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  down. Missus George Pye has taken her husband's orphan nephew, Anthony Pye.
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  He'll be going to school to you, Anne, so you may expect trouble,
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  that's what. And you'll have another strange pupil too. Paul Irving is
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  coming from the States to live with his grandmother. You remember his father,
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  Marilla, Stephen Irving him that jilted Lavender Lewis over at Grafton. I don't
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  think he jilted her. There was a quarrel. I suppose there was blame
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  on both sides. Well, anyway, he didn't marry her, and she's
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  been as queer as possible ever since, they say, living all by herself
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  in that little stone house she calls Echo Lodge. Stephen went off to the
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  States and went into business with his uncle and married a Yankee. He's never
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  been home since, though his mother has been up to see him once or
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  twice. His wife died two years ago, and he's sending the boy home
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  to his mother for a spell. He's ten years old, and I don't
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  know if he'll be a very desirable pupil. You can never tell about those
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  Yankees. Missus Lynde looked upon all people who had the misfortune to be born
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  or brought up elsewhere than in Prince Edward Island with a decided can any good
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  thing come out of Nazareth air? They might be good people, of course,
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  but you were on the safe side in doubting it. She had a
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  special prejudice against Yankees. Her husband had been cheated out of ten dollars by
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  an employer for whom he had once worked in Boston, and neither angels,
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  nor principalities, nor powers could have convinced Missus Rachel that the whole United States
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  was not responsible for it. Avonlea school won't be the worse for a little
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  new blood, said Marilla dryly. And if this boy is anything like his
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  father, he'll be all right. Steve Irving was the nicest boy that was
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  ever raised in these parts, though some people did call him proud. I
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  should think Missus Irving would be very glad to have the child. She has
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  been very lonesome since her husband died. Oh the boy may be well enough,
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  but he'll be different from Avonlea children, said Missus Rachel, as if
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  that clinched the matter. Missus Rachel's opinions concerning any person, place, or
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  thing were always warranted to wear. What's this I hear about your going to
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  start up a village improvement society? Anne, I was just talking it over
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  with some of the girls and boys at the last debating club, said Anne,
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  flushing. They thought it would be rather nice, And so do mister
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  and missus Allen. Lots of villages have them. Now. Well, you'll
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  get into no end of hot water if you do. Better leave it alone,
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  Anne, that's what people don't like, being improved. Oh, we're
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  not going to try and improve the people. It is Avonlea itself. There
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  are lots of things which might be done to make it prettier. For instance,
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  if we could coax mister Levi Bolter to pull down that dreadful old house
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  on his upper farm, wouldn't that be an improvement? It certainly would,
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  admitted Missus Rachel, that old ruin has been an eyesore to the settlement for
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  years. But if you improvers can coax Levi Bolter to do anything for the
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  public that he isn't to be paid for doing, may I be there to
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  see and hear the process. That's what. I don't want to discourage you,
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  Anne, but there may be something in your idea, though I suppose
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  you did get it out of some rubbishy Yankee magazine. But you'll have your
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  hands full with your school, and I advise you as a friend not to
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  bother with your improvements. That's what. But there I know you'll go ahead
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  with it if you've set your mind on it. You were always one to
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  carry a thing through. Somehow, Something about the firm outlines of Anne's lips
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  told that Missus Rachel was not far astray in this estimate. Anne's heart was
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  bent on forming the Improvement Society. Gilbert Blythe who was to teach him White
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  Sands but would always be home from Friday night to Monday morning, was enthusiastic
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  about it, and most of the other folks were willing to go in for
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  anything that meant occasional meetings and consequently some fun. As for what the improvements
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  were to be, nobody had any very clear idea except Anne and Gilbert.
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  They had talked them over and planned them out until an ideal Avonlea, existed
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  in their minds. If nowhere else, Missus Rachel had still another item of
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  news. They've given the Carmody School to a Priscilla Grant. Didn't you go
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  to Queen's with a girl of that name? Anne? Yes, indeed Priscilla
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  to teach it Carmody. How perfectly lovely, exclaimed Anne, her gray eyes
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  lighting up until they looked like evening stars, causing missus Lynde to wonder renew
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  if she would ever get it settled to her satisfaction whether Anne Shirley were really
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  a pretty girl or not. End of chapter one two. Selling in haste
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  and repenting at leisure, Anne drove over to Carmody on a shopping expedition the
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  next afternoon, and took Diana Barry with her. Diana was, of course
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  a pledged member of the Improvement Society, and the two girls talked about little
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  else all the way to Carmody and back. The very first thing we ought
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  to do when we get started is to have that hall painted, said Diana
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  as they drove past the Avonlea Hall, a rather shabby building set down in
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  a wooded hollow, with spruce trees hooding it about on all sides. It's
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  a disgraceful looking place, and we must attend to it, even before we
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  try to get mister Levi Bolter to pull his house down. Father says,
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  we'll never succeed in doing that. Levi Bolter is too mean to spend the
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  time it would take. Perhaps you'll let the boys take it down if they
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  promised to haul the boards and split them up for him for kindlingwood, said
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  Anne. Hopefully, we must do our best and be content to go slowly
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  at first. We can't expect to improve everything all at once. We'll have
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  to educate public sentiments first. Of course, Diana wasn't exactly sure what educating
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  public sentiment meant, but it sounded fine, and she felt rather proud that
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  she was going to belong to a society with such an aim in view.
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  I thought of something last night that we could do. Anne. You know
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  that three cornered piece of ground where the roads from Carmody and Newbridge and White
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  Sands meet. It's all grown over with young spruce. But wouldn't it be
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  nice to have them all cleared out and just leave the two or three birch
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  trees that are on it splendid, agreed Anne gaily, and have a rustic
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  seat put under the birches, and when spring comes we'll have a flower bed
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  made in the middle of it and plant geraniums. Yes, only we'll have
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  to devise some way of getting old missus Hiram Sloane to keep her cow off
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  the road, or she'll eat our geraniums up, laughed Diana. I begin
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  to see what you mean by educating public sentiment. Anne. There's the old
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  bolter house. Now. Did you ever see such a rookery and perched right
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  close to the road too? An old house with its windows gone always makes
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  me think of something dead with its eyes picked out. I think an old
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  deserted house is such a sad sight, said Anne dreamily. It always seems
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  to me to be thinking about its past and mourning for its old time joys.
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  Marilla says that a large family was raised in that old house long ago,
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  and that it was a real pretty place, with a lovely garden and
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  roses climbing all over it. It was full of little children and laughter and
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  songs. And now it is empty, and nothing ever wanders through it but
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  the wind. How lonely and sorrowful it must feel. Perhaps they all come
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  back on moonlit nights, the ghosts of the little children of long ago,
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  and the roses and the songs, and for a little while the old house
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  can dream it is young and joyous again. Diana shook her head. I
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  never imagine things like that about places now, Anne, don't you remember how
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  cross mother and Marilla were when we imagined ghosts into the haunted wood. To
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  this day, I can't go through that bush comfortably after dark. And if
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  I began imagining such things about the old Bolture House, I'd be frightened to
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  pass it too. Besides, the children aren't dead. They're all grown up
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  and doing well, and one of them is a butcher, and flowers and
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  songs couldn't have ghosts anyhow, Anne smothered a little sigh. She loved Diana
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  dearly, and they had always been good comrades. But she had long ago
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  learned that when she wandered into the realm of fancy, she must go alone.
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  The way to it was by an enchanted path, where not even her
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  dearest might follow her. A thunder shower came up while the girls were at
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  Carmody. It did not last long, however, and the drive home through
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  lanes where the rain drops sparkled on the boughs, and leafy little valleys where
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  the drenched ferns gave out spicy odors, was delightful. But just as they
• 20:36
  turned into the Cuthbert Lane, Anne saw something that spoiled the beauty of the
• 20:40
  landscape for her. Before them, on the right extended mister Harrison's broad gray
• 20:45
  green feel of late oats, wet and luxuriant, and there, standing squarely
• 20:51
  in the middle of it, up to her sleek sides in the lush growth,
• 20:53
  and blinking at them calmly over the intervening tassels, was a jersey cow,
• 20:59
  and dropped the reins and stood up with a tightening of the lips that
• 21:02
  boded no good to the predatory quadruped. Not a word, said she,
• 21:06
  but she climbed nimbly down over the wheels and whisked across the fence. Before
• 21:10
  Diana understood what had happened, Anne come back, shrieked the latter as soon
• 21:15
  as she found her voice. You'll ruin your dress in that wet grain,
• 21:18
  ruin it. She doesn't hear me. Well, she'll never get that cow
• 21:22
  out by herself. I must go and help her. Of course, Anne
• 21:25
  was charging through the grain like a mad thing. Diana hopped briskly down,
• 21:29
  tied the horse securely to a post, turned the skirt of her pretty gingham
• 21:32
  dress over her shoulders, mounted the fence, and started in pursuit of her
• 21:36
  frantic friend. She could run faster than Anne, who was hampered by her
• 21:40
  clinging and drenched skirt, and soon overtook her. Behind them, they left
• 21:44
  a trail that would break mister Harrison's heart when he should see it. And
• 21:48
  for Mercy's sake, stop, panted Diana. I'm right out of breath,
• 21:52
  and you are wet to the skin. I must get that cow out before
• 21:56
  mister Harrison seize her. Gasped Anne, I don't care if I'm drowned,
• 22:02
  if we can only do that. But the Jersey cow appeared to see no
• 22:07
  good reason for being hustled out of her luscious browsing ground. No sooner had
• 22:11
  the two breathless girls got near her than she turned and bolted squarely for the
• 22:15
  opposite corner of the field. Had her off, screamed Anne, run,
• 22:18
  Diana run. Diana did run. Anne tried to, and the wicked Jersey
• 22:22
  went round the field as if she were possessed privately. Diana thought she was.
• 22:27
  It was fully ten minutes before they headed her off and drove her through
• 22:32
  the corner gap into the Cuthbert Lane. There is no denying that Anne was
• 22:36
  in anything but an angelic temper at that precise moment, nor did it soothe
• 22:40
  her in the least to behold a buggy halted just outside the lane, wherein
• 22:42
  sat mister Shearer of Carmody and his son, both of whom wore a broad
• 22:47
  smile. I guess you'd better have sold me that cow when I wanted to
• 22:51
  buy her last week, Anne chuckled, mister Shearer. I'll sell her to
• 22:53
  you now if you want her, said her, flushed and disheveled owner.
• 22:56
  You may have her this very minute done. I'll give you twenty for her
• 23:00
  as I offered before, and Jim here can drive her right over to Carmody.
• 23:03
  She'll go to town with the rest of the shipman this evening, mister
• 23:07
  Reed of Brighton want the Jersey cow. Five minutes later, Jim Shearer and
• 23:11
  the Jersey Cow were marching up the road, and impulsive Anne was driving along
• 23:15
  the green Gables Lane with her twenty dollars. What will Marilla say, asked
• 23:18
  Diana. Oh, she won't care. Dolly was my own cow, and
• 23:22
  it isn't likely she'd bring more than twenty dollars to the auction. But oh
• 23:26
  dear, if mister Harrison sees sat grain, he will know she has been
• 23:29
  in again. And after my giving him my word of honor that I'd never
• 23:32
  let it happen, Well, it has taught me a lesson not to give
• 23:34
  my word of honor about cows. A cow that could jump over or break
• 23:38
  through our milk pen fence couldn't be trusted anywhere. Marilla had gone down to
• 23:44
  missus Lynde's, and when she returned knew all about Dolly's sale and transfer for
• 23:48
  Missus Lynde had seen most of the transaction from her window and guessed the rest.
• 23:52
  I suppose it's just as well she's gone, though you do do things
• 23:56
  in a dreadful, headlong fashion. Anne, I don't see how she got
• 23:59
  out of a pet though she must have broken some of the boards off.
• 24:03
  I didn't think of looking, said Anne, but I'll go and see now.
• 24:06
  Martin has never come back yet. Perhaps some more of his aunts have
• 24:10
  died. I think it's something like mister Peter Sloane and the octogenarians. The
• 24:14
  other evening, Missus Sloane was reading a newspaper and she said to mister Sloane,
• 24:18
  I see here that another octogenarian has just died. What is an octogenarian
• 24:22
  Peter? And mister Sloane said he didn't know, but they must be very
• 24:25
  sickly creatures, for you never heard tell of them, but they were dying.
• 24:27
  That's the way with Martin's aunts. Martin's just like the rest of those
• 24:32
  French, said Marilla in disgust. You can't depend on them for a day.
• 24:37
  Marilla was looking over Anne's carmody purchases when she heard a shrill shriek in
• 24:41
  the barnyard. A minute later, Anne dashed into the kitchen, wringing her
• 24:45
  hands. Anne, Shirley, what's the matter now, oh Marilla? Whatever
• 24:48
  shall I do? This is terrible and it's all my fault. Oh well,
• 24:52
  I ever learn to stop and reflect a little before doing reckless things.
• 24:56
  Missus Lynde always told me I would do something dreadful some day, and now
• 25:00
  I've done it. Anne, you are the most exasperating girl. What is
• 25:04
  it you've done? Sold mister Harrison's jersey cow, the one he bought from
• 25:08
  mister Bell to mister Shearer. Dolly's out in the milking pen this very minute,
• 25:15
  Anne Shirley, are you dreaming? I only wish I were. There's
• 25:18
  no dream about it, though. It's very like a nightmare. And mister
• 25:22
  Harrison's cow is in Charlottetown by this time, Oh Marilla. I thought I'd
• 25:26
  finished getting into scrapes, and here I am, and the very worst one
• 25:29
  I ever was in my life. What can I do do? There's nothing
• 25:33
  to do, child, except go and see mister Harrison about it. We
• 25:37
  can offer him our jersey in exchange. If he doesn't want to take the
• 25:41
  money. She's just as good as his I'm sure he'll be awfully cross and
• 25:44
  disagreeable about it, though, moaned Anne. I dare say he will.
• 25:48
  He seems to be an irritable sort of a man. I'll go and explain
• 25:52
  to him if you like. No, indeed, I'm not as mean as
• 25:55
  that, exclaimed Anne. This is all my fault, and I'm certainly not
• 25:59
  going to let you take my punishment. I'll go myself, and i'll go
• 26:02
  at once. The sooner it's over, the better, for it will be
• 26:04
  terribly humiliating. Poor Anne got her hat and her twenty dollars and was passing
• 26:10
  out when she happened to glance through the open pantry door. On the table
• 26:12
  reposed a nut cake which he had baked that morning, a particularly toothsome concoction,
• 26:18
  iced with pink icing and adorned with walnuts. Anne had intended it for
• 26:22
  Friday evening, when the youth of Avonlea were to meet at Green Gables to
• 26:25
  organize the Improvement Society. But what were they compared to the justly offended mister
• 26:30
  Harrison. Anne thought that cake ought to soften the heart of any man,
• 26:33
  especially one who had to do his own cooking, and she promptly popped it
• 26:37
  into a box. She would take it to mister Harrison as a peace offering,
• 26:41
  that is, if he gives me a chance to say anything at all,
• 26:42
  she thought ruefully as she climbed the lane fence and started on a short
• 26:45
  cut across the fields golden in the light of the dreamy August evening. I
• 26:51
  know now just how people feel who are being led to execution. End of
• 26:56
  chapter two, Chapter three, Mister Harrison at home. Mister Harrison's house was
• 27:03
  an old fashioned, low eaved, whitewashed structure set against a thick spruce grove.
• 27:08
  Mister Harrison himself was sitting on his vine shaded veranda in his shirt sleeves,
• 27:12
  enjoying his evening pipe when he realized who was coming up the path.
• 27:17
  He sprang suddenly to his feet, bolted into the house, and shut the
• 27:19
  door. This was merely the uncomfortable result of his surprise. Mingled with a
• 27:25
  good deal of shame over his outburst of temper the day before, but it
• 27:29
  nearly swept the remnant of her courage from Anne's heart. If he's so crossed
• 27:33
  now, what will he be when he hears what I've done? She reflected
• 27:36
  miserably. As she rapped on the door, but mister Harrison opened it,
• 27:40
  smiling sheepishly, and invited her to enter in a tone quite mild and friendly,
• 27:44
  if somewhat nervous. He had laid aside his pipe and donned his coat.
• 27:48
  He offered Anne a very dusty chair, very politely, and her reception
• 27:52
  would have passed off pleasantly enough if it had not been for the tell tale
• 27:56
  of a parrot who was peering through the bars of his cage with wicked golden
• 27:59
  eyes. No sooner had Anne seated herself than Ginger exclaimed, bless my soul,
• 28:03
  what's that red headed snippet coming here? For it would be hard to
• 28:07
  say whose face was the redder, mister Harrison's or Anne's. Don't you mind
• 28:11
  that parrot, said mister Harrison, casting a furious glance at Ginger. He's
• 28:15
  he's always talking nonsense. I got him from my brother, who was a
• 28:19
  sailor. Sailors don't always use the choicest language, and parrots are very imitative
• 28:23
  birds, so I should think, said poor Anne, the remembrance of her
• 28:27
  errand quelling her resentment. She couldn't afford to snub mister Harrison under the circumstances.
• 28:33
  That was certain. When you had just sold a man's jersey cow off
• 28:37
  hand, without his knowledge or consent, you must not mind if his parrot
• 28:41
  repeated uncomplimentary things. Nevertheless, the red headed snippet was not quite so meek
• 28:45
  as she might otherwise have been. I've come to confess something to you,
• 28:49
  mister Harrison, she said resolutely. It's it's about that jersey cow. Bless
• 28:56
  my soul, exclaimed mister Harrison nervously. Has she gone and broken into my
• 28:59
  oats again? Well, never mind, never mind if she has, it's
• 29:03
  no difference, none at all. I I I was too hasty yesterday.
• 29:06
  That's a fact. Never mind if she has. Oh if there were only
• 29:10
  that, sighed Anne, But it's ten times worse. I don't bless my
• 29:15
  soul. Do you mean to say she's gotten to my wheat? No?
• 29:18
  No, no, not the wheat. But then it's the cabbages. She's
• 29:21
  broken into my cabbages that I was raising for exhibition. Eh, it's not
• 29:23
  the cabbages, mister Harrison. I'll tell you everything. That is what I
• 29:27
  came for. But please don't interrupt me. It makes me so nervous.
• 29:32
  Just let me tell my story, and don't say anything till I get through,
• 29:34
  and then no doubt you'll say plenty, Anne concluded. But in thought
• 29:37
  only, I won't say another word, said mister Harrison, and he didn't.
• 29:42
  But Ginger was not bound by any contract of silence and kept ejaculating Red
• 29:45
  Headed Snippet at intervals until Anne felt quite wild. I shut my jersey cow
• 29:52
  up in our pen yesterday. This morning, I went to Carmody, and
• 29:55
  when I came back, I saw jersey cow in your oats, Diana,
• 29:57
  and I chased her out. And you can't imagine what a hard time we
• 30:00
  had. I was so dreadfully wet and tired and vexed. And mister Shearer
• 30:06
  came by that very minute and offered to buy the cow. I sold her
• 30:08
  to him on the spot for twenty dollars. It was wrong of me.
• 30:11
  I should have waited and consulted Marilla, of course, but I'm dreadfully given
• 30:15
  to doing things without thinking. Everybody who knows me will tell you that mister
• 30:19
  Shearer took the cow right away to ship her on the afternoon train. Redheaded
• 30:23
  Snippet quoted Ginger in a tone of profound contempt. At this point mister Harrison
• 30:29
  arose, and, with an expression that would have struck terror into any bird
• 30:32
  but a parrot, carried Ginger's cage into an adjoining room and shut the door.
• 30:36
  Ginger shrieked, swore, and otherwise conducted himself in keeping with his reputation,
• 30:40
  but finding himself left alone, relapsed into sulky silence. Excuse me,
• 30:45
  and go on, said mister Harrison, sitting down again. My brother,
• 30:48
  the sailor, never taught that bird any manners. I went home, and
• 30:52
  after tea, I went out to the milking pen. Mister Harrison. Anne
• 30:56
  leaned forward, clasping her hands with her old childish gesture. Her big gray
• 31:00
  eyes gazed imploringly into mister Harrison's embarrassed face. I've found my cow still shut
• 31:06
  up in the pen. It was your cow I had sold to mister Shearer.
• 31:10
  Bless my soul, exclaimed mister Harrison, in blank amazement at this unlooked
• 31:14
  for conclusion. What a very extraordinary thing. Oh, it isn't in the
• 31:18
  least extraordinary that I should be getting myself and other people into scrapes, said
• 31:22
  Anne mournfully. I'm noted for that. You might suppose i'd have grown out
• 31:26
  of it by this time. I'll be seventeen next March, but it seems
• 31:30
  that I haven't. Mister Harrison, isn't too much to hope that you'll forgive
• 31:33
  me. I'm afraid it's too late to get your cow back, but here's
• 31:37
  the money for her, or you can have mine in exchange if you'd rather.
• 31:41
  She's a very good cow, and I can't express how sorry I am
• 31:44
  for it all. Tut tut, said mister Harrison, briskly. Don't say
• 31:48
  another word about it. Miss. It's no consequence, no consequence, whatever
• 31:51
  accidents will happen. I'm too hasty myself sometimes, Miss, far too hasty,
• 31:56
  but I can't help speaking out just what I think, and folks must
• 31:59
  take me as they find me. If that cow had been in my cabbages
• 32:01
  now, but never mind, she wasn't, so it's all right. I
• 32:05
  think i'd rather have your cow in exchange, since you want to be rid
• 32:07
  of her. Oh, thank you, mister Harrison. I'm so glad you
• 32:09
  are not vexed. I was afraid you would be. Aunt. I suppose
• 32:14
  you were scared to death to come here and tell me after the fuss I
• 32:15
  made yesterday. Eh, But you mustn't mind me. I'm a terrible outspoken
• 32:20
  old fellow. That's all awful app to tell the truth, no matter if
• 32:23
  it's a bit plain. So is Missus Lynde, said Anne, before she
• 32:27
  could prevent herself. Who, Missus Lynde, don't you tell me I'm like
• 32:30
  that old gossip, said mister Harrison irritably. I'm not not a bit.
• 32:35
  What have you got in that box? A cake? Said Anne archly.
• 32:39
  In her relief at mister Harrison's unexpected amiability, her spirits soared upward feather light.
• 32:45
  I brought it over for you. I thought perhaps you didn't have cake
• 32:47
  very often. I don't. That's a fact, and I'm mighty fond of
• 32:51
  it too. I'm much obliged to you. It looks good on top.
• 32:53
  I hope it's good all the way through it is, said Anne gaily,
• 32:58
  confident. I have made cakes in my time that were not as Missus Allan
• 33:01
  could tell you. But this one is all right. I made it for
• 33:04
  the Improvement Society, but I can make another for them. Well, I'll
• 33:07
  tell you what, miss you must help me eat it. I'll put the
• 33:09
  kettle on and we'll have a cup of tea. How will that do?
• 33:13
  Will you let me make the tea, said Anne dubiously. Mister Harrison chuckled,
• 33:17
  I see you haven't much confidence in my ability to make tea. You're
• 33:21
  wrong. I can brew up as good a drm of tea as you ever
• 33:22
  drank. But go ahead yourself. Fortunately it rained last Sunday, so there's
• 33:27
  plenty of clean dishes. Anne hopped briskly up and went to work. She
• 33:31
  washed the tea pot in several waters before she put the tea to steep.
• 33:35
  Then she swept the stove and set the table, bringing the dishes out of
• 33:37
  the pantry. The state of that pantry horrified Anne, but she wisely said
• 33:42
  nothing. Mister Harrison told her where to find the bread and butter and a
• 33:45
  can of peaches. Anne adorned the table with a bouquet from the garden and
• 33:50
  shut her eyes to the stains on the tablecloth. Soon the tea was ready,
• 33:52
  and Anne found herself sitting opposite mister Harrison at his own table, pouring
• 33:57
  his tea for him and chatting freely to him about her school and friends and
• 34:00
  plans. She could hardly believe the evidence of her senses. Mister Harrison had
• 34:06
  brought ginger back, averring that the poor bird would be lonesome, and Anne,
• 34:08
  feeling that she could forgive everybody and everything, offered him a walnut.
• 34:13
  But Ginger's feelings had been grievously hurt, and he rejected all overtures of friendship.
• 34:17
  He sat moodily on his perch and ruffled his feathers up until he looked
• 34:21
  like a mere ball of green and gold. Why do you call him?
• 34:23
  Ginger, asked Anne, who liked appropriate names, and thought Ginger recorded not
• 34:28
  at all with such gorgeous plumage. My brother, the sailor named him.
• 34:31
  Maybe it had some reference to his temper. I think a lot of that
• 34:35
  bird, though you'd be surprised if you knew how much he has his faults.
• 34:38
  Of course, that bird has cost me a good deal one way and
• 34:40
  another. Some people object to his swearing habits, but he can't be broken
• 34:45
  of them. I've tried, Other people have tried. Some folks have prejudices
• 34:49
  against parrots, silly ated I like them myself. Ginger's a lot of company
• 34:53
  to me. Nothing would induce me to give that bird up. Nothing in
• 34:57
  the world. Miss mister Harrison flung the lasts sentence at Anne as explosively,
• 35:00
  as if he suspected her of some latent design of persuading him to give ginger
• 35:05
  up. Anne, however, was beginning to like the queer, fussy,
• 35:07
  fidgety little man, and before the meal was over they were quite good friends.
• 35:12
  Mister Harrison found out about the Improvement Society and was disposed to approve of
• 35:15
  it. That's right, go ahead. There's lots of room for improvement in
• 35:20
  this settlement and in the people too. Oh, I don't know, flashed
• 35:23
  Anne to herself or to her particular crony. She might admit that there were
• 35:27
  some small imperfections easily removable in Avonlea and its inhabitants. But to hear a
• 35:32
  practical outsider like mister Harrison's saying it was an entirely different thing. I think
• 35:37
  Avonlea is a lovely place, and the people in it are very nice too.
• 35:40
  I guess you've got a spice of temper, commented mister Harrison, surveying
• 35:45
  the flushed cheeks and indignant eyes opposite him. It goes with hair like yours.
• 35:49
  I reckon Avonlea is a pretty decent place, or I wouldn't have located
• 35:52
  here. But I suppose even you will admit it has some faults. I
• 35:57
  like it all the better for them, said loyal Anne. I don't like
• 36:00
  places or people either that haven't any faults. I think a truly perfect person
• 36:04
  would be very uninteresting. Missus Milton White says she never met a perfect person,
• 36:07
  but she's heard enough about one her husband's first wife. Don't you think
• 36:12
  it must be very uncomfortable to be married to a man whose first wife was
• 36:15
  perfect. It would be more uncomfortable to be married to the perfect wife,
• 36:19
  declared mister Harrison, with a sudden and inexplicable warmth. When tea was over,
• 36:23
  Anne insisted on washing the dishes, although mister Harrison assured her that there
• 36:28
  were enough in the house to do for weeks. Yet she would dearly have
• 36:30
  loved to sweep the floor also, but no broom was visible, and she
• 36:34
  did not like to ask where it was, for fear there wasn't one at
• 36:37
  all. You might run across and talk to me once in a while,
• 36:39
  suggested mister Harrison when she was leaving. Tisn't far and folks ought to be
• 36:44
  neighborly. I'm kind of interested in that society of yours seems to me,
• 36:47
  there'll be some fun in it. Who are you going to tackle first?
• 36:51
  We are not going to meddle with people. It is only places we mean
• 36:53
  to improve, said Anne in a dignified tone. She rather suspected that mister
• 36:58
  Harrison was making fun of the prize. When she had gone, mister Harrison
• 37:01
  watched her from the window, a life girlish shape tripping light heartedly across the
• 37:06
  fields in the sunset afterglow. I'm a crusty, lonesome, crabbed old chap,
• 37:12
  he said aloud. But there's something about that little girl makes me feel
• 37:15
  young again, and it's such a pleasant sensation I'd like to have it repeated
• 37:19
  once in a while. Red headed snippet croaked ginger mockingly. Mister Harrison shook
• 37:23
  his fist at the parrot. You ornery bird, he muttered, I almost
• 37:28
  wish I'd wrung your neck when my brother, the sailor, brought you home.
• 37:30
  Will you never be done getting me into trouble? Anne ran home blithely
• 37:35
  and recounted her adventures to Marilla, who had not been a little alarmed by
• 37:38
  her long absence and was on the point of starting out to look for her.
• 37:42
  It's a pretty good world after all, isn't it, Marilla concluded Anne
• 37:45
  Happily missus Lynde was complaining the other day that it wasn't much of a world.
• 37:50
  She said, whenever you looked forward to anything pleasant, you were sure
• 37:52
  to be more or less disappointed. Perhaps that is true, but there is
• 37:55
  a good side to it too. The bad things don't always come up to
• 37:59
  your expectation either. They nearly always turn out ever so much better than you
• 38:02
  think. I looked forward to a dreadfully unpleasant experience when I went over to
• 38:07
  mister Harrison's to night, and instead he was quite kind and I almost had
• 38:10
  a nice time. I think we're going to be real good friends if we
• 38:14
  make plenty of allowances for each other. And everything has turned out for the
• 38:16
  best. But all the same, Marilla, I shall certainly never again sell
• 38:21
  a cow before making sure to whom she belongs. And I do not like
• 38:24
  parrots. End of Chapter three, Chapter four, different opinions. One evening,
• 38:32
  at sunset, Jane Andrews, Gilbert Blyfe, and Anne Shirley were lingering
• 38:37
  by a fence in the shadow of gently swaying spruce boughs, where a wood
• 38:40
  cut known as the Birch Path joined the main road. Jane had been up
• 38:45
  to spend the afternoon with Anne, who walked part of the way home with
• 38:49
  her. At the fence, they met Gilbert and all three were now talking
• 38:52
  about the fateful morrow, for that morrow was the first of September and the
• 38:55
  schools would open. Jane would go to Newbridge and Gilbert to White. You
• 39:00
  both have the advantage of me, sighed Anne. You're going to teach children
• 39:05
  who don't know you. But I have to teach my own old schoolmates.
• 39:07
  And missus Lynde says she's afraid they won't respect me as they would a stranger
• 39:12
  unless I'm very cross from the first. But I don't believe a teacher should
• 39:15
  be cross. Oh, it seems to me such a responsibility. I guess
• 39:20
  we'll get on all right, said Jane comfortably. Jane was not troubled by
• 39:23
  any aspirations to be an influence for good. She meant to earn her salary
• 39:28
  fairly, please the trustees, and get her name on the school inspector's roll
• 39:31
  of honor. Further ambitions, Jane had none. The main thing will be
• 39:36
  to keep order, and a teacher has to be a little cross to do
• 39:37
  that. If my pupils won't do as I tell them, I shall punish
• 39:42
  them. How give them a good whipping? Of course, Oh, Jane,
• 39:45
  you wouldn't, cried Anne shocked. Jane, you couldn't. Indeed I
• 39:50
  could and would if they deserved it, said Jane, decidedly. I could
• 39:53
  never whip a child, said Anne, with equal decision. I don't believe
• 39:58
  in it at all, Miss Dan, he never whipped any of us,
• 40:00
  since she had perfect order, and mister Phillips was always whipping, and he
• 40:04
  had no order at all. No, if I can't get along without whipping,
• 40:07
  I shall not try to teach school. There are better ways of managing.
• 40:12
  I shall try to win my pupils affections, and then they will want
• 40:14
  to do what I tell them. But suppose they don't, said practical Jane,
• 40:19
  I wouldn't whip them anyhow. I'm sure it wouldn't do any good.
• 40:22
  Oh, don't whip your pupils, Jane, dear, no matter what they
• 40:24
  do. What do you think about it? Gilbert demanded Jane. Don't you
• 40:28
  think there are some children who really need a whipping? Now? And then?
• 40:31
  Don't you think it's a cruel, barbarous thing to whip a child,
• 40:34
  any child, exclaimed Anne, her face flushing with earnestness. Well, said
• 40:39
  Gilbert, slowly torn between his real convictions and his wish to measure up to
• 40:45
  Anne's ideal. There's something to be said on both sides. I don't believe
• 40:50
  in whipping children much. I think, as you say, Anne, that
• 40:53
  there are better ways of managing as a rule, and that corporal punishment should
• 40:57
  be a last resort. But on the other hand, as Jane says,
• 41:00
  I believe there is an occasional child who can't be influenced in any other way,
• 41:05
  and who in short needs a whipping and would be improved by it.
• 41:07
  Corporal punishment is a last resort, is to be my rule. Gilbert,
• 41:12
  having tried to please both sides, succeeded, as is usual and eminently right
• 41:16
  in pleasing neither. Jane tossed her head. I'll whip my pupils when they're
• 41:21
  naughty. It's the shortest and easiest way of convincing them. Anne gave Gilbert
• 41:24
  a disappointed glance. I shall never whip a child, she repeated firmly.
• 41:30
  I feel sure it isn't either right or necessary. Suppose a boy sauce you
• 41:35
  back when you told him to do something, said Jane. I'd keep him
• 41:37
  in after school and talk kindly and firmly to him, said Anne. There
• 41:40
  is some good in every person, if you can find it. It is
• 41:44
  a teacher's duty to find and develop it. That is what our school management
• 41:47
  professor at Queen's told us. You know, do you suppose you could find
• 41:51
  any good in a child by whipping him. It's far more important to influence
• 41:54
  the children, aright, than it is even to teach them, the three
• 41:57
  R's professor, Rennie says. But the inspector examines them in the three hours,
• 42:01
  mind you, and he won't give you a good report if they don't
• 42:04
  come up to his standard, protested Jane. I'd rather have my pupils love
• 42:07
  me and look back to me in after years as a real helper than be
• 42:10
  on the roll of honor, asserted Anne. Decidedly. Wouldn't you punish children
• 42:15
  at all when they misbehaved? Asked Gilbert. Oh, yes, I suppose
• 42:20
  I shall have to, although I know I'll hate to do it. But
• 42:22
  you can keep them in at recess, or stand them on the floor,
• 42:25
  or give them lines to write. I suppose you won't punish the girls by
• 42:29
  making them sit with the boys, said Jane slyly. Gilbert and Anne looked
• 42:34
  at each other and smiled rather foolishly. Once upon a time Anne had been
• 42:37
  made to sit with Gilbert for punishment, and sad and bitter had been the
• 42:40
  consequences thereof Well, time will tell which way's the best, said Jane philosophically.
• 42:45
  As they parted. Anne went back to Green Gables by way of birch
• 42:51
  path, shadowy, rustling fern scented through violet veil, and past Willowmere,
• 42:55
  where a darkened light kissed each other under the furs, and down through loverane
• 43:00
  spots she and Diana had so named long ago. She walked slowly, enjoying
• 43:05
  the sweetness of wood and field and the starry summer twilight, and thinking soberly
• 43:09
  about the new duties she was to take up on the morrow. When she
• 43:14
  reached the yard at Green Gables, Missus Lynde's loud, decided tones floated out
• 43:17
  through the open kitchen window. Missus Lynde has come up to give me good
• 43:22
  advice about tomorrow, thought Anne, with a grimace. But I don't believe
• 43:25
  I'll go in her advice is much like Pepper, I think excellent in small
• 43:30
  quantities, but rather scorting in her doses. I'll run over and have a
• 43:34
  chat with mister Harrison instead. This was not the first time Anne had run
• 43:37
  over and chatted with mister Harrison since the notable affair of the Jersey Cow.
• 43:42
  She had been there several evenings, and mister Harrison and she were very good
• 43:45
  friends, although there were times and seasons when Anne found the outspokenness on which
• 43:50
  he prided himself rather trying, Ginger still continued to regard her with suspicion and
• 43:54
  never failed to greet her sarcastically as red headed snippet. Mister Harrison had tried
• 44:00
  vainly to break him of the habit by jumping excitedly up whenever he saw Anne
• 44:04
  coming and exclaiming, bless my soul, here's that pretty little girl again,
• 44:07
  or something equally flattering, But Ginger saw through the scheme and scorned it.
• 44:12
  Anne was never to know how many compliments mister Harrison paid her behind her back.
• 44:15
  He certainly never paid her any to her face. Well, I suppose
• 44:20
  you've been back in the woods laying in a supply of switches for tomorrow was
• 44:22
  a greeting as Anne came up with Veranda's steps. No, indeed, said
• 44:27
  Anne indignantly. She was an excellent target for teasing because she always took things
• 44:30
  so seriously. I shall never have a switch in my school, mister Harrison.
• 44:35
  Of course I shall have to have a pointer, but I shall use
• 44:37
  it for pointing only. So you mean to strap them instead. Well,
• 44:42
  I don't know, but you're right. A switch stings more the time,
• 44:45
  but the strap smarts longer. That's a fact. I shall not use anything
• 44:49
  of the sort. I'm not going to whip my pupils. Bless my soul,
• 44:52
  exclaimed mister Harrison, in genuine astonishment. How do you lay out to
• 44:57
  keep order? Then I shall govern by affection, Miss Harrison. It won't
• 45:00
  do, said mister Harrison. Won't do it all, Anne, Spare the
• 45:05
  rod and spoil the child. When I went to school, the master with
• 45:07
  me regular every day, because he said if I wasn't in mischief just then
• 45:10
  I was plotting it. Methods have changed since your school days, mister Harrison,
• 45:15
  but human nature hasn't. Mark my words, You'll never manage the young
• 45:20
  fry unless you keep a rod and pickle for them the thing is impossible.
• 45:23
  Well, I'm going to try my way first, said Anne, who had
• 45:27
  a fairly strong will of her own and was apt to cling very tenaciously to
• 45:30
  her theories. You're a pretty stubborn I reckon, was mister Harrison's way of
• 45:34
  putting it. Well, well, we'll see some day when you get riled
• 45:37
  up, and people with hair like yours are desperate apt to get riled,
• 45:42
  you'll forget all your pretty little notions and give some of them a wailing.
• 45:45
  You're too young to be teaching anyhow, far too young and childish altogether.
• 45:50
  Anne went to bed that night in a rather pessimistic mood. She slept poorly
• 45:54
  and was so pale and tragic at breakfast the next morning that Marilla was alarmed
• 45:58
  and insisted on making her take a cup of scorching ginger tea. Anne sipped
• 46:02
  it patiently, although she could not imagine what good ginger tea would do.
• 46:07
  Had it been some magic brew potent to confer age and experience, Anne would
• 46:10
  have swallowed a quart of it without flinching. Marilla, What if I fail,
• 46:15
  You'll hardly fail completely in one day, and there's plenty more days coming,
• 46:19
  said Marilla, The trouble with you, Anne, is that you'll expect
• 46:22
  to teach those children everything and perform all their faults right off, and if
• 46:24
  you can't, you'll think you've failed. End of Chapter four, Chapter five.
• 46:30
  A full fledged school, ma'am. When Anne reached the school that morning
• 46:36
  for the first time in her life, she had traversed the birch path,
• 46:38
  deaf and blind to its beauties. All was quiet and still. The preceding
• 46:44
  teacher had trained the children to be in their places at her arrival, and
• 46:46
  when Anne entered the schoolroom, she was confronted by prim rows of shining morning
• 46:52
  faces and bright inquisitive eyes. She hung up her hat and faced her pupils,
• 46:57
  hoping that she did not look as frightened and foolish as she felt,
• 47:00
  and that they would not perceive how she was trembling. She had sat up
• 47:05
  until nearly twelve the preceding night composing a speech she meant to make to her
• 47:07
  pupils upon opening the school. She had revised and improved it painstakingly, and
• 47:13
  then she had learned it off by heart. It was a very good speech
• 47:16
  and had some very fine ideas in it, especially about mutual help and earnest,
• 47:21
  striving after knowledge. The only trouble was that she could not now remember
• 47:24
  a word of it after what seemed a year about ten seconds in reality,
• 47:30
  she said, faintly, take your testaments, please, and sank breathlessly into
• 47:35
  her chair under cover of the rustle and clatter of desk lids that followed.
• 47:38
  While the children read their verses, Anne marshaled her shaky wits into order and
• 47:43
  looked over the array of little pilgrims to the grown up land. Most of
• 47:47
  them were, of course, quite well known to her. Her own classmates
• 47:51
  had passed out in the preceding year, but the rest had all gone to
• 47:52
  school with her, excepting the primer class and ten newcomers to Avonlea. Anne
• 47:58
  secretly felt more in these ten than in those whose possibilities were already fairly well
• 48:02
  mapped out to her. To be sure, they might be just as commonplace
• 48:07
  as the rest, But on the other hand, there might be a genius
• 48:09
  among them. It was a thrilling idea. Sitting by himself at a corner
• 48:15
  desk was Anthony Pye. He had a dark, sullen little face and was
• 48:19
  staring at Anne with a hostile expression in his black eyes. Anne instantly made
• 48:23
  up her mind that she would win that boy's affection and discomfit the pies utterly.
• 48:28
  In the other corner, another strange boy was sitting with Ardie Sloane,
• 48:31
  a jolly looking little chap with a snub nose, freckled face, and big,
• 48:35
  light blue eyes fringed with whitish lashes, probably the Dawnall boy, and
• 48:39
  if resemblance went for anything, His sister was sitting across the aisle with Mary
• 48:44
  Bell. Anne wondered what sort of mother the child had to send her to
• 48:47
  school. Dressed as she was, she wore a faded pink silk dress trimmed
• 48:52
  with a great deal of cotton lace, soiled white kid slippers and silk stockings.
• 48:57
  Her sandy hair was tortured into innumerable kinky and unnot n actual curls,
• 49:00
  surmounted by a flamboyant bow of pink ribbon bigger than her head. Judging from
• 49:05
  her expression, she was very well satisfied with herself, a pale little thing
• 49:08
  with smooth ripples of fine, silky fawn colored hair flowing over her shoulders.
• 49:14
  Must Anne thought Biennett, a belle whose parents had formerly lived in the Newbridge
• 49:17
  school district, but by reason of hauling their house fifty yards north of its
• 49:22
  old site, were now in Avonlea. Three pallior little girls crowded into one
• 49:27
  seat were certainly Cottons, and there was no doubt that the small beauty with
• 49:30
  the long brown curls and hazel eyes who was casting coquettish looks at Jack Gillis
• 49:36
  over the edge of her testament was Prilly Rogerson, whose father had recently married
• 49:39
  a second wife and brought Prillie home from her grandmother's in Grafton. A tall,
• 49:45
  awkward girl in a back seat who seemed to have too many feet in
• 49:47
  hands, Anne could not place at all, but later on discovered that her
• 49:51
  name was Barbara Shaw, and that she had come to live with an Avonlea
• 49:53
  aunt. She was also to find that if Barbara ever managed to walk down
• 49:58
  the aisle without falling over her own or somebody else's feet, the Avonlea scholars
• 50:01
  wrote the unusual fact up on the porch wall to commemorate it. But when
• 50:06
  Anne's eyes met those of the boy at the front desk facing her own,
• 50:09
  a queer little thrill went over her, as if she had found her genius
• 50:14
  She knew this must be Paul Irving, and that Missus Rachel Lynde had been
• 50:17
  right for once when she prophesied that he would be unlike the Avonlea children.
• 50:22
  More than that, Anne realized that he was unlike other children anywhere, and
• 50:25
  that there was a soul subtly akin to her own, gazing at her out
• 50:30
  of the very dark blue eyes that were watching her so intently. She knew
• 50:34
  Paul was ten, but he looked no more than eight. He had the
• 50:37
  most beautiful little face she had ever seen in a child, features of exquisite
• 50:40
  delicacy and refinement, framed in a halo of chestnut curls. His mouth was
• 50:45
  delicious, being full without pouting, the crimson lips just softly touching and curving
• 50:51
  into finely finished little corners that narrowly escaped being dimpled. He had a sober,
• 50:55
  grave, meditative expression, as if his spirit was much older than his
• 51:00
  body. But when Anne smiled softly at him, it vanished in a sudden,
• 51:04
  answering smile, which seemed an illumination of his whole being, as if
• 51:07
  some lamp had suddenly kindled into flame inside of him, irradiating him from top
• 51:12
  to toe. Best of all, it was involuntary, born of no external
• 51:15
  effort or motive, but simply the outflashing of a hidden personality, rare and
• 51:20
  fine and sweet, with a quick interchange of smiles. Anne and Paul were
• 51:24
  fast friends forever before a word had passed between them. The day went by
• 51:29
  like a dream. Anne could never clearly recall it afterwards. It almost seemed
• 51:34
  as if it were not she who was teaching, but somebody else. She
• 51:37
  heard classes and worked sums and set copies. Mechanically, The children behaved quite
• 51:42
  well. Only two cases of discipline occurred. Morley Andrews was caught driving a
• 51:45
  pair of trained crickets in the aisle. Anne stood morally on the platform for
• 51:50
  an hour, and which Morley felt much more keenly, confiscated his crickets.
• 51:54
  She put them in a box, and on the way from school, set
• 51:57
  them free in violet veil. But Morley believed then and ever afterwards that she
• 52:00
  took them home and kept them for her own amusement. The other culprit was
• 52:05
  Anthony Pye, who poured the last drops of water from his slate bottle down
• 52:08
  the back of Aurelia Clay's neck. Anne kept Anthony in at recess and talked
• 52:13
  to him about what was expected of gentlemen, admonishing him that they never poured
• 52:16
  water down lady's necks. She wanted all her boys to be gentlemen, she
• 52:21
  said. Her little lecture was quite kind and touching, but unfortunately Anthony remained
• 52:25
  absolutely untouched. He listened to her in silence with the same sullen expression,
• 52:30
  and whistled scornfully as he went out. Anne sighed and then cheered herself up
• 52:35
  by remembering that winning a pie's affections, like the building of Rome, wasn't
• 52:38
  the work of a day. In fact, it was doubtful whether some of
• 52:43
  the pies had any affections to win. But Anne hoped better things of Anthony,
• 52:46
  who looked as if he might be a rather nice boy if one ever
• 52:49
  got behind his sullenness. When school was dismissed and the children had gone,
• 52:53
  Anne dropped wearily into her chair, Her head ached, and she felt woefully
• 52:59
  discouraged. There was no real reason for discouragement, since nothing very dreadful had
• 53:02
  occurred, but Anne was very tired and inclined to believe that she would never
• 53:07
  learn to like teaching, and how terrible it would be to be doing something
• 53:10
  you didn't like every day for well, say, forty years. Anne was
• 53:15
  of two minds whether to have her cry out then and there, or wait
• 53:19
  till she was safely in her own white room at home. Before she could
• 53:22
  decide, there was a click of heels and a silken swish on the porch
• 53:25
  floor, and Anne found herself confronted by a lady whose appearance made her recall
• 53:30
  a recent criticism of mister Harrison's on an over dressed female he had seen in
• 53:34
  a Charlottetown store. She looked like a head on collision between a fashion plate
• 53:37
  and a nightmare. The newcomer was gorgeously arrayed in a pale blue summer silk,
• 53:43
  puffed, frilled, and shurred wherever puff, frill or shirring could possibly
• 53:46
  be placed. Her head was surmounted by a huge white chiffon hat bedecked with
• 53:52
  three long, but rather stringy, ostrich feathers. A veil of pink chiffon,
• 53:55
  lavishly sprinkled with huge black dots, hung like a flounce from the hat
• 54:00
  brim to her shoulders, and floated off in two airy streamers behind her.
• 54:05
  She wore all the jewelry that could be crowded on one small woman, and
• 54:07
  a very strong odor of perfume attended her. I am Missus Dnnell, Missus
• 54:13
  H. B. Dannell, announced this vision, and I have come in
• 54:15
  to see you about something Clarice Almira told me when she came home to dinner
• 54:20
  to day. It annoyed me excessively. I'm sorry, faltered Anne, vainly
• 54:24
  trying to recollect any incident of the morning connected with the Donnell children. Clarice
• 54:29
  Almira told me that you pronounced our name donell. Now, Miss Shirley,
• 54:32
  the correct pronunciation of our name is donell, accent on the last syllable.
• 54:37
  I hope you'll remember this in future, I'll try, to gasped Anne,
• 54:42
  choking back a wild desire to laugh. I know by experience that it's very
• 54:46
  unpleasant to have one's name spelled wrong, and I suppose it must be even
• 54:50
  worse to have it pronounced wrong. Certainly it is. And Clarisse Almira also
• 54:54
  informed me that you called my son Jacob. He told me his name was
• 54:59
  Jacob, protested Anne. I might well have expected that, said Missus H.
• 55:04
  B. Dennell, in a tone which implied that gratitude in children was
• 55:06
  not to be looked for in this degenerate age. That boy has such plebeian
• 55:09
  taste, Miss Shirley. When he was born, I wanted to call him
• 55:14
  Saint Clair. It sounds so aristocratic, doesn't it. But his father insisted
• 55:19
  that he should be called Jacob, after his uncle. I yielded, because
• 55:22
  Uncle Jacob was a rich old bachelor. And what do you think, Miss
• 55:24
  Shirley, when our innocent boy was five years old, uncle Jacob actually went
• 55:29
  and got married, and now he has three boys of his own. Did
• 55:32
  you ever hear of such ingratitude? The moment the invitation to the wedding,
• 55:36
  for he had the impertinence to send us an invitation, Miss Shirley came to
• 55:39
  the house, I said, no more Jacobs for me, thank you.
• 55:43
  From that day I called my son Saint Clair, and Saint Clair I am
• 55:45
  determined he shall be called. His father obstinately continues to call him Jacob,
• 55:50
  and the boy himself has a perfectly unaccountable preference for the vulgar name. But
• 55:53
  Saint Clair he is, and Saint Clair he shall remain. You will kindly
• 55:58
  remember this, Miss Shirley, Will you not thank you? I told Clarice
• 56:01
  Almira that I was sure it was only a misunderstanding, and that her word
• 56:05
  would set it right. Dunnell accent on the last syllable, and Saint Clair
• 56:09
  on no account, Jacob, you'll remember, thank you. When missus H.
• 56:15
  B. Dannell had skimmed away, Anne locked the school door and went
• 56:19
  home. At the foot of the hill, she found Paul irving by the
• 56:22
  birch path. He held out to her a cluster of the dainty little wild
• 56:25
  orchids, which Avonlea children called rice lilies. Please, teacher, I found
• 56:30
  these in mister Wright's field, he said, shyly, and I came back
• 56:34
  to give them to you because I thought you were the kind of lady that
• 56:37
  would like them, and because he lifted his big, beautiful eyes. I
• 56:40
  like you, teacher, you darling, said Anne, taking the fragrant spikes,
• 56:45
  as if Paul's words had been a spell of magic. Discouragement and weariness
• 56:49
  passed from her spirit, and hope upwelled in her heart like a dancing fountain.
• 56:53
  She went through the birch path light footedly, attended by the sweetness of
• 56:57
  her orchids as by a benediction. Well, how did you get along.
• 57:00
  Marilla wanted to know. Ask me that a month later, and I may
• 57:05
  be able to tell you. I can't now. I don't know myself.
• 57:07
  I'm too near it. My thoughts feel as if they had been all stirred
• 57:12
  up until they were thick and muddy. The only thing I feel really sure
• 57:15
  of having accomplished to day is that I taught Cliffy Wright that a is a
• 57:20
  He never knew it before. Isn't it something to have started a soul along
• 57:23
  a path that may end? In Shakespeare in Paradise Lost? Missus Lynde came
• 57:29
  up later on with more encouragement. That good lady had waylaid the school children
• 57:32
  at her gate and demanded of them how they liked their new teacher. And
• 57:37
  every one of them said they liked you splendid Anne, except Anthony Pye.
• 57:39
  I must admit he didn't. He said you weren't any good, just like
• 57:44
  all girl teachers. There's the Pye levin for you. But never mind.
• 57:46
  I'm not going to mind, said Anne quietly, And I'm going to make
• 57:51
  Anthony Pye like me yet patience and kindness will surely win him. Well.
• 57:55
  You never can't tell about a Pye said missus Rachel cautiously. They go by
• 58:00
  contraries like dreams as often as not. As for that Dunnell woman, she'll
• 58:04
  get no dunnelling from me. I can assure you the name is Doneal and
• 58:07
  always has been. The woman is crazy, That's what she has. A
• 58:10
  pug dog she calls Queenie, and it has its meals at the table along
• 58:14
  with the family, eating off a china plate. I'd be afraid of a
• 58:17
  judgment if I was her, Thomas says. Donnell himself is a sensible,
• 58:21
  hard working man, but he hadn't much gumption when he picked out a wife.
• 58:24
  That's what. End of Chapter five, Chapter six, All Sorts and
• 58:30
  Conditions of Men and Women. A September day on Prince Edward Island Hills.
• 58:37
  A crisp wind blowing up over the sand dunes from the sea. A long
• 58:40
  red road winding through fields and woods, now looping itself about a corner of
• 58:45
  thick set spruces, now threading a plantation of young maples, with great feathery
• 58:51
  sheets of ferns beneath them, now dipping down into a hollow where a brook
• 58:54
  flashed out of the woods and into them again, now basking an open sunshine,
• 58:59
  between the ribbons of golden rod and smoke blue asters. Air, a
• 59:02
  thrill with the pipings of myriads of crickets, those glad little pensioners of the
• 59:07
  summer hills. A plump brown pony ambling along the road, two girls behind
• 59:13
  him, fold to the lips with the simple, priceless joy of youth and
• 59:15
  life. Oh, this is a day left over from Eden, isn't it?
• 59:20
  Diana, and Anne's sighed for sheer happiness. The air has magic in
• 59:25
  it. Look at the purple in the cup of the harvest valley, Diana,
• 59:29
  And oh, do smell the dying fur. It's coming up from that
• 59:32
  little sunny hollow where mister eben Wright has been cutting fence poles. Bliss is
• 59:37
  it on such a day to be alive? But to smell dying fur is
• 59:40
  very Heaven. That's two thirds Wordsworth and one third Anne Shirley. It doesn't
• 59:45
  seem possible that there should be dying fur and Heaven, does it? And
• 59:49
  yet it doesn't seem to me that Heaven would be quite perfect if you couldn't
• 59:52
  get a whiff of dead fur as you went through its woods. Perhaps we'll
• 59:57
  have the odor there without the death. Yes, I think that will be
• 1:00:00
  the way. That delicious aroma must be the souls of the furs, and
• 1:00:04
  of course it will be just souls in heaven. Trees haven't souls, said
• 1:00:08
  practical Diana. But the smell of dead fur is certainly lovely. I'm going
• 1:00:14
  to make a cushion and fill it with fur needles. You'd better make one
• 1:00:16
  too, Anne, I think I shall and use it for my naps.
• 1:00:20
  I'd be certain to dream I was a dryad or a wood nymph then,
• 1:00:23
  But just this minute, I'm well content to be Anne Shirley Avonlea school.
• 1:00:27
  Ma'am driving over a road like this on such a sweet, friendly day.
• 1:00:31
  It's a lovely day. But we have anything but a lovely task before us,
• 1:00:36
  sighed Diana, why on earth did you offer to canvass this road?
• 1:00:39
  Anne? Almost all the Cranks and Avonlea live along it and will probably be
• 1:00:44
  treated as if we were begging for ourselves. It's the very worst road of
• 1:00:47
  all, that is why I chose it. Of course, Gilbert and Fred
• 1:00:52
  would have taken this road if we had asked them. But you see,
• 1:00:54
  Diana, I feel myself responsible for the a V I s since I was
• 1:00:58
  the first to suggest it, and it seems to me that I ought to
• 1:01:00
  do the most disagreeable things. I'm sorry on your account, but you needn't
• 1:01:05
  say a word at the cranky places. I'll do all the talking. Missus
• 1:01:07
  Lynde would say, I was well able to. Missus Lynde doesn't know whether
• 1:01:12
  to approve of our enterprise or not. She inclines to when she remembers that
• 1:01:15
  mister and Missus Allan are in favor of it, but the fact that village
• 1:01:19
  improvement societies first originated in the States as account against it. So she is
• 1:01:22
  halting between two opinions, and only success will justify us in Missus Lynde's eyes.
• 1:01:28
  Priscilla is going to write a paper for our next improvement meeting, and
• 1:01:30
  I expect it will be good for her aunt is such a clever writer,
• 1:01:34
  and no doubt it runs in the family. I shall never forget the thrill
• 1:01:37
  it gave me when I found out that Missus Charlotte E. Morgan was Priscilla's
• 1:01:39
  aunt. It seemed so wonderful that I was a friend of the girl whose
• 1:01:44
  aunt wrote Edward Days and the rosebud Garden. Where does missus Morgan live in
• 1:01:49
  Toronto, and Priscilla says she is coming to the island for a visit next
• 1:01:52
  summer, and if it is possible, Priscilla is going to arrange to have
• 1:01:55
  us meet her. That seems almost too good to be true, but it's
• 1:01:59
  something pleasant to imagine after you go to bed. The Avonlea Village Improvement Society
• 1:02:05
  was an organized fact. Gilbert Blythe was president, Fred Wright vice president,
• 1:02:08
  Anne Shirley's secretary, and Diana Barry treasurer. The Improvers, as they were
• 1:02:14
  promptly christened, were to meet once a fortnight at the homes of the members.
• 1:02:17
  It was admitted that they could not expect to effect many improvements so late
• 1:02:22
  in the season, but they meant to plan next summer's campaign, collect and
• 1:02:24
  discuss ideas, read and write papers, and, as Anne said, educate
• 1:02:30
  the public sentiment. Generally, there was some disapproval, of course, and
• 1:02:34
  which the Improvers felt much more keenly a good deal of ridicule. Mister Elisha
• 1:02:38
  Wright was reported to have said that a more appropriate name for the organization would
• 1:02:43
  be Courting Club. Missus Hiram Sloane declared she had heard the Improvers meant to
• 1:02:46
  plow up all the road sides and set them out with geraniums. Mister Levi
• 1:02:51
  Bolter warned his neighbors that the Improvers would insist that everybody pulled down his house
• 1:02:55
  and rebuild it after plans approved by the Society. Mister James Spencer sent them
• 1:03:00
  word that he wished they would kindly shovel down the church hill. Even Wright
• 1:03:05
  told Anne that he wished the Improvers could induce Old Josiah Sloane to keep his
• 1:03:07
  whiskers trimmed. Mister Laurence Bell said he would whitewash his barns if nothing else
• 1:03:13
  would please them, but he would not hang lace curtains in the cow stable
• 1:03:16
  windows. Mister Major Spencer asked Clifton Sloane, an improver who drove the milk
• 1:03:22
  to the Carmody Cheese factory, if it was true that everybody would have to
• 1:03:24
  have his milk stand hand painted next summer and keep an embroidered centipiece on it
• 1:03:30
  in spite of or perhaps human nature being what it is. Because of this,
• 1:03:34
  the Society went gayly to work at the only improvement they could hope to
• 1:03:37
  bring about. That fall. At the second meeting in the Barry parlor.
• 1:03:42
  Oliver Sloane moved that they start a subscription to re shingle and paint the hall.
• 1:03:45
  Julia Bell seconded it, with an uneasy feeling that she was doing something
• 1:03:50
  not exactly ladylike. Gilbert put the motion. It was carried unanimously, and
• 1:03:54
  Anne gravely recorded it in her minutes. The next thing was to appoint a
• 1:03:58
  committee, and Gerdie Pie, determined not to let Julia Bell carry off all
• 1:04:01
  the Laurels, boldly moved that Miss Jane Andrews be chairman of said committee,
• 1:04:06
  this motion being also duly seconded and carried. Jane returned the compliment by appointing
• 1:04:11
  Gerdy on the committee, along with Gilbert, Anne, Diana, and Fred
• 1:04:15
  Wright. The committee chose their routes in private conclave. Anne and Diana were
• 1:04:18
  told off for the Newbridge Road, Gilbert and Fred for the White Sands Road,
• 1:04:23
  and Jane and Gerdy for the Carmedy Road. Because, explained Gilbert to
• 1:04:27
  Anne as they walked home together through the Haunted Wood, the Pies all live
• 1:04:30
  along that road, and they won't give a cent unless one of themselves canvasses
• 1:04:33
  them. The next Saturday, Anne and Diana started out. They drove to
• 1:04:38
  the end of the road and canvassed homeward, calling first on the Andrews girls.
• 1:04:43
  If Catherine is alone, we may get something, said Diana, but
• 1:04:45
  if Eliza is there, we won't. Eliza was there very much so,
• 1:04:49
  and looked even grimmer than usual. Miss Eliza was one of those people who
• 1:04:55
  give you the impression that life is indeed a veil of tears, and that
• 1:04:58
  a smile, never to speak of laugh, is a waste of nervous energy,
• 1:05:01
  truly reprehensible. The Andrews girls had been girls for fifty odd years and
• 1:05:06
  seemed likely to remain girls to the end of their earthly pilgrimage. Catherine,
• 1:05:11
  it was said, had not entirely given up hope, but Eliza, who
• 1:05:15
  was born a pessimist, had never had any. They lived in a little
• 1:05:18
  brown house built in a sunny corner scooped out of Mark Andrew's beech woods.
• 1:05:23
  Eliza complained that it was terrible hot in summer, but Catherine was wont to
• 1:05:26
  say it was lovely and warm in winter. Eliza was sewing patchwork, not
• 1:05:30
  because it was needed, but simply as a protest against the frivolous lace Catherine
• 1:05:34
  was crocheting. Eliza listened with a frown and Catherine with a smile as the
• 1:05:40
  girls explained their errand to be sure, whenever Catherine caught Eliza's eye, she
• 1:05:44
  discarded the smile in guilty confusion, but it crept back the next moment.
• 1:05:48
  If I had money to waste, said Eliza grimly, I'd burn it up
• 1:05:51
  and have the fun of seeing a blaze. Maybe, but I wouldn't give
• 1:05:56
  it to that hall. Not a cent. It's no benefit to the settlement,
• 1:05:59
  just a place for young folks to meet and carry on when they's better
• 1:06:01
  be home in their beds. Oh, Eliza, young folks must have some
• 1:06:04
  amusement, protested Catherine. I don't see the necessity. We didn't get about
• 1:06:10
  to halls and places when we were young, Catherine Andrews, This world is
• 1:06:14
  getting worse every day. I think it's getting better, said Catherine firmly.
• 1:06:17
  You think miss Eliza's voice expressed the utmost contempt. It doesn't signify what you
• 1:06:24
  think, Catherine Andrews, fats is facts. Well. I always like to
• 1:06:28
  look on the bright side, Eliza. There isn't any bright side. Oh
• 1:06:31
  indeed, there is, cried Anne, who couldn't endure such heresy in silence?
• 1:06:36
  Why there are ever so many bright sides? Miss Andrews, it's really
• 1:06:39
  a beautiful world. You won't have such a high opinion of it when you've
• 1:06:43
  lived as long and it as I have, retorted Miss Eliza sourly, and
• 1:06:46
  you won't be so enthusiastic about improving it either. How is your mother,
• 1:06:50
  Diana? Dear me? But she has failed of late? She looks terrible
• 1:06:54
  run down? And how long is it before Marilla expects to be stone blind?
• 1:06:57
  Anne? The doctor dur thinks her eyes will not get any worse if
• 1:07:00
  she is very careful? Faltered Anne, Eliza shook her head. Doctors always
• 1:07:05
  talk like that, just to keep people cheered up. I wouldn't have much
• 1:07:10
  hope if I was her. It's best to be prepared for the worst.
• 1:07:13
  But oughtn't we be prepared for the best? Too, pleaded Anne, It's
• 1:07:16
  just as likely to happen as the worst, not in my experience, And
• 1:07:20
  I've fifty seven years to set against your sixteen, retorted Eliza, going are
• 1:07:26
  you well? I hope this new society of yours will be able to keep
• 1:07:29
  Avonlea from running any further downhill. But I haven't much hope of it.
• 1:07:32
  Anne and Diana got themselves thankfully out and drove away as fast as the fat
• 1:07:38
  pony could go. As they rounded the curve below the beech wood, a
• 1:07:41
  plump figure came speeding over mister Andrews's pasture, waving to them excitedly. It
• 1:07:45
  was Catherine Andrews, and she was so out of breath that she could hardly
• 1:07:48
  speak, but she thrust a couple of quarters into Anne's hand. That's my
• 1:07:53
  contribution to painting the hall, she gasped. I'd like to give you a
• 1:07:57
  dollar, but I don't dare take more for my egg. Money from Elza
• 1:08:00
  would find out if I did. I'm real interested in your society, and
• 1:08:02
  I believe you're going to do a lot of good. I'm an optimist.
• 1:08:06
  I have to be living with Eliza. I must hurry back before she misses
• 1:08:10
  me. She thinks I'm feeding the hens. I hope you'll have good luck
• 1:08:13
  canvassing, and don't be cast down over what Eliza said. The world is
• 1:08:16
  getting better. It certainly is. The next house was Daniel Blair's. Now
• 1:08:21
  it all depends on whether his wife is home or not, said Diana,
• 1:08:25
  as they jolted along a deep rutted lane. If she is, we won't
• 1:08:29
  get a sent everybody, says Dan Blair doesn't dare have his hair cut without
• 1:08:32
  asking her permission, and it's certain she's very close to state it moderately.
• 1:08:36
  She says she has to be just before she's generous, but missus Lynde says
• 1:08:41
  she's so much before that generosity never catches up with her at all. Anne
• 1:08:45
  related their experience at the Blair place to Marilla. That evening, we tied
• 1:08:49
  the horse and then rapped at the kitchen door. Nobody came, but the
• 1:08:53
  door was open, and we could hear somebody in the pantry going on dreadfully.
• 1:08:57
  We couldn't make out the words, but Diana says she knows they were
• 1:09:00
  swearing by the sound of them. I can't believe that of mister Blair,
• 1:09:03
  for he is always so quiet and meek. But at least he had great
• 1:09:06
  provocation for Marilla. When that poor man came to the door, red as
• 1:09:11
  a beat, with perspirations streaming down his face. He had on one of
• 1:09:15
  his wife's big gingham aprons. I can't get this durned thing off, he
• 1:09:17
  said, for the strings are tied and a hard knut, and I can't
• 1:09:20
  bust him, so he'll have to excuse me. Ladies. Be begged him
• 1:09:24
  not to mention it, and went in and sat down. Mister Blair sat
• 1:09:28
  down too. He twisted the apron round to his back and rolled it up,
• 1:09:31
  but he did look so ashamed and worried that I felt sorry for him.
• 1:09:34
  And Diana said she feared we had called it an inconvenient time. Oh
• 1:09:38
  not at all, said mister Blair, trying to smile. You know,
• 1:09:41
  he is always very polite. I'm a little busy getting ready to bake a
• 1:09:45
  cake, as it were. My wife got a telegram to day that her
• 1:09:46
  sister from Montreal is coming to night, and she's gone to the train to
• 1:09:49
  meet her and left orders for me to make a cake for tea. She
• 1:09:53
  read out the recipe and told me what to do. But I've clean forgot
• 1:09:57
  half the directions already, and it says flavor according to taste. What does
• 1:10:00
  that mean? How can you tell? And what if my taste doesn't happen
• 1:10:03
  to be other people's taste? Would a tablespoon of vanilla be enough for a
• 1:10:08
  small layer cake? I felt sorrier than ever for the poor man. He
• 1:10:12
  didn't seem to be in his proper sphere at all. I had heard of
• 1:10:15
  hen pecked husbands, and now I felt that I saw one. It was
• 1:10:17
  on my lips to say, mister Blair, if you'll give us a subscription
• 1:10:20
  for the hall, i'll mix up your cake for you. But I suddenly
• 1:10:24
  thought it wouldn't be neighborly to drive too sharp a bargain with a fellow creature
• 1:10:28
  in distress, so I offered to mix the cake for him, without any
• 1:10:30
  conditions at all. He just jumped at my offer. He said he'd been
• 1:10:33
  used to making his own bread before he was married, but he feared cake
• 1:10:36
  was beyond him, and yet he hated to disappoint his wife. He got
• 1:10:41
  me another apron, and Diana beat the eggs, and I mixed the cake.
• 1:10:45
  Mister Blair ran about and got us the materials. He had forgotten all
• 1:10:47
  about his apron, and when he ran it streamed out behind him, and
• 1:10:50
  Diana said she thought she would die to see it. He said he could
• 1:10:54
  bake the cake all right, he was used to that. And then he
• 1:10:57
  asked for our list, and he put down four dollars. So you see
• 1:11:00
  we were rewarded. But even if he hadn't given assent, I'd always feel
• 1:11:03
  that we had done a truly Christian act in helping him. Theodore White's was
• 1:11:08
  the next stopping place. Neither Anne nor Diana had ever been there before,
• 1:11:12
  and they had only a very slight acquaintance with Missus Theodore, who was not
• 1:11:15
  given to hospitality. Should they go to the back or front door? While
• 1:11:19
  they held a whispered consultation, Missus Theodore appeared at the front door with an
• 1:11:23
  armful of newspapers. Deliberately, she laid them down one by one on the
• 1:11:27
  porch floor and the porch steps, and then down the path to the very
• 1:11:30
  feet of her mystified callers. Will you please wipe your feet carefully on the
• 1:11:33
  grass and then walk on these papers? She said anxiously. I've just swept
• 1:11:38
  the house all over, and I can't have any more dust tracked in the
• 1:11:41
  Path's been real muddy since the rain yesterday. Don't you dare laugh, mourned
• 1:11:45
  Anne in a whisper, as they marched along the newspapers. And I implore
• 1:11:49
  you, Diana, not to look at me no matter what she says,
• 1:11:53
  or I shall not be able to keep a sober face. The papers extended
• 1:11:57
  across the hall and into a prim flecklace parlor. Anne and Diana sat down
• 1:12:01
  gingerly on the nearest chairs and explained their errand Missus White heard them politely,
• 1:12:05
  interrupting only twice, once to chase out an adventurous fly, and once to
• 1:12:11
  pick up a tiny wisp of grass that had fallen on the carpet from Anne's
• 1:12:14
  dress. Anne felt wretchedly guilty, but Missus White subscribed two dollars and paid
• 1:12:18
  the money down to prevent us from having to go back for it. Diana
• 1:12:21
  said, when they got away, Missus White had the newspapers gathered up before
• 1:12:26
  they had their horse untied, and as they drove out of the yard they
• 1:12:29
  saw her busily wielding a broom in the hall. I've always heard that Missus
• 1:12:32
  Theoda White was the neatest woman alive, and I'll believe it after this,
• 1:12:36
  said Diana, giving way to her suppressed laughter as soon as it was safe.
• 1:12:41
  I am glad she has no children, said Anne, solemnly. It
• 1:12:44
  would be dreadful beyond words for them if she had. At the Spencer's missus
• 1:12:48
  Isabella Spencer made them miserable by saying something ill natured about everyone in Avonlea.
• 1:12:54
  Mister Thomas Bolter refused to give anything because the hall, when it had been
• 1:12:58
  built twenty years before, hadn't been built on the site. He recommended missus
• 1:13:02
  ester Bell, who was the picture of health, took half an hour to
• 1:13:05
  detail all her aches and pains, and sadly put down fifty cents because she
• 1:13:10
  wouldn't be there that time next year to do it. No, she would
• 1:13:13
  be in her grave. Their worst reception, however, was at Simon Fletcher's.
• 1:13:18
  When they drove into the yard, they saw two faces peering at them
• 1:13:21
  through the porch window. But although they rapped and waited patiently and persistently,
• 1:13:26
  nobody came to the door. Two decidedly ruffled and indignant girls drove away from
• 1:13:30
  Simon Fletcher's. Even Anne admitted that she was beginning to feel discouraged. But
• 1:13:34
  the tide turned after that. Several slown homesteads came next, where they got
• 1:13:40
  liberal subscriptions, and from that to the end they fared well, with only
• 1:13:43
  an occasional snub. Their last place of call was at Robert Dixon's by the
• 1:13:46
  Pond Bridge. They stayed to tea here although they were nearly home. Rather
• 1:13:50
  than risk offending Missus Dixon, who had the reputation of being a very touchy
• 1:13:55
  woman. While they were there, old Missus James White called in. I've
• 1:13:59
  just been down to Lorenzo's. She announced, he's the proudest man in Avonlea
• 1:14:01
  this minute. What do you think. There's a brand new boy there,
• 1:14:04
  and after seven girls, that's quite an event, I can tell you.
• 1:14:09
  Anne pricked up her ears, and when they drove away, she said,
• 1:14:12
  I'm going straight to Lorenzo White's. But he lives on the White Sands Road
• 1:14:15
  and it's quite a distance out of our way, protested Diana. Gilbert and
• 1:14:18
  Fred will canvass him. They are not going around until next Saturday, and
• 1:14:23
  it will be too late by then, said Anne firmly. The novelty will
• 1:14:26
  be worn off. Lorenzo White is dreadfully mean, but he will subscribe to
• 1:14:30
  anything just now. We mustn't let such a golden opportunity slip, Diana.
• 1:14:35
  The result justified Anne's foresight. Mister White met them in the yard, beaming
• 1:14:40
  like the sun upon an Easter day. When Anne asked for a subscription,
• 1:14:44
  he agreed enthusiastically. Certain certain just put me down for a dollar more than
• 1:14:47
  the highest subscription you've got. That will be five dollars. Mister Daniel Blair
• 1:14:51
  put down four, said Anne, half afraid, but Lorenzo did not flinch.
• 1:14:57
  Five it is, and here's the money on the spot. Now,
• 1:14:59
  w to come into the house. There's something in there worth seeing, something
• 1:15:02
  very few people have seen as yet. Just come in and pass your opinion.
• 1:15:06
  What will we say if the baby isn't pretty? Whispered Diana in trepidation
• 1:15:11
  as they followed the excited Lorenzo into the house. Oh, there will certainly
• 1:15:15
  be something else nice to say about it, said Anne easily. There always
• 1:15:17
  is about a baby. The baby was pretty, however, and mister White
• 1:15:21
  felt that he got his five dollars worth of the girl's honest delight over the
• 1:15:26
  plump little newcomer. But that was the first last and only time that Lorenzo
• 1:15:30
  White ever subscribed to anything. Anne, tired as she was, made one
• 1:15:35
  more effort for the public wheel that night, slipping over the fields to interview
• 1:15:39
  mister Harrison, who was, as usual smoking his pipe on the veranda with
• 1:15:43
  Ginger beside him. Strictly speaking, he was on the carmody road, but
• 1:15:46
  Jane and Gerdy, who were not acquainted with him save by doubtful report,
• 1:15:49
  had nervously begged Anne to canvass him. Mister Harrison, however, flatly refused
• 1:15:55
  to subscribe a cent, and all Anne's wiles were in vain. But I
• 1:15:59
  thought what you were approved of our society, mister Harrison, she mourned.
• 1:16:02
  So I do, so I do, but my approval doesn't go as deep
• 1:16:05
  as my pocket. Anne, A few more experiences such as I have had
• 1:16:10
  today would make me as much of a pessimist as miss Eliza Andrews. Anne
• 1:16:14
  told her reflection in the east gable mirror at bedtime, end of chapter six,
• 1:16:18
  Chapter seven, The Pointing of Duty, Anne leaned back in her chair
• 1:16:25
  one mild October evening and sighed. She was sitting at a table covered with
• 1:16:29
  text books and exercises, but the closely written sheets of paper before her had
• 1:16:32
  no apparent connection with studies or schoolwork. What is the matter, asked Gilbert,
• 1:16:38
  who had arrived at the open kitchen door just in time to hear the
• 1:16:41
  sigh. Anne colored and thrust her writing out of sight under some school compositions.
• 1:16:45
  Nothing very dreadful. I was just trying to write out some of my
• 1:16:49
  thoughts, as Professor Hamilton advised me, But I couldn't get them to please
• 1:16:53
  me. They seem so still and foolish. Directly they're written down on white
• 1:16:57
  paper with black ink. Fancies are like shadows. You can't cage them.
• 1:17:01
  They're such wayward dancing things. But perhaps I'll learn the secret some day if
• 1:17:06
  I keep on trying. I haven't a great many spare moments. You know,
• 1:17:11
  by the time I finish correcting school exercises and compositions, I don't always
• 1:17:14
  feel like writing any of my own. You're getting on splendidly in school.
• 1:17:17
  Lanbe all the children like you, said Gilbert, sitting down on the stone
• 1:17:20
  step. No, not all. Anthony Pye doesn't and won't like me.
• 1:17:27
  What is worse, he doesn't respect me, No, he doesn't. He
• 1:17:30
  simply holds me in contempt. And I don't mind confessing to you that it
• 1:17:32
  worries me miserably. It isn't that he's so very bad. He's only rather
• 1:17:38
  mischievous, but no worse than some of the others. He seldom disobeys me,
• 1:17:43
  but he obeys with a scornful air of toleration, as if it wasn't
• 1:17:45
  worth while disputing the point, or he would and it has a bad effect
• 1:17:49
  on the others. I've tried every way to win him, but I'm beginning
• 1:17:53
  to fear I never shall. I want to, for he's rather a cute
• 1:17:57
  little lad if he is a pie, and I could like him if he'd
• 1:17:59
  let me. Probably it's merely the effect of what he hears at home,
• 1:18:03
  not altogether. Anthony is an independent little chap and makes up his own mind
• 1:18:08
  about things. He's always gone to men before, and he says girl teachers
• 1:18:12
  are no good. Well, we'll see what patience and kindness will do.
• 1:18:15
  I like overcoming difficulties, and teaching is really very interesting work. Paul Irving
• 1:18:20
  makes up for all that is lacking in the others. That child is a
• 1:18:24
  perfect darling, Gilbert, and a genius into the bargain. I'm persuaded the
• 1:18:28
  world will hear of him some day, concluded Anne, in a tone of
• 1:18:30
  conviction. I like teaching, too, said Gilbert. It's good training for
• 1:18:33
  one thing. Why, Anne, I've learned more in the weeks i've been
• 1:18:36
  teaching the young ideas of white Sands than I learned in all the years I
• 1:18:41
  went to school myself. We all seem to be getting along pretty well,
• 1:18:44
  the Newbridge people like Jane I hear, and I think White Sands is tolerably
• 1:18:47
  satisfied with your humble servant, all except mister Andrew Spencer. I met Missus
• 1:18:53
  Peter Blewett on my way home last night, and she told me she thought
• 1:18:55
  it her duty to inform me that mister Spencer didn't approve of my methods.
• 1:19:00
  If you ever noticed, asked Anne reflectively, that when people say it is
• 1:19:03
  their duty to tell you a certain thing, you may prepare for something disagreeable.
• 1:19:08
  Why is it that they never seem to think it's a duty to tell
• 1:19:10
  you the pleasant things they hear about you. Missus h B. Dnnell called
• 1:19:15
  at the school again yesterday and told me she thought it heard duty to inform
• 1:19:17
  me that missus Harmon Andrews didn't approve of my reading fairy tales to the children,
• 1:19:21
  and that mister Rogerson thought Prilly wasn't coming on fast enough and arithmetic.
• 1:19:26
  If Prilly would spend less time making eyes at the boys over her slate,
• 1:19:30
  she might do better. But I feel sure that old Jack Gillis works her
• 1:19:32
  class sums for her, though I've never been able to catch him red handed.
• 1:19:36
  Have you succeeded in reconciling Missus Darnell's hopeful son to his saintly name?
• 1:19:41
  Yes, laughed Anne. But it was really a difficult task at first.
• 1:19:45
  When I called him Saint Clair, he would not take the least notice until
• 1:19:48
  I'd spoken two or three times. And then when the other boys nudged him,
• 1:19:53
  he would look up with such an aggrieved air as if I'd called him
• 1:19:56
  John or Charlie, and he couldn't be expected to know I meant him.
• 1:19:59
  So I kept him in after school one night and talked kindly to him.
• 1:20:02
  I told him his mother wished me to call him Saint Clair, and I
• 1:20:04
  couldn't go against her wishes. He saw it when it was all explained out.
• 1:20:09
  He's really a very reasonable little fellow, and he said I could call
• 1:20:13
  him Saint Clair, but that he'd lick the stuffing out of any of the
• 1:20:15
  boys that tried it. Of course, I had to rebuke him again for
• 1:20:17
  using such shocking language. Since then, I call him Saint Clair and the
• 1:20:21
  boys call him Jake, and all go smoothly. He informs me that he
• 1:20:25
  means to be a carpenter, But missus Darnell says, I am to make
• 1:20:28
  a college professor out of him. The mention of college gave a new direction
• 1:20:31
  to Gilbert's thoughts, and they talked for a time of their plans and wishes,
• 1:20:35
  gravely, earnestly, hopefully, as youth loves to talk, while the
• 1:20:40
  future is yet an untrodden path full of wonderful possibilities. Gilbert had finally made
• 1:20:45
  up his mind that he was going to be a doctor. It's a splendid
• 1:20:47
  profession, he said enthusiastically. A fellow has to fight something all through life.
• 1:20:53
  Didn't somebody once define a man as a fighting animal. And I want
• 1:20:57
  to fight disease and pain and ignorance, which are all members of one another.
• 1:21:00
  I want to do my share of honest, real work in the world,
• 1:21:03
  Anne add a little to the sum of human knowledge that all the good
• 1:21:06
  men have been accumulating since it began. The folks who lived before me have
• 1:21:11
  done so much for me that I want to show my gratitude by doing something
• 1:21:14
  for the folks who will live after me. It seems to me that it
• 1:21:16
  is the only way a fellow can get square with his obligations to the race.
• 1:21:20
  I'd like to add some beauty to life, said Anne dreamily. I
• 1:21:25
  don't exactly want to make people no more, though I know that is the
• 1:21:29
  noblest ambition. But I love to make them have a pleasanter time because of
• 1:21:32
  me, to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed
• 1:21:38
  if I hadn't been born. I think you're fulfilling that ambition every day,
• 1:21:41
  said Gilbert admiringly, and he was right. Anne was one of the children
• 1:21:45
  of light by birthright after she had passed through a life with a smile or
• 1:21:48
  a word thrown across it like a gleam of sunshine, the owner of that
• 1:21:53
  life saw it, for the time being at least as hopeful and lovely and
• 1:21:57
  of good report. Finally, Gilbert rose regretfully, well, I must run
• 1:22:01
  up to mc pherson's. Moody Spurgeon came home from Queen's to day for Sunday,
• 1:22:05
  and he was to bring me out a book Professor Boyd is lending me,
• 1:22:09
  and I must get Marilla's tea. She went to see missus Keith this
• 1:22:12
  evening, and she will soon be back. Anne had tea ready when Marilla
• 1:22:15
  came home. The fire was crackling cheerily. A vase of frost bleached ferns
• 1:22:19
  and ruby red maple leaves adorned the table, and delectable odors of ham and
• 1:22:24
  toast pervaded the air. But Marilla sank into her chair with a deep sigh.
• 1:22:29
  Are your eyes troubling you? Does your head ache? Queried Anne anxiously.
• 1:22:32
  No, I'm only tired and worried. It's about Mary and those children.
• 1:22:38
  Mary is worse. She can't last much longer. And as for the
• 1:22:42
  twins, I don't know what is to become of them. Hasn't their uncle
• 1:22:45
  been heard from? Yes, Mary had a letter from him. He's working
• 1:22:49
  in a lumber camp and shacking it, whatever that means anyway. He says
• 1:22:54
  he can't possibly take the children till the spring. He expects to be married
• 1:22:57
  then and will have a home to take them too. But he's says she
• 1:23:00
  must get some of the neighbors to keep them for the winter. She says
• 1:23:02
  she can't bear to ask any of them. Mary never got on any too
• 1:23:05
  well with the East Grafton people, and that's a fact. And the long
• 1:23:09
  and the short of it is, Anne that I'm sure Mary wants me to
• 1:23:12
  take those children. She didn't say so, but she looked it. Oh.
• 1:23:15
  Anne clasped her hands, all a thrill with excitement. And of course
• 1:23:18
  you will, Marilla, won't you. I haven't made up my mind,
• 1:23:21
  said Marilla, rather tartly. I don't rush into things in your headlong way,
• 1:23:26
  Anne. Third cousinship is a pretty slim claim, and it will be
• 1:23:30
  a fearful responsibility to have two children of six years to look after twins.
• 1:23:33
  At that, Marilla had an idea that twins were just twice as bad as
• 1:23:38
  single children. Twins are very interesting, at least one pair of them,
• 1:23:42
  said Anne. It's only when there are two or three pairs that it gets
• 1:23:45
  monotonous. And I think it would be real nice for you to have something
• 1:23:48
  to amuse you when I'm away in school. I don't reckon there'd be much
• 1:23:51
  amusement in it, more worry and bother than anything else. I should say.
• 1:23:57
  It wouldn't be so risky if they were even as old as you were
• 1:24:00
  when I took you. I wouldn't mind Dora so much. She seems good
• 1:24:02
  and quiet, but that Davy is a limb. Anne was fond of children,
• 1:24:08
  and her heart yearned over the Keith twins. The remembrance of her own
• 1:24:12
  neglected childhood was very vivid with her. Still, she knew that Marilla's only
• 1:24:15
  vulnerable point was her stern devotion to what she believed to be her duty,
• 1:24:19
  and Anne skillfully marshaled her arguments along this line. If Davy is naughty,
• 1:24:24
  it's all the more reason why he should have good training, isn't it,
• 1:24:27
  Marilla. If we don't take them, we don't know who will, nor
• 1:24:30
  what kind of influences may surround them. Suppose Missus Keith's next door neighbors,
• 1:24:34
  the Spots, were to take them. Missus Lynde says, Henry Sprott is
• 1:24:38
  the most profane man that ever lived, and you can't believe a word as
• 1:24:41
  children say. Wouldn't it be dreadful to have the twins learn anything like that?
• 1:24:45
  Or suppose they went to the Wigginses. Missus Lynde says that mister Wiggins
• 1:24:49
  sells everything off the place that can be sold, and brings his family up
• 1:24:53
  on skim milk. You wouldn't like your relations to be starved, even if
• 1:24:57
  they were only third cousins, would you. It seems to me, Marilla,
• 1:25:00
  that it is our duty to take them I suppose it is assented,
• 1:25:04
  Marilla gloomily. I dare say, I'll tell Mary I'll take them. You
• 1:25:09
  needn't look so delighted, Anne, It will mean a good deal of extra
• 1:25:12
  work for you. I can't sew a stitch on account of my eyes,
• 1:25:15
  so you'll have to see to the making and mending of their clothes. And
• 1:25:17
  you don't like sewing, I hate it, said Anne calmly. But if
• 1:25:21
  you are willing to take those children from a sense of duty, surely I
• 1:25:25
  can do their sewing. From a sense of duty. It does people good
• 1:25:28
  to have to do things they don't like. In moderation. End of chapter
• 1:25:32
  seven. Chapter eight, Marilla adopts twins. Missus Rachel Lynde was sitting at
• 1:25:40
  her kitchen window knitting a quilt, just as she had been sitting one evening
• 1:25:43
  several years previously when Matthew Cuthbert had driven down over the hill with what Missus
• 1:25:47
  Rachel called his imported orphan. But that had been in springtime, and this
• 1:25:51
  was late autumn, and all the woods reliefless, in the fields sere and
• 1:25:56
  brown. The sun was just setting with a great deal of purple and golden
• 1:25:59
  pone behind the dark woods west of Avonlea. When a buggy drawn by a
• 1:26:02
  comfortable brown nag came down the hill, Missus Rachel peered at it eagerly.
• 1:26:08
  There's Marilla getting home from the funeral, she said to her husband, who
• 1:26:12
  was lying on the kitchen lounge. Thomas Lynde lay more on the lounge nowadays
• 1:26:15
  than he had been used to do. But Missus Rachel, who was so
• 1:26:18
  sharp at noticing anything beyond her own household, had not as yet noticed this.
• 1:26:23
  And she's got the twins with her. Yes, there's Davy leaning over
• 1:26:26
  the dashboard, grabbing at the pony's tail, and Marilla jerking him back.
• 1:26:30
  Dora sitting up on the seat as prim as you please. She always looks
• 1:26:33
  as if she'd just been starched and ironed. Well, poor Marilla is going
• 1:26:36
  to have her hands full this winter, and no mistake. Still, I
• 1:26:40
  don't see that she could do anything less than take them under the circumstances.
• 1:26:44
  And she'll have Anne to help her. Anne stiggled to death over the whole
• 1:26:46
  business. And she has a real nacky way with children, I must say,
• 1:26:49
  dear me. It doesn't seem a day since poor Matthew brought Anne herself
• 1:26:54
  home, and everybody laughed at the idea of Marilla bringing up a child,
• 1:26:57
  And now she has adopted twins. You're never say from being surprised till you're
• 1:27:00
  dead. The fat pony jogged over the bridge in Lyne's Hollow and along the
• 1:27:04
  green Gables Lane. Marilla's face was rather grim. It was ten miles from
• 1:27:10
  East Grafton, and Davy Keith seemed to be possessed with a passion for perpetual
• 1:27:14
  motion. It was beyond Marilla's power to make him sit still, and she
• 1:27:16
  had been in an agony the whole way lest he fall over the back of
• 1:27:19
  the wagon and break his neck or tumble over the dashboard under the pony's heels.
• 1:27:25
  In despair, she finally threatened to whip him soundly when she got home,
• 1:27:28
  whereupon Davy climbed into her lap regardless of the reins, flung his chubby
• 1:27:31
  arms about her neck, and gave her a bear like hug. I don't
• 1:27:34
  believe you mean it, he said, smacking her wrinkled cheek affectionately. You
• 1:27:40
  don't look like a lady who'd whip a little boy just because he couldn't keep
• 1:27:43
  still. Didn't you find it awful hard to keep still when you was only
• 1:27:45
  as old as me. No, I always kept still when I was told,
• 1:27:49
  said Marilla, trying to speak sternly, albeit she felt her heart waxing
• 1:27:54
  soft within her under Davy's impulsive caresses. Well, I s'pose that was because
• 1:27:59
  you was a girl, said Davy, squirming back to his place after another
• 1:28:01
  hug. You was a girl once, I suppose, though it's awful funny
• 1:28:04
  to think of it. Dora can sit still, but there ain't much fun
• 1:28:09
  in it, I don't think. Seems to me it must be slow to
• 1:28:12
  be a girl. Here, Dora, let me liven you up a bit.
• 1:28:15
  Davy's method of livening up was to grasp Dora's curls and his fingers and
• 1:28:18
  give him a tug. Dora shrieked and then cried, how can you be
• 1:28:23
  such a naughty boy, and your poor mother just laid in her grave this
• 1:28:26
  very day, demanded Marilla despairingly. But she was glad to die, said
• 1:28:30
  Davy confidentially. I know cause she told me so. She was awful tired
• 1:28:34
  of being sick. We'd a long talk the night before she died. She
• 1:28:39
  told me you was goin to take me and Dora for the winter. And
• 1:28:41
  I was to be a good boy. I'm going to be good, But
• 1:28:44
  can't you be good running around just as well as sitting still? And she
• 1:28:47
  said I was always to be kind to Dora and stand up for her.
• 1:28:49
  And I'm going to do you call pulling her hair being kind to her.
• 1:28:54
  Well, I ain't gonna let anybody else pull it, said Davy, doubling
• 1:28:57
  up his fists and frowning. They just U better try it. I didn't
• 1:29:00
  hurt her much. She just cried cause she's a girl. I'm glad I'm
• 1:29:04
  a boy, but I'm sorry I'm a twin. When Jimmy's Sprought's sister Connor
• 1:29:09
  Dixon, he just says, I'm older'n' you, so course I know better,
• 1:29:12
  and that settles her. But I can't tell Dora that, and she
• 1:29:15
  just goes on thinkin different from me. You might let me drive the Gigi
• 1:29:19
  for a spell, since I'm a man altogether. Marilla was a thankful woman
• 1:29:25
  when she drove into her own yard, where the wind of the autumn night
• 1:29:28
  was dancing with the brown leaves. Anne was at the gate to meet them
• 1:29:30
  and lift the twins out. Dora submitted calmly to be kissed, but Davy
• 1:29:34
  responded to Anne's welcome with one of his hearty hugs and the cheerful announcement,
• 1:29:39
  I'm mister Davy Keith. At the supper table, Dora behaved like a little
• 1:29:43
  lady, but Davy's manners left much to be desired. I'm so hungry,
• 1:29:46
  I ain't got time to deep politely, he said, when Marilla reproved him,
• 1:29:49
  Dora ain't half as hungry as I am. Look at all the exercise
• 1:29:53
  I took on the road here. That cake's awful, nice and plummy.
• 1:29:56
  We haven't had any cake at home forever, never so long, cause mother
• 1:30:00
  too sick to make it, and Missus Sprott said it was as much as
• 1:30:01
  she could do to bake our bread for us, and Missus Wiggins never puts
• 1:30:04
  any plums in her cakes. Catch her? Can I have another piece?
• 1:30:09
  Marilla would have refused, but Anne cut a generous second slice. However,
• 1:30:13
  she reminded Davy that he ought to say thank you for it. Davy merely
• 1:30:16
  grinned at her and took a huge bite. When he had finished the slice,
• 1:30:19
  he said, if you'll give me another piece, I'll say thank ye
• 1:30:23
  for it. No, you have had plenty of cake, said Marilla,
• 1:30:27
  in a tone which Anne knew and Davy was to learn to be final.
• 1:30:30
  Davy winked at Anne, and then, leaning over the table, snatched Dora's
• 1:30:33
  first piece of cake, from which he had just taken one dainty little bite
• 1:30:36
  out of her very fingers, and opening his mouth to the fullest extent,
• 1:30:41
  crammed the whole slice in. Dora's lip trembled, and Marilla was speechless with
• 1:30:45
  horror. Anne promptly exclaimed with her best school ma'am air, Oh, Davy,
• 1:30:50
  gentlemen don't do things like that. I know they don't, said Davy
• 1:30:55
  as soon as he could speak. But I ain't a gentleman. But don't
• 1:30:58
  you want to be, said shocked Anne, course I do. But you
• 1:31:00
  can't be a gentleman till you grow up. Oh indeed you can, Anne
• 1:31:04
  hastened to say, thinking she saw a chance to sew good seed. Betimes,
• 1:31:09
  you can begin to be a gentleman when you are a little boy.
• 1:31:11
  And gentlemen never snatch things from ladies, or forget to say thank you,
• 1:31:15
  or pull anybody's hair. They don't have much fun. That's a fact,
• 1:31:18
  said Davy frankly, I guess I'll wait till I'm grown up to be one.
• 1:31:23
  Marilla, with a resigned air, had cut another piece of cake for
• 1:31:26
  Dora. She did not feel able to cope with Davy just then. It
• 1:31:30
  had been a hard day for her, what with the funeral and the long
• 1:31:32
  drive. At that moment, she looked forward to the future with a pessimism
• 1:31:35
  that would have done credit to Eliza Andrews herself. The twins were not noticeably
• 1:31:41
  alike, although both were fair. Dora had long, sleek curls that never
• 1:31:45
  got out of order. Davy had a crop of fuzzy, little yellow ringlets
• 1:31:47
  all over his round head. Dora's hazel eyes were gentle and mild, Davy's
• 1:31:53
  were as roguish and dancing as an ELF's. Dora's nose was straight, Davy's
• 1:31:57
  a positive snub. Dora had a prunes and PRISM's mouth. Davy's was all
• 1:32:01
  smiles, and besides, he had a dimple in one cheek and none in
• 1:32:04
  the other, which gave him a dear, comical, lopsided look when he
• 1:32:08
  laughed. Mirth and mischief lurked in every corner of his little face. They'd
• 1:32:13
  better go to bed, said Marilla, who thought it was the easiest way
• 1:32:15
  to dispose of them. Dora will sleep with me, and you can put
• 1:32:17
  Davy in the West Gable. You're not afraid to sleep alone, are you,
• 1:32:20
  Davy? No, but I ain't going to bed for ever so long
• 1:32:24
  yet, said Davy comfortably. Oh yes you are. That was all the
• 1:32:29
  much tried Marilla said, but something in her tone squelched even Davy. He
• 1:32:32
  trotted obediently upstairs with Anne. When I'm grown up, the very first thing
• 1:32:38
  I'm going to do is stay up all night, just to see what it
• 1:32:41
  would be like, he told her confidentially. In after years, Marilla never
• 1:32:45
  thought of that first week of the twin sojourn at Green Gables without a shiver.
• 1:32:49
  Not that it was really so much worse than the weeks that followed it,
• 1:32:53
  but it seemed so by reason of its novelty. There was seldom a
• 1:32:56
  waking minute of any day when Davy was not in mischief or devising it.
• 1:33:00
  But his first notable exploit occurred two days after his arrival, on Sunday morning,
• 1:33:04
  a fine, warm day as hazy and mild as September. Anne dressed
• 1:33:09
  him for church while Marilla attended to Dora. Davy at first objected strongly to
• 1:33:13
  having his face washed. Marilla washed it yesterday, and missus Wiggans scoured me
• 1:33:17
  with hard soap the day of the funeral. That's enough for one week.
• 1:33:20
  I don't see the good of being so awful clean. It's lots more comfortable
• 1:33:24
  being dirty. Paul Irving washes his face every day of his own, accord,
• 1:33:29
  said Anne astutely. Davy had been an inmate of green Gables for a
• 1:33:32
  little over forty eight hours, but he already worshiped Anne and hated Paul Irving,
• 1:33:36
  whom he had heard Anne praising enthusiastically the day after his arrival. If
• 1:33:42
  Paul Irving washed his face every day, that's settled it, he Davy.
• 1:33:45
  Keith would do it too if it killed him. The same consideration induced him
• 1:33:48
  to submit meekly to the other details of his toilet, and he was really
• 1:33:53
  a handsome little lad when all was done. Anne felt an almost maternal pride
• 1:33:57
  in him as she led him into the old Cuthbert Pew. Davy behaved quite
• 1:34:00
  well at first, being occupied and casting covert glances at all the small boys
• 1:34:04
  within view, and wondering which was Paul irving the first two hymns, and
• 1:34:09
  the scripture reading passed off uneventfully. Mister Allan was praying when the sensation came.
• 1:34:14
  Loretta White was sitting in front of Davy, her head slightly bent and
• 1:34:17
  her fair hair hanging in two long braids, between which a tempting expanse of
• 1:34:21
  white neck showed, encased in a loose lace frill. Loretta was a fat,
• 1:34:27
  placid looking child of eight, who had conducted herself irreproachably in church from
• 1:34:30
  the very first day her mother carried her there, an infant of six months.
• 1:34:34
  Davy thrust his hand into his pocket and produced a caterpillar, a furry,
• 1:34:39
  squirming caterpillar. Marilla saw and clutched at him, but she was too
• 1:34:43
  late. Davy dropped the caterpillar down Loretta's neck, right into the middle of
• 1:34:47
  mister Allan's prayer, burst a series of piercing shrieks. The minister stopped,
• 1:34:53
  appalled and opened his eyes. Every head and the congregation flew up. Loretta
• 1:34:57
  White was dancing up and down in her pew, clutching frantically at the back
• 1:35:00
  of her dress. Oh, mamma, mamma, Oh take it off.
• 1:35:03
  Oh, get it out all that bad boy put it down my neck.
• 1:35:09
  Oh, mamma, it's gone further down o O. Missus White rose,
• 1:35:15
  and with a set face, carried the hysterical writhing Loretta out of church.
• 1:35:18
  Her shrieks died away in the distance, and mister Allen proceeded with the service,
• 1:35:24
  but everybody felt that it was a failure that day. For the first
• 1:35:27
  time in her life, Marilla took no notice of the text, and Anne
• 1:35:30
  sat with scarlet cheeks of mortification. When they got home, Marilla put Davy
• 1:35:34
  to bed and made him stay there for the rest of the day. She
• 1:35:38
  would not give him any dinner, but allowed him a plain tea of bread
• 1:35:41
  and milk. Anne carried it to him and sat sorrowfully by him while he
• 1:35:45
  ate it with an unrepentant relish. But Anne's mournful eyes troubled him. I
• 1:35:49
  s'pose, he said reflectively that Paul Irving wouldn't have dropped a caterpillar down a
• 1:35:55
  girl's neck in church, would he. Indeed he wouldn't, said Anne sadly.
• 1:36:00
  Well, I'm kinda sorry I did it, then conceded Davy. But
• 1:36:03
  it was such a jolly big caterpillar. I picked him up on the church
• 1:36:06
  steps just as we went in. It seemed a pity to waste him and
• 1:36:11
  say, wasn't it fun to hear that girl yell? Tuesday afternoon, the
• 1:36:15
  AID Society met at Green Gables. Anne hurried home from school, for she
• 1:36:19
  knew that Marilla would need all the assistance she could give. Dora, neat
• 1:36:24
  and proper in her nicely starched white dress and black sash, was sitting with
• 1:36:27
  the members of the aid in the parlor, speaking demurely when spoken to,
• 1:36:30
  keeping silence when not, and in every way comporting herself as if moudal child.
• 1:36:35
  Davy blissfully dirty, was making mud pies in the barn yard. I
• 1:36:39
  told him he might, said Marilla wearily. I thought it would keep him
• 1:36:43
  out of worse mischief. He can only get dirty at that. We'll have
• 1:36:46
  our teas over before we call him to his Dora can have hers with us,
• 1:36:50
  But I would never dare to let Davy sit down at the table with
• 1:36:53
  all the Aids here. When Anne went to call the Aids to tea,
• 1:36:57
  she found that Dora was not in the parlor. Missus Jasper Bell said Davy
• 1:37:00
  had come to the front door and called her out. A hasty consultation with
• 1:37:03
  Marilla and the pantry resulted in a decision to let both children have their teas
• 1:37:08
  together. Later on, tea was half over when the dining room was invaded
• 1:37:12
  by a forlorn figure. Marilla and Anne stared in dismay the aids in amazement.
• 1:37:16
  Could that be Dora? That sobbing, nondescript and a drenched, dripping
• 1:37:20
  dress and hair from which the water was streaming on Marilla's new coin spot rug.
• 1:37:26
  Dora, what has happened to you? Cried Anne, with a guilty
• 1:37:29
  glance at missus Jasper Bell, whose family was said to be the only one
• 1:37:31
  in the world in which accidents never occurred. Davy made me walk the pig
• 1:37:36
  pen fence, well, Dora, I didn't want to, but he called
• 1:37:40
  me a fraidy cat, and I fell off into the pigpen and my dress
• 1:37:44
  got all dirty and the pig run right over me. My dress was just
• 1:37:48
  awful, But Davy said if i'd stand under the pump, he'd wash it
• 1:37:51
  clean. And I did, and he pumped water all over me. But
• 1:37:55
  my dress ain't a bit cleaner, and my pretty sash and chooses all well
• 1:38:00
  spoiled. Anne did the honors of the table alone for the rest of the
• 1:38:03
  meal, while Marilla went upstairs and redressed Dora in her old clothes. Davy
• 1:38:08
  was caught and sent to bed without any supper. Anne went to his room
• 1:38:12
  at twilight and talked to him seriously, a method in which she had great
• 1:38:15
  faith, not altogether unjustified by results. She told him she felt very badly
• 1:38:19
  over his conduct. I feel sorry now myself, admitted Davy. But the
• 1:38:25
  trouble is I never feel sorry for doing things till after I've did them.
• 1:38:29
  Dora wouldn't help me make pies cause she was afraid of messing her clothes,
• 1:38:32
  and that made me hopin mad. I suppose Paul Irving wouldn't have made his
• 1:38:36
  sister walk a pig pen fence if he knew she'd fall in. No,
• 1:38:41
  he would never dream of such a thing. Paul is a perfect little gentleman.
• 1:38:45
  Davy screwed his eyes tight shut and seemed to meditate on this for a
• 1:38:48
  time. Then he crawled up and put his arms about Anne's neck, snuggling
• 1:38:53
  his flushed little face down on her shoulder. Anne, don't you like me
• 1:38:57
  a little bit? Even if I ain't a good boy? Like indeed,
• 1:39:00
  I do, said Anne sincerely. Somehow it was impossible to help liking Davy.
• 1:39:05
  But i'd like you better still if you weren't so naughty. I did
• 1:39:10
  something else to day, went on Davy in a muffled voice. I'm sorry
• 1:39:14
  now, but I'm awful scared to tell you. You won't be very cross,
• 1:39:17
  will you? And you won't tell Marilla, will you? I don't
• 1:39:20
  know, Davy. Perhaps I ought to tell her, but I think I
• 1:39:24
  can promise you I won't if you promise me that you will never do it
• 1:39:27
  again. Whatever it is, No, I never will. Anyhow, It's
• 1:39:30
  not likely i'd find any more of them this year. I found this one
• 1:39:33
  on the cellar's steps. Davy, What is it you've done? I put
• 1:39:38
  a toad in Marilla's bed. You can go and take it out if you
• 1:39:41
  like, But say Anne, wouldn't it be fun to leave it there?
• 1:39:45
  Davy Keith. Anne sprang from Davy's clinging arms and flew across the hall to
• 1:39:49
  Marilla's room. The bed was slightly rumpled. She threw back the blankets in
• 1:39:54
  nervous haste, and there, in very truth was the toad blinking at her
• 1:39:58
  from under a pillow. How can I I carry that awful thing out,
• 1:40:00
  moaned Anne with a shudder. The fire shovel suggested itself to her, and
• 1:40:04
  she crept down to get it. While Marilla was busy in the pantry,
• 1:40:08
  Anne had her own troubles carrying that toe downstairs, for it hopped off the
• 1:40:12
  shovel three times, and once she thought she had lost it in the hall.
• 1:40:15
  When she finally deposited it in the cherry orchard, she drew a long
• 1:40:18
  breath of relief. If Marilla knew she'd never feel safe getting into bed again
• 1:40:23
  in her life. I'm so glad that little sinner repented in time. There's
• 1:40:28
  Diana signaling to me from her window. I'm glad I really feel the need
• 1:40:31
  of some diversion, for what with Anthony Pye and school and Davy Keith at
• 1:40:34
  home, my nerves have had about all they can endure for one day.
• 1:40:40
  End of chapter eight, Chapter nine, a question of color. That old
• 1:40:45
  nuisance of Rachel Lynde was here again to day, pestering me for a subscription
• 1:40:48
  towards buying a carpet for the vestry room. Said mister Harrison wrathfully. I
• 1:40:53
  detest that woman more than anybody I know. She can put a whole sermon,
• 1:40:57
  text, comment, and application into six words and throw it at you
• 1:41:00
  like a brick. Anne, who was perched on the edge of the Verandah
• 1:41:03
  enjoying the charm of a mild west wind blowing across a newly plowed field on
• 1:41:08
  a gray November twilight and piping a quaint little melody among the twisted furs below
• 1:41:13
  the garden, turned her dreamy face over her shoulder. The trouble is you
• 1:41:16
  and missus Lynde don't understand one another, she explained. That is always what
• 1:41:20
  is wrong when people don't like each other. I didn't like missus Lynde at
• 1:41:25
  first either, but as soon as I came to understand her, I learned
• 1:41:27
  to missus Lynde may be an acquired taste with some folks, but I didn't
• 1:41:30
  keep on eating bananas because I was told i'd learned to like them if I
• 1:41:33
  did, growled mister Harrison. And as for understanding her, I understand that
• 1:41:38
  she is a confirmed busy buddy, and I told her so. Oh that
• 1:41:41
  must have hurt her feelings very much, said Anne, reproachfully. How could
• 1:41:45
  you say such a thing, I said, Some dreadful things to missus Lynde
• 1:41:47
  long ago, but it was when I had lost my temper. I couldn't
• 1:41:50
  say them deliberately. It was the truth, and I believe in telling the
• 1:41:55
  truth to everybody. But you don't tell the whole truth, objected, Anne,
• 1:42:00
  You only tell the disagreeable part of the truth. Now you've told me
• 1:42:02
  a dozen times that my hair was red, but you've never once told me
• 1:42:05
  that I had a nice nose. I dare say you know it without any
• 1:42:09
  telling, chuckled, mister Harrison. I know I have red hair too,
• 1:42:13
  although it's much darker than it used to be, so there's no need of
• 1:42:15
  telling me that either. Well, well, I'll try and not mention it
• 1:42:19
  again. Since you're so sensitive, you must excuse me, Anne, I've
• 1:42:23
  got a habit of being outspoken and folks mustn't mind it, but they can't
• 1:42:27
  help minding it. And I don't think it's any help that it's your habit.
• 1:42:30
  What would you think of a person who went about sticking pins and needles
• 1:42:32
  into people and saying, excuse me, you mustn't mind it. It's just
• 1:42:35
  a habit I've got. You'd think he was crazy, wouldn't you? And
• 1:42:39
  As for Missus Lynde being a busybody, perhaps she is, But did you
• 1:42:43
  tell her she had a very kind heart and always helped the poor and never
• 1:42:45
  said a word. When Timothy Cotton stole a crock of butter out of her
• 1:42:48
  dairy and told his wife he'd bought it from her, Missus Cotton cast it
• 1:42:53
  up to her the next time they met that it tasted of turnips, and
• 1:42:55
  Missus Lynde just said she was sorry it had turned out so poorly. I
• 1:42:59
  suppose she has some good qualities, conceded mister Harrison grudgingly. Most folks have.
• 1:43:03
  I have some myself, though you might never suspect it. But anyhow,
• 1:43:09
  I ain't going to give anything to that carpet. Folks are everlasting begging
• 1:43:13
  for money here. It seems to me, how's your project of painting the
• 1:43:15
  hall coming on? Splendidly? We had a meeting of the avs last Friday
• 1:43:19
  night and found that we had plenty of money subscribed to paint the hall and
• 1:43:23
  shingle the roof too. Most people gave very liberally, mister Harrison. Anne
• 1:43:28
  was a sweet souled lass, but she could instill some venom into innocent italics
• 1:43:31
  when occasion required. What color are you going to have it? We have
• 1:43:35
  decided on a very pretty green. The roof will be dark red, of
• 1:43:39
  course. Mister Roger Pye is going to get the paint in town to day.
• 1:43:42
  Who's got the job? Mister Joshua Pie of Carmody. He's nearly finished
• 1:43:45
  the shingling. We had to give him the contract for every one of the
• 1:43:48
  Pies. And there are four families you know, said they wouldn't give a
• 1:43:53
  cent unless Joshua got it. They had subscribed twelve dollars between them, and
• 1:43:57
  we thought that was too much to lose. Although some people think we shouldn't
• 1:44:00
  have given it to the Pies, Missus Lynde says they try to run everything.
• 1:44:03
  The main question is will this Joshua do his work? Well? If
• 1:44:08
  he does, I don't see that it matters whether his name is Pie or
• 1:44:10
  Pudding. He has the reputation of being a good workman. Though they say
• 1:44:15
  he's a very peculiar man. He hardly ever talks. He's peculiar enough,
• 1:44:18
  all right, then, said mister Harrison dryly. Or at least folks here
• 1:44:23
  will call him so. I never was much of a talker. Till I
• 1:44:26
  came to Avonlea, and then I had to begin in self defense, or
• 1:44:29
  missus Lynde would have said I was dumb and started a subscription to have me
• 1:44:31
  taught sign language. You're not going yet, Anne, I must I have
• 1:44:35
  some sewing to do for Dora this evening. Besides, Davy is probably breaking
• 1:44:40
  Marilla's heart with some new mischief by this time this morning. The first thing
• 1:44:44
  he said was where does the dark go? Anne, I want to know.
• 1:44:46
  I told him it went round to the other side of the world,
• 1:44:49
  but after breakfast he declared it didn't that it went down the well. Marilla
• 1:44:54
  says she caught him hanging over the well box four times to day, trying
• 1:44:57
  to reach down to the dark. He's a limb, declared Harrison. He
• 1:45:00
  came over here yesterday and pulled six feathers out of Ginger's tail before I could
• 1:45:03
  get in from the barn. The poor bird has been moping ever since.
• 1:45:06
  Those children must be a sight of trouble to you folks. Everything that's worth
• 1:45:11
  having is some trouble, said Anne, secretly, resolving to forgive Davy's next
• 1:45:15
  offense, whatever it might be, since he had avenged her on ginger.
• 1:45:19
  Mister Roger Pye brought the hall paint home that night, and mister Joshua Pye,
• 1:45:24
  a surly taciturn man, began painting the next day. He was not
• 1:45:28
  disturbed in his task. The hall was situated on what was called the Lower
• 1:45:31
  Road in late autumn. This road was always muddy and wet, and people
• 1:45:34
  going to Carmody traveled by the longer Upper Road. The hall was so closely
• 1:45:40
  surrounded by fir woods that it was invisible unless you were near it. Mister
• 1:45:43
  Joshua Pye painted away in the solitude and independence that were so dear to his
• 1:45:46
  unsociable heart. Friday afternoon, he finished his job and went home to Carmody.
• 1:45:51
  Soon after his departure, Missus Rachel Lynde drove by, having braved the
• 1:45:56
  mud of the Lower Road out of curiosity, to see what the hall looked
• 1:45:59
  like in its new coat of paint. When she rounded the spruce curve,
• 1:46:01
  she saw the sight affected Missus Lynde oddly. She dropped the reins, held
• 1:46:06
  up her hands and said, gracious Providence. She stared as if she could
• 1:46:11
  not believe her eyes. Then she laughed, almost hysterically. There must be
• 1:46:15
  some mistake there must I knew those pies would make a mess of things.
• 1:46:19
  Missus Lynde drove home, meeting several people on the road and stopping to tell
• 1:46:24
  them about the hall. The news flew like wildfire. Gilbert blythe poring over
• 1:46:29
  a text book at home, heard it from his father's hired boy at sunset,
• 1:46:32
  and rushed breathlessly to green Gables. Joined on the way by Fred Wright,
• 1:46:35
  they found Diana Barry, Jane Andrews, and Anne Shirley, despair personified
• 1:46:41
  at the yard gate of green Gables under the big leafless willows. It isn't
• 1:46:45
  true, surely, Anne, exclaimed Gilbert. It is true, answered Anne,
• 1:46:49
  looking like the muse of tragedy. Missus Lynde called on her way from
• 1:46:53
  Carmody to tell me, oh, it is simply dreadful. What is the
• 1:46:57
  use of trying to improve anything is dreadful? Asked Oliver Sloane, arriving at
• 1:47:01
  this moment with a band box he had brought from town for Marilla. Haven't
• 1:47:04
  you heard, said Jane wrathfully, While it's simply this, Joshua Pye has
• 1:47:10
  gone and painted the hall blue instead of green, a deep, brilliant blue.
• 1:47:15
  The shade they used for painting carts and wheelbarrows, and missus Lynde says
• 1:47:18
  it is the most hideous color for a building, especially when combined with a
• 1:47:23
  red roof that she ever saw or imagined. You could simply have knocked me
• 1:47:27
  down with a feather when I heard it. It's heart breaking. After all
• 1:47:30
  the trouble we've had, How on earth could such a mistake have happened?
• 1:47:33
  Wailed Diana. The blame of this unmerciful disaster was eventually narrowed down to the
• 1:47:39
  pies. The Improvers had decided to use Morton Harris paints, and the Morton
• 1:47:44
  Harris paint cans were numbered according to a color card. A purchaser chose his
• 1:47:47
  shade on the card and ordered by the accompanying number. Number. One forty
• 1:47:51
  seven was the shade of green desired. And when mister Roger Pye sent word
• 1:47:56
  to the Improvers by his son John Andrew, that he was going to town
• 1:47:59
  and would get paint for them, the Improvers told John Andrew to tell his
• 1:48:02
  father to get one forty seven. John Andrew always averred that he did so,
• 1:48:06
  but mister Roger Pye as staunchly declared that John Andrew told him one fifty
• 1:48:11
  seven, and there the matter stands to this day. That night there was
• 1:48:15
  blank dismay in every Avonlea house where an improver lived. The gloom at green
• 1:48:19
  Gables was so intense that it quenched. Even davy Anne wept and would not
• 1:48:25
  be comforted. I must cry, even if I am almost seventeen. Marilla,
• 1:48:29
  she sobbed. It is so mortifying, and it sounds the death knell
• 1:48:32
  of our society will simply be laughed out of existence. In life, as
• 1:48:39
  in dreams, however, things often go by contraries. The Avonlea people did
• 1:48:43
  not laugh. They were too angry. Their money had gone to paint the
• 1:48:46
  hall, and consequently they felt themselves bitterly aggrieved by the mistake. Public indignations
• 1:48:51
  centered on the pies. Roger Pye and John Andrew had bungled the matter between
• 1:48:56
  them, And as for Joshua Pye, he must be a born fool not
• 1:49:00
  to suspect there was something wrong when he opened the cans and saw the color
• 1:49:02
  of the paint. Joshua Pye, when thus Annam adverted upon, retorted that
• 1:49:06
  the Avonlea tasting colors was no business of his whatever his private opinion might be,
• 1:49:11
  he had been hired to paint the hall, not to talk about it,
• 1:49:14
  and he meant to have his money for it. The Improvers paid him
• 1:49:16
  his money in bitterness of spirit, after consulting mister Peter Sloane, who was
• 1:49:19
  a magistrate. You'll have to pay it. Peter told them you can't hold
• 1:49:25
  him responsible for the mistake, since he claims he was never told what the
• 1:49:27
  color was supposed to be, but just given the cans untild to go ahead.
• 1:49:30
  But it's a burning shame, and that hall certainly does look awful.
• 1:49:34
  The luckless Improvers expected that Avonlea would be more prejudiced than ever against them,
• 1:49:39
  but instead public sympathy veered around in their favor. People thought the eager,
• 1:49:44
  enthusiastic little band who had worked so hard for their object, had been badly
• 1:49:47
  used. Missus Lynde told them to keep on and show the pies that there
• 1:49:50
  really were people in the world who could do things without making a muddle of
• 1:49:54
  them. Mister Major Spencer sent them word that he would clean out all the
• 1:49:57
  stumps along the road front of his farm and seed it down with the grass
• 1:50:00
  at his own expense, and Missus Hiram Sloane called at the school one day
• 1:50:03
  and beckoned Anne mysteriously out into the porch to tell her that if the society
• 1:50:08
  wanted to make a geranium bed at the cross roads in the spring, they
• 1:50:11
  needn't be afraid of her cow, for she would see that the marauding animal
• 1:50:14
  was kept within safe bounds. Even mister Harrison chuckled, if he chuckled at
• 1:50:17
  all in private, and was all sympathy outwardly. Never mind, Anne,
• 1:50:23
  most paints fade uglier every year, but that blue is as ugly as it
• 1:50:26
  can be to begin with, so it's bound to frad prettier, and the
• 1:50:30
  ruf is shingled and painted. All right, folks will be able to sit
• 1:50:32
  in the hall after this without being leaked on. You've accomplished so much anyhow,
• 1:50:36
  But Avonlea's blue hall will be a byward in all the neighboring settlements from
• 1:50:41
  this time out, said Anne bitterly. And it must be confessed that it
• 1:50:45
  was end of chapter nine, Chapter ten Davy in search of a sensation.
• 1:50:54
  Anne, walking home from school through the birch path one November afternoon, felt
• 1:50:58
  convinced afresh that Lie was a very wonderful thing. The day had been a
• 1:51:02
  good day, All had gone well in her little kingdom. Saint Claire Dunnell
• 1:51:06
  had not fought any of the other boys over the question of his name.
• 1:51:10
  Prillie Rogerson's face had been so puffed up from the effects of toothache that she
• 1:51:14
  did not once try to get kept with the boys in her vicinity. Barbara
• 1:51:16
  Shaw had met with only one accident, spilling a dipper of water over the
• 1:51:19
  floor, and Anthony Pye had not been in school at all. What a
• 1:51:25
  nice month this November has been, said Anne, who had never quite got
• 1:51:29
  over her childish habit of talking to herself. November is usually such a disagreeable
• 1:51:33
  month, as if the year had suddenly found out that she was growing old
• 1:51:36
  and could do nothing but weep and fret over it. This year is growing
• 1:51:41
  old gracefully, just like a stately old lady who knows she can be charming
• 1:51:45
  even with gray hair and wrinkles. We've had lovely days and delicious twilights.
• 1:51:49
  This last fortnight has been so peaceful, and even Davy has been almost well
• 1:51:54
  behaved. I really think he is improving a great deal. How quiet the
• 1:51:59
  woods are to day, not a murmur, except that soft wind purring in
• 1:52:01
  the tree tops. It sounds like surf on a far away shore. How
• 1:52:06
  dear the woods, are you, beautiful trees? I love every one of
• 1:52:10
  you as a friend. Anne paused to throw her arm about a slim,
• 1:52:14
  young birch and kiss its cream white trunk. Diana, rounding a curve in
• 1:52:17
  the path, saw her and laughed, Anne, surely you're only pretending to
• 1:52:21
  be grown up. I believe when you're alone, you're as much a little
• 1:52:25
  girl as you ever were. Well, one can't get over the habit of
• 1:52:28
  being a little girl all at once, said Anne gaily. You see,
• 1:52:31
  I was a little girl for fourteen years, and I've only been grown upish
• 1:52:34
  for scarcely three. I'm sure I shall always feel like a child in the
• 1:52:38
  woods. These walks home from school are almost the only time I have for
• 1:52:42
  dreaming, except for the half hour or so before I go to sleep.
• 1:52:45
  I'm so busy with teaching and studying and helping Marilla with the twins that I
• 1:52:49
  haven't another moment for imagining things. You don't know what splendid adventures I have
• 1:52:54
  for a little while after I go to bed. In the east Gable every
• 1:52:57
  night, I always imagine I'm something very brilliant and triumphant and splendid, a
• 1:53:01
  great prima donna, or a Red Cross nurse, or a queen. Last
• 1:53:05
  night I was a queen. It's really splendid to imagine you're a queen.
• 1:53:09
  You have all the fun of it without any of the inconveniences, and you
• 1:53:13
  can stop being a queen whenever you want to, which you couldn't in real
• 1:53:15
  life. But here in the woods I like best to imagine quite different things.
• 1:53:19
  I'm a dryad living in an old pine, or a little brown wood
• 1:53:24
  elf hiding under a crinkled leaf. That white birch you caught me kissing is
• 1:53:28
  a sister of mine. The only difference is she's a tree and I'm a
• 1:53:30
  girl. But that's no real difference. Where are you going, Diana?
• 1:53:34
  Down to the Dixons I promise to help Alberta cut out her new dress.
• 1:53:39
  Can't you walk down in the evening, Anne and come home with me?
• 1:53:42
  I might, since Fred Wright is away in town, said Anne with a
• 1:53:45
  rather too innocent face. Diana blushed, tossed her head, and walked on.
• 1:53:49
  She did not look offended, However, Anne fully intended to go down
• 1:53:55
  to the Dixons that evening, but she did not. When she arrived at
• 1:53:58
  Green Gables, she found a state of affairs which banished every other thought from
• 1:54:01
  her mind. Marilla met her in the yard a wild eyed Marilla Anne,
• 1:54:05
  Dora is lost. Dora lost. Anne looked at Davy, who was swinging
• 1:54:11
  on the yard gate, and detected merriment in his eyes. Davy, do
• 1:54:14
  you know where she is? No, I don't, said Davy, stoutly.
• 1:54:17
  I haven't seen her since dinner time. Cross my heart. I've been
• 1:54:20
  away ever since one o'clock, said Marilla. Thomas Lynde took sick all of
• 1:54:25
  a sudden, and Rachel sent up for me to go at once. When
• 1:54:28
  I left here, Dora was playing with her doll in the kitchen, and
• 1:54:30
  Davy was making mud pies behind the barn. I only got home half an
• 1:54:32
  hour ago, and no Dora to be seen. Davy declares he never saw
• 1:54:36
  her since I left. Neither I did, avowed Davy. Solemnly. She
• 1:54:41
  must be somewhere around, said Anne. She would never wander far away alone.
• 1:54:45
  You know how timid she is. Perhaps she has fallen asleep in one
• 1:54:47
  of the rooms. Marilla shook her head. I've hunted the whole house through,
• 1:54:53
  but she may be in some of the buildings. A thorough search followed.
• 1:54:57
  Every corner of house, yard and out build moldings was ransacked by those
• 1:55:00
  two distracted people. Anne roved the orchards and the haunted wood, calling Dora's
• 1:55:05
  name. Marilla took a candle and explored the cellar. Davy accompanied each of
• 1:55:10
  them in turn, and was fertile in thinking of places where Dora could possibly
• 1:55:13
  be. Finally they met again in the yard. It's a most mysterious thing,
• 1:55:17
  groaned Marilla. Where can she be? Said Anne miserably. Maybe she's
• 1:55:21
  tumbled into the well, suggested Davy cheerfully. Anne and Marilla looked fearfully into
• 1:55:27
  each other's eyes. The thought had been with them both through their entire search,
• 1:55:31
  that neither had dared to put it into words. She she might have,
• 1:55:35
  whispered Marilla. Anne, feeling faint and sick, went to the well
• 1:55:40
  box and peered over the buckets sat on the shelf and side. Far down
• 1:55:45
  below was a tiny glimmer of still water. The Cuthbert Well was the deepest
• 1:55:48
  in Avonlea. If Dora, but Anne could not face the idea. She
• 1:55:53
  shuddered and turned away, run across from mister Harrison, said Marilla, wringing
• 1:55:57
  her hands. Mister Harrison and John Henry are both away. They went to
• 1:56:00
  town to day. I'll go for mister Barry. Mister Barry came back with
• 1:56:04
  Anne, carrying a coil of rope, to which was attached to claw like
• 1:56:08
  instrument that had been the business end of a grubbing fork. Marilla and Anne
• 1:56:12
  stood by, cold and shaken with horror and dread, while mister Barry dragged
• 1:56:15
  the well and Davy astride the gate watched the group with a face indicative of
• 1:56:19
  huge enjoyment. Finally, mister Barry shook his head with a relieved air.
• 1:56:24
  She can't be down there. It's a mighty curious thing where she could have
• 1:56:27
  got to, though, Look here, young man, are you sure you've
• 1:56:30
  no idea where your sister is? I've told you a dozen times that I
• 1:56:33
  haven't, said Davy, with an injured air. Maybe a tramp come and
• 1:56:36
  stole her, nonsense, said Marilla, sharply, relieved from our horrible fear
• 1:56:42
  of the well, Anne, do you suppose she could have strayed over to
• 1:56:45
  mister Harrison's She has always been talking about his parrot ever since that time you
• 1:56:48
  took her over. I can't believe Dora would venture so far alone, but
• 1:56:53
  I'll go over and see, said Anne. Nobody was looking at Davy just
• 1:56:57
  then, or it would have been seen that a very decided came over his
• 1:57:00
  face. He quietly slipped off the gate and ran as fast as his fat
• 1:57:04
  legs could carry him to the barn. Anne hastened across the fields to the
• 1:57:09
  Harrison establishment in no very hopeful frame of mind. The house was locked,
• 1:57:13
  the window shades were down, and there was no sign of anything living about
• 1:57:15
  the place. She stood on the veranda and called Dora loudly ginger, and
• 1:57:20
  the kitchen behind her shrieked and swore with sudden fierceness. But between his outbursts,
• 1:57:26
  Anne heard a plaintive cry from the little building in the yard, which
• 1:57:29
  served mister Harrison as a tool house. Anne flew to the door unhasped,
• 1:57:33
  and caught up a small mortal with a tear stained face, who was sitting
• 1:57:36
  forlornly on an upturned nail. Keg Oh, Dora, Dora, what a
• 1:57:41
  fright you've given us? How came you to be here? Davy, and
• 1:57:44
  I came over to see Ginger, sobbed Dora. But we couldn't see him
• 1:57:47
  after all. Only Davy made him swear by kicking the door. And then
• 1:57:50
  Davy brought me here and run out and shut the door, and I couldn't
• 1:57:54
  get out. I cried and cried, I was frightened, and oh,
• 1:57:58
  I'm so hungry and cold, and I thought you'd never come, Anne,
• 1:58:01
  Davy. But Anne could say no more. She carried Dora home with a
• 1:58:06
  heavy heart. Her joy at finding the child safe and sound was drowned out
• 1:58:10
  in the pain caused by Davy's behavior. The freak of shutting Dora up might
• 1:58:15
  easily have been pardoned, but Davy had told falsehoods, down right, cold
• 1:58:18
  blooded falsehoods about it. That was the ugly fact, and Anne could not
• 1:58:24
  shut her eyes to it. She could have sat down and cried with sheer
• 1:58:27
  disappointment. She had grown to love Davy dearly, how dearly she had not
• 1:58:30
  known until this minute, and it hurt her unbearably to discover that he was
• 1:58:34
  guilty of deliberate falsehood. Marilla listened to Anne's tail in a silence that boded
• 1:58:40
  no good Davy word, mister Barry laughed and advised that Davy be summarily dealt
• 1:58:45
  with. When he had gone home, Anne soothed and warmed the sobbing,
• 1:58:47
  shivering. Dora, got her her supper and put her to bed. Then
• 1:58:51
  she returned to the kitchen just as Marilla came grimly in, leading, or
• 1:58:56
  rather pulling the reluctant cobwebby Davy, whom she had just fo hidden away in
• 1:59:00
  the darkest corner of the stable. She jerked him to the mat on the
• 1:59:03
  middle of the floor, and then went and sat down by the east window.
• 1:59:08
  Anne was sitting limply by the west window. Between them stood the culprit.
• 1:59:13
  His back was toward Marilla, and it was a meek, subdued,
• 1:59:15
  frightened back, But his face was toward Anne, and although it was a
• 1:59:18
  little shame faced, there was a gleam of comradeship in Davy's eyes, as
• 1:59:23
  if he knew he had done wrong and was going to be punished for it,
• 1:59:25
  but could count on a laugh over it all with Anne later on.
• 1:59:29
  But no half hidden smile answered him in Anne's gray eyes, as there might
• 1:59:31
  have done had it been only a question of mischief. There was something else,
• 1:59:36
  something ugly and repulsive. How could you behave so, Davy, she
• 1:59:41
  asked sorrowfully. Davy squirmed uncomfortably. I just did it for fun. Things
• 1:59:46
  have been so awful quiet here for so long that I thought it would be
• 1:59:49
  fun to give you folks a big scare. It was too in spite of
• 1:59:55
  fear and a little remorse. Davy grinned over the recollection. But you told
• 1:59:59
  a fun elsehood about it, Davy said Anne, more sorrowfully than ever.
• 2:00:02
  Davy looked puzzled. What's a falsehood? Do you mean a whopper? I
• 2:00:08
  mean a story that was not true? Course I did, said Davy frankly.
• 2:00:12
  If I hadn't, you wouldn't have been scared. I had to tell
• 2:00:15
  it. Anne was feeling the reaction from her fright and exertions. Davy's impenitent
• 2:00:19
  attitude gave the finishing touch. Two big tears brimmed up in her eyes.
• 2:00:26
  Oh Davy, how could you, she said, with a quiver in her
• 2:00:29
  voice. Don't you know how wrong? It was? Davy was aghast Anne
• 2:00:34
  crying he had made Anne cry. A flood of real remorse rolled like a
• 2:00:40
  wave over his warm little heart and engulfed it. He rushed to Anne hurled
• 2:00:44
  himself into her lap, flung his arms around her neck, and burst into
• 2:00:46
  tears. I didn't know I was wrong to tell whoppers, he sobbed.
• 2:00:50
  How'd ye expect me to know it was wrong? All Mistress Sprat's children told
• 2:00:55
  him regular every day and crossed their hearts too. I suppose Paul Irving never
• 2:00:59
  tells, and you've been trying awful hard to be as good as him.
• 2:01:01
  But now I suppose you'll never love me again. But I think you might
• 2:01:05
  have told me it was wrong. I'm awful sorry I've made you cry,
• 2:01:09
  Anne, and I'll never tell a wopper again. Davy buried his face in
• 2:01:13
  Anne's shoulder and cried stormily. Anne, in a sudden glad flash of understanding,
• 2:01:17
  held him tight and looked over his curly thatch at Marilla. He didn't
• 2:01:23
  know it was wrong to tell Falsehood's Marilla. I think we must forgive him
• 2:01:26
  for that part of it this time. If he will promise never to say
• 2:01:29
  what isn't true again, I never will, now that I know it's bad,
• 2:01:32
  A separated Davy between sobs. If you ever catch me tellin' a wopper
• 2:01:36
  again, you can Davy groped mentally for a suitable penance. You can skin
• 2:01:41
  me alive. Anne, don't say whopper, Davy say falsehood, said the
• 2:01:45
  schoolmam. Why, queried Davy, settling comfortably down and looking up with the
• 2:01:49
  tears stained investigating face. Why ain't wopper as good as falsehood? I wanna
• 2:01:55
  know it's just as big a word. It's slang, and it's wrong for
• 2:01:59
  little boys to use lang. There's an awful lot of things it's wrong to
• 2:02:02
  do, said Davy with a sigh. I never s'pose there was so many.
• 2:02:08
  I'm sorry it's wrong to tell what falsehoods cause it's awful handy. But
• 2:02:13
  since it is, I'm never going to tell any more. What are you
• 2:02:15
  going to do to me for tell him this time? I wanna know?
• 2:02:18
  Anne looked beseechingly at Marilla. I don't want to be too hard on the
• 2:02:23
  child, said Marilla. I dare say nobody ever did tell him it was
• 2:02:27
  wrong to tell lies, and those sprot children were no frit companions for him.
• 2:02:30
  Poor Mary was too sick to train him properly. And I presume you
• 2:02:33
  couldn't expect a six year old child to know things like that by instinct.
• 2:02:38
  I suppose we'll just have to assume he doesn't know anything right and begin at
• 2:02:42
  the beginning. But he'll have to be punished for shutting Dora up. And
• 2:02:45
  I can't think of any way except to send him to bed without his supper,
• 2:02:47
  and we've done that so often. Can't you suggest something else? Anne?
• 2:02:51
  I should think you ought to be able to with that imagination you're always
• 2:02:55
  talking of. But punishments are so horrid, and I like to imagine only
• 2:03:00
  pleasant things, said Anne, cuddling Davy. There are so many unpleasant things
• 2:03:03
  in the world already that there's no use imagining any more. In the end,
• 2:03:09
  Davy was sent to bed as usual, there to remain until noon next
• 2:03:12
  day. He evidently did some thinking, for when Anne went up to her
• 2:03:15
  room a little later, she heard him calling her name softly. Going in,
• 2:03:19
  she found him sitting up in bed, with his elbows on his knees
• 2:03:21
  and his chin propped on his hands. Anne, he said, solemnly,
• 2:03:27
  is it wrong for everybody to tell what falsehoods? I wanna know? Yes?
• 2:03:30
  Indeed, is it wrong for a grown up person? Yes? Then,
• 2:03:36
  said Davy decidedly. Marilla is bad, for she tells them, and
• 2:03:41
  she's worse than me. For I didn't know it was wrong, but she
• 2:03:44
  does, Davy Keith. Marilla never told a story in her life, said
• 2:03:47
  Anne, indignantly. She did so. She told me last Tuesday that something
• 2:03:51
  dreadful would happen to me if I didn't say my prayers every night, and
• 2:03:55
  I haven't said him for over a week, just to see what would happen,
• 2:03:58
  and nothing has, concluded Davy, in a grieved tone, Anne choked
• 2:04:02
  back a mad desire to laugh, with a conviction that it would be fatal,
• 2:04:06
  and then earnestly set about saving Marilla's reputation. Why, Davy Keith,
• 2:04:12
  she said, solemnly, something dreadful has happened to you this very day.
• 2:04:15
  Davy looked skeptical. I suppose you mean being sent to bed without any supper,
• 2:04:20
  he said scornfully. But that isn't dreadful. Course I don't like it,
• 2:04:25
  but I've been sent to bed so much since I come here that I'm
• 2:04:27
  getting used to it. And you don't save anything by making me go without
• 2:04:30
  supper either, for I always eat twice as much for breakfast. I don't
• 2:04:33
  mean your being sent to bed. I mean the fact that you told a
• 2:04:36
  falsehood to day and Davy. Anne leaned over the footboard of the bed and
• 2:04:41
  shook her finger impressively at the culprit for a boy to tell what isn't true
• 2:04:45
  is almost the worst thing that could happen to him, almost the very worst.
• 2:04:49
  So you see, Marilla told you the truth. But I thought that
• 2:04:54
  something bad would be exciting, protested Davy in an injured tone. Marilla isn't
• 2:04:59
  to blame for what you think. Bad things aren't always exciting. They're very
• 2:05:01
  often just nasty and stupid. It was awful funny to see Marilla and you
• 2:05:06
  lookin down the well, though, said Davy, hugging his knees. Anne
• 2:05:11
  kept a sober face until she got downstairs, and then she collapsed on the
• 2:05:15
  sitting room lounge and laughed until her sides ached. I wish you'd tell me
• 2:05:18
  the joke, said Marilla, a little grimly. I haven't seen much to
• 2:05:21
  laugh at to day. You'll laugh when you hear this, assured Anne.
• 2:05:26
  And Marilla did laugh, which showed how much her education had advanced since the
• 2:05:30
  adoption of Anne. But she sighed immediately afterwards. I suppose I shouldn't have
• 2:05:34
  told him that, although I heard a minister say it to a child once,
• 2:05:38
  but he did aggravate me. So it was that night you were at
• 2:05:41
  the Carmody concert and I was putting him to bed. He said he didn't
• 2:05:44
  see the good of praying until he got big enough to be of some importance
• 2:05:46
  to God. Anne, I do not know what we are going to do
• 2:05:49
  with that child. I never saw his beat. I'm feeling clean discouraged.
• 2:05:54
  Oh don't say that, Marilla. Remember how bad I was when I came
• 2:05:57
  here, Anne, you were never bad. Never. I see that now,
• 2:06:00
  when I've learned what real badness is. You were always getting into terrible
• 2:06:04
  scrapes, I'll admit, but your motive was always good. Davy is just
• 2:06:09
  bad from sheer love of it. Oh No, I don't think it is
• 2:06:12
  real badness with him, either, pleaded Anne. It's just mischief, and
• 2:06:15
  it is rather quiet for him here. You know, he has no other
• 2:06:18
  boys to play with, and his mind has to have something to occupy it.
• 2:06:23
  Dora is so prim and proper, she is no good for a boy's
• 2:06:25
  playmate. I really think it would be better to let them go to school,
• 2:06:28
  Marilla. No, said Marilla resolutely. My father always said that no
• 2:06:32
  child should be cooped up in the four walls of a school until it was
• 2:06:34
  seven years old, and mister Allan says the same thing. The twins can
• 2:06:39
  have a few lessons at home, but go to school they shan't untill they're
• 2:06:42
  seven. Well, we must try to perform Davy at home, then,
• 2:06:45
  said Anne, cheerfully. With all his faults, he's really a dear little
• 2:06:48
  chap. I can't help loving him. Marilla. It may be a dreadful
• 2:06:53
  thing to say, but honestly I like Davy better than Dora. For all,
• 2:06:56
  she's so good. I don't know, but that I do myself,
• 2:06:59
  confessed Marilla. And it isn't fair for Dora. Isn't a bit of trouble.
• 2:07:02
  There couldn't be a better child man, you'd hardly know she was in
• 2:07:04
  the house. Dora is too good, said Anne. She'd behave just as
• 2:07:10
  well if there wasn't a soul to tell her what to do. She was
• 2:07:12
  born, already brought up, so she doesn't need us, and I think,
• 2:07:15
  concluded Anne, hitting on a very vital truth that we always love best
• 2:07:19
  the people who need us. Davy needs us badly. He certainly needs something,
• 2:07:25
  agreed Marilla. Rachel Lynde would say it was a good spanking. End
• 2:07:30
  of chapter ten, Chapter eleven, Facts and Fancies. Teaching is really very
• 2:07:36
  interesting work, wrote Anne to a Queen's Academy chum. Jane says she thinks
• 2:07:41
  it is monotonous, but I don't find it so something funny is almost sure
• 2:07:45
  to happen every day, and the children say such amusing things. Jane says
• 2:07:49
  she punishes her pupils when they make funny speeches, which is probably why she
• 2:07:53
  finds teaching monotonous. This afternoon, little Jimmy Andrews was trying to spell speckled
• 2:07:59
  and couldn't manage well. He said, finally, I can't spell it,
• 2:08:03
  but I know what it means. What I asked Saint Clair Dennelle's face,
• 2:08:07
  Miss Saint Clair is certainly very much freckled, although I try to prevent the
• 2:08:11
  others from commenting on it, for I was freckled once, and well do
• 2:08:16
  I remember it. But I don't think Saint Clair minds. It was because
• 2:08:18
  Jimmy called him Saint Clair that Saint Clair pounded him on the way home from
• 2:08:22
  school. I heard of the pounding, but not officially, so I don't
• 2:08:26
  think I'll take any notice of it. Yesterday I was trying to teach Lotty
• 2:08:30
  right to do. Addition, I said, if you had three candies in
• 2:08:33
  one hand and two in the other, how many would you have altogether?
• 2:08:37
  A mouthful, said Lotty. And in the nature study class, when I
• 2:08:41
  asked them to give me a good reason why toads shouldn't be killed, Benji
• 2:08:45
  Sloane gravely answered, because it would rain the next day. It's so hard
• 2:08:50
  not to laugh, Stella. I have to save up all my amusement until
• 2:08:52
  I get home. And Marilla says it makes her nervous to hear wild shrieks
• 2:08:56
  of mirth proceeding from the East Gable without any apparent She says, a man
• 2:09:01
  in Grafton went insane once, and that was how it began. Did you
• 2:09:05
  know that Thomas A. Beckett was canonized as a snake? Rose Bell says
• 2:09:09
  he was. Also that William Tyndale wrote the New Testament Claude White's as a
• 2:09:15
  glacier is a man that puts in window frames. I think the most difficult
• 2:09:18
  thing in teaching, as well as the most interesting, is to get the
• 2:09:22
  children to tell you their real thoughts about things. One stormy day last week
• 2:09:26
  I gathered them around me at dinner hour and tried to get them to talk
• 2:09:30
  to me just as if I were one of themselves. I asked them to
• 2:09:33
  tell me the things they most wanted. Some of the answers were commonplace enough
• 2:09:37
  dolls, ponies, and skates. Others were decidedly original. Hester Bolter wanted
• 2:09:43
  to wear her Sunday dress every day and eat in the sitting room. Hannah
• 2:09:46
  Bell wanted to be good without having to take any trouble about it. Marjorie
• 2:09:50
  White, aged ten, wanted to be a widow. Questioned why, she
• 2:09:54
  gravely said that if you weren't married, people called you an old maid,
• 2:09:58
  and if you were your bossed you, But if you were a widow there'd
• 2:10:01
  be no danger of either. The most remarkable wish was Sally Bell's. She
• 2:10:05
  wanted a honeymoon. I asked her if she knew what it was, and
• 2:10:09
  she said she thought it was an extra nice kind of bicycle, because her
• 2:10:13
  cousin in Montreal went on a honeymoon when he was married, and he had
• 2:10:16
  always had the very latest in bicycles. Another day, I asked them all
• 2:10:20
  to tell me the naughtiest thing they had ever done. I couldn't get the
• 2:10:22
  older ones to do so, but the third class answered quite freely. Eliza
• 2:10:26
  Bell had set fire to her aunt's carted rolls. Asked if she meant to
• 2:10:31
  do it, she said not altogether. She just tried a little end to
• 2:10:35
  see how it would burn, and the whole bundle blazed up in a jiffy.
• 2:10:37
  Emerson Gillis had spent ten cents for candy when he should have put it
• 2:10:41
  in his missionary box. Annetta Bell's worst crime was eating some blueberries that grew
• 2:10:46
  in the graveyard. Willie White had slid down the sheep house roof a lot
• 2:10:50
  of times with his Sunday trousers on. But I was punished for it cause
• 2:10:54
  I had to wear patched pants to Sunday school all summer. And when you're
• 2:10:56
  punished for a thing, you don't have to repent of it, declared Willie.
• 2:11:01
  I wish you could see some of their compositions. So much do I
• 2:11:03
  wish it that I'll send you copies of some written recently. Last week I
• 2:11:07
  told the fourth class I wanted them to write me letters about anything they pleased,
• 2:11:11
  adding by way of suggestion that they might tell me of some place they
• 2:11:15
  had visited, or some interesting thing or person they had seen. They were
• 2:11:18
  to write the letters on real note paper, seal them in an envelope,
• 2:11:20
  and address them to me, all without any assistance from other people. Last
• 2:11:24
  Friday morning I found a pile of letters on my desk, and that evening
• 2:11:28
  I realized afresh that teaching has its pleasures as well as its pains. These
• 2:11:33
  compositions would atone for much. Here is ned Clay's address, spelling and grammar
• 2:11:37
  as originally penned Miss Teacher Shirley green Gables, p e Island can Birds.
• 2:11:46
  Dear Teacher, I think I will write you a composition about birds. Birds
• 2:11:50
  is very useful animals. My cat catches birds. His name is William,
• 2:11:54
  but Pa calls him Tom. He is all striped, and he got one
• 2:11:58
  of his ears from off last winter. Only for that he would be a
• 2:12:01
  good looking cat. My uncle has adopted a cat. It come to his
• 2:12:05
  house one day and wouldn't go away, and Uncle says it has forgot more
• 2:12:09
  than most people ever knowed. He lets it sleep on his rocking chair,
• 2:12:13
  and my aunt says he thinks more of it than he does of his children.
• 2:12:16
  That is not right. We ought to be kind to cats and give
• 2:12:18
  them new milk, but we ought not be better to them than to our
• 2:12:22
  children. This is all I can think of, so no more at present
• 2:12:24
  from Edward Blake Clay. Saint Clair Dennell's is as usual short and to the
• 2:12:31
  point. Saint Clair never wastes words. I do not think he chose his
• 2:12:35
  subject or added the post squapt out of malice a forethought. It is just
• 2:12:37
  that he has not a great deal of tact or imagination. Dear Miss Shirley,
• 2:12:43
  you told us to describe something strange we have seen. I will describe
• 2:12:46
  the Avonlea Hall. It has two doors, an inside one and an outside
• 2:12:50
  one. It has six windows and a chimney. It has two ends and
• 2:12:54
  two sides. It is painted blue. That is what makes it strange.
• 2:12:58
  It is built on the lower carmody. It is the third most important building
• 2:13:01
  in Avonlea, the others at a church and the blacksmith's shop. They hold
• 2:13:05
  debating clubs and lectures in it, and concerts. Yours truly, Jacob Dennell
• 2:13:09
  p s. The hall is a very bright blue. Annetta Bell's letter was
• 2:13:16
  quite long, which surprised me, for writing essays. Is not Annetta's Forte
• 2:13:18
  and hers are generally as brief as and Clare's. Annetta is a quiet little
• 2:13:22
  puss and a model of good behavior, but there isn't a shadow of originality
• 2:13:26
  in her. Here is her letter, Dearest teacher, I think I will
• 2:13:31
  write you a letter to tell you how much I love you. I love
• 2:13:33
  you with my whole heart and soul and mind, with all there is of
• 2:13:37
  me to love, and I want to serve you forever. It would be
• 2:13:41
  my highest privilege. That is why I try so hard to be good in
• 2:13:43
  school and learn my lessons. You are so beautiful, my teacher. Your
• 2:13:48
  voice is like music, and your eyes are like pansies when the dew is
• 2:13:50
  on them. You are like a tall, stately queen. Your hair is
• 2:13:54
  like rippling gold. Anthony Pye says it is red, but you needn't pay
• 2:13:58
  any attention to Anthony. I have only known you for a few months,
• 2:14:01
  but I cannot realize that there was ever a time when I did not know
• 2:14:03
  you, when you had not come into my life to bless and hallow it.
• 2:14:07
  I will always look back to this year as the most wonderful in my
• 2:14:09
  life because it brought you to me. Besides it the year we moved to
• 2:14:13
  Avonlea from Newbridge. My love for you has made my life very rich,
• 2:14:18
  and it has kept me from much of harm and evil. I owe this
• 2:14:20
  all to you, my sweetest teacher. I shall never forget how sweet you
• 2:14:24
  looked the last time I saw you in that black dress with flowers in your
• 2:14:28
  hair. I shall see you like that forever, even when we are both
• 2:14:31
  old and gray. You will always be young and fair to me, dearest
• 2:14:35
  teacher. I am thinking of you all the time, in the morning,
• 2:14:37
  and at the noontide and at the twilight. I love you when you laugh
• 2:14:41
  and when you sigh, even when you look disdainful. I never saw you
• 2:14:45
  look cross, though Anthony Pye says you always look so. But I don't
• 2:14:48
  wonder you look cross at him, for he deserves it. I love you
• 2:14:50
  in every dress. You seem more adorable in each new dress than the last.
• 2:14:56
  Dearest teacher. Good night. The sun has set and the stars are
• 2:14:58
  shining, stars that are as bright and beautiful as your eyes. I kiss
• 2:15:03
  your hands and face, my sweet May God watch over you and protect you
• 2:15:07
  from all harm. Your affectionate pupil, Annetta Bell. This extraordinary letter puzzled
• 2:15:11
  me not a little. I knew Annetta couldn't have composed it any more than
• 2:15:16
  she could fly. When I went to school the next day, I took
• 2:15:18
  her for a walk down to the brooke at Recess and asked her to tell
• 2:15:20
  me the truth about the letter. Annetta cried and fessed up freely. She
• 2:15:24
  said she had never written a letter, and she didn't know how to or
• 2:15:28
  what to say. But there was a bundle of love letters in her mother's
• 2:15:31
  top bureau door, which had been written to her by an old bone.
• 2:15:33
  It wasn't father, sobbed Annetta. It was some one who was studying for
• 2:15:37
  a minister, and so he could write lovely letters. But MA didn't marry
• 2:15:41
  him after all. She said she couldn't make out what he was driving at
• 2:15:45
  half the time. But I thought the letters were sweet, and that i'd
• 2:15:48
  just copy things out of them here and there to write you. I put
• 2:15:50
  teacher where he put lady, and I put in something of my own when
• 2:15:54
  I could think of it, and I changed some words. I put dress
• 2:15:56
  in place of mood. I didn't know just what a mood was, but
• 2:16:00
  I supposed it was something to wear. I didn't s'pose you'd know the difference.
• 2:16:03
  I don't see how you found out it wasn't all mine. You must
• 2:16:07
  be awful clever teacher. I told Annetta it was very wrong to copy another
• 2:16:11
  person's letter and pass it off as her own. But I'm afraid that all
• 2:16:15
  Annetta repented of was being found out. And I do love you, teacher.
• 2:16:18
  She sobbed. It was all true, even if the minister wrote it
• 2:16:22
  first. I do love you with all my heart. It's very difficult to
• 2:16:26
  scold anybody properly under such circumstances. Here is Barbara Shaw's letter. I can't
• 2:16:31
  reproduce the blots of the original. Dear teacher, you said we might write
• 2:16:37
  about a visit. I never visited, but once. It was at my
• 2:16:39
  aunt Mary's last winter. My Aunt Mary is a very particular woman and a
• 2:16:43
  great housekeeper. The first night I was there, we were at tea.
• 2:16:48
  I knocked over a jug and broke it. Aunt Mary said she had had
• 2:16:50
  that jug ever since she was married, and nobody had ever broken it before.
• 2:16:54
  When we got up, I stepped on her dress and all the gathers
• 2:16:56
  tore out of the skirt. The next morning, when I got up,
• 2:17:00
  I hit the pitcher against the basin and cracked them both, and I upset
• 2:17:03
  a cup of tea on the tablecloth. At breakfast, when I was helping
• 2:17:07
  Aunt Mary with the dinner dishes, I dropped a china plate and it smashed.
• 2:17:09
  That evening, I fell downstairs and sprained my uncle and had to stay
• 2:17:13
  in bed for a week. I heard Aunt Mary tell Uncle Joseph it was
• 2:17:16
  a mercy, or I'd have broken everything in the house. When I got
• 2:17:20
  better, it was time to go home. I don't like visiting very much.
• 2:17:24
  I like going to school better, especially since I came to Avonlea.
• 2:17:28
  Yours, respectfully, Barbara Shaw. Willie White's began, respected Miss, I
• 2:17:33
  want to tell you about my very brave aunt. She lives in Ontario,
• 2:17:37
  and one day she went out to the barn and saw a dog in the
• 2:17:41
  yard. The dog had no business there, so she got a stick and
• 2:17:43
  whacked him hard and drove him into the barn and shut him up. Pretty
• 2:17:46
  soon a man came looking for an imaginary lion. Query did Willie mean a
• 2:17:52
  menagerie lion that had run away from a circus? And it turned out that
• 2:17:56
  the dog was a lion, and my very brave aunt had druve him into
• 2:17:58
  the barn with a stick. It was a wonder. She was not ed
• 2:18:01
  up, but she was very brave. Emerson Gillis says, if she thought
• 2:18:05
  it was a dog, she wasn't any braver than if it was really a
• 2:18:07
  dog. But Emerson is jealous because he hasn't got a brave found himself nothing
• 2:18:11
  but uncles. I have kept the best for last. You laugh at me
• 2:18:16
  because I think Paul is a genius, but I am sure his letter will
• 2:18:20
  convince you that he is a very uncommon child. Paul lives away down near
• 2:18:24
  the shore with his grandmother, and he has no playmates, no real playmates.
• 2:18:28
  You remember our school management professor told us that we must not have favorites
• 2:18:31
  among our pupils. But I can't help loving Paul, irving the best of
• 2:18:35
  all mine. I don't think it does any harm, though, for everybody
• 2:18:39
  loves Paul, even missus Lynde, who says she could never have believed she'd
• 2:18:43
  get so fond of a Yankee. The other boys in school like him too.
• 2:18:46
  There's nothing weak or girlish about him. In spite of his dreams and
• 2:18:48
  fancies, he is very manly and can hold his own in all games.
• 2:18:52
  He fought Saint Claire Dannell recently because Saint Clair said the Union Jack was away
• 2:18:56
  ahead of the stars and stripes as a flag. There was ult was a
• 2:19:00
  drawn battle and a mutual agreement to respect each other's patriotism. Henceforth. Saint
• 2:19:03
  Clair says he can hit the hardest, but Paul can hit the oftenest.
• 2:19:07
  Paul's letter, My dear teacher, you told us we might write you about
• 2:19:13
  some interesting people we knew. I think the most interesting people I know are
• 2:19:16
  my rock people, and I mean to tell you about them. I have
• 2:19:20
  never told anybody about them except Grandma and father, but I would like to
• 2:19:24
  have you know about them, because you understand things. There are great many
• 2:19:26
  people who do not understand things, so there is no use in telling them.
• 2:19:31
  My rock people live at the shore. I used to visit them almost
• 2:19:35
  every evening before the winter came. Now I can't go till spring, but
• 2:19:37
  they will be there. For people like that never change. That is the
• 2:19:41
  splendid thing about them. Nora was the first one of them I got acquainted
• 2:19:46
  with, and so I think I love her the best. She lives in
• 2:19:48
  Andrew's cove, and she has black hair and black eyes, and she knows
• 2:19:52
  all about the mermaids and the water kelpies. You ought to hear the stories
• 2:19:56
  she can tell. Then there are the twin Sailors. They don't live anywhere.
• 2:20:01
  They sail all the time, but they often come ashore to talk to
• 2:20:03
  me. They are a pair of jolly tars, and they have seen everything
• 2:20:07
  in the world, and more than what is in the world. Do you
• 2:20:09
  know what happened to the youngest twin sailor? Once he was sailing and he
• 2:20:13
  sailed right into a moonglade. A moonglade is the track the full moon makes
• 2:20:16
  on the water when it is rising from the tree, you know, teacher.
• 2:20:20
  While the youngest twin sailor sailed along the moonglade until he came right up
• 2:20:24
  to the moon, and there was a little golden door in the moon,
• 2:20:26
  and he opened it and sailed right through. He had some wonderful adventures in
• 2:20:30
  the moon, but it would make this letter too long to tell them.
• 2:20:33
  Then there is the Golden Lady of the Cave. One day I found a
• 2:20:37
  big cave down on the shore, and I went away in, and after
• 2:20:39
  a while I found the golden Lady. She has golden hair right down to
• 2:20:43
  her feet, and her dress is all glittering and glistening like gold that is
• 2:20:48
  alive. And she has a golden harp and plays on it all day long.
• 2:20:52
  You can hear the music any time along shore if you'll listen carefully.
• 2:20:54
  But most people would think it was only the wind among the rocks. I've
• 2:20:58
  never told me about the Golden Lady. I was afraid it might hurt her
• 2:21:01
  feelings. It even hurt her feelings if I talked too long with the twin
• 2:21:05
  sailors. I always met the twin sailors of the striped rocks. The youngest
• 2:21:11
  twin sailor is very good tempered, but the oldest twin sailor can look dreadfully
• 2:21:15
  fierce at times. I have my suspicions about that oldest twin. I believe
• 2:21:18
  he'd be a pirate if he dared. There's really something very mysterious about him.
• 2:21:22
  He swore once, and I told him if he ever did it again,
• 2:21:24
  he needn't come ashore to talk to me, because I'd promised Grandmother I'd
• 2:21:28
  never associate with anybody that swore. He was pretty well scared, I can
• 2:21:33
  tell you, and he said if I would forgive him, he would take
• 2:21:35
  me to the sunset. Till the next evening, when I was sitting on
• 2:21:37
  the striped rocks, the oldest twin came sailing over the sea in an enchanted
• 2:21:41
  boat, and I got in her. The boat was all pearly and rainbowy,
• 2:21:45
  like the inside of mussel shells, and her sail was like moonshine.
• 2:21:48
  Well, we sailed right across to the sunset. Think of that, teacher,
• 2:21:52
  I've been in the sunset, and what do you suppose it is?
• 2:21:54
  The sunset is a land all flowers. We sailed into a great garden,
• 2:22:00
  and the clouds are beds of flowers. We sailed into a great harbor,
• 2:22:03
  all the color of gold, and I stepped right out of the boat on
• 2:22:07
  a big meadow, all covered with buttercups as big as roses. I stayed
• 2:22:11
  there for ever so long. It seemed nearly a year, But the oldest
• 2:22:13
  twin says it was only a few minutes. You see in the sunset land,
• 2:22:18
  the time is ever so much longer than it is here, your loving
• 2:22:20
  pupil, Paul Irving p s. Of course this letter isn't really true,
• 2:22:26
  teacher, p I. End of chapter eleven. Chapter twelve a Jonah Day.
• 2:22:33
  It really began the night before with a restless, wakeful vigil of grumbling
• 2:22:37
  toothache. When Anne arose in the dull, bitter winter morning, she felt
• 2:22:41
  that life was flat, stale, and unprofitable. She went to school in
• 2:22:46
  no angelic mood. Her cheek was swollen and her face ached. The school
• 2:22:50
  room was cold and smoky, for the fire refused to burn, and the
• 2:22:54
  children were huddled about it in shivering groups. Anne sent them to their seats
• 2:22:58
  with a sharper tone than she had ever used before. Anthony Pye strutted to
• 2:23:01
  his with his usual impertinent swagger, and she saw him whisper something to his
• 2:23:05
  seat mate and then glance at her with a grin. Never so, it
• 2:23:09
  seemed to Anne, had there been so many squeaky pencils as there were that
• 2:23:13
  morning. And when Barbara Shaw came up to the desk with a sum she
• 2:23:16
  tripped over the coal scuttle with disastrous results. The coal rode to every part
• 2:23:20
  of the room, her slate was broken into fragments, and when she picked
• 2:23:24
  herself up, her face stained with coal dust, sent the boys into roars
• 2:23:28
  of laughter. Anne turned from the second reader class, which she was hearing,
• 2:23:31
  Really, Barbara, she said icily, if you cannot move without falling
• 2:23:35
  over something, you'd better remain in your seat. It is positively disgraceful for
• 2:23:39
  a girl of your age to be so awkward. Poor Barbara stumbled back to
• 2:23:43
  her desk, Her tears combining with the coal dust produce an effect truly grotesque.
• 2:23:48
  Never before had her beloved, sympathetic teacher spoken to her in such a
• 2:23:52
  tone or fashion, and Barbara was heart broken. Anne herself felt a prick
• 2:23:56
  of conscience, but it only served to increase her mental irritation and the second
• 2:24:01
  reader class remember that lesson yet, as well as the unmerciful infliction of arithmetic
• 2:24:05
  that followed. Just as Anne was snapping the sums out, Saint Clair Dnnell
• 2:24:09
  arrived breathlessly. You are half an hour late, Saint Clair, Anne reminded
• 2:24:13
  him, frigidly. Why is this? Please? Miss I had to help
• 2:24:16
  Ma make a pudding for dinner because we're expecting company and Clarissa Mayer's sick was
• 2:24:20
  Saint Clair's answer, given in a perfectly respectful voice, but nevertheless provocative of
• 2:24:24
  great mirth among his mates. Take your seat and work out the six problems
• 2:24:28
  on page eighty four of your arithmetic for punishment, said Anne. Saint Clair
• 2:24:33
  looked rather amazed at her tone, but went meekly to his desk and took
• 2:24:35
  out his slate. Then he stealthily passed a small parcel to Joe's Sloane across
• 2:24:41
  the aisle. Anne caught him in the act and jumped to a fatal conclusion
• 2:24:43
  about that parcel. Old missus Hiram Sloane had lately taken to making and selling
• 2:24:48
  nutcakes by way of adding to her scanty income. The cakes were specially tempting
• 2:24:52
  to small boys, and for several weeks Anne had had not a little trouble
• 2:24:56
  in regard to them. On their way to school, the boys would invest
• 2:25:00
  their spare cash at missus Hiram's, bring the cakes along with them to school,
• 2:25:03
  and if possible, eat them and treat their mates during school hours.
• 2:25:07
  Anne had warned them that if they brought any more cakes to school, they
• 2:25:11
  would be confiscated. And yet here was saintclairre Dnnell coolly passing a parcel of
• 2:25:16
  them, wrapped up in the blue and white striped paper missus Hiram used under
• 2:25:18
  her very eyes, Joseph said, Anne quietly, bring that parcel here.
• 2:25:24
  Joe startled and abashed obeyed. He was a fat urchin who always blushed and
• 2:25:28
  stuttered when he was frightened. Never did anybody look more guilty than poor Joe
• 2:25:33
  at that moment. Throw it into the fire, said Anne. Joe looked
• 2:25:37
  very blank. Please m miss he began, do as I tell you,
• 2:25:43
  Joseph, without any words about it. B B but but me n miss
• 2:25:48
  that the the there, gasped Joe in desperation. Joe, are you going
• 2:25:52
  to obey me? Or are you not? Said Anne, A bolder and
• 2:25:56
  more self possessed lad than Joe. Sloane would have been over awed by her
• 2:26:00
  tone and the dangerous flash of her eyes. This was a new Anne,
• 2:26:03
  whom none of her pupils had ever seen before. Joe, with an agonized
• 2:26:07
  glance at Saint Clair, went to the stove, opened the big square front
• 2:26:11
  door, and threw the blue and white parcel in before Saint Clair, who
• 2:26:15
  had sprung to his feet, could utter a word. Then he dodged back,
• 2:26:18
  just in time. For a few moments, the terrified occupants of Avonlea
• 2:26:22
  School did not know whether it was an earthquake or a volcanic explosion. That
• 2:26:26
  it occurred. The innocent looking parcel which Anne had rashly supposed to contain missus
• 2:26:31
  Hiram's nutcakes, really held an assortment of firecrackers and pinwheels for which Warren Sloane
• 2:26:35
  had sent to town by Saint Clair, Denelle's father the day before, intending
• 2:26:39
  to have a birthday celebration that evening. The crackers went off in a thunder
• 2:26:43
  clap of noise, and the pinwheels, bursting out of the door, spun
• 2:26:46
  madly around the room, hissing and spluttering. Anne dropped into her chair,
• 2:26:50
  white with dismay, and all the girls climbed shrieking upon their desks. Joe
• 2:26:56
  Sloane stood as one transfixed in the midst of the commotion, and Saint Clair,
• 2:27:00
  helpless with laughter, rocked to and fro in the aisle. Prilly Rogerson
• 2:27:03
  fainted, and Annetta Bell went to hysterics. It seemed a long time,
• 2:27:09
  although it was really only a few minutes before the last pinwheel subsided. Anne,
• 2:27:13
  recovering herself, sprang to open doors and windows and let out the gas
• 2:27:16
  and smoke which filled the room. Then she helped the girls carry the unconscious
• 2:27:20
  Prille into the porch where Barbara Shaw, in an agony of desire to be
• 2:27:24
  useful, poured a pailful of half rozen water over Prilly's face and shoulders before
• 2:27:28
  any one could stop her. It was a full hour before quiet was restored,
• 2:27:33
  but it was a quiet that might be felt. Everybody realized that even
• 2:27:37
  the explosion had not cleared the teacher's mental atmosphere. Nobody except Anthony Pye dared
• 2:27:41
  whisper a word. Ned Clay accidentally squeaked his pencil while working a sum,
• 2:27:46
  caught Anne's eye and wished the floor would open and swallow him up. The
• 2:27:50
  geography class were whisked through a continent with a speed that made them dizzy.
• 2:27:54
  The grammar class were parsed and analyzed within an inch of their lives. Chester
• 2:27:58
  Sloane, spelling odoriferous with two f's, was made to feel that he could
• 2:28:03
  never live down the disgrace of it, either in this world or that which
• 2:28:05
  is to come. Anne knew that she had made herself ridiculous, and that
• 2:28:09
  the incident would be laughed over that night at a score of tea tables,
• 2:28:13
  but the knowledge only angered her further. In a calmer mood, she could
• 2:28:16
  have carried off the situation with a laugh, but now that was impossible,
• 2:28:20
  so she ignored it in icy disdain. When Anne returned to the school after
• 2:28:24
  dinner, all the children were as usual in their seats, and every face
• 2:28:28
  was bent studiously over a desk except Anthony Pye's. He peered across his book
• 2:28:33
  at Anne, his black eyes sparkling with curiosity and mockery. Anne twitched open
• 2:28:39
  the drawer of her desk in search of chalk, and under her very hand,
• 2:28:41
  a lively mouse sprang out of the drawer, scampered over the desk and
• 2:28:45
  leapt to the floor. Anne screamed and sprang back as if it had been
• 2:28:48
  a snake, and Anthony Pye laughed aloud. Then a silence fell, a
• 2:28:54
  very creepy, uncomfortable silence. Annetta Bell was of two minds whether to go
• 2:28:58
  into hysterics again or not, especially as she didn't know just where the mouse
• 2:29:01
  had gone, But she decided not to. Who could take any comfort out
• 2:29:05
  of hysterics with a teacher so white faced and so blazing eyed standing before one?
• 2:29:11
  Who put that mouse in my desk? Said Anne? Her voice was
• 2:29:15
  quite low, but it made a shiver go up and down. Paul Irving's
• 2:29:18
  spine. Joe Sloane caught her eye, felt responsible from the crown of his
• 2:29:22
  head to the sole of his feet, but started out wildly. N not
• 2:29:26
  meet teacher, n not me. Anne paid no attention to the wretched Joseph.
• 2:29:33
  She looked at Anthony Pye, and Anthony Pye looked back, unabashed and
• 2:29:37
  unashamed. Anthony, was it you? Yes, it was, said Anthony
• 2:29:41
  insolently. Anne took her pointer from her desk. It was a long,
• 2:29:46
  heavy, hardwood pointer. Come here, Anthony. It was far from being
• 2:29:50
  the most severe punishment Anthony Pye had ever undergone. Anne. Even the stormy
• 2:29:54
  sould Anne she was at the moment, could not have punished any child cruelly.
• 2:30:00
  But the pointer nipped keenly, and finally Anthony's bravado failed him. He
• 2:30:03
  winced, and the tears came to his eyes. Anne, conscience stricken,
• 2:30:07
  dropped the pointer and told Anthony to go to his seat. She sat down
• 2:30:11
  at her desk, feeling ashamed, repentant, and bitterly mortified. Her quick
• 2:30:16
  anger was gone, and she would have given much to have been able to
• 2:30:18
  seek relief in tears. So all her boasts had come to this she had
• 2:30:22
  actually whipped one of her pupils. How Jane would triumph, and how mister
• 2:30:26
  Harrison would chuckle. But worse than this bitterest thought of all, she had
• 2:30:31
  lost her last chance of winning Anthony Pye. Never would he like her now.
• 2:30:37
  Anne, by what somebody has called a herculaneum effort, kept back her
• 2:30:39
  tears until she got home that night. Then she shut herself in the east
• 2:30:43
  gable room and wept all her shame and remorse and disappointment into her pillows.
• 2:30:48
  Wept so long that Marilla grew alarmed, invaded the room and insisted on knowing
• 2:30:52
  what the trouble was. The trouble is I've got things the matter with my
• 2:30:56
  conscience, sobbed Anne. Oh this has been set jonah day, Marilla.
• 2:31:01
  I'm so ashamed of myself. I lost my temper and whipped Anthony Pye.
• 2:31:05
  I am glad to hear it, said Marilla with decision. It's what you
• 2:31:07
  should have done long ago. Oh no, no, Marilla. And I
• 2:31:11
  don't see how I can ever look those children in the face again. I
• 2:31:15
  feel that I have humiliated myself to the very dust. You don't know how
• 2:31:18
  cross and hateful and horrid I was. I can't forget the expression in Paul
• 2:31:22
  Irving's eyes. He looked so surprised and disappointed. Oh, Marilla, I
• 2:31:28
  have tried so hard to be patient and to win Anthony's liking, and now
• 2:31:31
  it has all gone for nothing. Marilla passed her hard work worn hand over
• 2:31:35
  the girl's glossy, tumbled hair with a wonderful tenderness. When Anne's sobs grew
• 2:31:41
  quieter, she said very gently for her, you take things too much to
• 2:31:43
  heart. Anne. We all make mistakes, but people forget them, and
• 2:31:48
  Jonah days come to everybody. As for Anthony Pye, why need you care
• 2:31:52
  if he does dislike you? He is the only one. I can't help
• 2:31:56
  it. I want everybody to love me, and it hurts me so when
• 2:31:58
  anybody doesn't, and Anthony never will. Now, Oh, I just made
• 2:32:03
  an idiot of myself to day, Marilla, I'll tell you the whole story.
• 2:32:07
  Marilla listened to the whole story, and if she smiled at certain points
• 2:32:09
  of it, Anne never knew. When the tale was ended, she said
• 2:32:13
  briskly, well, never mind, this day's done, and there's a new
• 2:32:16
  one coming tomorrow with no mistakes in it. Yet, as you used to
• 2:32:18
  say yourself. Just come downstairs and have your supper. You'll see if a
• 2:32:22
  good cup of tea and those plum puffs I made to day won't hearten you
• 2:32:24
  up. Plumpuffs won't minister to a mind diseased, said Anne disconsolately. But
• 2:32:30
  Marilla thought it a good sign that she had recovered sufficiently to adapt a quotation
• 2:32:35
  the cheerful supper table with the twins bright faces and Marilla's matchless plumpuffs, of
• 2:32:39
  which davy ate four did hearten her up considerably. After all, she had
• 2:32:43
  a good sleep that night, and awakened in the morning to find herself and
• 2:32:46
  the world transformed. It had snowed softly and thickly all through the hours of
• 2:32:50
  darkness, and the beautiful whiteness glittering in the frosty sunshine looked like a mantle
• 2:32:56
  of charity cast over all the mistakes and humiliations of the past. Every morn
• 2:33:01
  is a fresh beginning, every morn as the world made new, sang Anne
• 2:33:03
  as she dressed, Owing to the snow. She had to go around by
• 2:33:07
  the road to school, and she thought it was certainly an impish coincidence that
• 2:33:11
  Anthony Pye should come plowing along just as she left the Green Gables Lane.
• 2:33:15
  She felt as guilty as if their positions were reversed. But to her unspeakable
• 2:33:18
  astonishment, Anthony not only lifted his cap, which she had never done before,
• 2:33:22
  but said easily. Kind of bad walking, ain't it. Can I
• 2:33:26
  take those books for you, teacher? Anne surrendered her books and wondered if
• 2:33:30
  she could possibly be awake. Anthony walked on in silence to the school,
• 2:33:33
  but when Anne took her book, she smiled down at him, not the
• 2:33:35
  stereotyped kind smile she had so persistently assumed for his benefit, but a sudden
• 2:33:41
  out flashing of good comradeship. Anthony smiled No, if the truth be told,
• 2:33:46
  Anthony grinned back. A grin is not generally supposed to be a respectful
• 2:33:50
  thing. Yet Anne suddenly felt that if she had not yet won Anthony's liking,
• 2:33:54
  she had somehow or other won his respect. Missus Rachel Lynde came up
• 2:33:58
  the next Saturday and confirmed this. Well, Anne, I guess you've won
• 2:34:03
  over Anthony Pye. That's what he says. He believes you are some good
• 2:34:05
  after all, even if you are a girl, says that whipping you gave
• 2:34:09
  him was just as good as a man's I never expected to win him by
• 2:34:11
  whipping him, though, said Anne, a little mournfully, feeling that her
• 2:34:16
  ideals had played her false somewhere. It doesn't seem right. I'm sure my
• 2:34:20
  theory of kindness can't be wrong. No, but the pies are an exception
• 2:34:24
  to every known rule. That's what declared Missus Rachel with conviction. Mister Harrison
• 2:34:28
  said, thought you'd come to it when he heard it, and Jane rubbed
• 2:34:31
  it in rather unmercifully. End of Chapter twelve. Chapter thirteen, a golden
• 2:34:39
  picnic, Anne, on her way to Orchard Slope, met Diana, bound
• 2:34:43
  for Green Gables, just where the mossy old log bridge spanned the brook below
• 2:34:48
  the Haunted Wood, and they sat down by the margin of the dryad's bubble,
• 2:34:50
  where tiny ferns were unrolling like curly headed green pixie folk wakening up from
• 2:34:56
  a nap. I was just on my way over to invite you to help
• 2:34:58
  me celebrate my birthday on Saturday, said Anne, your birthday, but your
• 2:35:03
  birthday was in March. That wasn't my fault, laughed Anne. If my
• 2:35:07
  parents had consulted me, it would never have happened, then I should have
• 2:35:11
  chosen to be born in spring. Of course, it must be delightful to
• 2:35:13
  come into the world with the mayflowers and violets. You would always feel that
• 2:35:18
  you were their foster sister. But since I didn't, the next best thing
• 2:35:22
  is to celebrate my birthday in the spring. Priscilla is coming over Saturday,
• 2:35:24
  and Jane will be home. We'll all four start off to the woods and
• 2:35:28
  spend a golden day making the acquaintance of the Spring. We none of us
• 2:35:31
  really know her yet, but we'll meet her back there, as we never
• 2:35:35
  can anywhere else. I want to explore all those fields and lonely places.
• 2:35:39
  Anyhow, I have a conviction that there were scores of beautiful nooks there that
• 2:35:43
  have never really been seen, although they may have been looked at. We'll
• 2:35:48
  make friends with wind and sky and sun and bring home the spring in our
• 2:35:52
  hearts. It sounds awfully nice, said Diana, with some inward distrust of
• 2:35:56
  Anne's magic words. But won't be very damp in some places yet. Oh
• 2:36:01
  we'll wear rubbers, was Anne's concession to practicalities. And I want you to
• 2:36:05
  come over early Saturday morning and help me prepare lunch. I'm going to have
• 2:36:09
  the daintiest things possible, things that will match the spring. You understand,
• 2:36:13
  little jelly tarts and lady fingers and drop cookies frosted with pink and yellow icing,
• 2:36:18
  and buttercupcake. And we must have sandwiches too, though they are not
• 2:36:22
  very poetical. Saturday proved an ideal day for a picnic, a day of
• 2:36:26
  breeze and blue, warm sunny, with a little rollicking wind blowing across meadow
• 2:36:31
  and orchard. Over every sunlit upland and field was a delicate flower starred green.
• 2:36:37
  Mister Harrison, harrowing at the back of his farm and feeling some of
• 2:36:41
  the spring witchwork even in his sober middle aged blood, saw four girls,
• 2:36:45
  basket laden, tripping across the end of his field, where it joined a
• 2:36:48
  fringing woodland of birch and fur. Their blithe voices and laughter echoed down to
• 2:36:52
  him. It's so easy to be happy on a day like this, isn't
• 2:36:56
  it, Anne was saying, with true Anish philosophy. Let's try to make
• 2:37:01
  this a really golden day, girls, a day to which we can always
• 2:37:05
  look back with delight. We're to seek for beauty and refuse to see anything
• 2:37:07
  else begone. Dull care, Jane, you are thinking of something that went
• 2:37:11
  wrong in school yesterday. How do you know, gasped Jane, amazed.
• 2:37:16
  Oh, I know the expression. I felt it often enough on my own
• 2:37:20
  face. But put it out of your mind. There's a dear it will
• 2:37:22
  keep till Monday, or if it doesn't, so much the better. Oh
• 2:37:26
  girls, girls, see that patch of violets. There's something for memory's picture
• 2:37:30
  gallery when I'm eighty years old. If I ever am, I shall shut
• 2:37:33
  my eyes and see those violets just as I see them now. That's the
• 2:37:37
  first good gift our day has given us. If a kiss could be seen,
• 2:37:41
  I think it would look like a violet, said Priscilla. Anne glowed.
• 2:37:45
  I'm so glad you spoke that thought, Priscilla, instead of just thinking
• 2:37:48
  it and keeping it to yourself. This world would be a much more interesting
• 2:37:52
  place, although it is very interesting anyhow, If people spoke out their real
• 2:37:56
  thoughts, it would be too hot to hold, some folks, quoted Jane
• 2:38:01
  sagely. I suppose it might be, but that would be their own faults
• 2:38:03
  for thinking nasty things. Anyhow, we can tell all our thoughts to day
• 2:38:09
  because we are going to have nothing but beautiful thoughts. Everybody can say just
• 2:38:11
  what comes into her head. That is conversation. Here's a little path I
• 2:38:16
  never saw before. Let's explore it. The path was a winding one,
• 2:38:20
  so narrow that the girls walked in single file, and even then the fir
• 2:38:24
  boughs brushed their faces. Under the firs were velvety cushions of moss, and
• 2:38:28
  further on, where the trees were smaller and fewer, the ground was rich
• 2:38:33
  in a variety of green growing things. What a lot of elephant's ears,
• 2:38:37
  exclaimed Diana. I'm going to pick a big bunch. They're so pretty.
• 2:38:41
  How did the graceful, feathery things ever come to have such a dreadful name,
• 2:38:46
  asked Priscilla, because the person who first named them either had no imagination
• 2:38:50
  at all, or else far too much, said Anne. Oh, girls,
• 2:38:52
  look at that. That was a shallow woodland pool in the center of
• 2:38:56
  a little open glade where the path ended. Later on in the season it
• 2:39:01
  would be dried up and its place filled with a rank growth of ferns.
• 2:39:05
  But now it was a glimmering placid sheet, round as a saucer and clear
• 2:39:09
  as crystal. A ring of slender young birches encircled it, and little ferns
• 2:39:13
  fringed its margin. How sweet, said Jane. Let us dance around it
• 2:39:18
  like wood nymphs, cried Anne, dropping her basket and extending her hands.
• 2:39:22
  But the dance was not a success, for the ground was boggy and Jane's
• 2:39:26
  rubbers came off. You can't be a wood nymph if you have to wear
• 2:39:28
  rubbers, was her decision. Well we must name this place before we leave
• 2:39:33
  it, said Anne, yielding to the indisputable logic of facts. Everybody suggested
• 2:39:37
  nameable draw lots Diana, birch pool, suggested Diana promptly. Cristel Lake,
• 2:39:43
  said Jane. Anne, standing behind them, implored Priscilla with her eyes not
• 2:39:48
  to perpetrate another such name, and Priscilla rose to the occasion with glimmer glass.
• 2:39:52
  Anne's selection was the fairy's mirror. The names were written on strips of
• 2:39:56
  birch bark or a pencil school ma'am Jane produce from her pocket and placed in
• 2:40:01
  Anne's hat. Then Priscilla shut her eyes and drew one. Crystal Lake,
• 2:40:05
  read Jane, triumphantly. Crystel Lake it was, And if Anne thought the
• 2:40:09
  chance had played the pool a shabby trick, She did not say so.
• 2:40:13
  Pushing through the undergrowth beyond, the girls came out to the young green seclusion
• 2:40:18
  of mister Silas Sloane's back pasture. Across it, they found the entrance to
• 2:40:20
  a lane striking up through the woods, and voted to explore it. Also
• 2:40:24
  it rewarded their quest with a succession of pretty surprises. First, skirting mister
• 2:40:30
  Sloane's pasture came an archway of wild cherry trees all in bloom. The girls
• 2:40:33
  swung their hats on their arms and wreathed their hair with the creamy, fluffy
• 2:40:37
  blossoms. Then the lane turned at right angles and plunged into a spruce wood
• 2:40:41
  so thick and dark that they walked in a gloom as of twilight, with
• 2:40:45
  not a glimpse of sky or sunlight to be seen. This is where the
• 2:40:48
  bad wood elves dwell, whispered Anne. They are impish and malicious that they
• 2:40:54
  can't harm us because they are not allowed to do evil. In the spring.
• 2:40:56
  There was one peeping at us around that old twists did fur and didn't
• 2:41:01
  you see a group of them on that big freckly told Stool we just passed.
• 2:41:05
  The good Fairies always dwell in the sunshiny places. I wish there really
• 2:41:09
  were fairies, said Jane. Wouldn't it be nice to have three wishes granted
• 2:41:13
  you, or even only one? What would you wish for, girls,
• 2:41:16
  if you could have a wish granted. I'd wish to be rich and beautiful
• 2:41:18
  and clever. I'd wish to be tall and slender, said Diana. I
• 2:41:22
  would wish to be famous, said Priscilla. Anne thought of her hair and
• 2:41:26
  then dismissed the thought as unworthy. I'd wish it might be spring all the
• 2:41:31
  time, and in everybody's heart and all our lives, she said. But
• 2:41:33
  that, said Priscilla, would be just wishing this world were like Heaven,
• 2:41:39
  only like a part of Heaven. In the other parts. There would be
• 2:41:41
  summer in autumn, yes, and a bit of winter too. I think
• 2:41:45
  I want glittering snowy fields and white frosts in heaven sometimes, don't you,
• 2:41:48
  Jane? I I don't know, said Jane, uncomfortably. Jane was a
• 2:41:54
  good girl, a member of the church who tried conscientiously to live up to
• 2:41:58
  her profession and believed everything she had been taught. But she never thought about
• 2:42:01
  heaven any more than she could help for all that. Minnie may ask me
• 2:42:05
  the other day if we would wear our best dresses every day in heaven,
• 2:42:07
  laughed Diana. And didn't you tell her we would, asked Anne Mercy.
• 2:42:11
  No, I told her we wouldn't be thinking of dresses at all there.
• 2:42:15
  Oh, I think we will a little, said Anne earnestly. There will
• 2:42:18
  be plenty of time and all eternity for it, without neglecting more important things.
• 2:42:22
  I believe we'll all wear beautiful dresses. Or I suppose Raymond would be
• 2:42:26
  a more suitable way of speaking. I shall want to wear pink for a
• 2:42:31
  few centuries at first. It would take me that long to get tired of
• 2:42:33
  it. I feel sure I do love pink so and I could never wear
• 2:42:37
  it in this world. Past the spruces, the lane dipped down into a
• 2:42:41
  sunny little open where a log bridge spanned a brook. And then came the
• 2:42:45
  glory of a sunlit beech wood, where the air was like transparent golden wine,
• 2:42:50
  and the leaves fresh and green, and the wood floor a mosaic of
• 2:42:52
  tremulous sunshine. Then more wild cherries and a little valley of lissome fairs,
• 2:42:58
  and then a hill's so steep that the girls lost their breath climbing it.
• 2:43:03
  But when they reached the top and came out into the open, the prettiest
• 2:43:05
  surprise of all awaited them. Beyond were the back fields of the farms that
• 2:43:09
  ran out onto the Upper Carmody Road. Just before them, hemmed in by
• 2:43:13
  beeches and firs, but opened to the south, was a little corner,
• 2:43:16
  and in it a garden, or what had once been a garden. A
• 2:43:20
  tumble down stone dike overgrown with mosses and grass surrounded it. Along the eastern
• 2:43:26
  side ran a row of garden cherry trees white as snowdrift. There were traces
• 2:43:30
  of old paths still, and a double line of rose bushes through the middle.
• 2:43:33
  But all the rest of the space was a sheet of yellow and white
• 2:43:37
  narcissi in their aeriest, most lavish wind swayed bloom above the lush green grasses.
• 2:43:43
  Oh, how perfectly lovely, three of the girls cried, Anne only
• 2:43:48
  gazed in eloquent silence. How in the world does it happen that there ever
• 2:43:52
  was a garden back here, said Priscilla in amazement. It must be hester
• 2:43:56
  Gray's garden, said Diana. I've heard mother speak of it, but I
• 2:44:00
  never saw it before, and I wouldn't have supposed that it could be in
• 2:44:03
  existence. Still, you've heard the story, Anne, No, but the
• 2:44:07
  name seems familiar to me. Oh, you've seen it in the graveyard.
• 2:44:09
  She is buried down there in the poplar corner, you know, the little
• 2:44:13
  brown stone with the opening gates carved on it and sacred to the memory of
• 2:44:16
  Hester Gray, aged twenty two. Jordan Gray is buried right beside her,
• 2:44:20
  but there's no stone to him. It's a wonder Marilla never told you about
• 2:44:24
  it, Anne, to be sure. It happened thirty years ago, and
• 2:44:26
  everybody has forgotten. Well, if there's a story, we must have it,
• 2:44:30
  said Anne. Let's sit right down here among the narcissi and Diana will
• 2:44:33
  tell it. Why, girls, there are hundreds of them. They've spread
• 2:44:37
  over everything. It looks as if the garden were carpeted with moonshine and sunshine
• 2:44:41
  combined. This is a discovery worth making, to think that I've lived within
• 2:44:46
  a mile of this place for six years and have never seen it before.
• 2:44:50
  Now, Diana long ago began Diana. This farm belonged to old mister David
• 2:44:56
  Gray. He didn't live on it. He lived where Silas Sloane lives now.
• 2:45:00
  He had one son, Jordan, and he went up to Boston one
• 2:45:03
  winter to work, and while he was there he fell in love with a
• 2:45:05
  girl named Hester Murray. She was working in a store and she hated it.
• 2:45:09
  She'd been brought up in the country and she always wanted to get back.
• 2:45:13
  When Jordan asked her to marry him, she said she would if he'd
• 2:45:16
  take her away to some quiet spot where she'd see nothing but fields and trees.
• 2:45:20
  So he brought her to Avonlea. Missus Lynde said he was taking a
• 2:45:22
  fearful risk in marrying a Yankee. And it's certain that Hester was very delicate
• 2:45:26
  and a very poor housekeeper. But mother says she was very pretty and sweet,
• 2:45:31
  and Jordan just worshiped the ground she walked on. Well, mister Gray
• 2:45:35
  gave Jordan this farm and he built a little house back here, and Jordan
• 2:45:39
  and Hester lived in it for four years. She never went out much,
• 2:45:41
  and hardly anybody went to see her except mother and missus Lynde. Jordan made
• 2:45:46
  her this garden and she was just crazy about it and spent most of her
• 2:45:50
  time in it. She wasn't much of a housekeeper, but she had a
• 2:45:52
  knack with flowers, and then she got sick. Mother says she thinks she
• 2:45:56
  was in consumption before she ever came here. She never really laid up,
• 2:46:01
  but just grew weaker and weaker all the time. Jordan wouldn't have anybody to
• 2:46:05
  wait on her. He did it all himself, and mother says he was
• 2:46:07
  as tender and gentle as a woman. Every day he'd wrap her in her
• 2:46:11
  shawl and carry her out to the garden, and she'd lie there on a
• 2:46:13
  bench quite happy. They say. She used to make Jordan kneel down by
• 2:46:18
  her every night and morning and pray with her that she might die out in
• 2:46:20
  the garden when the time came and her prayer was answered. One day,
• 2:46:24
  Jordan carried her out to the bench, and then he picked all the roses
• 2:46:28
  that were out and heaped them over her, and she just smiled up at
• 2:46:31
  him and closed her eyes. And that concluded, Diana softly, was the
• 2:46:35
  end. Oh, what a dear story, sighed Anne, wiping away her
• 2:46:39
  tears. What became of Jordan, asked Priscilla. He sold the farm after
• 2:46:45
  Hester died and went back to Boston. Mister Jabez Sloane bought the farm and
• 2:46:48
  hauled the little house out to the road. Jordan died about ten years after,
• 2:46:52
  and he was brought home and buried beside Hester. I can't understand how
• 2:46:56
  she could have wanted to live back here, away from everything, said Jane.
• 2:47:01
  Oh. I can easily understand that, said Anne, thoughtfully. I
• 2:47:05
  wouldn't want it myself for a steady thing, because although I love the fields
• 2:47:09
  and woods, I love people too. But I can understand it. In
• 2:47:11
  Hester. She was tired to death of the noise of the big city and
• 2:47:15
  the crowds of people always coming and going and caring nothing for her. She
• 2:47:18
  just wanted to escape from it all to some still green, friendly place where
• 2:47:22
  she could rest. And she got just what she wanted, which is something
• 2:47:26
  very few people do. I believe she had four beautiful years before she died,
• 2:47:31
  four years of perfect happiness. So I think she was to be envied
• 2:47:35
  more than pitied, and then to shut your eyes and fall asleep among roses,
• 2:47:39
  with the one you loved best on earth, smiling down at you.
• 2:47:41
  Oh, I think it was beautiful. She set out those cherry trees over
• 2:47:46
  there, said Diana. She told mother she'd never live to eat their fruit,
• 2:47:48
  but she wanted to think that something she had planted would go on living
• 2:47:52
  and helping to make the world beautiful after she was dead. I'm so glad
• 2:47:56
  we came this way, said Anne the shining eyed. This is my adopted
• 2:48:01
  birthday, you know, and this garden and its story is the birthday gift
• 2:48:03
  it has given me. Did your mother ever tell you what Hester Gray looked
• 2:48:07
  like, Diana, No, only just that she was pretty. I'm rather
• 2:48:11
  glad of that, because I can imagine what she looked like without being hampered
• 2:48:15
  by facts. I think she was very slight and small, with softly curling
• 2:48:18
  dark hair, and big, sweet, timid brown eyes and a little wistful,
• 2:48:22
  pale face. The girls left their baskets in Hester's garden and spent the
• 2:48:26
  rest of the afternoon rambling in the woods and fields surrounding it, discovering many
• 2:48:31
  pretty nooks and lanes. When they got hungry, they had lunch in the
• 2:48:35
  prettiest spot of all, on the steep bank of a gurgling brook, where
• 2:48:39
  white birches shot up out of long, feathery grasses. The girls sat down
• 2:48:43
  by the roots and did full justice to Anne's dainties, even the unpoetical sandwiches,
• 2:48:48
  being greatly appreciated by hearty, unspoiled appetites sharpened by all the fresh air
• 2:48:52
  and exercise they had enjoyed. Anne had brought glasses and lemonade for her guests,
• 2:48:56
  but for her own part drank cold brook water from a cup fashioned out
• 2:49:01
  of birch bark. The cup leaked and the water tasted of earth, as
• 2:49:03
  brook water is apt to do in spring, but Anne thought it more appropriate
• 2:49:07
  to the occasion than lemonade. Look do you see that poem, she said,
• 2:49:11
  suddenly, pointing where Jane and Diana stared, as if expecting to see
• 2:49:16
  runic rhymes on the birch trees there down in the brook, that old green
• 2:49:20
  mossy log, with the water flowing over it, in those smooth ripples that
• 2:49:24
  look as if they'd been combed, and that single shaft of sunshine falling right
• 2:49:28
  athwart it, far down into the pool. Oh, it's the most beautiful
• 2:49:31
  poem I ever saw. I should rather call it a picture, said Jane.
• 2:49:35
  A poem is lines and verses, Oh, dear me, No.
• 2:49:39
  Anne shook her head with its fluffy, wild Cherry Coronel positively. The lines
• 2:49:43
  and verses are only the outward garments of the poem, and are no more
• 2:49:48
  really it than your ruffles and flounces, are you, Jane. The real
• 2:49:50
  poem is the soul within them, and that beautiful bit is the soul of
• 2:49:54
  an unwritten poem. It is not every day one sees a soul, even
• 2:49:58
  of a poem. I wonder what a soul, a person's soul would look
• 2:50:03
  like, said Priscilla, dreamily. Like that, I should think, answered
• 2:50:07
  Anne, pointing to a radiance of sifted sunlight streaming through a birch tree,
• 2:50:11
  only with shape and features. Of course, I like to fancy souls as
• 2:50:16
  being made of light, And some are all shot through with rosy stains and
• 2:50:20
  quivers, and some have a soft glitter like moonlight on the sea, and
• 2:50:24
  some are pale and transparent, like mist at dawn. I read somewhere that
• 2:50:28
  souls were like flowers, said Priscilla. Then your soul is a golden narcissus,
• 2:50:33
  said Anne. And Diana's is like a red red rose. Jane's is
• 2:50:37
  an apple blossom, pink and wholesome and sweet, and your own is a
• 2:50:41
  white violet with purple streaks in its heart, finished Priscilla. Jane whispered to
• 2:50:45
  Diana that she really could not understand what they were talking about, could she.
• 2:50:50
  The girls went home by the light of a calm, golden sunset,
• 2:50:52
  their baskets filled with narcissus blossoms from Hester's garden, some of which Anne carried
• 2:50:58
  to the cemetery next day and laid upon Hester's grave. Minstrel robins were whistling
• 2:51:03
  in the firs, and the frogs were singing in the marshes. All the
• 2:51:05
  basins among the hills were brimmed with topaz and emerald light. Well we have
• 2:51:09
  had a lovely time, after all, said Diana, as if she had
• 2:51:13
  hardly expected to have it when she set out. It has been a truly
• 2:51:16
  golden day, said Priscilla. I'm really awfully fond of the woods myself,
• 2:51:22
  said Jane. Anne said nothing. She was looking afar into the western sky
• 2:51:26
  and thinking of little Hester Gray end of Chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen, A
• 2:51:33
  danger averted Anne. Walking home from the post office one Friday evening, was
• 2:51:39
  joined by missus Lynde, who was, as usual, cumbered with all the
• 2:51:41
  cares of church and state. I've just been down to Timothy Cotton's to see
• 2:51:46
  if I could get Alice Louise to help me for a few days. She
• 2:51:48
  said, I had her last week for though she's too slow to stop quick.
• 2:51:52
  She's better than nobody, but she's sick and can't come. Timothy's sitting
• 2:51:56
  there too, coughing and complaining. He's been dying for ten years, and
• 2:52:01
  he'll go on dying for ten years more. That kind can't even die and
• 2:52:03
  have done with it. They can't stick to anything, even to being sick
• 2:52:07
  long enough to finish it. They're a terrible shiftless family. And what is
• 2:52:11
  to become of them? I don't know, but perhaps Providence does, missus
• 2:52:15
  Lynde sighed, as if she rather doubted the extent of providential knowledge on the
• 2:52:18
  subject. Marilla was in about her eyes again Tuesday, wasn't she? What
• 2:52:22
  did the specialists think of them? She continued. He was much pleased,
• 2:52:26
  said Anne brightly. He says there is a great improvement in them, and
• 2:52:28
  he thinks the danger of her losing her sight completely is past. But he
• 2:52:31
  says she'll never be able to read much or do any fine hand work again.
• 2:52:35
  How are your preparations for your bazaar coming? On? The Lady's Aid
• 2:52:39
  Society was preparing for a fare in supper, and Missus Lynde was the head
• 2:52:43
  in front of the enterprise. Pretty well, Anne, that reminds me.
• 2:52:46
  Missus Allan thinks it would be nice to fix up a booth like an old
• 2:52:48
  time kitchen and serve a supper of baked beans, doughnuts, pie, and
• 2:52:52
  so on. We're collecting old fashioned fixings everywhere. Missus Simon Fletcher is going
• 2:52:56
  to lend us her mother's braided rugs, and Missus Levi Bolt some old chairs,
• 2:53:00
  and Aunt Mary Shaw will lend us her cupboard with the glass doors.
• 2:53:03
  I suppose Marilla will let us have her brass candlesticks. And we want all
• 2:53:07
  the old dishes we can get. Missus Allen especially set on having a real
• 2:53:11
  blue willow ware platter if we can find one, but nobody seems to have
• 2:53:13
  one. Do you know where we could get one? Miss Josephine Barry has
• 2:53:18
  one. I'll write and ask her if she'll lend it for the occasion,
• 2:53:20
  said Anne, Well, I wish you would. I guess we'll have the
• 2:53:22
  supper in about a fortnight's time. Uncle ab Andrews is prophesying rain and storms.
• 2:53:26
  For about that time, and that's a pretty sure sign we'll have fine
• 2:53:30
  weather. The said Uncle Abe, it may be mentioned, was at least
• 2:53:33
  like other prophets in that he had small honor in his own country. He
• 2:53:37
  was in fact considered in the light of a standing joke, for few of
• 2:53:41
  his weather predictions were ever fulfilled. Mister Elisha Wright, who labored under the
• 2:53:45
  impression that he was a local wit, used to say that nobody in Avonlea
• 2:53:48
  ever thought of looking in the Charlottetown dailies for weather probabilities. No, they
• 2:53:52
  just asked Uncle Abe what it was going to be tomorrow and expected the opposite.
• 2:53:56
  Nothing daunted, Uncle Aid kept on prophesying. We want to have the
• 2:54:00
  fare over before the election comes off, continued missus Lynde, for the candidates
• 2:54:03
  will be sure to come and spend lots of money. The Tories are bribing
• 2:54:07
  right and left, so they might as well be given a chance to spend
• 2:54:09
  their money honestly. For ones Anne was a red hot Conservative out of loyalty
• 2:54:13
  to Matthew's memory, but she said nothing. She knew better than to get
• 2:54:16
  Missus Lynde started on politics. She had a letter from Marilla postmarked from a
• 2:54:20
  town in British Columbia. It's probably from the children's uncle, she said excitedly
• 2:54:24
  when she got home. Oh, Marilla, I wonder what he says about
• 2:54:28
  them. The best plan might be to open it and see, said Marilla
• 2:54:31
  curtly. A close observer might have thought that she was excited also, but
• 2:54:35
  she would have rather died than show it. Anne tore open the letter and
• 2:54:39
  glanced over the somewhat untidy and poorly written contents. He says he can't take
• 2:54:43
  the children this spring. He's been sick most of the winter, and his
• 2:54:46
  wedding is put off. He wants to know if we can keep them till
• 2:54:48
  the fall, and he'll try and take them. Then we will, of
• 2:54:50
  course, won't we, Marilla. I don't see that there is anything else
• 2:54:54
  for us to do, said Marilla rather grimly, although she felt a secret
• 2:54:56
  relief. Anyhow, they're not so much trouble they were, or else we've
• 2:55:01
  got used to them. Davy has improved a great deal. His manners are
• 2:55:05
  certainly better, said Anne cautiously, as if you were not prepared to say
• 2:55:09
  as much for his morals. Anne had come home from school the previous evening
• 2:55:13
  to find Marilla wait an aid meeting, Dora asleep on the kitchen sofa,
• 2:55:16
  and Davy in the sitting room closet, blissfully absorbing the contents of a jar
• 2:55:20
  of Marilla's famous yellow plum preserves company jam. Davy called it, which he
• 2:55:24
  had been forbidden to touch. He looked very guilty when Anne pounced on him
• 2:55:28
  and whisked him out of the closet. Davy, Keith, don't you know
• 2:55:31
  that it is very wrong of you to be eating that jam when you were
• 2:55:35
  told never to meddle with anything in that closet. Yes, I knew it
• 2:55:39
  was wrong, admitted Davy uncomfortably. But plum jam is awful, nice Anne.
• 2:55:43
  I just peeped in and it looked so good I thought I'd just take
• 2:55:46
  a weeny taste. I stuck my finger in. Anne groaned and licked it
• 2:55:50
  clean, and it was so much gooder than I'd ever thought that I got
• 2:55:54
  a spoon and just sailed in. Anne gave him such a serious lecture on
• 2:55:58
  the sin of stealing place um jamb that Davy became conscience stricken and promised,
• 2:56:03
  with repentant kisses never to do it again. Annyhow there'll be plenty of dam
• 2:56:07
  in heaven. That's one comfort, he said complacently. Anne nipped a smile
• 2:56:11
  in the bud. Perhaps there will if we wanted, she said. But
• 2:56:13
  what makes you think so? Why it's in the Catechism, said Davy.
• 2:56:18
  Oh no, there's nothing like that in the Catechism, Davy. But I
• 2:56:22
  tell you there is, persisted Davy. It was in that question, Marilla
• 2:56:26
  taught me last Sunday. Why should we love God? It says, because
• 2:56:30
  he makes preserves and redeems us. Preserve is just a holy way of saying
• 2:56:33
  jam. I must get a drink of water, said Anne hastily. When
• 2:56:39
  she came back. It cost her some time in trouble to explain to Davy
• 2:56:41
  that a certain comma in the said Catechism question made a great deal of difference
• 2:56:46
  in the meaning. Well, I thought it was too good to be true,
• 2:56:48
  he said at last, with a sigh of disappointed conviction. An Besides,
• 2:56:52
  I didn't see when you'd find time to make jam. If it's one
• 2:56:56
  endless Sabbath day, as the hymn says, I don't believe I want to
• 2:56:58
  go. Won't there ever be any Saturdays in heaven? Anne? Yes,
• 2:57:03
  Saturdays and every other kind of beautiful days, and every day in heaven will
• 2:57:07
  be more beautiful than the one before it, Davy assured Anne, who was
• 2:57:11
  rather glad that Marilla was not by to be shocked. Marilla, it is
• 2:57:15
  needless to say, was bringing up the twins in the good old ways of
• 2:57:18
  theology, and discouraged all fanciful speculations. Thereupon, Davy and Dora were taught
• 2:57:22
  a hymn, a catechism question, and two Bible verses every Sunday. Dora
• 2:57:28
  learned meekly and recited like a little machine, with perhaps as much understanding or
• 2:57:31
  interests as if she were one. Davy, on the contrary, had a
• 2:57:35
  lively curiosity and frequently asked questions, which made Marilla tremble for his fate.
• 2:57:41
  Chester Sloane says, we'll do nothing all the time in heaven but walk around
• 2:57:43
  in white dresses and play on harps. And he says he hopes he won't
• 2:57:48
  have to go till he's an old man, cause maybe he'll like it better
• 2:57:50
  then. And he thinks it will be horrid to wear dresses, And I
• 2:57:54
  think so too. Why can't men angels wear trousers? Anne, Chester Sloane
• 2:57:58
  is interested in those, cause they're going to make a minister of him.
• 2:58:01
  He's got to be a minister because his grandmother left the money to send him
• 2:58:05
  to college, and he can't have it unless he's a minister. She thought
• 2:58:07
  a minister was such a spectable thing to have in a family. Chester says
• 2:58:11
  he doesn't mind much, though he'd rather be a blacksmith, but he's bound
• 2:58:15
  to have all the fun he can before he begins to be a minister,
• 2:58:18
  because he doesn't expect to have much afterwards. I ain't going to be a
• 2:58:22
  minister. I'm going to be a store keeper like mister Blair and keep heaps
• 2:58:26
  of candy and bananas. But I'd rather like going to your kind of a
• 2:58:28
  heaven if they'd let me play a mouth organ instead of a harp. Do
• 2:58:31
  you s'pose they would? Yes, I think they would if you wanted.
• 2:58:35
  It was all Anne could trust herself to say. The Avus met at mister
• 2:58:39
  Harmon Andrews that evening, and a full attendance had been requested since important business
• 2:58:43
  was to be discussed. The Avas was in a flourishing condition and had already
• 2:58:48
  accomplished wonders early in the spring. Mister Major Spencer had redeemed his promise and
• 2:58:52
  had stumped, grated, and seated down all the road front of his farm.
• 2:58:56
  A dozen other men, some prompted by a determined not to let a
• 2:59:00
  spencer get ahead of them, others goaded into action by improvers in their own
• 2:59:03
  households, had followed his example. The result was that there were long strips
• 2:59:09
  of smooth velvet turf where ones had been unsightly undergrowth or brush. The farm
• 2:59:13
  fronts that had not been done looked so badly, by contrast, that their
• 2:59:16
  owners were secretly shamed into resolving to see what they could do another spring.
• 2:59:20
  The triangle of ground at the cross roads had also been cleared and seated down,
• 2:59:24
  and Anne's bed of geraniums, unharmed by any marauding cow, was already
• 2:59:28
  set out in the center. Altogether, the improvers thought that they were getting
• 2:59:33
  on beautifully, even if mister Levi Bolter, tactfully approached by a carefully selected
• 2:59:37
  committee in regard to the old house on his upper farm, did bluntly tell
• 2:59:41
  them that he wasn't going to have it meddled with. At this special meeting,
• 2:59:46
  they intended to draw up a petition to the school trustees humbly praying that
• 2:59:50
  a fence be put around the school grounds, and the plan was also to
• 2:59:52
  be discussed for planting a few ornamental trees by the church, if the funds
• 2:59:56
  of the society would permit of it, For as Anne said, there was
• 3:00:00
  no use in starting another subscription as long as the hall remained blue. The
• 3:00:03
  members were assembled in the Andrews parlor and Jane was already on her feet to
• 3:00:07
  move the appointment of a committee which should find out and report on the price
• 3:00:11
  of said trees, when Gerty Pye swept in, pomp adored and filled within
• 3:00:15
  an inch of her life. Gerty had a habit of being late to make
• 3:00:18
  her entrance more effective. Spiteful people said Gerty's entrance in this instance was certainly
• 3:00:24
  effective, for she paused dramatically on the middle of the floor, threw up
• 3:00:26
  her hands, rolled her eyes, and exclaimed, I've just heard something perfectly
• 3:00:31
  awful. What do you think, mister Judson Parker is going to rent all
• 3:00:35
  the road fence of his farm to a patent medicine company to paint advertisements on.
• 3:00:41
  For once in her life, Gerty Pye made all the sensation she desired
• 3:00:45
  If she had thrown a bomb among the complaisant Improvers, she could hardly have
• 3:00:48
  made more. It can't be true, said Anne blankly. That's just what
• 3:00:52
  I said when I heard it first, don't you know, said Gerty,
• 3:00:56
  who was enjoying herself hugely. I said it couldn't be true, that Judson
• 3:01:00
  Parker wouldn't have the heart to do it, don't you know. But father
• 3:01:03
  met him this afternoon and asked him about it, and he said it was
• 3:01:05
  true. Just fancy his farm is sied on to the Newbridge Road, and
• 3:01:09
  how perfectly awful it will look to see advertisements of pills and plasters all along
• 3:01:13
  it, don't you know? The improvers did know all too well. Even
• 3:01:18
  the least imaginative among them could picture the grotesque effect of half a mile of
• 3:01:22
  board fence adorned with such advertisements. All thought of church and school grounds vanished
• 3:01:28
  before this new danger. Parliamentary rules and regulations were forgotten, and Anne,
• 3:01:31
  in despair, gave up trying to keep minutes at all. Everybody talked at
• 3:01:35
  once, and fearful was the hubbub. Oh let us keep calm, implored
• 3:01:39
  Anne, who was the most excited of them all, and try to think
• 3:01:43
  of some way of preventing him. I don't know how you're going to prevent
• 3:01:46
  him, exclaimed Jane bitterly. Everybody knows what Judson Parker is. He'd do
• 3:01:50
  anything for money. He hasn't a spark of public spirit or any sense of
• 3:01:54
  the beautiful. The prospect looked rather unpromising. Judson Parker and his sister were
• 3:02:00
  the only Parkers in Avonlea, so that no leverage could be exerted by family
• 3:02:03
  connections. Martha Parker was a lady of all too certain age who disapproved of
• 3:02:07
  young people in general and the improvers in particular. Judson was a jovial,
• 3:02:11
  smooth spoken man, so uniformly good natured and bland that it was surprising how
• 3:02:16
  few friends he had. Perhaps he had got the better in too many business
• 3:02:20
  transactions, which seldom makes for popularity. He was reputed to be very sharp,
• 3:02:24
  and it was the general opinion that he hadn't much principle. If Judson
• 3:02:28
  Parker has a chance to turn an honest penny, as he says himself,
• 3:02:31
  he'll never lose it, declared Fred Wright. Is there nobody who has any
• 3:02:37
  influence over him? Asked Anne despairingly. He goes to see Louisa Spencer at
• 3:02:41
  White Sands, suggested Carrie Sloane. Perhaps she could coax him not to rent
• 3:02:45
  his fences. Not, she said Gilbert emphatically. I know Louisa Spencer well.
• 3:02:50
  She doesn't believe in village improvement societies, but she does believe in dollars
• 3:02:54
  and cents. She'd be more likely to urge Judson on than to dissuade him.
• 3:02:58
  The only thing to do is to appoint a committee to wait on him
• 3:03:01
  and protest, said Julia Bell. And you must send girls, for he'd
• 3:03:05
  hardly be civil to boys. But I won't go, so nobody need nominate
• 3:03:09
  me. Better send Anne alone, said Oliver Sloane. She can talk Judson
• 3:03:13
  over if anybody can. Anne protested. She was willing to go and do
• 3:03:18
  the talking, but she must have others with her for moral support. Diana
• 3:03:20
  and Jane were therefore appointed to support her morally, and the Improvers broke up
• 3:03:24
  buzzing like angry bees. With indignation. Anne was so worried that she didn't
• 3:03:30
  sleep until nearly morning, and then she dreamed that the trustees had put a
• 3:03:33
  fence around the school and painted try purple pills all over it. The committee
• 3:03:37
  waited on Judson Parker the next afternoon. Anne pleaded eloquently against his nefarious design,
• 3:03:43
  and Jane and Diana supported her morally and valiantly. Judson was sleek,
• 3:03:48
  suave, flattering, paid them several compliments of the delicacy of sun flowers.
• 3:03:52
  Felt real bad to refuse such charming young ladies, but business was business.
• 3:03:56
  Couldn't afford to let sentiments stand in the way these hard times. But I'll
• 3:04:00
  tell you what I will do, he said, with a twinkle in his
• 3:04:01
  light full eyes. I'll tell the agent that he must use only handsome,
• 3:04:05
  tasty colors, red and yellow and so on. I'll tell him he mustn't
• 3:04:09
  paint the ads blue on any account. The vanquished committee retired, thinking things
• 3:04:15
  not lawful to be uttered. We have done all we can do and must
• 3:04:18
  simply trust the rest of providence, said Jane, with an unconscious imitation of
• 3:04:22
  missus Lynde's tone and manner. I wonder if mister Allan could do anything,
• 3:04:26
  reflected Diana. Anne shook her head. No, it's no use to worry
• 3:04:31
  mister Allen, especially now when the baby's so sick. Judson would slip away
• 3:04:35
  from him as smoothly as from us, although he has taken to going to
• 3:04:39
  church quite regularly just now. That is simply because Louisa Spencer's father is an
• 3:04:43
  elder and very particular about such things. Judson Parker is the only man in
• 3:04:46
  Avonlea who would dream of renting his fences, said Jane indignantly. Even Levi
• 3:04:52
  Bolter or Lorenzo White would never stoop to that. Tight fisted as they are,
• 3:04:56
  they would have too much respect for public opinion. Pap Publick opinion was
• 3:05:00
  certainly down on Judson Parker when the facts became known, but that did not
• 3:05:03
  help matters much. Judson chuckled to himself and defied it, and the improvers
• 3:05:07
  were trying to reconcile themselves to the prospect of seeing the prettiest part of the
• 3:05:11
  new Bridge road defaced by advertisements. When Anne rose quietly at the President's call
• 3:05:16
  for reports of Committees on the occasion of the next meeting of the Society and
• 3:05:20
  announced that mister Judson Parker had instructed her to inform the Society that he was
• 3:05:24
  not going to rent his fences to the Patent Medicine Company, Jane and Diana
• 3:05:28
  stared as if they found it hard to believe their ears. Parliamentary etiquette,
• 3:05:33
  which was generally very strictly enforced in the Avis forbade them giving instant vent to
• 3:05:37
  their curiosity. But after the society adjourned, Anne was besieged for explanations.
• 3:05:41
  Anne had no explanation to give. Judson Parker had overtaken her on the road
• 3:05:46
  the preceding evening and told her that he had decided to humor the AVIIS in
• 3:05:50
  its peculiar prejudice against patent medicine advertisements. That was all Anne would say then
• 3:05:54
  or ever afterwards, and it was the simple truth. But when Jane Andrews,
• 3:05:58
  on her her way home, confided to Oliver Sloane her firm belief that
• 3:06:01
  there was more behind Judson Parker's mysterious change of heart than Anne Shirley had revealed,
• 3:06:07
  she spoke the truth. Also. Anne had been down to Old missus
• 3:06:11
  Irvings on the shore road the preceding evening and had come home by a short
• 3:06:15
  cut which led her first over the low lying shore fields and then through the
• 3:06:18
  beechwood below Robert Dixon's by a little footpath that ran out of the main road
• 3:06:22
  just above the Lake of shining waters, known to unimaginative people as Berry's Pond.
• 3:06:28
  Two men were sitting in their buggies, reined off to the side of
• 3:06:31
  the road, just at the entrance of the path. One was Judson Parker,
• 3:06:35
  the other was Jerry Corkoran, a new Bridge man against whom, as
• 3:06:37
  missus Lynde would have told to an eloquent Italics, nothing shady had ever been
• 3:06:41
  proved. He was an agent for agricultural implements and a prominent personage in matters
• 3:06:46
  political. He had a finger and some people set all his fingers in every
• 3:06:50
  political pie that was cooked. And as Canada was on the eve of a
• 3:06:54
  general election, Jerry Corkoran had been a busy man for many weeks, canvassing
• 3:06:58
  the county and the interests of his party's candidate. Just as Anne emerged from
• 3:07:03
  under the overhanging beech boughs, she heard Corkoran say, if you'll vote for
• 3:07:07
  Amesbury Parker, Well, I've a note for that pair of harrows you've got
• 3:07:11
  in the spring. I suppose you wouldn't object to having it back. Eh.
• 3:07:15
  Well, since you put it that way, drawled Judson with a grin,
• 3:07:18
  I reckon I might as well do it. A man must look out
• 3:07:22
  for his own interests in these hard times. Both saw Anne at this moment,
• 3:07:26
  and conversation abruptly ceased. Anne bowed frostily and walked on, with her
• 3:07:30
  chin slightly more tilted than usual. Soon Judson Parker overtook her. Have a
• 3:07:35
  lift, Anne, he inquired genially. Thank you, No, said Anne,
• 3:07:37
  politely, but with a fine needle like disdain in her voice that pierced
• 3:07:41
  even Judson Parker's none too sensitive consciousness. His face reddened and he twitched his
• 3:07:46
  reins angrily, But the next second, prudential considerations checked him. He looked
• 3:07:52
  uneasily at Anne as she walked steadily on, glancing neither to the right nor
• 3:07:56
  to the left. Had she heard Corkorann's unmistakable offer in his own too plain
• 3:08:00
  acceptance of it confound Corkran. If he couldn't put his meaning into less dangerous
• 3:08:05
  phrases, he'd get into troublesome of these long come shorts, and confound red
• 3:08:09
  headed school ma'ams with a habit of popping out of beechwoods where they had no
• 3:08:11
  business to be. If Anne had heard Judson Parker measuring her cord in his
• 3:08:16
  own half bushel as the country, saying went and cheating himself thereby, as
• 3:08:20
  such people generally do, believed that she would tell it far and wide.
• 3:08:24
  Now. Judson Parker, as has been seen, was not overly regardful of
• 3:08:28
  public opinion. But to be known as having accepted a bride would be a
• 3:08:31
  nasty thing. And if it ever reached Isaac Spencer's ears, farewell forever to
• 3:08:35
  all hope of winning Louisa Jane, with her comfortable prospects. As the errors
• 3:08:39
  of a well to do farmer. Judson Parker knew that mister Spencer looked somewhat
• 3:08:43
  askance at him. As it was, he could not afford to take any
• 3:08:46
  risks. Ahem. Anne, I've been wanting to see you about that little
• 3:08:50
  matter we were discussing the other day. I've decided not to let my fences
• 3:08:54
  to that company. After all, a society with an aim like yours ought
• 3:08:58
  to be encouraged. Anne thawed out the mirror'st trifle. Thank you, she
• 3:09:03
  said, And and you needn't mention that little conversation of mine with Jerry.
• 3:09:09
  I have no intention of mentioning it in any case, said Anne icily,
• 3:09:13
  for she would have seen every fence in Avonlea painted with advertisements before she would
• 3:09:16
  have stooped a bargain with a man who would sell his vote just so,
• 3:09:20
  just so, agreed Judson, imagining that they understood each other beautifully. I
• 3:09:24
  didn't suppose you would. Of course, I was only stringing Jerry. He
• 3:09:26
  thinks he's so all fired cute and smart. I've no intention of voting for
• 3:09:31
  Amesbury. I'm going to vote for Grant, as I've always done. You'll
• 3:09:33
  see that when the election comes off. I just led Jerry on to see
• 3:09:37
  if he would commit himself. That's all right about the fence. You can
• 3:09:39
  tell the improvers that it takes all sorts of people to make a world,
• 3:09:43
  as I've often heard, but I think there are some who could be spared.
• 3:09:48
  Anne told her reflection in the East Gable mirror that night. I wouldn't
• 3:09:50
  have mentioned the disgraceful thing to a soul anyhow, so my conscience is clear
• 3:09:54
  on that score. I really don't know who or what is to be thanked
• 3:09:58
  for this. I did nothing to bring it about. Had It's hard to
• 3:10:01
  believe that providence ever works by means of the kind of politics men like Judson
• 3:10:05
  Parker and Jerry Corcoran have end of chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen, the beginning
• 3:10:13
  of vacation. Anne locked the schoolhouse door on a still yellow evening, when
• 3:10:18
  the winds were purring in the spruces around the playground and the shadows were long
• 3:10:22
  and lazy by the edge of the woods. She dropped the key into her
• 3:10:26
  pocket with a sigh of satisfaction. The school year was ended. She had
• 3:10:31
  been re engaged for the next with many expressions of satisfaction. Only mister Harmon
• 3:10:35
  Andrews told her she ought to use the strap oftener, and two delightful months
• 3:10:39
  of a well earned vacation beckoned her invitingly. Anne felt at peace with the
• 3:10:45
  world and herself as she walked down the hill with her basket of flowers in
• 3:10:48
  her hand. Since the earliest mayflowers, Anne had never missed her weekly pilgrimage
• 3:10:52
  to Matthew's grave. Everyone else in Avonlea except Marilla, had already forgotten quiet,
• 3:10:58
  shy, unimportant Matthew Cuthbert, But his memory was still green in Anne's
• 3:11:03
  heart and always would be. She could never forget the kind old man who
• 3:11:07
  had been the first to give her the love and sympathy her starved childhood had
• 3:11:11
  craved. At the foot of the hill, a boy was sitting on the
• 3:11:15
  fence in the shadow of the spruces, a boy with big, dreamy eyes
• 3:11:18
  and a beautiful, sensitive face. He swung down and joined Anne, smiling,
• 3:11:22
  but there were traces of tears on his cheeks. I thought i'd wait
• 3:11:26
  for you, teacher, because I knew you were going to the graveyard,
• 3:11:30
  he said, slipping his hand into hers. I'm going there too. I'm
• 3:11:33
  taking this bouquet of geraniums to put on Grandpa Irving's grave for Grandma. And
• 3:11:37
  look, teacher, I'm going to put this bunch of white roses beside Grandpa's
• 3:11:41
  grave and memory of my little mother because I can't go to her grave to
• 3:11:45
  put it there. But don't you think she'll know all about it? Just
• 3:11:48
  the same? Yes, I'm sure she will, Paul. You see,
• 3:11:52
  teacher, it's just three years to day since my little mother died. It's
• 3:11:56
  such a long long time. But it r hur's just as much as ever,
• 3:12:01
  and I miss her just as much as ever. Sometimes it seems to
• 3:12:05
  me that I just can't bear it. It hurts so Paul's voice quivered and
• 3:12:09
  his lip trembled. He looked down at his roses, hoping that his teacher
• 3:12:13
  would not notice the tears in his eyes, and yet said Anne, very
• 3:12:16
  softly, you wouldn't want it to stop hurting. You wouldn't want to forget
• 3:12:22
  your little mother even if you could. No, indeed, I wouldn't.
• 3:12:26
  That's just the way I feel. You're so good at understanding, teacher.
• 3:12:30
  Nobody else understands so well, not even Grandma, although she's so good to
• 3:12:33
  me. Father understood pretty well, but still I couldn't talk much to him
• 3:12:37
  about mother because it made him feel so bad when he put his hand over
• 3:12:41
  his face. I always knew it was time to stop. Poor father.
• 3:12:46
  He must be dreadfully lonesome without me. But you see, he has nobody
• 3:12:50
  but a housekeeper now, and he thinks housekeepers are no good to bring up
• 3:12:54
  little boys, especially when he has to be away from home so much on
• 3:12:56
  business. Grandmothers are better next to mother's. Some day, when I'm brought
• 3:13:01
  up, I'll go back to father, and we're never going to be parted
• 3:13:03
  again. Paul had talked so much to Anne about his mother and father that
• 3:13:09
  she felt as if she had known them. She thought his mother must have
• 3:13:11
  been very like what he was himself in temperament and disposition. And she had
• 3:13:16
  an idea that Stephen Irving was a rather reserved man, with a deep and
• 3:13:20
  tender nature, which he kept hidden scrupulously from the world. Father's not very
• 3:13:24
  easy to get acquainted with, Paul had said once. I never got really
• 3:13:28
  acquainted with him until after my little mother died. But he's splendid when you
• 3:13:33
  do get to know him. I love him best in all the world,
• 3:13:35
  and Grandma Irving next, and then you, Teacher. I'd love you next
• 3:13:39
  to father if it wasn't my duty to love Grandma Irving best, because she's
• 3:13:43
  doing so much for me, you know, Teacher, I wish she would
• 3:13:46
  leave the lamp in my room till I go to sleep, though she takes
• 3:13:50
  it right out as soon as she tucks me up, because she says I
• 3:13:52
  mustn't be a coward. I'm not scared, but I'd rather have the light.
• 3:13:58
  My little mother used to always sit beside me and hold my hand till
• 3:14:01
  I went to sleep. I expect she spoiled me. Mothers do sometimes,
• 3:14:05
  you know. No. Anne did not know this, although she might imagine
• 3:14:09
  it. She thought sadly of her little mother, the mother who had thought
• 3:14:13
  her so perfectly beautiful, and who had died so long ago, and was
• 3:14:16
  buried beside her boyish husband in that unvisited grave far away. Anne could not
• 3:14:22
  remember her mother, and for this reason she almost envied Paul. My birthday
• 3:14:26
  is next week, said Paul, as they walked up the long red hill,
• 3:14:31
  basking in the June sunshine. And father wrote me that he is sending
• 3:14:35
  me something that he thinks I like better than anything else he could send.
• 3:14:39
  I believe it has come already for Grandma is keeping the bookcase strawer locked,
• 3:14:43
  and that is something new. And when I asked her why, she just
• 3:14:46
  looked mysterious and said, little boys mustn't be too curious. It's very exciting
• 3:14:50
  to have a birthday, isn't it. I'll be eleven. You'd never think
• 3:14:54
  it to look at me, would you. Grandma says I'm very small for
• 3:14:56
  my age, and that it's all because I don't enough porridge. I do
• 3:15:01
  my very best, but Grandma gives such generous platefuls. There's nothing mean about
• 3:15:05
  Grandma, I can tell you. Ever since I had that talk about praying
• 3:15:09
  going home from Sunday school that day teacher, when you said we ought to
• 3:15:13
  pray about all our difficulties. I've prayed every night that God would give me
• 3:15:16
  enough grace to enable me to eat every bit of my porridge in the mornings.
• 3:15:20
  But I've never been able to do it yet. And whether it's because
• 3:15:24
  I have too little grace or too much porridge, I really can't decide.
• 3:15:28
  Grandma says father was brought up on porridge, and it certainly did work well
• 3:15:33
  in his case. For you ought to see the shoulders he has, but
• 3:15:35
  sometimes, concluded Paul with a sigh and a meditative air, I really think
• 3:15:41
  porridge will be the death of me. Anne permitted herself a smile, since
• 3:15:46
  Paul was not looking at her all. Avonlea knew that old missus Irving was
• 3:15:50
  bringing her grandson up in accordance with the good old fashioned methods of diet and
• 3:15:54
  morals. Let us hope not dear, she said, cheerfully. How are
• 3:15:58
  your rock people coming on? Does the oldest twins still continue to behave himself?
• 3:16:01
  He has to, said Paul emphatically. He knows I won't associate with
• 3:16:05
  him. If he doesn't, he is really full of wickedness. I think
• 3:16:09
  Aunt has Nora found out about the Golden Lady yet. No, but I
• 3:16:13
  think she suspects. I'm almost sure she watched me the last time I went
• 3:16:16
  to the cave. I don't mind if she finds out. It is only
• 3:16:20
  for her sake. I don't want her to so that her feelings won't be
• 3:16:24
  hurt. But if she is determined to have her feelings hurt, it can't
• 3:16:26
  be helped. If I were to go to the shores some night with you,
• 3:16:31
  do you think I could see your rock people too? Paul shook his
• 3:16:33
  head gravely. No. I don't think you could see my rock people.
• 3:16:39
  I'm the only person who can see them. But you could see rock people
• 3:16:41
  of your own. You're one of the kind that can. We're both that
• 3:16:45
  kind, you know, teacher, he added, squeezing her hand chummily.
• 3:16:48
  Isn't it splendid to be that kind? Teacher? Splendid? Anne agreed,
• 3:16:54
  gray shining eyes looking down into blue shining ones, Anne and Paul both knew
• 3:16:58
  how fair the Welm imagination opens to the view, and both knew the way
• 3:17:03
  to that happy land. There. The rows of joy bloomed immortal by dale,
• 3:17:07
  and stream clouds never darkened. The sunny sky, sweet bells never jangled
• 3:17:11
  out of tune, and kindred spirits abounded. The knowledge of that land's geography
• 3:17:16
  east of the sun west to the moon is priceless lore, not to be
• 3:17:20
  bought in any market place. It must be the gift of the good fairies
• 3:17:24
  of birth, and the years can never deface it or take it away.
• 3:17:28
  It is better to possess it living in a garret than to be the inhabitant
• 3:17:31
  of palaces without it. The Avonlea Graveyard was as yet the grass grown solitude.
• 3:17:37
  It had always been, to be sure, the Improvers had an eye
• 3:17:39
  on it, and Priscilla Grant had read a paper on cemeteries before the last
• 3:17:43
  meeting of the Society. At some future time, the improvers meant to have
• 3:17:48
  the likened wayward old board fence replaced by a neat wire railing the grass moan,
• 3:17:52
  and the leaning monuments straightened up. Anne put on Matthew's grave the flowers
• 3:17:58
  she had brought for it, and then went over to the little poplar shaded
• 3:18:01
  corner where Hester Gray slept. Ever since the day of the spring picnic,
• 3:18:05
  Anne had put flowers on Hester's grave when she visited Matthew's. The evening before,
• 3:18:11
  she had made a pilgrimage back to the little deserted garden in the woods
• 3:18:13
  and brought therefrom some of Hester's own white roses. I thought you would like
• 3:18:18
  them better than any others, dear, she said softly. Anne was still
• 3:18:22
  sitting there when a shadow fell over the grass, and she looked up to
• 3:18:26
  see Missus Allen. They walked home together. Missus Allan's face was not the
• 3:18:31
  face of the girl bride whom the Minister had brought to Avonlea five years before.
• 3:18:35
  It had lost some of its bloom and youthful curves, and there were
• 3:18:39
  fine patient lines about eyes and mouth. A tiny grave in that very cemetery
• 3:18:43
  accounted for some of them, and some new ones had come during the recent
• 3:18:46
  illness now happily over of her little son. But Missus Allan's dimples were as
• 3:18:52
  sweet and sudden as ever, her eyes as clear and bright and true.
• 3:18:56
  And what her face lacked of girlish beauty was now more than atoned for in
• 3:19:01
  added tenderness and strength. I suppose you are looking forward to your vacation,
• 3:19:05
  Anne, she said, as they left the graveyard. Anne nodded yes,
• 3:19:11
  I could roll the word as a sweet morsel under my tongue. I think
• 3:19:15
  this summer is going to be lovely. For one thing, Missus Morgan is
• 3:19:18
  coming to the island in July, and Priscilla is going to bring her up.
• 3:19:20
  I feel one of my old thrills at the mere thought. I hope
• 3:19:24
  you'll have a good time. Anne. You've worked very hard this past year,
• 3:19:28
  and you have succeeded. Oh, I don't know. I've come so
• 3:19:31
  far short in so many things. I haven't done what I meant to do
• 3:19:35
  when I began to teach last fall. I haven't lived up to my ideals.
• 3:19:39
  None of us ever do, said Missus Allen with a sigh. But
• 3:19:41
  then, Anne, you know what Lowell says. Not failure but low aim
• 3:19:46
  is crime. We must have ideals and try to live up to them,
• 3:19:50
  even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them.
• 3:19:54
  With them, it's grand and great. Hold fast to your ideals,
• 3:19:58
  Anne, I shall try, but I have to let go of most of
• 3:20:01
  my theories, said Anne, laughing a little. I had the most beautiful
• 3:20:05
  set of theories you ever knew when I started out as a school ma'am.
• 3:20:07
  But every one of them has failed me at some pincher or another. Even
• 3:20:11
  the theory on corporal punishment teased Missus Allan, but Anne flushed. I shall
• 3:20:16
  never forgive myself for whipping Anthony nonsense. Dear. He deserved it, and
• 3:20:22
  it agreed with him. You have had no trouble with him since, and
• 3:20:24
  he has come to think there's nobody like you. Your kindness won his love
• 3:20:28
  after the idea that a girl was no good was rooted out of his stubborn
• 3:20:31
  mind. He may have deserved it, but that is not the point.
• 3:20:35
  If I had calmly and deliberately decided to whip him because I thought it a
• 3:20:39
  just punishment for him, I would not feel over it as I do.
• 3:20:41
  But the truth is, Missus Allan, that I just flew into a temper
• 3:20:45
  and whipped him because of that. I wasn't thinking whether it was just or
• 3:20:48
  unjust. Even if he hadn't deserved it, I'd have done it just the
• 3:20:52
  same. That is what humiliates me. Well, we all make mistakes,
• 3:20:56
  dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and
• 3:21:00
  learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.
• 3:21:03
  There goes Gilbert Blythe on his wheel home for his vacation too. I suppose
• 3:21:07
  how are you and he getting on with your studies? Pretty well? We
• 3:21:11
  plan to finish the Virgil to night. There are only twenty lines to do.
• 3:21:15
  Then we are not going to study any more until September. Do you
• 3:21:18
  think you will ever get to college? Oh? I don't know, Anne
• 3:21:22
  looked dreamily afar into the opal tinted horizon. Marilla's eyes will never be much
• 3:21:26
  better than they are now, although we are so thankful to think that they
• 3:21:30
  will not get worse. And then there are the twins. Somehow I don't
• 3:21:33
  believe their uncle will ever really send for them. Perhaps college may be around
• 3:21:37
  the bend in the road, but I haven't got to the bend yet,
• 3:21:41
  and I don't think much about it lest I might grow discontented. Well,
• 3:21:45
  I should like to see you go to college, Anne, but if you
• 3:21:46
  never do, don't be discontented about it. We make our own lives wherever
• 3:21:50
  we are, After all, college can only help us to do it more
• 3:21:54
  easily. They are broad or narrow according to what we put into them,
• 3:21:58
  not what we get out. Life is rich and full here everywhere, if
• 3:22:03
  we can only learn how to open our whole hearts to its richness and fullness.
• 3:22:07
  I think I understand what you mean, said Anne thoughtfully. And I
• 3:22:11
  know I have so much to feel thankful for, oh so much my work
• 3:22:16
  and Paul Irving and the dear Twins and all my friends. Do you know,
• 3:22:20
  missus Allan, I'm so thankful for friendship. It beautifies life so much.
• 3:22:24
  True friendship is a very helpful thing, indeed, said missus Allan.
• 3:22:28
  And we should have a very high ideal of it and never sully it by
• 3:22:33
  any failure in truth and sincerity. I fear the name of friendship is often
• 3:22:37
  degraded to a kind of intimacy that has nothing of real friendship in it.
• 3:22:41
  Yes, like Gertie Pye's and Julia Bell's they are very intimate and go everywhere
• 3:22:46
  together. But Gerdie is always saying nasty things of Julia behind her back,
• 3:22:50
  and everybody thinks she is jealous of her because she is always so pleased when
• 3:22:54
  anybody criticizes Julia. I think it is desecration to call that friendship. If
• 3:22:58
  we have friends, we should look only for the best in them and give
• 3:23:01
  them the best that is in us. Don't you think then friendship would be
• 3:23:05
  the most beautiful thing in the world. Friendship is beautiful, smiled Missus Allen.
• 3:23:11
  But some day, then, she paused abruptly. In the delicate,
• 3:23:15
  white browed face beside her, with its candid eyes and mobile features, there
• 3:23:18
  was still far more of the child than of the woman. Anne's heart so
• 3:23:22
  far harbored only dreams of friendship and ambition, and Missus Allen did not wish
• 3:23:26
  to brush the bloom from her sweet unconsciousness, so she left her sentence for
• 3:23:31
  the future years to finish. End of chapter fifteen. Chapter sixteen, The
• 3:23:37
  substance of things hoped for Anne, said Davy appealingly, scrambling up on the
• 3:23:43
  shiny leather covered sofa in the Green Gables kitchen where Anne sat reading a letter.
• 3:23:48
  Anne, I'm awful hungry. You've no idea. I'll get you a
• 3:23:52
  piece of bread and butter in a minute, said Anne absently. Her letter
• 3:23:56
  evidently contained some exciting news, for her cheeks were as pink as the roses
• 3:24:01
  on the big bush outside, and her eyes were as starry as only Anne's
• 3:24:03
  eyes could be. But I ain't bread an butter hungry, said Davy in
• 3:24:09
  a disgusted tone. I'm plum cake hungry, oh, laughed Anne, laying
• 3:24:13
  down her letter and putting her arm about Davy to give him a squeeze.
• 3:24:18
  That's a kind of hunger that can be endured very comfortably, Davy boy.
• 3:24:20
  You know it's one of Marilla's rules that you can't have anything but bread and
• 3:24:24
  butter between meals. Well, give me a piece, then, please.
• 3:24:30
  Davy had at last been taught to say please, but he generally tacked it
• 3:24:33
  on as an afterthought. He looked with approval of the generous slice Anne presently
• 3:24:37
  brought to him. You always put such a nice lot of butter on it,
• 3:24:41
  Anne, Marilla spreads it pretty thin. It slips down a lot easier
• 3:24:45
  when there's plenty of butter. The slies slipped down with tolerable ease, Judging
• 3:24:48
  from its rapid disappearance. Davy slid head first off the sofa, turned a
• 3:24:54
  double somersault on the rug, and then sat up and announced decidedly, Anne,
• 3:24:58
  I've made up my mind about Heaven. I don't want to go there.
• 3:25:01
  Why not, asked Anne gravely, cause Heaven is in Simon Fletcher's Garrett,
• 3:25:05
  and I don't like Simon Fletcher. Heaven in Simon Fletcher's Garrett gasped,
• 3:25:11
  Anne, too amazed even to laugh. Davy Keith, whatever put such an
• 3:25:15
  extraordinary idea into your head? Milty Boulter says, that's where it is.
• 3:25:20
  It was last Sunday in Sunday school. The lesson was about Elijah and Elisha,
• 3:25:24
  and I up and asked Miss Rogerson where Heaven was. Miss Rogerson looked
• 3:25:28
  awful offended. She was cross anyhow, because when she'd asked us what Elijah
• 3:25:31
  left Elisha when he went to heaven, Milty Bolter said his old clothes,
• 3:25:35
  and us fellows all laughed before we thought, I wish you could think first
• 3:25:39
  and do things afterwards, cause then you wouldn't do them. But Milty didn't
• 3:25:43
  mean to be disrespectful. He just couldn't think of the name of the thing.
• 3:25:48
  Miss Rogerson says heaven was where God was, and I wasn't to ask
• 3:25:50
  questions like that. Milty nudged me and said in a whisper, Heaven's and
• 3:25:54
  Uncle Simon's Garrett, and I'll explain about it on the way home. So
• 3:25:58
  when we was coming home, Milty's a great hand at explaining things, even
• 3:26:03
  if you don't know anything about a thing. He'll make up a lot of
• 3:26:05
  stuff, and so you get it displained all the same. His mother is
• 3:26:09
  Missus Simon's sister, and he went with her to the funeral when his cousin,
• 3:26:11
  Jane Ellen died. The minister said she'd gone to heaven, though Milty
• 3:26:16
  says she was lying right before them in the coffin, but he suppose they
• 3:26:18
  carried the coffin to the garret afterwards. Well, when Milty and his mother
• 3:26:22
  went upstairs after it was all over to get her bonnet, he asked her
• 3:26:26
  where heaven was that Jane Ellen had gone to, and she pointed right to
• 3:26:28
  the ceiling and said up there, Milty knew there wasn't anything but the garrett
• 3:26:33
  over the ceiling. So that's how he found out. And he's been awful
• 3:26:37
  scared to go to his uncle Simon's ever since. Anne took Davy on her
• 3:26:41
  knee and did her best to straighten out this theological tangle. Also, she
• 3:26:45
  was much better fitted for the task than Marilla, for she remembered her own
• 3:26:48
  childhood and had an instinctive understanding of the curious ideas that seven year olds sometimes
• 3:26:54
  get about matters that are, of course very plain and simple to grown up
• 3:26:58
  people. She had just secces in convincing Davy that heaven was not in Simon
• 3:27:01
  Fletcher's garret when Marilla came in from the garden where she and Dora had been
• 3:27:05
  picking peas. Dora was an industrious little soul and never happier than when helping
• 3:27:11
  in various small tasks suited to her chubby fingers. She fed chickens, picked
• 3:27:16
  up chips, wiped dishes, and ran errands galore. She was neat,
• 3:27:20
  faithful and observant. She never had to be told how to do a thing
• 3:27:22
  twice, and never forgot any of her little duties. Davy, on the
• 3:27:26
  other hand, was rather heedless and forgetful, but he had the born knack
• 3:27:31
  of winning love, and even yet Anne and Marilla liked him the better.
• 3:27:35
  While Dora proudly shelled the peas and Davy made boats of the pods with masts
• 3:27:39
  of matches and sales of paper, Anne told Marilla about the wonderful contents of
• 3:27:45
  her letter. Oh, Marilla, what do you think. I've had a
• 3:27:48
  letter from Priscilla, and she says that missus Morgan is on the island and
• 3:27:50
  that if it is fine Thursday, they are going to drive up to Avonlea
• 3:27:54
  and will reach here about twelve. They will spend the afternoon with us and
• 3:27:58
  go to the hotel at White Sands in the evening because some of Missus Morgan's
• 3:28:01
  American friends are staying there. Oh, Marilla, isn't it wonderful? I
• 3:28:05
  can hardly believe I'm not dreaming. I dare say Missus Morgan is a lot
• 3:28:09
  like other people, said Marilla dryly, although she did feel a trifle excited
• 3:28:13
  herself. Missus Morgan was a famous woman, and a visit from her was
• 3:28:16
  no commonplace occurrence. They'll be here to dinner, then, yes, And
• 3:28:20
  oh, Marilla, may I cook every bit of the dinner myself. I
• 3:28:24
  want to feel that I can do something for the author of the Rosebud Garden.
• 3:28:26
  If it is only to cook a dinner for her. You won't mind,
• 3:28:30
  will you. Goodness, I'm not so fond of stewing over a hot
• 3:28:33
  fire in July that it would vex me very much to have some one else
• 3:28:35
  do it. You're quite welcome to the job. Oh, thank you,
• 3:28:39
  said Anne, as if Marilla had just conferred a tremendous favor. I'll make
• 3:28:43
  out the menu this very night. You'd better not try to put on too
• 3:28:46
  much style, warned Marilla, a little alarmed by the high flown sound of
• 3:28:50
  menu. You'll likely come to grief if you do. Oh, I'm not
• 3:28:52
  going to put on any style. If you mean trying to do or have
• 3:28:56
  things we don't usually have on festal occasions, assured Anne, that would be
• 3:29:00
  affectation. And although I know I haven't as much sense and steadiness as a
• 3:29:03
  girl of seventeen and a school teacher ought to have, I'm not so silly
• 3:29:07
  as that, but I want to have everything as nice and dainty as possible.
• 3:29:11
  Davy boy, don't leave those pea pods on the back stairs. Someone
• 3:29:15
  might slip on them. I'll have a light soup to begin with, you
• 3:29:18
  know I can make lovely cream of onion soup. And then a couple of
• 3:29:22
  roast fowls. I'll have the two white roosters. I have real affection for
• 3:29:26
  those roosters, and they've been pets ever since the gray hen hatched out,
• 3:29:28
  just the two of them, little balls of yellow down. But I knew
• 3:29:33
  they would have to be sacrificed sometime, and surely there couldn't be a worthier
• 3:29:35
  occasion than this. But oh, Marilla, I cannot kill them, not
• 3:29:39
  even for Missus Morgan's sake. I'll have to ask John Henry Carter to come
• 3:29:43
  over and do it for me. I'll do it, volunteered, Davy,
• 3:29:46
  if marilla'll hold them by the legs, because I guess it'd take both my
• 3:29:50
  hands to manage the axe. It's awful jolly to see them hopping about after
• 3:29:52
  their heads are cut off. Then I'll have peas and beans and cream potatoes
• 3:29:58
  and a lettuce salad for vegetable resumed anne, and for dessert, lemon pie
• 3:30:03
  with whipped cream and coffee and cheese and lady fingers. I'll make the pies
• 3:30:07
  and lady fingers tomorrow and do up my white muslin dress. And I must
• 3:30:11
  tell Diana tonight, for she'll want to do up hers. Missus Morgan's heroines
• 3:30:15
  are nearly always dressed in white muslin, and Diana and I have always resolved
• 3:30:18
  that that was what we would wear if we ever met her. It will
• 3:30:22
  be such a delicate compliment, don't you think, Davy, Dear, you
• 3:30:24
  mustn't poke pea pods into the cracks of the floor. I must ask mister
• 3:30:28
  and Missus Allan and Miss Stacy to dinner too, for they're all very anxious
• 3:30:31
  to meet Missus Morgan. It's so fortunate she's coming while miss Stacy is here.
• 3:30:35
  Davy, Dear, don't sail the pea pods in the water bucket,
• 3:30:37
  go out to the trough. Oh. I do hope it will be fine
• 3:30:41
  Thursday, And I think it will. For Uncle Abe said last night when
• 3:30:45
  he called at mister Harrison that it was going to rain most of this week.
• 3:30:48
  That's a good sign, agreed Marilla. Anne ran across to Orchard Slope
• 3:30:52
  that evening to tell the news to Diana, who was also very much excited
• 3:30:56
  over it, and they discussed the matter in the hammock swung under the big
• 3:30:58
  willow and the Oh, Anne, mayn't I help you cook the dinner,
• 3:31:03
  implored Diana. You know I can make splendid let a salad. Indeed,
• 3:31:07
  you may, said Anne unselfishly. And I shall want you to help me
• 3:31:09
  decorate too. I mean to have the parlor simply a bower of blossoms,
• 3:31:13
  and the dining table is to be adorned with wild roses. Oh, I
• 3:31:18
  do hope everything will go smoothly. Missus Morgan's heroines never get into scrapes,
• 3:31:22
  are are taken at a disadvantage, and they are always so self possessed in
• 3:31:26
  such good housekeepers. They seem to be born good housekeepers. You remember that
• 3:31:31
  Gertrude and Edgewood Days kept house for her father when she was only eight years
• 3:31:35
  old. When I was eight years old, I hardly knew how to do
• 3:31:37
  a thing except bring up children. Missus Morgan must be an authority young girls,
• 3:31:41
  when she has written so much about them, and I do want her
• 3:31:45
  to have a good opinion of us. I've imagined it all out a dozen
• 3:31:48
  different ways, what she'll look like, and what she'll say, and what
• 3:31:50
  I'll say. And I'm so anxious about my nose. There are seven freckles
• 3:31:54
  on it, as you can see. They came at the Avis picnic when
• 3:31:58
  I went around in the sum without my hat. I suppose it's ungrateful of
• 3:32:01
  me to worry over them when I should be thankful. They are not spread
• 3:32:03
  all over my face as they once were, But I do wish they hadn't
• 3:32:07
  come all. Missus Morgan's heroines have such perfect complexions. I can't recall a
• 3:32:11
  freckled one among them. Yours are not very noticeable, comforted Diana try a
• 3:32:16
  little lemon juice on them to night. The next day, Anne made her
• 3:32:20
  pies and Lady Fingers, did up her muslin dress, and swept and dusted
• 3:32:24
  every room in the house, a quite unnecessary proceeding for green gables was as
• 3:32:28
  usual in the apple Pie order. Dear to Marilla's heart, but Anne felt
• 3:32:33
  that a fleck of dust would be a desecration in a house that was to
• 3:32:35
  be honored by a visit from Charlotte E. Morgan. She even cleaned out
• 3:32:39
  the catch all closet under the stairs, although there was not the remotest possibility
• 3:32:43
  of missus Morgan's seeing its interior. But I want to feel that it is
• 3:32:46
  in perfect order, even if she isn't to see it, Anne told Marilla.
• 3:32:50
  You know, in her book Golden Keys, she makes her two heroines
• 3:32:54
  Alice and Louisa take for their motto that verse of longfellows in the elder days
• 3:32:58
  of a builders wrought with greatest care each minute and unseen part, for the
• 3:33:03
  gods see everywhere. And so they always kept their cellar stairs scrubbed, and
• 3:33:07
  never forgot to sweep under the beds. I should have a guilty conscience if
• 3:33:11
  I thought this closet was in disorder when Missus Morgan was in the house.
• 3:33:15
  Ever since we read Golden Keys last April, Diana and I have taken that
• 3:33:18
  verse for our motto too. That night, John, Henry Carter and Davy
• 3:33:24
  between them, contrived to execute the two white roosters, and Anne dressed them,
• 3:33:28
  the usually distasteful task glorified in her eyes by the destination of the plump
• 3:33:31
  birds. I don't like picking fowls, she told Marilla, But isn't it
• 3:33:35
  fortunate we don't have to put our souls into what our hands may be doing.
• 3:33:39
  I've been picking chickens with my hands, but in imagination, I've been
• 3:33:43
  roaming the milky way. I thought you'd scattered more feathers over the floor than
• 3:33:46
  usual, remarked Marilla. Then Anne put Davy to bed and made him promise
• 3:33:52
  that he would behave perfectly the next day. If I'm as good as good
• 3:33:54
  can be all day tomorrow, will you let me be just as bad as
• 3:33:58
  I like all the next day, asked Davy. I couldn't do that,
• 3:34:01
  said Anne discreetly. But I'll take you and Dora for a row in the
• 3:34:05
  flat right to the bottom of the pond, and we'll go ashore on the
• 3:34:07
  sand hills and have a picnic. It's a bargain, said Davy. I'll
• 3:34:11
  be good, you bet. I meant to go over to mister Harrison's and
• 3:34:15
  fire peas from my new pop gun at Ginger, but another dal'll do as
• 3:34:18
  well. I expect it will be just like Sunday, but a picnic at
• 3:34:22
  the shore'll make up for that. End of Chapter sixteen. Chapter seventeen,
• 3:34:26
  a chapter of accidents. Anne woke three times in the night and made pilgrimages
• 3:34:33
  to her window to make sure that Uncle Abe's prediction was not coming true.
• 3:34:37
  Finally, the morning dawned pearly and lustrous in a sky full of silver sheen
• 3:34:41
  and radiance, and the wonderful day had arrived. Diana appeared soon after breakfast
• 3:34:46
  with a basket of flowers over one arm and her muslin dress over the other,
• 3:34:50
  for it would not do to don it until all the dinner preparations were
• 3:34:52
  completed. Meanwhile, she wore her afternoon pink print and a lawn apron.
• 3:34:58
  Fearfully and wonderfully ruffled and frilled, and very neat and pretty and rosy.
• 3:35:03
  She was. You look simply sweet, said Anne admiringly. Diana sighed,
• 3:35:07
  but I've had to let out every one of my dresses again. I weigh
• 3:35:11
  four pounds more than I did in July. Anne, where will this end?
• 3:35:16
  Missus Morgan's heroines are all tall and slender. Well, let's forget our
• 3:35:20
  troubles and think of our mercies, said Anne gaily. Missus Allan says that
• 3:35:24
  whenever we think of anything that is a trial to us, we should also
• 3:35:26
  think of something nice that we can set over against it. If you are
• 3:35:30
  slightly too plump, you've got the dearest dimples. And if I have a
• 3:35:33
  freckled nose, the shape of it is all right. Do you think the
• 3:35:35
  lemon juice did any good? Yes, I really think it did, said
• 3:35:39
  Diana critically and much elated. Anne led the way to the garden, which
• 3:35:43
  was full of airy shadows and wavering golden nights. We'll decorate the parlor first.
• 3:35:48
  We have plenty of time for Priscilla said. They'd be here about twelve
• 3:35:50
  or half past of the latest, so we'll have dinner at one. There
• 3:35:54
  may have been two happier and more excited girls somewhere in Canada or the United
• 3:35:58
  States. Of that moment, but I doubt it. Every snip of the
• 3:36:01
  scissors, as rose and paeony and bluebell fell, seemed to chirp Missus Morgan
• 3:36:07
  is coming to day. Anne wondered how mister Harrison could go on placidly mowing
• 3:36:11
  hay in the field across the lane, just as if nothing were going to
• 3:36:15
  happen. The parlor at Green Gables was a rather severe and gloomy apartment,
• 3:36:20
  with rigid horse hair furniture, stiff lace curtains, and white antimacassars that were
• 3:36:24
  always laid at a perfectly correct angle, except at such times as they clung
• 3:36:28
  to unfortunate people's buttons. Even Anne had never been able to infuse much grace
• 3:36:33
  into it, for Marilla would not permit any alterations. But it is wonderful
• 3:36:37
  what flowers can accomplish if you give them a fair chance. When Anne and
• 3:36:41
  Diana finished with the room, you would not have recognized it. A great
• 3:36:46
  blue bowlful of snowballs overflowed on the polished table. The shining black mantelpiece was
• 3:36:50
  heaped with roses and ferns. Every shelf of the what knot held a sheaf
• 3:36:54
  of bluebells. The dark corners on either side of the grate were lighted up
• 3:36:58
  with cars full of glowing crimson peonies, and the grate itself was aflame with
• 3:37:03
  yellow poppies. All this splendor and color mingled with the sunshine falling through the
• 3:37:09
  honeysuckle vines at the windows in a leafy riot of dancing shadows over walls and
• 3:37:13
  floor made of the usually dismal little room the veritable bower of Anne's imagination,
• 3:37:18
  and even extorted a tribute of admiration from Marilla, who came in to criticize
• 3:37:22
  and remained to praise. Now we must set the table, said Anne,
• 3:37:26
  in the tone of a priestess about to perform some sacred rite in honor of
• 3:37:30
  a divinity. We'll have a big vase full of wild roses in the center,
• 3:37:33
  and one single rose in front of everybody's plate, and a special bouquet
• 3:37:37
  of rosebuds only by missus Morgan's an allusion to the rosebud Garden. You know,
• 3:37:43
  the table was set in the sitting room with Marilla's finest linen and the
• 3:37:46
  best china, glass and silver. You may be perfectly certain that every article
• 3:37:50
  placed on it was polished or scoured to the highest possible perfection of gloss and
• 3:37:54
  glitter. Then the girls tripped out to the kitchen, which was filled with
• 3:37:58
  appetizing odors zemanating from the oven, where the chickens were already sizzling splendidly.
• 3:38:03
  Anne prepared the potatoes and Diana got the peas and beans ready. Then,
• 3:38:07
  while Diana shut herself into the pantry to compound the lettuce salad, Anne,
• 3:38:11
  whose cheeks were already beginning to glow crimson as much with excitement as from the
• 3:38:16
  heat of the fire, prepared the bread sauce for the chickens, minced her
• 3:38:20
  onions for the soup, and finally whipped the cream for her lemon pies.
• 3:38:24
  And what about Davy? All this time was he redeeming his promise to be
• 3:38:26
  good? He was, indeed, to be sure, He insisted on remaining
• 3:38:31
  in the kitchen for his curiosity wanted to see all that went on. But
• 3:38:35
  as he sat quietly in a corner, busily engaged in untying the knots in
• 3:38:37
  a piece of herring net he had brought home from his last trip to the
• 3:38:41
  shore, nobody objected to this. At half past eleven, the lettuce salad
• 3:38:46
  was made, the golden circles of the pies were heaped with the whipped cream,
• 3:38:48
  and everything was sizzling and bubbling that ought to sizzle and bubble. We'd
• 3:38:54
  better go and dress now, said Anne, for they may be here by
• 3:38:56
  twelve. We must have dinner at sharp one, for the soup must be
• 3:39:00
  served as soon as it's done. Serious. Indeed were the toilet rites presently
• 3:39:03
  performed in the east gable. Anne peered anxiously at her nose and rejoiced to
• 3:39:07
  see that its freckles were not at all prominent, thanks either to the lemon
• 3:39:11
  juice or to the unusual flush on her cheeks. When they were ready,
• 3:39:15
  they looked quite as sweet and trim and girlish as ever did any of missus
• 3:39:18
  Morgan's heroines. I do hope I'll be able to say something once in a
• 3:39:22
  while and not sit like a mute, said Diana anxiously. All missus Morgan's
• 3:39:26
  heroines converse so beautifully, but I'm afraid I'll be tongue tied and stupid,
• 3:39:31
  and I'll be sure to say I seen. I haven't often said it since
• 3:39:35
  Miss Stacy taught here, but in moments of excitement, it's sure to pop
• 3:39:39
  out, Anne. If I were to say I seen before Missus Morgan,
• 3:39:41
  I'd die of mortification, and it would be almost as bad to have nothing
• 3:39:46
  to say. I'm nervous about a good many things, said Anne, But
• 3:39:48
  I don't think there is much fear that I won't be able to talk Anne
• 3:39:52
  to do her justice, There wasn't. Anne shrouded her muzzling glories in a
• 3:39:56
  big apron and went down to concoct her soup. Marilla had dressed herself and
• 3:40:01
  the twins and looked more excited than she had ever been known to look before.
• 3:40:05
  At half past twelve, the Allans and Miss Stacy came. Everything was
• 3:40:09
  going well, but Anne was beginning to feel nervous. It was surely time
• 3:40:13
  for Priscilla and Missus Morgan to arrive. She made frequent trips to the gate
• 3:40:16
  and looked as anxiously down the lane as ever, her namesake in the Bluebeard
• 3:40:20
  story peered from her tower casement. Suppose they don't come at all, she
• 3:40:24
  said, piteously. Don't suppose it. It would be too mean, said
• 3:40:28
  Diana, who, however, was beginning to have uncomfortable misgivings on the subject.
• 3:40:33
  Anne said, Marilla coming out from the parlor. Miss Stacy wants to
• 3:40:35
  see Miss Barry's willow ware platter. Anne hastened to the sitting room closet to
• 3:40:41
  get the platter. She had, in accordance with her promise to missus Lynde,
• 3:40:43
  written to Miss Barry of Charlottetown asking for the loan of it. Miss
• 3:40:48
  Barry was an old friend of Anne's, and she promptly sent the platter out
• 3:40:50
  with a letter exhorting Anne to be very careful of it, for she had
• 3:40:54
  paid twenty dollars for it. The platter had served its purpose at the aid
• 3:40:58
  Bazaar and had then been turned to the green Gable's closet, for Anne would
• 3:41:01
  not trust anybody but herself to take it back to town. She carried the
• 3:41:05
  platter carefully to the front door, where her guests were enjoying the cool breeze
• 3:41:09
  that blew up from the brook. It was examined and admired. Then,
• 3:41:13
  just as Anne had taken it back into her own hands, a terrific crash
• 3:41:16
  and clatter sounded from the kitchen pantry. Marilla, Diana and Anne fled out,
• 3:41:20
  the latter pausing only long enough to set the precious platter hastily down on
• 3:41:24
  the second step of the stairs. When they reached the pantry, a truly
• 3:41:28
  harrowing spectacle met their eyes, a guilty looking small boy scrambling down from the
• 3:41:33
  table, with his clean printed blouse liberally plastered with yellow filling, and on
• 3:41:37
  the table the shattered remnants of what had been two brave becreamed lemon pies.
• 3:41:43
  Davy had finished raveling out his herring net and had wound the twine into a
• 3:41:46
  ball. Then he had gone into the pantry to put it up on the
• 3:41:50
  shelf above the table, where he already kept a score or so of similar
• 3:41:52
  balls, which, so far as could be discovered, served no useful purpose
• 3:41:56
  save to yield the joy of possession. Davy had to climb on the table
• 3:42:01
  and reach over to the shelf at a dangerous angle, something he had been
• 3:42:03
  forbidden by Marilla to do, as he had come to grief once before in
• 3:42:07
  the experiment. The result in this instance was disastrous. Davy slipped and came
• 3:42:13
  sprawling squarely down on the lemon pies. His clean blouse was ruined for that
• 3:42:18
  time, and the pies for all time. It is, however, an
• 3:42:20
  ill wind that blows nobody good and the pig was eventually the gainer by Davy's
• 3:42:24
  mischance. Davy Keith, said Marilla, shaking him by the shoulder. Didn't
• 3:42:30
  I forbid you to climb up on that table again? Didn't I I forgot?
• 3:42:33
  Whimpered Davy. You've told me not to do such an awful lot of
• 3:42:37
  things that I can't remember them. All. Well, you march upstairs and
• 3:42:41
  stay there till after dinner. Perhaps you'll get them sorted out in your memory
• 3:42:43
  by that time. No, Anne, never, you mind interceding for him.
• 3:42:46
  I'm not punishing him because he spoiled your pies. That was an accident.
• 3:42:50
  I am punishing him for his disobedience. Go, Davy, I say,
• 3:42:54
  ain't I to have any dinner? Wailed Davy. You can come down
• 3:42:58
  after dinner is over and have yours in the kise. Oh all right,
• 3:43:01
  said Davy, somewhat comforted. I know Anne'll save some nice bones from me,
• 3:43:05
  won't you, Anne, Cause you know I didn't mean to fall on
• 3:43:07
  the pies, say Anne, since they are spoiled, can I take some
• 3:43:11
  of the pieces upstairs with me? No, no lemon pie for you,
• 3:43:15
  master, Davy, said Marilla, pushing him toward the hall. What shall
• 3:43:18
  we do for dessert, asked Anne, looking regretfully at the wreck and ruin.
• 3:43:22
  Get out a crock of strawberry preserves, said Marilla consolingly. There's plenty
• 3:43:26
  of whipped cream left in the bowl for it. One o'clock came, but
• 3:43:30
  no Priscilla or Missus Morgan. Anne was in an agony. Everything was done
• 3:43:33
  to a turn, and the soup was just what soup should be, but
• 3:43:37
  couldn't be depended on to remain so for any length of time. I don't
• 3:43:41
  believe they're coming after all, said Marilla crossly. Anne and Diana sought comfort
• 3:43:46
  in each other's eyes. At half past one, Marilla again emerged from the
• 3:43:48
  parlor. Girls, we must have dinner. Everybody is hungry, and it's
• 3:43:52
  no use waiting any longer. Priscilla and Missus Morgan are not coming, that's
• 3:43:56
  plain, and nothing is being improved by waiting. Anne and Diana set about
• 3:44:01
  lifting the dinner, with all the zest gone out of the performance. I
• 3:44:05
  don't believe I'll be able to eat a mouthful, said Diana dolefully, nor
• 3:44:07
  I, but I hope everything will be nice for Miss Stacy and mister and
• 3:44:11
  missus Allen's sakes, said Anne listlessly. When Diana dished the peas, she
• 3:44:16
  tasted them and a very peculiar expression crossed her face. Anne, did you
• 3:44:20
  put sugar in these peas? Yes, said Anne, mashing the potatoes with
• 3:44:24
  the air of one expected to do her duty. I put a spoonful of
• 3:44:26
  sugar in. We always do. Don't you like it? But I put
• 3:44:31
  a spoonful in too when I set them on the stove, said Diana.
• 3:44:33
  Anne dropped her masher and tasted the peas also. Then she made a grimace.
• 3:44:37
  How awful. I never dreamed you had put sugar in, because I
• 3:44:41
  knew your mother never does. I happen't to think of it for a wonder.
• 3:44:45
  I'm always forgetting it. So I popped a spoonful in. It's a
• 3:44:48
  case of too many cooks, I guess, said Marilla, who had listened
• 3:44:50
  to this dialog with a rather guilty expression. I didn't think you'd remember about
• 3:44:54
  the sugar, Anne, for I'm perfectly certain you never did before, so
• 3:44:58
  I put in a spoonful. The guests in the parlor heard peel after peel
• 3:45:01
  of laughter from the kitchen, but they never knew what the fun was about.
• 3:45:05
  There were no green peas on the dinner table that day, however,
• 3:45:09
  well said Anne, sobering down again with a sigh of recollection. We have
• 3:45:13
  the salad anyhow, and I don't think anything has happened to the beans.
• 3:45:16
  Let's carry the things in and get it over. It cannot be said that
• 3:45:20
  that dinner was a notable success socially. The Allans and Miss Stacy exerted themselves
• 3:45:24
  to save the situation, and Marilla's customary placidity was not noticeably ruffled. But
• 3:45:30
  Anne and Diana, between their disappointment and the reaction from their excitement of the
• 3:45:33
  forenoon, could neither talk nor eat. Anne tried heroically to bear her part
• 3:45:37
  in the conversation for the sake of her guests, but all the sparkle had
• 3:45:41
  been quenched her for the time being, and in spite of her love for
• 3:45:45
  the Allans and Miss Stacy, she couldn't help thinking how nice it would be
• 3:45:48
  when everybody had gone home and she could bury her weariness and disappointment in the
• 3:45:52
  pillows of the east gable. There is an old proverb that really seems at
• 3:45:56
  times to be inspired. It never rains, but it pours the measure of
• 3:46:01
  that day's tribulations was not yet full. Just as mister Allan had finished returning
• 3:46:05
  thanks, there arose a strange, ominous sound on the stairs, as of
• 3:46:09
  some hard, heavy object bounding from step to step, finishing up with a
• 3:46:13
  grand smash at the bottom. Everybody ran out into the hall and gave a
• 3:46:18
  shriek of dismay. At the bottom of the stairs lay a big pink conk
• 3:46:22
  shell amid the fragments of what had been Miss Barry's platter, and at the
• 3:46:26
  top of the stairs knelt a terrified Davy, gazing down with wide open eyes
• 3:46:31
  at the havoc. Davy said Marilla ominously, Did you throw that conk down
• 3:46:37
  on purpose? No? I never did, whimpered Davy. I was just
• 3:46:41
  kneeling here, quiet as quiet, to watch you folks through the banisters.
• 3:46:43
  And my foot struck that old thing and pushed it off. And I'm awful
• 3:46:48
  hungry, and I do wish you'd lick a fellow and have done with it
• 3:46:50
  instead of always sending him upstairs to miss all the fun. Don't blame Davy,
• 3:46:54
  said Anne, gathering up the fragments with trembling fingers. It was my
• 3:46:58
  fault, I said that platter there and forgot all about it. I am
• 3:47:01
  properly punished for my carelessness. But oh, what will miss Barry say?
• 3:47:07
  Well, you know she only bought it, so it isn't the same as
• 3:47:09
  if it was an heirloom, said Diana, trying to console the guests.
• 3:47:13
  Went away soon after, feeling that it was the most tactful thing to do,
• 3:47:16
  and Anne and Diana washed the dishes, talking less than they had ever
• 3:47:20
  been known to do before. Then Diana went home with a headache, and
• 3:47:24
  Anne went with another to the East Gable, where she stayed until Marilla came
• 3:47:26
  home from the post office at sunset with a letter from Priscilla written the day
• 3:47:31
  before. Missus Morgan had sprained her ankle so severely that she could not leave
• 3:47:35
  her room, and oh, Anne dear, wrote Priscilla. I'm so sorry,
• 3:47:39
  but I'm afraid we won't get up to Green Gables at all now,
• 3:47:41
  for by the time Auntie's ankle as well, she will have to go back
• 3:47:43
  to Toronto. She has to be there by a certain date, well,
• 3:47:48
  sighed Anne, laying the letter down on the red sandstone step of the back
• 3:47:52
  porch where she was sitting while the twilight rained. Down out of a dappled
• 3:47:56
  sky. I always thought it was too good to be true that missus Morgan
• 3:48:00
  should really come. But there that speech sounds as pessimistic as Miss Eliza Andrews,
• 3:48:05
  and I am ashamed of making it. After all, it was not
• 3:48:07
  too good to be true. Things just as good and far better are coming
• 3:48:11
  true for me all the time. And I suppose the events of to day
• 3:48:15
  have a funny side too. Perhaps when Diana and I are old and gray,
• 3:48:18
  we shall be able to laugh over them. But I feel that I
• 3:48:20
  can't expect to do it before then, for it has truly been a bitter
• 3:48:24
  disappointment. You'll probably have a good many more and worse disappointments than that before
• 3:48:28
  you get through life, said Marilla, who honestly thought you was making a
• 3:48:31
  comforting speech. It seems to me, Anne that you are never going to
• 3:48:35
  outgrow your fashion of setting your heart so on things and then crashing down into
• 3:48:39
  despair because you don't get them. I know I'm too much inclined that way,
• 3:48:43
  agreed Anne ruefully. When I think something nice is going to happen,
• 3:48:46
  I seem to fly right up on the wings of anticipation, and then the
• 3:48:50
  first thing, I realize I drop down to earth with a thud. But
• 3:48:54
  really, Marilla, the flying part is glorious as long as it lasts.
• 3:48:58
  It's like soaring through a sunset. I think it almost pays for the thud.
• 3:49:03
  Well, maybe it does, admitted Marilla. I'd rather walk calmly along
• 3:49:07
  and do without both flying and thud. But everybody has her own way of
• 3:49:11
  living. I used to think there was only one right way, but since
• 3:49:15
  I've had you and the twins to bring up, I don't feel so sure
• 3:49:18
  of it. What are you going to do about miss Berry's platter? Pay
• 3:49:20
  her back the twenty dollars she paid for it? I suppose. I'm so
• 3:49:24
  thankful it wasn't a cherished heirloom, because then no money could replace it.
• 3:49:28
  Maybe you could find one like it somewhere and buy it for her. I'm
• 3:49:31
  afraid not platters as old as that are very scarce. Missus Lynde couldn't find
• 3:49:35
  one anywhere for the supper. I only wish I could. For of course,
• 3:49:39
  Miss Barry would just as soon have one platter as another, if both
• 3:49:41
  were equally old and genuine. Marilla, look at that big star over mister
• 3:49:46
  Harrison's maple Grove, with all that holly bush of silvery sky about it.
• 3:49:50
  It gives me a feeling that is like a prayer. After all, when
• 3:49:54
  one can see stars and skies like that, little disappointments and accidents can't matter
• 3:49:58
  so much, can they? Where is Davy? Said Marilla, with an
• 3:50:01
  indifferent glance at the star in bed. I've promised to take him and door
• 3:50:05
  to the shore for a picnic tomorrow. Of course, the original agreement was
• 3:50:09
  that he must be good, but he tried to be good, and I
• 3:50:13
  hadn't the heart to disappoint him. You'll drown yourself or the twins rowing about
• 3:50:16
  the pond in that flat, grumbled Marilla. I've lived here for sixty years
• 3:50:20
  and I've never been on the pond yet. Well it's never too late to
• 3:50:24
  mend, said Anne roguishly. Suppose you come with us tomorrow. We'll shut
• 3:50:26
  Green Gables up and spend the whole day at the shore, daffing the world
• 3:50:31
  aside. No thank you, said Marilla with indignant emphasis. I'd be a
• 3:50:35
  nice sight, wouldn't I Rowing down the pond in a flat? I think
• 3:50:37
  I hear Rachel pronouncing on it. There's mister Harrison driving away somewhere. Do
• 3:50:43
  you suppose there is any truth in the gossip that mister Harrison is going to
• 3:50:46
  see Isabella Andrews. No, I'm sure there isn't. He just called there
• 3:50:50
  one evening on business with mister Harmon Andrews, and missus Lynde saw him and
• 3:50:54
  said she knew he was courting because he had a white collar on. I
• 3:50:56
  don't believe mister Harrison will ever marry. He seems to have a prejudice against
• 3:51:00
  marriage. Well, you can never tell about those old bachelors, and if
• 3:51:05
  he had a white collar on, I'd agree with Rachel that it looked suspicious.
• 3:51:07
  For I'm sure he was never seen with one before. I think he
• 3:51:11
  only put it on because he wanted to conclude a business deal with Harmon Andrews,
• 3:51:13
  said Anne. I've heard him say that's the only time a man needs
• 3:51:16
  to be particular about his appearance, because if he looks prosperous, the party
• 3:51:20
  of the second part won't be so likely to try to cheat him. I
• 3:51:24
  really feel sorry for mister Harrison. I don't believe he feels satisfied with his
• 3:51:28
  life. It must be very lonely to have no one to care about except
• 3:51:31
  a parrot, don't you think. But I noticed mister Harrison doesn't like to
• 3:51:35
  be pitied. Nobody does. I imagine there's Gilbert coming up the lane,
• 3:51:39
  said Marilla. If he wants you to go for a row on the pond,
• 3:51:41
  mind you put on your coat and rubbers. There's a heavy dew tonight.
• 3:51:46
  End of Chapter seventeen. Chapter eighteen, An Adventure on the Tory Road,
• 3:51:52
  Anne, said Davy, sitting up in bed and propping his chin on
• 3:51:56
  his hands. Anne, where is sleep? People go to sleep every night?
• 3:52:01
  And of course I know it's the place where I do the things I
• 3:52:03
  dream, But I want to know where it is and how I get there
• 3:52:05
  and back without knowing anything about it? And am I nighty too? Where
• 3:52:09
  is it? Anne was kneeling at the west gable window, watching the sunset
• 3:52:13
  sky that was like a great flower with petals of crocus and a heart of
• 3:52:18
  fiery yellow. She turned her head at Davy's question and answered dreamily. Over
• 3:52:22
  the mountains of the moon, down the valley of the shadow. Paul Irving
• 3:52:26
  would have known the meaning of this, or made a meaning out of it
• 3:52:30
  for himself if he didn't. But practical Davy, who as Anne often despairingly
• 3:52:33
  remarked, hadn't a particle of imagination? Was only puzzled and disgusted Anne,
• 3:52:39
  I believe you're just talking nonsense. Of course I was, dear boy.
• 3:52:43
  Don't you know that it is only very foolish folk who talk sense all the
• 3:52:46
  time. Well, I think you might give a sensible answer when I ask
• 3:52:50
  a sensible question, said Davy in an injured tone. Oh, you are
• 3:52:54
  too little to understand, said Anne, but she felt rather ashamed of saying
• 3:52:58
  it, for had she not, in keen remembrance of many similar snubs administered
• 3:53:01
  in her own early years, solemnly vowed that she would never tell any child
• 3:53:05
  it was too little to understand. Yet hear she was doing it so wide,
• 3:53:09
  sometimes as the gulf between theory and practice. While I'm doing my best
• 3:53:13
  to grow, said Davy. But it's a thing you can't hurry much.
• 3:53:18
  If Marilla wasn't so stingy with her jam, I believe I'd grow a lot
• 3:53:20
  faster. Marilla is not stingy, Davy said Anne severely. It is very
• 3:53:26
  ungrateful of you to say such a thing. There's another word that means the
• 3:53:28
  same thing and sounds a lot better. But I don't just remember it,
• 3:53:31
  said Davy, frowning intently. I heard Marilla say she was it herself the
• 3:53:35
  other day. If you mean economical, it's a very different thing from being
• 3:53:41
  stingy. It is an excellent trait in a person if she is economical.
• 3:53:45
  If Marilla had been stingy, she wouldn't have taken you and Dora when your
• 3:53:48
  mother died. Would you have liked to live with missus Wiggins? You just
• 3:53:50
  bet I wouldn't. Davy was emphatic on that point. Nor I don't want
• 3:53:54
  to go out to Uncle Richard neither. I'd far rather live here, even
• 3:53:58
  if Marilla is that long tailed word when it comes to jam cause you're here,
• 3:54:03
  Anne, say, Anne, won't you tell me a story for I
• 3:54:05
  go to sleep? I don't want a fairy story. They're all right for
• 3:54:09
  girls, I suppose, But I want something exciting, lots of killing and
• 3:54:11
  shooting in it, and a house on fire and interesting things like that.
• 3:54:16
  Fortunately for Anne, Marilla called out at this moment from her room. Anne,
• 3:54:20
  Diana's signaling at a great rate. You'd better see what she wants.
• 3:54:24
  Anne ran to the east gable and saw flashes of light coming through the twilight
• 3:54:28
  from Diana's window in groups of five, which meant, according to their old
• 3:54:31
  childish code, come over at once, for I have something important to reveal.
• 3:54:35
  Anne threw her white shawl over her head and hastened through the haunted wood
• 3:54:39
  and across mister Bell's pasture corner to Orchard Slope. I've good news for you,
• 3:54:43
  Anne, said Diana. Mother and I have just got home from Carmody
• 3:54:46
  and I saw Mary Sentner from Spencervale in mister Blair's store. She says.
• 3:54:50
  The old Copp girls on the Tory Road have a willow ware platter, and
• 3:54:54
  she thinks it's exactly like the one we had at the supper. She says
• 3:54:56
  they'll likely sell it, for Martha Copp has never been known to keep anything
• 3:55:00
  she could sell. But if they won't, there's a platter at Wesley Keyson's
• 3:55:03
  and Spencervale, and she knows they'd sell it, but she isn't sure it's
• 3:55:05
  just the same kind as Aunt Josephine's. I'll go right over to Spencervale after
• 3:55:11
  it tomorrow, said Anne resolutely. And you must come with me. It
• 3:55:13
  will be such a weight off my mind, for I have to go to
• 3:55:16
  town day after tomorrow. And how can I face your aunt Josephine without a
• 3:55:20
  willow ware platter. It would be even worse than the time I had to
• 3:55:22
  confess about jumping on the spare room bed. Both girls laughed over the old
• 3:55:26
  memory concerning which, if any of my readers are ignorant and curious, I
• 3:55:31
  must refer them to Anne's earlier history. The next afternoon, the girls fared
• 3:55:35
  forth on their platter hunting expedition. It was ten miles to Spencervale, and
• 3:55:39
  the day was not especially pleasant for traveling. It was very warm and windless,
• 3:55:43
  and the dust on the road was such as might have been expected after
• 3:55:46
  six weeks of dry weather. Oh, I do wish it would rain soon,
• 3:55:50
  sighed Anne. Everything is so parched up. The poor fields just seemed
• 3:55:54
  pitiful to me, and the trees seemed to be stretching out their hands pleading
• 3:55:58
  for rain. As for my garden, it hurts me every time I go
• 3:56:01
  into it. I suppose I shouldn't complain about a garden when the farmer's crops
• 3:56:05
  are suffering. So mister Harrison says his pastures are so scorched up that his
• 3:56:09
  poor cows can hardly get a bite to eat, and he feels guilty of
• 3:56:11
  cruelty to animals every time he meets their eyes. After a wearisome drive,
• 3:56:16
  the girls reached spencer Vale and turn down the Tory Road, a green,
• 3:56:20
  solitary highway where the strips of grass between the wheel tracks bore evidence to lack
• 3:56:24
  of travel. Along most of its extent, it was lined with thick set
• 3:56:28
  young spruces crowding down to the roadway, with here and there a break where
• 3:56:33
  the back field of a spencer Vale farm came out to the fence, or
• 3:56:35
  an expensive stumps was aflame with fireweed and goldumrod. Why is it called the
• 3:56:39
  Tory Road, asked Anne. Mister Allen says it is on the principle of
• 3:56:43
  calling a place a grove, because there are no trees in it, said
• 3:56:46
  Diana. For nobody lives along the road except the Copp girls and old Martin
• 3:56:50
  Boyber at the further end, who is a liberal. The Tory government ran
• 3:56:54
  the road through when they were in power, just to show they were doing
• 3:56:56
  something. Diana's father was a Liberal, for which reason she and Anne never
• 3:57:01
  discussed politics. Green Gables folk had always been conservatives. Finally, the girls
• 3:57:07
  came to the Old Copp Homestead, a place of such exceeding external neatness that
• 3:57:11
  even green gables would have suffered. By contrast, the house was a very
• 3:57:15
  old fashioned one, situated on a slope, which fact had necessitated the building
• 3:57:18
  of a stone basement under one end. The house and out buildings were all
• 3:57:22
  whitewashed to a condition of blinding perfection, and not a weed was visible in
• 3:57:26
  the prim kitchen garden, surrounded by its white paling. The shades are all
• 3:57:31
  down, said Diana ruefully. I believe that nobody is home. This proved
• 3:57:35
  to be the case. The girls looked at each other in perplexity. I
• 3:57:39
  don't know what to do, said Anne. If I were sure the platter
• 3:57:41
  was the right kind, I would not mind waiting until they came home.
• 3:57:45
  But if it isn't, it may be too late to go to Wesley Keason's.
• 3:57:48
  Afterwards, Diana looked at a certain little square window over the basement.
• 3:57:52
  That is the pantry window. I feel sure, she said, because this
• 3:57:56
  house is just like Uncle Charles's at Newbridge, and that is their pantry when
• 3:58:00
  the shade isn't down. So if we climbed up on the roof of that
• 3:58:03
  little house. We could look into the pantry and might be able to see
• 3:58:05
  the platter. Do you think it would be any harm? No, I
• 3:58:07
  don't think so, decided Anne, after due reflection. Since our motive is
• 3:58:11
  not idle curiosity, this important point of ethics being settled, Anne prepared to
• 3:58:16
  mount the aforesaid little house, a construction of lathes with a peaked roof,
• 3:58:20
  which had in times past served as a habitation for ducks. The copp girls
• 3:58:24
  had given up keeping ducks because they were such untidy birds, and the house
• 3:58:28
  had not been in use for some years save as an abode of correction for
• 3:58:31
  setting hens. Although scrupulously whitewashed, it had become somewhat shaky, and Anne
• 3:58:37
  felt rather dubious as she scrambled up from the vantage point of a keg placed
• 3:58:41
  on a box. I'm afraid it won't bear my weight, she said,
• 3:58:43
  as she gingerly stepped on the roof lean on the window. Sill advised Diana,
• 3:58:48
  and Anne accordingly leaned. Much to her delight, she saw as she
• 3:58:52
  peered through the pane a willow ware platter exactly such as she was in quest
• 3:58:56
  of, on the shelf in front of the window. So much she saw
• 3:59:00
  before the catastrophe came in her joy, Anne forgot the precarious nature of her
• 3:59:03
  footing incautiously ceased to lean on the window sill, gave an impulsive little hop
• 3:59:07
  of pleasure, and the next moment she had crashed through the roof up to
• 3:59:11
  her arm pits, and there she hung, quite unable to extricate herself.
• 3:59:16
  Diana dashed into the duck house, and, seizing her unfortunate friend by the
• 3:59:18
  waist, tried to draw her down. Ow don't, shrieked poor Anne.
• 3:59:24
  There are some long splinters sticking into me. See if you can put something
• 3:59:26
  under my feet, and then perhaps I can draw myself up. Diana hastily
• 3:59:31
  dragged in the previously mentioned keg, and Anne found that it was just sufficiently
• 3:59:35
  high to furnish a secure resting place for her feet, but she could not
• 3:59:39
  release herself. Could I pull you out if I crawled up, suggested Diana.
• 3:59:43
  Anne shook her head hopelessly. No, the splinter's hurt too badly.
• 3:59:48
  If you can find an axe, you might chop me out. Though,
• 3:59:50
  Oh dear, I do really begin to believe that I was borne under an
• 3:59:54
  ill omened star. Diana searched faithfully, but no axe was to be found.
• 4:00:00
  I'll have to go for help, she said, returning to the prisoner.
• 4:00:03
  No, indeed you won't, said Anne vehemently. If you do,
• 4:00:05
  the story of this will get out everywhere, and I shall be ashamed to
• 4:00:09
  show my face. No, we must just wait until the Copp girls come
• 4:00:11
  home and bind them to secrecy. They'll know where the axe is and get
• 4:00:16
  me out. I'm not uncomfortable as long as I keep perfectly still not uncomfortable
• 4:00:20
  in body. I mean, I wonder what the Copp girls value this house
• 4:00:24
  at. I shall have to pay for the damage I've done, but I
• 4:00:26
  wouldn't mind that if I were only sure they would understand my motive in peeping
• 4:00:30
  in at their pantry window. My sole comfort is that the platter is just
• 4:00:33
  the kind I want, and if miss Copp will only sell it to me,
• 4:00:37
  I shall be resigned to what has happened. What if the cop girls
• 4:00:39
  don't come home until after night or till tomorrow, suggested Diana. If they're
• 4:00:45
  not back by sunset, you'll have to go for other assistance, I suppose,
• 4:00:48
  said Anne reluctantly. But you mustn't go until you really have to.
• 4:00:52
  Oh dear, this is a dreadful predicament. I wouldn't mind my misfortunes so
• 4:00:58
  much if they were romantic, as missus Morgan's heroines always are. But they
• 4:01:01
  are always just simply ridiculous. Fancy what the copp girls will think when they
• 4:01:05
  drive into their yard and see a girl's head and shoulders sticking up out of
• 4:01:09
  the roof of one of their outhouses. Listen, is that a wagon,
• 4:01:13
  No, Diana, I believe it is thunder. Thunder It was, undoubtedly,
• 4:01:18
  and Diana, having made a hasty pilgrimage around the house, returned to
• 4:01:22
  announce that a very black cloud was rising rapidly in the northwest. I believe
• 4:01:26
  we're going to have a heavy thunder shower, she exclaimed, in dismay.
• 4:01:30
  Oh Anne, what will we do? We must prepare for it, said
• 4:01:33
  Anne tranquility. A thunder storm seemed a trifle in comparison with what had already
• 4:01:37
  happened. You'd better drive the horse and buggy into that open shed. Fortunately,
• 4:01:41
  my parasol is in the buggy. Here take my hat with you.
• 4:01:45
  Marilla told me I was a goose to put on my best hat to come
• 4:01:46
  to the Tory road, and she was right, as she always is.
• 4:01:50
  Diana un tied the pony and drove into the shed just as the first heavy
• 4:01:54
  drops of rain fell. There she sat and watched the resulting downpour, which
• 4:01:56
  was so thick and heavy that she could hard hardly see Anne through it,
• 4:02:01
  holding the parasol bravely over her bare head. There was not a great deal
• 4:02:05
  of thunder, but for the best part of an hour the rain came merrily
• 4:02:07
  down. Occasionally Anne slanted back her parasol and waved an encouraging hand to her
• 4:02:13
  friend, but conversation at that distance was quite out of the question. Finally,
• 4:02:18
  the rain ceased, the sun came out, and Diana ventured across the
• 4:02:20
  puddles of the yard. Did you get very wet, she asked anxiously.
• 4:02:26
  Oh no, returned Anne, cheerfully. My head and shoulders are quite dry,
• 4:02:28
  and my skirt is only a little damp with the rain beat through the
• 4:02:31
  lathes. Don't pity me, Diana, for I haven't minded it at all.
• 4:02:35
  I kept thinking how much good the rain will do, and how glad
• 4:02:39
  my garden must be for it, and imagining what the flowers and buds would
• 4:02:41
  think. When the drops began to fall. I imagined out a most interesting
• 4:02:46
  dialog between the asters and the sweet peas, and the wild canaries, and
• 4:02:48
  the lilac bush and the guardian spirit of the garden. When I go home,
• 4:02:52
  I mean to write it down. I wish I had a pencil and
• 4:02:54
  paper to do it now, because I dare say I'll forget the best parts
• 4:02:58
  before I reach home. Diana the Faithful had a pencil and discovered a sheet
• 4:03:01
  of wrapping paper in the box of the buggy. Anne folded up her dripping
• 4:03:05
  parasol, put on her hat, spread the wrapping paper on a shingle.
• 4:03:09
  Diana handed up and wrote out her garden idol, under conditions that could hardly
• 4:03:13
  be considered as favorable to literature. Nevertheless, the result was quite pretty,
• 4:03:16
  and Diana was enraptured when Anne read it to her. Oh Anne, it's
• 4:03:20
  sweet, just sweet. Do send it to the Canadian woman. Anne shook
• 4:03:24
  her head. Oh no, it wouldn't be suitable at all. There's no
• 4:03:28
  plot in it, you see, It's just a string of fancies. I
• 4:03:31
  like writing such things, but of course nothing of the sort would ever do
• 4:03:33
  for publication, for editors insist on plots, so Priscilla says, oh,
• 4:03:39
  there's miss Sarah Copp. Now, please Diana go and explain. Miss Sarah
• 4:03:43
  Copp was a small person garbed in shabby black with a hat chosen less for
• 4:03:48
  vain adornment than for qualities that would wear well. She looked as amazed as
• 4:03:52
  might be expected on seeing the curious tableau in her yard, but when she
• 4:03:54
  heard Diana's explanation, she was all sympathy. She hurriedly unlocked the back door,
• 4:04:00
  produced the axe, and with a few skillful blows, said Anne Free.
• 4:04:03
  The latter, somewhat tired and stiff, ducked down into the interior of
• 4:04:07
  her prison and thankfully emerged into liberty once more. Miss Copp, she said
• 4:04:11
  earnestly, I assure you I looked into your pantry window only to discover if
• 4:04:16
  you had a willow ware platter. I didn't see anything else. I didn't
• 4:04:18
  look for anything else. Bless you. That's all right, said miss Sarah
• 4:04:22
  amiably. You needn't worry. There's no harm done. Thank goodness. We
• 4:04:26
  cops keep our pantries presentable at all times and don't care who sees into them.
• 4:04:30
  As for that old duck house, I'm glad it's smashed. For maybe
• 4:04:33
  now Martha will agree to having it taken down. She never would before for
• 4:04:37
  fear it might come in handy some time, and I've had to whitewash it
• 4:04:39
  every spring. But you might as well argue with the post as with Martha.
• 4:04:43
  She went to town to day. I drove her to the station,
• 4:04:46
  and you want to buy my platter? Well, what will you give for
• 4:04:48
  it? Twenty dollars, said Anne, who was never meant to match business
• 4:04:52
  with with a cop or she would not have offered her price at the start.
• 4:04:56
  Well, I'll see, said miss Sarah cautiously, that this platter is
• 4:05:00
  mine, fortunately, or I'd never dare to sell it. When Martha wasn't
• 4:05:03
  here as it is, I dare say she'll raise a fuss. Martha's the
• 4:05:07
  boss of this establishment. I can tell you I'm getting awful tired of living
• 4:05:09
  under another woman's thumb. But come in, come in. You must be
• 4:05:13
  real tired and hungry. I'll do the best I can for you in the
• 4:05:16
  way of tea, but I warn you not to expect anything but bread and
• 4:05:18
  butter and some cucumbers. Martha locked up all the cake and cheese and preserves
• 4:05:22
  afore she went she always does, because she says, I'm too extravagant with
• 4:05:26
  them if company comes. The girls were hungry enough to do justice to any
• 4:05:30
  fair, and they enjoyed Miss Sarah's excellent bread and butter and cowcumbers thoroughly.
• 4:05:35
  When the meal was over, Miss Sarah said, I don't know as I'm
• 4:05:37
  mind selling the platter, but it's worth twenty five dollars. It's a very
• 4:05:41
  old platter. Diana gave Anne's foot a gentle kick under the table, meaning
• 4:05:46
  don't agree. She'll let it go for twenty if you hold out. But
• 4:05:48
  Anne was not minded to take any chances in regard to that precious platter.
• 4:05:52
  She promptly agreed to give twenty five, and Miss Sarah looked as if she
• 4:05:56
  felt sorry she hadn't asked for thirty. Well, I guess you may have
• 4:06:00
  it. I want all the money I can scare up just now. The
• 4:06:03
  fact is Miss Sarah threw up her head importantly, with a proud flush on
• 4:06:07
  her thin cheeks. I'm going to be married to Luther Wallace. He wanted
• 4:06:11
  me twenty years ago. I liked him real well, but he was poor
• 4:06:13
  then and father packed him off. I suppose I shouldn't have let him go
• 4:06:16
  so meek, But I was timid and frightened of father. Besides, I
• 4:06:20
  didn't know men were their skurse. When the girls were safely away, Diana
• 4:06:24
  driving and Anne holding the coveted platter carefully on her lap, the green rain
• 4:06:28
  freshened solitudes of the Tory Road were enlivened by ripples of girlish laughter. I'll
• 4:06:33
  amuse your aunt Josephine with the strange, eventful history of this afternoon when I
• 4:06:37
  go to town tomorrow. We've had a rather trying time, but it's over
• 4:06:41
  now. I've got the platter, and that rain has laid the dust beautifully,
• 4:06:45
  so all's well. That ends. Well. We're not home yet,
• 4:06:48
  said Diana rather pessimistically, and there's no telling what may happen before we are.
• 4:06:52
  You're such a girl to have adventures, Anne, Having adventures comes natural
• 4:06:56
  to some people, said Anne serenely. You just have a gift for them,
• 4:07:00
  or you haven't. End of Chapter eighteen, Chapter nineteen, Just a
• 4:07:05
  happy day, after all, Anne had said to Marilla once, I believe
• 4:07:11
  the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful
• 4:07:16
  or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures following one another
• 4:07:20
  softly, like pearls slipping off a string. Life at Green Gables was full
• 4:07:26
  of just such days, for Anne's adventures and misadventures, like those of other
• 4:07:31
  people, did not all happen at once, but were sprinkled over the year,
• 4:07:33
  with long stretches of harmless happy days between, filled with work and dreams
• 4:07:39
  and laughter and lessons. Such a day came late in August. In the
• 4:07:43
  forenoon, Anne and Diana rode the delighted twins down the pond of the Sandtor
• 4:07:48
  to pick sweet grass and paddle in the surf over which the wind was harping
• 4:07:52
  an old lyric learned when the world was young. In the afternoon, Anne
• 4:07:56
  walked down to the old irving place to see Paul. She found him stretched
• 4:08:01
  out on the grassy bank beside the thick fir grove that sheltered the house on
• 4:08:03
  the north, absorbed in a book of fairy tales. He sprang up radiantly
• 4:08:07
  at the sight of her. Oh, I'm so glad you've come, teacher,
• 4:08:11
  he said eagerly, because Grandma's away. You'll stay and have tea with
• 4:08:15
  me. Won't you. It's so lonesome to have tea all by one's self,
• 4:08:18
  you know, Teacher, I've had serious thoughts of asking young Mary Joe
• 4:08:22
  to sit down and eat her tea with me, but I expect Grandma wouldn't
• 4:08:24
  approve. She says, the French have to be kept in their place,
• 4:08:28
  and anyhow, it's difficult to talk with young Mary Joe. She just laughs
• 4:08:31
  and says, well, you do beat all the kids I ever knowed.
• 4:08:35
  That isn't my idea of conversation. Of course, I'll stay to tea,
• 4:08:39
  said Anne gaily. I was dying to be asked. My mouth has been
• 4:08:43
  watering for some more of your Grandma's delicious short bread ever since I had tea
• 4:08:46
  here before. Paul looked very sober. If it depended on me, teacher,
• 4:08:50
  he said, standing before Anne, with his hands in his pockets and
• 4:08:54
  his beautiful little face shadowed with sudden care. You should have shortbread with a
• 4:08:58
  right good will, But it depends on Mary Joe. I heard Grandma tell
• 4:09:03
  her before she left that she wasn't to give me any shortcake because it was
• 4:09:05
  too rich for little boy's stomachs. But maybe Mary Joe will cut some for
• 4:09:09
  you if I promise I won't get any let us hope for the best.
• 4:09:13
  Yes, let us agreed Anne, whom this cheerful philosophy suited exactly. And
• 4:09:18
  if Mary Joe proves hard hearted and won't give me any short break, it
• 4:09:20
  doesn't matter in the least. So you are not to worry over that.
• 4:09:24
  You're sure you won't mind if she doesn't, said Paul anxiously. Perfectly sure,
• 4:09:28
  dear heart, then I won't worry, said Paul, with a long
• 4:09:31
  breath of relief, especially as I really think Mary Joe will listen to reason.
• 4:09:37
  She's not a naturally unreasonable person, but she has learned by experience that
• 4:09:41
  it doesn't do to disobey Grandma's orders. Grandma is an excellent woman, but
• 4:09:45
  people must do as she tells them. She was very much pleased with me
• 4:09:48
  this morning because I managed at last to eat all my plateful of porridge.
• 4:09:52
  It was a great effort, but I succeeded. Grandma says she thinks she'll
• 4:09:56
  make a man of me yet, but teach her. I want to ask
• 4:09:58
  you a very import imortant question. You will answer it truthfully, won't you.
• 4:10:03
  I'll try, promised Anne. Do you think I'm wrong in my upper
• 4:10:07
  story, asked Paul, as if his very existence depended on her reply.
• 4:10:11
  Goodness, no, Paul, exclaimed Anne in amazement. Certainly you're not what
• 4:10:15
  put such an idea into your head, Mary Joe. But she didn't know
• 4:10:18
  I heard her. Missus Peter Sloane's hired girl, Veronica, came to see
• 4:10:22
  Mary Joe last evening, and I heard them talking in the kitchen. As
• 4:10:26
  I was going through the hall, I heard Mary Joe say, dat,
• 4:10:28
  Paul, he's the queer little boy. He talks that queer. I think
• 4:10:33
  there's something wrong in his upper story. I couldn't sleep last night for ever
• 4:10:35
  so long thinking of it and wondering if Mary Joe was right. I couldn't
• 4:10:39
  bear to ask Grandma about it somehow, but I made up my mind.
• 4:10:43
  I'd ask you, I'm so glad you think I'm all right in my upper
• 4:10:46
  story. Of course you are. Mary Joe is a silly, ignorant girl,
• 4:10:50
  and you are never to worry about anything, she says, said Anne
• 4:10:52
  indignantly, secretly resolving to give Missus Irving a discreet hint as to the advisability
• 4:10:58
  of restraining Mary Joe's tongue well that's a weight off my mind, said Paul.
• 4:11:03
  I'm perfectly happy now, teacher, thanks to you. It wouldn't be
• 4:11:07
  nice to have something wrong in your upper story, would it, Teacher.
• 4:11:09
  I suppose the reason Mary Joe imagines I have is because I tell her what
• 4:11:13
  I think about things. Sometimes it is a rather dangerous practice, admitted Anne,
• 4:11:18
  out of the depths of her own experience. Well by and by,
• 4:11:22
  I'll tell you the thoughts I told Mary Joe, and you can see for
• 4:11:24
  yourself if there's anything queer in them, said Paul. But I'll wait till
• 4:11:28
  it begins to get dark. That is the time I ache to tell people
• 4:11:31
  things, and when nobody else is handy, I just have to tell Mary
• 4:11:35
  Joe. But after this I won't if it makes her imagine I'm wrong in
• 4:11:37
  my upper story. I'll just ache and bear it. And if the ache
• 4:11:43
  gets too bad, you can come up to Green Gables and tell me your
• 4:11:45
  thoughts, suggested Anne, with all the gravity that endeared her to children who
• 4:11:48
  so dearly love to be taken seriously. Yes, I will, but I
• 4:11:52
  hope Davy won't be there when I go, because he makes faces at me.
• 4:11:56
  I don't mind very much, because he is such a little boy,
• 4:11:58
  and I am quite a big one. But still it is not pleasant to
• 4:12:01
  have faces made at you, and Davy makes such terrible ones sometimes I am
• 4:12:05
  frightened he will never get his face straightened out again. He makes them at
• 4:12:09
  me in church when I ought to be thinking of sacred things. Dora likes
• 4:12:13
  me, though, and I like her, but not so well as I
• 4:12:15
  did before. She told Minnie may Barry that she meant to marry me when
• 4:12:18
  I grew up. I may marry somebody when I grow up, but I'm
• 4:12:22
  far too young to be thinking of it yet, don't you think, teacher,
• 4:12:24
  Rather young? Agreed teacher, speaking of marrying reminds me of another thing
• 4:12:30
  that has been troubling me of late, continued Paul. Missus Lynde was down
• 4:12:33
  here one day last week, having tea with Grandma, and Grandma made me
• 4:12:37
  show her my little mother's picture, the one father sent me for my birthday
• 4:12:39
  present. I didn't exactly want to show it to missus Lynde. Missus Lynde
• 4:12:43
  is a good, kind woman, but she isn't the sort of person you
• 4:12:46
  want to show your mother's picture to, you know, teacher, But of
• 4:12:50
  course I obeyed. Grandma missus Lynde said she was very pretty, but kind
• 4:12:54
  of actressy looking, and must have been an awful lot younger than father.
• 4:12:56
  Then she said, some of these days your pa will be marrying again.
• 4:13:01
  Likely, how will you like to have a new ma, Master Paul,
• 4:13:03
  Well, the idea almost took my breath away, teacher, but I wasn't
• 4:13:07
  going to let missus Lynde see that. I just looked her straight in the
• 4:13:09
  face like this, and I said, missus Lynde, father made a pretty
• 4:13:13
  good job of picking out my first mother, and I could trust him to
• 4:13:16
  pick out just as good a one the second time. And I can trust
• 4:13:20
  him, teacher. But still, I hope if he ever does give me
• 4:13:24
  a new mother, he'll ask my opinion about her before it's too late.
• 4:13:28
  There's Mary Joe coming to call us to tea. I'll go and consult with
• 4:13:31
  her about the shortbread. As a result of the consultation, Mary Joe cut
• 4:13:35
  the short bread and added a dish of preserves to the bill of fare.
• 4:13:39
  Anne poured the tea, and she and Paul had a very merry meal in
• 4:13:43
  the dim old sitting room, whose windows were open to the gulf breezes,
• 4:13:46
  and they talked so much nonsense that Mary Joe was quite scandalized and told Veronica
• 4:13:50
  the next evening that the school means was as queer as Paul. After tea,
• 4:13:54
  Paul took Anne up to his room to show her his mother's picture,
• 4:13:58
  which had been the mysterious birthday present kept by missus Irving in the bookcase.
• 4:14:03
  Paul's little, low ceilinged room was a soft whirl of ruddy light from the
• 4:14:05
  sun that was setting over the sea and swinging shadows from the fir trees that
• 4:14:09
  grew close to the square, deep set window. From out this soft glow
• 4:14:13
  and glamor shone a sweet girlish face with tender mother eyes that was hanging on
• 4:14:18
  the wall at the foot of the bed. That's my little mother, said
• 4:14:22
  Paul, with loving pride. I got Grandma to hang it there where i'd
• 4:14:26
  seed as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning. I never mind
• 4:14:28
  not having the light when I go to bed now, because it just seems
• 4:14:31
  as if my little mother was right here with me. Father knew just what
• 4:14:35
  I would like for a birthday present, although he never asked me. Isn't
• 4:14:39
  it wonderful? How much fathers. Do know. Your mother was very lovely,
• 4:14:43
  Paul, and you look a little like her. But her eyes and
• 4:14:46
  hair are darker than yours. My eyes are the same color as father's,
• 4:14:48
  said Paul, flying about the room to heap all available cushions on the window
• 4:14:52
  seat. But father's hair is gray. He had lots of it, but
• 4:14:56
  it is gray. You see. Father is nearly fifty. That's a ripe
• 4:15:00
  old age, isn't it. But it's only outside he's old inside. He's
• 4:15:03
  just as young as anybody. Now, teacher, please sit here, and
• 4:15:07
  I'll sit at your feet. May I lay my head against your knee.
• 4:15:11
  That's the way my little mother and I used to sit. Oh, this
• 4:15:13
  is real splendid. I think now I want to hear those thoughts which Mary
• 4:15:18
  Joe pronounces so queer, said Anne, patting the mop of curls at her
• 4:15:22
  side. Paul never needed any coaxing to tell his thoughts, at least to
• 4:15:26
  congenial souls. I thought them out in the fir grove one night, he
• 4:15:30
  said, dreamily. Of course I didn't believe them, but I thought them,
• 4:15:33
  you know, teacher, And then I wanted to tell them to somebody,
• 4:15:37
  And there was nobody but Mary Joe. Mary Joe was in the pantry
• 4:15:41
  setting bread, and I sat down on the bench beside her, and I
• 4:15:45
  said, Marry Joe, do you know what I think? I think the
• 4:15:48
  evening Star is a lighthouse on the land where the fairies dwell. And Mary
• 4:15:52
  Joe said, well, you's art a queer one. There ain't no such
• 4:15:54
  ding as fairies. I was very much provoked. Of course I knew there
• 4:15:58
  were no fairies, but that needn't prevent my thinking there is, you know,
• 4:16:03
  teacher. But I tried again, quite patiently. I said, well,
• 4:16:07
  then, Mary Joe, do you know what I think? I think
• 4:16:10
  an angel walks over the world after the sun sets, a great, tall,
• 4:16:14
  white angel with silvery folded wings, and sings the flowers and birds to
• 4:16:18
  sleep. Children can hear them if they know how to listen. Then Mary
• 4:16:22
  Joe held up her hands all over flower and said, well, you's art
• 4:16:26
  a queer little boy. UZ makes me feel scared, And she really did
• 4:16:30
  look scared. I went out then and whispered the rest of my thoughts to
• 4:16:33
  the garden. There was a little birch tree in the garden, and it
• 4:16:36
  died. Grandma says the salt spray killed it. But I think the dryad
• 4:16:40
  belonging to it was a foolish dryad who wandered away to see the world and
• 4:16:42
  got lost, And the little tree was so lonely it died of a broken
• 4:16:47
  heart. And when the poor foolish little dryad gets tired of the world and
• 4:16:51
  comes back to her tree, her heart will break, said Anne. Yes,
• 4:16:56
  but if dryads are foolish, they must take the consequences, just as
• 4:16:59
  if they were people, said Paul Gravely. Do you know what I think
• 4:17:03
  about the new moon, teacher? I think it is a little golden boat
• 4:17:06
  full of dreams, and when it tips on a cloud, some of them
• 4:17:08
  skill out and fall into your sleep. Exactly, teacher, Oh, you
• 4:17:12
  do know. And I think the violets are little snips of the sky that
• 4:17:17
  fell down when the angels cut out holes for the stars to shine through,
• 4:17:19
  And the buttercups are made out of old sunshine. And I think the sweet
• 4:17:23
  peas will be butterflies when they go to heaven. Now, teacher, do
• 4:17:27
  you see anything so very queer about those thoughts? No, laddie dear,
• 4:17:32
  They're not queer at all. They're strange and beautiful thoughts for a little boy
• 4:17:36
  to think, and so people who couldn't think anything of the sort themselves if
• 4:17:38
  they tried for a hundred years, think them queer. But keep on thinking
• 4:17:42
  them, Paul. Some day you are going to be a poet, I
• 4:17:45
  believe. When Anne reached home she found a very different type of boyhood waiting
• 4:17:51
  to be put to bed. Davy was sulky, and when Anne had undressed
• 4:17:53
  him, he bounced into bed and buried his face in the pillow. Davy,
• 4:17:57
  you have forgotten to say your prayers, said Anne rebukingly. No.
• 4:18:02
  I didn't forget, said Davy defiantly. But I ain't goin to say my
• 4:18:04
  prayers any more. I'm going to give up tryin to be good, cause
• 4:18:07
  no matter how good I am, you'd like Paul Irving better, so I
• 4:18:11
  might as well be bad and have the fun of it. I don't like
• 4:18:15
  Paul Irving better, said Anne, seriously. I like you just as well,
• 4:18:18
  only in a different way. But I wan't you like me the same
• 4:18:22
  way, pouted Davy. You can't like different people the same way. You
• 4:18:26
  don't like Dora and me the same way, do you? Davy sat up
• 4:18:30
  and reflected no, He admitted at last, I like Dora because she's my
• 4:18:36
  sister. But I like you because you're you, and I like Paul because
• 4:18:40
  he is Paul, and Davy because he is Davy, said Anne gaily.
• 4:18:44
  Well, I kind of wish i'd set my prayers then, said Davy,
• 4:18:48
  convinced by this logic. But it's too much bother getting out now to save
• 4:18:52
  em. I'll say them twice over in the morning. Anne, Won't that
• 4:18:53
  do as well? No, Anne was positive it would not do as well,
• 4:18:57
  So Davy scrambled out and knelt at her knee. When he had finished
• 4:19:00
  his devotions, he leaned back on his little, bare brown heels and looked
• 4:19:03
  up at her. Anne. I'm gooder than I used to be. Yes,
• 4:19:07
  indeed you are, Davy, said Anne, who never hesitated to give
• 4:19:11
  credit where credit was due. I know I'm gooder, said Davy confidently,
• 4:19:15
  and I'll tell you how I know it. To day, Marilla give me
• 4:19:18
  two pieces of bread and jam, one for me and one for Dora.
• 4:19:21
  One was a good deal, bigger than the other, And Marilla didn't say
• 4:19:23
  which was mine, but I'd give the biggest piece to Dora. That was
• 4:19:26
  good of me, wasn't it very good? And very manly? Davy,
• 4:19:30
  of course, admitted Davy Dora wasn't very hungry, and she only had half
• 4:19:34
  her slice, and then she'd give the rest to me. But I didn't
• 4:19:37
  know she was going to do that when I give it to her, So
• 4:19:40
  I was good Anne. In the twilight, Anne sauntered down to the Dryad's
• 4:19:45
  bubble and saw Gilbert blythe coming down through the dusky, haunted wood. She
• 4:19:48
  had a sudden realization that Gilbert was a schoolboy no longer, and how manly
• 4:19:52
  he looked. The tall, frank faced fellow with the clear, straightforward eyes
• 4:19:56
  and the broad shoulders. Anne I thought Gilbert was a very handsome lad,
• 4:20:00
  even though he didn't look at all like her ideal man. She and Diana
• 4:20:04
  had long ago decided what kind of a man they admired, and their taste
• 4:20:08
  seemed exactly similar. He must be very tall and distinguished looking, with melancholy,
• 4:20:12
  inscrutable eyes and a melting sympathetic voice. There was nothing either melancholy or
• 4:20:18
  inscrutable in Gilbert's physiognomy, but of course that didn't matter him friendship. Gilbert
• 4:20:23
  stretched himself out on the ferns beside the bubble and looked approvingly at Anne.
• 4:20:27
  If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman, the description would have
• 4:20:32
  answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious
• 4:20:37
  presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than
• 4:20:41
  a boy. But a boy has his dreams, as have others. And
• 4:20:44
  in Gilbert's future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes and
• 4:20:48
  a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his
• 4:20:52
  mind also that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet
• 4:20:56
  Avonlea, there were temptations to be met, and faced White Sand's you were
• 4:21:00
  rather fast, said, And Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he
• 4:21:03
  meant to keep himself worthy of Anne's friendship, and perhaps some distant day,
• 4:21:07
  her love. And he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as
• 4:21:11
  if her clear eyes were to pass judgment on it. She held over him
• 4:21:15
  the unconscious influence that every girl whose ideals are high and pure wields over her
• 4:21:21
  friends, an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those
• 4:21:23
  ideals, and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to
• 4:21:27
  them. In Gilbert's eyes, Anne's greatest charm was the fact that she never
• 4:21:32
  stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls, the small
• 4:21:36
  jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne
• 4:21:41
  held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply
• 4:21:45
  because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature,
• 4:21:49
  crystal clear in its motives and aspirations. But Gilbert did not attempt to put
• 4:21:53
  his sauce into words, for he had already too good reason to know that
• 4:21:57
  Anne would mercilessly and rostily nip all attempts at sentiment in the bud or a
• 4:22:02
  laugh at him, which was ten times worse. You look like a real
• 4:22:06
  dryad under that birch tree, he said teasingly. I love birch trees,
• 4:22:11
  said Anne, laying her cheek against the creamy satin of the slim bull with
• 4:22:15
  one of the pretty caressing gestures which came so naturally to her. Then you'll
• 4:22:18
  be glad to hear that mister Major Spencer has decided to set out a row
• 4:22:22
  of white birches all along the road front of his farm by way of encouraging
• 4:22:26
  the Avis, said Gilbert. He was talking to me about it to day.
• 4:22:29
  Major Spencer is the most progressive and public spirited man in Avonlea, and
• 4:22:33
  mister William Bell is going to set out a spruce hedge along his road front
• 4:22:36
  and up his lane. Our society is getting on splendidly, Anne, It
• 4:22:40
  is past the experimental stage and is an accepted fact. The older folks are
• 4:22:44
  beginning to take an interest in it, and the White Sands people are talking
• 4:22:47
  of starting one too. Even Elisha Wright has come round. Since that day
• 4:22:51
  the Americans from the hotel had the picnic at the shore. They praised our
• 4:22:53
  roadside so highly and said they were so much prettier than in any other part
• 4:22:57
  of the island. And when in due time the other farmers follow mister Spencer's
• 4:23:02
  good example and plant ornamental trees and hedges along their road fronts Avonlea will be
• 4:23:07
  the prettiest settlement in the province. The Aids are talking of taking up the
• 4:23:11
  graveyard, said Anne. And I hope they will, because there will have
• 4:23:14
  to be a subscription for that, and it would be no use for the
• 4:23:17
  Society to try it after the Hall affair. But the Aids would never have
• 4:23:21
  stirred in the matter if the Society hadn't put it into their thoughts. Unofficially,
• 4:23:25
  those trees we planted on the church grounds are flourishing, and the trustees
• 4:23:27
  have promised me that they will fence in the school grounds next year. If
• 4:23:32
  they do, I'll have an arbor day and every scholar shall plant a tree,
• 4:23:34
  and we'll have a garden in the corner by the road. We've succeeded
• 4:23:38
  in almost all our plans so far, except in getting the old Bolter house
• 4:23:42
  removed, said Gilbert. And I've given that up in despair. Leave I
• 4:23:47
  won't have it taken down just to vex us. There's a contrary streak in
• 4:23:51
  all the Bolters, and it's strongly developed in him. Julia Bell wants to
• 4:23:55
  send another committee to him, but I think the better way will be just
• 4:23:57
  to leave him severely alone, said Anne. Safely. Anne trust to providence,
• 4:24:02
  as Missus Lynde says, smiled Gilbert. Certainly, no more committees.
• 4:24:07
  They only aggravate him. Julia Bell thinks you can do anything if you only
• 4:24:10
  have a committee to attempt it next spring Anne, we must start an agitation
• 4:24:14
  for nice lawns and grounds. We'll sow good seed betimes this winter. I've
• 4:24:18
  retreaties here on lawns and lawn making, and I'm going to prepare a paper
• 4:24:22
  on the subject soon. Well, I suppose our vacation is almost over.
• 4:24:26
  School opens Monday. Has Ruby Gillis got the Carmody School? Yes, Priscilla
• 4:24:32
  wrote that she had taken her own home school, so the Carmody trustees gave
• 4:24:34
  it to Ruby. I'm sorry Priscilla's not coming back, but since she can't,
• 4:24:38
  I'm glad Ruby has got the school. She will be home for Saturdays,
• 4:24:41
  and it will seem like old times to have her and Jane and Diana
• 4:24:45
  and myself fall together again. Marilla, just home from missus Lynde's, was
• 4:24:48
  sitting on the back porch step when Anne returned to the house. Rachel and
• 4:24:52
  I have decided to have our cruise to town tomorrow, she said. Mister
• 4:24:56
  Lynde is feeling better this week, and Rachel wants to go before he has
• 4:25:00
  another six spell. I intend to get up extra early tomorrow morning, for
• 4:25:03
  I've ever so much to do, said Anne virtuously. For one thing,
• 4:25:07
  I'm going to shift the feathers from my old bedtick to the new one.
• 4:25:10
  I ought to have done it long ago, but I've just kept putting it
• 4:25:12
  off. It's such a detestable task. It's a very bad habit to put
• 4:25:15
  off disagreeable things, and I never mean to again, or else I can't
• 4:25:19
  comfortably tell my pupils not to do it. That would be inconsistent. Then
• 4:25:23
  I want to make a cake for mister Harrison, and finish my paper on
• 4:25:26
  gardens for the Avis, and write stella, and wash and starch my muslin
• 4:25:30
  dress and make Dora's new apron. You won't get half done, said Marilla
• 4:25:34
  pessimistically. I never yet planned to do a lot of things, but something
• 4:25:37
  happened to prevent me. End of chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty, The way
• 4:25:44
  it often happens, Anne Rose betimes the next morning, and blithely greeted the
• 4:25:48
  fresh day. When the banners of the sunrise were shaken triumphantly. Across the
• 4:25:52
  pearly skies, green gables lay in a pool of sunshine, flecked with the
• 4:25:56
  dancing shadows of poplar and willow. Beyond the land was mister Harrison's wheat field.
• 4:26:02
  A great wind rippled expanse of pale gold. The world was so beautiful
• 4:26:07
  that Anne spent ten blissful minutes hanging idly over the garden gate drinking the loveliness
• 4:26:11
  in. After breakfast, Marilla made ready for her journey. Dora was to
• 4:26:15
  go with her, having been long promised this treat. Now, Davy,
• 4:26:19
  you try to be a good boy and don't bother Anne, she straightly charged
• 4:26:22
  him. If you are good, I'll bring you a striped candy cane from
• 4:26:26
  town for Alas, Marilla had stooped to the evil habit of bribing people to
• 4:26:30
  be good. I won't be bad on purpose, but s'pose and I'm bad's
• 4:26:34
  accidentally. Davy wanted to know. You'll have to guard against accidents, admonished
• 4:26:40
  Marilla. Anne. If mister Shearer comes to day, get a nice roast
• 4:26:42
  and some steak. If he doesn't, you'll have to kill a fowl for
• 4:26:45
  dinner tomorrow. Anne nodded. I'm not going to bother cooking any dinner for
• 4:26:49
  just Davy and myself to day. She said that cold ham bone will do
• 4:26:52
  for noon lunch, and I'll have some steak fright for you when you come
• 4:26:56
  home at night. I'm going to help mister Harrison haul Dulcon morning, announced
• 4:27:00
  Davy. He asked me to and I guess he'll ask me to dinner too.
• 4:27:03
  Mister Harrison is an awful kind man. He's a real sociable man.
• 4:27:07
  I hope I'll be like him when I grow up, I mean, behave
• 4:27:11
  like him. I don't want to look like him, but I guess there's
• 4:27:15
  no danger for missus. Lynde says, I'm a very handsome child. Do
• 4:27:18
  you s'pose it'll last? Anne? I want to know. I dare say
• 4:27:22
  it will, said Anne gravely. You are a handsome boy, Davy.
• 4:27:25
  Marilla looked volumes of disapproval. But you must live up to it and be
• 4:27:29
  just as nice and gentlemanly as you look to be. And you told Minnie
• 4:27:33
  may Barry the other day when you found her crying because someone said she was
• 4:27:37
  ugly, that if she was nice and kind and loving, people wouldn't mind
• 4:27:40
  her looks, said Davy discontentedly. Seems to me you can't get out of
• 4:27:45
  being good in this world. For some reason or another. You just have
• 4:27:48
  to behave. Don't you want to be good? Asked Marilla, who had
• 4:27:52
  learned a great deal that had not yet learned the futility of asking such questions.
• 4:27:56
  Yes, I want to be good, but not too good, said
• 4:28:00
  Davy cautiously. You don't have to be very good to be a Sunday School
• 4:28:03
  superintendent. Mister Bell's that he's a real bad man. Indeed, he's not,
• 4:28:07
  said Marilla, indignantly. He is, he says, he is himself
• 4:28:11
  a severated Davy. He said it when he prayed in Sunday School last Sunday.
• 4:28:17
  He said he was a vile worm, and a miserable sinner, and
• 4:28:19
  guilty of the blackest iniquity. What did he do that was so bad,
• 4:28:22
  Marilla? Did he kill anybody? Or steal a collection? Sense? I
• 4:28:26
  wanna know? Fortunately, missus Lynde came driving up the lane at this moment,
• 4:28:32
  and Marilla made off, feeling that she had escaped from the snare of
• 4:28:34
  the fowler, and wishing devoutly that mister Bell were not quite so highly figurative
• 4:28:40
  in its public petitions, especially in the hearing of small boys who were always
• 4:28:44
  wanting to know. Anne, left alone in her glory, worked with a
• 4:28:48
  will. The floor was swept, the beds made, the hens fed,
• 4:28:51
  the muslin dress washed and hung out on the line. Then Anne prepared for
• 4:28:55
  the transfer of feathers. She mounted to the garret and donned the first old
• 4:28:59
  dress that came to hand, a navy blue cashmere she had worn at fourteen.
• 4:29:03
  It was decidedly on the short side and as skimpy as the notable wincey
• 4:29:07
  Anne had worn upon the occasion of her debut at Green Gables, but at
• 4:29:10
  least it would not be materially injured by down and feathers. Anne completed her
• 4:29:15
  toilette by tying a big red and white spotted handkerchief that had belonged to Matthew
• 4:29:18
  over her head, and thus accouterd betook herself to the kitchen chamber, whither
• 4:29:22
  Marilla before her departure, had helped her carry the feather bed. A cracked
• 4:29:27
  mirror hung by the chamber window, and in an unlucky moment, Anne looked
• 4:29:32
  into it. There were those seven freckles on her nose, more rampant than
• 4:29:36
  ever, or so it seemed in the glare of light from the unshaded window.
• 4:29:40
  Oh, I forgot to rub that lotion on last night. She thought,
• 4:29:42
  I'd better run down to the pantry and do it now. Anne had
• 4:29:45
  already suffered many things trying to remove those freckles. On one occasion, the
• 4:29:51
  entire skin had peeled off her nose, but the freckles remained. A few
• 4:29:55
  days previously, she had found a recipe for a freckle lotion in a magazine,
• 4:29:57
  and as the ingredients were within her reach, she straightway compounded it,
• 4:30:02
  much to the disgust of Marilla, who thought that if Providence had placed freckles
• 4:30:04
  on your nose, it was your bound and duty to leave them there.
• 4:30:08
  Anne scurried down to the pantry, which always dim from the big willow growing
• 4:30:12
  close to the window, was now almost dark by reason of the shade drawn
• 4:30:15
  to exclude flies. Anne caught the little bottle containing the lotion from the shelf
• 4:30:21
  and copiously anointed her nose therewith by means of a little sponge sacred to the
• 4:30:25
  purpose. This important duty done, she returned to her work. Any One
• 4:30:29
  who has ever shifted feathers from one tick to another will not need to be
• 4:30:33
  told that. When Anne finished, she was a sight to behold. Her
• 4:30:36
  dress was white with down and fluff, and her front hair escaping from under
• 4:30:41
  the handkerchief, was adorned with a veritable halo of feathers. At this auspicious
• 4:30:45
  moment, a knock sounded at the kitchen door. That must be mister Shearer,
• 4:30:48
  thought Anne. I'm in a dreadful mess, but I'll have to run
• 4:30:52
  down as I am, for he's always in a hurry. Down flew Anne
• 4:30:55
  to the kitchen door. If ever a charitable floor did open to swallow up
• 4:30:59
  a miserable, befeathered damsel, the Green Gables porch floor should promptly have engulfed
• 4:31:03
  Anne at that moment. On the doorstep were standing Priscilla Grant, golden and
• 4:31:08
  fair in silk attire, a short, stout, gray haired lady in a
• 4:31:12
  tweed suit, and another lady, tall, stately, wonderfully gowned, with
• 4:31:17
  a beautiful high bred face and large, black lashed violet eyes, whom Anne
• 4:31:22
  instinctively felt, as she would have said in her earlier days, to be
• 4:31:26
  Missus Charlotte E. Morgan. In the dismay of the moment, one thought
• 4:31:30
  stood out from the confusion of Anne's mind, and she grasped at it as
• 4:31:33
  at the proverbial straw. All Missus Morgan's heroines were noted for rising to the
• 4:31:37
  occasion, no matter what their troubles were they invariably rose to the occasion and
• 4:31:42
  showed their superiority over all ills of time, space and quantity. Anne therefore
• 4:31:48
  felt it was her duty to rise to the occasion, and she did it
• 4:31:52
  so perfectly that Priscilla afterwards declared that she never admired Anne Shirley more than at
• 4:31:56
  that moment. No matter what her outrage feel, she did not show them.
• 4:32:02
  She greeted Priscilla and was introduced to her companions as calmly and composedly as
• 4:32:06
  if she had been arrayed in purple and fine linen. To be sure,
• 4:32:08
  it was somewhat of a shock to find that the lady she had instinctively felt
• 4:32:12
  to be Missus Morgan was not Missus Morgan at all, but an unknown Missus
• 4:32:15
  Pendexter, while the stout, little gray haired woman was Missus Morgan. But
• 4:32:19
  in the greater shock, the lesser lost its power. Anne ushered her guests
• 4:32:23
  to the spare room and thence into the parlor, where she left them while
• 4:32:26
  she hastened out to help Priscilla unharness her horse. It's dreadful to come upon
• 4:32:32
  you so unexpectedly, as this, apologized Priscilla. But I did not know
• 4:32:36
  till last night that we were coming. Aunt Charlotte is going away Monday,
• 4:32:38
  and she had promised to spend a day with a friend in town. But
• 4:32:41
  last night her friend telephoned to her not to come because they were quarantined for
• 4:32:45
  scarlet fever. So I suggested we come here instead, for I knew you
• 4:32:48
  were longing to see her. We called at the White Sands Hotel and brought
• 4:32:52
  Missus Pendexter with us. She is a friend of Aunt's and lives in New
• 4:32:55
  York, and her husband is a millionaire. We can't stay very long,
• 4:32:59
  for Missus Pendexter has to be back at the hotel by five o'clock. Several
• 4:33:03
  times, while they were putting away the horse, Anne caught Priscilla looking at
• 4:33:06
  her in a furtive, puzzled way. She needn't stare at me, so
• 4:33:10
  Anne thought, a little resentfully. If she doesn't know what it is to
• 4:33:12
  change a featherbed, she might imagine it. When Priscilla had gone to the
• 4:33:17
  parlor, and before Anne could escape upstairs, Diana walked into the kitchen.
• 4:33:22
  Anne caught her astonished friend by the arm. Diana, Barry, who do
• 4:33:26
  you suppose is in that parlor at this very moment? Missus Charlotte E.
• 4:33:30
  Morgan, and a New York millionaire's wife. And here I am like this,
• 4:33:33
  and not a thing in the house for dinner but a cold ham bone
• 4:33:37
  Diana. By this time, Anne had become aware that Diana was staring at
• 4:33:41
  her in precisely the same bewildered fashion as Priscilla had done. It was really
• 4:33:45
  too much, Oh Diana, don't look at me, so, she implored,
• 4:33:51
  You at least must know that the neatest person in the world couldn't empty
• 4:33:53
  feathers from one tick into another and remain neat in the process. It,
• 4:34:00
  I, I, It isn't the feathers, hesitated, Diana. It's your
• 4:34:04
  nose, Anne, My nose, Oh Diana, surely nothing has gone wrong
• 4:34:10
  with it. Anne rushed to the little looking glass over the sink. One
• 4:34:14
  glance revealed the fatal truth. Her nose was a brilliant scarlet. Anne sat
• 4:34:19
  down on the sofa, her dauntless spirit subdued. At last, what is
• 4:34:25
  the matter with it? Asked Diana, curiosity overcoming delicacy. I thought I
• 4:34:30
  was rubbing my freckle lotion on it. But I must have used that red
• 4:34:33
  dye Marilla has for marking the pattern on her rugs was the despairing response.
• 4:34:37
  What shall I do? Wash it off? Said Diana. Practically, perhaps
• 4:34:41
  it won't wash off. First I dye my hair, then I dye my
• 4:34:45
  nose. Marilla cut my hair off when I dyed it, But that remedy
• 4:34:48
  would hardly be practicable in this case. Well, this is another punishment for
• 4:34:53
  vanity, and I suppose I deserve it, though there is not much comfort
• 4:34:56
  in that. It is really almost enough to make one bel leave an ill
• 4:35:00
  luck, though missus Lynde says there is no such thing, because everything is
• 4:35:03
  foreordained. Fortunately, the dye washed off easily, and Anne somewhat consoled,
• 4:35:08
  but took herself to the east gable while Diana ran home. Presently, Anne
• 4:35:12
  came down again, clothed and in her right mind. The muslin dress she
• 4:35:17
  had fondly hoped to wear was bobbing merrily about on the line outside, so
• 4:35:21
  she was forced to content herself with her black lawn. She had the fire
• 4:35:23
  on and the tea steeping. When Diana returned. The latter wore her muslin
• 4:35:27
  at least, and carried a covered platter in her hand. Mother sent you
• 4:35:32
  this, she said, lifting the cover and displaying a nicely carved and jointed
• 4:35:36
  chicken. To Anne's grateful eyes. The chicken was supplemented by light new bread,
• 4:35:41
  excellent butter and cheese, Marilla's fruit cake, and a dish of preserved
• 4:35:45
  plums floating in their golden syrup as in congealed summer sunshine. There was a
• 4:35:49
  big bowlful of pink and white asters also by way of decoration, Yet the
• 4:35:53
  spread seemed very meager beside the elaborate one formerly prepared for Missus Morgan. Anne's
• 4:36:00
  hungry guests, however, did not seem to think anything was lacking, and
• 4:36:03
  they ate the simple viands with apparent enjoyment. But after the first few moments,
• 4:36:07
  Anne thought no more of what was or was not on her bill of
• 4:36:11
  fare. Missus Morgan's appearance might be somewhat disappointing, as even her loyal worshippers
• 4:36:15
  had been forced to admit to each other, but she proved to be a
• 4:36:18
  delightful conversationalist. She had traveled extensively and was an excellent story teller. She
• 4:36:23
  had seen much of men and women and crystallized her experiences into witty little sentences
• 4:36:29
  and epigrams, which made her hearers feel as if they were listening to one
• 4:36:33
  of the people in clever books. But under all her sparkle there was a
• 4:36:37
  strongly felt undercurrent of true womanly sympathy and kind heartedness, which one affection as
• 4:36:42
  easily as her brilliancy won admiration. Nor did she monopolize the conversation. She
• 4:36:48
  could draw others out as skillfully and fully as she could talk herself, and
• 4:36:52
  Anne and Diana found themselves chattering freely to her. Missus Pendexter said little.
• 4:36:56
  She merely smiled with her lovely eyes and lips, and ate chicken and fruit
• 4:37:00
  cake and preserves with such exquisite grace that she conveyed the impression of dining on
• 4:37:04
  ambrosia and honeydew. But then, as Anne said to Diana later on,
• 4:37:08
  anybody so divinely beautiful as Missus Pendexter didn't need to talk. It was enough
• 4:37:12
  for her just to look. After dinner, they all had to walk through
• 4:37:17
  Lover's Lane and Violet Vale in the Birch Path, then back through the Haunted
• 4:37:21
  Wood to the Dryad's Bubble, where they sat down and talked for a delightful
• 4:37:23
  last half hour. Missus Morgan wanted to know how the Haunted Wood came by
• 4:37:29
  its name, and laughed until she cried when she heard the story and Anne's
• 4:37:33
  dramatic account of a certain memorable walk through it at the witching hour of twilight.
• 4:37:37
  It has indeed been a feast of reason and flow of soul, hasn't
• 4:37:41
  it, said Anne, when her guests had gone and she and Diana were
• 4:37:44
  alone again. I don't know which I enjoyed more, listening to Missus Morgan
• 4:37:48
  or gazing at Missus Pendexter. I believe we had a nicer time than if
• 4:37:52
  we'd known they were coming and encumbered with much serving. You must stay to
• 4:37:56
  tea with me, Diana, and we'll talk it all over, Priscilla,
• 4:38:00
  says, Missus Pendexter's husband's sister is married to an English earl, and yet
• 4:38:04
  she took a second helping of the plum preserves, said Diana, as if
• 4:38:07
  the two facts were somehow incompatible. I dare say even the English earl himself
• 4:38:12
  wouldn't have turned up his aristocratic nose of Marilla's plum preserves, said Anne proudly.
• 4:38:18
  Anne did not mention the misfortune which had befallen her nose when she related
• 4:38:22
  the day's history to Marilla that evening, but she took the bottle of freckle
• 4:38:26
  lotion and emptied it out of the window. I shall never try any beautifying
• 4:38:30
  messes again, she said, darkly, resolute. They may do for careful,
• 4:38:34
  deliberate people, but for any one so hopelessly given over to making mistakes
• 4:38:38
  as I seem to be, it's tempting fate to meddle with them. End
• 4:38:42
  of Chapter twenty Chapter twenty one, Sweet Miss Lavendar school opened and Anne returned
• 4:38:49
  to her work with fewer theories, but considerably more experienced. She had several
• 4:38:55
  new pupils, six and seven year olds, just venturing round eyed into a
• 4:38:59
  world wonder. Among them were Davy and Dora. Davy sat with Milty Bolter,
• 4:39:03
  who had been going to school for a year and was therefore quite a
• 4:39:07
  man of the world. Dora had made a compact at Sunday school the previous
• 4:39:11
  Sunday to sit with Lily Sloane, but Lily Sloane not coming the first day,
• 4:39:15
  she was temporarily assigned to Mirabelle Cotton, who was ten years old and
• 4:39:18
  therefore in Dora's eyes, one of the big girls. I think school is
• 4:39:22
  great fun, Davy told Marilla. When he got home that night. You
• 4:39:26
  said I'd find it hard to sit still, and I did. You mostly
• 4:39:29
  do tell the truth. I notice, but you can wriggle your legs about
• 4:39:32
  under the desk, and that helps a lot. It's splendid to have so
• 4:39:34
  many boys to play with. I sit with Milty Bolter, and he's fine.
• 4:39:37
  He's longer than me, but I'm wider. It's nicer to sit in
• 4:39:41
  the back seats, but you can't sit there till your legs grow long enough
• 4:39:44
  to touch the floor. Milty drawed a picture of Ann on his slate,
• 4:39:47
  and it was awful, ugly. And I told him if he'd made pictures
• 4:39:49
  of Anne like that, I'd lick him at recess. I thought first I'd
• 4:39:52
  draw one of him and put horns in a tail on it, but I
• 4:39:56
  was afraid it would hurt his feelings. And Anne says, you should never
• 4:39:59
  hurt anyone's feel It seems it's dreadful to have your feelings hurt. It's better
• 4:40:03
  to knock a boy down than hurt his feelings. If you must do something.
• 4:40:07
  Milty said he wasn't scared of me, but he'd just as soon call
• 4:40:08
  it somebody else. To oblige me, so he rubbed out Anne's name and
• 4:40:11
  printed Barbara Shaws under it. Milty doesn't like Barbara because she calls him a
• 4:40:15
  sweet little boy, and once she patted him on his head. Dora said
• 4:40:19
  primly that she liked school, but she was very quiet, even for her,
• 4:40:23
  And when at twilight Marilla bade her go upstairs to bed, she hesitated
• 4:40:26
  and began to cry. I'm I'm frightened, she sobbed. I I don't
• 4:40:30
  want to go upstairs alone in the dark. What notion have you got into
• 4:40:34
  your head now, demanded Marilla. I'm sure you've gone to bed alone all
• 4:40:37
  summer and never been frightened before. Dora still continued to cry. So Anne
• 4:40:42
  picked her up, cuddled her sympathetically, and whispered, tell Anne all about
• 4:40:45
  it, sweetheart, what are you frightened of? Of of Mirabel Cotton's uncle,
• 4:40:51
  sobbed Dora. Mirabel Cotton told me all about her family to day in
• 4:40:55
  school. Nearly everybody and her family has died, all her grandfather's and grit
• 4:41:00
  grandmother's, in ever so many uncles and aunts. They have a habit of
• 4:41:03
  dying, Mirabel says. Mirabel's awful proud of having so many dead relations.
• 4:41:07
  And she told me what they all died of, and what they said,
• 4:41:10
  and how they looked in their coffins. And Mirabelle says one of her uncles
• 4:41:12
  was seen walking around the house after he was buried. Her mother saw him.
• 4:41:18
  I don't mind the rest so much, but I can't help thinking about
• 4:41:21
  that Uncle Anne went upstairs with Dora and sat by her until she fell asleep.
• 4:41:26
  The next day, Mirabel Cotton was kept in at recess, and gently
• 4:41:30
  but firmly given to understand that when you were so unfortunate as to possess an
• 4:41:33
  uncle who persisted in walking about houses after he had been decently interred, it
• 4:41:37
  was not in good taste to talk about that eccentric gentleman to your destmate of
• 4:41:41
  tender years. Mirabel thought this very harsh. The Cottons had not much to
• 4:41:45
  boast of. How was she to keep up her prestige among her schoolmates if
• 4:41:48
  she were forbidden to make capital out of the family ghost. September slipped by
• 4:41:53
  into a Gold and Crimson graciousness of October. One Friday evening, Diana came
• 4:41:59
  over. I'd a letter from Ella Kimball to day Anne and She wants us
• 4:42:02
  to go over to Tea tomorrow afternoon and meet her cousin Irene Trent from town.
• 4:42:07
  But we can't get one of our horses to go, for there'll all
• 4:42:08
  be in use tomorrow and your pony is lane. So I suppose we can't
• 4:42:11
  go. Why can't we walk, suggested Anne. If we go straight back
• 4:42:15
  through the woods, we'll strike the West Grafton Road, not far from the
• 4:42:18
  Kimball place. I was through that way last winter, and I know the
• 4:42:22
  road. It's no more than four miles and we don't have to walk home,
• 4:42:25
  for Oliver Kimball will be sure to drive us. He'll be only too
• 4:42:27
  glad of the excuse where he goes to see Carrie Sloane, and they say
• 4:42:30
  his father will hardly ever let him have a horse. It was accordingly arranged
• 4:42:34
  that they should walk, and the following afternoon they set out, going by
• 4:42:37
  way of Lover's Lane to the back of the Cuthbert farm, where they found
• 4:42:41
  a road leading into the heart of acres of glimmering beech and maplewoods, which
• 4:42:45
  were all in a wondrous glow of flame and gold, lying in a great
• 4:42:48
  purple stillness and peace. It's as if the year were kneeling to prey in
• 4:42:52
  a vast cathedral full of mellow stained light, isn't it? Said Anne dreamily.
• 4:42:57
  It doesn't seem right to hurry through it, does it. It seems
• 4:43:00
  irreverent, like running in a church. We must hurry, though, said
• 4:43:04
  Diana, glancing at her watch. We've left ourselves little enough time as it
• 4:43:08
  is. Well. I'll walk fast, but don't ask me to talk,
• 4:43:11
  said Anne, quickening her pace. I just want to drink the day's loveliness
• 4:43:15
  in. I feel as if she were holding it out to my lips like
• 4:43:18
  a cup of airy wine, and I'll take a sip at every step.
• 4:43:22
  Perhaps it was because she was so absorbed in drinking it in that Anne took
• 4:43:26
  the left turning when they came to a fork in the road. She should
• 4:43:29
  have taken the right, but ever afterwards she counted it the most fortunate mistake
• 4:43:33
  of her life. They came out finally to a lonely grassy road with nothing
• 4:43:37
  inside along it but ranks of spruce saplings. Why where are we, exclaimed
• 4:43:41
  Diana in bewilderment. This isn't the West Grafton Road, No, it's the
• 4:43:45
  baseline road in Middle Grafton, said Anne, rather shamedfacedly. I must have
• 4:43:49
  taken the wrong turning at the fork. I don't know where we are exactly,
• 4:43:53
  but we must be all of three miles from Kimball. Still, then
• 4:43:57
  we can't get there by five, for it's past four now, said Diana,
• 4:44:00
  with a despairing look at her watch. We'll arrive after they've had their
• 4:44:04
  tea and they'll have all the bother of getting hours over again. We'd better
• 4:44:08
  turn back and go home, suggested Anne humbly. But Diana, after consideration,
• 4:44:12
  vetoed this. No, we may as well go and spend the evening
• 4:44:15
  since we have come this far. A few yards further on, the girls
• 4:44:19
  came to a place where the road forked again. Which of these do we
• 4:44:22
  take? Asked Diana dubiously. Anne shook her head. I don't know,
• 4:44:27
  and we can't afford to make any more mistakes. Here is a gate and
• 4:44:30
  a lane leading right into the wood. There must be a house at the
• 4:44:33
  other side. Let us go down and inquire what a romantic old lane this
• 4:44:37
  is, said Diana, as they walked along its twists and turns. It
• 4:44:41
  ran under patriarchal old firs, whose branches met above, creating a perpetual gloom
• 4:44:45
  in which nothing except moss could grow. On either hand were brown wood floors
• 4:44:51
  crossed here and there by fallen lances of sunlight. All was very still and
• 4:44:56
  remote, as if the world and the cares of the world were far away.
• 4:45:00
  I feel as if we were walking through an enchanted forest, said Anne
• 4:45:03
  in a hushed tone. Do you suppose we'll ever find our way back to
• 4:45:07
  the real world again, Diana, we shall presently come to a palace with
• 4:45:10
  a spell bound princess in it. I think. Around the next turn they
• 4:45:14
  came in sight, not indeed of a palace, but of a little house,
• 4:45:18
  almost as surprising as a palace would have been in this province of conventional
• 4:45:21
  wooden farmhouses, all as much alike in general characteristics as if they had grown
• 4:45:25
  from the same seed. Anne stopped short in rapture, and Diana exclaimed,
• 4:45:30
  Oh, I know where we are now. That is the little stone house
• 4:45:33
  where miss Lavender Lewis lives Echo Lodge, she calls it. I think I've
• 4:45:37
  often heard of it, but I've never seen it before. Isn't it a
• 4:45:40
  romantic spot? It's the sweetest, prettiest place I ever saw or imagined,
• 4:45:45
  said Anne, delightedly. It looks like a bit out of a story book
• 4:45:48
  or a dream. The house was a low weaved structure, built of undressed
• 4:45:52
  blocks of Red Island sandstone, with a little peaked roof, out of which
• 4:45:56
  peered two dormer windows with quaint wooden hoods over them, and two great chimneys.
• 4:46:02
  The whole house was covered with a luxuriant growth of ivy, finding easy
• 4:46:06
  foothold on the rough stone work, and turned by autumn frosts to most beautiful
• 4:46:10
  bronze and wine red tints. Before the house was an oblong garden into which
• 4:46:15
  the lane gate where the girls were standing opened. The house bounded it on
• 4:46:18
  one side. On the three others, it was enclosed by an old stone
• 4:46:22
  dike so overgrown with moss and grass and ferns that it looked like a high
• 4:46:26
  green bank. On the right and left, the tall dark spruces spread their
• 4:46:32
  palm like branches over it. But below it was a little meadow green with
• 4:46:36
  clover aftermath, sloping down to the blue loop of the Grafton River. No
• 4:46:40
  other house or clearing was in sight, nothing but hills and valleys covered with
• 4:46:44
  feathery young firs. I wonder what sort of a person Miss Lewis is,
• 4:46:48
  speculated Diana as they opened the gate into the garden. They say she is
• 4:46:52
  very peculiar. She'll be interesting, then, said Anne, Decidedly peculiar people
• 4:46:56
  are always that, at least, whatever else they are or are not.
• 4:47:00
  Didn't I tell you we would come to an enchanted palace. I knew the
• 4:47:03
  elves hadn't woven magic over that lane for nothing. But miss Lavendar lewis as
• 4:47:07
  hardly as spell bound princess, laughed Diana. She's an old maid. She's
• 4:47:11
  forty five and quite gray. I've heard. Oh, that's only part of
• 4:47:15
  the spell, asserted Anne, confidently. At heart, she's young and beautiful
• 4:47:19
  still, and if we only knew how to unloose the spell, she would
• 4:47:22
  step forth radiant and fair again. But we don't know how. It's always
• 4:47:26
  and only the prince who knows that, And Miss Lavender's prince hasn't come yet.
• 4:47:30
  Perhaps some fatal mischance has befallen him, though that's against the law of
• 4:47:34
  all fairy tales. I'm afraid he came long ago and went away again,
• 4:47:38
  said Diana. They say she used to be engaged to see an irving Paul's
• 4:47:42
  father when they were young, but they quarreled and parted. Hush, warned
• 4:47:47
  Anne, the door's open. The girls paused in the porch under the tendrils
• 4:47:51
  of ivy and knocked at the open door. There was a patter of steps
• 4:47:53
  inside, and a rather odd little personage presented herself, a girl of about
• 4:47:57
  fourteen, with a freckled face, a snub nose, a mouth so wide
• 4:48:02
  that it did really seem as if it stretched from ear to ear, and
• 4:48:04
  two long braids of fair hair tied with two enormous bows of blue ribbon.
• 4:48:10
  Is Miss Lewis at home, asked Diana, Yes, ma'am, come in,
• 4:48:12
  ma'am. I'll tell miss Lavendar you're here, ma'am. She's upstairs,
• 4:48:15
  ma'am. With this, the small handmaiden whisked out of sight, and the
• 4:48:19
  girls, left alone, looked about them with delighted eyes. The interior of
• 4:48:25
  this wonderful little house was quite as interesting as its exterior. The room had
• 4:48:29
  a low ceiling and two square, small paned windows curtained with muslin frills.
• 4:48:33
  All the furnishings were old fashioned, but so well and daintily kept that the
• 4:48:37
  effect was delicious, But it must be candidly admitted that the most attractive feature
• 4:48:42
  to two healthy girls who had just tramped four miles through autumn air was a
• 4:48:47
  table set out with pale blue china and laden with delicacies, while little golden
• 4:48:52
  hued ferns scattered over the cloth gave it what Anne would have termed a festal
• 4:48:56
  air. Miss Lavender must be expecting company to tea, she whispered. There
• 4:49:00
  are six places, said, but what a funny little girl she has.
• 4:49:03
  She looked like a messenger from pixie Land. I suppose she could have told
• 4:49:07
  us the road, but I was curious to see Miss Lavendar. Sh She's
• 4:49:11
  coming, And with that Miss Lavender Lewis was standing in the doorway. The
• 4:49:15
  girls were so surprised that they forgot good manners and simply stared. They had
• 4:49:18
  unconsciously been expecting to see the usual type of elderly spinster, as known to
• 4:49:22
  their experience, a rather angular personage with prim gray hair and spectacles. Nothing
• 4:49:27
  more unlike Miss Lavendar could possibly be imagined. She was a little lady with
• 4:49:33
  snow white hair, beautifully wavy and thick, and carefully arranged in becoming puffs
• 4:49:37
  and coils. Beneath it was an almost girlish face, pink cheeked and sweet
• 4:49:41
  lipped, with big, soft brown eyes and dimples, actually dimples. She
• 4:49:47
  wore a very dainty gown of cream muslin with pale hued roses on it,
• 4:49:51
  a gown which would have seemed ridiculously juvenile on most women of her age,
• 4:49:55
  but which suited Miss Lavender so perfectly that you never thought about it at all.
• 4:50:00
  Carlott of the Fort says that you wished to see me, she said,
• 4:50:02
  in a voice that matched her appearance. We wanted to ask the right
• 4:50:04
  road to West Grafton, said Diana. We are invited to tea at mister
• 4:50:08
  Kimball's, but we took the wrong path coming through the woods and came out
• 4:50:11
  to the baseline instead of the West Grafton road. Do we take the right
• 4:50:15
  or left? Turning at your gate? The left, said Miss Lavendar,
• 4:50:18
  with a hesitating glance at her tea table. Then she exclaimed, as if
• 4:50:22
  in a sudden little burst of resolution, But oh, won't you stay and
• 4:50:26
  have tea with me? Please do? Mister Kimballs will have tea over before
• 4:50:30
  you get there, and Carlotta the Fourth and I will be so glad to
• 4:50:33
  have you. Diana looked mute inquiry at Anne. We'd like to stay,
• 4:50:37
  said Anne promptly, for she had made up her mind that she wanted to
• 4:50:40
  know more of this surprising Miss Lavendar if it won't inconvenience you. But you
• 4:50:44
  are expecting other guests, aren't you. Miss Lavendar looked at her tea table
• 4:50:48
  again and blushed. I know you'll think me dreadfully foolish, she said.
• 4:50:52
  I am foolish, and I'm ashamed of it when I'm found out. But
• 4:50:56
  never unless I am found out, I'm not expecting anybody. I I was
• 4:51:00
  just pretending I was. You see, I was so lonely. I love
• 4:51:03
  company, that is the right kind of company, but so few people ever
• 4:51:07
  come here because it is so far out of the way. Carlotta the Fourth
• 4:51:11
  was lonely too, So I just pretended I was going to have a tea
• 4:51:14
  party. I cooked for it and decorated the table for it, and said
• 4:51:17
  it was my mother's wedding China, and I dressed up for it. Diana
• 4:51:21
  secretly thought Miss Lavendar quite as peculiar as report had pictured her. The idea
• 4:51:25
  of a woman of forty five playing it having a tea party, just as
• 4:51:27
  if she were a little girl. But Anne of the Shining Eyes exclaimed joyfully,
• 4:51:33
  Oh do you imagine things too? That too revealed a kindred spirit to
• 4:51:37
  Miss Lavendar. Yes I do, she confessed boldly. Of course it's silly,
• 4:51:42
  and anybody as old as I am. But what is the use of
• 4:51:45
  being an independent old maid if you can't be silly when you want to and
• 4:51:48
  when it doesn't hurt anybody. A person must have some compensations. I don't
• 4:51:52
  believe I could live at times if I didn't pretend things. I'm not often
• 4:51:56
  caught at it, though, and Carlotta the Fourth never tells. But I'm
• 4:52:00
  glad to be caught to day, for you have really come, and I
• 4:52:03
  have tea all ready for you. Will you go up to the spare room
• 4:52:04
  and take off your hats. It's the white door at the head of the
• 4:52:07
  stairs. I must run out to the kitchen and see that Carlotta the Fourth
• 4:52:11
  isn't letting the tea boil. Carlotta the Fourth is a very good girl,
• 4:52:14
  but she will let the tea boil. Miss Lavendar tripped off to the kitchen
• 4:52:18
  on hospitable thoughts intent and the girls found their way up to the spare Room,
• 4:52:22
  an apartment as white as its door, lighted by the ivy hung dormer
• 4:52:26
  window, and looking, as Anne said, like the place where happy dreams
• 4:52:29
  grew. This is quite an adventure, isn't it, said Diana. And
• 4:52:33
  isn't miss Lavender sweet? If she is a little odd, she doesn't look
• 4:52:36
  a bit like an old maid. She looks just as music sounds, I
• 4:52:40
  think, answered Anne. When they went down, Miss Lavendar was carrying in
• 4:52:44
  the tea pot, and behind her, looking vastly pleased, was Carlotta the
• 4:52:47
  Fourth with a plate of hot biscuits. Now you must tell me your names,
• 4:52:51
  said miss Lavendar. I'm so glad you are young girls. I love
• 4:52:53
  young girls. It's so easy to pretend I'm a girl myself. When I'm
• 4:52:56
  with them. I do hate, with a little grimace, to believe I'm
• 4:53:00
  old. Now, who are you? Just? For convenience sake, Diana
• 4:53:04
  Barry and Anne Shirley, May I pretend that I've known you for a hundred
• 4:53:08
  years and call you Anne and Diana right away? You may, the girls
• 4:53:11
  said, both together. Then let's just sit, comefully down and eat everything,
• 4:53:17
  said miss Lavendar, happily, Carlotta, you sit at the foot and
• 4:53:19
  help with the chicken. It is so fortunate that I made the sponge cake
• 4:53:22
  and doughnuts. Of course, it was foolish to do it for imaginary guess
• 4:53:26
  I know. Carlotta the Fourth thought, so didn't you, Carlotta, But
• 4:53:29
  you see how well it has turned out. Of course they wouldn't have been
• 4:53:32
  wasted for Carlotta the Fourth and I could have eaten them through time, but
• 4:53:36
  sponge cake is not a thing that improves with time. That was a merry
• 4:53:40
  and memorable meal, and when it was over, they all went out to
• 4:53:42
  the garden, lying in the glamor of sunset. I do think you have
• 4:53:47
  the loveliest place here, said Diana, looking round her admiringly. Why do
• 4:53:51
  you call it echo lodge, asked Anne. Carlotta said, Miss Lavendar,
• 4:53:55
  go into the house and bring out the little tin horn that is hanging over
• 4:53:57
  the clock shelf. Arlotta the Fourth skipped off and returned with the horn.
• 4:54:02
  Blow it, Carlotta commanded Miss Lavendar. Carlotta, accordingly, blew a rather
• 4:54:07
  raucous, strident blast. There was a moment's stillness, and then from the
• 4:54:11
  woods over the river came a multitude of fairy echoes, sweet elusive silvery,
• 4:54:15
  as if all the horns of elf Land were blowing against the sunset. Anne
• 4:54:19
  and Diana exclaimed in delight. Now laugh Carlotta, laugh loudly. Carlotta,
• 4:54:26
  who would probably have obeyed if Miss Lavendar had told her to stand on her
• 4:54:29
  head, climbed up on the stone bench and laughed loud and heartily. Back
• 4:54:33
  came the echoes, as if a host of pixie people were mimicking her laughter.
• 4:54:36
  In the purple woodlands and along the fur fringed points. People always admire
• 4:54:41
  my echoes very much, said Miss Lavendar, as if the echoes were her
• 4:54:44
  personal property. I love them myself. They are very good company, with
• 4:54:48
  a little pretending. On calm evenings. Carlotta the Fourth and I often sit
• 4:54:52
  out here and amuse ourselves with them. Carlotta, take back the horn and
• 4:54:56
  hang it carefully in its place. Why do you call her carl a lot
• 4:55:00
  of the fourth, asked Diana, who was bursting with curiosity on this point.
• 4:55:03
  Just to keep her from getting mixed up with other Carlottas in my thoughts,
• 4:55:07
  said Miss Lavender. Seriously, they all look so much alike. There's
• 4:55:10
  no telling them apart. Her name isn't really Carlotta at all. It is
• 4:55:15
  let me see, what is it. I think it's Leonora. Yes,
• 4:55:19
  it is Leonora. You see it is this way. When mother died ten
• 4:55:23
  years ago, I couldn't stay here alone, and I couldn't afford to pay
• 4:55:26
  the wages of a grown up girl. So I got little Carlotta Bowman to
• 4:55:30
  come and stay with me for board and clothes. Her name really was Carlotta.
• 4:55:34
  She was Carlotta the first she was just thirteen. She stayed with me
• 4:55:38
  till she was sixteen, and then she went away to Boston because she could
• 4:55:41
  do better there. Her sister came to stay with me. Then. Her
• 4:55:45
  name was Julietta. Missus Bowman had a weakness for fancy names, I think,
• 4:55:48
  but she looked so like Carlotta that I kept calling her that all the
• 4:55:52
  time, and she didn't mind, so I just gave up trying to remember
• 4:55:55
  her right name. She was Carlota the second, and when she went away,
• 4:55:59
  Evelina came and she was Karlotta the third. Now I have Carlotta the
• 4:56:03
  fourth. But when she is sixteen, she's fourteen now she will want to
• 4:56:07
  go to Boston too. And what I shall do then, I really do
• 4:56:10
  not know. Carlotta the Fourth is the last of the Bowman girls and the
• 4:56:12
  best the other Carlot has always let me see that. They thought it silly
• 4:56:15
  of me to pretend things, But Carlotta the Fourth never does, no matter
• 4:56:19
  what she may really think. I don't care what people think about me if
• 4:56:22
  they don't let me see it, well, said Diana, looking regretfully at
• 4:56:27
  the setting sun. I suppose we must go if we want to get to
• 4:56:30
  mister Kimball's before dark. We've had a lovely time, Miss Lewis. Won't
• 4:56:34
  you come again to see me? Pleaded Miss Lavendar. Tall Anne put her
• 4:56:38
  arm about the little lady. Indeed we shall, she promised. Now that
• 4:56:42
  we've discovered you, we'll wear out our welcome coming to see you. Yes,
• 4:56:45
  we must go. We must tear ourselves away, as Paul Irving says
• 4:56:49
  every time he comes to Green Gables. Paul Irving, there was a subtle
• 4:56:53
  change in Miss Lavendar's voice. Who is he? I didn't think there was
• 4:56:57
  anybody of that name in Avonlea Anne felt vexed at her own heedlessness. She
• 4:57:03
  had forgotten about Miss Lavendar's old romance when Paul's name slipped out. He is
• 4:57:07
  a little pupil of mine, she explained slowly. He came from Boston last
• 4:57:11
  year to live with his grandmother, missus Irving of the Shore Road. Is
• 4:57:15
  he Stephen Irving's son? Miss Lavendar asked, bending over her namesake border so
• 4:57:19
  that her face was hidden. Yes, I'm going to give you girls a
• 4:57:23
  bunch of lavender apiece, said Miss Lavendar brightly, as if she had not
• 4:57:26
  heard the answer to her question. It's very sweet. Don't you think mother
• 4:57:30
  always loved it? She planted these boarders long ago. Father named me Lavendar
• 4:57:36
  because he was so fond of it. The very first time he saw mother
• 4:57:40
  was when he visited her home in East Grafton with her brother. He fell
• 4:57:42
  in love with her at first sight, and they put him in the spare
• 4:57:45
  room bed to sleep, and the sheets were scented with lavender, and he
• 4:57:48
  lay awake all night and thought of her. He always loved the scent of
• 4:57:52
  lavendar after that, and that was why he gave me the name. Don't
• 4:57:56
  forget to come back soon, girls, dear, We'll be looking for you.
• 4:57:59
  Carlotta the fourth and I She opened the gate under the furs for them
• 4:58:03
  to pass through. She looked suddenly old and tired. The glow and radiance
• 4:58:07
  had faded from her face. Her parting smile was as sweet with ineradicable youth
• 4:58:11
  as ever. But when the girls looked back from the first curve in the
• 4:58:15
  lane, they saw her sitting on the old stone bench under the silver poplar
• 4:58:18
  in the middle of the garden, with her head leaning wearily on her hand.
• 4:58:22
  She does look lonely, said Diana softly. We must come often to
• 4:58:26
  see her. I think her parents gave her the only right and fitting name
• 4:58:30
  that could possibly be given her, said Anne. If they had been so
• 4:58:33
  blind as to name her Elizabeth or Nellie or Muriel, she must have been
• 4:58:37
  called Lavender just the same. I think it's so suggestive of sweetness and old
• 4:58:41
  fashioned graces and silk attire. Now my name just smacks of bread and butter,
• 4:58:47
  patchwork and chores. Oh, I don't think so, said Diana.
• 4:58:49
  Anne seems to me real, stately and like a queen. But I'd like
• 4:58:53
  Karen a book if it happened to be your name. I think people make
• 4:58:56
  their names nice or ugly just by what they are themsels. I can't bear
• 4:59:00
  Josie or Gerdy for names now. But before I knew the Pie girls,
• 4:59:04
  I thought them real pretty. The lovely idea, Diana, said, Anne,
• 4:59:07
  enthusiastically living, so that you beautify your name, even if it wasn't
• 4:59:11
  beautiful to begin with, making it stand in people's thoughts for something so lovely
• 4:59:17
  and pleasant that they never think of it by itself. Thank you, Diana.
• 4:59:22
  End of Chapter twenty one, Chapter twenty two, Odds and ends.
• 4:59:26
  So you had tea at the stone House with Lavender Lewis, said Marilla at
• 4:59:30
  the breakfast table next morning. What is she like now? It's over fifteen
• 4:59:33
  years since I saw her last. It was one Sunday in Grafton Church.
• 4:59:37
  I suppose she has changed a great deal, Davy Keith. When you want
• 4:59:41
  something you can't reach, ask to have it passed, and don't spread yourself
• 4:59:44
  over the table in that fashion. Did you ever see Paul Irving doing that
• 4:59:48
  when he was here to meals? But Paul's arms are longer in mine,
• 4:59:51
  grumbled Davy. They've had eleven years to go and mine have only had seven.
• 4:59:55
  Side. I did ask, but you and Anne were so busy talking
• 4:59:57
  you didn't pay any attention. Sides Paul's never been here to any meal,
• 5:00:02
  a step tea, And it's easier to be polite at tea than at breakfast.
• 5:00:04
  You ain't half as hungry. It's an awful long time between supper and
• 5:00:08
  breakfast, now, Anne, that's spoonful? Ain't me bigger than it was
• 5:00:12
  last year? And I'm ever so much bigger. Of course, I don't
• 5:00:15
  know what miss Lavender used to look like, but I don't fancy somehow that
• 5:00:19
  she has changed a great deal, said Anne, after she had helped Davy
• 5:00:22
  to Mabel's syrup, giving him two spoonfuls to pacify him. Her hair is
• 5:00:26
  snow white, but her face is fresh and almost girlish, and she has
• 5:00:30
  the sweetest brown eyes, such a pretty shade of wood brown, with little
• 5:00:33
  golden glints in them. And her voice makes you think of white satin and
• 5:00:37
  tinkling water and fairy bells, all mixed up together. She was reckoned a
• 5:00:41
  great beauty when she was a girl, said Marilla. I never knew her
• 5:00:45
  very well, but I liked her as far as I did know her.
• 5:00:47
  Some folks thought her peculiar even then, Davy, if ever I catch you
• 5:00:49
  at such a trick again, you'll be made to wait for your meals till
• 5:00:52
  everyone else is done. Like the French. Most conversations between Anne and Marilla
• 5:00:57
  in the presence of the twins were punctuated by these rebukes Davyward. In this
• 5:01:02
  instance, Davy, sad to relate not being able to scoop up the last
• 5:01:06
  drops of his syrup with his spoon, had solved the difficulty by lifting his
• 5:01:08
  plate in both hands and applying his small pink tongue to it. Anne looked
• 5:01:12
  at him with such horrified eyes that the little sinner turned red and said,
• 5:01:15
  half shame facedly, half defiantly, there ain't any wasted that way. People
• 5:01:22
  who are different from other people are always called peculiar, said Anne, and
• 5:01:26
  miss Lavendar is certainly different, though it's hard to say just where the difference
• 5:01:30
  comes in. Perhaps it is because she's one of those people who never grow
• 5:01:33
  old. One might as well grow old when all your generation do, said
• 5:01:37
  Marilla, rather reckless of her pronouns. If you don't, you don't fit
• 5:01:41
  in anywhere far as I can learn. Lavender Lewis has just dropped out of
• 5:01:44
  everything she's lived in that out of the way place until everybody has forgotten her.
• 5:01:48
  That stone House is one of the oldest on the island. Old mister
• 5:01:52
  Lewis built it eighty years ago. When he came out from England. Davy
• 5:01:55
  stopped joggling Dora's elbow. Oh I saw you. You needn't try to look
• 5:01:59
  innocent. What does make you behave? So this morning? Maybe I got
• 5:02:02
  out on the wrong side of the bed, suggested Davy. Milty Bolter says
• 5:02:06
  if you do that, things are bound to go wrong with you all day.
• 5:02:08
  His grandmother told him. But which is the right side? And what
• 5:02:11
  are you to do when your bed's against the wall? I wanna know.
• 5:02:15
  I've always wondered what went wrong between Stephen Irving and Lavender Lewis, continued Marilla,
• 5:02:18
  ignoring Davy. They were certainly engaged twenty five years ago, and then
• 5:02:22
  all at once it was broken off. I don't know what the trouble was,
• 5:02:26
  but it must have been something terrible, for he went away to the
• 5:02:29
  States and never come home. Since. Perhaps it was nothing very dreadful.
• 5:02:32
  After all, I think the little things in life often make more trouble than
• 5:02:36
  the big things, said Anne, with one of those flashes of insight which
• 5:02:38
  experience could not have bettered. Marilla, please don't say anything about my being
• 5:02:42
  at Miss Lavender's to missus Lynde. She'd be sure to ask a hundred questions,
• 5:02:47
  and somehow I wouldn't like it, nor Miss Lavender either, if she
• 5:02:49
  knew. I feel sure I dare say. Rachel will be curious, admitted
• 5:02:53
  Marilla. Though she hasn't as much time as she used to for looking after
• 5:02:56
  other people's affairs, She's tied home now on account of Tom, and she's
• 5:03:00
  feeling pretty downhearted. For I think she's beginning to lose hope of his ever
• 5:03:03
  getting better. Rachel will be left pretty lonely if anything happens to him,
• 5:03:07
  with all her children settled out west except Eliza in town, and she doesn't
• 5:03:11
  like her husband. Marilla's pronounce slandered. Eliza was very fond of her husband.
• 5:03:17
  Rachel says if he'd only brace up and exert his will power, he'd
• 5:03:19
  get better. But what is the use of asking a jellyfish to sit up
• 5:03:22
  straight? Continued Marilla. Thomas Lynde never had any will power to exert.
• 5:03:26
  His mother ruled him till he married, and then Rachel carried it on.
• 5:03:30
  It's a wonder he dared to get sick without asking her permission. But there
• 5:03:33
  I shouldn't talk. So Rachel has been a good wife to him. He'd
• 5:03:37
  never have amounted to anything without her. That's certain. He was born to
• 5:03:41
  be ruled, and it's well he fell into the hands of a clever,
• 5:03:42
  capable manager like Rachel. He didn't mind her way. It saved him the
• 5:03:47
  bother of ever making up his own mind about anything. Davy, do stop
• 5:03:49
  squirming like an eel. I've nothing else to do, protested Davy. I
• 5:03:53
  can't eat any more, and it's no fun watching you and Anne eat.
• 5:03:56
  Well, you and Dora go out and give the hens their w wheat,
• 5:04:00
  said Marilla. And don't you try to pull any more feathers out of the
• 5:04:03
  white rooster's tail either. I wanted some feathers for an injun head dress,
• 5:04:07
  said Davy sulkily. Milty Bolger has a dandy one made out of the feathers
• 5:04:11
  his mother gave him when she killed their old white gobbler. You might let
• 5:04:14
  me have some. That rooster's got ever so many morny once. You may
• 5:04:18
  have the old feathered duster in the garret, said Anne. And I'll dye
• 5:04:21
  them green and red and yellow for you, you do spoil that boy,
• 5:04:25
  dreadfully, said Marilla, when Davy, with a radiant face, had followed
• 5:04:27
  prim Dora out. Marilla's education had made great strides in the past six years,
• 5:04:33
  but she had not yet been able to rid herself of the idea that
• 5:04:36
  it was very bad for a child to have too many of its wishes indulged.
• 5:04:40
  All the boys of his class have Indian head dresses, and Davy wants
• 5:04:42
  one too, said Anne, I know how it feels. I'll never forget
• 5:04:45
  how I used to long for puffed sleeves when all the other girls had them.
• 5:04:49
  And Davy isn't being spoiled. He is improving every day. Think what
• 5:04:52
  a difference there is in him since he came here a year ago. He
• 5:04:56
  certainly doesn't get into as much mischief since he began to go to school,
• 5:05:00
  acknowledged Marilla. I suppose he works off the tendency with the other boys.
• 5:05:03
  But it's a wonder to me. We haven't heard from Richard Keith before this,
• 5:05:07
  never a word since last May. I'll be afraid to hear from him,
• 5:05:11
  sighed Anne, beginning to clear away the dishes. If a letter should
• 5:05:15
  come, I'd dread opening it. For fear it would tell us to send
• 5:05:17
  the twins to him. A month later a letter did come, but it
• 5:05:21
  was not from Richard Keith. A friend of his wrote to say that Richard
• 5:05:23
  Keith had died of consumption a fortnight previously. The writer of the letter was
• 5:05:27
  the executor of his will, and by that will, the sum of two
• 5:05:30
  thousand dollars was left to Miss Marilla Cuthbert in trust for David and Dora Keith
• 5:05:34
  until they came of age or married. In the meantime, the interest was
• 5:05:37
  to be used for their maintenance. It seems dreadful to be glad of anything
• 5:05:41
  in connection with the death, said Anne soberly. I'm sorry for poor mister
• 5:05:45
  Keith, but I am glad that we can keep the twins. It's a
• 5:05:48
  very good thing about the money, said Marilla. Practically I wanted to keep
• 5:05:52
  them, but I really didn't see how I could afford to do it,
• 5:05:55
  especially when they grew older. The rent of the farm doesn't do any more
• 5:05:57
  than keep the house, and I bound that not a cent of your money
• 5:06:00
  should be spent on them. You do far too much for them as it
• 5:06:03
  is. Dora didn't need that new hat you bought her any more than a
• 5:06:07
  cat needs two tails. But now the way is made clear and they are
• 5:06:10
  provided for. Davy and Dora were delighted when they heard that they were to
• 5:06:14
  live at Green Gables for good. The death of an uncle whom they had
• 5:06:17
  never seen. Could not weigh a moment in the balance against that. But
• 5:06:19
  Dora had one misgiving. Was Uncle Richard buried? She whispered to Anne,
• 5:06:25
  Yes, dear, of course he He isn't like Mirabella Cotton's uncle, is
• 5:06:30
  he? In a still more agitated whisper, he won't walk about houses after
• 5:06:34
  being buried, Willie Anne, end of chapter twenty two, Chapter twenty three,
• 5:06:41
  Miss Lavender's Romance. I think I'll take a walk through to Echo Lodge
• 5:06:45
  this evening, said Anne one Friday afternoon in December. It looks like snow,
• 5:06:49
  said Marilla dubiously. I'll be there before the snow comes, and I
• 5:06:52
  mean to stay all night long. Diana can't go because she has company,
• 5:06:56
  and I'm sure Miss Lavendar will be looking for me tonight. It's a whole
• 5:07:00
  fortnight since I was there. Anne had paid many a visit to Echo Lodge
• 5:07:03
  since that October day. Sometimes she and Diana drove round by the road.
• 5:07:07
  Sometimes they walked through the woods. When Diana could not go, Anne went
• 5:07:11
  alone. Between her and Miss Lavendar had sprung up one of those fervent,
• 5:07:15
  helpful friendships possible only between a woman who has kept the freshness of youth in
• 5:07:19
  her heart and soul and a girl whose imagination and intuition supplied the place of
• 5:07:23
  experience. Anne had at last discovered a real, kindred spirit. While into
• 5:07:29
  the little lady's lonely, sequestered life of dreams. Anne and Diana came with
• 5:07:33
  the wholesome joy and exhilaration of the outer existence which Miss Lavendar, the world
• 5:07:37
  forgetting by the world for good, had long ceased to share. They brought
• 5:07:42
  an atmosphere of youth and reality to the Little Stone House. Carlotta the Fourth
• 5:07:47
  always greeted them with her very widest smile, and carlotta smiles were fearfully wide,
• 5:07:52
  loving them for the sake of her adored mistress as well as for her
• 5:07:55
  own. Never had there been such hyjings held in the Little Stone House as
• 5:07:59
  were held that beautiful late lingering autumn, when November seen October over again,
• 5:08:03
  and even December ate the sunshine and hazes of summer. But on this particular
• 5:08:08
  day it seemed as if December had remembered that it was time for winter and
• 5:08:11
  had suddenly turned dull and brooding, with a windless hush, predictive of coming
• 5:08:15
  snow. Nevertheless, Anne keenly enjoyed her walk through the great gray maze of
• 5:08:21
  the Beechlands. Though alone, she never found it lonely. Her imagination peopled
• 5:08:26
  her path with merry companions, and with these she carried on a gay,
• 5:08:30
  pretended conversation that was wittier and more fascinating than conversations are apt to be in
• 5:08:33
  real life, where people sometimes fail most lamentably to talk up to the requirements.
• 5:08:38
  In a make believe assembly of choice spirits, everybody says just the thing
• 5:08:42
  you want her to say, and so gives you the chance to say just
• 5:08:45
  what you want to say. Attended by this invisible company, Anne traversed the
• 5:08:49
  woods and arrived at the fir lane just as broad and feathery flakes began to
• 5:08:53
  flutter down softly. At the first bend, she came upon Miss Lavendar,
• 5:08:57
  standing under a big, broad branching fur. She wore a gown of warm,
• 5:09:03
  rich red, and her head and shoulders were wrapped in a silvery gray
• 5:09:06
  silk shawl. You looked like the queen of the fir Wood Fairies, called
• 5:09:10
  Anne merrily. I thought you would come tonight, Anne, said Miss Lavendar,
• 5:09:14
  running forward. And I'm doubly glad for Karlotta, the fourth is away.
• 5:09:18
  Her mother is sick and she had to go home for the night.
• 5:09:19
  I should have been very lonely if you hadn't come. Even the dreams and
• 5:09:22
  the echoes wouldn't have been enough company. Oh Anne, how pretty you are,
• 5:09:26
  she added, suddenly, looking up at the tall, slim girl with
• 5:09:30
  the soft rose flush of walking on her face. How pretty and how young.
• 5:09:33
  It's so delightful to be seventeen, isn't it. I do envy,
• 5:09:37
  you, concluded Miss Lavendar candidly. But you are only seventeen at heart,
• 5:09:41
  smiled Anne. No, I'm old, or rather middle aged, which is
• 5:09:45
  far worse, sighed Miss Lavendar. Sometimes I can pretend I'm not, but
• 5:09:49
  at other times I realize it, and I can't reconcile myself to it as
• 5:09:53
  most women seem to. I'm just as rebellious as I was when I discovered
• 5:09:56
  my first gray hair. Now, Anne, Anne, don't look as if
• 5:10:00
  you were trying to understand seventeen can't understand. I'm going to pretend right away
• 5:10:06
  that I am seventeen too, and I can do it now that you're here.
• 5:10:08
  You always bring youth in your hand like a gift. We're going to
• 5:10:11
  have a jolly evening tea. First, What do you want for tea?
• 5:10:15
  We'll have whatever you like. Do think of something nice and indigestible. There
• 5:10:18
  were sounds of riot and mirth in the little stone house that night, what
• 5:10:22
  with cooking and feasting and making candy and laughing and pretending. It is quite
• 5:10:27
  true that Miss Lavender and Anne comported themselves in a fashion entirely unsuited to the
• 5:10:32
  dignity of a spinster of forty five and a sedate school ma'am. Then when
• 5:10:36
  they were tired, they sat down on the rug before the grate in the
• 5:10:38
  parlor, lighted only by the soft fire shine, and perfumed deliciously by Miss
• 5:10:42
  Lavender's open rose jar on the mantel. The wind had risen and was sighing
• 5:10:47
  and wailing around the eaves, and the snow was studding softly against the windows,
• 5:10:51
  as if a hundred storm sprides were tapping for entrance. I'm so glad
• 5:10:56
  you're here, Anne, said Miss Lavendar, nibbling at her candy. If
• 5:10:59
  you were, and I should be blue, very blue, almost navy blue.
• 5:11:03
  Dreams and make believes are all very well in the daytime, in the
• 5:11:06
  sunshine, but when dark and storm come, they fail to satisfy. One
• 5:11:10
  wants real things then, but you don't know this. Seventeen never knows it.
• 5:11:15
  At seventeen, dreams do satisfy because you think the realities are waiting for
• 5:11:18
  you. Further On, when I was seventeen, Anne, I didn't think
• 5:11:22
  forty five would find me a white haired, little old maid with nothing but
• 5:11:26
  dreams to fill my life. But you aren't an old maid, said Anne,
• 5:11:29
  smiling into Miss Lavendar's wistful wood brown eyes. Old maids are born,
• 5:11:33
  they don't become. Some are born old maids, Some achieve old maidenhood,
• 5:11:38
  and some have old maidenhood. Trust upon them, parodied Miss Lavendar, Whimsically,
• 5:11:44
  you are one of those who have achieved it, then, laughed Anne.
• 5:11:47
  And you've done it so beautifully that if every old maid were like you,
• 5:11:49
  they would come into the fashion. I think I always like to do
• 5:11:53
  things as well as possible, said Miss Lavendar meditatively, and since an old
• 5:11:57
  maid I had to be, I was determined to be a very nice one.
• 5:12:00
  People say I'm odd, but it's just because I follow my own way
• 5:12:03
  of being an old maid and refused to copy the traditional pattern. Did anyone
• 5:12:07
  ever tell you anything about Stephen Irving and me, Yes, said Anne candidly.
• 5:12:11
  I've heard that you and he were engaged once. So we were twenty
• 5:12:15
  five years ago, a lifetime ago, and we were to have been married
• 5:12:21
  that next spring. I had my wedding dress maid, although nobody but mother
• 5:12:23
  and Stephen ever knew that we'd been engaged in a way almost all our lives,
• 5:12:27
  you might say. When Stephen was a little boy, his mother would
• 5:12:30
  bring him here when she came to see my mother. And the second time
• 5:12:33
  he ever came, he was nine and I was six. He told me
• 5:12:37
  out in the garden that he had pretty well made up his mind to marry
• 5:12:40
  me when he grew up. I remember that. I said thank you.
• 5:12:42
  And when he was gone, I told mother very gravely that there was a
• 5:12:45
  great weight off my mind because I wasn't frightened any more about having to be
• 5:12:48
  an old maid. How poor mother laughed, and what went wrong, asked
• 5:12:53
  Anne breathlessly. We had just a stupid, silly, commonplace quarrel, so
• 5:12:59
  commonplace that I feel, believe me. I don't even remember just how it
• 5:13:03
  began. I hardly know who was the more to blame for it. Stephen
• 5:13:07
  did really begin it, but I suppose I provoked him by some foolishness of
• 5:13:10
  mine. He had a rival or two. You see. I was vain
• 5:13:12
  and coquettish and liked to tease him a little. He was a very high
• 5:13:15
  strung, sensitive fellow. Well, we parted in a temper on both sides.
• 5:13:22
  But I thought it would come all right, And it would have if
• 5:13:23
  Stephen hadn't come back too soon. Anne, my dear, I'm sorry to
• 5:13:27
  say, Miss Lavender dropped her voice as if she were about to confess a
• 5:13:32
  predilection for murdering people. That I am a dreadfully sulky person. Oh you
• 5:13:37
  needn't smile. It's only too true. I'd do sulk. And Stephen came
• 5:13:41
  back before I had finished sulking. I wouldn't listen to him, and I
• 5:13:44
  wouldn't forgive him, and so he went away for good. He was too
• 5:13:48
  proud to come again. And then I sulked because he didn't come. I
• 5:13:52
  might have sent for him, perhaps, but I couldn't humble myself to do
• 5:13:55
  that. I was just as proud as he was. Pride and sulkiness make
• 5:13:59
  a very bad combination, Anne, But I could never care for anybody else,
• 5:14:03
  and I didn't want to. I knew I would rather be an old
• 5:14:06
  maid for a thousand years than marry anybody who wasn't Stephen Irving. Well,
• 5:14:11
  it all seems like a dream now, of course. How sympathetic you look,
• 5:14:15
  Anne, how sympathetic is only seventeen can look? But don't overdo it.
• 5:14:18
  I'm really a very happy, contented little person in spite of my broken
• 5:14:22
  heart. My heart did break, if ever a heart did, when I
• 5:14:26
  realized that Stephen Irving was not coming back. But Anne, a broken heart
• 5:14:30
  in real life isn't half as dreadful as it is in books. It's a
• 5:14:33
  good deal, like a bad tooth, though you won't think that a very
• 5:14:37
  romantic simile. It takes spells of aching and gives you a sleepless night now
• 5:14:41
  and then, but between times it lets you enjoy life and dreams and echoes
• 5:14:45
  and peanut candy as if there were nothing The matter with it, and now
• 5:14:48
  you're looking disappointed. You don't think I'm half as interesting a person as you
• 5:14:52
  did five minutes ago, when you believed I was always the prey of a
• 5:14:56
  tragic memory bravely hidden beneath external smiles. That's the worst nor the best of
• 5:15:00
  real life. Anne. It won't let you be miserable. It keeps on
• 5:15:04
  trying to make you comfortable and succeeding even when you're determined to be unhappy and
• 5:15:10
  romantic. Isn't this candy scrumptious? I've eaten far more than is good for
• 5:15:14
  me already, but I'm going to keep recklessly on. After a little silence,
• 5:15:18
  Miss Lavender said abruptly, it gave me a shock to hear about Stephen's
• 5:15:22
  son that first day you were here, Anne. I have never been able
• 5:15:25
  to mention him to you since, but I've wanted to know all about him.
• 5:15:27
  What sort of a boy is he? He is the dearest, sweetest
• 5:15:32
  child I ever knew, Miss Lavendar, and he pretends things too, just
• 5:15:34
  as you and I do. I like to see him, said Miss Lavender
• 5:15:38
  softly, as if talking to herself. I wonder if he looks anything like
• 5:15:41
  the little dream boy who lives here with me, my little dream boy.
• 5:15:45
  If you would like to see Paul, I'll bring him through with me sometime,
• 5:15:48
  said Anne. I would like it, but not too soon. I
• 5:15:52
  want to get used to the thought. There might be more pain than pleasure
• 5:15:56
  in it. If he looked too much like Stephen, or if he didn't
• 5:15:59
  look enough like him. In a month's time, you may bring him accordingly.
• 5:16:03
  A month later, Anne and Paul walked through the woods to the stone
• 5:16:07
  house and met Miss Lavendar in the lane. She had not been expecting them
• 5:16:10
  just then, and she turned very pale. So this is Stephen's boy,
• 5:16:14
  she said in a low tone, taking Paul's hand and looking at him as
• 5:16:17
  he stood, beautiful and boyish in his smart little fur coat and cap.
• 5:16:21
  He is very like his father. Everybody says I'm a chip off the old
• 5:16:25
  block, remarked Paul, quiet at his ease, Anne, who had been
• 5:16:29
  watching the little scene, drew a relieved breath. She saw that Miss Lavendar
• 5:16:32
  and Paul had taken to each other, and that there would be no constraint
• 5:16:36
  or stiffness. Miss Lavendar was a very sensible person, in spite of her
• 5:16:38
  dreams and romance, and after that first little betrayal. She tucked her feelings
• 5:16:42
  out of sight and entertained Paul as brightly and naturally as if he were anybody's
• 5:16:47
  son who had come to see her. They all had a jolly afternoon together,
• 5:16:51
  and such a feast of fat things by way of supper as would have
• 5:16:53
  made old missus Irving hold up her hands in horror, believing that Paul's digestion
• 5:16:57
  would be ruined for ever. Come again, Laddie, said Miss Lavendar,
• 5:17:02
  shaking hands with him at parting. You may kiss me if you like,
• 5:17:04
  said Paul gravely. Miss Lavendar stooped and kissed him. How did you know
• 5:17:08
  I wanted to, she whispered, because you looked at me just as my
• 5:17:11
  little mother used to do when she wanted to kiss me. As a rule,
• 5:17:15
  I don't like to be kissed boys, don't you know, Miss Lewis.
• 5:17:18
  But I think i'd rather like to have you kiss me, and of
• 5:17:21
  course i'll come to see you again. I think i'd like to have you
• 5:17:23
  for a particular friend of mine. If you don't object, I I don't
• 5:17:27
  think I shall object, said Miss Lavendar. She turned and went in very
• 5:17:32
  quickly, but a moment later she was waving a gay and smiling good bye
• 5:17:34
  to them from the window. I like Miss Lavendar, announced Paul as they
• 5:17:38
  walked through the beech woods. I like the way she looked at me,
• 5:17:41
  and I liked her stone house. And I like Carlotta the Fourth. I
• 5:17:45
  wish Grandma Irving had a Carlot of the Fourth instead of a Merry Joe.
• 5:17:48
  I feel sure Carlotta the Fourth wouldn't think I was wrong in my upper story
• 5:17:52
  when I told her what I think about things. Wasn't that a splendid tea
• 5:17:56
  we had, Teacher, Grandma says, a boy shouldn't be thinking about what
• 5:17:59
  he gets to eat, but he can't help it sometimes when he is real
• 5:18:02
  hungry. You know, Teacher, I don't think Miss Lavender would make a
• 5:18:04
  boy eat porridge for breakfast if he didn't like it. She'd get things for
• 5:18:08
  him he did like. But of course Paul was nothing if not fair minded.
• 5:18:12
  That mightn't be very good for him. It's very nice for a change,
• 5:18:15
  though, teacher, you know. End of Chapter twenty three. Chapter
• 5:18:22
  twenty four A prophet in his own country One May day, Avonlea folks were
• 5:18:27
  mildly excited over some Avonlea notes, signed Observer, which appeared in the Charlottetown
• 5:18:33
  Daily Enterprise. Gossip ascribed the authorship fareof to Charlie Sloane, partly because the
• 5:18:38
  said Charlie had indulged in similar literary flights in times past, and partly because
• 5:18:44
  one of the notes seemed to embody a sneer at Gilbert Blythe Avonlea juvenile society
• 5:18:48
  persisted in regarding Gilbert Blythe and Charlie Sloane as rivals in the good graces of
• 5:18:52
  a certain damsel with gray eyes and an imagination. Gossip as usual was wrong.
• 5:18:59
  Gilbert Blythe, aided and abetted by Anne, had written the notes,
• 5:19:03
  putting in the one about himself as a blind. Only two of the notes
• 5:19:07
  have any bearing on this history. Rumor has it that there will be a
• 5:19:11
  wedding in our village ere the daisies are in bloom. A new and highly
• 5:19:15
  respected citizen will lead to the hymeneal Altar, one of our most popular ladies.
• 5:19:19
  Uncle Abe, our well known weather prophet, predicts a violent storm of
• 5:19:23
  thunder and lightning for the evening of the twenty third of May, beginning at
• 5:19:26
  seven o'clock sharp the area of the storm will extend over the greater part of
• 5:19:30
  the province. People traveling that evening will do well to take umbrellas and mackintoshes
• 5:19:36
  with them. Uncle Abe really has predicted a storm for some time this spring,
• 5:19:40
  said Gilbert. But do you suppose mister Harrison really does go to see
• 5:19:44
  Isabella Andrews. No, said Anne, laughing. I'm sure he only goes
• 5:19:48
  to play checkers with mister Harrison Andrews. But missus Lynde says she knows Isabella
• 5:19:52
  Andrews must be going to get married. She's in such good spirits this spring.
• 5:19:56
  Poor old uncle Abe felt rather indignant over the notes. He suspected that
• 5:20:00
  observer was making fun of him. He angrily denied having assigned any particular date
• 5:20:04
  for his storm, but nobody believed him. Life and Avonlea continued on the
• 5:20:10
  smooth and even tenor of its way. The planting was put in. The
• 5:20:14
  Improvers celebrated an Arbor day. Each improver set out or caused to be set
• 5:20:18
  out five ornamental trees. As the society now numbered forty members, this meant
• 5:20:22
  a total of two hundred young trees. Early oats greened over the red fields,
• 5:20:27
  apple orchards flung great blossoming arms about the farm houses, and the snow
• 5:20:33
  queen adorned itself as a bride for her husband. Anne liked to sleep with
• 5:20:36
  her window open and let the cherry fragrance blow over her face all night.
• 5:20:40
  She thought it very poetical. Marilla thought she was risking her life. Thanksgiving
• 5:20:45
  should be celebrated in the spring, said Anne one evening to Marilla, as
• 5:20:48
  they sat on the front doorsteps and listened to the silver, sweet chorus of
• 5:20:52
  the frogs. I think it would be ever so much better than having it
• 5:20:56
  in November, when everything is dead or asleep. Then you have to remember
• 5:20:59
  to be thankful. But in May one simply can't help being thankful that they
• 5:21:03
  are alive, if for nothing else. I feel exactly as Eve must have
• 5:21:07
  felt in the garden of Eden before the trouble began. Is that grass in
• 5:21:11
  the hollow green or golden? It seems to me, Marilla, that a
• 5:21:15
  pearl of a day like this, when the blossoms are out and the winds
• 5:21:18
  don't know where to blow from next, for sheer crazy delight, must be
• 5:21:21
  pretty near as good as heaven. Marilla looked scandalized and glanced apprehensively around to
• 5:21:26
  make sure the twins were not within earshot. They came around the corner of
• 5:21:30
  the house just then. Ain't it an awful, nice smelling evening, asked
• 5:21:33
  Davy, sniffing delightedly as he swung a hoe in his grammy hands. He
• 5:21:37
  had been working in his garden that spring. Marilla, by way of turning
• 5:21:41
  Davy's passion for reveling and mud and clay into useful channels, had given him
• 5:21:45
  and Dora a small plot of ground for a garden. Both had eagerly gone
• 5:21:48
  to work in a characteristic fashion. Dora planted, weeded, and watered carefully,
• 5:21:53
  systematically and dispassionately. As a result, her plot was already green with
• 5:21:57
  prim orderly little rope of vegetables and annuals. Davy, however, worked with
• 5:22:03
  more zeal than discretion. He dug and hoed and raked and watered and transplanted
• 5:22:07
  so energetically that his seeds had no chance for their lives. How is your
• 5:22:11
  garden coming on, Davy, boy, asked Anne, kind of slow,
• 5:22:15
  said Davy, with a sigh. I don't know why the things don't grow
• 5:22:18
  better. Milty Boulcher says, I must have planted them in the dark of
• 5:22:22
  the moon, and that's the whole trouble. He says, you must never
• 5:22:25
  sow seeds, or kill pork, or cut your hair, or do any
• 5:22:26
  important thing in the wrong time of the moon. Is that true, Anne?
• 5:22:30
  I want to know, maybe if you didn't pull your plants up by
• 5:22:33
  the roots every other day to see how they're getting on at the other end,
• 5:22:37
  they'd do better, said Marilla sarcastically. I only pulled six of'em
• 5:22:41
  up, protested Davy. I wanted to see if there was grubs at the
• 5:22:44
  roots. Milty Boulter said, if it wasn't the moon's fault, it must
• 5:22:47
  be grubs. But I only found one grub. It was a great,
• 5:22:49
  big, juicy, curly grub. I put him on a stone and got
• 5:22:52
  another stone and smashed him flat. He made a jolly squish. I tell
• 5:22:56
  you I was sorry there wasn't more of em. Dora's garden was planned at
• 5:23:00
  the same time as mine, and her things are growing all right. It
• 5:23:03
  can't be the moon, concluded Davy in a reflective tone. Marilla, Look
• 5:23:07
  at that apple tree, said Anne. Why the thing is human. It's
• 5:23:11
  reaching out long arms to pick its own pink skirts daintily up and provoke us
• 5:23:15
  to admiration. Those yellow duchess trees always bearewell, said Marilla complacently. That
• 5:23:21
  tree'll be loaded this year. I'm real glad. They're great for pies.
• 5:23:26
  But neither Marilla, nor Anne nor anybody else was faded to make pies out
• 5:23:30
  of yellow duchess apples that year. The twenty third of May came an unseasonably
• 5:23:33
  warm day, as none realized more keenly than Anne and her little beehive of
• 5:23:37
  pupils, sweltering over fractions and syntax in the Avonleas school room. A hot
• 5:23:42
  breeze blew all the forenoon, but after noon hour it died away into a
• 5:23:47
  heavy stillness. At half past three, Anne heard a low rumble of thunder.
• 5:23:52
  She promptly dismissed school at once so that the children might get home before
• 5:23:56
  the storm came. As they went out to the playground, Anne perceived a
• 5:24:00
  shadow and gloom over the world, in spite of the fact that the sun
• 5:24:03
  was still shining brightly. Annetta Bell caught her hand nervously. Oh, teacher,
• 5:24:07
  look at that awful cloud. Anne looked and gave an exclamation of dismay.
• 5:24:11
  In the northwest. A mass of cloud such as she had never in
• 5:24:15
  all her life beheld before, was rapidly rolling up. It was dead black,
• 5:24:19
  save where its curled and fringed edges showed a ghastly livid white. There
• 5:24:25
  was something about it indescribably menacing as it gloomed up in the clear blue sky.
• 5:24:30
  Now and again, a bolt of lightning shot across it, followed by
• 5:24:33
  a savage growl. It hung so low that it almost seemed to be touching
• 5:24:37
  the tops of the wooded hills. Mister Harmon Andrews came clattering up the hill
• 5:24:41
  in his truck wagon, urging his team of graze to their utmost speed.
• 5:24:45
  He pulled them to a halt opposite the school. Guess Uncle Lates hit it
• 5:24:48
  for once in his life. Anne, He shouted his storm's coming a little
• 5:24:51
  ahead of time. Did you ever see the like of that cloud? Here?
• 5:24:53
  All you young ones that are going my way, pile in, and
• 5:24:56
  those that ain't scoop for the post office, if you've got more than a
• 5:24:57
  quarter of a mile ago, stay there till the showers over. Anne caught
• 5:25:02
  davyan door by the hands and flew down the hill. Along the birch path
• 5:25:06
  and passed violet Veil and Willowmere as fast as the twin's fat legs could go.
• 5:25:10
  They reached Green Gables not a moment too soon, and were joined at
• 5:25:14
  the door by Marilla, who had been hustling her ducks and chickens under shelter.
• 5:25:18
  As they dashed into the kitchen, the light seemed to vanish, as
• 5:25:19
  if blown out by some mighty breath. The awful cloud rolled over the sun,
• 5:25:25
  and a darkness as of late twilight fell across the world. At the
• 5:25:27
  same moment, with a crash of thunder and a blinding glare of lightning,
• 5:25:32
  the hail swooped down and blotted the landscape out in one white fury. Through
• 5:25:37
  all the clamor of the storm came the thud of torn branches striking the house,
• 5:25:41
  and the sharp crack of breaking glass. In three minutes, every pane
• 5:25:45
  in the west and north windows was broken, and the hail poured in through
• 5:25:48
  the apertures, covering the floor with stones, the smallest of which was as
• 5:25:51
  big as a hen's egg. For three quarters of an hour, the storm
• 5:25:55
  raged unabated, and no one who underwent it ever forgot it. Marilla,
• 5:25:59
  for once in her life, shaken out of her composure by sheer terror,
• 5:26:02
  knelt by her rocking chair in a corner of the kitchen, gasping and sobbing
• 5:26:06
  between the deafening thunder peels. Anne white as paper, had dragged the sofa
• 5:26:11
  away from the window and sat on it with a twin on either side.
• 5:26:14
  Davy at the first crash, it hout, Anne, Anne, Is it
• 5:26:17
  the judgment? Day? Anne? And I've never meant to be naughty?
• 5:26:19
  And then had buried his face in Anne's lap and kept it there, his
• 5:26:23
  little body quivering. Dora, somewhat pale but quite composed, sat with her
• 5:26:29
  hand clasped in hands, quiet and motionless. It is doubtful if an earthquake
• 5:26:33
  would have disturbed Dora. Then, almost as suddenly as it began, the
• 5:26:37
  storm ceased, the hail stopped, the thunder rolled and muttered away to the
• 5:26:41
  eastward, and the sun burst out, merry and radiant over a world so
• 5:26:45
  changed that it seemed an absurd thing to think that a scant three quarters of
• 5:26:48
  an hour could have effected such a transformation. Marilla rose from her knees,
• 5:26:52
  weak and trembling, and dropped on her rocker. Her face was haggard,
• 5:26:56
  and she looked ten years older. If we all come out of that alive,
• 5:27:00
  she asked solemnly, you bet we have, pied Davy, cheerfully,
• 5:27:04
  quite his own man. Again. I wasn't a bit scared either, only
• 5:27:08
  just at the first it come on a fellow so sudden, I made up
• 5:27:11
  my mind, quick as a wink, that I wouldn't fight Teddy Sloane on
• 5:27:15
  Monday, as I'd promised. But now maybe I will say, Dora,
• 5:27:18
  was you scared? Yes, I was a little scared, said Dora primly.
• 5:27:22
  But I held tight to Anne's hand and said my prayers over and over
• 5:27:26
  again. Well I'd have said my prayers too if i'd thought of it,
• 5:27:29
  said Davy. But he added triumphantly, You see I came through just as
• 5:27:33
  safe as you. For all I didn't say em. Anne got Marilla a
• 5:27:37
  glassful of her potent currant wine. How potent it was, Anne, in
• 5:27:41
  her earlier days had had all too good reason to know. And then they
• 5:27:45
  went to the door to look out on the strange scene. Far and wide
• 5:27:48
  was a white carpet knee deep of hailstones. Drifts of them were heaped up
• 5:27:52
  under the eaves and on the steps. When three or four days later those
• 5:27:56
  hailstones melted, the havoc they had run was plainly seen, for every green
• 5:28:02
  growing thing in the field or garden was cut off. Not only was every
• 5:28:06
  blossom stripped from the apple trees, but great boughs and branches were wrenched away.
• 5:28:11
  And out of the two hundred trees set out by the improvers, by
• 5:28:14
  far the greater number were snapped off or torn to shreds. Can it possibly
• 5:28:18
  be the same world it was an hour ago, asked Anne dazedly. It
• 5:28:22
  must have taken longer than that to play such havoc. The like of this
• 5:28:26
  has never been known in Prince Edward Island, said Marilla. Never. I
• 5:28:30
  remember when I was a girl that was a bad store, but it was
• 5:28:33
  nothing to this. We'll hear of terrible destruction, you may be sure.
• 5:28:37
  I do hope none of the children were caught out in it, murmured Anne
• 5:28:41
  anxiously. As it was discovered later none of the children had been, since
• 5:28:45
  all those who had any distance to go had taken mister Andrew's excellent advice and
• 5:28:48
  sought refuge at the post office. There comes John Henry Carter, said Marilla.
• 5:28:53
  John Henry came wading through the hailstones with a rather scared grin. Oh
• 5:28:59
  hain't they's awful, Miss Cuthbert. Mister Harrison sent me over to see if
• 5:29:02
  yous had come out. All right, We're none of us killed, said
• 5:29:04
  Marilla grimly, And none of the buildings was struck. I hope you got
• 5:29:08
  off equally. Well, Yes'm not quite so well, ma'am. We was
• 5:29:11
  struck. The lightning knocked over the kitchen chimbly and come down the flu and
• 5:29:15
  knocked over Ginger's cage and tore a hole in the floor and went into the
• 5:29:18
  cellar. Yes'm was Ginger hurt? Queried Anne. Yes'm he was hurt pretty
• 5:29:23
  bad. He was killed. Later on, Anne went over to comfort mister
• 5:29:27
  Harrison. She found him sitting by the table, stroking Ginger's gay dead body
• 5:29:33
  with a trembling hand. Poor Ginger won't call you any more names, Anne,
• 5:29:37
  he said mournfully. Anne could never have imagined herself crying on Ginger's account,
• 5:29:41
  but the tears came into her eyes. He was all the company I
• 5:29:45
  had, Anne, and now he's dead. Well, well, I'm an
• 5:29:48
  old fool to care so much. I'll let on. I don't care.
• 5:29:52
  I know you're going to say something sympathetic as soon as I stopped talking,
• 5:29:55
  but don't. If you did, I'd cry like a baby. Hasn't this
• 5:29:59
  been a terrible storm? I guess folks won't laugh at Uncle Abe's predictions again.
• 5:30:03
  Seems as if all the storms that he's been prophesying all his life that
• 5:30:06
  never happened came all at once, beats all how he struck The very day
• 5:30:10
  though, don't it look at the mess we have here. I must hustle
• 5:30:12
  round and get some boards to patch up that hole in the floor. Avonlea.
• 5:30:17
  Folks did nothing the next day but visit each other and compare damages.
• 5:30:19
  The roads were impassable for wheels by reason of the hailstones, so they walked
• 5:30:23
  or rode on horseback. The mail came late with ill tidings from all over
• 5:30:27
  the province. Houses had been struck, people killed and injured, the whole
• 5:30:32
  telephone and telegraph system had been disorganized, and any number of young stock exposed
• 5:30:37
  in the fields had perished. Uncle Abe waded out to the blacksmith's forge early
• 5:30:41
  in the morning and spent the whole day there. It was Uncle Abe's hour
• 5:30:45
  of triumph, and he enjoyed it to the full. It would be doing
• 5:30:48
  Uncle Labe an injustice to say that he was glad the storm had happened,
• 5:30:52
  But since it had to be, he was very glad he had predicted it
• 5:30:55
  to the very day too. Uncle Abe forgot that he had ever denied setting
• 5:30:59
  the day. As for the trifling discrepancy in the hour, that was nothing.
• 5:31:03
  Gilbert arrived at Green Gables in the evening and found Marilla and Anne busily
• 5:31:07
  engaged in nailing strips of oilcloth over the broken windows. Goodness only knows when
• 5:31:11
  we'll get glass for them, said Marilla. Mister Barry went over to Carmody
• 5:31:15
  this afternoon, but not a pain could he get for love or money.
• 5:31:18
  Lawson and Blair were cleaned out by the Carmody people by ten o'clock. Was
• 5:31:22
  the storm bad at White Sands, Gilbert, I should say so. I
• 5:31:25
  was caught in the school with all the children, and I thought some of
• 5:31:27
  them would go mad with fright. Three of them fainted, and two girls
• 5:31:30
  took hysterics, and Tommy Blewett did nothing but shriek at the top of his
• 5:31:33
  voice the whole time. I only squilled once said Davy proudly. My garden
• 5:31:38
  was all smashed flat, he continued mournfully. But so was Doris, he
• 5:31:42
  added, in a tone which indicated that there was yet bomb and gilead Anne
• 5:31:47
  came running down from the west gable. Oh, Gilbert, have you heard
• 5:31:51
  the news? Mister Levi Bolter's old house was struck and burned to the ground.
• 5:31:55
  It seems to me that I am dreadfully wicked to feel glad over that
• 5:31:57
  when so much damage has been done. Miss mister Boulter says he believes the
• 5:32:00
  Avee is magiced up that storm on purpose. Well, one thing is certain,
• 5:32:04
  said Gilbert, laughing. Observer has made Uncle Abe's reputation as a weather
• 5:32:08
  prophet. Uncle Abe's storm will go down in local history. It is a
• 5:32:12
  most extraordinary coincidence that it should have come on the very day we selected.
• 5:32:17
  I actually have a half guilty feeling as if I really had magiced it up.
• 5:32:22
  We may as well rejoice over the old house being removed, for there's
• 5:32:25
  not much to rejoice over where our young trees are concerned. Not ten of
• 5:32:27
  them have escaped. Ah well, we'll just have to plant them over again
• 5:32:32
  next spring, said Anne. Philosophically, that is one good thing about this
• 5:32:36
  world. There are always sure to be more springs. End of Chapter twenty
• 5:32:41
  four. Chapter twenty five An Avonleas Scandal. One blithe June morning, a
• 5:32:48
  fortnight after Uncle Abe's storm, Anne came slowly through the green Gables yard from
• 5:32:52
  the garden, carrying in her hands two blighted stalks of white narcissus. Look,
• 5:32:57
  Marilla, she said, sorrowfully, holding up the flowers before the eyes
• 5:33:00
  of a grim lady with her hair quaffed in a green gingham apron, who
• 5:33:04
  was going into the house with a plucked chicken. These are the only buds
• 5:33:08
  the storms spared, and even they are imperfect. I am so sorry I
• 5:33:14
  wanted some for Matthew's grave. He was always so fond of June lilies.
• 5:33:18
  I kind of miss them myself, admitted Marilla. Though it doesn't seem right
• 5:33:22
  to lament over them when so many worse things have happened, all the crops
• 5:33:26
  destroyed, as well as the fruit. But people have sown their oats over
• 5:33:30
  again, said Anne comfortingly. And mister Harrison says he thinks if we have
• 5:33:33
  a good summer they will come out all right. Though late and my annuals
• 5:33:37
  are all coming up again. But oh, nothing can replace the June lilies.
• 5:33:42
  Poor little hester Gray will have none either. I went all the way
• 5:33:45
  back to her garden last night, but there wasn't one. I'm sure she'll
• 5:33:48
  miss them. I don't think it's right for you to say such things,
• 5:33:52
  Anne, I really don't, said Marilla severely. Hester Gray has been dead
• 5:33:56
  for thirty years, and her spirit is in heaven. I hope yes.
• 5:34:00
  But I believe she loves and remembers her garden here, still, said Anne.
• 5:34:03
  I'm sure, no matter how long I'd lived in heaven, I'd looked
• 5:34:07
  down and see somebody putting flowers on my grave. If I had had a
• 5:34:10
  garden here like hester Gray's, it would take me more than thirty years,
• 5:34:12
  even in Heaven, to forget being homesick for it by spells. Well,
• 5:34:17
  don't let the twins hear you talking like that, was Marilla's feeble protest.
• 5:34:21
  As she carried her chicken into the house. Anne pinned her narciss eye on
• 5:34:25
  her hair and went to the lane gate, where she stood for a while
• 5:34:27
  sunning herself in the June brightness, before going in to attend to her Saturday
• 5:34:32
  morning duties. The world was growing lovely again. Old mother Nature was doing
• 5:34:37
  her best to remove the traces of the storm, and though she was not
• 5:34:40
  to succeed fully for many a moon, she was really accomplishing wonders. I
• 5:34:44
  wish I could just be idle all day to day, Anne told a bluebird
• 5:34:47
  who was singing and swinging on a willow bough. But a school ma'am,
• 5:34:51
  who is also helping to bring up twins can't indulge in laziness, Bertie,
• 5:34:55
  how sweet you are singing, little bird. You are just putting the feelings
• 5:34:59
  of my heart into song, ever so much better than I could myself.
• 5:35:02
  Why who is coming? An express wagon was jolting up the lane with two
• 5:35:06
  people on the front seat and a big trunk behind. When it drew near,
• 5:35:10
  Anne recognized the driver as the son of the station agent at Bright River,
• 5:35:14
  But his companion was a stranger, a scrap of a woman who sprang
• 5:35:17
  nimbly down at the gate almost before the horse came to a standstill. She
• 5:35:21
  was a very pretty little person, evidently nearer fifty than forty, but with
• 5:35:25
  rosy cheeks, sparkling black eyes, and shining black hair, surmounted by a
• 5:35:29
  wonderful, beflowered and beplumed bonnet. In spite of having driven eight miles over
• 5:35:33
  a dusty road, she was as neat as if she had just stepped out
• 5:35:37
  of the proverbial band box. Is this where mister James A. Harrison lives,
• 5:35:41
  she inquired briskly. No, mister Harrison lives over there, said Anne,
• 5:35:45
  quite lost in astonishment. Well, I did think this place seemed too
• 5:35:48
  tidy, much too tidy for James A to be living here, unless he
• 5:35:52
  has greatly changed since I knew him, chirped the little lady. Is it
• 5:35:56
  true that James A Is going to be married to some woman living in this
• 5:35:59
  settlement? No? Oh, no, cried Anne, flushing so guiltily that
• 5:36:03
  the stranger looked curiously at her, as if she half suspected her of matrimonial
• 5:36:07
  designs on mister Harrison. But I saw it in an island paper, persisted
• 5:36:11
  the fair unknown A friend sent a marked copy to me. Friends are always
• 5:36:15
  so ready to do such things. James A's name was written in over new
• 5:36:18
  citizen. Oh, that note was only meant as a joke, gasped Anne.
• 5:36:22
  Mister Harrison has no intention of marrying anybody. I assure you he hasn't.
• 5:36:26
  I'm very glad to hear it, said the rosy lady, climbing nimbly
• 5:36:30
  back to her seat in the wagon, because he happens to be married already.
• 5:36:33
  I am his wife. Oh you may well look surprised. I suppose
• 5:36:37
  he has been masquerading as a bachelor in breaking hearts right and left. Well,
• 5:36:41
  well, James, ah, nodding vigorously over the fields at the long
• 5:36:44
  White House. Your fun is over. I am here, though I wouldn't
• 5:36:48
  have bothered coming if I hadn't thought you were up to some mischief, I
• 5:36:51
  suppose, turning to Anne, that parrot of his is as profane as ever.
• 5:36:55
  His parrot is dead, I think, gasped poor Anne, who couldn't
• 5:37:00
  have felt sure of her own name at that precise moment. Dead. Everything
• 5:37:03
  will be all right, then, cried the rosy lady, jubilantly. I
• 5:37:07
  can manage James A if that bird is out of the way, with which
• 5:37:11
  cryptic utterance, she went joyfully on her way, and Anne flew to the
• 5:37:14
  kitchen door to meet Marilla. Anne. Who was that woman? Marilla,
• 5:37:18
  said Anne, solemnly, but with dancing eyes. Do I look as if
• 5:37:22
  I were crazy, not more so than usual, said Marilla, with no
• 5:37:26
  thought of being sarcastic. Well then do you think I am awake? Anne?
• 5:37:30
  What nonsense has got into you? Who was that woman? I say,
• 5:37:33
  Marilla, If I'm not crazy and not asleep, she can't be such
• 5:37:37
  stuff as dreams are made of. She must be real anyway. I am
• 5:37:41
  sure I couldn't have imagined such a bonnet, She says. She is mister
• 5:37:45
  Harrison's wife, Marilla. Marilla stared in her turn his wife, Anne,
• 5:37:52
  surely, then, what has he been passing himself off as an unmarried man?
• 5:37:55
  For I don't suppose he did, really, said Anne, trying to
• 5:37:59
  be just. We never said he wasn't married. People simply took it for
• 5:38:03
  granted. Oh, Marilla, what will missus Lynde say to this? They
• 5:38:07
  found out what missus Lynde had to say when she came up that evening.
• 5:38:10
  Missus Lynde wasn't surprised. Missus Lynde had always expected something of the sort.
• 5:38:14
  Missus Lynde had always known there was something about mister Harrison. To think of
• 5:38:18
  his deserting his wife, She said, indignantly, It's like something you'd read
• 5:38:22
  of in the states, But who would expect such a thing to happen right
• 5:38:25
  here in Avonlea. But we don't know that he deserted her protested Anne determined
• 5:38:29
  to believe her friend innocent till he was proved guilty. We don't know the
• 5:38:32
  rights of it at all. Well we soon will. I am going straight
• 5:38:36
  over there, said missus Lynde, who had never learned that there was such
• 5:38:38
  a word as delicacy in the dictionary. I'm not supposed to know anything about
• 5:38:42
  her arrival, and mister Harrison was to bring some medicine for Thomas from Carmody
• 5:38:45
  to day, so that will be a good excuse. I'll find out the
• 5:38:48
  whole story and come in and tell you. On the way back, Missus
• 5:38:52
  Lynde rushed in where Anne had feared to tread. Nothing would have induced the
• 5:38:56
  latter to go over to the Harrison place, but she had her natural and
• 5:38:59
  proper shi of curiosity, and she felt secretly glad that missus Lynde was going
• 5:39:03
  to solve the mystery. She and Marilla waited expectantly for that good lady's return,
• 5:39:07
  but waited in vain. Missus Lynde did not revisit Green Gables that night,
• 5:39:12
  Davy, arriving home at nine o'clock from the Bolter place, explained why
• 5:39:15
  I met Missus Lynde and some strange woman in the hollow, he said,
• 5:39:19
  And gracious how they were talking both at once. Missus Lynde said to tell
• 5:39:22
  you she was sorry it was too late to call tonight. Anne. I'm
• 5:39:26
  awful hungry. We had tea at Milty's at four, and I think Missus
• 5:39:29
  Boulter is real mean. She didn't give us any preserves or cake, and
• 5:39:33
  even the bread was scarce, Davy. When you go visiting, you must
• 5:39:37
  never criticize anything you are given to eat, said Anne solemnly. It is
• 5:39:41
  very bad manners. All right, I'll only think it, said Davy,
• 5:39:45
  cheerfully. Do give a fellow some supper, Anne, Anne looked at Marilla,
• 5:39:48
  who followed her into the pantry and shut the door cautiously. You can
• 5:39:52
  give him some jam on his bread. I know what tea at Levi Boulter's
• 5:39:56
  is apt to be. Davy took his slice of bread and jam with a
• 5:39:59
  sigh. It's a kind of disappointing world, after all, he remarked.
• 5:40:04
  Milty has a cat that takes fits. She's took a fit regular every day
• 5:40:08
  for three weeks. Milty says, it's awful fun to watch her. I
• 5:40:12
  went down to day on purpose to see her have one, but the mean
• 5:40:15
  old thing wouldn't take a fit and just kept healthy as healthy though Milty and
• 5:40:18
  Me hung round all the afternoon and waited, but never mind. Davy brightened
• 5:40:23
  up as the insidious comfort of the plum jam stole into his soul. Maybe
• 5:40:27
  I'll see her in one some time. Yet, it doesn't seem likely she'd
• 5:40:30
  stop having them all at once when she's been so in the habit of it,
• 5:40:33
  does it? This jam's awful nice? Davy had no sorrows that the
• 5:40:37
  plum jam could not cure. Sunday proved so rainy that there was no stirring
• 5:40:41
  abroad, but by Monday everybody had heard some version of the Harrison story.
• 5:40:47
  The school buzzed with it, and Davy came home full of information. Marilla,
• 5:40:52
  mister Harrison has a new wife, while not exactly new, but they've
• 5:40:55
  stopped being merry for quite a spell. Milty says, I always sposed people
• 5:40:59
  had to keep up being married once they've begun, but Milty says, no,
• 5:41:02
  there's ways of stopping if you can't agree. Milty says, one way
• 5:41:04
  is just to start off and leave your wife, and that's what mister Harrison
• 5:41:07
  did. Milty says mister Harrison left his wife because she throwed things at him,
• 5:41:11
  hard things, and Artie Sloane says it was because she wouldn't let him
• 5:41:15
  smoke, and Ned Clay says it was because she never let up scolding him.
• 5:41:18
  I wouldn't leave my wife for anything like that. I just put my
• 5:41:22
  foot down and say, Missus Davy, you've just got to do what'll please
• 5:41:26
  meet, because I'm a man that'll settle her pretty quick, I guess.
• 5:41:30
  But Anetta Clay says she left him because you wouldn't scrape his boots at the
• 5:41:33
  door, and she doesn't blame her. I'm going right over to mister Harrison's
• 5:41:37
  this minut and see what she's like. Davy soon returned, somewhat cast down.
• 5:41:41
  Missus Harrison was away. She's gone to Carmody with missus Rachel Lynde to
• 5:41:45
  get new paper for the parlor. And mister Harrison said to tell Anne to
• 5:41:48
  go over and see him because he wants to have a talk with her and
• 5:41:52
  say the floor is scrubbed, and mister Harrison is shaved. Though there wasn't
• 5:41:56
  any preaching yesterday, the Harrison kitchen wore a very familiar look to Anne.
• 5:42:00
  The floor was indeed scrubbed to a wonderful pitch of purity, and so was
• 5:42:04
  every article of furniture in the room. The stove was polished until she could
• 5:42:08
  see her face in it. The walls were whitewashed, and the window panes
• 5:42:11
  sparkled in the sunlight. By the table sat mister Harrison in his working clothes,
• 5:42:15
  which on Friday had been noted for sundry rents and tatters, but which
• 5:42:19
  were now neatly patched and brushed. He was sprucely shaved, and what little
• 5:42:23
  hair he had was carefully trimmed. Sit down, Anne, Sit down,
• 5:42:27
  said mister Harrison, in a tone but two degrees removed from that which Avonlea
• 5:42:32
  people used at funerals. Emily's gone over to carmody with Rachel Lynde. She's
• 5:42:37
  struck up a lifelong friendship already with Rachel Lynde. Beats all how contrary women
• 5:42:41
  are well, Anne, My easy times are over all over. Its neatness
• 5:42:48
  and tidiness for me, For the rest of my natural life. I suppose
• 5:42:52
  mister Harrison did his best to speak dolefully, but an irrepressible twinkle in his
• 5:42:56
  eye betrayed him. Mister Harrison, you are glad your wife has come back,
• 5:43:00
  cried Anne, shaking her finger at him. You needn't pretend you're not,
• 5:43:03
  because I can see it plainly. Mister Harrison relaxed into a sheepish smile.
• 5:43:08
  Well, well, I'm getting used to it, he conceded. I
• 5:43:12
  can't say I was sorry to see Emily. A man really needs some protection
• 5:43:17
  in a community like this, where he can't play a game of checkers with
• 5:43:19
  a neighbor without being accused of wanting to marry that neighbor's sister and having it
• 5:43:23
  put in the paper. Nobody would have supposed you went to see Isabella Andrews
• 5:43:27
  if you hadn't pretended to be unmarried, said Anne severely. I didn't pretend
• 5:43:33
  I was. If anybody had asked me if I was married, I'd have
• 5:43:34
  said I was, but they just took it for granted. I wasn't anxious
• 5:43:38
  to talk about the matter. I was feeling too sore over it. It
• 5:43:42
  would have been nuts for missus. Rachel Lynde. If she had known my
• 5:43:45
  wife had left me, wouldn't it now? But some people say that you
• 5:43:48
  left her. She started it, Anne, she started it. I'm going
• 5:43:52
  to tell you the whole story, for I don't want you to think worse
• 5:43:55
  of me than I deserve, nor of Emily neither. But let's go out
• 5:43:57
  on the veranda. Everything is so f fearful neat in here that it kind
• 5:44:00
  of makes me homesick. I suppose I'll get used to it after a while,
• 5:44:04
  but it eases me up to look at the yard. Emily hasn't had
• 5:44:07
  time to tidy it up yet. As soon as they were comfortably seated on
• 5:44:11
  the veranda, mister Harrison began his tale of woe. I lived in Scottsford,
• 5:44:15
  New Brunswick before I came here. Anne, my sister kept house for
• 5:44:18
  me, and she suited me fine. She was just reasonably tidy, and
• 5:44:22
  she let me alone and spoiled me, so, Emily says. But three
• 5:44:26
  years ago she died. Before she died, she worried a lot about what
• 5:44:30
  was to become of me, and finally she got me to promise he'd get
• 5:44:33
  married. She advised me to take Emily Scott because Emily had money of her
• 5:44:37
  own and was a pattern housekeeper. I said, says I. Emily Scott
• 5:44:41
  wouldn't look at me. You ask her and see, says my sister.
• 5:44:44
  And just to ease her mind, I promised her I would and I did,
• 5:44:48
  and Emily said she'd have me. Never was so surprised in my life.
• 5:44:52
  Anne. A smart, pretty little woman like her, and an old
• 5:44:55
  fellow like me. I tell you, I thought at first I was in
• 5:44:57
  luck. Well. We were married and took a little wedding trip to Saint
• 5:45:02
  John for a fortnight, and then we went home. We got home at
• 5:45:04
  ten o'clock at night, and I'd give you my word, Anne that in
• 5:45:07
  half an hour that woman was at workhouse cleaning. Oh. I know you're
• 5:45:11
  thinking my house needed it. You've got a very expressive face, Anne,
• 5:45:15
  Your thoughts just come out on it like print. But it didn't not that
• 5:45:18
  bad. It had got pretty mixed up while I was keeping bachelor's hall,
• 5:45:22
  I admit, but I'd got a woman to come in and clean it before
• 5:45:25
  I was married, and there'd been considerable painting and fixing done. I tell
• 5:45:29
  you, if you took Emily into a brand new white marble palace, she'd
• 5:45:33
  be into the scrubbing as soon as she could get an old dress on.
• 5:45:36
  Well, she cleaned house till one o'clock that night, and at four she
• 5:45:38
  was up and at it again. And she kept on that way far as
• 5:45:42
  I could see. She never stopped. It was scour and sweep and dust,
• 5:45:45
  everlasting, except on Sundays, and then she was just longing for Monday
• 5:45:49
  to begin again. But it was her way of amusing herself. And I
• 5:45:52
  could have reconciled myself to it if she'd left me alone. But that she
• 5:45:56
  wouldn't do. She'd set out to make me over, but she had caught
• 5:46:00
  me young enough. I wasn't allowed to come into the house unless I changed
• 5:46:03
  my boots for slippers at the door. I daresn't smoke a pipe for my
• 5:46:06
  life unless I went to the barn. And I didn't use good enough grammar.
• 5:46:10
  Emily had been a schoolteacher in her early life, and she'd never got
• 5:46:12
  over it. Then she hated to see me eating with my knife. Well,
• 5:46:17
  there it was pick and nag, everlasting. But I suppose Anne to
• 5:46:21
  be fair. I was cantankerous too. I didn't try to improve as I
• 5:46:25
  might have done. I just got cranky and disagreeable when she found fault.
• 5:46:29
  I told her one day she hadn't complained of my grammar when I proposed to
• 5:46:32
  her. It wasn't an overly tactful thing to say. A woman would forgive
• 5:46:36
  a man for beating her sooner than for hinting. She was too much pleased
• 5:46:38
  to get him well. We bickered along like that, and it wasn't exactly
• 5:46:44
  pleasant, But we might have got used to each other after a spell if
• 5:46:47
  it hadn't been for Ginger. Ginger was the rock we split on at last.
• 5:46:51
  Emily didn't like parrots, and she couldn't stand Ginger's profane habits of speech.
• 5:46:56
  I was attached to the bird for my brother the Sailor's sake. My
• 5:46:59
  brother the Sailor was a pet of mine when we were little tads, and
• 5:47:00
  he'd sent Ginger to me when he was dying. I didn't see any sense
• 5:47:04
  in getting worked up over his swearing. There's nothing I hate worse in profanity
• 5:47:08
  and a human being, But in a parrot. That's just repeating what it's
• 5:47:11
  heard, with no more understanding of it than i'd have of Chinese. Allowances
• 5:47:15
  might be made, but Emily couldn't see it that way. Women ain't logical.
• 5:47:18
  She tried to break Ginger of swearing, but she hadn't any better success
• 5:47:22
  than she had in trying to make me stop saying I seen in them.
• 5:47:26
  Things seemed as if the more she tried, the worse Ginger got. Same
• 5:47:30
  as me. Well, things went on like this, both of us getting
• 5:47:33
  raspier, till the climax came. Emily invited our minister and his wife to
• 5:47:38
  tea, and another minister and his wife that was visiting them. I'd promise
• 5:47:41
  to put Ginger away in some safe place where nobody would hear him. Emily
• 5:47:45
  wouldn't touch his cage with a ten foot pole, and I meant to do
• 5:47:48
  it for I didn't want the ministers to hear anything unpleasant in my house.
• 5:47:52
  But it slipped my mind. Emily was worrying me so much about clean collars
• 5:47:56
  and grammar that it wasn't any wonder and I never thought of that poor parrot
• 5:48:00
  till we sat down to tea. Just as Minister number one was in the
• 5:48:03
  very middle of saying grace, Ginger, who was on the veranda outside the
• 5:48:07
  dining room window, lifted up his voice. The gobbler had come into view
• 5:48:11
  in the yard, and the sight of a gobbler always had none wholesome effect
• 5:48:15
  on Ginger. He surpassed himself that time. You can smile, Anne,
• 5:48:18
  and I don't deny I've chuckled some over it since myself, But at the
• 5:48:22
  time I felt almost as much mortified as Emily. I went out and carried
• 5:48:26
  Ginger to the barn. I can't say I enjoyed the meal. I knew
• 5:48:30
  by the look of Emily that there was trouble brewing for Ginger and james A.
• 5:48:33
  When the folks went away, I started for the cow pasture, and
• 5:48:37
  on the way I did some thinking. I felt sorry for Emily and kind
• 5:48:41
  of fancied I hadn't been so thoughtful of her as I might. And besides,
• 5:48:45
  I wondered if the ministers would think that Ginger had learned his vocabulary from
• 5:48:48
  me. The long and short of it was, I decided that Ginger would
• 5:48:52
  have to be mercifully disposed of, And when I drove the cows home,
• 5:48:55
  I went in to tell Emily so. But there was no Emily, and
• 5:48:59
  there was a lets her on the table. Just according to the rule in
• 5:49:02
  story books, Emily writ that I'd have to choose between her and Ginger.
• 5:49:06
  She'd gone back to her own house and there she would stay till I went
• 5:49:08
  and told her I'd got rid of that parrot. I was all riled up
• 5:49:11
  Anne, and I said she might stay till doomsday if she waited for that,
• 5:49:15
  and I stuck to it. I packed up her belongings and sent them
• 5:49:18
  after her. It made an awful lot of talk. Scottsford was pretty near
• 5:49:22
  as bad as Avonlea for gossip, and everybody sympathized with Emily. It kept
• 5:49:26
  me all cross and cantankerous, and I saw i'd have to get out or
• 5:49:30
  I'd never have any peace. I concluded I'd come to the island. I'd
• 5:49:33
  been here when I was a boy, and I liked it. But Emily
• 5:49:36
  had always said she wouldn't live in a place where folks were scared to walk
• 5:49:38
  out after dark for fear they'd fall off the edge. So just to be
• 5:49:41
  contrary, I moved over here. And that's all there is to it.
• 5:49:45
  I hadn't ever heard a word from or about Emily till I come home from
• 5:49:48
  the back field Saturday and found her scrubbing the floor, but with the first
• 5:49:52
  decent dinner I'd had since she left me already on the table. She told
• 5:49:56
  me to eat first and then we'd talk, by which I concluded that Emily
• 5:50:00
  had learned some lessons about getting along with a man. So she's here and
• 5:50:03
  she's going to stay. Seeing the ginger's dead and the island's some bigger than
• 5:50:07
  she thought. There's Missus Lynde in her now. No, don't go,
• 5:50:11
  Anne, stay and get acquainted with Emily. She took quite a notion to
• 5:50:14
  you Saturday. Wanted to know who that handsome, red haired girl was.
• 5:50:17
  At the next house. Missus Harrison welcomed Anne radiantly and insisted on her staying
• 5:50:22
  to tea. James A has been telling me all about you and how kind
• 5:50:25
  you've been making cakes and things for him. She said, I want to
• 5:50:27
  get acquainted with all my new neighbors just as soon as possible. Missus Lynde
• 5:50:30
  is a lovely woman, isn't she so friendly? When Anne went home in
• 5:50:36
  the sweet June dusk, missus Harrison went with her across the fields where the
• 5:50:38
  fireflies were lighting their starry lamps. I suppose, said Missus Harrison confidentially,
• 5:50:45
  that james A has told you our story. Yes, then I needn't tell
• 5:50:48
  it. For James A is a just man and he would tell the truth.
• 5:50:52
  The blame was far from being all on his side. I can see
• 5:50:55
  that now. I wasn't back in my own house an hour before. I
• 5:50:57
  wished I hadn't been so hasty, but I wouldn't give in. I see
• 5:51:00
  now that I expected too much of a man, and I was real foolish
• 5:51:04
  to mind his bad grammar. It doesn't matter if a man does use bad
• 5:51:07
  grammar, so long as he is a good provider and doesn't go poking round
• 5:51:11
  the pantry to see how much sugar you've used in a week. I feel
• 5:51:14
  that James A and I are going to be real happy now. I wish
• 5:51:17
  I knew who observer is so that I could thank him. I owe him
• 5:51:21
  a real debt of gratitude. Anne kept her own counsel, and Missus Harrison
• 5:51:25
  never knew that her gratitude found its way to its object. Anne felt rather
• 5:51:29
  bewildered over the far reaching consequences of those foolish notes. They had reconciled a
• 5:51:33
  man to his wife and made the reputation of a prophet. Missus Lynde was
• 5:51:38
  in the Green Gables kitchen. She had been telling the whole story to Marilla.
• 5:51:42
  Well, and how do you like missus Harrison, she asked Anne,
• 5:51:45
  very much. I think she's a real nice little woman. That's exactly what
• 5:51:49
  she is, said Missus Rachel with emphasis. And as I've just been saying
• 5:51:52
  to Marilla, I think we ought all to overlook mister Harris's peculiarities for her
• 5:51:56
  sake and try to make her feel at home here. That's what well,
• 5:52:00
  I must get back. Thomas'll be wearying for me. I'll get out a
• 5:52:03
  little. Since Eliza came, and he seemed a lot better these past few
• 5:52:06
  days. But I never like to be long away from him. I hear
• 5:52:10
  Gilbert blythe has resigned from White Sands. He'll be off to college in the
• 5:52:12
  fall, I suppose. Missus Rachel looked sharply at Anne. But Anne was
• 5:52:17
  bending over a sleepy Davy lodding off on the sofa, and nothing was to
• 5:52:19
  be red in her face. She carried Davy away, her oval girlish cheek
• 5:52:23
  pressed against his yellow curly head. As they went up the stairs. Davy
• 5:52:27
  flung a tired arm about Anne's neck and gave her a warm hug and a
• 5:52:32
  sticky kiss. You're awful nice, Anne melty Bolter wrote on his slate to
• 5:52:37
  day and showed it to Jenny's sloane roses, red and violets, blue sugars,
• 5:52:41
  sweet, and so are you, And that spresses my feelings for you
• 5:52:45
  exactly, Anne. End of chapter twenty five, Chapter twenty six, Around
• 5:52:51
  the Bend, Thomas Lynde faded out of life as quietly and unobtrusively as he
• 5:52:56
  had lived it. His wife was a tender patient, unwe wearied nurse.
• 5:53:00
  Sometimes Rachel had been a little hard on her Thomas in health when his slowness
• 5:53:04
  or meekness had provoked her. But when he became ill, no voice could
• 5:53:07
  be lower, no hand more gently skillful, no vitual more uncomplaining. You've
• 5:53:12
  been a good wife to me, Rachel, he once said, simply,
• 5:53:15
  when she was sitting by him in the dusk, holding his thin, blanched
• 5:53:18
  old hand in her work hardened one, A good wife. I'm sorry I
• 5:53:22
  ain't leaving you better off, but the children will look after you. They're
• 5:53:26
  all smart, capable children, just like their mother. A good mother,
• 5:53:30
  a good woman. He had fallen asleep then, and the next morning Just
• 5:53:34
  as the white dawn was creeping up over the pointed furs in the hollow,
• 5:53:38
  Marilla went softly into the east gable and wakened Anne. Anne, Thomas Lynde
• 5:53:44
  is gone. Their hired boy just brought the word I'm going right down to
• 5:53:47
  Rachel. On the day after Thomas Lynde's funeral, Marilla went about Green Gables
• 5:53:52
  with a strangely preoccupied air. Occasionally she looked at Anne, seemed on the
• 5:53:56
  point of saying something, then shook her head and buttoned up her mouth.
• 5:54:00
  After tea, she went down to see missus Rachel, and when she returned,
• 5:54:03
  she went to the east gable, where Anne was correcting school exercises.
• 5:54:07
  How is missus Lynde tonight, asked the latter. She's feeling calmer and more
• 5:54:11
  composed, answered Marilla, sitting down on Anne's bed, a proceeding which betokened
• 5:54:15
  some unusual mental excitement, for in Marilla's code of household ethics, to sit
• 5:54:19
  on a bed after it was made up was an unpardonable offense. But she's
• 5:54:23
  very lonely. Eliza had to go home to day. Her son isn't well,
• 5:54:26
  and she felt she couldn't stay any longer. When I've finished these exercises,
• 5:54:30
  I'll run down and chat awhile with missus Lynde, said Anne. I
• 5:54:33
  had intended to study some Latin composition to night, but it can wait.
• 5:54:37
  I suppose Gilbert Blythe is going to college in the fall, said Marilla jerkily.
• 5:54:41
  How would you like to go to Anne? Anne looked up in astonishment.
• 5:54:45
  I would like it, of course, Marilla. But it isn't possible.
• 5:54:48
  I guess it can be made possible. I've always felt that you should
• 5:54:52
  go. I've never felt easy to think you were giving it all up on
• 5:54:55
  my account. But Marilla, I've never been sorry for a moment that I
• 5:54:59
  stayed home. I've been so happy. Oh, these past two years have
• 5:55:02
  been just delightful. Oh. Yes, I know you've been contented enough,
• 5:55:06
  but that isn't the question exactly. You ought to go on with your education.
• 5:55:10
  You've saved enough to put you through one year at Redmond, and the
• 5:55:12
  money the stock brought in will do for another year. And there's scholarships and
• 5:55:15
  things you might win. Yes, but I can't go, Marilla. Your
• 5:55:18
  eyes are better, of course, but I can't leave you alone with the
• 5:55:21
  twins. They need so much looking after I won't be alone with them.
• 5:55:25
  That's what I meant to discuss with you. I had a long talk with
• 5:55:27
  Rachel to night. Anne. She's feeling dreadful, bad over a good many
• 5:55:32
  things. She's not left very well off. It seems they mortgaged the farm
• 5:55:36
  eight years ago to give the youngest boy a start when he went west,
• 5:55:38
  and they've never been able to pay much more than the interest since. And
• 5:55:41
  then, of course Thomas's illness has cost a good deal. One way or
• 5:55:45
  another. The farm will have to be sold, and Rachel thinks they'll be
• 5:55:48
  hardly anything left after the bills are settled. She says she'll have to go
• 5:55:51
  and live with Eliza, and it's breaking her heart to think of leaving Avonlea.
• 5:55:55
  A woman of her age doesn't make new friends and interests easy, and
• 5:55:57
  Anne, as she talks about it, the thought came to me that I
• 5:56:00
  would ask her to come and live with me, But I thought I ought
• 5:56:03
  to talk it over with you first before I said anything to her. If
• 5:56:07
  I had Rachel living with me, you could go to college. How do
• 5:56:10
  you feel about it? I feel as if somebody had handed me the moon
• 5:56:15
  and I didn't know exactly what to do with it, said Anne dazedly.
• 5:56:21
  But as for asking missus Lynde to come here, that is for you to
• 5:56:23
  decide, Marilla. Do you think Are you sure you would like it?
• 5:56:29
  Missus Lynde is a good woman and a kind neighbor. But she's got her
• 5:56:33
  faults. You mean to say, well, she has, of course,
• 5:56:36
  But I think I'd rather put up with worse faults than see Rachel go away
• 5:56:37
  from Avonlea. I'd miss her terrible. She's the only close friend I've got
• 5:56:41
  here, and I'd be lost without her. We've been neighbors for forty five
• 5:56:45
  years, and we've never had a quarrel, though we came rather near at
• 5:56:48
  that time. You flew at missus Rachel for calling you homely and red haired?
• 5:56:52
  Do you remember, Anne? I should think I do, said Anne
• 5:56:55
  ruefully. People don't forget things like that. How I hated poor missus Rachel
• 5:56:59
  at that moment, and then that apology you made her. Well, you
• 5:57:03
  were a handful in all conscience, Anne, I did feel so puzzled and
• 5:57:06
  bewildered. How to manage you. Matthew understood you better. Matthew understood everything,
• 5:57:11
  said Anne softly, as she always spoke of him. Well, I
• 5:57:15
  think it could be managed so that Rachel and I wouldn't clash at all.
• 5:57:18
  It always seemed to me that the reason two women can't get along in one
• 5:57:21
  house is that they try to share the same kitchen and get in each other's
• 5:57:23
  way. Now, if Rachel came here, she could have the north gable
• 5:57:27
  for her bedroom and the spare room for a kitchen as well as not for
• 5:57:30
  we don't really need a spare room at all. She could put her stove
• 5:57:33
  there and what furniture she wanted to keep, and be real comfortable and independent.
• 5:57:37
  She'll have enough to live on. Of course, her children'll see to
• 5:57:40
  that. So all I'd be giving her would be house room. Yes,
• 5:57:42
  Anne, as far as I'm concerned, I'd like it, then ask her,
• 5:57:45
  said Anne promptly. I'd be very sorry myself to see missus Rachel go
• 5:57:49
  away. And if she comes, continued Marilla, you can go to college
• 5:57:53
  as well as not. She'll be company for me, and she'll do for
• 5:57:56
  the twins what I can't do. So there's no reason in the world why
• 5:57:59
  you shouldn't go. Anne had a long meditation at her window that night,
• 5:58:03
  joy and regret struggle together in her heart. She had come at last,
• 5:58:07
  suddenly and unexpectedly, to the bend in the road, and college was around
• 5:58:11
  it with a hundred rainbow hopes and visions. But Anne realized as well that
• 5:58:15
  when she rounded that curve, she must leave many sweet things behind, all
• 5:58:19
  the little, simple duties and interest which had grown so dear to her in
• 5:58:22
  the last two years, and which she had glorified into beauty and delight by
• 5:58:26
  the enthusiasm she had put into them. She must give up her school,
• 5:58:30
  and she loved every one of her pupils, even the stupid and naughty ones.
• 5:58:34
  The mere thought of Paul Irving made her wonder if Redmond were such a
• 5:58:37
  name to conjure with. After all, I've put out a lot of little
• 5:58:41
  roots these two years, Anne told the moon. And when I'm pulled up,
• 5:58:45
  they're going to hurt a great deal. But it's best to go,
• 5:58:48
  I think, And as Marilla says, there's no good reason why I shouldn't.
• 5:58:52
  I must get out all my ambitions and dust them. Anne sent in
• 5:58:56
  her resignation the next day, and missus Rachel, after a heart to heart
• 5:59:00
  talk with Marilla, gratefully accepted the offer of a home at green Gables.
• 5:59:03
  She elected to remain in her own house for the summer. However, the
• 5:59:07
  farm was not to be sold until the fall, and there were many arrangements
• 5:59:10
  to be made. I certainly never thought of living as far off the road
• 5:59:12
  as green Gables, sighed Missus Rachel to herself. But really green Gables doesn't
• 5:59:17
  seem as out of the world as it used to do. Anne has lots
• 5:59:19
  of company, and the twins make it real lively. And anyhow, I'd
• 5:59:23
  rather live at the bottom of a well than leave Avonlea. These two decisions,
• 5:59:27
  being noised abroad, speedily ousted the arrival of Missus Harrison. In popular
• 5:59:32
  gossip, sage heads were shaken over Marilla Cuthbert's rash step in asking Missus Rachel
• 5:59:36
  to live with her. People opined that they wouldn't get on together they were
• 5:59:40
  both too fond of their own way, and many doleful predictions were made,
• 5:59:44
  none of which disturbed the parties in question at all. They had come to
• 5:59:47
  a clear and distinct understanding of the respective duties and rights of their new arrangements
• 5:59:51
  and meant to abide by them. I won't meddle with you, nor you
• 5:59:55
  with me, Missus Rachel had said decisively. And as for the twins,
• 5:59:57
  I'll be glad to do all I can for them, but I won't undertake
• 6:00:00
  to answer Davy's questions. That's what I'm not an encyclopedia. Neither am I
• 6:00:03
  a Philadelphia lawyer. You'll miss Anne for that. Sometimes. Anne's answers were
• 6:00:08
  about as queer as Davy's questions, said Marilla dryly. The twins will miss
• 6:00:12
  her, and no mistake, but her future can't be sacrificed to Davy's thirst
• 6:00:17
  for information. When he asks questions I can't answer, I'll just tell him
• 6:00:19
  children should be seen and not heard. That was how I was brought up,
• 6:00:22
  and I don't know but what it was just as good away as all
• 6:00:25
  these new fangled notions for training children. Well, Anne's methods seem to have
• 6:00:30
  worked fairly well with Davy, said missus Lynde smilingly. He is a reformed
• 6:00:33
  character, that's what he isn't a bad little soul, conceded Marilla. I
• 6:00:37
  never expected to get as fond of those children as I have. Davy gets
• 6:00:41
  round you somehow, and Dora is a lovely child, although she is kind
• 6:00:45
  of well, kind of monotonous, exactly supplied, missus Rachel. Like a
• 6:00:51
  book where every page is the same. That's what Dora will make a good
• 6:00:53
  reliable woman, but you'll never set the pond on fire. Well, that
• 6:00:56
  sort of folks are comfortable to have around, even if they not as interesting
• 6:01:00
  as the other kind. Gilbert Blythe was probably the only person to whom the
• 6:01:04
  news of Anne's resignation brought on mixed pleasure. Her pupils looked upon it as
• 6:01:08
  a sheer catastrophe. Annetta Bell had hysterics when she went home. Anthony Pye
• 6:01:14
  fought two pitched and unprovoked battles with other boys by way of relieving his feelings.
• 6:01:18
  Barbara Shaw cried all night. Paul Irving defiantly told his grandmother that she
• 6:01:22
  needn't expect him to eat any porridge for a week. I can't do it,
• 6:01:26
  Grandma, he said. I don't really know if I can eat anything.
• 6:01:29
  I feel as if there was a dreadful lump in my throat. I'd
• 6:01:32
  have cried coming home from school if Jake Dennell hadn't been watching me. I
• 6:01:36
  believe I will cry after I go to bed. It wouldn't show on my
• 6:01:38
  eyes tomorrow, would it, And it would be such a relief. But
• 6:01:41
  anyway, I can't eat porridge. I'm going to need all my strength of
• 6:01:45
  mind to bear up against this, Grandma, and I won't have any left
• 6:01:48
  to grapple with porridge. Oh, Grandma, I don't know what I'll do
• 6:01:52
  when my beautiful teacher goes away. Milty Bolter says he bets Jane Andrews will
• 6:01:56
  get the school. I suppose Miss Andrews is very nice, but I know
• 6:01:59
  she won't understand things like Miss Shirley. Diana also took a very pessimistic view
• 6:02:04
  of affairs. It will be horribly lonesome here next winter. She mourned one
• 6:02:08
  twilight when the moonlight was raining Airy's silver through the cherry boughs and filling the
• 6:02:12
  east gable with a soft, dreamlike radiance, in which the two girls sat
• 6:02:17
  and talked. Anne on her low rocker by the window, Diana sitting turk
• 6:02:21
  fashion on the bed. You and Gilbert will be gone, and the Allans
• 6:02:25
  too. They're going to call mister Allan to Charlottetown, and of course he'll
• 6:02:27
  accept. It's too mean. We'll be vacant all winter, I suppose,
• 6:02:32
  and have to listen to a long string of candidates, and half of them
• 6:02:36
  won't be any good. I hope they won't call mister Baxter from East Grafton
• 6:02:40
  here anyhow, said Anne. Decidedly. He wants the call, but he
• 6:02:42
  does preach such gloomy sermons. Mister Bell says he's a minister of the old
• 6:02:47
  school, but Missus Lynde says there's nothing whatever the matter with him but indigestion.
• 6:02:51
  His wife isn't a very good cook, it seems, and Missus Lynde
• 6:02:53
  says that when a man has to eat sour bread two weeks out of three,
• 6:02:56
  his theology is bound to get a kink in it. Somewhere. Missus
• 6:03:00
  Allan feels very badly about going away. She says everybody has been so kind
• 6:03:03
  to her since she came here as a bride that she feels as if she
• 6:03:07
  were leaving lifelong friends. And then there's the baby's grave, you know.
• 6:03:11
  She says she doesn't see how she can go away and leave that it was
• 6:03:14
  such a little mite of a thing and only three months old, and she
• 6:03:17
  says she is afraid it will miss its mother, although she knows better and
• 6:03:19
  wouldn't say so to mister Allan for anything. She says, she has slipped
• 6:03:23
  through the birch grove back of the manse nearly every night to the graveyard and
• 6:03:26
  sung a little lullaby to it. She told me all about it last evening,
• 6:03:30
  when I was up putting some of those early wild roses on Matthew's grave.
• 6:03:33
  I promised her that as long as I was in Avonlea, I would
• 6:03:36
  put flowers on the baby's grave. And when I was away, I felt
• 6:03:37
  sure that that I would do it too, supplied Diana heartily. Of course
• 6:03:41
  I will, and I'll put them on Matthew's grave too. For your sake,
• 6:03:45
  Anne, Oh thank you. I meant to ask you if you would,
• 6:03:48
  and on little Hester Graves too, Please don't forget hers. Do you
• 6:03:52
  know? I've thought and dreamed so much about Little Hester Grave that she has
• 6:03:56
  become strangely real to me. I think of her back there in her little
• 6:03:59
  garden, in that cool, still green corner, and I have a fancy
• 6:04:03
  that if I could steal back there some spring evening, just at the magic
• 6:04:06
  time TwixT light and dark, and tiptoe so softly up the beech hill that
• 6:04:10
  my footsteps could not frighten her. I would find the garden just as it
• 6:04:12
  used to be, all sweet with june lilies and early roses, with the
• 6:04:17
  tiny house behind it, all hung with vines, and little hester Gray would
• 6:04:19
  be there, with her soft eyes and the wind ruffling her dark hair,
• 6:04:23
  wandering about, putting her finger tips under the chins of the lilies, and
• 6:04:26
  whispering secrets with the roses. And I would go forward, oh so softly,
• 6:04:32
  and hold out my hands and say to her, little hester Gray,
• 6:04:34
  won't you let me be your playmate? For I love the roses too.
• 6:04:37
  And we would sit down on the old bench and talk a little, and
• 6:04:41
  dream a little, or just be beautifully silent together. And then the moon
• 6:04:45
  would rise, and I would look around me and there would be no hester
• 6:04:48
  Gray, and no little vine hung house, and no roses, only an
• 6:04:52
  old waist garden starred with june lilies amid the grasses, and the wind sighing
• 6:04:56
  oh so sorrowfully in the cherry trees. And I would not know where it
• 6:05:00
  had been real, or if I had just imagined it all. Diana crawled
• 6:05:03
  up and got her back against the head board of the bed. When your
• 6:05:07
  companion of twilight Hours said such spooky things. It was just as well not
• 6:05:11
  to be able to fancy there was anything behind you. I'm afraid the Improvement
• 6:05:15
  Society will go down when you and Gilbert are both gone, she remarked dolefully.
• 6:05:18
  Not a bitter fear of it, said Anne briskly, coming back from
• 6:05:22
  dreamland to the affairs of practical life. It is too firmly established for that,
• 6:05:26
  especially since the older people are becoming so enthusiastic about it. Look what
• 6:05:30
  they are doing this summer for their lawns and lanes. Besides, I'll be
• 6:05:33
  watching for hints at Redmond, and i'll write a paper for it next winter
• 6:05:37
  and send it over. Don't take such a gloomy view of things, Diana,
• 6:05:40
  and don't grudge me my little hour of gladness and jubilation now. Later
• 6:05:44
  on, when I have to go away, i'll feel anything but glad.
• 6:05:48
  It's all right for you to be glad. You're going to college, and
• 6:05:49
  you'll have a jolly time and make heaps of lovely new friends. My hope
• 6:05:53
  I shall make new friends, said Anne thoughtfully. The possibilities of making new
• 6:05:59
  friends help to make lie very fascinating. But no matter how many friends I
• 6:06:03
  make, they'll never be as dear to me as the old ones, especially
• 6:06:06
  a certain girl with black eyes and dimples. Can you guess who she is?
• 6:06:10
  Diana? But there'll be so many clever girls at Redmond, sighed Diana.
• 6:06:15
  And I'm only a stupid little country girl, who says I seen sometimes,
• 6:06:18
  though I really know better when I stop to think. Well, of
• 6:06:22
  course, these past two years have really been too pleasant to last. I
• 6:06:25
  know somebody who is glad you are going to Redmond anyhow, Anne, I'm
• 6:06:30
  going to ask your question, a serious question. Don't be vexed, and
• 6:06:33
  do answer seriously. Do you care anything for Gilbert ever? So much as
• 6:06:37
  a friend? And not a bit in the way you mean, said Anne,
• 6:06:40
  calmly and decidedly. She also thought she was speaking sincerely. Diana sighed.
• 6:06:45
  She wished somehow that Anne had answered differently. Don't you mean ever to
• 6:06:49
  be married? Anne? Perhaps some day when I meet the right one,
• 6:06:53
  said Anne, smiling dreamily up at the moonlight. But how can you be
• 6:06:57
  sure when you do meet the right one, persisted Diana. Oh I should
• 6:07:02
  know him. Something would tell me. You know what my ideal is,
• 6:07:04
  Diana. But people's ideals change sometimes Mine won't and I couldn't care for any
• 6:07:11
  man who didn't fulfill it. But if you never meet him, then I
• 6:07:15
  shall die an old maid, was cheerful response. I dare say it isn't
• 6:07:18
  the hardest death by any means. Oh, I suppose the dying would be
• 6:07:22
  easy enough. It's the living an old maid I shouldn't like, said Diana,
• 6:07:25
  with no intention of being humorous. Although I wouldn't mind being an old
• 6:07:29
  maid very much if I could be one like miss Lavendar, but I never
• 6:07:33
  could be. When I'm forty five, I'll be horribly fat. And while
• 6:07:36
  there might be some romance about a thin old maid, there couldn't possibly be
• 6:07:40
  any about a fat one. Oh mind you. Nelson Atkins proposed to Ruby
• 6:07:44
  Gillis three weeks ago. Ruby told me all about it. She says she
• 6:07:47
  never had any intention of taking him, because any one who married him will
• 6:07:49
  have to go in with the old folks. But Ruby says that he made
• 6:07:52
  such a perfectly beautiful and romantic proposal that it simply swept her off her feet.
• 6:07:56
  But she didn't want to do anything rash, so she asked for a
• 6:08:00
  week to consider, and two days later she was at a meeting of the
• 6:08:02
  sewing circle at his mother's and there was a book called The Complete Guide to
• 6:08:06
  Etiquette lying on the parlor table. Ruby said she simply couldn't describe her feelings
• 6:08:10
  when in a section of it, headed the Deportment of Courtship and Marriage,
• 6:08:12
  she found the very proposal Nelson had made, word for word. She went
• 6:08:18
  home and wrote him a perfectly scathing refusal. And she says his father and
• 6:08:21
  mother have taken turns watching him ever since, for fear he'll drown himself in
• 6:08:25
  the river. But Ruby says they needn't be afraid, for in the Deportment
• 6:08:27
  of Courtship and Marriage it told how a rejected lover should behave and there's nothing
• 6:08:32
  about drowning in that. And she says Wilbur Blair is literally pining away for
• 6:08:36
  her, but she's perfectly helpless in the matter. Anne made an impatient movement.
• 6:08:41
  I hate to say it, it seems so disloyal, but well,
• 6:08:45
  I don't like Ruby Gillis now. I liked her when we went to school
• 6:08:48
  and Queen's together, though not so well as you and Jane, of course,
• 6:08:51
  But this last year at Carmody, she seems so different. So so
• 6:08:56
  I know, nodded Diana, it's the Gillis coming out in her her she
• 6:09:00
  can't help it. Missus Lynde says that if ever a Gillis girl thought about
• 6:09:03
  anything but the boys, she never showed it. In her walk and conversation.
• 6:09:07
  She talks about nothing but boys and what compliments they pay her, and
• 6:09:11
  how crazy they all are about her at Carmody, and the strange thing is
• 6:09:14
  they are too. Diana admitted this somewhat resentfully last night. When I saw
• 6:09:18
  her in mister Blair's store, she whispered to me that she had just made
• 6:09:22
  a new mash. I wouldn't ask her who it was, because I knew
• 6:09:25
  she was dying to be asked. Well, it's what Ruby always wanted.
• 6:09:29
  I suppose you remember, even when she was little, she always said she
• 6:09:33
  meant to have dozens of bows when she grew up and have the very gayest
• 6:09:36
  time she could before she settled down. She's so different from Jane, isn't
• 6:09:40
  she. Jane is such a nice, sensible, ladylike girl. Dear old
• 6:09:44
  Jane is a jewel, agreed Anne. But she added, leaning forward to
• 6:09:48
  bestow a tender pat on the plump dimple little hand hanging over her pillow.
• 6:09:52
  There's nobody like my own Diana. After all, do you remember that evening
• 6:09:56
  we first met Diana and swore eternal friendship in your garden. We've kept that
• 6:10:00
  oath. I think we've never had a quarrel, nor even a coolness.
• 6:10:03
  I shall never forget the thrill that went over me the day that you told
• 6:10:07
  me you loved me. I'd had such a lonely, starved heart all through
• 6:10:11
  my childhood. I'm just beginning to realize how starved and lonely it really was.
• 6:10:15
  Nobody cared for me or wanted to be bothered with me. I should
• 6:10:18
  have been miserable if it hadn't been for that strange little dream life of mine,
• 6:10:22
  wherein I imagined all the friends and love I craved. But when I
• 6:10:26
  came to Green Gables everything was changed. And then I met you. You
• 6:10:30
  don't know what your friendship has meant to me. I want to thank you
• 6:10:33
  here and now, dear, for the warm and true affection you've always given
• 6:10:34
  me and always always will. Sobbed Diana. I shall never love anybody,
• 6:10:41
  any girl half as well as I love you. And if I ever do,
• 6:10:45
  Marian have a little girl of my own, I'm going to name her
• 6:10:48
  Anne. End of chapter twenty six. Chapter twenty seven, An afternoon of
• 6:10:55
  a stone house. Where are you going? All dressed up? Anne?
• 6:10:59
  Davy went to know, you'll look bully in that dress. Anne had come
• 6:11:03
  down to dinner in a new dress of pale green muslin, the first color
• 6:11:07
  she had worn since Matthew's death. It became her perfectly, bringing out all
• 6:11:11
  the delicate flower like tints of her face and the gloss and burnish of her
• 6:11:15
  hair. Davy, how many times have I told you that you mustn't use
• 6:11:18
  that word? She rebuked. I'm going to echo Lodge. Take me with
• 6:11:22
  you, entreated Davy. I would if I were driving, But I'm going
• 6:11:26
  to walk, and it's too far for you, rate yr old legs.
• 6:11:29
  Besides, Paul is going with me, and I fear you won't enjoy yourself
• 6:11:32
  in his company. Oh I like Paul lots better than I did, said
• 6:11:34
  Davy, beginning to make fearful inroads into his pudding. Since I've got pretty
• 6:11:38
  good myself, I don't mind his being gooder so much. If I can
• 6:11:41
  keep on, I'll catch up with him some day. Both in legs and
• 6:11:45
  goodness sides. Paul's real nice to us second primer boys in school. He
• 6:11:48
  won't let the other big boys meddle with us, and he shows us lots
• 6:11:52
  of games. How came Paul to fall into the brook at noon hour yesterday?
• 6:11:56
  Asked Anne. I met him on the playground such a dripping figure that
• 6:11:59
  I sent him promptly home for clothes, without waiting to find out what had
• 6:12:02
  happened. Well, it was partly his accident, explained Davy. He stuck
• 6:12:07
  his head in on purpose, but the rest of him fell ins accidentally.
• 6:12:11
  We was all down at the brook and Prillie Rogerson got mad at Paul about
• 6:12:14
  something. She's awful mean and horror anyway if she is pretty, and said
• 6:12:18
  that his grandmother put his hair up in curl rags every night. Paul wouldn't
• 6:12:22
  have minded what she said, I guess, but Gracy Andrews laughed, and
• 6:12:25
  Paul got awful red, cause Gracie's his girl, you know, He's clean,
• 6:12:29
  gone on her, brings her flowers and carries her books as far as
• 6:12:32
  the shore road. He got as red as a beat and said his grandmother
• 6:12:34
  didn't do any such thing, and his hair was born curly. And then
• 6:12:37
  he laid down on the bank and stuck his head right into the spring to
• 6:12:41
  show them. Oh, it wasn't the spring we drink out of, seeing
• 6:12:44
  a horrified look on Marilla's face, it was the little one lower down.
• 6:12:48
  But the bank's awful slippy, and Paul went right in. I tell you
• 6:12:51
  he made a bully splash. Oh, Anne, An, I didn't mean
• 6:12:53
  to say that. It just slipped out before I thought. He made a
• 6:12:56
  splendid splash. But he looked. It's so funny when he crawled out,
• 6:13:00
  all wet and muddy. The girls laughed more than ever, but Gracie didn't
• 6:13:03
  laugh. She looked sorry. Gracey's a nice girl, but she's got a
• 6:13:07
  snub nose. When I get big enough to have a girl, I won't
• 6:13:11
  have one with a snub nose. I'll pick one with a pretty nose like
• 6:13:12
  yours. Anne. A boy who makes such a mess of syrup all over
• 6:13:17
  his face when he is eating his pudding, we'll never get a girl to
• 6:13:19
  look at him, said Marilla severely. But I'll wash my face before I
• 6:13:22
  go courting, protested Davy, trying to improve matters by rubbing the back of
• 6:13:26
  his hand over the smears. And I'll wash behind my ears too, without
• 6:13:30
  being told I remember too this morning, Marilla. I don't forget half as
• 6:13:33
  often as I did. But, and Davy sighed, there's so many corners
• 6:13:37
  about a fellow that it's awful hard to remember them all. Well, if
• 6:13:41
  I can't go to miss Lavenders, I'll go over and see Missus Harrison.
• 6:13:45
  Missus Harrison's an awful nice woman. I tell you, she keeps a jar
• 6:13:48
  of cookies in her pantry, a purpose for little boys, and she always
• 6:13:51
  gives me the scrapings out of a pan. She's mixed up a plum cake
• 6:13:53
  and a good many plums stick to the sides. You see. Mister Harrison
• 6:13:57
  was always a nice man, but he's twice nice since you got married over
• 6:14:00
  again, I guess getting married makes folks nicer. Why don't you get married,
• 6:14:04
  Marilla? I wanna know. Marilla's state of single blessedness had never been
• 6:14:08
  a sore point with her, so she answered amiably, with an exchange of
• 6:14:12
  significant looks with Anne, that she supposed it was because nobody would have her.
• 6:14:17
  But maybe you never asked anybody to have you, protested Davy. Oh,
• 6:14:21
  Davy, said Dora, primly shocked into speaking without being spoken to,
• 6:14:23
  it's the men that have to do the asking. I don't know why they
• 6:14:27
  have to do it, always, grumbled Davy. Seems to me everything's put
• 6:14:30
  on the men in this world. Can I have some more pudding, Marilla?
• 6:14:33
  You had as much as was good for you, said Marilla, but
• 6:14:37
  she gave him a moderate second helping. I wish people could live on pudding.
• 6:14:41
  Why can't they, Marilla? I want to know, because they'd soon
• 6:14:44
  get tired of it. I'd like to try that for myself, said skeptical
• 6:14:48
  Davy. But I guess it's better to have putting only on fish in company
• 6:14:51
  days than none at all. They never have any at Milty Bolters. Milty
• 6:14:55
  says, when company comes, his mother gives them cheese and cuts it herself.
• 6:14:57
  One little bit of peace and one over her manners. If Milty Bolter
• 6:15:02
  talks like that about his mother, at least you needn't repeat it, said
• 6:15:04
  Marilla, severely, bless my soul. Davy had picked up this expression for
• 6:15:08
  mister Harrison and used it with great gusto. Milty meant it as a compliment.
• 6:15:12
  He's awful proud of his mother, cause folks say she could scratch a
• 6:15:15
  living on a rock I suppose them pesky hens are in my pansy beds,
• 6:15:19
  again, said Marilla, rising and going out hurriedly. The slandered hens were
• 6:15:23
  nowhere near the pansy bed, and Marilla did not even glance at it.
• 6:15:27
  Instead, she sat down on the cellar hat and laughed until she was ashamed
• 6:15:30
  of herself. When Anne and Paul reached the stone House that afternoon, they
• 6:15:34
  found Miss Lavender and Carlotta the Fourth in the garden weeding, raking, clipping,
• 6:15:38
  and trimming as if for dear life. Miss Lavender, herself all gay
• 6:15:42
  and sweet in the frills and laces she loved, dropped her shears and ran
• 6:15:45
  joyously to meet her guests, while Carlotta the Fourth grinned cheerfully. Welcome,
• 6:15:51
  Anne, I thought you'd come to day you belonged to the afternoon, so
• 6:15:53
  it brought you. Things that belong together are sure to come together. What
• 6:15:57
  a lot of trouble that would save some people, if if only they knew
• 6:16:00
  it. But they don't, and so they waste beautiful energy moving heaven and
• 6:16:03
  earth to bring things together that don't belong. And you, Paul, why
• 6:16:07
  you've grown. You're half a head taller than when you were here before.
• 6:16:11
  Yes, I've begun to grow like pigweed in the night, as missus Lynde
• 6:16:14
  says, said Paul in frank delight over the fact. Grandma says it's the
• 6:16:18
  porridge shaking effect. At last, perhaps it is goodness knows, Paul sighed
• 6:16:22
  deeply. I've eaten enough to make anyone grow. I do hope now that
• 6:16:26
  I've begun, I'll keep on till I'm as tall as father. He is
• 6:16:29
  six feet, you know, Miss Lavendar. Yes, Miss Lavendar did know.
• 6:16:32
  The flush on her pretty cheeks deepened a little. She took Paul's hand
• 6:16:36
  on one side and Anne's on the other, and walked to the house in
• 6:16:37
  silence. Is it a good day for the echoes, miss Lavendar, queried
• 6:16:41
  Paul anxiously. The day of his first visit had been too windy for echoes,
• 6:16:45
  and Paul had been much disappointed. Yes, just the best kind of
• 6:16:49
  a day, answered Miss Lavendar, rousing herself from her reverie. But first,
• 6:16:53
  we are all going to have something to eat. I know you two
• 6:16:56
  folks didn't walk all the way back here through those beechwoods without getting hungry.
• 6:17:00
  And Carlotta the Fourth and I can eat any hour of the day. We
• 6:17:03
  have such obliging appetites, so we'll just make a raid on the pantry.
• 6:17:07
  Fortunately, it's lovely and full. I had a presentiment that I was going
• 6:17:10
  to have company to day, and Carlotta the Fourth and I prepared. I
• 6:17:14
  think you are one of the people who always have nice things in their pantry,
• 6:17:17
  declared Paul. Grandma's like that too, But she doesn't approve of snacks
• 6:17:19
  between meals. I wonder, he added meditatively, if I ought to eat
• 6:17:25
  them away from home when I know she doesn't approve. Oh, I don't
• 6:17:29
  think she would disapprove. After you've had a long walk. That makes a
• 6:17:32
  difference, said miss Lavendar, exchanging amused glances with Anne over Paul's brown curls.
• 6:17:37
  I suppose that snacks are extremely unwholesome. That is why we have them
• 6:17:41
  so often. At Echo Lodge. We, Carlotta the Fourth and I live
• 6:17:45
  in defiance of every known law of diet. We eat all sorts of indigestible
• 6:17:48
  things whenever we happen to think of it, by day or night, and
• 6:17:52
  we flourish like green bay trees. We are always intending to reform. When
• 6:17:56
  we read any article in a paper, warning us against something we like.
• 6:18:00
  We cut it out and pinned up on the kitchen wall so that we'll remember
• 6:18:03
  it. But we never can, somehow until after we've gone and eaten that
• 6:18:06
  very thing. Nothing has ever killed us yet, but Carlotta the fourth has
• 6:18:10
  been known to have bad dreams. After we had eaten doughnuts and mince pie
• 6:18:12
  and fruit cake before we went to bed. Grandma lets me have a glass
• 6:18:17
  of milk and a slice of bread and butter before I go to bed,
• 6:18:18
  And on Sunday nights she puts jam on the bread, said Paul. So
• 6:18:22
  I'm always glad when it's Sunday night for more reasons than one. Sunday is
• 6:18:26
  a very long day on the shore road. Grandma says it's all too short
• 6:18:30
  for her, and that father never found Sunday's tiresome when he was a little
• 6:18:33
  boy. It wouldn't seem so long if I could talk to my rock people,
• 6:18:37
  but I never do that because Grandma doesn't approve of it. On Sundays,
• 6:18:41
  I think a good deal, but I'm afraid my thoughts are worldly.
• 6:18:44
  Grandma says we should never think anything but religious thoughts on Sundays. But teacher
• 6:18:48
  here said once that every really beautiful thought was religious, no matter what it
• 6:18:52
  was about or what day we thought it on. But I feel sure Grandma
• 6:18:56
  thinks that sermons and Sunday school lessons are the only things you can think truly
• 6:19:00
  religious thoughts about. And when it comes to a difference of opinion between Grandma
• 6:19:03
  and Teacher, I don't know what to do in my heart. Paul laid
• 6:19:07
  his hand on his breast and raised very serious blue eyes to Miss Lavendar's immediately
• 6:19:11
  sympathetic face. I agree with teacher, But then you see, Grandma has
• 6:19:17
  brought Father up her way and made a brilliant success of him, and Teacher
• 6:19:21
  has never brought anybody up yet, though she's helping with Davy and Dora,
• 6:19:23
  But you can't tell how they'll turn out till they are grown up. So
• 6:19:26
  sometimes I feel as if it might be safer to go by Grandma's opinions.
• 6:19:30
  I think it would agreed Anne solemnly. Anyway, I dare say that if
• 6:19:34
  your Grandma and I both got down to what we really do mean under our
• 6:19:37
  different ways of expressing it, we'd find out we both meant much the same
• 6:19:41
  thing. You'd better go by her way of expressing it. Since it's been
• 6:19:45
  the result of experience. We'll have to wait until we see how the twins
• 6:19:48
  do turn out before we can be sure that my way is equally good.
• 6:19:52
  After lunch, they went back to the garden, where Paul made the acquaintance
• 6:19:56
  of the echoes to his wonder and delight, while Anne and Miss Lavender sat
• 6:19:59
  on the stone bench under the poplar and talked. Till you are going away
• 6:20:03
  in the fall, said Miss Lavendar wistfully. I ought to be glad for
• 6:20:06
  your sake, Anne, but I'm horribly selfishly sorry. I shall miss you
• 6:20:11
  so much. Oh. Sometimes I think it is of no use to make
• 6:20:14
  friends. They only go out of your life after a while and leave a
• 6:20:18
  hurt that is worse than the emptiness before they came. That sounds like something
• 6:20:22
  Miss Eliza Andrews might say, But never, Miss Lavender said Anne. Nothing
• 6:20:26
  is worse than emptiness, and I'm not going out of your life. There
• 6:20:30
  are such things as letters and vacations, dearest. I'm afraid you're looking a
• 6:20:33
  little pale and tired. Oh, went Paul on the dike, where he
• 6:20:40
  had been making noises diligently, not all of them melodious. In the making
• 6:20:44
  but all coming back, transmuted into the very gold and silver of sound by
• 6:20:47
  the fairy alchemists over the river. Miss Lavendar made an impatient movement with her
• 6:20:52
  pretty hands. I'm just tired of everything, even of the echoes. There
• 6:20:56
  is nothing in my life but echoes, echoes of lost hope and dreams and
• 6:21:00
  joys. They're beautiful and mocking. Oh Anne, it's horrid of me to
• 6:21:04
  talk like this when I have company. It's just that i'm getting old and
• 6:21:08
  it doesn't agree with me. I know I'll be fearfully cranky by the time
• 6:21:11
  I'm sixty. But perhaps all I need is a course of blue pills.
• 6:21:15
  At this moment, Carlotta the Fourth, who had disappeared after lunch, returned
• 6:21:19
  and announced that the northeast corner of mister John Kimball's pasture was red with early
• 6:21:23
  strawberries, and wouldn't Miss Sureley like to go and pick some early strawberries for
• 6:21:27
  tea? Exclaimed Miss Lavender. Oh, I'm not so old as I thought,
• 6:21:30
  and I don't need a single blue pill. Girls. When you come
• 6:21:34
  back with your strawberries, we'll have tea out here under the silver poplar.
• 6:21:37
  I'll have it all ready for you with home grown cream. Anne and Carlotta
• 6:21:41
  the Fourth accordingly betook themselves back to mister Kimball's pasture, a green, remote
• 6:21:45
  place where the air was as soft as velvet, and fragrant as a bed
• 6:21:48
  of violets and gold, and as amber. Oh isn't it sweet and fresh?
• 6:21:52
  Bag here, breathed Anne, I just feel as if I were drinking
• 6:21:56
  in the sunshine. Yes, ma'am, so do I. That's just exactly
• 6:22:00
  how I feel, too, ma'am, agreed Carlota the Fourth, who would
• 6:22:03
  have said precisely the same thing if Anne had remarked that she felt like a
• 6:22:06
  Pelican of the wilderness. Always after Anne had visited Echo Lodge, Carlotta the
• 6:22:11
  Fourth mounted to her little room over the kitchen and tried before her looking glass
• 6:22:15
  to speak and look and move like Anne. Carlotta could never flatter herself that
• 6:22:18
  she quite succeeded. But practice makes perfect, as Carlotta had learned at school,
• 6:22:22
  and she fondly hoped that in time she might catch the trick of that
• 6:22:26
  dainty uplift of chin, that quick, starry out flashing of eyes, that
• 6:22:30
  fashion of walking as if you were a bough swaying in the wind. It
• 6:22:33
  seemed so easy when you watched Anne. Carlotta the Fourth admired Anne wholeheartedly.
• 6:22:40
  It was not that she thought her so very handsome. Diana Barry's beauty of
• 6:22:42
  crimson cheek and black curls was much more to Carlotta the Fourth's taste than Anne's
• 6:22:48
  moonshine charm of luminous gray eyes and the pale, ever changing roses of her
• 6:22:52
  cheeks. But I'd rather look like you than be pretty, she told Anne
• 6:22:55
  sincerely. Anne laughed, sipped the honey from the tribute, and cast away
• 6:22:59
  the she was used to taking her compliments. Mixed public opinion never agreed on
• 6:23:03
  Anne's looks. People who had heard her called handsome met her and were disappointed.
• 6:23:08
  People who had heard her called plain saw her and wondered where other people's
• 6:23:11
  eyes were. Anne herself would never believe that she had any claim to beauty.
• 6:23:15
  When she looked in the glass, all she saw was a little pale
• 6:23:18
  face with seven freckles on the nose. Thereof her mirror never revealed to her
• 6:23:22
  the elusive, ever varying play of feeling that came and went over her features
• 6:23:26
  like a rosy illuminating flame or the charm of dream and laughter alternating in her
• 6:23:32
  big eyes. While Anne was not beautiful in any strictly defined sense of the
• 6:23:37
  word, she possessed a certain evasive charm and distinction of appearance that left beholders
• 6:23:42
  with a pleasurable sense of satisfaction in that softly rounded girlhood of hers, with
• 6:23:47
  all its strongly felt potentialities. Those who knew Anne best felt, without realizing
• 6:23:52
  that they felt it, that her greatest attraction was the aura of possibility surrounding
• 6:23:56
  her, the power of future development that was in her. She seemed to
• 6:24:00
  walk in an atmosphere of things about to happen. As they picked Carlotta the
• 6:24:04
  fourth confided to Anne her fears regarding Miss Lavender. The warm hearted little handmaiden
• 6:24:10
  was honestly worried over her adored mistress's condition. Miss Lavendar isn't well, Miss
• 6:24:14
  Shirley, ma'am. I am sure she isn't, though she never complains.
• 6:24:18
  She hasn't seemed like herself this long while, ma'am, not since that day
• 6:24:22
  you and Paul were here together before. I feel sure she caught cold.
• 6:24:26
  That night, ma'am, after you and him had gone, she went out
• 6:24:29
  and walked in the garden for long after dark, with nothing but a little
• 6:24:30
  shawl on her. There was a lot of snow on the walks, and
• 6:24:33
  I feel sure she got a chill, ma'am. Ever since then, I've
• 6:24:37
  noticed her acting tired and lonesome, like she don't seem to take an interest
• 6:24:41
  in anything, ma'am. She never pretends company's coming, nor fixes up for
• 6:24:45
  it, nor nothing, ma'am. It's only when you come she seems to
• 6:24:48
  chirk up a bit. And the worst sign of all, Miss Shirley,
• 6:24:49
  ma'am. Carlot of the fourth lowered her voice as if she were about to
• 6:24:52
  tell some exceedingly weird and awful symptom. Indeed, is that she never gets
• 6:24:57
  cross. Now when I breaks things, why, Miss Shirley, ma'am.
• 6:25:00
  Yesterday I bruck her green and yellow bowl that's always stood on the bookcase.
• 6:25:04
  Her grandmother brought it out from England, and Miss Lavendar was awful choice of
• 6:25:07
  it. I was dusting it just as careful, Miss Shirley, ma'am,
• 6:25:11
  and it slipped out so fashion afore I could grab hold of it and bruck
• 6:25:14
  into about forty million pieces. I tell you I was sorry, Anne scared,
• 6:25:18
  I thought Miss Lavender would scold me awful, ma'am, and I'd ruther
• 6:25:22
  she had than take it the way she did. She just come in and
• 6:25:25
  hardly looked at it and said, it's no matter, Carlotta, take up
• 6:25:27
  the pieces and throw them away, just like that, Miss Shirley, ma'am,
• 6:25:30
  take up the pieces and throw them away as if it wasn't her grandmother's
• 6:25:34
  bowl from England. Oh, she isn't well, and I feel awful bad
• 6:25:37
  about it. She's got nobody to look after her but me. Carlotta the
• 6:25:41
  Fourth's eyes brimmed up with tears. Anne patted the little brown paw holding the
• 6:25:47
  cracked pink cup sympathetically. I think Miss Lavendar needs a change, Carlotta.
• 6:25:52
  She stays here alone too much. Can't we induce her to go away for
• 6:25:55
  a little trip. Carlotta shook her head with its rampant bows disconsolately. I
• 6:26:00
  don't think so, Miss Shirley, ma'am. Miss Lavendar hates visiting. She's
• 6:26:03
  only got three relations she ever visits, and she says she just goes to
• 6:26:07
  see them as a family duty. Last time, when she come home,
• 6:26:10
  she said she wasn't going to visit for family duty no more. I've come
• 6:26:14
  home in love with loneliness Carlotta, she says to me, and I never
• 6:26:17
  want astray from my own vine and fig tree again. My relations try so
• 6:26:21
  hard to make an old lady of me, and it has a bad effect
• 6:26:22
  on me, just like that Miss Shirley, ma'am. It has a very
• 6:26:26
  bad effect on me. So I don't think it would do any good to
• 6:26:29
  coach her to go visiting. We must see what can be done, said
• 6:26:33
  Anne decidedly, as she put the last possible berry in her pink cup.
• 6:26:37
  Just as soon as I have my vacation, I'll come through and spend a
• 6:26:38
  whole week with you. We'll have a picnic every day and pretend all sorts
• 6:26:42
  of interesting things, and see if we can't cheer Miss Lavender up. That
• 6:26:45
  will be the very thing, Miss Shirley ma'am, exclaimed Carlotta the fourth and
• 6:26:49
  rapture. She was glad for Miss Lavender's sake, and for her own too.
• 6:26:53
  With a whole week in which to study Anne constantly, she would surely
• 6:26:56
  be able to learn how to move and behave like her. When the girls
• 6:27:00
  got back to Echo Lodge, they found that Miss Lavendar and Paul had carried
• 6:27:03
  the little square table out of the kitchen to the garden and had everything ready
• 6:27:07
  for tea. Nothing ever tasted so delicious as those strawberries and cream eaten under
• 6:27:11
  a great blue sky, all curdled over with fluffy little white clouds, and
• 6:27:15
  in the long shadows of the wood, with its lispings and its murmurings.
• 6:27:19
  After tea, Anne helped Carlotta wash the dishes in the kitchen, while Miss
• 6:27:23
  Lavender sat on the stone bench with Paul and heard all about his rock people.
• 6:27:27
  She was a good listener, this sweet miss Lavender. But just at
• 6:27:30
  the last it struck Paul that she had suddenly lost interest in the Twin Sailors.
• 6:27:34
  Miss Lavendar, why do you look at me like that? He asked
• 6:27:37
  gravely. How do I look, Paul, just as if you were looking
• 6:27:41
  through me at somebody I put you in mind of, said Paul, who
• 6:27:45
  had such occasional flashes of uncanny insight that it wasn't quite safe to have secrets
• 6:27:48
  when he was about you. Do put me in mind of somebody I knew
• 6:27:52
  long ago, said Miss Lavender dreamily. When you were young? Yes,
• 6:27:56
  when I was young. Do I seem very old to you? Paul?
• 6:28:00
  Do you know. I can't make up my mind about that, said Paul,
• 6:28:03
  confidentially. Your hair looks old. I never knew a young person with
• 6:28:07
  white hair. But your eyes are as young as my beautiful teachers. When
• 6:28:11
  you laugh, I tell you what, Miss Lavender. Paul's voice and face
• 6:28:15
  were as solemn as a judge's. I think you would make a splendid mother.
• 6:28:18
  You have just the right look in your eyes, the look my little
• 6:28:22
  mother always had. I think it's a pity you haven't any boys of your
• 6:28:25
  own. I have a little dream boy, Paul, Oh, have you
• 6:28:29
  really How old is he? About your age? I think he ought to
• 6:28:33
  be older because I dreamed him long before you were born. But I'll never
• 6:28:36
  let him get any older than eleven or twelve, because if he did,
• 6:28:40
  some day he might grow up altogether, and then I'd lose him. I
• 6:28:42
  know, nodded Paul. That's the beauty of dream people. They stay any
• 6:28:47
  age you want them. You and my beautiful teacher and me myself are the
• 6:28:51
  only folks in the world that I know of that have dream people. Isn't
• 6:28:53
  it funny and nice? We should all know each other. But I guess
• 6:28:56
  that kind of people always find each other out. Grandma never has dream people,
• 6:29:00
  and Marry Joe thinks I'm wrong in the upper story because I have them.
• 6:29:03
  But I think it's splendid to have them, you know, Miss Lavendar,
• 6:29:07
  tell me all about your little dream boy. He has blue eyes and
• 6:29:11
  curly hair. He steals in and wakens me with a kiss every morning.
• 6:29:15
  Then all day he plays here in the garden, and I play with him
• 6:29:18
  such games as we have. We run races and talk with the echoes,
• 6:29:22
  and I tell him stories. And when twilight comes, I know, interrupted
• 6:29:26
  Paul. Eagerly he comes and sits beside you. So, because of course
• 6:29:30
  at twelve, you'd be too big to climb into your lap, and lays
• 6:29:33
  his head on your shoulder. So and you put your arms about him and
• 6:29:37
  hold him tight tight, and rest your cheek on his head. Yes,
• 6:29:41
  that's the very way. Oh, you do know Miss Lavender. Anne found
• 6:29:47
  the two of them there when she came out of the stone house, and
• 6:29:49
  something in Miss Lavender's face made her hate to disturb them. I'm afraid we
• 6:29:53
  must go, Paul, if we want to get home before dark. Miss
• 6:29:56
  Lavendar, I'm going to invite myself to Echo Lodge for all a whole week
• 6:30:00
  pretty soon. If you come for a week, I'll keep you for two,
• 6:30:03
  threatened Miss Lavendar. End of chapter twenty seven. Chapter twenty eight,
• 6:30:08
  The Prince comes back to the enchanted Palace. The last day of school came
• 6:30:14
  and went. A triumphant semi annual examination was held, and Anne's pupils acquitted
• 6:30:18
  themselves splendidly. At the close, they gave her an address and a writing
• 6:30:22
  desk. All the girls and ladies present cried, and some of the boys
• 6:30:26
  had it cast up to them later on that they cried too, although they
• 6:30:30
  always denied it. Missus Harmon Andrews, Missus Peter Sloane, and Missus William
• 6:30:33
  Bell walked home together and topped things over. I do think it is such
• 6:30:37
  a pity Anne as leaving when the children seem so much attached to her,
• 6:30:41
  sighed Missus Peter Sloane, who had a habit of sighing over everything, and
• 6:30:45
  even finished off her jokes that way. To be sure, she added hastily,
• 6:30:48
  we all know we'll have a good teacher next year too. Jane will
• 6:30:52
  do her duty, I've no doubt, said Missus Andrews rather stiffly. I
• 6:30:56
  don't suppose she'll tell the children quite so many fairy tales, or spend so
• 6:31:00
  much time roaming about the woods with them. But she has her name on
• 6:31:03
  the Inspector's roll of honor, and the new Bridge people are in a terrible
• 6:31:06
  state over her leaving. I'm real glad Anne is going to college, said
• 6:31:08
  missus Bell. She has always wanted it, and it will be a splendid
• 6:31:11
  thing for her. Well, I don't know, missus Andrews was determined not
• 6:31:15
  to agree fully with anybody that day. I don't see that Anne needs any
• 6:31:19
  more education. She'll probably be marrying Gilbert blythe if his infatuation for her last
• 6:31:23
  till he gets through college. And what good will Latin and Greek do her?
• 6:31:27
  Then? If they taught you at college how to manage a man,
• 6:31:30
  there might be some sense in her going. Missus Harmon Andrews, so avonlea
• 6:31:34
  gossip whispered, had never learned how to manage her man, and as a
• 6:31:38
  result, the Andrews household was not exactly a model of domestic happiness. I
• 6:31:44
  see that the Charlottetown call to mister Allan is up before the presbytery, said
• 6:31:47
  missus Bell. That means will be losing him soon. I suppose they're not
• 6:31:52
  going before September, said missus Sloane. It will be a great loss to
• 6:31:55
  the community. Though I always did think that Missus Allen dressed rather too gay
• 6:31:59
  for a minister's But we are none of us perfect. Did you notice how
• 6:32:03
  neat and snug mister Harrison looked to day? I never saw such a changed
• 6:32:07
  man. He goes to church every Sunday and has subscribed to the salary.
• 6:32:11
  Hasn't that Paul Irving grown to be a big boy, said Missus Andrews.
• 6:32:14
  He was such a mite for his age when he came here, I declare
• 6:32:17
  I hardly knew him to day. He's getting to look a lot like his
• 6:32:19
  father. He's a smart boy, said missus Bell. He's smart enough,
• 6:32:23
  But Missus Andrews lowered her voice. I believe he tells queer stories. Gracie
• 6:32:30
  came home from school one day last week with the greatest rigmarole. He had
• 6:32:33
  told her about people who lived down at the shore. Stories. There couldn't
• 6:32:37
  be a word of truth in, you know. I told Gracie not to
• 6:32:40
  believe them, and she said Paul didn't intend her to. But if he
• 6:32:42
  didn't, what did he tell them to her? For Anne says, Paul
• 6:32:47
  is a genius, said Missus Sloane, He may be. You never know
• 6:32:51
  what to expect of them Americans, said Missus Andrews. Missus Andrews's only acquaintance
• 6:32:55
  with the word genius was derived from a colloquial fashion of calling any eccentric individual
• 6:33:00
  a queer genius. She probably thought with Mary Joe that it meant a person
• 6:33:03
  with something wrong in his upper story. Back in the schoolroom, Anne was
• 6:33:07
  sitting alone at her desk as she had sat on the first day of school
• 6:33:11
  two years before, her face leaning on her hand, her dewy eyes looking
• 6:33:15
  wistfully out the window to the lake of shining waters. Her heart was so
• 6:33:19
  wrung over the parting with her pupils that for a moment college had lost all
• 6:33:22
  its charm. She still felt the clasp of Annetta Bell's arms about her neck
• 6:33:26
  and heard the childish wail, I'll never love any teacher as much as you,
• 6:33:30
  Miss Shirley. Never. Never. For two years she had worked earnestly
• 6:33:36
  and faithfully, making many mistakes and learning from them. She had had her
• 6:33:40
  reward. She had taught her scholars something, But she felt that they had
• 6:33:44
  taught her much more lessons of tenderness, self control, innocent wisdom, lore
• 6:33:48
  of childish hearts. Perhaps she had not succeeded in inspiring any wonderful ambitions in
• 6:33:55
  her pupils, but she had taught them more by her own sweet personality than
• 6:33:59
  by all her careful precepts. That it was good and necessary, in the
• 6:34:03
  years that were before them, to live their lives finely and graciously, holding
• 6:34:07
  fast to truth and courtesy and kindness, keeping aloof from all that savored of
• 6:34:11
  falsehood and meanness and vulgarity. They were perhaps all unconscious of having learned such
• 6:34:17
  lessons, but they would remember and practice them long after they had forgotten.
• 6:34:21
  The capital of Afghanistan and the dates of the Wars of the Roses. Another
• 6:34:25
  chapter in my life is closed, said Anne Aloud as she locked her desk.
• 6:34:29
  She really felt very sad over it, but the romance of the idea
• 6:34:33
  of that closed chapter did comfort her a little. Anne spent a fortnight at
• 6:34:37
  Echo Lodge early in her vacation, and everybody concerned had a good time.
• 6:34:41
  She took Miss Lavendar on a shopping expedition to town and persuaded her to buy
• 6:34:45
  a new organdy dress. Then came the excitement of cutting and making it together,
• 6:34:49
  while the happy Karlotta the Fourth basted and swept up clippings. Miss Lavendar
• 6:34:53
  had complained that she could not feel much interest in anything, but the sparkle
• 6:34:57
  came back to her eyes over the pretty dress. What a foolish, frivolous
• 6:35:00
  person I must be, she sighed. I am wholesomely ashamed to think that
• 6:35:04
  a new dress, even if it is forget me not Organdy, should exhilarate
• 6:35:08
  me. So when a good conscience and an extra contribution to foreign missions couldn't
• 6:35:12
  do it. Midway in her visit, Anne went home to Green Gables for
• 6:35:17
  a day to mend the twins stockings and settle up Davy's accumulated store of questions.
• 6:35:21
  In the evening, she went down to the shore road to see Paul
• 6:35:23
  irving. As she passed by the low square window of the Irving sitting room,
• 6:35:27
  she caught a glimpse of Paul on somebody's lap. But the next moment
• 6:35:30
  he came flying through the hall. Oh, Miss Shirley, he cried excitedly.
• 6:35:34
  You can't think what has happened? Something so splendid, Father is here.
• 6:35:38
  Just think of that. Father is here. Come right in, Father,
• 6:35:41
  This is my beautiful teacher, you know. Father Stephen Irving came forward
• 6:35:47
  to meet Anne with a smile. He was a tall, handsome man of
• 6:35:49
  middle age, with iron gray hair, deep set, dark blue eyes,
• 6:35:53
  and a strong, sad face splendidly modeled about the chin and brow. Just
• 6:35:57
  the face for a hero of romance. Anne thought, with a thrill of
• 6:36:00
  intense satisfaction. It was so disappointing to meet someone who ought to be a
• 6:36:04
  hero and find him bald, or stooped, or otherwise lacking in manly beauty.
• 6:36:10
  Anne would have thought it dreadful if the object of Miss Lavender's romance had
• 6:36:12
  not looked the part. So this is my little son's beautiful teacher, of
• 6:36:15
  whom I have heard so much, said mister Irving with a hearty handshake.
• 6:36:19
  Paul's letters have been so full of you, Miss Shirley, that I feel
• 6:36:22
  as if I were pretty well acquainted with you already. I want to thank
• 6:36:26
  you for what you have done for Paul. I think that your influence has
• 6:36:29
  been just what he needed. Mother is one of the best and dearest of
• 6:36:32
  women, but her robust matter of fact Scotch. Common sense could not always
• 6:36:37
  understand a temperament like my laddie's. What was lacking in her? You have
• 6:36:41
  supplied between you. I think Paul's training in these two past years has been
• 6:36:45
  as nearly ideal as a motherless boy's could be. Everybody likes to be appreciated
• 6:36:49
  under mister Irving's praise. Anne's face burst flowerlike into rosy bloom, and the
• 6:36:53
  busy, weary man of the world, looking at her, thought he had
• 6:36:57
  never seen a fairer, sweeter slip of girlhood than this little down East school
• 6:37:02
  teacher, with her red hair and wonderful eyes. Paul sat between them blissfully.
• 6:37:07
  I never dreamed Father was coming, he said radiantly. Even Grandma didn't
• 6:37:11
  know it. It was a great surprise. As a general thing. Paul
• 6:37:15
  shook his brown curls gravely. I don't like to be surprised. You lose
• 6:37:18
  all the fun of expecting things when you're surprised. But in a case like
• 6:37:22
  this, it is all right. Father came last night, after I had
• 6:37:25
  gone to bed, and after Grandma and Mary Joe had stopped being surprised.
• 6:37:27
  He and Grandma came upstairs to look at me, not meaning to wake me
• 6:37:30
  up till morning. But I woke right up and saw father. I tell
• 6:37:33
  you, I just sprang at him with a hug like a bear's, said
• 6:37:37
  mister Irving, putting his arms around Paul's shoulders, smilingly. I hardly knew
• 6:37:41
  my boy. He had grown so big and brown and sturdy. I don't
• 6:37:45
  know which was the most pleased to see father, Grandma or I, continued
• 6:37:48
  Paul. Grandma's been in the kitchen all day, making the things father likes
• 6:37:52
  to eat. She wouldn't trust them to marry Joe, she says, that's
• 6:37:55
  her way of showing gladness. I like best just to sit and talk to
• 6:37:59
  father. But I'm going to leave you for a little while now, if
• 6:38:00
  you'll excuse me, I must get the cows for Mary Joe. That is
• 6:38:03
  one of my daily duties. When Paul had scampered away to do his daily
• 6:38:07
  duty, mister Irving talked round of various matters, but Anne felt that he
• 6:38:11
  was thinking of something else underneath all the time. Presently it came to the
• 6:38:15
  surface. In Paul's last letter, he spoke of going with you to visit
• 6:38:19
  an old friend of mine, Miss Lewis at the Stone house in Grafton.
• 6:38:25
  Do you know her well? Yes, indeed she has a very dear friend
• 6:38:27
  of mine, was Anne's demure reply, which gave no hint of the sudden
• 6:38:32
  thrill that tingled over her from head to foot at mister Irving's question, Anne
• 6:38:36
  felt instinctively that Romance was peeping at her. Round a corner, Mister Irving
• 6:38:41
  rose and went to the window, looking out on a great golden, billowing
• 6:38:45
  sea, where a wild wind was harping. For a few moments, there
• 6:38:48
  was silence in the little, dark walled room. Then he turned and looked
• 6:38:52
  down into Anne's sympathetic face with a smile, half whimsical, half tender.
• 6:38:56
  I wonder how much you know, he said, I know all about it,
• 6:39:00
  Anne replied promptly. You see, she explained hastily. Miss Lavender and
• 6:39:04
  I are very intimate. She wouldn't tell things of such a sacred nature to
• 6:39:07
  everybody. We are kindred spirits. Yes, I believe you are well.
• 6:39:12
  I am going to ask a favor of you. I would like to go
• 6:39:15
  and see miss Lavendar if she will let me. Will you ask her if
• 6:39:18
  I may come? Would she not, Oh? Indeed she would. Yes,
• 6:39:22
  This was Romance. The very the real thing, with all the charm
• 6:39:26
  of rhyme and story and dream. It was a little belated, perhaps like
• 6:39:30
  a rose blooming in October, which should have bloomed in June, but none
• 6:39:34
  the less arose all sweetness and fragrance with a gleam of gold in its heart.
• 6:39:40
  Never did Anne's feet bear her on a more willing errand than on that
• 6:39:42
  walk through the beech woods to Grafton. The Next morning she found Miss Lavendar
• 6:39:47
  in the garden. Anne was fearfully excited. Her hands grew cold, and
• 6:39:51
  her voice trembled. Miss Lavendar, I have something to tell you, something
• 6:39:55
  very important. Can you guess what it is? Anne never supposed that Miss
• 6:39:59
  Lavendar could get. But Miss Lavender's face grew very pale, and Miss Lavendar
• 6:40:03
  said in a quiet, still voice, from which all the color and sparkle
• 6:40:07
  that Miss Lavender's voice usually suggested had faded. Stephen Herving is home. How
• 6:40:11
  did you know who told you? Cried Anne, disappointedly vexed that her great
• 6:40:15
  revelation had been anticipated. Nobody. I knew that must be it, just
• 6:40:19
  from the way you spoke. He wants to come and see you, said
• 6:40:22
  Anne. May I send him word that he may. Yes, of course,
• 6:40:26
  fluttered Miss Lavendar. There's no reason why he shouldn't. He is only
• 6:40:30
  coming as any old friend might. Anne had her own opinion about that,
• 6:40:33
  as she hastened into the house to write a note at Miss Lavendar's desk.
• 6:40:37
  Oh, it's delightful to be living in a story book, she thought,
• 6:40:40
  gaily. It will come out all right, of course it must, and
• 6:40:42
  Paul will have a mother after his own heart, and everybody will be happy.
• 6:40:47
  But mister Irving will take Miss Lavender away, and dear knows what will
• 6:40:49
  happen to the little stone house. And so there are two sides to it,
• 6:40:53
  as there seems to be to everything in this world. The important note
• 6:40:56
  was written, and Anne herself carried it to the grond In post office,
• 6:41:00
  where she waylaid the mail carrier and asked him to leave it at the Avonlea
• 6:41:03
  office. It's so very important, Anne assured him anxiously. The mail carrier
• 6:41:07
  was a rather grumpy old personage who did not at all look the part of
• 6:41:11
  a messenger of Cupid, and Anne was none too certain that his memory was
• 6:41:15
  to be trusted. But he said he would do his best to remember,
• 6:41:18
  and she had to be contented with that. Carlotta the fourth felt that some
• 6:41:22
  mystery pervaded the stone house that afternoon, a mystery from which she was excluded.
• 6:41:26
  Miss Lavendar roamed about the garden in a distracted fashion. Anne too,
• 6:41:30
  seemed possessed by a demon of unrest, and walked to and fro and went
• 6:41:33
  up and down. Carlotta the Fourth endured it till patience ceased to be a
• 6:41:37
  virtue. Then she confronted Anne on the occasion of that romantic young person's third
• 6:41:41
  aimless peregrination through the kitchen. Please, Miss Shirley, ma'am, said Carlotta
• 6:41:45
  the fourth, with an indignant toss of her very blue bows. It's plain
• 6:41:49
  to be seen you and Miss Lavendar have got a secret. And I think,
• 6:41:52
  begging your pardon if i'm too forward, Miss Shirley, ma'am, that
• 6:41:55
  it's real mean not to tell me when we've all been such chums. Oh,
• 6:41:59
  Carlotta, I'd have told you all about it if it were my secret,
• 6:42:02
  but it's Miss Lavender's, you see. However, I'll tell you this
• 6:42:06
  much, and if nothing comes of it, you must never breathe a word
• 6:42:07
  about it to a living soul. You see, Prince Charming is coming to
• 6:42:11
  night. He came long ago, but in a foolish moment, went away
• 6:42:15
  and wondered afar and forgot the secret of the magic pathway to the enchanted castle,
• 6:42:21
  where the princess was weeping her faithful heart out for him. But at
• 6:42:23
  last he remembered it again. And the princess is waiting still because nobody but
• 6:42:27
  her own dear prince could carry her off. Oh, Miss Shirley, ma'am,
• 6:42:32
  what is that in prose, gasped the mystified Carlotta. Anne laughed in
• 6:42:37
  prose, an old friend of Miss Lavender's is coming to see her to night.
• 6:42:41
  Do you mean an old beau of hers? Demanded the literal Carlotta,
• 6:42:45
  That is probably what I do mean in prose, answered Anne gravely. It
• 6:42:48
  is Paul's father, Stephen Irving, and goodness knows what will come of it,
• 6:42:52
  but let us hope for the best, Carlotta, I hope that he'll
• 6:42:56
  marry Miss Lavendar, was Krlota's unequivocal response. Some women's intended from the start
• 6:43:00
  to be old maids, and I'm afraid I'm one of them, Miss Shirley,
• 6:43:03
  ma'am, because I've awful little patience with the men, But Miss Lavendar
• 6:43:07
  never was, and I've been awful worried thinking what on earth she'd do when
• 6:43:11
  I got so big, I'd have to go to Boston. There ain't any
• 6:43:14
  more girls in our family, And dear knows what she'd do if she got
• 6:43:17
  some stranger that might laugh at her pretendings and leave things lying round out of
• 6:43:21
  their place, and not be willing to be called Carlotta the fifth. She
• 6:43:23
  might get some one who wouldn't be as unlucky as me in breaking dishes,
• 6:43:26
  but she'd never get any one who'd love her better. And the faithful little
• 6:43:30
  handmaiden dashed off to the oven door with a sniff. They went through the
• 6:43:34
  form of having tea as usual that night at Echo Lodge, but nobody really
• 6:43:38
  ate anything. After tea, Miss Lavendar went to her room and put on
• 6:43:41
  her new Forget Me Not Organdy, while Anne did her hair for her.
• 6:43:45
  Both were dreadfully excited, but Miss Lavendar pretended to be very calm and indifferent.
• 6:43:51
  I must really mend that rent and the curtain tomorrow, she said,
• 6:43:53
  anxiously, inspecting it as if here were the only thing of any importance.
• 6:43:56
  Just then, those curtains have not worn as well well as they should,
• 6:44:00
  considering the price I paid. Dear me, Karlotta has forgotten to dust the
• 6:44:03
  stair railing again. I really must speak to her about it. Anne was
• 6:44:08
  sitting on the porch steps when Stephen Irving came down the lane and across the
• 6:44:11
  garden. This is the only place where time stands still, he said,
• 6:44:17
  looking around him with delighted eyes. There is nothing changed about this house or
• 6:44:21
  garden since I was here twenty five years ago. It makes me feel young
• 6:44:23
  again. You know, time always does stand still in an enchanted palace,
• 6:44:29
  said Anne seriously. It is only when the Prince comes that things begin to
• 6:44:33
  happen. Mister Irvings smiled a little sadly into her uplifted face, all the
• 6:44:37
  star with its youth and promise. Sometimes the Prince comes too late, he
• 6:44:41
  said. He did not ask Anne to translate her remark into prose. Like
• 6:44:45
  all kindred spirits, he understood. Oh no, not if he is the
• 6:44:49
  real Prince. Coming to the true Princess, said Anne, shaking her red
• 6:44:52
  head decidedly as she opened the parlor door. When he had gone in,
• 6:44:56
  she shut it tightly behind him and turned to confront Karlotta the fourth, who
• 6:44:59
  was in the all nods and becks and wreathed smiles. Oh, Miss Shurley,
• 6:45:03
  ma'am, she breathed. I peeked from the kitchen window, and he's
• 6:45:07
  awful handsome, had just the right age for Miss Lavender. And oh,
• 6:45:11
  Miss Shurley, ma'am. Do you think it would be much harm to listen
• 6:45:12
  at the door? It would be dreadful, Carlotta said Anne firmly. So
• 6:45:17
  just you come away with me, out of the reach of temptation. I
• 6:45:19
  can't do anything, and it's awful to hang round just waiting, sighed Carlotta.
• 6:45:23
  What if you don't propose? After all? Miss Shirley, ma'am,
• 6:45:26
  you can never be sure of them men. My older sister, Carlotta the
• 6:45:30
  first thought she was engaged to one once, but it turned out he had
• 6:45:33
  a different opinion, And she says she'll never trust one of them again.
• 6:45:37
  And I heard of another case where a man thought he wanted one girl awful
• 6:45:41
  bad, when it was really her sister he wanted all the time. When
• 6:45:44
  a man don't know his own mind, Miss Shurley, ma'am, how's a
• 6:45:47
  poor woman going to be sure of it? We'll go to the kitchen and
• 6:45:49
  clean the silver spoons, said Anne. That's a task which won't require much
• 6:45:52
  thinking, fortunately, for I couldn't think to night, and it will pass
• 6:45:56
  the time. It passed an hour. Then, just as Anne laid down
• 6:46:00
  the last shining spoon, they heard the front door shut. Both sought comfort
• 6:46:04
  fearfully in each other's eyes. Oh, Miss Shirley, ma'am, gasped Carlotta.
• 6:46:10
  If he's going away this surly, there's nothing into it, never will
• 6:46:11
  be. They flew to the window. Mister Irving had no intention of going
• 6:46:15
  away. He and Miss Lavendar were strolling slowly down the middle path to the
• 6:46:19
  stone bench. Oh, miss Shirley, ma'am, he's got his arm around
• 6:46:22
  her waist, whispered Karlotta the Fourth, delightedly. He must have proposed to
• 6:46:26
  her, or she'd never allow it. Anne caught Karlotta the Fourth by her
• 6:46:30
  own plump waist and danced her around the kitchen until they were both out of
• 6:46:33
  breath. Oh, Carlotta, she cried gaily. I am neither a prophetess
• 6:46:37
  nor the daughter of a prophetess, but I'm going to make a prediction.
• 6:46:41
  There'll be a wedding in this old stone house before the maple leaves are red.
• 6:46:45
  Do you want that translated into prose, Carlotta, No, I can
• 6:46:48
  understand that, said Carlotta. A wedding ain't poetry. Why Miss Shirley,
• 6:46:52
  ma'am, you're crying? What for? Oh? Because it's all so beautiful
• 6:46:56
  and story bookish and romantic and sad, said Anne, winking the tears out
• 6:47:02
  of her eyes. It's all perfectly lovely. But there's a little sadness mixed
• 6:47:06
  up in it too, somehow. Oh, of course, there's a risk
• 6:47:07
  in marrying anybody, conceded Carlotta the Fourth. But when all said and done,
• 6:47:11
  Miss Shirley, ma'am, there's many a worse thing than a husband.
• 6:47:15
  End of Chapter twenty eight, Chapter twenty nine, Poetry and prose. For
• 6:47:22
  the next month, Anne lived in what for Avonlea might be called a world
• 6:47:25
  of excitement. The preparation of her own modest outfit for Redmond was of secondary
• 6:47:30
  importance. Miss Lavendar was getting ready to be married, and the stone house
• 6:47:33
  was the scene of endless consultations and plannings and discussions, with Carlotta the Fourth,
• 6:47:38
  hovering on the outskirts of things in agitated delight and wonder. Then the
• 6:47:42
  dressmaker came, and there was the rapture and wretchedness of choosing fashions and being
• 6:47:47
  fitted. Anne and Diana spent half their time at Echo Lodge, and there
• 6:47:51
  were nights when Anne could not sleep for wondering whether she had done right in
• 6:47:53
  advising Miss Lavender to select brown rather than navy blue for her traveling dress and
• 6:47:57
  to have her gray silk made. Prince says everybody concerned in Miss Lavendar's story
• 6:48:03
  was very happy. Paul Irving rushed to Green Gables to talk the news over
• 6:48:07
  with Anne as soon as his father had told him. I knew I could
• 6:48:10
  trust father to pick me out a nice little second mother, he said,
• 6:48:12
  proudly. It's a fine thing to have a father you can depend on.
• 6:48:15
  Teacher, I just love Miss Lavendar. Grandma's pleased too, She says she's
• 6:48:19
  real glad father didn't pick out an American for his second wife, because although
• 6:48:22
  it turned out all right the first time, such a thing wouldn't be likely
• 6:48:26
  to happen twice. Missus Lynde says she thoroughly approves of the match and thinks
• 6:48:30
  it's likely Miss Lavendar will give up her queer notions and be like other people
• 6:48:33
  now that she's going to be married. But I hope she won't give up
• 6:48:37
  her queer notions, teacher, because I like them and I don't want her
• 6:48:40
  to be like other people. There are too many other people around as it
• 6:48:42
  is, you know, Teacher, Krlotta the Fourth was another radiant person.
• 6:48:48
  Oh, Miss Shirley, ma'am, it is all turned out so beautiful.
• 6:48:51
  When mister Irving and Miss Lavender come back from their tower, I'm to go
• 6:48:53
  up to Boston and live with them, and me only fifteen, and the
• 6:48:56
  other girls never went till they were sixteen. Hank, Miss mister Irving splendid.
• 6:49:00
  He just worships the ground she treads on, and it makes me feel
• 6:49:03
  so queer sometimes to see the look in his eyes when he's watching her.
• 6:49:07
  It beggars description. Miss Shirley, ma'am. I'm awful, thankful they're so
• 6:49:10
  fond of each other. It's the best way when all's said and done,
• 6:49:12
  though some folks can get along without it. I've got an aunt who has
• 6:49:15
  been married three times and says she married the first time for love and the
• 6:49:19
  last two times for strictly business, and was happy with all three, except
• 6:49:22
  at the times of the funerals. But I think she took a resk Miss
• 6:49:26
  Shirley. Ma'am oh, it's all so romantic, breathed Anne to Marilla that
• 6:49:30
  night. If I hadn't taken the wrong path that day we went to mister
• 6:49:33
  Kimball's, I'd never have known Miss Lavendar. And if I hadn't met her,
• 6:49:37
  I'd never have taken Paul there, and he'd never have written to his
• 6:49:40
  father about visiting Miss Lavendar, just as mister Irving was starting for San Francisco.
• 6:49:44
  Mister Irving says, whenever he got that letter, he made up his
• 6:49:47
  mind to send his partner to San Francisco and come here instead. He hadn't
• 6:49:49
  heard anything of Miss Lavendar for fifteen years. Somebody had told him that she
• 6:49:53
  was to be married, and he thought she was and never asked anybody anything
• 6:49:56
  about her. And now everything has come right, and I had a hand
• 6:50:00
  in bringing it about. Perhaps, as missus Lynde says, everything is foreordained
• 6:50:04
  and it was bound to happen anyway. But even so, it's nice to
• 6:50:07
  think one was an instrument used by predestination. Yes, indeed, it's very
• 6:50:12
  romantic. I can't see that it's so terribly romantic at all, said Marilla,
• 6:50:17
  rather crisply. Marilla thought Anne was too worked up about it and had
• 6:50:19
  plenty to do with getting ready for college without trapsing to Echo Lodge two days
• 6:50:23
  out of three helping miss Lavendar in the first place, two young fools quarrel
• 6:50:27
  and turn sulky. Then Steve Irving goes to the States and after a spell,
• 6:50:30
  gets married up there and is perfectly happy from all accounts. Then his
• 6:50:33
  wife dies, and after a decent interval, he thinks, you'll come home
• 6:50:37
  and see if his first fancy you'll have him. Meanwhile, she's been living
• 6:50:40
  single, probably because nobody nice enough came along to want her, and they
• 6:50:44
  meet and agree to be married after all, Now where is the romance in
• 6:50:45
  all that? Oh, there isn't any when you put it that way,
• 6:50:48
  gasped Anne, rather if somebody had thrown cold water over her. I suppose
• 6:50:52
  that's how it looks in prose. But it's very different if you look at
• 6:50:56
  it through poetry, and I think it's nicer. Anne recovered herself, and
• 6:51:00
  her eyes shone and her cheeks flushed. To look at it through poetry,
• 6:51:04
  Marilla glanced at the radiant young face and refrained from further sarcastic comments. Perhaps
• 6:51:10
  some realization came to her that, after all, it was better to have
• 6:51:12
  like Anne, the vision and the faculty divine that gift which the world cannot
• 6:51:18
  bestow or take away, of looking at life through some transfiguring or revealing medium,
• 6:51:22
  whereby everything seemed apperiled in celestial light, worrying a glory and a freshness
• 6:51:27
  not visible to those who, like herself and Carlotta the Fourth looked at things
• 6:51:30
  only through prose. When's the wedding to be, she asked, after a
• 6:51:36
  pause, the last Wednesday in August. They are to be married in the
• 6:51:38
  garden under the honeysuckle trellis the very spot where mister Irving proposed to her twenty
• 6:51:42
  five years ago. Marilla, that is romantic, even in prose. There's
• 6:51:48
  to be nobody there except missus Irving and Paul and Gilbert and Diana and I
• 6:51:52
  and miss Lavender's cousins. And they will leave on the six o'clock train for
• 6:51:55
  a trip to the Pacific Coast. When they come back in the fall,
• 6:51:57
  Paul and Karlotta the Fourth are to go up to Boston to live with them.
• 6:52:00
  But Echo Lodge is to be left just as it is, only,
• 6:52:03
  of course they'll sell the hens and cow and board up the windows, and
• 6:52:07
  every summer they're coming down to live in it. I'm so glad. It
• 6:52:11
  would have hurt me dreadfully next winter at Redmond to think of that dear stone
• 6:52:14
  house all stripped and deserted with empty rooms, or far worse still, with
• 6:52:18
  other people living in it. But I can think of it now just as
• 6:52:21
  I've always seen it, waiting happily for the summer to bring life and laughter
• 6:52:25
  back to it again. There was more romance in the world than that which
• 6:52:29
  had fallen to the share of the middle aged lovers of the stone House.
• 6:52:32
  Anne stumbled suddenly on it one evening when she went over to orchard slope by
• 6:52:34
  the wood cut and came out into the Barry garden. Diana Barry and Fred
• 6:52:38
  Wright were standing together under the big willow. Diana was leaning against the gray
• 6:52:44
  trunk, her lashes cast down on very crimson cheeks. One hand was held
• 6:52:48
  by Fred, who stood with his face bent toward her, stammering something in
• 6:52:52
  low, earnest tones. There were no other people in the world except their
• 6:52:55
  two cells at that magic moment, so neither of them saw Anne, who,
• 6:52:59
  after one gazed glance of comprehension, turned and sped noiselessly back through the
• 6:53:03
  spruce wood, never stopping till she gained her own gable room, where she
• 6:53:07
  sat breathlessly down by her window and tried to collect her scattered wits. Diana
• 6:53:11
  and Fred are in love with each other, she gasped, Oh, it
• 6:53:15
  does seem so so so hopelessly. Grown up, Anne of late had not
• 6:53:22
  been without her suspicions that Diana was proving false to the melancholy, byronic hero
• 6:53:26
  of her early dreams. But as things seen are mightier than things heard or
• 6:53:30
  suspected, the realization that it was actually so came to her with almost the
• 6:53:34
  shock of perfect surprise. This was succeeded by a queer, little, lonely
• 6:53:38
  feeling, as if somehow Diana had gone forward into a new world, shutting
• 6:53:44
  a gate behind her, leaving Anne on the outside. Things are changing so
• 6:53:48
  fast it almost frightens me, Anne thought, a little sadly, and I'm
• 6:53:52
  afraid that this can't help making some difference between Diana and me. I'm sure
• 6:53:56
  I can't tell her all my secrets. After this, she might tell Fred,
• 6:54:00
  And what can she see in Fred? He's very nice and jolly,
• 6:54:03
  but he's just Fred Wright. It is always a very puzzling question, what
• 6:54:08
  can somebody see in somebody else? But how fortunate after all that it is
• 6:54:12
  so, for if everybody saw alike, well, in that case, as
• 6:54:15
  the old Indian said, everybody would want my squaw. It was plain that
• 6:54:19
  Diana did see something in Fred Wright. However, Anne's eyes might be holden.
• 6:54:23
  Diana came to Green Gables the next evening, a pensive, shy young
• 6:54:27
  lady, and told Anne the whole story. In the dusky seclusion of the
• 6:54:30
  East Gable, both girls cried and kissed and laughed. I'm so happy,
• 6:54:36
  said Diana, But it does seem ridiculous to think of me being engaged.
• 6:54:40
  What is it really like to be engaged, asked Anne curiously. Well,
• 6:54:44
  that all depends on who you're engaged to, answered Diana, with that maddening
• 6:54:48
  air of superior wisdom always assumed by those who are engaged over those who are
• 6:54:52
  not. It's perfectly lovely to be engaged to Fred, But I think it
• 6:54:56
  would be simply horrid to be engaged to any one else. There's not much
• 6:55:00
  comfort for the rest of us in that, seeing that there is only one
• 6:55:03
  Fred laughed. Anne. Oh, Anne, you don't understand, said Diana
• 6:55:07
  in vexation. I didn't mean that. It's so hard to explain. Never
• 6:55:11
  mind, you'll understand some time when your own turn comes. Bless you,
• 6:55:15
  dearest of Diana's. I understand now what is an imagination for if not to
• 6:55:18
  enable you to peep at life through other people's eyes. You must be my
• 6:55:22
  bridesmaid, you know. Anne. Promise me that wherever you may be when
• 6:55:26
  I'm married, I'll come from the ends of the earth if necessary, promised
• 6:55:30
  Anne solemnly. Of course, it won't be for ever so long yet,
• 6:55:33
  said Diana, blushing. Three years at the very least, for I'm only
• 6:55:37
  eighteen, and mother says no daughter of hers shall be married before she's twenty
• 6:55:40
  one. Besides, Fred's father is going to buy the Abraham Fletcher farm for
• 6:55:45
  him, and he says he's got to have it two thirds paid for before
• 6:55:47
  he'll give it to him in his own name. But three years isn't any
• 6:55:49
  too much time to get ready for housekeeping, for I haven't a speck of
• 6:55:52
  fancy work made yet. But I'm going to begin crochetting doylies tomorrow. Myra
• 6:55:57
  Gillis had thirty seven doilies when she was married, and I'm determined I shall
• 6:56:00
  have as many as she had. I suppose it would be perfectly impossible to
• 6:56:04
  keep house with only thirty six doilies, conceited Anne with a solemn face but
• 6:56:08
  dancing eyes. Diana looked hurt. I didn't think you'd make fun of me,
• 6:56:12
  Anne, she said, reproachfully. Dearest, I wasn't making fun of
• 6:56:17
  you, cried Anne, repentantly. I was only teasing you a bit.
• 6:56:19
  I think you'll make the sweetest little housekeeper in the world, and I think
• 6:56:23
  it's perfectly lovely of you to be planning already for your home of dreams.
• 6:56:27
  Anne had no sooner uttered the phrase home o'dreams than it captivated her fancy,
• 6:56:32
  and she immediately began the erection of one of her own. It was,
• 6:56:34
  of course, tenanted by an ideal master, dark, proud and melancholy,
• 6:56:40
  but oddly enough, Gilbert Blythe persisted in hanging about too, helping her arranged
• 6:56:44
  pictures, lay out gardens, and accomplish sundry other tasks which a proud and
• 6:56:48
  melancholy hero evidently considered beneath his dignity. Anne tried to banish Gilbert's image from
• 6:56:52
  her castle in Spain, but somehow he went on being there, so Anne,
• 6:56:56
  being in a hurry, gave up the attempt and pursued her aerial architecture
• 6:57:00
  with such success that her home o'dreams was built and furnished before Diana spoke again.
• 6:57:06
  I suppose Anne, you must think it's funny I should like Fred so
• 6:57:08
  well when he's so different from the kind of man. I've always said I
• 6:57:11
  would marry the tall, slender kind. But somehow I wouldn't want Fred to
• 6:57:15
  be tall and slender, because don't you see he wouldn't be Fred. Then,
• 6:57:19
  of course, added Diana rather dolefully. We will be a dreadfully pudgy
• 6:57:23
  couple, but after all, that's better than one of us being short and
• 6:57:26
  fat and the other tall and lean, like Morgan Sloane and his wife,
• 6:57:30
  missus Lynde says, it always makes her think of the long and the short
• 6:57:32
  of it when she sees them together. Well, said Anne to herself that
• 6:57:37
  night, as she brushed her hair before her gilt framed mirror. I am
• 6:57:40
  glad Diana is so happy and satisfied. But when my turn comes, if
• 6:57:44
  it ever does, I do hope there'll be something a little more thrilling about
• 6:57:48
  it. But then Diana thought so too. Once I've heard her say time
• 6:57:52
  and again she'd never get engaged in any poky, commonplace way. He'd have
• 6:57:56
  to do something splendid to win her. But she's changed. Perhaps I'll change
• 6:58:00
  too, but I won't, and I'm determined I won't. Oh, I
• 6:58:03
  think these engagements are dreadfully unsettling things when they happen to your intimate friends.
• 6:58:08
  End of Chapter twenty nine, Chapter thirty. A wedding at the stone House
• 6:58:15
  the last week in August came. Miss Lavendar was to be married in it.
• 6:58:18
  Two weeks later, Anne and Gilbert would leave for Redmond College. In
• 6:58:22
  a week's time, missus Rachel Lynde would move to Green Gables and set up
• 6:58:25
  her lairs and pennants in the erstwhile spare room, which was already prepared for
• 6:58:30
  her coming. She had sold all her superfluous household plenishings by auction and was
• 6:58:34
  at present reveling in the congenial occupation of helping the Allans pack up. Mister
• 6:58:38
  Allan was to preach his farewell sermon the next Sunday. The old order was
• 6:58:42
  changing rapidly to give place to the new, as Anne felt with a little
• 6:58:47
  sadness threading all her excitement and happiness. Changes ain't totally pleasant, but they're
• 6:58:52
  excellent things, said mister Harrison philosophically. Two years is about long enough for
• 6:58:56
  things to stay exactly the same. If they stayed put any longer, they
• 6:59:00
  might grow mossy. Mister Harrison was smoking on his veranda. His wife had
• 6:59:04
  self sacrificingly told that he might smoke in the house if he took care to
• 6:59:07
  sit by an open window. Mister Harrison rewarded this concession by going outdoors altogether
• 6:59:12
  to smoke in fine weather, and so mutual goodwill reigned. Anne had come
• 6:59:17
  over to ask Missus Harrison for some of her yellow dahlias. She and Diana
• 6:59:21
  were going through to Echo Lodge that evening to help Miss Lavender and Karlotta the
• 6:59:23
  Fourth with their final preparations for the morrow's bridle. Miss Lavender herself never had
• 6:59:27
  dahlia's. She did not like them, and they would not have suited the
• 6:59:30
  fine retirement of her old fashioned garden. But flowers of any kind were rather
• 6:59:34
  scarce in Avonlea and the neighboring districts that summer thanks to Uncle Abe's storm,
• 6:59:38
  and Anne and Diana thought that a certain old cream colored stone jug usually kept
• 6:59:42
  sagretd to doughnuts brimmed over with yellow dahlias, would be just the thing to
• 6:59:45
  set in a dim angle of the stone house stairs against the dark background of
• 6:59:49
  red hall paper. I suppose you'll be starting off for college in a fortnight's
• 6:59:53
  time, continued mister Harrison. Well, we're going to miss you an awful
• 6:59:57
  lot. Emily and me to be s sure, Missus Lynde'll be over there
• 7:00:00
  in your place. There ain't nobody but a substitute can be found for them.
• 7:00:04
  The irony of mister Harrison's tone is quite untransferable to paper. In spite
• 7:00:08
  of his wife's intimacy with Missus Lynde, the best that could be said of
• 7:00:11
  the relationship between her and mister Harrison, even under the new regime, was
• 7:00:15
  that they preserved an armed neutrality. Yes, I'm going, said Anne.
• 7:00:19
  I'm very glad with my head and very sorry with my heart. I suppose
• 7:00:23
  you'll be scooping up all the honors that are lying round loose at Redmond.
• 7:00:27
  I may try for one or two of them, confessed Anne. But I
• 7:00:30
  don't care so much for things like that as I did two years ago.
• 7:00:33
  What I want to get out of my college course is some knowledge of the
• 7:00:36
  best way of living life and doing the most and best with it. I
• 7:00:40
  want to learn to understand and help other people and myself. Mister Harrison nodded.
• 7:00:45
  That's the idea exactly. That's what college ought to be for, instead
• 7:00:48
  of for turning out a lot of ba so chalk full of book learning and
• 7:00:51
  vanity that there ain't room for anything else. You're all right, college won't
• 7:00:55
  be able to do you much harm, I reckon. Diana and Anne drove
• 7:01:00
  over to Echo Lodge after tea, taking with them all the flowery spoil that
• 7:01:03
  several predatory expeditions and their own and their neighbor's gardens had yielded. They found
• 7:01:07
  the Stone House agog with excitement. Carlotta the Fourth was flying around with such
• 7:01:11
  vim and briskness that her blue bows seemed really to possess the power of being
• 7:01:15
  everywhere at once, Like the helmet of Navarre. Carlotta's blue bows waved ever
• 7:01:21
  in the thickest of the frame. Praise Peter goodness you've come, she said
• 7:01:25
  devoutly, for there's heaps of things to do when the frosting on that cake
• 7:01:29
  won't harden, and there's all the silver to be rubbed up yet, and
• 7:01:32
  the horse hair trunk to be packed, and the roosters for the chicken salad
• 7:01:34
  are running out there beyond the hen house yet crowing. Miss Shirley, ma'am,
• 7:01:37
  and Miss Lavendar ain't to be trusted to do a thing. I was
• 7:01:41
  thankful when mister Irving came a few minutes ago and took her off for a
• 7:01:42
  walk in the woods. Corning's all right in its place, Miss Shirley,
• 7:01:45
  ma'am. But if you try to mix it up with cooking and scouring,
• 7:01:48
  everything's spoiled. That's my opinion, Miss Shirley, ma'am. Anne and Diana
• 7:01:52
  worked so heartily that by ten o'clock even Carlotta the Fourth was satisfied. She
• 7:01:57
  braided her hair in innumerable plats and took her weary little bones off to bed.
• 7:02:03
  But I'm sure I shan't sleep a blessed wink, Miss Shirley, ma'am,
• 7:02:06
  for fear that something will go wrong, at the last minute, the
• 7:02:07
  cream won't whip, or mister Irving'll have a stroke and not be able to
• 7:02:11
  come. He isn't in the habit of having strokes, is he asked Diana.
• 7:02:15
  The dimp oled corners of her mouth. Twitching to Diana, Carlotta the
• 7:02:18
  Fourth was, if not exactly a thing of beauty, certainly a joy forever.
• 7:02:23
  They're not things that go by habit, said Carlotta the Fourth with dignity.
• 7:02:26
  They just happen, and there you are. Anybody can have a stroke.
• 7:02:30
  You don't have to learn how. Mister Irving looks a lot like an
• 7:02:33
  uncle of mine that had one once, just as he was sitting down to
• 7:02:37
  dinner one day. But maybe everything'll go all right in this world. You've
• 7:02:41
  just got to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, and take
• 7:02:42
  whatever God sends. The only thing I'm worried about is that it won't be
• 7:02:47
  fine tomorrow, said Diana. Uncle Lay predicted rain for the middle of the
• 7:02:49
  week, and ever since that big storm, I can't help believing there's a
• 7:02:52
  good deal in what Uncle Abe, says Anne, who knew better than Diana
• 7:02:56
  just how much Uncle Laid had to do with the storm was not much disturbed
• 7:03:00
  by this. She slept the sleep of the just and weary, and was
• 7:03:03
  roused at an unearthly hour by Krlotta the Fourth. Oh miss Shirley, ma'am,
• 7:03:07
  it's awful to call you so early, came wailing through the keyhole.
• 7:03:10
  But there's so much to do yet. And oh, miss Shirley, ma'am,
• 7:03:12
  I'm scared it's going to rain, and I wish you'd get up and
• 7:03:15
  tell me you think it ain't. Anne flew to the window, hoping against
• 7:03:18
  hope that Carlotta the Fourth was saying this merely by way of rousing her effectually.
• 7:03:22
  But alas the morning did look unpropitious. Below the window, Miss Lavender's
• 7:03:26
  garden, which should have been a glory of pale, virgin sunshine, lay
• 7:03:30
  dim and windless, and the sky over the Firs was dark with moody clouds.
• 7:03:36
  Isn't it too mean? Said Diana. We must hope for the best,
• 7:03:40
  said Anne, determinedly. If it only doesn't actually rain, a cool,
• 7:03:44
  pearly gray day like this would really be nicer than hot sunshine. But
• 7:03:48
  it will rain, mourned Carlotta, creeping into the room a figure of fun
• 7:03:52
  with her many braids wound around her head, the ends tied up with white
• 7:03:55
  threads sticking out in all directions. It'll hold off till the last minute,
• 7:03:59
  and then four cats and dogs and all the folks would get sopping and track
• 7:04:03
  mud all over the house, and they won't be able to get married under
• 7:04:06
  the honeysuckle. And it's awful unlucky for no sun to shine on a bride.
• 7:04:10
  Say what you will, Miss Shirley, ma'am. I knew things were
• 7:04:12
  going too well to last. Carlotta the Fourth seemed certainly to have borrowed a
• 7:04:17
  leaf out of Miss Eliza Andrews's book. It did not rain, though it
• 7:04:21
  kept on looking as if it meant to. By noon, the rooms were
• 7:04:23
  decorated, the table beautifully laid, and upstairs was waiting a bride adorned for
• 7:04:27
  her husband. You do look sweet, said Anne. Rapturously lovely, echoed
• 7:04:33
  Diana. Everything's ready, miss Shirley, ma'am. And nothing dreadful has happened
• 7:04:37
  yet, was Carlotta's cheerful statement. As she betook herself to her little back
• 7:04:40
  room to dress out. Came all the braids. The resultant rampant crinkliness was
• 7:04:45
  platted into two tails, and tied not with two bows alone, but with
• 7:04:48
  four of brand new ribbon brightly blue. The two upper bows rather gave the
• 7:04:53
  impression of overgrown wings sprouting from Carlotta's neck, somewhat after the fashion of Raphael's
• 7:04:59
  cherubs. But Carlotta the fourth thought them very beautiful, And after she had
• 7:05:03
  rustled into a white dress so stiffly starched that it could stand alone, she
• 7:05:07
  surveyed herself in her glass with great satisfaction, a satisfaction which lasted until she
• 7:05:11
  went out in the hall and caught a glimpse through the spare room door of
• 7:05:15
  a tall girl in some softly clinging gown, pinning white star like flowers on
• 7:05:19
  the smooth ripples of her ruddy hair. Oh, I'll never be able to
• 7:05:23
  look like miss Shirley, thought poor Carlotta despairingly. You'd just have to be
• 7:05:27
  born, so I guess. Don't seem as if any amount of practice could
• 7:05:30
  give you that air. By one o'clock the guests had come, including mister
• 7:05:34
  and missus Allen. For mister Allan was to perform the ceremony in the absence
• 7:05:38
  of the Grafton Minister on his vacation There was no formality about the marriage.
• 7:05:42
  Miss Lavendar came down the stairs to meet her bridegroom at the foot, and
• 7:05:45
  as he took her hand, she lifted her big brown eyes to his with
• 7:05:49
  a look that made Carlotta the Fourth, who intercepted it, feel queerer than
• 7:05:52
  ever. They went out to the Honeysuckle arbor, where mister Allan was awaiting
• 7:05:56
  them. The guests grouped themselves as they pleas. Anne and Diana stood by
• 7:06:00
  the old stone bench, with Carlotta the Fourth between them, desperately clutching their
• 7:06:06
  hands in her cold, tremulous little paws. Mister Allan opened his blue book
• 7:06:11
  and the ceremony proceeded. Just as Miss Lavender and Stephen Irving were pronounced man
• 7:06:15
  and wife, a very beautiful and symbolic thing happened. The sun suddenly burst
• 7:06:19
  through the gray and poured a flood of radiance on the happy bride. Instantly
• 7:06:23
  the garden was alive with dancing shadows and flickering lights. What a lovely omen,
• 7:06:29
  thought Anne, as she ran to kiss the bride. Then the three
• 7:06:32
  girls left the rest of the guests laughing around the bridal pair while they flew
• 7:06:36
  into the house to see that all was in readiness for the feast. Thanks
• 7:06:38
  be to goodness, it's over, Miss Shirley, ma'am, breathed Carlota the
• 7:06:41
  fourth, and there married safe and sound. No matter what happens now.
• 7:06:45
  The bags of rice are in the pantry, ma'am, and the old shoes
• 7:06:48
  are behind the door, and the cream for whipping is on the sullar steps.
• 7:06:52
  At half past two, mister and Missus Irving left, and everybody went
• 7:06:56
  to Bright River to see them off on the afternoon train. As Miss lavendar
• 7:07:00
  I beg her pardon, Missus Irving stepped from the door of her old home,
• 7:07:03
  Gilbert and the girls through the rice, and Carlotta the Fourth hurled an
• 7:07:07
  old shoe with such excellent aim that she struck mister Allan squarely on the head.
• 7:07:11
  But it was reserved for Paul to give the prettiest send off. He
• 7:07:14
  popped out of the porch, ringing furiously a huge old brass dinner bell,
• 7:07:18
  which had adorned the dining room mantle. Paul's only motive was to make a
• 7:07:22
  joyful noise. But as the clangor died away from point and curve and hill
• 7:07:26
  across the river, came the chime of fairy wedding bells ringing clearly, sweetly,
• 7:07:30
  faintly and more faint, as if Miss Lavender's beloved echoes were bidding her
• 7:07:34
  greeting and farewell, And so amid this benediction of sweet sounds, Miss Lavender
• 7:07:40
  drove away from the old life of dreams and make believes, to a fuller
• 7:07:42
  life of realities in the busy world beyond. Two hours later, Anne and
• 7:07:48
  Carlotta the Fourth came down the lane again. Gilbert had gone to West Grafton
• 7:07:52
  on an errand, and Diana had to keep an engagement at home. Anne
• 7:07:55
  and Carlotta had come back to put things in order and lock up the little
• 7:07:57
  stone house. The garden was a pool of late golden sunshine, with butterflies
• 7:08:03
  hovering and bees booming. But the little house had already that indefinable lair of
• 7:08:07
  desolation which always follows a festivity. Oh dear me, don't it look lonesome?
• 7:08:11
  Sniffed Carlotta the Fourth, who had been crying all the way home from
• 7:08:15
  the station. A wedding ain't much cheerfuler than a funeral, after all,
• 7:08:18
  when it's all over, Miss Shirley, ma'am a busy evening followed. The
• 7:08:22
  decorations had to be removed, the dishes washed, the uneaten delicacies packed into
• 7:08:27
  a basket for the delectation of Carlotta the Fourth's young brothers. At home.
• 7:08:30
  Anne would not rest until everything was in apple pie order. After Carlotta had
• 7:08:34
  gone home with her plunder, Anne went over the still rooms, feeling like
• 7:08:38
  one who trod alone some banquet hall deserted and closed the blinds. Then she
• 7:08:44
  locked the door and sat down under the silver poplar to wait for Gilbert,
• 7:08:47
  feeling very tired but still unweariedly thinking long, long thoughts. What are you
• 7:08:52
  thinking of? Anne asked Gilbert, coming down the walk. He had left
• 7:08:56
  his horse and buggy out of the road of Miss Lavender and missus Irving,
• 7:09:00
  answered Anne dreamily. Isn't it beautiful to think how everything has turned out,
• 7:09:04
  how they have come together again after all the years of separation and misunderstanding.
• 7:09:08
  Yes, it's beautiful, said Gilbert, looking steadily down into Anne's uplifted face.
• 7:09:14
  But wouldn't it have been more beautiful still, Anne, if there had
• 7:09:17
  been no separation or misunderstanding, if they had come hand in hand all the
• 7:09:21
  way through life with no memories behind them, but those which belonged to each
• 7:09:23
  other. For a moment, Anne's heart fluttered queerly, and for the first
• 7:09:29
  time her eyes faltered under Gilbert's gaze, and a rosy flush stained the paleness
• 7:09:33
  of her face. It was as if a veil that it hung before her
• 7:09:37
  inner consciousness had been lifted, giving to her view a revelation of unsuspected feelings
• 7:09:41
  and realities. Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life
• 7:09:47
  with pomp and blare, like a gay night riding down. Perhaps it crept
• 7:09:51
  to one's side like an old friend, through quiet ways. Perhaps it revealed
• 7:09:55
  itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages,
• 7:10:00
  betrayed the rhythm and the music. Perhaps perhaps love unfolded naturally out of
• 7:10:06
  a beautiful friendship, as a golden hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.
• 7:10:11
  Then the veil dropped again. But the Anne who walked up the dark lane
• 7:10:15
  was not quite the same Ann who had driven gaily down at the evening before
• 7:10:18
  the page of girlhood had been turned as by an unseen finger, and the
• 7:10:22
  page of womanhood was before her, with all its charm and mystery, its
• 7:10:26
  pain and gladness. Gilbert widely said nothing more, but in his silence he
• 7:10:30
  read the history of the next four years in the light of Anne's remembered blush.
• 7:10:34
  Four years of earnest, happy work, and then the garden of a
• 7:10:38
  useful knowledge gained and a sweet heart won. Behind them in the garden,
• 7:10:42
  the little stone House brooded among the shadows. It was lonely, but not
• 7:10:47
  forsaken. It had not yet done with dreams and laughter and the joy of
• 7:10:49
  life. There were to be future summers for the Little Stone House. Meanwhile,
• 7:10:55
  it could wait, and over the river in purple Durrance, the echoes
• 7:10:59
  bided their time. End of Chapter thirty