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Anne of the Island · Anne of the Island

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  To all the girls all over the world who have wanted more about Anne,
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  All precious things discovered late, to those that seek them, issue forth for
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  love. In sequel, works with fate and draws the veil from Hidden Worth
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  Tennyson, Chapter one, The Shadow of Change Harvest is ended in summer is
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  gone coated Anne Shirley gazing across the shorn fields streamily. She and Diana Barry
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  had been picking apples in the green Gables orchard, but were now resting from
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  their labors in a sunny corner, where airy fleets of thistle down drifted by
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  on wings of a wind that was still summer, sweet with the incense of
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  ferns in the haunted wood, but everything in the landscape around them spoke of
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  autumn. The sea was roaring hollowly in the distance. The fields were bare
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  and sere, scarfed with golden rod. The brook valley below green Gables overflowed
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  with asters of ethereal purple, and the lake of Shining Waters was blue,
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  blue, blue, not the changeful blue of spring, nor the pale azure
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  of summer, but a clear, steadfast, serene blue, as if the
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  water were past all moods and tenses of emotion and had settled down to a
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  tranquility unbroken by fickle dreams. It has been a nice summer, said Diana,
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  twisting the new ring on her left hand with a smile. And Miss
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  Lavendar's wedding seemed to come as a sort of crown to it. I suppose
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  mister and missus Irving are on the Pacific coast now. It seems to me
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  they've been gone long enough to go around the world, sighed Anne. I
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  can't believe it is only a week since they were married. Everything is changed,
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  miss Lavendar, and mister and missus Allen gone. How lonely the manse
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  looks with the shutters all closed. I went past it last night and made
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  me feel as if everybody in it had died. We'll never get another minister
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  as nice as mister Allen, said Diana with gloomy conviction. I suppose we'll
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  have all kinds of supplies this winter, and half the Sunday's no preaching at
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  all, and you and Gilbert gone. It will be awfully dull. Fred
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  will be here, insinuated Anne. Slyly. When is missus Lynde going to
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  move up? Asked Diana, as if she had not heard Anne's remark tomorrow.
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  I'm glad she's coming, but it will be another change. Marilla and
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  I cleared everything out of the spare room yesterday. Do you know I hated
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  to do it. Of course it was silly, but it did seem as
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  if he were committing sacrilege. That old spare room has always seemed like a
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  shrine to me. When I was a child, I thought it the most
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  wonderful apartment in the world. You remember what a consuming desire I had to
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  sleep in a spare room bed, But not the green gable spare room.
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  Oh no, never there. It would have been too terrible. I couldn't
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  have slept a wink from all. I never walked through that room when Marilla
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  sent me in on an errand no, indeed, I tiptoed through it and
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  held my breath as if I were in church, and felt relieved when I
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  got out of it. The pictures of George Whitefield and the Duke of Wellington
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  hung there, one on each side of the mirror, and frowned so sternly
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  at me all the time I was in, especially if I dared keep in
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  the mirror, which was the only one in the house. That didn't twist
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  my face a little. I always wondered how Marilla dared house clean that room,
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  and now it's not only cleaned, but stripped bare. George Whitefield and
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  the dew Captain relegated to the upstairs hall. So passes the glory of this
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  world, concluded Anne, with a laugh in which there was a little note
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  of regret. It is never pleasant to have our old shrines desecrated, even
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  when we have outgrown them. I'll be so lonesome when you go, moaned
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  Diana for the hundredth time. And to think you go next week. But
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  we're together still, said Anne cheerily. We mustn't let next week rob us
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  of this week's joy. I hate the thought of going myself home, and
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  I are such good friends. Talk of being lonesome, it's I who should
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  groan. You'll be here with any number of your old friends and Fred,
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  while I shall be alone among strangers, not knowing a soul except Gilbert and
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  Charlie Sloane, said Diana, imitating Anne's italics and slyness. Charley Sloane will
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  be a great comfort, of course, agreed Anne sarcastically, whereupon both those
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  irresponsible damsels laughed. Diana knew exactly what Anne thought of Charlie Sloane, but
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  despite sundry confidential talks, she did not know just what Anne thought of Gilbert
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  Life. To be sure, Anne herself did not know that the boys may
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  be boarding at the other end of Kingsport for all I know, Anne went
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  on, I am glad I'm going to Redmond, and I am sure I
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  shall like it after a while. But for the first few weeks I know
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  I won't. I shan't even have the comfort of looking forward to the week
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  and visit home as I had when I went to Queen's. Christmas will seem
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  like a thousand years away. Everything is changing, or going to change,
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  said Diana sadly. I have a feeling that things will never be the same
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  again. Anne. We have come to a parting of the ways, I
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  suppose, said Anne thoughtfully. We had to come to it. Do you
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  think, Diana, that being grown up is really as nice as we used
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  to imagine it would be when we were children. I don't know. There
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  are some nice things, it, answered Diana, again, caressing her ring
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  with that little smile which always had the effect of making Anne feel suddenly left
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  out and inexperienced, But there are so many puzzling things too. Sometimes I
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  feel as if being grown up just frightened me, and then I would give
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  anything to be a little girl again. I suppose we'll get used to being
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  grown up in time, said Anne cheerfully. There won't be so many unexpected
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  things about it, by and by, though, after all, I fancy
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  it's the unexpected things that give spice to life. We are eighteen, Diana.
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  In two more years will be twenty. When I was ten, I
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  thought twenty was a green old age. In no time, you'll be a
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  staid, middle aged matron, and I shall be nice old maid aunt Anne
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  coming to visit you on vacations. You'll always keep a corner for me,
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  won't you, die, darling. Not the spare room, of course,
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  old maids can't aspire to spare rooms. And I shall be as humble as
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  your eye a heap, and quite content with a little over the porch or
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  off the parlor cubby hole. What nonsense you do, talk, Anne laughed,
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  Diana, you'll marry somebody splendid and handsome and rich, and no spare
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  woman Avonlea will be half gorgeous enough for you. And you'll turn up your
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  nose at all the friends of your youth. That would be a pity.
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  My nose is quite nice, but I fear turning it up would spoil it,
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  said Anne, patting that shapely organ. I haven't so many good features
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  that I could afford to spoil those I have. So even if I should
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  marry the king of the Cannibal Islands, I promise you I won't turn up
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  my nose at you, Diana with another gay laugh. The girls separated,
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  Diana to return to Orchard Slope and to walk to the post office. She
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  found a letter awaiting her there, and when Gilbert Blythe overtook her on the
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  bridge over the Lake of Shining Waters, she was sparkling with the excitement of
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  it. Priscilla Grant is going to Redmond, too, she exclaimed, isn't
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  that splendid? I hoped she would, but she didn't think her father would
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  consent. He has, however, and we're to board together. I feel
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  that I can face an army with banners or all the professors of Redmond in
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  one fell phalanx, with a chum like Priscilla by my side. I think
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  we'll like Kingsport, said Gilbert. It's a nice old burg, they tell
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  me, and has the finest natural park in the world. I've heard that
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  the scenery in it is magnificent. I wonder if it will be can be
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  any more beautiful than this, murmured Anne, looking around her with the loving
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  and raptured eyes of those to whom home must always be the loveliest spot in
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  the world, no matter what fairer lands may lie under alien stars. They
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  were leaning on the bridge of the old pond, drinking deep of the enchantment
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  of the dusk, just at the spot where Anne had climbed from her sinking
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  dory on the day a lane floated down to Camelot. The fine and purpling
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  dye of sunset still stained the western skies, but the moon was rising,
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  and the water lay like a great silver dream. In her light, remembrance
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  wove a sweet and subtle spell over the two young creatures. You're very quiet,
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  Anne, said Gilbert. At last, I'm afraid to speak or move,
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  for fear all this wonderful beauty will vanish, just like a broken silence,
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  breathed Anne. Gilbert suddenly laid his hand over the slender white one lying
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  on the rail of the bridge, His hazel eyes deepened into darkness, his
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  still boyish lips opened to say something of the dream and hope that thrilled his
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  soul. But Anne snatched her hand away and turned quickly. The spell of
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  the dusk was broken for her. I must go home, she exclaimed,
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  with a rather overdone carelessness. Marilla had a headache this afternoon, and I'm
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  sure the twins will be in some dreadful mischief by this time. I really
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  shouldn't have stayed away so long, she chattered ceaselessly, and inconsequently until they
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  reached the Green Gables Lane. Poor Gilbert hardly had a chance to get a
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  word in edgewise. Anne felt rather relieved when they parted. There had been
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  a new secret self consciousness in her heart with regard to Gilbert. Ever since
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  that fleeting moment of revelation in the garden of Echo Lodge, something alien had
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  intruded into the old perfect school day comradeship, something that threatened to mart I
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  never felt glad to see Gilbert go before, she thought, half resentfully,
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  half sorrowfully, as she walked alone up the lane. Our friendship will be
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  spoiled if he goes on with this nonsense. It mustn't be spoiled. I
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  won't let it. Oh, why can't boys be just sensible? Anne had
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  an aneasy doubt that it was not strictly sensible that she should still feel on
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  her hand the warm pressure of Gilbert's as distinctly as she had felt it for
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  the swift second his had rested there, and still less sensible that the sensation
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  was far from being an unpleasant one, very different from that which had intended
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  a similar demonstration on Charlie Sloane's part when she had been sitting out to dance
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  with him at a White Sands party three nights before. Anne shivered over the
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  disagreeable recollection, But all problems connected with infatuated Swains vanished from her mind when
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  she entered the homely, unsentimental atmosphere of the Green Gables kitchen, where an
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  eight year old boy was crying grievously on the sofa. What is the matter,
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  Davy asked Anne, taking him up in her arms. Where are Marilla
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  and Dora? Marilla's putting Dora to bed, sobbed Davy, And I'm crying
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  cause Dora fell down the outside fellers steps. Heeled over her head and scraped
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  all the skin off her nose. And oh, well, don't cry about
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  it, dear. Of course you're sorry for her, but crying won't help
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  her any She'll be all right tomorrow. Crying never helps anyone, Davy boy.
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  And I ain't crying cause Dora fell down, cellar, said Davy,
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  cutting short Anne's well meant preachment with increasing bitterness. I'm crying cause I wasn't
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  there to see her fall. I'm always missing some fun or other, seems
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  to me, Oh, Davy, Anne choked back an unholy shriek of laughter.
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  Would you call it fun to see poor little Dora fall down the steps
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  and get hurt? She wasn't much hurt, said Davy defiantly. Course,
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  if she'd been killed, i'd been real sorry, Anne, But the Keiths
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  ain't so easy killed. They're like the Bluets, I guess her. Bluett
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  fell off the hailoff last Wednesday and rolled right down through the turnip shoot into
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  the box stall where they had a fearful wild cross horse, and rolled right
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  under his heels. And still he got out alive, with only three bones
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  broke. Missus Lynde says, there are some folks you can't kill with a
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  meat axe. Is missus Lynde coming here tomorrow? Anne? Yes, Davy,
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  and I hope you'll be always very nice and good to her. I'll
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  be nice and good. But will she ever put me to bed at nights?
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  Anne? Perhaps? Why? Cauz said Davy very decidedly. If she
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  does, I won't see my prayers before her like I do before you.
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  Anne, Why not? Cause I don't think it will be nice to talk
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  to God before strangers. Anne. Dora can say hers to missus Lynde if
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  she likes, but I won't. I'll wait till she's gone and then say
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  him. Won't that be all right? Anne? Yes? If you're sure
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  you won't forget to say them, Davy, boy, Oh, I won't
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  forget you bet. I think saying my prayers is great fun, but it
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  won't be as good fun saying them alone as saying them to you. I
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  wish you'd stay home, Anne. I don't see what you want to go
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  away and leave us for. I don't exactly want to, Davy, but
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  I feel I ought to go. If you don't want to, you needn't.
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  You're grown up. When I'm grown up, I'm not going to do
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  one single thing I don't want to do, Anne, all your life,
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  Davy, you'll find yourself doing things you don't want to do. I won't,
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  said Davy flatly, catch me. I have to do things I don't
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  want you now, cause you and Marilla'll send me to bed if I don't.
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  But when I grow up, you can't do that, and there'll be
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  nobody to tell me not to do things. Won't I have the time,
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  say Anne? Milty Bolter says. His mother says, you're going to college
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  to see if you can catch a man? Are you, Anne? I
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  wanna know? For a second, Anne burned with resentment, Then she laughed,
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  reminding herself that missus Bolter's crude, vulgarity of thought and speech could not
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  harm her. No, Davy, I'm not. I'm going to study and
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  grow and learn about many things. Want things shoes and ships and sealing,
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  wax and cabbages and kings, quoted Anne. But if you did want to
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  catch a man, how would you go about it? I want to know,
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  persisted Davy, for whom the subject evidently possessed a certain fascination. You'd
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  better ask, missus Bolter, said Anne thoughtlessly. I think it's likely she
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  knows more about the process than I do. I will next time I see
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  her, said Davy gravely. Davy, if you do, cried Anne,
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  realizing her mistake. But you just told me two, protested Davy, aggrieved,
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  It's time he went to bed, decreed Anne by way of getting out
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  of the scrape. After Davy had gone to bed, Anne wandered down to
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  Victoria Island and sat there alone, curtained with fine spun moonlit gloom, while
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  the water laughed around her in a duet of brook and wind. Anne had
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  always loved that brook. Many a dream had she spun over with sparkling water.
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  In days gone by. She forgot lovelorn youths, and the Cayenne speeches
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  of malicious neighbors, and all the problems of her girlish existence. In imagination,
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  she sailed over storied seas that washed the distant shining shores of fairy lands
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  forlorn, where lost Atlantis and Elysium lie with the evening star for pilot,
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  to the land of heart's desire. And she was richer in those dreams than
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  in realities. For things seen pass away, but the things that are unseen
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  are eternal. End of chapter one and chapter two Garlands of Autumn. The
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  following week sped swiftly, crowded with innumerable last things, as Anne called them.
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  Good Bye calls had to be made and received, being pleasant or otherwise,
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  according to whether callers and called upon were heartily in sympathy with Anne's hopes
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  or thought she was too much puffed up over going to college and that it
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  was their duty to take her down a peg or two. The Aviis gave
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  a farewell party in honor of Anne and Gilbert one evening at the home of
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  Josie Pye, choosing that place partly because mister Pye's house was large and convenient,
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  partly because it was strongly suspected that the Pie Girls would have nothing to
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  do with the affair if their offer of the house for the party was not
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  accepted. It was a very pleasant little time, for the Pie Girls were
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  gracious and said and did nothing to mar the harmony of the occasion, which
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  was not according to their wont Josie was unusually amiable, so much so that
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  she even remarked condescendingly to Anne, your new dress is rather becoming to you.
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  Anne, Really, you look almost pretty in it. How kind of
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  you to say, so, responded Anne with dancing eyes. Her sense of
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  humor was developing, and the speeches that would have hurt her at fourteen were
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  becoming merely food for amusement. Now. Josie suspected that Anne was laughing at
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  her behind those wicked eyes, but she contented herself with whispering to Gerty as
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  they went downstairs, that Anne Shirley would put on more airs than ever now
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  that she was going to college. You'd see all the old crowd was there,
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  full of mirth and zest and youthful light heartedness. Diana Barry rosy and
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  dimpled, shadowed by the faithful Fred. Jane Andrews neat and sensible and plain.
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  Rube looking her handsomest and brightest in a cream's silk blouse with red geraniums
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  in her golden hair. Gilbert Blythe and Charlie Sloane, both trying to keep
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  as near the elusive Anne as possible. Carrie Sloane looking pale and melancholy,
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  because, so it was reported, her father would not allow Oliver Kimball to
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  come near the place. Moody Spurgeon mac Pherson, whose round face and objectionable
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  ears, were as round and objectionable as ever, and Billy Andrews, who
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  sat in a corner all the evening, chuckled when any one spoke to him,
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  and watched Anne Shirley with a grin of pleasure on his broad, freckled
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  countenance. Anne had known beforehand of the party, but she had not known
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  that she and Gilbert were, as the founders of the society, to be
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  presented with a very complimentary address and tokens of respect, in her case,
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  a volume of Shakespeare's plays in Gilbert's A Fountain Pen. She was so taken
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  by surprise and pleased by the nice things said in the address, read in
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  Moody Spurgeon's most solemn and ministerial tones, that the tears quite drowned the sparkle
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  of her big gray eyes. She had worked hard and faithfully for the Aviis,
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  and it warmed the cockles of her heart that the members appreciated her efforts
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  so sincerely, and they were all so nice and friendly and jolly. Even
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  the pie girls had their merits. At that moment, Anne loved all the
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  world. She enjoyed the evening tremendously, but the end of it rather spoiled
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  all Gilbert again made the mistake of saying something sentimental to her as they ate
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  their supper on the moonlit veranda, and Anne, to punish him, was
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  gracious to Charlie Sloane and allowed the latter to walk home with her. She
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  found, however, that revenge hurts nobody quite so much as the one who
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  tries to inflict it. Gilbert walked airily off with Ruby Gillis, and Anne
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  could hear them laughing and talking gaily as they loitered along in the still crisp
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  autumn air. They were evidently having the best of good times, while she
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  was horribly bored by Charlie Sloane, who talked unbrokenly on and never, even
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  by accident, said one thing that was worth listening to. Anne gave an
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  occasional absent yes or no, and thought how beautiful Ruby had looked that night,
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  how very goggly Charley's eyes were in the moonlight, worse even than by
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  daylight, and that the world somehow wasn't quite such a nice place as she
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  had believed it to be earlier in the evening. I am just tired out,
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  that is what is the matter with me, she said, when she
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  thankfully found herself alone in her own room, and she honestly believed it was,
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  but a certain little gush of joy, as from some secret, unknown
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  spring, bubbled up in her heart the next evening when she saw Gilbert striding
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  down through the Haunted wood and crossing the old log bridge with that firm quick
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  step of his. So Gilbert was not going to spend this last evening with
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  Ruby Gillis. After all, you look tired, Anne, he said,
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  I am tired, and worse than that, I'm disgruntled. I'm tired because
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  I've been packing my trunk and sewing all day. But I'm disgruntled because six
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  women have been here to say good bye to me, and every one of
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  the six managed to say something that seemed to take the color right out of
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  life and leave it as gray and dismal and cheerless as a November morning.
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  Spiteful old cats, was Gilbert's elegant comment. Oh no, they weren't,
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  said Anne. Seriously, that is just the trouble. If they had been
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  spiteful cats, I wouldn't have minded them. But they are all nice,
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  kind, motherly souls who like me and whom I like, And that is
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  why what they said more hinted had such undue weight with me. They let
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  me see they thought I was crazy going to Redmond and trying to take a
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  b A and ever since I've been wondering if I am. Missus Peter Sloane
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  sighed and said she hoped my strength would hold out till I got through,
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  and at once I saw myself a hopeless victim of nervous prostration. At the
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  end of my third year, Missus eben Wright said it must caused an awful
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  lot to put in four years at Redmond, and I felt all over me
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  that it was unpardonable of me to squander Marilla's money and my own on such
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  a folly. Missus Jasper Bell said she hoped I wouldn't let college spoil me
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  as it did some people. And I felt in my bones that the end
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  of my four Redmond years would see me a most insufferable creature, thinking I
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  knew it all, and looking down on everything and everybody in Avonlea. Missus
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  Elisha Writes said she understood that Redmond girls, especially those who belonged to Kingsport,
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  were dreadfully dressy and stuck up, and she guessed I wouldn't feel much
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  at home among them, and I saw myself a snubbed, dowdy, humiliated
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  country girl shuffling through Redman's classic halls and copper toned boots. Anne ended with
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  a laugh and a psycommingled with her sensitive nature. All disapproval had waited,
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  even the disapproval of those for whose opinion she had scant respect. For the
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  time being, life was savorless and ambition had gone out like a snuffed candle.
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  You surely don't care for what they said, protested Gilbert. You know
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  exactly how narrow their outlook on life is. Excellent creatures, though they are
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  to do anything they have never done is anathema. Maranatha, you are the
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  first Avonlea girl who has ever gone to college, and you know that all
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  pioneers are considered to be afflicted with moonstruck madness. Oh, I know,
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  but feeling is so different from knowing. My common sense tells me all you
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  can say. But there are times when common sense has no power over me.
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  Common nonsense takes possession of my soul. Really, after missus Elisha went
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  away, I hardly had the heart to finish packing. You're just tired,
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  Anne, Come forget it all, and take a walk with me, a
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  ramble back through the woods beyond the marsh. There should be something there I
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  want to show you should be don't you know if it is there? No,
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  I only know it should be from something I saw there in spring.
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  Come on, we'll pretend we are two children again, and will go the
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  way of the wind. They started gaily off. Anne, remembering the unpleasantness
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  of the preceding evening, was very nice to Gilbert, and Gilbert, who
• 20:56
  was learning wisdom, took care to be nothing save the school boy comrade again.
• 21:00
  Missus Lynde and Marilla watched them from the kitchen window. That'll be a
• 21:03
  match some day, missus Lynde said, approvingly. Marilla winced slightly in her
• 21:08
  heart. She hoped it would, but it went against her grain to hear
• 21:11
  the matter spoken of in missus Lynde's gossipy, matter of fact way. They're
• 21:15
  only children yet, she said shortly. Missus Lynde laughed good naturedly. Anne
• 21:21
  is eighteen. I was married when I was that age. We old folks,
• 21:23
  Marilla, are too much given to thinking children never grow up. That's
• 21:26
  what Anne is a young woman, and Gilbert's a man and he worships the
• 21:30
  ground she walks on. As any one can see. He's a fine fellow
• 21:34
  and Anne can't do better. I hope she won't get any romantic nonsense into
• 21:38
  her head at Redmond. I don't approve of them coeducational places, and never
• 21:41
  did. That's what I don't believe, concluded Missus Lynde solemnly, that the
• 21:47
  students at such colleges ever do much else than flirt. They must study a
• 21:51
  little, said Marilla with a smile. Precious little, sniffed Missus Rachel.
• 21:55
  However, I think Anne will. She never was flirtatious, but she does
• 22:00
  and appreciate Gilbert at his full value. That's what oh I know. Girls.
• 22:03
  Charlie Sloane is wild about her too, but I'd never advise her to
• 22:06
  marry a Sloane. The Sloanes are good, honest, respectable people, of
• 22:10
  course, but when all said and done, they're Sloanes. Marilla nodded to
• 22:15
  an outsider. The statement that Sloanes were Sloanes might not be very illuminating,
• 22:18
  but she understood every village has such a family. Good honest, respectable people
• 22:25
  they may be, but Sloanes they are, and must ever remain, though
• 22:27
  they speak with the tongues of men and angels. Gilbert and Anne, happily
• 22:33
  unconscious that their future was thus being settled by Missus Rachel, were sauntering through
• 22:37
  the shadows of the haunted wood. Beyond the harvest hills were basking in an
• 22:41
  amber sunset radiance under a pale aerial sky of rose and blue. The distant
• 22:47
  spruce groves were burnished bronze, and their long shadows barred the upland meadows.
• 22:52
  But around them a little wind sang among the fir tassels, and in it
• 22:56
  there was the note of autumn. This wood really is haunted by old memories,
• 23:00
  said Anne, stooping to gather a spray of ferns bleached to waxen whiteness
• 23:06
  by frost. It seems to me that the little girls Diana and I used
• 23:08
  to be play here still and sit by the dryad's bubble in the twilights,
• 23:12
  trysting with the ghosts. Do you know I can never go up this path
• 23:17
  in the dusk without feeling a bit of the old frightened shiver. There was
• 23:21
  one especially horrifying phantom which we created, the ghost of the murdered child that
• 23:26
  crept up behind you and laid cold fingers on yours. I confess that to
• 23:30
  this day I cannot help fancying its little furtive footsteps behind me when I come
• 23:33
  here after nightfall. I am not afraid of the white lady, or the
• 23:37
  headless man, or the skeletons. But I wish I had never imagined that
• 23:41
  baby's ghost into existence. How angry Marilla and missus Barry were over that affair,
• 23:47
  concluded Anne, with reminiscent laughter. The woods around the head of the
• 23:51
  marsh were full of purple vistas threaded with gossamers, past a doer plantation of
• 23:56
  gnarled spruces, and a maple fringed sun warm valley. They found this something
• 24:00
  Gilbert was looking for. Ah, here it is, he said, with
• 24:03
  satisfaction. An apple tree and away back here, exclaimed Anne delightedly. Yes,
• 24:11
  a veritable apple burying apple tree too, here in the very midst of
• 24:14
  pines and beeches, a mile away from any orchard. I was here one
• 24:18
  day last spring and found it all white with blossom. So I resolved i'd
• 24:22
  come again in the fall and see if it had been apples. See it's
• 24:23
  loaded. They look good too, tawny as russets, but with a dusty
• 24:27
  red cheek. Most wild seedlings are green and uninviting. I suppose it sprang
• 24:33
  years ago from some chance own seed, said Anne dreamily. And how it
• 24:37
  has grown and flourished and held its own here, all alone among aliens,
• 24:41
  the brave, determined thing. Here's a fallen tree with a cushion of moss.
• 24:45
  Sit down, Anne, it will serve for a woodland throne. I'll
• 24:48
  climb for some apples. They all grow high. The tree had to reach
• 24:52
  up to the sunlight. The apples proved to be delicious. Under the tawny
• 24:56
  skin was a white white flesh, faintly vain with red, and besides their
• 25:00
  own proper apple taste, they had a certain, wild, delightful tang.
• 25:04
  No orchard grown apple, ever possessed the fatal apple of Eden, couldn't have
• 25:10
  had a rarer flavor, commented Anne. But it's time we were going home.
• 25:14
  See it was twilight three minutes ago, and now it's moonlight. What
• 25:18
  a pity. We couldn't have caught the moment of transformation. But such moments
• 25:22
  never are caught. I suppose let's go back around the marsh and home by
• 25:25
  way of Lover's Lane. Do you feel as disgruntled now as when you started
• 25:29
  out? Anne? Not, I those apples have been his manner to a
• 25:32
  hungry soul. I feel that I shall love Redmond and have a splendid four
• 25:36
  years there, and after those four years what Oh, there's another bend in
• 25:40
  the road at their end, answered Anne lightly. I've no idea what may
• 25:44
  be around it. I don't want to have. It's nicer not to know.
• 25:48
  Lover's Lane was a dear place that night, still and mysteriously dim in
• 25:52
  the pale radiance of the moonlight. They loitered through it in a pleasant,
• 25:56
  chummy silence, neither caring to talk. If Gilbert were always as he has
• 26:00
  been this evening, how nice and simple everything would be, reflected Anne.
• 26:04
  Gilbert was looking at Anne as she walked along in her light dress. With
• 26:08
  her slender delicacy, she made him think of a white iris. I wonder
• 26:14
  if I can ever make her care for me, he thought, with a
• 26:15
  pang of self distrust. End of Chapter two, Chapter three, Greeting and
• 26:22
  farewell, Charlie, Sloane, Gilbert, Blythe and Anne Shirley left Avonlea the
• 26:27
  following Monday, morning. Anne had hoped for a fine day. Diana was
• 26:32
  to drive her to the station, and they wanted this their last drive together
• 26:34
  for some time, to be a pleasant one. But when Anne went to
• 26:37
  bed Sunday night, the east wind was moaning around Green Gables with an ominous
• 26:42
  prophecy, which was fulfilled. In the morning, Anne awoke to find raindrops
• 26:47
  pattering against her window and shadowing the pond's gray surface with widening rings. Hills
• 26:52
  and sea were hidden in mist, and the whole world seemed dim and dreary.
• 26:57
  Anne dressed in the cheerless gray dawn for an early start was necessary to
• 27:02
  catch the boat train. She struggled against the tears that would well up in
• 27:04
  her eyes. In spite of herself. She was leaving the home that was
• 27:08
  so dear to her, and something told her that she was leaving it forever,
• 27:11
  save as a holiday refuge. Things would never be the same again,
• 27:17
  coming back for vacations, would not be living there. And oh, how
• 27:21
  dear and beloved everything was that little white porch room sacred to the dreams of
• 27:25
  girlhood. The old snow queen at the window, the brook in the hollow,
• 27:30
  the dryad's bubble, the haunted woods and Lovers Lane, all the thousand
• 27:33
  and one dear spots where memories of the old years bided. Could she ever
• 27:37
  be really happy anywhere else? Breakfast at green Gables that morning was a rather
• 27:42
  doleful meal. Davy, for the first time in his life, probably could
• 27:47
  not eat, but blubbered shamelessly over his porridge. Nobody else seemed to have
• 27:51
  much appetite save Dora, who tucked away her rations comfortably. Dora, like
• 27:56
  the immortal and most prudent Charlotte, who went on cutting breadas butter when her
• 28:00
  frenzied lover's body had been carried past on a shutter, was one of those
• 28:03
  fortunate creatures who are seldom disturbed by anything. Even at eight. It took
• 28:08
  a great deal to ruffle Dora's plcidity. She was sorry Anne was going away,
• 28:12
  of course, but was that any reason why she should fail to appreciate
• 28:15
  a poached egg on toast, not at all, And seeing that Davy could
• 28:18
  not eat his, Dora ate it for him promptly. On time, Diana
• 28:22
  appeared with horse and buggy, her rosy face glowing above her raincoat. The
• 28:27
  goodbyes had to be said, then, somehow missus Lynde came in from her
• 28:30
  quarters to give Anne a hearty embrace and warn her to be careful of her
• 28:33
  health whatever she did. Marilla, brusque and tearless, pecked Anne's cheek and
• 28:38
  said she supposed they'd hear from her when she got settled. A casual observer
• 28:42
  might have concluded that Anne's going mattered very little to her, unless said observer
• 28:47
  had happened to get a good look in her eyes. Dora kissed Anne primly
• 28:52
  and squeezed out two decorous little tears. But Davy, who had been crying
• 28:56
  on the back porch step ever since they rose from the table, refused to
• 28:59
  say goodbye at all. When he saw Anne coming towards him, he sprang
• 29:02
  to his feet, bolted up the back stairs, and hid in a clothes
• 29:04
  closet, out of which he would not come. His muffled howls were the
• 29:08
  last sounds Anne heard as she left Green Gables. It rained heavily all the
• 29:14
  way to Bright River, to which station they had to go, since the
• 29:15
  branch line trained from Carmody did not connect with the boat train. Charley and
• 29:19
  Gilbert were on the station platform when they reached it, and the train was
• 29:23
  whistling. Anne had just time to get her ticket and trunk check, say
• 29:26
  a hurried farewell to Diana, and hasten on board. She wished she were
• 29:30
  going back with Diana to Avonlea. She knew she was going to die of
• 29:33
  home sickness, and oh, if only that dismal rain would stop pouring down,
• 29:37
  as if the whole world were weeping over, Summer vanished and joys departed.
• 29:41
  Even Gilbert's presence brought her no comfort, for Charley Sloane was there too,
• 29:47
  and slownishness could be tolerated only in fine weather. It was absolutely insufferable
• 29:52
  in rain. But when the boat steamed out of Charlottetown Harbor, things took
• 29:56
  a turn for the better. The rain ceased, and the sun began to
• 29:59
  burst out goldenly now and again between the rents and the clouds, burnishing the
• 30:03
  gray seas with copper hued radiance, and lighting up the mists that curtained the
• 30:07
  island's red shores with gleams of gold, foretokening a fine day after all.
• 30:11
  Besides, Charley Sloane promptly became so seasick that he had to go below,
• 30:15
  and Anne and Gilbert were left alone on deck. I am very glad that
• 30:18
  all Sloanes get seasick as soon as they go on water, thought Anne mercilessly.
• 30:23
  I am sure I couldn't take my farewell. Look at the old sod
• 30:26
  with Charlie standing there, pretending to look sentimentally at it too. Well,
• 30:30
  we're off, remarked Gilbert unsentimentally. Yes, I feel like Byron's child Harold.
• 30:37
  Only it isn't really my native shore that I'm watching, said Anne,
• 30:38
  winking her gray eyes vigorously. Nova Scotia's that, I suppose. But one's
• 30:44
  native shore is the land one loves the best. And that's good, old
• 30:47
  p E I for me, I can't believe I didn't always live here.
• 30:51
  Those eleven years before I came seem like a bad dream. It's seven years
• 30:55
  since I crossed on this boat the evening Missus Spencer brought me over from Hopetown.
• 30:59
  I can see myself in that dreadful old wincey dress and faded sailor hat,
• 31:03
  exploring decks and cabins with enraptured curiosity. It was a fine evening,
• 31:07
  and how those red Island shores did gleam in the sunshine. Now I'm crossing
• 31:12
  the strait again, Oh Gilbert. I do hope I'll like Redmond and Kingsport,
• 31:17
  but I'm sure I won't. Where's all your philosophy gone, Anne,
• 31:21
  It's all submerged under a great swamping wave of loneliness, a homesickness. I've
• 31:26
  longed for three years to go to Redmond, and now I'm going, and
• 31:30
  I wish I weren't. Never mind, I shall be cheerful and philosophical again,
• 31:34
  after I have just one good cry. I must have that as a
• 31:37
  went, and I'll have to wait until I get into my boarding house bed
• 31:41
  tonight, wherever it may be, before I can have it. Then Anne
• 31:44
  will be herself again. I wonder if Davy has come out of the closet
• 31:47
  yet. It was nine that night when their train reached Kingsport and they found
• 31:52
  themselves in the blue white glare of the crowded station. Anne felt horribly bewildered,
• 31:56
  but a moment later she was seized by Priscilla Grant, who had come
• 32:00
  to Kingsport on Saturday. Here you are, beloved, and I suppose you're
• 32:02
  as tired as I was when I got here Saturday night. Tired, Priscilla,
• 32:07
  don't talk of it. I'm tired and green and provincial and only about
• 32:10
  ten years old. For pity's sake, take your poor broken down chum to
• 32:15
  some place where she can hear herself. Think I'll take you right up to
• 32:17
  our boarding house. I've a cab ready outside. It's such a blessing you're
• 32:22
  here, Prissy. If you weren't, I think I should just sit down
• 32:24
  on my suit case here and now and weep bitter tears. What a comfort
• 32:29
  unfamiliar face is in a howling wilderness of strangers? Is that Gilbert Blake over
• 32:34
  there? Anne? How he has grown up this past year. He was
• 32:37
  only a schoolboy when I taught in Carmody. And of course that's Charlie Sloane.
• 32:40
  He hasn't changed, couldn't. He looked just like that when he was
• 32:44
  born, and he'll look like that when he's eighty. This way, dear,
• 32:47
  we'll be home in twenty minutes. Home, groaned Anne. You mean
• 32:51
  we'll be in some horrible boarding house and a still more horrible hall bedroom looking
• 32:55
  out on a dingy back yard. It isn't a horrible boarding house, Anne.
• 33:00
  Here's our cab. Hop in The driver will get your trunk. Oh,
• 33:02
  yes, the boarding house. It's really a very nice place of its
• 33:06
  kind, as you'll admit tomorrow morning, when a good night's sleep has turned
• 33:08
  your blues rosy pink. It's a big, old fashioned gray stone house on
• 33:14
  Saint John Street, just a nice little constitutional from Redmond. It used to
• 33:17
  be the residence of great folk, but fashion has deserted Saint John Street and
• 33:22
  its houses only dream now of better days. They're so big that people living
• 33:25
  in them have to take boarders just to fill up. At least that is
• 33:29
  the reason our landladies are very anxious to impress on us. They're delicious,
• 33:32
  Anne, our landladies. I mean, how many are there? Two?
• 33:37
  Miss Hannah Harvey and Miss Ada Harvey. They were born twins about fifty years
• 33:40
  ago. I can't get away from twins, it seems smiled, Anne.
• 33:45
  Wherever I go, they confront me. Oh they're not twins now, dear.
• 33:49
  After they reached the age of thirty, there were never twins again.
• 33:52
  Miss Hannah has grown old, not too gracefully, and Miss Ada has stayed
• 33:55
  thirty less gracefully. Still. I don't know whether Miss Hannah can smile or
• 34:00
  not. I have never caught her at it so far, But miss Ada
• 34:02
  smiles all the time, and that's worse. However, they're nice kind souls,
• 34:07
  and they take two borders every year because Miss Hannah's economical soul cannot bear
• 34:12
  to waste room space, not because they need to or have to, as
• 34:15
  miss Ada has told me seven times since Saturday night. As for our rooms,
• 34:19
  I admit they are hall bedrooms, and mine does look out on the
• 34:22
  back yard. Your room is a front one and looks out on Old Saint
• 34:25
  John's Graveyard, which is just across the street. That sounds gruesome, shivered,
• 34:30
  Anne. I think I'd rather have the back yard view. Oh no,
• 34:34
  you wouldn't. Wait and see. Old Saint John's is a darling place.
• 34:37
  It's been a graveyard so long that it ceased to be one and has
• 34:39
  become one of the sights of Kingsport. I was all through it yesterday for
• 34:44
  a pleasure exertion. There's a big stone wall and a row of enormous trees
• 34:47
  all around it, and rows of trees all through it, and the queerest
• 34:51
  old tombstones with the queerest and quaintest inscriptions. You'll go there to study,
• 34:54
  Anne, see if you don't of course, nobody has ever buried there now,
• 34:59
  but a few years ago they put up a beautiful monument to the memory
• 35:01
  of Nova Scotian soldiers who fell in the Crimean War. It is just opposite
• 35:06
  the entrance gates and their scope for imagination in it. As you used to
• 35:09
  say, here's your trunk at last, and the boy's coming to say good
• 35:13
  night. Must I really shake hands with Charlie Sloane, Anne, His hands
• 35:16
  are always so cold and fishy feeling. We must ask him to call occasionally.
• 35:21
  Miss Hannah gravely told me we could have young gentlemen callers two evenings in
• 35:24
  the week if they went away at a reasonable hour. And Miss Ada asked
• 35:28
  me, smiling, please to be sure they didn't sit on her beautiful cushions.
• 35:31
  I promise to see to it. But Goodness knows where else they can
• 35:35
  sit unless they sit on the floor, for there are cushions on everything.
• 35:38
  Miss Ada even has an elaborate Battenburg one on top of the piano. Anne
• 35:43
  was laughing. By this time. Priscilla's gay chatter had the intended effect of
• 35:46
  cheering her up. Home. Sickness vanished for the time being, and did
• 35:51
  not even return in full force. When she finally found herself alone in her
• 35:53
  little bedroom, she went to her window and looked out. The street below
• 35:58
  was dim and quiet. Across that the moon was shining above the trees,
• 36:00
  and Old Saint John's just behind the great dark head of the lion on the
• 36:05
  monument. Anne wondered if it could have been only that morning that she had
• 36:08
  left green Gables. She had the sense of a long passage of time which
• 36:12
  one day of change and travel gives. I suppose that very moon is looking
• 36:15
  down on green Gables now, she mused. But I won't think about it
• 36:20
  that way. Homesickness lies. I'm not even going to have my good crime.
• 36:23
  I'll put that off to a more convenient season, And just now I'll
• 36:28
  go calmly and sensibly to bed and to sleep. End of chapter three and
• 36:32
  chapter four. April's Lady Kingsbert is a quaint old town, HARKing back to
• 36:38
  early colonial days, and wrapped in its ancient atmosphere as some fine old dame
• 36:43
  in garments fashioned like those of her youth. Here and there it sprouts out
• 36:46
  into modernity, but at heart it is still unspoiled. It is full of
• 36:51
  curious relics and haloed by the romance of many legends of the past. Once
• 36:55
  it was a mere frontier station on the fringe of the wilderness, and those
• 37:00
  were the days when Indians kept life from being monotonous to the settlers. Then
• 37:04
  it grew to be a bone of contention between the British and the French,
• 37:07
  being occupied now by the one and now by the other, emerging from each
• 37:10
  occupation with some fresh scar of battling nations branded on it. It has in
• 37:15
  its park a martello tower autographed all over by tourists, a dismantled old French
• 37:21
  fort on the hills beyond the town, and several antiquated cannon in its public
• 37:24
  squares. It has other historic spots also, which may be hunted out by
• 37:30
  the curious. And none is more quaint and delightful than Old Saint John's Cemetery,
• 37:34
  at the very core of the town, with streets of quiet old time
• 37:37
  houses on two sides and busy, bustling modern thoroughfares on the others. Every
• 37:43
  citizen of Kingsport feels a thrill of possessive pride in Old Saint John's, for
• 37:47
  if he be of any pretensions at all, he has an ancestor buried there
• 37:51
  with a queer crooked slab at his head, or else sprawling protectively over the
• 37:54
  grave, on which all the main facts of his history are recorded. For
• 38:00
  the most part, no great art or skill was lavished on those to old
• 38:02
  tombstones. The larger number are of roughly chiseled brown or gray native stone,
• 38:07
  and only in a few cases is there any attempt at ornamentation. Some are
• 38:13
  adorned with skull and crossbones, and this grisly decoration is frequently coupled with a
• 38:16
  cherub's head. Many are prostrate and in ruins. Into almost all times,
• 38:22
  tooth has been gnawing, until some inscriptions have been completely effaced, and others
• 38:27
  can only be deciphered with difficulty. The graveyard is very full and very bowery,
• 38:31
  for it is surrounded and intersected by rows of elms and willows, beneath
• 38:36
  whose shade the sleepers must lie, very dreamlessly, forever crooned to by the
• 38:39
  winds and leaves over them, and quite undisturbed by the clamor of traffic.
• 38:44
  Just beyond. Anne took the first of many rambles in Old Saint John's.
• 38:49
  The next afternoon, she and Priscilla had gone to Redmond in the forenoon and
• 38:52
  registered to students, after which there was nothing more to do that day.
• 38:55
  The girls gladly made their escape, for it was not exhilarating today be surrounded
• 39:00
  by crowds of strangers, most of whom had a rather alien appearance, as
• 39:04
  if not quite sure where they belonged. The freshet stood about in detached groups
• 39:08
  of two or three, looking askance at each other. The Freshees, wiser
• 39:13
  in their day in generation, had bounded themselves together on the big staircase at
• 39:16
  the entrance hall, where they were shouting out gleaes with all the vigor of
• 39:20
  youthful lungs, as a species of defiance to their traditional enemies, the sophomores,
• 39:24
  a few of whom were prowling loftily about, looking properly disdainful of the
• 39:29
  unlicked cubs on the stairs. Gilbert and Charley were nowhere to be seen.
• 39:34
  Little did I think the day would ever come when I'd be glad at the
• 39:37
  sight of a sloane, said Priscilla as they crossed the campus. But I'd
• 39:39
  welcome Charlie's goggle eyes almost ecstatically. At least they'd be familiar eyes, Oh,
• 39:45
  sighed Anne. I can't describe how I felt when I was standing there,
• 39:49
  waiting my turn to be registered as insignificant as the teeniest drop in a
• 39:52
  most enormous bucket. It's bad enough to feel insignificant, but it's unbearable to
• 39:58
  have it grained into your soul. The you will never can, never be
• 40:01
  anything but insignificant. And that is how I did feel. As if I
• 40:05
  were invisible to the naked eye, and some of those softs might step on
• 40:08
  me. I knew I would go down to my grave, unwept, unhonored,
• 40:12
  and unsung. Wait till next year, comforted Priscilla. Then we'll be
• 40:16
  able to look as bored and sophisticated as any sophomore of them all. No
• 40:20
  doubt, it is rather dreadful to feel insignificant, But I think it's better
• 40:23
  than to feel as big and awkward as I did, as if I were
• 40:27
  sprawled all over Redmond. That's how I felt. I suppose because I was
• 40:30
  a good two inches taller than any one else in the crowd, I wasn't
• 40:35
  afraid a soft might walk over me. I was afraid they'd take me for
• 40:37
  an elephant or an overgrown sample of a potato fed islander. I suppose the
• 40:42
  trouble is we can't forgive big Redmond for not being little Queens, said Anne,
• 40:46
  gathering about her the shreds of her old cheerful philosophy to cover her nakedness
• 40:51
  of spirit. When we left Queen's, we knew everybody and had a place
• 40:54
  of our own. I suppose we have been unconsciously expecting to take life up
• 40:59
  at Redmond just where we left off at Queen's, and now we feel as
• 41:02
  if the ground had slipped from under our feet. I'm thankful that neither missus
• 41:07
  Lynde nor missus Elisha Wright know or ever will know my state of mind at
• 41:10
  present. They would exult in saying I told you so, and be convinced
• 41:14
  it was the beginning of the end, whereas it is just the end of
• 41:17
  the beginning exactly That sounds more anish. In a little while will be acclimated
• 41:23
  and acquainted, and all will be well. Anne, did you notice the
• 41:27
  girl who stood alone just outside the door of the ko Ed's dressing room all
• 41:30
  morning, the pretty one with the brown eyes and crooked mouth. Yes I
• 41:35
  did. I noticed her, particularly because she seemed the only creature there who
• 41:38
  looked as lonely and friendless as I felt. I had you, but she
• 41:43
  had no one. I think she felt pretty all by her selfish too.
• 41:46
  Several times I saw her make a motion as if to cross over to us,
• 41:50
  but she never did it. Too shy, I suppose I wished she
• 41:52
  would come. If I hadn't felt so much like the aforesaid elephant, I'd
• 41:55
  have gone to her, but I couldn't lumber across that big hall with all
• 42:00
  those boys howling on the stairs. She was the prettiest fuschet I saw to
• 42:04
  day, But probably favor is deceitful, and even beauty is vain. On
• 42:07
  your first day at Redmond, concluded Priscilla with a laugh. I'm going across
• 42:12
  to Old Saint John's after lunch, said Anne. I don't know that a
• 42:15
  graveyard is a very good place to go to get cheered up, but it
• 42:17
  seems the only get adible place where there are trees, and trees I must
• 42:21
  have. I'll sit on one of those old slabs and shut my eyes and
• 42:24
  imagine I'm in the Avonlea woods. Anne did not do that, however,
• 42:28
  for she found enough of interest in Old Saint John's to keep her eyes wide
• 42:31
  open. They went in by the entrance gates, past the simple, massive
• 42:36
  stone arch, surmounted by the great Lion of England, and on Inkerman.
• 42:39
  Yet the wild bramble is gory, and those bleak heights henceforth shall be famous
• 42:45
  in story quoted Anne, looking at it with a thrill, They found themselves
• 42:49
  in a dim, cool, green place, where winds were fond of purring
• 42:53
  up and down the long grassy aisles. They wandered, weeding the quaint,
• 42:58
  voluminous epitaphs carved in an age that had more leisure than our own. Here
• 43:02
  live the body of Albert Crawford, a squire read Anne from a worn gray
• 43:07
  slab. For many years, keeper of his Majesty's ordinance at Kingsport. He
• 43:10
  served in the army till the Peace of seventeen sixty three, when he retired
• 43:15
  from bad health. He was a brave officer, the best of husbands,
• 43:19
  the best of fathers, the best of friends. He died October twenty ninth,
• 43:22
  seventeen ninety two, aged eighty four years. There's an epitaph for you,
• 43:27
  prissy. There is certainly some scope for imagination in it. How full
• 43:31
  such a life must have been of adventure, and as for his personal qualities,
• 43:36
  I am sure human eulogy couldn't go further. I wonder if they told
• 43:39
  him he was all those best things while he was alive. Here's another,
• 43:44
  said Priscilla. Listen to the memory of Alexander Ross, who died on the
• 43:47
  twenty second of September eighteen forty, aged forty three years. This is raised
• 43:52
  as a tribute of affection by one whom he served so faithfully for twenty seven
• 43:57
  years, that he was regarded as a friend deserving the fullest confidence and attachment.
• 44:01
  A very good epitaph, commented Anne thoughtfully. I couldn't wish a better
• 44:06
  We are all servants of some sort, and if the fact that we are
• 44:08
  faithful can be truthfully inscribed on our tombstones, nothing more need be added.
• 44:14
  Here's a sorrowful, little graystone, Prissy, to the memory of a favorite
• 44:17
  child. And here is another erected to the memory of one who is buried
• 44:22
  elsewhere. I wonder where that unknown grave is really, PRIs The graveyards of
• 44:28
  to day will never be as interesting as this. You were right. I
• 44:30
  shall come here often. I love it already. I see we are not
• 44:35
  alone here there's a girl down at the end of this avenue. Yes,
• 44:38
  and I believe it's the very girl we saw at Redmond this morning. I've
• 44:42
  been watching her for five minutes. She has started to come up the avenue
• 44:45
  exactly half a dozen times, and half a dozen times she has turned and
• 44:49
  gone back. Either she's dreadfully shy, or she has got something on her
• 44:52
  conscience. Let's go and meet her. It's easier to get acquainted in a
• 44:55
  graveyard than at Redmond. I believe. They walk down the lawn long grassy
• 45:00
  arcade towards the stranger, who was sitting on a gray slab under an enormous
• 45:04
  willow. She was certainly very pretty, with a vivid, irregular, bewitching
• 45:07
  type of prettiness. There was a gloss as of brown nuts on her satin
• 45:12
  smooth hair and a soft ripe glow on her round cheeks. Her eyes were
• 45:15
  big and brown and velvety under oddly pointed black brows, and her crooked mouth
• 45:21
  was rose red. She wore a smart brown suit with two very modish little
• 45:25
  shoes peeping from beneath it, and her hat of dull pink straw wreathed with
• 45:30
  golden brown poppies had the indefinable, unmistakable air which pertains to the creation of
• 45:36
  an artist in millinery. Priscilla had a sudden stinging consciousness that her own hat
• 45:40
  had been trimmed by her village store milliner, and Anne wondered uncomfortably if the
• 45:45
  blow she had made herself, and which missus Lynde had fitted looked very countrified
• 45:49
  and home made beside the stranger's smart attire. For a moment, both girls
• 45:52
  felt like turning back, but they had already stopped and turned towards the gray
• 45:57
  slab. It was too late to retreat, for the brown eyed girl had
• 46:00
  evidently concluded that they were coming to speak to her. Instantly, she sprang
• 46:04
  up and came forward with outstretched hand and a gay, friendly smile in which
• 46:07
  there seemed not a shadow of either shyness or burdened conscience. Oh, I
• 46:12
  ought to know who you two girls are, she exclaimed eagerly. I've been
• 46:15
  dying to know. I saw you at Redmond this morning. Say, wasn't
• 46:19
  it awful there? For the time I wished I had stayed home and got
• 46:22
  married. Anne and Priscilla both broke into unconstrained laughter at this unexpected conclusion.
• 46:27
  The brown eyed girl laughed too. I really did. I could have.
• 46:30
  You know, Come, let's all sit down on this gravestone and get acquainted.
• 46:34
  It won't be hard. I know we're going to adore each other.
• 46:37
  I knew it as soon as I saw you at Redmond this morning. I
• 46:39
  wanted so much to go right over and hug you both. Why didn't you,
• 46:43
  asked Priscilla. Because I simply couldn't make up my mind to do it.
• 46:46
  I never can make up my mind about anything myself. I'm always afflicted
• 46:50
  with indecision. Just as soon as I decide to do something, I feel
• 46:53
  in my bones that another course would be the correct one. It's a dreadful
• 46:57
  misfortune, but I was born that way, and there is no oh use
• 47:00
  in blaming me for it, as some people do. So I couldn't make
• 47:02
  up my mind to go and speak to you, much as I wanted to.
• 47:06
  We thought you were too shy, said Anne. No, no,
• 47:07
  dear, shyness isn't among the many failings or virtues of Philippa Gordon Phil for
• 47:13
  short. Do call me Phil right off. Now, what are your handles?
• 47:16
  She's Priscilla grant, said Anne, pointing and she's Anne Shirley, said
• 47:21
  Priscilla, pointing in turn. And we're from the island, said both together.
• 47:24
  I hail from Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia, said Philippa Bowlingbroke exclaimed Anne,
• 47:30
  Why that is where I was born? Do you really mean it? Why
• 47:32
  that makes you a blue nose after all? No, it doesn't, retorted
• 47:36
  Anne. Wasn't it Dan O'Connell who said that if a man was born in
• 47:38
  a stable, it didn't make him a horse. I'm island to the core.
• 47:43
  Well, I'm glad you were born in Bolingbroke. Anyway, It makes
• 47:45
  us kind of neighbors, doesn't it. And I like that because when I
• 47:49
  tell you secrets, it won't be as if I were telling them to a
• 47:51
  stranger. I have to tell them I can't keep secrets. It's no use
• 47:53
  to try. That's my worst failing that and indecision, As aforesaid, would
• 47:59
  you believe it? It took me half an hour to decide which hat to
• 48:01
  wear when I was coming here here to a graveyard. At first I inclined
• 48:06
  to my brown one with the feather, but as soon as I put it
• 48:07
  on, I thought, this pink one with the floppy brim would be more
• 48:10
  becoming when I got it pinned in place. I like the brown one better.
• 48:15
  At last, I put them close together on the bed, shut my
• 48:16
  eyes and jabbed with a hat pin. The pin speared the pink one,
• 48:20
  so I put it on. It is becoming, isn't it? Tell me?
• 48:23
  What do you think of my looks? At this naive demand made in
• 48:27
  a perfectly serious tone, Priscilla laughed again, but Anne said, impulsively,
• 48:30
  squeezing Philip's hand, we thought this morning that you were the prettiest girl we
• 48:35
  saw at Redmond. Philippa's crooked mouth flashed into a bewitching, crooked smile over
• 48:39
  very white little teeth. I thought that myself was her next astounding statement,
• 48:45
  but I wanted some one else's opinion to bolster mine up. I can't decide
• 48:47
  even on my own appearance. Just as soon as I've decided that I'm pretty,
• 48:52
  I begin to feel miserably that I am not. Besides, I have
• 48:54
  a horrible old great aunt who was always saying to me, with a mournful
• 48:58
  sigh, you were such a pretty baby. It's strange how children change when
• 49:02
  they grow up. I adore aunts, but I detest great aunts. Please
• 49:07
  tell me quite often that I am pretty, if you don't mind. I
• 49:08
  feel so much more comfortable when I believe I'm pretty, And I'll be just
• 49:13
  as obliging to you if you want me to, I can be with a
• 49:15
  clear conscience. Thanks laughed, Anne. But Priscilla and I are so firmly
• 49:20
  convinced of our own good looks that we don't need any assurance about them,
• 49:22
  so you needn't trouble. Oh you're laughing at me. I know you think
• 49:27
  I'm abominably vain, but I'm not. There really isn't one spark of vanity
• 49:30
  in me, and I'm never a bit grudging about paying compliments to other girls
• 49:35
  when they deserve them. I'm so glad I know you folks. I came
• 49:38
  up on Saturday, and I've nearly died of homesickness ever since. It's a
• 49:42
  horrible feeling, isn't it. In Bowling Broke, I'm an important personage,
• 49:45
  and in Kingsport I'm just nobody. There were times when I could feel my
• 49:50
  soul turning a delicate blue. Where do you hang out? Thirty Eight's in
• 49:53
  John Street? Better and better? Why I'm just around the corner on Wallace
• 49:57
  Street. I don't like my boarding house though. It's bleak and lonesome,
• 50:00
  and my room looks out on such an unholy back yard. It's the ugliest
• 50:05
  place in the world. As for cats, well, surely all the Kingsport
• 50:08
  cats can't congregate there at night, but half of them must. I adore
• 50:13
  cats on hearth rugs, snoozing before nice friendly fires, but cats in back
• 50:17
  yards at midnight are are totally different animals. The first night I was here,
• 50:22
  I cried all night, and so did the cats. You should have
• 50:23
  seen my nose in the morning. How I wished I had never left home.
• 50:29
  I don't know how you managed to make up your mind to come to
• 50:30
  Redmond at all, If you are really such an undecided person, bless your
• 50:34
  heart, honey, I didn't. It was father who wanted me to come
• 50:37
  here. His heart was set on it. Why, I don't know.
• 50:39
  It seems perfectly ridiculous to think of me studying for a BA degree, doesn't
• 50:44
  it not? But what I can do it? All right? I have
• 50:45
  heaps of brains, oh, said Priscilla, vaguely. Yes, but it's
• 50:51
  such hard work to use them, and bias are such learned dignified, wise,
• 50:54
  solemn creatures. They must be. Oh, I didn't want to come
• 50:58
  to Redmond. I did it just to oblige father. He is such a
• 51:01
  duck. Besides, I knew if I stayed home, I'd have to get
• 51:05
  married. Mother wanted that, wanted it decidedly. Mother has plenty of decision.
• 51:09
  But I really hated the thought of being married for a few years.
• 51:13
  Yet I want to have heaps of bum before I settle down. And ridiculous
• 51:16
  as the idea of my being a b a is, the idea of my
• 51:20
  being an old married woman is still more absurd, isn't it. I'm only
• 51:23
  eighteen. No, I concluded I would rather come to Redmond than be married.
• 51:28
  Besides, how could I ever have made up my mind which man to
• 51:30
  marry? Were There's so many laughed Anne heaps. The boys like me awfully,
• 51:36
  they really do. But there were only two that mattered. The rest
• 51:39
  were all too young and too poor. I must marry a rich man.
• 51:43
  You know, why must you? Honey? You couldn't imagine me being a
• 51:46
  poor man's wife, could you. I can't do a single useful thing,
• 51:51
  and I am very extravagant. Oh no, my husband must have heaps of
• 51:54
  money, so that narrowed them down to too. But I couldn't decide between
• 51:59
  two any easier than between two hundred. I knew perfectly well that whichever one
• 52:02
  I chose, i'd regret all my life that I hadn't married the other.
• 52:07
  Didn't you love either of them? Asked Anne a little hesitatingly. It was
• 52:12
  not easy for her to speak to a stranger of the great mystery and transformation
• 52:15
  of life. Goodness, Now, I couldn't love anybody. It isn't in
• 52:19
  me. Besides, I wouldn't want to. Being in love makes you a
• 52:22
  perfect slave, I think, and it would give a man such power to
• 52:25
  hurt you. I'd be afraid. No. No. Alec and Alonzo were
• 52:30
  two dear boys, and I like them both so much that I really don't
• 52:32
  know which I like the better. That is the trouble. Alec is the
• 52:36
  best looking, of course, and I simply couldn't marry a man who wasn't
• 52:38
  handsome. He is good tempered, too, and has lovely, curly black
• 52:43
  hair. He's rather too perfect. I don't believe I like a perfect husband,
• 52:46
  somebody I could never find fault with. Then why not marry Alonzo?
• 52:51
  Asked Priscilla gravely think of marrying a name like Alonzo, said phil dolefully.
• 52:57
  I don't believe I could endure it. But he has a classic nose,
• 53:00
  and it would be a comfort to have a nose in the family that could
• 53:02
  be depended on I can't depend on mine so far. It takes after the
• 53:07
  Gordon pattern, but I am so afraid it will develop burn tendencies as I
• 53:10
  grow older. I examine it every day anxiously to make sure it's still a
• 53:14
  Gordon. Mother was a burn and has the burn nose in the burnest degree.
• 53:19
  Wait till you see it. I adore nice noses. Your nose is
• 53:22
  awfully nice, Anne Shirley, Alonzo's nose nearly turned the balance in his favor,
• 53:27
  But Alonzo no, I couldn't decide. If I could have done as
• 53:31
  I did with the hats, stood them both up together, shut my eyes
• 53:35
  and jabbed with a hatpin, it would have been quite easy. What did
• 53:38
  Aleig and Alonzo feel like when you came away, queried Priscilla. Oh,
• 53:42
  they still have hope. I told them they'd have to wait till I could
• 53:45
  make up my mind. They're quite willing to wait. They both worshiped me.
• 53:49
  You know. Meanwhile, I intend to have a good time. I
• 53:52
  expect I shall have heaps of bows at Redmond. I can't be happy unless
• 53:54
  I have, you know. But don't you think the freshmen are fearfully homely?
• 53:59
  I saw only one really handsome fellow among them. He went away before
• 54:01
  you came. I heard his chum, Colin Gilbert. His chum had eyes
• 54:06
  that stuck out that far. But you're not going yet. Girls, don't
• 54:09
  go yet, I think we must, said Anne rather coldly. It's getting
• 54:15
  late and I've some work to do. But you'll both come to see me,
• 54:17
  won't you, asked Philippa, getting up and putting an arm around each
• 54:21
  and let me come to see you. I want to be chummy with you.
• 54:23
  I've taken such a fancy to you both, and I haven't quite disgusted
• 54:28
  you with my frivolity, have I? Not quite? Laughed Anne, responding
• 54:30
  to Phil's squeeze with a return of cordiality. Because I'm not half so silly
• 54:35
  as I seem on the surface. You know, you just accept philip A
• 54:38
  Gordon as the Lord made her, with all her faults, and I believe
• 54:42
  you'll come to like her. Isn't this graveyard a sweet place? I'd love
• 54:45
  to be buried. Here, here's a grave I didn't see before, this
• 54:49
  one in the iron railing. Oh girls, look see the stone says it's
• 54:52
  the grave of a middy who was killed in the fight between the Shannon and
• 54:55
  the Chesapeake. Jest fancy Anne paused by the railing and looked at the worn
• 55:00
  stone, her pulses thrilling with sudden excitement. The old graveyard, with its
• 55:06
  overarching trees and long aisles of shadows, faded from her sight. Instead,
• 55:10
  she saw the Kingsport Harbor of nearly a century Agone. Out of the mist
• 55:15
  came slowly a great frigate, brilliant with the meteor flag of England. Behind
• 55:19
  her was another with a still heroic form wrapped in his own starry flag,
• 55:23
  lying on the quarter deck, the gallant Lawrence Time's finger had turned back his
• 55:28
  pages, and that was the Shannon, sailing triumphant up the bay with the
• 55:31
  Chesapeake as her prize. Come back, Anne, Shirley, come back,
• 55:36
  laughed Philippa, pulling her arm. You're a hundred years away from us.
• 55:38
  Come back, Anne came back with a sigh. Her eyes were shining softly.
• 55:45
  I've always loved that old story, she said. And although the English
• 55:47
  won that victory, I think it was because of the brave defeated commander.
• 55:52
  I love it. This grave seems to bring it so near and make it
• 55:54
  so real. This poor little middy was only eighteen. He died of desperate
• 56:00
  wounds received in gallant action. Sir rerethe's epitaph. It is such as a
• 56:04
  soldier might wish for. Before she turned away, Anne unpinned the little cluster
• 56:09
  of purple pansies she wore and dropped it softly on the grave of the boy
• 56:13
  who had perished in the Great Sea duel. Well what do you think of
• 56:16
  our new friend, asked Priscilla, when Phil had left them. I like
• 56:21
  her. There is something very lovable about her, in spite of all her
• 56:23
  nonsense. I believe, as she says herself, that she isn't half as
• 56:28
  silly as she sounds. She's a dear, kissable baby, and I don't
• 56:30
  know that she'll ever really grow up. I like her, too, said
• 56:34
  Priscilla decidedly. She talks as much about boys as Ruby Gillis does, but
• 56:37
  it always enrages or sickens me to hear Ruby, whereas I just wanted to
• 56:42
  laugh good naturedly at Phil. Now, what is the why of that there
• 56:45
  is a difference, said Anne meditatively. I think it's because Ruby is really
• 56:50
  so conscious of boys. She plays at love and love making. Besides,
• 56:54
  you feel when she is boasting of her bows that she is doing it to
• 56:58
  rub it well into you that you haven't half so many. Now, when
• 57:00
  Phil talks of her bows, it sounds as if she were just speaking of
• 57:04
  chums. She really looks upon boys as good comrades, and she is pleased
• 57:07
  when she has dozens of them tagging around, simply because she likes to be
• 57:10
  popular and to be thought popular. Even Alec and Alonzo. I'll never be
• 57:15
  able to think of those two names separately after this are to her just two
• 57:19
  playfellows who want her to play with them all their lives. I'm glad we
• 57:22
  met her, and I'm glad we went to Old Saint John's. I believe
• 57:25
  I've put forth a tiny soul route into Kingsport soil this afternoon, I hope
• 57:30
  so. I hate to feel transplanted. End of Chapter four, Chapter five,
• 57:36
  Letters from Home. For the next three weeks, Anne and Priscilla continued
• 57:40
  to feel as strangers in a strange land. Then suddenly everything seemed to fall
• 57:45
  into focus. Redmond, professors, classes, students, studies, social doings.
• 57:51
  Life became homogenious again. Instead of being made up of detached fragments,
• 57:54
  the freshmen, instead of being a collection of unrelated individuals, found themselves a
• 57:59
  class with a class spirit, a class yell, class interest, class antipathies,
• 58:04
  and class ambitions. They won the day in the annual arts rush against
• 58:07
  the sophomores, and thereby gained the respect of all the classes and an enormous
• 58:12
  confidence giving opinion of themselves. For three years the sophomores had won in the
• 58:15
  rush. That the victory of this year perched upon the Freshman's banner was attributed
• 58:20
  to the strategic generalship of Gilbert Blythe, who marshaled the campaign and originated certain
• 58:24
  new tactics which demoralized the sophomores and swept the freshman to triumph. As a
• 58:30
  reward of merit, he was elected president of the Freshman class, a position
• 58:34
  of honor and responsibility from a freshman point of view, at least coveted by
• 58:37
  many. He was also invited to join the Lambs, Redmonees for Lambethata,
• 58:43
  a compliment rarely paid to a freshman. As a preparatory initiation ordeal, he
• 58:47
  had to parade the principal business streets of Kingsport for a whole day, wearing
• 58:51
  a sun bonnet and a voluminous kitchen apron of gaudily flowered calico. This he
• 58:55
  did, cheerfully, doffing his sun bonnet with courtly grace. When he met
• 58:59
  ladies of his acquaintance, Charlie Sloane, who had not been asked to join
• 59:02
  the Lambs, told Anne he did not see how life could do it,
• 59:06
  and he, for his part, could never humiliate himself so fancy Charlie Sloane,
• 59:10
  in a caliker apron and a thunbunnet, giggled Priscilla. He'd looked exactly
• 59:15
  like his old grandmother Sloane. Gilbert now looked as much like a man in
• 59:19
  them as in his own proper habiliments. Anne and Priscilla found themselves in the
• 59:23
  thick of the social life of Redmond. That this came about so speedily was
• 59:28
  due in great measure to Philippa Gordon. Philippa was the daughter of a rich
• 59:31
  and well known man, and belonged to an old and exclusive Blue Nose family.
• 59:37
  This, combined with her beauty and charm, a charm acknowledged by all
• 59:39
  who met her, promptly opened the gates of all cliques, clubs, and
• 59:43
  classes in Redmond to her, and where she went, Anne and Priscilla went
• 59:46
  too. Phil adored Anne and Priscilla, especially Anne. She was a loyal
• 59:51
  little soul, crystal free from any form of snobbishness. Love me, Love
• 59:54
  my friends seemed to be her unconscious motto. Without effort, she took them
• 59:59
  with her and were ever widening circle of acquaintanceship and the two Avonlea girls found
• 1:00:02
  their social pathway at Redmond made very easy and pleasant for them, to the
• 1:00:07
  envy and wonderment of the other Freshets, who, lacking Philip's sponsorship, were
• 1:00:10
  doomed to remain rather on the fringe of things during their first college year.
• 1:00:15
  To Anne and Priscilla, with their more serious views of life, phil remained
• 1:00:20
  the amusing, lovable baby she had seemed on their first meeting. Yet,
• 1:00:23
  as she said herself, she had heaps of brains. When or where she
• 1:00:27
  found time to study was a mystery, for she seemed always in demand for
• 1:00:30
  some kind of fun, and her home evenings were crowded with callers. She
• 1:00:34
  had all the bows that heart could desire for. Nine tenths of the freshmen
• 1:00:37
  and a big fraction of all the other classes were rivals for her smiles.
• 1:00:42
  She was naively delighted over this, and gleefully recounted each new conquest to Anne
• 1:00:45
  and Priscilla with comments that might have made the unlucky lover's ears burn fiercely.
• 1:00:51
  Alec and Alonzo don't seem to have any serious rival, yet, remarked Anne
• 1:00:54
  teasingly. Not one, agreed, Philippa. I write them both every week
• 1:00:59
  and tell them all about my young men here. I'm sure it must amuse
• 1:01:02
  them. But of course the one I like best I can't get, Gilbert
• 1:01:06
  Blythe won't take any notice of me except to look at me as if I
• 1:01:08
  were a nice little kitt and he'd like to pat too. Well. I
• 1:01:12
  know the reason I owe you a grudge, Queen Anne. I really ought
• 1:01:15
  to hate you, and instead I love you madly, and I'm miserable if
• 1:01:19
  I don't see you every day. You're different from any girl I ever knew
• 1:01:22
  before. When you look at me in a certain way, I feel what
• 1:01:24
  an insignificant, frivolous little beast I am, and I long to be better
• 1:01:29
  and wiser and stronger, and then I make good resolutions, but the first
• 1:01:32
  nice looking manny who comes my way knocks them all out of my head.
• 1:01:36
  Isn't college life magnificent? It's so funny to think I hated it that first
• 1:01:40
  day, But if I hadn't, I might never got really acquainted with you.
• 1:01:45
  Anne. Please tell me over again that you like me a little bit.
• 1:01:46
  I yearn to hear it. I like you a big bit, and
• 1:01:51
  I think you're a dear, sweet, adorable, velvety, clawless little kitten,
• 1:01:54
  laughed Anne. But I don't see when you ever get time to learn
• 1:01:58
  your lessons. Phil must have found time, for she held her own in
• 1:02:01
  every class of her year. Even the grumpy old professor of mathematics, who
• 1:02:06
  detested Coed's and had bitterly opposed their admission to Redmond, could implore her.
• 1:02:09
  She led the Freshetts everywhere, except in English, where Anne Shirley left her
• 1:02:14
  far behind. Anne herself found the studies of her freshman year very easy,
• 1:02:17
  thanks in great part to the steady work she and Gilbert had put in during
• 1:02:21
  those two past years in Avonlea. This left her more time for a social
• 1:02:24
  life, which she thoroughly enjoyed. But never for a moment did she forget
• 1:02:29
  Avonlea and the friends there. To her, the happiest moments in each week
• 1:02:31
  were those in which letters came from home. It was not until she had
• 1:02:36
  got her first letters that she began to think she could ever like Kingsport or
• 1:02:38
  feel at home there. Before they came, Avonlea had seemed thousands of miles
• 1:02:44
  away. Those letters brought it near and linked the old life to the news
• 1:02:46
  so closely that they began to seem one and the same instead of two hopelessly
• 1:02:52
  segregated existences. The first batch contained six letters from Jane Andrews, Ruby,
• 1:02:57
  Gillis, Diana Barry, Marilla, Missus Lynde, and Date. Jane's was
• 1:03:00
  a copperplate production, with every tea nicely crossed and every eye precisely dotted,
• 1:03:06
  and not an interesting sentence in it. She never mentioned the school concerning which
• 1:03:09
  Anne was avid to hear. She never answered one of the questions Anne had
• 1:03:13
  asked in her letter, but she told Anne how many yards of lay she
• 1:03:15
  had recently crocheted, and the kind of weather they were having, an avonlea,
• 1:03:20
  and how she intended to have her new dress made, and the way
• 1:03:22
  she felt when her head ached. Ruby Gillis wrote a gushing epistle deploring Anne's
• 1:03:27
  absence, assuring her she was horribly missed in everything, asking what the Redmond
• 1:03:30
  fellows were like, and filling the rest with accounts of her own harrowing experiences
• 1:03:35
  with her numerous admirers. It was a silly, harmless letter, and Anne
• 1:03:38
  would have laughed over it had it not been for the PostScript. Gilbert seems
• 1:03:43
  to be enjoying Redmond, judging from his letters, wrote Ruby, I don't
• 1:03:46
  think Charlie is so stuck on it. So Gilbert was writing to Ruby very
• 1:03:51
  well. He had a perfect right to, of course, Only Anne did
• 1:03:54
  not know that Ruby had written the first letter and that Gilbert had answered it
• 1:03:59
  from mere courtesy. She tossed Ruby's letter aside contemptuously, but it took all
• 1:04:03
  Diana's breezy, newsy delightful epistle to banish the sting of Ruby's PostScript. Diana's
• 1:04:10
  letter contained a little too much Fred, but was otherwise crowded and crossed with
• 1:04:14
  items of interest, and Anne almost felt herself back in Avonlea while reading it.
• 1:04:18
  Marilla's was a rather prim and colorless epistle, severely innocent of gossip or
• 1:04:23
  emotion. Yet somehow it conveyed to Anne a whiff of the wholesome simple life
• 1:04:28
  at Green Gables, with its savor of ancient peace and the steadfast, abiding
• 1:04:31
  love that was there for her. Missus Lynde's letter was full of church news.
• 1:04:35
  Having broken up housekeeping, Missus Lynde had more time than ever to devote
• 1:04:40
  church affairs, and had flung herself into them heart and soul. She was
• 1:04:43
  at present much worked up over the poor supplies they were having in the vacant
• 1:04:46
  Avonlea pulpit. I don't believe any but fools enter the ministry nowadays, she
• 1:04:50
  wrote, bitterly, Such candidates as they have sent us in, such stuff
• 1:04:55
  as they preach. Half of it ain't true, and what's worse, it
• 1:04:57
  ain't sound doctrine. The one we have now is the worst of the lot.
• 1:05:00
  He mostly takes a text and preaches about something else. And he says
• 1:05:04
  he doesn't believe all the heathen will be eternally lost the idea if they won't
• 1:05:09
  all the money we've been giving to foreign missions will be clean wasted. That's
• 1:05:12
  what last Sunday night he announced that next Sunday he'd preach on the axe head
• 1:05:15
  that swam. I think he'd better confine himself to the Bible than leave sensational
• 1:05:18
  subjects alone. Things have come to a pretty pass. If a minister can't
• 1:05:23
  find enough in holy writ to preach about, that's what. What church do
• 1:05:26
  you attend? Anne? I hope you go regularly. People are apt to
• 1:05:29
  get so careless about church going away from home, and I understand college students
• 1:05:32
  are great sinners in this respect. I'm told many of them actually study their
• 1:05:36
  lessons on Sunday. I hope you'll never sink that low. Anne. Remember
• 1:05:40
  how you were brought up, and be very careful what friends you make.
• 1:05:43
  You never know what sort of creatures are in them colleges. Outwardly they may
• 1:05:46
  be as white as sepulchers, and inwardly as ravening wolves. That's what you'd
• 1:05:50
  better not have anything to say to any young man who isn't from the island.
• 1:05:56
  I forgot to tell you what happened the day the minister called here.
• 1:05:58
  It was the funniest thing, I I said to Marilla. If Anne had
• 1:06:01
  been here, wouldn't she have had a laugh? Even Marilla laughed. You
• 1:06:04
  know, he's a very short, fat little man with bow legs. Well,
• 1:06:08
  that old pig of mister Harrison's, the big tall one, had wandered
• 1:06:12
  over here that day again and broke into the yard, and it got into
• 1:06:14
  the back porch unbeknowns to us, and it was there when the minister appeared
• 1:06:17
  in the doorway. It made one wild boat to get out, but there
• 1:06:20
  was nowhere to both except between them bow legs. So there it went,
• 1:06:24
  And being as it was so big and the minister so little, it took
• 1:06:27
  him clean off his feet and carried him away. His hat went one way,
• 1:06:30
  in his cane another just as Marilla and I got to the door.
• 1:06:32
  I'll never forget the look of him, and that poor pig was near scared
• 1:06:35
  to death. I'll never be able to read that account in the Bible of
• 1:06:38
  the swine that rushed madly down the steep place into the sea without seeing mister
• 1:06:42
  Harrison's pig careering down the hill with that minister. I guess the pig thought
• 1:06:45
  he had the old boy on his back. Instead of inside of him.
• 1:06:48
  I was thankful the twins weren't about. It wouldn't have been the right thing
• 1:06:50
  for them to have seen a minister in such an undignified predicament. Just before
• 1:06:55
  they got to the brook, the minister jumped off or fell off. The
• 1:06:58
  pig rushed through the brook like mad, and through the woods. Marilla and
• 1:07:00
  I run down and help the minister get up and brush his coat. He
• 1:07:03
  wasn't hurt, but he was mad. He seemed to hold Marilla and me
• 1:07:06
  responsible for it, all though we told him the pig didn't belong to us
• 1:07:10
  and had been pestering us all summer. Besides, what did he come to
• 1:07:14
  the back door for. You'd never have caught mister Allan doing that. It'll
• 1:07:16
  be a long time before we get a man like mister Allen. But it's
• 1:07:19
  an ill wind that blows no good. We've never seen hoof foor hair of
• 1:07:23
  that pig since, and it's my belief we never will. Things is pretty
• 1:07:27
  quiet and avonlea. I don't find Green Gables as lonesome as I expected.
• 1:07:30
  I think I'll sart another cotton warp quilt this winter. Missus Silas Sloane has
• 1:07:34
  a handsome new apple leaf pattern. When I feel that I must have some
• 1:07:38
  excitement, I read the murder trials in that Boston paper my niece sends me.
• 1:07:42
  I never used to do it, but they're real interesting. The States
• 1:07:45
  must be an awful place. I hope you'll never go there, Anne,
• 1:07:47
  But the way girls roam over the earth now is something terrible. It always
• 1:07:51
  makes me think of Satan in the Book of Job, going to and fro
• 1:07:54
  and walking up and down. I don't believe the Lord ever intended it.
• 1:07:57
  That's what Davy has been pretty good since you went away. One day he
• 1:08:00
  was bad, and Marilla punished him by making him wear doors apron all day,
• 1:08:04
  and then he went and cut all doors aprons up. I spanked him
• 1:08:08
  for that, and then he went and chased my rooster to death. The
• 1:08:11
  mc phersons have moved down to my place. She's a great housekeeper, and
• 1:08:14
  very particular. She's rooted all my June lilies up because she says they make
• 1:08:16
  a garden look so untidy. Thomas set them lilies out when we were married.
• 1:08:20
  Her husband seems a nice sort of man, but she can't get over
• 1:08:24
  being an old maid. That's what don't study too hard, and be sure
• 1:08:28
  and put your winter underclothes on as soon as the weather gets cool. Marilla
• 1:08:30
  worries a lot about you, but I tell you've got more sense than I
• 1:08:32
  ever thought you would have at one time, and that you'll be all right.
• 1:08:36
  Davy's letter plunged into a grievance at the start. Dear Anne, please
• 1:08:40
  write and tell Marilla not to tie me to the rail of the bridge when
• 1:08:43
  I go fishing. The boys make fun of me when she does. It's
• 1:08:45
  awful lonesome here without you, but great fun in school. Jane Andrews is
• 1:08:48
  crosser than you. I scared missus Lynde with a Jackie lantern last night.
• 1:08:53
  She was awful mad, and she was mad because I chased her old rooster
• 1:08:57
  round the yard till he fell down dead. I didn't mean to make it
• 1:09:00
  fall down dead. What made him die? Anne? I want to know.
• 1:09:02
  Missus Lynde threw him into the pig pench. She might have sold him
• 1:09:04
  to mister Blair. Mister Blair is giving fifty cents a piece for good dead
• 1:09:09
  roosters. Now I heard missus Lynde asking the minister to pray for her.
• 1:09:13
  What did you do that? Was so bad, Anne, I want to
• 1:09:15
  know. I've got a kite with a magnificent tail. Anne, Milty Bolter
• 1:09:18
  told me a great story in school yesterday. It is true. Old Joe
• 1:09:23
  Mosey and Leon were playing cards one night last week in the woods. The
• 1:09:26
  cards were on a stump, and a big black man, bigger than the
• 1:09:28
  trees come along and grabbed the cards in the stump and disappeared with a noise
• 1:09:31
  like thunder. I'll bet they were scared. Milty says. The black man
• 1:09:34
  was the old Harry, was he? Anne? I want to know mister
• 1:09:38
  Kimball over at Spenservale is very sick and we'll have to go to the hospitable.
• 1:09:42
  Please excuse me while I ask Marilla if that's spelled right. Marilla says
• 1:09:45
  it's the stylum he has to go to, not the other place. He
• 1:09:48
  thinks he has a snake inside of him. What's it like to have a
• 1:09:50
  snake inside of you? Anne? I want to know Missus Laurence Fell is
• 1:09:55
  sick too. Missus Lynde says that all that is the matter with her is
• 1:09:58
  that she thinks too much about her insides. I wonder, said Anne,
• 1:10:01
  as she folded up her letters what missus Lynde would think of Philippa end of
• 1:10:06
  chapter five, Chapter six in the park, what are you going to do
• 1:10:13
  with yourselves to day? Girls, asked Philippa, popping into Anne's room one
• 1:10:15
  Saturday afternoon. We're going for a walk in the park, answered Anne.
• 1:10:20
  I ought to stay in and finish my blouse, but I couldn't sew on
• 1:10:24
  a day like this. There's something in the air that gets into my blood
• 1:10:27
  and makes a sort of glory in my soul. My fingers would twitch and
• 1:10:30
  I'd sew a crooked seam. So it's ho for the park in the Pines?
• 1:10:33
  Does we include any one but yourself and Priscilla? Yes, it includes
• 1:10:38
  Gilbert and Charley, and we'll be very glad if it will include you also,
• 1:10:42
  But said Philippa dolefully. If I go, I'll have to be Gooseberry,
• 1:10:45
  and that will be a new experience for Philippa. Gordon, Well,
• 1:10:49
  new experiences are broadening. Come along, and you'll be able to sympathize with
• 1:10:53
  all poor souls who have to play Gooseberry often. But where are all the
• 1:10:56
  victims? Oh? I was tired of them all and simply couldn't be bothered
• 1:11:00
  with any of them today. Besides, I've been feeling a little blue,
• 1:11:03
  just a pale, elusive azure. It isn't serious enough for anything darker.
• 1:11:08
  I wrote Alec and Alonzo last week. I put the letters into envelopes and
• 1:11:12
  dressed them, but I didn't seal them up. That evening. Something funny
• 1:11:15
  happened. That is, Alec would think it funny, but Alonzo wouldn't be
• 1:11:18
  likely to. I was in a hurry, so I snatched Alec's letter as
• 1:11:21
  I thought, out of the envelope and scribbled down a PostScript. Then I
• 1:11:25
  mailed both letters. I got Alonzo's reply this morning. Girls. I had
• 1:11:30
  put that PostScript to his letter, and he was furious. Of course he'll
• 1:11:33
  get over it, and I don't care if he doesn't, but it spoiled
• 1:11:35
  my day. So I thought i'd come to you, darlings to get cheered
• 1:11:39
  up. After the football season opens, I won't have any spare Saturday afternoons
• 1:11:44
  I had door football. I've got the most gorgeous cap and sweaters striped in
• 1:11:46
  Redmond colors to wear to the games. To be sure, a little way
• 1:11:50
  off, I look like a walking barber's pole. Do you know that that
• 1:11:54
  Gilbert of yours has been elected captain of the freshman football team. Yes,
• 1:11:58
  he told us so last evening, said priss Zillah. Seeing that, outraged
• 1:12:00
  Anne would not answer. He and Charlie were down. We knew they were
• 1:12:04
  coming, so we painstakingly put out of sight or out of reach all miss
• 1:12:08
  Ada's cushions. That very elaborate one with the raised embroidery I dropped on the
• 1:12:12
  floor in the corner behind the churret was on. I thought it would be
• 1:12:15
  safe there, but would you believe it? Charlie Sloane made for that chair,
• 1:12:18
  noticed the cushion behind it, solemnly fished it up and sat on it
• 1:12:23
  the whole evening. Such a wreck of a cushion as it was. Poor
• 1:12:27
  miss Ada asked me to day, still smiling, but oh so reproachfully why
• 1:12:31
  I had allowed it to be sat upon? I told her I hadn't.
• 1:12:34
  That it was a matter of predestination coupled with inveterate slownishness, and I wasn't
• 1:12:39
  a match for both combined. Miss Ada's cushions are really getting on my nerves,
• 1:12:44
  said Anne. She finished two new ones last week, stuffed and embroidered
• 1:12:47
  within an inch of their lives, there being absolutely no other cushionless place to
• 1:12:51
  put them, She stood them up against the wall on the stair landing.
• 1:12:55
  They topple over half the time, and if we come up or down the
• 1:12:58
  stairs in the dark, we fall over them. Last Sunday, when mister
• 1:13:00
  Davis prayed for all those exposed to the perils of the sea, I added
• 1:13:04
  in thought, and for all those who live in houses where cushions are loved,
• 1:13:08
  not wisely, but too well. There we're ready, and I see
• 1:13:11
  the boys comin through Olt Saint John's. Do you cast in your lot with
• 1:13:14
  us? Phil I'll go. If I can walk with Priscilla and Charley,
• 1:13:17
  that will be a bearable degree of gooseberry. That Gilbert of yours is a
• 1:13:20
  darling, Anne, But why does he go around so much with goggle eyes?
• 1:13:25
  Anne stiffened. She had no great liking for Charlie Sloane, but he
• 1:13:29
  was of Avonlea, so no outsider had any business to laugh at him.
• 1:13:32
  Charley and Gilbert have always been friends, she said coldly. Charley is a
• 1:13:35
  nice boy. He's not to blame for his eyes. Don't tell me that
• 1:13:40
  he is. He must have done something dreadful in a previous existence to be
• 1:13:43
  punished with such eyes. PRIs and I are going to have such sport with
• 1:13:46
  him this afternoon. We'll make fun of him to his faith, and he'll
• 1:13:49
  never know it. Doubtless, the abandoned peas, as Anne called them,
• 1:13:54
  did carry out their amiable intentions, but Sloane was blissfully ignorant. He thought
• 1:13:59
  he was quite a fine fellow to be walking with two such coeds, especially
• 1:14:02
  Philip O Gordon, the class beauty and belle. It must surely impress Anne.
• 1:14:06
  She would see that some people appreciated him at his real value. Gilbert
• 1:14:12
  and Anne loitered a little behind the others, enjoying the calm, still beauty
• 1:14:15
  of the autumn afternoon, under the pines of the park, on the road
• 1:14:17
  that climbed and twisted round the harbor shore. The silence here is like a
• 1:14:21
  prayer, isn't it, said Anne, her face upturned to the shining sky.
• 1:14:26
  How I love the pines. They seem to strike their roots deep into
• 1:14:30
  the romance of all the ages. It is so comforting to creep away now
• 1:14:33
  and then for a good talk with them. I always feel so happy out
• 1:14:36
  here, and so in the mountain solitudes o'er taken as by some spell divine.
• 1:14:43
  Their cares drop from them like the needles shaken from out the dusty pine.
• 1:14:46
  Quoted Gilbert, they make our little ambitions seem rather petty, don't they?
• 1:14:50
  Anne? I think if ever any great sorrow came to me, I
• 1:14:56
  would come to the pines for comfort, said Anne dreamily. I hope no
• 1:15:00
  great sorrow ever will come to you, Anne, said Gilbert, who could
• 1:15:02
  not connect the idea of sorrow with the vivid, joyous creature beside him,
• 1:15:06
  unwitting that those who can soar to the highest height can also plunge to the
• 1:15:10
  deepest depths, and that the natures which enjoy most keenly are those which also
• 1:15:15
  suffer most sharply. But there must some time, mused Anne. Life seems
• 1:15:19
  like a cup of glory held to my lips just now, But there must
• 1:15:23
  be some bitterness in it. There is in every cup. I shall taste
• 1:15:27
  mine some day. Well. I hope I shall be strong and brave to
• 1:15:30
  meet it, and I hope it won't be through my own fault that it
• 1:15:32
  will come. Do you remember what doctor Davis said last Sunday evening that the
• 1:15:38
  sorrow's God sent us brought comfort and strength with them, while the sorrows we
• 1:15:42
  brought on ourselves through folly or wickedness were by far the hardest to bear.
• 1:15:45
  But we mustn't talk of sorrow and an afternoon like this. It's meant for
• 1:15:49
  the sheer joy of living, isn't it. If I had my way,
• 1:15:54
  i'd shut everything out of your life, but happiness and pleasure, Anne,
• 1:15:57
  said Gilbert, in the tone that meant danger. Then you would be very
• 1:16:00
  unwise, rejoined Anne hastily. I'm sure no life can be properly developed and
• 1:16:04
  rounded out without some trial and sorrow, though I suppose it is only when
• 1:16:09
  we are pretty comfortable that we admit it. Come. The others have got
• 1:16:13
  to the pavilion and are beckoning to us. They all sat down in the
• 1:16:16
  little pavilion to watch an autumn sunset of deep red fire and pallid gold.
• 1:16:20
  To their left lay Kingsport, its roofs and spires dim in their shroud of
• 1:16:25
  violet smoke. To their right lay the harbor, taking on tints of rose
• 1:16:29
  and copper as it stretched out into the sunset. Before them, the water
• 1:16:32
  shimmered satin, smooth and silver, gray and beyond clean shaven. William's Island
• 1:16:39
  loomed out of the mist, guarding the town like a sturdy bulldog. Its
• 1:16:43
  lighthouse beakn flared through the mist like a baleful star, and was answered by
• 1:16:47
  another in the far horizon. Did you ever see such a strong looking place?
• 1:16:51
  Asked Philippa. I don't want William's Island especially, but I'm sure I
• 1:16:56
  couldn't get it if I did. Look at that sentry on the summit of
• 1:16:59
  the fort right beside the flag. Doesn't he look as if he had stepped
• 1:17:02
  out of a romance? Speaking of romance, said Priscilla. We've been looking
• 1:17:06
  for heather, but of course we couldn't find any. It's too late in
• 1:17:10
  the season. I suppose heather, exclaimed Anne. Heather doesn't grow in America,
• 1:17:14
  does it. There are just two patches of it in the whole continents,
• 1:17:16
  said phil one right here in the park and one somewhere else in Nova
• 1:17:20
  Scotia. I forget where the famous Highland regiment the Black Watch, camped here
• 1:17:25
  one year, and when the men shook out the straw of their beds in
• 1:17:28
  the spring, some seeds of heather took root. Oh, how delightful,
• 1:17:31
  said enchanted Anne. Let's go home around by Spofford Avenue, suggested Gilbert.
• 1:17:35
  We can see all the handsome houses where the wealthy nobles dwell. Spofford Avenue
• 1:17:41
  is the finest residential street in Kingsport. Nobody can build on it unless he's
• 1:17:44
  a millionaire. Oh do, said Phil There's a perfectly killing little place I
• 1:17:48
  want to show you Anne. It wasn't built by a millionaire. It's the
• 1:17:51
  first place after you leave the park and must have grown while Spofford Avenue was
• 1:17:56
  still a country road. It did grow, it wasn't built. I don't
• 1:17:59
  care for that. Houses on the avenue their too brand new and plate glassy.
• 1:18:02
  But this little spot is a dream and its name. But wait till
• 1:18:06
  you see it. They saw it as they walked up the pine fringed hill
• 1:18:11
  from the park. Just on the crest where Spofford Avenue petered out into a
• 1:18:14
  plain road, was the little white frame house, with groups of pines on
• 1:18:17
  either side of it, stretching their arms protectingly over its low roof. It
• 1:18:23
  was covered with red and gold vines through which its green shuttered windows peeped.
• 1:18:27
  Before it was a tiny garden surrounded by a low stone wall October. Though
• 1:18:31
  it was, the garden was still very sweet, with dear, old fashioned,
• 1:18:36
  unworldly flowers and shrubs, sweet may, southern wood, lemon, verbena,
• 1:18:41
  alyssum, petunias, marigolds and chrysanthemums. A tiny brick walk and herringbone
• 1:18:46
  pattern led from the gate to the front porch. The whole place might have
• 1:18:50
  been transplanted from some remote country village. Yet there was something about it that
• 1:18:55
  made its nearest neighbor, the big lawn encircled palace of a tobacco king,
• 1:18:59
  look exceedingly crude and showy and ill bred. By contrast, as Phil said,
• 1:19:03
  it was the difference between being born and being made. It's the dearest
• 1:19:08
  place I ever saw, said Anne delightedly. It gives me one of my
• 1:19:12
  old, delightful, funny aches. It's dearer and quainter than even miss Lavender
• 1:19:16
  stone House. It's the name I want you to notice, especially, said
• 1:19:19
  Phil. Look in white letters around the archway over the gate, Patty's Place.
• 1:19:25
  Isn't that killing? Especially on this avenue of pinehursts and Elmwold's and cedar
• 1:19:30
  crofts. Patty's Place, if you please, I adore it. Have you
• 1:19:33
  any idea. Who Patty is, asked Priscilla. Patty Spofford is the name
• 1:19:38
  of the old lady who owns it. I've discovered she lives there with her
• 1:19:41
  niece, and they've lived there for hundreds of years, more or less,
• 1:19:44
  maybe a little less. Anne exaggeration is merely a flight of poetic fancy.
• 1:19:48
  I understand that wealthy folk have tried to buy the lot time and again.
• 1:19:51
  It's really worth a small fortune, now, you know. But Patty won't
• 1:19:55
  sell upon any consideration. And there's an apple orchard behind the house in place
• 1:19:59
  of a back yard. You'll see it when we get a little past,
• 1:20:01
  a real apple orchard on Spofford Avenue. I'm going to dream about Patty's place
• 1:20:05
  to night, said Anne. Why I feel as if I belonged to it.
• 1:20:10
  I wonder if, by any chance, we'll ever see the inside of
• 1:20:13
  it. It isn't likely, said Priscilla. Anne smiled mysteriously. No,
• 1:20:17
  it isn't likely, but I believe it will happen. I have a queer,
• 1:20:21
  creepy crawley feeling. You can call it a presentiment if you like.
• 1:20:25
  That Patty's Place and I are going to be better acquainted yet end of chapter
• 1:20:30
  six, Chapter seven home again. Those first three weeks at Redmond had seemed
• 1:20:38
  long, but the rest of the term flew by on wings of wind before
• 1:20:42
  they realized that the Redmond students found themselves in the grind of Christmas examinations,
• 1:20:45
  Emerging therefrom more or less triumphantly. The honor of leading in the freshman classes
• 1:20:50
  fluctuated between Anne, Gilbert and Philippa. Priscilla did very well. Charlie Sloane
• 1:20:56
  scraped through respectably and comported himself as complacently as if he had let in everything.
• 1:21:01
  I can't really believe that this time to morrow while be in Green Gables,
• 1:21:05
  said Anne on the night before departure. But I shall be, and
• 1:21:10
  you Phil will be in Bowlingbroke with Alec and Alonzo. I'm longing to see
• 1:21:14
  them, admitted Phil, between the chocolate she was nibbling. They really are
• 1:21:16
  such dear boys. You know. There's to be no end of dances and
• 1:21:20
  drives in general jamborees. I shall never forgive you, Queen Anne, for
• 1:21:24
  not coming home with me for the holidays. Never means three days with you,
• 1:21:28
  Phil. It was dear of you to ask me, and I'd love
• 1:21:30
  to go to Bowlingbroke some day, but I can't go this year. I
• 1:21:33
  must go home. You don't know how my heart longs for it. You
• 1:21:38
  won't have much of a time, said Phil scornfully. There'll be one or
• 1:21:42
  two quilting parties, I suppose, and all the old gossips will talk you
• 1:21:45
  over to your face and behind your back. You'll die of the lonesomeness.
• 1:21:48
  Child in heaven, Lee, said Anne, highly amused. Now if you'd
• 1:21:54
  come with me, you'd have a perfectly gorgeous time. Bowlingbroke would go wild
• 1:21:59
  over you, Queen Nan, your hair and your style and oh everything.
• 1:22:02
  You're so different. You'd be such a success, and I would bask in
• 1:22:08
  reflected glory, not the rose, but near the rose. Do come,
• 1:22:12
  after all, Anne, Your picture of social triumphs is quite fascinating, Phil,
• 1:22:16
  But I'll paint one to offset it. I'm going home to an old
• 1:22:20
  country farmhouse, once green rather faded, now set among leafless apple orchards.
• 1:22:26
  There is a brook below, and a december fir wood beyond, where I've
• 1:22:30
  heard harp swept by the fingers of rain and wind. There is a pond
• 1:22:33
  near by that will be gray and brooding. Now there will be two oldish
• 1:22:38
  ladies in the house, one tall and thin, one short and fat.
• 1:22:42
  And there will be two twins, one a perfect model, the other what
• 1:22:45
  missus Lynde calls a holy terror. There will be a little room upstairs over
• 1:22:48
  the porch where old dreams hang thick, and a big, fat, glorious
• 1:22:53
  feather bed, which will almost seem the height of luxury after a boarding house
• 1:22:57
  mattress. How do you like my picture, Phil, It seems a very
• 1:23:00
  dull one, said Phil with a grimace. Oh but I've left out the
• 1:23:03
  transforming thing, said Anne softly. There'll be love there, Phil, faithful,
• 1:23:09
  tender love such as I'll never find anywhere else in the world, love
• 1:23:14
  that's waiting for me. That makes my picture a masterpiece, doesn't it,
• 1:23:17
  even if the colors are not very brilliant. Phil silently got up, tossed
• 1:23:23
  her box of chocolates away, went up to Anne and put her arms about
• 1:23:26
  her. Anne, I wish I was like you, she said soberly.
• 1:23:30
  Diana met Anne at the Carmody station the next night, and they drove home
• 1:23:33
  together under silent star sown depths of sky. Green Gables had a very festal
• 1:23:39
  appearance as they drove up the lane. There was a light in every window,
• 1:23:43
  the glow breaking out through the darkness like flame. Red blossoms swung against
• 1:23:46
  the dark background of the haunted wood, and in the yard was a brave
• 1:23:50
  bonfire with two gay little figures dancing around it, one of which gave an
• 1:23:55
  unearthly yell as the buggy turned in under the poplars. Davy means that for
• 1:23:59
  an Indian war whoop, said Diana. Mister Harrison's hired boy taught it to
• 1:24:03
  him, and he's been practicing it up to welcome you with. Missus Lynde
• 1:24:06
  says it has worn her nerves to frazzle. He creeps up behind her,
• 1:24:10
  you know, and then lets go. He was determined to have a bonfire
• 1:24:14
  for you too. He's been piling up branches for a fortnight and pestering Marilla
• 1:24:17
  to be let pour some kerousene oil over it before setting it on fire.
• 1:24:21
  I guess she did by the smell, though Missus Lynde said up to the
• 1:24:25
  last that Dave would blow himself and everybody else up if he was let.
• 1:24:29
  Anne was out of the buggy by this time, and Davy was rapturously hugging
• 1:24:31
  her knees, while even Dora was clinging to her hand. Isn't that a
• 1:24:35
  bully bonfire? Anne? Just let me show you how to poke it.
• 1:24:39
  See the sparks. I did it for you, Anne, cause I was
• 1:24:41
  so glad you were coming home. The kitchen door opened, and Marilla's spare
• 1:24:45
  form darkened against the inner light. She preferred to meet Anne in the shadows,
• 1:24:48
  for she was horribly afraid that she was going to cry with joy.
• 1:24:51
  She stern repressed Marilla, who thought all display of deep emotion unseemly. Missus
• 1:24:57
  Lynde was behind her, sancey, kindly, matronly, as of you're the
• 1:25:00
  love that Anne had told Phil was waiting for her, surrounded her and enfolded
• 1:25:04
  her with its blessing and its sweetness. Nothing, after all, could compare
• 1:25:09
  with old ties, old friends, and old green gables. How starry Anne's
• 1:25:14
  eyes were as they sat down to the loaded supper table, how pink her
• 1:25:16
  cheeks, how silver clear her laughter. And Diana was going to stay all
• 1:25:20
  night too, how like the dear old times it was, And the rosebud
• 1:25:25
  tea set graced the table with Marilla. The force of nature could no further
• 1:25:28
  go. I suppose you and Diana will now proceed to talk all night,
• 1:25:31
  said Marilla sarcastically, as the girls went upstairs. Marilla was always sarcastic after
• 1:25:36
  any self betrayal. Yes, agreed Anne gaily, but I'm going to put
• 1:25:42
  Davy to bed first. He insists on that, you bet, said Davy,
• 1:25:45
  as they went along the hall. I want somebody to say my prayers
• 1:25:48
  to again. It's no fun saying them alone. You don't say them alone,
• 1:25:51
  Davy. God is always with you to hear you. Well, I
• 1:25:55
  can't see him, objected Davy. I want to pray to somebody I can
• 1:25:59
  see, but I won't say them to missus Lynde or Marilla there now.
• 1:26:03
  Nevertheless, when Davy was garbed in his gray flannel nighty, he did not
• 1:26:08
  seem in a hurry to begin. He stood before Anne, shuffling one barefoot
• 1:26:12
  over the other and looked undecided. Come, dear, kneel down, said
• 1:26:15
  Anne. Davy came and buried his head in Anne's lap, but he did
• 1:26:19
  not kneel down. Anne. He said, in a muffled voice, I
• 1:26:24
  don't feel like praying, after all, I haven't felt like it for a
• 1:26:27
  week now. I I didn't pray last night, nor the night before?
• 1:26:31
  Why not? Davy asked Anne gently. You you won't be mad if I
• 1:26:36
  tell you, implored Davy. Anne lifted the little gray flanneled body on her
• 1:26:42
  knee and cuddled his head on her arm. Do I ever get mad when
• 1:26:45
  you tell me things? Davy? No, you never do, but you
• 1:26:49
  get sorry. An. That's worse. You'll be awful sorry when I tell
• 1:26:53
  ye this, Anne, and you'll be shamed in me. I s'pose have
• 1:26:57
  you done something naughty, Davy? And is that why you can't say?
• 1:27:00
  No? I haven't done anything naughty yet, but I want to do it.
• 1:27:05
  What is it, Davy? I I want to say a bad word,
• 1:27:10
  Anne blurted out Davy with a desperate effort. I heard mister Harrison's hired
• 1:27:14
  boy say it one day last week, and ever since up in wanting to
• 1:27:15
  say it all the time, even when I'm saying my prayers, say it,
• 1:27:19
  then, Davy. Davy lifted his flushed face in amazement. But Anne,
• 1:27:25
  it's an awful bad word. Say it. Davy gave her another incredulous
• 1:27:30
  look. Then, in a low voice, he said the dreadful word.
• 1:27:32
  The next minute, his face was burrowing against her. Oh, Anne,
• 1:27:35
  I'll never say it again. Never, I never want to say it again.
• 1:27:40
  I knew it was bad, but I didn't suppose it was so,
• 1:27:43
  so I didn't suppose it was like that. No, I don't think you'll
• 1:27:46
  ever want to say it again, Davy, or think it either. And
• 1:27:50
  I wouldn't go about much with mister Harrison's hired boy if I were you.
• 1:27:55
  He can make bully war. Whoops, said Davy a little regretfully. But
• 1:27:59
  you don't want your mind and filled with bad words, do you, Davy,
• 1:28:01
  words that will poison it and drive out all that is good and manly?
• 1:28:04
  No, said Davy, owlied with introspection. Then don't go with those
• 1:28:10
  people who use them. And now do you feel as if you could say
• 1:28:13
  your prayers Davy? Oh? Yes, said Davy, eagerly, wriggling down
• 1:28:16
  on his knees. I can say them now, all right. I ain't
• 1:28:18
  scared now to say if I should die before I wake, like I was
• 1:28:21
  when I was wanting to say that word. Probably Anne and Diana did empty
• 1:28:27
  out their souls to each other that night, but no record of their confidences
• 1:28:30
  has been preserved. They both looked as fresh and bright eyed at breakfast as
• 1:28:33
  only youth can look after unlawful hours of revelry and confession. There had been
• 1:28:38
  no snow up to this time, but as Diana crossed the old log bridge
• 1:28:42
  on her homeward way, the white flakes were beginning to flutter down over the
• 1:28:45
  fields and woods rusted and gray in their dreamless sleep. Soon the far away
• 1:28:49
  slopes and hills were dim and wraith like through their gauzy scarfing, as if
• 1:28:54
  pale Autumn had flung a misty bridal veil over her hair and was waiting for
• 1:28:58
  her wintry bridegroom. So they had a white Christmas after all, and a
• 1:29:01
  very pleasant day it was. In the forenoon. Letters and gifts came from
• 1:29:04
  Miss Lavendar and Paul. Anne opened them in the cheerful Green Gables kitchen,
• 1:29:10
  which was filled with what Davy, sniffing in ecstasy, called pretty smells.
• 1:29:14
  Miss Lavendar and mister Irving are settled in their new home now, reported Anne.
• 1:29:17
  I'm sure Miss Lavendar is perfectly happy. I know it by the general
• 1:29:20
  tone of her letter. But there's a note from Karlotta the fourth She doesn't
• 1:29:25
  like Boston at all, and she is fearfully homesick. Miss Lavendar wants me
• 1:29:29
  to go through to Echo Lodge some day while I'm home and light a fire
• 1:29:31
  to air it and see that the cushions aren't getting moldy. I think I'll
• 1:29:34
  get Diana to go over with me next week and we can spend the evening
• 1:29:38
  with Theodora Dix. I want to see Theodora. By the way, is
• 1:29:42
  Ludovic speed still going to see her? They say, so, said Marilla,
• 1:29:45
  and he's likely to continue it. Folks have given up expecting that that
• 1:29:48
  courtship will ever arrive anywhere. I'd hurry him up a bit if I was
• 1:29:53
  Theodora. That's what said missus Lynde. And there is not the slightest doubt
• 1:29:57
  but that she would. There was also a characteristic scrawl from Philippa full of
• 1:30:00
  Alec and Alonzo, what they said and what they did, and how they
• 1:30:03
  looked when they saw her. But I can't make up my mind yet which
• 1:30:08
  to marry, wrote phil I do wish you had come with me to decide
• 1:30:11
  for me. Someone will have to. When I saw Alec, my heart
• 1:30:14
  gave a great thump, and I thought he might be the right one.
• 1:30:17
  And then when Alonzo came, thump went my heart again. So that's no
• 1:30:20
  guide, though it should be according to all the novels I've ever read.
• 1:30:24
  Now, Anne, your heart wouldn't sump for anybody but the genuine Prince Charming,
• 1:30:28
  would it. There must be something radically wrong with mine. But I'm
• 1:30:31
  having a perfectly gorgeous time. How I wish you were here. It's snowing
• 1:30:35
  today and I'm rapturous. I was so afraid we'd have a green Christmas,
• 1:30:40
  and I loathed them. You know, when Christmas is a dirty, gray
• 1:30:43
  brownie affair, looking as if it had been left over a hundred years ago
• 1:30:45
  and had been in soak ever since, it is called a green Christmas.
• 1:30:49
  Don't ask me why. As Lord Dondreary says, there are some things no
• 1:30:54
  fellow can understand. Anne, did you ever get on a street car and
• 1:30:59
  then discover that you hadn't any money with you to pay your fare? I
• 1:31:01
  did the other day. It's quite awful. I had a nickel with me
• 1:31:05
  when I got on the car. I thought it was in the left pocket
• 1:31:09
  of my coat. When I got settled down comfortably, I felt for it.
• 1:31:12
  It wasn't there. I had a cold chill I felt in the other
• 1:31:15
  pocket. Not there I had another chill. Then I felt in a little
• 1:31:20
  inside pocket all in vain. I had two chills at once. I took
• 1:31:25
  off my gloves, laid them on the seat, and went all over my
• 1:31:27
  pockets again. It was not there. I stood up and shook myself,
• 1:31:30
  and then looked on the floor. The car was full of people who were
• 1:31:33
  going home from the opera, and they all stared at me. But I
• 1:31:36
  was past caring for a little thing like that. But I could not find
• 1:31:41
  my fare. I concluded I must have put it in my mouth and swallowed
• 1:31:44
  it inadvertently. I didn't know what to do with the conductor. I wondered,
• 1:31:47
  stop the car and put me off in ignominy and shame. Was it
• 1:31:50
  possible that I could convince him that I was merely the victim of my own
• 1:31:54
  absent mindedness, and not an unprincipled creature trying to obtain a ride upon false
• 1:31:58
  pretenses. How I wished that Alec Orlonzo were there, but they weren't because
• 1:32:02
  I wanted them. If I hadn't wanted them, they would have been there
• 1:32:05
  by the dozen. And I couldn't decide what to say to the conductor when
• 1:32:09
  he came around as soon as I got one sentence of explanation mapped out in
• 1:32:13
  my mind, I thought nobody could believe it, and I must compose another.
• 1:32:16
  It seemed there was nothing to do but trust in providence, and for
• 1:32:19
  all the comfort that gave me, I might as well have been the old
• 1:32:23
  lady who, when told by the captain during a storm that she must put
• 1:32:26
  her trust in the almighty, exclaimed, oh, Captain, is it as
• 1:32:28
  bad as that? Just at the conventional moment, when all hope had fled
• 1:32:31
  and the conductor was holding out his box to the passenger next to me,
• 1:32:34
  I suddenly remembered where I had put that wretched coin of the realm. I
• 1:32:39
  hadn't swallowed it, after all. I meekly fished it out of the index
• 1:32:43
  finger of my glove and poked it in the box. I smiled at everybody
• 1:32:46
  and felt that it was a beautiful world. The visit to Echo Lodge was
• 1:32:50
  not the least pleasant of many pleasant holiday outings. Anne and Diana went back
• 1:32:55
  to it by the old way of the beech Woods, carrying a lunch basket
• 1:32:58
  with them. Echo, which had been closed ever since Miss Lavender's wedding,
• 1:33:01
  was briefly thrown open to wind and sunshine once more, and firelight glimmered again
• 1:33:06
  in the little rooms. The perfume of Miss Lavender's rose bowls still filled the
• 1:33:10
  air. It was hardly possible to believe that Miss Lavender would not come tripping
• 1:33:14
  in presently with her brown eyes, a star with welcome and let Karlotta,
• 1:33:17
  the fourth blue of bow and wide of smile would not pop through the door.
• 1:33:21
  Paul too seemed hovering around with his fairy fancies. It really makes me
• 1:33:27
  feel a little bit like a ghost revisiting the old time glimpses of the moon,
• 1:33:30
  laughed Anne. Let's go out and see if the echoes are at home.
• 1:33:33
  Bring the old horn, it is still behind the kitchen door. The
• 1:33:36
  echoes were at home over the White River, as silver, clear and multitudinous
• 1:33:41
  as ever, And when they had ceased to answer, the girls locked up
• 1:33:44
  at go lodge again and went away in the perfect half hour that follows the
• 1:33:47
  rose and saffron of a winter sunset end of chapter seven, Chapter eight,
• 1:33:54
  Anne's first proposal. The old Year did not slip away in a green twilight
• 1:34:00
  with a pinky yellow sunset. Instead, it went out with a wild white
• 1:34:03
  bluster and blow It was one of the nights when the storm wind hurtles over
• 1:34:08
  the frozen meadows and black hollows, and moans around the eaves like a lost
• 1:34:13
  creature, and drives the snow sharply against the shaking panes. Just the sort
• 1:34:17
  of night people like to cuddle down between their blankets and count their mercies,
• 1:34:21
  said Anne to Jane Andrews, who had come up to spend the afternoon and
• 1:34:24
  stay all night. But when they were cuddled between their blankets in Anne's little
• 1:34:28
  porch room, it was not her mercies of which Jane was thinking. Anne.
• 1:34:32
  She said, very solemnly, I want to tell you something, may
• 1:34:36
  I. Anne was feeling rather sleepy after the party Ruby Gillis had given the
• 1:34:41
  night before. She would much rather have gone to sleep than listen to Jane's
• 1:34:45
  confidences, which she was sure would bore her. She had no prophetic inkling
• 1:34:48
  of what was coming. Probably Jane was engaged too. Rumor averred that Ruby
• 1:34:54
  Gillis was engaged to the Spencervale school teacher, about whom all the girls were
• 1:34:58
  said to be quite wild. I'll soon be the only fancy freemaiden of our
• 1:35:01
  old quartet, thought Anne drowsily, aloud, she said, of course,
• 1:35:06
  Anne said Jane, still more solemnly, what do you think of my brother
• 1:35:12
  Billy? Anne gasped over this unexpected question and floundered helplessly in her thoughts.
• 1:35:17
  Goodness, what did she think of Billy Andrews? She had never thought anything
• 1:35:23
  about him, round faced, stupid, perpetually smiling, good natured Billy Andrews.
• 1:35:29
  Did anybody ever think about Billy Andrews? Ah, I don't understand,
• 1:35:33
  Jane, she stammered. What do you mean exactly? Do you like Billy?
• 1:35:39
  Asked Jane bluntly. Why? Why? Yes? I like him?
• 1:35:43
  Of course, gasped Anne, wondering if she were telling the literal truth.
• 1:35:47
  Certainly she did not dislike Billy, But could the indifferent tolerance with which she
• 1:35:53
  regarded him when he happened to be in her range of vision be considered positive
• 1:35:57
  enough for liking? What was Jane trying to alluse sedate? Would you like
• 1:36:01
  him for a husband, asked Jane calmly. Husband. Anne had been sitting
• 1:36:06
  up in bed, the better to wrestle with the problem of her exact opinion
• 1:36:10
  of Billy Andrews's. Now she fell flatly back on her pillows the very breath
• 1:36:15
  gone out of her. Whose husband yours? Of course, answered Jane.
• 1:36:19
  Billy wants to marry you. He's always been crazy about you, and now
• 1:36:24
  father has given him the upper farm in his own name, and there's nothing
• 1:36:27
  to prevent him from getting married. But he's so shy he couldn't ask you
• 1:36:30
  himself if you'd have him, so he got me to do it. I'd
• 1:36:32
  rather not have, but he gave me no peace till I said I would
• 1:36:35
  if I got a good chance. What do you think about it? Anne?
• 1:36:40
  Was it a dream? Was it one of those nightmare things in which
• 1:36:43
  you find yourself engaged or married to some one you hate or don't know without
• 1:36:45
  the slightest idea of how it ever came about? No? She, Anne
• 1:36:50
  Shirley was lying there, wide awake in her own bed, and Jane Andrews
• 1:36:56
  was beside her, calmly proposing for her brother Billy. Anne did not know
• 1:37:00
  whether she wanted to writhe or laugh, but she could do neither, for
• 1:37:03
  Jane's feelings must not be hurt. I I couldn't marry Billy, you know,
• 1:37:09
  Jane, She managed to gasp. Why such an idea never occurred to
• 1:37:13
  me? Never? I don't suppose it did, agreed Jane. Billy has
• 1:37:16
  always been far too shy to think of courting, but you might think it
• 1:37:19
  over. Anne. Billy is a good fellow. I must say that if
• 1:37:24
  he is my brother. He has no bad habits, and he's a great
• 1:37:27
  worker, and you can depend on him. A bird in the hand is
• 1:37:30
  worth two in the bush. He told me to tell you he'd be quite
• 1:37:33
  willing to wait till you got through college if you insisted, though he'd rather
• 1:37:36
  get married this spring before the planting begins. He'd always be very good to
• 1:37:41
  you. I'm sure, and you know, Anne, I'd love to have
• 1:37:44
  you for a sister. I can't marry Billy, said Anne decidedly. She
• 1:37:48
  had recovered her wits and was even feeling a little angry. It was all
• 1:37:53
  so ridiculous. There is no use thinking of it, Jane. I don't
• 1:37:57
  care anything for him in that way, and you must tell him so well.
• 1:38:00
  I didn't suppose you would, said Jane with a resigned sigh, feeling
• 1:38:03
  that she had done her best. I told Billy I didn't believe it was
• 1:38:08
  a bit of use to ask you, but he insisted, Well, you've
• 1:38:11
  made your decision, Anne, and I hope you won't regret it. Jane
• 1:38:15
  spoke rather coldly. She had been perfectly sure that the enamored Billy had no
• 1:38:18
  chance at all of inducing Anne to marry him. Nevertheless, she felt a
• 1:38:23
  little resentment that Anne Shirley, who was after all merely an adopted orphan without
• 1:38:27
  kith or kin, should refuse her brother one of the Avonlea Andrews Well,
• 1:38:32
  pride sometimes goes before a fall, Jane reflected ominously. Anne permitted herself to
• 1:38:38
  smile in the darkness over the idea that she might ever regret not marrying Billy
• 1:38:42
  Andrews. I hope Billy won't feel very badly over it, she said nicely.
• 1:38:47
  Jane made a movement as if she were tossing her head on her pillow.
• 1:38:50
  Oh, he won't break his heart. Billy has too much good sense
• 1:38:54
  for that. He likes Nettie Blewett pretty well too, and mother would rather
• 1:38:58
  he married her than any one, she said, Such a good manager and
• 1:39:00
  savor. I think when Billy is once sure you won't have him, he'll
• 1:39:03
  take Nettie. Please don't mention this to any one, will you. Anne
• 1:39:08
  certainly not, said Anne, who had no desire whatever to publish abroad the
• 1:39:12
  fact that Billy Andrews wanted to marry her, preferring her when all was said
• 1:39:15
  and done to Nettie blew It. Nettie blew It, And now I suppose
• 1:39:19
  we'd better go to sleep, suggested Jane. To sleep, went Jane easily
• 1:39:24
  and speedily. But though very unlike Macbeth in most respects, she had certainly
• 1:39:29
  contrived to murder sleep for Anne that proposed to damsel lay on a wakeful pillow
• 1:39:33
  until the wee smiles, but her meditations were far from being romantic. It
• 1:39:39
  was not, however, until the next morning, that she had an opportunity
• 1:39:43
  to indulge in a good laugh over the whole affair. When Jane had gone
• 1:39:45
  home still with a hint of frost and voice and manner. Because Anne had
• 1:39:49
  declined so ungratefully and decidedly the honor of an alliance with the House of Andrews,
• 1:39:55
  Anne retreated to the porch room, shut the door, and had her
• 1:39:58
  laugh out at last. If I could only share the joke with some one,
• 1:40:02
  she thought, But I can't. Diana is the only one I'd want
• 1:40:05
  to tell. And even if I hadn't sworn secrecy to Jane, I can't
• 1:40:10
  tell Diana things now she tells everything to Fred. I know she does well.
• 1:40:15
  I've had my first proposal. I supposed it would come some day,
• 1:40:18
  but I certainly never thought it would be by proxy. It's awfully funny,
• 1:40:24
  and yet there's a sting in it too. Somehow Anne knew quite well wherein
• 1:40:29
  the sting consisted, though she did not put it into words. She had
• 1:40:31
  had her secret dreams of the first time some one would ask for the great
• 1:40:35
  question, And it had in those dreams always been very romantic and beautiful,
• 1:40:41
  and the some one was to be very handsome and dark eyed, and distinguished
• 1:40:45
  looking and eloquent, whether he were a prince charming to be enraptured with yes,
• 1:40:49
  or one to whom a regretful, beautifully worded, but hopeless refusal must
• 1:40:54
  be given. If the latter, the refusal was to be expressed so delicately
• 1:40:58
  that it would be next best thing to accept, and he would go away
• 1:41:00
  after kissing her hand, assuring her of his unalterable lifelong devotion, and it
• 1:41:05
  would always be a beautiful memory to be proud of and a little sad about
• 1:41:09
  also. And now this thrilling experience had turned out to be merely grotesque.
• 1:41:15
  Billy Andrews had got his sister to propose for him because his father had given
• 1:41:18
  him the upper farm, and if Anne wouldn't have him, Nettie Blewet would.
• 1:41:23
  There was romance for you. With a vengeance. Anne laughed, and
• 1:41:27
  then sighed. The bloom had been brushed from one more little maiden dream.
• 1:41:31
  Would the painful process go on until everything became prosaic and humdrum end of chapter
• 1:41:39
  eight, Chapter nine, an unwelcome lover and a welcome friend. The second
• 1:41:45
  term at Redmond sped as quickly as had the first actually whizzed away. Philippa
• 1:41:48
  said. Anne enjoyed it thoroughly in all its phases. The stimulating class rivalry,
• 1:41:55
  the making and deepening of new and helpful friendships, the gay little social
• 1:41:59
  stunts, the doings of the various societies of which she was a member,
• 1:42:02
  the widening of horizons and interests. She studied hard, for she had made
• 1:42:06
  up her mind to win the Thorburne Scholarship in English. This being one meant
• 1:42:11
  that she could come back to Redmond the next year without trenching on Marilla's small
• 1:42:14
  savings. Something Anne was determined. She would not do. Gilbert, too,
• 1:42:18
  was in full chase after a scholarship, but found plenty of time for
• 1:42:21
  frequent calls at thirty eighth Saint John's. He was Anne's escort at nearly all
• 1:42:26
  the college affairs, and she knew that their names were coupled in Redmond gossip.
• 1:42:30
  Anne raged over this, but was helpless. She could not cast an
• 1:42:33
  old friend like Gilbert aside, especially when he had grown suddenly wise and wary
• 1:42:38
  as behooved him in the dangerous proximity of more than one Redmond youth who would
• 1:42:42
  gladly have taken his place by the side of the slender, red haired coed
• 1:42:45
  whose gray eyes were as alluring as stars of evening. Anne was never attended
• 1:42:50
  by the crowd of willing victims who hovered around Philippa's conquering march through her freshman
• 1:42:55
  year. But there was a lanky, brainy freshy, a jolly little round
• 1:42:59
  sophomre, and a tall learned junior who all liked to call at thirty eight
• 1:43:02
  Saint John's and talk over ologies and isms as well as lighter subjects with Anne
• 1:43:08
  in the becushioned parlor of that domicile. Gilbert did not love any of them,
• 1:43:12
  and he was exceedingly careful to give none of them the advantage over him
• 1:43:15
  by any untimely display of his real feelings. Anne ward to her he had
• 1:43:19
  become again the boy comrade of Avonlea days, and as such could hold his
• 1:43:25
  own against any smitten swain who had so far entered the lists against him As
• 1:43:30
  a companion. Anne honestly acknowledged nobody could be so satisfactory as Gilbert. She
• 1:43:34
  was very glad, so she told herself that he had evidently dropped all nonsensical
• 1:43:39
  ideas, though she spent considerable time secretly wondering why. Only one disagreeable incident
• 1:43:45
  marred that winter. Charlie Sloane, sitting bold upright on Missida's most dearly beloved
• 1:43:50
  cushion, asked Anne one night if she would promise to become Missus Charlie Sloane
• 1:43:56
  some day. Coming after Billy Andrews's proxy effort, This was not quite the
• 1:44:00
  shock to Anne's romantic sensibilities that it would otherwise have been, but it was
• 1:44:03
  certainly another heartrending disillusion. She was angry, too, for she felt that
• 1:44:09
  she had never given Charlie the slightest encouragement to suppose such a thing possible.
• 1:44:13
  But what could you expect of a sloan, As Missus Rachel Lynde would ask
• 1:44:15
  scornfully, Charley's whole latitude, tone, air words fairly reaked with slownishness.
• 1:44:21
  He was conferring a great honor, no doubt whatever about that. And when
• 1:44:27
  Anne, utterly insensible to the honor, refused him as delicately and considerately as
• 1:44:30
  she could, for even a sloane had feelings which ought not to be unduly
• 1:44:33
  lacerated, slownishness still further betrayed itself. Charley certainly did not take his dismissal
• 1:44:40
  as Anne's imaginary rejected suitors did. Instead, he became angry and showed it.
• 1:44:45
  He said two or three quite nasty things. Anne's temper flashed up mutinously,
• 1:44:48
  and she retorted with a cutting little speech whose keenness pierced even Charley's protective
• 1:44:54
  slownishness, and reached the quick. He caught up his hat and flung himself
• 1:44:58
  out of the house with a very red face. Anne rushed upstairs, falling
• 1:45:01
  twice over Meceda's cushions on the way, and threw herself on her bed in
• 1:45:04
  tears of humiliation and rage. Had she actually stooped to quarrel with a Sloane?
• 1:45:11
  Was it possible anything Charley Sloane could say had power to make her angry?
• 1:45:15
  Oh? This was degradation, indeed worse even than being the rival of
• 1:45:18
  Nettie Blewett. I wish I need never see the horrible creature again. She
• 1:45:23
  sobbed vindictively into her pillows. She could not avoid seeing him again, But
• 1:45:28
  the outraged Charley took care that it should not be at very close quarters.
• 1:45:31
  Miceda's cushions were henceforth safe from his depredations, and when he met Anne on
• 1:45:35
  the street or in Redman's halls, his bow was icy in the extreme Relations
• 1:45:41
  between these two old schoolmates continued to be thus strained for nearly a year.
• 1:45:45
  Then Charlie transferred his blighted affections to a round, rosy, snub nosed,
• 1:45:49
  blue eyed little sophomore, who appreciated them as they deserved. Whereupon he forgave
• 1:45:54
  Anne and condescended to be civil to her again, in a patronizing manner,
• 1:45:58
  intended to show her just what she had lost. One day, Anne scurried
• 1:46:02
  excitedly into Priscilla's room read that she cried, tossing Priscilla a letter. It's
• 1:46:08
  from Stella and she's coming to Redmond next year. And what do you think
• 1:46:11
  of her idea? I think it's a perfectly splendid one. If we can
• 1:46:14
  only carry it out, do you suppose we can, PRIs I'll be better
• 1:46:17
  able to tell you when I find out what it is, said Priscilla,
• 1:46:19
  casting aside a Greek lexicon and taking up Stella's letter. Stella Maynard had been
• 1:46:25
  one of their chums at Queen's Academy and had been teaching school ever since.
• 1:46:29
  But I'm going to give it up, Anne dear, she wrote, and
• 1:46:30
  go to college next year. As I took the third year at Queen's,
• 1:46:33
  I can enter the sophomore year. I'm tired of teaching at a back country
• 1:46:38
  school. Some day I'm going to write a treatise on the trials of a
• 1:46:41
  country school, Marm. It will be a harrowing bit of realism. It
• 1:46:45
  seems to be the prevailing impression that we live in Clover and have nothing to
• 1:46:47
  do but draw our quarter's salary. My treaty shall tell the truth about us.
• 1:46:53
  Why if a week should pass without some one telling me that I am
• 1:46:55
  doing easy work for big pay, I would conclude that I might as well
• 1:46:59
  order my assension robe immediately into oncet. While you get your money easy.
• 1:47:03
  Some rate payer will tell me condescendingly, all you have to do is sit
• 1:47:06
  there and hear lessons. I used to argue the matter at first, but
• 1:47:10
  I am wiser now. Facts are stubborn things, but as someone has wisely
• 1:47:14
  said, not half so stubborn as fallacies. So I only smile loftily now
• 1:47:18
  in eloquent silence. Why I have nine grades in my school, and I
• 1:47:23
  have to teach a little of everything, from investigating the interiors of earthworms to
• 1:47:27
  the study of the solar system. My youngest pupil is four. His mother
• 1:47:30
  sends him to school to get him out of the way, and my oldest
• 1:47:33
  twenty. It suddenly struck him that it would be easier to go to school
• 1:47:36
  and get an education than follow the plow any longer in the wild effort to
• 1:47:42
  cram all sorts of research into six hours a day. I don't wonder if
• 1:47:45
  the children feel a little like the boy who was taken to see the biograph.
• 1:47:47
  I have to look for what's coming next before I know what went last,
• 1:47:50
  he complained. I feel like that myself, and the letters I get
• 1:47:55
  Anne, Tommy's mother writes me that Tommy is not coming on in arithmetic as
• 1:47:59
  fast as she would like. He is only in simple reduction yet, and
• 1:48:01
  Johnny Johnson is in fractions, and Johnny isn't half as smart as her Tommy,
• 1:48:05
  and she can't understand it. And Susie's father wants to know why Susie
• 1:48:09
  can't write a letter without misspelling half the words. And Dick's aunt wants me
• 1:48:13
  to change his seat because that bad brown boy he is sitting with is teaching
• 1:48:15
  him to say naughty words as to the financial part. But I'll not begin
• 1:48:20
  on that. Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make country
• 1:48:25
  schoolmarms. There. I feel better after that growl. After all, I've
• 1:48:30
  enjoyed these past two years. But I'm coming to Redmond and now, Anne,
• 1:48:33
  I've a little plan. You know how I loathe boarding. I've boarded
• 1:48:38
  for four years and I'm so tired of it. I don't feel like enduring
• 1:48:42
  three years more of it. Now. Why can't you and Priscilla and I
• 1:48:45
  clubbed together rent a little house somewhere in Kingsport and board ourselves. It would
• 1:48:48
  be cheaper than any other way. Of course, we would have to have
• 1:48:51
  a housekeeper, and I have one ready on the spot. You've heard me
• 1:48:55
  speak of Aunt james Zina. She's the sweetest aunt that ever lived. In
• 1:48:58
  spite of her name. She can't help that. She was called james Zina
• 1:49:01
  because her father, whose name was James, was drowned at sea a month
• 1:49:03
  before she was born. I always call her Aunt Jimsie. Well. Her
• 1:49:08
  only daughter has recently married and gone to the Foreign mission field. Aunt james
• 1:49:12
  Zina had left alone in a great big house, and she is horribly lonesome.
• 1:49:15
  She will come to Kingsport and keep house for us if we want her,
• 1:49:17
  and I know you'll both love her. The more I think of the
• 1:49:20
  plan, the more I like it. We could have such good independent times
• 1:49:25
  now if you and Priscilla agree to it. Wouldn't it be a good idea
• 1:49:28
  for you, who are on the spot to look around and see if you
• 1:49:30
  can find a suitable house this spring. That would be better than leaving it
• 1:49:33
  till the fall. If you could get a furnished one, so much the
• 1:49:36
  better. But if not, we could scare up a few sticks of furniture
• 1:49:39
  between us and old family friends with attics. Anyhow, decide as soon as
• 1:49:43
  you can and write me so that Aunt James Zina will know what plans to
• 1:49:45
  make for next year. I think it's a good idea, said Priscilla,
• 1:49:49
  so do, I agreed Anne delightedly. Of course we have a nice boarding
• 1:49:53
  house here. But when all said and done, a boarding house isn't home.
• 1:49:57
  So let's go house hunting at once before exams come on. I'm afraid
• 1:50:00
  it will be hard enough to get a really suitable house, warned Priscilla.
• 1:50:03
  Don't expect too much, Anne. Nice houses and nice localities will probably be
• 1:50:08
  away beyond our means. We'll likely have to content ourselves with a shabby little
• 1:50:12
  place on some street whereon live people whom to know is to be unknown,
• 1:50:15
  and make life inside compensate for the outside. Accordingly, they went house hunting,
• 1:50:20
  but to find just what they wanted proved even harder than Priscilla had feared.
• 1:50:25
  Houses there were a loore, furnished and unfurnished, but one was too
• 1:50:29
  big, another too small, this one too expensive, that one too far
• 1:50:31
  from Redmond. Exams were on and over the last week of the term came,
• 1:50:36
  and still their house a dreams, as Anne called it, remained a
• 1:50:40
  council in the air. We shall have to give up and wait till the
• 1:50:43
  fall, i suppose, said Priscilla wearily, as they rambled through the park
• 1:50:46
  on one of April's daring days of breeze and blue, when the harbor was
• 1:50:50
  creaming and shimmering beneath the pearl hued mists floating over it. We may find
• 1:50:55
  some shack to shelter us then, and if not, boarding houses we shall
• 1:50:59
  have always with us. I'm not going to worry about it just now anyway,
• 1:51:02
  and spoil this lovely afternoon, said Anne, gazing around her with delight.
• 1:51:06
  The fresh chill air was faintly charged with the aroma of pine balsam,
• 1:51:11
  and the sky above was crystal clear and blue. A great inverted cup of
• 1:51:15
  blessing spring is singing in my blood to day, and the lure of April
• 1:51:18
  is abroad on the air. I'm seeing visions and dreaming dreams, Chris.
• 1:51:24
  That's because the wind is from the west. I do love the west wind.
• 1:51:27
  It sings of hope and gladness, doesn't it. When the east wind
• 1:51:30
  blows I always think of sorrowful rain on the eaves and sad waves on a
• 1:51:33
  gray shore. When I get old, I shall have rheumatism when the wind
• 1:51:38
  is east. And isn't it jolly when you discard furs and winter garments for
• 1:51:42
  the first time in sally Forth like this in springett Higher, laughed Priscilla.
• 1:51:45
  Don't you feel as if you had been made over new? Everything is new
• 1:51:49
  in the spring, said Anne. Springs themselves are always so new too.
• 1:51:53
  No spring is ever just like any other spring. It always has something of
• 1:51:57
  its own to be its own peculiar sweetness. See how green the grass is
• 1:52:00
  around that little pond, and how the willow buds are bursting, and exams
• 1:52:04
  are over and gone. The time of convocation will come soon next Wednesday.
• 1:52:10
  This day next week will be home. I am glad, said Anne dreamily.
• 1:52:14
  There are so many things I want to do. I want to sit
• 1:52:16
  on the back porch steps and feel the breeze blowing down over mister Harrison's fields.
• 1:52:21
  I want to hunt ferns in the haunted wood and gather violess and violet
• 1:52:25
  vale. Do you remember the day of our golden picnic, Priscilla. I
• 1:52:29
  want to hear the frogs singing and the poplars whispering. But I've learned to
• 1:52:32
  love Kingsport too, and I'm glad I'm coming back next fall. If I
• 1:52:35
  hadn't won the Thorburn, I don't believe I could have. I couldn't take
• 1:52:39
  any of Marilla's little hoard. If we could only find a house, sighed
• 1:52:44
  Priscilla. Look over there at Kingsport, Anne, houses houses everywhere, and
• 1:52:48
  not one for us. Stop it, Priss, The best is yet to
• 1:52:51
  be. Like the old Roman, we'll find a house or build one on
• 1:52:56
  a day like this. There's no such word as fail in my bright lexicon.
• 1:53:00
  They lingered in the park until sunset, living in the amazing miracle and
• 1:53:03
  glory and wonder of the spring tide. And they went home as usual,
• 1:53:06
  by way of Spofford Avenue, that they might have the delight of looking at
• 1:53:10
  Patty's place. I feel as if something mysterious were going to happen right away
• 1:53:15
  by the pricking of my thumbs, said Anne as they went up the slope.
• 1:53:18
  It's a nice story bookish feeling. Why why, why, Priscilla Grant,
• 1:53:25
  look over there and tell me if it is true? Where am I
• 1:53:27
  seeing things. Priscilla looked. Anne's thumbs and eyes had not deceived her.
• 1:53:31
  Over the arched gateway of Patty's Place dangled a little modest sign. It said
• 1:53:36
  to let furnished inquire within. Priscilla said Anne in a whisper. Do you
• 1:53:42
  suppose it's possible that we could rent Patty's Place? No, I don't,
• 1:53:46
  averred, Priscilla. It would be too good to be true. Fairy tales
• 1:53:50
  don't happen now a days. I won't hope, Anne, The disappointment would
• 1:53:55
  be too awful to bear. They're sure to want more for it than we
• 1:53:58
  can afford. Remember, it's on Spofford Avenue. We must find out anyhow,
• 1:54:01
  said Anne resolutely. It's too late to call this evening, but we'll
• 1:54:05
  come tomorrow. Oh, Chris, if we can get this darling spot.
• 1:54:10
  I've always felt that my fortunes were linked with Patty's Place, ever since I
• 1:54:13
  saw it first end of chapter nine, Chapter ten, Patty's Place. The
• 1:54:19
  next evening found them treading resolutely the Harrying Bone walk through the tiny garden.
• 1:54:25
  The april wind was filling the pine trees with its round delay, and the
• 1:54:28
  grove was alive with robins. Great, plump, saucy fellows strutting along the
• 1:54:32
  paths. The girls rang rather timidly and were admitted by a grim and ancient
• 1:54:38
  handmaiden. The door opened directly into a large living room, whereby a cheery
• 1:54:43
  little fire sat two other ladies, both of whom were also grim and ancient.
• 1:54:47
  Except that one looked to be about seventy and the other fifty, there
• 1:54:50
  seemed little difference between them. Each had amazingly big, light blue eyes behind
• 1:54:56
  steel rimmed spectacles. Each wore a cap and a gray shawl. Each was
• 1:55:00
  knitting without haste and without rest. Each rocked placidly and looked at the girls
• 1:55:04
  without speaking. And just behind each sat a large white China dog with round
• 1:55:10
  green spots all over it, a green nose, and green ears. Those
• 1:55:14
  dogs captured Anne's fancy on the spot. They seemed like the twin guardian deities
• 1:55:17
  of Patty's place. For a few moments, nobody spoke. The girls were
• 1:55:21
  too nervous to find words, and neither the ancient ladies nor the China dogs
• 1:55:26
  seemed conversationally inclined. Anne glanced about the room. What a dear place it
• 1:55:30
  was. Another door opened out of it directly into the pine grove, and
• 1:55:34
  the robins came boldly up on the very step. The floor was spotted with
• 1:55:39
  round braided mats, such as marilla made at green Gables, but which were
• 1:55:42
  considered out of date everywhere else, even in Avonlea, And yet here they
• 1:55:46
  were. On Spofford Avenue, a big, polished grandfather's clock ticked loudly and
• 1:55:50
  solemnly. In a corner there were delightful little cupboards over the mantelpiece, behind
• 1:55:56
  whose glass doors gleamed quaint bits of china. The walls were hot with old
• 1:56:00
  prince and silhouettes. In one corner, the stairs went up, and at
• 1:56:03
  the first low turn was a long window with an inviting seat. It was
• 1:56:08
  all just as Anne had known it must be. By this time, the
• 1:56:12
  silence had grown too dreadful, and Priscilla nudged Anne to intimate that she must
• 1:56:15
  speak. We we saw by your sign that this house is to let,
• 1:56:19
  said Anne faintly, addressing the older lady, who was evidently Miss Patty.
• 1:56:24
  Spoffered. Oh yes, said miss Patty. I intended to take that sign
• 1:56:28
  down to day. Then then we are too late, said Anne sorrowfully.
• 1:56:32
  You've led it to some one else. No, but we have decided not
• 1:56:35
  to let it at all. Oh, I'm so sorry, exclaimed Anne impulsively.
• 1:56:40
  I love this place, so I did hope we could have got it.
• 1:56:44
  Then did miss Patty lay down her knitting, take off her specs,
• 1:56:46
  rub them, put them on again, and for the first time look at
• 1:56:49
  Anne as at a human being. The other lady followed her example so perfectly
• 1:56:55
  that she might as well have been a reflection in a mirror. You love
• 1:56:59
  it, said missus Patty, with emphasis. Does that mean that you really
• 1:57:02
  love it or that you merely like the looks of it? The girls nowadays
• 1:57:06
  indulge in such exaggerated statements that one never can tell what they do mean.
• 1:57:11
  It wasn't so in my young days. Then, a girl did not say
• 1:57:14
  she loved turnips in just the same tone as she might have said she loved
• 1:57:16
  her mother or her savior. Anne's conscience bore her up. I really do
• 1:57:21
  love it, she said gently. I've loved it ever since I saw it
• 1:57:25
  last fall. My two college chums and I want to keep house next year
• 1:57:29
  instead of boarding, so we're looking for a little place to rent. And
• 1:57:31
  when I saw that this house was to lead I was so happy. If
• 1:57:34
  you love it, you can have it, said Miss Patty. Marie and
• 1:57:38
  I decided to day that we would not let it after all, because we
• 1:57:41
  did not like any of the people who have wanted it. We don't have
• 1:57:44
  to let it. We can afford to go to Europe. Even if we
• 1:57:45
  don't let it. It would help us out, but not for gold.
• 1:57:48
  Will I let my home pass into the possession of such people as have come
• 1:57:51
  here and looked at it. You are different. I believe you do love
• 1:57:56
  it and will be good to it. You can have it if a if
• 1:58:00
  we can afford to pay what you ask for it, hesitated Anne. Miss
• 1:58:02
  Patty named the amount required. Anne and Priscilla looked at each other. Priscilla
• 1:58:08
  shook her head. I'm afraid we can't afford quite so much, said Anne,
• 1:58:12
  choking back her disappointment. You see, we are only college girls,
• 1:58:15
  and we are poor. What were you thinking you could afford? Demanded Miss
• 1:58:18
  Patty, Ceasing not to knit, Anne named her amount. Miss Patty nodded
• 1:58:23
  gravely. That will do as I told you. It is not strictly necessary
• 1:58:27
  that we should let it at all. We are not rich, but we
• 1:58:29
  have enough to go to Europe on. I have never been in Europe in
• 1:58:31
  my life, and never expected or wanted to go. But my niece there,
• 1:58:35
  Maria Spofford, has taken a fancy to go. Now. You know,
• 1:58:39
  a young person like Maria can't go globe trotting alone. No, I
• 1:58:44
  suppose not, murmured Anne, seeing that Miss Patty was quite solemnly in earnest.
• 1:58:48
  Of course, not so I have to go along to look after her.
• 1:58:53
  I expect to enjoy it too. I am seventy years old, but
• 1:58:56
  I am not tired of living yet. I dare say i'd have gone to
• 1:58:59
  Europe before if the eye idea had occurred to me. We shall be away
• 1:59:01
  for two years, perhaps three. We sail in June, and we shall
• 1:59:04
  send you the key and leave all in order for you to take possession when
• 1:59:08
  you choose. We shall pack away a few things we prize especially, but
• 1:59:11
  all the rest will be left. Will you leave the China dogs, asked
• 1:59:15
  Anne timidly, would you like me to? Oh? Indeed, yes,
• 1:59:17
  they're delightful. A pleased expression came into Miss Patty's face. I think a
• 1:59:23
  great deal of those dogs, she said, proudly. They are over a
• 1:59:26
  hundred years old. And have sat on either side of this fireplace ever since
• 1:59:29
  my brother Aaron brought them from London fifty years ago. Spofford Avenue was called
• 1:59:32
  after my brother Aaron. A fine man he was, said Miss Maria,
• 1:59:36
  speaking for the first time. Ah, you don't see the like of him
• 1:59:41
  now a days. He was a good uncle to you, Maria, said
• 1:59:43
  Miss Patty, with evident emotion. You do well to remember him. I
• 1:59:46
  shall always remember him, said Miss Maria solemnly. I can see him this
• 1:59:50
  minute, standing there before that fire, with his hands under his coat,
• 1:59:55
  tails beaming on us. Miss Maria took out her handkerchief and wiped her eyes.
• 2:00:00
  But Miss Patty came resolutely back from the regions of sentiment to those of
• 2:00:02
  business. I shall leave the dogs where they are, if you will promise
• 2:00:06
  to be very careful of them, she said. Their names are Gog and
• 2:00:10
  Magog. Gog looks to the right, and Magog to the left. And
• 2:00:14
  there's just one thing more. You don't object I hope to this house being
• 2:00:17
  called Patty's place. No, indeed, we think that is one of the
• 2:00:21
  nicest things about it. You have sense, I see, said Miss Patty
• 2:00:25
  in a tone of great satisfaction. Would you believe it? All the people
• 2:00:28
  who came here to rent the house wanted to know if they couldn't take the
• 2:00:30
  name off the gate during their occupation of it. I told them roundly that
• 2:00:33
  the name went with the house. This has been Patty's place ever since my
• 2:00:38
  brother Aaron left it to me in his will, and Patty's Place it shall
• 2:00:41
  remain until I die and Maria dies. After that happens, the next possessor
• 2:00:45
  can call it any fool name he likes, concluded Miss Patty, much as
• 2:00:47
  she might have said after that the deluge, And now wouldn't you like to
• 2:00:53
  go over the house and see it all before we consider the bargain? Made?
• 2:00:56
  Further explorations still further delighted the girls. Besides the big living room,
• 2:01:00
  there was a kitchen and a small bedroom downstairs. Up Stairs were three rooms,
• 2:01:04
  one large and two small. Anne took an especial fancy to one of
• 2:01:09
  the small ones, looking out into the big pines, and hoped it would
• 2:01:12
  be hers. It was papered in pale blue and had a little old timey
• 2:01:15
  toilet table with sconces for candles. There was a diamond paned window with a
• 2:01:20
  seat under the blue muslin frills. That would be a satisfying spot for studying
• 2:01:25
  or dreaming. It's all so delicious that I know we are going to wake
• 2:01:29
  up and find it a fleeting vision of the night, said Priscilla as they
• 2:01:31
  went away. Miss Patty and Miss Marie are hardly such stuff as dreams are
• 2:01:35
  made of, laughed Anne. Can you fancy them globe trotting, especially in
• 2:01:40
  those shawls and caps. I suppose they'll take them up when they really begin
• 2:01:44
  to trot, said Priscilla. But I know they'll take their knitting with them
• 2:01:46
  everywhere. They simply couldn't be parted from it. They will walk about Westminster
• 2:01:50
  Abbey and knit. I feel sure. Meanwhile, Anne, we shall be
• 2:01:55
  living in Paddy's Place and on Spofford Avenue. I feel like a millionaires even
• 2:01:59
  now. I feel like one of the morning stars that sang for Joy,
• 2:02:02
  said Anne. Phil Gordon crept into thirty eight Saint John's that night and flung
• 2:02:08
  herself on Anne's bed. Girls, Dear, I'm tired to death. I
• 2:02:12
  feel like the man without a country, or was it without a shadow?
• 2:02:15
  I forget which. Anyway, I've been packing up, and I suppose you
• 2:02:19
  were worn out because you couldn't decide which things to pack first or where to
• 2:02:23
  put them, laughed Priscilla, exactly. And when I had got everything jammed
• 2:02:28
  in somehow, and my landlady and her maid had both sat on it while
• 2:02:30
  I locked it, I discovered I had packed a whole lot of things I
• 2:02:33
  wanted for convocation at the very bottom. I had to unlock the old thing
• 2:02:38
  and poke and dive into it for an hour before I fished out what I
• 2:02:41
  wanted. I would get hold of something that felt like what I was looking
• 2:02:44
  for, and i'd yank it up and it would be something else. No,
• 2:02:47
  Anne, I did not swear. I didn't say you did well.
• 2:02:50
  You looked it, but I admit my thoughts urged on the profane. And
• 2:02:55
  I have such a cold in the head I can do nothing but sniffle,
• 2:02:58
  sigh and sneeze. Isn't that alliterative agony for you, Queen, Anne,
• 2:03:02
  Do say something to cheer me up. Remember that next Thursday night you'll be
• 2:03:06
  back in the land of Alec and Alonzo, suggested Anne. Phil shook her
• 2:03:10
  head dolefully mora reliteration. No, I don't want alec and Alonzo when I
• 2:03:15
  have a cold in the head. But what has happened to you two?
• 2:03:18
  Now that I look at you closely, you seem all lighted up with an
• 2:03:21
  internal iridescence. Why you're actually shining? What's up? We are going to
• 2:03:27
  live in Patty's place next winter, said Anne triumphantly. Live Mark, you
• 2:03:30
  not bored. We've rented it, and Stella Maynard is coming and her aunt
• 2:03:34
  is going to keep house for us. Phil bounced up, wiped her nose,
• 2:03:39
  and fell on her knees before Anne. Girls, girls, let me
• 2:03:42
  come too. Oh, I'll be so good. If there's no room for
• 2:03:44
  me, I'll sleep in the little dog house in the orchard. I've seen
• 2:03:46
  it. Only let me come. Get up, you goose. I won't
• 2:03:49
  stir off my marrow bones till you tell me I can live with you next
• 2:03:53
  winter. Anne and Priscilla looked at each other. Then Anne said slowly,
• 2:03:58
  Phil, dear, we'd love to have you, but we may as well
• 2:04:00
  speak plainly. I'm poor, Chris is poor, Stella Maynard is poor.
• 2:04:05
  Our housekeeping will have to be very simple and our table plain. You'd have
• 2:04:10
  to live as we would now you are rich and your boarding house Farah tests
• 2:04:14
  the fact. Oh what do I care for that, demanded Phil tragically,
• 2:04:17
  better at dinner of herbs where your chums are than a stalled ox in a
• 2:04:21
  lonely boarding house. Don't think I'm all stomach girls. I'll be willing to
• 2:04:26
  live on bread and water with just a little jam if you'll let me come.
• 2:04:30
  And then continued Anne, there will be a good deal of work to
• 2:04:33
  be done, Stella. Nat can't do it all. We all expect to
• 2:04:36
  have our chores to do. Now you toil not neither do I spin,
• 2:04:41
  finished, Philippa. But I'll learn to do things. You'll only have to
• 2:04:45
  show me once. I can make my own bed to begin with. And
• 2:04:47
  remember that though I can't cook, I can keep my temper. That's something.
• 2:04:51
  And I never growl about the weather, that's more. Oh, please,
• 2:04:56
  please, I never wanted anything so much in my life. And this
• 2:04:59
  floor's awfully hard. There's just one more thing, said Priscilla, resolutely you
• 2:05:04
  Phil, as all Redmond knows, entertain callers almost every evening now at Patty's
• 2:05:10
  place, we can't do that. We have decided that we shall be at
• 2:05:13
  home to our friends on Friday evenings. Only if you come with us.
• 2:05:15
  You'll have to abide by that rule. Well, you don't think I'll mind
• 2:05:19
  that, do you? Why I'm glad of it. I knew I should
• 2:05:21
  have had some such rule myself, but I hadn't enough decision to make it
• 2:05:25
  or stick to it. When I can shuffle off the responsibility on you,
• 2:05:28
  it will be a real relief. If you won't let me cast in my
• 2:05:30
  lot with you, I'll die of the disappointment, and then I'll come back
• 2:05:33
  and haunt you. I'll camp on the very doorstep of Patty's place, and
• 2:05:36
  you won't be able to go out or come in without falling over my spook
• 2:05:41
  again. Anne and Priscilla exchanged eloquent looks. Well, said Anne. Of
• 2:05:46
  course, we can't promise to take you until we've consulted with Stella, but
• 2:05:49
  I don't think she'll object. And as far as we are concerned, you
• 2:05:53
  may come and glad welcome. If you get tired of our simple life,
• 2:05:57
  you can leave us, and no questions asked, added Priscilla. Phil sprang
• 2:06:00
  up, hugged them both jubilantly and went on her way, rejoicing. I
• 2:06:04
  hope things will go all right, said Priscilla, soberly. We must make
• 2:06:09
  them go right. Avowed Anne, I think Phil will fit into our happy
• 2:06:12
  little home very well. Oh Phil's a dear to rattle around with and be
• 2:06:15
  chums. And of course the more there are of us, the easier it
• 2:06:18
  will be on our slim purses. But how will she be to live with?
• 2:06:23
  You have to summer and winter with any one before you know she's livable
• 2:06:26
  or not. Oh well, we'll all be put to the test as far
• 2:06:29
  as that goes, and we must quit us like sensible folk living and let
• 2:06:32
  live. Phil isn't selfish, though she's a little thoughtless, and I believe
• 2:06:36
  we will all get on beautifully in Patty's place. End of chapter ten,
• 2:06:42
  Chapter eleven, The Round of Life, Anne was back in Avonlea with the
• 2:06:47
  luster of the Thorburne scholarship on her brow. People told her she hadn't changed
• 2:06:51
  much, in a tone which hinted they were surprised and a little disappointed.
• 2:06:55
  She hadn't. Avonlea had not changed either, at least so it seems at
• 2:07:00
  first. But as Anne sat in the Green Gables pew on the first Sunday
• 2:07:03
  after her return and looked over the congregation, she saw several little changes which
• 2:07:09
  all coming home to her at once made her realize that time did not quite
• 2:07:13
  stand still. Even in Avonlea, a new minister was in the pulpit.
• 2:07:17
  In the pews, more than one familiar face was missing forever Old Uncle Labe,
• 2:07:21
  his prophesying over and done, with Missus Peter Sloane, who had sighed
• 2:07:26
  it was to be hoped for the last time. Timothy Cotton, who,
• 2:07:30
  as Missus Rachel Lynde said, had actually managed to die at last after practicing
• 2:07:33
  at it for twenty years. And old Josiah Sloane, whom nobody knew in
• 2:07:38
  his coffin because he had his whiskers neatly trimmed, were all sleeping the little
• 2:07:42
  graveyard behind the church. And Billy Andrews was married, and Nettie Blewett.
• 2:07:46
  They appeared out that Sunday when Billy, beaming with pride and happiness, showed
• 2:07:51
  his beplumed and besilked bride into the harm in Andrew's pew and dropped her lids
• 2:07:57
  to hide her dancing eyes. She recalled the star or me winter night of
• 2:08:01
  the Christmas holidays. When Jane had proposed for Billy, he certainly had not
• 2:08:03
  broken his heart over his rejection. Anne wondered if Jane had also proposed to
• 2:08:07
  netty for him, or if he had mustered enough spunk to ask the fateful
• 2:08:11
  question himself. All the Andrews family seemed to share in his pride and pleasure.
• 2:08:16
  From Missus Harmon and the pew to Jane in the choir. Jane had
• 2:08:20
  resigned from the Avonlea School and intended to go west in the fall. Can't
• 2:08:24
  get a bow in Avonlea, That's what said Missus Rachel. Lynde scornfully says.
• 2:08:28
  She thinks she'll have better health out west. I never heard her health
• 2:08:31
  was poor before. Jane is a nice girl, Anne had said loyally.
• 2:08:37
  She never tried to attract attention as some did. Oh she never chased the
• 2:08:41
  boys, if that's what you mean, said Missus Rachel. But she'd like
• 2:08:43
  to be married just as much as anybody. That's what What else would take
• 2:08:46
  her out with to some forsaken place whose only recommendation is that men are plenty
• 2:08:50
  and women scarce, don't you tell me? But it was not at Jane,
• 2:08:56
  Anne gazed that day in dismay and surprise. It was at Ruby Gillis,
• 2:09:00
  who sat beside her in the choir. What it happened to Ruby?
• 2:09:03
  She was even handsomer than ever, but her blue eyes were too bright and
• 2:09:07
  lustrous, and the color of her cheeks was hectically brilliant. Besides, she
• 2:09:11
  was very thin. The hands that held her hymn book were almost transparent in
• 2:09:16
  their delicacy. Is Ruby Gillis ill, Anne asked of Missus Lynde as they
• 2:09:20
  went home from church. Ruby Gillis is dying of galloping consumption, said Missus
• 2:09:24
  Lynde bluntly. Everybody knows it, except herself and her family. They won't
• 2:09:28
  give in if you ask them. She's perfectly well. She hasn't been able
• 2:09:33
  to teach since she had that attack of congestion in the winter, but she
• 2:09:35
  says she's going to teach again in the fall, and she's after the White
• 2:09:39
  Sands School. She'll be in her grave, poor girl, when White Sands
• 2:09:43
  School opens. That's what Anne listened in shocked silence. Ruby Gillis, her
• 2:09:48
  old school chum dying. Could it be possible? Of late years they had
• 2:09:54
  grown apart, But the old tie of schoolgirl intimacy was there and made itself
• 2:09:58
  felt sharply in the tug beneath you gave it Anne's heart strings. Ruby the
• 2:10:03
  brilliant, the merry, the coquettish. It was impossible to associate the thought
• 2:10:07
  of her with anything like death. She had greeted Anne with gay cordiality after
• 2:10:11
  church and urged her to come up the next evening. I'll be away Tuesday
• 2:10:16
  Wednesday evenings, she had whispered triumphantly. There's a concert at Carmody and a
• 2:10:20
  party at white Sand's herb. Spenser's going to take me. He's my latest.
• 2:10:24
  Be sure to come up tomorrow. I'm dying for a good talk with
• 2:10:28
  you. I want to hear all about your doings at Redmond. Anne knew
• 2:10:31
  that Ruby meant that she wanted to tell Anne all about her own recent flirtations,
• 2:10:35
  but she promised to go, and Diana offered to go with her.
• 2:10:39
  I've been wanting to go see Ruby for a long while, she told Anne
• 2:10:43
  when they left Green Gables the next evening. But I really couldn't go alone.
• 2:10:46
  It's so awful to hear Ruby rattling on as she does and pretending there
• 2:10:50
  is nothing the matter with her, even when she can hardly speak for coughing.
• 2:10:54
  She's fighting so hard for her life, and yet she hasn't any chance
• 2:10:58
  at all, they say. The girls walked silently down the red twilight road.
• 2:11:03
  The robins were singing vespers in the high tree tops, filling the golden
• 2:11:07
  air with their jubilant voices. The silver fluting of the frogs came from marshes
• 2:11:11
  and ponds over fields, where seeds were beginning to stir with life and thrill
• 2:11:16
  to the sunshine and rain that had drifted over them. The air was fragrant
• 2:11:20
  with the wild, sweet, wholesome smell of young raspberry copses. White mists
• 2:11:26
  were hovering in the silent hollows, and violet stars were shining bluely on the
• 2:11:30
  brooklands. What a beautiful sunset, said Diana. Look, Anne, it's
• 2:11:35
  just like a land in itself, isn't it. That long low back of
• 2:11:39
  purple cloud is the shore, and the clear sky further on is like a
• 2:11:41
  golden sea. If we could sail to it in the moonshine boat, Paul
• 2:11:46
  rode of in his old composition, You remember how nice it would be,
• 2:11:48
  said Anne, rousing from her reverie. Do you think we could find all
• 2:11:52
  our yesterdays there, Diana, all our old springs and blossoms, the beds
• 2:11:58
  of flowers that Paul saw. There are the roses that have bloomed for us
• 2:12:01
  in the past, don't, said Diana. You make me feel as if
• 2:12:05
  we were old women with everything in life behind us. I think I've almost
• 2:12:09
  felt as if we were since I heard about poor Ruby, said Anne.
• 2:12:13
  If it is true that she is dying, any other sad thing might be
• 2:12:16
  true too. You don't mind calling in at Elisha writes for a moment,
• 2:12:20
  do you, asked Diana, Mother asked me to leave this little dish of
• 2:12:24
  jelly for Aunt Atossa. Who is Aunt Atossa? Oh? Haven't you heard?
• 2:12:28
  She's Missus Samson Coats of Spencervale. Missus, Elisha writes. Aunt she's
• 2:12:33
  father's aunt too. Her husband died last winter and she was left very poor
• 2:12:37
  and lonely, so the Rights took her to live with them. Mother thought
• 2:12:39
  we ought to take her, but Father put his foot down live with Aunt
• 2:12:43
  Atossa. He would not. Is she so terrible? Asked Anne absently.
• 2:12:48
  You'll probably see what she's like before we can get away, said Diana significantly.
• 2:12:52
  Father says she has a face like a hatchet. It cuts the air,
• 2:12:56
  but her tongue is sharper. Still late as it was, aunt Atossa
• 2:13:00
  was cutting potato sets in the right kitchen. She wore a faded, old
• 2:13:03
  wrapper, and her gray hair was decidedly untidy. Aunt Atossa did not like
• 2:13:07
  being caught in a kilter, so she went out of her way to be
• 2:13:11
  disagreeable. Oh so you're Anne Shirley, she said. When Diana introduced Anne,
• 2:13:15
  I've heard of you. Her tone implied that she had heard nothing good.
• 2:13:18
  Missus Andrews was telling me you were home. She said you had improved
• 2:13:22
  a good deal. There was no doubt. Aunt Atossa thought there was plenty
• 2:13:26
  of room for further improvement, she ceased, not from cutting sets with much
• 2:13:30
  energy. Is it any use to ask you to sit down, she inquired,
• 2:13:33
  sarcastically. Of course, there's nothing very entertaining here for you. The
• 2:13:37
  rest are all away. Mother sent you this little pot of rhubarb jelly,
• 2:13:41
  said Diana pleasantly. She made it to day and thought you might like some.
• 2:13:43
  Oh thanks, said aunt Atosa sourly. I never fancy your mother's jelly.
• 2:13:48
  She always makes it too sweet. However, I'll try to worry some
• 2:13:52
  down. My appetite been dreadful. Poor this spring. I'm far from well,
• 2:13:56
  continued aunt Atossa solemnly, but still like you keep a doing. People
• 2:14:01
  who can't work aren't wanted here. If it isn't too much trouble, will
• 2:14:03
  you be condescending enough to set the jelly in the pantry. I'm in a
• 2:14:07
  hurry to get these spuds done to night. I suppose you two ladies never
• 2:14:11
  do anything like this. You'd be afraid of spoiling your hands. I used
• 2:14:15
  to cut potato sets before we rent at the farm, smiled Anne. I
• 2:14:18
  do it, yet, laughed Diana. I cut sets three days last week.
• 2:14:22
  Of course, she added teasingly. I did my hands up in lemon
• 2:14:26
  juice and kid gloves every night after it. Aunt Atossa sniffed, I suppose
• 2:14:31
  you got that notion out of some of those silly magazines you read so much
• 2:14:33
  of. I wonder your mother allows you, but she always spoiled you.
• 2:14:37
  We all thought when George married her she wouldn't be a suitable wife for him.
• 2:14:41
  Aunt Atossa sighed heavily, as if all forebodings upon the occasions of George
• 2:14:46
  Berry's marriage had been amply and darkly fulfilled. Going are you, she inquired,
• 2:14:52
  as the girls rose, Well, I suppose you can't find much amusement
• 2:14:54
  talking to an old woman like me. It's such a pity the boys ain't
• 2:14:58
  home. We want to run in and see Ruby Gillis a little while,
• 2:15:01
  explained Diana. Oh anything does for an excuse, of course, said aunt
• 2:15:05
  Atossa, amiably, just whip in and whip out before you have time to
• 2:15:09
  say, how do decently? It's college air. As I suppose you'd be
• 2:15:13
  wiser to keep away from Ruby Gillis. The doctor's say, consumption's catching.
• 2:15:16
  I always knew Ruby gets something gadding off to Boston last fall for a visit.
• 2:15:20
  People who ain't content to stay home always catch something. People who don't
• 2:15:24
  go visiting catch things too. Sometimes they even die, said Diana solemnly.
• 2:15:30
  Then they don't have themselves to blame for it, retorted aunt Atossa triumphantly.
• 2:15:35
  I hear you are to be married in June. Diana. There is no
• 2:15:37
  truth in that report, said Diana, blushing. Well, don't put it
• 2:15:41
  off too long, said aunt Atossa, significantly. You'll fade soon. You're
• 2:15:45
  all complexion and hair, and the rites are terrible fickle. You want to
• 2:15:48
  wear a hat, miss Shirley, your nose is freckling scandalous. My,
• 2:15:54
  but you are red headed. Well, I suppose we're all as the Lord
• 2:15:56
  made us. Give Marilla Cuthbert my respects. She's never been to see me
• 2:16:00
  since I come to Avonlea. But I suppose I oughtn't to complain. The
• 2:16:03
  Cuthberts always did think themselves a cut higher than any one else around here.
• 2:16:07
  Oh isn't she dreadful? Gasped Diana as they escaped down the lane. She's
• 2:16:11
  worse than miss Eliza Andrews, said Anne. But then think of living all
• 2:16:16
  your life with a name like a Tossa. Wouldn't it sour almost any one?
• 2:16:20
  She should have tried to imagine her name was Cordelia. It might have
• 2:16:22
  helped her a great deal. It certainly helped me in the days when I
• 2:16:26
  didn't like Anne. Josie Pye will be just like her when she grows up,
• 2:16:30
  said Diana. Josie's mother and aunt Atossa are cousins, you know,
• 2:16:33
  Oh dear, I'm God that's over. She's so malicious. She seems to
• 2:16:37
  put a bad flavor in everything. Father tells such a funny story about her.
• 2:16:43
  One time they had a minister in Spencerville who was a very good spiritual
• 2:16:46
  man, but very deaf. He couldn't hear any ordinary conversation at all.
• 2:16:50
  Well, they used to have a prayer meeting on Sunday evenings, and all
• 2:16:52
  the church members present would get up and pray and turn or say a few
• 2:16:56
  words on some Bible verse. But one evening, Aunt Atossa bounced up.
• 2:17:00
  She didn't either pray or preach. Instead, she lit into everybody else in
• 2:17:05
  the church and gave them a fearful raking down, calling them right out by
• 2:17:09
  name, and telling them how they all had behaved, and casting up all
• 2:17:11
  the quarrels and scandals of the past ten years. Finally, she wound up
• 2:17:16
  by saying that she was disgusted with Spencer Belt Church and she never meant to
• 2:17:18
  darken its door again, and she hoped a fearful judgment would come upon it.
• 2:17:22
  Then she sat down out of breath, and the minister, who hadn't
• 2:17:26
  heard a word she said, immediately remarked, in a very devout voice,
• 2:17:30
  Amen, the Lord grant our dear sister's prayer. You ought to hear Father
• 2:17:33
  tell the story. Speaking of stories, Diana remarked, Anne in a significant
• 2:17:39
  confidential tone. Do you know that? Lately? I've been wondering if I
• 2:17:41
  could write a short story, a story that would be good enough to be
• 2:17:45
  published. Why, of course you could, said Diana, after she had
• 2:17:48
  grasped the amazing suggestion. You used to write perfectly thrilling stories years ago in
• 2:17:52
  our old story club. Well, I hardly meant one of that kind of
• 2:17:56
  stories, smiled Anne. I've been thinking about it a little of late,
• 2:18:01
  but I'm almost afraid to try, for if I should fail, it would
• 2:18:03
  be too humiliating. I heard Priscilla say once that all missus Morgan's first stories
• 2:18:09
  were rejected, but I'm sure yours wouldn't be, Anne, for it's likely
• 2:18:11
  editors have more sense nowadays. Margaret Burton, one of the junior girls at
• 2:18:16
  Redmond, wrote a story last winter and it was published in The Canadian Woman.
• 2:18:20
  I really do think I could write one at least as good, and
• 2:18:22
  will you have it published in The Canadian Woman. I might try one of
• 2:18:26
  the bigger magazines first. It all depends on what kind of a story I
• 2:18:30
  write. What is it to be about? I don't know yet. I
• 2:18:33
  want to get hold of a good plot. I believe this is very necessary
• 2:18:37
  from an editor's point of view. The only thing I've settled on is the
• 2:18:41
  heroine's name. It is to be Averil Lester. Rather pretty, don't you
• 2:18:45
  think. Don't mention this to anyone, Diana. I haven't told anybody but
• 2:18:48
  you and mister Harrison. He wasn't very encouraging. He said there was far
• 2:18:52
  too much trash written nowadays as it was, and he'd expected something better of
• 2:18:56
  me after a year at college. What does mister Harrison know about it?
• 2:19:00
  Demanded Diana scornfully. They found the Gillis home gay with lights and callers.
• 2:19:05
  Leonard Kimball of Spencervale and Morgan Bell of Carmody were glaring at each other.
• 2:19:11
  Across the parlor. Several merry girls had dropped in. Ruby was dressed in
• 2:19:15
  white, and her eyes and cheeks were very brilliant. She laughed and chattered
• 2:19:18
  incessantly, and after the other girls had gone, she took Anne upstairs to
• 2:19:22
  display her new summer dresses. I've a blue silk to make up yet,
• 2:19:26
  but it's a little heavy for summer wear. I think I'll leave it until
• 2:19:28
  the fall. I'm going to teach him white sands, you know how do
• 2:19:31
  you like my hat? That one you had on in church yesterday was real
• 2:19:35
  dinky, but I like something brighter for myself. Did you notice those two
• 2:19:39
  ridiculous boys downstairs? They've both come determined to sit each other out. I
• 2:19:43
  don't care a single bit about either of them. You know, herb Spencer
• 2:19:46
  is the one I like sometimes. I really do think he's mister Right.
• 2:19:50
  At Christmas, I thought the Spencervale schoolmaster was that, but I found out
• 2:19:54
  something about him that turned me against him. He nearly went insane when I
• 2:19:58
  turned him down. I wish those two boys hadn't come to night. I
• 2:20:01
  wanted to have a nice good talk with you, Anne and tell you such
• 2:20:03
  heaps of things. You and I were always good chums, weren't we.
• 2:20:07
  Ruby slipped her arm about Anne's waist with a shallow little laugh. But just
• 2:20:11
  for a moment their eyes met, and behind all the luster of Ruby's Anne
• 2:20:16
  saw something that made her heart ache come up? Often? Won't you?
• 2:20:20
  Anne? Whispered Ruby, come alone? I want you. Are you feeling
• 2:20:24
  quite well? Ruby? Me? Who I am perfectly well? I never
• 2:20:28
  felt better in my life. Of course, that congestion last winter pulled me
• 2:20:31
  down a little but just see my color. I don't look much like an
• 2:20:35
  invalid, I'm sure. Ruby's voice was almost sharp. She pulled her arm
• 2:20:39
  away from Anne, as if in resentment, and ran downstairs, where she
• 2:20:41
  was gayer than ever, apparently so much absorbed in bantering her two swains that
• 2:20:46
  Diana and Anne felt rather out of it and soon went away. End of
• 2:20:52
  chapter eleven. Oh, Chapter twelve, Averil's atonement, what are you dreaming
• 2:20:56
  of? Anne? The two girls were loitering one evening in a fairy hollow
• 2:21:01
  of the brook. Ferns nodded in it, and little grasses were green,
• 2:21:05
  and wild pears hung finely scented white curtains around it. Anne roused herself from
• 2:21:11
  her reverie with a happy sigh. I was thinking out my story, Diana.
• 2:21:16
  Oh have you really begun it? Cried Diana, all alight with eager
• 2:21:18
  interest in a moment. Yes, I have only a few pages written,
• 2:21:24
  but I have it all pretty well thought out. I've had such a time
• 2:21:26
  to get a suitable plot. None of the plots that suggested themselves suited a
• 2:21:31
  girl named Avril. Couldn't you have changed her name? No? The thing
• 2:21:35
  was impossible. I tried to, but I couldn't do it any more than
• 2:21:37
  I could change yours. Avril was so real to me that, no matter
• 2:21:41
  what other name I tried to give her, I just thought of her as
• 2:21:43
  Avril behind it all. But finally I got a plot that matched her.
• 2:21:48
  Then came the excitement of choosing names for all my characters. You have no
• 2:21:52
  idea how fascinating that is. I've lain awake for hours thinking over those names.
• 2:21:56
  The hero's name is Percival Dalrymple. Have you named all the characters,
• 2:22:01
  asked Diana wistfully. If you hadn't, I was going to ask you to
• 2:22:05
  let me name one, just some unimportant person. I'd feel as if I
• 2:22:09
  had a share in the story. Then you may name the little hired boy
• 2:22:13
  who lived with the Lesters, conceded Anne. He is not very important,
• 2:22:16
  but he is the only one left unnamed. Call him Raymond fitz Osborne,
• 2:22:22
  suggested Diana, who had a store of such names laid away in her memory,
• 2:22:26
  relics of the old story club which she and Anne and Jane Andrews and
• 2:22:30
  Ruby Gillis had had in their school days. Anne shook her head doubtfully.
• 2:22:33
  I'm afraid that is too aristocratic. A name for a chore boy, Diana,
• 2:22:37
  I couldn't imagine if fitz Osborne feeding pigs and picking up chips, could
• 2:22:41
  you? Diana didn't see why. If you hadn't imagination at all, you
• 2:22:45
  couldn't stretch it to that extent. But probably Anne knew best, and the
• 2:22:48
  chore boy was finally christened Robert Ray, to be called Bobby should occasion require,
• 2:22:54
  how much do you suppose you'll get for it, asked Diana. But
• 2:22:58
  Anne had not thought about this at all. She was in pursuit of fame,
• 2:23:01
  not filthy lucre, and her literary dreams were as yet untainted by mercenary
• 2:23:05
  considerations. You'll let me read it, won't you, pleaded Diana. When
• 2:23:09
  it is finished, i'll read it to you and mister Harrison, and I
• 2:23:13
  shall want you to criticize it severely. No one else shall see it until
• 2:23:16
  it is published. How are you going to end it happily or unhappily?
• 2:23:20
  I'm not sure. I'd like it to end unhappily, because that would be
• 2:23:24
  so much more romantic. But I understand editors have a prejudice against sad endings.
• 2:23:28
  I heard Professor Hamilton say once that nobody but a genius should try to
• 2:23:31
  write an unhappy ending, and concluded Anne modestly, I am anything but a
• 2:23:37
  genius. Oh I like happy endings best. You'd better let him marry her,
• 2:23:41
  said Diana, who, especially since her engagement to Fred, thought this
• 2:23:45
  was how every story should end. But you like to cry over stories.
• 2:23:48
  Oh, yes, in the middle of them. But I like everything to
• 2:23:52
  come out right at last. I must have one pathetic scene in it,
• 2:23:56
  said Anne thoughtfully. I might let Robert Ray be injured in an act accident
• 2:24:00
  and have a death scene. No, you mustn't kill Bobby off, declared
• 2:24:03
  Diana, laughing. He belongs to me and I want him to live and
• 2:24:07
  flourish. Kill somebody else if you have to. For the next fortnight,
• 2:24:11
  Anne writhed or reveled, according to mood in her literary pursuits, now she
• 2:24:16
  would be jubilant over a brilliant idea, now despairing because some contrary character would
• 2:24:22
  not behave properly. Diana could not understand this. Make them do as you
• 2:24:26
  want them to, she said, I can't, mourned Anne. Afril is
• 2:24:31
  such an unmanageable heroine. She will do when say things I never meant her
• 2:24:35
  to then that spoils everything that went before, and I have to write it
• 2:24:37
  all over again. Finally, however, the story was finished, and Anne
• 2:24:41
  read it to Diana in the seclusion of the porch gable. She had achieved
• 2:24:46
  her pathetic scene without sacrificing Robert Ray, and she kept a watchful eye on
• 2:24:50
  Diana as she read it. Diana rose to the occasion and cried properly,
• 2:24:54
  but when the end came, she looked a little disappointed. Why did you
• 2:24:58
  kill Maurice Lennox, he asked reproachfully. He was the villain, protested Anne.
• 2:25:03
  He had to be punished. I like him best of them all,
• 2:25:05
  said unreasonable Diana. Well he's dead, and he'll have to stay dead,
• 2:25:09
  said Anne, rather resentfully. If I'd let him live, he'd had gone
• 2:25:13
  on persecuting Avril and Perceval. Yes, unless you had reformed him, that
• 2:25:16
  wouldn't have been romantic, and besides, it would have made the story too
• 2:25:20
  long. Well, anyway, it's a perfectly elegant story, Anne, and
• 2:25:24
  will make you famous. Of that, I'm sure. Have you got a
• 2:25:26
  title for it? Oh? I decided on the title long ago. I'll
• 2:25:30
  call it Avril's Atonement. Doesn't that sound nice and alliterative? Now, Diana,
• 2:25:35
  tell me candidly, do you see any faults in my story? Well,
• 2:25:39
  hesitated Diana, That part where Avril makes the cake doesn't seem to me
• 2:25:45
  quite romantic enough to match the rest. It's just what anybody might do.
• 2:25:48
  Heroines shouldn't do cooking. I think why. That is where the humor comes
• 2:25:52
  in, and it is one of the best parts of the whole story,
• 2:25:56
  said Anne. And it may be stated that in this she was quite right.
• 2:26:00
  Diana prudently refrained from any further criticism, but mister Harrison was much harder
• 2:26:05
  to please. First, he told her there was entirely too much description in
• 2:26:07
  the story. Cut out all those flowery passages, he said, unfeelingly.
• 2:26:13
  Anne had an uncomfortable conviction that mister Harrison was right, and she forced herself
• 2:26:16
  to expunge most of her beloved descriptions, though it took three rewritings before the
• 2:26:20
  story could be pruned down to please the fastidious mister Harrison. I have left
• 2:26:26
  out all the descriptions, but the sunset, she said at last, I
• 2:26:28
  simply couldn't let it go. It was the best of them all. It
• 2:26:31
  hasn't anything to do with the story, said mister Harrison. And you shouldn't
• 2:26:35
  have laid the scene among rich city people. What do you know of them?
• 2:26:39
  Why didn't you lay it right here in Avonlea changing the name, of
• 2:26:41
  course, or else missus Rachel Lynde would probably think she was the heroine.
• 2:26:46
  Oh, that would never have done, protested Anne. Avonlea is the dearest
• 2:26:48
  place in the world, but it isn't quite romantic enough for the scene of
• 2:26:52
  a story. I dare say there's been many a romance in Avonlea, and
• 2:26:56
  many a tragedy too, said mister Harrison dryly. But your folks ain't like
• 2:27:01
  real folks anywhere. They'd talk too much and use too high flown language.
• 2:27:05
  There is one place where that dalrymple Chap talks even on for two pages and
• 2:27:09
  never lets the girl get a word in edgewise. If he'd done that in
• 2:27:13
  real life, she'd have pitched him. I don't believe it, said Anne
• 2:27:16
  flatly. In her secret soul, she thought that the beautiful, poetical things
• 2:27:20
  said to Avril would win any girl's heart completely. Besides, it was gruesome
• 2:27:24
  to hear of Avril, the stately queen like Avril pitching any one. Avril
• 2:27:31
  declined her suitors anyhow, resumed the merciless mister Harrison. I don't see why
• 2:27:35
  Maurice Lennox didn't get her. He was twice the man. The other is.
• 2:27:39
  He did bad things, but he did them. Perceval hadn't time for
• 2:27:41
  anything but mooning. Mooning. That was even worse than pitching. Maurice Lennox
• 2:27:48
  was the villain, said Anne indignantly. I don't see why every one likes
• 2:27:52
  him better than Perceval. Perceval is too good. He's aggravating. Next time
• 2:27:56
  you write about a hero, put a little spice of human nature in him.
• 2:28:00
  Avril couldn't have married Maurice. He was bad. She'd have reformed him.
• 2:28:03
  You can reform a man, you can't reform a jellyfish. Of course,
• 2:28:07
  your story isn't bad. It's kind of interesting, i'll admit. But
• 2:28:11
  you're too young to write a story that would be worth while. Wait ten
• 2:28:13
  years. Anne made up her mind that the next time she wrote a story,
• 2:28:18
  she wouldn't ask anybody to criticize it. It was too discouraging. She
• 2:28:22
  would not read the story to Gilbert, although she told him about it.
• 2:28:26
  If it is a success, you'll see it when it's published, Gilbert.
• 2:28:28
  But if it is a failure, nobody shall ever see it. Marilla knew
• 2:28:33
  nothing about the venture. In imagination, Anne saw herself reading a story out
• 2:28:37
  of a magazine to Marilla, entrapping her into praise of it, for in
• 2:28:39
  imagination, all things are possible, and then triumphantly announcing herself the author.
• 2:28:46
  One day, Anne took to the post office a long, bulky envelope addressed
• 2:28:50
  with the delightful confidence of youth and inexperience to the very biggest of the big
• 2:28:54
  magazines. Diana was as excited over it as Anne herself. How long do
• 2:28:58
  you suppose it be before you hear from it, she asked. It shouldn't
• 2:29:01
  be longer than a fortnight. Oh, how happy and proud I shall be
• 2:29:05
  if it is accepted. Of course it will be accepted, and they will
• 2:29:09
  likely ask you to send them more. You may be as famous as missus
• 2:29:11
  Morgan one day, Anne, And then how proud I'll be of knowing you,
• 2:29:16
  said Diana, who possessed at least the striking merit of an unselfish admiration
• 2:29:20
  of the gifts and graces of her friends. A week of delightful dreaming followed,
• 2:29:26
  and then came a bitter awakening. One evening, Diana found Anne in
• 2:29:30
  the porch gable with suspicious looking eyes. On the table lay a long envelope
• 2:29:35
  and a crumpled manuscript. And your story hasn't come back, cried Diana incredulously.
• 2:29:39
  Yes it has, said Anne shortly. Well, that editor must be
• 2:29:43
  crazy. What reason did he give? No reason at all? There is
• 2:29:48
  just a printed slip saying that it wasn't found acceptable. I never thought much
• 2:29:52
  of that magazine anyway, said Diana hotly. The stories in it are not
• 2:29:54
  half as interesting as those in The Canadian Woman, although it costs so much
• 2:29:58
  more. I suppose the editor is prejudiced against anyone who isn't a Yankee.
• 2:30:03
  Don't be discouraged, Anne, Remember how missus Morgan's stories came back. Send
• 2:30:07
  yours to The Canadian Woman, I believe I will, said Anne, plucking
• 2:30:11
  up heart. And if it is published, I'll send that American editor a
• 2:30:15
  marked copy. But I'll cut the Sunset out. I believe mister Harrison was
• 2:30:18
  right. Out came the Sunset. But in spite of this heroic mutilation,
• 2:30:22
  the editor of The Canadian Woman sent averils atonement back so promptly that the indignant
• 2:30:28
  Diana declared that it couldn't have been read at all, and vowed she was
• 2:30:31
  going to stop her subscription immediately. Anne took this second rejection with the calmness
• 2:30:35
  of despair. She locked the story away in the garret trunk where the old
• 2:30:39
  story club tales reposed. But first she yielded to Diana's entreaties and gave her
• 2:30:43
  a copy. This is the end of my literary ambitions, she said,
• 2:30:48
  bitterly. She never mentioned the matter to mister Harrison, but one evening he
• 2:30:52
  asked her bluntly if her story had been accepted. No, the editor wouldn't
• 2:30:56
  take it, she answered briefly. Mister Harrison looked sideways the flushed, delicate
• 2:31:01
  profile. Well, I suppose you'll keep on writing them, he said encouragingly.
• 2:31:05
  No, I shall never try to write a story again, declared Anne,
• 2:31:07
  with the hopeless finality of nineteen when a door is shut in its face.
• 2:31:11
  I wouldn't give up altogether, said mister Harrison reflectively. I'd write a
• 2:31:16
  story once in a while, but I wouldn't pester editors with it. I'd
• 2:31:20
  write of people and places like I knew, and I'd make my characters talk
• 2:31:22
  every day English, and I'd let the sun rise and set in the usual
• 2:31:26
  quiet way without much fuss over the fact. If I had to have villains
• 2:31:31
  at all, I'd give him a chance. Anne, I'd give him a
• 2:31:33
  chance. There are some terrible bad men in the world, I suppose,
• 2:31:37
  but you'd have to go a long piece to find them, though Missus Lynde
• 2:31:39
  believes we're all bad, but most of us have got a little decency somewhere
• 2:31:43
  in us. Keep on writing, Anne, No, it was very foolish
• 2:31:48
  of me to attempt it. When I'm through Redmond, I'll stick to teaching.
• 2:31:52
  I can teach, I can't write stories. It'll be time for you
• 2:31:56
  to be getting a husband when you're through Redmond, said mister Harrison. I
• 2:31:58
  don't believe him marrying off too long like I did. Anne got up and
• 2:32:03
  marched home. There were times when mister Harrison was really intolerable, pitching,
• 2:32:09
  mooning and getting a husband. Ow end of chapter twelve a Chapter thirteen,
• 2:32:16
  The Way of Transgressors, Davy and Dora were ready for Sunday school. They
• 2:32:20
  were going alone, which did not often happen for Missus Lynde always attended Sunday
• 2:32:26
  school, but missus Lynde had twisted her ankle and was lame, and so
• 2:32:28
  she was staying home this morning. The twins were also to represent the family
• 2:32:33
  at church, for Anne had gone away the evening before to spend Sunday with
• 2:32:35
  friends in Carmody, and Marilla had one of her headaches. Davy came downstairs
• 2:32:41
  slowly. Dora was waiting in the hall for him. Having been made ready
• 2:32:45
  by missus Lynde, Davy had attended to his own preparations. He had a
• 2:32:48
  cent in his pocket for the Sunday school collection and a five cent piece for
• 2:32:52
  the church collection. He carried his Bible in one hand and his Sunday School
• 2:32:56
  quarterly in the other. He knew his lesson and his Golden Text, and
• 2:33:00
  his Catechism questioned perfectly. Had he not studied them perforce in missus Lynde's kitchen
• 2:33:05
  all last Sunday afternoon, Davy therefore should have been in a placid state of
• 2:33:09
  mind. As a matter of fact, despite text and catechism, he was
• 2:33:13
  inwardly as a ravening wolf. Missus Lynde limped out of her kitchen as he
• 2:33:18
  joined Dora, Are you clean, she demanded severely. Yes, all of
• 2:33:22
  me, that shows, Davy answered with a defiant scowl. Missus Rachel sighed
• 2:33:28
  she had her suspicions about Davy's neck and ears, but she knew that if
• 2:33:31
  she attempted to make a personal examination, Davy would likely take to his heels
• 2:33:35
  and she could not pursue him to day. Well, be sure you behave
• 2:33:39
  yourselves, she warned them. Don't walk in the dust, don't stop in
• 2:33:41
  the porch to talk to the other children, don't square more wriggle in your
• 2:33:45
  places, don't forget the golden text, don't lose your collection or forget to
• 2:33:48
  put it in, don't whisper at prayer time, and don't forget to pay
• 2:33:52
  attention to the sermon. Davy deigned no response. He marched away down the
• 2:33:56
  lane, followed by the meek Dora, but his soul seethed within. Davy
• 2:34:01
  had suffered, or thought he had suffered many things at the hands and tongue
• 2:34:05
  of Missus Rachel Lynde since she had come to Green Gables. For Missus Lynde
• 2:34:09
  could not live with anybody, whether they were nine or ninety, without trying
• 2:34:13
  to bring them up properly, and it was only the preceding afternoon that she
• 2:34:16
  had interfered to influence Marilla against allowing Davy to go fishing with the Timothy Cottons.
• 2:34:22
  Davy was still boiling over this. As soon as he was out of
• 2:34:24
  the lane, Davy stopped and twisted his countenance into such an unearthly and terrific
• 2:34:30
  contortion that Dora, although she knew his gifts in that respect, was honestly
• 2:34:33
  alarmed. Lest he should never in the world be able to get it straightened
• 2:34:37
  out again. Darn her, exploded Davy. Oh, Davy, don't swear,
• 2:34:43
  gasped Dora in dismay. Darn isn't swearing, not real swearing, and
• 2:34:48
  I don't care if it is, retorted Davy recklessly. Well, if you
• 2:34:52
  must say dreadful words, don't say them on Sunday, pleaded Dora. Davy
• 2:34:56
  was as yet far from repentance, but in his secret soul he felt that
• 2:35:00
  perhaps he had gone a little too far. I'm going to invent a swear
• 2:35:03
  word of my own, he declared. God will punish you if you do,
• 2:35:07
  said Dora solemnly. Then I think God is a mean old scamp,
• 2:35:11
  retorted Davy, doesn't he know a fellow must have some way of spressing his
• 2:35:15
  feelings, Davy said Dora. She expected the Davy would be struck down dead
• 2:35:20
  on the spot, but nothing happened anyway. I ain't going to stand any
• 2:35:24
  more of missus Lynde's bossing, spluttered Davy. Anne and Marilla may have the
• 2:35:28
  right to bos me, but she hasn't. I'm going to do every single
• 2:35:31
  thing she told me not to do. You watch me in grim, deliberate
• 2:35:35
  silence, while Dora watched him with a fascination of horror. Davy stepped off
• 2:35:39
  the green grass of the roadside, angled deep into the fine dust which four
• 2:35:43
  weeks of rainless weather had made on the road, and marched along in it,
• 2:35:48
  shuffling his feet viciously until he was enveloped in a hazy cloud. That's
• 2:35:52
  the beginning, he announced triumphantly. And I'm going to stop in the porch
• 2:35:56
  and talk as long as there's anybody there to talk to. I'm going to
• 2:36:01
  squirm and wriggle and whisper, and I'm going to say I don't know the
• 2:36:03
  Golden text, and I'm going to throw away both of my collections right now.
• 2:36:09
  And Davy hurled sent Ann Nichol over mister Barry's fence with fierce delight.
• 2:36:13
  Satan made you do that, said Dora, reproachfully. He didn't, cried
• 2:36:18
  Davy indignantly. I just thought it out for myself, and I've thought of
• 2:36:22
  something else. I'm not going to go to Sunday school or church at all.
• 2:36:26
  I'm going up to play with the Cottons. They told me yesterday they
• 2:36:28
  weren't going to Sunday school today because their mother was away and there was nobody
• 2:36:31
  to make em. Come along, Dora, we'll have a great time.
• 2:36:35
  I don't want to go, protested Dora. You've got to, said Davy.
• 2:36:39
  If you don't come, I'll tell Marilla that Frank Bell kissed you in
• 2:36:41
  school last Monday. I couldn't help it. I didn't know he was going
• 2:36:46
  to, cried Dora, blushing scarlet. Well you didn't slap him or seem
• 2:36:50
  a bit cross, retorted Davy. I'll tell her that too. If you
• 2:36:54
  don't come, we'll take the short cut up this field. I'm afraid of
• 2:36:56
  those cows, protested poor Dora, seeing a prospect of escape, the very
• 2:37:01
  idea of your being scared of those cows, scoffed Davy. Why they're both
• 2:37:05
  younger than you. They're bigger, said Dora. They won't hurt you.
• 2:37:09
  Come along now, this is great. When I grow up, I ain't
• 2:37:13
  going to bother going to church at all. I believe I can get to
• 2:37:15
  Heaven by myself. You'll go to the other place if you break the Sabbath
• 2:37:18
  day, said unhappy Dora, following him sorely against her will. But Davy
• 2:37:24
  was not scared yet. Hell was very far off, and the delights of
• 2:37:28
  a fishing expedition with the Cottons were very near. He wished Dora had more
• 2:37:33
  spunk. She kept looking back as if she were going to cry every minute,
• 2:37:35
  and that spoiled a fellow's fun hang girls. Anyway, Davy did not
• 2:37:41
  say darn this time, even in thought. He was not sorry yet that
• 2:37:45
  he had said at once, but it might be as well not to tempt
• 2:37:48
  the unknown powers too far. On one day, the small Cottons were playing
• 2:37:52
  in their back yard and hailed Davy's appearance with whoops of delight. Pete,
• 2:37:56
  Tommy, Adolphus, and Mirabel Cotton were all alone. Their mother and older
• 2:38:01
  sisters were away. Dora was thankful Mirabel was there. At least she had
• 2:38:05
  been afraid she would be alone in a crowd of boys. Mirabel was almost
• 2:38:09
  as bad as a boy. She was so noisy and sunburned and reckless.
• 2:38:11
  But at least she wore dresses. We've come to go fishing, announced Davy,
• 2:38:16
  whoo yelled the Cottons. They rushed away to dig worms at once,
• 2:38:20
  Mirabeau leading the van with a tin can. Dora could have sat down and
• 2:38:24
  cried, Oh, if only that hateful frank Bell had never kissed her,
• 2:38:28
  then she could have defied Davy and gone to her beloved Sunday school. They
• 2:38:33
  dared, not, of course, go fishing on the pond, where they
• 2:38:35
  would be seen by people going to church. They had to resort to the
• 2:38:39
  brook in the woods behind the cotton house, but it was full of trout,
• 2:38:43
  and they had a glorious time that morning. At least the Cottons certainly
• 2:38:46
  had, and Davy seemed to have it, not being entirely bereft of prudence.
• 2:38:50
  He had discarded boots and stockings and borrowed Tommy Cotton's overalls. Thus a
• 2:38:54
  couterard, bog and marsh and undergrowth had no terrors for him. Dora was
• 2:39:00
  frankly and manifestly miserable. She followed the others in their peregrinations from pool to
• 2:39:03
  pool, clasping her Bible and quarterly tightly, and thinking with bitterness of soul
• 2:39:09
  of her beloved class where she would be sitting that very moment before a teacher
• 2:39:13
  she adored. Instead, here she was roaming the woods with those half wild
• 2:39:16
  cottons, trying to keep her boots clean and her pretty white dress free from
• 2:39:20
  rents and stains. Mirabelle had offered the loan of an apron, but Dora
• 2:39:24
  had scornfully refused the trout bit, as they always do on Sundays. In
• 2:39:30
  an hour, the transgressors had all the fish they wanted, so they returned
• 2:39:33
  to the house, much to Dora's relief. She sat primly on a hen
• 2:39:37
  coop in the yard while the others played an uproarious game of tag, And
• 2:39:39
  then they all climbed to the top of the pig house roof and cut their
• 2:39:43
  initials on the saddleboard. The flat roofed hen house and a pile of straw
• 2:39:46
  beneath gave Davy another inspiration. They spent a splendid half hour climbing on the
• 2:39:50
  roof and diving off into the straw with whoops and yells. But even unlawful
• 2:39:56
  pleasures must come to an end. When the rumble of wheels over the pond
• 2:40:00
  told that people were going home from church, Davy knew they must go.
• 2:40:03
  He discarded Tommy's overalls, resumed his own rightful attire, and turned away from
• 2:40:07
  his string of trout with a sigh. No use to think of taking them
• 2:40:11
  home. Well, hadn't we a splendid time, he demanded defiantly, as
• 2:40:15
  they went down the hill field. I hadn't, said Dora flatly, And
• 2:40:20
  I don't believe you had really either, she added, with a flash of
• 2:40:22
  insight that was not to be expected of her. I had so, cried
• 2:40:26
  Davy, but in the voice of one who doth protest too much, No
• 2:40:31
  wonder you hadn't just sittin there like a like a mule. I ain't going
• 2:40:35
  to associate with the Cottons, said Dora loftily. The Cottons are all right,
• 2:40:39
  retorted Davy, and they have far better times than we have. They
• 2:40:43
  do just as they please and say just what they like before everybody. I'm
• 2:40:46
  going to do that too after this. There are lots of things you wouldn't
• 2:40:50
  dare say before everybody, averred Dora. No, there isn't there is two?
• 2:40:56
  Would you, demanded Dora gravely, Would you say tom cat before or
• 2:41:00
  the minister? This was a staggerer. Davy was not prepared for such a
• 2:41:03
  concrete example of the freedom of speech. But one did not have to be
• 2:41:07
  consistent with Dora. Of course not, he admitted sulkily. Tom cat isn't
• 2:41:11
  a holy word. I wouldn't mention such an animal before a minister at all.
• 2:41:16
  But if you had to persisted, Dora, I'd call it a Thomas
• 2:41:20
  pussy, said Davy. I think gentleman cat would be more polite, reflected
• 2:41:24
  Dora. You thinking, retorted Davy with withering scorn. Davy was not feeling
• 2:41:31
  comfortable, though he would have died before he admitted it to Dora. Now
• 2:41:35
  that the exhilaration of truant delights had died away, his conscience was beginning to
• 2:41:39
  give him salutary twinges. After all, perhaps it would have been better to
• 2:41:43
  have gone to Sunday school and church. Missus Lynde might be bossy, but
• 2:41:46
  there was always a box of cookies in her kitchen cupboard, and she was
• 2:41:50
  not stingy at this inconvenient moment, Davy remembered that when he had torn his
• 2:41:54
  new school pants the week before, Missus Lynde had mended them beautifully and never
• 2:41:58
  said a word to Marilla about them. But Davy's cup of iniquity was not
• 2:42:03
  yet full. He was to discover that one sin demands another to cover it.
• 2:42:07
  They had dinner with Missus Lynde that day, and the first thing she
• 2:42:09
  asked Davy was were all your class in Sunday school to day? Yes'm,
• 2:42:13
  said Davy, with a gulp, all with her scept one. Did you
• 2:42:16
  say your Golden text and Catechism? Yes'm? Did you put your collection in?
• 2:42:22
  Yes'm? Was missus Malcolm mac Pherson in church? I don't know this
• 2:42:26
  at least was the truth sought wretched Davy. Was the lady's aide announced for
• 2:42:30
  next week? Yes'm quakingly was prayer meeting? I I don't know. You
• 2:42:35
  should know you should listen more attentively to the announcements. What was mister Harvey's
• 2:42:39
  text? Davy took a frantic gulp of water. When swallowed it and the
• 2:42:43
  last protest of conscience together, he glibly recited an old golden text learned several
• 2:42:48
  weeks ago. Fortunately, Missus Lynde now stopped questioning him, but Davy did
• 2:42:52
  not enjoy his dinner. He could only eat one helping of putting. What's
• 2:42:56
  the matter with you, demanded justly, astonished missus Lynde. Are you sick?
• 2:43:01
  No, muttered Davy. You look pale. You'd better keep out of
• 2:43:05
  the sun this afternoon, admonished Missus Lynde. Do you know how many lies
• 2:43:09
  you told? Missus Lynde, asked Dora reproachfully. As soon as they were
• 2:43:11
  alone after dinner, Davy, goaded to desperation, turned fiercely. I don't
• 2:43:16
  know, and I don't care, he said, you just shut up,
• 2:43:18
  Dora Keith. Then poor Davy betook himself to a secluded retreat behind the woodpile
• 2:43:24
  to think over the way of transgressors. Green Gables was wrapped in darkness and
• 2:43:30
  silence. When Anne reached home, she lost no time going to bed,
• 2:43:33
  for she was very tired and sleepy. There had been several Avonlea jollifications the
• 2:43:37
  proceeding week, involving rather late hours. Anne's head was hardly on her pillow
• 2:43:41
  before she was half asleep, but just then her door was softly opened and
• 2:43:46
  a pleading voice said Anne. Anne sat up drowsily, Davy, is that
• 2:43:50
  you? What is the matter? A white clad figure flung itself across the
• 2:43:54
  floor and onto the bed. Anne sobbed, Davy, getting his arms about
• 2:43:58
  her neck. I'm awful glad you're home. I couldn't go to sleep till
• 2:44:01
  i'd told somebody, told somebody what How miserable I am? Why are you
• 2:44:07
  miserable, dear? Cause I was so bad to day? Anne. Oh,
• 2:44:11
  I was awful, bad batter an i've ever been yet. What did
• 2:44:15
  you do? Oh? I'm afraid to tell you you'll never like me again,
• 2:44:18
  Anne. I couldn't say my prayers to night. I couldn't tell God
• 2:44:20
  what I'd done. I was ashamed to have him know. But he knew
• 2:44:24
  anyway, Davy. That's what Dora said. I thought perhaps he mightn't have
• 2:44:28
  noticed just at the time. Anyway, I'd rather tell you first, what
• 2:44:33
  is it you did? Out? It all came in a rush. I
• 2:44:35
  ran away from Sunday school and went fishing with the Cottons. And I told
• 2:44:39
  ever so many whoppers to missus Lynde, oh, most half a dozen,
• 2:44:41
  and and I I said a swear word, Anne, what pretty near swear
• 2:44:46
  word anyhow, and I called God names. There was silence. Davy didn't
• 2:44:50
  know what to make of it. Was Anne so shocked that she would never
• 2:44:54
  speak to him again. Anne, what are you going to do to me?
• 2:44:58
  He whispered, nothing, dear, you've been punished already, I think,
• 2:45:01
  No, I haven't. Nothing's been done to me. You've been very
• 2:45:05
  unhappy ever since you did wrong, haven't you? You bet? Said Davy
• 2:45:09
  emphatically. That was your conscience punishing you, Davy. What's my conscience?
• 2:45:13
  I want to know. It's something in you, Davy that always tells you
• 2:45:18
  when you are doing wrong and makes you unhappy if you're persist in doing it.
• 2:45:22
  Haven't you noticed that? Yes? But I didn't know what it was.
• 2:45:24
  I wish I didn't have it. I'd have lots more fun. Where
• 2:45:28
  is my conscience, Anne? I want to know? Is it in my
• 2:45:31
  stomach? No, it's in your soul, answered Anne, thankful for the
• 2:45:35
  darkness, since gravity must be preserved in serious matters. I s'pose I can't
• 2:45:39
  get clear of it, then, said Davy, with a sigh. Are
• 2:45:41
  you going to tell Marilla and missus Lynde on me? Anne? No,
• 2:45:45
  dear, I'm not going to tell anyone you are sorry. You were naughty,
• 2:45:48
  weren't you? You bet? And you'll never be bad like that again.
• 2:45:52
  No, but added Davy cautiously, I might be bad some other way.
• 2:45:58
  You won't say naughty words or run away on Sundays or tell falsehoods to
• 2:46:01
  cover up your sins. No, it doesn't pay, said Davy. Well,
• 2:46:05
  Davy, just tell God you are sorry and ask him to forgive you.
• 2:46:09
  Have you forgiven me? Anne? Yes, dear, then, said
• 2:46:13
  Davy joyously. I don't care much whether God does or not. Davy.
• 2:46:16
  Oh, I'll ask him. I'll ask him, said Davy, quickly,
• 2:46:20
  scrambling off the bed, convinced my Anne's toad that he must have said something
• 2:46:22
  dreadful. I don't mind asking him. Anne. Please God, I'm awfully
• 2:46:26
  sorry I behaved bad today, and I'll try to be good on Sundays always,
• 2:46:30
  and please forgive me there now, Anne, Well, now run off
• 2:46:33
  to bed like a good boy. All right, Say I don't feel miserable
• 2:46:37
  any more. I feel fine. Good night, Good night. Anne slipped
• 2:46:43
  down on her pillows with a sigh of relief. Oh how sleepy she was.
• 2:46:46
  In another second, Anne Davy was back again by her bed, Anne
• 2:46:50
  dragged her eyes open. What is it now, dear, she asked,
• 2:46:54
  trying to keep a note of impatience out of her voice. Anne, have
• 2:46:56
  you ever noticed how mister Harrison's spits? Do you suppose if I practice hard,
• 2:47:01
  I can learn to spit just like him? Anne sat up Davy Keith.
• 2:47:05
  She said, go straight to your bed, and don't let me catch
• 2:47:07
  you out of it again. Tonight. Go now. Davy went and stood
• 2:47:13
  not upon the order of his going. End of Chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen,
• 2:47:18
  the Summons. Anne was sitting with Ruby Gillis in the Gillises garden after
• 2:47:24
  the day had crept lingeringly through it and was gone. It had been a
• 2:47:28
  warm, smoky summer afternoon. The world was in a splendor of out flowering.
• 2:47:33
  The idle valleys were full of hazes, the wood ways were pranked with
• 2:47:37
  shadows, and the fields with the purple of the asters. Anne had given
• 2:47:41
  up a moonlight drive to the White Sand's Beach that she might spend the evening
• 2:47:45
  with Ruby. She had so spent many evenings that summer, although she often
• 2:47:48
  wondered what good it did any one, and sometimes went home deciding that she
• 2:47:52
  could not go again. Ruby grew paler as the summer waned, the White
• 2:47:58
  Sands Schull was given up. Her father thought it better that she shouldn't teach
• 2:48:01
  till New Year's and the fancy work she loved Oftener and Oftener fell from hands,
• 2:48:05
  grown too weary for it. But she was always gay, always hopeful,
• 2:48:09
  always chattering and whispering of her bows and their rivalries and despairs. It
• 2:48:15
  was this that made Anne's visits hard for her. What had once been silly
• 2:48:18
  or amusing was gruesome. Now it was death, peering through a wilful mask
• 2:48:22
  of life. Yet Ruby seemed to cling to her and never let her go
• 2:48:26
  until she had promised to come again soon. Missus Lynde grumbled about Anne's frequent
• 2:48:30
  visits and declared she would catch consumption. Even Marilla was dubious. Every time
• 2:48:35
  you go to see Ruby, you come home looking tired out, she said.
• 2:48:39
  It's so very sad and dreadful, said Anne in a low tone.
• 2:48:43
  Ruby doesn't seem to realize her condition in the least, and yet I somehow
• 2:48:46
  feel she needs help, craves it, and I want to give it to
• 2:48:50
  her and can't. All the time I'm with her I feel as if I
• 2:48:52
  were watching her struggle with an invisible foe, trying to push it back with
• 2:48:56
  such feeble resistance as she has. That is why I come home tired.
• 2:49:01
  But to night, Anne did not feel this so keenly. Ruby was strangely
• 2:49:05
  quiet, she said, not a word about parties and drives and dresses and
• 2:49:09
  fellows. She lay in the hammock, with her untouched work beside her,
• 2:49:13
  and a white shawl wrapped about her thin shoulders. Her long yellow braids of
• 2:49:18
  hair, how Anne had envied those beautiful braids in old school days, lay
• 2:49:22
  on either side of her. She had taken the pins out. They made
• 2:49:26
  her head ache, she said. The hectic flush was gone for the time,
• 2:49:30
  leaving her pale and childlike. The moon rose in the silvery sky,
• 2:49:35
  empearling the clouds round her. Below, the pond shimmered in its hazy radiance.
• 2:49:41
  Just beyond the Gillis homestead was the church with the old graveyard beside it.
• 2:49:46
  The moonlight shone on the white stones, bringing them out in clear cut
• 2:49:48
  relief against the dark trees behind. How strange the graveyard looks by moonlight,
• 2:49:54
  said Ruby, suddenly, How ghostly she shuddered. Anne It don't be long
• 2:50:00
  now before I'll be lying over there. You and Diana and all the rest
• 2:50:03
  will be going about full of life, and I'll be there in the old
• 2:50:07
  graveyard dead. The surprise of it bewildered Anne for a few moments. She
• 2:50:13
  could not speak. You know it's so, don't you, said Ruby insistently.
• 2:50:16
  Yes, I know, answered Anne in a low tone. Dear Ruby,
• 2:50:20
  I know everybody knows it, said Ruby bitterly. I know it.
• 2:50:24
  I've known it all summer. Though I wouldn't give in. And oh,
• 2:50:28
  Anne, She reached out and caught Anne's hand pleadingly impulsively. I don't want
• 2:50:33
  to die. I'm afraid to die. Why should you be afraid, Ruby
• 2:50:37
  asked Anne quietly, Because because, oh, I'm not afraid, but that
• 2:50:41
  I'll go to heaven. Anne, I'm a church member. But it'll all
• 2:50:46
  be so different. I think and think, and I get so frightened and
• 2:50:50
  and homesick. Heaven must be very beautiful, of course, the Bible says
• 2:50:54
  so, But Anne, it won't be what I've been used to through.
• 2:50:58
  Anne's mind drifted in trusive recollection of a funny story she had heard Philip A.
• 2:51:01
  Gordon tell the story. Of some old man who had said very much
• 2:51:05
  the same thing about the world to come. It had sounded funny, then
• 2:51:09
  she remembered how she and Priscilla had laughed over it. But it did not
• 2:51:13
  seem in the least humorous now coming from Ruby's pale, trembling lips. It
• 2:51:16
  was sad, tragic, and true. Heaven could not be what Ruby had
• 2:51:22
  been used to. There had been nothing in her gay, frivolous life,
• 2:51:26
  her shallow ideals and aspirations, to fit her for that great change, or
• 2:51:28
  make the life to come seem to her anything but alien and unreal and undesirable.
• 2:51:35
  Anne wondered helplessly what she could say that would help her. Could she
• 2:51:39
  say anything? I think, Ruby, she began hesitatingly, For it was
• 2:51:43
  difficult for Aunt to speak to any one of the deepest thoughts of her heart
• 2:51:46
  or the new ideas that had vaguely begun to shape themselves in her mind concerning
• 2:51:50
  the great mysteries of life here and hereafter, superseding her old, childish conceptions,
• 2:51:56
  And it was hardest of all to speak of them to such as Ruby
• 2:51:58
  Gillis. I think perhaps we have very mistaken ideas about heaven. What it
• 2:52:03
  is and what it holds for us. I don't think it can be so
• 2:52:07
  very different from life here, as most people seem to think. I believe
• 2:52:11
  we'll just go on living a good deal as we live here, and be
• 2:52:15
  ourselves just the same. Only it will be easier to be good and to
• 2:52:18
  follow the highest All the hindrances and perplexities will be taken away, and we
• 2:52:24
  shall see clearly. Don't be afraid, Ruby, I can't help it,
• 2:52:28
  said Ruby pitifully. Even if what you say about heaven is true, and
• 2:52:31
  you can't be sure, it may be only that imagination of yours, it
• 2:52:35
  won't be just the same. It can't be. I want to go on
• 2:52:39
  living here. I'm so young, Anne, I haven't had my life.
• 2:52:43
  I've fought so hard to live, and it isn't any use. I have
• 2:52:46
  to die and leave everything I care for. Anne sat in a pain that
• 2:52:52
  was almost intolerable. She could not tell comforting falsehoods, and all that Ruby
• 2:52:56
  said was so horribly true. She was leaving everything she cared for. She
• 2:53:01
  had laid up her treasures on earth. Only she had lived solely for the
• 2:53:05
  little things of life, the things that pass, forgetting the great things that
• 2:53:09
  go onward into eternity, bridging the gulf between the two lives, and making
• 2:53:13
  of death a mere passing from one dwelling to the other, from twilight to
• 2:53:16
  unclouded day. God would take care of her there. Anne believed she would
• 2:53:22
  learn, but now it was no wonder. Her soul clung in blind helplessness
• 2:53:26
  to the only things she knew and loved. Ruby raised herself on her arm
• 2:53:30
  and lifted her bright, beautiful blue eyes to the moonlit skies. I want
• 2:53:35
  to live, she said, in a trembling voice. I want to live
• 2:53:37
  like other girls. I I want to be married Anne, and and have
• 2:53:43
  little children. You know I always loved babies. Anne. I couldn't say
• 2:53:46
  this to any one, but you, I know you understand. And then
• 2:53:50
  poor herb he he loves me, and I love him, Anne. The
• 2:53:54
  others meant nothing to me, but he does. And if I could live,
• 2:53:58
  I would be his wife and be so happy. Oh Anne, it's
• 2:54:01
  hard. Ruby sank back on her pillows and sobbed convulsively. Anne pressed her
• 2:54:07
  hand in an agony of sympathy, silent sympathy, which perhaps helped Ruby more
• 2:54:11
  than broken imperfect words could have done. For Presently she grew calmer, and
• 2:54:16
  her sobs ceased. I'm glad I've told you this, Anne, she whispered.
• 2:54:20
  It has helped me just to say it all out. I've wanted to
• 2:54:24
  all summer. Every time you came, I wanted to talk it over with
• 2:54:26
  you, but I couldn't. It seemed as if it would make death so
• 2:54:31
  sure if I said I was going to die, or if any one else
• 2:54:33
  said it or hinted it. I couldn't say it or even think it.
• 2:54:37
  In the daytime, when people were around me and everything was cheerful, it
• 2:54:41
  wasn't so hard to keep from thinking of it. But in the night,
• 2:54:45
  when I couldn't sleep, it was so dreadful, Anne, I couldn't get
• 2:54:48
  away from it. Then death just came and stared me in the face until
• 2:54:52
  I got so frightened I could have screamed. But you won't be frightened any
• 2:54:56
  more, Ruby, will you. You'll be brave and believe that all is
• 2:55:00
  going to be well with you. I'll try. I'll think over what you
• 2:55:03
  have said and try to believe it, and you'll come up as often as
• 2:55:07
  you can, won't you, Anne, Yes, dear it. It won't
• 2:55:11
  be very long now, Anne, I feel sure of that, and I'd
• 2:55:13
  rather have you than any one else. I always liked you best of all
• 2:55:18
  the girls I went to school with. You were never jealous or mean like
• 2:55:20
  some of them were. Poor em White was up to see me yesterday.
• 2:55:24
  You remember. EMM and I were such chums for three years when we went
• 2:55:28
  to school, and then we quarreled the time of the school concert. We've
• 2:55:31
  never spoken to each other since. Wasn't it silly? Anything like that seems
• 2:55:35
  silly now? But EMM and I made up the old quarrel yesterday. She
• 2:55:39
  said she'd have spoken years ago, only she thought I wouldn't And I never
• 2:55:43
  spoke to her because I was sure she wouldn't speak to me. Isn't it
• 2:55:46
  strange how people misunderstand each other? Anne? Most of the trouble in life
• 2:55:50
  comes from misunderstanding, I think, said Anne. I must go now,
• 2:55:54
  Ruby, it's getting late and you shouldn't be out in the damp. He'll
• 2:55:58
  come up soon again, Yes, very soon. And if there's anything I
• 2:56:01
  can do to help you, I'll be so glad. I know you have
• 2:56:05
  helped me already. Nothing seems quite so dreadful now. Good night, Anne,
• 2:56:11
  Good night. Dear Anne walked home very slowly in the moonlight. The
• 2:56:16
  evening had changed something for her life held a different meaning, a deeper purpose.
• 2:56:20
  On the surface, it would go on just the same, but the
• 2:56:22
  deeps had been stirred. It must not be with her, as with poor
• 2:56:26
  butterfly Ruby, when she came to the end of one life. It must
• 2:56:31
  not be to face the next with the shrinking terror of something wholly different,
• 2:56:35
  something for which accustomed thought and ideal and aspiration had unfitted her. The little
• 2:56:39
  things of life, sweet and excellent, in their place must not be the
• 2:56:43
  things lived. For the highest must be sought and followed. The life of
• 2:56:48
  Heaven must be begun here on earth. That good night in the garden was
• 2:56:52
  for all time. Anne never saw Ruby in life again. The next night,
• 2:56:56
  the Avis gave a farewell party to Jane Andrews before her departure for the
• 2:57:01
  West, And while light feet danced and bright eyes laughed and merry tongues chattered,
• 2:57:05
  there came a summons to a soul in Avonlea that might not be disregarded
• 2:57:09
  or evaded. The next morning, the word went from house to house that
• 2:57:13
  Ruby Gillis was dead. She had died in her sleep, painlessly and calmly,
• 2:57:18
  and on her face was a smile, as if, after all,
• 2:57:22
  death had come as a kindly friend to lead her over the threshold instead of
• 2:57:26
  the grisly phantom she had dreaded. Missus Rachel Lynde said emphatically after the funeral
• 2:57:31
  that Ruby Gillis was the handsomest corpse she ever laid eyes on. Her loveliness
• 2:57:35
  as she lay white clad among the delicate flowers that Anne had placed about her,
• 2:57:39
  was remembered and talked of for years in Avonlea. Ruby had always been
• 2:57:43
  beautiful, but her beauty had been of the earth's earthy. It had had
• 2:57:48
  a certain insolent quality in it, as if it flaunted itself in the beholder's
• 2:57:52
  eye. Spirit had never shone through it, Intellect had never refined it,
• 2:57:56
  but death had touched it and consecrated it, bringing out dela look at modelings
• 2:58:00
  and purity of outline never seen before, doing what life and love and great
• 2:58:05
  sorrow and deep womanhood joys might have done for Ruby. Anne, looking down
• 2:58:09
  through a mist of tears at her old playfellow, thought she saw the face
• 2:58:13
  God had meant Ruby to have, and remembered it so always. Missus Gillis
• 2:58:18
  called Anna Aside into a vacant room before the funeral procession left the house and
• 2:58:22
  gave her a small packet. I want you to have this, she sobbed.
• 2:58:26
  Ruby would have liked you to have it. It's the embroidered centerpiece she
• 2:58:30
  was working at. It isn't quite finished. The needle is sticking in it,
• 2:58:33
  just where her poor little fingers put it the last time she laid it
• 2:58:37
  down, the afternoon before she died. There's always a piece of unfinished work
• 2:58:41
  left, said missus Lynde, with tears in her eyes. But I suppose
• 2:58:45
  there's always some one to finish it. How difficult it is to realize that
• 2:58:50
  one we have always known can really be dead, said Anne as she and
• 2:58:52
  Diana walked home. Ruby is the first of our schoolmates to go, one
• 2:58:56
  by one. Sooner or later, all the rest of us must follow.
• 2:59:01
  Yes, I suppose, so, said Diana uncomfortably. She did not want
• 2:59:05
  to talk of that. She would have preferred to have discussed the details of
• 2:59:07
  the funeral the splendid white velvet casket mister Gillis had insisted on having for Ruby.
• 2:59:13
  The Gillises must always make us blurred, even at funerals, quoth missus
• 2:59:16
  Rachel Lynde, herb Spencer's sad face, the uncontrolled hysteric grief of one of
• 2:59:20
  Ruby's sisters. But Anne would not talk of these things. She seemed wrapped
• 2:59:24
  in a reverie in which Diana felt lonesomely that she had neither lot nor part.
• 2:59:31
  Ruby Gillis was a great girl to laugh, said Davy suddenly. Will
• 2:59:35
  she laugh as much in heaven as she did in avon Lea? Anne,
• 2:59:37
  I want to know. Yes, I think she will, said Anne.
• 2:59:39
  Oh, Anne, protested Diana with a rather shocked smile. Well why not,
• 2:59:43
  Diana asked Anne. Seriously, do you think we'll never laugh in heaven?
• 2:59:48
  Oh? I I don't know, floundered Diana, it doesn't seem just
• 2:59:52
  right somehow. You know, it's rather dreadful to laugh in church. But
• 2:59:56
  heaven won't be like church all the time, said Anne. I hope it
• 3:00:01
  ain't, said Davy emphatically. If it is, I don't want to go
• 3:00:03
  church is awful, dull anyway, I don't mean to go for ever so
• 3:00:07
  long. I mean to live to be a hundred years old. Like mister
• 3:00:09
  Thomas Blewett of White Sands. He says he's lived so long cause you always
• 3:00:13
  smoked tobacco and it killed all the germs. Can I smoke tobacco pretty soon,
• 3:00:16
  Anne, No, Davy, I hope you'll never use tobacco, said
• 3:00:20
  Anne absently. What do you feel like if the germs kill me, then,
• 3:00:24
  demanded Davy. And of chapter fourteen, All Chapter fifteen a dream turned
• 3:00:30
  upside down. Just one more week and we go back to Redmond, said
• 3:00:35
  Anne. She was happy at the thought of returning to work, classes and
• 3:00:39
  Redmond friends. Pleasing visions were also being woven around Patty's place. There was
• 3:00:43
  a warm, pleasant sense of home in the thought of it, even though
• 3:00:46
  she had never lived there. But the summer had been a very happy one
• 3:00:50
  too, a time of glad living with summer suns and skies, a time
• 3:00:54
  of keen delight and wholesome things, a time of renewing and deepening of old
• 3:00:58
  friendships, A time in which she had learned to live more nobly, to
• 3:01:01
  work more patiently, to play more heartily. All life lessons are not learned
• 3:01:05
  at college, she thought, life teaches them everywhere. But alas the final
• 3:01:11
  week of that pleasant vacation was spoiled for Anne by one of those impish happenings
• 3:01:15
  which are like a dream turned upside down. Been writing any more stories lately,
• 3:01:20
  inquired mister Harrison genially one evening, when Anne was taking tea with him,
• 3:01:22
  and Missus Harrison no, answered Anne rather crisply, Well, no offense
• 3:01:28
  meant Missus Hiram Sloane told me the other day that a big envelope addressed to
• 3:01:31
  the rawlings Reliable Baking Powder Company of Montreal had been dropped into the post office
• 3:01:35
  box a month ago, and she suspicioned that somebody was trying for the prize
• 3:01:39
  they'd offered for the best story that introduced the name of their baking powder.
• 3:01:43
  She said, it wasn't addressed in your writing, but I thought maybe it
• 3:01:46
  was you. Indeed, no, I saw the prize offer, but I'd
• 3:01:48
  never dream of competing for it. I think it would be perfectly disgraceful to
• 3:01:52
  write a story to advertise a baking powder. It would be almost as bad
• 3:01:56
  as Judson Parker's patent medicine fence. So spake Anne, loftily, little,
• 3:02:01
  dreaming of the Valley of humiliation awaiting her. That very day, Diana popped
• 3:02:05
  into the porch Gable, bright eyed, and rosy cheeked carrying a letter.
• 3:02:09
  Oh, Anne, here's a letter for you. I was at the office,
• 3:02:11
  so I thought i'd bring it along. Do open it quick. If
• 3:02:13
  it is what I believe it is, I shall be just wild with delight.
• 3:02:16
  Anne, puzzled, opened the letter and glanced over the typewritten contents.
• 3:02:22
  Miss Anne Shirley green Gables, Avonlea, p e Island. Dear Madam,
• 3:02:26
  we have much pleasure in informing you that your charming story, Averil's Atonement,
• 3:02:31
  has won the prize of twenty five dollars offered in our recent competition. We
• 3:02:35
  enclosed the check herewith We are arranging for the publication of the story in several
• 3:02:39
  prominent Canadian newspapers, and we also intend to have it printed in pamphlet form
• 3:02:43
  for distribution among our patrons. Thanking you for the interest you have shown in
• 3:02:46
  our enterprise, we remain yours very truly, the Rawlings Reliable Baking Powder Company.
• 3:02:52
  I don't understand, said Anne blankly. Diana clapped her hands. Oh
• 3:02:56
  I knew it would be the prize. I was sure of it. I
• 3:02:58
  sent your story into the competition, Anne, Diana Barry. Yes I did,
• 3:03:05
  said Diana, gleefully, perching herself on the bed. When I saw
• 3:03:07
  the offer, I thought of your story in a minute, and at first
• 3:03:09
  I thought i'd ask you to send it in, But then I was afraid
• 3:03:13
  you wouldn't. You had so little faith left in it, So I just
• 3:03:15
  decided i'd send the copy you gave me and say nothing about it. Then
• 3:03:18
  if it didn't win the prize, you'd never know, and you wouldn't feel
• 3:03:20
  badly over it, because the stories that failed were not to be returned,
• 3:03:24
  and if it did, you'd have such a delightful surprise. Diana was not
• 3:03:28
  the most discerning of mortals, but just at this moment, it struck her
• 3:03:31
  that Anne was not looking exactly overjoyed. The surprise was there, beyond doubt,
• 3:03:35
  but where was the delight? Why? Anne, you don't seem a
• 3:03:39
  bit pleased, she exclaimed. Anne instantly manufactured a smile and put it on.
• 3:03:45
  Of course, I couldn't be anything but pleased over your unselfish wish to
• 3:03:48
  give me pleasure, she said slowly. But you know, I'm so amazed.
• 3:03:52
  I can't realize it, and I don't understand there there wasn't a word
• 3:03:58
  in my story about out Anne choked a little over the word baking powder.
• 3:04:03
  Oh I put that in, said Diana. Reassured it was as easy as
• 3:04:07
  wink. And of course my experience in our old story club helped me.
• 3:04:09
  You know the scene where Avril makes the cake, well, I just stated
• 3:04:13
  that she used rawlings reliable in it, and that was why it turned out
• 3:04:16
  so well. And then in the last paragraph where Perceval clasps Avril in his
• 3:04:20
  arms and says, sweetheart, the beautiful coming years will bring us the fulfillment
• 3:04:24
  of our home of dreams, I added in which we will never use any
• 3:04:26
  baking powder except rawlings or reliable. Oh, gasped poor Anne, as if
• 3:04:33
  someone had dashed cold water on her. And you've won the twenty five dollars,
• 3:04:37
  continued Diana, jubilantly. Why I heard Priscilla say once that the Canadian
• 3:04:41
  woman only pays five dollars for a story. Anne held out the hateful pink
• 3:04:46
  slip and shaking fingers. I can't take it. It's yours, by right,
• 3:04:50
  Diana. You've sent the story in and made the alterations I I would
• 3:04:54
  certainly never have sent it, So you must take the check. I'd like
• 3:04:58
  to see myself, said Diana scornfully. Why what I did wasn't any trouble.
• 3:05:01
  The honor of being a friend of the prize winner is enough for me.
• 3:05:05
  Well, I must go. I should have gone straight home from the
• 3:05:07
  post office, for we have company, but I simply had to come and
• 3:05:11
  hear the news. I'm so glad for your sake, Anne, Anne suddenly
• 3:05:15
  bent forward, put her arms about Diana, and kissed her cheek. I
• 3:05:18
  think you are the sweetest and truest friend in the world, Diana, she
• 3:05:20
  said, with a little tremble in her voice. And I assure you I
• 3:05:24
  appreciate the motive of what you've done. Diana, pleased and embarrassed, got
• 3:05:28
  herself away, and poor Anne, after flinging the innocent check into her bureau
• 3:05:33
  drawer as if it were blood money, cast herself on her bed and wept
• 3:05:35
  tears of shame and outraged sensibility. Oh she could never lift this down.
• 3:05:41
  Never. Gilbert arrived at dusk, brimming over with congratulations, for he had
• 3:05:46
  called at Orchard Slope and heard the news, But his congratulations died on his
• 3:05:50
  lips at the side of Anne's face. Why Anne, what is the matter?
• 3:05:54
  I expected to find you radiant over winning Rawling's Reliable prize. Good for
• 3:05:56
  you, Oh Gilbert, not you, implored Anne in an a two brute
• 3:06:01
  tone. I thought you would understand. Can't you see how awful it is?
• 3:06:07
  I must confess I can't. What is wrong everything? Moaned Anne.
• 3:06:11
  I feel as if I were disgraced forever. What do you think a mother
• 3:06:15
  would feel like if she found her child tattooed over with a baking powder advertisement?
• 3:06:18
  I feel just the same. I loved my poor little story, and
• 3:06:22
  I wrote it out of the best that was in me, and it is
• 3:06:24
  sacrilege to have it degraded to the level of a baking powder advertisement. Don't
• 3:06:30
  you remember what Professor Hamilton used to tell us in the literature class at Queen's.
• 3:06:33
  He said, we were never to write a word for a low or
• 3:06:37
  unworthy motive, but always to cling to the very highest ideals. What will
• 3:06:41
  he think when he hears I've written a story to advertise Rawlings Reliable and oh
• 3:06:45
  when it gets out at Redmond, think how I'll be teased and laughed at
• 3:06:48
  that? You won't, said Gilbert, wondering uneasily if it were that confounded
• 3:06:52
  Junior's opinion, in particular over which Anne was worried the reds will think just
• 3:06:58
  as I thought that you, being like nine out of ten of us,
• 3:07:01
  not overburdened with worldly wealth, had taken this way of earning an honest penny
• 3:07:05
  to help yourself through the year. I don't see that there's anything low or
• 3:07:07
  unworthy about that, or anything ridiculous either. One would rather write masterpieces of
• 3:07:13
  literature, no doubt. But meanwhile, bored and tuition fees have to be
• 3:07:16
  paid. This common sense, matter of fact view of the case cheered Anne
• 3:07:20
  a little. At least it removed her dread of being laughed at, though
• 3:07:24
  the deeper heard of an outraged ideal remained. End of Chapter fifteen, Chapter
• 3:07:30
  sixteen, Adjusted Relationships. It's the homiest spot I ever saw. It's homier
• 3:07:37
  than home, avowed Philip A. Gordon, looking about her with delighted eyes.
• 3:07:41
  They were all assembled at twilight in the big living room at Patty's place.
• 3:07:45
  Anne and Priscilla, Phil and Stella, Aunt, James, Zena,
• 3:07:48
  Rusty Joseph, the Sarah Cat, and Gog and Magog. The firelight shadows
• 3:07:52
  were dancing over the walls. The cats were purring, and a huge bowl
• 3:07:56
  of hot house chrysanthemums sent to phil by one of the victims, shone through
• 3:08:00
  the golden gloom like creamy moons. It was three weeks since they had considered
• 3:08:05
  themselves settled, and already all believed the experiment would be a success. The
• 3:08:09
  first fortnight after their return had been a pleasantly exciting one. They had been
• 3:08:13
  busy setting up their household goods, organizing their little establishment, and adjusting different
• 3:08:20
  opinions. Anne was not over sorry to leave Avonlea when the time came to
• 3:08:24
  return to college. The last few days of her vacation had not been pleasant.
• 3:08:28
  Her prize story had been published in the island papers, and mister William
• 3:08:31
  Blair had upon the counter of his store a huge pile of pink, green
• 3:08:37
  and yellow pamphlets containing it, one of which he gave to every customer.
• 3:08:41
  He sent a complimentary bundle to Anne, who promptly dropped them all in the
• 3:08:45
  kitchen stove. Her humiliation was the consequence of her own ideals. Only for
• 3:08:50
  Avonlea folks thought it quite splendid that she should have won the prize. Her
• 3:08:54
  many friends regarded her with honest admiration, her few foes with scornful envy I
• 3:09:00
  said she believed Anne Shirley had just copied the story. She was sure she
• 3:09:03
  remembered reading it in a paper years before. The Sloanes, who had found
• 3:09:07
  out or guessed that Charley had been turned down, said they didn't think it
• 3:09:11
  was much to be proud of. Almost any one could have done it if
• 3:09:15
  she tried. Aunt Atossa told Anne she was very sorry to hear she had
• 3:09:18
  taken to writing novels. Nobody born and bred in Avonlea would do it.
• 3:09:22
  That was what came of adopting orphans from goodness knew where, with goodness knew
• 3:09:26
  what kind of parents. Even missus Rachel Lynde was darkly dubious about the propriety
• 3:09:31
  of writing fiction, though she was almost reconciled to it by that twenty five
• 3:09:35
  dollar check. It is perfectly amazing the price they pay for such lies,
• 3:09:39
  That's what she said, half proudly, half severely. All things considered,
• 3:09:43
  it was a relief when going away time came, and it was very jolly
• 3:09:48
  to be back at Redmond, a wise experienced soft with hosts of friends to
• 3:09:52
  greet on the merry opening day, PRIs and Stella and Gilbert were there.
• 3:09:56
  Charlie Sloane, looking more important than ever a sophomore, looked before Phil,
• 3:10:01
  with the Alec and Alonzo questions still unsettled, and Moody Spurgeon mac Pherson.
• 3:10:05
  Moody Spurgeon had been teaching school ever since leaving Queen's, but his mother had
• 3:10:09
  concluded it was high time he gave it up and turned his attention to learning
• 3:10:11
  how to be a minister. Poor Moody Spurgeon fell on hard luck at the
• 3:10:16
  very beginning of his college career. Half a dozen ruthless softs who were among
• 3:10:20
  his fellow boarders, swooped down on him one night and shaved half of his
• 3:10:24
  head. In this guise, the luckless Moody Spurgeon had to go about until
• 3:10:28
  his hair grew again. He told Anne bitterly that there were times when he
• 3:10:31
  had his doubts as to whether he was really called to be a minister.
• 3:10:37
  Aunt Jamesina did not come until the girls had Patty's place ready for her.
• 3:10:41
  Miss Patty had sent the key to Anne with a letter in which she said
• 3:10:43
  Gog and Magog were packed in a box under the spare room bed, but
• 3:10:46
  might be taken out when wanted. In a PostScript, she added that she
• 3:10:50
  hoped the girls would be careful about putting up pictures. The living room had
• 3:10:54
  been newly papered five years before, and she and miss Maria did not want
• 3:10:58
  any more hold made in that new paper than was absolutely necessary for the rest.
• 3:11:03
  She trusted everything to Anne. How those girls enjoy putting their nest in
• 3:11:07
  order, As Phil said, it was almost as good as getting married.
• 3:11:11
  You had the fun of home making without the bother of a husband. All
• 3:11:16
  brought something with them to adorn or make comfortable the little house. Pres and
• 3:11:20
  Phil and Stella had knick knacks and pictures galore, which latter they proceeded to
• 3:11:24
  hang according to taste in reckless. As regard of Miss Patty's new paper,
• 3:11:28
  we'll putty the holes up when we leave. Dear, she'll never know,
• 3:11:31
  they said, to protesting Anne. Diana had given Anne a pine needle cushion,
• 3:11:35
  and miss Ada had given both her and Priscilla a fearfully and wonderfully embroidered
• 3:11:39
  one. Marilla had sent a big box of preserves and darkly hinted at a
• 3:11:43
  hamper for Thanksgiving, and missus Lynde gave Anne a patchwork quilt and loaned her
• 3:11:48
  five more. You take them, she said authoritatively, they might as well
• 3:11:52
  be in use as packed away in that trunk in the garret. From moths
• 3:11:54
  to naw, no moths would ever have ventured near those quilts, for theyked
• 3:12:00
  of mouth bowls to such an extent that they had to be hung in the
• 3:12:03
  orchard of Paddy's place a full fortnight before they could be endured indoors. Verily
• 3:12:07
  aristocratic Spofford Avenue had rarely beheld such a display. The gruff old millionaire who
• 3:12:13
  lived next door came over and wanted to buy the gorgeous red and yellow tulip
• 3:12:16
  pattern one which Missus Rachel had given Anne. He said his mother used to
• 3:12:20
  make quilts like that, and by Jove he wanted one to remind him of
• 3:12:24
  her. Anne would not sell it, much to his disappointment, but she
• 3:12:26
  wrote all about it to missus Lynde. That highly gratified lady sent word back
• 3:12:31
  that she had one just like it to spare. So the tobacco king got
• 3:12:35
  his quilt after all, and insisted on having it spread on his bed,
• 3:12:37
  to the disgust of his fashionable wife. Missus Lynde's quilt served a very useful
• 3:12:43
  purpose that winter. Patty's Place, for all its many virtues, had its
• 3:12:46
  faults. Also. It was really a rather cold house, and when the
• 3:12:50
  frosty nights came, the girls were very glad to snuggle down under missus Lynde's
• 3:12:54
  quilts, and hoped that the loan of them might be accounted unto her for
• 3:12:58
  righteousness. Anne had the blue room she had coveted at sight, Priscilla and
• 3:13:03
  Stella had the large one. Phil was blissfully content with the little one over
• 3:13:07
  the kitchen, and Aunt Jamesina was to have the downstairs one off the living
• 3:13:11
  room. Rusty, at first slept on the doorstep. Anne, walking home
• 3:13:16
  from Redmond a few days after her return, became aware that people she met
• 3:13:20
  surveyed her with a covert indulgent smile. Anne wondered, uneasily, what was
• 3:13:24
  the matter with her? Was her hat crooked? Was her belt loose?
• 3:13:28
  Craning her head to investigate, Anne for the first time saw Rusty trotting along
• 3:13:33
  beside her, close to her heels. Was quite the most forlorn specimen of
• 3:13:37
  the cat tribe she had ever beheld. The animal was well past kittenhood,
• 3:13:43
  lank, thin, disreputable looking pieces of both ears were lacking, one eye
• 3:13:48
  was temporarily out of repair, and one jowl ludicrously swollen. As for color,
• 3:13:52
  if a once black cat had been well and thoroughly singed, the result
• 3:13:56
  would have resembled the hue of this waif's thin, draggled, unsightly fur.
• 3:14:01
  Anne showed, but the cat would not show as long as she stood.
• 3:14:05
  He sat back on his haunches and gazed at her reproachfully out of his one
• 3:14:09
  good eye. When she resumed her walk, he followed. Anne resigned herself
• 3:14:13
  to his company until she reached the gate of Patty's place, which she coldly
• 3:14:16
  shut in his face, fondly supposing she had seen the last of him.
• 3:14:20
  But when fifteen minutes later Phil opened the door, there sat the rusty brown
• 3:14:26
  cat on the step more He promptly darted in and sprang upon Anne's lap with
• 3:14:30
  a half pleading, half triumphant mew. Anne said, Stella, severely,
• 3:14:35
  do you own that animal? No? I do not, protested, disgusted
• 3:14:39
  Anne. The creature followed me home from somewhere. I couldn't get rid of
• 3:14:43
  him. Ugh, get down. I like decent cats reasonably well, but
• 3:14:46
  I don't like beasties of your complexion. Pussy, however, refused to get
• 3:14:50
  down. He coolly curled up in Anne's lap and began to purr. He
• 3:14:54
  has evidently adopted you, laughed Priscilla. I won't be adopted, said Anne
• 3:15:00
  stubbornly. Poor creature is starving, said Phil pityingly. Why his bones are
• 3:15:05
  almost coming through his skin. Well, I'll give him a square meal,
• 3:15:09
  and then he must return to whence he came, said Anne resolutely. The
• 3:15:13
  cat was fed and put out. In the morning, he was still on
• 3:15:16
  the doorstep. On the doorstep, he continued to sit, bolting in whenever
• 3:15:20
  the door was opened. No coolness of welcome had the least effect on him.
• 3:15:24
  Of nobody save Anne, did he take the least notice. Out of
• 3:15:26
  compassion, the girls fed him, but when a week had passed, they
• 3:15:31
  decided that something must be done. The cat's appearance had improved, his eye
• 3:15:35
  and cheek had resumed their normal appearance. He was not quite so thin,
• 3:15:39
  and he had been seen washing his face. But for all that, we
• 3:15:41
  can't keep him, said Stella. Aunt Jimsie is coming next week, and
• 3:15:46
  she will bring the Sarah cat with her. We can't keep two cats.
• 3:15:48
  And if we did this, rusty Coat would fight all the time with the
• 3:15:52
  Sarah cat. He's a fighter by nature. He had a pitched battle last
• 3:15:56
  evening with the Tobacco King's cat and routed him horse foot and artillery. We
• 3:16:00
  must get rid of him, agreed Anne, looking darkly at the subject of
• 3:16:03
  their discussion, who was purring on the hearth rug with an air of lamb
• 3:16:07
  like meekness. But the question is how how can four unprotected females get rid
• 3:16:11
  of a cat who won't be got rid of. We must chloroform him,
• 3:16:16
  said Phil briskly. That is the most humane way. Who of us knows
• 3:16:18
  anything about chloroforming a cat, demanded Anne gloomily. I do, honey.
• 3:16:24
  It's one of my few, sadly few useful accomplishments. I've disposed of several
• 3:16:28
  at home. You take the cat in the morning and give him a good
• 3:16:31
  breakfast. Then you take an old burlap bag, there's one on the back
• 3:16:35
  porch, put the cat in it and turn him over a wooden box.
• 3:16:39
  Then take a two ounce bottle of chloroform, uncork it and slip it under
• 3:16:41
  the edge of the box. Put a heavy weight on top of the box.
• 3:16:45
  And leave it till evening. The cat will be dead, curled up
• 3:16:48
  peacefully as if he were asleep. No pain, no struggle. It sounds
• 3:16:52
  easy, said Anne dubiously. It is easy. Just leave it to me.
• 3:16:56
  I'll see to it, said Phil reassuringly. Accordingly, the chloroform was
• 3:17:01
  procured, and the next morning Rusty was lured to his doom. He ate
• 3:17:05
  his breakfast, licked his chops, and climbing too Anne's lap. Anne's heart
• 3:17:09
  misgave her this poor creature, loved her, trusted her. How could she
• 3:17:13
  be a party to this destruction. Here take him, she said hastily to
• 3:17:16
  Phil. I feel like a murderess. He won't suffer, you know,
• 3:17:20
  comforted Phil. But Anne had fled. The fatal deed was done in the
• 3:17:24
  back porch. Nobody went near it that day, but at dusk Phil declared
• 3:17:28
  that Rusty must be buried. Chris and Stella must dig his grave in the
• 3:17:31
  orchard, declared Phil, and Anne must come with me to lift the box
• 3:17:35
  off. That's the part I always hate. The two conspirators tiptoed reluctantly to
• 3:17:39
  the back porch. Phil gingerly lifted the stone she had put on the box.
• 3:17:45
  Suddenly, faint but distinct sounded an unmistakable mew under the box. He
• 3:17:50
  he isn't dead, gasped Anne, sitting blankly down on the kitchen doorstep.
• 3:17:54
  He must be, said Philip, credulously. Another tiny mew proved he wasn't.
• 3:18:01
  The two girls stared at each other. What will we do? Questioned
• 3:18:03
  Anne? Why in the world don't you come, demanded Stella, appearing in
• 3:18:07
  the doorway. We've got the grave ready. What's silent? Still and silent
• 3:18:11
  all? She quoted teasingly. Oh no, the voices of the dead sound
• 3:18:16
  like the distant torrents fall. Promptly, counter quoted Anne, pointing solemnly to
• 3:18:20
  the box. A burst of laughter broke the tention. We must leave him
• 3:18:24
  here till morning, said phil replacing the stone. He hasn't me out for
• 3:18:28
  five minutes. Perhaps the mails we heard were his dying grown or perhaps we
• 3:18:31
  merely imagined them under the screen of our guilty consciences. But when the box
• 3:18:37
  was lifted in the morning, Rusty bounded at one gay leap to Anne's shoulder,
• 3:18:41
  where he began to lick her face affectionately. Never was there a cat
• 3:18:45
  more decidedly alive there's a knot hole in the box, groaned Phil. I
• 3:18:50
  never saw it. That's why he didn't die. Now we've got to do
• 3:18:52
  it all over again. No, we haven't, declared Anne suddenly. Rusty
• 3:18:56
  isn't going to be killed again. He's my cat and you've just got to
• 3:19:00
  make the best of it. Oh well, if you'll settle with Aunt Jimsie
• 3:19:03
  and the Sarah cat, said Stella with the air of one washing her hands
• 3:19:07
  of the whole affair. From that time, Rusty was one of the family.
• 3:19:11
  He slept a nights on the scrubbing cushion in the back porch and lived
• 3:19:15
  on the fat of the land. By the time Aunt Jamesina came he was
• 3:19:18
  plump and glossy and tolerably respectable. But like Kipling's cat, he walked by
• 3:19:22
  himself. His paw was against every cat, and every cat's paw against him.
• 3:19:28
  One by one he vanquished the aristocratic felines of Spofford Avenue. As for
• 3:19:31
  human beings, he loved Anne and Anne alone. Nobody else even dared stroke
• 3:19:37
  him. An angry spit in something that sounded much like very improper language,
• 3:19:41
  greeted any one who did the airs that cat puts on are perfectly intolerable,
• 3:19:46
  declared Stella. Him was a nice old push him as him was vowed,
• 3:19:48
  Anne cuddling her pet defiantly. Well, I don't know how he and the
• 3:19:54
  Sarah cat will ever make out to live together, said Stella pessimistically. Cat
• 3:19:58
  fights in the orchard and knights are back enough, but cat fights here in
• 3:20:01
  the living room are unthinkable. In due time, Aunt Jamesina arrived. Anne
• 3:20:07
  and Priscilla and Phil had awaited her advent rather dubiously, but when Aunt Jamesina
• 3:20:11
  was enthroned in the rocking chair before the open fire, they figuratively bowed down
• 3:20:16
  and worshiped her. Aunt Jamesina was a tiny old woman, with a little,
• 3:20:20
  softly triangular face and large, soft blue eyes that were alight with unquenchable
• 3:20:24
  youth, and as full of hopes as a girl's. She had pink cheeks
• 3:20:28
  and snow white hair, which she worn quaint little puffs over her ears.
• 3:20:33
  It's a very old fashioned way, she said, knitting industriously at something as
• 3:20:35
  dainty and pink as a sunset cloud. But I am old fashioned. My
• 3:20:39
  clothes are, and it stands to reason my opinions are too. I don't
• 3:20:43
  say they are any the better of that, mind you? In fact,
• 3:20:46
  I dare say they're a good deal the worse. But they've worn nice and
• 3:20:48
  easy. New shoes are smarter than old ones, but the old ones are
• 3:20:52
  more comfortable. I'm old enough to indulge myself in the matter of shoes and
• 3:20:56
  opinions. I mean to take it real easy here. I know you expect
• 3:21:01
  me to look after you and keep you proper, but I'm not going to
• 3:21:03
  do it. You're old enough to know how to behave if you're ever going
• 3:21:05
  to be so, as far as I am concerned, concluded Aunt james Zina,
• 3:21:09
  with a twinkle in her young eyes. You can all go to destruction
• 3:21:13
  in your own way. Oh will somebody separate those cats, pleaded Stella,
• 3:21:18
  shudderingly. Aunt james Zina had brought with her not only the Sarah cat,
• 3:21:22
  but Joseph. Joseph, she explained, had belonged to a dear friend of
• 3:21:24
  hers who had gone to live in Vancouver. She couldn't take Joseph with her,
• 3:21:28
  so she begged me to take him. I really couldn't refuse. He's
• 3:21:31
  a beautiful cat, that is, his disposition is beautiful. She called him
• 3:21:37
  Joseph because his coat is of many colors. It certainly was Joseph, as
• 3:21:41
  the disgusted Stella said, looked like a walking rag bag. It was impossible
• 3:21:46
  to say what his ground color was. His legs were white with black spots
• 3:21:50
  on them. His back was gray, with a huge patch of yellow on
• 3:21:52
  one side and a black patch on the other. His tail was yellow with
• 3:21:56
  a gray tip. One ear was black and one yellow. A black patch
• 3:22:00
  over one eye gave him a fearfully rakish look. In reality, he was
• 3:22:03
  meek and in offensive of a social disposition. In one respect, if in
• 3:22:07
  no other. Joseph was like a lily of the field. He toiled not,
• 3:22:11
  neither did he spin nor cat mice. Yet Solomon, in all his
• 3:22:15
  glories, slept not on softer cushions or feasted more fully on fat things.
• 3:22:20
  Joseph and the Sarah cat arrived by express in separate boxes. After they had
• 3:22:24
  been released and fed. Joseph selected the cushion and corner which appealed to him,
• 3:22:28
  and the Sarah cat gravely sat herself down before the fire and proceeded to
• 3:22:31
  wash her face. She was a large, sleek, gray and white cat
• 3:22:35
  with an enormous dignity which was not at all impaired by any consciousness of her
• 3:22:39
  Blebetan origin. She had been given to Aunt Jamesina by her washerwoman. Her
• 3:22:43
  name was Sarah, so my husband always called Puss the Sarah cat, explained
• 3:22:48
  Aunt Jamesina. She is eight years old and a remarkable mouser. Don't worry,
• 3:22:52
  Stella. The Sarah cat never fights, and Joseph rarely. They'll have
• 3:22:56
  to fight here in self defense, said Stella. At this juncture, Rusty
• 3:23:01
  arrived on the scene. He bounded joyously half way across the room before he
• 3:23:05
  saw the intruders. Then he stopped short. His tail expanded until it was
• 3:23:07
  as big as three tails. The fur on his back rose up in a
• 3:23:11
  defiant arch. Rusty lowered his head out of a fearful shriek of hatred and
• 3:23:16
  defiance, and launched himself at the Sarah Cat. The stately animal had stopped
• 3:23:20
  washing her face and was looking at him curiously. She met his onslaught with
• 3:23:24
  one contemptuous sweep of her capable paw. Rusty went rolling helplessly over on the
• 3:23:28
  rug. He picked himself up dazedly. What sort of a cat was this?
• 3:23:33
  Wood boxed his ears. He looked dubiously at the Sarah Cat. Would
• 3:23:37
  he or would he not? The Sarah Cat deliberately turned her back on him
• 3:23:41
  and resumed her toilet operations. Rusty decided that he would not. He never
• 3:23:46
  did. From that time on, the Sarah Cat ruled the roost. Rusty
• 3:23:50
  never again interfered with her. But Joseph rashly sat up and yawned. Rusty,
• 3:23:54
  burning to avenge his disgrace, swooped down on him. Joseph, pacific
• 3:23:58
  by nature, could fight upon occasion, and fight well. The result was
• 3:24:03
  a series of drawn battles. Every day, Rusty and Joseph fought at sight.
• 3:24:07
  Anne took Rusty's part and detested Joseph. Stella was in despair, but
• 3:24:11
  Aunt Jamesina only laughed. Let them fight it out, she said tolerantly.
• 3:24:16
  They'll make friends after a bit. Joseph needs some exercise he was getting too
• 3:24:20
  fat, and Rusty has to learn he isn't the only cat in the world.
• 3:24:24
  Eventually, Joseph and Rusty accepted the situation, and from sworn enemies became
• 3:24:28
  sworn friends. They slept on the same cushion with their paws about each other,
• 3:24:31
  and gravely washed each other's faces we've all got used to each other,
• 3:24:37
  said Phil. And I've learned how to wash dishes and sweep a floor.
• 3:24:39
  But you needn't try to make us believe you can chloroform a cat, laughed
• 3:24:43
  Anne. It was all the fault of the Nott whole, protested Phil.
• 3:24:48
  It was a good thing that not all was there, said Aunt Jamesina rather
• 3:24:50
  severely. Kittens have to be drowned, I admit, or the world would
• 3:24:54
  be overrun. But no decent grown up cat should be done to death unless
• 3:24:58
  he sucks eggs. You wouldn't have thought Rusty very decent if you'd seen him
• 3:25:01
  when he came here, said Stella. He positively looked like the old Nick.
• 3:25:07
  I don't believe old Nick can be so very ugly, said Aunt James
• 3:25:09
  Zena reflectively. He wouldn't do so much harm if he was. I always
• 3:25:13
  think of him as a rather handsome gentleman. End of chapter sixteen. Chapter
• 3:25:18
  seventeen, a letter from Davy. It's beginning to snow girls, said Phil.
• 3:25:24
  Coming in one November evening, and there are the loveliest little stars and
• 3:25:28
  crosses all over the garden walk. I never noticed before what exquisite things snowflakes
• 3:25:33
  really are. One has time to notice things like that in the simple life.
• 3:25:37
  Bless you all for permitting me to live it. It's really delightful to
• 3:25:39
  feel worried because butter has gone up five cents a pound? Has it?
• 3:25:43
  Demanded Stella, who kept the household accounts it has? And here's your butter.
• 3:25:48
  I'm getting quite expert at marketing. It's better fun than flirting, concluded
• 3:25:52
  Phil Gravely. Everything is going up scandalously, sighed Stella. Never mind,
• 3:25:58
  thank good. Miss Air and South are still free, said Aunt James Zina,
• 3:26:01
  and so is laughter, added Anne. There's no tax on it yet,
• 3:26:05
  and that is well. Because you're all going to laugh. Presently,
• 3:26:07
  I'm going to read you Davy's letter. His spelling has improved immensely this past
• 3:26:11
  year, though he's not strong in apostrophes, and he certainly possesses the gift
• 3:26:16
  of writing an interesting letter. Listen and laugh before we settle down to the
• 3:26:20
  evening's study. Grind Dear Anne ran Davy's letter. I take my pen to
• 3:26:24
  tell you that we are all pretty well and hope this will find you the
• 3:26:28
  same. It's snowing some today, and Marilla says the old woman in the
• 3:26:31
  sky is shaking her feather beds. It's the old woman in the sky God's
• 3:26:35
  wife Anne. I want to know. Missus Lynde has been real sick,
• 3:26:39
  but she is better now. She fell down the cellar stairs last week.
• 3:26:43
  When she fell, she grabbed hold of the shelf with all the milk pails
• 3:26:45
  and stewpans on it, and it gave way and went down with her and
• 3:26:48
  made a splendid crash. Marilla thought it was an earthquake at first. One
• 3:26:52
  of the stewpans was all dinged up, and missus Lynde strained her ribs.
• 3:26:56
  The doctor came and gave her medicine to rub on her ribs, but she
• 3:26:58
  didn't underst stand him and took it all inside instead. The doctor said it
• 3:27:03
  was a wonder it didn't kill her, But it didn't and it cured her
• 3:27:05
  ribs. And missus Lynde says, doctors don't know much anyhow, But we
• 3:27:07
  couldn't fix up the stewpand Marilla had to throw it out. Thanksgiving was last
• 3:27:13
  week. There was no school. When we had a great dinner. I
• 3:27:16
  had mince pie and roast turkey and fruit cake and doughnuts. And cheese and
• 3:27:20
  jam and chocolate cake. Marilla said, I'd die, but I didn't.
• 3:27:22
  Dora had earache after it, only it wasn't in her ears, it was
• 3:27:26
  in her stomach. I didn't have ear ache anywhere. Our new teacher is
• 3:27:30
  a man. He does things for jokes. Last week he made all us
• 3:27:33
  third class boys write a composition on what kind of a wife we'd like to
• 3:27:37
  have, and the girls on what kind of a husband. He laughed fit
• 3:27:39
  to kill when he read them. This was mine. I thought you'd like
• 3:27:41
  to see it. The kind of a wife I'd like to have. She
• 3:27:46
  must have good manners and get my meals on time, and do what I
• 3:27:48
  tell her, and always be very polite to me. She must be fifteen
• 3:27:52
  years old. She must be good to the poor, and keep her house
• 3:27:54
  tidy, and be good tempered, and go to church regularly. She must
• 3:27:58
  be very handsome and have curly hair. If I get a wife that is
• 3:28:01
  just what I like, it'll be an awful good husband to her. I
• 3:28:03
  think a woman ought to be awful good to her husband. Some poor women
• 3:28:07
  haven't any husbands. The end, I was at missus Isaac Wright's funeral.
• 3:28:11
  At White Sand's last week, the husband of the corpse felt real Sorry,
• 3:28:16
  Missus Lynde says Missus Wright's grandfather stole a sheep. But Marilla says, we
• 3:28:18
  mustn't speak ill of the dead. Why mustn't we, Anne? I want
• 3:28:22
  to know it's pretty safe, ain't it. Missus Lynde was awful mad the
• 3:28:26
  other day because I asked her if she was alive in Noah's time. I
• 3:28:28
  didn't mean to hurt her feelings. I just wanted to know, was she
• 3:28:31
  Anne. Mister Harrison wanted to get rid of his dog, so he hunged
• 3:28:35
  him once, but he come to life and scooted for the barn. While
• 3:28:37
  mister Harrison was digging the grave, so he hunged him again, and he
• 3:28:41
  stayed dead that time. Mister Harrison has a new man working for him.
• 3:28:45
  He's awful awkward. Mister Harrison says he is left handed in both his feet.
• 3:28:50
  Mister Barry's hired man is lazy. Missus Barry says that, but mister
• 3:28:52
  Barry says he ain't lazy exactly, only he thinks it's easier to pray for
• 3:28:56
  things than to work for them. Missus Harmon and Andrew's prize pig that she
• 3:29:01
  talked so much of died in a fit. Missus Lynde says it was a
• 3:29:03
  judgment on her for pride, but I think it was hard on the pig.
• 3:29:07
  Milty Boulter has been sick. The doctor gave him medicine and it tasted
• 3:29:11
  horrid. I offered to take it for him for a quarter, but the
• 3:29:13
  Bolters are so mean. Milty says he'd rather take it himself and save his
• 3:29:18
  money. I asked Missus Bolter how a person would go about catching a man,
• 3:29:20
  and she got awful mad and said she didn't know. Shed never chaste
• 3:29:24
  men. The Avis is going to paint the hall again. They're tired of
• 3:29:28
  having it blue. The new minister was here to tea last night. He
• 3:29:31
  took three pieces of pie. If I did that, Missus Lynne would call
• 3:29:35
  me piggy. And he at fast and took big bites. And Marilla's always
• 3:29:37
  telling me not to do that. Why can ministers do what boys can?
• 3:29:41
  I want to know. I haven't any more news. Here are six kisses
• 3:29:46
  x x x x x X. Dora sends one. Here's hers x your
• 3:29:50
  loving friend David Keith p s Anne who is the Devil's father? I want
• 3:29:54
  to know. End of chapter seventeen. Chapter eighteen, Miss Josephine remembers the
• 3:30:01
  Anne girl. When Christmas holidays came, the girls of Patty's Place scattered to
• 3:30:07
  their respective homes, but Aunt Jamesina elected to stay where she was. I
• 3:30:11
  couldn't go to any of the places I've been invited and take those three cats,
• 3:30:15
  she said. And I'm not going to leave the poor creatures here alone
• 3:30:18
  for nearly three weeks. If we had any decent neighbors who would feed them,
• 3:30:22
  I might, but there's nothing except millionaires on this street. So will
• 3:30:24
  stay here and keep Patty's Place warm for you. Anne went home with the
• 3:30:30
  usual joyous anticipations, which were not wholly fulfilled. She found Avonlea in the
• 3:30:35
  grip of such an early, cold and stormy winter as even the oldest inhabitant
• 3:30:39
  could not recall. Green Gables was literally hemmed in by huge drifts. Almost
• 3:30:43
  every day of that ill starred vacation, it stormed fiercely, and even on
• 3:30:48
  fine days it drifted unceasingly. No sooner were the roads broken than they filled
• 3:30:52
  in again. It was almost impossible to stir out. The Avis tried on
• 3:30:56
  three evenings to have a party in honor of the college students, and on
• 3:31:00
  each evening the storm was so wild that nobody could go, so they gave
• 3:31:03
  up the attempt. In despair, Anne, despite her love of and loyalty
• 3:31:07
  to green Gables, could not help thinking longingly of Patty's place, its cozy,
• 3:31:11
  open fire aunt, jane Zina's mirthful eyes, the three cats, the
• 3:31:16
  merry chatter of the girls, the pleasantness of Friday evenings when college friends dropped
• 3:31:20
  in to talk of Gray Eve and Gay. Anne was lonely. Diana,
• 3:31:24
  during the whole of the holidays, was imprisoned at home with a bad attack
• 3:31:28
  of bronchitis. She could not come to green Gables, and it was rarely
• 3:31:31
  Anne could get to Orchard Slope, for the old way through the haunted woods
• 3:31:35
  was impassable with drifts, and the long way over the frozen Lake of Shining
• 3:31:37
  Waters was almost as bad. Ruby Gillis was sleeping in the white heat to
• 3:31:41
  graveyard. Jane Andrews was teaching a school on western prairies. Gilbert, to
• 3:31:46
  be sure, was still faithful and waded up to green Gables every possible evening,
• 3:31:50
  But Gilbert's visits were not what they once were. Anne almost dreaded them.
• 3:31:54
  It was very disconcerting to look up in the midst of a sudden silence
• 3:31:58
  and find Gilbert's hazel eyes fixed upon her with a quite unmistakable expression in their
• 3:32:03
  grave depths. And it was still more disconcerting to find herself blushing hotly and
• 3:32:07
  uncomfortably under his gaze, just as if, just as if. Well,
• 3:32:11
  it was very embarrassing. Anne wished herself back at Patty's place, where there
• 3:32:16
  was always somebody else about to take the edge off a delicate situation. At
• 3:32:20
  Green Gables, Marilla went promptly to Missus Lynde's domain when Gilbert came and insisted
• 3:32:24
  on taking the twins with her. The significance of this was unmistakable, and
• 3:32:28
  Anne was in a helpless fury over it. Davy, however, was perfectly
• 3:32:31
  happy. He reveled in getting out in the morning and shoveling out the paths
• 3:32:35
  to the well and the hen house. He gloried in the Christmas tide delicacies
• 3:32:39
  which Marilla and missus Lynde vibe with each other in preparing for Anne, and
• 3:32:43
  he was reading an enthralling tale in a school library book of a wonderful hero
• 3:32:46
  who seemed blessed with a miraculous faculty for getting into scrapes, from which he
• 3:32:50
  was usually delivered by an earthquake or a volcanic explosion, which blew him high
• 3:32:54
  and dry out of his troubles, landed him in a fortune, and closed
• 3:32:58
  the story with propery clock. I'd tell you it's a bully story, Anne,
• 3:33:01
  he said ecstatically. I'd ever so much read it than the Bible,
• 3:33:05
  would you, smiled, Anne, Davy peered curiously at her. You don't
• 3:33:09
  seem a bit shocked, Anne. Missus Lynde was awful shocked when I said
• 3:33:13
  it to her. No, I'm not shocked, Davy. I think it's
• 3:33:16
  quite natural that a nine year old boy would sooner read an adventure story than
• 3:33:20
  the Bible. But when you are older, I hope and think that you
• 3:33:22
  will realize what a wonderful book the Bible is. Oh, some parts of
• 3:33:26
  it are fine, conceded Davy, that's story about Joseph. Now it's bully.
• 3:33:31
  But if I'd been Joseph, I wouldn't have forgived the brothers. No,
• 3:33:33
  sir, ee, Anne, I'd have cut all their heads off.
• 3:33:37
  Missus Lynde was awful mad when I said that, and shut the Bible up
• 3:33:39
  and said she'd never read me any more of it if I talk like that.
• 3:33:43
  So I don't talk now when she reads it Sunday afternoons, I just
• 3:33:46
  think things and say them to Milty Bolter next day in school. I told
• 3:33:50
  Milty the story about Elisha and the bears and it scared him, so he's
• 3:33:52
  never made fun of mister Harrison's bald head once. Are there any bears on
• 3:33:56
  p E Island? Anne? I want to know? Not nowadays, said
• 3:34:01
  Anne absently, as the wind blew a scud of snow against the window.
• 3:34:05
  Oh dear, will it ever stop storming? God knows, said Davy,
• 3:34:09
  airily, preparing to resume his reading. Anne was shocked this time, Davy,
• 3:34:13
  she exclaimed, reproachfully. Missus Lynde says that, protested Davy. One
• 3:34:18
  night last week, Marilla said, will Ludovic sped and Theodora Dix ever get
• 3:34:22
  married? And missus Lynde said, God knows, just like that. Well,
• 3:34:26
  it wasn't right for her to say it, said Anne, promptly,
• 3:34:28
  deciding upon which horn of this dilemma to impale herself. It isn't right for
• 3:34:31
  anybody to take that name in vain, or speak it lightly, Davy,
• 3:34:35
  don't ever do it again, not if I say it slow and solemn like
• 3:34:39
  the minister, queried Davy gravely. No, not even then, Well I
• 3:34:43
  won't. Ludovig sped and Theodora Dick's live in middle Grafton, and missus Rachel
• 3:34:48
  says he's been courting her for a hundred years. Won't they soon be too
• 3:34:52
  old to get married? Anne? I hope Gilbert won't quote you that long.
• 3:34:56
  When ain't you going to be married? Anne? Missus Lynde says it's
• 3:34:58
  a sure thing. Missus lyndeissot began Anne hotly, then stopped. Awful old
• 3:35:03
  gossip, completed Davy calmly. That's what everyone calls her. But is it
• 3:35:07
  a sure thing? Anne? I want to know you're a very silly little
• 3:35:11
  boy, Davy said Anne, stalking houghtily out of the room. The kitchen
• 3:35:16
  was deserted, and she sat down by the window in the fast falling wintry
• 3:35:18
  twilight. The sun had set and the wind had died down. A pale,
• 3:35:22
  chilly moon looked out behind a bank of purple clouds. In the west.
• 3:35:26
  The sky faded out, but the strip of yellow along the western horizon
• 3:35:31
  grew brighter and fiercer, as if all the stray gleams of light were concentrating
• 3:35:35
  in one spot. The distant hills, rimmed with priestlike furs, stood out
• 3:35:39
  in dark distinctness against it. Anne looked across the still white fields, cold
• 3:35:45
  and lifeless in the harsh light of that grim sunset, and sighed. She
• 3:35:50
  was very lonely, and she was sad at heart, for she was wondering
• 3:35:52
  if she would be able to return to Redmond next year. It did not
• 3:35:56
  seem likely. The only scholarship possible in the Moore year was a very small
• 3:36:01
  affair. She would not take Marilla's money, and there seemed little prospect of
• 3:36:05
  being able to earn enough in the summer vacation. I suppose I'll just have
• 3:36:09
  to drop out next year, she thought, drearily, and teach a district
• 3:36:11
  school again until I earn enough to finish my course. And by that time
• 3:36:16
  all my old class will have graduated, and Patty's place will be out of
• 3:36:18
  the question. But there I'm not going to be a coward. I'm thankful
• 3:36:22
  I can earn my way through if necessary. Here's mister Harrison, waiting up
• 3:36:26
  the lane, announced Davy running out. I hope he's brought the mail.
• 3:36:30
  It's three days since we got it. I want to see what them pesky
• 3:36:33
  grits are doing. I'm a conservative man, and I tell you you have
• 3:36:37
  to keep your eye on them grits. Mister Harrison had brought the mail and
• 3:36:41
  Mary letters from Stella and Priscilla, and Phil soon dissipated Anne's blues. Aunt
• 3:36:46
  Jamesina too had written, saying that she was keeping the hearth fire alight and
• 3:36:50
  that the cats were all well and the house plans doing fine. The weather
• 3:36:52
  has been real cold, she wrote, so I let the cats sleep in
• 3:36:56
  the house, Rusty and Joseph on the sofa in the living room, and
• 3:37:00
  the Sarah Cat on the foot of my bed. It's real company to hear
• 3:37:03
  her purring when I wake up in the night and think of my poor daughter
• 3:37:05
  in the foreign field. If it was anywhere but in India, I wouldn't
• 3:37:09
  worry. But they say the snakes out there are terrible. It takes all
• 3:37:13
  the Sarah Cat's purring to drive away the thought of those snakes. I have
• 3:37:16
  enough faith for everything, but the snakes. I can't think why Providence ever
• 3:37:20
  made them. Sometimes I don't think he did. I am inclined to believe
• 3:37:24
  the old Harry had a hand in making them. Anne had left a thin,
• 3:37:28
  typewritten communication till the last, thinking it unimportant. When she had read
• 3:37:31
  it, she sat very still with tears in her eyes. What is the
• 3:37:35
  matter, Anne asked Marilla. Miss Josephine Barry is dead, said Anne in
• 3:37:39
  a low tone. So she has gone at last, said Marilla. Well,
• 3:37:43
  she has been sick for over a year, and the Barrys have been
• 3:37:46
  expecting to hear of her death any time. It is well, she is
• 3:37:48
  at rest, for she has suffered dreadfully. Anne. She was always kind
• 3:37:52
  to you. She has been kind to the last, Marilla. This letter
• 3:37:54
  is from her lawyer. She has left me a thousand dollars in her will,
• 3:37:58
  Great Vicia. Sain't dad an awful lot of money, exclaimed Davy.
• 3:38:01
  She's the woman you and Diana lit on when you jumped into the spare room
• 3:38:05
  bed. Ain't she Diana told me that story? Is that why she left
• 3:38:07
  you so much? Hush? Davy, said Anne gently. She slipped away
• 3:38:13
  to the porch gable with a fool heart, leaving Marilla and Missus Lynde to
• 3:38:16
  talk over the news to their hearts content. Do you suppose Anne will ever
• 3:38:18
  get married now? Speculated Davy anxiously. When Dorca Sloane got married last summer,
• 3:38:24
  she said, if she'd had enough money to live on, she'd never
• 3:38:26
  have been bothered with a man. But even a widower with eight children was
• 3:38:28
  better in living with a sister in law, Davy Keith, do hold your
• 3:38:33
  tongue, said Missus Rachel severely. Why you talk is scandalous for a small
• 3:38:35
  boy. That's what end of chapter eighteen. Oh, chapter nineteen an interlude
• 3:38:43
  to think that this is my twentieth birthday and that I've left my teens behind
• 3:38:46
  me forever, said Anne, who was curled up on the hearthbruck with Rusty
• 3:38:50
  in her lap, to Aunt Janes Zena, who was reading in her pet
• 3:38:52
  chair. They were alone in the living room. Stella and Priscilla had gone
• 3:38:56
  to a committee meeting, and Phil was upstairs adorning herself. I suppose you
• 3:39:01
  feel kind of sorry, said Aunt Jamesina. The teens are such a nice
• 3:39:05
  part of life. I'm glad I've never gone out of them myself. Anne
• 3:39:09
  laughed, You never will, Auntie, you'll be eighteen when you should be
• 3:39:13
  a hundred Yes, I am sorry and a little dissatisfied as well. Miss
• 3:39:18
  Stacy told me long ago that by the time I was twenty, my character
• 3:39:20
  would be formed for good or evil. I don't feel that it's what it
• 3:39:24
  should be. It's full of flaws, so's everybody's, said Aunt James Zina,
• 3:39:28
  cheerfully. Mine's cracked in a hundred places. You are, Miss Stacy
• 3:39:33
  likely meant that when you are twenty, your character would have got its permanent
• 3:39:35
  bent in one direction or another and would go on developing in that line.
• 3:39:39
  Don't worry over it, Anne, do your duty by God and your neighbor
• 3:39:43
  and yourself and have a good time. That's my philosophy, and it's always
• 3:39:46
  worked pretty well. Where's pill off do tonight? She's going to a dance
• 3:39:50
  and she's got the sweetest dress for it, creamy yellow silk and cobwebby lace.
• 3:39:54
  It just suits those brown tints of hers. There's magic in the words
• 3:40:00
  silk and lace, isn't there? Said Aunt James Zina. The very sound
• 3:40:03
  of them makes me feel like skipping off to a dance, and yellow silk
• 3:40:07
  it makes one think of a dress of sunshine. I always wanted a yellow
• 3:40:11
  silk dress, but first my mother and then my husband wouldn't hear of it.
• 3:40:15
  The very first thing I'm going to do when I get to Heaven is
• 3:40:16
  to get a yellow silk dress. Amid Anne's peal of laughter, Phil came
• 3:40:20
  downstairs, trailing clouds of glory and surveyed herself in the long oval mirror on
• 3:40:26
  the wall. A flattering looking glass is a promoter of amiability, she said.
• 3:40:31
  The one in my room does certainly make me green. Do I look
• 3:40:33
  pretty? Nice? Anne? Do you really know how pretty you are?
• 3:40:37
  Phil asked Anne in honest admiration. Of course I do. What are looking
• 3:40:41
  glasses and men? For? That wasn't what I meant. Are all my
• 3:40:45
  ends tucked in? Is my skirt straight? And with this rose? Look
• 3:40:48
  better? Lower down? I'm afraid it's too high. It will make me
• 3:40:50
  look lopsided. But I hate things tickling my ears. Everything is just right,
• 3:40:56
  and that southwest dimble of yours is lovely. Anne. There's one thing
• 3:41:00
  in particular I like about you. You're so ungrudging. There isn't a particle
• 3:41:03
  of envy in you. Why should she be envious? Demanded Aunt Jamesina,
• 3:41:07
  she's not quite as good looking as you may be, but she's got a
• 3:41:09
  far handsomer nose. I know it, conceded Phil. My nose always has
• 3:41:15
  been a great comfort to me, confessed Anne. And I love the way
• 3:41:18
  your hair grows on your forehead. Anne, and that one wee curl,
• 3:41:22
  always looking as if he were going to drop, but never dropping. It's
• 3:41:24
  delicious. But as for noses, mine is a dreadful worry to me.
• 3:41:28
  I know by the time I'm forty it will be burning. What do you
• 3:41:31
  think I'll look like when I'm forty, Anne, like an old, matronly
• 3:41:35
  married woman, teased Anne. I won't, said Phil, sitting down comfortably
• 3:41:39
  to wait for her escort. Joseph, you calico beastie. Don't you dare
• 3:41:43
  jump on my lap. I won't go to a dance all over cat hairs.
• 3:41:46
  No, Anne, I won't look matronly. But no doubt I'll be
• 3:41:50
  married to alec or Alonzo, asked Anne. To one of em, I
• 3:41:54
  suppose, sighed Phil. If I can ever decide, which it shouldn't be
• 3:41:58
  hard to decide, scolded aunt Jamesina. I was born a seesaw Auntie,
• 3:42:01
  and nothing can ever prevent me from teetering. You want to be more level
• 3:42:05
  headed, Philippa. It's best to be level headed, of course, agreed
• 3:42:09
  Philippa, But you miss lots of fun. As for Alec and Alonzo,
• 3:42:13
  if you knew them, you'd understand why it's difficult to choose between them.
• 3:42:16
  They're equally nice. Then take somebody who is nicer, suggested Aunt Jamesina.
• 3:42:22
  There's that senior who was so devoted to you, Will Leslie. He has
• 3:42:26
  such nice, large mild eyes. They're a little bit too large and too
• 3:42:30
  mild, like a cow's, said Phil cruelly. What do you say about
• 3:42:33
  George Parker? There's nothing to say about him except that he always looks as
• 3:42:37
  if he had just been starched and iron mar holworthy. Then you can't find
• 3:42:41
  a fault with him. No, he would do if he wasn't poor.
• 3:42:46
  I must marry a rich man, Aunt Jamesina. That and good looks is
• 3:42:48
  an indispensable qualification. I'd marry Gilbert blythe if you were rich, Oh would
• 3:42:54
  you, said Anne, rather viciously. We don't like that idea a little
• 3:42:58
  bit, although we don't want Gilber ourselves. Oh no, mocked Phil.
• 3:43:03
  But don't. Let's talk of disagreeable subjects. I'll have to marry some time,
• 3:43:05
  I suppose, but I shall put off the evil day as long as
• 3:43:09
  I can. You mustn't marry anybody you don't love Phil, when all's said
• 3:43:13
  and done, said Aunt Jamesina. Oh, hearts that loved in the good
• 3:43:16
  old way have been out of the fashion this many a day, trilled Phil
• 3:43:18
  mockingly. There's the carriage. I fly by bye, you two old fashioned
• 3:43:22
  darlings. When Phil had gone, Aunt james Zina looked solemnly at Anne.
• 3:43:28
  That girl is pretty and sweet and good hearted, But you think she is
• 3:43:31
  quite right in her mind by spells? Anne. Oh, I don't think
• 3:43:35
  there's anything the matter with Phil's mind, said Anne, hiding a smile.
• 3:43:39
  It's just her way of talking. Aunt james Zina shook her head. Well,
• 3:43:43
  I hope so, Anne. I do hope so, because I love
• 3:43:46
  her, but I can't understand her. She beats me. She isn't like
• 3:43:48
  any of the girls I ever knew, or any of the girls I was
• 3:43:52
  myself. How many girls were you, Aunt Jimsy? About half a dozen,
• 3:43:56
  my dear. End of Chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty, Gilbert speaks,
• 3:44:03
  this has been a dull prosy day, yonned Phil, stretching herself idly on
• 3:44:09
  the sofa, having previously dispossessed two exceedingly indignant cats, Anne looked up from
• 3:44:15
  Pickwick papers. Now that spring examinations were over, she was treating herself to
• 3:44:18
  dickens. It has been a prosy day for us, she said, thoughtfully.
• 3:44:22
  But to some people it has been a wonderful day. Someone has been
• 3:44:26
  rapturously happy in it. Perhaps a great deed has been done somewhere to day,
• 3:44:31
  or a great poem written, or a great man born. And some
• 3:44:35
  heart has been broken, Phil, Why did you spoil your pretty thought by
• 3:44:39
  tagging that last sentence on honey? Grumbled Phil. I don't like to think
• 3:44:43
  of broken hearts or anything unpleasant. Do you think you'll be able to share
• 3:44:48
  come pleasant things all your life? Phil, dear me, no, am
• 3:44:50
  I not up against them now? You don't call Alec and Alonzo pleasant things?
• 3:44:54
  Do you? When they simply plague my life out? Hugh? Never
• 3:44:58
  take anything seriously, Phil, Why should I? There are enough folks who
• 3:45:01
  do the world needs people like me, Anne, just to amuse it.
• 3:45:05
  It would be a terrible place if everybody were intellectual and serious and in deep,
• 3:45:11
  deadly earnest. My mission is, as Josiah Allen says to charm and
• 3:45:16
  allure, confess, Now, hasn't life at Patty's place been really much brighter
• 3:45:20
  and pleasanter this past winter because I've been here to lovin you. Yes,
• 3:45:24
  it has owned Anne, and you all love me, even Aunt Jamesina,
• 3:45:28
  who thinks I'm stark mad? So why should I try to be different?
• 3:45:33
  Oh, dear, I'm so sleepy. I was awake until one last night
• 3:45:37
  reading a harrowing ghost story. I read it in bed, and after I
• 3:45:39
  had finished it, do you suppose I could get out of bed to put
• 3:45:43
  the light out? No, and if Stella had not fortunately come in late,
• 3:45:46
  that lamp would have burned good and bright till morning. When I heard
• 3:45:50
  Stella, I called her in, explained my predicament, and got her to
• 3:45:52
  put out the light. If I had got out myself to do it,
• 3:45:56
  I knew something would grab me by the feet when I was getting in again.
• 3:46:00
  By the way, Anne has Aunt Jamesina decided what to do this summer.
• 3:46:03
  Yes, she's going to stay here. I know she's doing it for
• 3:46:05
  the sake of those blessed cats. Although she says it's too much trouble to
• 3:46:09
  open her own house, and she hates visiting. What are you reading?
• 3:46:11
  Pickwick? That's a book that always makes me hungry, said Phil. There's
• 3:46:16
  so much good eating in it. The characters seem always to be reveling on
• 3:46:20
  ham and eggs and milk punch. I generally go on a cupboard rummage after
• 3:46:24
  reading Pickwick. The mere thok reminds me that I'm starving. Is there any
• 3:46:28
  tippet in the pantry, Queen Anne, I made a lemon pie this morning.
• 3:46:31
  You may have a piece of it. Phil dashed out to the pantry,
• 3:46:33
  and Anne betook herself to the orchard and company with Rusty. It was
• 3:46:37
  a moist, pleasantly odorous night in early spring. The snow was not quite
• 3:46:41
  all gone from the park. A little dingy bangkovit yet lay under the pines
• 3:46:46
  of the harbor road, screamed from the influence of April's suns. It kept
• 3:46:50
  the harbor Road muddy and chilled the evening air. But grass was growing green
• 3:46:54
  in sheltered spots, and Gilbert had found some pale, sweet arbutus in a
• 3:46:58
  hidden corner. He came up from the park, his hands full of it.
• 3:47:03
  Anne was sitting on the big gray boulder in the orchard, looking at
• 3:47:05
  the poem of a bare birchen bough hanging against the pale red sunset. With
• 3:47:11
  the very perfection of grace. She was building a castle in air, a
• 3:47:15
  wondrous mansion whose sunlit courts and stately halls were steeped in Araby's perfume, and
• 3:47:20
  where she reigned queen and chatelaine. She frowned as she saw Gilbert coming through
• 3:47:24
  the orchard. Of late, she had managed not to be left alone with
• 3:47:28
  Gilbert, but he had caught her fairly now, and even Rusty had deserted
• 3:47:33
  her. Gilbert sat down beside her on the boulder and held out his mayflowers.
• 3:47:37
  Don't these remind you of home and our old school day picnics? Anne
• 3:47:41
  Anne took them and buried her face in them. I am in mister Silas
• 3:47:45
  Sloane's barrens this very minute, she said, rapturously. I suppose you will
• 3:47:50
  be there in reality in a few days. No, not for a fortnight.
• 3:47:54
  I'm going to visit Phil in Bolingbroke before I go home. You'll be
• 3:47:56
  in Avonlea before I will. No, I shall not be in Avonlea at
• 3:48:00
  all this summer. Anne, I've been offered a job in the Daily News
• 3:48:03
  office, and I'm going to take it, Oh, said Anne vaguely.
• 3:48:07
  She wondered what a whole Avonlea summer would be like without Gilbert. Somehow she
• 3:48:11
  did not like the prospect. Well, she concluded flatly, it is a
• 3:48:16
  good thing for you, of course, Yes, I've been hoping I would
• 3:48:18
  get it. It will help me out next year. You must've worked too
• 3:48:22
  hard, said Anne, without any very clear idea of what she was saying.
• 3:48:26
  She wished desperately that Phil would come out. You've studied very constantly this
• 3:48:31
  winter. Isn't this a delightful evening? Do you know? I found a
• 3:48:35
  cluster of white violets under that old twisted tree over there. To day.
• 3:48:39
  I felt as if I had discovered a gold mine. You're always discovering gold
• 3:48:43
  mines, said Gilbert, also absently. Let us go and see if we
• 3:48:46
  can find some more, suggested Anne eagerly. I'll call Phil. And never
• 3:48:50
  mind, Phil, and the violet's just now, Anne, said Gilbert,
• 3:48:52
  quietly, taking her hand in a clasp from which she could not free it.
• 3:48:56
  There is something I want to say to you. Oh, don't say
• 3:49:00
  it, cried Anne pleadingly. Don't, please, Gilbert, I must Things
• 3:49:05
  can't go on like this any longer. Anne, I love you, you
• 3:49:09
  know I do. I I can't tell you how much? Will you promise
• 3:49:13
  me that some day you'll be my wife? I I can't, said Anne
• 3:49:16
  miserably. Oh Gilbert, you you've spoiled everything. Don't you care for me
• 3:49:22
  at all? Gilbert asked, after a very dreadful pause, during which Anne
• 3:49:26
  had not dared to look up, Not, not in that way. I
• 3:49:31
  do care a great deal for you as a friend, But I don't love
• 3:49:35
  you, Gilbert. But can't you give me some hope that you will?
• 3:49:37
  Yet? No, I can't, exclaimed Anne desperately. I never never can
• 3:49:43
  love you in that way. Gilbert, you must never speak of this to
• 3:49:46
  me again. There was another pause, so long and so dreadful that Anne
• 3:49:50
  was driven a last to look up. Gilbert's face was white to the lips
• 3:49:54
  and his eyes, but Anne shuddered and looked away. There was nothing roman
• 3:50:00
  This must proposals be either grotesque or horrible? Could she ever forget Gilbert's face?
• 3:50:07
  Is there anybody else? He asked at last, in a low voice.
• 3:50:11
  No, no, said Anne eagerly. I don't care for any one
• 3:50:15
  like that, and I like you better than any one else in the world,
• 3:50:18
  Gilbert, and we must, we must go on being friends, Gilbert.
• 3:50:22
  Gilbert gave a bitter little laugh. Friends, your friendship can't satisfy me,
• 3:50:28
  Anne. I want your love, and you tell me I can never
• 3:50:31
  have that. I'm sorry. Forgive me, Gilbert, was all Anne could
• 3:50:37
  say. Where, oh where were all the gracious and graceful speeches wherewith in
• 3:50:41
  imagination she had been wont to dismiss rejected suitors. Gilbert released her hand gently.
• 3:50:48
  There isn't anything to forgive. There have been times when I thought you
• 3:50:50
  did care. I've deceived myself. That's all. Good bye, Anne.
• 3:50:56
  Anne got herself to her room, sat down on her windows see behind the
• 3:51:00
  pines, and cried bitterly. She felt as if something incalculably precious had gone
• 3:51:05
  out of her life. It was Gilbert's friendship, of course, Oh why
• 3:51:09
  must she lose it after this fashion? What is the matter? Honey,
• 3:51:13
  asked Phil, coming in through the moonlit gloom. Anne did not answer.
• 3:51:18
  At that moment, she wished Phil were a thousand miles away. I suppose
• 3:51:22
  you've gone and refused, Gilbert blythe you are an idiot, Anne, Shirley.
• 3:51:26
  Do you call it idiotic to refuse to marry a man I don't love?
• 3:51:30
  Said Anne, coldly, goaded to reply, you don't know love when
• 3:51:33
  you see it. You've tricked something out with your imagination that you think love,
• 3:51:37
  and you expect a real thing to look like that. There, that's
• 3:51:41
  the first sensible thing I've ever said in my life. I wonder how I
• 3:51:45
  managed it. Phil pleaded Anne, please go away and leave me alone for
• 3:51:50
  a little while. My world has tumbled into pieces. I want to reconstruct
• 3:51:54
  it without any Gilbert in it, said Phil, Going a world without any
• 3:51:58
  Gilbert in it? Anne repeated the words drearily. Would it not be a
• 3:52:03
  very lonely, forlorn place? Well, it was all Gilbert's fault. He
• 3:52:07
  had spoiled their beautiful comradeship. She must just learn to live without it.
• 3:52:13
  End of Chapter twenty Chapter twenty one, Roses of Yesterday. The fortnight Anne
• 3:52:20
  spent in Bowlingbroke was a very pleasant one, with a little undercurrent of vague
• 3:52:24
  pain and dissatisfaction running through it. Whenever she thought about Gilbert. There was
• 3:52:28
  not, however, much time to think about him. Mount Holly, the
• 3:52:33
  beautiful old Gordon Holmestead, was a very gay place, overrun by Phil's friends
• 3:52:37
  of both sexes. There was quite a bewildering succession of drives, dances,
• 3:52:41
  picnics and boating parties, all expressively lumped together by Phil under the head of
• 3:52:46
  jamborees. Alec and Alonzo were so constantly on hand that Anne wondered if they
• 3:52:50
  ever did anything but Dan's attendance on that will o the wisp of a Phil.
• 3:52:54
  They were both nice, manly fellows, but Anne would not be drawn
• 3:52:58
  into any opinion as to which the nicer and I depended. So on you
• 3:53:01
  to help me make up my mind which of them I should promise to marry.
• 3:53:05
  Mor'n Phil, you must do that for yourself. You are quite expert
• 3:53:09
  at making up your mind as to whom other people should marry, retorted Anne
• 3:53:11
  rather caustically. Oh that's a very different thing, said Phil. Truly.
• 3:53:16
  But the sweetest incident of Anne's sojourn in Bolingbroke was the visit to her birthplace,
• 3:53:22
  the little shabby yellow house in an out of the way street she had
• 3:53:24
  so often dreamed about. She looked at it with delighted eyes as she and
• 3:53:28
  Phil turned in at the gate. It's almost exactly as I've pictured it,
• 3:53:31
  she said. There's no honeysuckle over the windows, but there is a lilac
• 3:53:35
  tree by the gate, and yes, there are muslin curtains in the windows.
• 3:53:41
  How glad I am it is still painted yellow. A very tall,
• 3:53:43
  very thin woman opened the door. Yes, the Shirley's lived here twenty years
• 3:53:48
  ago, she said, in answer to Anne's question. They had it rented.
• 3:53:50
  I remember em. They both died of fever at once. It was
• 3:53:54
  terrible sad. They left a baby. I guess it's dead long ago.
• 3:53:58
  It was a sickly thing. Old Thomas and his wife took it as if
• 3:54:01
  they hadn't enough of their own. It didn't, I said Anne, smiling.
• 3:54:05
  I was that baby. You don't say so. Why you have grown,
• 3:54:09
  exclaimed the woman, as if she were much surprised that Anne was not
• 3:54:11
  still a baby. Come to look at you. I see the resemblance.
• 3:54:15
  You're complected like your pa. He had red hair, but you favor your
• 3:54:18
  mind, your eyes and mouth. She was a nice little thing. My
• 3:54:22
  daughter went to school to her and was nigh crazy about her. They was
• 3:54:24
  buried in the one grave when the school board put up a tombstone to them
• 3:54:28
  as a reward for faithful service. Will you come in? Will you let
• 3:54:31
  me go all over the house? Asked Anne eagerly. Laws, Yes you
• 3:54:35
  can if you like. Twon't take ye long. There't much of it.
• 3:54:39
  I keep up my man to build a new kitchen, but he ain't one
• 3:54:41
  of your hustlers. The parlor's in there, and there's two rooms upstairs.
• 3:54:45
  Just prowl about yourselves. I've got to see to the baby. The east
• 3:54:48
  room was the one you were born in. I remember your ma saying she
• 3:54:50
  loved to see the sunrise, and I mind hearin that you was born just
• 3:54:54
  as the sun was rising, and its light on your face was the first
• 3:54:56
  thing your ma saw. Anne went up the narrow stairs and into that little
• 3:55:01
  east room with a full heart. It was as a shrine to her.
• 3:55:05
  Here her mother had dreamed the exquisite, happy dreams of anticipated motherhood. Here,
• 3:55:11
  that red sunrise light had fallen over them both in the sacred hour of
• 3:55:13
  birth. Here her mother had died. Anne looked about her reverently, her
• 3:55:18
  eyes filled with tears. It was for her one of the jeweled hours of
• 3:55:22
  that life that gleam out radiantly forever in memory, just to think of it.
• 3:55:26
  Mother was younger than I am now when I was born, she whispered.
• 3:55:31
  When Anne went downstairs, the lady of the house met her in the
• 3:55:33
  hall. She held out a dusty little packet tied with faded blue ribbon.
• 3:55:37
  Here's a bundle of old letters I found in that closet upstairs when I came
• 3:55:41
  here, She said, I dunno what they are. I never bothered to
• 3:55:43
  look at'em. But the address on the top one is miss Bertha Willis,
• 3:55:46
  and that was your ma's maiden name. You can take him if you
• 3:55:50
  care to have em. Oh, thank you, thank you, cried Anne,
• 3:55:52
  clasping the packet rapturously. That was all that was in the house,
• 3:55:56
  said her hostess. The furniture was all sold to pay the doctor bills,
• 3:56:00
  and missus Thomas got your ma's clothes and little things. I reckon they didn't
• 3:56:03
  last long among that drove of Thomas Youngster's. They was destructive young animals.
• 3:56:07
  As I mind em, I haven't one thing that belonged to my mother,
• 3:56:11
  said Aunt chokily I. I can never thank you enough for these letters.
• 3:56:16
  You're quite welcome, laws, But your eyes is like your ma's. She
• 3:56:18
  could just about talk with hers. Your father was sort of homely, but
• 3:56:22
  awful nice. I mind hearing folks say when they was married that there never
• 3:56:26
  was two people more in love with each other. Poor creatures. They didn't
• 3:56:30
  live much longer, but they was awful happy while they was alive, and
• 3:56:33
  I suppose that counts for a good deal. Anne longed to get home to
• 3:56:37
  read her precious letters, but she made one little pilgrimage. First, she
• 3:56:41
  went alone to the green corner of the old Bowlingbroke Cemetery, where her father
• 3:56:45
  and mother were buried, and left on their grave the white flowers she carried.
• 3:56:50
  Then she hastened back to Mount Holly, shut herself up in her room
• 3:56:52
  and read the letters. Some were written by her father, some by her
• 3:56:56
  mother. There were not many, only a dozen in all, for Walter
• 3:57:00
  and Bertha Shirley had not been often separated during their courtship. The letters were
• 3:57:03
  yellow and faded and dim blurred with the touch of passing years. No profound
• 3:57:09
  words of wisdom were traced on the stained and wrinkled pages, but only lines
• 3:57:13
  of love and trust the sweetness of forgotten things clung to them, the far
• 3:57:16
  off, fond imaginings of those long dead lovers. Bertha Shirley had possessed the
• 3:57:22
  gift of writing letters, which embodied the charming personality of the writer in words
• 3:57:24
  and thoughts that retained their beauty and fragrance after the lapse of time. The
• 3:57:30
  letters were tender, intimate, sacred to Anne. The sweetest of all was
• 3:57:35
  the one written after her birth to the father on a brief absence. It
• 3:57:37
  was full of a proud young mother's accounts of baby, her cleverness, her
• 3:57:41
  brightness, her thousand sweetnesses. I love her best when she is asleep,
• 3:57:46
  and better still when she is awake, Bertha Shirley had written in the PostScript.
• 3:57:50
  Probably it was the last sentence she had ever penned. The end was
• 3:57:54
  very near for her. This has been the most beautiful day of my life,
• 3:57:58
  Anne said to fill that night. I've found my father and mother.
• 3:58:01
  Those letters have made them real to me. I'm not an orphan any longer.
• 3:58:05
  I feel as if I had opened a book and found roses of yesterday,
• 3:58:09
  sweet and beloved between its leaves, and of chapter twenty one all Chapter
• 3:58:15
  twenty two spring, and Anne returned to Green Gables. The firelight shadows were
• 3:58:20
  dancing over the kitchen walls at Green Gables for the spring evening was chilly through
• 3:58:26
  the open east window, drifted in the subtly sweet voices of the night.
• 3:58:30
  Marilla was sitting by the fire. At least in body in spirit, she
• 3:58:35
  was roaming old in ways with feet grown young of late. Marilla had thus
• 3:58:39
  spent many an hour when she thought she should have been knitting for the twins.
• 3:58:43
  I suppose I'm growing old, she said. Yet Marilla had changed but
• 3:58:46
  little in the past nine years, save to grow something thinner and even more
• 3:58:52
  angular. There was a little more gray in the hair that was still twisted
• 3:58:54
  up in the same hard knot with two hairpins. Were they the same hairpins
• 3:59:00
  still stuck through it? But her expression was very different. The something about
• 3:59:05
  the mouth, which had hinted at a sense of humor, had developed wonderfully.
• 3:59:07
  Her eyes were gentler and milder, her smile more frequent and tender.
• 3:59:13
  Marilla was thinking of her whole past life, her cramped but not unhappy childhood,
• 3:59:18
  the jealously hidden dreams and the blighted hopes of her girlhood, the long
• 3:59:22
  gray, narrow, monotonous years of dull middle life that followed, and the
• 3:59:28
  coming of Anne, the vivid, imaginative, impetuous child, with her heart
• 3:59:31
  of love and her world of fancy, bringing with her color and warmth and
• 3:59:37
  radiance, until the wilderness of existence had blossomed like the rose. Marilla felt
• 3:59:41
  that out of her sixty years she had lived, only the nine that had
• 3:59:46
  followed the advent of Anne, and Anne would be home tomorrow night. The
• 3:59:50
  kitchen door opened, Marilla looked up, expecting to see missus Lynde. Anne
• 3:59:54
  stood before her, tall and starry eyed, with her hands full of mayflowers
• 3:59:58
  and vice violets. Anne Shirley, exclaimed Marilla, for once in her life,
• 4:00:03
  she was surprised out of her reserve. She caught her girl in her
• 4:00:07
  arms and crushed her and her flowers against her heart, kissing the bright hair
• 4:00:11
  and sweet face warmly. I never looked for you till tomorrow night. How
• 4:00:16
  did you get from Carmody, walked, dearest of Marilla's. Haven't I done
• 4:00:20
  it a score of times in the Queen's days. The mailman is to bring
• 4:00:22
  my trunk tomorrow. I just got homesick all at once and came a day
• 4:00:26
  earlier, and oh, I've had such a lovely walk in the May twilight.
• 4:00:31
  I stopped by the barrens and picked these mayflowers. I came through Violet
• 4:00:35
  Vale. It's just a big bowlful of violets now, the dear sky tinted
• 4:00:39
  things. Smell them, Marilla, drink them in. Marilla sniffed obligingly,
• 4:00:43
  but she was more interested in Anne than in drinking violets. Sit down,
• 4:00:48
  child, you must be real tired. I'm going to get you some supper.
• 4:00:52
  There's a darling moonrise behind the hills. To night, Marilla. And
• 4:00:54
  oh how the frogs sang me home from Carmody. I do love the music
• 4:00:58
  of the frogs. It seems bound up with all my happiest recollections of old
• 4:01:03
  spring evenings, and it always reminds me of the night I came here first.
• 4:01:07
  Do you remember it, Marilla, Well, yes, said Marilla,
• 4:01:09
  with emphasis. I am not likely to forget it. Ever. They used
• 4:01:13
  to sing so madly in the marsh and brook that year. I would listen
• 4:01:16
  to them at my window in the dusk and wonder how they could seem so
• 4:01:20
  glad and so sad at the same time. Oh but It's good to be
• 4:01:24
  home again. Redmond was splendid and bowling broke delightful. But Green Gables is
• 4:01:28
  home. Gilbert isn't coming home this summer, I hear, said Marilla.
• 4:01:33
  No. Something in Anne's tone made Marilla glance at her sharply. But Anne
• 4:01:37
  was apparently absorbed in arranging her violets in a bowl. See aren't they sweet?
• 4:01:41
  She went on hurriedly. The year is a book, isn't it,
• 4:01:43
  Marilla? Springs pages are written in mayflowers and violets, summers and roses,
• 4:01:48
  autumns in red maple leaves, and winter and holly and evergreen? Did Gilbert
• 4:01:54
  dwell in his examinations? Persisted Marilla excellently well? He led his class.
• 4:01:58
  But where are the Twain? And missus Lynde? Rachel and Dora are over
• 4:02:01
  at mister Harrison's. Davy is down at the bolters. I think I hear
• 4:02:05
  him coming now. Davy burst in saw Anne stopped, and then hurled himself
• 4:02:11
  upon her with a joyful yell. Oh Anne, ain't I glad to see
• 4:02:15
  you? Say Anne, I've grown two inches since last fall. Missus Lynde
• 4:02:18
  measured me with her tape to day and say Anne, see my front tooth.
• 4:02:22
  It's gone, Missus Lynde tied one into a string to it and the
• 4:02:24
  other end to the door, and then shut the door. I sold it
• 4:02:26
  to Milty for two cents. Milty's collecting teeth. What in the world does
• 4:02:31
  he want teeth for? Asked Marilla, to make a necklace for playing Indian
• 4:02:33
  chief, explained Davy, climbing upon Anne's lap. He's got fifteen already and
• 4:02:39
  everybody else's promise, so there's no use in the rest of us starting to
• 4:02:41
  collect too. I'd tell you the Bolters are great business people. Were you
• 4:02:46
  a good boy at missus Boulter's, asked Marilla severely. Yes, But say
• 4:02:50
  Marilla, I'm tired of being good. You'd get tired of being bad much
• 4:02:54
  sooner, Davy boy, said Anne. Well, it'd be fun while it
• 4:02:58
  lasted, wouldn't it, persisted Davy. I could be sorry for it afterwards,
• 4:03:01
  couldn't I Being sorry wouldn't do away with the consequences of being bad?
• 4:03:05
  Davy. Don't you remember the Sunday last summer when you ran away from Sunday
• 4:03:09
  School. You told me then that being bad wasn't worth while? What were
• 4:03:13
  you and milty doing to day. Oh, we fished and chased the cat,
• 4:03:16
  and hunted for eggs and yelled at the echo. There's a great echo
• 4:03:20
  in the bush behind the bolt or barn. Say what is echo? Anne?
• 4:03:22
  I want to know. Echo is a beautiful nymph, Davy, living
• 4:03:26
  far away in the woods and laughing at the world from among the hills.
• 4:03:30
  What does she look like? Her hair and eyes are dark, but her
• 4:03:33
  neck and arms are white as snow. No mortal can never see how fair
• 4:03:37
  she is. She is fleeter than a deer, and that mocking voice of
• 4:03:41
  hers is all we can know of her. You can hear her calling at
• 4:03:43
  night, you can hear her laughing under the stars, but you can never
• 4:03:46
  see her. She flies afar if you follow her, and laughs at you,
• 4:03:50
  always just over the next hill. In that true, Anne? Or
• 4:03:54
  is it a whopper? Demanded Davy. Staring, Davy said Anne despairingly.
• 4:04:00
  Haven't you sense enough to distinguish between a fairy tale and a falsehood? Then
• 4:04:03
  what is it that sass is back from the bolter bush? I want to
• 4:04:07
  know, insisted Davy. When you are a little older, Davy, I'll
• 4:04:11
  explain it all to you. The mention of age evidently gave a new turn
• 4:04:13
  to Davy's thoughts, for after a few moments of reflection, he whispered solemnly,
• 4:04:18
  Anne, I'm going to be married, When asked Anne with equal solemnity,
• 4:04:24
  Oh not until I'm grown up, of course. Well that's a relief,
• 4:04:26
  Davy. Who is the lady Stella Fletcher? She's in my class at
• 4:04:31
  school. And say, Anne, she's the prettiest girl you ever saw.
• 4:04:35
  If I die before I grow up, you'll keep an eye on her,
• 4:04:37
  won't you. Davy Keith, do stop talking such nonsense, said Marilla severely.
• 4:04:41
  Tisn't nonsense, protested Davy in an injured tone. She's my promised wife,
• 4:04:46
  and if I was to die, she'd be my promised widow, wouldn't
• 4:04:48
  she. And she hasn't got a soul to look after her except your old
• 4:04:52
  grandmother. Come and have your supper, Anne, said Marilla. And don't
• 4:04:54
  encourage that child in his absurd talk. End of chapter twenty two odd Chapter
• 4:05:01
  twenty three, Paul cannot find the rock people. Life was very pleasant in
• 4:05:07
  Avonlea that summer, although Anne, amid all her vacation joys, was haunted
• 4:05:11
  by a sense of something gone which should be there. She would not admit,
• 4:05:16
  even in her inmost reflections, that this was caused by Gilbert's absence.
• 4:05:20
  But when she had to walk home alone from prayer meetings and Avis pow wows
• 4:05:24
  while Diana and Fred and many other gay couples loitered along the dusky starlit country
• 4:05:30
  roads, there was a queer, lonely ache in her heart which she could
• 4:05:33
  not explain away. Gilbert did not even write to her, as she thought
• 4:05:39
  he might have done. She knew he wrote to Diana occasionally, but she
• 4:05:41
  would not inquire about him, and Diana, supposing that Anne heard from him,
• 4:05:46
  volunteered no information. Gilbert's mother, who was a gay, frank,
• 4:05:50
  light hearted lady but not overburdened with tact, had a very embarrassing habit of
• 4:05:56
  asking Anne, always in a painfully distinct voice, and always in the presence
• 4:06:00
  of a crowd, if she had heard from Gilbert lately. Poor Anne could
• 4:06:03
  only blush horribly and murmur not very lately, which was taken by all missus
• 4:06:09
  blythe included to be merely a maidenly evasion. Apart from this, Anne enjoyed
• 4:06:13
  her summer. Priscilla came for a merry visit in June, and when she
• 4:06:18
  had gone, mister and Missus Irving Paul and Karlotta the Fourth came home for
• 4:06:22
  July and August. Echo Lodge was the scene of gaieties once more, and
• 4:06:26
  the echoes over the river were kept busy mimicking the laughter that rang in the
• 4:06:30
  old garden behind the spruces. Miss Lavendar had not changed, except to grow
• 4:06:35
  even sweeter and prettier. Paul adored her, and the companionship between them was
• 4:06:39
  beautiful to see. But I don't call her mother just by itself, he
• 4:06:43
  explained to Anne. You see, that name belongs just to my own little
• 4:06:46
  mother, and I can't give it to any one else, you know,
• 4:06:48
  teacher, But I call her mother Lavender, and I love her next best
• 4:06:52
  to father. I I even love her a little better than you, teacher,
• 4:06:56
  which is just as it ought to be, answered Anne. Paul was
• 4:07:01
  thirteen now and very tall for his years. His face and eyes were as
• 4:07:05
  beautiful as ever, and his fancy was still like a prism, separating everything
• 4:07:09
  that fell upon it into rainbows. He and Anne had delightful rambles to wood
• 4:07:13
  and field and shore. Never were there two more thoroughly kindred spirits. Carlotta
• 4:07:18
  the Fourth had blossomed out into young ladyhood. She wore her hair now in
• 4:07:22
  an enormous pompadour, and had discarded the blue ribbon bows of old Langsyne.
• 4:07:26
  But her face was as frickled, her nose as snubbed, and her mouth
• 4:07:30
  and smiles as wide as ever. You don't think I talk with a Yankee
• 4:07:33
  accent, do you, miss Shirley, ma'am, she demanded anxiously. I
• 4:07:35
  don't notice it, Carlota. I'm real glad of that. They said I
• 4:07:39
  did at home, but I thought likely they just wanted to aggravate me.
• 4:07:43
  I don't want no Yankee accent, not that I've a word to say against
• 4:07:46
  the Yankees, Miss Shirley, ma'am. They're real civilized. But give me
• 4:07:50
  Old p E Island. Every time Paul spent his first fortnight with his grandmother,
• 4:07:54
  irving in Avonlea, Anne was there to meet him when he came,
• 4:07:58
  and found him wild with eagerness to get to the shore. Nora and the
• 4:08:01
  Golden Lady and the Twin Sailors would be there. She could hardly wait to
• 4:08:05
  eat his supper. Could he not see Nora's elfin face peering around the point,
• 4:08:09
  watching for him wistfully. But it was a very sober Paul who came
• 4:08:13
  back from the shore in the twilight. Didn't you find your rock people,
• 4:08:16
  asked Anne. Paul shook his chestnut curls sorrowfully. The Twin Sailors and the
• 4:08:22
  Golden Lady never came at all, he said. Nora was there. But
• 4:08:26
  Nora is not the same teacher. She's changed. No, Paul, it
• 4:08:30
  is you who are changed, said Anne. You have grown too old for
• 4:08:33
  the rock people. They like only children for playfellows. I am afraid the
• 4:08:37
  Twin Sailors will never again come to you in the pearly enchanted boat with the
• 4:08:41
  sail of moonshine, and the Golden Lady will play no more for you on
• 4:08:45
  her golden harp. Even Nora will not meet you much longer. You must
• 4:08:50
  pay the penalty of growing up, Paul. You must leave fairyland behind you.
• 4:08:54
  You two talk as much foolishness as you ever did, said old Missus,
• 4:08:56
  irving, half indulgently, half reprovingly. Oh no we don't, said
• 4:09:01
  Anne, shaking her head gravely. We are getting very very wise, and
• 4:09:05
  it is such a pity we are never half so interesting when we have learned
• 4:09:09
  that language is given us to enable us to conceal our thoughts. But it
• 4:09:13
  isn't it has given us to exchange our thoughts, said missus Irvings seriously.
• 4:09:18
  She had never heard of Talleyrand and did not understand epigrams. Anne spent a
• 4:09:24
  fortnight of halcyon days at Echo Lodge in the golden prime of August. While
• 4:09:28
  there she incidentally contrived to hurry Ludovic Speed in his leisurely courting of Theodora Dick's,
• 4:09:33
  as related duly in another chronicle of her history. Arnold Sherman, an
• 4:09:37
  elderly friend of the Irvings, was there at the same time and added not
• 4:09:39
  a little to the general pleasantness of life. What a nice playtime this has
• 4:09:45
  been, said Anne. I feel like a giant refreshed, and it's only
• 4:09:48
  a fortnight more till I go back to Kingsport in Redmond and Patty's Place.
• 4:09:52
  Patty's Place is the dearest spot, Miss Lavendar. I feel as if I
• 4:09:54
  had two homes, one at Green Gables and one at Patty's Place. But
• 4:09:58
  where has the summer gone? It doesn't seem a day since I came home
• 4:10:01
  that spring evening with the mayflowers. When I was little, I couldn't see
• 4:10:05
  from one end of the summer to the other. It stretched before me like
• 4:10:09
  an unending season. Now tis a hand breadth, tis a tale. Anne.
• 4:10:13
  Are you and Gilbert Blythe as good friends as you used to be?
• 4:10:16
  Asked Miss Lavendar quietly. I am just as much Gilbert's friend as ever I
• 4:10:22
  was, Miss Lavendar. Miss Lavendar shook her head. I see something's gone
• 4:10:26
  wrong. Anne. I'm going to be impertinent and ask what have you quarreled?
• 4:10:31
  No, it's only that Gilbert wants more than friendship, and I can't
• 4:10:33
  give him more. Are you sure of that, Anne? Perfectly sure.
• 4:10:39
  I'm very very sorry. I wonder why everybody seems to think I ought to
• 4:10:43
  marry Gilbert Blythe, said Anne petulantly. Because you were made and meant for
• 4:10:48
  each other. Anne, that is why you needn't toss that young head of
• 4:10:52
  yours. It's a fact. End of Chapter twenty three. Chapter twenty four
• 4:10:58
  entered jonas prospect point August twentieth. Dear Anne, spelled with an E,
• 4:11:05
  wrote Phil, I must prop my eyelids open long enough to write you.
• 4:11:09
  I have neglected you shamefully this summer, honey. But all my other correspondents
• 4:11:13
  have been neglected too. I have a huge pile of letters to answer,
• 4:11:16
  so I must gird up the loins of my mind and hoe in. Excuse
• 4:11:18
  my mixed metaphors. I'm fearfully sleepy. Last night, Cousin Emily and I
• 4:11:22
  were calling at a neighbor's. There were several other callers there, and as
• 4:11:26
  soon as those unfortunate creatures left, our hostess and her three daughters picked them
• 4:11:31
  all to pieces. I knew they would begin on Cousin Emily and me as
• 4:11:33
  soon as the door shut behind us. When we came home, Missus Lily
• 4:11:37
  informed us that the aforesaid neighbor's hired boy was supposed to be down with scarlet
• 4:11:41
  fever. You can always trust Missus Lily to tell you cheerful things like that.
• 4:11:45
  I have a horror of scarlet fever. I couldn't sleep when I went
• 4:11:48
  to bed for thinking of it. I tossed and tumbled about, dreaming fearful
• 4:11:52
  dreams when I did snooze for a minute, and at three I wakened up
• 4:11:56
  with a high fever, a sore throat, and a raging headache. I
• 4:11:58
  knew I had scarlet fever. I got up in a panic and hunted up
• 4:12:01
  cousin Emily's doctor book to read up the symptoms, and I had them all.
• 4:12:05
  So I went back to bed, and, knowing the worse, slept
• 4:12:07
  like a top the rest of the night. Though why a top should sleep
• 4:12:11
  sounder than anything else I never could understand. But this morning I was quite
• 4:12:15
  well, so it couldn't have been the fever. I suppose if I did
• 4:12:18
  catch it last night, it couldn't have developed so soon. I can remember
• 4:12:22
  that in daytime, but at three o'clock at night I never can be logical.
• 4:12:26
  I suppose you wonder what I am doing at Prospect Point. Well,
• 4:12:28
  I always like to spend a month of summer at the shore, and father
• 4:12:31
  insists that I come to a second cousin, Emily's select boarding house at Prospect
• 4:12:35
  Point. So a fortnight ago I came as usual, and as usual,
• 4:12:39
  old Uncle Mark Miller brought me from the station with his ancient buggy and what
• 4:12:43
  he calls his generous purpose horse. He's a nice old man, and gave
• 4:12:46
  me a handful of pink peppermints. Peppermints always seemed to me such a religious
• 4:12:50
  sort of candy, I suppose, because when I was a little girl,
• 4:12:54
  Grandmother Gordon always gave them to me in church. Once, I asked,
• 4:12:58
  referring to the smell of peppermints, is that the odor of sanctity? I
• 4:13:01
  didn't like to eat Uncle Mark's peppermints, because he just fished them loose out
• 4:13:05
  of his pocket and had to pick some rusty nails and other things from among
• 4:13:09
  them before he gave them to me. But I wouldn't hurt his dear old
• 4:13:11
  feelings for anything, so I carefully sewed them along the road at intervals.
• 4:13:16
  When the last one was gone, Uncle Mark said a little rebukingly, you
• 4:13:18
  shouldn't aid all them candies to wanst Miss Phil, you'll likely have the stomach
• 4:13:22
  ache. Cousin Emily has only five boarders besides myself, four old ladies and
• 4:13:28
  one young man. My right hand neighbor is missus Lily. She is one
• 4:13:31
  of those people who seem to take a gruesome pleasure in detailing all their many
• 4:13:35
  aches and pains and sicknesses. You cannot mention any ailment, but she says,
• 4:13:39
  shaking her head, ah, I know too well what that is.
• 4:13:43
  And then you get all the details. Jonas declares he once spoke of locomotor
• 4:13:46
  ataxia and hearing, and she said she knew too well what that was.
• 4:13:50
  She suffered from it for ten years and was finally cured by a traveling doctor
• 4:13:54
  who is Jonas. Just wait, Anne, Shirley, you'll hear all about
• 4:13:58
  Jonah in the proper time and place. He is not to be mixed up
• 4:14:01
  with estimable old ladies. My left hand neighbor at the table is Missus Finney.
• 4:14:07
  She always speaks with a wailing, dolorous voice. You are nervously expecting
• 4:14:11
  her to burst into tears every moment. She gives you the impression that life
• 4:14:15
  to her is indeed a veil of tears, and that a smile, never
• 4:14:18
  to speak of a laugh, is a frivolity, truly reprehensible. She has
• 4:14:22
  a worse opinion of me than Aunt Janes Zina, and she doesn't love me
• 4:14:26
  hard to atone for it, as Auntie Jay does either. Miss Maria Grimsby
• 4:14:30
  sits caddy corner from me. The first day I came, I remarked to
• 4:14:33
  Miss Maria that it looked a little like rain, and Miss Maria laughed.
• 4:14:37
  I said, the road from the station was very pretty, and Miss Maria
• 4:14:39
  laughed. I said, there seemed to be a few mosquitos left yet,
• 4:14:43
  and Miss Maria laughed. I said the Prospect Point was as beautiful as ever,
• 4:14:48
  and Miss Maria laughed. If I were to say to Miss Maria,
• 4:14:50
  my father has hanged himself, my mother has taken poison, my brother is
• 4:14:54
  in the penitentiary, and I am in the last stages of consumption, miss
• 4:14:58
  Maria would laugh. She can't help it. She was born so, but
• 4:15:01
  it is very sad and awful. The fifth old lady is missus Grant.
• 4:15:05
  She is a sweet old thing, but she never says anything but good of
• 4:15:07
  anybody, so she is a very uninteresting conversationalist. And now for Jonas Anne.
• 4:15:13
  The first day I came, I saw a young man sitting opposite me
• 4:15:16
  at the table, smiling at me as if he had known me from my
• 4:15:18
  cradle. I knew, for Uncle Mark had told me that his name was
• 4:15:22
  Jonas Blake, that he was a theological student from Saint Columbia, and that
• 4:15:26
  he had taken charge of the Point Prospect Mission Church for the summer. He
• 4:15:30
  is a very ugly young man, really, the ugliest young man I've ever
• 4:15:33
  seen. He has a big, loose jointed figure with absurdly long legs.
• 4:15:37
  His hair is tow color and lank. His eyes are green, and his
• 4:15:39
  mouth is big. And his ears but I never think about his ears if
• 4:15:43
  I can help it. He has a lovely voice. If you shut your
• 4:15:46
  eyes, he is adorable, and he certainly has a beautiful soul and disposition.
• 4:15:52
  We were good chums right away. Of course, he is a graduate
• 4:15:54
  of Redmond, and that is a link between us. We fished and boated
• 4:15:58
  together, and we walked on the sands by moon light. He didn't look
• 4:16:00
  so homely by moonlight, and oh he was nice. Niceness fairly exhaled from
• 4:16:04
  him. The old ladies, except missus Grant, don't approve of Jonas because
• 4:16:08
  he laughs and jokes, and because he evidently likes the society of frivolous me
• 4:16:12
  better than theirs. Somehow, Anne, I don't want him to think me
• 4:16:17
  frivolous. This is ridiculous. Why should I care what a tow haired person
• 4:16:22
  called Jonahs, whom I never saw before, thinks of me. Last Sunday,
• 4:16:25
  Jonas preached in the village church. I went, of course, but
• 4:16:27
  I couldn't realize that Jonas was going to preach the fact that he was a
• 4:16:32
  minister or going to be one, persisted in seeming a huge joke to me.
• 4:16:36
  Well, Jonas preached, and by the time he had preached ten minutes,
• 4:16:41
  I felt so small and insignificant that I thought I must be invisible to
• 4:16:45
  the naked eye. Jonas never said a word about women, and he never
• 4:16:48
  looked at me. But I realized then and there what a pitiful, frivolous,
• 4:16:52
  small soul, little butterfly I was, and how horribly different I must
• 4:16:56
  be from Jonas's ideal woman. She would be grand and strong and noble.
• 4:17:00
  He was so earnest and tender and true. He was everything a minister ought
• 4:17:06
  to be. I wondered how I could ever have thought him ugly, But
• 4:17:08
  he really is, with those inspired eyes and that intellectual brow which the roughly
• 4:17:12
  falling hair hid on week days, it was a splendid sermon, and I
• 4:17:17
  could have listened to it forever, and it made me feel utterly wretched.
• 4:17:21
  Oh I wish I was like you. Anne. He caught up with me
• 4:17:25
  on the road home and grinned as cheerfully as usual, but his grin could
• 4:17:27
  never deceive me again. I had seen the real Jonas. I wondered if
• 4:17:32
  he could ever see the real phil whom nobody, not even you, Anne,
• 4:17:36
  has ever seen yet. Jonas, I said, I forgot to call
• 4:17:40
  him mister Blake. Wasn't it dreadful? But there were times when things like
• 4:17:44
  that don't matter. Jonas, you were born to be a minister. You
• 4:17:48
  couldn't be anything else. No, I couldn't, he said soberly. I
• 4:17:52
  tried to be something else for a long time. I didn't want to be
• 4:17:55
  a minister. But I came to see at last that it was the work
• 4:17:57
  given me to do, and God helping me. I shall try to do
• 4:18:00
  it. His voice was low and reverent. I thought that he would do
• 4:18:04
  his work, and do it well and nobly and happy. The woman fitted
• 4:18:07
  by nature in training to help him do it, she would be no feather
• 4:18:11
  blown about by every fickle wind of fancy. She would always know what hat
• 4:18:15
  to put on. Probably she would have only one. Ministers never have much
• 4:18:18
  money, but she wouldn't mind having one hat or none at all, because
• 4:18:22
  she would have Jonas, Anne, Shirley, don't you dare say, or
• 4:18:27
  hint or think that I've fallen in love with mister Blake. Could I care
• 4:18:30
  for a lank, poor, ugly theolo called Jonas as Uncle Mark says,
• 4:18:36
  It's impossible, and what's more, it's improbable. Good night, Phil p
• 4:18:41
  s it is impossible, but I am horribly afraid it's true. I'm happy
• 4:18:47
  and wretched and scared he can never care for me. I know. Do
• 4:18:51
  you think I could ever develop into a passable minister's wife? Anne? And
• 4:18:55
  would they expect me to lead him? Prayer p g end of chapter twenty
• 4:19:00
  four. Of chapter twenty five, enter Prince Charming. I'm contrasting the claims
• 4:19:07
  of indoors and out, said Anne, looking from the window of Patty's place
• 4:19:10
  to the distant pines of the park. I've an afternoon to spend in Sweet
• 4:19:15
  doing nothing, Aunt Jimsie. Shall I spend it here, where there is
• 4:19:18
  a cozy fire, a plateful of delicious Russets, three purring and harmonious cats,
• 4:19:22
  and two impeccable China dogs with green noses? Or shall I go to
• 4:19:26
  the park where there is the lure of gray woods and of gray water lapping
• 4:19:30
  on the harbor rocks. If I was as young as you, I'd decide
• 4:19:33
  in favor of the park, said Aunt James Zina, tickling Joseph's yellow ear
• 4:19:37
  with a knitting needle. I thought that you claim to be as young as
• 4:19:40
  any of us, Auntie teased Anne. Yes, and my soul, but
• 4:19:44
  I'll admit my legs aren't as young as yours. You go and get some
• 4:19:47
  fresh air, Anne, you look pale lately. I think I'll go to
• 4:19:51
  the park, said Anne restlessly. I don't feel like tame domestic joys to
• 4:19:55
  day. I want to feel alone and free and wild. The park will
• 4:19:57
  be empty, for every one will be at the football match. Why didn't
• 4:20:02
  you go to it? Nobody axed me, sir, she said, at
• 4:20:04
  least nobody but that horrid little Dan Ranger. I wouldn't go anywhere with him.
• 4:20:10
  But rather than hurt his poor little tender feelings, I said, I
• 4:20:11
  wasn't going to the game at all. I don't mind. I'm not in
• 4:20:15
  the mood for football to day. Somehow, you go and get some fresh
• 4:20:18
  air, repeated Aunt Jamesina. But take your umbrella, for I believe it's
• 4:20:22
  going to rain. I have rheumatism in my leg. Only old people should
• 4:20:26
  have rheumatism, Auntie. Anybody is liable to rheumatism in her legs. Anne,
• 4:20:30
  it's only old people who should have rheumatism in their souls, though,
• 4:20:33
  thank goodness, I never have. When you get rheumatism in your soul,
• 4:20:37
  you might as well go and pick out your coffin. It was November,
• 4:20:41
  the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep sad hymns of the sea,
• 4:20:45
  passionate wind songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the Pineland valleys in
• 4:20:49
  the park and as she said, let that great sweeping wind blow the fogs
• 4:20:53
  out of her soul. Anne was not wont to be troubled with soul fog.
• 4:20:57
  But somehow, since Sir return into Redmond for this third year, life
• 4:21:02
  had not mirrored her spirit back to her with its old, perfect sparkling clearness.
• 4:21:07
  Outwardly, existence at Patty's Place was the same pleasant round of work and
• 4:21:11
  study and recreation that it had always been. On Friday evenings, the big
• 4:21:15
  fire lighted living room was crowded by callers and echoed to endless jest and laughter,
• 4:21:19
  while Aunt Jamesina smiled meaningly on them all. The jonas of Phil's letter
• 4:21:23
  came, often running up from Saint Columbia on the early train and departing on
• 4:21:26
  the late. He was a general favorite at Patty's Place, though Aunt Jamesina
• 4:21:30
  shook her head and opined that Divinity students were not what they used to be.
• 4:21:34
  He's very nice, my dear, she told Phil, But ministers ought
• 4:21:38
  to be graver and more dignified. Can't a man laugh and be a Christian?
• 4:21:41
  Still demanded Phil. Oh men, yes, but I was speaking of
• 4:21:45
  ministers, my dear, said Aunt Jamesina, rebukingly. And you shouldn't flirt
• 4:21:49
  so with mister Blake. You really shouldn't. I'm not flirting with him,
• 4:21:53
  protested Phil. Nobody believed her, except Anne. The others thought she was
• 4:21:57
  amusing herself as usual, and told her roundly that she was behaving very badly.
• 4:22:03
  Mister Blake isn't of the alec and Alonzo type, Phil said, Stella
• 4:22:06
  severely. He takes things seriously. You may break his heart. Do you
• 4:22:10
  really think I could, asked Phil. I'd love to think so, Philip
• 4:22:14
  A. Gordon, I never thought you were utterly unfeeling the idea of you
• 4:22:18
  saying you'd love to break a man's heart. I didn't say so, honey.
• 4:22:22
  Quote me, correctly, I said, I'd like to think I could
• 4:22:25
  break it. I would like to know I had the power to do it.
• 4:22:29
  I don't understand you, Phil, You're leading that man on deliberately,
• 4:22:32
  and you know you don't mean anything by it. I mean to make him,
• 4:22:34
  ask him to marry me if I can, said Phil, calmly.
• 4:22:37
  I give you up, said Stella hopelessly. Gilbert came occasionally on Friday evenings.
• 4:22:44
  He seemed always in good spirits and held his own in the jests and
• 4:22:47
  repartee that flew about. He neither sought nor avoided Anne. When circumstances brought
• 4:22:52
  them in contact. You talked to her pleasantly and courteously as to any newly
• 4:22:56
  made acquaintance. The old camaraderie was gone entirely. Anne felt it keenly,
• 4:23:00
  but she told herself she was very glad and thankful that Gilbert had got so
• 4:23:03
  completely over his disappointment in regard to her. She had really been afraid that
• 4:23:07
  April evening in the orchard that she had hurt him terribly and that the wound
• 4:23:11
  would be long in healing. Now she saw that she need not have worried.
• 4:23:15
  Men have died, and the worms have eaten them, but not for
• 4:23:18
  love. Gilbert evidently was in no danger of immediate dissolution. He was enjoying
• 4:23:22
  life, and he was full of ambition and zest. For him, there
• 4:23:26
  was to be no wasting in despair because a woman was fair and cold.
• 4:23:30
  Anne, as she listened to the ceaseless badinage that went on between him and
• 4:23:33
  phil wondered if she had only imagined that look in his eyes when she had
• 4:23:37
  told him she could never care for him. There were not lacking those who
• 4:23:40
  would gladly have stepped into Gilbert's vacant place, but Anne snubbed them without fear
• 4:23:45
  and without reproach. If the real Prince Charming was never to come, she
• 4:23:48
  would have none of a substitute, so she sternly told herself that gray day
• 4:23:52
  in the windy Park. Suddenly the reign of Aunt Jamesina's prophecy came with a
• 4:23:56
  swish and a rush. Anne put up her umbrella and hurried down the slope.
• 4:24:00
  As she turned out on the harbor road, a savage gust of wind
• 4:24:03
  tore along it. Instantly, her umbrella turned wrong side out. Anne clutched
• 4:24:07
  at it in despair, and then there came a voice close to her,
• 4:24:11
  Pardon me, May I offer you the shelter of my umbrella? Anne looked
• 4:24:17
  up, tall and handsome, distinguished looking, dark, melancholy inscrutable eyes,
• 4:24:22
  melting, musical, sympathetic voice. Yes, the very hero of her dream
• 4:24:29
  stood before her in the flesh. He could not have more closely resembled her
• 4:24:32
  ideal if he had been made to order. Thank you, she said,
• 4:24:36
  confusedly. We'd better hurry over to that little pavilion on the point, suggested
• 4:24:40
  the unknown. We can wait there until the shower is over. It is
• 4:24:44
  not likely to rain so heavily, very long. The words were commonplace,
• 4:24:48
  but oh the tone and the smile which accompanied them. Anne felt her heart
• 4:24:52
  beating strangely. Together, they scurried to the pavilion and sat breathlessly down under
• 4:24:57
  its friendly roof. Anne laughingly held up her false umbrella. It is when
• 4:25:03
  my umbrella turns inside out that I am convinced of the total depravity of inanimate
• 4:25:07
  things, she said gaily. The raindrop sparkled on her shining hair, Its
• 4:25:11
  loosened rings curled around her neck and forehead. Her cheeks were flushed, her
• 4:25:15
  eyes big and starry. Her companion looked down at her admiringly. She felt
• 4:25:19
  herself blushing under his gaze. Who could he be? Why there was a
• 4:25:23
  bit of the Redmond white and scarlet pin to his coat lapel. Yet she
• 4:25:27
  had thought she knew by sight at least all the Redmond students except the freshmen,
• 4:25:32
  and this courtly youth surely was no freshman. We are schoolmates, I
• 4:25:36
  see, he said, smiling at Anne's colors. That ought to be sufficient
• 4:25:38
  introduction. My name is Royal Gardner and you are the miss Shirley who read
• 4:25:42
  the Tennyson paper at the Philomathic the other evening, aren't you? Yes?
• 4:25:47
  But I cannot place you at all, said Anne frankly. Please, where
• 4:25:49
  do you belong? I feel as if I didn't belong anywhere yet. I
• 4:25:53
  put in my freshman and sophomore years at Redmond two years ago. I've been
• 4:25:57
  in Europe ever since. Now I've come back to finish my Art's course.
• 4:26:00
  This is my junior year too, said Anne. So we are classmates as
• 4:26:04
  well as college mates. I am reconciled to the loss of the years that
• 4:26:07
  the locust is eaten, said her companion, with a world of meaning in
• 4:26:11
  those wonderful eyes of his The rain came steadily down for the best part of
• 4:26:15
  an hour, but the time seemed really very short when the clouds parted and
• 4:26:18
  a burst of pale November sunshine fell athwart the harborer and the pines. Anne
• 4:26:23
  and her companion walked home together. By the time they had reached the gate
• 4:26:26
  of Patty's place, he had asked permission to call and had received it.
• 4:26:30
  Anne went in with cheeks of flame and her heart beating to her finger tips.
• 4:26:36
  Rusty, who climbed into her lap and tried to kiss her, found
• 4:26:38
  a very absent welcome. Anne, with her soul full of romantic thrills,
• 4:26:42
  had no attention to spare just then for a croppyared pussycat. That evening,
• 4:26:48
  a parcel was left at Patty's place for Miss Shirley. It was a box
• 4:26:51
  containing a dozen magnificent roses. Phil pounced impertinently on the card that fell from
• 4:26:56
  it read the name and the poetical quotation written on the back, Royal Gardener.
• 4:27:00
  She exclaimed, Why, Anne, I didn't know you were acquainted with
• 4:27:03
  Roy Gardner. I met him in the park this afternoon in the rain,
• 4:27:07
  explained Anne hurriedly. My umbrella turned inside out and he came to my rescue
• 4:27:11
  with his Oh. Phil peered curiously at Anne, and is that exceedingly commonplace
• 4:27:18
  incident? Any reason why he should send us long stemmed roses by the dozen
• 4:27:21
  with a very sentimental rhyme? Or why we should blush divinest rosy red when
• 4:27:26
  we look at his card and thy face betrayeth THEE don't talk nonsense, Phil,
• 4:27:32
  Do you know mister Gardner. I've met his two sisters, and I
• 4:27:34
  know of him, So does everybody worth while in Kingsport, the Gardeners are
• 4:27:38
  among the richest, bluest of blue noses. Roy is adorably handsome and clever.
• 4:27:42
  Two years ago his mother's health failed and he had to leave college and
• 4:27:45
  go abroad with her. His father is dead. He must have been greatly
• 4:27:49
  disappointed to have to give up his class, but they say he was perfectly
• 4:27:52
  sweet about it. THEE five foe thumb, Anne, I smell romance.
• 4:27:57
  Almost do I envy you? But not quite? After all, Roy Gardner
• 4:28:03
  isn't jonas you goose, said Anne loftily. But she lay long awake that
• 4:28:07
  night, nor did she wish for sleep. Her waking fancies were more alluring
• 4:28:12
  than any vision of dreamland. Had the real Prince come at last, Recalling
• 4:28:18
  those glorious dark eyes which had gazed so deeply into her own, Anne was
• 4:28:22
  very strongly inclined to think he had. End of Chapter twenty five, Chapter
• 4:28:26
  twenty six, Enter Christine. The girls at Patty's Place were dressing for the
• 4:28:33
  reception which the juniors were giving for the seniors in February. Anne surveyed herself
• 4:28:37
  in the mirror of the Blue Room with girlish satisfaction. She had a particularly
• 4:28:41
  pretty gown on. Originally it had been only a simple little slip of cream
• 4:28:45
  silk with a chiffon overdress, but Phil had insisted on taking it home with
• 4:28:49
  her in the Christmas holidays and embroidering tiny rosebuds all over the chiffon. Phil's
• 4:28:56
  fingers were deft, and the result was a dress which was the envy of
• 4:28:59
  every Redmond girl. Even Allie Boone, whose frocks came from Paris, was
• 4:29:03
  wont to look with longing eyes on that rosebud concoction as Anne trailed up the
• 4:29:07
  main staircase at Redmond. In it, Anne was trying the effect of a
• 4:29:11
  white orchid in her hair. Roy Gardner had sent her white orchids for the
• 4:29:15
  reception, and she knew no other Redmond girl would have him. That night
• 4:29:18
  when Phil came in with admiring gaze, Anne, this is certainly your night
• 4:29:23
  for looking handsome. Nine nights out of ten I can easily outshine you.
• 4:29:26
  The tenth you blossom out suddenly into something that eclipses me altogether. How do
• 4:29:32
  you manage it? It's the dress, der fine feathers. Tisn't the last
• 4:29:37
  evening you flamed out into beauty. You wore your old blue flannel shirt waist
• 4:29:40
  that missus Lynde made you. If Roy hadn't already lost head and heart about
• 4:29:44
  you, he certainly would tonight. But I don't like orchids on you,
• 4:29:47
  Anne, No, it isn't jealousy. Orchids don't seem to belong to you.
• 4:29:51
  They're too exotic, too tropical, too insolent. Don't put them in
• 4:29:55
  your hair anyway? Well I won't. I admit I'm not fond of orchids
• 4:29:59
  myself. I don't think they're related to me. Roy doesn't often send them.
• 4:30:03
  He knows I like flowers I can live with. Or kids are only
• 4:30:06
  things you can visit with. Jonas sent me some dear pink rosebuds for the
• 4:30:10
  evening, but he isn't coming himself. He said he ought to lead a
• 4:30:14
  prayer meeting in the slums. I don't believe he wanted to come, Anne.
• 4:30:18
  I'm horribly afraid Jonas doesn't really care anything about me, and I'm trying
• 4:30:22
  to decide whether I'll pine away and die or go on and get my ba
• 4:30:25
  and be sensible and useful. You couldn't possibly be sensible and useful, Phil,
• 4:30:29
  Sir, you'd better pine away and die, said Anne, cruelly.
• 4:30:32
  Heartless, Anne, silly, Phil, You know quite well that Jonas loves
• 4:30:36
  you, but he won't tell me so, and I can't make him.
• 4:30:41
  He looks it, I'll admit, but speak to me only with thine eyes.
• 4:30:45
  Isn't a really reliable reason for embroidering doilies and hemstitching tablecloths. I don't
• 4:30:49
  want to begin such work until I'm really engaged. It would be tempting fate.
• 4:30:55
  Mister Blake is afraid to ask you to marry him. Phil. He
• 4:30:57
  is poor and can't offer you a home such as you've always had. You
• 4:31:00
  know that is the only reason he hasn't spoken long ago. I suppose so
• 4:31:06
  agreed Phil dolefully well, brightening up. If you won't ask me to marry
• 4:31:11
  him, I'll ask him. That's all, so it's bound to come right.
• 4:31:15
  I won't worry by the way, Gilbert Blythe is going about constantly with
• 4:31:18
  Christine Stewart. Did you know? Anne was trying to fasten a little gold
• 4:31:22
  chain about her throat. She suddenly found the class difficult to manage. What
• 4:31:26
  was the matter with it or with her fingers? No, she said,
• 4:31:30
  carelessly. Who is Christine Stuart, Ronald Stuart's sister. She's in Kingsport this
• 4:31:34
  winter studying music. I haven't seen her, but they say she's very pretty,
• 4:31:38
  and that Gilbert is quite crazy over her. How angry I was when
• 4:31:42
  you refused Gilbert, Anne, But Roy Gardner was foreordained for you. I
• 4:31:45
  can see that now. You were right after all. Anne did not blush
• 4:31:49
  as she usually did when the girls assumed that her eventual marriage to Roy Gardner
• 4:31:53
  was a settled thing. All at once. She felt rather dull. Phil's
• 4:31:57
  chatter seemed trivial and the recepts bore. She boxed, Poor Rusty's ears.
• 4:32:03
  Get off that cushion instantly, You cat you, Why don't you stay down?
• 4:32:06
  Where you belong. Anne picked up her orchids and went downstairs, where
• 4:32:10
  Aunt Jamesina was presiding over a row of coats hung before the fire to warm.
• 4:32:15
  Broy Gardner was waiting for Anne and teasing the Sarah Cat while he waited.
• 4:32:18
  The Sarah Cat did not approve of him. She always turned her back
• 4:32:22
  on him, but everybody else at Patty's Place liked him very much. Aunt
• 4:32:26
  james Zina, carried away by his unfailing and deferential courtesy and the pleading tones
• 4:32:30
  of his delightful voice, declared he was the nicest young man she ever knew,
• 4:32:33
  and that Anne was a very fortunate girl. Such remarks made Anne restive.
• 4:32:38
  Anne's wooing had certainly been as romantic as girlish heart could desire, but
• 4:32:42
  she wished Aunt james Zina and the girls would not take things so for granted.
• 4:32:47
  When Roy murmured a poetical compliment as he helped her on with her coat,
• 4:32:51
  she did not blush and thrill as usual, and he found her rather
• 4:32:53
  silent in their brief walk to Redmond. He thought she looked a little pale
• 4:32:56
  when she came out of the coed's dressing room, but as they entered the
• 4:33:00
  reception room, her color and sparkles suddenly returned to her. She turned to
• 4:33:03
  Roy with her gayest expression. He smiled back at her with what Phil called
• 4:33:07
  his deep black, velvety smile. Yet she really did not see Roy at
• 4:33:11
  all. She was acutely conscious that Gilbert was standing under the palms just across
• 4:33:15
  the room, talking to a girl who must be Christine Stewart. She was
• 4:33:21
  very handsome in the stately style, destined to become rather massive in middle life.
• 4:33:25
  A tall girl with large dark blue eyes, ivory outlines, and a
• 4:33:29
  gloss of darkness on her smooth hair. She looks just as I've always wanted
• 4:33:33
  to look, thought Anne miserably. Rose leaf complexions, starry violet eyes,
• 4:33:37
  raven hair. Yes, she has them all. It's a wonder Her name
• 4:33:41
  isn't Cordelia Fitzgerald into the bargain, But I don't believe her figure is as
• 4:33:45
  good as mine, and her nose certainly isn't. Anne felt a little comforted
• 4:33:51
  by this conclusion. End of chapter twenty six, Chapter twenty seven Mutual Confidences
• 4:33:59
  March, which came in that winter like the meekest and mildest of lambs,
• 4:34:03
  bringing days that were crisp and golden and tingling, each followed by a frosty,
• 4:34:07
  pink twilight, which gradually lost itself in an elfland of moonshine Over the
• 4:34:11
  girls at Patty's Place was falling the shadow of April examinations. They were studying
• 4:34:17
  hard. Even Phil had settled down to text and notebooks with a doggedness not
• 4:34:21
  to be expected of her. I'm going to take the Johnson Scholarship mathematics,
• 4:34:25
  she announced, calmly. I could take the one in Greek easily, but
• 4:34:27
  I'd rather take the mathematical one because I want to prove to Jonas that I'm
• 4:34:30
  really enormously clever. Jonas likes you better for your big brown eyes and your
• 4:34:36
  crooked smile than for all the brains you carry under your curls, said Anne.
• 4:34:40
  When I was a girl, it wasn't considered lady like to know anything
• 4:34:42
  about mathematics, said Aunt James Zina. But times have changed. I don't
• 4:34:47
  know that it's all for the better. Can you cook, Phil, No,
• 4:34:49
  I never cooked anything in my life except a gingerbread, and it was
• 4:34:52
  a failure. Flat in the middle and hilly round the edges, you know
• 4:34:56
  the kind. But Auntie, when I begin in good earnest to learn to
• 4:34:59
  cook, don't you think the brains that enable me to win a mathematical scholarship
• 4:35:03
  will also enable me to learn cooking just as well? Maybe, said Aunt
• 4:35:07
  Jamesina cautiously. I am not decrying the higher education of women. My daughter
• 4:35:11
  is an Aimee. She can cook too, but I taught her to cook
• 4:35:14
  before I let a college professor teach mathematics. In mid March came a letter
• 4:35:18
  from Miss Patty Spofford saying that she and Miss Maria had decided to remain abroad
• 4:35:22
  for another year, so you may have Patty's place next winter too, she
• 4:35:26
  wrote, Maria and I are going to run over Egypt. I want to
• 4:35:30
  see the Sphinx once before I die. Fancy those two dames running over Egypt.
• 4:35:34
  I wonder if they'll look up at the Sphinx a knit, laughed Priscilla.
• 4:35:38
  I'm so glad we can keep Patty's place for another year, said Stella.
• 4:35:41
  I was afraid they'd come back, and then our jolly little nest here
• 4:35:45
  would be broken up, and we poor callow nestlings thrown out on the cruel
• 4:35:48
  world of boarding houses again. I am off for a tramp in the park,
• 4:35:52
  announced Phil, tossing her book aside. I think when I'm eighty,
• 4:35:56
  I'll be glad I went for a walk in the park to night. What
• 4:35:59
  do you mean? Asked Come with me and I'll tell you, honey.
• 4:36:03
  They captured in their ramble all the mysteries and magics of a march evening,
• 4:36:07
  very still and mild, It was wrapped in a great, white, brooding
• 4:36:11
  silence, a silence which was yet threaded through with many little silvery sounds,
• 4:36:15
  which you could hear if you hearkened, as much with your soul as with
• 4:36:18
  your ears. The girls wandered down a long Pineland aisle that seemed to lead
• 4:36:23
  right out into the heart of a deep, red, overflowing winter sunset.
• 4:36:27
  I'd go home and write a poem this blessed minute, if only I knew
• 4:36:30
  how, declared Phil, pausing in an open space where a rosy light was
• 4:36:34
  staining the green tips of the pines. It's all so wonderful here, this
• 4:36:40
  great white stillness, and those dark trees that always seemed to be thinking.
• 4:36:44
  The woods were God's first temples, quoted Anne softly. One can't help feeling
• 4:36:48
  reverent and adoring in such a place. I always feel so near him when
• 4:36:52
  I walk among the pines. An, I'm the happiest girl in the world,
• 4:36:56
  confessed Phil. Suddenly, So mister Blake has asked you to marry him
• 4:37:00
  at last, said Anne calmly. Yes. And I sneezed three times while
• 4:37:04
  he was asking me. Wasn't that horrid? But I said yes almost before
• 4:37:07
  he finished. I was so afraid he might change his mind and stop.
• 4:37:11
  I'm besottedly happy. I couldn't really believe before that Jonas would ever care for
• 4:37:15
  frivolous me. Phil, You're not really frivolous, said Anne gravely. Weigh
• 4:37:21
  down. Underneath that frivolous exterior of yours, You've got a dear, loyal,
• 4:37:25
  womanly little soul. Why do you hide it so I can't help it?
• 4:37:29
  Queen Anne, you are right, I'm not frivolous at heart, but
• 4:37:33
  there's a sort of frivolous skin over my soul, and I can't take it
• 4:37:36
  off. As missus Poyser says, I'd have to be hatched over again and
• 4:37:38
  hatched different before I could change it. But Jonas knows the real me and
• 4:37:42
  loves me, frivolity and all. And I love him. I never was
• 4:37:45
  so surprised in my life as I was when I've found out I loved him.
• 4:37:49
  I'd never thought it possible to fall in love with an ugly man.
• 4:37:52
  Fancy me coming down to one solitary bow and what named Jonas? But I
• 4:37:56
  mean to call him Joe. That's such a nice, crisp little name.
• 4:38:00
  I couldn't nickname Alonzo. What about Alec and Alonzo? Oh? I told
• 4:38:06
  them at Christmas that I never could marry either of them. It seems so
• 4:38:08
  funny now to remember that I ever thought it possible that I might. They
• 4:38:11
  felt so badly. I just cried over both of them. How old.
• 4:38:15
  But I knew there was only one man in the world I could ever marry.
• 4:38:18
  I had made up my own mind for once, and it was real
• 4:38:21
  easy too. It's very delightful to feel so sure and to know it's your
• 4:38:25
  own shoreness and not somebody else's. Do you suppose you'll be able to keep
• 4:38:29
  it up making up my mind? You mean, I don't know. But
• 4:38:33
  Joe has given me a splendid rule, he says, when I'm perplexed,
• 4:38:36
  just to do what I would wish I had done. When I shall be
• 4:38:37
  eighty. Anyhow, Joe can make up his mind quickly enough, and it
• 4:38:41
  would be uncomfortable to have too much mind in the same house. What will
• 4:38:45
  your father and mother say? Father won't say much. He thinks everything I
• 4:38:48
  do right. But mother will talk. Oh, her tongue will be as
• 4:38:52
  burny as her nose. But in the end it will be all right.
• 4:38:55
  You'll have to give up a good many things you've always had when you marry
• 4:38:57
  mister Blake Phil, But I'll have him. I won't miss the other things.
• 4:39:03
  We're to be married a year from next June. Joe graduates from Saint
• 4:39:06
  Columbia this spring. You know. Then he's going to take a little mission
• 4:39:08
  church down on Patterson Street in the slums. Fancy me and the slums,
• 4:39:12
  But I'd go there or to Greenland's icy mountains with him. And this is
• 4:39:18
  the girl who would never marry a man who wasn't rich, commented Anne to
• 4:39:21
  a young pine tree. Oh, don't cast up the follies of my youth
• 4:39:23
  to me. I shall be poor as gaily as I've been rich. You'll
• 4:39:27
  see. I'm going to learn how to cook and make over dresses. I've
• 4:39:30
  learned how to market since I've lived at Paddy's place, and once I taught
• 4:39:33
  a Sunday school class for a whole summer aunt. Jamesina says, I'll ruin
• 4:39:37
  Joe's career if I marry him, but I won't. I know, I
• 4:39:40
  haven't much sense or sobriety, but I've got what is ever so much better,
• 4:39:44
  the knack of making people like me. There's a man in Bowlingbroke who
• 4:39:47
  lisps and always testifies in prayer meeting. He says, if you can't sign
• 4:39:51
  like an electric star, sign like a candlestick, I'll be Joe's little candlestick.
• 4:39:56
  Phil You're incorrigible while I love you so much that I can't make nice,
• 4:40:00
  light, congratulatory little speeches. But I'm heart glad of your happiness.
• 4:40:04
  I know those big gray eyes of yours are brimming over with real friendship.
• 4:40:08
  Anne. Some day I look the same way at you. You are going
• 4:40:11
  to marry Roy, aren't you? Anne? My dear Philippa, did you
• 4:40:15
  ever hear of the famous Betty Baxter who refused a man before he'd axed her.
• 4:40:19
  I am not going to emulate that celebrated lady by either refusing or accepting
• 4:40:23
  any one before he axes me. All Redmond knows that Roy's crazy about you,
• 4:40:27
  said Phil candidly. And you do love him, don't you, Anne?
• 4:40:32
  I I suppose so, said Anne reluctantly. She felt that she ought
• 4:40:37
  to be blushing while making such a confession, but she was not. On
• 4:40:41
  the other hand, she always blushed hotly when any one said anything about Gilbert
• 4:40:44
  Blythe or Christine Stewart. In her hearing, Gilbert Blythe and Christine Stuart were
• 4:40:48
  nothing to her, absolutely nothing. But Anne had given up trying to analyze
• 4:40:52
  the reason of her blushes. As for Roy, of course, she was
• 4:40:56
  in love with him madly, so how could she help it? Was he,
• 4:40:59
  not her idea? Who could resist those glorious dark eyes in that pleading
• 4:41:03
  voice. Were not half the Redmond girls wildly envious? And what a charming
• 4:41:07
  sonnet He had sent her with a box of violets on her birthday. Anne
• 4:41:11
  knew every word of it by heart. It was very good stuff of its
• 4:41:15
  kind too, not exactly up to the level of Keats or Shakespeare. Even
• 4:41:18
  Anne was not so deeply in loves to think that, but it was very
• 4:41:22
  tolerable magazine verse, and it was addressed to her not to Laura, or
• 4:41:26
  Beatrice, or the Maid of Athens, but to her Anne Shirley. To
• 4:41:30
  be told in rhythmical cadences that her eyes were stars of the morning, that
• 4:41:33
  her cheek had the flush it stole from the sunrise, that her lips were
• 4:41:37
  redder than the roses of Paradise was thrillingly romantic. Gilbert would never have dreamed
• 4:41:41
  of writing a sonnet to her eyebrows. But then Gilbert could see a joke.
• 4:41:47
  She had once told Roy a funny story, and he had not seen
• 4:41:49
  the point of it. She recalled the chummy laugh she and Gilbert had had
• 4:41:52
  together over it, and wondered uneasily if life with a man who had no
• 4:41:56
  sense of humor might not be somewhat uninteresting in the long run. But who
• 4:42:00
  could expect a melancholy, inscrutable hero to see the humorous side of things?
• 4:42:03
  It would be flatly unreasonable. End of Chapter twenty seven. Chapter twenty eight
• 4:42:10
  A June evening. I wonder what it would be like to live in a
• 4:42:15
  world where it was always June, said Anne, as she came through the
• 4:42:18
  spice and bloom of the twilight orchard to the front door steps, where Marilla
• 4:42:22
  and Missus Rachel were sitting talking over Missus Sampson Coates's funeral, which they had
• 4:42:26
  attended that day. Dora sat between them, diligently studying her lessons, but
• 4:42:30
  Davy was sitting tailor fashion in the grass, looking as gloomy and depressed as
• 4:42:34
  his single dimple would let him. You'd get tired of it, said Marilla
• 4:42:38
  with a sigh. I dare say, but just now I feel that it
• 4:42:41
  would take me a long time to get tired of it if it were all
• 4:42:45
  as charming as to day. Everything loves June. Davy, boy, why
• 4:42:49
  this melancholy November face in blossom time? I'm just sick and tired of living,
• 4:42:55
  said the youthful pessimist at ten years Dear me, how sad? I'm
• 4:43:00
  not making fun, said Davy with dignity. I'm dis dis discouraged, bringing
• 4:43:07
  out the big word with a valiant effort. Why and wherefore, asked Anne,
• 4:43:11
  sitting down beside him, Cause the new teacher that come when mister Holmes
• 4:43:15
  got sick, gave me ten sums to do for Monday. It'll take me
• 4:43:18
  all day to morrow to do them. It isn't fair to have to work
• 4:43:22
  Saturdays Milty Bolter said he wouldn't do them, but Marilla says, I've got
• 4:43:26
  to. I don't like miss Carson a bit. Don't talk like that about
• 4:43:30
  your teacher. Davy Keith said, missus Rachel severely. Miss Carson is a
• 4:43:33
  very fine girl. There is no nonsense about her that doesn't sound very attractive,
• 4:43:37
  laughed Anne. I like people to have a little nonsense about them,
• 4:43:41
  but I'm inclined to have a better opinion of miss Carson than you have.
• 4:43:45
  I saw her in prayer meeting last night, and she has a pair of
• 4:43:48
  eyes that can't always look sensible. Now, Davy, boy, take heart
• 4:43:52
  of grace. Tomorrow will bring another day, and I'll help you with the
• 4:43:55
  sums as far as in me. Lies, don't waste this lovely hour too
• 4:43:59
  slight and dark worrying over arithmetic. Well, I won't, said Davy,
• 4:44:03
  brightening up. If you help me with the suns, I'll have him done
• 4:44:06
  in time to go fishing with Milty. I wish Old aunt Atossa's funeral was
• 4:44:08
  tomorrow instead of to day. I wanted to go to it cause Milty said
• 4:44:11
  his mother said Aunt Atassa would be sure to rise up in her coffin and
• 4:44:15
  say sarcastic things to the folks that come to see or buried. But Marilla
• 4:44:18
  said she didn't. Poor Atossa laid in her coffin peaceful enough, said missus
• 4:44:22
  Lynde solemnly. I never saw her look so pleasant before. That's what.
• 4:44:26
  Well, there weren't many tears shed over her, poor old soul. The
• 4:44:30
  Elijah writes, are thankful to be rid of her, And I can't say
• 4:44:33
  I blame them a mite. It seems to me a most dreadful thing to
• 4:44:37
  go out of the world and not leave one person behind you who was sorry
• 4:44:40
  you were gone, said Anne, shuddering. Nobody except her parents ever loved
• 4:44:44
  poor Atossa, that's certain. Not even her husband, aferred missus Lynde.
• 4:44:48
  She was his fourth wife. He'd sort of got into the habit of marrying.
• 4:44:51
  He only lived a few years after he married her. The doctor said
• 4:44:53
  he died of dyspepsia, but I shall always maintain that he died of Atossa's
• 4:44:57
  tongue. That's what. Poor so she always knew everything about her neighbors,
• 4:45:02
  but she never was very well acquainted with herself. Well, she's gone anyhow,
• 4:45:06
  and I suppose the next excitement will be Diana's wedding. It seems funny
• 4:45:10
  and horrible to think of Diana's being married, sighed Anne, hugging her knees
• 4:45:14
  and looking through the gap in the haunted wood to the light that was shining
• 4:45:17
  in Diana's room. I don't see what's horrible about it when she's doing so
• 4:45:21
  well, said missus Lynde emphatically. Fred Wright has a fine farm, and
• 4:45:23
  he is a model young man. He certainly isn't the wild, dashing,
• 4:45:27
  wicked young man Diana once wanted to marry, smiled Anne. Fred is extremely
• 4:45:33
  good. That's just what he ought to be. Would you want Diana to
• 4:45:36
  marry a wicked man or marry one yourself? Oh no, I wouldn't want
• 4:45:41
  to marry anybody who was wicked, but I think i'd like it if he
• 4:45:44
  could be wicked, and wouldn't Now Fred is hopelessly good. You'll have more
• 4:45:48
  sense some day, I hope, said Marilla. Marilla spoke rather bitterly.
• 4:45:53
  She was grievously disappointed. She knew Anne had refused Gilbert Blythe Avonlea gossip buzzed
• 4:46:00
  for the fact, which had leaked out. Nobody knew how. Perhaps Charlie
• 4:46:03
  Sloane had guessed and told his guesses for truth. Perhaps Diana had betrayed it
• 4:46:07
  to Fred, and Fred had been indiscreet at all events. It was known
• 4:46:11
  Missus blythe no longer asked Anne in public or private if she had heard lately
• 4:46:15
  from Gilbert, but passed her by with a frosty bow. Anne, who
• 4:46:19
  had always liked Gilbert's merry, young hearted mother, was grieved in secret over
• 4:46:23
  this. Marilla said nothing, but missus Lynde gave Anne many exasperated digs about
• 4:46:29
  it, until fresh gossip reached that worthy lady, through the medium of Moody
• 4:46:33
  Spurgeon mac Pherson's mother, that Anne had another beau at college who was rich
• 4:46:37
  and handsome and good all in one. After that, missus Rachel held her
• 4:46:41
  tongue, though she still wished in her inmost heart that Anne had accepted Gilbert
• 4:46:45
  riches were all very well, but even missus Rachel, practical soulough she was,
• 4:46:49
  did not consider them the one essential. If Anne liked the handsome unknown
• 4:46:53
  better than Gilbert, there was nothing more to be said, but missus Rachel
• 4:46:57
  was dreadfully afraid that Anne was going to make the mistake of marrying for money.
• 4:47:02
  Marilla knew Anne too well to fear this, but she felt that something
• 4:47:06
  in the universal scheme of things had gone sadly awry. What is to be
• 4:47:10
  will be, said missus Rachel gloomily, and what isn't to be happened?
• 4:47:14
  Sometimes I can't help believing it's going to happen in Anne's case, if Providence
• 4:47:18
  doesn't interfere. That's what Missus Rachel sighed. She was afraid Providence wouldn't interfere,
• 4:47:22
  and she didn't dare to. Anne had wandered down to the Dryad's bubble
• 4:47:27
  and was curled up among the ferns at the root of the big white birch,
• 4:47:30
  where she and Gilbert had so often sat in somers gone by. He
• 4:47:34
  had gone into the newspaper office again when college closed, and Avonlea seemed very
• 4:47:38
  dull without him. He never wrote to her, and Anne missed the letters
• 4:47:42
  that never came. To be sure, Roy wrote twice a week. His
• 4:47:45
  letters were exquisite compositions, which would have read beautifully in a memoir or biography.
• 4:47:51
  Anne felt herself more deeply in love with him than ever when she read
• 4:47:53
  them, but her heart never gave the queer quick, painful bound at sight
• 4:47:57
  of his letters, which it had given one day, when missus Hiram Sloane
• 4:48:00
  had handed her out an envelope dressed in Gilbert's black upright handwriting, Anne had
• 4:48:06
  hurried home to the East gable and opened it eagerly to find a typewritten copy
• 4:48:10
  of some college society report. Only that, and nothing more. Anne flung
• 4:48:15
  the harmless screed across her room and sat down to write an especially nice epistle
• 4:48:18
  to Roy. Diana was to be married in five more days. The Gray
• 4:48:23
  House at Orchard Slope was in a turmoil of baking and brewing and boiling and
• 4:48:27
  stewing, for there was to be a big, old timey wedding. Anne
• 4:48:32
  of course, was to be bride'smaid, as had been arranged when they were
• 4:48:34
  twelve years old, and Gilbert was coming home from Kingsport to be best man.
• 4:48:38
  Anne was enjoying the excitement of the various preparations, but under it all
• 4:48:42
  she carried a little heartache. She was, in a sense losing her dear
• 4:48:47
  old chum. Diana's new home would be two miles from Green Gables, and
• 4:48:51
  the old constant companionship could never be theirs again. Anne looked up at Diana's
• 4:48:56
  light and thought how it had beaten to her for many years, but soon
• 4:49:00
  it would shine through the summer twilights no more. Two big, painful tears
• 4:49:03
  welled up in her gray eyes. Oh, she thought, how horrible it
• 4:49:08
  is that people have to grow up and marry and change. End of Chapter
• 4:49:15
  twenty eight All Chapter twenty nine Diana's wedding. After all, the only real
• 4:49:21
  roses are the pink ones, said Anne as she tied white ribbon around Diana's
• 4:49:25
  bouquet in the westward, looking gable at Orchard Slope. They are the flowers
• 4:49:29
  of love and faith. Diana was standing nervously in the middle of the room,
• 4:49:33
  arrayed in her bridal white, her black curls frosted over with the film
• 4:49:37
  of her wedding veil. Anne had draped that veil in accordance with the sentimental
• 4:49:41
  compact of years before. It's all pretty much as I used to imagine it
• 4:49:45
  long ago, when I wept over your inevitable marriage and our consequent parting,
• 4:49:49
  she laughed. You are the bride of my dreams, Diana with the lovely
• 4:49:53
  misty veil, and I am your bridesmaid. But alas, I haven't the
• 4:49:57
  puffed sleeves, though these short lace ones are even prettier. Neither is my
• 4:50:03
  heart wholly breaking, nor do I exactly hate Fred. We're not really parting,
• 4:50:07
  Anne, protested Diana. I'm not going far away. We'll love each
• 4:50:11
  other just as much as ever. We've always kept that oath of friendship we
• 4:50:15
  swore long ago, haven't we. Yes, we've kept it faithfully. We've
• 4:50:18
  had a beautiful friendship, Diana. We've never marred it by one quarrel or
• 4:50:22
  coolness or unkind word, and I hope it will always be so. But
• 4:50:26
  things can't be quite the same after this. You'll have other interests. I'll
• 4:50:32
  just be on the outside. That's such his life, as Missus Rachel says.
• 4:50:34
  Missus Rachel has given you one of her beloved knitted quilts of the tobacco
• 4:50:38
  stripe pattern, and she says when I'm married, she'll give me one too.
• 4:50:42
  The mean thing about your getting married is that I won't be able to
• 4:50:45
  be your bridesmaid, lamented Diana. I'm to be Phil's bridesmaid next June when
• 4:50:49
  she marries mister Blake, and then I must stop for you know, the
• 4:50:52
  proverb three times a bridesmaid, never a bride, said Anne, peeping through
• 4:50:56
  the window over the pink and snow of the blossoming orchard beneath. Here comes
• 4:51:00
  the minister, Diana. Oh Anne, gasped Diana, suddenly turning very pale
• 4:51:06
  and beginning to tremble. Oh Anne, I'm so nervous. I can't go
• 4:51:08
  through with it. Anne, I know I'm going to faint. If you
• 4:51:11
  do, I'll drag you down to the rainwater honshead and drop you in,
• 4:51:15
  said Anne, unsympathetically. Cheer up, dearest, Getting married can't be so
• 4:51:18
  very terrible when so many people survive the ceremony. See how cool and composed
• 4:51:22
  I am, and take courage. Wait till your turn comes, miss Anne.
• 4:51:26
  Oh Anne, I hear father coming upstairs. Give me my bouquet?
• 4:51:30
  Is my veil? Right? Am? I very pale? You look just
• 4:51:33
  lovely, Die darling, kiss me good bye for the last time. Diana
• 4:51:37
  Barry will never kiss me again. Diana Wright will, though there mother's calling
• 4:51:41
  come. Following the simple old fashioned way in Vogue. Then Anne went down
• 4:51:48
  to the parlor on Gilbert's arm. They met at the top of the stairs
• 4:51:51
  for the first time since they had left Kingsport, for Gilbert had arrived only
• 4:51:53
  that day. Gilbert shook hands courteously. He was looking very well, though,
• 4:51:59
  as Anne an instantly noted, rather thin. He was not pale.
• 4:52:03
  There was a flush on his cheek that had burned into it as Anne came
• 4:52:06
  along the hall towards him in her soft white dress with lilies of the valley
• 4:52:10
  and the shining masses of her hair. As they entered the crowded parlor together,
• 4:52:14
  a little murmur of admiration ran around the room. What a fine looking
• 4:52:18
  pair they are, whispered the impressible Missus Rachel to Marilla. Fred ambled in
• 4:52:22
  alone with a very red face, and then Diana swept in on her father's
• 4:52:26
  arm. She did not faint, and nothing untoward occurred to interrupt the ceremony.
• 4:52:32
  Feasting and merry making followed. Then, as the evening waned, Fred
• 4:52:34
  and Diana drove away through the moonlight to their new home, and Gilbert walked
• 4:52:38
  with Anne to Green Gables. Something of their old comradeship had returned during the
• 4:52:44
  informal mirth of the evening. Oh, it was nice to be walking over
• 4:52:47
  that well known road with Gilbert again. The night was so very still that
• 4:52:52
  one should have been able to hear the whisper of roses in blossom, the
• 4:52:55
  laughter of daisies, the piping of grasses, many sweet sounds, all tangled
• 4:53:00
  up together. The beauty of moonlight on familiar fields irradiated the world. Can't
• 4:53:07
  we take a ramble up Lover's Lane before you go in? Asked Gilbert as
• 4:53:10
  they crossed the bridge over the Lake of Shining Waters, in which the moon
• 4:53:12
  lay like a great drowned blossom of gold. Anne assented readily. Lover's Lane
• 4:53:18
  was a veritable path in a fairy land that night, a shimmering, mysterious
• 4:53:22
  place full of wizardry in the white, woven enchantment of moonlight. There had
• 4:53:26
  been a time when such a walk with Gilbert through Lover's Lane would have been
• 4:53:30
  far too dangerous, but Roy and Christine had made it very safe. Now.
• 4:53:34
  Anne found herself thinking a good deal about Christine as she chatted lightly to
• 4:53:37
  Gilbert. She had met her several times before leaving Kingsport and had been charmingly
• 4:53:42
  sweet to her. Christine had also been charmingly sweet. Indeed, there were
• 4:53:47
  a most cordial pair. But for all that their acquaintance had not ripened into
• 4:53:51
  friendship. Evidently Christine was not a kindred spirit. Are you going to be
• 4:53:56
  in Avonlea all summer? Asked Gilbert. No, I'm going down east to
• 4:53:59
  Valley next week. Esther Haythorne wants me to teach for her through July and
• 4:54:03
  August. They have a summer term in that school, and Esther isn't feeling
• 4:54:07
  well, so I'm going to substitute for her in one way. I don't
• 4:54:10
  mind, do you know? I'm beginning to feel a little bit like a
• 4:54:14
  stranger in Avonlea. Now. It makes me sorry, but it's true.
• 4:54:17
  It's quite appalling to see the number of children who have shot up into big
• 4:54:21
  boys and girls, really young men and women these past two years. Half
• 4:54:25
  of my pupils are grown up. It makes me feel awfully old to see
• 4:54:29
  them in the places you and I are our mates used to fill. Anne
• 4:54:33
  laughed and sighed. She felt very old and mature and wise, which showed
• 4:54:37
  how young she was. She told herself that she longed greatly to go back
• 4:54:41
  to those dear, merry days when life was seen through a rosy mist of
• 4:54:45
  hope and illusion, and possessed an indefinable, something that had passed away forever.
• 4:54:49
  Where was it now? The glory and the dream so wags the world
• 4:54:53
  away, quoted Gilbert, practically and a trifle absently. Anne wondered if he
• 4:54:57
  were thinking of Christine oh Avonlea was going to be so lonely now with Diana
• 4:55:03
  gone? End of chapter twenty nine all late chapter thirty Missus Skinner's Romance.
• 4:55:11
  Anne stepped off the train at Valley Road station and looked about to see if
• 4:55:15
  any one had come to meet her. She was to board with a certain
• 4:55:17
  mis Janet's Sweet, but she saw no one who answered. In the least
• 4:55:19
  to her preconception of that lady as formed from Esther's letter. The only person
• 4:55:25
  inside was an elderly woman sitting in a wagon with mail bags piled around her.
• 4:55:30
  Two hundred would have been a charitable guess at her weight. Her face
• 4:55:33
  was as round and red as a harvest moon, and almost as featureless.
• 4:55:37
  She wore a tight black cashmere dress made in the fashion of ten years ago,
• 4:55:41
  a little dusty black straw hat trimmed with bows of yellow ribbon and faded
• 4:55:45
  black lace mids. Here you, she called, waving her whip at Anne.
• 4:55:49
  Are you the new Valley Roads school, ma'am? Yes, well,
• 4:55:53
  I thought so. Valley Road is noted for its good looking school, ma'ams,
• 4:55:56
  just as Millersville is noted for its humly ones. Janet Sweet asked me
• 4:56:00
  this morning if I could bring you out. I said, certain, I
• 4:56:03
  kin, if she don't mind bein' scrunched up some this rig o. Mine's
• 4:56:07
  kind or small for the mail bags, and I'm some heftier than Thomas.
• 4:56:11
  Just wait, miss till I shift these bags a bit and I'll tuck you
• 4:56:12
  in somehow. It's only two miles to Janet's, her next door neighbor's hired
• 4:56:17
  boy's comin for your trunk to night. My name is Skinner, Amelia Skinner.
• 4:56:21
  Anne was eventually tucked in, exchanging amused smiles with herself during the process.
• 4:56:26
  Jog Along black Mare commanded missus Skinner, gathering up the reins in her
• 4:56:30
  pudgy hands. This is my first trip on the mail route. Thomas wanted
• 4:56:33
  to hoe his turnips to day, so we asked me to come. So
• 4:56:37
  I just sat down and took a standin up snack and started. I sort
• 4:56:40
  of like it. O course, it's rattegious. Part of the time I
• 4:56:42
  sits an things an the rest I just sits jog Along black Mare. I
• 4:56:47
  want to get home airily. Thomas is terrible lonesome when I'm away. You
• 4:56:49
  see, we haven't been married very long, oh, said Anne politely,
• 4:56:53
  just a month. Thomas courted me for quite a spell. Though it was
• 4:56:57
  real romantic. Anne to picture missus Skinner on speaking terms with romance and failed.
• 4:57:03
  Oh she said again, Yes, you see, there was another man
• 4:57:07
  after me. Jog Along black Mare. I'd been a witter so long,
• 4:57:10
  folks had given up expecting me to marry again. But when my daughter,
• 4:57:14
  she's a schoolmam like you, went out west to teach, I felt real
• 4:57:17
  lonesome. There wasn't no why sot against the idea. By and by Thomas
• 4:57:21
  began to come up, and so did the other feller, William Obadiah Seaman
• 4:57:23
  his name was. For a long time, I couldn't make up my mind
• 4:57:27
  which of them to take, and they kept coming and coming, and I
• 4:57:30
  kept worrying. You see, w O was rich, he had a fine
• 4:57:33
  place and carried considerable style. It was by far the best match. Jog
• 4:57:37
  Along black Mare. Why didn't you marry him, asked Anne. Well,
• 4:57:41
  ye see, he didn't love me, answered missus Skinner solemnly. Anne opened
• 4:57:47
  her eyes widely and looked at missus Skinner, but there was not a glint
• 4:57:49
  of humor on that lady's face. Evidently missus Skinner saw nothing amusing in her
• 4:57:53
  own case. He'd been a wider ma'm for three years and his sister kept
• 4:57:57
  house for him. Then she got married and he just wanted someone to look
• 4:58:00
  after his house. It was worth lookin after too, mind you that it's
• 4:58:04
  a handsome house, jog along black Mare. As for Thomas, he was
• 4:58:07
  poor and if his house didn't leak in dry weather, it was about all
• 4:58:11
  that could be said for it. Though it looks kind of picturesque. But
• 4:58:15
  you see, I love Thomas and I didn't care one red scent for w
• 4:58:18
  O. So I argued it out with myself. Sarah Crow, say I
• 4:58:22
  my first was a crow. You can marry your rich man if you like,
• 4:58:25
  but you won't be happy. Folks can't get along together in this world
• 4:58:29
  without a bit of love. You'd just better tie up to Thomas, for
• 4:58:32
  he loves you when you love him, and nothing else inkin to do You
• 4:58:34
  jog along black Mare. So I told Thomas I'd take him. All the
• 4:58:38
  time I was getting ready, I never dared drive past w O's place for
• 4:58:41
  fear the sight of that fine house of his would put me back in the
• 4:58:45
  swers again. But now I never think of it at all, and I'm
• 4:58:48
  just that comfortable and happy with Thomas. Jog Along black Mare. How did
• 4:58:52
  Willie Mobediah take it, queried Anne. Oh, he rumpus a bid.
• 4:58:56
  But he's going to see a skinny old maid in Miller'sville now, and I
• 4:58:59
  guess she'll take him fast enough. She'll make him a better wife than his
• 4:59:02
  first did. W O never wanted to marry her. He just asked her
• 4:59:06
  to marry him cause his father wanted him to. Never dreaming but that she'd
• 4:59:07
  say no. But mind you, she said yes, there was a predicament
• 4:59:11
  for you. Jog along black Mare. She was a great housekeeper, but
• 4:59:15
  most awful mean. She wore the same bonnet for eighteen years, then she
• 4:59:18
  got a new one, and w O met her on the road and didn't
• 4:59:22
  know her. Jog Along black Mare. I feel that I'd a narrow escape.
• 4:59:26
  I might have married him and been most awful, miserable like my poor
• 4:59:29
  cousin Jane Anne. Jane Anne married a rich man she didn't care anything about,
• 4:59:33
  and she hasn't the life of a dog. She come to see me
• 4:59:36
  last week and says, says she Sarah Skinner, I envy you. I'd
• 4:59:40
  rather live in a little hut on the side of the road with a man
• 4:59:41
  I was fond of, than in my big house with the one I've got.
• 4:59:45
  Jane Anne's man ain't such a bad sort another though, he's so contrary
• 4:59:49
  that he wears his fur coat when the thermometer's at ninety. The only way
• 4:59:52
  to get him to do anything is to coax him to do the opposite.
• 4:59:56
  But there ain't any love to smooth things down, and it's a poor way
• 4:59:59
  o living. Jog along black Mare. There's Janet's place in the hollow wayside.
• 5:00:03
  She calls it quite picturesque, ain't it. I guess you'll be glad
• 5:00:07
  to get out of this with all them mail bags jamming round you. Yes,
• 5:00:11
  but I've enjoyed my drive with you very much, said Anne. Sincerely.
• 5:00:14
  Get away now, said missus Skinner, highly flattered. Wait till I
• 5:00:17
  tell Poma's dad. He always feels dreadful tickled when I get a compliment jog
• 5:00:21
  along black Mare, Well, here we are. I hope you'll get on
• 5:00:25
  well in the school. Miss. There's a short cut to it through the
• 5:00:26
  marsh back at Janet's. If you'd take that way, be awful, careful.
• 5:00:30
  If you once got stuck in that black mud, you'd be sucked right
• 5:00:33
  down and never seen or heard tell of again till the day of judgment,
• 5:00:37
  Like Adam Palmer's cow jog along Black Mare, end of chapter thirty Chapter thirty
• 5:00:44
  one, and to Philippa Anne Shirley to Philip A. Gordon, greeting,
• 5:00:49
  well beloved, it's high time I was riding you Here am I installed once
• 5:00:53
  more as a country school, ma'am at Valley road Boarding at Wayside, the
• 5:00:57
  home of Miss Janet. Sweet Jannet is a dear soul and very nice looking,
• 5:01:02
  tall but not over tall, stoutish, yet with a certain restraint of
• 5:01:06
  outlines, suggestive of a thrifty soul who is not going to be over lavish,
• 5:01:08
  even in the matter of Avar du poins. She has a knot of
• 5:01:11
  soft, crimpy brown hair with a thread of gray in it, a sunny
• 5:01:15
  face with rosy cheeks, and big kind eyes as blue as forget me nots.
• 5:01:21
  Moreover, she is one of those delightful old fashioned cooks who don't care
• 5:01:23
  a bit if they ruin your digestion as long as they can give you feasts
• 5:01:27
  of fat things. I like her, and she likes me, principally,
• 5:01:30
  it seems, because she had a sister named Anne who died young. I'm
• 5:01:34
  real glad to see you, she said briskly when I landed in her yard.
• 5:01:37
  My you don't look a mite like I expected. I was sure you'd
• 5:01:41
  be dark. My sister Anne was dark, and here you are redheaded.
• 5:01:45
  For a few minutes, I thought I wasn't going to like Janet as much
• 5:01:47
  as I had expected at first sight. Then I reminded myself that I really
• 5:01:51
  must be more sensible than to be prejudiced against any one simply because she called
• 5:01:55
  my hair red. Probably the word auburn was not in Janet's vocabulary at all.
• 5:02:00
  Wayside is a dear sort of little spot. The house is small and
• 5:02:03
  white, set down in a delightful little hollow that drops away from the road.
• 5:02:07
  Between road and houses, an orchard and flower garden all mixed up together.
• 5:02:11
  The front door walk is bordered with co hoog clam shells cow hawks,
• 5:02:15
  Janet calls them. There is Virginia creeper over the porch, and moss on
• 5:02:18
  the roof my room. Is a neat little spot off the parlor, just
• 5:02:22
  big enough for the bed and me. Over the head of my bed there
• 5:02:26
  is a picture of Robbie Burne standing at Highland Mary's grave, shadowed by an
• 5:02:30
  enormous weeping willow tree. Robert's face is so lugubrious that it is no wonder
• 5:02:34
  I have had bad dreams. Why the first night I was here I dreamed
• 5:02:37
  I couldn't laugh. The parlor is tiny and neat. Its one window is
• 5:02:42
  so shaded by a huge willow that the room has a grotto like effect of
• 5:02:45
  emerald gloom. There are wonderful tidies on the chairs, and gay mats on
• 5:02:51
  the floor, and books and cards carefully arranged in a round table, and
• 5:02:55
  vases of dried grass. On the mantelpiece. Between the vases is a cheerful
• 5:02:59
  decoration of preserved coffin plates pertaining respectively to Janet's father and mother, a brother,
• 5:03:03
  her sister Anne, and a hired man who died here once. If
• 5:03:07
  I go suddenly insane. Some of these days know all men by these presents
• 5:03:11
  that those coffin plates have caused it. But it's all delightful, And I
• 5:03:15
  said so. Janet loved me for it, just as she detested poor Esther,
• 5:03:18
  because Esther had said so much shade was unhygienic and had objected to sleeping
• 5:03:22
  on a feather bed. Now I glory in feather beds, and the more
• 5:03:26
  unhygienic and feathery they are, the more I glory. Janet says, it
• 5:03:30
  is a comfort to see me eat. She had been so afraid I would
• 5:03:33
  be like miss Haythorn, who wouldn't eat anything but fruit and hot water for
• 5:03:36
  breakfast. And try to make Janet give up frying things. Esther is really
• 5:03:40
  a dear girl, but she is rather given to fads. The trouble is
• 5:03:42
  that she hasn't enough imagination and has a tendency to intergestion. Janet told me
• 5:03:48
  I could have the use of the parlor when any young men called. I
• 5:03:52
  don't think there are many two call. I haven't seen a young man in
• 5:03:55
  Valley Road yet except the next door, a hired boy, Sam Tolliver,
• 5:03:59
  a very tall, lank, tow haired youth. He came over one evening
• 5:04:03
  recently and sat for an hour on the garden fence near the front porch where
• 5:04:06
  Janet and I were doing fancy work. The only remarks he volunteered in all
• 5:04:10
  that time were have a peppermint, miss do now, fine thing for cattar
• 5:04:14
  peppermints, and powerful lot of jump grasses round here to night. Yep,
• 5:04:18
  but there is a love affair going on here. It seems to be my
• 5:04:22
  fortune to be mixed up more or less actively with elderly love affairs. Mister
• 5:04:26
  and Missus Irving always say that I brought about their marriage. Missus Stephen Clark
• 5:04:30
  of Carmody persists in being most grateful to me for a suggestion which somebody else
• 5:04:33
  would probably have made if I hadn't. I do really think, though,
• 5:04:37
  that Ludovic Speed would never have got any further along than placid courtship if I
• 5:04:41
  had not helped him at Theodora Dix Ound. In the present affair, I
• 5:04:45
  am only a passive spectator. I've tried once to help things along and made
• 5:04:48
  an awful mess of it, so I shall not meddle again. I'll tell
• 5:04:52
  you all about it when we meet. End of chapter thirty one and chapter
• 5:04:56
  thirty two Tea with Missus Douglas. On the first Thursday night of Anne's sojourn
• 5:05:02
  and Valley Road, Janet asked her to go to prayer meeting. Janet blossomed
• 5:05:07
  out like a rose. To attend that prayer meeting. She wore a pale
• 5:05:10
  blue, pansy sprinkled muslin dress with more ruffles than one would ever have supposed
• 5:05:15
  economical Janet could be guilty of, and a white leghorn hat with pink roses
• 5:05:19
  and three ostrich feathers on it. Anne felt quite amazed. Later on,
• 5:05:23
  she found out Janet's motive in so arraying herself, a motive as old as
• 5:05:27
  Eden. Valley Road prayer meetings seemed to be essentially feminine. There were thirty
• 5:05:33
  two women present, two half grown boys, and one solitary man. Beside
• 5:05:37
  the minister. Anne found herself studying this man. He was not handsome,
• 5:05:42
  or young, or graceful. He had remarkably long legs, so long that
• 5:05:48
  he had to keep them coiled up under his chair to dispose of them,
• 5:05:51
  and he was stoop shouldered. His hands were big, his hair wanted barbering,
• 5:05:56
  and his mustache was unkempt, but Anne thought she liked his face.
• 5:06:00
  It was kind and honest and tender. There was something else in it,
• 5:06:03
  too, just what Anne found it hard to define. She finally concluded that
• 5:06:08
  this man had suffered and been strong, and it had been made manifest in
• 5:06:12
  his face. There was a sort of patient, humorous endurance in his expression,
• 5:06:18
  which indicated that he would go to the stake if need be, but
• 5:06:21
  would keep on looking pleasant until he really had to begin squirming. When prayer
• 5:06:26
  meeting was over, this man came up to Janet and said, may I
• 5:06:29
  see you home, Janet. Janet took his arm as primly and shyly as
• 5:06:33
  if she were no more than sixteen. Having her first escort home, Anne
• 5:06:37
  told the girls at Patty's place later on, Miss Shirley, permit me to
• 5:06:41
  introduce mister Douglas, she said, stiffly. Mister Douglas nodded and said,
• 5:06:45
  I was looking at you in prayer meeting, Miss, and thinking what a
• 5:06:48
  nice little girl you were. Such a speech from ninety nine people out of
• 5:06:52
  a hundred would have annoyed Anne bitterly, but the way in which mister Douglas
• 5:06:56
  said it made her feel that she had received a very real and please compliment.
• 5:07:00
  She smiled appreciatively at him and dropped obligingly behind on the moonlit road.
• 5:07:06
  So Janet had a bow. Anne was delighted. Janet would make a paragon
• 5:07:11
  of a wife, cheery, economical, tolerant, and a very queen of
• 5:07:15
  cooks. It would be a flagrant waste on nature's part to keep her a
• 5:07:18
  permanent old maid. John Douglas asked me to take you up to see his
• 5:07:22
  mother, said Janet the next day. She's bedrid a lot of the time
• 5:07:25
  and never goes out of the house, but she's powerful, fond of company,
• 5:07:29
  and always wants to see my boarders. Can you go up this evening?
• 5:07:32
  Anne assented, but later in the day mister Douglas called on his mother's
• 5:07:36
  behalf to invite them up to tea on Saturday evening. Oh why didn't you
• 5:07:40
  put on your pretty pansy dress, asked Anne when they left home. It
• 5:07:42
  was a hot day, and poor Janet, between her excitement and her heavy
• 5:07:47
  black cashmere dress, looked as if she were being broiled alive. Old missus
• 5:07:51
  Douglas would think it terrible, frivolous and unsuitable. I'm afraid John likes that
• 5:07:56
  dress, though, she added wistfully. The old Douglas homes that was half
• 5:08:00
  a mile from wayside, cresting a windy hill. The house itself was large
• 5:08:03
  and comfortable, old enough to be dignified, and girdled with maple groves and
• 5:08:07
  orchards. There were big trim barns behind it, and everything bespoke prosperity.
• 5:08:14
  Whatever the patient endurance in mister Douglas's face had meant, it hadn't, so,
• 5:08:18
  Anne reflected, meant debts and duns. John Douglas met them at the
• 5:08:22
  door and took them into the sitting room, where his mother was enthroned in
• 5:08:25
  an armchair. Anne had expected old missus Douglas to be tall and thin,
• 5:08:30
  because mister Douglas was. Instead. She was a tiny scrap of a woman
• 5:08:33
  with soft pink cheeks, mild blue eyes, and a mouth like a baby's.
• 5:08:37
  Dressed in a beautiful, fashionably made black silk dress with a fluffy white
• 5:08:41
  shawl over her shoulders, and her snowy hair surmounted by a dainty lace cap.
• 5:08:47
  She might have posed as a grandmother doll. How do you do,
• 5:08:49
  Janet, dear, she said sweetly. I am so glad to see you
• 5:08:52
  again, dear. She put up her pretty old face to be kissed.
• 5:08:56
  And this is our new teacher. I am delighted to meet you. My
• 5:09:00
  son has been singing your praises until I am half jealous, and I'm sure
• 5:09:03
  Janet ought to be wholly so poor Janet blushed. Anne said something polite and
• 5:09:07
  conventional, and then everybody sat down and made talk. It was hard work,
• 5:09:12
  even for Anne, for nobody seemed at ease, except old missus Douglas,
• 5:09:15
  who certainly did not find any difficulty in talking. She made Janet sit
• 5:09:19
  by her and stroked her hand occasionally. Janet sat and smiled, looking horribly
• 5:09:25
  uncomfortable in her hideous dress, and John Douglas sat without smiling. At the
• 5:09:30
  tea table. Missus Douglas gracefully asked Janet to pour the tea. Janet turned
• 5:09:34
  redder than ever, but did it. Anne wrote a description of that meal
• 5:09:37
  to Stella. We had cold tongue and chicken and strawberry preserves, lemon pie,
• 5:09:42
  and tarts, and chocolate cake and raisin cookies and pound cake and fruit
• 5:09:47
  cake, and a few other things, including more pie caramel pie. I
• 5:09:51
  think it was after I had eaten twice as much as was good for me.
• 5:09:55
  Missus Douglas sighed and said she feared she had nothing to tempt my appetite.
• 5:09:59
  I'm afraid dear Janet's cooking has spoiled you for any other, she said
• 5:10:02
  sweetly. Of course, nobody in Valley Road aspires to rival her. Won't
• 5:10:07
  you have another piece of pie? Miss Shirley, you haven't eaten anything,
• 5:10:10
  Stella. I had eaten a helping of tongue and one of chicken, three
• 5:10:14
  biscuits, a generous allowance of preserves, a piece of pie, a tart,
• 5:10:18
  and a square of chocolate cake after tea. Missus Douglas smiled benevolently and
• 5:10:22
  told John to take dear Janet out into the garden and get her some roses.
• 5:10:26
  Miss Shirley will keep me company while you are out, won't you,
• 5:10:29
  she said plaintively. She settled down in her arm chair with a sigh.
• 5:10:33
  I am a very frail old woman, Miss Shirley. For over twenty years,
• 5:10:37
  I've been a great sufferer for twenty long, weary years. I've been
• 5:10:41
  dying by inches. How painful, said Anne, trying to be sympathetic and
• 5:10:47
  succeeding only in feeling idiotic. There have been scores of nights when they thought
• 5:10:52
  I could never live to see the dawn went on, missus Douglas solemnly.
• 5:10:56
  Nobody knows what I've gone through. Nobody can know but myself. Well,
• 5:11:00
  it can't last very much longer. Now, my weary pilgrimage will soon be
• 5:11:04
  over, Miss Shirley. It is a great comfort to me that John will
• 5:11:07
  have such a good wife to look after him when his mother is gone.
• 5:11:11
  A great comfort, Miss Shirley. Janet is a lovely woman, said Anne
• 5:11:15
  warmly. Lovely, a beautiful character, assented missus Douglas, and a perfect
• 5:11:21
  housekeeper, something I never was. My health would not permit it, Miss
• 5:11:25
  Shirley. I am indeed thankful that John has made such a wise choice.
• 5:11:30
  I hope and believe that he will be happy. He is my only son,
• 5:11:33
  Miss Shirley, and his happiness lies very near my heart. Of course,
• 5:11:37
  said Anne stupidly. For the first time in her life, she was
• 5:11:41
  stupid, yet she could not imagine why she seemed to have absolutely nothing to
• 5:11:45
  say to this sweet, smiling, angelic old lady who was patting her hand
• 5:11:48
  so kindly. Come and see me soon again, Dear Janet, said missus
• 5:11:52
  Douglas lovingly when they left. You don't come half often enough, But then
• 5:11:56
  I suppose John will be bringing you here to stay all the time one of
• 5:12:00
  these days, Anne, happening to glance at John Douglas as his mother spoke,
• 5:12:04
  gave a positive start of dismay. He looked as a tortured man might
• 5:12:08
  look. When his tormentors gave the rack the last turn of possible endurance.
• 5:12:14
  She felt sure he must be ill and hurried. Poor, blushing Janet,
• 5:12:17
  away, isn't old, missus Douglas A sweet woman, asked Janet as they
• 5:12:21
  went down the road. HM answered Anne absently. She was wondering why John
• 5:12:26
  Douglas had looked so. She's been a terrible sufferer, said Janet feelingly.
• 5:12:30
  She takes terrible spells. It keeps John all worried up. He's scared to
• 5:12:34
  leave home for fear his mother will take a spell. And nobody there but
• 5:12:37
  the hired girl. End of chapter thirty two, Chapter thirty three. He
• 5:12:44
  just kept coming and coming. Three days later, Anne came home from school
• 5:12:49
  and found Janet crying tears, and Janet seemed so incongruous that Anne was honestly
• 5:12:55
  alarmed. Oh, What is the matter, she cried anxiously. I'm I'm
• 5:13:00
  today, sobbed Janet. Well you were nearly that yesterday and it didn't hurt,
• 5:13:04
  comforted Anne, trying not to smile, but but went on Janet with
• 5:13:10
  a big gulp. John Douglas won't ask me to marry him. Oh but
• 5:13:14
  he will, said Anne lamely. You must give him time, Janet,
• 5:13:18
  Time, said Janet with indescribable scorn. He has had twenty years. How
• 5:13:22
  much time does he want? Do you mean that John Douglas has been coming
• 5:13:26
  to see you for twenty years? He has, and he has never so
• 5:13:30
  much as mentioned marriage to me, and I don't believe he ever will.
• 5:13:34
  Now. I've never said a word to a mortal about it, but it
• 5:13:38
  seems to me I've just got to talk it out with someone at last,
• 5:13:41
  or go crazy. John Douglas begun to go with me twenty years ago,
• 5:13:45
  before mother died. Well, he kept coming and coming, and after a
• 5:13:48
  spell I begun making quilts and things. But he never said anything about getting
• 5:13:52
  married, only just kept coming and coming. There wasn't anything I could do.
• 5:13:57
  Mother died. When we've been going together for a year. I thought
• 5:14:00
  maybe he would speak out then, seeing as I was left alone in the
• 5:14:03
  world. He was real kind and feeling and did everything he could for me.
• 5:14:07
  But he never said Mary. And that's the way it has been going
• 5:14:10
  on ever since. People blame me for it. They say I won't marry
• 5:14:14
  him because his mother is so sickly, and I don't want the bother of
• 5:14:17
  waiting on her. Why I'd love to wait on John's mother, But I
• 5:14:19
  let them think so. I'd rather they blame me than pity me. It's
• 5:14:23
  so dreadful, humiliating that John won't ask me, and why won't he seems
• 5:14:29
  to me if I only knew his reason, I wouldn't mind it so much.
• 5:14:32
  Perhaps his mother doesn't want him to marry anybody, suggested Anne. Oh
• 5:14:36
  she does. She told me time and again that she'd love to see John
• 5:14:38
  settle before her time comes. She's always giving him hints. You heard her
• 5:14:42
  yourself the other day. I thought i'd a gone through the floor. It's
• 5:14:47
  beyond me, said Anne helplessly. She thought of Ludovic's speed, but the
• 5:14:51
  cases were not parallel. John Douglas was not a man of Ludovic's type.
• 5:14:56
  You should show more spirit, Janet, She went on, resolutely. Why
• 5:15:00
  didn't you send him about his business long ago? I couldn't, said poor
• 5:15:03
  Janet pathetically. You see, Anne, I've always been awful fond of John.
• 5:15:07
  He might just as well keep coming as not, for there was never
• 5:15:11
  anybody else I want, so it didn't matter. But it might have made
• 5:15:15
  him speak out like a man, urged Anne. Janet shook her head.
• 5:15:18
  No, I guess not. I was afraid to try anyway for fear he'd
• 5:15:22
  think I meant it and just go. I suppose I'm a poor spirited creature,
• 5:15:26
  but that is how I feel, and I can't help it. Oh
• 5:15:30
  you could help it, Janet, it isn't too late yet. Take a
• 5:15:33
  firm stand. Let that man know you are not going to endure his shilly
• 5:15:37
  shalllying any longer. I'll back you up. I dunno, said Janet hopelessly.
• 5:15:41
  I don't know if I could ever get up enough spunk. Things have
• 5:15:45
  drifted so long. But I'll think it over. Anne felt that she was
• 5:15:49
  disappointed in John Douglas. She had liked him so well, and she had
• 5:15:53
  not thought him the sort of man who would play fast and loose with a
• 5:15:56
  woman's feelings. For twenty years he certainly should be taught a lesson, and
• 5:16:00
  Anne felt vindictively that she would enjoy seeing the process. Therefore, she was
• 5:16:04
  delighted when Janet told her, as they were going to prayer meeting the next
• 5:16:07
  night, that she meant to show some spirit. I'll let John Douglas.
• 5:16:12
  I'm not going to be trodden on any longer. You are perfectly right,
• 5:16:15
  said Anne emphatically. When prayer meeting was over, John Douglas came up with
• 5:16:19
  his usual request. Janet looked frightened but resolute. No, thank you,
• 5:16:25
  she said icily. I know the road home pretty well alone. I ought
• 5:16:27
  to seeing I've been traveling it for forty years, so you needn't trouble yourself,
• 5:16:33
  mister Douglas. Anne was looking at John Douglas, and in that brilliant
• 5:16:37
  moonlight, she saw the last twist of the rack again. Without a word,
• 5:16:41
  he turned and strode down the road. Stop stop, Anne called wildly
• 5:16:45
  after him, not caring in the least for the other dumbfounded onlookers. Mister
• 5:16:49
  Douglas, stop, come back. John Douglas stopped, but he did not
• 5:16:53
  come back. Anne flew down the road, caught his arm and fairly dragged
• 5:16:57
  him back to Janet. You must come back, she said, imploringly.
• 5:17:00
  It's all a mistake, mister Douglas, all my fault. I made Janet
• 5:17:03
  do it. She didn't want to. But it's all right now, isn't
• 5:17:07
  it Janet. Without a word, Janet took his arm and walked away.
• 5:17:11
  Anne followed the meekly home and slipped in by the back door. Well you
• 5:17:15
  are a nice person to back me up, said Janet sarcastically. I couldn't
• 5:17:19
  help it, Janet, said Anne, repentantly. I just felt as if
• 5:17:22
  I had stood by and seen murder done. I had to run after him.
• 5:17:26
  Oh, I'm just as glad you did. When I saw John Douglas
• 5:17:30
  making off down that road, I just felt as if every little bit of
• 5:17:33
  joy and happiness that was left in my life was going with him. It
• 5:17:36
  was an awful feeling. Did he ask you why you did it? Asked
• 5:17:38
  Ane. No, he never said a word about it, replied Janet Dully.
• 5:17:45
  End of chapter thirty three. Chapter thirty four, John Douglas speaks at
• 5:17:49
  last. Anne was not without a feeble hope that something might come of it
• 5:17:55
  after all, But nothing did. John Douglas came and took Janet driving and
• 5:18:00
  walked home from prayer meeting with her, as he had been doing for twenty
• 5:18:03
  years, and as he seemed likely to do for twenty years more. The
• 5:18:07
  summer waned. Anne taught her school and wrote letters and studied a little.
• 5:18:11
  Her walks to and from school were pleasant. She always went by way of
• 5:18:15
  the swamp. It was a lovely place, a boggy soil green with the
• 5:18:18
  greenest of mossy hillocks. A silvery brook meandered through it, and spruces stood
• 5:18:22
  erectly their boughs, a trail with gray green mosses, their roots overgrown with
• 5:18:27
  all sorts of woodland lovelinesses. Nevertheless, Anne found life and valley road a
• 5:18:33
  little monotonous. To be sure, there was one diverting incident. She had
• 5:18:37
  not seen the lank, tow headed Samuel of the Peppermints since the evening of
• 5:18:41
  his call, save for chance meetings on the road. But one warm August
• 5:18:45
  night he appeared and solemnly seated himself on the rustic bench by the porch.
• 5:18:51
  He wore his usual working habiliments, consisting of very patched trousers, a blue
• 5:18:55
  jean shirt out of the elbows, and a ragged straw hat he was chewing
• 5:18:59
  a stra and he kept on chewing it while he looked solemnly at Anne.
• 5:19:03
  Anne laid her book aside with a sigh and took up her doyly conversation with
• 5:19:07
  Sam was really out of the question. After a long silence, Sam suddenly
• 5:19:11
  spoke, I am living over there, he said, abruptly, waving his
• 5:19:15
  straw in the direction of the neighboring house. Oh are you, said Anne
• 5:19:19
  politely, yep, And where are you going? Now? Well, I've
• 5:19:23
  been thinkin' some o gettin a place of my own. There's one that'd suit
• 5:19:27
  me over at Millersville. But if I rents it, I'll want a woman,
• 5:19:30
  I suppose, so, said Anne vaguely. Yep. There was another
• 5:19:34
  long silence. Finally Sam removed his straw again and said, will ye have
• 5:19:40
  me? What? Gasped Anne? Will ye have me? Do you mean
• 5:19:45
  marry you? Queried poor Anne feebly. Yep, Why, I'm hardly acquainted
• 5:19:51
  with you, cried Anne, indignantly. Which you'd get acquainted with me after
• 5:19:55
  we was married, said Sam. Anne gathered up her poor dignity. Certainly
• 5:20:00
  I won't marry you, she said, haughtily. Well, you might do
• 5:20:03
  worse, expostulated Sam. I'm a good worker and I've got some money in
• 5:20:07
  the bank. Don't speak of this to me again. Whatever puts such an
• 5:20:11
  idea into your head, said Anne, her sense of humor getting the better
• 5:20:14
  of her wrath. It was such an absurd situation. You're a likely looking
• 5:20:18
  girl, and you have a right smart way steppin', said Sam. I
• 5:20:22
  don't want no lazy woman think it over. I won't change my mind yet.
• 5:20:26
  Awhile, well, I must be gettin gotta milk the cows. Anne's
• 5:20:30
  allusions concerning proposals had suffered so much of late years that there were few of
• 5:20:33
  them left, so she could laugh wholeheartedly over this one. Not feeling any
• 5:20:38
  secret sting. She mimicked poor Sam to Janet that night, and both of
• 5:20:42
  them laughed immoderately over his plunge into sentiment. One afternoon, when Anne's sojourn
• 5:20:48
  and Valley Road was drawing to a close, alec Ward came driving down to
• 5:20:52
  wayside in hot haste for Janet. They want you at the Douglas place quick,
• 5:20:56
  he said, I really believe old missus Douglas is going to die at
• 5:20:57
  last. After pretending to do it for twenty years. Janet ran to get
• 5:21:02
  her hat. Anne asked if Missus Douglas was worse than usual. She's not
• 5:21:06
  half as bad, said Alex solemnly. And that's what makes me think it
• 5:21:10
  serious. Other times she'd be screaming and throwing herself all over the place.
• 5:21:14
  This time she's lying still and mum when missus Douglas's mum, she is pretty
• 5:21:18
  sick. You bet you don't like old missus Douglas, said Anne curiously.
• 5:21:22
  I like Kat's as is Cat's. I don't like Kats as women, was
• 5:21:26
  Alec's cryptic reply. Janet came home in the twilight. Missus Douglas is dead,
• 5:21:32
  she said wearily. She died soon after I got there. She just
• 5:21:36
  spoke to me once. I suppose you'll marry John now, she said.
• 5:21:40
  It cut me to the heart. And to think John's own mother thought I
• 5:21:42
  wouldn't marry him because of her. I couldn't say a word either. There
• 5:21:47
  were other women there. I was thankful John had gone out. Janet began
• 5:21:52
  to cry drearily, but Anne brewed her a hot drink of ginger tea to
• 5:21:55
  her comforting. To be sure. Anne discovered later on that she had used
• 5:21:59
  white pepper instead of ginger, but Janet never knew the difference. The evening
• 5:22:03
  after the funeral, Janet and Anne were sitting on the front porch steps.
• 5:22:07
  At sunset. The wind had fallen asleep in the pine lands and lurid sheets
• 5:22:11
  of heat lightning flickered across the northern skies. Janet wore her ugly black dress
• 5:22:15
  and looked her very worst, her eyes and nose red from crying. They
• 5:22:19
  talked little, for Janet semed faintly to resent Anne's efforts to cheer her up.
• 5:22:23
  She plainly preferred to be miserable. Suddenly, the gate latch clicked and
• 5:22:29
  John Douglas strode into the garden. He walked towards them, straight over the
• 5:22:33
  geranium bed. Janet stood up, so did Anne. Anne was a tall
• 5:22:37
  girl and wore a white dress, but John Douglas did not see her.
• 5:22:41
  Janet, He said, will you marry me? The words burst out as
• 5:22:45
  if they had been wanting to be said for twenty years and must be uttered
• 5:22:48
  now before anything else. Janet's face was so red from crying that it couldn't
• 5:22:52
  turn any redder, so it turned a most unbecoming purple. Why didn't you
• 5:22:56
  ask me before, she said, slowly, I could. She made me
• 5:23:00
  promise not to. Mother made me promise not to. Nineteen years ago she
• 5:23:04
  took a terrible spell. We thought she couldn't live through it. She implored
• 5:23:08
  me to promise not to ask you to marry me while she was alive.
• 5:23:11
  I didn't want to promise such a thing, even though we all thought she
• 5:23:14
  couldn't live very long. The doctor only gave her six months, but she
• 5:23:18
  begged it on her knees, sick and suffering. I had to promise.
• 5:23:22
  What had your mother against me, cried Janet. Nothing. Nothing. She
• 5:23:26
  just didn't want another woman, any woman there while she was living. She
• 5:23:30
  said, if I didn't promise, she'd die right there and I'd have killed
• 5:23:33
  her. So I promised, and she's held me to that promise ever since,
• 5:23:37
  though I've gone on my knees to her in my turn to beg her
• 5:23:40
  to let me off. Why didn't you tell me this, asked Janet chokingly.
• 5:23:45
  If i'd only known, why didn't you just tell me? She made
• 5:23:48
  me promise. I wouldn't tell a soul, said John hoarsely. She swore
• 5:23:52
  me to it on the Bible, Janet, I'd never have done it if
• 5:23:56
  I dreamed it was to be for so long, Janet, You'll never know
• 5:23:59
  what I've suffered these nineteen years. I know I've made you suffer too,
• 5:24:02
  But you'll marry me for all, won't you? Janet? Oh, Jenet,
• 5:24:04
  won't you. I've come as soon as I could to ask you.
• 5:24:07
  At this moment, the stupefied Anne came to her senses and realized that she
• 5:24:11
  had no business to be there. She slipped away and did not see Janet
• 5:24:15
  until the next morning, when the latter told her the rest of the story.
• 5:24:18
  That cruel, relentless, deceitful old woman, cried Anne. Hush,
• 5:24:22
  she's dead, said Janet solemnly. If she wasn't, but she is,
• 5:24:27
  so we mustn't speak evil of her. But I'm happy at last, Anne,
• 5:24:30
  and I wouldn't have minded waiting so long a bit if I'd only known.
• 5:24:33
  Why. When are you to be married? Next month? Of course
• 5:24:37
  it will be very quiet. I suppose people will talk terrible. They'll say
• 5:24:41
  I'm made haste enough to snap John up. As soon as his poor mother
• 5:24:44
  was out of the way. John wanted to let them know the truth,
• 5:24:47
  but I said no, John, After all, she was your mother,
• 5:24:49
  and will keep the secret between us and not cast any shadow on her memory.
• 5:24:53
  I don't mind what people say now that I know the truth myself.
• 5:24:56
  It don't matter a might let it all be buried with dead, says I
• 5:25:00
  to him, So I coaxed him round to agree with me. You're much
• 5:25:03
  more forgiving than I could ever be, said Anne, rather crossly. You'll
• 5:25:07
  feel differently about a good many things when you get to be my age,
• 5:25:10
  said Janet tolerantly. That's one of the things we learn as we grow older,
• 5:25:14
  how to forgive. It comes easier at forty than it did at twenty.
• 5:25:18
  End of chapter thirty four. Chapter thirty five, the Last Redmond Year
• 5:25:23
  opens. Here we are all back again, nicely sunburned and rejoicing as a
• 5:25:30
  strong man to run a ray, said Phil, sitting down on a suit
• 5:25:33
  case with a sigh of pleasure. Isn't it jolly to see this dear old
• 5:25:37
  Patty's place again? And Aunty and the cat's Rusty has lost another piece of
• 5:25:41
  ear, hasn't he? Rusty would be the nicest cat in the world if
• 5:25:45
  you had no ears at all, declared Anne loyally from her trunk, while
• 5:25:48
  Rusty writhed about her lap in a frenzy of welcome. Aren't you glad to
• 5:25:52
  see us back? Aunty demanded Phil. Yes, but I wish you'd tidy
• 5:25:56
  things up, said Aunt Jamesina, plaintively, looking at the wilderness of trunks
• 5:26:00
  and suit cases by which the four laughing, chattering girls were surrounded. You
• 5:26:06
  can talk just as well later on. Work first and then play used to
• 5:26:10
  be my motto when I was a girl. Oh, we've just reversed that.
• 5:26:12
  In this generation, Auntie, our motto is play your play and then
• 5:26:15
  dig in. You can do your work so much better if you've had a
• 5:26:18
  good bout of play first. If you're going to marry a minister, said
• 5:26:22
  Aunt Jamesina, picking up Joseph and her knitting and resigning herself to the inevitable,
• 5:26:26
  with the charming grace that made her the queen of house mothers, you
• 5:26:30
  will have to give up such expressions as dig in, Why, moaned Phil,
• 5:26:36
  Oh, why must a minister's wife be supposed to utter only prunes and
• 5:26:38
  prisms? I shan't everybody on Patterson Street use a slang, that is to
• 5:26:44
  say, metaphorical language. And if I didn't, they would think me insufferably
• 5:26:48
  proud and stuck up. Have you broken the news to your family? Asked
• 5:26:52
  Priscilla, feeding the Sarah cat bits from her lunch basket. Phil nodded,
• 5:26:56
  how did they take it? Oh? Mother rampaged, but I stood rock
• 5:27:00
  firm, even I Phillip a Gordon, who never before could hold fast to
• 5:27:03
  anything. Father was calmer. Father's own daddy was a minister, so you
• 5:27:07
  see he has a soft spot in his heart for the cloth. I had
• 5:27:11
  Joe up to Mount Holly after Mother grew calm, and they both loved him.
• 5:27:15
  But Mother gave him some frightful hints in every conversation regarding what she had
• 5:27:18
  hoped for me. Oh, my vacation pathway hasn't been exactly strewn with Rose's
• 5:27:22
  girls, Dear, but I've won out and I've got Joe. Nothing else
• 5:27:26
  matters to you, said Aunt Jamesina darkly, Nor to Joe either, retorted
• 5:27:32
  Phil, you keep on pitying him, Why pray? I think he's to
• 5:27:37
  be envied. He's getting brains, beauty and a heart of gold in me.
• 5:27:41
  It's well, we know how to take your speeches, said Aunt Jamesina
• 5:27:44
  patiently. I hope you don't talk like that before strangers. What would they
• 5:27:48
  think? Oh, I don't want to know what they think. I don't
• 5:27:51
  want to see myself as others seem me. I'm sure it would be horribly
• 5:27:53
  uncomfortable most of the time. I don't believe Burns was really sincere in that
• 5:27:57
  prayer either. Oh, I dare say we all pray for some things that
• 5:28:02
  we really don't want, if we were only honest enough to look into our
• 5:28:04
  hearts, owned aunt Jamesina candidly, I've a notion that such prayers don't rise
• 5:28:10
  very far. I used to pray that I might be enabled to forgive a
• 5:28:14
  certain person, but I know now I really didn't want to forgive her.
• 5:28:17
  When I finally got that I did want to, I forgave her without having
• 5:28:19
  to pray about it. I can't picture you as being unforgiving for long,
• 5:28:23
  said Stella. Oh I used to be, but holding spite doesn't seem worth
• 5:28:27
  while when you get along in years. That reminds me, said Anne,
• 5:28:30
  and told the tale of John and Janet. And now tell us about that
• 5:28:34
  romantic scene you hinted so darkly out in one of your letters, demanded Phil.
• 5:28:38
  Anne acted out Samuel's proposal with great spirit. The girls shrieked with laughter,
• 5:28:44
  and Aunt james Zina smiled. It isn't in good taste to make fun
• 5:28:47
  of your baws, she said severely, but she added calmly, I always
• 5:28:52
  did it myself. Tell us about your bows, Aunty, entreated Phil.
• 5:28:55
  You must have had any number of them. They're not in the past,
• 5:28:57
  Tense retorted Aunta, I've got them yet. There are three old widowers at
• 5:29:03
  home who have been casting sheep's eyes at me for some time. You children
• 5:29:07
  needn't think you own all the romance in the world. Widowers and sheep's eyes
• 5:29:11
  don't sound very romantic, Auntie, well, no, but young folks aren't
• 5:29:15
  always romantic either. Some of my bows certainly weren't. I used to laugh
• 5:29:18
  at them, scandalous poor boys. There was Jim Ellwood. He was always
• 5:29:22
  in a sort of day dream, never seemed to sense what was going on.
• 5:29:26
  He didn't wake up to the fact that I'd said no till a year
• 5:29:30
  after I'd said it. When he did get married, his wife fell out
• 5:29:33
  of the sleigh one night when they were driving home from church, and he
• 5:29:34
  never missed her. Then there was Dan Winston. He knew too much.
• 5:29:38
  He knew everything in this world and most of what is in the next.
• 5:29:41
  He could give you an answer to any question, even if you asked him
• 5:29:45
  when the judgment day was to be. Milton Edwards was real nice and I
• 5:29:48
  liked him, but I didn't marry him. For one thing, he took
• 5:29:52
  a week to get a joke through his head, and for another, he
• 5:29:53
  never asked me. Horatio Reeve was the most interesting bow I ever had,
• 5:29:59
  But when he told a story, he dressed it up so that you couldn't
• 5:30:00
  see it for the frills. I never could decide whether he was lying or
• 5:30:04
  just letting his imagination run loose. And what about the others? Aunty go
• 5:30:08
  away and unpack, said Aunt Jamesina, waving Joseph at them by mistake for
• 5:30:12
  a needle. The others were too nice to make fun of. I shall
• 5:30:15
  respect their memory. There's a box of flowers in your room, Anne,
• 5:30:19
  They came about an hour ago. After the first week, the girls of
• 5:30:23
  Patty's place settled down to a steady grind of study, for this was their
• 5:30:27
  last year at Redmond, and graduation honors must be fought for Persistently. Anne
• 5:30:33
  devoted herself to English. Priscilla poured over classics, and Philippa pounded away at
• 5:30:37
  mathematics. Sometimes they grew tired, Sometimes they felt discouraged. Sometimes nothing seemed
• 5:30:42
  worth the struggle for it. In one such mood, Stella wandered up to
• 5:30:47
  the Blue Room one rainy November evening. Anne sat on the floor in a
• 5:30:49
  little circle of light cast by the lamp beside her, amid a surrounding snow
• 5:30:55
  of crumpled manuscript. What in the world you doing just looking over some old
• 5:30:59
  story club yarns. I wanted something to cheer and inebriate. I'd studied till
• 5:31:03
  the world seemed azure, so I came up here and dug these out of
• 5:31:07
  my trunk. They are so drenched in tears and tragedy that they are excruciatingly
• 5:31:11
  funny. I'm blue and discouraged myself, said Stella, throwing herself on the
• 5:31:15
  couch. Nothing seems worth while my very thoughts are old. I've thought them
• 5:31:19
  all before. What is the use of living? After all? Anne,
• 5:31:23
  honey, it's just brain fag that makes us feel that way. And the
• 5:31:26
  weather, a pouring, rainy night like this, coming after a hard day's
• 5:31:30
  grind, would squelch anyone but a Mark Tapley you know it is worth while
• 5:31:33
  to live. Oh, I suppose so, but I can't prove it to
• 5:31:37
  myself. Just now, Just think of all the great and noble souls who
• 5:31:41
  have lived and worked in this world, said Anne dreamily. Isn't it worth
• 5:31:45
  while to come after them and inherit what they want and taught? Isn't it
• 5:31:48
  worth while to think we can share their inspiration and then all the great souls
• 5:31:53
  that will come in the future. Isn't it worth while to work a little
• 5:31:56
  and prepare the way for them, make just one step than their path easier.
• 5:32:00
  Oh my mind agrees with you, Anne, But my soul remains doleful
• 5:32:04
  and uninspired. I'm always grubby and dingy on rainy nights. Some nights I
• 5:32:10
  like the rain. I like to lie in bed and hear it pattering on
• 5:32:12
  the roof and drifting through the pines. I like it when it stays on
• 5:32:15
  the roof, said Stella. It doesn't always. I spent a gruesome night
• 5:32:19
  in an old country farm house last summer. The roof leaked and the rain
• 5:32:23
  came pattering down on my bed. There was no poetry in that. I
• 5:32:27
  had to get up in the murk midnight and shivy round to pull the bedstead
• 5:32:32
  out of the drip. And it was one of those solid old fashioned beds
• 5:32:34
  that weigh a ton more or less. And then that drip, drop,
• 5:32:37
  drip drop kept up all night until my nerves just went to pieces. You've
• 5:32:42
  no idea what an eerie noise a great drop of rain falling with a mushy
• 5:32:47
  thud on a bare floor makes in the night. It sounds like ghostly footsteps
• 5:32:51
  and all that sort of thing. What are you laughing over? Anne?
• 5:32:55
  These stories, as Phil would say, they are killing in more senses than
• 5:32:59
  one forever ever died in them. What dazzlingly lovely heroines we had, and
• 5:33:03
  how we dressed them silks, satins, velvets, jewels, laces, they
• 5:33:08
  never wore anything else. Here is one of Jane Andrews's stories, depicting her
• 5:33:12
  heroine as sleeping in a beautiful white satin night dress trimmed with seed pearls.
• 5:33:18
  Go On, said Stella, I begin to feel that life is worth leaving
• 5:33:21
  as long as there's a laugh in it. Here's one I wrote. My
• 5:33:25
  heroine is disporting herself at a ball, glittering from head to foot with large
• 5:33:29
  diamonds of the first water. But what booted beauty or rich attire. The
• 5:33:33
  paths of glory lead but to the grave. They must either be murdered or
• 5:33:37
  die of a broken heart. There was no escape for them. Let me
• 5:33:40
  read some of your stories. Well, here's my masterpiece. Note it's cheerful
• 5:33:45
  title, My Graves. I shed quarts of tears while writing it, and
• 5:33:49
  the other girls shed gallons while I read it. Jane Andrews's mother scolded her
• 5:33:53
  frightfully because she had so many handkerchiefs in the wash that week. It's a
• 5:33:57
  harrowing tale of the wanderings of a Methodist minister's wife. I made her a
• 5:34:02
  Methodist because it was necessary that she should wander. She buried a child every
• 5:34:06
  place she lived in There were nine of them, and their graves were severed
• 5:34:10
  far apart, ranging from Newfoundland to Vancouver. I described the children, pictured
• 5:34:15
  their several death beds, and detailed their tombstones and epitaphs. I had intended
• 5:34:19
  to bury the whole nine, but when I had disposed of eight, my
• 5:34:22
  invention of horrors gave out, and I permitted the ninth to live as a
• 5:34:26
  hopeless cripple. While Stella read My Graves, punctuating its tragic paragraphs with chuckles
• 5:34:33
  and rusty slept the sleep of a just cat who has been out all night,
• 5:34:36
  curled up on a Jane Andrew's tail, of a beautiful maiden of fifteen,
• 5:34:40
  who went to nurse in a leper colony, of course, dying of
• 5:34:41
  the loesome disease. Finally, Anne glanced over the other manuscripts and recalled the
• 5:34:47
  old days at Avonlea School, when the members of the story Club, sitting
• 5:34:49
  under the spruce trees or down among the ferns by the brook, had written
• 5:34:53
  them what fun they had had. How the sunshine and mirth of those old
• 5:34:57
  and summer's returned to She read. Not all the glory that was Greece or
• 5:35:02
  the grandeur that was Rome could weave such wizardry as those funny, tearful tales
• 5:35:07
  of the story Club. Among the manuscripts, Anne found one written on sheets
• 5:35:11
  of wrapping paper. A wave of laughter filled her gray eyes as she recalled
• 5:35:15
  the time and place of its genesis. It was the sketch she had written
• 5:35:18
  the day she fell through the roof of the Cobb Duck house on the Tory
• 5:35:22
  Road. Anne glanced over it, then fell to reading it intently. It
• 5:35:26
  was a little dialogue between asters and sweet peas, wild canaries in the lilac
• 5:35:32
  bush, and the guardian spirit of the garden. After she had read it,
• 5:35:36
  she sat staring into space, and when Stella had gone, she smoothed
• 5:35:40
  out the crumpled manuscript. I believe I will, she said resolutely. End
• 5:35:45
  of chapter thirty five allland Chapter thirty six, The Gardener's Call. Here is
• 5:35:52
  a letter with an Indian stamp for you, Anne, Jimsie, said Phil.
• 5:35:56
  Here are three for Stella and two for PRIs, and a glorious fat
• 5:36:00
  one from me from Joe. There's nothing for you, Anne except a circular.
• 5:36:03
  Nobody noticed Anne's flush as she took the thin letter. Phil tossed her
• 5:36:07
  carelessly, But a few minutes later Phil looked up to see a transfigured Anne.
• 5:36:12
  Honey, what good thing has happened? The youth's friend has accepted a
• 5:36:17
  little sketch. I sent them a fortnight ago, said Anne, trying hard
• 5:36:19
  to speak as if she were accustomed to having sketches accepted every mail, but
• 5:36:23
  not quite succeeding. Anne, surely, how glorious? What was it?
• 5:36:29
  When is it to be published? Did they pay you for it. Yes,
• 5:36:32
  they've sent a check for ten dollars, and the editor writes that he
• 5:36:34
  would like to see more of my work. Dear man, he shall.
• 5:36:37
  It was an old sketch I found in my box. I rewrote it and
• 5:36:41
  sent it in, but I never really thought it could be accepted because it
• 5:36:44
  had no plot, said Anne, recalling the bitter experience of Averil's atonement.
• 5:36:48
  What are you going to do with that ten dollars? Anne, Let's all
• 5:36:51
  go up to town and get drunk, suggested Phil. I am going to
• 5:36:55
  squander it in a wild, soulless revel of some sort, declared Anne gaily.
• 5:36:59
  At all events, citizen't tainted money like the check I got for that
• 5:37:02
  horrible, reliable baking powder story. I spent it usefully for clothes and hated
• 5:37:07
  them every time I put them on. Think of having a real live author
• 5:37:11
  at Patty's place, said Priscilla. It's a great responsibility, said Aunt Jamesina
• 5:37:15
  solemnly. Indeed, it is agreed Chriss, with equal solemnity. Authors are
• 5:37:21
  kittle cattle. You never know when or how they will break out. Anne
• 5:37:25
  may make copy of us. I meant that the ability to write for the
• 5:37:30
  press was a great responsibility, said Aunt Jamesina severely, and I hope Anne
• 5:37:33
  realizes it. My daughter used to write stories before she went to the foreign
• 5:37:37
  field, but now she has turned her attention to higher things. She used
• 5:37:41
  to say her motto was, never write a line you would be ashamed to
• 5:37:45
  read at your own funeral. You'd better take that for yours, Anne,
• 5:37:48
  if you are going to embark in literature. Though, to be sure,
• 5:37:52
  added Aunt Jamesina perplexedly, Elizabeth always used to laugh when she said it.
• 5:37:56
  She always laughed so much that I don't know how she ever came to decide
• 5:37:59
  on being a missionary. I'm thankful she did. I prayed that she might,
• 5:38:03
  but I wish she hadn't. Then Aunt james Zina wondered why those giddy
• 5:38:08
  girls all laughed. Anne's eyes shone all that day. Literary ambitions sprouted and
• 5:38:15
  budded in her brain. Their exhilaration accompanied her to Jennie Cooper's walking party,
• 5:38:19
  and not even the sight of Gilbert and Christine walking just ahead of her and
• 5:38:23
  Roy could quite subdue the sparkle of her starry hopes. Nevertheless, she was
• 5:38:27
  not so wrapped from things of earth as to be unable to notice that Christine's
• 5:38:32
  walk was decidedly ungraceful. But I suppose Gilbert looks only at her face so
• 5:38:37
  like a man, thought Anne scornfully. Shall you be home Saturday afternoon,
• 5:38:42
  asked Roy. Yes, my mother and sisters are coming to call on you,
• 5:38:47
  said Roy quietly. Something went over Anne which might be described as a
• 5:38:51
  thrill, but it was hardly a pleasant one. She had never met any
• 5:38:55
  of Roy's family. She realized the significance of his statement. It had somehow
• 5:39:00
  an irrevocableness about it that chilled her. I shall be glad to see them,
• 5:39:04
  she said flatly, and then wondered if she really would be glad.
• 5:39:07
  She ought to be, of course, but would it not be something of
• 5:39:11
  an ordeal? Gossip had filtered to Anne regarding the light in which the gardeners
• 5:39:15
  viewed the infatuation of son and brother. Roy must have brought pressure to bear
• 5:39:21
  in the matter of this call. Anne knew she would be weighed in the
• 5:39:23
  balance from the fact that they had consented to call. She understood that,
• 5:39:26
  willingly or unwillingly, they regarded her as a possible member of their clan.
• 5:39:32
  I shall just be myself. I shall not try to make a good impression,
• 5:39:36
  thought Anne loftily. But she was wondering what dress she would better wear
• 5:39:40
  Saturday afternoon, and if the new style of high hair dressing would suit her
• 5:39:42
  better than the old, and the walking party was rather spoiled for her.
• 5:39:48
  By night. She had decided that she would wear her brown chiffon on Saturday,
• 5:39:51
  but would do her hair low Friday afternoon. None of the girls had
• 5:39:55
  classes at Redmond. Stella took the opportunity to write a paper for the Philomathic
• 5:39:59
  Society, and was sitting at the table in the corner of the living room,
• 5:40:02
  with an untidy litter of notes and manuscript on the floor around her.
• 5:40:06
  Stella always vowed she never could write anything unless she threw each sheet down as
• 5:40:10
  she completed it. Anne, in her flannel blouse and serge skirt, with
• 5:40:12
  her hair rather blown from her windy walk home, was sitting squarely in the
• 5:40:17
  middle of the floor, teasing the Sarah cat with a wishbone. Joseph and
• 5:40:21
  Rusty were both curled up in her lap. A warm, plummy odor filled
• 5:40:25
  the whole house. For Priscilla was cooking in the kitchen. Presently she came
• 5:40:29
  in enshrouded in a huge work apron with a smudge of flour on her nose,
• 5:40:33
  to show Aunt Jamesine of the chocolate cake she had just iced. At
• 5:40:37
  this auspicious moment, the knocker sounded. Nobody paid any attention to it,
• 5:40:41
  save Phil, who sprang up and opened it, expecting a boy with the
• 5:40:45
  hat she had bought that morning. On the doorsteps stood Missus Gardner and her
• 5:40:48
  daughter's Anne scrambled to her feet, somehow emptying two indignant cats out of her
• 5:40:53
  lap as she did so, and mechanically shifting her wishbone from her right hand
• 5:40:56
  to her left. Priscilla, who would have had to cross the room to
• 5:41:00
  reach the kitchen door, lost her head, wildly plunged the chocolate cake under
• 5:41:03
  a cushion on the ingle nook sofa, and dashed upstairs. Stella began feverishly
• 5:41:08
  gathering up her manuscript. Only Aunt Jamesina and Phil remained normal. Thanks to
• 5:41:14
  them, everybody was soon sitting at ease, even Anne. Priscilla came down
• 5:41:18
  apronless and smudgeless. Stella reduced her corner to decency, and Phil saved the
• 5:41:23
  situation by a stream of ready small talk. Missus Gardner was tall and thin
• 5:41:29
  and handsome, exquisitely gowned, cordial, with a cordiality that seemed a trifle
• 5:41:33
  forced. Aileene Gardner was a younger edition of her mother. Lacking the cordiality.
• 5:41:37
  She endeavored to be nice, but succeeded only in being haughty and patronizing.
• 5:41:44
  Dorothy Gardner was slim and jolly and rather tomboyish. Anne knew she was
• 5:41:48
  Roy's favorite sister and warm to her. She would have looked very much like
• 5:41:51
  Roy if she had had dreamy dark eyes instead of roguish hazel ones. Thanks
• 5:41:56
  to her and Phil, the call really went off very well, except for
• 5:41:59
  a slight sense of strain in the atmosphere and two rather untoward incidents. Rusty
• 5:42:03
  and Joseph, left to themselves, began a game of chase and sprang madly
• 5:42:07
  into missus Gardner's silken lap and out of it in their wild career. Missus
• 5:42:12
  Gardner lifted her lorn yet and gazed after their flying forms as if she had
• 5:42:17
  never seen cats before, and Anne, choking back slightly nervous laughter, apologized
• 5:42:22
  as best she could. You are fond of cats, said missus Gardner,
• 5:42:26
  with a slight intonation, of tolerant wonder. Anne, despite her affection for
• 5:42:30
  Rusty, was not as specially fond of cats, but Missus Gardner's tone annoyed
• 5:42:34
  her. Inconsequently, she remembered that Missus John Blythe was so fond of cats
• 5:42:40
  that she kept as many as her husband would allow. They are adorable animals,
• 5:42:44
  aren't they, she said wickedly. I have never liked cats, said
• 5:42:48
  Missus Gardner, remotely. I love them, said Dorothy. They're so nice
• 5:42:52
  and selfish. Dogs are too good and unselfish. They make me feel uncomfortable,
• 5:42:56
  but cats are gloriously human. You have two delightful old China dogs there.
• 5:43:02
  May I look at them closely, said Aileen, crossing the room towards
• 5:43:06
  the fireplace and thereby becoming the unconscious cause of the other accident. Picking up
• 5:43:11
  Magog, she sat down on the cushion under which was secreted Priscilla's chocolate cake.
• 5:43:15
  Priscilla and Anne exchanged agonized glances, but could do nothing. The stately
• 5:43:21
  Aleen continued to sit on the cushion and discuss China dogs until the time of
• 5:43:23
  departure. Dorothy lingered behind a moment to squeeze Anne's hand and whisper impulsively.
• 5:43:30
  I know you and I are going to be chums. Oh Roy has told
• 5:43:33
  me all about you. I'm the only one of the family he tells things
• 5:43:37
  to. Poor boy, nobody could confine in. Mamma and Aleen. You
• 5:43:41
  know what glorious times you girls must have here. Won't you let me come
• 5:43:45
  off in and have a share in them? Come as often as you like.
• 5:43:48
  Anne responded heartily, thankful that one of Roy's sisters was likable. She
• 5:43:52
  would never like Aileen, so much was certain, and Aileen would never like
• 5:43:56
  her, though missus Gardner might be one altogether. Anne sighed with relief when
• 5:44:00
  the ordeal was over. Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the
• 5:44:06
  saddest are it might have been quoted Priscilla tragically lifting the cushion. This cake
• 5:44:11
  is now what you might call a flat failure, and the cushion is likewise
• 5:44:15
  ruined. Never tell me that Friday isn't unlucky. People who send word they
• 5:44:21
  are coming on Saturday shouldn't come on Friday, said Aunt James Zina. I
• 5:44:25
  fancy it was Roy's mistake, said Phil. That boy isn't really responsible for
• 5:44:29
  what he says when he talks to Anne. Where is Anne? Anne had
• 5:44:33
  gone upstairs. She felt oddly like crying, but she made herself laugh instead.
• 5:44:37
  Rusty and Joseph had been too awful, and Dorothy was a dear end
• 5:44:44
  of Chapter thirty six, Chapter thirty seven full fledged b a's I wish I
• 5:44:49
  were dead, or that it were tomorrow night, groaned Phil. If you'll
• 5:44:53
  live long enough, both wishes will come true, said Anne calmly. It's
• 5:44:57
  easy for you to be serene. You're at home in philosophy. I'm not.
• 5:45:02
  And when I think of that horrible paper tomorrow, I quail if I
• 5:45:06
  should fail in it? What would Joe say? You won't fail? How
• 5:45:10
  did you get on in Greek to day? I don't know. Perhaps it
• 5:45:14
  was a good paper, and perhaps it was bad enough to make Homer turn
• 5:45:15
  over in his grave. I've studied and mulled over notebooks until I'm incapable of
• 5:45:21
  forming an opinion of anything. How thankful little Phil will be when all this
• 5:45:25
  examinating is over examinating. I never heard such a word. Well, haven't
• 5:45:30
  I as got a right to make a word, as any one else demanded
• 5:45:33
  Phil. Words aren't made, they grow, said Anne. Never mind,
• 5:45:37
  I begin faintly to discern clear water ahead, where no examination breakers loom?
• 5:45:42
  Girls? Do you can you realize that our Redmond life is almost over?
• 5:45:47
  I can't, said Anne sorrowfully. It seems just yesterday that PRIs and I
• 5:45:52
  were alone in that crowd of freshmen at Redmond, and now we are seniors
• 5:45:55
  in our final examinations. Potent wise and reverend senior, quoted Phil, do
• 5:46:00
  you suppose we really are any wiser than when we came to Redmond? You
• 5:46:04
  don't act as if you were by times, said Aunt james Zina severely.
• 5:46:07
  Oh, Aunt Jimsie, haven't we been pretty good? Girls? Take us
• 5:46:11
  by and large, these three winters you've mothered us, pleaded Phil, You've
• 5:46:15
  been four of the dearest, sweetest, goodest girls that ever went together through
• 5:46:18
  college everrote Aunt Jamesina, who never spoiled a compliment by misplaced economy. But
• 5:46:22
  I mistrust you haven't any too much sense yet. It's not to be expected.
• 5:46:26
  Of course, experience teaches sense. You can't learn it in a college
• 5:46:30
  course. You've been to college four years and I never was. But I
• 5:46:34
  know heaps more than you do, young ladies. There are lots of things
• 5:46:38
  that never go by rule. There's a powerful pile of knowledge that you never
• 5:46:42
  get at college. There are heaps of things you never learn at school,
• 5:46:45
  quoted Stella, have you learned anything at Redmond except dead languages and geometry and
• 5:46:51
  such trash? Queried Aunt James Zina. Oh yes, I think we have,
• 5:46:53
  Auntie, protested Anne. We've learned the truth of what Professor Woodleigh told
• 5:46:59
  us last Philomathic said phil He said, humor is the spiciest condiment in the
• 5:47:03
  feast of existence. Laugh at your mistakes, but learn from them. Joke
• 5:47:07
  over your troubles, but gather strength from them. Make a jest of your
• 5:47:10
  difficulties, but overcome them. Isn't that worth learning, Aunt Jimsie, Yes
• 5:47:14
  it is, Dearie. When you've learned to laugh at the things that should
• 5:47:17
  be laughed at, and not to laugh at those that shouldn't, you've got
• 5:47:21
  wisdom and understanding. What have you got out of your Redmond corus Ann murmured
• 5:47:25
  Priscilla aside, I think, said Anne slowly, that I really have learned
• 5:47:30
  to look upon each little hindrance as a jest, and each great one is
• 5:47:33
  a foreshadowing of victory. Summing up, I think that is what Redmond has
• 5:47:37
  given me, I shall have to fall back on another Professor Woodleigh quotation to
• 5:47:42
  express what it has done for me, said Priscilla. You remember that he
• 5:47:45
  said in his address, there is so much in the world for us all,
• 5:47:48
  if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to
• 5:47:52
  love it, and the hand to gather it to ourselves. So much in
• 5:47:55
  men and women, so much in art and literature, so much everywhere in
• 5:47:59
  which to delight and for which to be thankful. I think Redmond has taught
• 5:48:03
  me that in some measure hand judging from what you all say, remarked Aunt
• 5:48:07
  James Zina, the sum and substance is that you can learn if you've got
• 5:48:11
  natural gumption enough in four years at college what it would take about twenty years
• 5:48:15
  of living to teach you. Well, that justifies higher education in my opinion.
• 5:48:19
  It's a matter I was always dubious about before. But what about people
• 5:48:23
  who haven't natural gumption, Aunt Jimsie. People who haven't natural gumption never learn,
• 5:48:29
  retorted Aunt James Zina, neither in college nor in life. If they
• 5:48:32
  live to be a hundred, they really don't know anything more than when they
• 5:48:34
  were born. It's their misfortune not their fault, poor souls, but those
• 5:48:38
  of those who have some gumption should duly thank the Lord for it. Will
• 5:48:42
  you please define what gumption is, Aunt Jimsy, asked Phil. No,
• 5:48:47
  I won't, young woman. Any One who has gumption knows what it is,
• 5:48:49
  and any one who hasn't can never know what it is, so there
• 5:48:52
  is no need of defining it. The busy days flew by, and examinations
• 5:48:56
  were over. Anne took high honors in English, Priscilla took honors in classics,
• 5:49:02
  and Phil in mathematics. Stella obtained a good all round showing. Then
• 5:49:07
  came convocation. This is what I would once have called an epoch in my
• 5:49:11
  life, said Anne, as she took Roy's violets out of their box and
• 5:49:14
  gazed at them thoughtfully. She meant to carry them, of course, but
• 5:49:18
  her eyes wandered to another box on her table. It was filled with lilies
• 5:49:22
  of the valley, as fresh and fragrant as those which bloomed in the Green
• 5:49:25
  Gables yard. When June came to Avonlea, Gilbert blythe card lay beside it.
• 5:49:30
  Anne wondered why Gilbert should have sent her flowers for convocation. She had
• 5:49:34
  seen very little of him during the past winter. He had come to Patty's
• 5:49:38
  place only one Friday evening since the Christmas holidays, and they rarely met elsewhere.
• 5:49:44
  She knew he was studying very hard, aiming at high honors and the
• 5:49:47
  Cooper Prize, and he took little part in the social doings of Redmond.
• 5:49:51
  Anne's own winter had been quite gay. Socially, she had seen a good
• 5:49:55
  deal of the gardener's She and Dorothy were very intimate. College circles expected the
• 5:50:00
  announcement of her engagement to Roy any day. Anne expected it herself, Yet
• 5:50:03
  just before she left Patty's place for convocation, she flung Roy's violets aside and
• 5:50:08
  put Gilbert's lilies of the Valley in their place. She could not have told
• 5:50:11
  why she did it. Somehow, old Avonlea days and dreams and friendships seemed
• 5:50:18
  very close to her in this attainment of her long cherished ambitions. She and
• 5:50:22
  Gilbert had once pictured out merrily the day on which they should be captain gowned
• 5:50:25
  graduates and arts. The wonderful day had come, and Roy's violets had no
• 5:50:29
  place in it. Only her old friend's flowers seemed to belong to this fruition
• 5:50:33
  of old, blossoming hopes, which he had once shared. For years,
• 5:50:37
  this day had beckoned and allured to her. But when it came, the
• 5:50:41
  one single, keen, abiding memory it left with her was not that of
• 5:50:45
  the breathless moment when the stately President of Redmond gave her cap and diploma and
• 5:50:48
  hailed her be a. It was not of the flash in Gilbert's eyes when
• 5:50:52
  he saw her lilies, nor the puzzled, pained glance Roy gave her as
• 5:50:56
  he passed her on the platform. It was not of a lean garden,
• 5:51:00
  condescending congratulations or Dorothy's ardent, impulsive good wishes. It was of one strange,
• 5:51:06
  unaccountable pang that spoiled this long expected day for her, and left in
• 5:51:10
  it a certain faint but enduring flavor of bitterness. The art's graduates gave a
• 5:51:15
  graduation dance that night. When Anne dressed for it, she tossed aside the
• 5:51:19
  pearl beads she usually wore and took from her trunk the small box that had
• 5:51:23
  come to Green Gables on Christmas Day. In it was a threadlike gold chain
• 5:51:27
  with a tiny pink enamel heart as a pendant on the accompanying card was written
• 5:51:33
  with all good wishes from your old chum Gilbert. Anne, laughing over the
• 5:51:37
  memory the enamel heart, conjured up of the fatal day when Gilbert had called
• 5:51:41
  her carrots and vainly tried to make his peace with a pink candy heart,
• 5:51:45
  had written him a nice little note of thanks. But she had never worn
• 5:51:48
  the trinket. To night, she fastened it about her white throat with a
• 5:51:52
  dreamy smile. She and Phil walked to Redmond together. Anne walked in silence.
• 5:51:57
  Phil chattered of many things. Suddenly, she said, I heard to
• 5:52:02
  day that Gilbert Blythe's engagement to Christine Stewart was to be announced as soon as
• 5:52:04
  convocation was over. Did you hear anything of it? No, said Anne.
• 5:52:10
  I think it's true, said Phil lightly. Anne did not speak.
• 5:52:14
  In the darkness, she felt her face burning. She slipped her hand inside
• 5:52:18
  her collar and caught at the gold chain. One energetic twist in it gave
• 5:52:22
  way. Anne thrust the broken trinket into her pocket. Her hands were trembling
• 5:52:26
  and her eyes were smarting, but she was the gayest of all the gay
• 5:52:30
  revelers that night, and told Gilbert unregretfully that her card was full when he
• 5:52:34
  came to ask her for a dance afterwards. When she sat with the girls
• 5:52:38
  before the dying embers at Patty's place, removing the spring chilliness from their satin
• 5:52:42
  skins, none chatted more blithely than she of the day's events. Moody Spurgeon
• 5:52:48
  mc pherson called here to night after you left, said Aunt Jamesina, who
• 5:52:51
  had sat up to keep the fire on. He didn't know about the graduation
• 5:52:55
  dance. That boy ought to sleep with a rubber band around his head to
• 5:52:57
  train his ears not to stick out. I had a beau once who did
• 5:53:00
  that, and it improved him immensely. It was I who suggested it to
• 5:53:03
  him, and he took my advice, but he never forgave me for it.
• 5:53:07
  Boody Spurgeon is a very serious young man, yawned Priscilla. He is
• 5:53:11
  concerned with graver matters than his ears. He is going to be a minister.
• 5:53:15
  You know, well, I suppose the Lord doesn't regard the ears of
• 5:53:18
  a man, said Aunt Jamesina, gravely, dropping all further criticism of Moody
• 5:53:22
  Spurgeon. Aunt james Zina had a proper respect for the cloth, even in
• 5:53:26
  the case of an unfledged parson, end of chapter thirty seven, Chapter thirty
• 5:53:30
  eight, False Dawn. Just imagine this night week I'll be an AVONLEA delightful
• 5:53:37
  thought, said Anne, bending over the box in which she was packing missus
• 5:53:41
  Rachel Lynde's quilts. But just imagine this night week I'll be gone forever from
• 5:53:45
  Patty's place. Horrible thought. I wonder if the ghost of all our laughter
• 5:53:51
  will echo through the maiden dreams of Miss Patty and Miss Maria, speculated Phil.
• 5:53:56
  Miss Patty and Miss Maria were coming home after having trotted over most of
• 5:53:59
  the habit globe. We'll be back the second week in May, wrote Miss
• 5:54:03
  Patty. I expect Patty's place will seem rather small after the Hall of the
• 5:54:07
  King's at Karnak, But I never did like big places to live in,
• 5:54:10
  and I'll be glad enough to be home again. When you start traveling late
• 5:54:14
  in life, you're apt to do too much of it because you know you
• 5:54:17
  haven't much time left, and it's a thing that grows on you. I'm
• 5:54:19
  afraid Maria will never be contented again. I shall leave here my fancies and
• 5:54:25
  dreams to bless the next comer, said Anne, looking around the blue room
• 5:54:29
  wistfully, her pretty blue room, where she had spent three such happy years.
• 5:54:33
  She had knelted its window to prey, and had bent from it to
• 5:54:37
  watch the sunset behind the pines. She had heard the autumn rain drops beating
• 5:54:41
  against it, and had welcomed the spring robins at its sill. She wondered
• 5:54:45
  if old dreams could haunt rooms, if when one left forever the room where
• 5:54:48
  she had joyed and suffered and laughed and wept, something of her intangible and
• 5:54:53
  invisible, yet none the less real, did not remain behind, like a
• 5:54:57
  voiceful memory. I think, said Phil, that a room where one dreams
• 5:55:03
  and grieves and rejoices and lives becomes inseparably connected with those processes and acquires a
• 5:55:07
  personality of its own. I am sure if I came into this room fifty
• 5:55:11
  years from now, it would say, Anne, Anne, to me,
• 5:55:15
  what nice times we've had here, honey, What chats and jokes and good
• 5:55:18
  chummy jamborees. Oh, dear me. I'm to marry Joe and June,
• 5:55:23
  and I know I will be rapturously happy. But just now I feel as
• 5:55:27
  if I wanted this lovely Redmond life to go on forever. I'm unreasonable enough
• 5:55:33
  just now to wish that too, admitted Anne. No matter what deeper joys
• 5:55:36
  may come to us later on, we'll never again have just the same delightful,
• 5:55:40
  irresponsible existence we've had here. It's over forever, Phil, What are
• 5:55:45
  you going to do with Rusty? Asked Phil, as that privileged pussy padded
• 5:55:48
  into the room. I am going to take him home with me and Joseph
• 5:55:52
  and the Sarah cat, announced aunt Jamesina following Rusty. It would be a
• 5:55:56
  shame to separate those cats now that they have learned to live together. It's
• 5:55:59
  a hard lesson for cats and humans to learn. I'm sorry to part with
• 5:56:02
  Rusty, said Anne regretfully, but it would be no use to take him
• 5:56:06
  to Green Gables. Marilla detests cats, and Davy would tease his life out.
• 5:56:11
  Besides, I don't suppose i'll be home very long. I've been offered
• 5:56:15
  the principalship of the Summerside High School. Are you going to accept it?
• 5:56:18
  Asked Phil. I I haven't decided yet, answered Anne, with a confused
• 5:56:22
  flush. Phil nodded understandingly. Naturally, Anne's plans could not be settled until
• 5:56:29
  Roy had spoken he would soon. There was no doubt of that, and
• 5:56:33
  there was no doubt that Anne would say yes when he said, will you
• 5:56:36
  please? Anne herself regarded the state of affairs with a seldom ruffled complacency.
• 5:56:41
  She was deeply in love with Roy. True, it was not just what
• 5:56:45
  she had imagined love to be. But was anything in life, anne asked
• 5:56:48
  herself, wearily, like one's imagination of it. It was the old diamond
• 5:56:52
  disillusion of childhood, repeated the same disappointment she had felt when she had first
• 5:56:56
  seen the chills sparkle instead of the purples she had anticipated. That's not my
• 5:57:02
  idea of a diamond, she had said. But Roy was a dear fellow
• 5:57:07
  and they would be very happy together, even if some indefinable zest was missing
• 5:57:11
  out of life. When Roy came down that evening and asked Anne to walk
• 5:57:15
  in the park, every one at Patty's Place knew what he had come to
• 5:57:18
  say, and every one knew or thought they knew what Anne's answer would be.
• 5:57:23
  Anne is a very fortunate girl, said Aunt Jamesina. I suppose so,
• 5:57:27
  said Stella, shrugging her shoulders. Roy's a nice fellow and all that,
• 5:57:32
  But there's really nothing in him that sounds very like a jealous remark,
• 5:57:36
  Stella Maynard, said, Aunt Jamesina rebukingly, it does, but I am
• 5:57:40
  not jealous, said Stella calmly. I love Anne and I like Roy.
• 5:57:44
  Everybody says she is making a brilliant match, and even missus Gardner thinks her
• 5:57:48
  charming. Now it all sounds as if it were made in heaven, but
• 5:57:52
  I have my doubts. Make the most of that, Aunt Jamesina. Roy
• 5:57:57
  asked Anne to marry him in the little pavilion on the Harbor shore where they
• 5:58:00
  had talked on the rainy day of their first meeting. Anne thought it very
• 5:58:04
  romantic that he should have chosen that spot, and his proposal was as beautifully
• 5:58:08
  worded as if he had copied it as one of Ruby Gillis's lovers had done.
• 5:58:12
  Out of a deportment of courtship and marriage. The whole effect was quite
• 5:58:17
  flawless, and it was also sincere. There was no doubt that Roy meant
• 5:58:21
  what he said. There was no false note to jar the symphony. Anne
• 5:58:25
  felt that she ought to be thrilling from head to foot, but she wasn't.
• 5:58:29
  She was horribly cool. When Roy paused for his answer. She opened
• 5:58:33
  her lips to say her faithful yes, and then she found herself trembling,
• 5:58:37
  as if she were reeling back from a precipice. To her, came one
• 5:58:41
  of those moments when we realized, as by a blinding flash of illumination,
• 5:58:44
  more than all our previous years have taught us. She pulled her hand from
• 5:58:48
  Roy's. Oh, I can't marry you. I can't, I can't,
• 5:58:52
  she cried wildly. Roy turned pale and also looked rather foolish. He had
• 5:58:56
  small blame to him. Felt very sure. What do you mean, he
• 5:59:00
  stammered. I mean that I can't marry you, repeated Anne desperately. I
• 5:59:06
  thought I could, but I can't. Why can't you, Roy asked more
• 5:59:10
  calmly, Because I don't care enough for you. A crimson streak came into
• 5:59:15
  Roy's face. So you've just been amusing yourself these two years, he said,
• 5:59:21
  slowly. No, no, I haven't, gasped poor Anne. Oh
• 5:59:25
  how could she explain? She couldn't explain. There are some things that cannot
• 5:59:29
  be explained. I did think I cared, truly I did, But I
• 5:59:33
  know now I don't. You have ruined my life, said Roy, bitterly.
• 5:59:37
  Forgive me, pleaded Anne miserably, with hot cheeks and stinging eyes.
• 5:59:44
  Roy turned away and stood for a few minutes, looking out seaward. When
• 5:59:47
  he came back to Anne, he was very pale again. You can give
• 5:59:51
  me no hope, he said. Anne shook her head mutely. Then good
• 5:59:55
  bye, said Roy. I can't understand it. I can't believe you're not
• 6:00:00
  the woman I've believed you to be, but reproaches the idol between us.
• 6:00:03
  You are the only woman I can ever love. I thank you for your
• 6:00:06
  friendship, at least. Good Bye, Anne. Good Bye, faltered Anne.
• 6:00:11
  When Roy had gone, she sat for a long time in the pavilion,
• 6:00:14
  watching a white mist creeping subtly and remorselessly landward up the harbor. It
• 6:00:18
  was her hour of humiliation and self contempt and shame. Their waves went over
• 6:00:23
  her, and yet underneath it all was a queer sense of recovered freedom.
• 6:00:30
  She slipped into Patty's place in the dusk and escaped to her room. But
• 6:00:33
  Phil was there on the window seat. Wait, said Anne, flushing to
• 6:00:37
  anticipate the scene. Wait till you hear what I have to say, Phil.
• 6:00:41
  Roy asked me to marry him, and I refused you. You refused
• 6:00:47
  him, said Phil blankly. Yes, Anne, surely are you in your
• 6:00:52
  senses? I think so, said Anne wearily. Oh, Philip, don't
• 6:00:56
  scold me. You don't understand. I certainly don't understand. You've encouraged Roy
• 6:01:02
  Gardner in every way for two years, and now you told me you refused
• 6:01:06
  him. Then you've just been flirting scandalously with him, Anne, I couldn't
• 6:01:11
  have believed it of you. I wasn't flirting with him. I honestly thought
• 6:01:15
  i'd carried up to the last minute, and then well, I just knew
• 6:01:18
  I never could marry him. I suppose, said Phil cruelly, that you
• 6:01:22
  intended to marry him for his money, and then your better self rose up
• 6:01:26
  and prevented you. I didn't. I never thought about his money. Oh,
• 6:01:30
  I can't explain it to you any more than I could to him.
• 6:01:33
  Well, I certainly think you have treated Roy, shamefully, said Phil in
• 6:01:37
  exasperation. He's handsome and clever and rich and good. What more do you
• 6:01:41
  want? I want some one who belongs in my life. He doesn't.
• 6:01:45
  I was swept off my feet at first by his good looks and knack of
• 6:01:48
  paying romantic compliments, and later on I thought I must be in love because
• 6:01:52
  he was my dark eyed ideal. I am bad enough for not knowing my
• 6:01:56
  own mind, but you are worse, said Phil. I do know my
• 6:02:00
  own mind, protested Anne. What trouble is my mind changes, and then
• 6:02:04
  I have to get acquainted with it all over again. Well, I suppose
• 6:02:08
  there is no use in saying anything to you. There is no need,
• 6:02:11
  Phil, I'm in the dust. This has spoiled everything backwards. I can
• 6:02:17
  never think of Redmond days without recalling the humiliation of this evening. Roy despises
• 6:02:22
  me, and you despise me, and I despise myself. You poor darling,
• 6:02:26
  said Phil melting Just come here and let me comfort you. I've no
• 6:02:30
  right to scold you. I'd have married Alec Orlonzo if I hadn't met Joe,
• 6:02:34
  Oh Anne. Things are so mixed up in real life. They aren't
• 6:02:38
  clear cut and trimmed off as they are in novels. I hope that no
• 6:02:42
  one will ever again ask me to marry him as long as I live.
• 6:02:45
  Sobbed poor Anne devoutly believing that she meant it. End of chapter thirty eight.
• 6:02:52
  Chapter thirty nine deals with weddings, Anne felt that life partook of the
• 6:02:57
  nature of an anti climax. During the first few weeks after her return to
• 6:03:02
  Green Gables, she missed the merry comradeship of Patty's place. She had dreamed
• 6:03:07
  some brilliant dreams during the past winter, and now they lay in the dust
• 6:03:11
  around her. In her present mood of self disgust, she could not immediately
• 6:03:15
  begin dreaming again, and she discovered that while solitude with dreams is glorious,
• 6:03:21
  solitude without them has few charms. She had not seen Roy again after their
• 6:03:26
  painful parting in the park pavilion, but Dorothy came to see her before she
• 6:03:30
  left Kingsport. I'm awfully sorry you won't marry Roy, she said. I
• 6:03:33
  did want you for a sister, but you are quite right. He would
• 6:03:37
  bore you to death. I love him, and he is a dear,
• 6:03:41
  sweet boy, but really he isn't a bit interesting. He looks as if
• 6:03:45
  he ought to be, but he isn't. This won't spoil our friendship,
• 6:03:48
  will it, Dorothy, Anne had asked wistfully, No, Indeed, you're
• 6:03:52
  too good to lose. If I can't have you for a sister, I
• 6:03:55
  mean to keep you as a chum anyway, And don't fret over Roy.
• 6:03:59
  He is feeling terribly just now. I have to listen to his outpourings every
• 6:04:03
  day. But he'll get over it. He always does, Oh, always,
• 6:04:07
  said Anne, with a slight change of voice. So he has got
• 6:04:10
  over it before, dear me, Yes, said Dorothy frankly, twice before,
• 6:04:15
  and he raved to me just the same both times. Not that the
• 6:04:18
  others actually refused him. They simply announced their engagements to some one else.
• 6:04:22
  Of course, when he met you, he vowed to me that he had
• 6:04:25
  never really loved before, that the previous affairs had been merely boyish fancies.
• 6:04:30
  But I don't think you need worry. Anne decided not to worry. Her
• 6:04:33
  feelings were a mixture of relief and resentment. Roy had certainly told her she
• 6:04:37
  was the only one he had ever loved, no doubt he believed it.
• 6:04:41
  But it was a comfort to feel that she had not, in all likelihood
• 6:04:45
  ruined his life. There were other goddesses, and Roy, according to Dorothy,
• 6:04:48
  must needs be worshiping at some shrine. Nevertheless, life was stripped of
• 6:04:53
  several more illusions, and Anne began to think drearily that it seemed rather bare.
• 6:05:00
  She came down from the porch gable on the evening of her return with
• 6:05:03
  a sorrowful face. What has happened to the old snow Queen Marilla? Oh,
• 6:05:07
  I knew you'd feel bad over that, said Marilla. I've felt bad
• 6:05:11
  myself. That tree was there ever since I was a young girl. It
• 6:05:15
  blew down in the big gale we had in March. It was rotten at
• 6:05:18
  the core. I'll miss it, so grieved Anne. The porch gable doesn't
• 6:05:22
  seem the same room without it. I'll never look from its window again without
• 6:05:26
  a sense of loss. And oh, I never came home to Green Gables
• 6:05:30
  before that. Diana wasn't here to welcome me. Diana has something else to
• 6:05:33
  think of just now, said missus Lynde significantly. Well tell me all the
• 6:05:37
  Avonlea news, said Anne, sitting down on the porch steps, where the
• 6:05:41
  evening's sunshine fell over her hair in a fine golden rain. There isn't much
• 6:05:45
  news except what we've wrote you, said Missus Lynde. I suppose you haven't
• 6:05:49
  heard that Simon Fletcher broke his leg last week. It's a great thing for
• 6:05:52
  his family. They're getting a hundred things done that they've always wanted to do
• 6:05:56
  but couldn't as long as he was about the old crank came of an aggravating
• 6:06:00
  family, remarked Marilla. Aggravating. Well, rather, his mother used to
• 6:06:04
  get up in prayer meetings and tell all her children's shortcomings and ask prayers for
• 6:06:08
  them. Course it made them mad and worse than ever. You haven't told
• 6:06:12
  Anne the news about Jane, suggested Marilla. Oh, Jane, sniffed Missus
• 6:06:17
  Lynde. Well, she conceded grudgingly. Jane Andrews's home from the West came
• 6:06:22
  last week, and she's going to be married to a Winnipeg millionaire. You
• 6:06:26
  may be sure. Missus Harmon lost no time in telling it far and wide.
• 6:06:30
  Dear old Jane, I'm so glad, said Anne heartily. She deserves
• 6:06:33
  the good things of life. Oh, I ain't saying anything against Jane.
• 6:06:37
  She's a nice enough girl, but she isn't in the millionaire class. And
• 6:06:40
  you'll find there's not much to recommend that man but his money. That's what
• 6:06:44
  missus Harmon says. He's an Englishman who has made his money in mines,
• 6:06:47
  but I believe he'll turn out to be a Yankee. He certainly must have
• 6:06:51
  money, for he has just showered Jane with jewelry. Her engagement ring is
• 6:06:55
  a diamond cluster so big that it looks like a plaster on Jane's fat paw.
• 6:07:00
  Missus Lynde could not keep some bitterness out of her tone. Here was
• 6:07:03
  Jane Andrews, that plain little plotter, engaged to a millionaire, while Anne,
• 6:07:07
  it seemed, was not yet bespoken by any one rich or poor.
• 6:07:11
  And missus Harmon Andrews did brag insufferably. What has Gilbert Blythe been doing to
• 6:07:17
  at college? Asked Marilla. I saw him when he came home last week,
• 6:07:19
  and he is so pale and thin. I hardly knew him. He
• 6:07:22
  studied very hard last winter, said Anne. You know he took high honors
• 6:07:26
  and classes and the Cooper Prize. It hasn't been taken for five years,
• 6:07:30
  so I think he's rather run down. We're all a little tired anyhow.
• 6:07:34
  You're a b a and Jane Andrews isn't and never will be, said missus
• 6:07:37
  Lynde with gloomy satisfaction. A few evenings later, Anne went down to see
• 6:07:42
  Jane, but the latter was away in Charlottetown, getting sewing done, missus
• 6:07:47
  Harmon informed Anne proudly. Of course an avonlea dressmaker wouldn't do for Jane under
• 6:07:52
  the circumstances. I've heard something very nice about Jane, said Anne. Yes,
• 6:07:56
  Jane has done pretty well, even if she is to Bie, said
• 6:08:00
  missus Harmon with a slight toss of her head. Mister Inglis is worth millions,
• 6:08:04
  and they're going to Europe on their wedding tour. When they come back,
• 6:08:07
  they'll live in a perfect mansion of marble and Winnipeg. Jane has only
• 6:08:11
  one trouble. She can cook so well, and her husband won't let her
• 6:08:15
  cook. He is so rich he hires his cooking done. They're going to
• 6:08:18
  keep a cook and two other maids, and a coachman and a man of
• 6:08:22
  all work. But what about you, Anne, I don't hear anything of
• 6:08:25
  your being married after all your college going, Oh laughed Anne. I'm going
• 6:08:30
  to be an old maid. I really can't find any one to suit me.
• 6:08:33
  It was rather wicked of her. She deliberately meant to remind missus Andrews
• 6:08:37
  that if she became an old maid, it was not because she had not
• 6:08:41
  had at least one chance of marriage, but missus Harmon took swift revenge.
• 6:08:45
  Well, the over particular girls generally get left. I notice, And what's
• 6:08:49
  this I hear about Gilbert Blythe being engaged to a Miss Stewart. Charlie Sloane
• 6:08:53
  tells me she is perfectly beautiful? Is it true? I don't know if
• 6:08:56
  it is true that he is engaged to Miss Stewart. REPLI clied Anne with
• 6:09:00
  spartan composure, but it is certainly true that she is very lovely. I
• 6:09:04
  once thought you and Gilbert would have made a match of it, said missus
• 6:09:07
  Harmon. If you don't take care, Anne, all of your bows will
• 6:09:10
  slip through your fingers. Anne decided not to continue her duel with missus Harmon.
• 6:09:15
  You could not fence with an antagonist who met rapier thrust with blow of
• 6:09:18
  battle axe. Since Jane is away, she said, rising haughtily, I
• 6:09:23
  don't think I can stay longer this morning. I'll come down when she comes
• 6:09:26
  home, do said missus Harmon effusively. Jane isn't a bit proud. She
• 6:09:32
  just means to associate with her old friends the same as ever. She'll be
• 6:09:34
  real glad to see you. Jane's millionaire arrived the last of May, and
• 6:09:40
  carried her off in a blaze of splendor. Missus Lynde was spitefully gratified to
• 6:09:44
  find that mister Inglis was every day of forty and short and thin and grayish.
• 6:09:48
  Missus Lynde did not spare him in her enumeration of his shortcomings. You
• 6:09:52
  may be sure it will take all his goal to gild a pill like him,
• 6:09:56
  That's what said missus Rachel solemnly. He looks kind and good hearted,
• 6:10:00
  said Anne loyally. And I'm sure he thinks the world of Jane, said
• 6:10:04
  Missus Rachel. Phil Gordon was married the next week, and Anne went over
• 6:10:08
  to Bolingbroke to be her bridesmaid. Phil made a dainty fairy of a bride,
• 6:10:14
  and the Reverend Joe was so radiant in his happiness that nobody thought him
• 6:10:17
  plain. We're going for a lover's saunter through the land of Evangeline, said
• 6:10:21
  Phil, and then we'll settle down on Patterson Street. Mother thinks it is
• 6:10:25
  terrible. She thinks Joe might at least take a church in a decent place.
• 6:10:27
  But the wilderness of the Patterson slums will blossom like the rose for me.
• 6:10:32
  If Joe is there, Oh, Anne, I'm so happy. My
• 6:10:34
  heart aches with it. Anne was always glad in the happiness of her friends,
• 6:10:40
  but it is sometimes a little lonely to be surrounded everywhere by a happiness
• 6:10:42
  that is not your own. And it was just the same when she went
• 6:10:45
  back to Avonlea. This time it was Diana who was bathed in the wonderful
• 6:10:49
  glory that comes to a woman when her first born is laid beside her.
• 6:10:53
  Anne looked at the white young mother with a certain awe that had never entered
• 6:10:57
  into her feelings for Diana before. Could this pale woman with the rapture in
• 6:11:02
  her eyes be the little black, curled, rosy cheeked Diana she had played
• 6:11:06
  with in vanished school days. It gave her a queer, desolate feeling that
• 6:11:10
  she herself somehow belonged only in those past years and had no business in the
• 6:11:14
  present at all. Isn't he perfectly beautiful? Said Diana proudly. The little
• 6:11:19
  fat fellow was absurdly like Fred, just as round, just as bred.
• 6:11:25
  Anne really could not conscientiously say that she thought him beautiful, but she vowed
• 6:11:29
  sincerely that he was sweet and kissable and altogether delightful. Before he came,
• 6:11:33
  I wanted a girl so that I could call her Anne, said Diana.
• 6:11:37
  But now that little Fred is here, I wouldn't exchange him for a million
• 6:11:40
  girls. He just couldn't have been anything but his own precious self. Every
• 6:11:45
  little baby is the sweetest and the best, quoted Missus Allan Gaily. If
• 6:11:48
  little Anne had come, you'd have felt just the same about her. Missus
• 6:11:52
  Allan was visiting in Avonlea for the first time since leaving it. She was
• 6:11:56
  as gay and sweet and sympathetic as ever. Her old girl friends had welcomed
• 6:12:00
  her back rapturously. The reigning minister's wife was an estimable lady, but she
• 6:12:03
  was not exactly a kindred spirit. I can hardly wait till he gets old
• 6:12:07
  enough to talk, sighed Diana. I just longed to hear him say mother,
• 6:12:11
  and oh, I am determined that his first memory of me shall be
• 6:12:15
  a nice one. The first memory I have of my mother is of her
• 6:12:18
  slapping me for something I had done. I'm sure I deserved it, and
• 6:12:21
  mother was always a good mother, and I love her dearly, but I
• 6:12:23
  do wish my first memory of her was nicer. I have just one memory
• 6:12:29
  of my mother, and it is the sweetest of all my memories, said
• 6:12:32
  missus Allen. I was five years old and I have been allowed to go
• 6:12:34
  to school one day with my two older sisters. When school came out,
• 6:12:37
  my sisters went home in different groups, each supposing I was with the other.
• 6:12:41
  Instead, I had run off with the little girl I had played with
• 6:12:44
  at recess. We went to her home, which was near the school,
• 6:12:47
  and began making mud pies. We were having a glorious time when my older
• 6:12:52
  sister arrived, breathless and angry. You naughty girl, she cried, snatching
• 6:12:56
  my reluctant hand and dragging me along with her. Come home this minute.
• 6:13:00
  Oh you're gonna catch it. Mother is awful cross. She's going to give
• 6:13:03
  you a good whipping. I had never been whipped. Dread and terror filled,
• 6:13:07
  my poor little heart. I have never been so miserable in my life
• 6:13:11
  as I was on that walk home. I had not meant to be naughty.
• 6:13:14
  Femmy Cameron had asked me to go home with her, and I had
• 6:13:17
  not known it was wrong to go, and now I was to be whipped
• 6:13:19
  for it. When we got home, my sister dragged me into the kitchen
• 6:13:22
  where Mother was sitting by the fire in the twilight. My poor wee legs
• 6:13:26
  were trembling so that I could hardly stand had mother. Mother just took me
• 6:13:30
  up in her arms, without one word of rebuke or harshness, kissed me
• 6:13:34
  and held me close to her heart. I was so frightened. You were
• 6:13:37
  lost, darling, she said tenderly. I could see the love shining in
• 6:13:41
  her eyes as she looked down on me. She never scolded or reproached me
• 6:13:45
  for what I had done, only told me I must never go away again
• 6:13:48
  without asking permission. She died very soon afterwards. That is the only memory
• 6:13:52
  I have of her, Isn't it a beautiful one? Anne felt lonelier than
• 6:13:57
  ever as she walked home, going by way of the birch path and willow
• 6:14:00
  near. She had not walked that way from many moons. It was a
• 6:14:04
  darkly purple, bloomy night. The air was heavy with blossom fragrance, almost
• 6:14:10
  too heavy. The Cloyd's senses recoiled from it as from an overfull cup.
• 6:14:15
  The birches of the path had grown from the fairy saplings of old to big
• 6:14:18
  trees. Everything had changed. Anne felt that she would be glad when the
• 6:14:22
  summer was over and she was away at work again, perhaps life would not
• 6:14:26
  seem so empty. Then I've tried the world. It wears no more the
• 6:14:30
  coloring of romance it wore, sighed Anne, and was straightway much comforted by
• 6:14:34
  the romance in the idea of the world being denuded of romance. End of
• 6:14:40
  chapter thirty nine, Chapter forty A Book of Revelation. The Irvings came back
• 6:14:47
  to Echo Lodge for the summer, and Anne spent a happy three weeks there.
• 6:14:51
  In July, Miss Lavendar had not changed. Karlotta the Fourth was a
• 6:14:55
  very grown up young lady now, but still adored Anne's sincerely. When I'll
• 6:15:00
  said and done, Miss Shirley, ma'am, I haven't seen any one in
• 6:15:02
  Boston that's equel to you, she said frankly. Paul was almost grown up
• 6:15:06
  too, he was sixteen. His chestnut curls had given place to close cropped
• 6:15:11
  brown locks, and he was more interested in football than fairies. But the
• 6:15:15
  bond between him and his old teachers still held kindred spirits alone did not change
• 6:15:18
  with changing years. It was a wet, bleak, cruel evening in July
• 6:15:23
  when Anne came back to Green Gables. One of the fierce summer storms which
• 6:15:26
  sometimes sweep over the Gulf was ravaging the sea. As Anne came in,
• 6:15:32
  the first rain drops dashed against the panes. Was that Paul who brought you
• 6:15:36
  home? Asked Marilla? Why didn't you make him stay all night? It's
• 6:15:38
  going to be a wild evening. He'll reach Echo Lodge before the rain gets
• 6:15:42
  very heavy. I think anyway, he wanted to go back to night.
• 6:15:45
  Well, I've had a splendid visit, but I'm glad to see you dear
• 6:15:49
  folks again East West Hame's best. Davy, have you been growing again lately?
• 6:15:55
  I've growed a whole inch since you left, said Davy proudly. I'm
• 6:15:59
  as tall as Milty Bolter, now, Ain't I glad? He'll have to
• 6:16:02
  stop crowing about being bigger? Say Anne, did you know that Gilbert Blythe
• 6:16:06
  is dying? Anne stood quite silent and motionless, looking at Davy. Her
• 6:16:11
  face had gone so white that Marilla thought she was going to faint. Davy,
• 6:16:15
  hold your tongue, said missus Rachel angrily. Anne. Don't look like
• 6:16:18
  that. Don't look like that. We didn't mean to tell you so suddenly,
• 6:16:22
  is it? True, asked Anne, in a voice that was not
• 6:16:26
  hers. Gilbert is very ill, said Missus Lynde gravely. He took down
• 6:16:30
  with typhoid fever just after you left for Echo Lodge. Did you never hear
• 6:16:34
  of it? No, said that unknown voice. It was a very bad
• 6:16:38
  case from the start. The doctor said he'd been terribly run down. They've
• 6:16:44
  a trained nurse and everything's been done. Don't look like that, Anne,
• 6:16:48
  While there's life, there's hope. Mister Harrison was here this evening and he
• 6:16:51
  said they had no hope of him, reiterated Davy. Marilla, looking old
• 6:16:56
  and worn and tired, got up and marched Davy grimly out of the kitchen.
• 6:17:00
  Oh don't look so dear, said Missus Rachel, putting her kind old
• 6:17:03
  arms about the pallid girl. I haven't given up hope. Indeed, I
• 6:17:07
  haven't. He's got the blithe Constitution in his favor. That's what Anne gently
• 6:17:14
  put Missus Lynde's arms away from her, walked blindly across the kitchen, through
• 6:17:18
  the hall, up the stairs to her old room. At its window,
• 6:17:21
  she knelt down, staring out unseeingly. It was very dark. The rain
• 6:17:26
  was beating down over the shivering fields, the haunted woods was full of the
• 6:17:30
  groans of mighty trees rung in the tempest, and the air throbbed with a
• 6:17:34
  thunderous crash of billows on the distant shore. And Gilbert was dying. There
• 6:17:41
  is a book of revelation in every one's life, as there is in the
• 6:17:44
  Bible. Anne read hers that bitter night as she kept her agonized vigil through
• 6:17:48
  the hours of storm and darkness. She loved Gilbert, had always loved him.
• 6:17:55
  She knew that now. She knew that she could no more cast him
• 6:17:57
  out of her life without agony than she could have cut off her right hand
• 6:18:00
  and cast it from her. And the knowledge had come too late, too
• 6:18:04
  late, even for the bitter solace of being with him at the last.
• 6:18:08
  If she had not been so blind, so foolish, she would have had
• 6:18:12
  the right to go to him now. But he would never know that she
• 6:18:15
  loved him. He would go away from this life thinking that she did not
• 6:18:18
  care. Oh, the black years of emptiness stretching before her, She could
• 6:18:23
  not live through them. She could not. She cowered down by her window
• 6:18:27
  and wished, for the first time in her gay young life that she could
• 6:18:32
  die too. If Gilbert went away from her without one word or sign or
• 6:18:37
  message. She could not live. Nothing was of any value without him.
• 6:18:41
  She belonged to him, and he to her. In her hour of supreme
• 6:18:45
  agony, she had no doubt of that he did not love Christine Stuart,
• 6:18:49
  never had loved Christine Stuart. Oh what a fool she had been not to
• 6:18:53
  realize what the bond was that had held her to Gilbert, to think that
• 6:18:57
  the flattered fancy she had felt were Roy Gardener had been love, And now
• 6:19:02
  she must pay for her folliess for a crime. Missus Lynde and Marilla crept
• 6:19:07
  to her door before they went to bed, shook their heads doubtfully at each
• 6:19:11
  other over the silence, and went away. The storm raged all night,
• 6:19:15
  but when the dawn came it was spent. Anne saw a fairy fringe of
• 6:19:19
  light on the skirts of darkness. Soon the eastern hilltops had a fire shot
• 6:19:25
  ruby rim. The clouds rolled themselves away into great, soft white masses on
• 6:19:30
  the horizon. The sky gleamed blue and silvery. A hush fell over the
• 6:19:34
  world. Anne rose from her knees and crept downstairs. The freshness of the
• 6:19:41
  rain wind blew against her white face as she went out into the yard and
• 6:19:45
  cooled her dry burning eyes. A merry, rollicking whistle was lilting up the
• 6:19:49
  lane. A moment later, Pacific Butte came in sight. Anne's physical strength
• 6:19:55
  suddenly failed her. If she had not clutched at a low willow bough,
• 6:19:59
  she would have fallen. Passy Fik was George Fletcher's hired man, and George
• 6:20:03
  Fletcher lived next door to the Blinks. Missus Fletcher was Gilbert's aunt. Passy
• 6:20:07
  Fike would know if if Passy Fike would know what there was to be known.
• 6:20:11
  Passy Fik strode sturdily on along the red lane, whistling. He did
• 6:20:15
  not see Anne. She made three futile attempts to call him. He was
• 6:20:19
  almost past before she succeeded in making her quivering lips call Passy Fick. Passy
• 6:20:25
  Fike turned with a grin and a cheerful good morning. Passy Fike, said
• 6:20:29
  Anne, faintly. Did you come from George Fletcher's this morning? Sure,
• 6:20:33
  said Passy Fik amiably. I got the word last night that my father he
• 6:20:37
  was sick. It was so stormy that I couldn't go den, so I
• 6:20:38
  start very early this morning, I'm going true the woods for short cut.
• 6:20:44
  Did you hear how Gilbert blythe was this morning? Anne's desperation drove her to
• 6:20:48
  the question, even the worst would be more endurable than this hideous suspense.
• 6:20:52
  He's better, said passy Fik. He got to turn last night? Did
• 6:20:56
  doctor say he'll be all right now this soon? While had close? Shame
• 6:21:00
  da boy? He just kill himself at college. While I must hurry the
• 6:21:03
  old man he'll be in hurry to see me. Pacifique resumed his walk and
• 6:21:07
  his whistle. Anne gazed after him with eyes where joy was driving out the
• 6:21:11
  strained anguish of the night. He was a very lank, very ragged,
• 6:21:17
  very homely youth, but in her side he was as beautiful as those who
• 6:21:19
  bring good tidings on the mountains. Never as long as she lived would Anne
• 6:21:25
  see Pacifik's brown, round, black eyed face without a warm remembrance of the
• 6:21:29
  moment when he had given to her the oil of joy for morning. Long
• 6:21:33
  after Pasefik's gay whistle had faded into the phantom of music and then into silence.
• 6:21:38
  Far up under the maples of Lover's Lane, Anne stood under the willows,
• 6:21:41
  tasting the poignant sweetness of life when some great dread has been removed from
• 6:21:47
  it. The morning was a cup filled with mist and glamour. In the
• 6:21:51
  corner near her was a rich surprise of new blown crystal dewed roses. The
• 6:21:56
  trills and trickles of song from the birds in the big tree above her seat.
• 6:22:00
  In perfect accord with her mood, a sentence from a very old,
• 6:22:03
  very true, very wonderful book came to her lips. Weeping may endure for
• 6:22:07
  a night, but joy cometh in the morning. End of Chapter forty.
• 6:22:14
  Chapter forty one, Love takes up the glass of time. I've come up
• 6:22:19
  to ask you to go for one of our old time rambles through september woods
• 6:22:22
  and over hills where spices grow this afternoon, said Gilbert, coming suddenly around
• 6:22:26
  the porch corner. Suppose we visit Hester Gray's garden. Anne, sitting on
• 6:22:33
  the stone step with her lap full of a pale, filmy green stuff,
• 6:22:36
  looked up rather blankly. Oh I wish I could, she said, slowly,
• 6:22:41
  but I really can't. Gilbert. I'm going to Alice Penhallow's wedding this
• 6:22:45
  evening. You know, I've got to do something to this dress and by
• 6:22:48
  the time it's finished, I'll have to get ready. I'm so sorry,
• 6:22:51
  I'd love to go. Well, can you go tomorrow afternoon, then asked
• 6:22:53
  Gilbert, apparently not much disappointed. Yes, I think so. In that
• 6:22:59
  case, I shall buy me home at once to do something I should otherwise
• 6:23:02
  have to do tomorrow. So Alice Penhallow is to be married to Night.
• 6:23:04
  Three weddings for you in one summer, Anne, Phil's, Alice's and Jane's.
• 6:23:08
  I'll never forgive Jane for not inviting me to her wedding. You really
• 6:23:12
  can't blame her when you think of the tremendous Andrew's connection who had to be
• 6:23:15
  invited. The house could hardly hold them all. I was only bidden by
• 6:23:19
  grace of being Jane's old chum, at least on Jane's part. I think
• 6:23:22
  missus Harmon's motive for inviting me was to let me see Jane's surpassing gorgeousness.
• 6:23:27
  Is it true that she wore so many diamonds that you couldn't tell where the
• 6:23:30
  diamonds left off? And Jane began. Anne laughed. She certainly wore a
• 6:23:34
  good many, what with all the diamonds and white satin and tul and lace
• 6:23:40
  and roses and orange blossoms. Prim little Jane was almost lost to sight,
• 6:23:44
  but she was very happy, and so was mister Inglis, and so was
• 6:23:48
  missus Harmon. Is that the dress you're going to wear to night? Asked
• 6:23:51
  Gilbert, looking down at the fluffs and frills. Yes, isn't it pretty?
• 6:23:55
  I shall wear star flowers in my hair. The Haunted wood is full
• 6:23:59
  of them this summer. Gilbert had a sudden vision of Anne arrayed in a
• 6:24:03
  frilly green gown, with the virginal curves of arms and throats slipping out of
• 6:24:07
  it, and white stars shining against the coils of her ruddy hair. The
• 6:24:11
  vision made him catch his breath, but he turned lightly away. Well,
• 6:24:15
  I'll be up tomorrow, hope you'll have a nice time to night. Anne
• 6:24:18
  looked after him as he strode away and sighed. Gilbert was friendly, very
• 6:24:22
  friendly, far too friendly. He had come quite often to Green Gables after
• 6:24:27
  his recovery, and something of their old comradeship had returned, but Anne no
• 6:24:32
  longer found it satisfying. The rose of love made the blossom of friendship pale
• 6:24:37
  and scentless by contrast, and Anne had again begun to doubt if Gilbert now
• 6:24:41
  felt anything for her but friendship. In the common light of common day,
• 6:24:45
  her radiant certainty of that rapt morning had faded. She was haunted by a
• 6:24:49
  miserable fear that her mistake could never be rectified. It was quite likely that
• 6:24:53
  it was Christine whom Gilbert loved after all, perhaps he was even engaged to
• 6:24:57
  her. Anne tried to put all unsettling hopes out of her heart and reconcile
• 6:25:02
  herself to a future where work and ambition must take the place of love.
• 6:25:06
  She could do good, if not noble, work as a teacher, and
• 6:25:10
  the success her little sketches were beginning to meet with in certain editorial sanctums augured
• 6:25:14
  well for her budding literary dreams. But but Anne picked up her green dress
• 6:25:21
  and sighed again. When Gilbert came the next afternoon, he found Anne waiting
• 6:25:26
  for him, fresh as the dawn and fair as a star, after all
• 6:25:29
  the gayety of the preceding night. She wore a green dress, not the
• 6:25:33
  one she had warned of the wedding, but an old one which Gilbert had
• 6:25:36
  told her at a Redmond reception. He liked especially it was just the shade
• 6:25:40
  of green that brought out the rich tints of her hair, and the starry
• 6:25:42
  gray of her eyes, and the iris like delicacy of her skin. Gilbert,
• 6:25:48
  glancing at her sideways as they walked along a shadowy woodpath, thought she
• 6:25:51
  had never looked so lovely. Anne glancing sideways at Gilbert now, and then
• 6:25:56
  thought, how much older he looked since his illness. It was as if
• 6:26:00
  if he had put boyhood behind him forever. The day was beautiful, and
• 6:26:03
  the way was beautiful. Anne was almost sorry when they reached hester Gray's garden
• 6:26:08
  and sat down on the old bench. But it was beautiful there too,
• 6:26:12
  as beautiful as it had been on the far away day of the Golden Picnic,
• 6:26:15
  when Diana and Jane and Priscilla and she had found it. Then it
• 6:26:19
  had been lovely with narcissus and violets. Now golden rod had kindled its fairy
• 6:26:25
  torches in the corners, and astors dotted it bluely. The call of the
• 6:26:29
  brook came up through the woods from the valley of Birches with all its old
• 6:26:33
  allurement. The mellow air was full of the purr of the sea. Beyond
• 6:26:37
  were fields rimmed by fences bleached silvery gray in the suns of many summers,
• 6:26:41
  and long hills scarked with the shadows of autumnal clouds. With the blowing of
• 6:26:45
  the west wind. Old dreams returned. I think, said Anne softly,
• 6:26:51
  that the land where dreams come true is in the blue haze yonder over that
• 6:26:56
  little valley. Have you any unfulfilled dreams? Anne asked Gilbert. Something in
• 6:27:02
  his tone, something she had not heard since that miserable evening in the orchard
• 6:27:06
  at Patty's place, made Anne's heart beat wildly, but she made answer lightly.
• 6:27:11
  Of course everybody has. It wouldn't do for us to have all our
• 6:27:15
  dreams fulfilled. We would be as good as dead if we had nothing left
• 6:27:18
  to dream about. What a delicious aroma that low descending sun is extracting from
• 6:27:23
  the asters and ferns. I wish we could see perfumes as well as smell
• 6:27:27
  them. I am sure they would be very beautiful. Gilbert was not to
• 6:27:32
  be thus sidetracked. I have a dream, he said slowly. I persist
• 6:27:36
  in dreaming it, although it has often seemed to me that it could never
• 6:27:38
  come true. I dream of a home with a hearth fire in it,
• 6:27:42
  a cat and dog. The footsteps of friends and you. Anne wanted to
• 6:27:48
  speak, but she could find no words. Happiness was breaking over her like
• 6:27:52
  a wave. It almost frightened her. I asked you a question over two
• 6:27:57
  years ago, Anne. If I ask it again to day, will you
• 6:28:02
  give me a different answer? Still Anne could not speak, but she lifted
• 6:28:07
  her eyes, shining with all the love rapture of countless generations, and looked
• 6:28:11
  into his for a moment. He wanted no other answer. They lingered in
• 6:28:17
  the old garden until twilight, sweet as dusk, and Eden must have been
• 6:28:21
  crept over it. There was so much to talk over and recall, things
• 6:28:26
  said and done and heard, and thought and felt and misunderstood. I thought
• 6:28:30
  you loved Christine's stewart, Anne told him as reproachfully, as if she had
• 6:28:33
  not given him every reason to suppose that she loved Roy Gardner. Gilbert laughed
• 6:28:38
  boyishly. Christine was engaged to somebody in her home town. I knew it,
• 6:28:44
  and she knew I knew it. When her brother graduated, he told
• 6:28:47
  me his sister was coming to Kingsport the next winter to take music, and
• 6:28:49
  asked me if I would look after her a bit. If she knew no
• 6:28:52
  one and would be very lonely. So I did, and then I liked
• 6:28:56
  Christine for her own sake. She is one of the nicest girls I've ever
• 6:28:59
  known. I knew college gossip credited us with being in love with each other.
• 6:29:03
  I didn't care. Nothing mattered much to me For a time there after
• 6:29:06
  you told me you could never love me, Anne, there was nobody else
• 6:29:10
  There never could be anybody else for me but you. I've loved you ever
• 6:29:14
  since that day you broke your slate over my head in school. I don't
• 6:29:17
  see how you could keep on loving me when I was such a little fool,
• 6:29:19
  said Anne. Well. I tried to stop, said Gilbert frankly,
• 6:29:23
  not because I thought you what you call yourself, but because I felt sure
• 6:29:26
  there was no chance for me after Gardner came on the scene. But I
• 6:29:30
  couldn't And I can't tell you either, what it's meant to me these two
• 6:29:33
  years to believe you were going to marry him, and be told every week
• 6:29:37
  by some busybody that your engagement was on the point of being announced. I
• 6:29:41
  believed it until one blessed day, when I was sitting up after the fever,
• 6:29:45
  I got a letter from Phil Gordon of phil Blake rather, in which
• 6:29:48
  he told me there was really nothing between you and Roy and advised me to
• 6:29:52
  try again. Well, the doctor was amazed at my rapid recovery after that,
• 6:29:56
  Anne laughed, then shivered. I could never forget the night I thought
• 6:30:00
  you were dying, Gilbert. Oh, I knew, I knew then,
• 6:30:04
  and I thought it was too late. But it wasn't, sweetheart. Oh
• 6:30:10
  Anne, this makes up for everything, doesn't it. Let's resolve to keep
• 6:30:12
  this day sacred to perfect beauty, all our lives, for the gift it
• 6:30:15
  has given us. It's the birthday of our happiness, said Anne softly.
• 6:30:21
  I've always loved this old garden of hester Gray's, and now it will be
• 6:30:23
  dearer than ever. But I'll have to ask you to wait a long time,
• 6:30:27
  Anne, said Gilbert sadly. It will be three years before I'll finish
• 6:30:32
  my medical course, and even then there will be no diamonds, sunbursts and
• 6:30:36
  marble halls. Anne laughed. I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I
• 6:30:41
  just want you. You see, I'm quite as shameless as fill about it.
• 6:30:45
  Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well, but there is more
• 6:30:48
  scope for imagination without them. And as for the waiting, that doesn't matter.
• 6:30:52
  We'll just be happy waiting and working for each other and dreaming. Oh,
• 6:30:57
  dreams will be very sweet now. Gilbert drew her close to him and
• 6:31:02
  kissed her. Then they walked home together in the dusk, crowned King and
• 6:31:06
  Queen, in the bridal realm of love, along winding paths fringed with the
• 6:31:10
  sweetest flowers that ever bloomed, and over haunted meadows where winds of hope and
• 6:31:14
  memory blew. End of chapter forty one. End of Anne of the Island
• 6:31:19
  by Lucy Maud Montgomery