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Anne's House of Dreams - Dramatic Reading · Anne's House of Dreams - Dramatic Reading

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  Chapter one in the Garret of green Gables. Thanks b I'm done with geometry
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  learning or teaching it, said Anne Shirley, a trifle vindictively, as she
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  thumped a somewhat battered volume of Euclid into a big chest of books, banged
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  the lid in triumph, and sat down upon it, looking at Diana Wright
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  across the Green Gables garret with gray eyes that were like a morning sky.
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  The garret was a shadowy, suggestive, delightful place, as all garret should
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  be. Through the open window by which Anne sat blew the sweet scented sun
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  warm air of the August afternoon. Outside, poplar boughs rustled and tossed in
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  the wind. Beyond them were the woods where lovers Lane wound its enchanted path,
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  and the old apple orchard, which still bore its rosy harvests munificently.
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  And over all was a great mountain range of snowy clouds in the blue southern
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  sky. Through the other window was glimpsed a distant, white capped blue sea,
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  the beautiful snag Lawrence Gulf on which floats like a jewel. Abog White,
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  whose softer, sweeter Indian name has long been forsaken for the more prosaic
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  one of Prince Edward Island. Diana Wright, three years older than when we
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  last saw her, had grown somewhat matronly in the intervening time, but her
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  eyes were as black and brilliant, her cheeks as rosy, and her dimples
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  as enchanting as in the long ago days when she and Anne Shirley had vowed
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  eternal friendship in the garden at Orchard Slope. In her arms she held a
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  small, sleeping, black curled creature who, for two happy years had been
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  known to the world of Avonlea as Small Anne Cordelia. Avonlea folks knew why
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  Diana had called her Anne, of course, but Avonleaf folks were puzzled by
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  the Cordelia. There had never been a Cordelia in the Right or Bury connections.
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  Missus Harmon Andrews said she supposed Diana had found the name in some trashy
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  novel, and wondered that Fred hadn't more sense than to allow it. But
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  Diana and Anne smiled at each each other. They knew how small Anne Cordelia
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  had come by her name. You who always hated geometry, said Diana,
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  with a retrospective smile. I should think you'd be real glad to be through
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  with teaching anyhow, Oh, I've always liked teaching apart from geometry. These
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  past three years in Summerside have been very pleasant ones. Missus Harmon Andrews told
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  me when I came home that I wouldn't likely find married life as much better
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  than teaching as I expected. Evidently, Missus Harmon is of Hamlet's opinion that
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  it may be better to bear the ills that we have than fly to others
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  that we know not. Of Anne's laugh, as blithe and irresistible as of
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  yore, with an added note of sweetness and maturity, rang through the garret.
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  Marilla, in the kitchen below, compounding blue plumb Preserve heard it and
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  smiled, then sighed to think how seldom that dear laugh would echo through Green
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  Gables in the years to come. Nothing in her life had ever given Marilla
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  so much happiness as the knowledge that Anne was going to marry Gilbert blythe But
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  every joy must bring with it its little shadow of sorrow. During the three
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  summer Side years, Anne had been home often for vacations and weekends, but
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  after this a bi annual visit would be as much as could be hoped for.
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  You needn't let what missus Harmon says worry you, said Diana, with
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  the calm assurance of the four years matron. Married life has its ups and
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  downs. Of course, you mustn't expect that everything will always go smoothly.
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  But I can assure you Anne that it's a happy life when you're married to
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  the right man. Anne smothered a smile. Diana's airs of vast experience always
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  amused her A little, I dare say, I'll be putting them on too
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  when I've been married four years, she thought. Surely my sense of humor
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  will preserve me from it. Though. Is it settled yet where you are
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  going to live? Asked Diana, cuddling small Anne Cordelia with the inimitable gesture
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  of motherhood, which always sent through Anne's heart filled with sweet, unuttered dreams
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  and hopes, a thrill that was half pure pleasure and half a strange,
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  ethereal pain. Yes, that was what I wanted to tell you when I
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  phoned to you to come down today. By the way, I can't realize
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  that we really have telephones in Avonlea. Now it sounds so preposterously up to
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  date and modernish for this darling, leisurely old place. We can thank the
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  Avs for them, said Diana. We should never have got the line if
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  they hadn't taken the matter up and carried it through. There was enough cold
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  water thrown to discourage any society, but they stuck to it. Nevertheless,
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  you did a splendid thing for Avonlea when you founded that society, Anne,
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  What fun we did have at our meetings. Will you ever forget the blue
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  hole and Justin Parker's steme for painting medicine advertisements on his fence. I don't
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  know that I'm wholly grateful to the Avis. In the matter of the telephone,
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  said Anne. Oh, I know, it's most convenient, even more
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  so than our old device of signaling to each other by flashes of candlelight.
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  And as missus Rachel says, Avonlea must keep up with the procession, that's
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  what. But somehow I feel as if I didn't want Avonlea spoiled by what
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  mister Harrison, when he wants to be witty, calls modernis inconveniences. I
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  should like to have it kept always just as it was in the dear old
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  years. That's foolish and sentimental and impossible, So I shall immediately become wise
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  and practical and possible. The telephone, as mister Harrison concedes, is a
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  buster of a good thing, even if you do know that probably half a
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  dozen interested people are listening along the line. That's the worst of it,
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  sighed Diana. It's so annoying to hear the receivers going down whenever you ring
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  anyone up, they say. Missus Harmon Andrews insisted that their phone should be
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  put in their kitchen just so she could listen whenever it rang and keep an
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  eye on the dinner at the same time. Today, when you called me,
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  I distinctly heard that queer clock of the Pies striking, So no doubt
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  Josie or Gerty was listening. Oh so that is why you said you've got
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  a new clock at Green Gables, haven't you. I couldn't imagine what you
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  meant. I heard a vicious click as soon as you had spoken. I
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  suppose it was the pie receiver being hung up with profane energy. Well,
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  never mind the pies, as missus Rachel says, Pies they always were,
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  and pies they always will be world without end, Amen, I want to
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  talk of pleasanter things. It's all settled as to where my new home shall
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  be. Oh, and where I do hope it's near here. No,
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  that's the drawback. Gilbert is going to settle at Four Winds Harbor, sixty
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  miles from here. Sixty it might as well be six hundred, sighed Diana.
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  I can never get further from home now than Charlottetown. You'll have to
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  come to Four Winds. It's the most beautiful harbor on the island. There's
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  a little village called Glen Saint Mary at its head, and doctor David Blythe
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  has been practicing there for fifty years. He is Gilbert's great uncle. You
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  know. He is going to retire, and Gilbert is to take over his
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  practice. Doctor Blythe is going to keep his house, though, so we
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  shall have to find a habitation for ourselves. I don't know yet what it
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  is or where it will be in reality. But I have a little house
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  of dreams, all furnished in my imagination, a tiny, delightful castle in
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  Spain. Where are you going for your wedding tour, asked Diana. Nowhere,
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  don't look horrified, Diana, Dearest, you suggest missus Harmon Andrews.
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  She no doubt will remark condescendingly that people who can't afford wedding towers are real
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  sensible not to take them, and then she'll remind me that Jane went to
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  Europe for hers. I want to spend my honeymoon at four Winds in my
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  own dear house of dreams. And you've decided not to have any bridesmaid.
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  There isn't any one to have. You and Phil and Priscilla and Jane all
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  stole a march on me in the matter of marriage, and Stella is teaching
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  in Vancouver. I have no other kindred soul, and I won't have a
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  bridesmaid who isn't. But you are going to wear a veil, aren't you,
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  asked Diana anxiously. Yes, indeed, I shouldn't feel like a bride
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  without one. I remember telling Matthew that evening when he brought me to Green
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  Gables, that I never expected to be a bride because I was so homely
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  no one would ever want to marry me unless some foreign missionary did. I
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  had an idea then that foreign missionaries couldn't afford to be finicky in the matter
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  of looks. If they want to girl to risk her life among cannibals.
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  You should have seen the foreign missionary Priscilla married. He was as handsome and
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  inscrutable as those day dreams we once planned to marry ourselves, Diana, he
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  was the best dressed man I ever met, and he raved over Priscilla's ethereal
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  golden beauty. But of course there are no cannibals in Japan. Your wedding
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  dress is a dream anyhow, sighed Diana rapturously. You'll look like a perfect
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  queen it you're so tall and slender. How do you keep so slim?
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  Anne, I'm fatter than ever. I'll soon have no waist at all.
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  Stoutness and slimness seem to be matters of predestination, said Anne. At all
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  events, Missus Harmon Andrews can't say to you what she said to me when
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  I came home from Summerside. Well, Anne, you're just about as skinny
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  as ever. It sounds quite romantic to be slender, but skinny has a
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  very different tang. Missus Harmon has been talking about your trousseau. She admits
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  it's as nice as Jane's, although she says Jane married a millionaire and you
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  are only a marrying a poor young doctor without assent to his name, Anne
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  laughed, My dresses are nice. I love pretty things. I remember the
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  first pretty dress I ever had, the brown Gloria Matthew gave me for our
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  school concert. Before that, everything I had was so ugly. It seemed
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  to me that I stepped into a new world that night. That was the
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  night Gilbert recited Biggin on the Rhine and looked at you when he said there's
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  another not a sister, And you were so furious because you put your pink
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  tissue rose into a breast pocket. You didn't much imagine then that you would
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  ever marry him. Oh well, that's another instance of predestination, laughed Anne.
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  As they went down the garret stairs end of chapter one, Chapter two,
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  the House of Dreams, There was more excitement in the air of green
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  Gables than there had ever been before in all its history. Even Marilla was
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  so excited that she couldn't help showing it, which was a little short of
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  being phenomenal. There's never been a wedding in this house, she said,
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  half apologetically to missus Rachel Lynde. When I was a child, I heard
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  an old man minister say that a house was not a real home until it
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  had been consecrated by a birth, a wedding, and a death. We've
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  had deaths here. My father and mother died here, as well as Matthew.
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  And we've even had a berth here long ago. Just after we moved
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  into this house. We had a married hired man for a little while,
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  and his wife had a baby here. But there's never been a wedding before.
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  It does seem so strange to think of Anne being married. In a
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  way. She just seems to me the little girl Matthew brought home here fourteen
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  years ago. I can't realize that she's grown up. I shall never forget
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  what I felt when I saw Matthew bringing in a girl. I wonder what
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  became of the boy we would have got if there hadn't been a mistake.
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  I wonder what his fate was. Well, it was a fortunate mistake,
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  said missus Rachel Lynde. Though, mind you, there was a time I
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  didn't think so. That evening I came up to see Anne and she treated
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  us to such a scene. Many things have changed since then, that's what
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  Missus Rachel sighed, and then brisked up again. When weddings were in order,
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  Missus Rachel was ready to let the dead past Barry it's dead. I'm
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  going to give Anne two of my cotton warp spreads. She resumed, a
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  tobacco strip one and an apple leaf one. She tells me they're getting to
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  be real fashionable again. Well fashion or no fashion, I don't believe there's
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  anything prettier for a spare room than a nice apple leaf spread. That's what
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  I must see about getting them bleached. I've had them sewed up in cotton
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  bags ever since Thomas died, and no doubt they're an awful color. But
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  there's a month yet, and do bleaching will work, wonders only a month.
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  Marilla sighed, and then said proudly, I'm giving Anne that half dozen
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  braided rugs I have in the garret. I never supposed she'd want them.
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  They're so old fashioned, and nobody seems to want anything but hooked mats now
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  much he asked me for them, said she'd rather have them than anything else
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  for her floors. They are pretty. I made them of the nicest rags
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  and braided them in stripes. It was such company these last few winters.
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  And I'll make her enough blue plum preserved to stalk her jam closet for a
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  year. It seems real strange. Those blue plum trees hadn't even a blossom
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  for three years, and I thought they might as well be cut down.
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  And this last spring they were white, and such a crop of plums I
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  never remember at Green Gables. Well, thank goodness that Anne and Gilbert really
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  are going to be married after all. It's what I've always prayed for,
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  said missus Rachel, in the tone of one who is comfortably sure that her
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  prayers have availed much. It was a great relief to find out that she
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  really didn't mean to take that Kingsport man. He was rich, to be
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  sure, and Gilbert is poor at least to begin with. But then he's
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  an island boy. He's Gilbert blythe said Marilla. Contentedly. Marilla would have
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  died the death before she would have put into words the thought that was always
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  in the background of her mind whenever she had looked at Gilbert from his childhood
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  up, the thought that, had it not been for her own wilful pride
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  long long ago, he might have been her son. Marilla felt that,
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  in some strange way, his marriage with Anne would put right that old mistake.
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  Good had come out of the evil of the ancient bitterness. As for
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  Anne herself, she was so happy that she almost felt frightened. The gods,
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  so says the old superstition, do not like to behold two happy mortals.
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  It is certain, at least that some human beings do not. Two
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  of that ilk descended upon Anne one violet dusk, and proceeded to do what
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  in them lay to prick the rainbow bubble of her satisfaction. If she thought
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  she was getting any particular prize in young doctor Blythe or if she imagined that
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  he was still as infatuated with her as he might have been in his salad
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  days, it was surely their duty to put the matter before her in another
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  light. Yet these two worthy ladies were not enemies of Anne. On the
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  contrary, they were really quite fond of her, and would have defended her
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  as their own young had anyone else attacked her. Human nature is not obliged
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  to be consistent. Missus inglis Nay Jane Andrews, to quote from The Daily
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  Enterprise, came with her mother and Missus Jasper Bell. But in Jane the
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  milk of human kindness had not been curdled by years of matrimonial bickerings. Her
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  lines had fallen in pleasant places. In spite of the fact, as Missus
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  Rachel Lynde would say that she had married a millionaire, her marriage had been
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  happy, wealth had not spoiled her. She was still the placid, amiable,
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  pink cheeked Jane of the old Quartet, sympathizing with her old chum's happiness
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  and as keenly interested in all the dainty details of Anne's trousseau, as if
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  it could rival her own's silken and bejeweled splendors. Jane was not brilliant,
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  and had probably never made a remark worth listening to in her life. But
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  she never said anything that would hurt anyone's feelings, which may be a negative
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  talent, but is likewise a rare and enviable one. So Gilbert didn't go
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  back on you, after all, said Missus Harmon Andrews, contriving to convey
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  an expression of surprise in her tone. Well, the Blithes generally keep their
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  word when they've once passed it, no matter what happens. Let me see.
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  You're twenty five, aren't you. Anne. When I was a girl,
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  twenty five was the first corner. But you look quite young. Redheaded
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  people always do. Red hair is very fashionable now, said Anne, trying
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  to smile, but speaking rather coldly. Life had developed in her a sense
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  of humor which helped her over many difficulties, but as yet nothing had availed
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  to steel her against a reference to her hair. So it is, so,
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  it is, conceded missus Harmon. There's no telling what queer freaks fashion
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  will take. Well, Anne, Your things are very pretty and very suitable
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  to your position in life, aren't they, Jane. I hope you'll be
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  very happy. You have my best wishes. I'm sure a long engagement doesn't
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  often turn out well, but of course in your case it couldn't be helped.
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  Gilbert looks very young for a doctor. I'm afraid people won't have much
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  confidence in him, said missus jasper Bell gloomily. Then she shut her mouth
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  tightly, as if she had said what she considered it her duty to say,
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  and held her conscience clear. She belonged to the type which always has
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  a stringy black feather in its hat and straggling locks of hair on its neck.
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  Anne's surface pleasure in her pretty bridal things was temporarily shadowed, but the
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  deeps of happiness below could not thus be disturbed, and the little stings of
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  Madame's bell and andrews were forgotten. When Gilbert came later, and they wandered
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  down to the birches of the brook, which had been saplings when Anne had
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  come to Green Gables, but were now tall ivory columns in a fairy palace
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  of twilight and stars in their shadows. Anne and Gilbert talked in lover fashion
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  of their new home and their new life together. I've found a nest for
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  us. Eh oh, where not right in the village? I hope I
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  wouldn't like that altogether. No, there was no house to be had in
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  the village. This is a little white house on the harbor shore, half
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  way between Glens and Mary and four Winds Point. It's a little out of
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  the way, but when we get a phone that won't matter so much.
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  The situation is beautiful. It looks to the sunset and has the great blue
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  harbor before it. The sand dunes are very far away, the sea winds
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  blow over them, and the sea spray drenches them. But the house itself,
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  Gilbert, our first home. What is it like? Oh? Not
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  very large, but large enough for us. There's a splendid living room with
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  a fireplace in it downstairs, and a dining room that looks out on the
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  harbor, and a little room that'll do for my office. It's about sixty
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  years old, the oldest house in Four Winds but it's been kept in pretty
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  good repair and was all done over about fifteen years ago, shingled, plastered
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  and re floored. It was well built to begin with. I understand that
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  there was some romantic story connected with its building, but the man I rented
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  it from didn't know it. He said, Captain Jim was the only one
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  that could spin that old yarn. Now, who is Captain Jim, the
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  keeper of the lighthouse on four Winds Point. You'll love that four Winds light,
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  Anne. It's a revolving one and it flashes like a magnificent star through
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  the twilights. We can see it from our living room windows and our front
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  door. Who owns the house, well, it's the property of the glensent
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  Mary Presbyterian Church now, and I rented it from the trustees. But It
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  belonged until lately to a very old lady, a miss Elizabeth Russell. She
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  died last spring, and as she had no near relatives, she left the
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  property to the Glen sent Mary Church. Her furniture is still in the house,
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  and I bought most of it for a mere song. You might say,
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  because it was also old fashioned, that the trustees despair to selling it.
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  Glens and marry folks prefer plush brocade and sideboards with mirrors and ornamentations.
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  I fancy, but miss Russell's furniture is very good, and I feel sure
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  you'll like it. It so far good, said Anne, nodding cautious approval.
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  But Gilbert, people cannot live by furniture alone. You haven't yet mentioned
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  one very important thing. Are there trees about this house? Heaps of them?
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  Oh, dry eye. There's a big grove of fir trees behind it,
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  two rows of Lombardy pop plus down the lane, and a ring of
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  white birches around a very delightful garden. Our front door opens right into the
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  garden, but there's another entrance, a little gate hung between two furs.
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  The hinges are on one trunk and we catch on the other. Their boughs
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  form an arch overhead. Oh, I'm so glad. I couldn't live where
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  there were no trees. Something vital in me would starve. Well after that,
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  there's no use asking you if there's a brook anywhere near. That would
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  be expecting too much. But there is a brook, and it actually cuts
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  across one corner of the garden, then said Anne, with a long sigh
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  of supreme satisfaction. This, this house you have found, is my house
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  of dreams and none other. End of chapter two, Chapter three, The
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  Land of Dreams among Have you made up your mind who you're going to have
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  to your wedding, Anne asked Missus Rachel Lynde as she hemstitched table napkins industriously.
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  It's time your invitations were sent, even if they are to be only
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  informal ones. I don't mean to have very many, said Anne. We
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  just want those we love best to see us married. Gilbert's people, and
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  mister and missus Allen, and mister and missus Harrison. There was a time
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  when you'd hardly have numbered mister Harrison among your dearest friends, said Marilla dryly.
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  Well, I wasn't very strongly attracted to him at our first meeting,
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  acknowledged Anne with a laugh over the recollection. But mister Harrison has improved on
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  acquaintance, and Missus Harrison is really a dear Then, of course there are
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  miss Lavendar and Paul. Have they decided to come to the island this summer.
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  I thought they were going to Europe. They changed their minds when I
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  wrote them I was going to be married. I had a letter from Paul
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  to day. He says he must come to my wedding, no matter what
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  happens to Europe. That child always idolized you, remarked, Missus Rachel.
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  That child is a young man of nineteen. Now, Missus Lynde, oh,
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  how time does fly? Was Missus Lynde's brilliant and original response. Charlotta
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  the Fourth may come with them. She sent word by Paul that she would
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  come if her husband would let her. I wonder if she still wears those
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  enormous blue bows, and whether her husband calls her Charlotta or Leonora. I
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  should love to have Charlotta at my wedding. Charlotta and I were at a
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  wedding long Sign. They expect to be at Echo Lodge next week. Then
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  there are Phil and the Reverend Joe. It sounds awful to hear you speaking
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  of a minister like that, Anne, said Missus Rachel severely. His wife
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  calls him that she should have more respect for his holy office, then,
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  retorted Missus Rachel, I've heard you criticize ministers pretty sharply yourself, teased Anne.
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  Yes, but i'd do it, reverently, protested Missus Lynde. You
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  never heard me nickname a minister, Anne smothered a smile. Well, there
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  are Diana and Fred and little Fred and small Anne, Cordelia and Jane Andrews.
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  I wish I could have Miss Stacy and Aunt Jamesina and Priscilla and Stella.
• 22:23
  But Stella is in Vancouver, and priss is in Japan, and Miss
• 22:27
  Stacy is married in California, and Aunt Jamesina has gone to India to explore
• 22:32
  her daughter's mission field in spite of her horror of snakes. It's really dreadful,
• 22:37
  the way people get scattered over the globe. The Lord never intended it,
• 22:41
  That's what said Missus Rachel authoritatively. In my young days, people grew
• 22:45
  up and married and settled down where they were born or pretty near it.
• 22:49
  Thank goodness, you've stuck to the island, Anne, I was afraid Gilbert
• 22:52
  would insist on rushing off to the ends of the earth when he got through
• 22:56
  college and dragging you with him. If everybody's stayed where he was born,
• 23:00
  places would soon be filled up, Missus Lynde, Oh, I'm not going
• 23:03
  to argue with you, Anne, I am not a be a. What
• 23:07
  time of day is the ceremony to be We have decided on noon, high
• 23:11
  noon, as the Society reporters say. That will give us time to catch
• 23:15
  the evening train to Glen Saint Mary. Ann, you'll be married in the
• 23:18
  parlor. No, not unless it rains. We mean to be married in
• 23:22
  the orchard, with the blue sky over us, in the sunshine around us.
• 23:26
  Do you know when and where I'd like to be married? If I
• 23:27
  could, it would be at dawn, a June dawn, with a glorious
• 23:32
  sunrise and roses blooming in the gardens, and I would slip down and meet
• 23:36
  Gilbert and we would go together to the heart of the beech woods, and
• 23:40
  there under the green arches that would be like a splendid cathedral, we would
• 23:44
  be married. Marilla sniffed scornfully, and missus Lynde looked shocked. But that
• 23:49
  would be terrible, queer Anne. Why it wouldn't really seem legal? And
• 23:55
  what would missus Harmon Andrews say. Ah, there's the rub, sighed Anne.
• 24:00
  There are so many things in life we cannot do because of the fear
• 24:03
  of what Missus Harmon Andrews would say tis true, tis pity, and pity
• 24:07
  tis tis true? What delightful things we might do were it not for missus
• 24:11
  Harmon Andrews. By times, Anne, I don't feel quite sure that I
• 24:15
  understand you altogether, complained Missus Lynde. Anne was always romantic, you know,
• 24:22
  said Marilla, apologetically. Well, married life will most likely cure her
• 24:26
  of that, Missus Rachel responded comfortingly. Anne laughed and slipped away to Lover's
• 24:33
  Lane, where Gilbert found her, and neither of them seemed to entertain much
• 24:37
  fear or hope that their married life would cure them of romance. The Echo
• 24:41
  Lodge people came over the next week, and Green Gables buzzed with the delight
• 24:45
  of them. Miss Lavendar had changed so little that the three years since her
• 24:49
  last island visit might have been a watch in the night. But Anne gasped
• 24:52
  with amazement over Paul. Could this splendid six feet of manhood be the little
• 24:57
  Paul of Avonlea school days. You really make me feel old, Paul,
• 25:03
  said Anne. Why I have to look up to you? You'll never grow
• 25:07
  old, teacher said Paul. You are one of the fortunate mortals who have
• 25:11
  found and drunk from the fountain of youth. You and mother Lavender. See
• 25:15
  here. When you're married, I won't call you missus blyde to me.
• 25:19
  You'll always be teacher, the teacher of the best lessons I ever learned.
• 25:25
  I want to show you something. The something was a pocket book full of
• 25:27
  poems. Paul had put some of his beautiful fancies into verse, and magazine
• 25:33
  editors had not been as unappreciative as they are sometimes supposed to be. Anne
• 25:37
  read Paul's poems with real delight. They were full of charm and promise.
• 25:41
  You will be famous, Yet, Paul, I always dreamed of having one
• 25:45
  famous pupil. He was to be a college president, but a great poet
• 25:49
  would be even better. Some day I'll be able to boast that I whipped
• 25:52
  the distinguished Paul Irving. But then I never did whip you, did I?
• 25:56
  Paul? What an opportunity lost. I think I kept you in at
• 26:00
  recess. However, you may be famous yourself, teacher. I've seen a
• 26:03
  good deal of your work these last three years. No, I know what
• 26:07
  I can do. I can write pretty fanciful little sketches that children love and
• 26:11
  editors send welcome checks for. But I can do nothing big. My only
• 26:15
  chance for earthly mortality is as a corner in your memoirs. Charlotta the Fourth
• 26:22
  had discarded the blue bows, but her freckles were not noticeably less. I
• 26:26
  never did think i'd come down to marrying a younger, Miss Shirley, ma'am,
• 26:30
  she said, But you never know what's before you, and it isn't
• 26:33
  his fault who was born that way. You're a Yankee yourself, Charlatta,
• 26:38
  since you've married one, Miss Shirley ma'am. I'm not, and I wouldn't
• 26:44
  be if I was to marry a dot and Yankees dom's kind of nice.
• 26:48
  And besides, I thought i'd better not be too hard to please, for
• 26:52
  I mightn't get another chance. Tom don't drink, and he don't growl because
• 26:56
  he has to walk between mills. And when all's sudden down, I'm satisfied.
• 27:02
  Miss Shirley ma'am. Does he call you Leonora? Asked Anne. Goodness,
• 27:07
  no, Miss Shirley ma'am. I wouldn't know who he meant if he
• 27:11
  did. Of course, when we got married, he had to say,
• 27:15
  I take the Leonora, and I declare to you, Miss Shirley ma'am.
• 27:18
  I've had the most dreadful feeling I ever seen that it wasn't me he was
• 27:22
  talking to. And I haven't been rightly married at all, And so you're
• 27:26
  going to be married yourself, Miss Shirley, ma'am. I always thought I'd
• 27:30
  like to marry a doctor. It would be so Hundy when the children had
• 27:34
  missleson group. Tom is only a bricklayer, but he's real good tempered.
• 27:40
  When I say to him, says I, Tom, can I go to
• 27:42
  Miss Shirley's wedding? I mean to go anyhow, but I'd like to have
• 27:45
  a consent. He just says, suit yourself, Charlotta, and you'll suit
• 27:49
  me. That's a real pleasant kind of hasban to have, Miss Shirley ma'am.
• 27:55
  Philippa and her reverend Joe arrived at Green Gables the day before the wedding.
• 27:59
  Anne and Bill had a rapturous meeting, which presently simmered down to a
• 28:03
  cozy, confidential chat over all that had been and was about to be.
• 28:07
  Queen Anne, you're as queenly as ever. I've got fearfully thin since the
• 28:11
  babies came. I'm not half so good looking, but I think Joe likes
• 28:15
  it. There's not such a contrast between us, you see. And Oh,
• 28:19
  it's perfectly magnificent that you're going to marry Gilbert Roy Gardner wouldn't have done
• 28:25
  at all, at all. I can see that now, though I was
• 28:29
  horribly disappointed at the time. You know, Anne, you did treat Roy
• 28:33
  very badly. He has recovered, I understand, smiled Anne. Oh,
• 28:38
  yes, he is married and his wife is a sweet little thing, and
• 28:42
  they're perfectly happy. Everything works together for good. Joe and the Bible say
• 28:48
  that, and they are pretty good authorities. Are Alec and Alonzo married?
• 28:52
  Yet Alec is but Alonzo isn't. How those dear old days at Patty's Place
• 28:59
  come back when I'm talking to you, Anne, what fun we had?
• 29:03
  Have you been to Patty's Place lately? Oh? Yes, I go often.
• 29:07
  Miss Patty and Miss Maria still sit by the fireplace and knit, and
• 29:11
  that reminds me. We've brought you a wedding gift from them. Anne,
• 29:15
  guess what it is? I never could. How did they know I was
• 29:18
  going to be married? Oh? I told them I was there last week
• 29:22
  and they were so interested. Two days ago, Miss Patty wrote me a
• 29:26
  note asking me to call, and then she asked if I would take her
• 29:30
  gift to you, what would you wish most from Patty's place? Anne,
• 29:34
  you can't mean that. Miss Patty has sent me her China dogs. Go
• 29:38
  up, Pad, They're in my trunk this very moment, and I've a
• 29:42
  letter for you. Wait a moment and I'll get it, dear Miss Shirley.
• 29:47
  Miss Patty had written, Maria and I were very much interested in hearing
• 29:52
  of your approaching nuptials. We send you our best wishes. Maria and I
• 29:56
  have never married, but we have no objection to other people doing. So
• 30:00
  we are sending you the China dogs. I intended to leave them to you
• 30:04
  in my will because you seem to have sincere affection for them. But Maria
• 30:08
  and I expect to live a good while yet, d V, so I
• 30:12
  have decided to give you the dogs while you were young. You will not
• 30:17
  have forgotten that Gog looks to the right, and may gog to the left.
• 30:21
  Just fancy those lovely old dogs sitting by the fireplace in my house of
• 30:25
  dreams, said Anne rapturously. I never expected anything so delightful. That evening,
• 30:32
  green Gables hummed with preparations for the following day. But in the twilight
• 30:36
  Anne slipped away. She had a little pilgrimage to make on this last day
• 30:40
  of her girlhood, and she must make it alone. She went to Matthew's
• 30:45
  grave in the little poplar shaded avonlea graveyard, and there kept a silent tryst
• 30:49
  with old memories and immortal loves. How glad Matthew would be tomorrow if you
• 30:55
  were here, she whispered. But I believe he does know, and is
• 30:59
  glad of it. Somewhere else, I've read somewhere that our dead are never
• 31:03
  dead until we have forgotten them. Matthew will never be dead to me,
• 31:07
  for I can never forget him. She left on his grave the flowers she
• 31:10
  had brought, and walked slowly down the long hill. It was a gracious
• 31:14
  evening, full of delectable lights and shadows. In the west was a sky
• 31:18
  of mackerel clouds, crimson and amber, tinted with long strips of apple green
• 31:25
  sky. Between beyond was the glimmering radiance of a sunset sea, and the
• 31:30
  ceaseless voice of many waters came up from the tawny shore. All around her,
• 31:34
  lying in the fine, beautiful country silence, where the hills and fields
• 31:38
  and woods she had known and loved so long, history repeats itself, said
• 31:42
  Gilbert, joining her as she passed the blithe gate. Do you remember our
• 31:48
  first walk down this hill, n our first walk together anywhere? For that
• 31:52
  manner? I was coming home in the twilight from Matthew's grave, and you
• 31:56
  came out of the gate, and I swallowed the pride of years and spoke
• 31:59
  to you, and all heaven opened before me, supplemented Gilbert. From that
• 32:05
  moment I looked forward to tomorrow. When I left you at your gate that
• 32:08
  night and walked home, I was the happiest boy in the world, and
• 32:12
  had forgiven me. I think you had the most to forgive. I was
• 32:15
  an ungrateful little wretch, And after you had really saved my life that day
• 32:20
  on the pond, too, how I loathed that load of obligation. At
• 32:22
  first, I don't deserve the happiness that has come to me. Gilbert laughed
• 32:28
  and clasped tighter the girlish hand that wore his ring. Anne's engagement ring was
• 32:32
  a circlet of pearls. She had refused to wear a diamond. I've never
• 32:37
  really liked diamonds since I found out they weren't the lovely purple I had dreamed.
• 32:42
  They will always suggest my old disappointment. But pearls are for tears,
• 32:45
  the old legend, says Gilbert had objected. I'm not afraid of that,
• 32:51
  and tears can be happy as well as sad. My very happiest moments have
• 32:54
  been when I had tears in my eyes, when Marilla told me I might
• 32:58
  stay at Green Gables, when Matthew gave me the first pretty dress I ever
• 33:01
  had, when I heard that you were going to recover from the fever.
• 33:06
  So give me pearls for our troth ring, Gilbert, and I'll willingly accept
• 33:08
  the sorrow of life with its joy. But tonight our lovers thought only of
• 33:14
  joy and never of sorrow, For the morrow was their wedding day, and
• 33:17
  their house of dreams awaited them on the misty purple shore of four winds Harbor
• 33:23
  end of chapter three, Chapter four, The first Bride of Green Gables,
• 33:30
  Anne wakened on the morning of her wedding day to find the sunshine winking in
• 33:35
  at the window of the little porch gable, and a september breeze frolicking with
• 33:38
  her curtains. I'm so glad the sun will shine on me, she thought,
• 33:44
  happily. She recalled the first morning she had wakened in that little porch
• 33:47
  room, when the sunshine had crept in on her through the blossom drift of
• 33:51
  the old snow Queen. That had not been a happy wakening, for it
• 33:54
  brought with it the bitter disappointment of the preceding night. But since then the
• 34:00
  little room had been endeared and consecrated by years of happy childhood dreams and made
• 34:04
  in visions to it. She had come back joyfully after all her absences.
• 34:08
  At its window. She had knelt through that night of bitter agony when she
• 34:12
  believed Gilbert dying, and by it she had sat in speechless happiness the night
• 34:15
  of her betrothal. Many vigils of joy and some of sorrow had been kept
• 34:20
  there, and today she must leave it forever. Henceforth it would be hers
• 34:24
  no more. Fifteen year old Dora was to inherit it when she had gone,
• 34:29
  nor did Anne wish it otherwise. The little room was sacred to youth
• 34:32
  and girlhood, to the past that was to close to day before the chapter
• 34:37
  of Wifehood opened. Green Gables was a busy and joyous house that forenoon.
• 34:42
  Diana arrived early with little Fred and small Anne Cordelia to lend a hand Davy
• 34:47
  and Dora, the Green Gables twins, whisked the babies off to the garden.
• 34:52
  Don't let small Anne Cordelia spoil her clothes, warned Diana anxiously. You
• 34:58
  needn't be afraid to trust her with door, said Marilla. That child is
• 35:02
  more sensible and careful than most of the mothers I've known. She's really a
• 35:07
  wonder in some ways, not much like that other harm Scarum I brought up.
• 35:13
  Marilla smiled across her chicken salad at Anne. It might even be suspected
• 35:16
  that she liked the Haram Scaum best. After all, those twins are real
• 35:21
  nice children, said missus Rachel, when she was sure they were out of
• 35:24
  earshot. Dora is so womanly and helpful, and Davy is developing into a
• 35:29
  very smart boy. He isn't the Holy Terror for mischief he used to be.
• 35:34
  I never was so distracted in my life as I was the first six
• 35:37
  months he was here acknowledged Marilla. After that, I suppose I got used
• 35:43
  to him. He's taken a great notion to farming lately and wants me to
• 35:46
  let him try running the farm next year. I may, for mister Barry
• 35:51
  doesn't think he'll want to rent it much longer, and some new arrangement will
• 35:53
  have to be made. Well, you certainly have a lovely day for your
• 35:58
  wedding, Anne so Diana, as she slipped of aluminous apron over her silken
• 36:02
  array. You couldn't have had a finer one if you'd ordered it from Eaton's.
• 36:07
  Indeed, there's too much money going out of this island to that same
• 36:10
  Eaton's, said missus Lynde indignantly. She had strong views on the subject of
• 36:15
  octopus like department stores, and never lost an opportunity of airing them. And
• 36:21
  as for those catalogs of theirs, they're the avonlea girl's Bible, now,
• 36:25
  that's what they pore over them on Sundays instead of studying the Holy scriptures.
• 36:30
  Well, they're splendid to amuse children with, said Diana. Bred and small
• 36:35
  Anne. Look at the pictures. By the hour I amused ten children without
• 36:39
  the aid of Eaton's catalog, said Missus Rachel. Severely, Come, you
• 36:45
  two, don't quarrel over Eaton's catalog, said Anne gaily. This is my
• 36:49
  day of days. You know, I'm so happy. I want everyone else
• 36:52
  to be happy too. I'm sure I hope your happiness will lash child,
• 36:57
  sighed Missus Rachel. She did hope it, truly and believed it. But
• 37:01
  she was afraid it was in the nature of a challenge to Providence to flaunt
• 37:05
  your happiness too openly. Anne, for her own good must be toned down
• 37:08
  a trifle. But it was a happy and beautiful bride who came down the
• 37:13
  old homespun carpeted stairs that September noon, the first Bride of Green Gables,
• 37:17
  slender and shining eyed in the midst of her maiden veil, with her arms
• 37:22
  full of roses. Gilbert waiting for her in the hall below, looked up
• 37:25
  at her with adoring eyes. She was his at last, this evasive,
• 37:30
  long sought Anne one. After years of patient waiting, it was to him.
• 37:35
  She was coming in the sweet surrender of the bride. Was he worthy
• 37:38
  of her? Could he make her as happy as he hoped? If he
• 37:42
  failed her, if he could not measure up to her standard of manhood.
• 37:46
  Then as she held out her hand, their eyes met, and all doubt
• 37:50
  was swept away in a glad certainty. They belonged to each other, and
• 37:54
  no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that their
• 37:59
  happiness was in each other's keeping, and both were unafraid. They were married
• 38:04
  in the sunshine of the old orchard, circled by the loving and kindly faces
• 38:07
  of long familiar friends. Mister Allan married them, and the Reverend Joe made
• 38:13
  what missus Rachel Lynde afterwards pronounced to be the most beautiful wedding prayer she had
• 38:19
  ever heard. Birds do not often sing in September, but one sang sweetly
• 38:23
  from some hidden bow while Gilbert and Anne repeated their deathless vows. Anne heard
• 38:30
  it and thrilled to it. Gilbert heard it and wondered only that all the
• 38:32
  birds in the world had not burst into jubilant song. Paul heard it and
• 38:37
  later wrote a lyric about it, which was one of the most admired in
• 38:39
  his first volume of verse. Charlotta the fourth heard it and was blissfully sure
• 38:45
  it meant good luck for her adored Miss Shirley. The birds sang until the
• 38:49
  ceremony was ended, and then it wound up with one mad, little glad
• 38:52
  little trill. Never had the old gray green house, among its unfolding orchards
• 38:58
  known a blither, merry or afternoon. All the old jests and quips that
• 39:01
  must have done duty at weddings since Eden were served up and seemed as new
• 39:06
  and brilliant and mirth provoking as if they had never been uttered before. Laughter
• 39:10
  and joy had their way, And when Anne and Gilbert left to catch the
• 39:14
  Carmody train with Paul as driver, the twins were ready with rice and old
• 39:17
  shoes, in the throwing of which Charlotta the Fourth and mister Harrison bore a
• 39:22
  valiant part. Marilla stood at the gate and watched the carriage out of sight
• 39:27
  down the long lane with its banks of golden rod. Anne turned at its
• 39:30
  end to wave her last good bye. She was gone. Green Gables was
• 39:35
  her home no more. Marilla's face looked very gray and old as she turned
• 39:38
  to the house, which Anne had filled for fourteen years, and even in
• 39:43
  her absence with light and life. But Diana and her small fry the Echo
• 39:47
  Lodge people in the Allens had stayed to help the two old ladies over the
• 39:52
  loneliness of the first evening, and they contrived to have a quietly pleasant little
• 39:55
  supper time, sitting long around the table and chatting over all the details of
• 40:00
  the day. While they were sitting there, Anne and Gilbert were alighting from
• 40:05
  the train at Glen Saint Mary end of chapter four, Chapter five, the
• 40:10
  home coming doctor David Blythe had sent his horse and buggy to meet them,
• 40:16
  and the urchin who had brought it slipped away with a sympathetic grin, leaving
• 40:21
  them to the delight of driving alone to their new home through the radiant evening.
• 40:24
  Anne never forgot the loveliness of the view that broke upon them when they
• 40:28
  had driven over the hill behind the village. Her new home could not yet
• 40:31
  be seen, but before her lay four Winds Harbor, like a great shining
• 40:36
  mirror of rose and silver. Far down, she saw its entrance between the
• 40:40
  bar of sand dunes on one side and a steep, high, grim red
• 40:45
  sandstone cliff on the other. Beyond the bar, the sea, calm and
• 40:49
  austere dreamed in the after light. The little fishing village nestled in the cove
• 40:53
  where the sand dunes met the harbor shore looked like a great opal in the
• 40:58
  haze. The sky eye over them was like a jeweled cup from which the
• 41:01
  dusk was pouring. The air was crisp with the compelling tang of the sea,
• 41:06
  and the whole landscape was infused with the subtleties of a sea evening.
• 41:10
  A few dim sails drifted along the darkening, fir clad harbor shores. A
• 41:15
  bell was ringing from the tower of a little white church on the far side.
• 41:19
  Mellowly and dreamily sweet, the chime floated across the water, blent with
• 41:23
  the moan of the sea. The great revolving light on the cliff at the
• 41:27
  channel flashed warm and golden against the clear northern sky. A trembling, quivering
• 41:32
  star of good hope. Far out along the horizon was the crinkled gray ribbon
• 41:37
  of a passing steamer's smoke. Oh, beautiful, beautiful, murmured Anne,
• 41:44
  I shall love four winds, Gilbert. Where is our house? We can't
• 41:47
  see it yet. The belt of birch running up from that little cove hides
• 41:51
  it. It's about two miles from Clemson, Mary, and there's another mile
• 41:54
  between it and the lighthouse. We won't have many neighbors, Anne, There
• 42:00
  only one house near us, and I don't know who lives in it.
• 42:02
  Should you be lonely when I'm away? Not with that light and that loveliness
• 42:07
  for company? Who lives in that house, Gilbert, I don't know.
• 42:12
  Doesn't look exactly as if the occupants would be kindred spirits, Anne, does
• 42:15
  it? The house was a large, substantial affair, painted such a vivid
• 42:20
  green that the landscape seemed quite faded. By contrast, there was an orchard
• 42:24
  behind it, and a nicely kept lawn before it, But somehow there was
• 42:28
  a certain bareness about it. Perhaps its neatness was responsible for this. The
• 42:32
  whole establishment house, barns, orchard, garden, lawn and lane was so
• 42:37
  starkly neat It doesn't seem probable that anyone with that taste and paint could be
• 42:44
  very kindred acknowledged, Anne, unless it were an accident like our blue Hall.
• 42:49
  I feel certain there are no children there. At least it's even neaterer
• 42:52
  than the old cop place on the Tory Road, and I never expected to
• 42:54
  see anything neaterer than that. They had not met anybody on the moist red
• 43:00
  road that wound along the harbor shore. But just before they came to the
• 43:04
  belt of birch which hid their home, Anne saw a girl who was driving
• 43:07
  a flock of snow white geese along the crest of a velvety green hill.
• 43:10
  On the right, great scattered firs grew along it. Between their trunks,
• 43:15
  one saw glimpses of yellow harvest fields, gleams of golden sand hills, and
• 43:20
  bits of blue sea. The girl was tall and wore a dress of pale
• 43:23
  blue print. She walked with a certain springiness of step and erectness of bearing.
• 43:29
  She and her geese came out of the gate at the foot of the
• 43:30
  hill. As Anne and Gilbert passed, she stood with her hand on the
• 43:35
  fastening of the gate and looked steadily at them with an expression that hardly attained
• 43:39
  to interest, but did not descend to curiosity. It seemed to Anne for
• 43:45
  a fleeting moment that there was even a veiled hint of hostility in it.
• 43:49
  But it was the girl's beauty which made Anne give a little gasp, A
• 43:52
  beauty so marked that it must have attracted attention anywhere. She was hatless,
• 43:57
  but heavy braids of burnished hair the hue of ripe wheat, were twisted about
• 44:00
  her head like a coronet. Her eyes were blue and star like. Her
• 44:05
  figure in its plain print gown was magnificent, and her lips were as crimson
• 44:09
  as the bunch of blood red poppies she wore at her belt. Gilbert,
• 44:14
  who is the girl we have just passed, asked Anne in a low voice.
• 44:19
  I didn't notice any girl, said Gilbert, who had eyes only for
• 44:22
  his bride. She was standing by that gate. No, don't look back,
• 44:25
  she is still watching us. I never saw such a beautiful face.
• 44:30
  I don't remember seeing any very handsome girls when I was here. There's some
• 44:34
  pretty girls up to the glen, but I hardly think they could be called
• 44:37
  beautiful. This girl is. You can't have seen her, or you would
• 44:40
  remember her. Nobody could forget her. I never saw such a face except
• 44:45
  in pictures. And her hair it made me think of Browning's cord of gold
• 44:49
  and gorgeous snake. Probably she's some visitor in Four Winds, likely someone from
• 44:53
  that big summer hotel. Over the harbor. She wore a white apron,
• 44:58
  and she was driving geese. Oh, she might do that for amusement.
• 45:01
  Look an, there's our house. Anne looked, and forgot for a time,
• 45:07
  the girl with the splendid, resentful eyes. The first glimpse of her
• 45:10
  new home was a delight to eye and spirit. It looked so like a
• 45:14
  big, creamy seashell stranded on the harbor shore. The rows of tall Lombardy
• 45:19
  poplars down its lane stood out in a stately purple silhouette against the sky.
• 45:23
  Behind it, sheltering its garden from the two keen breath of sea winds,
• 45:28
  was a cloudy fir wood, in which the winds might make all kinds of
• 45:31
  weird and haunting music. Like all woods, it seemed to be holding and
• 45:36
  enfolding secrets in its recesses, secrets whose charm is only to be won by
• 45:40
  entering in and patiently seeking Outwardly, dark green arms keep them in violet from
• 45:45
  curious or indifferent eyes. The night winds were beginning their wild dances beyond the
• 45:52
  bar, and the fishing hamlet across the harbor was gemmed with lights. As
• 45:55
  Anne and Gilbert drove up the poplar lane. The door of the little house
• 46:00
  opened, and a warm glow of firelight flickered out into the dusk. Gilbert
• 46:04
  lifted Anne from the buggy and led her into the garden through the little gate
• 46:07
  between the ruddy tipped furs, up the trim red path to the sandstone step.
• 46:13
  Welcome home, he whispered, and hand in hand they stepped over the
• 46:16
  threshold of their house of dreams. End of chapter five, Chapter six.
• 46:23
  Captain Jim, old Doctor Dave and Missus Doctor Dave had come down to the
• 46:30
  little house to greet the bride and groom. Doctor Dave was a big,
• 46:32
  jolly, white whiskered old fellow, and Missus Doctor was a trim, rosy
• 46:37
  cheeked, silver haired little lady who took Anne at once to her heart,
• 46:40
  literally and figuratively. I'm so glad to see you, dear. You must
• 46:45
  be real tired. We've got a bite of supper ready, and Captain Jim
• 46:49
  has brought up some trout for you. Captain Jim, where are you,
• 46:52
  oh, he slipped out to see to the horse. I suppose come upstairs
• 46:57
  and take your things off. Anne looked about her with right appreciative eyes as
• 47:00
  she followed missus doctor Dave upstairs. She liked the appearance of her new home
• 47:06
  very much. It seemed to have the atmosphere of green gables and the flavor
• 47:09
  of her old traditions. I think I would have found miss Elizabeth Russell a
• 47:15
  kindred spirit, she murmured when she was alone in her room. There were
• 47:19
  two windows in it, the dormer one looked out on the lower harbor and
• 47:22
  the sand bar, and the four winds light, a magic casement opening on
• 47:27
  the foam of perilous seas and fairy lands forlorn, quoted Anne softly. The
• 47:32
  gable window gave a view of a little harvest hued valley through which a brook
• 47:37
  ran. Half a mile up the brook was the only house in sight,
• 47:40
  an old, rambling gray one, surrounded by huge willows, through which its
• 47:45
  windows peered like shy seeking eyes into the dusk. Anne wondered who lived there.
• 47:51
  They would be her nearest neighbors, and she hoped they would be nice.
• 47:53
  She suddenly found herself thinking of the beautiful girl with the white geese.
• 47:59
  Gilbert thought she didn't belong here, mused Anne, But I feel sure she
• 48:02
  does. There was something about her that made her part of the sea and
• 48:06
  the sky in the harbor, four winds is in her blood. When Anne
• 48:10
  went downstairs, Gilbert was standing before the fireplace talking to a stranger. Both
• 48:15
  turned as Anne entered. Anne, this is Captain Boyd. Captain Boyd my
• 48:22
  wife. It was the first time Gilbert had said my wife to anybody but
• 48:27
  Anne, and he narrowly escaped, bursting with the pride of it. The
• 48:30
  old captain held out a sinewy hand to Anne. They smiled at each other
• 48:35
  and were friends. From that moment. Kindred's spirit flashed recognition to Kindred's spirit.
• 48:39
  I'm right down pleased to meet you, Mistress blythe and I hope you'll
• 48:45
  be as happy as the first bride who was came here. I can't wish
• 48:50
  you no better than that. But your husband doesn't introduce me just exactly right.
• 48:54
  Captain Jim is my week day name, and you might as well begin
• 48:59
  as you're certain to end up calling me that. You certainly are a nice
• 49:05
  little bride, Mistress Blythe lookin at you sort of makes me feel like I've
• 49:09
  just been married myself. Amid the laughter that followed, missus Doctor Dave urged
• 49:15
  Captain Jim to stay and have supper with them. Thank you kindly, will
• 49:20
  be a real treat. Mistress, Doctor I mostly has to eat my meals
• 49:23
  alone with the reflection of my ugly old fizz in a looking glass opposite for
• 49:29
  company. Tisn't often I have a chance to sit down with two such sweet
• 49:34
  perder ladies. Captain Jim's compliments may look very bald on paper, but he
• 49:38
  paid them with such a gracious, gentle deference of tone and look that the
• 49:43
  woman upon whom they were bestowed felt that she was being offered a queen's tribute
• 49:46
  in a kingly fashion. Captain Jim was a high souled, simple minded old
• 49:52
  man with eternal youth in his eyes and heart. He had a tall,
• 49:55
  rather ungainly figure, somewhat stooped, yet suggestive of great strength and endurance,
• 50:00
  a clean shaven face, deeply lined and bronzed, a thick mane of iron
• 50:05
  gray hair falling quite to his shoulders, and a pair of remarkably blue,
• 50:08
  deep set eyes which sometimes twinkled and sometimes dreamed, and sometimes looked out seaward,
• 50:15
  with a wistful quest in them, as of one seeking something precious and
• 50:17
  lost. Anne was to learn one day what it was for which Captain Jim
• 50:22
  looked. It could not be denied that Captain Jim was a homely man.
• 50:27
  His spare jaws, rugged mouth, and square brow were not fashioned on the
• 50:30
  lines of beauty, and he had passed through many hardships and sorrows which had
• 50:35
  marked his body as well as his soul. But though at first sight Anne
• 50:37
  thought him plain, she never thought anything more about it. The spirit shining
• 50:43
  through that rugged tenement beautified it so holy. They gathered gaily around the supper
• 50:47
  table. The hearth fire banished the chill of the September evening, but the
• 50:52
  window of the dining room was open, and sea breezes entered at their own
• 50:54
  sweet will. The view was magnificent, taking in the harbor, and the
• 51:00
  sweep of low purple hills beyond. The table was heaped with Missus Doctor's delicacies,
• 51:06
  but the peace to resistance was undoubtedly the big platter of sea trout.
• 51:10
  Thought they'd be sort of tasty after traveling, said Captain Jim. They're fresh
• 51:16
  as trout can be. Mistress blythe two hours ago and they were swimming in
• 51:21
  the glen pond. Who is attending to the light tonight, Captain Jim asked
• 51:25
  Doctor Dave. Nephew alec he understands it as well as I do. Well,
• 51:31
  now, I'm real glad you asked me to stay to supper. I'm
• 51:36
  proper hungry. Didn't have much of a dinner today. I believe you half
• 51:40
  starve yourself most of the time down at that light, said missus Doctor Dave
• 51:45
  severely. You won't take the trouble to get up a decent meal. Oh
• 51:49
  I do, Mistress, Doctor I do, protested Captain Jim. Why I
• 51:53
  live like a king generally? Last night I was up in the glen and
• 51:58
  took home two pounds of steak. I meant to have a spank and good
• 52:02
  dinner today. And what happened to the steak, asked missus doctor Dave.
• 52:08
  Did you lose it on the way home? No, Captain Jim looked sheepish.
• 52:14
  Just at bedtime, a poor ornary sort of dog came along and asked
• 52:19
  for a night's lodging. And guess he belonged to some of the fishermen long
• 52:22
  shore. I couldn't turn the poor cur out. He had a sore foot,
• 52:28
  so I shut him in the porch with an old bag to lie on,
• 52:31
  and went to bed. But somehow I couldn't sleep. Come to think
• 52:37
  it over, I sought to remember that the dog looked hungry, and you
• 52:40
  got up and gave him that steak. All that steak, said missus Doctor
• 52:46
  Dave, with a kind of triumphant reproof. Well there wasn't anything else to
• 52:52
  give him, said Captain Jim, deprecatingly. Nothing a dog could care for,
• 52:57
  that is I reckon he was. He's hungry for he made about two
• 53:00
  bites of it. I had a fine sleep the rest of the night,
• 53:06
  but my dinner had to be sort of scanty potatoes and point, as you
• 53:09
  might say, the dog he let out the home this morning, I reckon
• 53:15
  he weren't a vegetarian. The idea of starving yourself for a worthless dog,
• 53:20
  sniffed missus doctor. You don't know, but he may be worth a lot
• 53:23
  to somebody, protested Captain Jim. He didn't look a much account, but
• 53:30
  you can't go by looks and judging a dog like myself. He might be
• 53:34
  a real beauty inside. The first mate didn't approve of him. I'll allow
• 53:39
  his language was right down forcible, but the first mate is prejudiced. No
• 53:45
  use taking a cat's opinion of a dog. At any rate, I lost
• 53:49
  my dinner. So this nice spread, in this delightful company is real pleasant.
• 53:54
  It's a great thing to have good neighbors. Who lives in the house
• 53:59
  among the willow up the brook, asked Anne. Missus dick Moore, said
• 54:04
  Captain Jim and her husband, he added, as if by way of an
• 54:08
  afterthought, Anne smiled and deduced a mental picture of Missus dick Moore from Captain
• 54:14
  Jim's way of putting it. Evidently a second, Missus Rachel Lynde, you
• 54:19
  haven't many neighbors, mistress Blythe Captain Jim went on, this side of the
• 54:23
  harbor is mighty thinly settled. Most of the land belongs to mister Howard up
• 54:29
  yonder past the glen, and he rents it out for pasture. The other
• 54:34
  side of the harbor now is thick with folks, specially McAllister's. There's a
• 54:38
  whole colony of mccallister's. You can't throw a stone, but you hit one.
• 54:44
  I was talking to old Leon Blockwier the other day. He's been working
• 54:47
  on the harbor all summer. There are nearly all McAllister's over there. He
• 54:52
  told me there's Neil McCallister, and Sandy McCallister, and William McCollister and Alec
• 54:59
  McCallister and Angus McCallister, and I believe there's the devil McAllister. There are
• 55:05
  nearly as many Elliots and Crawford's, said Doctor Dave after the laughter had subsided.
• 55:10
  You know, Gilbert, We folk on this side of four winds have
• 55:15
  an old saying, from the conceit of the Elliots, the pride of the
• 55:20
  mcallisters, and the vainglory of the Crawfords, Good Lord deliver us. There's
• 55:25
  plenty of fine people among them, though, said Captain Jim. I sailed
• 55:30
  with William Crawford for many a year, and for courage and endurance and truth
• 55:35
  that man hadn't an equal. They've got brains over on that side of four
• 55:39
  winds. Maybe that's why this side is sort of inclined to pick on him.
• 55:45
  Strange, ain't it how folks seem to resent anyone being born a mute
• 55:49
  cleverer than they be. Doctor Dave, who had a forty years feud with
• 55:53
  the over Harbor people laughed and subsided. Who is that brilliant Emerald house about
• 55:59
  how the wad asked Gilbert. Captain Jim smiled delightedly. Miss Corneli, you
• 56:06
  Bryant, she'll likely be able to see you soon, seeing your Presbyterians.
• 56:12
  If you were Methodists, she wouldn't come at all. Cornelia has a holy
• 56:15
  horror of Methodists. She's quite a character, chuckled Doctor Dave, A most
• 56:23
  inveterate man hater. Sour grapes, queried Gilbert, laughing, No, tisn't
• 56:30
  sour grapes, answered Captain Jim. Seriously, Cornelia could have had hook pick
• 56:36
  when she was young. Even yet she's only to say the word to see
• 56:39
  the old widower's jump. She just seems to have been born with a sort
• 56:44
  of chronic spite again men and Methodists. She's got the bitterest tongue and the
• 56:50
  kindest heart in four winds. Whenever there's any trouble, that woman is there,
• 56:55
  doing everything to help in the tenderest way. He never says a harsh
• 57:00
  word about another woman. And if she likes to card us poor scoutlet wags
• 57:05
  of men down, I reckon, I tough old hides can stand it.
• 57:08
  She always feiks well if you, Captain Jim, said missus, Doctor yes,
• 57:14
  I'm afraid so I don't have to like it. It makes me feel
• 57:19
  as if there must be something sort of unnatural about me. End of chapter
• 57:24
  six. Chapter seven. The Schoolmaster's Bride, who was the first bride who
• 57:32
  came to this house? Captain Jim and asked, as they sat around the
• 57:36
  fireplace after supper, was she a part of the story I've heard was connected
• 57:40
  with this house, asked Gilbert. Somebody told me you could tell it,
• 57:45
  Captain Jim, Well, yes, I know it. I reckon. I'm
• 57:49
  the only person living in four winds Now that can remember the schoolmaster's bride as
• 57:54
  she was when she comes to the island. She's been dead this thirty year,
• 57:59
  but she was one of them women you never forget. Tell us the
• 58:04
  story, pleaded Anne. I want to find out about all the women who
• 58:07
  have lived in this house before me. Well, there's just been three,
• 58:13
  Elizabeth Russell and missus Ned Russell and the school master's bride. Elizabeth Russell was
• 58:20
  a nice, clever little critter, and Missus Ned was a nice woman too,
• 58:25
  But they weren't ever like the school master's bride. The schoolmaster's name was
• 58:30
  John Selwyn. He came out from the old Country to teach school at the
• 58:36
  Glen when I was a boy at sixteen. He wasn't much like the usual
• 58:39
  run of derelicts who used to come out to Pei to teach school in them
• 58:44
  days. Most of them were clever, drunken critters who taught the children to
• 58:49
  three hours when they were sober, and lamb basted them when they wasn't.
• 58:53
  But John Selwyn was a fine handsome young fellow. He bordered at my father,
• 59:00
  and he and me were cronies. Though he was ten years older than
• 59:04
  me. We read and walked and talked to heap together. He knew all
• 59:09
  about the poetry that was ever written I reckon, and he used to quote
• 59:15
  it to me along shore in the evenings. Dad thought it was an awful
• 59:19
  waste of time, but he saught. I endured it, hoping it had
• 59:22
  put me off the notion of going to see well. Nothing could do that.
• 59:28
  Mother come of a race of sea going folk, and it was born
• 59:31
  in me. But I love to hear John read and recite. It's almost
• 59:37
  sixty years ago, but I could repeat yards of poetry I learned from him
• 59:43
  nearly sixty years. Captain Jim was silent for a space, gazing into the
• 59:49
  glowing fire in a quest of the bygones. Then with a sigh, he
• 59:52
  resumed his story. I remember one spring evening I met him on the sand
• 59:58
  hills. He looked, he sort of uplifted, just like you did,
• 1:00:01
  doctor Blythe, when you brought Mistress Blythe in tonight. I thought of him
• 1:00:06
  the minute I seen you, and he told me that he had a sweetheart
• 1:00:09
  back home, and that she was coming out to him. I wasn't more
• 1:00:15
  than half pleased on her, young lump of selfishness that I was. I
• 1:00:20
  thought he wouldn't be as much my friend after she came, but had enough
• 1:00:23
  decency not to let him see it. He told me all about her.
• 1:00:29
  Her name was Percus Lee, and she would have come out with him if
• 1:00:32
  it hadn't been for her old uncle. He was sick and he looked after
• 1:00:36
  her when her parents died, and she wouldn't leave him. And now he
• 1:00:40
  was dead and she was coming out to marry John Selwyn. Twas no easy
• 1:00:45
  journey for a woman in them days. There weren't no steamers you must recollect.
• 1:00:51
  When do you expect her? Says I? She sails on the Royal
• 1:00:55
  William the twentieth of June. Says he, and so she should be here
• 1:01:00
  by mit July. I must set Carpenter Johnson to building me a home for
• 1:01:05
  her. A letter came today. I know before I opened it that it
• 1:01:08
  had good news for me. I saw her a few nights ago. I
• 1:01:14
  didn't understand him, and then he explained, though I didn't understand that much
• 1:01:19
  better. He said he had a gift or a curse. Then was his
• 1:01:24
  words, Mistress blythe a gift or a curse. He didn't know which it
• 1:01:30
  was. He said a great great grandmother of his had had it, and
• 1:01:35
  they burned her for a witch on account of it. He said, queer
• 1:01:38
  spells trances I think was the name he give them. Come over him now
• 1:01:43
  and again? Are there such things? Doctor? There are people who are
• 1:01:47
  certainly subject to trances, answered Gilbert. The matter is more in the line
• 1:01:52
  of psychical research medical. What were the trances of this John Selwyn? Like
• 1:01:58
  my dreams? Said the old doctor skeptically. He said he could see things
• 1:02:02
  in them, said Captain Jim. Slowly, mind you, I'm telling you
• 1:02:07
  just what he said. Things that were happening, things that were going to
• 1:02:13
  happen. He said there was sometimes a comfort to him and sometimes a horror.
• 1:02:19
  Four nights before this, he'd been in one went into it. While
• 1:02:22
  he was sitting looking at the fire, he saw an old room he knew
• 1:02:27
  well in England, and Perseus lee in it, holding out her hands to
• 1:02:31
  him and looking glad and happy. So he knew he was going to hear
• 1:02:36
  good news of her a dream. A dream, scoffed the old doctor,
• 1:02:42
  likely likely conceded Captain Jim. That's what I said to him at the time.
• 1:02:47
  It was a vast more comfortable to think, so I didn't like the
• 1:02:52
  idea him seeing things like that. It was real uncanny, No, says
• 1:02:59
  he. I didn't. But we won't talk of this again. You won't
• 1:03:02
  be so much my friend if you think much about it. I told him
• 1:03:07
  nothing could make me any less his friend. But he just shook his hat
• 1:03:12
  and says, says he lad. I know I've lost friends before because of
• 1:03:17
  this. I don't blame them. There are times when I feel hardly friendly
• 1:03:22
  to myself because of it. Such a power has a bit of diffinity in
• 1:03:27
  it, whether of a good or evil divinity. Who shall say? And
• 1:03:31
  we mortals all shrink from too close contact with God or devil them? Was
• 1:03:37
  his words. I remember them as if twas yesterday, though I don't know
• 1:03:42
  just what he meant. What do you suppose he did mean? Doctor?
• 1:03:47
  I doubt if he knew what he meant himself, said Doctor Dave testily.
• 1:03:53
  I think I understand, whispered Anne. She was listening in her old attitude
• 1:03:59
  of clasped life, lips and shining eyes. Captain Jim treated himself to an
• 1:04:02
  admiring smile before he went on with his story. Well, pretty soon all
• 1:04:09
  the Glen and Four Winds people knew the school master's bride was coming, and
• 1:04:14
  they were all glad because they thought so much of him, And everybody took
• 1:04:18
  an interest in his new house. This house, he picked this sight for
• 1:04:24
  it because you could see the harbor and hear the sea from it. He
• 1:04:28
  made the garden out there for his bride, but he didn't plant the lombardes.
• 1:04:31
  Missus ned Russell planted them. But there's a double row of rose bushes
• 1:04:38
  in the garden that the little girls who went to the Glen school set out
• 1:04:42
  there for the school master's bride. He said they were pink for her cheeks,
• 1:04:46
  and white for her brow, and red for her lips. He quoted
• 1:04:50
  poetry so much that he sort of got into the habit of talking it too,
• 1:04:55
  I reckon. Almost everybody sent him some little present to help out the
• 1:04:59
  first of the house. When the Russells came into it, they were well
• 1:05:02
  to do and furnished it real handsome as you can see. But the first
• 1:05:08
  furniture that went into it was plain enough. This little house was rich in
• 1:05:14
  love, though. The women sent in quilts and tablecloths and towels, and
• 1:05:19
  one man made a chest for her, and another table and so on.
• 1:05:24
  Even behind, Old Aunt Margaret Board wove a little basket for her out of
• 1:05:28
  the sweet scented sand hill grass. The schoolmaster's wife used it for years to
• 1:05:33
  keep her handkerchiefs in well. At last everything was ready, even to the
• 1:05:39
  logs in the big fireplace, ready for lighting. Twasn't exactly this fireplace,
• 1:05:45
  though, twas in the same place Miss Elizabeth had this put in when she
• 1:05:48
  made the house over fifteen years ago. It was a big, old fashioned
• 1:05:54
  fireplace where you could have roasted an ox. Many's the time I sat there
• 1:06:00
  and spun yarns, same as I'm doing tonight again. There was a silence
• 1:06:04
  while Captain Jim kept a passing tryst with visitants. Anne and Gilbert could not
• 1:06:10
  see the folks who had sat with him around that fireplace in the vanished years,
• 1:06:14
  with mirth and bridal joy shining in eyes long since closed, forever under
• 1:06:18
  churchyard sod or heaving leagues of sea. Here on olden Knight's children had tossed
• 1:06:25
  laughter lightly to and fro here on winter evenings, friends had gathered dance and
• 1:06:30
  music, and jest had been here. Here, youths and maidens had dreamed
• 1:06:35
  for Captain Jim. The little house was tenanted with shapes entreating remembrance. It
• 1:06:42
  was the first of July when the house was finished. The school master began
• 1:06:45
  to count the days. Then we used to see him walking along the shore,
• 1:06:50
  and we'd say to each other, she'll soon be with him now.
• 1:06:55
  She was expected the middle of July, but she didn't come. Then nobody
• 1:06:59
  felt anxious. Vessels were often delayed for days and maybe weeks. The Royal
• 1:07:03
  William was a week overdue, and then two and then three, and at
• 1:07:11
  last we began to get frightened, and he got worse and worse. Finally
• 1:07:16
  I couldn't bear to look into John Selwyn's eyes. Do you know mistress Blythe
• 1:07:20
  Captain Jim lowered his voice. I used to think that they looked just like
• 1:07:27
  what his old great great grandmothers must have when they were burning her to death.
• 1:07:31
  He never said much, but he taught school like a man in the
• 1:07:35
  dream, and then hurried to the shore. Many a night he walked there
• 1:07:40
  from dark to dawn. People said he was losing his mind. Everybody had
• 1:07:45
  given up hope. Royal William was eight weeks overdue. It was the middle
• 1:07:49
  of September, and the schoolmaster's bride hadn't come, never would come. We
• 1:07:55
  thought there was a big storm that lasted three days, and on the evening,
• 1:08:00
  after a died away, I went to the shore. I found the
• 1:08:04
  schoolmaster there, leaning with his arms folded against a big rock, gazing out
• 1:08:10
  to sea. I spoke to him, but he didn't answer. His eyes
• 1:08:15
  seemed to be looking at something I couldn't see. His face was set like
• 1:08:19
  a dead man's John John, I called out, just like that, just
• 1:08:26
  like a frightened child, wake up, wake up. That strange, j
• 1:08:30
  awful look seemed to sort of fade out of his eyes. He turned his
• 1:08:35
  head and looked at me. I never forgot his face never will forget it
• 1:08:41
  till I ships for my last voyage. All is well, lad, he
• 1:08:45
  said, I've seen the Royal William coming around east Point. She will be
• 1:08:50
  here by dawn tomorrow night. I shall sit with my bride by my own
• 1:08:56
  horse fire. Do you think he did see it? Demanded Captain Jim abruptly.
• 1:09:01
  God knows, said Gilbert softly. Great love and great pain might compass.
• 1:09:08
  We know not what marvels. I am sure he did see it,
• 1:09:12
  said Anne earnestly. Folderol, said doctor Dave. But he spoke with less
• 1:09:16
  conviction than usual, because you know, said Captain Jim solemnly. The Royal
• 1:09:24
  William came into Four Winds Harbor at daylight the next morning. Every soul in
• 1:09:30
  the glen and along the shore was at the old wharf. Demet her.
• 1:09:33
  The schoolmaster had been watching there all night. How we cheered As she sailed
• 1:09:40
  up the channel. Captain Jim's eyes were shining. They were looking at the
• 1:09:45
  Four Winds Harbor of sixty years agone with a battered old ship sailing through the
• 1:09:48
  sunrise splendor and pursus. Lee was on board, asked Anne, Yes,
• 1:09:55
  her and the Captain's wife they'd had an awful passage storm at the storm,
• 1:10:00
  and their provisions give out too. But there they were at last. When
• 1:10:04
  pursus Lee stepped on to the old wharf. John Selwyn took her in his
• 1:10:10
  arms, and folks stopped cheering and begun to cry. I cried myself,
• 1:10:15
  though twas years mind you afore it, I'd admitted. Ain't it funny how
• 1:10:18
  shamed boys are of tears? Was pursisally beautiful? Asked Anne. Well,
• 1:10:25
  I don't know that you'd call her beautiful exactly. I don't know, said
• 1:10:31
  Captain Jim slowly. Somehow you never got so far along as to wonder if
• 1:10:36
  she was handsome or not. It just didn't matter. There was something so
• 1:10:42
  sweet and winsome about her that you had to love her, that was all.
• 1:10:46
  But she was pleasant to look at, big clear hazel eyes, and
• 1:10:51
  heaps of glossy brown hair and an English skin. John and her were married
• 1:10:58
  at our house that night, that early candlelighting. Everybody from far and near
• 1:11:02
  was there to see it, and we all brought them down here. Afterwards,
• 1:11:06
  Mistress Selwyn lighted the fire, and we went away and left them sitting
• 1:11:12
  there, just as John had seen in that vision of his a strange thing,
• 1:11:16
  a strange thing, but I've seen a terrible lot of strange things in
• 1:11:21
  my time. Captain Jim shook his head sagely. It's a dear story,
• 1:11:29
  said Anne, feeling that for once she had got enough romance to satisfy her.
• 1:11:33
  How long did they live here? Fifteen years? I ran off to
• 1:11:38
  see soon after they were married. Like the young scallawag I was. But
• 1:11:43
  every time I come back from a voyage, I'd had for here even before
• 1:11:46
  I went home and tell Mistress Selwyn all about it. Fifteen happy years.
• 1:11:53
  They had a sort of talent for happiness them too. Some folks are like
• 1:11:57
  that, if you've noticed, they couldn't be unhappy for long, no matter
• 1:12:01
  what happened. They quarreled once or twice, for they was both high spirited.
• 1:12:06
  But Mistress Selwyn says to me once, says she, laughing in that
• 1:12:11
  pretty way of hers. I felt dreadful when John and I quarreled, But
• 1:12:15
  underneath it all, I was very happy because I had such a nice husband
• 1:12:19
  to quarrel with and make it up with. Then they moved to Charlottetown,
• 1:12:24
  and ned Russell bought this house and brought his bride here. They were a
• 1:12:29
  gay young pair, as I remember them. Miss Elizabeth Russell was Alex's sister.
• 1:12:33
  She came to live with them a year or so later, and she
• 1:12:38
  was a creature of mirth. iiO, the walls of this house must be
• 1:12:43
  sort of soaked with laughing and good times. You're the third bride I've seen
• 1:12:47
  come here, mistress blythe and the handsomest. Captain Jim contrived to give his
• 1:12:54
  sunflower compliment the delicacy of a violet, and Anne wore it proudly. She
• 1:12:59
  was looking her bad that night, with the bridal rose on her cheeks and
• 1:13:02
  the love light in her eyes. Even gruffled Doctor Dave gave her an approving
• 1:13:06
  glance and told his wife as they drove home together that that redheaded wife of
• 1:13:12
  the boys was something of a beauty. I must be getting back to the
• 1:13:15
  light, announced Captain Jim. I've enjoyed this evening's of the tremendness. You
• 1:13:21
  must come off and to see us, said Anne. I wonder if you
• 1:13:27
  give that invitation, if you knew how likely I'd be to accept it.
• 1:13:30
  Captain Jim remarked whimsically, which is another way of saying, you wonder if
• 1:13:35
  I mean it, smiled Anne. I do cross my heart, as we
• 1:13:40
  used to say at school. Then I'll come. You're likely to be pested
• 1:13:44
  with me at inny hour, and I'll be proud to have you drop down
• 1:13:47
  and visit me now and then to Generally, I haven't anyone to talk to,
• 1:13:53
  but the first mate, bless his sociable heart. He's a mighty good
• 1:13:57
  listener and has forgotten more than any mechallis of them all ever knew. But
• 1:14:00
  he isn't much of a conversationalist. You're young and I'm old, but our
• 1:14:05
  souls are about the same age. I reckon we both belong to the race
• 1:14:11
  that knows Joseph, as Cornelia Bryant would say, the race that knows Joseph,
• 1:14:16
  puzzled Anne. Yes, Cornelia divides all the folks in the world into
• 1:14:23
  two kinds, the race that knows Joseph and the race that don't. If
• 1:14:28
  a person sort of sees eye to eye with you and has pretty much the
• 1:14:30
  same ideas about things and the same taste in jokes, why then he belongs
• 1:14:35
  to the race that knows Joseph. Oh, I understand, exclaimed Anne,
• 1:14:41
  light breaking in upon her. It's what I used to call, and still
• 1:14:45
  call in quotation marks kindred spirits. Just so, just so, agreed Captain
• 1:14:51
  Jim. We're it whatever it is when you come in tonight, Mistress blythe
• 1:14:57
  I says to myself, says I, ye, yes, she's of the
• 1:15:00
  race that knows Joseph, and mighty glad I was for. If it wasn't
• 1:15:05
  so, we couldn't have had any real satisfaction in each other's company. The
• 1:15:11
  race that knows Joseph is the salt of Earth. I reckon. The moon
• 1:15:15
  had just risen when Anne and Gilbert went to the door with their guests.
• 1:15:19
  Four Winds Harbor was beginning to be a thing of dream and glamour and enchantment,
• 1:15:25
  a spellbound haven where no tempest might have a raven. The Lombardies down
• 1:15:30
  the lane, tall and somber as the priestly forms of some mystic band,
• 1:15:33
  were tipped with silver. Always liked Lombardies, said Captain Jim, waving a
• 1:15:41
  long arm at them. They're the trees of princesses. They're out of fashion
• 1:15:45
  now. Folks complain that they die at the top and get ragged looking a
• 1:15:49
  soul. They do, so they do. If you don't risk your neck
• 1:15:54
  every spring, climbing up a light ladder to trim them out. I always
• 1:15:58
  did it for Miss Elizabeth, so her Lombardies never got out at elbows.
• 1:16:02
  She was especially fond of them. She liked their dignity and stanoffishness. They
• 1:16:09
  don't hobnob with every time, Dick and Harry. If it's Maples for company,
• 1:16:14
  Mistress Blinth, it's Lombardies for society. What a beautiful night, said
• 1:16:19
  missus Doctor Dave, as she climbed into the doctor's buggy. Most night's are
• 1:16:24
  beautiful, said Captain Jim. But I allow that moonlight over four winds makes
• 1:16:30
  me sort of wonder what's left for heaven. The Moon's a great friend of
• 1:16:33
  mine, Mistress blythe I've loved her ever since I can remember when I was
• 1:16:39
  a little chap of eight, I fell asleep in the garden one evening and
• 1:16:43
  wasn't missed. I woke up along in the night, and I was most
• 1:16:46
  scared to death, watch shadows and queer noises. There was I Durst move
• 1:16:54
  just crouch there, quakin, poor small mite. Seems as if there weren't
• 1:16:58
  anyone in the world but and it was mine big then all at once I
• 1:17:03
  saw the moon looking down at me through the apple boughs, just like an
• 1:17:08
  old friend. I was comported right off, got up and walked to the
• 1:17:13
  house, as brave as a line. Looking at her, Minnie's a night,
• 1:17:16
  I watched her from the deck of my vessel, on seas far away
• 1:17:19
  from here. Why don't you folks tell me to take in the slack of
• 1:17:25
  my jaw and go home? The laughter of the good nights died away.
• 1:17:30
  Anne and Gilbert walked hand in hand around their garden. The brook that ran
• 1:17:33
  across the corner dimpled pellucidly in the shadows of the birches. The poppies along
• 1:17:39
  its banks were like shallow cups of moonlight. Flowers that had been planted by
• 1:17:44
  the hands of the schoolmaster's bride flung their sweetness on the shadowy air, like
• 1:17:48
  the beauty and blessing of sacred yesterdays. Anne paused in the gloom to gather
• 1:17:54
  a spray. I love to smell flowers in the dark. She said,
• 1:17:59
  you got hold of their soul. Then, oh Gilbert, this little house
• 1:18:02
  is all I've dreamed it, and I'm so glad that we are not the
• 1:18:05
  first to have kept bridal tryst here. End of chapter seven. Chapter eight,
• 1:18:13
  Miss Cornelia Bryant comes to call that September was a month of golden mists
• 1:18:19
  and purple hazes at Four Winds Harbor, a month of sun steeped days,
• 1:18:24
  and of nights that were swimming in moonlight or pulsating with stars. No storm
• 1:18:30
  marred it, no rough wind blew. Anne and Gilbert put their nest in
• 1:18:34
  order, rambled on the shores, sailed on the harbor, drove about four
• 1:18:39
  winds in the glen, or through the ferny sequestered roads of the woods around
• 1:18:44
  the harbor head. In short, had such a honeymoon as any lovers in
• 1:18:47
  the world might have envied them. If life were to stop short just now,
• 1:18:53
  it would still have been richly worth while, just for the sake of
• 1:18:56
  these past four weeks, wouldn't it, said Anne. I don't suppose we
• 1:19:00
  will ever have four such perfect weeks again, but we've had them. Everything
• 1:19:05
  wind weather, folks, house of dreams has conspired to make our honeymoon delightful.
• 1:19:12
  There hasn't even been a rainy day since we came here, and we
• 1:19:15
  haven't quarreled once, teased Gilbert. Well that's a pleasure all the greater for
• 1:19:20
  being deferred, quoted Anne, I'm so glad we decided to spend our honeymoon
• 1:19:26
  here. Our memories of it will always belong here in our house of dreams,
• 1:19:30
  instead of being scattered about in strange places. There was a certain tang
• 1:19:35
  of romance and adventure in the atmosphere of their new home, which Anne had
• 1:19:40
  never found in Avonlea. There, although she had lived in side of the
• 1:19:44
  sea, it had not entered intimately into her life. In Four Winds,
• 1:19:47
  it surrounded her and called to her constantly. From every window of her new
• 1:19:53
  home. She saw some varying aspect of it. Its haunting murmur was ever
• 1:19:57
  in her ears. Vessels ailed up the harbor every day to the wharf at
• 1:20:01
  the glen, or sailed out again through the sunset, bound for ports that
• 1:20:05
  might be half way round the globe. Fishing boats went white winged down the
• 1:20:11
  channel in the mornings and returned laden in the evenings. Sailors and fisher folk
• 1:20:15
  traveled the red winding harbor roads, light hearted and content. There was always
• 1:20:21
  a certain sense of things going to happen, of adventures and farings. Forth.
• 1:20:27
  The ways of Four Winds were less stayed and settled and grooved than those
• 1:20:30
  of Avonlea. Winds of change blew over them. The sea called ever to
• 1:20:35
  the dwellers on shore, and even those who might not answer its call felt
• 1:20:40
  the thrill and unrest and mystery and possibilities of it. I understand now why
• 1:20:46
  some men must go to sea, said Anne. That desire which comes to
• 1:20:50
  us all at times to sail beyond the bourne of sunset must be very imperious
• 1:20:56
  when it is borne in you. I don't wonder, Captain Jim Renway,
• 1:21:00
  because of it. I never see a ship sailing out of the channel,
• 1:21:03
  or a gull soaring over the sand bar, without wishing I were on board
• 1:21:06
  the ship, or had wings, not like a dove to fly away and
• 1:21:11
  be at rest, but like a gull to sweep out into the very heart
• 1:21:15
  of a storm. You'll stay right here with me, a girl, said
• 1:21:18
  Gilbert Lazily. I wont have you flying away from me into the hearts of
• 1:21:21
  storms. They were sitting on their red sandstone doorstep in the late afternoon.
• 1:21:28
  Great tranquilities were all about them, in land and sea and sky. Silvery
• 1:21:32
  gulls were soaring over them. The horizons were laced with long trails of frail,
• 1:21:38
  pinkish clouds. The hushed air was threaded with a murmurous refrain of minstrel
• 1:21:43
  winds and waves. Pale asters were blowing in the sea into misty meadows between
• 1:21:47
  them and the harbor. Doctors, who have to be up all night waiting
• 1:21:51
  on sick folk don't feel very adventurous. I suppose, Anne said indulgently,
• 1:21:57
  if you had had a good sleep last night, Gilbert, you'd be as
• 1:22:00
  ready as I am for a flight of imagination. I did good work last
• 1:22:03
  night, ed said Gilbert quietly. Under God, I saved a life.
• 1:22:09
  This is the first time I could ever really claim that. In other cases
• 1:22:13
  I may have helped. But if I had not stated at Allenby's last night
• 1:22:17
  and fought death hand to hand, that woman would have died before morning.
• 1:22:21
  I tried an experiment that was certainly never tried in four Winds before. I
• 1:22:26
  doubt if it was ever tried anywhere before outside of a hospital. It was
• 1:22:30
  a new thing in Kingsport Hospital last winter. I could never have dared try
• 1:22:33
  it here if I had not been absolutely certain that there was no other chance.
• 1:22:38
  I risked it, and it succeeded. As a result, a good
• 1:22:43
  wife and mother is saved for long years of happiness and usefulness. As I
• 1:22:47
  drove home this morning, while the sun was rising over the harbor, I
• 1:22:50
  thanked God that I had chosen the profession I did. I had fought a
• 1:22:55
  good fight and won. Think of it, and one against the great destroyer.
• 1:23:00
  It's what I dreamed of doing long ago, when we talked together of
• 1:23:04
  what we wanted to do in life. That dream of mine came true this
• 1:23:09
  morning. Was that the only one of your dreams that has come true?
• 1:23:14
  Asked Anne, who knew perfectly well what the substance of his answer would be,
• 1:23:17
  but wanted to hear it again. You know, Anne, girl,
• 1:23:21
  said Gilbert, smiling into her eyes. At that moment, there were certainly
• 1:23:26
  two perfectly happy people sitting on the doorstep of a little white house on the
• 1:23:30
  Four Winds Harbor shore. Presently, Gilbert said, with a change of tone,
• 1:23:35
  do I or do I not see a full rigged ship sailing up ourlane?
• 1:23:40
  Anne looked and sprang up. That must be either Miss Cornelia Bryant or
• 1:23:45
  missus Moore coming to call. She said, I'm going into the office,
• 1:23:48
  and if it's miss Cornelia, I warn you that I'll eavesdrop, said Gilbert.
• 1:23:54
  From all I've heard regarding Miss Cornelia, I conclude that her conversation will
• 1:23:57
  not be dull, to say the least. It maybe missus Moore. I
• 1:24:00
  don't think missus Moore is built on those lines. I saw her working in
• 1:24:04
  her garden the other day, and though I was too far away to see
• 1:24:06
  clearly, I thought she was rather slender. She doesn't seem very socially inclined
• 1:24:13
  when she's never called on you yet, although she's your nearest neighbor. She
• 1:24:16
  can't be like missus Lynde, or curiosity would have brought her, said Anne.
• 1:24:21
  This caller is I think Miss Cornelia? Miss Cornelia. It was moreover,
• 1:24:28
  Miss Cornelia had not come to make any brief and fashionable wedding call.
• 1:24:31
  She had her work under her arm in a substantial parcel, and when Anne
• 1:24:35
  asked her to stay, she promptly took off her capacious sun hat, which
• 1:24:40
  had been held on her head despite irreverent September breezes by a tight elastic band
• 1:24:45
  under her hard little knob of fair hair. No hat pins for miss Cornelia,
• 1:24:49
  Anne, please, ye, elastic bands had been good enough for her
• 1:24:53
  mother, and they were good enough for her. She had a fresh,
• 1:24:57
  round, pink and white face and jolly brown eyes. She did not look
• 1:25:00
  in the least like the traditional old maid, and there was something in her
• 1:25:04
  expression which won Anne instantly with her old instinctive quickness to discern Kindred's spirits.
• 1:25:11
  She knew she was going to like Miss Cornelia in spite of uncertain oddities of
• 1:25:15
  opinion and certain oddities of attire. Nobody but Miss Cornelia would have come to
• 1:25:20
  make a call arrayed in a striped blue and white apron and a wrapper of
• 1:25:25
  chocolate print with a design of huge pink roses scattered over it, and nobody
• 1:25:30
  but Miss Cornelia could have looked dignified and suitably garbed in it. Had Miss
• 1:25:34
  Cornelia been entering a palace to call on a prince's bride, she would have
• 1:25:39
  been just as dignified and just as holy mistress of the situation. She would
• 1:25:44
  have trailed her rose spattered flounce over the marble floors just as unconcernedly, and
• 1:25:48
  she would have proceeded just as calmly to disabuse the mind of the princess of
• 1:25:53
  any idea that the possession of a mere man, be he prince or peasant,
• 1:25:58
  was anything to brag of. I've brought my work, missus blythe deary,
• 1:26:01
  she remarked, unrolling some dainty material. I'm in a hurry to get
• 1:26:06
  this done, and there isn't any time to lose. Anne looked in some
• 1:26:10
  surprise at the white garment spread over Miss Cornelia's ample lap. It was certainly
• 1:26:15
  a baby's dress, and it was most beautifully made, with tiny frills and
• 1:26:18
  tucks. Miss Cornelia adjusted her glasses and fell to embroidering with exquisite stitches.
• 1:26:26
  This is for missus Fred Proctor. Up at the glen, she announced she's
• 1:26:30
  expecting her eighth baby any day now, and not a stitch has she ready
• 1:26:33
  for it. The other seven have wore out all she made for the first,
• 1:26:36
  and she's never had time or strength or spirit to make any more.
• 1:26:40
  That woman is a martyr, Missus blythe believe me. When she married Fred
• 1:26:45
  Proctor, I knew how it would turn out. He was one of your
• 1:26:46
  wicked, fascinating men. After he got married, he left off being fascinating
• 1:26:50
  and just kept on being wicked. He drinks and he neglects his family.
• 1:26:54
  Isn't that like a man. I don't know how Missus Proctor would ever keep
• 1:26:58
  her children decently clothed if her name didn't help her out. As Anne was
• 1:27:01
  afterwards to learn, miss Cornelia was the only neighbor who troubled herself much about
• 1:27:05
  the decency of the young Proctor's. When I heard this eighth baby was coming,
• 1:27:11
  I decided to make some things for it. Miss Cornelia went on,
• 1:27:15
  this is the last and I want to finish it today. It's certainly very
• 1:27:17
  pretty, said Anne. I'll get my sewing and we'll have a little thimble
• 1:27:21
  party of two. You are a beautiful sewer, Miss Bryant. Yes,
• 1:27:26
  I'm the best sewer in these parts, said Miss Cornelia in a matter of
• 1:27:30
  fact tone. I ought to be Lord, I've done more of it than
• 1:27:33
  if I'd had a hundred children of my own. Believe me, I suppose
• 1:27:36
  I'm a fool to be putting hand embroidery on this dress for an eighth baby.
• 1:27:40
  But Lord, missus blythe deary, it isn't to blame for being the
• 1:27:43
  eighth and I kind of wish it to have one real pretty dress, just
• 1:27:45
  as if it was wanted. Nobody's wanting. The poor mite so I put
• 1:27:49
  some extra fuss on its little things. Just on that account. Annie baby
• 1:27:54
  might be proud of that dress, said Anne, feeling still more strongly that
• 1:27:58
  she was going to like Miss Cornelia. I suppose you'd been thinking I was
• 1:28:00
  never coming to call on you, resumed Miss Cornelia. But this is harvest
• 1:28:05
  month, you know, and I've been busy and a lot of extra hands
• 1:28:08
  hanging around eating more than they work, just like the men. I'd have
• 1:28:11
  come yesterday, but I went to missus Roderick mc allister's funeral. At first,
• 1:28:14
  I thought my head was aching so badly I couldn't enjoy myself if I
• 1:28:16
  did go. But she was a hundred years old, and I'd always promise
• 1:28:19
  myself that I would go to her funeral. Was it a successful function,
• 1:28:24
  asked Anne, noticing that the Arthur's door was ajar. What's that? Oh?
• 1:28:28
  Yes, it was a tremendous funeral. She had a very large connection.
• 1:28:31
  There was over one hundred and twenty carriages in the procession. There was
• 1:28:34
  one or two funny things happened. I thought that die I would to see
• 1:28:38
  old Joe Bradshaw, who was an infidel and never darkens the jaw of a
• 1:28:42
  church, singing safe in the arms of Jesus, with great gusto and fervor.
• 1:28:45
  He glories and singing. That's why he never misses a funeral. Poor
• 1:28:48
  missus Bradshaw didn't look much like singing or wore out slaving. Old Joe starts
• 1:28:53
  at once in a while to buy her a present and brings home some new
• 1:28:56
  kind of farm machinery. Isn't that like a man? But what else would
• 1:28:59
  you expect of a man who ever goes to church, even a Methodist one.
• 1:29:01
  I was real thankful to see you and the young doctor in the Presbyterian
• 1:29:04
  church your first Sunday. No doctor for me, who isn't a Presbyterian.
• 1:29:09
  We were in the Methodist church last Sunday evening, said Anne wickedly. Oh,
• 1:29:13
  I suppose doctor blythe has to go to the Methodist church once in a
• 1:29:15
  while or he wouldn't get the Methodist practice. We liked the sermon very much,
• 1:29:19
  declared Anne boldly. And I thought the Methodist minister's prayer was one of
• 1:29:25
  the most beautiful I ever heard. Oh, I've no doubt he can pray.
• 1:29:29
  I've never heard anyone make more beautiful prayers than old Simon Bentley who was
• 1:29:31
  always drunk or hoping to be, And the drunker he was, the better,
• 1:29:35
  he prayed. The Methodist minister is very fine looking, said Anne,
• 1:29:40
  for the benefit of the office door. Yes, he's quite ornamental, agreed
• 1:29:44
  Miss Cornelia. Oh, and very ladylike. And he thinks that every girl
• 1:29:48
  who looks at him falls in love with him, as if a Methodist minister
• 1:29:51
  wondering about like any jew was such a prize. If you and the young
• 1:29:56
  doctor take my advice, you won't have much to do with the Methodists.
• 1:29:59
  My motto is, if you are a Presbyterian, be a Presbyterian. Don't
• 1:30:03
  you think Methodists go to heaven as well as Presbyterians, asked Anne smilelessly.
• 1:30:09
  That isn't for us to decide. It's in higher hands than ours, said
• 1:30:14
  Miss Cornelia solemnly. But I ain't going to associate with them on earth,
• 1:30:16
  whatever I may have to do in heaven. This Methodist minister isn't married.
• 1:30:20
  The last one they had was, and his wife was the silliest, flightiest
• 1:30:25
  thing I ever saw. I told her husband once that he should have waited
• 1:30:28
  till she was grown up before he married her. He said he wanted to
• 1:30:30
  have the training of her. Wasn't that like a man. It's rather hard
• 1:30:33
  to decide just when people are grown up? Laughed Anne. That's a true
• 1:30:38
  word, dearie. Some are grown up when they're born, and others ain't
• 1:30:41
  grown up when they're eighty. Believe me, that's same. Missus Roderick I
• 1:30:45
  was speaking of never grew up. She was as foolish when she was one
• 1:30:47
  hundred as when she was ten. Perhaps that was why she lived so long,
• 1:30:51
  suggested Anne, Maybe twas I'd rather live fifty sensible years than a hundred
• 1:30:57
  foolish ones. But just think what a dull world it would be if everyone
• 1:31:00
  was sensible, pleaded Anne. Miss Cornelia disdained any skirmish of flippant epigram.
• 1:31:08
  Missus Roderick was a mill Grave, and the Milgraves never had much sense.
• 1:31:12
  Her nephew, Evaniez, a Milgrave, used to be insane for years.
• 1:31:15
  He believed he was dead, and used to rage at his wife because she
• 1:31:17
  wouldn't bury him. I'd ha done it, Miss Cornelia looked so grimly determined
• 1:31:23
  that Anne could almost see her with a speed in her hand. Don't you
• 1:31:27
  know any good husbands, Miss Bryant, Oh? Yes, lots of them
• 1:31:30
  over yonder, said Miss Cornelia, waving her hand through the open window towards
• 1:31:35
  the little graveyard of the church across the harbor. But living going about in
• 1:31:40
  the flesh, persisted Anne. Ah, there's a few, just to show
• 1:31:45
  that with God, all things are possible, acknowledged Miss Cornelia reluctantly. I
• 1:31:49
  don't deny that an odd man here and there, if he's caught young and
• 1:31:53
  trained up proper, and if his mother has spanked him well beforehand, may
• 1:31:56
  turn out a decent being. Your husband now isn't so bad as men go?
• 1:31:59
  From all I hear, I suppose Miss Cornelia looked sharply at Anne over
• 1:32:03
  her glasses. You think there's nobody like him in the world. There isn't,
• 1:32:09
  said Anne promptly. Ah, well, I heard another bride say that
• 1:32:13
  once, sighed Miss Cornelia. Jenny Dean thought when she married that there wasn't
• 1:32:16
  anybody like her husband in the world. And she was right. There wasn't,
• 1:32:19
  and a good thing too, Believe me. He led her an awful
• 1:32:23
  life, and he was courting his second wife, Will Jenny was dying.
• 1:32:27
  Wasn't that like a man? However, I hope your confidence will be better
• 1:32:30
  justify, dearie, the young doctor is taking real well. I was afraid
• 1:32:32
  at first he mightn for folks hereabouts have always thought old doctor Dave the only
• 1:32:36
  doctor in the world. Doctor Dave hadn't much tact, to be sure.
• 1:32:40
  He was always talking of ropes in houses where someone had hanged himself. But
• 1:32:43
  folks forgot their hurt feelings when they had a pain in their stomachs. If
• 1:32:45
  he'd been a minister instead of a doctor, they'd never have forgiven him Soullke
• 1:32:49
  doesn't worry folks near as much as stomach ache. Seeing as we're both Presbyterians
• 1:32:54
  and no Methodists around, Will you tell me your candid opinion of our minister?
• 1:33:00
  Hi, really, I well hesitated, Anne, Miss Cornelia nodded exactly.
• 1:33:06
  I agree with you, deary. We made a mistake when we called
• 1:33:10
  him. His face looks just like one of those long, narrow stones in
• 1:33:13
  the graveyard, doesn't it sacred to the memory or to be written on his
• 1:33:15
  forehead. I shall never forget the first sermon he preached after he came.
• 1:33:19
  It was on the subjects of everyone doing what they were best fitted for.
• 1:33:23
  A very good subject, of course, but such illustrations as he used.
• 1:33:27
  He said, if you had a cow and an apple tree, and if
• 1:33:30
  you tied the apple tree in your stable and planted the cow and your orchard
• 1:33:32
  with her legs up, how much milk would you get from the apple tree?
• 1:33:35
  Or how many apples from the cow? Did you ever hear the like
• 1:33:39
  in your born days? Deary? I was so thankful there were no Methodists
• 1:33:42
  there that day. They'd never have been done hooting over it. But what
• 1:33:45
  I'd dislike most in him is his habit of agreeing with everybody no matter what
• 1:33:48
  is said. If you said to him, you're a scoundrel, he'd say,
• 1:33:51
  with that smooth smile of his, yes, that's so. A minister
• 1:33:55
  should have more backbone. The long and short of it is I consider him
• 1:33:59
  our reverend Jacket. Yes, but of course this is just between you and
• 1:34:01
  me. When they are a Methodist in hearing, I praise him to the
• 1:34:03
  skies. Some folk think his wife dress is too gay, but I say,
• 1:34:08
  when she has to live with a face like that, she needs something
• 1:34:11
  to cheer her up. You'll never hear me condemning a woman for her dress.
• 1:34:14
  I'm only too thankful when her husband isn't too mean and miserly to allow
• 1:34:17
  it. Not that I bother much with dress myself. Women just dress to
• 1:34:20
  please the men, and I'd never stoop to that. I've had a real
• 1:34:24
  placid, comfortable life, deary, And that's just because I never care to
• 1:34:27
  scent what the men thought. Why do you hate the men so, miss
• 1:34:30
  Bryant, Oh, deary, I don't hate them. They aren't worth it.
• 1:34:32
  I just sort of despise them. I think I'll like your husband if
• 1:34:35
  he keeps on as he's begun. But apart from him, about the only
• 1:34:40
  man in the world I've much used for her the old doctor and Captain Jim.
• 1:34:43
  Captain Jim is certainly splendid, agreed Anne Cordially, Captain Jim is a
• 1:34:47
  good man, but he's kind of vexing in one way. You can't make
• 1:34:50
  him mad. I've tried for twenty years and he just keeps on being pleasant.
• 1:34:55
  It does sort of role me. And I suppose the woman he should
• 1:34:57
  have married got a man who went to tantrums twice, a dame who was
• 1:35:00
  she? Oh, I don't know, dearie. I never remember of Captain
• 1:35:03
  Jim making up to anybody. He was edging on old as far as my
• 1:35:06
  memory goes, he's seventy six. You know, I never heard any reason
• 1:35:11
  for his staying at Bachelor, but there must be one. Believe me,
• 1:35:14
  he sailed all his life till five years ago, and there's no corner of
• 1:35:16
  the earth he hasn't poked his nose into. He and Elizabeth Russell were great
• 1:35:19
  cronies all their lives, but they never had any notion of sweethearting. Elizabeth
• 1:35:23
  never married, though she had plenty of chances. She was a great beauty
• 1:35:27
  when she was young. The year the Prince of Wales came to the island,
• 1:35:30
  she was visiting her uncle in Charlottetown and he was a government official,
• 1:35:32
  and so she got invited to the Great Ball. She was the prettiest girl
• 1:35:36
  there, and the Prince danced with her, and all the other women he
• 1:35:39
  didn't dance with were furious about it because their social standing was higher than hers,
• 1:35:43
  and they said he shouldn't have passed them over. Elizabeth was always very
• 1:35:46
  proud of that dance. Mean folks said that was why she never married.
• 1:35:49
  She couldn't put up with an ordinary man after dancing with a prince. But
• 1:35:53
  that wasn't so she told me the reason once. It was because she had
• 1:35:56
  such a temper that she was afraid she couldn't live peaceably with any man.
• 1:36:00
  She had an awful temper. She used to have to go upstairs and bite
• 1:36:03
  pieces out of her bureau to keep it down by times. But I told
• 1:36:06
  her that wasn't any reason for not marrying if she wanted to. There's no
• 1:36:10
  reason why we should let the men have a monopoly on temper, is there,
• 1:36:12
  missus? Blythe deary, I've a bit of temper myself, sighed Anne.
• 1:36:16
  It's well you have, deary, you won't be half so likely to
• 1:36:18
  be trodden on. Believe me, my, how that golden glow of yours
• 1:36:23
  is blooming. Your garden looks fine. Poor Elizabeth always took such care of
• 1:36:27
  it. I love it, said Anne. I'm glad it's so full of
• 1:36:30
  old fashioned flowers. Speaking of gardening, we want to get a man to
• 1:36:34
  dig up that little lot beyond the fir grove and set it out with strawberry
• 1:36:38
  plants for us. Gilbert is so busy he will never get time for it
• 1:36:42
  this fall. Do you know anyone we can get? Well? Henry Hammond
• 1:36:45
  up at the glen, goes out doing jobs like that he'll do. Maybe
• 1:36:48
  he's always the heat, more interested in his wages than in his work,
• 1:36:51
  just like a man. And he's so slow in the uptake that he stands
• 1:36:55
  still for five minutes before it dawns on him that he's stopped. His father
• 1:36:58
  threw a stump a him when he was nice, gentle missile, wasn't it
• 1:37:01
  so like a man? Of course the boy never got over it. But
• 1:37:04
  he's the only one I can recommend at all. He painted my house for
• 1:37:06
  me last spring. It looks real nice. Now, don't you think Anne
• 1:37:11
  was saved by the clerk striking? Five? Lord? Is it pet late?
• 1:37:15
  Exclaimed Miss Cornelia. How time does slip by when you're enjoying yourself?
• 1:37:18
  Well, I must betake myself home. No, indeed, you are going
• 1:37:23
  to stay and have tea with us, said Anne eagerly. Are you asking
• 1:37:27
  me because you think you ought to or because you really want to? Demanded
• 1:37:30
  Miss Cornelia. Because I really want to, then I'll stay. You belong
• 1:37:34
  to the race that knows Joseph. I know we are going to be friends,
• 1:37:39
  said Anne, with the smile that only they of the Household of Faith
• 1:37:42
  ever saw. Yes, we are, Dearie, Thank goodness. We can
• 1:37:45
  choose our friends. We have to take our relatives as they are and be
• 1:37:47
  thankful if there are no penitentiary birds among them. Not that I've many,
• 1:37:50
  none nearer than second cousins. I'm kind of a lonely soul. Missus Blythe.
• 1:37:55
  There was a wistful note in Miss Cornelia's voice. I wish you would,
• 1:38:00
  Anne, exclaimed Anne impulsively. It would seem more homey. Every one
• 1:38:04
  in four Winds except my husband calls me missus Blythe, and it makes me
• 1:38:09
  feel like a stranger. Do you know that your name is very near being
• 1:38:13
  the one I yearned after When I was a child, I hated Anne,
• 1:38:16
  and I called myself Cordelia in imagination. I like Anne. It was my
• 1:38:20
  mother's name. Old fashioned names are the best and sweetest, in my opinion.
• 1:38:25
  If you're going to get tea, you might send the young doctor to
• 1:38:27
  talk to me. He's been lying on the sofa in that office ever since
• 1:38:30
  I came, laughing fit to kill over what I've been saying. How did
• 1:38:32
  you know? Cried Anne to aghast at this instance of Miss Cornelia's uncanny prescience
• 1:38:39
  to make a polite denial. I saw him sitting beside you when I count
• 1:38:43
  the lane, and I know men's tricks, retorted Miss Cornelia. There I
• 1:38:47
  finished my little dress, deery, and that eighth baby can come as soon
• 1:38:50
  as it pleases. End of Chapter eight, Chapter nine, an evening at
• 1:38:58
  four winds Point. It was late September when Anne and Gilbert were able to
• 1:39:03
  pay for winds Light their promised visit. They had often planned to go,
• 1:39:08
  but something always occurred to prevent them. Captain Jim had dropped in several times
• 1:39:13
  at the Little House. I don't stand on ceremony, Mistress blithe, he
• 1:39:17
  told Anne. It's a real pleasure to me to come here, and I'm
• 1:39:21
  not going to deny myself just because you haven't got down to see me.
• 1:39:27
  There oughtn't to be no boggaining like that among the race that knows. Joseph,
• 1:39:30
  I'll come when I can, and you come when you can, and
• 1:39:34
  so long's we have our pleasant little chat. It don't matter a mite what
• 1:39:40
  rufs over us. Captain Jim took a great fancy to Gog and Magog,
• 1:39:45
  who were presiding over the destinies of the hearth in the Little House with as
• 1:39:48
  much dignity and a plum as they had done at Patty's place. Aren't they
• 1:39:53
  the cutest little cusses? He would say delightedly, and he bade them greeting
• 1:39:58
  and farewell as bravely and invariably as he did his host and hostess. Captain
• 1:40:03
  Jim was not going to offend household deities by any lack of reverence and ceremony.
• 1:40:09
  You've made this little house just about perfect, he told Anne. It
• 1:40:14
  never was so nice before. Mistress Selwyn had your taste, and she did
• 1:40:18
  wonders. But folks in those days didn't have the pretty little curtains and pictures
• 1:40:25
  and knickknacks you have. As for Elizabeth, she lived in the past.
• 1:40:31
  You've kind of brought the future into it, so to speak. And I'd
• 1:40:34
  be really happy even if we couldn't talk at all when I come here,
• 1:40:40
  just to sit and look at you and your pictures and your flowers would be
• 1:40:44
  enough of a treat. It's beautiful, beautiful. Captain Jim was a passionate
• 1:40:48
  worshiper of beauty. Every lovely thing heard or seen gave him a deep,
• 1:40:54
  subtle inner joy that irradiated his life. He was quite keenly aware of his
• 1:40:59
  own lack of outward comeliness and lamented it. Folks say I'm good, he
• 1:41:04
  remarked whimsically upon one occasion, But sometimes I wish the Lord had made me
• 1:41:10
  only half as good and put the rest of it into looks. But there
• 1:41:15
  I reckon he knew what he was about as a good captain. Should some
• 1:41:19
  of us have to be homely? Are the pretty ones like Mistress blythe here
• 1:41:24
  wouldn't show up so well? One evening, Anne and Gilbert finally walked down
• 1:41:29
  to the four winds light. The day had begun somberly in gray cloud and
• 1:41:33
  mist, but it had ended in a pomp of scarlet and gold. Over
• 1:41:38
  the western hills. Beyond the harbor were amber deeps and crystalline shallows with the
• 1:41:43
  fire of sunset. Below the north was a mackerel sky of little, fiery
• 1:41:47
  golden clouds. The red light flamed on the white sails of a vessel gliding
• 1:41:53
  down the channel bound to a southern port in a land of palms. Beyond
• 1:41:58
  her, it smote upon and incarnadined the shining, white, grassless faces of
• 1:42:02
  the sand dunes. To the right. It fell on the old house among
• 1:42:06
  the willows up the brook, and gave it for a fleeting space casements more
• 1:42:12
  splendid than those of an old cathedral. They glowed out of its quiet and
• 1:42:15
  grayness, like the throbbing, blood red thoughts of a vivid soul imprisoned in
• 1:42:20
  a dull husk of environment. That old house up the brook always seems so
• 1:42:26
  lonely, said Anne. I never see visitors there. Of course, its
• 1:42:30
  lane opens on the upper road, but I don't think there's much coming and
• 1:42:34
  going. It seems odd. We've never met the moor As yet, when
• 1:42:39
  they live within fifteen minutes walk of us. I may have seen them in
• 1:42:42
  church, of course, but if so, I didn't know them. I'm
• 1:42:45
  sorry they are so unsociable when they are our only near neighbors. Oh,
• 1:42:49
  evidently they don't belong to the race, that knows, Joseph laughed, Gilbert.
• 1:42:54
  Have you ever found out who that girl was whom you thought so beautiful?
• 1:42:58
  No, somehow I have never. I've remembered to ask about her.
• 1:43:00
  But I've never seen her anywhere, so I suppose she must have been a
• 1:43:04
  stranger. Oh, the sun has just vanished, and there's the light.
• 1:43:10
  As the dusk deepened, the great Beacon cut swathes of light through it,
• 1:43:15
  sweeping in a circle over the fields in the harbor, the sand bar and
• 1:43:17
  the gulf. I feel as if it might catch me and whisk me leagues
• 1:43:23
  out to sea, said Anne, as one drenched them with radiance, And
• 1:43:28
  she felt rather relieved when they got so near the point that they were inside
• 1:43:30
  the range of those dazzling recurrent flashes. As they turned into the little lane
• 1:43:36
  that led across the fields to the point they met a man coming out of
• 1:43:40
  it, a man of such extraordinary appearance that for a moment they both frankly
• 1:43:45
  stared. He was a decidedly fine looking person, tall, broad shouldered,
• 1:43:49
  well featured, with a Roman nose and frank gray eyes. He was dressed
• 1:43:55
  in a prosperous farmer's sunday best in so far he might have been any in
• 1:43:59
  her inhabitant of four Winds or the glen. But flowing over his breast nearly
• 1:44:03
  to his knees was a river of crinkly brown beard, and a down his
• 1:44:08
  back, beneath his commonplace felt hat was a corresponding cascade of thick, wavy
• 1:44:14
  brown hair. Anne murmured Gilbert, when they were out of earshot. You
• 1:44:18
  didn't put what Uncle Dave calls a little of the scot Act. And that
• 1:44:23
  lemonade you gave me just before we left home, did you? No?
• 1:44:26
  I didn't, said Anne, stifling her laughter. Lest the retreating enigma should
• 1:44:31
  hear her, Who in the world can he be? I don't know,
• 1:44:36
  But if Captain Jim keeps apparitions like that down at this point, I'm going
• 1:44:40
  to carry cold iron in my pocket when I come here. He wasn't a
• 1:44:44
  sailor, or one might pardon his eccentricity of appearance. He must belong to
• 1:44:47
  the over Harbor clans. Uncle Dave says, they have several freaks over there.
• 1:44:53
  Uncle Dave is a little prejudiced. I think you know, all the
• 1:44:57
  over Harbor people who come to the Glen Church seem very nice. Oh,
• 1:45:00
  Gilbert, isn't this beautiful? The Four Winds Light was built on a spur
• 1:45:04
  of red sandstone cliff jutting out into the gulf. On one side, across
• 1:45:10
  the channel stretched the silvery sand shore of the bar. On the other extended
• 1:45:15
  a long curving beach of red cliffs, rising steeply from the pebbled coves.
• 1:45:20
  It was a shore that knew the magic and mystery of storm and Star there
• 1:45:25
  is a great solitude about such a shore. The woods are never solitary.
• 1:45:30
  They are full of whispering, beckoning, friendly life. But the sea is
• 1:45:33
  a mighty soul, forever moaning of some great, unshareable sorrow, which shuts
• 1:45:39
  it up into itself for all eternity. We can never pierce its infinite mystery.
• 1:45:45
  We may only wander awed and spellbound on the outer fringe of it.
• 1:45:48
  The woods called to us with a hundred voices, but the sea has one,
• 1:45:53
  only a mighty voice that drowns our souls in its majestic music. The
• 1:45:59
  woods are human, but the sea is of the company of the archangels.
• 1:46:02
  Anne and Gilbert found Uncle Jim sitting on a bench outside the lighthouse, putting
• 1:46:08
  the finishing touches to a wonderful full rigged toy schooner. He rose and welcomed
• 1:46:13
  them to his abode with the gentle, unconscious courtesy that became him So well,
• 1:46:18
  this has been a pretty nice day all through, Mistress blythe and now
• 1:46:23
  right at the last it's broad its best. Would you like to sit down
• 1:46:27
  here outside a bit while the light lasts. I've just finished this bit of
• 1:46:31
  a plaything for my little grand nephew Joe up at the glen after I promised
• 1:46:38
  to make it for him. I was kinda sorry for his mother was vexed.
• 1:46:43
  She's afraid he'll be wanting to go to sea later on, and she
• 1:46:46
  doesn't want the notion encouraged in him. But what could I do, Mistress
• 1:46:50
  Blythe I'd promised him, and I think it's sought a real dastardly to break
• 1:46:56
  a promise you make to her child. Come sit down, It won't take
• 1:47:00
  long to stay an hour. The wind was off shore and only broke the
• 1:47:04
  sea's surface into long, silvery ripples and sent sheeny shadows flying out across it
• 1:47:11
  from every point and headland, like transparent wings. The dusk was hanging a
• 1:47:15
  curtain of violet gloom over the sand dunes and the headlands, where gulls were
• 1:47:19
  huddling. The sky was faintly filmed over with scarfs of silken vapor. Cloud
• 1:47:26
  fleets rode at anchor along the horizons. An evening star was watching over the
• 1:47:30
  bar. Isn't that a few worth lookin at? Said Captain Jim, with
• 1:47:34
  a loving proprietary pride, Nice and far from the market place. Ain't it
• 1:47:41
  no buyin? And sellin' in gettin gain You don't have to pay anything.
• 1:47:46
  All that's sea and sky free and without money and without price. There's going
• 1:47:54
  to be a moon rise pretty soon too. I'm never tired of finding out
• 1:47:58
  what a moon rise can be overin and sea and harbor. There's a surprise
• 1:48:02
  in it. Every time they had their moonrise and watched its marvel and magic
• 1:48:08
  in a silence that asked nothing of the world or each other. Then they
• 1:48:12
  went up into the tower and Captain Jim showed and explained the mechanism of the
• 1:48:16
  great Light. Finally they found themselves in the dining room, where a fire
• 1:48:21
  of driftwood was weaving flames of wavering, elusive sea born hues in the open
• 1:48:26
  fireplace. I put this fireplace in myself, remarked Captain Jim. The government
• 1:48:33
  don't give lighthouse keepers such luxuries. Look at the colors that wood makes.
• 1:48:39
  If you like some drift wood for your fire, mistress, Blyth, I'll
• 1:48:42
  bring you up a load someday. Sit down, I'm going to make you
• 1:48:46
  a cup of tea. Captain Jim placed a chair for Anne, having first
• 1:48:50
  removed there from a huge orange colored cat and a newspaper. Get down.
• 1:48:56
  Maybe the sofa is your place. I must with this paper away safe till
• 1:49:00
  I can find time to finish the story in it. It's called a mad
• 1:49:05
  Love. It isn't my favorite brand of fiction, but I'm reading it just
• 1:49:10
  to see how long she can spin it out. It's at the sixty second
• 1:49:14
  chapter now, and the weddin ain't any nearer than when it had begun,
• 1:49:17
  far as I can see. When little Joe comes, I have to read
• 1:49:23
  him pyray yarns. Ain't it strange how innocent little creatures like children like the
• 1:49:29
  bloodthirstiest stories like my lad Davy at home? Said Anne? He wants tales
• 1:49:34
  that reek with gore. Captain Jim's tea proved to be nectar. He was
• 1:49:40
  pleased as a child with Anne's compliments, but he affected a fine indifference.
• 1:49:45
  The secret is I don't skip the cream, he remarked airily. Captain Jim
• 1:49:49
  had never heard of Oliver Wendell Holmes, but he evidently agreed with that writer's
• 1:49:55
  dictum that big heart never liked little cream pot. You love him. Odd
• 1:49:59
  looking personage coming out of your lane, said Gilbert as they sipped. Who
• 1:50:03
  was he? Captain Jim grinned that's Marshall Elliot, mighty fine man with just
• 1:50:10
  one streak of foolishness in him. I suppose you wonder what his object was
• 1:50:15
  in turning himself into a sort of dime museum freak. Is he a modern
• 1:50:19
  Nazarite or a Hebrew prophet left over from olden times? Asked Anne. Neither
• 1:50:25
  of them. It's politics that's at the bottom of his freak. All those
• 1:50:30
  Elliots in Crawford's and mcallisters are died in the wool politicians. They're born grit
• 1:50:36
  or Tory, as the case may be, and they live grit or Tory,
• 1:50:42
  and they die grit or Tory. And what they're going to do in
• 1:50:45
  heaven, where there's probably no politics, has more than I can fathom.
• 1:50:50
  This. Marshall Elliot was born a grit. I'm a grit myself in moderation,
• 1:50:57
  but there's no moderation of Marshall. Fifteen years ago there was especially bitter
• 1:51:04
  general election. Marshall fought for his party tooth and nail. He was dead
• 1:51:11
  sure the Liberals would win, so sure that he got up at a public
• 1:51:15
  meeting and vowed that he wouldn't shave his face or cut his hair until the
• 1:51:18
  Grits were in power. Well they didn't go in, and they've never got
• 1:51:25
  in yet, and you saw the result today for yourselves. Marshall's stuck to
• 1:51:29
  his word. What does his wife think of it? Asked Anne. He's
• 1:51:33
  a bachelor. But if he had a wife, I reckon she couldn't make
• 1:51:38
  him break that vow. That family of Eliots has always been more stubborn than
• 1:51:44
  natural. Marshall's brother Alexander had a dog, he said, great store buy,
• 1:51:48
  And when it died, the man actually wanted to have it buried in
• 1:51:53
  the graveyard along with the other Christians. He said, of course, he
• 1:51:58
  wasn't allowed to, so he buried it just outside the graveyard fence and never
• 1:52:02
  for darkened the church door again. But Sundays he'll drive his family to church
• 1:52:08
  and sit by that dog's grave and read his Bible all the time service was
• 1:52:13
  going on. They say when he was dying, he asked his wife to
• 1:52:16
  bury him beside the dog. She was a meek little soul, but she
• 1:52:20
  fired up at that. She said she wasn't going to be buried beside an
• 1:52:26
  old dog. And if he'd rather have his last resting place beside the dog
• 1:52:30
  than beside her, just to say so. Alexander Elliott was a stubborn mule,
• 1:52:36
  but he was fond of his wife, so he gave in and said,
• 1:52:41
  well, darn it, bury me where you please, But when Gabriel's
• 1:52:45
  trump blows, I expect my dog to rise with the rest of us.
• 1:52:48
  For he had as much soul as any durned Elliott or Crawford or McCallister that
• 1:52:54
  ever strutted them. Was his parting words. As for Marsha, we're all
• 1:53:00
  used to him, but he must strike strangers as right down pecure you lookin'.
• 1:53:05
  I've known him ever since he was ten. He's about fifty now,
• 1:53:11
  and I like him. Him and me was out caught fishing today. That's
• 1:53:15
  about all I'm good for now, catching trout and caught occasionally. But it
• 1:53:19
  weren't always so, not by no matter of means. And I used to
• 1:53:24
  do other things, as you'd admit if you saw my lifebook. Anne was
• 1:53:29
  just going to ask what his life book was. When the first mate created
• 1:53:31
  a diversion by springing upon Captain Jim's knee. He was a gorgeous beastie with
• 1:53:38
  a face as round as a full moon, vivid green eyes, and immense
• 1:53:42
  white double paws. Captain Jim stroked his velvet back gently. I never fancy
• 1:53:47
  cat much till I've found the first mate, he remarked, to the accompaniment
• 1:53:53
  of the mate's tremendous purs I saved his life. And when you've saved a
• 1:53:58
  creature's life, you're bo to love it. It's next thing to give in
• 1:54:01
  life. There's some terrible thoughtless people in the world, Mistress Blythe some of
• 1:54:06
  them city folks who have summer homes over the harbor, are so thoughtless that
• 1:54:12
  they're cruel It's the worst kind of cruelty, the thoughtless kind. You can't
• 1:54:17
  cope with it. They keep cats there in the summer and feed and pet
• 1:54:21
  them and doll em up with ribbons and collars, and then in the fall
• 1:54:26
  they go off and leave them to starve a freeze. It makes my bloodball,
• 1:54:30
  Mistress Blythe one day last winter I found a poor old mother cat dead
• 1:54:36
  on the shore, lying against the skin and bones bodies for three little kittens.
• 1:54:42
  She died trying to shelter him. She had her poor stiff paws around
• 1:54:46
  him. Master I cried, then I swore, Then I carried them,
• 1:54:54
  poor little kittens home and fed them and found good homes for him. I
• 1:54:58
  knew the woman who left the cat, and when she came back this summer,
• 1:55:00
  I just went over the harbor and told her my opinion of her.
• 1:55:05
  It was ranked meddelin. But I do love meddling in a good cause.
• 1:55:10
  How did she take it? Asked Gilbert cried and said she didn't think,
• 1:55:15
  I says to her, says, I do you suppose that'll be hell for
• 1:55:19
  a good excuse In the day of judgment, when you have to account for
• 1:55:24
  that poor old mother's life, The lord'll ask you what he gave you your
• 1:55:28
  brains for if it wasn't to think, I reckon. I don't fancy she'll
• 1:55:31
  leave cats to starve another time? Was the first mate one of the forsaken,
• 1:55:36
  said Anne, making advances to him, which were responded to graciously,
• 1:55:41
  if condescendingly. Yes, I found him one bitter cold day in winter,
• 1:55:45
  caught in the branches of a tree by his durned, full ribbon collar.
• 1:55:49
  He was almost starving. If you could have seen his eyes, Mistress blythe
• 1:55:56
  he was nothing but a kitten, and he got his living somehow, since
• 1:56:00
  he'd been left until he got hung up When I loosed him, he gave
• 1:56:04
  my hand a pitiful swipe with his little red tongue. He wasn't the able
• 1:56:10
  seaman, you see now. He was meek as Moses. That was nine
• 1:56:14
  years ago. His life has been long in the land for a cat.
• 1:56:19
  He's a good old pile. The first maid is I should have expected you
• 1:56:24
  to have a dog, said Gilbert. Captain Jim shook his head. I
• 1:56:29
  had a dog once. I thought so much of him that when he died
• 1:56:33
  I couldn't bear the thought of getting another in his place. He was a
• 1:56:38
  friend, you understand, Mistress blythe mate, he's only a pal. I'm
• 1:56:43
  fond of Madi, all the fonder on account of the spice of devilment that's
• 1:56:46
  in him. Like there isn't all cats. But I loved my dog.
• 1:56:54
  I always had a sneaking sympathy for Alexander Elliott about his dog. There isn't
• 1:56:59
  any devilt and a good dog. That's why they're more lovable than cats.
• 1:57:02
  I reckon, but I'm darned if there is interesting here. I am talking
• 1:57:08
  too much. Why don't you check me? When I do get a chance
• 1:57:12
  to talk to any one, I'll run on terrible if you've done your tea.
• 1:57:16
  I've got a few things you might like to look at. Picked them
• 1:57:19
  up in queer corners. I used to be poking my nose into Captain Jim's
• 1:57:25
  few little things turned out to be a most interesting collection of curios, hideous,
• 1:57:29
  quaint and beautiful, and almost every one had some striking story attached to
• 1:57:33
  it. Anne never forgot the delight with which she listened to those old tales
• 1:57:39
  that moonlit evening by that enchanted driftwood fire, while the silver sea called to
• 1:57:44
  them through the open window, and sobbed against the rocks below them. Captain
• 1:57:48
  Jim never said a boastful word, but it was impossible to help seeing what
• 1:57:53
  a hero the man had been. Brave, true, resourceful, unselfish.
• 1:57:58
  He sat there in his little room and made those things live again for his
• 1:58:00
  hearers. By a lift of the eyebrow, a twist of the lip,
• 1:58:04
  a gesture, a word, he painted a whole scene or character, so
• 1:58:09
  that they saw it as it was. Some of Captain Jim's adventures had such
• 1:58:14
  a marvelous edge that Anne and Gilbert secretly wondered if he were not drawing a
• 1:58:17
  rather long bow at their credulous expense. But in this, as they found
• 1:58:23
  later, they did him injustice. His tales were all literally true. Captain
• 1:58:28
  Jim had the gift of the born storyteller, whereby unhappy, far off things
• 1:58:32
  can be brought vividly before the hearer in all their pristine poignancy. Anne and
• 1:58:39
  Gilbert laughed and shivered over his tails, and once Anne found herself crying,
• 1:58:44
  Captain Jim surveyed her tears with pleasure shining from his face. I like to
• 1:58:48
  see folks cry that way, he remarked. It's a compliment, but I
• 1:58:55
  can't do justice to the things I've seen or helped to do. I'll have
• 1:58:59
  them all jotted in in my life book, but I haven't got the knack
• 1:59:01
  of writing them out properly. If I could hit on just the right words
• 1:59:06
  and string'em together proper on paper, I could make a great book.
• 1:59:11
  It would be the Mad Love Holler, and I believe Joe like it as
• 1:59:15
  well as the Pirate Yarns. Yes, I've had some adventures in my time.
• 1:59:19
  Then, do you know, Mistress flythe I still lust after him?
• 1:59:25
  Yes, Old and useless as I be, it hasn't awful long and sweeps
• 1:59:29
  over me at times to sail out out out there forever and ever. Like
• 1:59:35
  Ulysses, you would sail beyond the sunset and the baths of all the western
• 1:59:40
  stars until you die, said Anne dreamily. Ulysses, I've read of him.
• 1:59:46
  Yes, that's just how I feel, just how all us old sailors
• 1:59:50
  feel. I reckon, I'll die on land after all, I suppose,
• 1:59:56
  well, what is to be will be. It was old old William Ford
• 2:00:00
  at the Glen who never went on the water in his life because he was
• 2:00:04
  afraid of being drowned. A fortune teller had predicted he would be, And
• 2:00:10
  one day he fainted and fell with his face in the barn trough and was
• 2:00:15
  drowned. Oh must you go well, come soon, and come often.
• 2:00:20
  The doctor is to do the talk next time. He knows a heap of
• 2:00:24
  things. I want to find out. I'm sort of lonesome here by times.
• 2:00:29
  It's been worse since Elizabeth Russell died. He and me with such cronies.
• 2:00:34
  Captain Jim spoke with the pathos of the aged who see their old friends
• 2:00:39
  slipping from them one by one, friends whose place can never be quite filled
• 2:00:43
  by those of a younger generation, even of the race that knows Joseph.
• 2:00:47
  Anne and Gilbert promised to come soon and often. He's a rare old fellow,
• 2:00:51
  isn't he, said Gilbert as they walked home. Somehow I can't reconcile
• 2:00:58
  his simple, kindly person with the wild, adventurous life he has lived,
• 2:01:02
  mused Anne. You wouldn't find it so hard if you'd seen him. The
• 2:01:05
  other day. Down at the fishing village, one of the men of Paul
• 2:01:09
  Gotke's boat made a nasty remark about some girl along the shore. Captain Jim
• 2:01:14
  fairly scorched the wretched fellow with the lightning of his eyes. He seemed a
• 2:01:17
  man transformed. He didn't say much, but the way he said it,
• 2:01:23
  you'd have thought it would strip the flesh from the fellow's bones. I understand
• 2:01:27
  that Captain Jim will never allow a word against any woman to be said in
• 2:01:30
  his presence. I wonder why he never married, said Anne. He should
• 2:01:34
  have sons with their ships at sea now, and grandchildren climbing over him to
• 2:01:38
  hear his stories. He's that kind of a man. Instead, he has
• 2:01:43
  nothing but a magnificent cat. But Anne was mistaken. Captain Jim had more
• 2:01:47
  than that. He had a memory end of chapter nine, Chapter ten,
• 2:01:55
  Leslie Moore, I'm going for a walk to the outside shore tonight, Anne
• 2:02:01
  told Gog and Magog one October evening. There was no one else to tell,
• 2:02:05
  for Gilbert had gone over the harbor. Anne had her little domain in
• 2:02:10
  the speckless order one would expect of anyone brought up by Marilla Cuthbert, and
• 2:02:14
  felt that she could gad shoreward with a clear conscience. Many and delightful had
• 2:02:18
  been her shore rambles, sometimes with Gilbert, sometimes with Captain Jim, sometimes
• 2:02:25
  alone with her own thoughts and new, poignantly sweet dreams that were beginning to
• 2:02:29
  span life with their rainbows. She loved the gentle, misty harbor shore,
• 2:02:33
  and the silvery wind haunted sand shore. But best of all she loved the
• 2:02:39
  rock shore, with its cliffs and caves and piles of surf worn boulders,
• 2:02:43
  and its coves where the pebbles glittered under the pools. And it was to
• 2:02:46
  this shore she hied herself tonight. There had been an autumn storm of wind
• 2:02:51
  and rain lasting for three days. Thunderous had been the crash of billows on
• 2:02:57
  the rocks, wild, the white spray and spew that blew over the bar,
• 2:03:00
  Troubled and misty and tempest torn the erstwhile blue piece of four winds Harbor.
• 2:03:06
  Now it was over, and the shore lay clean washed after the storm.
• 2:03:11
  Not a wind stirred. But there was still a fine surf on,
• 2:03:15
  dashing on sand and rock in a splendid white turmoil, the only restless thing
• 2:03:19
  in the great pervading stillness and peace. Oh this is a moment worth living
• 2:03:25
  through weeks of storm and stress for Anne, exclaimed, delightedly, sending her
• 2:03:30
  far gaze across the tossing waters. From the top of the cliff where she
• 2:03:33
  stood presently, she scrambled down the steep path to the little cove below,
• 2:03:39
  where she seemed shut in with rocks and sea and sky. I'm going to
• 2:03:44
  dance and sing, she said. There's no one here to see me.
• 2:03:46
  The seagulls won't carry tales of the matter. I may be as crazy as
• 2:03:50
  I like. She caught up her skirt and pirouetted along the hard strip of
• 2:03:56
  sand, just out of reach of the waves that almost lapped her feet with
• 2:03:59
  their spent foam. Whirling round and round, laughing like a child, she
• 2:04:03
  reached the little headland that ran out to the east of the cove. Then
• 2:04:08
  she stopped, suddenly, blushing Crimson. She was not alone. There had
• 2:04:12
  been a witness to her dance and laughter. The girl of the golden hair
• 2:04:16
  and sea blue eyes was sitting on a boulder of the headland, half hidden
• 2:04:20
  by a jutting rock. She was looking straight at Anne with a strange expression,
• 2:04:26
  part wonder, part sympathy, part could it be envy? She was
• 2:04:31
  bare headed, and her splendid hair, more than ever like Browning's gorgeous snake,
• 2:04:36
  was bound about her head with a crimson ribbon. She wore a dress
• 2:04:41
  of some dark material, very plainly made, but swathed about her waist,
• 2:04:45
  outlining its fine curves, was a vivid girdle of red silk. Her hands
• 2:04:50
  clasped over her knee were brown and somewhat work hardened, but the skin of
• 2:04:56
  her throat and cheeks was as white as cream. A flying gleam sunset broke
• 2:05:00
  through a low lying western cloud and fell across her hair. For a moment
• 2:05:04
  she seemed the spirit of the sea personified, all its mystery, all its
• 2:05:10
  passion, all its elusive charm. You you must think me crazy, stammered
• 2:05:15
  Anne, trying to recover her self possession to be seen by this stately girl
• 2:05:21
  in such an abandon of childishness, she missus doctor Blythe, with all the
• 2:05:27
  dignity of the matron, to keep up. It was too bad, no,
• 2:05:30
  said the girl. I don't. She said nothing more. Her voice
• 2:05:35
  was expressionless, her manner slightly repellent. But there was something in her eyes,
• 2:05:41
  eager yet shy, defiant yet pleading, which turned Anne from her purpose
• 2:05:45
  of walking away. Instead, she sat down on the boulder beside the girl.
• 2:05:50
  Let's introduce ourselves, she said, with the smile that had never yet
• 2:05:55
  failed to win confidence and friendliness. I am missus Blythe, and I live
• 2:06:00
  in that little white house up the harbor shore. Yes I know, said
• 2:06:04
  the girl. I'm Leslie Moore, missus Dick Moore, she added stiffly.
• 2:06:10
  Anne was silent for a moment from sheer amazement. It had not occurred to
• 2:06:14
  her that this girl was married. There seemed nothing of the wife about her,
• 2:06:18
  and that she should be the neighbor whom Anne had pictured as a commonplace
• 2:06:21
  four winds housewife. Anne could not quickly adjust her mental focus to this astonishing
• 2:06:28
  change. Then then you live in that gray house up the brook, she
• 2:06:32
  stammered. Yes, I should have gone over to call on you long ago,
• 2:06:36
  said the other. She did not offer any explanation or excuse for not
• 2:06:41
  having gone. I wish you would come, said Anne, recovering herself somewhat.
• 2:06:46
  We're such near neighbors, we ought to be friends. That is the
• 2:06:49
  sole fault of four winds. There aren't quite enough neighbors. Otherwise it is
• 2:06:55
  perfection. You like it, like it. I love it. It is
• 2:06:59
  the most beautiful place I ever saw. I've never seen many places, said
• 2:07:04
  Leslie Moore slowly, but I've always thought it was very lovely here. I
• 2:07:10
  I love it too, she spoke as she looked shyly yet eagerly. Anne
• 2:07:15
  had an odd impression that this strange girl, the word girl would persist,
• 2:07:19
  could say a good deal if she chose. I often come to the shore,
• 2:07:25
  she added, so do, I said Anne. It's a wonder we
• 2:07:29
  haven't met here before. Probably you come earlier in the evening than I do.
• 2:07:32
  It is generally late, almost dark when I come, and I love
• 2:07:35
  to come just after a storm like this. I don't like the sea so
• 2:07:40
  well when it's calm and quiet. I like the struggle and the clash and
• 2:07:43
  the noise. I love it in all its moods, declared Anne. The
• 2:07:47
  sea at four winds is to me what Lover's Lane was at home to night.
• 2:07:51
  It seems so free, so untamed. Something broke loose in me too,
• 2:07:56
  out of sympathy. That was why I danced along the shore in that
• 2:07:59
  wild way. I didn't suppose anybody was looking. Of course, if Miss
• 2:08:03
  Cornelia Bryant had seen me, she would have foreboded a gloomy prospect for poor
• 2:08:07
  young doctor Blythe You know, miss Cornelia, said Leslie, laughing. She
• 2:08:13
  had an exquisite laugh. It bubbled up suddenly and unexpectedly, with something of
• 2:08:16
  the delicious quality of a baby's. Anne laughed too. Oh, yes,
• 2:08:22
  she has been down to my house of dreams several times. Your house of
• 2:08:26
  dreams. Oh, that's a dear, foolish little name Gilbert and I have
• 2:08:30
  for our home. We just call it that between ourselves. It slipped out
• 2:08:33
  before I thought. So, Miss Russell's, with a white house, is
• 2:08:37
  your house of dreams, said Leslie, wonderingly. I had a house of
• 2:08:41
  dreams once, but it was a palace, she added, with a laugh,
• 2:08:46
  the sweetness of which was marred by a little note of derision. Oh,
• 2:08:50
  I once dreamed of a palace, too, said Anne. I suppose
• 2:08:54
  all girls do. And then we settled down contentedly in eight room houses that
• 2:08:58
  seemed to fulfill all the desires of our hearts. Because our prince is there,
• 2:09:03
  you should have had your palace. Really, though, you are so
• 2:09:05
  beautiful, you must let me say it. It has to be said.
• 2:09:09
  I'm nearly bursting with admiration. You are the loveliest thing I ever saw,
• 2:09:13
  missus Moore. If we are to be friends, you must call me,
• 2:09:16
  Leslie, said the other, with an odd passion. Of course, I
• 2:09:20
  will, and my friends call me Anne. I suppose I am beautiful,
• 2:09:24
  Leslie went on, looking stormily out to sea. I hate my beauty.
• 2:09:30
  I wish I had been as brown and plain as the brownest and plainest girl
• 2:09:31
  in the fishing village over there. Well, what do you think of miss
• 2:09:35
  Cornelia? The abrupt change of subjects shut the door on any further confidences.
• 2:09:41
  Miss Cornelia is a darling, isn't she? Said Anne. Gilbert and I
• 2:09:46
  were invited to her house to a state tea. Last week. You've heard
• 2:09:48
  of groaning tables, I seem to recall seeing the expression in the newspaper reports
• 2:09:54
  of weddings, said Leslie, smiling, well, Miss Cornelia's groaned. At
• 2:09:58
  least East had creaked positively. You couldn't have believed she would have cooked so
• 2:10:03
  much for two ordinary people. She had every kind of pie you could name,
• 2:10:07
  I think, except lemon pie. She said. She had taken the
• 2:10:11
  prize for lemon pies at the Charlotte ten exhibition ten years ago and had never
• 2:10:15
  made any sense for fear of losing her reputation for them. Were you able
• 2:10:18
  to eat enough pie to please her? I wasn't. Gilbert won her heart
• 2:10:22
  by eating I won't tell you how much. She said. She never knew
• 2:10:26
  a man who didn't like pie better than his Bible. Do you know I
• 2:10:30
  love Miss Cornelia? So do, I said Leslie. She is the best
• 2:10:35
  friend I have in the world. Anne wondered secretly, why, if this
• 2:10:39
  were so, Miss Cornelia had never mentioned missus Dick Moore to her. Miss
• 2:10:43
  Cornelia had certainly talked freely about every other individual in or near four winds.
• 2:10:48
  Isn't that beautiful? Said Leslie, after a brief silence, pointing to the
• 2:10:52
  exquisite effect of a shaft of light falling through a cleft in the rock behind
• 2:10:56
  them, across a dark green pool at a time. If I had come
• 2:11:01
  here and seen nothing but just that, I would go home satisfied. The
• 2:11:05
  effects of light and shadow all along these shores are wonderful, agreed Anne.
• 2:11:09
  My little sewing room looks out on the harbor, and I sit at its
• 2:11:13
  window and feast my eyes. The colors and shadows are never the same two
• 2:11:16
  minutes together. And you are never lonely, asked Leslie abruptly, Never when
• 2:11:22
  you are alone. No, I don't think I've ever been really lonely in
• 2:11:26
  my life, answered Anne. Even when I'm alone, I have real good
• 2:11:31
  company, dreams and imaginations and pretendings. I like to be alone now and
• 2:11:35
  then, just to think over things and taste them. But I love friendship
• 2:11:41
  and nice jolly little times with people. Oh won't you come to see me
• 2:11:45
  often? Please? Do? I believe, Anne added, laughing, that
• 2:11:50
  you'd like me if you knew me. I wonder if you would like me,
• 2:11:54
  said Leslie seriously. She was not fishing for a compliment. She looked
• 2:11:58
  out across the waves that were beginning to be garlanded with blossoms of moonlit foam,
• 2:12:03
  and her eyes filled with shadows. I'm sure I would, said Anne.
• 2:12:09
  And please don't think I'm utterly irresponsible because you saw me dancing on the
• 2:12:13
  shore at sunset. No doubt I shall be dignified after a time. You
• 2:12:16
  see, I haven't been married very long. I feel like a girl,
• 2:12:20
  and sometimes like a child. Yet I have been married twelve years, said
• 2:12:26
  Leslie. Here was another unbelievable thing. Why you can't be as old as
• 2:12:31
  I am, exclaimed Anne. You must have been a child when you were
• 2:12:35
  married. I was sixteen, said Leslie, rising and picking up the cap
• 2:12:39
  and jacket lying beside her. I am twenty eight. Now. Well I
• 2:12:43
  must go back, so must I. Gilbert will probably be home, but
• 2:12:48
  I'm so glad. We both came to the shore to night and met each
• 2:12:50
  other. Leslie said nothing, and Anne was a little chilled. She had
• 2:12:54
  offered friendship frankly, but it had not been accepted very graciously, if it
• 2:12:58
  had not been absolutely repelled in silence. They climbed the cliffs and walked across
• 2:13:05
  a pasture field of which the feathery, bleached wild grasses were like a carpet
• 2:13:09
  of creamy velvet in the moonlight. When they reached the shore lane, Leslie
• 2:13:13
  turned, I go this way, missus Blythe. You will come over and
• 2:13:16
  see me sometime, won't you. Anne felt as if the invitation had been
• 2:13:20
  thrown at her. She got the impression that Leslie Moore gave it reluctantly.
• 2:13:26
  I will come if you really want me to, she said, a little
• 2:13:28
  coldly. Oh I do, I do, exclaimed Leslie, with an eagerness
• 2:13:33
  which seemed to burst forth and beat down some restraint that had been imposed on
• 2:13:37
  it. Then I'll come. Good night, Leslie, Good night, missus
• 2:13:43
  Blythe. Anne walked home in a brown study and poured out her tail to
• 2:13:48
  Gilbert. So, Missus Dick Moore isn't one of the race, that knows,
• 2:13:52
  Joseph, said Gilbert teasingly. No, not exactly. And yet I
• 2:13:58
  think she was one of them once, but has gone or got into exile,
• 2:14:03
  said Anne, musingly. She is certainly very different from the other women
• 2:14:07
  about here. You can't talk about eggs and butter to her to think I've
• 2:14:11
  been imagining her a second, Missus Rachel Lynde, have you ever seen Dick
• 2:14:16
  Moore? Gilbert? No, I've seen several men working about the fields of
• 2:14:20
  the farm, but I don't know which was more, she never mentioned him.
• 2:14:24
  I know she isn't happy from what you tell me. I suppose she
• 2:14:28
  was married before she was old enough to know her own mind or heart,
• 2:14:31
  and found out too late that she had made a mistake. It's a common
• 2:14:35
  tragedy, enough, Anne, a fine woman would have made the best of
• 2:14:39
  it. Missus Moore has evidently let it make her bitter and resentful. Don't
• 2:14:45
  let us judge her till we know pleaded Anne. I don't believe her case
• 2:14:48
  is so ordinary. You will understand her fascination when you meet her, Gilbert.
• 2:14:52
  It is a thing quite apart from her beauty. I feel that she
• 2:14:56
  possesses a rich nature into which a friend might enter, as into a kingdom.
• 2:15:01
  But for some reason she bars everyone out and shuts all her possibilities up
• 2:15:05
  in herself, so that they cannot develop and blossom there. I've been struggling
• 2:15:09
  to define her to myself ever since I left her, and that is the
• 2:15:13
  nearest I can get to it. I'm going to ask miss Cornelia about her
• 2:15:18
  end of chapter ten, Chapter eleven, the story of Leslie Moore. Yes,
• 2:15:26
  the eighth baby arrived beforetnight ago, said Miss Cornelia, from a rocker
• 2:15:30
  before the fire of the little house one chilly October afternoon. It's a girl,
• 2:15:35
  Fred was ranting mad said he wanted a boy, when the truth is
• 2:15:37
  he didn't want it at all. If it had been a boy, he'd
• 2:15:41
  have ranted because it wasn't a girl. They had four girls and three boys
• 2:15:43
  before, so I can't see that it made much difference what this one was.
• 2:15:48
  But of course he'd have to be cantankerous, just like a man.
• 2:15:50
  The baby is real, pretty, dressed up in its nice little clothes.
• 2:15:54
  It has black eyes and the dearest tiny hands. I must go and see
• 2:15:58
  it. I just love baby, said Anne, smiling to herself over a
• 2:16:03
  thought too dear and sacred to be put into words. I don't say,
• 2:16:05
  but what they're nice, admitted Miss Cornelia. But some folks seem to have
• 2:16:11
  more than they really need. Believe me, My poor cousin Flora up at
• 2:16:15
  the glen had eleven and such a slave as she is, her husband suicided
• 2:16:18
  three years ago, just like a man. What made him do that?
• 2:16:22
  Asked Anne, rather shocked. Couldn't get his way over something, so he
• 2:16:26
  jumped into the well. A good riddance. He was a born tyrant.
• 2:16:30
  But of course it spoiled the well. Flora could never abide the thought of
• 2:16:33
  using it again, poor thing, So she had another dug and a frightful
• 2:16:37
  expense it was, and the water hard as nails. If he had to
• 2:16:39
  drown himself, There was plenty of water in the harbor, wasn't there.
• 2:16:43
  I've no patience with a man like that. We've only had two suicides and
• 2:16:46
  four winds in my recollection. The other was Frank West, Leslie Moore's father.
• 2:16:50
  By the way, has Leslie ever been over to call on you yet?
• 2:16:54
  No? But I met her on the shore a few nights ago,
• 2:16:56
  and we scraped an acquaintance, said Anne, pricking up her ears. Miss
• 2:17:01
  Cornelia nodded, I'm glad, dearie. I was hoping you'd foregather with her.
• 2:17:05
  What do you think of her? I thought her very beautiful? Oh
• 2:17:09
  of course, there was never anybody about four winds could touch her. For
• 2:17:13
  looks. Did you ever see her hair? It reaches to her feet when
• 2:17:16
  she lets it down. But I meant, how did you like her?
• 2:17:18
  I think I could like her very much if she'd let me, said Anne
• 2:17:22
  slowly. But she wouldn't let you, She pushed you off and kept you
• 2:17:26
  at arm's length. Poor Leslie, you wouldn't be much surprised if you knew
• 2:17:28
  what her life has been. It's been a tragedy. A tragedy, repeated
• 2:17:33
  Miss Cornelia emphatically. I wish you would tell me all about her, that
• 2:17:39
  is, if you can do so without betraying any confidence. Oh lord,
• 2:17:43
  dearie. Everybody in four Winds knows poor Leslie's story. It's no secret the
• 2:17:46
  outside, that is, nobody knows the inside but Leslie herself. And she
• 2:17:48
  doesn't take folk into her confidence. I'm about the best friend she has on
• 2:17:52
  earth, I reckon, and she's never uttered a word of complaint to me.
• 2:17:56
  Have you ever seen Dick Moore? No? Well, I may as
• 2:17:58
  well be at the beginning and tell you everything straight through, so you'll understand
• 2:18:01
  it. As I said. Leslie's father was Frank West. He was clever
• 2:18:05
  and shiftless, just like a man. Oh. He had heaps of brains,
• 2:18:07
  and much good they did him. He started to go to college,
• 2:18:11
  and he went for two years, and then his health broke down. The
• 2:18:13
  Wests were all inclined to be consumptive, so Frank came home and started farming
• 2:18:18
  he married Rose Elliot from over Harbor. Rose was reckoned, the beauty of
• 2:18:22
  four winds. Leslie takes her looks from her mother, but she has ten
• 2:18:24
  times the spirit and go that Rose had, and a far better figure.
• 2:18:28
  Now you know, Anne, I always take the ground that us women ought
• 2:18:31
  to stand by each other. We've got enough to endure at the hands of
• 2:18:33
  the men. The Lord knows, so I hold. We hadn't ought to
• 2:18:37
  clap a claw one another. And it isn't often you'll find me running down
• 2:18:39
  another woman. But I never had much use for Rose Elliot. She was
• 2:18:43
  spoiled to begin with, believe me, and she was nothing but a lazy,
• 2:18:46
  selfish, whining creature. Frank was no hand to work, so they
• 2:18:50
  were poor as job's turkey poor. They lived on potatoes and point, believe
• 2:18:54
  me. They had two children, Leslie and Kenneth. Leslie had her mother's
• 2:18:58
  looks and her father's break, and something she didn't get from either of them.
• 2:19:01
  She took after her grandmother West, a splendid old lady. She was
• 2:19:05
  the brightest, friendliest, merriest thing when she was a child. Anne.
• 2:19:09
  Everybody liked her. She was her father's favorite, and she was awful fond
• 2:19:13
  of him. They were chums, as she used to say, She couldn't
• 2:19:15
  see any of his faults, and he was a taking sort of man in
• 2:19:18
  some ways. Well, when Leslie was twelve years old, the first dreadful
• 2:19:22
  thing happened. She worshiped little Kenneth. He was four years younger than her,
• 2:19:26
  and he was a digger, little chap and he was killed one day,
• 2:19:28
  fell off a big load of hay just as it was going into the
• 2:19:31
  barn, and the wheel went right over his little body and crushed the life
• 2:19:35
  out of it. And mind you, Anne, Leslie saw it. She
• 2:19:39
  was looking down from the loft. She gave one screech. The hired man
• 2:19:43
  said he never heard such a sound in all his life. He said it
• 2:19:46
  would ring in his ears till Gabriel's trump drove it out. But she never
• 2:19:48
  screeched or cried again about it. She jumped from the loft onto the load,
• 2:19:52
  and from the load to the floor and caught up the little, bleeding,
• 2:19:56
  warm, dead body. Anne. They had to tear it from her
• 2:19:58
  before she would let it go. They sent for me. Oh, I
• 2:20:01
  can't talk of it, Miss Cornelia waped the tears from her kindly brown eyes,
• 2:20:05
  and sewed in bitter silence for a few minutes. Well she resumed.
• 2:20:11
  It was all over. They buried little Kenneth in that graveyard over the harbor,
• 2:20:15
  and after a while Leslie went back to her school and her studies.
• 2:20:18
  She never mentioned Kenneth's name. I've never heard it cross her lips from that
• 2:20:20
  day to this. I reckon that old hurt still aches and burns at times.
• 2:20:24
  But she was only a child, and time is real kind to children,
• 2:20:26
  Anne, deary. After a while she began to laugh again. She
• 2:20:30
  had the prettiest laugh. You don't often hear it now. I heard it
• 2:20:33
  once the other night, said Anne. It is a beautiful laugh. Frank
• 2:20:37
  West began to go down after Kenneth's death. He wasn't strong, and it
• 2:20:41
  was a shock to him because he was real fond of the child, though,
• 2:20:43
  as I've said, Leslie was his favorite. He got MOPy and melancholy
• 2:20:48
  and couldn't all wouldn't work. And one day, when Leslie was fourteen years
• 2:20:50
  of age, he hanged himself, and in the parlor too, mind you,
• 2:20:54
  Anne, right in the middle of the parlor from the lamp hook in
• 2:20:56
  the ceiling. Wasn't that like a man. It was the anniversary of his
• 2:21:00
  wedding day. Too nice, tasty time to pick for, it, wasn't
• 2:21:03
  it. And of course that poor Leslie had to be the one to find
• 2:21:05
  him. She went into the parlor that morning, singing with some fresh flowers
• 2:21:09
  for the vases, and there she saw her father hanging from the ceiling,
• 2:21:13
  his face as black as coal. It was something awful, believe me,
• 2:21:16
  Oh, how horrible, said Anne, shuddering. The poor poor child.
• 2:21:22
  Leslie didn't cry at her father's funeral any more than she had cried at Kenneth's.
• 2:21:26
  Rose whooped and howled for two however, and Leslie had all she could
• 2:21:28
  do trying to calm and comfort her mother. I was disgusted with Rose,
• 2:21:31
  and so was everyone else. But Leslie never got out of patience. She
• 2:21:35
  loved her mother. Leslie is clannish, her own could never do wrong in
• 2:21:39
  her eyes. Well, they buried Frank West beside Kenneth, and Rose put
• 2:21:41
  up a great, big monument to him. It was bigger than his character,
• 2:21:45
  believe me, anyhow, it was bigger than Rose could afford, for
• 2:21:48
  the farm was mortgage for more than its value. But not long after Leslie's
• 2:21:52
  old grandmother West died and she left Leslie a little money enough to give her
• 2:21:56
  a year at Queen's Academy. Leslie had met up her mind to pass for
• 2:21:58
  a tea true if she could, and then earn enough to put herself through
• 2:22:01
  Redmond College. That had been her father's pet scheme. He wanted her to
• 2:22:05
  have what he had lost. Leslie was full of ambition and her head was
• 2:22:09
  chock full of brains. She went to Queen's and she took two years work
• 2:22:11
  in one year and got her first and when she came home she got the
• 2:22:16
  Glens School. She was so happy and hopeful and full of life in eagerness.
• 2:22:20
  When I think of what she was then and what she is now,
• 2:22:22
  I say, drap them in. Miss Cornelia snipped her thread off as viciously
• 2:22:26
  as if nero Lake. She was severing the knack of mankind by the stroke.
• 2:22:31
  Dick Moore came into her life that summer. His father, Abner Moore,
• 2:22:35
  kept store at the Glen, but Dick had a sea going streak in
• 2:22:37
  him from his mother. He used to sail in summer and clark in his
• 2:22:41
  father's store at the winter. He was a big, handsome fellow with a
• 2:22:43
  little ugly soul. He was always wanting something until he got it, and
• 2:22:48
  then he stopped wanting it, just like a man. Oh, he didn't
• 2:22:50
  growl out the weather when it was fine, and he was mostly real pleasant
• 2:22:52
  and agreeable when everything went right. But he drank a good deal and there
• 2:22:56
  were some nasty stories told of him and a girl down at the fishy village.
• 2:23:00
  He wasn't fit for Leslie to wipe her feet on, that's the long
• 2:23:03
  short of it. And he was a Methodist, but he was clean mad
• 2:23:07
  about her because of her good looks in the first place, and because she
• 2:23:09
  wouldn't have anything to say to him in the second. He vowed he'd have
• 2:23:13
  her, and he got her. How did he bring it about? Oh,
• 2:23:16
  it was an iniquitous thing. I'll never forgive Rose West. You see,
• 2:23:20
  Dearie Abner Moore held the mortgage on the West farm, and the interest
• 2:23:24
  was overdue some years, and Dick just went and told missus West that if
• 2:23:28
  Leslie wouldn't marry him, he'd get his father to foreclose the mortgage. Rose
• 2:23:33
  carried on terrible, fainted and wept and pleaded with Leslie not to let her
• 2:23:37
  be turned out of her home. She said it would break her heart to
• 2:23:39
  leave the home she'd come to as a bride. I wouldn't have blamed her
• 2:23:43
  for feeling dreadful bad over it. But you wouldn't have thought she'd be so
• 2:23:46
  selfish as to sacrifice her own flesh and blood because of it, would you.
• 2:23:50
  Well? She was, and Leslie gave in. She loved her mother
• 2:23:54
  so much she would have done anything to save her pain. She married Dick
• 2:23:58
  Moore. None of us knew white at the time. It wasn't until long
• 2:24:01
  afterward that I found out how her mother had worried her into it. I
• 2:24:05
  was sure there was something wrong, though, because I knew she had snubbed
• 2:24:07
  him time and again, and it wasn't like Leslie to turn face about like
• 2:24:11
  that. Besides, I knew that Dick Moore wasn't the kind of man Leslie
• 2:24:15
  could ever fancy, in spite of his good looks and dashing ways. Of
• 2:24:18
  course, there was no wedding, but Rose asked me to go and see
• 2:24:20
  them marriage. I went, but I was sorry I did. I'd seen
• 2:24:24
  Leslie's face at her brother's funeral and at her father's funeral, and now it
• 2:24:28
  seemed to me I was seeing it at her own funeral, but Rose was
• 2:24:31
  smiling as a basket of chips. Believe me, Leslie and Dick settled down
• 2:24:35
  on the West Place. Rose couldn't bear to part with her dear daughter and
• 2:24:37
  lived there for the winter. In the spring, Rose took pneumonia and died
• 2:24:41
  a year too late. For Leslie was heart broken enough over it. Isn't
• 2:24:46
  it terrible the way some unworthy folks are loved, while others that deserve it
• 2:24:48
  far more, you'd think, never get much affection. As for Dick,
• 2:24:52
  he'd had enough of quiet married life. Just like a man, he was
• 2:24:56
  for up and off. He went over to Nova Scotia to visit his real
• 2:24:58
  lifeations. His father had come from Nova Scotia, and he wrote back to
• 2:25:03
  Leslie that his cousin, George Moore was going on a voyage to Havanna,
• 2:25:05
  and he was going too. The name of the vessel was the Four Sisters,
• 2:25:09
  and they were to be gone about nine weeks. It must have been
• 2:25:11
  a relief to Leslie, but she never said anything. From the day of
• 2:25:15
  her marriage. She was just what she is now, cold and proud and
• 2:25:18
  keeping every one but me at a distance. I won't be kept at a
• 2:25:20
  distance. Believe me. I've just stuck to Leslie as close as I know
• 2:25:24
  how. In spite of everything, she told me you were the best friend.
• 2:25:26
  She had said, Anne did, she exclaimed Miss Cornelia delightedly. Well,
• 2:25:33
  I'm real thankful to hear it. Sometimes I've wondered if she really did
• 2:25:35
  want me around at all. She never let me think so. You must
• 2:25:39
  have thought about more than you think, or she wouldn't have said that much
• 2:25:41
  itself to you. Oh, that poor heartbroken girl. I never see Dick
• 2:25:45
  more, but I want to run a knife clean through him. Miss Cornelia
• 2:25:48
  wiped her eyes again, and, having relieved her feelings by her bloodthirsty wish,
• 2:25:52
  took up her tail. Well, Leslie was left over there alone.
• 2:25:56
  Dick had put in the crop before he went, and old Abner looked after
• 2:25:58
  it. The summer went by and the four sisters didn't come back. The
• 2:26:03
  Nova Scotia Moores investigated and found out she had got to Havanah and discharged her
• 2:26:07
  cargo and took on another and left the home, and that was all they
• 2:26:09
  ever found out about her. By degrees, people began to talk of Dick
• 2:26:13
  Moore as one that was dead. Almost every one believed that he was,
• 2:26:16
  though no one felt certain, for men have turned up here at the harbor
• 2:26:18
  after they'd been gone for years. Leslie never thought he was dead, and
• 2:26:22
  she was right a thousand pities too. The next summer, Captain Jim was
• 2:26:26
  in Havana, that was before he gave up the sea. Of course,
• 2:26:30
  he thought he'd poke around a bit. Captain Jim was always meddlesome, just
• 2:26:33
  like a man, and he went to inquiring round among the sailors, boarding
• 2:26:37
  houses and places like that to see if he could find out anything about the
• 2:26:39
  crew of the Four Sisters. He'd better have let sleeping dogs lie, in
• 2:26:43
  my opinion. Well, he went to one out of the way place,
• 2:26:46
  and there he found a man he knew at first sight was Dick Moore.
• 2:26:50
  Though he had a big bit. Captain Jim got it shaved off, and
• 2:26:52
  then there was no doubt Dick Moore. It was his body, at least
• 2:26:56
  his mind wasn't there. As for his soul, in my opinion, he
• 2:27:00
  never had one. What had happened to em nobody knows the rights of it.
• 2:27:03
  All the folks who kept the boarding house could tell was that about a
• 2:27:05
  year before they had found him lying on their doorsteps one morning in an awful
• 2:27:09
  condition, his head battered to a jelly. Almost. They supposed he'd got
• 2:27:13
  hurt in some drunken row, and likely that's the truth of it. They
• 2:27:16
  took him in, never thinking he could live, but he did, and
• 2:27:18
  he was just like a child. When he got well. He hadn't memory
• 2:27:22
  or intellect or reason. They tried to find out who he was, but
• 2:27:24
  they never could. He couldn't even tell them his name. He could only
• 2:27:28
  say a few simple words. He had a letter on him beginning Dear Dick
• 2:27:33
  and signed Leslie, but there was no address on it, and the envelope
• 2:27:35
  was gone. They let him stay on. He learned to do a few
• 2:27:39
  odd jobs about the place, and there Captain Jim found him. He brought
• 2:27:41
  him home. I've always said it was a bad day's work, though I
• 2:27:43
  suppose there was nothing else he could do. He thought maybe when Dick got
• 2:27:48
  home and saw his old surroundings and familiar faces, his memory would wake up.
• 2:27:50
  But it hadn't any effect. There he's been at the house up the
• 2:27:54
  brook ever since. He's just like a child, no more nor less.
• 2:27:56
  Takes fractious spells occasionally, but mostly he's just bacant and good humored and harmless.
• 2:28:01
  He's apt to run away if he isn't watched. That's the burden Leslie
• 2:28:05
  has had to carry for eleven years, and all alone. Old Abner Moore
• 2:28:09
  died soon after Dick was brought home, and it was found he was almost
• 2:28:11
  bankrupt. When things were settled up, there was nothing for Leslie and Dick
• 2:28:15
  but the old West Farm. Leslie rented it to John Ward, and the
• 2:28:18
  rent is all she has to live on. Sometimes in summer she takes a
• 2:28:20
  border to help out, but most visitors prefer the other side of the harbor,
• 2:28:24
  where the hotels and summer cottages are. Leslie's house is too far from
• 2:28:28
  the bathing shore. She's taken care of Dick and she's never been away from
• 2:28:31
  him for eleven years. She's tied to that imbecileful life. And after all
• 2:28:35
  the dreams and hopes she once had, you can imagine what has been like
• 2:28:39
  for her, Anne, Dearie, with her beauty and spirit and pride and
• 2:28:41
  cleverness, it's just been a living death. Poor poor girl, said Anne
• 2:28:48
  again. Her own happiness seemed to reproach her. What right had she to
• 2:28:52
  be so happy when another human soul must be so miserable. Will you tell
• 2:28:56
  me just what Leslie said and how she acted the night you met her on
• 2:28:58
  the shore, asked Miss Cornelia. She listened intently and nodded her satisfaction.
• 2:29:05
  You thought she was stiff and cold, Anne, deary, But I can
• 2:29:07
  tell you she thought out wonderful for her. She must have taken to you
• 2:29:11
  real strong. I'm so glad you may be able to help her a good
• 2:29:13
  deal. I was thankful when I heard a young couple was coming to this
• 2:29:16
  house, for I hoped it would mean some friends for Leslie, especially if
• 2:29:20
  you belong to the race that knows Joseph. You will be her friend,
• 2:29:22
  won't you, Anne, dearie. Indeed I will if she'll let me,
• 2:29:26
  said Anne with all her own sweet, impulsive earnestness. No, you must
• 2:29:31
  be her friend, whether she'll let you or not, said Miss Cornelia resolutely.
• 2:29:35
  Don't you mind if she's stiff by times, don't notice it. Remember
• 2:29:37
  what her life has been and is and must always be. I suppose for
• 2:29:41
  creatures like Dick Moore live forever. I understand you should see how fat he's
• 2:29:46
  got since he came home. He used to be lean enough. Just make
• 2:29:48
  her be friends. You can do it. You're one of those who have
• 2:29:50
  the neck. Only you mustn't be sensitive and don't mind if she doesn't seem
• 2:29:54
  to want you to go over there much. She knows some women don't like
• 2:29:58
  to be where Dick is. They complain, he gives them creeps. Just
• 2:30:00
  get her to come over here as often as she can. She can't get
• 2:30:03
  away so very much. She can't leave Dick long, for Lord knows what
• 2:30:05
  he'd do. Burn the house down. Most likely at nights, though after
• 2:30:09
  he's in bed and asleep is about the only time she's free. He always
• 2:30:11
  goes to bed early and sleeps like the dead till next morning. That is
• 2:30:15
  how you came to meet her at the show. Likely she wanders there considerable.
• 2:30:18
  I will do everything I can for her, said Anne. Her interest
• 2:30:22
  in Leslie Moore, which had been vivid ever since she had seen her driving
• 2:30:26
  her geese down the hill, was intensified a thousandfold by Miss Cornelia's narration.
• 2:30:31
  The girl's beauty and sorrow and loneliness drew her with an irresistible fascination. She
• 2:30:37
  had never known anyone like her. Her friends had hitherto been wholesome, normal,
• 2:30:41
  merry girls like herself, with only the average trials of human care and
• 2:30:46
  bereavement to shadow their girlish dreams. Leslie Moore stood apart, a tragic,
• 2:30:50
  appealing figure of thwarted womanhood. Anne resolved that she would win entrance into the
• 2:30:56
  kingdom of that lonely soul and find there the comrade it could so richly give,
• 2:31:01
  were it not for the cruel fetters that held it in a prison not
• 2:31:03
  of its own making. And mind you this, Anne, Dearie, said
• 2:31:07
  Miss Cornelia, who had not yet wholly relieved her mind. You mustn't think
• 2:31:11
  Leslie is an infidel because she hardly ever goes to church, or even that
• 2:31:16
  she's a Methodist. She can't take Dick to church, of course, not
• 2:31:18
  that he have troubled church much in his best days. But you just remember
• 2:31:22
  that she's a real strong Presbyterian at heart. And Dearie. End of chapter
• 2:31:26
  eleven. Chapter twelve, Leslie comes over. Leslie came over to the House
• 2:31:35
  of Dreams one frosty October night, when moonlit mists were hanging over the harbor
• 2:31:39
  and curling like silver ribbons along the seaward glens. She looked as if she
• 2:31:43
  repented coming when Gilbert answered her knock, but Anne flew past him, pounced
• 2:31:48
  on her, and drew her in. I'm so glad you picked tonight for
• 2:31:52
  a call, she said Gaily. I made up a lot of extra good
• 2:31:56
  fudge this afternoon, and we want someone to help us eat before the fire
• 2:32:01
  while we tell stories. Perhaps Captain Jim will drop in two this is his
• 2:32:05
  night. No, Captain Jim is over home, said Leslie. He he
• 2:32:11
  made me come here, she added, half defiantly. I'll say a thank
• 2:32:16
  you to him for that when I see him, said Anne, pulling easy
• 2:32:18
  chairs before the fire. Oh, I don't mean that I didn't want to
• 2:32:22
  come, protested Leslie, flushing a little. I I've been thinking of coming,
• 2:32:28
  but it wasn't always easy for me to get away. Of course,
• 2:32:31
  it must be hard for you to leave, mister Moore, said Anne in
• 2:32:33
  a matter of fact tone. She had decided that it would be best to
• 2:32:39
  mention Dick Moore occasionally as an accepted fact, and not give undue morbidness to
• 2:32:43
  the subject by avoiding it. She was right, for Leslie's air of constraint
• 2:32:48
  suddenly vanished. Evidently she had been wondering how much Anne knew of the conditions
• 2:32:52
  of her life, and was relieved that no explanations were needed. She allowed
• 2:32:58
  her cap and jacket to be taken and sat down with a girlish snuggle in
• 2:33:01
  the big arm chair by Magog. She was dressed prettily and carefully, with
• 2:33:07
  the customary touch of color in the scarlet geranium at her white throat. Her
• 2:33:11
  beautiful hair gleamed like molten gold in the warm firelight. Her sea blue eyes
• 2:33:16
  were full of soft laughter and allurement. For the moment, under the influence
• 2:33:22
  of the Little House of Dreams, she was a girl again, a girl
• 2:33:24
  forgetful of the past and its bitterness. The atmosphere of the many loves that
• 2:33:30
  had sanctified the little House was all about her. The companionship of two healthy,
• 2:33:35
  happy, young folks of her own generation encircled her. She felt and
• 2:33:39
  yielded to the magic of her surroundings. Miss Cornelia and Captain Jim would scarcely
• 2:33:43
  have recognized her. Anne found it hard to believe that this was the cold,
• 2:33:48
  unresponsive woman she had met on the shore, this animated girl who talked
• 2:33:52
  and listened with the eagerness of a starved soul, and how hungrily Leslie's eyes
• 2:33:58
  looked at the bookcases between the wind windows. Our library isn't very extensive,
• 2:34:03
  said Anne, but every book in it is a friend. We've picked our
• 2:34:07
  books up through the years here and there, never buying one until we had
• 2:34:11
  first read it and knew that it belonged to the race of Joseph. Leslie
• 2:34:16
  laughed, beautiful laughter that seemed akin to all the mirth that had echoed through
• 2:34:20
  the little house in the vanished years. I have a few books of my
• 2:34:24
  father's, not many, she said. I've read them until I know them
• 2:34:28
  almost by heart. I don't get many books. There's a circulating library at
• 2:34:31
  the Glen Store, but I don't think the committee who picks the books from
• 2:34:35
  mister Parker know what the books are of Joseph's race, or perhaps they don't
• 2:34:37
  care. It was so seldom that I got when I really liked that,
• 2:34:41
  I gave up getting any. I hope you'll look on our bookshelves as your
• 2:34:45
  own, said Anne. You are entirely and wholeheartedly welcome to the loan of
• 2:34:48
  any book on them. You are setting a feast of fat things before me,
• 2:34:52
  said Leslie joyously. Then, as the clock struck ten, she rose
• 2:34:58
  half unwillingly. I must go. I didn't realize it was so late.
• 2:35:01
  Captain Jim is always saying it doesn't take long to stay an hour, But
• 2:35:05
  I've stayed too, And oh but I've enjoyed them, she added frankly.
• 2:35:11
  Come often, said Anne and Gilbert. They had risen and stood together in
• 2:35:15
  the firelight's glow. Leslie looked at them, youthful, hopeful, happy,
• 2:35:20
  typifying all she had missed and must forever miss. The light went out of
• 2:35:24
  her face and eyes. The girl vanished. It was the sorrowful, cheated
• 2:35:30
  woman who answered the invitation almost coldly, and got herself away with a pitiful
• 2:35:33
  haste. Anne watched her until she was lost in the shadows of the chill
• 2:35:39
  and misty night. Then she turned slowly back to the glow of her own
• 2:35:43
  radiant hearthstone. Isn't she lovely, Gilbert? Her hair fascinates me, Miss
• 2:35:48
  Cornelia says, it reaches to her feet. Ruby Gillis had beautiful hair,
• 2:35:54
  but Leslie's is alive. Every thread of it is living gold. She's very
• 2:35:58
  beautiful, agreed Gilbert, so heartily that Anne almost wished he were a little
• 2:36:03
  less enthusiastic. Gilbert, would you like my hair better if it were like
• 2:36:07
  Leslie's, she asked wistfully. I wouldn't have your hair any color, but
• 2:36:13
  just what it is to the world, said Gilbert, with one or two
• 2:36:16
  convincing accompaniments. You wouldn't be Anne if you had golden hair, or hair
• 2:36:22
  of any color but red, said Anne, with gloomy satisfaction. Yes,
• 2:36:28
  red, to give warmth to that. No white skin and those shining gray
• 2:36:31
  green eyes of yours. Golden hair wouldn't suit you at all. Queen Anne,
• 2:36:37
  my Queen Anne, Queen of my heart and life and home. Then
• 2:36:41
  you may admire Leslie's all you like, said Anne magnanimously, end of Chapter
• 2:36:48
  twelve, Chapter thirteen. A ghostly evening one evening a week later, Anne
• 2:36:56
  decided to run over the fields to the house up the brook for an informal
• 2:37:00
  call. It was an evening of gray fog that had crept in from the
• 2:37:03
  gulf, swathed the harbor, filled the glens and valleys, and clung heavily
• 2:37:09
  to the autumnal meadows. Through it the sea sobbed and shuddered. Anne saw
• 2:37:15
  four winds in a new aspect and found it weird and mysterious and fascinating.
• 2:37:20
  But it also gave her a little feeling of loneliness. Gilbert was away and
• 2:37:24
  would be away until the morrow. Attending a medical pow wow in Charlottetown,
• 2:37:28
  Anne longed for an hour of fellowship with some girl friend. Captain Jim and
• 2:37:33
  Miss Cornelia were good fellows, each in their own way, but youth yearned
• 2:37:37
  to youth. If only Diana or phil or PRIs or Stella could drop in
• 2:37:43
  for a chat, She said to herself, how delightful it would be.
• 2:37:46
  This is such a ghostly night. I'm sure all the ships that ever sailed
• 2:37:52
  out of four Winds to their doom could be seen tonight, sailing up the
• 2:37:54
  harbor, with their drowned crews on their decks. If that shrouding fog could
• 2:37:58
  suddenly be drawn aside, I feel as if it concealed innumerable mysteries, as
• 2:38:03
  if I were surrounded by the wraiths of old generations of four winds, people
• 2:38:07
  peering at me through that gray veil. If ever the dear dead ladies of
• 2:38:13
  this little house came back to revisit it, they would come unjust such a
• 2:38:16
  night as this. If I sit here any longer, I'll see one of
• 2:38:20
  them opposite me in Gilbert's chair. This place isn't exactly canny tonight. Even
• 2:38:24
  Gog and Maygog have an air of pricking up their ears to hear the footsteps
• 2:38:28
  of unseen guests. I'll run over to see Leslie before I frighten myself with
• 2:38:33
  my own fancies, as I did long ago in the matter of the Haunted
• 2:38:37
  Wood. I'll leave my house of dreams to welcome back its old inhabitants.
• 2:38:41
  My fire will give them my good will and greeting. They will be gone
• 2:38:45
  before I come back, and my house will be mine once more. Tonight
• 2:38:48
  I am sure it is keeping a tryst with the past. Laughing a little
• 2:38:52
  over her fancy, yet with something of a creepy sensation in the region of
• 2:38:56
  her spine, Anne kissed her hand to Garg and Magog and slipped out into
• 2:39:01
  the fog with some of the new magazines under her arm for Leslie. Leslie's
• 2:39:07
  wild for books and magazines, Miss Cornelia had told her, and she hardly
• 2:39:11
  ever sees one. She can't afford to buy them or subscribe for them.
• 2:39:13
  She's really pitifully poor, Anne. I don't see how she makes out to
• 2:39:16
  live at all on the little rent that farm brings in. She never even
• 2:39:20
  hints a complaint on the score of poverty, but I know what it must
• 2:39:24
  be. She's been handicapped by it all her life. She didn't mind it
• 2:39:26
  when she was free and ambitious, but it must all now. Believe me,
• 2:39:30
  I'm glad she's seems so bright and merry. The evening she spent with
• 2:39:33
  you, Captain Jim told me he fairly had to put on her cap and
• 2:39:37
  coat and push her out the door. Don't be too long going to see
• 2:39:39
  her either. If you are, she'll think it's because you don't like the
• 2:39:41
  sight of Dick, and she'll crawl into her shell again. Dick's a great,
• 2:39:46
  big, harmless baby, But that's silly grin and chuckle of his dog.
• 2:39:48
  It on some people's nerves. Thank goodness, I've no nerves myself.
• 2:39:52
  I like Dick Moore better now than I ever did when he was in his
• 2:39:56
  right senses. That the Lord knows that isn't saying much. I was down
• 2:39:58
  there one day and how cleaning time, helping Leslie a bit, and I
• 2:40:01
  was frying doughnuts. Dick was hanging round to get one, as usual,
• 2:40:05
  and all at once he picked up a scalding hot one I'd just fished out
• 2:40:09
  and dropped it on the back of my neck when I was bending over.
• 2:40:11
  Then he laughed and laughed. Believe me, Anne, it took all the
• 2:40:16
  grace of God in my heart just to keep me from whisking up that stewpan
• 2:40:18
  of boiling fat and pouring it over his head. Anne laughed over Miss Cornelia's
• 2:40:24
  wrath as she sped through the darkness, but laughter accorded ill with that night,
• 2:40:28
  she was sober enough when she reached the house among the willows. Everything
• 2:40:33
  was very silent. The front part of the house seemed dark and deserted,
• 2:40:37
  so Anne slipped round to the side door, which opened from the verandah into
• 2:40:41
  a little sitting room. There she halted noiselessly. The door was open beyond.
• 2:40:48
  In the dimly lighted room sat Leslie Moore, with her arms flung out
• 2:40:52
  on the table and her head bent upon them. She was weeping horribly,
• 2:40:56
  with low, fierce, choking sobs, as if some agony in her soul
• 2:41:01
  were trying to tear itself out. An old black dog was sitting by her,
• 2:41:05
  his nose resting on her lap, his big doggish eyes full of mute
• 2:41:11
  imploring sympathy and devotion, Anne drew back in dismay. She felt that she
• 2:41:16
  could not inter meddle with this bitterness. Her heart ached with a sympathy,
• 2:41:20
  she might not utter. To go in now would be to shut the door
• 2:41:24
  forever on any possible help or friendship. Some instinct warned Anne that the proud,
• 2:41:31
  bitter girl would never forgive the one who thus surprised her. In her
• 2:41:33
  abandonment of despair, Anne slipped noiselessly from the verandah and found her way across
• 2:41:39
  the yard beyond. She heard voices in the gloom and saw the dim glow
• 2:41:45
  of a light at the gate. She met two men, Captain Jim with
• 2:41:48
  a lantern, and another who she knew must be Dick Moore, a big
• 2:41:52
  man badly gone to fat, with a broad, round, red face and
• 2:41:58
  vacant eyes. Even in the dull light, Anne got the impression that there
• 2:42:01
  was something unusual about his eyes. Is this you, mistress? Blythe said
• 2:42:07
  Captain Jim. Now, now you hadn't ought to be rowing about alone on
• 2:42:11
  a night like this. You could get lost in this fog easier than not.
• 2:42:16
  Just you wait till I see Dick safe inside. The door, and
• 2:42:20
  I'll come back and light you over the fields. I ain't going to have
• 2:42:24
  doctor blythe coming home and finding that you walked clean over Capel Forest in the
• 2:42:28
  fall. Hey, woman did that once forty years ago. So you've been
• 2:42:33
  over to see Leslie, he said when he rejoined her. I didn't go
• 2:42:37
  in, said Anne, and told what she had seen. Captain Jim sighed,
• 2:42:43
  A poor, poor little girl. She don't cry often, Mistress Blythe
• 2:42:48
  she's too brave for that. She must feel terrible when she does cry.
• 2:42:54
  A night like this is hard on poor women who have sorrows. There's something
• 2:42:58
  of about it that kind of brings up all we've suffered or feared. It's
• 2:43:03
  full of ghosts, said Anne with a shiver. That was why I came
• 2:43:07
  over. I wanted to clasp a human hand and hear a human voice.
• 2:43:13
  There seemed to be so many inhuman presences about tonight. Even my own dear
• 2:43:16
  house was full of them. They fairly elbowed me out, so I fled
• 2:43:20
  over here for companionship of my kind. You were right not to go in,
• 2:43:24
  though, Mistress Blythe Leslie wouldn't have liked it. She wouldn't have liked
• 2:43:30
  me going in with Dick, as I'd have done if I hadn't met you.
• 2:43:33
  I had Dick down with me all day. I keep him with me
• 2:43:37
  as much as I can to help Leslie a bit. Isn't there something odd
• 2:43:41
  about his eyes? Asked Anne. You noticed that, Yes, when it's
• 2:43:46
  blue and the tother is hazel. His father had the same. It's a
• 2:43:50
  more peculiarity. That's what told me he was Dick Moore when I first saw
• 2:43:56
  him down in Cubby. If it hadn't a been for his eyes, I
• 2:44:00
  mightn't have known him with his beard and fat. You know, I reckon
• 2:44:05
  that it was me found him and brought him home. Miss Cornelia always says
• 2:44:09
  I shouldn't have done it, but I can't agree with her. It was
• 2:44:13
  the right thing to do, and so twas the only thing. There ain't
• 2:44:18
  no question in my mind about that. But my old heart aches for Leslie.
• 2:44:24
  She's only twenty eight, and she's eating more bread with sorrow than most
• 2:44:28
  women do in eighty years. They walked on in silence for a little while.
• 2:44:33
  Presently Anne said, you know, Captain Jim, I never like walking
• 2:44:37
  with a lantern. I have always the strangest feeling that just outside the circle
• 2:44:41
  of light, just over its edge, in the darkness, I am surrounded
• 2:44:46
  by a ring of furtive, sinister things watching me from the shadows with hostile
• 2:44:50
  eyes. I've had that feeling from childhood. What is the reason I never
• 2:44:56
  feel like that when I'm really in the darkness, when it is close all
• 2:44:58
  around me, I'm not the least frightened. I've something of that feeling myself,
• 2:45:03
  admitted Captain Jim. I reckon. When the darkness is close to us,
• 2:45:09
  it is a friend. But when we sort of push it away from
• 2:45:13
  us, divorce ourselves from it, so to speak, with lantern light,
• 2:45:16
  it becomes an enemy. But the fog is lifting. There's a smart west
• 2:45:20
  wind rise, and if you notice, the stars will be out. When
• 2:45:24
  you get home. They were out, And when Anne re entered her house
• 2:45:28
  of Dreams, the red embers were still glowing on the hearth, and all
• 2:45:31
  the haunting presences were gone. End of Chapter thirteen. Chapter fourteen, November
• 2:45:39
  days. The splendor of color which had glowed for weeks along the shores of
• 2:45:46
  Four Winds Harbor had faded out into the soft gray blue of late autumnal hills.
• 2:45:52
  There came many days when fields and shores were dim with misty rain,
• 2:45:56
  or shivering before the breath of a melancholy sea wind. Night too, of
• 2:46:00
  storm and tempest, when Anne sometimes wakened to pray that no ship might be
• 2:46:05
  beating up the grim north shore, for if it were so, not even
• 2:46:09
  the great faithful light, whirling through the darkness, unafraid, could avail to
• 2:46:13
  guide it into safe haven. In November, I sometimes feel as if spring
• 2:46:18
  could never come again, she sighed, grieving over the hopeless unsightliness of her
• 2:46:24
  frosted and bedraggled flower pots. The gay little garden of the schoolmaster's Bride was
• 2:46:28
  rather a forlorn place now, and the lombardies and birches were under bare poles,
• 2:46:33
  as Captain Jim said, But the fir wood behind the little house was
• 2:46:37
  forever green and staunch, And even in November and December there came gracious days
• 2:46:43
  of sunshine and purple hazes, when the harbor danced and sparkled as blithely as
• 2:46:48
  in midsummer, and the gulf was so softly blue and tender, that the
• 2:46:52
  storm and the wild wind seemed only things of a long past dream. Anne
• 2:46:58
  and Gilbert spent men in autumn evening at the lighthouse. It was always a
• 2:47:03
  cheery place, even when the east wind sang in minor and the sea was
• 2:47:07
  dead and gray. Hints of sunshine seemed to be lurking all about it.
• 2:47:11
  Perhaps this was because the first mate always paraded it in panoply of gold.
• 2:47:16
  He was so large and effulgent that one hardly missed the sun, and his
• 2:47:20
  resounding purrs formed a pleasant accompaniment to the laughter and conversation which went on around
• 2:47:26
  Captain Jim's fireplace. Captain Jim and Gilbert had many long discussions and high converse
• 2:47:33
  on matters beyond the ken of cat or king. I liked ponder on all
• 2:47:37
  kinds of problems, though I can't solbum, said Captain Jim. My father
• 2:47:43
  held that we should never talk of things we couldn't understand. But if we
• 2:47:48
  didn't doctor uh, the subjects for conversation would be mud a few. I
• 2:47:54
  reckon The gods laugh many a time to hear us. But what matters so
• 2:47:58
  long as we that we're only men, and don't take the fancy in that
• 2:48:03
  we're God's ourselves, really knowing good and evil. I reckon our pa wows
• 2:48:07
  won't do us or anyone much harm, So let's have another whack at the
• 2:48:11
  WinCE why and wither this evening doctor. While they whacked, Anne listened or
• 2:48:16
  dreamed. Sometimes Leslie went to the lighthouse with them, and she and Anne
• 2:48:22
  wandered along the shore in the eerie twilight, or sat on the rocks below
• 2:48:26
  the lighthouse until the darkness drove them back to the cheer of the driftwood fire.
• 2:48:31
  Then Captain Jim would brew them tea and tell them tales of land and
• 2:48:35
  sea and whatsoever might betide the great forgotten world outside. Leslie seemed always to
• 2:48:41
  enjoy those lighthouse carousals very much, and bloomed out for the time being into
• 2:48:46
  ready wit and beautiful laughter or glowing eyed silence. There was a certain tang
• 2:48:52
  and savor in the conversation when Leslie was present, which they missed when she
• 2:48:56
  was absent. Even when she did not talk, seemed to inspire others to
• 2:49:01
  brilliancy. Captain Jim told his stories better. Gilbert was quicker in argument and
• 2:49:07
  repartee. Anne felt little gushes and trickles of fancy and imagination bubbling to her
• 2:49:13
  lips under the influence of Leslie's personality. That girl was born to be a
• 2:49:18
  leader in social and intellectual circles far away from four Wins. She said to
• 2:49:22
  Gilbert as they walked home one night, She's just wasted here, wasted.
• 2:49:28
  Weren't you listen to Captain Jim and yours truly? The other night, when
• 2:49:31
  we discussed that subject generally, we came to the comforting conclusion that the Creator
• 2:49:35
  probably knew how to run his universe quite as well as we do, and
• 2:49:39
  that, after all, there are no such things as wasted lives, saving
• 2:49:43
  and accept when an individual wilfully squanders and wastes his own life, which Leslie
• 2:49:50
  Moore certainly hasn't done. And some people might think that a Redmond ba whom
• 2:49:54
  editors were beginning to honor, was wasted as the wife of us struggling country
• 2:50:00
  doctor in the rural community of Four Winds. Gilbert, if you had married
• 2:50:05
  Roy Gardner, now continued Gilbert, mercilessly, you could have been a leader
• 2:50:11
  in social and intellectual circles far away from Four Winds, Gilbert. Blythe you
• 2:50:18
  know you were in love with him at one time, Man, Gilbert,
• 2:50:20
  that's mean, pies and mean, just like all the men. As Miss
• 2:50:24
  Cornelia says, I never was in love with him. I only imagined I
• 2:50:28
  was. You know that. You know I'd rather be your wife and our
• 2:50:33
  house of dreams and fulfillment than a queen in a palace. Gilbert's answer was
• 2:50:37
  not in words, But I am afraid that both of them forgot poor Leslie's
• 2:50:41
  speeding, her lonely way across the fields to a house that was neither a
• 2:50:45
  palace nor the fulfillment of a dream. The moon was rising over the sad,
• 2:50:50
  dark sea behind them and transfiguring it. Her light had not yet reached
• 2:50:54
  the harbor, the further side of which was shadowy and suggestive, with dim
• 2:51:00
  coves and rich glooms and jeweling lights. How the home lights shine out tonight
• 2:51:05
  through the dark, said Anne. That string of them over the harbor looks
• 2:51:09
  like a necklace. And what a coruscation there is up at the glen.
• 2:51:13
  Oh, look, Gilbert, there is ours. I'm so glad we left
• 2:51:16
  it burning. I hate to come home to a dark house, our homelight,
• 2:51:20
  Gilbert. Isn't it lovely to see just one of us many millions of
• 2:51:26
  homes the girl, but ours ours our beacon. In a naughty world,
• 2:51:33
  when a fello has a home and a dear little redheaded wife in it.
• 2:51:37
  What more need you ask of life? Well, he might ask one thing
• 2:51:41
  more, whispered Anne happily, Oh, Gilbert, it seems as if I
• 2:51:46
  just couldn't wait for the spring. End of Chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen,
• 2:51:54
  Christmas at Four Winds. At first Anne and Gilbert talked of going home to
• 2:52:00
  Avonlea for Christmas, but eventually they decided to stay in Four Winds. I
• 2:52:05
  want to spend the first Christmas of our life together and our own home,
• 2:52:09
  decreed Anne. So it fell out that Marilla and missus Rachel, Lynde and
• 2:52:15
  the twins came to Four Winds for Christmas. Marilla had the face of a
• 2:52:20
  woman who had circumnavigated the globe. She had never been sixty miles away from
• 2:52:24
  home before, and she had never eaten a Christmas dinner anywhere save at Green
• 2:52:28
  Gables. Missus Rachel had made and brought with her an enormous plum pudding.
• 2:52:35
  Nothing could have convinced Missus Rachel that a college graduate of the younger generation could
• 2:52:39
  make a Christmas plum pudding properly, but she bestowed approval on Anne's house.
• 2:52:45
  Anne's good housekeeper. She said to Marilla, in the spare room the night
• 2:52:48
  of their arrival. I've looked into her bread box and her scrap pail.
• 2:52:54
  I always judge a housekeeper by those, that's what. There's nothing in the
• 2:52:58
  pail that shouldn't have been thrown away, and no stale pieces in the bread
• 2:53:01
  box. Of course, she was trained up with you, but then she
• 2:53:07
  went to college afterwards. I notice she's got my tobacco striped quilt on the
• 2:53:11
  bed there, and that big round braided mat of yours before her living room
• 2:53:16
  fire. It makes me feel right at home. Anne's first Christmas in her
• 2:53:20
  own house was as delightful as she could have wished. The day was fine
• 2:53:26
  and bright. The first skim of snow had fallen on Christmas Eve and made
• 2:53:30
  the world beautiful. The harbor was still open and glittering. Captain Jim and
• 2:53:35
  Miss Cornelia came to dinner. Leslie and Dick had been invited, but Leslie
• 2:53:39
  made excuse they always went to her uncle Isaac West's for Christmas. She said
• 2:53:46
  she'd rather have it, so Miss Cornelia told Anne she can't bear taking Dick
• 2:53:50
  with her strangers. Christmas is always a hard time for Leslie. She and
• 2:53:54
  her father used to make a lot of it. Miss Cornelia and missus Rachel
• 2:53:58
  did not take a very violent fancy to each other. Two sons hold not
• 2:54:03
  their courses in one sphere, but they did not clash at all. For
• 2:54:07
  Missus Rachel was in the kitchen helping Anne and Marilla with the dinner, and
• 2:54:11
  it fell to Gilbert to entertain Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia, or rather to
• 2:54:16
  be entertained by them, for a dialogue between those two old friends and antagonists
• 2:54:22
  was assuredly never dull. It's many a you, since there was Christmas dinner
• 2:54:26
  here, Mistress Blythe, said Captain Jim. Miss Russell always went to her
• 2:54:31
  friends in town for Christmas. But I was here to the first Christmas dinner
• 2:54:35
  that was ever eaten in this house, and the schoolmaster's bride cooked it.
• 2:54:41
  That was sixty years ago today, Mistress Blythe, and a day very like
• 2:54:46
  this, just enough snow to make the hills white and the harbor as blue
• 2:54:52
  as June. I was only a lad, and I'd never been invited out
• 2:54:56
  to dinner before, and I was too shy to eat enough. I've got
• 2:55:00
  all over that most men do, said Miss Cornelia, sewing furiously. Miss
• 2:55:05
  Cornelia was not going to sit with idle hands even on Christmas. Babies come
• 2:55:11
  without any consideration for holidays, and there was one expected in a poverty stricken
• 2:55:16
  household at Glen Saint Mary. Miss Cornelia had sent that household a substantial dinner
• 2:55:22
  for its little swarm, and so meant to eat her own with a comfortable
• 2:55:24
  conscience. Well, you know, the way to a man's heart is through
• 2:55:28
  his stomach, Cornelia, explained Captain Jim. I believe you when he has
• 2:55:35
  a heart, retorted Miss Cornelia, I suppose that's why so many women kill
• 2:55:39
  themselves cooking, just as poor Amelia Baxter did. She died last Christmas morning,
• 2:55:45
  and she said it was the first Christmas since she was married that she
• 2:55:46
  didn't have to cook a big, twenty plate dinner. It must have been
• 2:55:50
  a real pleasant change for her. Well, she's been dead a year,
• 2:55:52
  so you'll soon hear of Horace Baxter taking notice. I heard he was taking
• 2:55:58
  notice already, said Captain Jim, winking at Gilbert. Wasn't he up to
• 2:56:03
  your place one Sunday lately with his funeral black song and a boil color.
• 2:56:09
  No he wasn't, and he needn't come neither. I could have had him
• 2:56:11
  long ago when he was fresh. I don't want any secondhand goods, believe
• 2:56:15
  me. As for Horace Baxter, he was in financial difficulties a year ago
• 2:56:20
  last summer, and he prayed to the Lord for help. And when his
• 2:56:22
  wife died and he got her life insurance, he said he believed it was
• 2:56:26
  the answer to his prayer. Wasn't that like a man? Have you really
• 2:56:30
  proof that he said that, Cornelia, I have the Methodist minister's word for
• 2:56:33
  it. If you call that proof. Robert Baxter told me the same thing
• 2:56:37
  too, but I admit that isn't evidence. Robert Baxter isn't often known to
• 2:56:41
  tell the truth. Calm Cornelia. I think he generally tells the truth,
• 2:56:46
  but he changes his opinion so often it sometimes sounds as if he didn't.
• 2:56:52
  It sounds like it mighty often, believe me. But trust one man to
• 2:56:54
  excuse another, I have no use Robert Baxter. He turned Methodist just because
• 2:57:00
  the Presbyterian choir happened to be singing Behold the Bridegroom cometh for a collection piece
• 2:57:05
  when him and Margaret walked up the aisle the Sunday after they were married.
• 2:57:07
  Serves him right for being late. He always insisted the quiett on purpose to
• 2:57:11
  insult him, as if he was of that much importance. But that family
• 2:57:15
  always thought they were much bigger potatoes than they really were. His brother Aliphilip
• 2:57:18
  imagined the devil was always at his elbow, but I never believed the devil
• 2:57:22
  wasted that much time on him. I don't know, said Captain Jim thoughtfully.
• 2:57:28
  El Filett Baxter lived too much alone, hadn't even a cat a dog
• 2:57:33
  to keep him human. When a man is alone, he's mighty apt to
• 2:57:37
  be with the devil. If he ain't with God, he has to choose
• 2:57:41
  which company he'll keep. I reckon. If the devil always was at life
• 2:57:46
  Baxter's elbow, it must have been because Life liked to have him there,
• 2:57:50
  man like, said Miss Cornelia, and subsided into silence over a complicated arrangement
• 2:57:56
  of tucks, until Captain Jim deliberately stirred up her up again by remarking in
• 2:58:01
  a casual way, I was up at the Methodist church last Sunday morning.
• 2:58:05
  You'd better have been home reading your bible, was Miss Cornelia's retort. Calm,
• 2:58:11
  now, Cornelia, I can't see any harm in going to the Methodist
• 2:58:15
  church when there's no preaching in your own I've been a Presbyterian for seven to
• 2:58:20
  six years, and it isn't likely my theology will hoist anchor with this late
• 2:58:24
  date. It's setting a bad example, said Miss Cornelia grimly. Besides,
• 2:58:31
  continued wicked Captain Jim. I wanted to hear some good singing. The Methodists
• 2:58:37
  have a good choir, and you can't deny, Cornelia that the singing in
• 2:58:41
  our church is awful. Since the split in the choir, what if the
• 2:58:45
  singing isn't good, They're doing their best, and God sees no difference between
• 2:58:48
  the voice of a crow and the voice of a nighting girl. Calm,
• 2:58:52
  calm, Cornelia, said Captain Jim mildly. I have a better opinion of
• 2:58:56
  the Almighty's ear for music than that. What caused the trouble in art choir,
• 2:59:03
  asked Gilbert, who was suffering from suppressed laughter. It dates back to
• 2:59:07
  the new church three years ago, answered Captain Jim. We had a fearful
• 2:59:13
  time over the building of that church. Fell out over the question of a
• 2:59:16
  new site. The two sites wasn't more than two hundred yards apart, but
• 2:59:22
  you'd have thought there was a thousand. By the bitterness of that fight,
• 2:59:26
  we was split up into three factions. One went to the east side and
• 2:59:31
  one the south, and one held to the old. It was fought out
• 2:59:35
  in bed and at board, and in church and at market. All the
• 2:59:39
  old scandals of three generations were dragged out of their graves and aired three matches.
• 2:59:46
  Was broken up by it, and the meetin's we had to try to
• 2:59:50
  settle the question, Cornelia, will you ever forget the one? When old
• 2:59:54
  Luther Burns got up and made a speech, he stated his opinions forcibly call
• 3:00:00
  a spade a spade, captain, you mean he got red mad and raked
• 3:00:03
  them all for and aft. They deserved it to a pack of incapables.
• 3:00:07
  But what would you expect of a committee of men? That building committee held
• 3:00:11
  twenty seven meetings, and at the end of the twenty seventh weren't no nearer
• 3:00:15
  having a church than when they begun. Not so near, for a fact,
• 3:00:18
  For in one fit of hurrying things along, they'd gone to work and
• 3:00:20
  tore the old church down. So there we were without a church, and
• 3:00:24
  no place but the hall to worship in The Methodists stop at us the church,
• 3:00:28
  Cornelia, the Glens and Mary Church wouldn't have been built to this day,
• 3:00:33
  went on Miss Cornelia, ignoring Captain Jem. If we women hadn't to
• 3:00:37
  start in and took charge. We said we meant to have a church if
• 3:00:39
  the men meant to quarrel till doomsday, and we were tired of being a
• 3:00:43
  laughing stock for the Methodists. We held one meeting and elected a committee and
• 3:00:48
  canvas for subscriptions. We got them too. When any of the men tried
• 3:00:50
  to sass us, we told them they'd tried for two years to build a
• 3:00:54
  church and it was our turn. Now we've shut them up close, believe
• 3:00:58
  me, and in six months we had our Of course, when the men
• 3:01:01
  saw we were determined, they stopped fighting and went to work manlike as soon
• 3:01:05
  as they saw they had to or quit bossing. Oh, women can't preach
• 3:01:07
  or be elders, but they can build churches and scare the money for them.
• 3:01:11
  The Methodists allow women to preach, said Captain Jem. Miss Cornelia glared
• 3:01:18
  at him. I never said the Methodists had in common sense, Captain.
• 3:01:20
  What I say is I doubt if they have much religion. I suppose you
• 3:01:24
  are in favor of votes for women, Miss Cornelia, said Gilbert. I'm
• 3:01:30
  not hankering after the vote, believe me, said Miss Cornelia scornfully. I
• 3:01:35
  know what it is to clean up after the men. But some of these
• 3:01:37
  days, when the men realized they've got the world into a mess they can't
• 3:01:39
  get it out of, they'll be glad to give us the vote and shoulder
• 3:01:43
  their troubles over on us. That's their scheme. Oh, it's well that
• 3:01:46
  women are patient, believe me. What about Job, suggested Captain jem Job.
• 3:01:52
  It was such a rare thing to find a patient man that when one
• 3:01:56
  was really discovered, they were determined. He shouldn't be forgotten, retorted Miss
• 3:01:58
  Cornie Neelia triumphantly. Anyhow, the virtue doesn't go with the name. There
• 3:02:03
  never was such an impatient man born as old Job Taylor over Harbor. Well,
• 3:02:07
  you know he had a good deal to try him, Cornelia. Even
• 3:02:11
  you can't defend his wife. I always remembered what old William mc atister said
• 3:02:18
  of her at her funeral. Then they do. She was a Christian woman,
• 3:02:22
  but she had the devil's own pepper. I suppose she was trying,
• 3:02:26
  admitted Miss Cornelia reluctantly. But that didn't justify what Job said when she died.
• 3:02:31
  He rode home from the graveyard the day of the funeral with my father.
• 3:02:35
  He never said a word till they got near home. Then he heaved
• 3:02:37
  a big sigh and said, you may not believe it, Stephen, but
• 3:02:41
  this is the happiest day of my life. Wasn't that like a man?
• 3:02:45
  I suppose poor old Messrs Job did make life kind of uneasy for him,
• 3:02:50
  reflected Captain Jim. Well, there's such a thing as decency, isn't there.
• 3:02:54
  Even if a man is rejoicing in his heart over his wife being dead,
• 3:02:58
  he needn't proclaim it to the fore within of heaven an happy day or
• 3:03:01
  not. Job Taylor wasn't long in marrying again. You might notice his second
• 3:03:05
  wife could manage him. She made him walk Spanish, Believe me. The
• 3:03:09
  first thing she did was to make him hustle round and put up a tombstone
• 3:03:11
  to the first missus Job, and she had a place left on it for
• 3:03:15
  her own name. She said they'd bed nobody to make Joe put up a
• 3:03:16
  monument to her. Speaking of Taylor's, how is missus Lewis Taylor up at
• 3:03:22
  the glen? Doctor asked Captain Jem. She's getting better slowly, but she
• 3:03:28
  has to work too hard, replied Gilbert. Her husband works hard too,
• 3:03:31
  raising prize pigs, said Miss Cornelia. He's noted for his beautiful pigs.
• 3:03:37
  He's a heap prowder of his pigs and off his children. But then,
• 3:03:39
  to be sure, his pigs are the best pigs possible, while his children
• 3:03:43
  don't amount to much. He picked a poor mother for them and starved her
• 3:03:46
  while she was bearing and rearing them. His pigs got the cream and his
• 3:03:50
  children got the skim milk. There are times, Cornelia, when I have
• 3:03:54
  do agree with you, though it hurts me, said Captain Jim. That's
• 3:03:58
  just exactly the truth about Louis Taylor, when I see those poor miserable children
• 3:04:05
  of his robbed of all children are to have it pasans my own bite and
• 3:04:09
  super days. Afterwards, Gilbert went out to the kitchen in response to Anne's
• 3:04:15
  beckoning. Anne shut the door and gave him a connubial lecture. Gilbert,
• 3:04:20
  you and Captain Jim must stop baiting Miss Cornelia. Oh, I've been listening
• 3:04:24
  to you and I just won't allow it. And Miss Cornelia is enjoying herself
• 3:04:28
  hugely. You know she is well. Never mind, you two needn't egg
• 3:04:33
  her on like that. Dinner is ready now, And Gilbert, don't let
• 3:04:37
  missus Rachel carve the geese. I know she means to offer to do it
• 3:04:41
  because she doesn't think you can do it properly. Show her you can.
• 3:04:46
  I have to be able to. I've been studying ABCD diagrams of carving for
• 3:04:50
  the past month, said Gilbert. Only don't talk to me while I'm doing
• 3:04:54
  it. And for if you drive the letters out of my head, I'll
• 3:04:56
  be in a worse predicament than you were in old geometry when the teacher changed
• 3:05:01
  them. Gilbert carved the geese beautifully, even Missus Rachel had to admit that,
• 3:05:07
  and everybody ate of them and enjoyed them. Anne's first Christmas dinner was
• 3:05:11
  a great success, and she beamed with housewifely pride. Mary was the feast
• 3:05:16
  and long, and when it was over, they gathered around the cheer of
• 3:05:20
  the red hearth flame, and Captain Jim told them stories until the red sun
• 3:05:24
  swung low over four Winds Harbor, and the long blue shadows of the Lombardies
• 3:05:28
  fell across the snow in the lane. I must be getting back to the
• 3:05:33
  light, he said, Finally, I'll just have time to walk home before
• 3:05:37
  sundown. Thank you for a beautiful Christmas, Mistress Blithe, bring Master Davy
• 3:05:43
  down to the light some night before he goes home. I want to see
• 3:05:46
  those stone gods, said Davy with a relish end of Chapter fifteen, Chapter
• 3:05:54
  sixteen, New Year's Eve at the light, the Green Gables folk went home
• 3:06:01
  after Christmas, Marilla under solemn covenant to return for a month in the spring.
• 3:06:07
  More snow came before New Year's and the harbor froze over, but the
• 3:06:11
  gulf still was free beyond the white imprisoned fields. The last day of the
• 3:06:16
  Old Year was one of those bright, cold, dazzling winter days which bombard
• 3:06:20
  us with their brilliancy and command our admiration, but never our love. The
• 3:06:26
  sky was sharp and blue, the snow diamonds sparkled insistently. The stark trees
• 3:06:31
  were bare and shameless, with a kind of brazen beauty. The hills shot
• 3:06:35
  assaulting lances of crystal. Even the shadows were sharp and stiff and clear cut,
• 3:06:41
  as no proper shadows should be. Everything that was handsome seemed ten times
• 3:06:46
  handsomer and less attractive. In the glaring splendor, and everything that was ugly
• 3:06:52
  seemed ten times uglier, and everything was either handsome or ugly. There was
• 3:06:56
  no soft blending, or kind obscurity or elusive mistiness in that searching glitter.
• 3:07:03
  The only things that held their own individuality were the furs. For the fir
• 3:07:07
  is the tree of mystery and shadow, and yields never to the encroachments of
• 3:07:11
  crude radiance. But finally the day began to realize that she was growing old.
• 3:07:18
  Then a certain pensiveness fell over her beauty, which dimmed yet intensified It.
• 3:07:24
  Sharp angles, glittering points melted away into curves and enticing gleams. The
• 3:07:30
  white harbor put on soft grays and pinks. The far away hills turned amethyst.
• 3:07:37
  The old year is going away, beautifully, said Anne. She and
• 3:07:41
  Leslie and Gilbert were on their way to the Four Winds Point, having plotted
• 3:07:45
  with Captain Jim to watch the new year in at the light the sun had
• 3:07:50
  set, and in the southwestern sky hung Venus, glorious and golden. Having
• 3:07:54
  drawn as near to her Earth's sister as possible for her. For the first
• 3:07:58
  time, Anne and Gilbert saw the shadow cast by that brilliant star of evening,
• 3:08:03
  that faint, mysterious shadow, never seen save when there is white snow
• 3:08:07
  to reveal it, and then only with averted vision, vanishing when you gaze
• 3:08:13
  at it directly. It's like the spirit of a shadow, isn't it,
• 3:08:18
  whispered Anne. You can see it so plainly haunting your side when you look
• 3:08:22
  ahead, but when you turn and look at it, it's gone. I
• 3:08:26
  have heard that you can see the shadow of Venus only once in a lifetime,
• 3:08:30
  and that within a year of seeing it, your life's most wonderful gift
• 3:08:33
  will come to you, said Leslie, But she spoke rather hardly. Perhaps
• 3:08:37
  she thought that even the shadow of Venus could bring her no gift of life.
• 3:08:41
  Anne smiled in the soft twilight. She felt quite sure what the mystic
• 3:08:46
  shadow promised her. They found Marshal Elliot at the lighthouse. At first,
• 3:08:52
  Anne felt inclined to resent the intrusion of this long haired, long bearded eccentric
• 3:08:58
  into the familiar little circle, But Marshal Elliott soon proved his legitimate claim to
• 3:09:03
  membership in the household of Joseph. He was a witty, intelligent, well
• 3:09:07
  read man, rivaling Captain Jim himself in the knack of telling a good story.
• 3:09:11
  They were all glad when he agreed to watch the old year out with
• 3:09:15
  them. Captain Jim's small nephew, Joe, had come down to spend New
• 3:09:18
  Year's with his great uncle and had fallen asleep on the sofa with the first
• 3:09:22
  mate curled up in a huge golden ball at his feet. Ain't he a
• 3:09:28
  dear little man? Said Captain Jim gloatingly. I do love to watch a
• 3:09:33
  little child asleep, Mistress blythe It's the most beautiful sight in the world.
• 3:09:37
  I reckon. Joe does love to get down here for a night because I
• 3:09:43
  have him sleep with me. At home, he has to sleep with the
• 3:09:46
  other two boys. An he doesn't like it. Why can't I sleep with
• 3:09:50
  father? Uncle Jim says he everybody in the Bible slept with their fathers.
• 3:09:56
  As for the questions he asked, the minister himself couldn't answer them, They
• 3:10:00
  fair swamp me, Uncle Jim. If I wasn't me, who'd I be?
• 3:10:05
  An, Uncle Jim? Why would happened if God died? He fired
• 3:10:09
  them two off at me tonight? Afore he went to sleep. As for
• 3:10:13
  his imagination, it sails away from everything, He makes up the most remarkable
• 3:10:20
  yawns, and then his mother shuts him up in the closet for telling stories,
• 3:10:26
  and he sits down an makes up another one, and has it ready
• 3:10:28
  to relate to her when she lets him out. He had one for me
• 3:10:33
  when he come down to night, Uncle Jim, says he solemn as a
• 3:10:37
  tombstone. I had a venture in the glen to day. Yes, what
• 3:10:43
  was it? Says I? Expecting something quite startling, but no wise prepared
• 3:10:48
  for what I really got. I met a wolf in the street, says
• 3:10:52
  he. Enormous wolf with a big red mouth an awful long teeth, Uncle
• 3:10:58
  Jim. I didn't know there was any wolves up at the glen, says
• 3:11:01
  I. Oh, he come there from far, far away, says Joe.
• 3:11:07
  And I thought he was gonna eat me up, Uncle Jim. Were
• 3:11:11
  you scared, says I? No, because I had a big gun,
• 3:11:16
  says Joe. And I shot the wolf dead, Uncle Jim, solid dead,
• 3:11:20
  And then he went up to heaven and bit God, says he.
• 3:11:24
  Well, I was fair staggered, Mistress Black. The hours bloomed into mirth
• 3:11:28
  around the driftwood fire. Captain Jim told tales and Marshall Elliott sang old Scotch
• 3:11:33
  ballads in a fine tenor voice. Finally, Captain Jim took down his old
• 3:11:39
  brown fiddle from the wall and began to play. He had a tolerable knack
• 3:11:43
  of fiddling, which all appreciated, save the first mate, who sprang from
• 3:11:46
  the sofa as if he had been shot, emitted a shriek of protest,
• 3:11:50
  and fled wildly up the stairs. Can't cultivate on ear for music in that
• 3:11:54
  cat nohow, said Captain Jim. He won't stay long enough to learn to
• 3:12:00
  like it. When we got the organ up at the Glen Church, old
• 3:12:03
  Elder Richards bounced up from his seat the minute the organist began to play,
• 3:12:09
  and scuttled down the isle and out of the church at the rate of no
• 3:12:11
  man's business. It reminded me so strong of the first mate tearing loose as
• 3:12:16
  soon as I began to fiddle, that I come nearer to laugh it out
• 3:12:20
  loud in church than I ever did before or since. There was something so
• 3:12:26
  infectious in the rollicking tunes which Captain Jim played. That very soon Marshall Elliott's
• 3:12:31
  feet began to twitch. He had been a noted dancer in his youth.
• 3:12:35
  Presently he started up and held out his hands to Leslie. Instantly she responded
• 3:12:41
  round and round the firelit room. They circled with a rhythmic grace that was
• 3:12:45
  wonderful. Leslie danced like one inspired. The wild, sweet abandon of the
• 3:12:50
  music seemed to have entered into and possessed her. Anne watched her in fascinated
• 3:12:56
  admiration. She had never seen her like this. All the innate richness and
• 3:13:01
  color and charm of her nature seemed to have broken loose and overflowed in crimson
• 3:13:05
  cheek and glowing eye and grace of motion. Even the aspect of Marshall Elliot,
• 3:13:11
  with his long beard and hair, could not spoil the picture. On
• 3:13:15
  the contrary, it seemed to enhance it. Marshal Elliot looked like a Viking
• 3:13:20
  of elder days dancing with one of the blue eyed, golden haired daughters of
• 3:13:24
  the Northland. The purtiest dancin I ever saw, and I've seen some in
• 3:13:28
  my time, declared Captain Jim. When at last the bow fell from his
• 3:13:33
  tired hand. Leslie dropped into her chair, laughing breathless. I love dancing,
• 3:13:41
  she said, a part to Anne, I haven't done since I was
• 3:13:43
  sixteen, but I love it. The music seems to run through my veins
• 3:13:48
  like quicksilver, and I forget everything, everything except the delight of keeping time
• 3:13:52
  to it. There isn't any floor beneath me, your walls about me,
• 3:13:54
  or roof over me, and floating amid the stars. Captain Jim hung his
• 3:13:58
  fiddle up in its place, beside a large frame enclosing several banknotes. Is
• 3:14:03
  there anybody else of your acquaintance who can afford to hang his walls with bank
• 3:14:09
  notes for pictures? He asked. There's twenty ten dollar notes there, not
• 3:14:13
  worth the glass over them. Their old bank of peil of Notes had them
• 3:14:18
  by me when the bank failed, and I had em framed and hung up,
• 3:14:24
  partly as a reminder not to put your trust in banks, and partly
• 3:14:28
  to give me a real luxurious millionaire feeling. Hello, maybe you don't be
• 3:14:33
  scared. You can come back now. The music and revelry is over for
• 3:14:37
  tonight. The old year has just another hour to stay with us. I've
• 3:14:43
  seen seventy six new years come in over that gulf yonder, Mistress Blyth,
• 3:14:48
  you'll see a hundred, said Marshall, Elliott. Captain Jim shook his head.
• 3:14:54
  No, and I don't want to at least I think I don't death
• 3:14:58
  grow friendly or as we grow older, and not that one of us really
• 3:15:03
  wants to die. Though, Marshal Tennyson spoke truth when he said that there's
• 3:15:09
  old missus Wallace up at the glen. She's had heaps of trouble off her
• 3:15:13
  life, poor soul, and she's lost almost every one she cared about.
• 3:15:18
  She's always saying that she'll be glad when her time comes an she doesn't want
• 3:15:24
  to sojourn any longer in this vale of tears. But when she takes a
• 3:15:28
  sixth bell, there's a fuss. Doctors from town and a trained nurse,
• 3:15:33
  and enough medicine to kill a dog. Life may be a vell of tears,
• 3:15:37
  all right, but there are some folks who enjoy weepin' I reckon.
• 3:15:41
  They spent the old year's last hour quietly around the fire. A few minutes
• 3:15:46
  before twelve, Captain Jim rose and opened to the door. We must let
• 3:15:50
  the new year in, he said. Outside was a fine blue night,
• 3:15:56
  A sparkling ribbon of moonlight garlanded the gulf. Inside the bar, the harbor
• 3:16:01
  shone like a pavement of pearl. They stood before the door and waited.
• 3:16:05
  Captain Jim with his ripe full experience, Marshall Elliot in his vigorous but empty
• 3:16:11
  middle life, Gilbert and Anne with their precious memories and exquisite hopes, Leslie
• 3:16:16
  with her record of starved years and her hopeless future. The clock on the
• 3:16:22
  little shelf above the fireplace struck twelve. Welcome new year, said Captain Jim,
• 3:16:28
  bowing low, as the last stroke died away. I wish you all
• 3:16:31
  the best years of your lives. Mate. I reckon that whatever the new
• 3:16:37
  year brings us will be the best the great Captain has for us hand.
• 3:16:41
  Somehow or other, we'll all make pork in a good harbor. End of
• 3:16:46
  Chapter sixteen. Chapter seventeen, a Four Winds winter winter set in vigorously after
• 3:16:56
  New Year's Big white drifts heaped themselves about the little hal and palms of frost
• 3:17:01
  covered its windows. The harbor ice grew harder and thicker until the Four Winds
• 3:17:05
  people began their usual winter traveling over it. The safe ways were bushed by
• 3:17:11
  a benevolent government, and night and day, the gay tinkle of the sleigh
• 3:17:15
  bells sounded on it on moonlit nights. Anne heard them in her house of
• 3:17:18
  dreams, like fairy chimes. The gulf froze over, and the four winds
• 3:17:24
  light flashed no more. During the months when navigation was closed, Captain Jim's
• 3:17:30
  office was a sinecure the first maiden. I will have nothing to do till
• 3:17:33
  spring except keep warm and amuse ourselves. The last lighthouse keeper used all ways
• 3:17:39
  to move up to the glen in winter, but I'd rather stay at the
• 3:17:43
  point. The first mate might get poisoned or chewed up by the dogs at
• 3:17:48
  the glen Yit's a mite lonely to be sure, with neither the light nor
• 3:17:52
  the water for company. But if our friends come to see us often we'll
• 3:17:56
  weather it through. Captain Jim had an ice boat and many a wild,
• 3:18:01
  glorious spin. Gilbert and Anne and Leslie had over the glib harbor ice with
• 3:18:05
  him. Anne and Leslie took long snowshoe tramps together too, over the fields,
• 3:18:11
  or across the harbor after storms, or through the woods beyond the glen.
• 3:18:16
  They were very good comrades, and their rambles and their fireside communings.
• 3:18:20
  Each had something to give the other. Each felt life the richer for friendly
• 3:18:24
  exchange of thought and friendly silence. Each looked across the white fields between their
• 3:18:30
  homes with the pleasant consciousness of a friend beyond. But in spite of all
• 3:18:33
  this, Anne felt that there was always a barrier between Leslie and herself,
• 3:18:39
  a constraint that never wholly vanished. I don't know why I can't get closer
• 3:18:43
  to her, Anne said one evening to Captain Jim. I like her so
• 3:18:48
  much, I admire her so much. I want to take her right into
• 3:18:52
  my heart and creep right into hers. But I can never cross the barrier.
• 3:18:56
  You've been too happy all your life, miss friss blythe said Captain Jim
• 3:19:01
  thoughtfully. I reckon, that's why you and Leslie can't get real close together.
• 3:19:05
  In your souls. The barrier between you is her experience is sorrow and
• 3:19:11
  trouble. She ain't responsible for it and you ain't, but it's there,
• 3:19:16
  and neither of you can cross it. My childhood wasn't very happy before I
• 3:19:20
  came to Green Gables, said Anne, gazing soberly out of the window at
• 3:19:24
  the still, sad, dead beauty of the leafless tree shadows on the moonlit
• 3:19:30
  snow. Maybe not, but it was just the usual unhappiness of a child
• 3:19:33
  who hasn't anyone to look after it properly. There hasn't been any tragedy in
• 3:19:39
  your life, Mistress Blythe, and poor Leslie has been almost all tragedy,
• 3:19:46
  she feels, I reckon, though maybe she hardly knows she feels it.
• 3:19:50
  There's a vast deal in her life you can't enter nor understand, and so
• 3:19:56
  she has to keep you back from it, hold you off, so to
• 3:19:58
  speak, from hurting her. You know, if we've got anything about us
• 3:20:03
  that hurts, we shrink from any one's touch on or near it. It
• 3:20:07
  holds good with our souls as well as our bodies. I reckon. Leslie's
• 3:20:11
  soul must be near raw. It's no wonder she hides it away. If
• 3:20:16
  that were really all, I wouldn't mind, Captain Jim, I would understand.
• 3:20:20
  But there are times, not always, but now and again, when
• 3:20:24
  I almost have to believe that Leslie doesn't doesn't like me. Sometimes I surprise
• 3:20:30
  a look in her eyes that seems to show resentment and dislike. It goes
• 3:20:33
  so quickly, but I've seen it. I'm sure of that, and it
• 3:20:37
  hurts me. Captain Jim. I'm not used to being disliked. And I've
• 3:20:41
  tried so hard to win Leslie's friendship. You haven't won it, Mistress Blythe.
• 3:20:46
  Don't you go cherishing any foolish notion that Leslie don't like you. If
• 3:20:52
  she didn't, she wouldn't have anything to do with you, much less chummin'
• 3:20:56
  with you as she does. I know Leslie Moore too well not to be
• 3:21:00
  sure that the first time I ever saw her driving her geese down the hill,
• 3:21:05
  on the day I came to four winds, she looked at me with
• 3:21:07
  the same expression persisted Anne. I felt it, even in the midst of
• 3:21:13
  my admiration of her beauty, she looked at me resentfully. She did.
• 3:21:16
  Indeed, Captain Jim, the resentment must have been about something else, Mistress
• 3:21:22
  Blythe, And you just come in for a share of it because you happened
• 3:21:26
  past. Leslie does take sullen spells now and again. Poor girl. I
• 3:21:31
  can't blame her when I know what she has to put up with. I
• 3:21:37
  don't know why it's permitted. The doctor and I have talked a lot about
• 3:21:41
  the origin of evil, but we haven't quite found doubt all about it yet.
• 3:21:46
  There's a vast of non understandable things in life, ain't there, mistress
• 3:21:50
  Blythe sometimes things seem to work out real properlight, same as with you and
• 3:21:54
  the doctor, And then again they all seemed to go catawampus. There Leslie
• 3:22:01
  so clever and beautiful, you'd think she was meant for a queen, And
• 3:22:03
  instead she's cooped up over there, robbed of almost everything, a woman in
• 3:22:09
  value with no prospect except waiting on Dick Moore all her life. Though,
• 3:22:16
  mind you, Mistress blythe I dare say she choose her life now such as
• 3:22:20
  it is, rather than the life she lived with Dick before he went away.
• 3:22:24
  That's something that comes the old sealer's tongue, mustn't meddle with. But
• 3:22:28
  you've helped Leslie a lot. She's a different creature since you come to four
• 3:22:33
  winds Us. Old friends see the difference in her as you can't miss.
• 3:22:39
  Cornelia and me was talking it over the other day, and it's one of
• 3:22:43
  the mighty few pints that we see eye to eye on. So just you
• 3:22:48
  throw overboard any idea of her not liking you. Anne could hardly discard it
• 3:22:52
  completely, for there were undoubtedly times when she felt with an instinct that was
• 3:22:56
  not to be combated by reason that Leslie harbored a queer, indefinable resentment towards
• 3:23:03
  her. At times this secret consciousness marred the delight of their comradeship. At
• 3:23:09
  others it was almost forgotten, but Anne always felt the hidden thorn was there
• 3:23:13
  and might prick her at any moment. She felt a cruel sting from it.
• 3:23:16
  On the day when she told Leslie of what she hoped the spring would
• 3:23:20
  bring to the Little House of Dreams, Leslie looked at her with hard,
• 3:23:24
  bitter, unfriendly eyes. So you are to have that too, she said
• 3:23:30
  in a choked voice, and without another word, she had turned and gone
• 3:23:33
  across the fields homeward. Anne was deeply hurt. For the moment, she
• 3:23:39
  felt as if she could never like Leslie again. But when Leslie came over
• 3:23:43
  a few evenings later, she was so pleasant, so friendly, so frank
• 3:23:46
  and witty and winsome, that Anne was charmed into forgiveness and forgetfulness. Only
• 3:23:52
  she never mentioned her darling hope to Leslie again, nor did Leslie ever refer
• 3:23:56
  to it. But one evening, when late Winter was listening for the word
• 3:24:01
  of spring, she came over to the little house for a twilight chat,
• 3:24:05
  and when she went away she left a small white box on the table.
• 3:24:09
  Anne found it after she was gone and opened it wonderingly. In it was
• 3:24:15
  a tiny white dress of exquisite workmanship, delicate embroidery, wonderful tucking, sheer
• 3:24:20
  loveliness. Every stitch in it was handwork, and the little frills of lace
• 3:24:26
  at neck and sleeves were of real Valenciennes. Lying on it was a card
• 3:24:31
  with Leslie's love. What hours of work she must have put on it,
• 3:24:35
  said Anne, and the material must have cost more than she could really afford.
• 3:24:41
  It is very sweet of her, But Leslie was brusque and curt when
• 3:24:45
  Anne thanked her, and again the latter felt thrown back upon herself. Leslie's
• 3:24:50
  gift was not alone in the little house. Miss Cornelia had for the time
• 3:24:54
  being given up sowing for unwonted, unwelcome eighth babies, and fall into sewing
• 3:25:01
  for a very much wanted first one whose welcome would leave nothing to be desired.
• 3:25:05
  Philippa Blake and Diana Wright each sent a marvelous garment, and Missus Rachel
• 3:25:11
  Lynde sent several in which good material and honest stitches took the place of embroidery
• 3:25:16
  and frills. Anne herself made many desecrated by no touch of machinery, spending
• 3:25:22
  over them the happiest hours of the happy winter. Captain Jim was the most
• 3:25:26
  frequent guest of the little house, and none was more welcome every day.
• 3:25:31
  Anne loved the simple, souled, true hearted old sailor more and more.
• 3:25:37
  He was as refreshing as a sea breeze, as interesting as some ancient chronicle.
• 3:25:41
  She was never tired of listening to his stories, and his quaint remarks
• 3:25:46
  and comments were a continual delight to her. Captain Jim was one of those
• 3:25:50
  rare and interesting people who never speak, but they say something. The milk
• 3:25:56
  of human kindness and the wisdom of the serpent were mingled in his composition and
• 3:26:00
  delightful proportions. Nothing ever seemed to put Captain Jim out or depress him in
• 3:26:05
  any way. I've got a contracted a habit of enjoying things, he remarked
• 3:26:11
  once, when Anne had commented on his invariable cheerfulness. It's got so chronic
• 3:26:16
  that I believe I even enjoyed the disagreeable things. It's great fun thinking they
• 3:26:22
  can't last old rheumatism, says I. When it grips me hard, you've
• 3:26:26
  got to stop aching. Sometime. The worse you are, the soud you'll
• 3:26:31
  stop. Maybe I'm bound to get the better of you in the long run,
• 3:26:35
  whether in the body or out of the body. One night, by
• 3:26:39
  the fireside of the light, Anne saw Captain Jim's life book. He needed
• 3:26:43
  no coaxing to show it and proudly gave it to her to read. I
• 3:26:48
  read it to leave to little Joe, He said, I don't like the
• 3:26:50
  idea of everything I've done and seen being clean for God. After I've shipped
• 3:26:54
  for my last voyage, Joe, he'll remember it and tell the yarns to
• 3:27:00
  his children. It was an old leather bound book, filled with the record
• 3:27:03
  of his voyages and adventures. Anne thought what a treasure trove it would be
• 3:27:07
  to a writer. Every sentence was a nugget in itself. The book had
• 3:27:13
  no literary merit. Captain Jim's charm of story telling failed him when he came
• 3:27:16
  to pen and ink. He could only jot roughly down the outline of his
• 3:27:20
  famous tales, and both spelling and grammar were sadly askew. But Anne felt
• 3:27:26
  that if anyone possessed of the gift could take that simple record of a brave,
• 3:27:31
  adventurous life, reading between the bald lines, the tales of dangers staunchly
• 3:27:35
  faced and duty manfully done, a wonderful story might be made from it.
• 3:27:41
  Rich comedy and thrilling tragedy were both lying hidden in Captain Jim's life book,
• 3:27:46
  waiting for the touch of the master hand to waken the laughter and grief and
• 3:27:50
  horror of thousands. Anne said something of this to Gilbert as they walked home.
• 3:27:54
  Why don't you try your hand of it yourself, eh, Anne shook
• 3:27:58
  her head. No. I only wish I could, but it's not in
• 3:28:01
  the power of my gift. You know what my forte is, Gilbert the
• 3:28:05
  fanciful, the fairy, like the pretty. To write Captain Jim's life book
• 3:28:09
  as it should be written, one should be a master of vigorous yet subtle
• 3:28:13
  style, a keen psychologist, a born humorist, and a born tragedian.
• 3:28:18
  A rare combination of gifts is needed. Paul might do it if he were
• 3:28:22
  older. Anyhow, I'm going to ask him to come down next summer and
• 3:28:26
  meet Captain Jim. Come to this shore, wrote Anne to Paul. I
• 3:28:31
  am afraid you cannot find here Nora or the Golden Lady, or the twin
• 3:28:35
  sailors. But you will find one old sailor who can tell you wonderful stories.
• 3:28:41
  Paul, however, wrote back, saying regretfully that he could not come
• 3:28:43
  that year. He was going abroad for two years study. When I return,
• 3:28:48
  I'll come to Four Winds, dear teacher, he wrote. But meanwhile,
• 3:28:54
  Captain Jim is growing old, said Anne sorrowfully, and there is nobody
• 3:28:58
  to write his life book end of Chapter seventeen. Chapter eighteen, spring days,
• 3:29:09
  the ice in the harbor grew black and rotten. In the march suns.
• 3:29:13
  In April there were blue waters and a windy, white capped gulf.
• 3:29:16
  Again and again, the Four Winds light begemmed the twilights. I'm so glad
• 3:29:22
  to see it once more, said Anne on the first evening of its reappearance.
• 3:29:26
  I've missed it so all winter. The northwestern sky has seemed blank and
• 3:29:31
  lonely without it. The land was tender with brand new golden green baby leaves.
• 3:29:37
  There was an emerald mist on the woods beyond the glen. The Seaward
• 3:29:41
  valleys were full of fairy mists. At dawn, vibrant winds came and went,
• 3:29:46
  with salt foam in their breath. The sea laughed and flashed and preened
• 3:29:52
  and allured like a beautiful coquettish woman. The herrings schooled, and the fishing
• 3:29:56
  village woke to life. The har was alive, with white sails making for
• 3:30:01
  the channel. The ships began to sail outward and inward again. On a
• 3:30:07
  spring day like this, said Anne, I know exactly what my soul will
• 3:30:11
  feel like on the resurrection morning. There are times in spring when I sort
• 3:30:16
  of feel that I might have been a poet if i'd been caught young,
• 3:30:20
  remarked Captain Jim. I catch myself conning over old lines and verses I heard
• 3:30:26
  the schoolmaster was siting sixty years ago. They don't trouble me at other times
• 3:30:33
  now, I feel as if I had to get out on the rocks,
• 3:30:35
  or the fields or the water and spout them. Captain Jim had come up
• 3:30:39
  that afternoon to bring Anne a load of shells for her garden, and a
• 3:30:43
  little bunch of sweet grass which he had found in a ramble over the sand
• 3:30:46
  dunes. It's getting real scarce along this shore now, he said. When
• 3:30:52
  I was a boy, there was a plenty of it, but now it's
• 3:30:56
  only once in a while you'll find a plot, and never when you're looking
• 3:31:01
  for it. You just have to stumble on it. You're walking along on
• 3:31:05
  the sand hills, never thinking of sweet grass, and all at once the
• 3:31:11
  air is full of sweetness, and there's the grass under your feet. I
• 3:31:16
  favor the smell of sweet grass. It always makes me think of my mother.
• 3:31:22
  She was fond of it, asked Anne, Not that I knows,
• 3:31:26
  on don't know she ever saw any sweet grass. No, it's because it
• 3:31:31
  has a kind of motherly perfume. Not too young, you understand something kind
• 3:31:37
  of seasoned and wholesome and dependable, just like a mother. The schoolmaster's bride
• 3:31:43
  always kept it among her handkerchiefs. You might put that little bunch among yours,
• 3:31:48
  Mistress blythe I don't like these, Barton sense, but a whiff of
• 3:31:54
  sweet grass belongs anywhere a lady does. Anne had not been especially enthusiastic over
• 3:32:01
  the idea of surrounding her flower beds with co hoog shells as a direction.
• 3:32:05
  They did not appeal to her on first thought, but she would not have
• 3:32:07
  hurt Captain Jim's feelings for anything. So she assumed a virtue she did not
• 3:32:13
  at first feel, and thanked him heartily. And when Captain Jim had proudly
• 3:32:16
  encircled every bed with the rim of the big milk white shells, and found
• 3:32:22
  to her surprise that she liked the effect on a town lawn, or even
• 3:32:26
  up at the glen, they would not have been in keeping. But here
• 3:32:28
  in the old fashioned sea bound garden of the little House of Dreams they belonged.
• 3:32:35
  They do look nice, she said, sincerely. The schoolmaster's bride always
• 3:32:41
  had cowhawks round her beds, said Captain Jim. She was a master hand
• 3:32:46
  with flowers. She looked at him and touched him so and they grew like
• 3:32:52
  mad. Some folks have that knack, I reckon you have it too,
• 3:32:56
  Mistress Black. Oh, I don't know, but I love my garden and
• 3:33:01
  I love working in it. To potter with green growing things, Watching each
• 3:33:05
  day to see the dear new sprouts come up is like taking a hand in
• 3:33:09
  creation. I think just now My garden is like faith, the substance of
• 3:33:15
  things hoped for, but by do we. It always amazes me to look
• 3:33:20
  at the little wrinkled brown seeds, and think of the rainbows in'em,
• 3:33:26
  said Captain Jim when I ponder on them seeds, I don't find it no
• 3:33:30
  wise hard to believe that we've got souls that'll live in other worlds. You
• 3:33:35
  couldn't hardly believe there was life in them kind of things, some no bigger
• 3:33:41
  than green, to dust, to let alone color and scent. If you
• 3:33:43
  hadn't seen the miracle, could you? Anne, who was counting her days
• 3:33:48
  like silver beads on a rosary, could not now take the long walk to
• 3:33:52
  the lighthouse or up the glen road. But Miss Cornelia and Captain Jim came
• 3:33:56
  very often to the Little House. Miss Cornel was the joy of Anne's and
• 3:34:01
  Gilbert's existence. They laughed side splittingly over her speeches after every visit. When
• 3:34:07
  Captain Jim and she happened to visit the Little House at the same time,
• 3:34:11
  there was much sport for the listening. They waged wordy warfare, she attacking,
• 3:34:16
  he defending. Anne once reproached the Captain for his baiting of Miss Cornelia.
• 3:34:22
  Oh, I do love to set her going, mistress blythe chuckled.
• 3:34:26
  The unrepentant sinner. It's the greatest amusement I have in life. That tongue
• 3:34:31
  of hers would blister a stone, and you and that young dog of a
• 3:34:37
  doctor ain't jah listening to her as much as I do. Captain Jim came
• 3:34:41
  along another evening to bring Anne some mayflowers. The garden was full of the
• 3:34:46
  moist scented air of a Maritimes spring evening. There was a milk white mist
• 3:34:50
  on the edge of the sea, with a young moon kissing it, and
• 3:34:54
  a silver gladness of stars over the glen. The bell of the church across
• 3:34:58
  the harbor was ringing dreamily sweet. The mellow chime drifted through the dusk to
• 3:35:03
  mingle with the soft spring moan of the sea. Captain Jim's mayflowers added the
• 3:35:09
  last completing touch to the charm of the night. I haven't seen any this
• 3:35:13
  spring, and I've missed them, said Anne, burying her face in them.
• 3:35:18
  They ain't to be found among four winds, only in the barrens way
• 3:35:22
  behind the glen, up yonder. I took a little trip to day to
• 3:35:26
  the land and nothing to do, and hunted these up for you. I
• 3:35:31
  reckon they're the last you'll see this spring, for they're nearly done. How
• 3:35:35
  kind and thoughtful you are, Captain Jim. Nobody else, not even Gilbert,
• 3:35:41
  with a shake of her head at him, remembered that I always long
• 3:35:45
  for mayflowers in the spring. Well, I've had another errand too. I
• 3:35:48
  wanted to take mister Howard back yonder a mess of trout. He likes one
• 3:35:54
  occasional, and it's all I can do for a kindness. He did me
• 3:35:58
  once. I stayed all the afternoon and talked to him. He likes to
• 3:36:03
  talk to me, though. He's a mighty educated man, and I'm only
• 3:36:07
  an ignorant old sailah because he's one of the folks that's got to talk or
• 3:36:11
  they're miserable, and he finds listeners scarce around here. The glen folk fight
• 3:36:18
  shy of him because they think he's an infidel. He ain't that far gone.
• 3:36:22
  Exactly few men is I reckon, But he's what you might call a
• 3:36:28
  heretic. Heretic's all wicked, but they're mighty interesting. It's just that they've
• 3:36:35
  got sort of lost looking for God, being under the impression that he's hard
• 3:36:39
  to find, which he ain't. Never most of them blundered to him after
• 3:36:43
  a while, I guess I don't think listening to mister Howard's argument is likely
• 3:36:48
  to do me much harm. Mind you, I believe what I was brought
• 3:36:52
  up to believe. It saves a vast bother, and back of it all,
• 3:36:58
  God is good. The trouble with mister Howard is that he's a little
• 3:37:03
  too clever. He thinks that he is bound to live up to his cleverness,
• 3:37:09
  and that it's smarter to thrash out some new way of getting to Heaven
• 3:37:13
  than to go by the old track. The common ignorant folks is traveling,
• 3:37:18
  but he'll get there some time, all right, and then he'll laugh at
• 3:37:22
  himself. Mister Howard was a Methodist to begin with, said Miss Cornelia,
• 3:37:28
  as if she thought he had not far to go from that to heresy.
• 3:37:33
  Do you know, Cornelia, said Captain Jim Gravely. I've often thought that
• 3:37:37
  if I wasn't a Presbyterian, I'd be a Methodist. Oh well, conceded
• 3:37:43
  Miss Cornelia. If you weren't a Presbyterian, it wouldn't matter much what you
• 3:37:48
  were speaking of. Heresy reminds me, doctor, I've brought back that booculently,
• 3:37:52
  that natural law in the spiritual world. I didn't read more than a
• 3:37:54
  third of it. I can read sense and I can read nonsense. But
• 3:37:58
  that book is neither one nor the other. It is considered rather heretical in
• 3:38:01
  some quarters, admitted Gilbert. But I told you that before you took it.
• 3:38:07
  Miss Cornelia, Oh, I wouldn't have minded it's being heretical. I
• 3:38:09
  can stand wickedness, but I can't stand foolishness, said Miss Cornelia, calmly,
• 3:38:16
  and with the air of having said the last thing there was to say
• 3:38:18
  about natural law. Speaking of books, remarked Captain Jim musingly, A mad
• 3:38:24
  love came to an end at last two weeks ago. It run to one
• 3:38:31
  hundred and three chapters. When they got married, the book stopped right off.
• 3:38:35
  So I reckon their troubles were all over. It's real nice that that's
• 3:38:41
  the way in books anyhow, isn't it, even if it isn't so anywhere
• 3:38:43
  else. I never read novels, said Miss Cornelia. Did you hear how
• 3:38:48
  Jordie Russell was today, Captain Jim, Yes, I called in on my
• 3:38:52
  way home to see him. He's getting round all right, but stewing in
• 3:38:56
  a broth of trouble as usual poor men man. Course, he bruis up
• 3:39:01
  most of it himself, But I reckon that don't make it any easier to
• 3:39:05
  bear. He's an awful pessimist, said Miss Cornelia. Well, no,
• 3:39:11
  he ain't a pessimist exactly, Cornelia. He only just never finds anything that
• 3:39:16
  suits him. And isn't that a pessimist. No, No, A pessimist
• 3:39:22
  is one who never expects to find anything to suit him. Guard, he
• 3:39:26
  ain't got that far yet. You'd find something good to say of the devil
• 3:39:31
  himself, Jim Boyd. Well, you heard the story of the old lady
• 3:39:33
  who said he was persevering. But no, Cornelia, I've nothing good to
• 3:39:39
  say of the devil? Do you believe in him at all? Asked Miss
• 3:39:43
  Cornelia? Seriously, how can you ask that when you know what a good
• 3:39:46
  Presbyterian I am, Cornelia? How could a Presbyterian get along without a devil?
• 3:39:54
  Do you? Persisted, Miss Cornelia. Captain Jim suddenly became grave.
• 3:40:00
  I believe in what I heard a minister once called a mighty and malignant and
• 3:40:05
  intelligent power of evil working in the universe. He said, solemnly, I
• 3:40:11
  do that, Cornelia. You can call it the devil ah, the principle
• 3:40:16
  of evil or the old scratch or any name you like. It's there and
• 3:40:22
  all the infidels and heretics in the world can't argue it away any more,
• 3:40:26
  and they can argue God away. It's there and it's working. But mind
• 3:40:33
  you, Cornelia, I believe it's going to get the worst of it in
• 3:40:35
  the long run. I'm sure, I hope so, said Miss Cornelia,
• 3:40:39
  none too hopefully. But speaking of the devil, I'm positive that Billy Booth
• 3:40:45
  is possessed by him. Now have you heard of Billy's latest performance? No,
• 3:40:48
  what was that? He's gone and burned up his wife's new brown broadcloth
• 3:40:54
  suit that she paid twenty five dollars for in Charlottetown, because he declares the
• 3:40:58
  men looked too admiring at her, so when she wore it to church for
• 3:41:01
  the first time, wasn't that like a man? Mistress Booth is mighty pretty
• 3:41:05
  and brown, sir color, said Captain Jim reflectively. Is that any good
• 3:41:11
  reason why he should poke her new suit into the kitchen stove. Billy Booth
• 3:41:15
  is a jealous fool, and he makes his wife's life miserable. She's cried
• 3:41:18
  all the week about her suit. Oh, Anne, I wish I could
• 3:41:22
  write like you believe me, wouldn't I score some of the men around here?
• 3:41:26
  Those booths are all of my queer, said Captain Jim Billy seemed the
• 3:41:31
  sanest of the lot till he got married, and then this queer jealous tree
• 3:41:35
  cropped out in him. His brother Daniel, now was always odd, took
• 3:41:41
  tantrums every few days or so, and wouldn't get out of bed, said
• 3:41:45
  Miss Cornelia with a relish. His wife would have to do all the barn
• 3:41:48
  work till he got over his spell. When he died, people wrote her
• 3:41:52
  letters of condolence. If I'd written anything, it would have been one of
• 3:41:54
  congratulation. Their father, Old Abram Booth, was a disgusting old. He
• 3:42:00
  was drunk at his wife's funeral and kept reeling round and hiccupping. I didn't
• 3:42:05
  drink much, but I feel ay wee. I gave him a good jab
• 3:42:09
  in the back with my umbrella when he came near me, and it sobered
• 3:42:13
  him up until they got the casket out of the house. Young Johnny Booth
• 3:42:16
  was to have been married yesterday, but he couldn't because he's gone and got
• 3:42:18
  the mumps. Wasn't that like a man? How could he help get in
• 3:42:22
  the momps? Poor fellow? I'd poor fellow him, Believe me if I
• 3:42:26
  was Kate Stens. I don't know how he could help getting the mumps,
• 3:42:30
  but I do know the wedding supper was all prepared, and everything will be
• 3:42:33
  spoiled before he's well again. Such a waste. He should have had the
• 3:42:37
  mumps when he was a boy. Calm, calm, Cornelia, don't you
• 3:42:41
  think you're a mute? Unreasonable? Miss Cornelia disdained to reply, and turned
• 3:42:46
  instead to Susan Baker, a grim faced, kind hearted elderly spinster of the
• 3:42:52
  Glen who had been installed as a maid of all work at the little House
• 3:42:54
  for some weeks. Susan had been up to the Glen to make a sick
• 3:42:58
  call and had just returned. How is poor old up landy tonight, asked
• 3:43:03
  Miss Cornelia. Susan sighed very poorly, very poorly, Cornelia. I'm afraid
• 3:43:11
  you'll see me in heaven, poor thing. Oh surely it's not so bad
• 3:43:15
  as that, exclaimed Miss Cornelia sympathetically. Captain Jim and Gilbert looked at each
• 3:43:22
  other, then they suddenly rose and went out. There are times, said
• 3:43:28
  Captain Jim, between spasms, when it would be a sin not to lay
• 3:43:35
  them two excellent women. End of Chapter eighteen. Chapter nineteen. Dawn and
• 3:43:45
  dusk in early June, when the sand hills were a great glory of pink
• 3:43:50
  wild roses and the glen was smothered in apple blossoms, Marilla arrived at the
• 3:43:54
  Little House, accompanied by a black horsehair trunk patterned with grass nails, which
• 3:44:01
  had reposed undisturbed in the green Gables garret for half a century. Susan Baker,
• 3:44:05
  who during her few weeks sojourn in the Little House had come to worship
• 3:44:11
  young missus Doctor, as she called Anne with blind fervor, looked rather jealously
• 3:44:16
  askance at Marilla at first, but as Marilla did not try to interfere in
• 3:44:20
  kitchen matters and showed no desire to interrupt Susan's ministrations to young missus Doctor,
• 3:44:26
  the good Handmaiden became reconciled to her presence and told her cronies at the glen
• 3:44:31
  that Miss Cuthbert was a fine old lady and knew her place. One evening,
• 3:44:37
  when the sky's limpid bowl was filled with a red glory, and the
• 3:44:39
  robins were thrilling the golden twilight with jubilant hymns to the stars of evening,
• 3:44:45
  there was a sudden commotion in the little House of Dreams. Telephone messages were
• 3:44:50
  sent up to the glen. Doctor Dave and a white capped nurse came hastily
• 3:44:54
  down. Marilla paced the garden walks between the co hoog shells, murmuring prayers,
• 3:44:58
  betwqueen her set lips, and Susan sat in the kitchen with cotton wool
• 3:45:03
  in her ears and her apron over her head. Leslie, looking out from
• 3:45:07
  the house up the brook, saw that every window of the little house was
• 3:45:11
  alight, and did not sleep that night. The June night was short,
• 3:45:16
  but it seemed an eternity to those who waited and watched. Oh will it
• 3:45:20
  never end? Said Marilla. Then she saw how grave the nurse and Doctor
• 3:45:26
  Dave looked, and she dared ask no more questions. Suppose Anne, But
• 3:45:31
  Marilla could not suppose it. Do not tell me, said Susan, fiercely,
• 3:45:35
  answering the anguish in Marilla's eyes, that God could be so cruel as
• 3:45:39
  take that darling lamb away from us more. You'll loved us so much,
• 3:45:43
  he has taken others as well. Beloved, said Marilla hoarsely. But at
• 3:45:48
  dawn, when the rising sun rent apart the mists hanging over the sand bar
• 3:45:52
  and made rainbows of them, joy came to the little house. Anne was
• 3:45:56
  safe, and a wee white lady with her mother's big eyes was lying beside
• 3:46:01
  her. Gilbert, his face gray and haggard from his night's agony, came
• 3:46:07
  down to tell Marilla and Susan, Thank God, shuddered Marilla. Susan got
• 3:46:13
  up and took the cotton wool out of her ears. Now for breakfast,
• 3:46:18
  she said, briskly. I am of the opinion we shall be glad of
• 3:46:20
  a biting sup You tell young missus, doctor Dear, not to worry about
• 3:46:24
  single thing. Susan is at hell. You tell her just to think of
• 3:46:26
  her baby. Gilbert smiled rather sadly as he went away. Anne, her
• 3:46:31
  pale face blanched with its baptism of pain, her eyes aglow with the holy
• 3:46:37
  passion of motherhood, did not need to be told to think of her baby.
• 3:46:41
  She thought of nothing else. For a few hours. She tasted of
• 3:46:45
  happiness so rare and exquisite that she wondered if the angels in heaven did not
• 3:46:48
  envy her. Little Joyce, she murmured. When Marilla came in to see
• 3:46:54
  the baby, we planned to call her that if she were a girly.
• 3:46:58
  There were so many we would have liked to name her for we couldn't choose
• 3:47:01
  between them, so we decided on Joyce. We can call her joy for
• 3:47:05
  short. Joy. It suits so well, Oh, Marilla, I thought
• 3:47:11
  I was happy before. Now I know that I just dreamed a pleasant dream
• 3:47:16
  of happiness. This is the reality. You mustn't talk, Anne, Wait
• 3:47:20
  till you're stronger, said Marilla, warningly. You know how hard it is
• 3:47:24
  for me not to talk, smiled Anne. At first she was too weak
• 3:47:30
  and too happy to notice that Gilbert and the nurse looked grave, and Marilla
• 3:47:33
  sorrowful. Then as suddly and coldly and remorselessly as a sea fog stealing landward,
• 3:47:41
  fear crept into her heart. Why was not Gilbert gladder? Why would
• 3:47:46
  he not talk about the baby? Why would they not let her have it
• 3:47:50
  with her after that first heavenly happy hour? Was was there anything wrong?
• 3:47:56
  Gilbert whispered Anne, imploringly. The baby is all right, isn't she tell
• 3:48:05
  me? Tell me? Gilbert was a long while in turning round. Then
• 3:48:11
  he bent over Anne and looked in her eyes. Marilla, listening fearfully outside
• 3:48:16
  the door, heard a pitiful, heartbroken moan, and fled to the kitchen,
• 3:48:20
  where Susan was weeping. Oh, the poor lamb, the poor lamb.
• 3:48:24
  How can she bear it? Miss Cuthbert, I'm afraid it will kill
• 3:48:28
  her. She's been built up and happy, longing for that baby and planning
• 3:48:31
  for it. Cannot anything be done now, Miss Cuthbert, I'm afraid not
• 3:48:35
  Susan. Gilbert says, there is no hope. He knew from the first
• 3:48:41
  the little thing couldn't live, and it was such a sweet baby, sobbed
• 3:48:46
  Susan. I never saw one so white. They are mostly reds are yellow.
• 3:48:50
  And it opened its eyes as if it were months old, the little
• 3:48:54
  little thing, Oh, the poor young missus doctor. At sunset, the
• 3:49:00
  little soul that had come with the dawning went away, leaving heartbreak behind it.
• 3:49:05
  Miss Cornelia took the wee white lady from the kindly but stranger hands of
• 3:49:09
  the nurse and dressed the tiny waxen form in the beautiful dress Leslie had made
• 3:49:13
  for it. Leslie had asked her to do that. Then she took it
• 3:49:18
  back and laid it beside the poor, broken, tear blinded little mother.
• 3:49:22
  The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away herry, she said
• 3:49:26
  through her own tears. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Then she
• 3:49:30
  went away, leaving Anne and Gilbert alone together with their dead. The next
• 3:49:35
  day, the small white Joy was laid in a velvet casket, which Leslie
• 3:49:39
  had lined with apple blossoms, and taken to the graveyard of the church across
• 3:49:43
  the harbor. Miss Cornelia and Marilla put all the little love made garments away,
• 3:49:48
  together with the ruffled basket, which had been befrilled and belaced for dimpled
• 3:49:52
  limbs and downy head. Little Joy was never to sleep there. She had
• 3:49:58
  found a colder, narrower bed. This has been an awful disappointment to me,
• 3:50:03
  sighed Miss Cornelia. I've looked forward to this baby, and I did
• 3:50:07
  want it to be a girl too. I can only be thankful that Anne's
• 3:50:11
  life was spared, said Marilla with a shiver, recalling those hours of darkness
• 3:50:16
  when the girl she loved was passing through the valley of the shadow. Poor
• 3:50:20
  poor Lamb. Her heart is broken, said Susan. I envy Anne,
• 3:50:24
  said Leslie, suddenly and fiercely. And I'd envy her even if she had
• 3:50:28
  died. She was a mother for one beautiful day. I'd gladly give my
• 3:50:33
  life for that. I wouldn't talk like that, Leslie, dearie, said
• 3:50:37
  Miss Cornelia deprecatingly. She was afraid that the dignified Miss Cuthbert would think Leslie
• 3:50:41
  quite terrible. Anne's convalescence was long and made bitter for her by many things.
• 3:50:48
  The bloom and sunshine of the four winds world grated harshly on her.
• 3:50:52
  And yet when the rain fell heavily, she pictured it beating so mercilessly down
• 3:50:58
  on that little grave across the harbor. And when the wind blew around the
• 3:51:01
  eaves, she heard sad voices in it she had never heard before. Kindly
• 3:51:05
  callers heard her too, with the well meant platitudes with which they strove to
• 3:51:11
  cover the nakedness of bereavement. A letter from Phil Blake was an added sting.
• 3:51:16
  Phil had heard of the baby's birth, but not of its death,
• 3:51:18
  and she wrote Anne a congratulatory letter of sweet mirth, which hurt her horribly.
• 3:51:24
  I would have laughed over it so happily if I had my baby,
• 3:51:28
  she sobbed to Marilla. But when I haven't, it just seems like wanton
• 3:51:33
  cruelty, though I know Phil wouldn't hurt me for the world. Oh Marilla,
• 3:51:39
  I don't see how I can ever be happy again. Everything will hurt
• 3:51:43
  me all the rest of my life. Time will help you, said Marilla,
• 3:51:48
  who was racked with sympathy but could never learn to express it in other
• 3:51:52
  than age worn formulas. It doesn't seem fair, said Anne rebelliously. Babies
• 3:52:00
  are born and live where they are not wanted, where they will be neglected,
• 3:52:03
  where they will have no chance. I would have loved my baby so
• 3:52:09
  and cared for it so tenderly, and tried to give her every chance for
• 3:52:13
  good, and yet I wasn't allowed to keep her. It was God's will,
• 3:52:18
  Anne, said Marilla, helpless before the riddle of the universe. The
• 3:52:24
  why of undeserved pain and little joy is better off? I can't believe that,
• 3:52:30
  cried Anne bitterly. Then, seeing that Marilla looked shocked, she added
• 3:52:35
  passionately, why should she be born at all? Why should anyone be born
• 3:52:39
  at all? If she's better off dead. I don't believe it is better
• 3:52:43
  for a child to die at birth than to live its life out and love
• 3:52:46
  and be loved and enjoy and suffer and do its work, and develop a
• 3:52:52
  character that would give it a personality, an eternity. And how do you
• 3:52:56
  know it was God's will? Perhaps it was just a thwarting of his purpose
• 3:53:00
  by the power of evil. We can't be expected to be resigned to that.
• 3:53:03
  Oh, Anne, don't talk, so said Marilla, genuinely alarmed.
• 3:53:09
  Lest Anne were drifting into deep and dangerous waters. We can't understand, but
• 3:53:16
  we must have faith. We must believe that all is for the best.
• 3:53:20
  I know you find it hard to think so just now, but try to
• 3:53:24
  be brave for Gilbert's sake. He's so worried about you. You aren't getting
• 3:53:31
  strong as fast as you should. Oh. I know I've been very selfish,
• 3:53:35
  sighed Anne. I love Gilbert more than ever, and I want to
• 3:53:39
  live for his sake. But it seems as if part of me was buried
• 3:53:45
  over there in that little Harbor graveyard. And it hurts so much that I'm
• 3:53:48
  afraid of life. It won't hurt so much, always Anne, The thought
• 3:53:54
  that it may stop hurting. Sometimes hurts me worse than all else, Marilla.
• 3:53:58
  Yes, I know I felt that too about other things. But we
• 3:54:03
  all love you, Anne. Captain Jim has been up every day to ask
• 3:54:07
  for you, and missus Moore haunts the place, and Miss Bryant spends most
• 3:54:13
  of her time, I think, cooking up nice things for you. Susan
• 3:54:16
  doesn't like it very well. She thinks she can cook as well as Miss
• 3:54:20
  Bryant. Dear Susan, Oh, everybody has been so dear and good and
• 3:54:24
  lovely to me. Marilla. I'm not ungrateful, and perhaps when this horrible
• 3:54:30
  ache grows a little less, I'll find that I can go on living.
• 3:54:37
  End of Chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty Lost Margaret Anne found that she could go
• 3:54:45
  on living. The day came when she even smiled again over one of Miss
• 3:54:48
  Cornelia's speeches. But there was something in the smile that had never been in
• 3:54:52
  Anne's smile before and would never be absent from it again. On the first
• 3:54:58
  day she was able to ago for a drive, Gilbert took her down to
• 3:55:01
  four winds point and left her there while he rode over the channel to see
• 3:55:05
  a patient at the fishing village. A rollicking wind was scudding across the harbor
• 3:55:09
  and the dunes, whipping the water into white caps and washing the sandshore with
• 3:55:15
  long lines of silvery breakers. I'm real proud to see you here again,
• 3:55:18
  Mistress Blythe, said Captain Jim. Sit down, Sit down. I'm afeared
• 3:55:24
  it's might a dusty here today. But there's no need of looking at dust
• 3:55:28
  when you could look at such scenery he is there. I don't mind the
• 3:55:33
  dust, said Anne, But Gilbert says I must keep in the open air.
• 3:55:37
  I think I'll go and sit on the rocks down there. Would you
• 3:55:41
  like company or would you rather be alone? If by company you mean yours,
• 3:55:45
  I'd much rather have it than be alone, said Anne, smiling.
• 3:55:50
  Then she sighed she had never before minded being alone. Now she dreaded it
• 3:55:54
  when she was alone. Now she felt so dreadfully alone. He is an
• 3:56:00
  little spot where the wind can't get at you, said Captain Jim when they
• 3:56:03
  reached the rocks. I often sit here. It's a great place just to
• 3:56:07
  sit and dream. Oh dreams, sighed Anne. I can't dream now,
• 3:56:15
  Captain Jim. I'm done with dreams. Oh no, you're not, Mistress
• 3:56:20
  Blythe. Oh no, you're not, said Captain Jim meditatively. Ah,
• 3:56:26
  I know how you feel just now. But if you keep on living,
• 3:56:30
  you get glad again, and the first thing you know, you'll be dreaming
• 3:56:33
  again. Thank the Good Lord for it. If it wasn't for our dreams,
• 3:56:39
  they might as well bury us. How'd we stand living if it wasn't
• 3:56:43
  for our dream of immortality? And that's a dream that's bound to come true,
• 3:56:48
  Mistress Blythe, you'll see your little choice again someday. But she won't
• 3:56:54
  be my baby, said Anne with trembling lips. Oh she maybe, as
• 3:57:00
  Longfellow says, a fair maiden clothed with celestial grace, but she'll be a
• 3:57:05
  stranger to me. God will manage better in that, I believe, said
• 3:57:09
  Captain Jim. They were both silent for a little time. Then Captain Jim
• 3:57:15
  said, very softly, Mistress Blythe, may I tell you about Lost Margaret?
• 3:57:22
  Of course, said Anne gently. She did not know who Lost Margaret
• 3:57:26
  was, but she felt that she was going to hear the romance of Captain
• 3:57:30
  Jim's life. I've often wanted to tell you about her. Captain Jim went
• 3:57:35
  on, Do you know why, Mistress Blythe, It's because I want somebody
• 3:57:39
  to remember and think of her some time after I'm gone. I can't bear
• 3:57:45
  that her name should be forgotten by all living souls. And now nobody remembers
• 3:57:50
  lost Margaret but me. Then Captain Jim told the story, an old,
• 3:57:56
  old, forgotten story, for it was over fifty years since Margaret had fallen
• 3:58:01
  asleep one day in her father's story and drifted, or so it was supposed,
• 3:58:05
  for nothing was ever certainly known as to her fate out of the channel
• 3:58:09
  beyond the bar, to perish in the black thunder squall, which had come
• 3:58:13
  up so suddenly that long ago summer afternoon. But to Captain Jim, those
• 3:58:18
  fifty years were but as yesterday, when it is passed. I walked the
• 3:58:22
  shore for months after that, he said, sadly, looking to find her,
• 3:58:26
  dear sweet little body, But the sea never give her back to me.
• 3:58:31
  But I'll find her sometime, Mistress blythe I'll find her sometime. She's
• 3:58:37
  waitin for me. I wish I could tell you just how she looked,
• 3:58:43
  but I can't. I've seen a fine silvery mist hanging over the bar at
• 3:58:48
  sunrise that seemed like her. And then again I've seen a white birch in
• 3:58:54
  the woods back yonder that made me think of her. She had pale and
• 3:59:01
  the little white sweet face, and long slender fingers like yours, Mistress blythe
• 3:59:07
  only browner, for she was a sure girl. Sometimes I wake up in
• 3:59:11
  the night and hear the sea calling to me in the old way, and
• 3:59:18
  it seems as if lost Margaret called in it. And when there's a storm
• 3:59:24
  and the waves are sobbing and moaning, I hear her lamenting among them.
• 3:59:30
  And when they laugh on a gay day, it's her laugh, Lost Margaret's
• 3:59:35
  sweet, roguish little laugh. The sea took her from me, But some
• 3:59:39
  day I'll find her, Mistress Blythe. It can't keep us apart forever.
• 3:59:46
  I am glad you have told me about her, said Anne. I've often
• 3:59:50
  wondered why you had lived all your life alone. I could never care for
• 3:59:54
  anyone else. Lost Margaret took my heart with her out there, said the
• 4:00:01
  old lover who had been faithful for fifty years to his drowned sweetheart. You
• 4:00:05
  won't mind if I talk a good deal about her, will you, Mistress
• 4:00:07
  Blythe. It's a pleasure to me, for all the pain went out of
• 4:00:11
  her memory years ago, and just left its blessing. I know you'll never
• 4:00:18
  forget her, mistress, blythe And if the years, as I hope,
• 4:00:22
  bring other little folks to your home, I want you to promise me that
• 4:00:26
  you'll tell them the story of lost Margaret, so that her name won't be
• 4:00:31
  forgotten among humankind. End of chapter twenty Chapter twenty one, barriers swept away,
• 4:00:41
  Anne said Leslie, breaking abruptly a short silence. You don't know how
• 4:00:46
  good it is to be sitting here with you again, working and talking and
• 4:00:52
  being silent together. They were sitting among the blue eyed grasses on the bank
• 4:00:56
  of the brook in Anne's garden. The water sparkled and crooned past them.
• 4:01:00
  The birches threw dappled shadows over them, Roses bloomed along the walks. The
• 4:01:05
  sun was beginning to be low, and the air was full of woven music.
• 4:01:09
  There was one music of the wind in the firs behind the house,
• 4:01:13
  and another of the waves on the bar, and still another from the distant
• 4:01:18
  bell of the church, near which the wee white lady slept. Anne loved
• 4:01:22
  that bell, though it brought sorrowful thoughts. Now she looked curiously at Leslie,
• 4:01:28
  who had thrown down her sewing and spoken with a lack of restraint that
• 4:01:31
  was very unusual with her. On that horrible night when you were so ill,
• 4:01:37
  Leslie went on, I kept thinking that perhaps we'd have no more talks
• 4:01:41
  and walks and works together. And I realized just what your friendship had come
• 4:01:45
  to mean to me, just what you meant, and just what a hateful
• 4:01:48
  little beast I had been, Leslie, Leslie, I never allow anyone to
• 4:01:52
  call my friend's names. It's true. That's exactly what I am, a
• 4:01:58
  hateful little beast. There's something I've got to tell you, Anne. I
• 4:02:03
  suppose it will make you despise me, but I must confess it. And
• 4:02:07
  there have been times this past winter and spring when I have hated you.
• 4:02:11
  I knew it, said Anne, calmly. You knew it, Yes,
• 4:02:16
  I saw it in your eyes, and yet you went on liking me and
• 4:02:18
  being my friend. Well it was only now and then you hated me,
• 4:02:22
  Leslie. Between times you loved me, I think I certainly did, But
• 4:02:26
  that other horrid feeling was always there, spoiling it back in my heart.
• 4:02:33
  I kept it down, sometimes I forgot it, but sometimes it would surge
• 4:02:37
  up and take possession of me. I hated you because I envied you.
• 4:02:43
  Oh. I was sick with envy of you. At times. You had
• 4:02:45
  a dear little home and love and happiness and glad dreams, everything I wanted
• 4:02:50
  and never had and never could have, Oh, never could have. That
• 4:02:56
  was what stung. I wouldn't have envied you if I had had any hope
• 4:03:01
  that life would ever be different for me. But I hadn't. I hadn't
• 4:03:05
  and it didn't seem fair. It made me rebellious and it hurt me,
• 4:03:09
  and so I hated you at times. Oh, I was so ashamed of
• 4:03:13
  it. I'm dying of shame now, but I couldn't conquer it. That
• 4:03:18
  night, when I was afraid you mightn't live, I thought I was going
• 4:03:22
  to be punished for my wickedness. And I loved you so then, Anne,
• 4:03:26
  Anne, I never had anything to love since my mother died except Dick's
• 4:03:31
  old dog. And it's so dreadful to have nothing to love. Life is
• 4:03:35
  so empty and there's nothing worse than emptiness. And I might have left you
• 4:03:39
  so much, and that horrible thing had spoiled it. Leslie was trembling and
• 4:03:46
  growing almost incoherent with the violence of her emotion. Don't, Leslie implored Anne.
• 4:03:52
  Oh, don't I understand. Don't talk of it anymore. I must,
• 4:03:58
  I must. When I knew you were going to live, I vowed
• 4:04:00
  that I would tell you as soon as you were well, that I wouldn't
• 4:04:03
  go on accepting your friendship and companionship without telling you how unworthy I was of
• 4:04:07
  it. And I've been so afraid it would turn you against me. You
• 4:04:09
  needn't fear that, Leslie. Oh, I'm so glad, So glad,
• 4:04:13
  Anne. Leslie clasped her brown work hardened hands tightly together to still their shaking.
• 4:04:20
  But I want to tell you everything now I've begun. You don't remember
• 4:04:24
  the first time I saw you. I suppose it wasn't that night on the
• 4:04:26
  shore. No, it was the night Gilbert and I came home. You
• 4:04:31
  were driving your geese down the hill. I should think I do remember it.
• 4:04:35
  I thought you were so beautiful. I longed for weeks after to find
• 4:04:37
  out who you were. I knew who you were, although I had never
• 4:04:41
  seen either of you before. I had heard of the new doctor and his
• 4:04:45
  bride who were coming to live in Miss Russel's little house. I I hated
• 4:04:48
  you that very moment. Anne, I felt the resentment in your eyes.
• 4:04:54
  Then I doubted. I thought I must be mistaken, because why should it
• 4:04:58
  be. It was because you looked so so happy. Oh, you'll agree
• 4:05:01
  with me now that I am a hateful beast, so hate another woman just
• 4:05:05
  because she was happy, and when her happiness didn't take anything for me.
• 4:05:09
  That was why I never went to see you. I knew quite well I
• 4:05:13
  ought to go, even our simple four winds customs demanded that, but I
• 4:05:16
  couldn't. I used to watch you from my window. I could see you
• 4:05:20
  and your husband strolling about your garden in the evening, or you running down
• 4:05:24
  the poplar lane to meet him, and it hurt me, And yet in
• 4:05:28
  another way, I wanted to go over. I felt that if I were
• 4:05:31
  not so miserable, I could have liked you and found in you what I'd
• 4:05:35
  never had in my life, an intimate, real friend of my own age.
• 4:05:39
  And then you remember that night on the shore. You were afraid I
• 4:05:41
  would think you crazy. You must have thought I was no. But I
• 4:05:46
  couldn't understand you, leslie. One moment you drew me to you, the
• 4:05:50
  next you pushed me back. I was very unhappy that evening I had had
• 4:05:54
  a hard day. Dick had been very, very hard to manage that.
• 4:06:01
  Generally he is quite good natured and easily controlled, you know, Anne,
• 4:06:03
  But some days he is different. I was so heartsick. I ran away
• 4:06:09
  to the shore as soon as you went to sleep. It was my only
• 4:06:11
  refuge. I sat there thinking of how my poor father had ended his life,
• 4:06:16
  and wondering if I wouldn't be driven to it some day. All my
• 4:06:20
  heart was full of black thoughts. And then you came dancing along the cove
• 4:06:24
  like a glad, light hearted child. I I hated you more then than
• 4:06:31
  I had ever done since, and yet I craved your friendship. The one
• 4:06:35
  feeling swayed me one moment, the other feeling the next. When I got
• 4:06:39
  home that night, I cried for shame of what you must think of me.
• 4:06:41
  But it's always been the same when I came over here. Sometimes I'd
• 4:06:46
  be happy and enjoy my visit, and at other times that hideous feeling would
• 4:06:50
  mar at all. There were times when everything about you and your house hurt
• 4:06:54
  me. You had so many dear little things I couldn't have. Do you
• 4:06:58
  know It's ridiculous, But I had an especial spite at those China dogs of
• 4:07:03
  yours. There were times when I wanted to catch up Gog and Magog and
• 4:07:07
  bang their pert black noses together. Oh, you smile, Anne, but
• 4:07:11
  it was never funny to me. I would come here and see you and
• 4:07:16
  Gilbert with your books and your flowers, and your household gods, and your
• 4:07:20
  little family jokes, and your love for each other showing in every look and
• 4:07:24
  word, even when you didn't know it, and I would go home to
• 4:07:28
  you know what I went home to, Oh, Anne, I don't believe
• 4:07:33
  I'm jealous and envious by nature. When I was a girl, I lacked
• 4:07:37
  many things my schoolmates had, but I never cared. I never disliked them
• 4:07:41
  for it. But I seemed to have grown so hateful. Leslie dearest,
• 4:07:46
  stop blaming yourself. You are not hateful or jealous or envious. The life
• 4:07:52
  you have to live has warped you a little, perhaps, but it would
• 4:07:54
  have ruined a nature less fine and noble than yours. I'm letting you tell
• 4:07:58
  me all this because I believe it's better for you to talk it out and
• 4:08:01
  rid your soul of it. But don't blame yourself any more. Well,
• 4:08:07
  I won't. I just wanted you to know me as I am. That
• 4:08:11
  time you told me of your darling hope for the spring was the worst of
• 4:08:15
  all, Anne. I shall never forgive myself for the way I behaved.
• 4:08:18
  Then I repented it with tears, and I did put money a tender and
• 4:08:22
  loving thought of you into the little dress I made. But I might have
• 4:08:26
  known that anything I made could only be a shroud in the end. Now,
• 4:08:30
  Leslie, that is bitter and morbid. Put such thoughts away. I
• 4:08:35
  was so glad when you brought the little dress, and since I had to
• 4:08:37
  lose Little Joyce, I like to think that the dress she wore was the
• 4:08:41
  one you made for her when you let yourself love me. Anne, Do
• 4:08:45
  you know I believe I shall always love you after this? I don't think
• 4:08:48
  I'll ever feel that dreadful way about you again. Talking it all out seems
• 4:08:52
  to have done away with it somehow. It's very strange, and I thought
• 4:08:56
  it was so real and bitter. It's like opening the door of a dark
• 4:08:58
  room show some hideous creature you've believed to be there, and when the light
• 4:09:03
  streams in, your monster turns out you have just been a shadow vanishing when
• 4:09:07
  the light comes. It will never come between us again. No, we
• 4:09:11
  are real friends now, Leslie, and I am very glad. I hope
• 4:09:15
  you won't misunderstand me if I say something else. An, I was grieved
• 4:09:20
  to the core of my heart when you lost your baby, and if I
• 4:09:22
  could have saved her for you by cutting off one of my hands, I
• 4:09:24
  would have done it. But your sorrow has brought us closer together. Your
• 4:09:30
  perfect happiness isn't a barrier any longer. Oh, don't misunderstand, dearest.
• 4:09:33
  I'm not glad that your happiness isn't perfect any longer. I can say that
• 4:09:39
  sincerely. But since it isn't, there isn't such a gulf between us.
• 4:09:43
  I do understand that too, Leslie. Now we'll just shut up the past
• 4:09:48
  and forget what was unpleasant in it. It's all going to be different.
• 4:09:52
  We're both of the race of Joseph. Now. I think you've been wonderful,
• 4:09:56
  wonderful, and Leslie, I can't help believing that life has something good
• 4:10:01
  and beautiful for you. Yet Leslie shook her head. No, she said,
• 4:10:05
  Dully, there isn't any hope. Dick will never be better, and
• 4:10:11
  even if his memory were to come back, Oh, Anne, it would
• 4:10:13
  be worse, even worse than it is now. There is something you can't
• 4:10:18
  understand, your happy bride. And did Miss Cornelia ever tell you how I
• 4:10:22
  came to marry Dick. Yes, I'm glad I wanted you to know,
• 4:10:28
  but I couldn't bring myself to talk of it if you hadn't known. And
• 4:10:31
  it seems to me that ever since I was twelve years old, my life
• 4:10:35
  has been bitter. Before that, I was a happy child. We were
• 4:10:39
  very poor, but we didn't mind. Father was so splendid, so clever
• 4:10:43
  and loving and sympathetic. We were chums as far back as I can remember.
• 4:10:48
  And Mother was so sweet. She was very, very beautiful. I
• 4:10:52
  look like her, but I'm not so beautiful as she was. Miss Cornelia
• 4:10:56
  says you are far more beautiful. She is mistaken or prejudiced. I think
• 4:11:01
  my figure is better. Mother was slight and bent by hard work, but
• 4:11:05
  she had the face of an angel. I used just to look up at
• 4:11:09
  her in worship. We all worshiped her Father and Kenneth and I. Anne
• 4:11:13
  remembered that Miss Cornelia had given her a very different impression of Leslie's mother,
• 4:11:18
  but had not loved the truer vision. Still it was selfish of Rose West
• 4:11:22
  to make her daughter marry Dick Moore. Kenneth was my brother, went on,
• 4:11:28
  Leslie. Oh, I can't tell you how I loved him, and
• 4:11:31
  he was cruelly killed. Do you know how? Yes, Anne, I
• 4:11:35
  saw his little face as the wheel went over him. He fell on his
• 4:11:39
  back, Anne, Anne, I can see it now, I shall always
• 4:11:43
  see it. An all I ask of Heaven is that that recollection shall be
• 4:11:48
  blotted out of my memory. Oh, my god, Leslie, don't speak
• 4:11:52
  of it. I know the story. Don't go into details that only harrow
• 4:11:56
  your soul up Unavailingly, it will be blotted out. After a moment's struggle,
• 4:12:01
  Leslie regained a measure of self control. Then father's health got worse,
• 4:12:07
  and he grew despondent. His mind became unbalanced. You've heard all that too,
• 4:12:11
  Yes, After that, I had just my mother to live for.
• 4:12:16
  But I was very ambitious. I meant to teach, and on my way
• 4:12:18
  through college I meant to climb to the very top. Oh, I won't
• 4:12:22
  talk of that either. It's no use. You know what happened. I
• 4:12:26
  couldn't see my dear little heartbroken mother, who had been such a slave all
• 4:12:30
  her life turned out of her home. Of course, I could have earned
• 4:12:33
  enough for us to live on, but Mother couldn't leave her home. She
• 4:12:37
  had come there as a bride, and she had loved father so and all
• 4:12:41
  her memories were there even yet, Anne, when I think that I made
• 4:12:45
  her last dear happy, I'm not sorry for what I did. As for
• 4:12:48
  Dick, I didn't hate him when I married him. I just felt for
• 4:12:54
  him the indifferent, friendly feeling I had for most of my schoolmates. I
• 4:12:58
  knew he drank some, but I had never heard the story of the girl
• 4:13:01
  down at the fishing cove. If I had, I couldn't have married him,
• 4:13:05
  even for mother's sake. Afterwards, I did hate him, but Mother
• 4:13:11
  never knew. She died, and then I was alone. I was only
• 4:13:15
  seventeen, and I was alone. Dick had gone off in the Four Sisters,
• 4:13:20
  and I hoped he wouldn't be home very much more. The sea had
• 4:13:22
  always been in his blood. I had no other hope. Well, Captain
• 4:13:28
  Jim brought him home, as you know, And that's all there is to
• 4:13:31
  say. You know me now, Anne, the worst of me. The
• 4:13:35
  barriers are all down, and you still want to be my friend. Anne,
• 4:13:41
  looked up through the birches at the white paper lantern of a half moon
• 4:13:45
  drifting downwards to the gulf of sunset. Her face was very sweet. I
• 4:13:50
  am your friend, and you are mine for always, she said, such
• 4:13:54
  a friend as I never had before. I have had many dear and beloved
• 4:13:58
  friends, but there is a something in you, Leslie, that I never
• 4:14:01
  found in any one else. You have more to offer me in that rich
• 4:14:05
  nature of yours, and I have more to give you than I had in
• 4:14:09
  my careless girlhood. We are both women and friends forever. They clasped hands
• 4:14:15
  and smiled at each other through the tears that filled the gray eyes and the
• 4:14:18
  blue end of chapter twenty one. Chapter twenty two, Miss Cornelia arranges matters.
• 4:14:28
  Gilbert insisted that Susan should be kept on at the little House for the
• 4:14:31
  summer. Anne protested at first, life here with just the two of us
• 4:14:37
  is so sweet, Gilbert, it spoils it a little to have any one
• 4:14:41
  else. Susan is a dear soul, but she is an outsider. It
• 4:14:45
  won't hurt me to do the work here. You must take your doctor's advice,
• 4:14:48
  said Gilbert. There's an old proverb to the effect that shoemaker's wives go
• 4:14:54
  barefoot and doctor's wives die young. I don't mean that it will be true
• 4:14:58
  in my household. You'll keep Susan until the old spring comes back into your
• 4:15:03
  step and those little hollows on your cheeks for loud. You just take it
• 4:15:05
  easy, missus, Doctor dear, said Susan, coming abruptly in. Have
• 4:15:11
  a good time, and don't worry about the pantry. Susan is at home.
• 4:15:13
  There's no use in keeping a dog and doing your own barking. I'm
• 4:15:16
  going to take your breakfast up to you every morning in teach. You are
• 4:15:18
  not laughed Anne. I agree with miss Cornelia that it's a scandal for a
• 4:15:24
  woman who isn't sick to eat her breakfast in bed, and almost justifies the
• 4:15:28
  men in any enormities. Oh Cornelia, said Susan, with ineffable contempt.
• 4:15:33
  I think you have better sense, missus, doctor Dea, than to heed
• 4:15:35
  what Cornelia Bryant says. I cannot see why she must always be running down
• 4:15:39
  men, even if she is an old maid. I am an old maid,
• 4:15:43
  and you never hear me abusing men. I like him. I would
• 4:15:46
  have married one if I could. Is it not funny? Nobody ever asked
• 4:15:48
  me to marryhim, Missus doctor dear. I'm no beauty, but I'm as
• 4:15:52
  good looking as most married women you see. But I've never had a bow.
• 4:15:56
  What do you suppose is the reason? It may be predestination, suggested
• 4:16:00
  Anne, with unearthly solemnity. Susan nodded. That is what I have often
• 4:16:06
  thought, Missus doctor dear, and a great comfort days. I do not
• 4:16:08
  mind nobody wants me, if the almighty decreed itself for his own wise purposes.
• 4:16:12
  But sometimes doubt creeps in, Missus doctor dear, and I wonder if
• 4:16:15
  maybe the old scrap has not more to do with it than anyone else.
• 4:16:18
  I cannot feel resigned then, But maybe, added Susan, brightening up,
• 4:16:25
  I will have the chance to get married jets. I often and often think
• 4:16:27
  of the old verse my aunt used to repeat, There never was a goose
• 4:16:30
  so gray, But sometime soon or late and on his gander came her way
• 4:16:34
  and took her for his mate. A woman cannot ever be sure of not
• 4:16:37
  being married until she is buried, Missus doctor dear. And meanwhile, I'll
• 4:16:41
  make it back to cherry pies. I noticed the doctor favors him and I
• 4:16:44
  do like cooking for a man who appreciates his victuals. Miss Cornelia dropped in
• 4:16:48
  that afternoon, puffing a little. Who. I don't mind the world or
• 4:16:52
  the devil much, but the flesh does rather bother me. She admitted,
• 4:16:56
  you always look as cool as a cucumber. Anne, deary, w I
• 4:17:00
  smell cherry pie if I do ask me to state a tea. I haven't
• 4:17:03
  tasted a cherry pie this summer. My cherries have all been stolen by those
• 4:17:07
  scamps of Gilman boys from the glen. Now now, Cornelia remonstrated Captain Jim,
• 4:17:12
  who had been reading a c novel in a corner of the living room.
• 4:17:17
  You shouldn't say that about those two poor motherless Gilman boys unless you've got
• 4:17:22
  certain proof. Just because their father ain't none too honest, isn't any reason
• 4:17:27
  for calling them thieves. It's more likely it's been the robins took your cherries.
• 4:17:33
  They're terrible thick this year robins, said Miss Cornelia disdainfully. Humph two
• 4:17:40
  legged robins, believe me well, most of the four winds robins are constructed
• 4:17:45
  on that principle, said Captain Jim gravely. Miss Cornelia stared at him for
• 4:17:51
  a moment. Then she leaned back in her rocker and laughed long and ungrudgingly.
• 4:17:56
  Well, you have got me on one at last, Jim Boyd.
• 4:17:59
  I'll admit, just look how pleased he is, Anne Dearie, grinning like
• 4:18:02
  a Jessicat. As for the robin's legs, if robins have great, big,
• 4:18:06
  bare, sunburned legs with ragged trousers hanging on em, such as I
• 4:18:08
  saw up in my cherry tree one morning at sunrise last week, I'll beg
• 4:18:12
  the Gilman boy's pardon. By the time I got down, they were gone.
• 4:18:15
  I couldn't understand had they had disappeared so quick, But Captain Jim has
• 4:18:19
  enlightened me. They flew away. Of course, Captain Jim laughed and went
• 4:18:23
  away, regretfully, declining an invitation to stay to supper and partake of cherry
• 4:18:27
  pie. Oh on my way to see Leslie and ask her if she'll take
• 4:18:32
  a boarder, Miss Cornelia resumed. I had a letter yesterday from a missus
• 4:18:36
  Daly in Toronto who bored a spell with me two years ago. She wanted
• 4:18:40
  me to take a friend of hers for the summer. His name is Owen
• 4:18:42
  Ford, and he's a newspaper man. And it seems he's a grandson of
• 4:18:45
  the schoolmaster who built this house. John Selwyn's oldest daughter married an Ontario man
• 4:18:51
  named Ford, and this is her son. He wants to see the old
• 4:18:53
  place his grandparents lived in. He had a bad spell of typhoid in the
• 4:18:57
  spring and hasn't got rightly over it, so his doctor has ordered him to
• 4:19:00
  the sea. He doesn't want to go to the hotel. He just wants
• 4:19:03
  a quiet home place. I can't take him for I have to be away
• 4:19:07
  in August. I've been appointed a delegate to the w FMS convention in Kingsport,
• 4:19:11
  and I'm going. I don't know whether Leslie want to be bothered with
• 4:19:14
  him either, but there's no one else. If she can't take him.
• 4:19:17
  You'll have to go over the harbor. When you've seen her, come back
• 4:19:18
  and help us eat our cherry pies, said Anne. Bring Leslie and Dick
• 4:19:23
  too, if they can come. And so you're going to Kingsport, what
• 4:19:26
  a nice time you will have. I must give you a letter to a
• 4:19:30
  friend of mine there, Missus Jonas Blake. I've prevailed on Missus Thomas Holt
• 4:19:34
  to go with me, said Miss Cornelia complacently. It's time she had a
• 4:19:38
  little holiday. Believe me, she has just about worked herself to death.
• 4:19:42
  Tom Holt can crochet beautifully, but he can't make a living for his family.
• 4:19:47
  He never seems to be able to get up early enough to do any
• 4:19:48
  work. But I notice he can always get up early to go fishing.
• 4:19:52
  Isn't that like a man? Anne smiled. She had learned to discount largely
• 4:19:56
  Miss Cornelia's opinion of the four winds Men. Otherwise she must have believed them
• 4:20:02
  the most hopeless assortment of reprobates and ne'er dowells in the world, with veritable
• 4:20:06
  slaves and martyrs for wives. This particular tom Holt, for example, she
• 4:20:11
  knew to be a kind husband, a much loved father, and an excellent
• 4:20:15
  neighbor. If he were rather inclined to be lazy, liking better the fishing
• 4:20:19
  he had been born for than the farming he had not, And if he
• 4:20:22
  had a harmless eccentricity for doing fancy work, nobody save Miss Cornelia, seemed
• 4:20:27
  to hold it against him. His wife was a hustler who gloried in hustling.
• 4:20:32
  His family got a comfortable living off the farm, and his strapping sons
• 4:20:36
  and daughters, inheriting their mother's energy, were all in a fair way to
• 4:20:40
  do well in the world. There was not a happier household than Glen Saint
• 4:20:44
  Mary than the Holts. Miss Cornelia returned satisfied from the house up the brook.
• 4:20:49
  Leslie's going to take him, she announced. She jumped at the chance.
• 4:20:53
  She wants to make a little money to shingle the roof of her house
• 4:20:56
  this fall, and she didn't know how she was going to manage it.
• 4:20:59
  I expect Captain Jim will be more than interested when he hears that a grandson
• 4:21:03
  of the Selwyn's is coming here. Leslie said to tell you she hankered oufter
• 4:21:06
  cherry pie, but she couldn't come to tea because she has to go and
• 4:21:08
  hunt up her turkeys. They're straight away. But she said, if there
• 4:21:11
  was a piece left for you'd put it in the pantry, and she'd run
• 4:21:14
  over in the cat's light when prowling's in order to get it. You don't
• 4:21:18
  know, Anne, do what good it did my heart to hear Leslie send
• 4:21:19
  you a message like that, laughing like she used to long ago. There's
• 4:21:22
  a great change come over her lately. She laughs and jokes like a girl,
• 4:21:26
  and from her talk I gather she's here real often every day, or
• 4:21:30
  else I'm over there, said Anne. I don't know what I'd do without
• 4:21:34
  Leslie, especially just now when Gilbert is so busy. He's hardly ever home
• 4:21:40
  except for a few hours in the Wee smiles. He's really working himself to
• 4:21:42
  death. So many of the over Harbor people send for him. Now they
• 4:21:48
  might better be content with their own doctor, said miss Cornelia. Though,
• 4:21:52
  to be sure, I can't blame them for he's a Methodist. Ever since
• 4:21:55
  doctor Blythe brought missus Allenby round, folks think he can raise the dead.
• 4:21:57
  I believe doctor Dave was a que jealous, just like a man. He
• 4:22:00
  thinks doctor Blythe has too many new fangled notions. Well, I says to
• 4:22:04
  him, it was a new fangled notion save Rhoda Allenby. If you'd been
• 4:22:08
  attending her, she'd have died and had a tombstone, saying it had pleased
• 4:22:11
  God to take her away. Oh, I do like to speak my mind
• 4:22:15
  to doctor Dave. He's bossed the Glen for years, and he thinks he's
• 4:22:17
  forgotten more than other people ever knew. Speaking of doctors, I wish doctor
• 4:22:22
  Blythe had run over and see her that boil on Dick Moore's neck. It's
• 4:22:25
  getting past Leslie's skill. I'm sure I don't know what Dick Moore wants to
• 4:22:27
  start in having boils for as if he wasn't enough trouble without that. Do
• 4:22:32
  you know Dick has taken quite a fancy to me, said Anne. He
• 4:22:37
  follows me round like a dog and smiles like a pleased child when I notice
• 4:22:40
  him. Does it make you creepy? Not at all. I rather like
• 4:22:45
  poor Dick Moore. He seems so pitiful and appealing. Somehow, you wouldn't
• 4:22:48
  think him very appealing if you'd see him on his cantankerous days. Believe me,
• 4:22:52
  But I'm glad you don't mind him. It's all the nicer for Leslie.
• 4:22:56
  She'll have more to do when her border comes. I hope he'll be
• 4:22:57
  a decent creature. You'll probably like him. He's a writer. I wonder
• 4:23:02
  why people so commonly suppose that if two individuals are both writers, they must
• 4:23:06
  therefore be hugely congenial, said Anne, rather scornfully. Nobody would expect two
• 4:23:11
  blacksmiths. To be violently attracted toward each other, merely because they were both
• 4:23:15
  blacksmiths. Nevertheless, she looked forward to the advent of owen Ford with a
• 4:23:21
  pleasant sense of expectation. If he were young and likable, he might prove
• 4:23:26
  a very pleasant addition to society. In four winds, the latch string of
• 4:23:30
  the little house was always out for the race of Joseph. End of chapter
• 4:23:36
  twenty two, Chapter twenty three, owen Ford comes. One evening, Miss
• 4:23:42
  Cornelia telephoned down to Anne. The writer man has just arrived here. I'm
• 4:23:48
  going to drive him down to your place and you can show him the way
• 4:23:51
  over to Leslie's. It's shorter than driving round by the other road. And
• 4:23:53
  I'm in a mortal hurry. The race baby has gone and fallen into a
• 4:23:56
  pail of hot water at the glen and got Nil scalded to death, and
• 4:24:00
  they want me right off to put a new skin on the child. I
• 4:24:03
  presume missus Race is always so careless and then expects other people to mend her
• 4:24:07
  mistakes. You won't mind, will you, deary. He's runk and go
• 4:24:11
  down tomorrow very well, said Anne. What is he like, Miss Cornelia?
• 4:24:17
  You'll see what he's like outside when I take him down as what he's
• 4:24:19
  like inside. Only the Lord who made him knows that. I'm not going
• 4:24:22
  to say another word, for every receiver in the glen is down. Miss
• 4:24:26
  Cornelia evidently can't find much fault with mister Ford's looks, or she would find
• 4:24:30
  it in spite of the receivers, said Anne. I conclude, therefore,
• 4:24:34
  Susan, that mister Ford is rather handsome than otherwise well missus, Doctor dear,
• 4:24:41
  I do enjoy sing well looking, ma'am, said Susan, candidly.
• 4:24:45
  Had I not better get up a snack for em, There is a strawberry
• 4:24:48
  pie that would melt in your mouth. No, Leslie is expecting him and
• 4:24:51
  has his supper ready. Besides, I want that strawberry pie for my own
• 4:24:56
  poor man. He won't be home till late, so leave the pie and
• 4:24:59
  a glass of milk out for him, Susan, that's I will, missus,
• 4:25:02
  Doctor Dea Susan is at helm. After all, it is better to
• 4:25:04
  give a pite to your own men into strangers who may only be seaten to
• 4:25:07
  devour. And the doctor himself is a well looking man, as you often
• 4:25:11
  come across when owen Ford came, Anne secretly admitted, as Miss Cornelia towed
• 4:25:17
  him in that he was very well looking. Indeed, he was tall and
• 4:25:22
  broad shouldered, with thick brown hair, finely cut nose and chin, large
• 4:25:27
  and brilliant dark gray eyes. Did you notice his he is and teeth,
• 4:25:30
  missus? Doctor dea, queried Susan later on. He is the nicest shape
• 4:25:34
  he is I ever saw on a man's head. I'm a choice about he
• 4:25:37
  is. When I was young, I was scared I might marry a man
• 4:25:41
  with ears like flaps, But I knew not have worried, for never chance
• 4:25:44
  did I have with any kind of eas Anne had not noticed owen Ford's ears,
• 4:25:48
  but she did see his teeth as his lips parted over them in a
• 4:25:52
  frank and friendly smile. Unsmiling, his face was rather sad and absent in
• 4:25:59
  expression, not unlike the melancholy, inscrutable hero of Anne's own early dreams.
• 4:26:04
  But mirth and humor and charm lighted it up when he smiled. Certainly on
• 4:26:10
  the outside, as Miss Cornelius said, owen Ford was a very presentable fellow.
• 4:26:15
  You cannot realize how delighted I am to be here, missus. Blythe
• 4:26:18
  he said, looking around him with eager interested eyes. I have an odd
• 4:26:23
  feeling of coming home. My mother was born and spent her childhood here.
• 4:26:27
  You know. She used to talk a great deal to me of her old
• 4:26:32
  home. I know the geography of it as well as of the one I
• 4:26:34
  lived in, And of course she told me the story of the building of
• 4:26:37
  the house and of my grandfather's agonized watch for the Royal William. I had
• 4:26:42
  thought that so old a home must have vanished years ago. I should have
• 4:26:45
  come to see it before this. Old houses don't vanish easily on this enchanted
• 4:26:51
  coast, smiled Anne. This is a land where all things always seem the
• 4:26:56
  same, nearly always, at least. Johnson Elwyn's house hasn't even been much
• 4:27:00
  changed. And outside the rose bushes your grandfather planted for his bride are blooming
• 4:27:06
  this very minute. How the thought links me with them. With your leave,
• 4:27:11
  I must explore the whole place. Soon our latch string will always be
• 4:27:15
  out for you, promised Anne. And do you know that the old sea
• 4:27:18
  captain who keeps the four winds light new John Selwyn and his bride well in
• 4:27:23
  his boyhood. He told me their story the night I came here, the
• 4:27:27
  third bride of the old house. Can it be possible? This is a
• 4:27:32
  discovery. I must hunt him up. It won't be difficult. We are
• 4:27:37
  all cronies of Captain Jim. He will be as eager to see you as
• 4:27:41
  you could be to see him. Your grandmother shines like a star in his
• 4:27:45
  memory. But I think Missus Moore is expecting you. I'll show you our
• 4:27:48
  cross Lots road. Anne walked with him to the house up the brook,
• 4:27:55
  over a field that was as white as snow with daisies. A boatload of
• 4:27:59
  people were singing far across the harbor. The sound drifted over the water like
• 4:28:03
  faint, unearthly music, wind blown across a starlit sea. The big light
• 4:28:10
  flashed and beaconed. Owen Ford looked around him with satisfaction. And so this
• 4:28:15
  is four winds, he said. I wasn't prepared to find it quite so
• 4:28:19
  beautiful. In spite of all mother's praises. What colors, what scenery,
• 4:28:25
  what charm? I shall get as strong as a horse in no time.
• 4:28:29
  And if inspiration comes from beauty, I should certainly be able to begin my
• 4:28:33
  great Canadian novel here. You haven't begun it yet, asked Anne, a
• 4:28:37
  lack of day. No, I've never been able to get the right central
• 4:28:41
  idea for it. It lurks beyond me, it allures, it beckons and
• 4:28:47
  recedes. I can almost grasp it, and it is gone. Perhaps amid
• 4:28:52
  this peace and loveliness, I shall be able to capture it. Miss Bryant
• 4:28:56
  tells me that you write. Oh, I do little things for chill.
• 4:29:00
  I haven't done much since I was married, and I have no designs on
• 4:29:03
  a great Canadian novel, laughed Anne. That is quite beyond me. Oh,
• 4:29:10
  and Ford laughed too. I dare say it is beyond me as well.
• 4:29:15
  All the same, I mean to have a try at it some day,
• 4:29:17
  if I can ever get time. A newspaper man doesn't have much chance
• 4:29:21
  for that sort of thing. I've done a good deal of short story writing
• 4:29:25
  for the magazines, but I've never had the leisure that seems to be necessary
• 4:29:27
  for the writing of a book. With three months of liberty, I ought
• 4:29:32
  to make a start, though, if I could only get the necessary motif
• 4:29:36
  for it, the soul of the book. An idea whisked through Anne's brain
• 4:29:41
  with a suddenness that made her jump, but she did not utter. It,
• 4:29:45
  for they had reached the moorhouse. As they entered the yard, Leslie
• 4:29:48
  came out on the veranda from the side door, peering through the gloom for
• 4:29:52
  some sign of her expected guest. She stood just where the warm yellow light
• 4:29:57
  flooded her from the open door. She wore a plain dress of cheap cream
• 4:30:03
  tinted cotton wall with the usual girdle of crimson. Leslie was never without her
• 4:30:08
  touch of crimson. She had told Anne that she never felt satisfied without a
• 4:30:12
  gleam of red somewhere about her. If it were only a flower, to
• 4:30:18
  Anne, it always seemed to symbolize Leslie's glowing, pent up personality, denied
• 4:30:23
  all expression save in that flaming glint. Leslie's dress was cut a little away
• 4:30:29
  at the neck and had short sleeves. Her arms gleamed like ivory tinted marble.
• 4:30:36
  Every exquisite curve of her form was outlined in soft darkness against the light.
• 4:30:41
  Her hair shone in it like flame. Beyond her was a purple sky
• 4:30:45
  flowering with stars over the harbor. Anne heard her companion give a gasp.
• 4:30:52
  Even in the dusk. She could see the amazement and admiration on his face.
• 4:30:56
  Who is that beautiful creature, he asked, That is missus Moore?
• 4:31:02
  Said Anne. She is very lovely, isn't she. I I never saw
• 4:31:07
  anything like her, he answered, rather dazedly. I wasn't prepared. I
• 4:31:12
  didn't expect good Heavens, one doesn't expect a goddess for a landlady. Why
• 4:31:18
  if she were clothed in a gown of sea purple with a rope of amethyst
• 4:31:22
  in her hair, she would be a veritable sea queen. And she takes
• 4:31:26
  in boarders. Even goddesses must live, said Anne. And Leslie isn't a
• 4:31:30
  goddess. She's just a very beautiful woman, as human as the rest of
• 4:31:36
  us. Did miss Bryant tell you about mister Moore? Yes, he's mentally
• 4:31:41
  deficient or something of the sort, isn't he? But she said nothing about
• 4:31:45
  missus Moore. And I supposed she'd be the usual hustling country housewife who takes
• 4:31:49
  in boarders to earn an honest penny. Well that's just what Leslie is doing,
• 4:31:55
  said Anne crisply. And it isn't altogether pleasant for her either. I
• 4:32:00
  hope you won't mind, Dick. If you do, please don't let Leslie
• 4:32:03
  see it, it would hurt her horribly. He's just a big baby,
• 4:32:07
  and sometimes a rather annoying one. Oh, I won't mind him. I
• 4:32:11
  don't suppose I'll be much in the house anyhow, except for meals. But
• 4:32:15
  what a shame it all is. Her life must be a hard one,
• 4:32:18
  it is, but she doesn't like to be pitied. Leslie had gone back
• 4:32:23
  into the house and now met them at the front door. She greeted owen
• 4:32:27
  Ford with cold civility and told him in a business like tone that his room
• 4:32:33
  and his supper were ready for him. Dick, with a pleased grin,
• 4:32:37
  shambled upstairs with the valise, and owen Ford was installed as an inmate of
• 4:32:41
  the old house among the willows. End of chapter twenty three, Chapter twenty
• 4:32:48
  four, The Life Book of Captain Jim. I have a little brown cocoon
• 4:32:56
  of an idea that may possibly expand into a magnificent and moth of fulfillment.
• 4:33:00
  Anne told Gilbert when she reached home. He had returned earlier than she had
• 4:33:06
  expected and was enjoying Susan's cherry pie. Susan herself hovered in the background like
• 4:33:11
  a rather grim but beneficent guardian spirit, and found as much pleasure in watching
• 4:33:17
  Gilbert eat pie as he did in eating it. What's your idea, he
• 4:33:22
  asked, I shan't tell you just yet, not till I see if I
• 4:33:26
  can bring the thing about. What sort of a chap is Ford? Oh?
• 4:33:30
  Very nice and quite good looking? Such beautiful eas Doctor Dea, interjected
• 4:33:34
  Susan with a relish. He is about thirty or thirty five, I think,
• 4:33:40
  and he meditates writing a novel. His voice is pleasant and his smile
• 4:33:44
  delightful, and he knows how to dress. He looks as if life hadn't
• 4:33:48
  been altogether easy for him somehow. Owen Ford came over the next evening with
• 4:33:53
  a note to Anne from Leslie. They spent the sunset time in the garden,
• 4:33:59
  and then went for a moonlit sail on the harbor in the little boat
• 4:34:02
  Gilbert had set up for summer outings. They liked owen immensely, and had
• 4:34:07
  that feeling of having known him for many years which distinguishes the freemasonry of the
• 4:34:11
  House of Joseph. He is as nice as is he is, missus doctor
• 4:34:15
  dear, said Susan. When he had gone, he had told Susan that
• 4:34:18
  he had never tasted anything like her strawberry shortcake, and Susan's susceptible heart was
• 4:34:25
  his forever. He has got away with him, she reflected as she cleared
• 4:34:29
  up the relics of the supper. It is real queer. He is not
• 4:34:33
  married. For a man like that could have anyone for the asking. Well,
• 4:34:37
  maybe he's like Main, has not met the right one yet. Susan
• 4:34:40
  really grew quite romantic in her musings as she washed the supper dishes. Two
• 4:34:45
  nights later, Anne took owen Ford down to four Winds Point to introduce him
• 4:34:49
  to Captain Jim. The clover fields along the Harbor shore were whitening in the
• 4:34:53
  western wind, and Captain Jim had one of his finest sunsets on exhibition.
• 4:34:59
  He himself had just returned from a trip over the harbor. I had to
• 4:35:03
  go over and tell Henry Pollock he was dying. Everybody else was afraid to
• 4:35:08
  tell him. They expect that he'd take on terrible for he's been dreadful,
• 4:35:14
  determined to live, and been making no ends of plans for the fall.
• 4:35:19
  His wife thought he ought to be told, and that I'd be the best
• 4:35:22
  one to break it to him that he couldn't get better. Henry and me
• 4:35:26
  are old cronies. We sailed in the Great Goal for years together. Well,
• 4:35:33
  I went over and sat down by Henry's bed, and I says to
• 4:35:37
  him, says I just right out, plain and simple, for if things
• 4:35:41
  got to be told, it may as well be told first as last,
• 4:35:45
  says I'm mate, I reckon, you've got your sailing orders. This time
• 4:35:52
  I was sort of quaking inside, for it's an awful thing to have to
• 4:35:56
  tell a man who hain't any idea he's dying that he is. But lo
• 4:36:02
  and behold, mistress blythe Henry looks up at me with those bright old black
• 4:36:07
  eyes of his and his whizzing face, and says, says, he tell
• 4:36:11
  me something I don't know, Jim Boyd, if you want to give me
• 4:36:15
  information, I've known that for a week. I was too astonished to speak.
• 4:36:23
  And Henry, he chuckled to see you coming in here, says he,
• 4:36:29
  with your face as solemn as a tombstone, and sitting down there with
• 4:36:33
  your hands clasped over your stomach, and passing me out of blue, moldy
• 4:36:37
  old item of news like that. He didn't make a cat laugh. Jim
• 4:36:42
  Boyd says he who told you, says I stupid like nobody says he.
• 4:36:52
  A week ago Tuesday night, I was lying here awake, and I just
• 4:36:56
  knew. I suspicioned it before, but then I knew I've been keeping up
• 4:37:03
  for the wife's sake. But I'd like to have got that barn built for
• 4:37:08
  Eban. I'll never get it right. But anyhow, now that you've based
• 4:37:12
  your mind, Jim, put on a smile and tell me something interesting.
• 4:37:17
  Well, there it was. They'd been so scared to tell him, and
• 4:37:22
  he knew all the time. Strange how nature looks out for us, ain't
• 4:37:26
  it? And lets us know what we should know when the time comes.
• 4:37:32
  Did I ever tell you the yarn about Henry getting the fish hook in his
• 4:37:36
  nose? Mistress blythe no, Well, him and me had a laugh over
• 4:37:41
  it today. It happened now on to thirty years ago. Him and me
• 4:37:47
  and several more was out mackerel fishing one day. It was a great day.
• 4:37:52
  Never saw such a school of mackwell in the gulf. And in the
• 4:37:56
  general excitement, Henry got quite wild, and to stick a fish hook clean
• 4:38:02
  through one side of his nose. Well, there he was. There was
• 4:38:07
  barb on one end and a big piece of lead on the other so we
• 4:38:11
  couldn't be pulled out. We wanted to take him ashore at once, but
• 4:38:15
  Henry was game. He said he'd be jiggered if he'd leave a school like
• 4:38:19
  that for anything short of lockjaw. Then he kept fishing away, hauling in
• 4:38:26
  hand over fist, and groaning between times. Finally the school passed and we
• 4:38:33
  come in with the load. I got a file and begun to try to
• 4:38:36
  file through that hook. I tried to be as easy as I could,
• 4:38:41
  But you should have heard Henry. No, you shouldn't either. It was
• 4:38:45
  well no ladies were around. Henry wasn't a swearin man, but he'd heard
• 4:38:52
  some few matters of that sort along short his time, and he fished them
• 4:38:57
  all out of his recollection and hurled him at me. Finally he declared he
• 4:39:03
  couldn't stand it, and I had no bowels of compassion, so we hitched
• 4:39:08
  up and I drove him to a doctor in Charlottetown, thirty five miles.
• 4:39:14
  There weren't none nearer in them days, with that blessed hook still hanging from
• 4:39:19
  his nose. When we got there, old doctor Crab just took a file
• 4:39:25
  and filed that hook, just the same as I tried to do, only
• 4:39:30
  he weren't a mite particular about doing it easy. Captain Jim's visit to his
• 4:39:34
  old friend had revived many recollections, and he was now in the full tide
• 4:39:38
  of reminiscences. Henry was asking me today if I remembered the time Old Father
• 4:39:45
  Chiniquy blessed Alexander mccallister's boat. Another odd yarn, and true as gospel.
• 4:39:53
  I was in the boat myself. We went out him and me in Alexander
• 4:39:57
  mccallister's boat mo at sunrise. Besides, there was a French boy in the
• 4:40:03
  boat, Catholic, of course, you know, Old Father Chennoquy had turned
• 4:40:07
  Protestant, so the Catholics hadn't much use for him. Well, we sat
• 4:40:12
  out in the gulf and the barling sun till noon, and not a bite
• 4:40:18
  did we get. When we went ashore, Old Father Chennoqui had to go,
• 4:40:22
  so he said, in that polite way of his, I'm very sorry
• 4:40:26
  I could not go out with you this afternoon, mister mc allister. But
• 4:40:30
  they leave you my blessings. You will catch a thousand this afternoon. Well,
• 4:40:37
  we did not catch a thousand, But we caught exactly nine hundred and
• 4:40:41
  nineteen nine, the biggest catch for a small boat on the whole north shore
• 4:40:47
  that summer. I'm curious, was it it? Alexander mc allister, He
• 4:40:52
  says to Andrew Peters, Well, what do you think of Father Chennoquin?
• 4:40:56
  Now? Well, growled Andrew. I think the old devil has got the
• 4:41:03
  blessing lift yet loss how Henry did laugh over that today? Do you know
• 4:41:10
  who mister Ford is? Captain Jim asked Anne, seeing that Captain Jim's fountain
• 4:41:15
  of reminiscence had run out for the present. I want you to guess.
• 4:41:19
  Captain Jim shook his head. I never was any hand to guess in Mistress
• 4:41:23
  blythe And yet somehow, when I come in, I thought, where have
• 4:41:30
  I seen them eyes before? For I have seen them. Think of a
• 4:41:34
  September morning many years ago, said Anne softly. Think of a ship sailing
• 4:41:41
  up the harbor, a ship long waited for and despaired of. Think of
• 4:41:45
  the day the Royal William came in and the first look you had at the
• 4:41:48
  schoolmaster's bride, Captain Jim sprang up their purse. Is Selwyn's eyes. He
• 4:41:56
  almost shouted, you can't be her son, you must be her grandson.
• 4:42:03
  Yes, I am Alice Selwyn's son. Captain Jim swooped down on owen Ford
• 4:42:07
  and shook his hand over again, Alice Selwyn's son, Lord, but you're
• 4:42:14
  welcome. Many's the time I've wondered where the descendants of the schoolmaster were living.
• 4:42:19
  I knew there was none on the island. Alice, Alice, the
• 4:42:23
  first baby ever born in that little house. No baby ever brought more joy.
• 4:42:29
  I've dandled her a hundred times. It was from my knee she took
• 4:42:33
  her first steps alone. Can't I see her mother's face watching her? And
• 4:42:40
  it was near sixty years ago? Is she living yet? No? She
• 4:42:45
  died when I was only a boy. Oh, it doesn't seem right that
• 4:42:48
  I should be living to hear that, sighed Captain Jim. But I'm heart
• 4:42:52
  glad to see you. It's brought back my youth for a little while.
• 4:42:57
  You don't know yet what a boon that is. Mistress blythe here has the
• 4:43:03
  trick. She does it quite often for me. Captain Jim was still more
• 4:43:07
  excited when he discovered that owen Ford was what he called a re writing man.
• 4:43:12
  He gazed at him as at a superior being. Captain Jim knew that
• 4:43:17
  Anne wrote, but he had never taken that fact very seriously. Captain Jim
• 4:43:22
  thought women were delightful creatures who ought to have the vote and everything else they
• 4:43:26
  wanted, bless their hearts, but he did not believe they could write.
• 4:43:30
  Just look at a mad love. He would protest a woman wrote that,
• 4:43:36
  and just look at it one hundred and three chapters, when it could all
• 4:43:41
  have been told in ten. Hey, writing, woman never knows when to
• 4:43:47
  stop. That's the trouble. The pint of good writing is to know when
• 4:43:51
  to stop. Mister Ford wants to hear some of your stories, Captain Jim,
• 4:43:55
  said, Anne, tell him the one about the captain who went crazy
• 4:43:59
  and madge he was the flying Dutchman. This was Captain Jim's best story.
• 4:44:04
  It was a compound of horror and humor, and though Anne had heard it
• 4:44:08
  several times, she laughed as heartily and shivered as fearsomely over it as mister
• 4:44:12
  Ford did. Other tales followed, for Captain Jim had an audience after his
• 4:44:18
  own heart. He told how his vessel had been run down by a steamer,
• 4:44:22
  how he had been boarded by Malay pirates. How his ship had caught
• 4:44:26
  fire, How he helped a political prisoner escape from a South African republic.
• 4:44:33
  How he had been wrecked one fall on the Magdalens and stranded there for the
• 4:44:36
  winter. How a tiger had broken loose on board ship. How his crew
• 4:44:41
  had mutinied and marooned him on a barren island. These, and many other
• 4:44:45
  tales tragic or humorous or grotesque, did Captain Jim relate the mystery of the
• 4:44:52
  sea, the fascination of far lands, the lure of adventure, the laughter
• 4:44:56
  of the world. His hearers felt and realized them all. Owen Ford listened
• 4:45:02
  with his head on his hand and the first mate purring on his knee,
• 4:45:07
  His brilliant eyes fastened on Captain Jim's rugged, eloquent face. Won't you let
• 4:45:12
  mister Ford see your life book, Captain Jim, asked Anne. When Captain
• 4:45:17
  Jim finally declared that yarn spinning must end for the time. Oh, he
• 4:45:22
  don't want to be bothered with that, protested Captain Jim, who was secretly
• 4:45:26
  dying to show it. I should like nothing better than to see it,
• 4:45:30
  Captain Boyd, said Owen If it is half as wonderful as your tails.
• 4:45:34
  It will be worth seeing. With pretended reluctance, Captain Jim dug his life
• 4:45:40
  book out of his old chest and handed it to owen I reckon, you
• 4:45:44
  won't care to wrastle along with my old hand Aright. I never had much
• 4:45:48
  schooling, he observed, carelessly, just wrote that there to amuse my nephew
• 4:45:53
  Joe, he's always wanting stories, comes here yesterday and says to me reproachful,
• 4:46:00
  like as I was lifting the twenty pound codfish out of my boat,
• 4:46:03
  Uncle Jim, ain't a codfish, a dumb animal. I've been a tellin
• 4:46:08
  him. You see that he must be real kind to dumb animals and never
• 4:46:12
  hurt him in any way. I got out of the scrape by saying the
• 4:46:17
  codfish was dumb enough, but it wasn't an animal. But Joe didn't look
• 4:46:22
  satisfied, and I wasn't satisfied myself. You got to bemy careful what you
• 4:46:27
  tell them little critters. They can see through you. While talking, Captain
• 4:46:33
  Jim watched owen Ford from the corner of his eye as the latter examined the
• 4:46:37
  life book and presently observing that his guest was lost in its pages. He
• 4:46:42
  turned smilingly to his cupboard and proceeded to make a pot of tea. Owen
• 4:46:48
  Ford separated himself from the Lifebook with as much reluctance as a miser wrenches himself
• 4:46:52
  from his gold long enough to drink his tea, and then returns to it
• 4:46:56
  hungrily. Oh you can take that thing with you if you want to,
• 4:47:00
  said Captain Jim, as if the thing were not his most treasured possession.
• 4:47:07
  I must go down and pull up my boat a bit on the skids.
• 4:47:10
  There's a wind coming. Did you notice the sky tonight? Mackerel's skies and
• 4:47:15
  Mayor's tales make tall ships carry short sails. Owen Ford accepted the offer of
• 4:47:22
  the Life book gladly on their way home, and told him the story of
• 4:47:26
  Lost Margaret. That old captain is a wonderful old fellow, he said,
• 4:47:32
  What a life he has led. Why the man has had more adventures in
• 4:47:34
  one week of his life than most of us have in a lifetime. Do
• 4:47:38
  you really think his tales are all true? I certainly do. I am
• 4:47:44
  sure Captain Jim could not tell a lie. And besides, all the people
• 4:47:48
  about here say that everything happened. As he relates it, there used to
• 4:47:52
  be plenty of his old shipmates alive to corroborate him. He's one of the
• 4:47:56
  last of the old type of p e Island Sea captains. They are all
• 4:48:00
  most extinct now. End of chapter twenty four, Chapter twenty five, the
• 4:48:07
  writing of the book. Owen Ford came over to the little House the next
• 4:48:11
  morning in a state of great excitement. Missus Blythe, this is a wonderful
• 4:48:17
  book, absolutely wonderful. If I could take it and use the material for
• 4:48:21
  a book, I feel certain I could make the novel of the year out
• 4:48:23
  of it. Do you suppose Captain Jim would let me do it? Lets
• 4:48:27
  you, I'm sure he would be delighted, cried Anne. I admit that
• 4:48:33
  it was what was in my head when I took you down last night.
• 4:48:36
  Captain Jim has always been wishing he could get somebody to write his life book
• 4:48:40
  properly for him. Will you go down to the point with me this evening,
• 4:48:44
  missus Blythe. I'll ask him about that life book myself, but I
• 4:48:48
  want you to tell him that you told me the story of Lost Margaret and
• 4:48:51
  ask him if he will let me use it as the thread of romance with
• 4:48:55
  which to weave the stories of the life Book into a harmonious whole. Captain
• 4:48:59
  Jim was more excited than ever when owen Ford told him of his plan.
• 4:49:03
  At last, his cherished dream was to be realized and his life book given
• 4:49:07
  to the world. He was also pleased that the story of lost Margaret should
• 4:49:12
  be woven into it. It will keep her name from being forgotten, he
• 4:49:18
  said wistfully. That's why I want it put in. We'll collaborate, cried
• 4:49:22
  Owen delightedly. You will give the soul and I the body. Oh,
• 4:49:26
  we'll write a famous book between us, Captain Jim, and we'll get right
• 4:49:30
  to work and to think. My book is to be written by the schoolmaster's
• 4:49:36
  grandson, exclaimed Captain Jim. Lad your grandfather was my dearest friend. I
• 4:49:44
  thought there was nobody like him. I can see now why I had to
• 4:49:48
  wait so long. It couldn't be written till the right man come. You
• 4:49:52
  belong here. You've got the soul of this old Norse sure in you.
• 4:49:59
  You're the only one who could write it. It was arranged that the tiny
• 4:50:03
  room off the living room at the Lighthouse should be given over to Owen for
• 4:50:06
  a workshop. It was necessary that Captain Jim should be near him as he
• 4:50:10
  wrote, for consultation upon many matters of seafaring and goulf floor, of which
• 4:50:15
  Owen was quite ignorant. He began work on the book the very next morning
• 4:50:19
  and flung himself into it, heart and soul. As for Captain Jim,
• 4:50:23
  he was a happy man that summer. He looked upon the little room where
• 4:50:27
  Owen worked as a sacred shrine. Owen talked everything over with Captain Jim,
• 4:50:33
  but he would not let him see the manuscript. You must wait until it
• 4:50:37
  is published, he said. Then you'll get it all at once, in
• 4:50:40
  its best shape. He delved into the treasures of the Life book and used
• 4:50:45
  them freely. He dreamed and brooded overlost Margaret until she became a vivid reality
• 4:50:51
  to him and lived in his pages. As the book progressed, it took
• 4:50:55
  possession of him, and he worked at it with feverish eagerness. Let Anne
• 4:51:00
  and Leslie read the manuscript and criticize it, and the concluding chapter of the
• 4:51:04
  book, which the critics later on were pleased to call idylic, was modeled
• 4:51:10
  upon a suggestion of Leslie's Anne fairly hugged herself with delight over the success of
• 4:51:15
  her idea. I knew when I looked at owen Ford that he was the
• 4:51:19
  very man for it. She told Gilbert. Both humor and passion were in
• 4:51:25
  his face, and that, together with the art of expression, was just
• 4:51:29
  what was necessary for the writing of such a book. As Missus Rachel would
• 4:51:33
  say, he was predestined for the part owen Ford wrote. In the mornings,
• 4:51:38
  the afternoons were generally spent in some merry outing with the blythes Leslie often
• 4:51:44
  went too for Captain Jim took charge of Dick frequently in order to set her
• 4:51:48
  free. They went boating on the harbor and up the three pretty rivers that
• 4:51:52
  flowed into it. They had clambakes on the bar and muscle bakes on the
• 4:51:56
  rocks. They picked strawberries on the sand dune. They went out codfishing with
• 4:52:02
  Captain Jim. They shot plover in the shore fields and wild ducks in the
• 4:52:06
  cove. At least the men did. In the evenings, they rambled in
• 4:52:11
  the low lying daisied shore fields under a golden moon. Or they sat in
• 4:52:15
  the living room at the little house, where often the coolness of the sea
• 4:52:18
  breeze, justified a driftwood fire, and talked of the thousand and one things
• 4:52:22
  which happy, eager, clever young people can find to talk about. Ever
• 4:52:29
  since the day on which she had made her confession to Anne Leslie had been
• 4:52:33
  a changed creature. There was no trace of her old coldness and reserve,
• 4:52:37
  no shadow of her old bitterness. The girlhood of which she had been cheated
• 4:52:41
  seemed to come back to her with the ripeness of womanhood. She expanded like
• 4:52:47
  a flower of flame and perfume. No laugh was readier than hers, no
• 4:52:51
  wit quicker. In the twilight circles of that enchanted summer, when she could
• 4:52:56
  not be with them, all felt that some exquisite stage was lacking in their
• 4:53:00
  intercourse. Her beauty was illumined by the awakened soul within, as some rosy
• 4:53:06
  lamp might shine through a flawless vase of alabaster. There were hours when Anne's
• 4:53:11
  eyes seemed to ache with the splendor of her As for owen Ford, the
• 4:53:17
  Margaret of his book, although she had the soft brown hair and elfin face
• 4:53:21
  of the real girl who had vanished so long ago, pillowed where lost atlantis
• 4:53:25
  sleeps, had the personality of Leslie Moore, as it was revealed to him
• 4:53:30
  in those halcyon days at four Wynd's Harbor. All in all, it was
• 4:53:34
  a never to be forgotten summer, One of those summers which come seldom into
• 4:53:38
  any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going.
• 4:53:42
  One of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful
• 4:53:48
  friends, and delightful doings, come as near to perfection as anything can come
• 4:53:52
  in this world. Too good to last, Anne told herself with a little
• 4:53:57
  sigh. On the September, when a certain nip in the wind and a
• 4:54:02
  certain shade of intense blue on the gulf water said that autumn was hard.
• 4:54:06
  By that evening, owen Ford told them that he had finished his book,
• 4:54:11
  and that his vacation must come to an end. I have a good deal
• 4:54:14
  to do to it yet, revising and pruning and so forth, he said.
• 4:54:18
  But in the main it's done. I wrote the last sentence this morning.
• 4:54:22
  If I can find a publisher for it, it will probably be out
• 4:54:26
  next summer or fall. Owen had not much doubt that he would find a
• 4:54:30
  publisher. He knew that he had written a great book, a book that
• 4:54:33
  would score wonderful success, a book that would live. He knew that it
• 4:54:37
  would bring him both fame and fortune. But when he had written the last
• 4:54:41
  line of it, he had bowed his head on the manuscript, and so
• 4:54:45
  sat for a long time, and his thoughts were not of the good work
• 4:54:49
  he had done. End of Chapter twenty five. Chapter twenty six, owen
• 4:54:56
  Ford's confession. I'm so sorry Gilbert is away, said Anne. He had
• 4:55:03
  to go Allan Lyons at the glen has met with a serious accident. He
• 4:55:07
  will not likely be home till very late, but he told me to tell
• 4:55:11
  you he'd be up and over early enough in the morning to see you before
• 4:55:14
  you left. It's too provoking, Susan, and I had planned such a
• 4:55:18
  nice little jamboree for your last night. Here she was sitting beside the garden
• 4:55:23
  brook on the little rustic seat Gilbert had built. Owen Ford stood before her,
• 4:55:29
  leaning against the bronze column of a yellow birch. He was very pale,
• 4:55:33
  and his face bore the marks of the preceding sleepless night. Anne,
• 4:55:37
  glancing up at him, wondered if, after all, his summer had brought
• 4:55:41
  him the strength it should, had he worked too hard over his book.
• 4:55:47
  She remembered that for a week he had not been looking. Well. I'm
• 4:55:49
  rather glad the doctor is away, said Owen slowly. I wanted to see
• 4:55:55
  you alone, missus Blythe there is something I must tell somebody wh I think
• 4:56:00
  it will drive me mad. I've been trying for a week to look it
• 4:56:03
  in the face, and I can't. I know I can trust you,
• 4:56:06
  And besides, you will understand. A woman with eyes like yours always understands
• 4:56:12
  you are one of the folks people instinctively tell things to. Missus Blythe I
• 4:56:17
  love leslie, love her. That seems too weak a word. His voice
• 4:56:22
  suddenly broke with the suppressed passion of his utterance. He turned his head away
• 4:56:26
  and hid his face on his arm. His whole form shook. Anne sat
• 4:56:30
  looking at him, pale and aghast. She had never thought of this,
• 4:56:36
  And yet how was it? She had never thought of it? It now
• 4:56:38
  seemed a natural and inevitable thing, she wondered at her own blindness. But
• 4:56:45
  but things like this did not happen in four winds. Elsewhere in the world.
• 4:56:51
  Human passions might set at defiance human conventions and laws, but not here
• 4:56:56
  Surely Leslie had kept summer boarders off and on for ten years and nothing like
• 4:57:00
  this had happened. But perhaps they had not been like owen Ford, and
• 4:57:06
  the vivid living Leslie of this summer was not the cold, sullen girl of
• 4:57:10
  other years. Oh, somebody should have thought of this. Why hadn't Miss
• 4:57:15
  Cornelia thought of it? Miss Cornelia was always ready enough to sound the alarm
• 4:57:18
  where men were concerned. Anne felt an unreasonable resentment against Miss Cornelia. Then
• 4:57:26
  she gave a little inward groan. No matter who was to blame, the
• 4:57:30
  mischief was done, and Leslie, what of Leslie? It was for Leslie?
• 4:57:34
  Anne felt most concerned. Does Leslie know this, mister Ford? She
• 4:57:40
  asked quietly? No, no, unless she has guessed it. You surely
• 4:57:45
  don't think I'd be cad and scoundrel enough to tell her. Missus blythe I
• 4:57:49
  couldn't help loving her, that's all. My misery is greater than I can
• 4:57:53
  bear. Does she care? Asked Anne. The moment the question crossed her
• 4:58:00
  lips, she felt that she should not have asked it. Owen Ford answered
• 4:58:03
  it with over eager protest. No, no, of course not. I
• 4:58:08
  could make her care if she were free. I know I could. She
• 4:58:12
  does care, and he knows it, thought Anne aloud. She said,
• 4:58:18
  sympathetically, but decidedly. But she is not free, mister Ford, and
• 4:58:22
  the only thing you can do is to go away in silence and leave her
• 4:58:26
  to her own life. I know, I know, groaned Owen. He
• 4:58:32
  sat down on the grassy bank and stared moodily into the amber water beneath him.
• 4:58:37
  I know there's nothing to do, nothing but to say conventionally goodbye,
• 4:58:41
  missus Moore, thank you for all your kindness to me this summer, just
• 4:58:45
  as I would have said it to the sancy, bustling, keen eyed housewife
• 4:58:49
  I expected her to be when I came. Then I'll pay my board money
• 4:58:53
  like any honest boarder, and go. Oh. It's very simple, no
• 4:58:59
  doubt, no perplexity, A straight road to the end of the world,
• 4:59:03
  and I'll walk it. You needn't fear that I won't missus blythe but it
• 4:59:07
  would be easier to walk over red hot plowshares. Anne flinched with the pain
• 4:59:11
  of his voice, and there was so little she could say that would be
• 4:59:15
  adequate to the situation. Blame was out of the question. Advice was not
• 4:59:19
  needed sympathy. Was mocked by the man's stark agony. She could only feel
• 4:59:25
  with him in a maze of compassion and regret. Her heart ached for Leslie,
• 4:59:30
  had not that poor girl suffered enough without this. It wouldn't be so
• 4:59:34
  hard to go and leave her if she were only happy, resumed Owen passionately.
• 4:59:41
  But to think of her living death, to realize what it is to
• 4:59:44
  which I do leave her, that is the worst of all. I would
• 4:59:48
  give my life to make her happy, and I can do nothing even to
• 4:59:52
  help her. Nothing. She is bound forever to that poor wretch, with
• 4:59:56
  nothing to look forward to but growing old accession of empty, meaningless, barren
• 5:00:02
  years. It drives me mad to think of it. But I must go
• 5:00:06
  through my life never seeing her, but always knowing what she is enduring.
• 5:00:10
  It's hideous, hideous. It is very hard, said Anne sorrowfully. We
• 5:00:17
  her friends here all know how hard it is for her. And she is
• 5:00:22
  so richly fitted for life, said Owen rebelliously. Her beauty is the least
• 5:00:26
  of her dower, and she is the most beautiful woman I have ever known.
• 5:00:32
  That laugh of hers, I've angled all summer to evoke that laugh,
• 5:00:36
  just for the delight of hearing it. And her eyes they're as deep and
• 5:00:40
  blue as the gulf out there. I never saw such blueness and gold.
• 5:00:45
  Did you ever see her hair down, missus blythe No? I did.
• 5:00:49
  Once. I had gone down to the point to go fishing with Captain Jim,
• 5:00:53
  but it was too rough to go out, so I came back.
• 5:00:57
  She had taken the opportunity of what she act expected to be an afternoon alone
• 5:01:02
  to wash her hair, and she was standing on the veranda in the sunshine
• 5:01:04
  to dry it. It fell all about her to her feet and a fountain
• 5:01:10
  of living gold. When she saw me, she hurried in, and the
• 5:01:14
  wind caught her hair and swirled it all around her, deniy in her cloud.
• 5:01:18
  Somehow, just then the knowledge that I loved her came home to me,
• 5:01:22
  and realized that I had loved her from the moment I first saw her
• 5:01:26
  standing against the darkness in that glow of light. And she must live on
• 5:01:30
  here, petting and soothing, dick pinching and saving from a mere existence,
• 5:01:36
  while I spend my life longing vainly for her, and debarred by that very
• 5:01:40
  fact from even giving her the little help a friend might I walked ashore last
• 5:01:45
  night almost till dawn, and thrashed it all out over and over again.
• 5:01:51
  And yet, in spite of everything, I can't find it in my heart
• 5:01:53
  to be sorry that I came to Four Winds. Seems to me that bad
• 5:01:59
  as everything is, it would be still worse never to have known Leslie.
• 5:02:03
  It's burning, searing pain to love her and leave her, but not to
• 5:02:07
  have loved her is unthinkable. I suppose all this sounds very crazy. All
• 5:02:12
  these terrible emotions always do sound foolish when we put them into our inadequate words.
• 5:02:18
  They are not meant to be spoken, only felt and endured. I
• 5:02:22
  shouldn't have spoken, but it has helped some. At least it has given
• 5:02:27
  me strength to go away respectably tomorrow morning without making a scene. You're right
• 5:02:33
  me now, and then won't you missus blythe and give me what news there
• 5:02:36
  is to give of her? Yes, said Anne, Oh, I'm so
• 5:02:41
  sorry you are going. We'll miss you so. We've all been such friends.
• 5:02:45
  If it were not for this, you could come back other summers,
• 5:02:48
  perhaps even yet by and by, when you've forgotten. Perhaps I shall never
• 5:02:55
  forget, and I shall never come back to Four Winds. Said Owen briefly.
• 5:03:02
  Silence and twilight fell over the garden. Far away, the sea was
• 5:03:06
  lapping gently and monotonously on the bar. The wind of evening in the poplars
• 5:03:11
  sounded like some sad, weird old rune, some broken dream of old memories.
• 5:03:17
  A slender, shapely young aspen rose up before them against the fine maze
• 5:03:22
  and emerald and paling rose of the western sky, which brought out every leaf
• 5:03:26
  and twig in dark, tremulous elfin loveliness. Isn't that beautiful, said Owen,
• 5:03:33
  pointing to it with the air of a man who puts a certain conversation
• 5:03:37
  behind him. It's so beautiful that it hurts me, said Anne softly.
• 5:03:42
  Perfect things like that always did hurt me. I remember I called it the
• 5:03:47
  queer ache when I was a child. What is the reason that pain like
• 5:03:51
  this seems inseparable from perfection? Is it the pain of finality when we realize
• 5:03:56
  that there can be nothing beyond but retrogression? Perhaps, said Owen dreamily.
• 5:04:03
  It is the prisoned infinite in us calling out to its kindred infinite, as
• 5:04:07
  expressed in that visible perfection. You seemed to have a cauld in the hit
• 5:04:11
  better rub some tallow on your nose when you go to bed, said Miss
• 5:04:15
  Cornelia, who had come in through the little gate between the firs in time
• 5:04:18
  to catch Owen's last remark. Miss Cornelia liked Owen, but it was a
• 5:04:23
  matter of principle with her to visit any high falutin language from a man with
• 5:04:27
  a snub. Miss Cornelia personated the comedy that ever peeps around the corner at
• 5:04:33
  the tragedy of life. Anne, whose nerves had been rather strained, laughed
• 5:04:38
  hysterically, and even Owen smiled. Certainly, sentiment and passion had a way
• 5:04:44
  of shrinking out of sight in Miss Cornelia's presence, and yet to Anne nothing
• 5:04:48
  seemed quite as hopeless and dark and painful as it had seemed a few moments
• 5:04:53
  before. But sleep was far from her eyes that night. End of chapter
• 5:05:00
  twenty six. Chapter twenty seven. On the sand Bar, Owen Ford left
• 5:05:07
  four winds. The next morning, in the evening, Anne went over to
• 5:05:11
  see Leslie, but found nobody. The house was locked, and there was
• 5:05:15
  no light in any window. It looked like a home left soulless. Leslie
• 5:05:21
  did not run over on the following day, which Anne thought a bad sign.
• 5:05:26
  Gilbert having occasion to go in the evening to the fishing cove, Anne
• 5:05:30
  drove with him to the point, intending to stay awhile with Captain Jim.
• 5:05:33
  But the great light, cutting its swathes through the fog of the autumn evening,
• 5:05:38
  was in care of Alec Boyd, and Captain Jim was away. What
• 5:05:42
  will you do, asked Gilbert. Come with me. I don't want to
• 5:05:47
  go to the cove, but I'll go over the channel with you and roam
• 5:05:49
  about on the sand shore till you come back. The rock shore is too
• 5:05:53
  slippery and grim. Tonight, alone on the sands of the bar, Anne
• 5:05:59
  gave herself up to the eerie charm of the night. It was warm for
• 5:06:03
  September, and the late afternoon had been very foggy, but a full moon
• 5:06:07
  had in part lessened the fog and transformed the harbor and the gulf and the
• 5:06:11
  surrounding shores into a strange, fantastic, unreal world of pale silver mist,
• 5:06:18
  through which everything loomed phantom Like Captain Josiah Crawford's black schooner sailing down the channel
• 5:06:25
  laden with potatoes for blue nosed Ports, was a spectral ship bound for a
• 5:06:29
  far uncharted land, ever receding, never to be reached. The calls of
• 5:06:34
  unseen gulls overhead were the cries of the souls of doomed seamen. The little
• 5:06:40
  curls of foam that blew across the sand were elfin things stealing up from the
• 5:06:44
  sea caves. The big, round shouldered sand dunes were the sleeping giants of
• 5:06:48
  some old northern tail. The lights that glimmered palely across the harbor were the
• 5:06:55
  delusive beacons on some coast of fairyland. And please herself with a hundred fancies
• 5:07:00
  as she wandered through the mist, it was delightful, romantic, mysterious to
• 5:07:07
  be roaming here alone on this enchanted shore. But was she alone? Something
• 5:07:12
  loomed in the mist before her took shape and form suddenly moved towards her.
• 5:07:18
  Across the wave rippled sand. Leslie exclaimed Anne in amazement, whatever are you
• 5:07:25
  doing here tonight? If it comes to that, whatever are you doing here?
• 5:07:30
  Said Leslie, trying to laugh. The effort was a failure. She
• 5:07:33
  looked very pale and tired, but the love locks under her scarlet cap were
• 5:07:38
  curling about her face and eyes like little sparkling rings of gold. I'm waiting
• 5:07:44
  for Gilbert. He's over at the cove. I intended to stay at the
• 5:07:48
  light, but Captain Jim is away. Well, I came here because I
• 5:07:51
  wanted to walk, and walk and walk, said Leslie restlessly. I couldn't
• 5:07:56
  on the rock shore. The tide was too high, and the rocks prisoned
• 5:07:57
  me. I had to I'm here. I should have gone mad. I
• 5:08:00
  think I rode myself over the channel in Captain Jim's flat. I've been here
• 5:08:04
  for an hour. Come, come, let us walk. I can't stand
• 5:08:08
  still. Oh, Anne, Leslie, dearest, what is the trouble?
• 5:08:12
  Asked Anne, though she knew too well already. I can't tell you.
• 5:08:17
  Don't ask me. I wouldn't mind your knowing. I wish you did know,
• 5:08:21
  But I can't tell you. I can't tell anyone. I've been such
• 5:08:22
  a fool, Anne, And oh, it hurts so terribly to be a
• 5:08:26
  fool. There's nothing so painful in the world, she laughed bitterly. Anne
• 5:08:30
  slipped her arm around her. Leslie, is it that you have learned to
• 5:08:34
  care for mister Ford? Leslie turned herself about passionately. How did you know?
• 5:08:41
  She cried Anne? How did you know? Oh? Is it written
• 5:08:44
  on my face for everyone to see? Is it as plain as that?
• 5:08:48
  No? No, I I can't tell you how I knew. It just
• 5:08:52
  came into my mind somehow, Leslie. Don't look at me like that.
• 5:08:56
  Do you despise me? Demanded Leslie in a fierce low tone. Do you
• 5:09:00
  think I'm wicked, unwomanly? Or do you think I'm just a plain fool?
• 5:09:06
  I don't think you any of those things. Come, dear, Let's
• 5:09:08
  just talk it over sensibly, as we might talk over any other of the
• 5:09:12
  great crises of life. You've been brooding over it and let yourself drift into
• 5:09:18
  a morbid view of it. You know you have a little tendency to do
• 5:09:21
  that about everything that goes wrong, and you promised me that you would fight
• 5:09:25
  against it. But oh, it's so so shameful, murmured Leslie. To
• 5:09:30
  love him unsought and when I'm not free to love anybody, there's nothing shameful
• 5:09:37
  about it. But I'm very sorry that you have learned to care for Owen,
• 5:09:41
  because as things are, it will only make you more unhappy. I
• 5:09:45
  didn't learn to care, said Leslie, walking on and speaking passionately. If
• 5:09:51
  it had been like that. I could have prevented it. I never dreamed
• 5:09:53
  of such a thing until that day a week ago, when he told me
• 5:09:56
  I had finished his book and must soon go away. Then then I knew.
• 5:10:02
  I felt as if someone had struck me a terrible blow. I didn't
• 5:10:03
  say anything. I couldn't speak, but I don't know what I looked like.
• 5:10:07
  I'm so afraid my face betrayed me. Oh, I would die of
• 5:10:11
  shame if I thought he knew or suspected. Anne was miserably silent, hampered
• 5:10:15
  by her deductions from her conversation with Owen, Leslie went on feverishly as if
• 5:10:22
  she found relief in speech. I was so happy all this summer, Anne,
• 5:10:26
  happier than I ever was in my life. I thought it was because
• 5:10:29
  everything had been made clear between you and me, and that it was our
• 5:10:32
  friendship which made life seem so beautiful and full once more. And it was
• 5:10:37
  in part, but not all, oh not nearly all. I know now
• 5:10:41
  why everything was so different, And now it's all over and he has gone.
• 5:10:45
  How can I live? Anne? When I turned back to the house
• 5:10:48
  this morning after he had gone, the solitude struck me like a blow in
• 5:10:51
  the face. It won't seem so hard by and by dear, said Anne,
• 5:10:56
  who always felt the pain of her friend so keenly that she could not
• 5:11:00
  easy fluent words of comforting. Besides, she remembered how well meant speeches had
• 5:11:04
  hurt her in her own sorrow, and was afraid. Oh, it seems
• 5:11:08
  to me it will grow harder all the time, said Leslie miserably. I
• 5:11:12
  have nothing to look forward to. Morning will come after morning, and he
• 5:11:17
  will not come back. He will never come back. Oh, and I
• 5:11:19
  think that I will never see him again. I feel as if a great
• 5:11:22
  brutal hand had twisted itself among my heart strings and was wrenching them. Once
• 5:11:27
  long ago, I dreamed of love, and I thought it must be beautiful,
• 5:11:32
  And now it's like this. When he went away yesterday morning, it
• 5:11:34
  was so cold and indifferent. He said goodbye, missus Moore, and the
• 5:11:38
  coldest tone in the world, as if we had not even been friends,
• 5:11:42
  as if I meant absolutely nothing to him. I don't know. I didn't
• 5:11:47
  want him to care, but he might have been a little kinder. Oh
• 5:11:49
  I wish Gilbert would come, thought Anne. She was racked between her sympathy
• 5:11:55
  for Leslie and the necessity of avoiding anything that would betray Owen's confidence. She
• 5:12:00
  knew why his goodbye had been so cold, why it could not have the
• 5:12:04
  cordiality that their good comradeship demanded. But she could not tell Leslie. I
• 5:12:10
  couldn't help it, Anne, I couldn't help it, said poor Leslie,
• 5:12:14
  I know that. Do you blame me so very much? I don't blame
• 5:12:18
  you at all, and you won't. You won't tell Gilbert, Leslie.
• 5:12:22
  Do you think I would do such a thing? Oh, I don't know.
• 5:12:26
  You and Gilbert are such charms. I don't see her. You could
• 5:12:29
  help telling him everything, everything about my own concerns, yes, but not
• 5:12:33
  my friend's secrets. I couldn't have him. No, But I'm glad you
• 5:12:37
  know I would feel guilty if there were anything I was ashamed to tell you.
• 5:12:42
  I hope Miss Cornelia won't find out. Sometimes I feel as if those
• 5:12:45
  terrible, kind brown eyes of hers read my very soul. Oh. I
• 5:12:49
  wish this mist would never lift. I wish I could just stay in it,
• 5:12:53
  forever, hidden away from every living being. I don't see how I
• 5:12:56
  can go on with life. This summer has been so fool I was never
• 5:13:00
  lonely for a moment. Before Owen came. There used to be terrible moments
• 5:13:07
  when I had been with you and Gilbert and then had to leave you.
• 5:13:11
  You two would walk away together, and I would walk away alone. After
• 5:13:15
  Owen came, he was always there to walk home with me. We would
• 5:13:18
  laugh and talk as you and Gilbert were doing. There were no more lonely,
• 5:13:22
  envious moments for me. And now, oh, yes, I have
• 5:13:26
  been a fool. Let's have done talking about my folly. I'll never bore
• 5:13:30
  you with it again. Here is Gilbert, and you are coming back with
• 5:13:34
  us, said Anne, who had no intention of leaving Leslie to wander alone
• 5:13:38
  on the sand bar on such a night and in such a mood. There's
• 5:13:42
  plenty of room in our boat for three, and we'll tie the flat on
• 5:13:45
  behind. Oh I suppose I must reconcile myself to being the odd one again,
• 5:13:51
  said poor Leslie with another bitter laugh. Forgive me, Anne, that
• 5:13:55
  was hateful. I ought to be thankful, and I am that I've two
• 5:14:00
  good friends who are glad to count me in as a third. Don't mind
• 5:14:03
  my hateful speeches. I just seemed to be one great pain all over and
• 5:14:07
  everything hurts me. Leslie seemed very quiet night, didn't she said Gilbert when
• 5:14:12
  he and Anne reached home. What in the world was she doing over there
• 5:14:17
  on the bar alone? Oh, she was tired, and you know she
• 5:14:19
  likes to go to the shore after one of Dick's bad days. What a
• 5:14:23
  pity she hadn't met and married a fellow like Ford long ago, ruminated Gilbert.
• 5:14:29
  They'd have made an ideal couple, wouldn't they. For pity's sake,
• 5:14:32
  Gilbert, don't develop into a match maker. It's an abominable profession for a
• 5:14:37
  man, cried Anne, rather sharply, afraid that Gilbert might blunder on the
• 5:14:41
  truth if he kept on in this strain. Plus us, angirl, I'm
• 5:14:45
  not match making, protested Gilbert, rather surprised at her tone. I was
• 5:14:48
  only thinking of one of them might have been, Well, don't It's a
• 5:14:52
  waste of time, said Anne. Then she added suddenly, oh, Gilbert,
• 5:14:59
  I wish everybody could be as happy as we are. End of chapter
• 5:15:03
  twenty seven, Chapter twenty eight, Odds and Ends. I've been reading a
• 5:15:10
  bitchery notices, said miss Cornelia, laying down the Daily Enterprise and taking up
• 5:15:15
  her sewing The harbor was lying black and sullen under a dour November sky.
• 5:15:22
  The wet dead leaves clung, drenched and sodden to the window sills. But
• 5:15:26
  the little house was gay with firelight and spring like, with Anne's ferns and
• 5:15:30
  geraniums. It's always summer here, Anne Leslie, had said one day,
• 5:15:36
  and all who were the guests of that house of dreams felt the same.
• 5:15:40
  The Enterprise seems to run to obituaries these days, quoth Miss Cornelia. It
• 5:15:45
  always has a couple of columns of them, and I read every line.
• 5:15:47
  It's one of my forms of recreation, especially when there's some original poetry attached
• 5:15:51
  to them. Here is a choice sample for you. She's gone to be
• 5:15:55
  with her maker, never more to Rome. She used to play and sing
• 5:15:59
  with joy the song of Home, Sweet Home. Who says we haven't any
• 5:16:03
  poetical talent on the island. Have you ever noticed what heaps of good people
• 5:16:07
  die, Anne, dearie, It's kind of pitiful. Here's ten obituaries,
• 5:16:11
  and every one of them saints and models, even the men. Here's old
• 5:16:14
  Peter Stimpson, who has left a large circle of friends to mourn his untimely
• 5:16:18
  loss. Lord Anne dearie. That man was eighty, and everybody who knew
• 5:16:22
  him had been wishing him dead these thirty years. Read obituaries when you're blue,
• 5:16:26
  Anne Dearie, especially the ones of folks. You know, if you've
• 5:16:29
  any sense of humor at all, they'll cheer you up. Believe me,
• 5:16:32
  I just wish I had the writing of obituaries of some people. Isn't obituary
• 5:16:36
  an awful ugly word? This very Peter I've been speaking of had a face
• 5:16:40
  exactly like one. I never saw it, but I thought the word obituary
• 5:16:44
  then, and there There's only one uglier word that I know of, and
• 5:16:47
  that's relict. Lord, Anne, dearie. I may be an old maid,
• 5:16:49
  but there's this comfort in it. I'll never be any man's relict.
• 5:16:52
  It is an ugly word, said Anne, laughing. Avonlea graveyard was full
• 5:16:59
  of old tombstone, sacred to the memory of so and so, relict of
• 5:17:03
  the late so and so. It always made me think of something worn out
• 5:17:07
  and moth eaten. Why is it that so many of the words connected with
• 5:17:11
  death are so disagreeable? I do wish that the custom of calling a dead
• 5:17:15
  body the remains could be abolished. I positively shiver when I hear the undertaker
• 5:17:19
  say at a funeral, all who wish to see the remains, please step
• 5:17:23
  this way. It always gives me the horrible impression that I am about to
• 5:17:27
  view the scene of a cannibal feast. Well, all I hope, said,
• 5:17:32
  Miss Cornelia calmly, is that when I'm dead, nobody will call me
• 5:17:36
  our dear departed sister. I took a scunner at this sister and brothering business
• 5:17:41
  five years ago when there was a traveling evangelist holding meetings at the Glynn.
• 5:17:45
  I hadn't any use for him. From the start. I felt in my
• 5:17:48
  bones that there was something wrong with him. And there was mind, you
• 5:17:49
  who's pretending to be a Presbyterian? Presbyterian he called it, and all the
• 5:17:55
  time he was a Methodist. He brothered and sisted everybody he had a large
• 5:17:59
  circle of relations that man had. He clutched my hand fervently one night and
• 5:18:03
  said, imploringly, my dear sister Bryant, are you a Christian? I
• 5:18:07
  just looked him over a bit, and then I said, calmly, the
• 5:18:11
  only brother I ever had missedter Fisk was buried fifteen years ago, and I
• 5:18:15
  haven't adopted any since. As for being a Christian, I was that I
• 5:18:18
  hope and believe when you were crawling about the floor in petticoats. That squelched
• 5:18:22
  him. Believe me, mind you, Anne, deary. I'm not down
• 5:18:25
  on all evangelists. We've had some real fine, earnest men who did a
• 5:18:27
  lot of good and made the old sinners squirm. But this Fisk man wasn't
• 5:18:32
  one of them. I had a good laugh all to myself. One evening
• 5:18:34
  Fisk had asked all who are Christians to stand up. I didn't believe me.
• 5:18:38
  I've never had any use for that sort of thing, but most of
• 5:18:41
  them did. And then he asked all who wanted to be Christians to stand
• 5:18:45
  up. Nobody stirred for a spell, so Fisk sat up a hum at
• 5:18:48
  the top of his voice, just in front of me. Poor little Ikey
• 5:18:52
  Baker was sitting in the Millicine pew. He was a home boy ten years
• 5:18:56
  old, and Melicon just about worked him to death. The poor little creature
• 5:18:59
  was always so tired he fell asleep right off whenever he went to church or
• 5:19:03
  anywhere he could sit still for a few minutes. He'd been sleeping through all
• 5:19:06
  the meeting, and I was thankful to see the poor child getting a rest.
• 5:19:08
  Believe me well. When Fisk's voice went soaring skyward and the rest joined
• 5:19:14
  in, poor Ikey wakened with a start. He thought it was just an
• 5:19:17
  ordinary singing and that everybody ought to stand up, so he scrambled to his
• 5:19:21
  feet mighty quick, knowing he'd get a combing down from Maria Mellison for sleeping
• 5:19:25
  and meeting. Fisks saw him stopped and shouted another soul saved, Glory,
• 5:19:30
  Hellelujah, And there was poor frightened Ikey, only half awake and yawning,
• 5:19:33
  never thinking about his soul at all. Poor child, he never had time
• 5:19:37
  to think of anything but his tired, overworked little body. Leslie went one
• 5:19:41
  night, and the Fisk man got right after her. Oh he was especially
• 5:19:45
  anxious about the souls of nice looking girls, believe me, and he hurt
• 5:19:48
  her feelings, so she never went again. And then he prayed every night
• 5:19:52
  after that, right in public, that the Lord would soften her hard heart.
• 5:19:56
  Finally, I went to mister Levett, our minister, then, and
• 5:19:59
  told him if he did didn't make Fisks stop, that I'd just rise up
• 5:20:02
  the next night and throw my hymn book at him when he mentioned that beautiful
• 5:20:06
  but unrepentant young woman. I'd have done it too, Believe me. Mister
• 5:20:10
  Levitt did put a stop to it, but mister Fisk kept on with his
• 5:20:12
  meetings until Charlie Douglas put an end to his career in the Glen. Missus.
• 5:20:17
  Charlie had been out in California all winter. She'd been real melancholy in
• 5:20:19
  the fall. Religious melancholy it ran in her family. Her father worried ever
• 5:20:25
  so much over believing that he had committed the unpardonable sin that he died in
• 5:20:29
  the asylum. So when Rose Douglas got that way, Charlie packed her off
• 5:20:33
  to visit her sister in Los Angeles. She got perfectly well and came home
• 5:20:37
  just when the Fisk revival was in full swing. She stepped off the train
• 5:20:40
  at the Glen Real, smiling and chipper, and the first thing she saw
• 5:20:44
  staring her in the face on the black gable end of the freight shed was
• 5:20:47
  the question, in big white letters, two feet high, whither goest thou
• 5:20:51
  to Heaven or Hell? That had been one of Fisk's ideas, and he
• 5:20:53
  had got Henry Hammond to paint it. Rose just gave a shriek and fainted,
• 5:20:57
  and when they got her home she was worse than ever. Charlie Douglas
• 5:21:02
  went to mister Levitt and told him that every Douglas would leave the church if
• 5:21:04
  Fisk was kept there any longer. Mister Levitt had to give in for the
• 5:21:07
  Douglas has paid half his salary. So Fisk departed and we had to depend
• 5:21:11
  on our Bibles once more for instructions on how to get to heaven. After
• 5:21:15
  he was gone, mister Levitt found out that he was just a masquerading Methodist,
• 5:21:19
  and he felt pretty sick. Believe me, mister Levitt fell short in
• 5:21:22
  some ways, but he was a good sound Presbyterian by the way. I
• 5:21:26
  had a letter from mister Ford yesterday, said Anne. He asked me to
• 5:21:30
  remember him kindly to you. I don't want his remembrances, said miss Cornelia
• 5:21:36
  Curtly. Why, said Anne, in astonishment. I thought you liked him
• 5:21:41
  well, so I did in a kind of way. But I'll never forgive
• 5:21:45
  him for what he's done to Leslie. There's that poor child eating her heart
• 5:21:48
  out about him, as if she hadn't had trouble enough, and him ranting
• 5:21:51
  around Toronto, I've no doubt enjoying himself, same as ever, just like
• 5:21:53
  a man. Oh, miss Cornelia, how did you find out? Lord?
• 5:21:59
  And Dearia, I've got eyes, haven't I? And I've known Leslie
• 5:22:00
  since she was a baby. There's been a new kind of heartbreak in her
• 5:22:03
  eyes all before, and I know that right a man was behind it somehow.
• 5:22:07
  I'll never forgive myself for being the means of bringing him here. But
• 5:22:11
  I never expected he'd be like he was. I thought he'd just be like
• 5:22:14
  the other men. Leslie had bought it, conceited young asses, every one
• 5:22:17
  of them that she never had any use for. One of them did try
• 5:22:19
  to flirt with her once, and she froze him out so bad. I
• 5:22:22
  feel sure he's never got himself thought since so, I'd never thought of any
• 5:22:26
  danger. Don't let Leslie suspect you know her secret, said Anne hurriedly.
• 5:22:32
  I think it would hurt her. Trust me, Anne, Dearie, I
• 5:22:34
  wasn't born yesterday. Oh, a plague on all the men, One of
• 5:22:38
  them ruined Lesli's life to begin with, and now another of the tribe comes
• 5:22:41
  and makes her still more wretched, Anne, this world is an awful place.
• 5:22:45
  Believe me, there is something in the world amiss will be unriddled by
• 5:22:48
  and by, quoted Anne dreamily. If it is, it'll be in a
• 5:22:52
  world where there aren't any men, said Miss Cornelia gloomily. What have the
• 5:22:56
  men been doing now, asked Wilbert, entering mischief, mischief? What else
• 5:23:02
  did they ever do? It was eve eight the apple, Miss Cornelia twas
• 5:23:06
  a hay create a tempted her, retorted Miss Cornelia triumphantly. Leslie, after
• 5:23:11
  her first anguish was over, found it possible to go on with life after
• 5:23:15
  all, as most of us do, no matter what our particular form of
• 5:23:18
  torment has been. It is even possible that she enjoyed moments of it when
• 5:23:23
  she was one of the gay circle in the Little House of Dreams. But
• 5:23:26
  if Anne ever hoped that she was forgetting owen Ford, she would have been
• 5:23:30
  undeceived by the furtive hunger in Leslie's eyes whenever his name was mentioned. Pitiful
• 5:23:37
  to that hunger, Anne always contrived to tell Captain Jim or Gilbert bits of
• 5:23:41
  news from Owen's letters when Leslie was with them. The girl's flush and pallor
• 5:23:45
  at such moments spoke all too eloquently of the emotion that filled her being,
• 5:23:51
  But she never spoke of him to Anne or mentioned that night on the sand
• 5:23:55
  bar. One day, her old dog died, and she grieved bitterly over
• 5:23:59
  him. He's been my friend so long, she said sorrowfully to Anne.
• 5:24:04
  He was Dick's old dog. You know. Dick had him for a year
• 5:24:07
  or so before we were married. He left him with me when he sailed
• 5:24:11
  on the Four Sisters. Carlo got very fond of me, and his dog
• 5:24:15
  love helped me through that first dreadful year after mother died. When I was
• 5:24:19
  alone. When I heard that Dick was coming back, I was afraid Carla
• 5:24:22
  wouldn't be so much mine. But he never seemed to care for Dick,
• 5:24:26
  though he had been so fond of him. Once, he would snap and
• 5:24:30
  growl at him as if he were a stranger. I was glad. It
• 5:24:34
  was nice to have one thing whose love was all mine. Tett old dog
• 5:24:38
  has been such a comfort to me, Anne. He got so feeble in
• 5:24:42
  the fall that I was afraid he couldn't live long, but I hoped I
• 5:24:45
  could nurse him through the winter. He seemed pretty well this morning, he
• 5:24:49
  was lying on the rug before the fire. Then all at once he got
• 5:24:53
  up and crept over to me. He put his head on my lap and
• 5:24:57
  gave me one loving look out of his big, soft dog eyes, and
• 5:25:03
  then he just shivered and died. I shall miss him. So let me
• 5:25:07
  give you another dog, Leslie said Anne. I'm getting a lovely Gordon setter
• 5:25:11
  for a Christmas present for Gilbert. Let me give you one too, Leslie
• 5:25:17
  shook her head. Not just now, thank you, Anne. I don't
• 5:25:21
  feel like having another dog yet. I don't seem to have any affection left
• 5:25:25
  for another. Perhaps in time I'll let you give me one. I really
• 5:25:30
  need one as a kind of protection. But there was something almost human about
• 5:25:34
  Carlo. It wouldn't be decent to fill his place. So hurriedly, dear
• 5:25:38
  old fellow, Anne went to Avonlea a week before Christmas and stayed until after
• 5:25:44
  the holidays. Gilbert came up for her, and there was a glad New
• 5:25:48
  Year celebration at Green Gables when Berry's and Blythes and Writes assembled to devour a
• 5:25:53
  dinner which had cost missus Rachel and Marilla much careful thought and preparation. When
• 5:25:59
  they went back to four winds, the little house was almost drifted over.
• 5:26:03
  For the third storm of a winter that was to prove phenomenally Stormy had whirled
• 5:26:07
  up the harbor and heaped huge snow mountains about everything and encountered. But Captain
• 5:26:14
  Jim had shoveled out doors and paths, and Miss Cornelia had come down and
• 5:26:18
  kindled the hearth fire. It's good to see you back, and dearie,
• 5:26:21
  but did you ever see such drifts? You can't see them all place at
• 5:26:23
  all unless you go upstairs. Leslie'll be so glad you're back. She's almost
• 5:26:27
  buried alive over there. Fortunately, Dick can shovel snow and thinks it's great
• 5:26:30
  fun. Susan sent me word till you should be on hand tomorrow. Where
• 5:26:34
  are you off to now, Captain I reckon, I'll apply up to the
• 5:26:37
  glen and sit a bit with old Martin Strong. He's not far from his
• 5:26:42
  end, and he's lonesome. He hasn't many friends, been too busy all
• 5:26:48
  his life to make any He's heaps of money, though well. He thought
• 5:26:52
  that since he couldn't serve God and Memon, he'd better stick to Memmon,
• 5:26:56
  said Miss Cornelia, crisply, so he shouldn't complain if fine Memon very good
• 5:27:00
  company. Now Captain Jim went out, but remembered something in the yard and
• 5:27:04
  turned back for a moment. I had a letter from mister Ford Mistress Blith,
• 5:27:08
  and he says the life book is accepted and is going to be published
• 5:27:12
  next fall. I felt fair uplifted when I got the news to think that
• 5:27:18
  I'm to see it in print at last. That man is clean crazy on
• 5:27:23
  the subject of his life book, said Miss Cornelia compassionately. For my part,
• 5:27:29
  I think this fought too many books in the world now. End of
• 5:27:33
  chapter twenty eight. Chapter twenty nine, Gilbert and Anne disagree. Gilbert laid
• 5:27:41
  down the ponderous medical tome over which he had been pouring until the increasing dusk
• 5:27:45
  of the March evening made him desist. He leaned back in his chair and
• 5:27:49
  gazed meditatively out of the window. It was early spring, probably the ugliest
• 5:27:56
  time of the year. Not even the sunset could redeem the dead, sodden
• 5:28:00
  landscape and rotten black harbor ice upon which he looked. No sign of life
• 5:28:06
  was visible, save a big black crow winging his solitary way across a leaden
• 5:28:11
  field. Gilbert speculated idly concerning that crow. Was he a family crow with
• 5:28:17
  a black but comely crow wife awaiting him in the woods beyond the glen,
• 5:28:21
  Or was he a glossy young buck of a crow on courting thoughts intent?
• 5:28:26
  Or was he a cynical bachelor crow, believing that he travels the fastest who
• 5:28:30
  travels alone. Whatever he was, he soon disappeared in congenial gloom, and
• 5:28:36
  Gilbert turned to the cheerier view indoors. The firelight flickered from point to point,
• 5:28:41
  gleaming on the white and green coats of Gog and Magog, on the
• 5:28:45
  sleek brown head of the beautiful setter basking on the rug, on the picture
• 5:28:49
  frames, on the walls, on the vase full of daffodils from the window
• 5:28:52
  garden, on Anne herself sitting by her little table, with her sewing beside
• 5:28:57
  her and her hands clasped over her knee, while she traced out pictures in
• 5:29:03
  the fire castles in Spain, whose airy turrets pierced moonlit cloud and sunset bar.
• 5:29:08
  Ships sailing from the Haven of Good Hopes straight to four winds Harbor with
• 5:29:12
  precious burden. For Anne was again a dreamer, of dreams, albeit a
• 5:29:18
  grim shape of fear, went with her night and day to shadow and darken
• 5:29:22
  her visions. Gilbert was accustomed to refer to himself as an old married man,
• 5:29:29
  but he still looked upon Anne with the incredulous eyes of a lover.
• 5:29:33
  He couldn't wholly believe yet that she was really his. It might be only
• 5:29:37
  a dream, after all, part and parcel of this magic house of dreams.
• 5:29:41
  His soul still went on tiptoe before her, Lest the charm be shattered
• 5:29:45
  and the dream dispelled. Anne, he said, slowly, when me your
• 5:29:51
  ears. I want to talk with you about something. Anne looked across at
• 5:29:55
  him through the fire lit gloom. What is it? She asked gaily,
• 5:30:00
  you look fearfully solemn Gilbert. I really haven't done anything naughty to day,
• 5:30:04
  ask Susan. It's not of you or ourselves. I want to talk.
• 5:30:10
  It's about Dick Moore. Dick Moore, echoed Anne, sitting up alertly.
• 5:30:15
  Why what in the world have you to say about Dick Moore. I've been
• 5:30:21
  thinking a great deal about him lately. Do you remember that time last summer
• 5:30:25
  I treated him for those carbuncles on his neck? Yes? Yes, I
• 5:30:30
  took the opportunity to examine the scars on his head thoroughly. I've always thought
• 5:30:33
  Dick was a very interesting case from a medical point of view. Lately,
• 5:30:37
  I've been studying the history of triffening and the cases where it has been employed,
• 5:30:42
  and I've come to the conclusion that if Dick Moore was taken to a
• 5:30:45
  good hospital and the operation of treffening performed on several places in his skull,
• 5:30:52
  his memory and faculties might be restored. Gilbert, Anne's voice was full of
• 5:30:57
  protest. Surely you don't mean it. I do, indeed, and I've
• 5:31:03
  decided that it's my duty to broach the subject to Leslie. Gilbert blythe you
• 5:31:07
  shall not do any such thing, cried Anne vehemently. Oh Gilbert, you
• 5:31:12
  won't. You won't. You couldn't be so cruel. Promise me you won't.
• 5:31:18
  Why, Anne, girl, I didn't suppose you would take it like
• 5:31:19
  this. Be reasonable. I won't be reasonable. I can't be reasonable.
• 5:31:26
  I am reasonable. It is you who are unreasonable, Gilbert. Have you
• 5:31:30
  ever once thought what it would mean for Leslie if Dick Moore were to be
• 5:31:33
  restored to his right senses? Just stop and think she's unhappy enough now.
• 5:31:40
  But life is Dick's nurse and attendant is a thousand times easier for her than
• 5:31:44
  life is Dick's wife. I know, I know it's unthinkable. Don't you
• 5:31:48
  meddle with the matter? Leave well enough alone. I have thought over that
• 5:31:53
  aspect of the case thoroughly, Anne, But I believe that a doctor is
• 5:31:57
  bound to set the sanctity of a patient's mind and body above all other considerations,
• 5:32:02
  no matter what the consequences may be. I believe it is his duty
• 5:32:06
  to endeavor to restore health and sanity if there is any hope whatever of it.
• 5:32:10
  But Dick isn't your patient in that respect, cried Anne, taking another
• 5:32:15
  tack. If Leslie had asked you if anything could be done for him,
• 5:32:18
  then it might be your duty to tell her what you really thought. But
• 5:32:22
  you've no right to meddle. I don't call it meddling. Uncle Dave told
• 5:32:26
  Leslie twelve years ago that nothing could be done for Dick. She believes that,
• 5:32:30
  of course, And why did Uncle Dave tell her that if it wasn't
• 5:32:34
  true, cried Anne triumphantly. Doesn't he know as much about it as you?
• 5:32:40
  I think not, though it may sound conceited and presumptuous to say it.
• 5:32:45
  And you know as well as I that he's rather prejudiced against what he
• 5:32:48
  calls these new fangled notions of cutting and carving. He's even opposed to operating
• 5:32:52
  for appendicitis. He's right, exclaimed Anne, with a complete change of front.
• 5:33:00
  Believe myself that you modern doctors are entirely too fond of making experiments with
• 5:33:03
  human flesh and blood. Rhoda Allenby would not be a living woman today if
• 5:33:07
  I'd been afraid of making a certain experiment, argued Gilbert. I took the
• 5:33:11
  risk and saved her life. I'm sick and tired of hearing about Rhoda Allenby,
• 5:33:17
  cried Anne, most unjustly, for Gilbert had never mentioned missus Allenby's name
• 5:33:22
  since the day he had told Anne of his success in regard to her,
• 5:33:26
  and he could not be blamed for other people's discussion of it. Gilbert felt
• 5:33:30
  rather hurt. Had not expected you to look at the matter as you do,
• 5:33:33
  eh, he said, a little stiffly, getting up and moving towards
• 5:33:37
  the office door. It was their first approach to a quarrel, but Anne
• 5:33:42
  flew after him and dragged him back. Now, Gilbert you are not going
• 5:33:47
  off mad. Sit down here and I'll apologize beautifully. I shouldn't have said
• 5:33:52
  that, But oh, if you knew. Anne checked herself just in time.
• 5:33:56
  She had been on the very verge of betraying Lefeley's secret. Knew what
• 5:34:02
  a woman feels about it, She concluded lamely. I think I do know.
• 5:34:07
  I've looked at the matter from every point of view, and I've been
• 5:34:10
  driven to the conclusion that it is my duty to tell Leslie that I believe
• 5:34:14
  it is possible that Dick can be restored to himself. There my responsibility ends.
• 5:34:19
  It will be for her to decide what she will do. I don't
• 5:34:22
  think you've any right to put such a responsibility on her. She has enough
• 5:34:26
  to bear. She is poor. How could she afford such an operation?
• 5:34:32
  That is for her to decide? Persisted Gilbert stubbornly. You say you think
• 5:34:37
  that Dick can be cured, But are you sure of it? Certainly not.
• 5:34:41
  Nobody could be sure of such a thing. There may have been lesions
• 5:34:45
  of the brain itself, the effect of which can never be removed. But
• 5:34:48
  if, as I believe, his loss of memory and other faculties is due
• 5:34:52
  merely to the pressure on the brain centers of certain depressed areas of bone.
• 5:34:56
  Then he can be cured. But it's only a possibility, insisted Anne.
• 5:35:03
  Now suppose you tell Leslie and she decides to have the operation. It will
• 5:35:07
  cost a great deal. She will have to borrow the money or sell her
• 5:35:11
  little property. And suppose the operation is a failure and Dick remains the same,
• 5:35:17
  how will she be able to pay back the money she borrows or make
• 5:35:19
  a living for herself in that big, helpless creature if she sells the farm.
• 5:35:23
  Oh I know, I know, but it is my duty to tell
• 5:35:27
  her. I can't get away from that conviction. Oh I know the blithe's
• 5:35:32
  stubbornness, groaned Anne. But don't do this solely on your own responsibility.
• 5:35:37
  Consult doctor Dave. I have done so, said Gilbert reluctantly. And what
• 5:35:42
  did he say in brief as you say, leave well enough alone? Apart
• 5:35:48
  from his prejudice against new fangled surgery. I'm afraid he looks at the case
• 5:35:52
  from your point of view. Don't do it for Leslie's sake there now,
• 5:35:57
  cried Anne triumphantly. I do think, Gilbert, that you ought to abide
• 5:36:02
  by the judgment of a man nearly eighty, who had seen a great deal
• 5:36:06
  and saved scores of lives himself. Surely his opinion ought to weigh more than
• 5:36:10
  a mere boy's. Thank you, don't laugh. It's too serious. That's
• 5:36:15
  just my point. It is serious. Here's a man who is a helpless
• 5:36:19
  burden. He may be restored to reason and usefulness. He was so very
• 5:36:26
  useful before, interjected Anne witheringly. He may be given a chance to make
• 5:36:30
  good and redeem the past. His wife doesn't know this. I do.
• 5:36:34
  It is therefore my duty to tell her that there is such a possibility that
• 5:36:40
  boiled down is my decision. Don't say decision yet, Gilbert, consult somebody
• 5:36:45
  else. Ask Captain Jim what he thinks about it? Very well, but
• 5:36:49
  I'll not promise to abide by his opinion. Anne, This is something a
• 5:36:52
  man must decide for himself. My conscience would never be easy if I kept
• 5:36:57
  silent on the subject. Oh your conscience, moaned Anne. I suppose that
• 5:37:03
  Uncle Dave has a conscience too, hasn't he? Yes? But I'm not
• 5:37:07
  the keeper of his conscience. Come Anne. If this affair did not concern
• 5:37:11
  Leslie, if it were a purely abstract case. You would agree with me,
• 5:37:15
  you know you would. I wouldn't, vowed Anne, trying to believe
• 5:37:19
  it herself. Oh, you can argue all night, Gilbert, but you
• 5:37:22
  won't convince me. Just you ask Miss Cornelia what she thinks of it.
• 5:37:27
  You're driven to the last ditch. Anne, When you bring up Miss Cornelia
• 5:37:30
  as a reinforcement, she'll say, just like a man, and rage furiously.
• 5:37:37
  No matter, this is no affair for miss Cornelia to settle. Leslie
• 5:37:41
  alone must decide it. You know very well how she will decide it,
• 5:37:45
  said Anne, almost in tears. She has ideals of duty too. I
• 5:37:51
  don't see how you can take such a responsibility on your shoulders. I couldn't,
• 5:37:56
  because right is right to follow. Right were wisdom in the scorn of
• 5:38:00
  consequence, quoted Gilbert. Oh you think a couplet of poetry a convincing argument,
• 5:38:07
  scoffed Anne. That is so like a man. And then she laughed
• 5:38:11
  in spite of herself. It sounded so like an echo of Miss Cornelia.
• 5:38:15
  Well, if you won't accept Tennyson as an authority, perhaps you will believe
• 5:38:18
  the words of a greater than he, said Gilbert, seriously, he shall
• 5:38:23
  know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. I believe that,
• 5:38:27
  Anne, with all my heart. It's the greatest and grandest verse in
• 5:38:33
  the Bible or in any literature, and the truest if there are comparative degrees
• 5:38:37
  of trueness. And it's the first duty of a man to tell the truth
• 5:38:41
  as he sees it and believes it. In this case, the truth won't
• 5:38:45
  make poor Leslie free, sighed Anne. It will probably end in still more
• 5:38:51
  bitter bondage for her. Oh, Gilbert, I can't think you are right.
• 5:38:56
  End of chapter twenty nine. Leslie decides a sudden outbreak of a virulent
• 5:39:04
  type of influenza at the glen and down at the fishing village kept Gilbert so
• 5:39:10
  busy for the next fortnight that he had no time to pay the promised visit
• 5:39:14
  to Captain Jim. Anne hoped against hope that he had abandoned the idea about
• 5:39:18
  Dick Moore and resolving to let sleeping dogs lie. She said no more about
• 5:39:23
  the subject, but she thought of it incessantly. I wonder if it would
• 5:39:29
  be right for me to tell him that Leslie cares for Owen. She thought
• 5:39:33
  he would never let her suspect that he knew, so her pride would not
• 5:39:37
  suffer, and it might convince him that he should let Dick Moore alone.
• 5:39:41
  Shall I Shall? I? No? After all, I cannot. A
• 5:39:45
  promise is sacred, and I've no right to betray Leslie's secret. But oh,
• 5:39:51
  I never felt so worried over anything in my life as I do over
• 5:39:53
  this. It's spoiling the spring, It's spoiling everything. One evening, Gillbert
• 5:40:00
  abruptly proposed that they go down and see Captain Jim. With a sinking heart,
• 5:40:04
  Anne agreed, and they set forth. Two weeks of kind sunshine had
• 5:40:10
  wrought a miracle in the bleak landscape over which Gilbert's crow had flown. The
• 5:40:15
  hills and fields were dry and brown and warm, ready to break into bud
• 5:40:19
  and blossom. The harbor was laughter shaken again. The long Harbor Road was
• 5:40:25
  like a gleaming red ribbon. Down on the dunes, a crowd of boys
• 5:40:29
  who were out smelt fishing were burning the thick, dry sand hill grass of
• 5:40:33
  the preceding summer. The flames swept over the dunes, Rosalie flinging their cardinal
• 5:40:38
  banners against the dark gulf beyond, and illuminating the channel and the fishing village.
• 5:40:45
  It was a picturesque scene which would at other times have delighted Anne's eyes,
• 5:40:48
  but she was not enjoying this walk. Neither was Gilbert. Their usual
• 5:40:53
  good comradeship and Josephian community of taste and viewpoint were sadly lacking. Anne's disapproval
• 5:41:00
  of the whole project showed itself in the haughty uplift of her head and the
• 5:41:06
  studied politeness of her remarks. Gilbert's mouth was set in all the blithe obstinacy,
• 5:41:11
  but his eyes were troubled. He meant to do what he believed to
• 5:41:15
  be his duty, but to be at outs with Anne was a high price
• 5:41:18
  to pay. Altogether, both were glad when they reached the light, and
• 5:41:23
  remorseful that they should be glad. Captain Jim put away the fishing net upon
• 5:41:29
  which he was working and welcomed them joyfully. In the searching light of the
• 5:41:33
  spring evening. He looked older than Anne had ever seen him. His hair
• 5:41:37
  had grown much grayer, and the strong old hand shook a little. But
• 5:41:41
  his blue eyes were clear and steady, and the staunch soul looked out through
• 5:41:45
  them, gallant and unafraid. Captain Jim listened in amazed silence while Gilbert said
• 5:41:52
  what he had come to say. Anne, who knew how the old man
• 5:41:56
  worshiped Leslie, felt quite sure that he would side with her, although she
• 5:42:00
  had not much hope that this would influence Gilbert. She was therefore surprised to
• 5:42:04
  be on measure when Captain Jim slowly and sorrowfully but unhesitatingly gave it as his
• 5:42:11
  opinion that Leslie should be told. Oh, Captain Jim, I didn't think
• 5:42:15
  you'd say that, she exclaimed, reproachfully. I thought you wouldn't want to
• 5:42:21
  make more trouble for her. Captain Jim shook his head. I don't want
• 5:42:26
  to. I know how you feel about it, Mistress blythe just as I
• 5:42:30
  feel myself. But it ain't our feelin's. We have to steer by through
• 5:42:36
  life. No, No, we'd make shipwreck mighty often if we did that.
• 5:42:42
  There's only one safe compass, and we've got to set our course by
• 5:42:45
  that what it's right to do. I agree with the doctor. If there's
• 5:42:52
  a chance for dick Leslie should be told of it. There's no two sides
• 5:42:57
  to that in my opinion, well, said Anne, giving up in despair.
• 5:43:03
  Wait until miss Cornelia gets after you two men. Cornelia'll rake us fore
• 5:43:08
  and aft, no doubt, assented Captain Jim. You women are lovely critters,
• 5:43:15
  Mistressplith, but you're just a might illogical. You're a highly edicated lady,
• 5:43:22
  and Cornelia isn't. But you're alike as to pease. When it comes
• 5:43:26
  to that, I don't know you're any the worse for it. Logic is
• 5:43:30
  a sort of hard, merciless thing. I reckon now, I'll brew a
• 5:43:36
  cup of tea and we'll drink it and talk of pleasant things, just to
• 5:43:38
  calm our minds a bit. At least. Captain Jim's tea and conversation calmed
• 5:43:44
  Anne's mind to such an extent that she did not make Gilbert suffer so acutely
• 5:43:48
  on the way home, as she had deliberately intended to do. She did
• 5:43:52
  not refer to the burning question at all, but she chatted amiably of other
• 5:43:56
  matters, and Gilbert understood that he was forgiven under protest. Captain Jim seems
• 5:44:03
  very frail and bent this spring. The winter has aged him, said Anne,
• 5:44:07
  sadly. I am afraid that he will soon be going to seek lost
• 5:44:11
  Margaret I can't bear to think of it. Four winds won't be the same
• 5:44:15
  place when Captain Jim sets out to see, agreed Gilbert. The following evening,
• 5:44:21
  he went to the house up the brook. Anne wandered dismally around until
• 5:44:25
  his return. Well what did Leslie say, she demanded when he came in.
• 5:44:30
  Very little? I think she felt rather dazed. And is she going
• 5:44:33
  to have the operation? Ah, She's going to think it over and decide
• 5:44:37
  very soon. Gilbert flung himself wearily into the easy chair before the fire.
• 5:44:42
  He looked tired. It had not been an easy thing for him to tell
• 5:44:47
  Leslie, and the terror that had sprung into her eyes when the meaning of
• 5:44:51
  what he told her came home to her was not a pleasant thing to remember.
• 5:44:55
  Now. When the die was cast, he was beset with doubts of
• 5:44:57
  his own wisdom. Anne looked at him remorsefully. Then she slipped down on
• 5:45:03
  the rug beside him and laid her glossy red head on his arm. Gilbert,
• 5:45:08
  I've been rather hateful over this. I won't be any more. Please
• 5:45:12
  just call me red headed and forgive me. By which Gilbert understood that no
• 5:45:18
  matter what came of it, there would be no, I told you so's,
• 5:45:21
  but he was not wholly comforted. Duty in the abstract is one thing,
• 5:45:26
  duty in the concrete is quite another, especially when the doer is confronted
• 5:45:30
  by a woman's stricken eyes. Some instinct made Anne keep away from Leslie for
• 5:45:36
  the next three days. On the third evening, Leslie came down to the
• 5:45:40
  little house and told Gilbert that she had made up her mind. She would
• 5:45:44
  take Dick to Montreal and have the operation. She was very pale and seemed
• 5:45:48
  to have wrapped herself in her old mantle of aloofness. But her eyes had
• 5:45:52
  lost the look which had haunted Gilbert. They were cold and bright, and
• 5:45:56
  she proceeded to discuss details with him in a crisp, business like way.
• 5:46:00
  There were plans to be made and many things to be thought over. When
• 5:46:06
  Leslie had got the information she wanted, she went home. Anne wanted to
• 5:46:10
  walk part of the way with her. Better not, said Leslie curtly.
• 5:46:15
  To day's rain has made the ground damp. Good night, have I lost
• 5:46:18
  my friend? Said Anne, with a sigh. If the operation is successful
• 5:46:23
  and Dick Moore finds himself again, Leslie will retreat into some remote fastness of
• 5:46:29
  her soul where none of us can ever find her. Perhaps she will leave
• 5:46:33
  him, said Gilbert. Leslie would never do that, Gilbert. Her sense
• 5:46:37
  of duty is very strong. She told me once that her grandmother West always
• 5:46:41
  impressed upon her the fact that when she assumed any responsibility, she must never
• 5:46:47
  shirk it, no matter what the consequences might be. That is one of
• 5:46:49
  her cardinal rules. I suppose it's very old fashioned. Don't be bitter,
• 5:46:55
  and girl, you know you don't think it old fashioned. You know you
• 5:46:59
  have the very same idea of sacredness of assumed responsibilities herself, and you are
• 5:47:03
  right. Shirking responsibilities is the curse of our modern life, the secret of
• 5:47:08
  all the unrest and discontent that is seething in the world. Thus Saith.
• 5:47:12
  The preacher mocked Anne, but under the mockery, she felt that he was
• 5:47:17
  right, and she was very sick at heart for Leslie. A week later,
• 5:47:22
  Miss Cornelia descended like an avalanche upon the little house. Gilbert was away,
• 5:47:26
  and Anne was compelled to bear the shock of the impact alone. Miss
• 5:47:32
  Cornelia hardly waited to get her hat off before she began, Anne, do
• 5:47:36
  you mean to tell me it's true what I've heard? That doctor Blythe has
• 5:47:38
  told Leslie Dick can be cured, and that she's going to take him to
• 5:47:42
  Montreal to have him operated on. Yes, it is quite true, miss
• 5:47:45
  Cornelia, said Anne bravely. Well it's inhuman cruelty, that's what it is,
• 5:47:52
  said Miss Cornelia, violently agitated. I did think doctor Blythe was a
• 5:47:56
  decent man. I didn't think he could have been guilty of this. Doctor
• 5:48:00
  Blythe thought it was his duty to tell Leslie that there was a chance for
• 5:48:03
  Dick, said Anne, with spirit, and she added loyalty to Gilbert getting
• 5:48:08
  the better of her. I agree with him. Oh no you don't,
• 5:48:12
  deary, said Miss Cornelia. No person with any bowels of compassion could captain
• 5:48:18
  Jim does. Don't quote that old ninny to me, cried Miss Cornelia.
• 5:48:23
  And I don't care who agrees with him. Think think what it means to
• 5:48:26
  that poor hunted, harried girl. We do think of it. But Gilbert
• 5:48:32
  believes that a doctor should put the welfare of a patient's mind and body before
• 5:48:34
  all other considerations. That's just like a man. But I expected better things
• 5:48:41
  of you, Anne, said Miss Cornelia, more in sorrow than in wrath.
• 5:48:45
  Then she proceeded to bombard Anne with precisely the same arguments with which the
• 5:48:48
  latter had attacked Gilbert, and Anne valiantly defended her husband with the weapons he
• 5:48:53
  had used for his own protection. Long was the fray, but Miss Cornelia
• 5:48:57
  made an end at last. It's an iniquitous shame, she declared, almost
• 5:49:03
  in tears. That's just what it is, an iniquitous shame, Poor poor
• 5:49:07
  Leslie. Don't you think Dick should be considered a little too pleaded? Anne?
• 5:49:12
  Dick, Dick Moore, he's happy enough. He's a better behaved and
• 5:49:15
  more reputable member of society now than he ever was before. Why he was
• 5:49:19
  a drunkard and perhaps worse? Are you going to set him loose again to
• 5:49:23
  roar and to devour? He may reform, said poor Anne, beset by
• 5:49:27
  foe without and a traitor within. Reform, your grandmother retorted Miss Cornelia.
• 5:49:33
  Dick Moore got the injuries that left him as he is in a drunken brawl.
• 5:49:37
  He deserves his fate. It will scent on him for our punishment.
• 5:49:41
  I don't believe the doctor has any business to tamper with the visitations of God.
• 5:49:45
  Nobody knows how Dick was hurt, Miss Cornelia. It may not have
• 5:49:48
  been in a drunken brawl at all. He may have been waylaid and robbed.
• 5:49:52
  Pigs may whistle, but they've poor mouths for it, said Miss Cornelia.
• 5:49:56
  Well, the gist of what you tell me is that the thing is
• 5:49:59
  settled, and there's no use in talking. Is that? So I'll hold
• 5:50:02
  my tongue. I don't propose to wear my teeth out gnawing files. When
• 5:50:06
  a thing has to be, I give into it, But I like to
• 5:50:07
  make mighty shore first that it has to be. Now, I'll devote my
• 5:50:11
  energies to comforting and sustaining Leslie. And after all, added Miss Cornelia,
• 5:50:15
  brightening up, hopefully, perhaps nothing can be done for Dick. End of
• 5:50:21
  chapter thirty Chapter thirty one, The truth makes free. Leslie, having once
• 5:50:29
  made up her mind what to do, proceeded to do it with characteristic resolution
• 5:50:33
  and speed. House cleaning must be finished with first, whatever issues of life
• 5:50:37
  and death might await beyond the gray House up the Brook was put into flawless
• 5:50:42
  order and cleanliness, with Miss Cornelia's ready assistance. Miss Cornelia having said her
• 5:50:48
  say to Anne and later on to Gilbert and Captain Jim sparing. Neither of
• 5:50:52
  them, let it be assured, never spoke of the matter to Leslie.
• 5:50:56
  She accepted the fact of Dick's operation, referred to it when necessary in a
• 5:51:00
  business like way, and ignored it when it was not. Leslie never attempted
• 5:51:06
  to discuss it. She was very cold and quiet during these beautiful spring days.
• 5:51:11
  She seldom visited Anne, and though she was invariably courteous and friendly,
• 5:51:15
  that very courtesy was as an icy barrier between her and the people of the
• 5:51:19
  little house. The old jokes and laughter and chumminess of common things could not
• 5:51:25
  reach her over it. Anne refused to feel hurt. She knew that Leslie
• 5:51:30
  was in the grip of a hideous dread, a dread that wrapped her away
• 5:51:33
  from all little glimpses of happiness and hours of pleasure. When one great passion
• 5:51:40
  seizes possession of the soul, all other feelings are crowded aside. Never in
• 5:51:45
  all her life had Leslie Moore shuddered away from the future with more intolerable terror.
• 5:51:51
  But she went forward as unswervingly in the path she had elected, as
• 5:51:55
  the martyrs of old walked their chosen way, knowing the end of it to
• 5:51:57
  be the fiery agony of stake. The financial question was saddled with greater ease
• 5:52:03
  than Anne had feared. Leslie borrowed the necessary money from Captain Jim, and
• 5:52:08
  at her insistence, he took a mortgage on the little farm. So that
• 5:52:12
  is one thing off the poor girl's mind, miss Cornelia told Anne, and
• 5:52:17
  off mine too. Now, if Dick gets well enough to work again,
• 5:52:19
  he'll be able to earn enough to pay the interest on it. And if
• 5:52:22
  he doesn't, I know Captain Jim will manage some way that Leslie won't have
• 5:52:26
  to. He said as much to me. I'm getting old, Cornelia,
• 5:52:29
  he said, And I've no chick or child of my own. Leslie won't
• 5:52:32
  take a gift from a living man, but maybe she will from a dead
• 5:52:34
  one. So it will be all right as far as that goes. I
• 5:52:37
  wish everything else might be settled as satisfactorily. As for that wretch of a
• 5:52:41
  Dick, he's been awful these last few days. The devil was in him.
• 5:52:44
  Believe me, Leslie and I couldn't get on with our work for the
• 5:52:47
  tricks he'd play. He'd chased all her ducks one day around the yard,
• 5:52:49
  till most of them died, and not one thing would he do for us.
• 5:52:52
  Sometimes you know, he'll make himself quite handy, bringing in pails of
• 5:52:56
  water and wood. But this week, if we sent him to the well,
• 5:52:59
  he'd try to I'm down into it. I thought once, if only
• 5:53:00
  you'd shoot down their head first, everything would be nicely settled. Oh,
• 5:53:04
  Miss Cornelia, Now you needn't Miss Cornelia, me Anne, dearie. Anybody
• 5:53:08
  would have thought the same. If the Montreal doctors can make a rational creature
• 5:53:12
  out of Dick Moore, they're wonders. Leslie took Dick to Montreal early in
• 5:53:17
  May. Gilbert went with her to help her and make the necessary arrangements for
• 5:53:22
  her. He came home with the report that the Montreal surgeon whom they had
• 5:53:26
  consulted, agreed with him that there was a good chance of Dick's restoration.
• 5:53:30
  Very comforting was Miss Cornelia's sarcastic comment. Anne only sighed Leslie had been very
• 5:53:37
  distant at their parting, but she had promised to write. Ten days after
• 5:53:41
  Gilbert's return. The letter came. Leslie wrote that the operation had been successfully
• 5:53:47
  performed and that Dick was making a good recovery. What does she mean by
• 5:53:51
  successfully, asked Anne. Does she mean that Dick's memory is really restored?
• 5:53:56
  Not likely, since she says nothing of it, said Gilbert. She uses
• 5:54:02
  the word successfully. From the surgeon's point of view, the operation has been
• 5:54:07
  performed and followed by normal results. But it's too soon to know whether Dick's
• 5:54:11
  faculties will be eventually restored, hoy or in part. His memory would not
• 5:54:15
  be likely to return to him all at once. The process will be gradual
• 5:54:21
  if it occurs at all. Is that all she says? Yes, there's
• 5:54:25
  her letter. It's very short, poor girl. She must be under a
• 5:54:29
  terrible strain, Gilbert, blythe there are heaps of things I long to say
• 5:54:33
  to you, only it would be mean. Miss Cornelia says them for you,
• 5:54:37
  said Gilbert, with a rueful smile. She comes me down every time
• 5:54:41
  I encounter her. She makes it plain to me that she regards me as
• 5:54:45
  little better than a murderer, and that she thinks it a great pity that
• 5:54:48
  doctor Dave ever let me step into his shoes. She even told me that
• 5:54:52
  the Methodist doctor over the Harbor has to be preferred before me, who with
• 5:54:56
  miss Cornelia the force of condemnation can no further go. If Cornelia Bryant was
• 5:55:00
  sick, it wouldn't be doctor Dave or the Methodist doctor she'd send for,
• 5:55:04
  sniffed, Susan, she'd have you out of your had in bed in the
• 5:55:08
  middle of the night, doctor dear. If she took a spell of misery,
• 5:55:11
  that she would, and then she would likely say your bill was past
• 5:55:14
  all reason. But do not mind, dear, doctor dear. It takes
• 5:55:18
  all kinds of people to make a world. No further word came from Leslie
• 5:55:21
  for some time. The May days crept away in a sweet succession, and
• 5:55:26
  the shores of Four Winds Harbor greened and bloomed and purpled. One day in
• 5:55:30
  late May, Gilbert came home to be met by Susan in the stable yard.
• 5:55:34
  I'm afraid something is upset missus, doctor, doctor dear, she said,
• 5:55:38
  mysteriously. She got letter this afternoon, and since then she's been walking
• 5:55:42
  about the garden talking to herself. You know, it's not good for her
• 5:55:45
  to be on her feet too much, doctor dear. She did not see
• 5:55:48
  it fits tell me what the news was. And I am no pride,
• 5:55:51
  doctor dear, and never was, but it is plain something is upset her
• 5:55:55
  and it is not good for her to be upset. Gilbert hurried rather anxiously
• 5:55:59
  to the garden. Had anything happened at Green Gables? But Anne, sitting
• 5:56:03
  on the rustic seat by the brook, did not look troubled, though she
• 5:56:07
  was certainly much excited. Her eyes were their grayest, and scarlet spots burned
• 5:56:11
  on her cheeks. What has happened? Then, Anne gave a queer little
• 5:56:15
  laugh. I think you'll hardly believe it when I tell you, Gilbert,
• 5:56:19
  I can't believe it yet. As Susan said the other day, I feel
• 5:56:23
  like a fly coming to live in the sun, dazed like it's also incredible.
• 5:56:30
  I've read the letter a score of times, and every time it's just
• 5:56:33
  the same. I can't believe my own eyes. Oh, Gilbert, you
• 5:56:37
  were right, so right. I can see that clearly enough now. And
• 5:56:41
  I'm so ashamed of myself. And will you ever really forgive me? Anne?
• 5:56:45
  I'll shake you if you don't grow coherent. Redmond would be ashamed of
• 5:56:48
  you. What has happened? You won't believe it, You won't believe it.
• 5:56:53
  I'm going to phone for Uncle Dave, said Gilbert, pretending to start
• 5:56:56
  for the house. Sit down Gilbert, I'll try to tell you I've had
• 5:57:00
  a letter, And oh, Gilbert, it's also amazing, so incredibly amazing.
• 5:57:06
  We never thought, not one of us ever dreamed, I suppose,
• 5:57:11
  said Gilbert, sitting down with a resigned air. The only thing to do
• 5:57:15
  in a case of this kind is to have patience and go at the matter
• 5:57:18
  categorically. Whom is your letter from? Leslie? And oh, Gilbert,
• 5:57:23
  Leslie, whew, what is she to say? What's the news about Dick?
• 5:57:27
  Anne lifted the letter and held it out, calmly, dramatic in a
• 5:57:32
  moment. There is no Dick the man we have thought Dick Moore, whom
• 5:57:37
  everybody in four Wins has believed for twelve years to be. Dick Moore is
• 5:57:41
  his cousin, George Moore of Nova Scotia, who it seems always resembled him
• 5:57:48
  very strikingly. Dick Moore died of yellow fever thirteen years ago in Cuba.
• 5:57:55
  End of chapter thirty one. Chapter thirty two, Miss Cornelia discusses the affair,
• 5:58:03
  and do you mean to tell me, Anne, dearie, that Dick
• 5:58:04
  Moore has turned out not to be Dick Moore at all? But somebody else
• 5:58:08
  is that what you find up to me today. Yes, Miss Cornelia,
• 5:58:11
  it is very amazing, isn't it. It's just like a man, said
• 5:58:18
  Miss Cornelia helplessly. She took off her hat with trembling fingers. For once
• 5:58:22
  in her life, Miss Cornelia was undeniably staggered. I can't seem to sense
• 5:58:27
  it, Anne, she said, I've heard you say it, and I
• 5:58:30
  believe you, but I can't take it in. Dick Morre is dead,
• 5:58:34
  has been did all these years, and Leslie is free. Yes, the
• 5:58:38
  truth has made her free. Gilbert was right when he said that verse was
• 5:58:42
  the grandest in the Bible. Tell me everything, Anne, dearie. Since
• 5:58:45
  I got your phone, I've been in a regular muddle. Believe me.
• 5:58:49
  Cornelia Bryant was never sirk of Plummeux before. There isn't a very great deal
• 5:58:53
  to tell. Leslie's letter was short. She didn't go into particulars. This
• 5:58:59
  Maneorge Moore, has recovered his memory and knows who he is. He says
• 5:59:03
  Dick took yellow fever in Cuba and the four sisters had to sail without him.
• 5:59:07
  George stayed behind to nurse him, but he died very shortly afterwards.
• 5:59:12
  George did not write Leslie because he intended to come right home and tell her
• 5:59:17
  himself. And why didn't he? I suppose his accident must have intervened.
• 5:59:22
  Gilbert says it is quite likely that George Moore remembers nothing of his accident or
• 5:59:26
  what led to it, and may never remember it. It probably happened very
• 5:59:30
  soon after Dick's death. We may find out more particulars when Leslie writes again.
• 5:59:33
  Does she say what she's going to do? When is she coming home?
• 5:59:37
  She says she will stay with George Moore until he can leave the hospital.
• 5:59:41
  She has written to his people in Nova Scotia. It seems that George's
• 5:59:45
  only near relative is a married sister much older than himself. She was living
• 5:59:49
  when George sailed on the four sisters. But of course we do not know
• 5:59:52
  what may have happened. Since did you ever see George Moore, miss Cornelia?
• 5:59:57
  I did. It's all coming back to me. He was here visiting
• 6:00:00
  his uncle Abner eighteen years ago, when he and Dick would be about seventeen.
• 6:00:04
  They were double cousins, you see. Their fathers were brothers, and
• 6:00:07
  their mothers were twin sisters. And they did look a terrible lot alike,
• 6:00:11
  of course, added Miss Cornelia scornfully. It wasn't one of those freak resemblances
• 6:00:15
  you read of in novels where two people are so much alike that they can
• 6:00:18
  fill each other's places and their nearest and dearest can't tell between them. In
• 6:00:22
  those days, you could tell easy enough which was George and which was Dick
• 6:00:25
  if you saw them together and near at hand, apart or some distance away.
• 6:00:27
  It wasn't so easy. They played lots of tricks on people and thought
• 6:00:30
  it great fun the two scamps. George Moore was a little taller and a
• 6:00:33
  good deal fatter than Dick, though neither of them was what you would call
• 6:00:37
  fat. They were both the lean kind. Dick had a higher color than
• 6:00:40
  George, and his hair was a shade lighter, but their features were just
• 6:00:42
  alike, and they both had that queer freak of eyes, one blue and
• 6:00:45
  one hazel. They weren't much alike in any other way, though. George
• 6:00:48
  was a real nice fellow, though he was a scallawag of a mischief,
• 6:00:52
  and some said he had a liking for a glass even then, but everyone
• 6:00:55
  liked him much better than Dick. He spent about a month here Leslie never
• 6:00:59
  saw him. She was only about eight or nine then, and I remember
• 6:01:00
  now that she spent that whole winter over Harbor with her grandmother West. Captain
• 6:01:04
  Jim was away too. That was the winter he was wrecked on the Magdalens.
• 6:01:07
  I don't suppose either he or Leslie had ever heard about the Nova Scotia
• 6:01:11
  cousin looking so much like Dick, nobody ever thought of him when Captain Jim
• 6:01:15
  brought Dick George, I should say home. Of course, we all thought
• 6:01:18
  Dick had changed considerable. He's got so lumpish and fat, but we put
• 6:01:21
  that down to what had happened to him, and no doubt that was the
• 6:01:23
  reason for us. I've said, George wasn't fat to begin with either,
• 6:01:26
  and there was no other way we could have guessed, for the man's senses
• 6:01:29
  were clean gone. I can't say that it's any wonder we were all deceived,
• 6:01:33
  but it's a staggering thing, and Leslie has sacrificed the best years of
• 6:01:37
  her life to nursing a man who hadn't any claim on her. Oh,
• 6:01:40
  drat them in no matter what they do, it's the wrong thing, And
• 6:01:42
  no matter who they are, at somebody they shouldn't be they do exasperate me.
• 6:01:45
  Gilbert and Captain Jim are men, and it is through them that the
• 6:01:49
  truth has been discovered at last, said Anne. Well, I admit that,
• 6:01:53
  conceded Miss Cornelia reluctantly. I'm sorry I raked the doctor off. So
• 6:01:57
  it's the first time my life I've ever felt ashamed of anything I said to
• 6:02:00
  a man. I don't know as I shall tell him so, though,
• 6:02:03
  he'll just have to take it for granted. Well, and Dearie, it's
• 6:02:06
  a mercy. The Lord doesn't answer all our prayers. I've been praying right
• 6:02:08
  hard along that the operation wouldn't cure Dick. Of course I didn't put it
• 6:02:12
  just quite so plain, but that was what was at the back of my
• 6:02:15
  mind, and I have no doubt the Lord knew it. Well. He
• 6:02:18
  has answered the spirit of your prayer. You really wished that things shouldn't be
• 6:02:22
  made any harder for Leslie. I'm afraid that, in my secret heart,
• 6:02:25
  I've been hoping the operation wouldn't succeed, and I am wholesomely ashamed of it.
• 6:02:30
  How does Leslie seem to take it? She writes, like one dazed
• 6:02:33
  I think that like ourselves, she hardly realizes it. Yet she says,
• 6:02:38
  it all seems like a strange dream to me. Anne, That is the
• 6:02:41
  only reference she makes to herself, poor child. I suppose when the chains
• 6:02:45
  are struck off a prisoner he'd feel queer and lost without them for a while.
• 6:02:49
  And Dearie, here's a thought keeps coming into my mind. What about
• 6:02:52
  owen Ford. We both know Leslie was fond of him? Did it ever
• 6:02:56
  occur to you that he was fond of her? It did, once,
• 6:03:00
  admitted Anne, feeling that she might say so much. Well, I hadn't
• 6:03:06
  any reason to think he was, but it appeared to me he must be,
• 6:03:08
  now, Anne, deary, the Lord knows I'm not a match maker,
• 6:03:11
  and I scorn all such doings. But if I were you and write
• 6:03:14
  into that Ford man, I'd just mention, casual, like what has happened.
• 6:03:18
  That's what i'd do. Of course, I will mention it when I
• 6:03:19
  write him, said Anne, a trifle distantly. Somehow this was a thing
• 6:03:25
  she could not discussed with Miss Cornelia, And yet she had to admit that
• 6:03:30
  the same thought had been lurking in her mind ever since she had heard of
• 6:03:33
  Leslie's freedom. But she would not desecrate it by free speech. Of course,
• 6:03:37
  there's no great rush, deary, But dick More has been dead for
• 6:03:40
  thirteen years and Leslie has wasted enough of her life for him. We'll just
• 6:03:44
  see what comes of it. As for this George Moore, who's gone and
• 6:03:45
  come back to life when everyone thought he was dead and done for, just
• 6:03:48
  like a man, I feel real sorry for him. He won't seem to
• 6:03:52
  fit in anywhere. He is still a young man, and if he recovers
• 6:03:55
  completely, as seems likely, he will be able to make a place for
• 6:03:59
  himself again. It must be very strange for him, poor fellow. I
• 6:04:03
  suppose all these years since his accident will not exist for him. End of
• 6:04:08
  Chapter thirty two. Chapter thirty three, Leslie returns. A fortnight later,
• 6:04:17
  Leslie Moore came home alone to the old house where she had spent so many
• 6:04:21
  bitter years. In the June twilight. She went over the fields to Anne's
• 6:04:25
  and appeared with ghost like suddenness in the scented garden. Leslie cried Anne in
• 6:04:30
  amazement, where have you sprung from? We never knew you were coming.
• 6:04:36
  Why didn't you write? We would have met you. I couldn't write somehow,
• 6:04:40
  Anne, it seemed so futile to try to say anything with a pen
• 6:04:42
  and ink, and I wanted to get back quietly and unobserved. Anne put
• 6:04:47
  her arms about Leslie and kissed her. Leslie returned the kiss warmly. She
• 6:04:52
  looked pale and tired, and she gave a little sigh as she dropped down
• 6:04:56
  on the grasses beside a great bed of daffodils that were gleaming through the pale,
• 6:05:00
  silvery twilight like golden stars. And you have come home alone, Leslie.
• 6:05:06
  Yes, George Moore's sister came to Montreal and took him home with her.
• 6:05:10
  Poor fellow. He was sorry to part with me. Though I was
• 6:05:12
  a stranger to him. When his memory first came back, he clung to
• 6:05:15
  me in those first hard days when he was trying to realize that Dick's death
• 6:05:19
  was not a thing of yesterday, that it seemed to him. I helped
• 6:05:22
  him all I could. When his sister came, it was easier for him
• 6:05:26
  because it seemed to him only the other day that he had last seen her.
• 6:05:30
  Fortunately, she had not changed much, and that helped him too.
• 6:05:33
  It is all so strange and wonderful, Leslie. I think we None of
• 6:05:37
  us realize it, yet I cannot. When I went to the house over
• 6:05:41
  there an hour ago, I felt that it must be a dream, that
• 6:05:45
  Dick must be there with his childish smile as he had been for so long,
• 6:05:48
  and I seemed stunned. Yet I am not glad or sorry or anything.
• 6:05:53
  I feel as if something had been torn suddenly out of my life and
• 6:05:56
  left a terrible hole. I feel as if I couldn't be I, as
• 6:06:02
  if I must have changed into somebody else and couldn't get used to it.
• 6:06:06
  It gives me a horrible, lonely, dazed, helpless feeling. It's good
• 6:06:10
  to see you again. It seems as if you were a sort of anchor
• 6:06:11
  for my drifting soul. Oh Anne, I dread it, all the gossip
• 6:06:17
  and the wonderment and questioning. When I think of that, I wish I
• 6:06:21
  need not have come home at all. Doctor Dave was at the station when
• 6:06:23
  I came off the train. He brought me home. Poor old man.
• 6:06:27
  He feels very badly because he told me years ago that nothing could be done
• 6:06:32
  for Dick. I honestly thought so, Leslie, he said to me to
• 6:06:34
  day. But I should have told you not to depend on my opinion,
• 6:06:37
  I should have told you to go to a specialist. If I had,
• 6:06:41
  you would have saved so many bitter years, and poor George Moore many wasted
• 6:06:45
  ones. I blame myself very much, Leslie. I told him not to
• 6:06:48
  do that. He had done what he thought right. He has always been
• 6:06:52
  so kind to me. I couldn't bear to see him worrying over it.
• 6:06:56
  And Dick, George, I mean, is his memory fully restored practically?
• 6:07:02
  Of course, there are a great many details he can't recall yet, but
• 6:07:06
  he remembers more and more every day. He went out for a walk on
• 6:07:08
  the evening after Dick was buried. He had Dick's money and watch on him.
• 6:07:12
  He meant to bring them home to me, along with my letter.
• 6:07:15
  He admits. He went to a place where the sailors resorted, and he
• 6:07:18
  remembers drinking and nothing else. Anne, I shall never forget the moment he
• 6:07:23
  remembered his own name. I saw him looking at me with an intelligent but
• 6:07:27
  puzzled expression. I said, do you know me? Dick? He answered,
• 6:07:32
  I never saw you before. Who are you? And my name is
• 6:07:34
  not Dick. I am George Moore. And Dick died of yellow fever yesterday?
• 6:07:38
  Where am I? What has happened to me? I I've fainted,
• 6:07:42
  Anne, and ever since I have felt as if I were in a dream.
• 6:07:48
  You will soon adjust yourself to this new state of things, Leslie,
• 6:07:51
  and you are young. Life is before you. You will have many beautiful
• 6:07:56
  years. Yet perhaps I shall be able to look at it in that way
• 6:07:59
  after a while. Why, Anne, just now I feel too tired and
• 6:08:02
  indifferent to think about the future. I'm I'm Anne, I'm lonely. I
• 6:08:07
  missed Dick. Isn't it all very strange? Do you know? I was
• 6:08:11
  really fond of poor Dick George. I suppose I should say, just as
• 6:08:15
  I would have been fond of a helpless child who depended on me for everything.
• 6:08:19
  I would never have admitted it. I was really ashamed of it,
• 6:08:22
  because you see, I had hated and despised Dick so much before he went
• 6:08:26
  away. When I heard that Captain Jim was bringing him home, I expected
• 6:08:30
  I would feel just the same to him. But I never did, although
• 6:08:33
  I continued to loathe him as I remembered him before, From the time he
• 6:08:37
  came home, I felt only pity, a pity that hurt and wrung me.
• 6:08:42
  I supposed then that it was just because his accident had made him so
• 6:08:45
  helpless and changed, but now I believe it was because there was really a
• 6:08:49
  different personality there. Carlo knew it, Anne, I know now that Carlo
• 6:08:55
  knew it. I always thought it strange that Carlo shouldn't have known Dick.
• 6:08:57
  Dogs are usually so faithful, but he knew it was not his master who
• 6:09:03
  had come back, although none of the rest of us did. I had
• 6:09:06
  never seen George Moore, you know. I remember now that Dick once mentioned
• 6:09:10
  casually that he had a cousin in Nova Scotia who looked as much like him
• 6:09:14
  as a twin. But the thing had gone out of my memory, and
• 6:09:17
  in any case, I would have never thought it of any importance. You
• 6:09:19
  see, it never occurred to me to question Dick's identity, and he changed
• 6:09:23
  in him seemed to me just the result of the accident. Oh Anne,
• 6:09:26
  that night in April, when Gilbert told me he thought Dick might be cured,
• 6:09:30
  I can never forget it. It seemed to me that I had been
• 6:09:33
  once a prisoner in a hideous cage of torture, and then the door had
• 6:09:37
  been opened and I could get out. I was still chained to the cage,
• 6:09:41
  but was not in it, And that night I felt that a merciless
• 6:09:45
  hand was drawing me back into the cage, back to a torture even more
• 6:09:48
  terrible than it had once been. I didn't blame Gilbert. I felt he
• 6:09:52
  was right and he had been very good. He said that if in view
• 6:09:56
  of the expense and uncertainty of the operation, I should decide not to risk
• 6:10:00
  it, he would not blame me in the least. But I knew how
• 6:10:03
  I ought to decide, and I couldn't face it. All night, I
• 6:10:07
  walked the floor like a mad woman, trying to compel myself to face it.
• 6:10:11
  I couldn't, Anne, I thought I couldn't, And when morning broke,
• 6:10:14
  I set my teeth and resolved that I wouldn't. I would let things
• 6:10:18
  remain as they were. It was very wicked. I know it would have
• 6:10:22
  been just punishment for such wickedness if I had just been left to abide by
• 6:10:26
  that decision. I kept to it all day. That afternoon I had to
• 6:10:30
  go up to the glen to do some shopping. It was one of Dick's
• 6:10:33
  quiet, drowsy days, so I had just left him alone. I was
• 6:10:36
  gone a little longer than I had expected, and he missed me. He
• 6:10:38
  felt lonely, and when I got home, he ran to meet me,
• 6:10:41
  just like a child, with such a pleased smile in his face. Somehow,
• 6:10:45
  Anne, I just gave way. Then that smile in his poor,
• 6:10:49
  vacant face was more than I could endure. I felt as if I were
• 6:10:53
  denying a child the chance to grow and develop. I knew that I must
• 6:10:56
  give him his chance, no matter what the concepts as might be. So
• 6:11:00
  I came over and told Gilbert, Oh, Anne, you must have thought
• 6:11:04
  me hateful in those weeks before I went away. I didn't mean to be,
• 6:11:10
  but I couldn't think of anything except what I had to do, and
• 6:11:12
  everything and everybody about me were like shadows. I know, I understand,
• 6:11:18
  Leslie. And now it is all over. Your chain is broken. There
• 6:11:22
  is no cage. There is no cage, repeated Leslie, absently plucking at
• 6:11:27
  the fringing grasses with her slender brown hands. But it doesn't seem as if
• 6:11:32
  there were anything else. Anne, You you remember that I told you of
• 6:11:36
  my folly that night on the sandbar. I find one doesn't get over being
• 6:11:40
  a fool very quickly. Sometimes I think there are people who are fools forever,
• 6:11:45
  and to be a fool of that kind is almost as bad as being
• 6:11:49
  a dog on a chain. You will feel very differently after you get over
• 6:11:55
  being tired and bewildered, said Anne, who, knowing a certain thing that
• 6:11:59
  Leslie did not know, did not feel herself called upon to waste over much
• 6:12:03
  sympathy. Leslie laid her splendid golden head against Anne's knee. Anyhow I have
• 6:12:10
  you, she said, Life can't be altogether empty with such a friend.
• 6:12:15
  Anne pat my head just as if fire were a little girl. Mother me
• 6:12:18
  a bit, and let me tell you, while my stubborn tongue is loosed
• 6:12:22
  a little, just what you and your comradeship have meant to me since that
• 6:12:25
  night I met you on the rock shore. End of chapter thirty three.
• 6:12:30
  Chapter thirty four, The Ship of Dreams comes to Harbor. One morning,
• 6:12:36
  when a windy, golden sunrise was billowing over the gulf in waves of light,
• 6:12:40
  a certain weary stork flew over the bar of four winds Harbor, on
• 6:12:44
  his way from the land of evening Stars. Under his wing was tucked a
• 6:12:48
  sleepy, starry eyed little creature. The stork was tired, and he looked
• 6:12:52
  wistfully about him. He knew he was somewhere near his destination, but he
• 6:12:57
  could not yet see it. The big white lighthouse on the red Sandstone Cliff
• 6:13:02
  had its good points, but no stork possessed of any gumption would leave a
• 6:13:06
  new velvet baby there. An old gray house surrounded by willows in a blossomy
• 6:13:11
  brook valley looked more promising, but did not seem quite the thing either.
• 6:13:17
  The staring green abode further on was manifestly out of the question. Then the
• 6:13:21
  stork brightened up. He had caught sight of the very place, a little
• 6:13:26
  white house nestled against a big whispering fir wood, with a spiral of blue
• 6:13:30
  smoke winding up from its kitchen chimney, a house which just looked as if
• 6:13:33
  it were meant for babies. The stork gave a sigh of satisfaction and softly
• 6:13:38
  alighted on the ridge pole. Half an hour later, Gilbert ran down the
• 6:13:44
  hall and tapped on the spare room door. A drowsy voice answered him,
• 6:13:48
  and in a moment Marilla's pale, scared face peeped out from behind the door.
• 6:13:52
  Marilla, Anne has sent me to tell you that a certain young gentleman
• 6:13:56
  has arrived here. He hasn't brought much lugg with him, but he evidently
• 6:14:00
  means to stay for pity's sake, said Marilla blankly. You don't mean to
• 6:14:07
  tell me, Gilbert that it's all over. Why wasn't I called? Anne?
• 6:14:11
  Wouldn't let us disturb you when there was no need? Nobody was called
• 6:14:15
  until about two hours ago. There was no passage perilous this time. And
• 6:14:21
  and Gilbert, will this baby live? He certainly will. He weighs ten
• 6:14:26
  pounds, and why listen to him? Nothing wrong with his lungs? Is
• 6:14:30
  there? The nurse says, his hair will be red. Han's furious with
• 6:14:34
  her, And I'm tickled to death. That was a wonderful day in the
• 6:14:37
  little house of dreams. The best dream of all has come true, said
• 6:14:44
  Anne, pale and rapturous. Oh Marilla, I hardly dare believe it.
• 6:14:48
  After that horrible day last summer, I have had a heartache ever since then.
• 6:14:53
  But it is gone now. This baby will take Joy's place, said
• 6:14:59
  Marilla. Oh no, no, no, Marilla. He can't, nothing
• 6:15:03
  can ever do that. He has his own place, my dear wee manchild.
• 6:15:08
  But little joy has hers and always will have it. If she had
• 6:15:12
  lived, she would have been over a year old. She would have been
• 6:15:15
  toddling around on her tiny feet and lisping a few words. I can see
• 6:15:19
  her so plainly, Marilla. Oh, I know now that Captain Jim was
• 6:15:22
  right when he said God would manage better than that. My baby would seem
• 6:15:26
  a stranger to me when I found her beyond I've learned that this past year.
• 6:15:30
  I've followed her development day by day and week by week. I always
• 6:15:34
  shall. I shall know just how she grows from year to year, and
• 6:15:38
  when I meet her again, I'll know her. She won't be a stranger.
• 6:15:42
  Oh, Marilla, look at his dear darling toes. Isn't it strange?
• 6:15:48
  They should be so perfect? It would be stranger if they weren't,
• 6:15:52
  said Marilla crisply. Now that all was safely over, Marilla was herself again.
• 6:15:56
  Oh I know, but it seems as if they couldn't be quite finished,
• 6:16:00
  you know, And they are, even to the tiny nails and his
• 6:16:04
  hands. Just look at his hands, Marilla, they appear to be a
• 6:16:08
  good deal like hands, Marilla conceded. See how he clings to my finger.
• 6:16:14
  I'm sure he knows me already. He cries when the nurse takes him
• 6:16:18
  away. Oh, Marilla, do you think you don't think, do you
• 6:16:22
  that his hair is going to be red. I don't see much hair of
• 6:16:25
  any color, said Marilla. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.
• 6:16:30
  Until it becomes visible, Marilla, he has hair. Look at that
• 6:16:33
  fine little down all over his head anyway, nurse says. His eyes will
• 6:16:37
  be hazel, and his forehead is exactly like Gilbert's, and he is the
• 6:16:41
  nicest at Lee's. Missus doctor dear, said Susan. The first thing I
• 6:16:45
  did was look at his e is. Hair is deceitful, and noses and
• 6:16:48
  eyes change, and you cannot tell what's going to come of them. But
• 6:16:52
  Ea is his, he is from start to finish, and you always know
• 6:16:55
  where you are with them. Just look at their shape, and they are
• 6:16:57
  set right back against his precious You will never need to be ashamed of his
• 6:17:02
  ears. Missus Doctadea. Anne's convalescence was rapid and happy. Folks came and
• 6:17:07
  worshiped the baby as people have bowed before the kingship of the newborn since long
• 6:17:11
  before the wise men of the East knelt an homage to the royal Babe of
• 6:17:15
  the Bethlehem. Manger Leslie, slowly finding herself amid the new conditions of her
• 6:17:21
  life, hovered over it like a beautiful, golden crowned madonna. Miss Cornelia
• 6:17:26
  nursed it as naccily as could any mother in Israel. Captain Jim held the
• 6:17:30
  small creature in his big brown hands and gazed tenderly at it with eyes that
• 6:17:34
  saw the children who had never been born to him. What are you going
• 6:17:38
  to call him, asked Miss Cornelia. Anne has settled his name, answered
• 6:17:44
  Gilbert. James Matthew after the two finest gentlemen I've ever known, not even
• 6:17:48
  saving your presents, said Anne, with a saucy glance at Gilbert. Gilbert
• 6:17:53
  smiled. I never knew Matthew very well. He was so shy we boys
• 6:17:57
  couldn't get acquainted with him. But I quite agree with you that Captain Jim
• 6:18:00
  is one of the rarest and finest tools god ever clothed in clay. He's
• 6:18:06
  so delighted over the fact that we've given his name to our small lad it
• 6:18:08
  seems he has no other namesake well. James Matthew is a name that will
• 6:18:12
  wear well and not fade in the washing, said Miss Cornelia, I'm glad
• 6:18:17
  you didn't load him down with some high for Luton romantic name that he'd be
• 6:18:21
  ashamed of when he gets to be a grandfather. Missus William Drew at the
• 6:18:23
  Glen has called her baby Bertie Shakespeare. Quite a combination, isn't it.
• 6:18:27
  And I'm glad you haven't had much trouble picking on a name. Some folks
• 6:18:32
  have an awful time. When the Stanley Flaggs first boy was born, there
• 6:18:34
  was so much rivalry as to who the child should be named for that the
• 6:18:37
  poor little soul had to go for two years without a name. Then a
• 6:18:41
  brother came along and there it was big baby and little baby. Finally they
• 6:18:45
  called big Baby Peter and little Baby Isaac after the two grandfathers, and had
• 6:18:48
  them both christened together, and each tried to see if it couldn't howl the
• 6:18:52
  other down. You know that Highland Scotch family of McNabb's back of the Glen.
• 6:18:56
  They've got twelve boys, and the oldest and the younger are both called
• 6:19:00
  Neil, Big Neil and Little Neil in the same family. I suppose I
• 6:19:03
  ran out of names I have read somewhere, laughed Anne, that the first
• 6:19:07
  child is a poem, but the tenth is very prosy prose. Perhaps Missus
• 6:19:12
  McNabb thought that the twelfth was merely an old tale retold. Well, there's
• 6:19:17
  something to be said for large families, said miss Cornelia with a sigh.
• 6:19:21
  I was an only child for eight years, and I did long for a
• 6:19:22
  brother and sister. Mother told me to pray for one, and pray I
• 6:19:26
  did, believe me. Well, one day Aunt Nellie came to me and
• 6:19:30
  said, Cornelia, there's a little brother for you upstairs in your mar's room.
• 6:19:33
  You can go up and see him. I was so excited and delighted.
• 6:19:37
  I just flew upstairs, and old missus Slagg lifted up the baby for
• 6:19:41
  me to see. Lord and deary. I was never so disappointed in my
• 6:19:45
  life. You see, I'd been praying for a brother two years older than
• 6:19:48
  myself. How long did it take you to get over your disappointment, asked
• 6:19:52
  Anne amid her laughter. Well, I had a spite of providence for a
• 6:19:56
  good spell, and for weeks I wouldn't even look at the baby. He
• 6:20:00
  knew, wife or I never told. Then he began to get real cute,
• 6:20:03
  and held out his wee hands to me, and I began to get
• 6:20:04
  fond of him, but I didn't really get reconciled to him until one day
• 6:20:08
  a school chum came to see me and said she thought he was awful small
• 6:20:11
  for his age. I just got boiling mad, and I sailed right into
• 6:20:15
  her and told her she didn't know a nice baby when she saw one,
• 6:20:18
  and ours was the nicest baby in the world. And after that I just
• 6:20:22
  worshiped him. Mother died before he was three years old, and I was
• 6:20:25
  sister and mother to him, both, poor little lad He was never strong,
• 6:20:27
  and he died when he wasn't much over twenty since to me, I'd
• 6:20:30
  have given anything on earth. Anne, deary, if only he'd lived,
• 6:20:34
  Miss Cornelia sighed. Gilbert had gone down, and Leslie, who had been
• 6:20:40
  crooning over the small James Matthew in the dormer window, led him asleep in
• 6:20:44
  his basket and went her way. As soon as she was safely out of
• 6:20:47
  earshot, Miss Cornelia bent forward and said, in a conspirator's whisper, and
• 6:20:52
  deary, I'd a letter from owen Ford yesterday. He's in Vancouver just now,
• 6:20:56
  but he wants to No, if I can board him for a month
• 6:20:59
  later on. You know what that means. Well, I hope we're doing
• 6:21:02
  right. We've nothing to do with it. We couldn't prevent him from coming
• 6:21:06
  to Four Winds if you wanted to, said Anne quickly. She did not
• 6:21:11
  like the feeling of match making Miss Cornelia's whispers gave her, and then she
• 6:21:15
  weakly succumbed herself. Don't let Leslie know he is coming until he is here,
• 6:21:19
  she said. If she found out, I feel sure she would go
• 6:21:22
  away at once. She intends to go in the fall, anyhow, she
• 6:21:26
  told me so the other day. She is going to Montreal to take up
• 6:21:30
  nursing and make what she can of her life. Oh well, Anne,
• 6:21:33
  dearie, said Miss Cornelia, nodding sagely. That is all as it may
• 6:21:37
  be. You and I have done their part, and we must leave the
• 6:21:40
  wrist to hire a hands. End of Chapter thirty four. Chapter thirty five,
• 6:21:47
  Politics at four Wins. When Anne came downstairs again, the island,
• 6:21:52
  as well as all Canada, was in the throes of a campaign preceding a
• 6:21:56
  general election. Gilbert, who was an ardent Conservative, found himself caught in
• 6:22:02
  the vortex, being much in demand for speech making at the various county rallies.
• 6:22:07
  Miss Cornelia did not approve of his mixing up in politics and told Anne,
• 6:22:11
  so doctor Dave never did it. Doctor Blythe will find he is making
• 6:22:15
  a mistake. Believe me, politics is something no decent man should meddle with.
• 6:22:18
  Is the government of the country to be left solely to the rogues,
• 6:22:22
  then asked Anne, Yes, so long as it's conservative rogues, said Miss
• 6:22:26
  Cornelia, marching off with the honors of war. Men and politicians are all
• 6:22:32
  tired with the same brush. The Grits have laid it on thicker than the
• 6:22:34
  Conservatives. That's all considerably thicker, but Grit or Tory. My advice to
• 6:22:40
  doctor Blythe is to steer clear of politics. First thing, you know,
• 6:22:42
  he'll be running an election himself and going off to Ottawa for half the year
• 6:22:47
  and leaving his practice to go to the dogs. Ah well, let's not
• 6:22:51
  borrow trouble, said Anne. The rate of interest is too high. Instead,
• 6:22:56
  let's look at little jem It should be spelled with a G. Isn't
• 6:23:00
  he perfectly beautiful? Just see the dimples in his elbows. We'll bring him
• 6:23:04
  up to be a good Conservative. You and I, Miss Cornelia, bring
• 6:23:07
  him up to be a good man, said Miss Cornelia. They're scarce and
• 6:23:11
  valuable, though, mind you, I wouldn't like to see him a grit.
• 6:23:15
  As for the election, you and I may be thankful we don't live
• 6:23:18
  over harbor. The air there is blue these days. Every Elliott and Crawford
• 6:23:22
  and McAllister is on the warpath loaded for bear. This side is peaceful and
• 6:23:26
  calm, seeing there's so few men. Captain Jim's a grit, but it's
• 6:23:29
  my opinion he's ashamed of it, for he never talks politics. There isn't
• 6:23:33
  any earthly doubt that the Conservatives will be returned with a big majority again,
• 6:23:37
  Miss Cornelia was mistaken. On the morning after the election, Captain Jim dropped
• 6:23:41
  in at the Little House to tell the news. So virulent is the microbe
• 6:23:45
  of party politics even in a peaceable old man that Captain Jim's cheeks were flushed
• 6:23:51
  and his eyes were flashing with all his old time. Fire Mistress blythe the
• 6:23:56
  Liberals are in with a sweep and majority. Half to eighteen years of Tory
• 6:24:02
  mismanagement, This down trodden country is going to have a chance at last.
• 6:24:07
  I never heard you make such a bitter partisan speech before, Captain Jim.
• 6:24:11
  I didn't think you had so much political venom in you, laughed Anne,
• 6:24:15
  who was not much excited over the tidings. Little Jem had said Wauga that
• 6:24:19
  morning. What were principalities and powers? The rise and fall of dynasties,
• 6:24:25
  the overthrow of Grit or Tory? Compared with that miraculous occurrence, it's been
• 6:24:30
  accumulating for a long while, said Captain Jim with a deprecating smile. I
• 6:24:36
  thought I was only a moderate Grit, but when the news came that we
• 6:24:41
  were in, I found out how gritty I really was. You know,
• 6:24:45
  the doctor and I are conservatives. Ah, well, it's the only bad
• 6:24:49
  thing I know of either of you. Mistress Blyth. Cornelia is a Tory
• 6:24:53
  too. I called in on my way from the glen to tell her the
• 6:24:57
  news. Didn't you know you took your life in your hands. Yes,
• 6:25:03
  but I couldn't resist the temptation. How did she take it? Comparatively calm?
• 6:25:08
  Mistress blythe comparatively calm, she says, says, she Well, providence
• 6:25:15
  and seasons of humiliation to a country, same as to individuals. You grits
• 6:25:22
  have been cold and hungry for many a year. Make haste to get warmed
• 6:25:26
  and fed, for you won't be in long well now, Cornelia I says,
• 6:25:33
  maybe Providence thinks Canada needs a real long spell of humiliation. Ah,
• 6:25:40
  Susan, have you heard the news the Liberals are in? Susan had just
• 6:25:45
  come in from the kitchen, attended by the odor of delectable dishes, which
• 6:25:48
  always seems to hover around her. Now are they, she said, with
• 6:25:53
  beautiful unconcern. Well, I have a good say, but that my bread
• 6:25:56
  rose just as light as when the grits are in as when they were.
• 6:26:00
  If any party, missus doctor dear, will make it rain before the week
• 6:26:03
  is out and save our kitchen garden from entire ruination. That is the party,
• 6:26:07
  Susan'll voteful. In the meantime, will you just step out and give
• 6:26:10
  me your opinion on the meat for dinner. I'm feeling it'll be very tough,
• 6:26:14
  and I think we'd better change our butcher as well as our governments.
• 6:26:17
  One evening a week later, Anne walked down to the point to see if
• 6:26:21
  she could get some fresh fish from Captain Jim, leaving Little Jem for the
• 6:26:23
  first time. It was quite a tragedy. Suppose he cried, Suppose Susan
• 6:26:30
  did not know just exactly what to do for him. Susan was calm and
• 6:26:33
  serene. I've had as much experience with him as you, missus, doctor
• 6:26:37
  dear, Have I not yes with him? But not with other babies.
• 6:26:41
  Why I looked after three pairs of twins when I was a child, Susan,
• 6:26:45
  When they cried, I gave them peppermint or castor oil, quite coolly.
• 6:26:48
  It's quite curious now to recall how lightly I took all those babies in
• 6:26:52
  their woes. Ah. Well, if little Jem cries, I would just
• 6:26:56
  clap a hot water bag on his little stomach, said Susan. Not too
• 6:27:00
  hot, you know, said Anne anxiously. Oh was it really wise to
• 6:27:04
  go? Do not fret, missus, doctor dear, Susan is not the
• 6:27:07
  woman to burn a wee man. Bless him. He is no notion of
• 6:27:11
  crying. Anne tore herself away finally and enjoyed her walk to the point after
• 6:27:15
  all, through the long shadows of the sun's setting. Captain Jim was not
• 6:27:19
  in the living room of the lighthouse, but another man was a handsome,
• 6:27:23
  middle aged man with a strong, clean shaven chin, who was unknown to
• 6:27:27
  Anne. Nevertheless, when she sat down, he began to talk to her
• 6:27:32
  with all the assurance of an old acquaintance. There was nothing amiss in what
• 6:27:36
  he said or the way he said it, but Anne rather resented such a
• 6:27:40
  cool taking for granted and a complete stranger. Her replies were frosty and as
• 6:27:45
  few as decency required, nothing daunted her companion talked on for several minutes,
• 6:27:51
  then excused himself and went away. Anne could have sworn there was a twinkle
• 6:27:55
  in his eye, and it annoyed her. Who was the creature? There
• 6:27:59
  was something vaguely familiar about him, but she was certain she had never seen
• 6:28:03
  him before. Captain Jim, who was that? Who just went out?
• 6:28:07
  She asked? As Captain Jim came in. Marshall Iliot answered the Captain Marshall
• 6:28:15
  Elliott cried, Anne, Oh, Captain Jim, it wasn't yes, it
• 6:28:19
  was his voice, Oh, Captain Jim. I didn't know him, and
• 6:28:22
  I was quite insulting to him. Why didn't he tell me he must have
• 6:28:27
  seen I didn't know him. He wouldn't say a word about it, He
• 6:28:33
  just didn't jar the joke don't worry over snubbin him. He'll think it fun.
• 6:28:37
  Yes, Marshal's shaved off his beard at last and cut his hair.
• 6:28:44
  His party is in. You know, I didn't know him myself. First
• 6:28:48
  time I saw him. He was up in Carter Flagg's store at the Glen
• 6:28:52
  the night after election day, along with the crowd of others waiting for the
• 6:28:56
  news. About twelve the oone came through. The Liberals were in. Marshall
• 6:29:03
  just got up and walked out. He didn't cheer or shout. He left
• 6:29:08
  the others to do that, and they nearly lifted the roof off Carter store.
• 6:29:12
  I reckon. Of course, all the Tories were over in Raymond Russell's
• 6:29:18
  store. Not much here and there. Marshall went straight down the street to
• 6:29:23
  the side door of Augustus Palmers barbershop. Augustus was in bed asleep, but
• 6:29:30
  Marshall hampered on the door until he got up and come down, wanting to
• 6:29:34
  know what all the racket was about. Come into your shop and do the
• 6:29:38
  best job you ever did in your life, Gus said Marshall. The Liberals
• 6:29:44
  are in and you're going to barber a good grip before the sun rises.
• 6:29:49
  Gus was mad as hops, and partly because he'd been dragged out of bed,
• 6:29:55
  but more because he's a Tory. He vowed he wouldn't shave in man
• 6:30:00
  after twelve at night. You'll do what I want you to do, sonny,
• 6:30:04
  said Marshall, or I'll just turn you over my knee and give you
• 6:30:10
  one of those spankin's your mother forgot. He'd have done it too, and
• 6:30:15
  Gus knew it, for Marshal is as strong as an ox, and Gus
• 6:30:19
  is only a midget of a man. So he gave in and told Marshall
• 6:30:25
  in to the shop and went to work. Now, says he, I'll
• 6:30:29
  barber you up, but if you say one word to me about the grits
• 6:30:33
  getting in while i'm doing it, I'll cut your throat with this razor,
• 6:30:38
  says he. You wouldn't have thought, mild little Gus could be so bloodthirsty,
• 6:30:45
  would you? Shows what party politics will do for a man. Marshall
• 6:30:51
  kept quiet and got his hair and beard disposed of, and went home.
• 6:30:55
  When his old housekeeper heard him come upstairs, she peeked out of a bedroom
• 6:31:00
  door to see whether twas him or the hard boy, and when she saw
• 6:31:03
  a strange man striding down the hall with the candle in his hand. She
• 6:31:10
  screamed the blue murder and fainted dead away. They had to send for the
• 6:31:14
  doctor before they could bring her to and it was several days before she could
• 6:31:18
  look at Marshall without shaking all over. Captain Jim had no fish. He
• 6:31:23
  seldom went out in his boat that summer, and his long tramping expeditions were
• 6:31:27
  over. He spent a great deal of his time sitting by his seaward window,
• 6:31:33
  looking out over the gulf, with his swiftly whitening head leaning on his
• 6:31:36
  hand. He sat there to night for many silent minutes, keeping some tryst
• 6:31:41
  with the past, which Anne would not disturb. Presently, he pointed to
• 6:31:45
  the iris of the west. That's beautiful, isn't it, mistriss blythe God.
• 6:31:51
  I wish you could have seen the sun rise this morning. It was
• 6:31:55
  a wonderful thing. Wonderful. I've seen all kinds. The sunrise has come
• 6:32:00
  over that gulf. I've been all over the world, Mistress blythe and take
• 6:32:04
  it all and all. I've never seen a finer sight than a summer sunrise
• 6:32:11
  over the gulf. A man can't pick his time for dying, Mistress Blythe,
• 6:32:17
  just got to go when the great Captain gives his ceiling orders. But
• 6:32:21
  if I could, I'd go out when the morning comes across the water.
• 6:32:26
  I've watched it many a time and thought what a thing it would be to
• 6:32:30
  pass out through that great white glory to whatever was wading beyond, on a
• 6:32:37
  sea that ain't mapped out on any earthly chart. I think, Mistress Blythe,
• 6:32:42
  that i'd find lost Margaret there. Captain Jim had often talked to Anne've
• 6:32:48
  lost Margaret since he had told her the old story. His love for her
• 6:32:52
  trembled in every tone, that love that had never grown faint or forgetful anyway.
• 6:32:57
  I hope when my time comes, I'll go quick and easy. I
• 6:33:02
  don't think I'm a coward, Mistress Blythe. I've looked an ugly death in
• 6:33:06
  the face more than once without blenching. But the thought of a lingerin death
• 6:33:11
  does give me a queer, sick feeling of horror. Don't talk about leaving
• 6:33:15
  us, dear, dear Captain Jim, pleaded Anne in a choked voice,
• 6:33:19
  patting the old brown hand, one so strong but now grown very feeble.
• 6:33:26
  What would we do without you? Captain Jim smiled beautifully. Oh, you'd
• 6:33:32
  get alone nicely, nicely, but you wouldn't forget the old man altogether,
• 6:33:37
  Mistress blythe No, I don't think you'll ever quite forget him. The race
• 6:33:44
  of Joseph always remembers one another. But it'll be a memory that won't hurt.
• 6:33:49
  I like to think that my memory won't hurt my friends. It'll always
• 6:33:55
  be kind of pleasant to them. I hope and believe it won't be very
• 6:33:59
  long now before lost Margaret calls me for the last time. I'll be all
• 6:34:04
  ready to answer. I just spoke of this because there's a little favor I
• 6:34:10
  want to ask you. Here's this poor old media mine. Captain Jim reached
• 6:34:15
  out a hand and poked the big, warm, velvety golden ball on the
• 6:34:18
  sofa. The first mate uncoiled himself like a spring with a nice throaty comfortable
• 6:34:23
  sound. Half per half me out stretched his paws and air, turned over
• 6:34:29
  and coiled himself up again. He'll miss me when I start on the voyage.
• 6:34:34
  I can't bear to think of leaving the poor critter to starve like he
• 6:34:38
  was left before. If anything happens to me, will you give maybe a
• 6:34:44
  bite and a corner, Mistress Blythe, indeed, I will then. That's
• 6:34:48
  all I had on my mind. Your little Jim is to have the few
• 6:34:53
  curious things I picked up. I've seen that, and now I don't like
• 6:35:00
  see tears in the host pretty eyes, Mistress Blythe. I'll maybe hang on
• 6:35:03
  for quite a spell. Yet. I heard you reading a piece of poetry
• 6:35:08
  one day last winter, one of Tennyson's pieces. I'd sort of like to
• 6:35:14
  hear it again, if you could recite it for me, softly and clearly
• 6:35:18
  while the sea wind blew in on them. Anne repeated the beautiful lines of
• 6:35:22
  Tennyson's wonderful Swan Song crossing the bar. The old captain kept time gently with
• 6:35:27
  his sinewy hand. Yes, yes, Mistress Blythe, he said, when
• 6:35:33
  she had finished. That's it, that's it. He wasn't a sailor,
• 6:35:38
  you tell me. I don't know how he could have put an old sailor's
• 6:35:42
  feelings into words like that if he wasn't one. He didn't want any sadness
• 6:35:48
  of farewells, and neither do I, Mistress Blythe. For all will be
• 6:35:52
  well with me and mine beyond the bar. End of chapter thirty five.
• 6:36:00
  After thirty six, beauty for ashes. Any news from Green Gables, Anne,
• 6:36:06
  Nothing very especial, replied Anne, folding up Marilla's letter. Jake Darnell
• 6:36:11
  has been there, shingling the roof. He is a full fledged carpenter now,
• 6:36:15
  so it seems he has had his own way in regard to the choice
• 6:36:18
  of a life work. You remember his mother wanted him to be a college
• 6:36:22
  professor. I shall never forget the day she came to the school and rated
• 6:36:26
  me for failing to call him Sinclair. Does anyone ever call him that?
• 6:36:29
  Now? Evidently not. It seems that he has completely lived it down.
• 6:36:33
  Even his mother has succumbed. I always thought that a boy with Jake's chin
• 6:36:37
  and mouth would get his own way. In the end, Diana writes me
• 6:36:41
  that Dora has a beau. Just think of it, that child Dora is
• 6:36:45
  seventeen, said Gilbert. Charlie Sloane and I were both mad about you when
• 6:36:52
  we were seventeen, Anne, Really, Gilbert, we must be getting on
• 6:36:55
  in years, said Anne, with a half rueful smile, when children who
• 6:37:00
  were six when we thought ourselves grown up are old enough now to have bows.
• 6:37:03
  Doras is Ralph Andrews, Jane's brother, I remember him as a little,
• 6:37:08
  round, fat, white headed fellow who was always at the foot of
• 6:37:11
  his class. But I understand he is quite a fine looking young man.
• 6:37:15
  Now, Dora will probably marry young. She's of the same type as Charlotta
• 6:37:19
  the Fourth. She'll never miss her first chance, for fear she might not
• 6:37:22
  get another. Well, if she marries Ralph, I hope he will be
• 6:37:26
  a little more up and coming than his brother Billy, mused Anne. For
• 6:37:30
  instance, said Gilbert, laughing. Let us hope he will be able to
• 6:37:34
  propose on his own account. He would you have married Billy if he'd asked
• 6:37:38
  you himself instead of getting Jane to do it for him, I might have.
• 6:37:44
  Anne went off into a shriek of laughter over the recollection of her first
• 6:37:48
  proposal. The shock of the whole thing might have hypnotized me into some such
• 6:37:52
  rash and foolish act. Let us be thankful he did it by proxy.
• 6:37:56
  I had a letter from George Moore yesterday, said Leslie, from the corner
• 6:38:02
  where she was reading. Oh how is he asked Anne, interestedly, yet
• 6:38:07
  with an unreal feeling that she was inquiring about some one whom she did not
• 6:38:11
  know. He is well, But he finds it very hard to adapt himself
• 6:38:15
  to all the changes in his old home and friends. He is going to
• 6:38:18
  see again in the spring. It's in his blood, he says, and
• 6:38:19
  he longs for it. But he told me something that made me glad for
• 6:38:23
  him, poor fellow. Before he sailed on the Four Sisters, he was
• 6:38:26
  engaged to a girl at home. He did not tell me anything about her
• 6:38:30
  in Montreal, because he said he supposed she would have forgotten him and married
• 6:38:33
  some one else long ago. And with him, you see, his engagement
• 6:38:37
  in love was still a thing of the present. It was pretty hard on
• 6:38:41
  him. But when he got home he found she had never married and still
• 6:38:44
  cared for him there to be married this fall. I'm going to ask him
• 6:38:48
  to bring her over here for a little trip. He says. He wants
• 6:38:51
  to come and see the place where he lived so many years without knowing it.
• 6:38:53
  What a nice little romance, said Anne, whose love for the romantic
• 6:38:57
  was immortal. And to think, she added, with a sigh of self
• 6:39:03
  reproach, that if I had had my way, George Moore would never have
• 6:39:06
  come up from the grave in which his identity was buried. How I did
• 6:39:10
  fight against Gilbert's suggestion. Well, I am punished. I shall never be
• 6:39:15
  able to have a different opinion from Gilbert's again. If I try to have,
• 6:39:18
  he will squelch me by casting George Moore's case up to me, as
• 6:39:22
  if even that would spoilch A woman mocked Gilbert. At least do not become
• 6:39:27
  my echo. Hen how little opposition gives spice to life. I don't want
• 6:39:32
  a wife like John mc allister's over the harbor, no matter what he says.
• 6:39:37
  She at once remarks, in that drab, lifeless little voice of hers,
• 6:39:41
  that is very true, John, Dear me, Anne and Leslie laughed.
• 6:39:47
  Ann laughter was silver and Leslie's golden, and the combination of the two
• 6:39:51
  was as satisfactory as a perfect chord in music. Susan, coming in on
• 6:39:56
  the heels of the laughter, echoed it with a resounding sigh. Why Susan,
• 6:40:00
  what is the matter, asked Gilbert. There's nothing wrong with little gem,
• 6:40:04
  is there? Susan, cried Anne, starting up in alarm. No,
• 6:40:08
  no, calm yourself, missus. Doctor Dear, something els happened,
• 6:40:11
  though everything has gone catawampus with me this week. I spoiled the bread,
• 6:40:15
  as you know too well, and I scorched the doctor's best chirt bosom An,
• 6:40:18
  I brought you big platter. And now on top of this, word
• 6:40:22
  has come that Missuster Matilda's broken her leg and wants me to go and stay
• 6:40:25
  with her a spell. Oh, I'm very sorry, sorry that your sister
• 6:40:29
  has met with such an accident. I mean, exclaimed anne Ah well Nane
• 6:40:33
  was made to mourn, missus doctor Dear. That sounds as if it ought
• 6:40:37
  to be in the Bible. But they tell me a person named Burns wrote
• 6:40:38
  it. And there's no doubt that we were born to trouble as the sparks
• 6:40:41
  fly uppuds. As for Matilda, I don't know what to think of her.
• 6:40:45
  None of our family's ever broken the leg before. But whatever she has
• 6:40:48
  done, she's still my sister, and I feel it is my duty to
• 6:40:52
  go and wait on her, if you can spare me a few weeks,
• 6:40:53
  missus doctor dear. Of course, Susan, of course I can get some
• 6:40:57
  one to help me while you are gone. If you cannot, I will
• 6:41:00
  not go, missus doctor Dear, Matilda's leg to the country notwithstanding, I
• 6:41:04
  will not have you worried. I'm that blessed child up set in consequence for
• 6:41:07
  any number of legs. Oh, you must go to your sister at once,
• 6:41:11
  Susan, I can get a girl from the cove who will do for
• 6:41:14
  a time. Anne, will you come and let me stay with you while
• 6:41:18
  Susan is away, exclaimed Leslie do. I'd love to, and it would
• 6:41:22
  be an act of charity on your part. I'm so horribly lonely over there
• 6:41:26
  in that big barn of a house. There's so little to do, and
• 6:41:29
  good night. I'm worse than lonely. I'm frightened and nervous. In spite
• 6:41:32
  of locked doors. There was a tramp around two days ago. Anne joyfully
• 6:41:37
  agreed, and next day Leslie was installed as an inmate of the Little House
• 6:41:41
  of Dreams. Miss Cornelia warmly approved of the arrangement. It seems providential,
• 6:41:48
  she told Anne in confidence. I'm sorry for Matilda Klow, but since she
• 6:41:52
  had to break her leg, it couldn't have happened. At a bit of
• 6:41:53
  time. Leslie will be here while owen Ford is in four winds, and
• 6:41:57
  those old cats up at the glen won't get the chance to me out as
• 6:42:00
  they would if she was living over there alone and Owen going to see her.
• 6:42:04
  They are doing enough of it as it is, because she doesn't put
• 6:42:07
  on mourning, I said to one of them, if you mean she should
• 6:42:10
  put on mourning for George Moore, it seems to me more like his resurrection
• 6:42:14
  than his funeral. And if it's Dick you mean, I confess I can't
• 6:42:17
  say the propriety of going into weeds for a man who died thirteen years ago.
• 6:42:21
  And good riddance then. And when old lays of Baldwin remarked to me
• 6:42:23
  that she thought it very strange that Leslie should never have suspected it wasn't her
• 6:42:27
  own husband, I said, you never suspected it wasn't Dick Moore, and
• 6:42:32
  you were next door neighbor to him all his life, and by nature you're
• 6:42:34
  ten times as suspicious as Leslie. But you can't stop some people's tongues.
• 6:42:37
  And Dearie, and I'm real thankful Leslie will be under your roof while Owen
• 6:42:41
  is courting her. Owen Ford came to the little house one August evening,
• 6:42:45
  when Leslie and Anne were absorbed in worshiping the baby. He paused at the
• 6:42:51
  open door of the living room, unseen by the two within, gazing with
• 6:42:55
  greedy eyes at the beautiful picture. Leslie sat on the floor with the bee
• 6:43:00
  in her lap, making ecstatic dabs at his fat little hands as he fluttered
• 6:43:03
  them in the air. Oh, your dear, beautiful beloved baby, she
• 6:43:08
  mumbled, catching one wee hand and covering it with kisses. Isn't him the
• 6:43:14
  darlingest didty sing? Crooned Anne, hanging over the arm of her chair,
• 6:43:18
  adoringly. Demity wee pads. It's a very tweet as tandies In's a whole
• 6:43:22
  big world, isn't day you, darling itty man? Anne, in the
• 6:43:29
  months before Little Gem's coming, had poured diligently over several wise volumes and pinned
• 6:43:33
  her faith to one. In a special Sir Oracle on the Care and Training
• 6:43:38
  of children, Sir Oracle implored parents, by all they held sacred, never
• 6:43:44
  to talk baby talk to their children. Infants should invariably be addressed in classical
• 6:43:48
  language from the moment of their birth. So should they learn to speak English
• 6:43:52
  undefiled from their earliest utterance, how demanded Sir Oracle. Can a mother re
• 6:44:00
  expect her child to learn correct speech when she continually accustoms its impressionable gray matter
• 6:44:06
  to such absurd expressions and distortions of our noble tongue, as thoughtless mothers inflict
• 6:44:11
  every day on the helpless creatures committed to their care. Can a child who
• 6:44:17
  was constantly called tweet itty we singie ever attained to any proper conception of his
• 6:44:22
  own being and possibilities and destiny. Anne was vastly impressed with this, and
• 6:44:30
  informed Gilbert that she meant to make it an inflexible rule, never under any
• 6:44:33
  circumstances to talk baby talk to her children. Gilbert agreed with her, and
• 6:44:38
  they made a solemn compact on the subject, a compact which Anne shamelessly violated
• 6:44:44
  the very first moment Little jem was laid in her arms. Oh the darling
• 6:44:48
  itty we sing, she had exclaimed, and she had continued to violate it
• 6:44:53
  ever since. When Gilbert teased her, she laughed, Sir Oracle to scorn.
• 6:45:00
  He never had any children of his own, Gilbert, I am positive
• 6:45:03
  he hadn't, or he would never have written such rubbish. You just can't
• 6:45:07
  help talking baby talk to a baby. It comes natural, and it's right.
• 6:45:12
  It would be inhuman to talk to those tiny, soft, velvety little
• 6:45:15
  creatures as we do to great big boys and girls. Babies want love and
• 6:45:21
  cuddling and all the sweet baby talk they can get, and little Jem is
• 6:45:23
  going to have it. Bless his dear idy Hardhams. But you're the worst
• 6:45:29
  I ever heard, Ed protested Gilbert, who, not being a mother but
• 6:45:33
  only a father, was not wholly convinced yet that Sir Oracle was wrong.
• 6:45:37
  I never heard anything like the way you talk about child. Very likely you
• 6:45:41
  never did go away, go away? Didn't I bring up three pairs of
• 6:45:45
  ham and twins before I was eleven. You and Sir Oracle are nothing but
• 6:45:49
  cold blooded theorists. Gilbert just look at him. He's smiling at me.
• 6:45:55
  He knows what we're talking about. And you disdigreeeze with evvy wed mother says,
• 6:46:00
  don't do angel lover. Gilbert put his arm about them. Oh you
• 6:46:06
  mothers, he said, you mothers. God knew what he was about when
• 6:46:11
  he made you. So little Jem was talked to and loved and cuddled,
• 6:46:15
  and he throve as became a child of the House of Dreams. Leslie was
• 6:46:18
  quite as foolish over him as Anne was. When their work was done and
• 6:46:22
  Gilbert was out of the way, they gave themselves over to shameless orgies of
• 6:46:26
  love making and ecstasies of adoration, such as that in which owen Ford had
• 6:46:30
  surprised them. Leslie was the first to become aware of him. Even in
• 6:46:36
  the twilight. Anne could see the sudden whiteness that swept over her beautiful face,
• 6:46:40
  blotting out the crimson of lip and cheeks. Owen came forward, eagerly,
• 6:46:45
  blind for a moment to Anne Leslie, he said, holding out his
• 6:46:49
  hand. It was the first time he had ever called her by her name.
• 6:46:53
  But the hand Leslie gave him was cold, and she was very quiet.
• 6:46:56
  All the evening while Anne and Gilbert and Owen laughed and talked together.
• 6:47:02
  Before his call ended, she excused herself and went upstairs. Owen's gay spirits
• 6:47:07
  flagged, and he went away soon after with a downcast air. Gilbert looked
• 6:47:11
  at Anne, and what are you up to? Then? There's something going
• 6:47:15
  on that I don't understand. The whole air here tonight has been charged with
• 6:47:21
  electricity. Leslie sits like the muse of tragedy. Owen Ford jokes and laughs
• 6:47:26
  on the surface and watches Leslie with the eyes of his soul. You seem
• 6:47:30
  all the time to be bursting with some suppressed excitement. Own up. What
• 6:47:34
  secret have you been keeping from your deceived husband? Don't be a goose,
• 6:47:38
  Gilbert was Anne's conjugal reply. As for Leslie, she is absurd, and
• 6:47:44
  I'm going up to tell her. So. Anne found Leslie at the dormer
• 6:47:48
  window of her room. The little place was filled with the rhythmic thunder of
• 6:47:52
  the sea. Leslie sat with locked hands in the misty moonshine a beautiful,
• 6:47:56
  accusing presence, Anne, She said, in a low, reproachful voice.
• 6:48:03
  Did you know owen Ford was coming to Four Winds? I did, said
• 6:48:07
  Anne brazenly. Oh you should have told me, Anne, Leslie cried passionately.
• 6:48:14
  If I had known, I would have gone away. I wouldn't have
• 6:48:17
  stayed here to meet him. You should have told me. It wasn't fair
• 6:48:19
  of you, Anne, Oh it wasn't fair. Leslie's lips were trembling,
• 6:48:23
  and her whole form was tense with emotion, but Anne laughed heartlessly. She
• 6:48:29
  bent over and kissed Leslie's upturned, reproachful face. Leslie, you are an
• 6:48:33
  adorable goose. Owen Ford didn't rush from the Pacific to the Atlantic from a
• 6:48:38
  burning desire to see me. Neither do I believe that he was inspired by
• 6:48:42
  any wild and frenzied passion for miss Cornelia. Take off your tragic airs,
• 6:48:48
  my dear friend, and fold them up and put them away in lavender.
• 6:48:51
  You'll never need them again. There are some people who can see through a
• 6:48:55
  grindstone when there is a hole in it, even if you cannot. I
• 6:48:59
  am not a prophetess, but I shall venture on a prediction. The bitterness
• 6:49:03
  of life is over for you. After this, you are going to have
• 6:49:06
  the joys and hopes, and I dare say the sorrows too, of a
• 6:49:08
  happy woman. The omen of the Shadow of Venus did come true for you,
• 6:49:12
  Leslie. The year in which you saw it brought your life's best gift
• 6:49:17
  for you, your love for owen Ford. Now go right to bed and
• 6:49:19
  have a good sleep. Leslie obeyed orders in so far that she went to
• 6:49:25
  bed, But it may be questioned if she slept much. I do not
• 6:49:29
  think she dared to dream wakingly. Life had been so hard for this poor
• 6:49:33
  Leslie. The path on which she had had to walk had been so straight
• 6:49:37
  that she could not whisper to her own heart the hopes that might wait on
• 6:49:40
  the future. But she watched the great revolving light bestarring the short hours of
• 6:49:45
  the summer night, and her eyes grew soft and bright and young once more.
• 6:49:49
  Nor when owen Ford came next day to ask her to go with him
• 6:49:53
  to the shore, did she say him nay. End of chapter thirty six.
• 6:50:00
  Chapter thirty seven, Miss Cornelia makes a startling announcement. Miss Cornelia sailed
• 6:50:07
  down to the little house one drowsy afternoon, when the gulf was the faint
• 6:50:11
  bleached blue of the August seas, and the orange lilies at the gate of
• 6:50:15
  Anne's garden held up their imperial cups to be filled with the molten gold of
• 6:50:18
  August sunshine. Not that Miss Cornelia concerned herself with painted oceans or some thirsty
• 6:50:25
  lilies. She sat in her favorite rocker in unusual idleness. She sewed not,
• 6:50:30
  neither did she spin, nor did she say a single derogatory word concerning
• 6:50:34
  any portion of mankind. In short, Miss Cornelia's conversation was singularly devoid of
• 6:50:41
  spice that day, and Gilbert, who had stayed home to listen to her
• 6:50:45
  instead of going a fishing as he had intended, felt himself aggrieved. What
• 6:50:48
  had come over Miss Cornelia. She did not look cast down or worried.
• 6:50:53
  On the contrary, there was a certain air of nervous exultation about her.
• 6:50:57
  Where is Lisli, she asked, not as if it mattered much either Owen
• 6:51:03
  and she went raspberrying in the woods back of her farm, answered Anne.
• 6:51:07
  They won't be back before supper time. If then they don't seem to have
• 6:51:11
  any idea that there is such a thing as a clock, said Gilbert.
• 6:51:15
  I can't get to the bottom of that affair. I'm certain you women pulled
• 6:51:18
  strings. But Anne, I'm dutiful wife. Won't tell me, will you,
• 6:51:23
  Miss Cornelia? No, I shall not, but said miss Cornelia,
• 6:51:29
  with the air of one determined to take the plunge and have it over.
• 6:51:33
  I will tell you something else I can to day on purpose to tell it.
• 6:51:37
  I am going to be married. Anne and Gilbert were silent. If
• 6:51:41
  Miss Cornelia had announced her intention of going out to the channel and drowning herself,
• 6:51:45
  the thing might have been believable. This was not so, they waited.
• 6:51:49
  Of course, miss Cornelia had made a mistake. Well, you both
• 6:51:52
  look sort of kaflummoxt, said Miss Cornelia, with a twinkle in her eyes.
• 6:51:57
  Now that the awkward moment of red was over, Miss Cornelia was her
• 6:52:02
  own woman again. Do you think I'm too young and inexperienced for matrimony?
• 6:52:06
  You know it is rather staggering, said Gilbert, trying to gather his wits
• 6:52:11
  together. I've readly say a score of times that you wouldn't marry the best
• 6:52:15
  man in the world. I'm not going to marry the best man in the
• 6:52:18
  world, retorted Miss Cornelia. Marshall Elliot is a long way from being the
• 6:52:22
  best. Are you going to marry Marshall Elliot? Exclaimed Anne, recovering her
• 6:52:27
  power of speech under this second shock. Yes, I could have had him
• 6:52:32
  any time these twenty years if I'd lifted my finger. But do you suppose
• 6:52:36
  I was going to walk into church beside a perambulating haystack like that? I
• 6:52:40
  am sure. We are very glad, and we wish you all possible happiness,
• 6:52:45
  said Anne, very flatly and inadequately, as she felt she was not
• 6:52:48
  prepared for such an occasion. She had never imagined herself offering betrothal felicitations to
• 6:52:55
  Miss Cornelia. Thanks, I knew you would, said Miss Cornelia. You
• 6:53:00
  are the first of my friends to know it. We shall be so sorry
• 6:53:03
  to lose you, though, dear Miss Cornelia, said Anne, beginning to
• 6:53:07
  be a little sad and sentimental. Oh you won't lose me, said Miss
• 6:53:11
  Cornelia, unsentimentally. You don't suppose I could live over harbor with all those
• 6:53:15
  mcallisters and Eliots and Crawfords, do you from the conceit of the eliots,
• 6:53:19
  the pride of the McAllister's, and the vain glory of the Crawfords. Good
• 6:53:22
  Lord, deliver us Marshall's coming to live at my place. I'm sick and
• 6:53:26
  tired of hired men. That Jim Hastings I've got this summer is positively the
• 6:53:30
  worst of the species. He would drive anyone to getting married. What do
• 6:53:33
  you think he upset the churn yesterday and spilled a big churning of cream over
• 6:53:37
  the yard, and not one whit concerned about it was. He just gave
• 6:53:41
  a foolish laugh and said cream was good for the land. Wasn't that like
• 6:53:45
  a man? I told him I wasn't in the habit of fertilizing my backyard
• 6:53:48
  with cream. Well, I wish you all manner of happiness too, Miss
• 6:53:51
  Cornelia, said Gilbert, solemnly, but he added, unable to resist the
• 6:53:56
  temptation to tease Miss Cornelia Anne's imploring eyes, I fear your day of independence
• 6:54:03
  is done. As you know, Marshall Elliott is a very determined man.
• 6:54:07
  I like a man who can stick to a thing, retorted Miss Cornelia,
• 6:54:11
  Amos Grant, who used to be after me long ago. Couldn't you never
• 6:54:15
  saw such a weather vein He jumped into the pond to drown himself once and
• 6:54:18
  then changed his mind and swam out again. Wasn't that like a man Marsha
• 6:54:22
  would have stuck to it and drowned. And he has a bit of a
• 6:54:25
  temper, they tell me, persisted Gilbert. He wouldn't be an Elliott if
• 6:54:29
  he hadn't. I'm thankful he has. It will be real fun to make
• 6:54:32
  him mad. And you can generally do something with a temporary man when it
• 6:54:34
  comes to repenting time. But you can't do anything with a man who just
• 6:54:37
  keeps placid and aggravating. You know, he's a grit, Miss Cornelia.
• 6:54:41
  Yes, he is, admitted, Miss Cornelia, rather sadly, And of
• 6:54:47
  course there's no hope of making a conservative of him. But at least he
• 6:54:49
  is a Presbyterian. I suppose I shall have to be satisfied with that.
• 6:54:53
  Would you marry him if he were a Methodist? Miss Cornelia, No,
• 6:54:57
  I would not. Politics is for this world, but religion is for both.
• 6:55:02
  And you may be a relic after all, Miss Cornelia, not I
• 6:55:06
  Marshall will live me out. The Elliots along lived in the Bryants are not.
• 6:55:10
  When are you to be married? Asked Anne? In about a month's
• 6:55:12
  time. My wedding dress is to be navy blue silk, and I want
• 6:55:15
  to ask you, Anne, dearie, if you think it would be all
• 6:55:18
  right to wear a veil with a navy blue dress. I've always thought i'd
• 6:55:22
  like to wear a veil if I ever got married. Marshall says, to
• 6:55:25
  have it if I want to. Isn't that like a man? Why shouldn't
• 6:55:27
  you wear it if you want to, asked Anne. Well, one doesn't
• 6:55:32
  want to be different from other people, said Miss Cornelia, who was not
• 6:55:36
  noticeably like anyone else on the face of the earth. As I say,
• 6:55:40
  I do fancy a veil, but maybe it shouldn't be worn with any dress
• 6:55:41
  but a white one. Please tell me, Anne, dearie, what you
• 6:55:45
  really think. I'll go by your advice. I don't think veils are usually
• 6:55:48
  worn with any but white dresses, admitted Anne. But that is merely a
• 6:55:53
  convention. And I am like mister Elliot, Miss Cornelia, I don't see
• 6:55:57
  any good reason why you shouldn't have a veil if you want one. But
• 6:56:00
  Miss Cornelia, who made her calls in calico wrappers, shook her head.
• 6:56:06
  If it isn't the proper thing, I won't wear it, she said,
• 6:56:08
  with a sigh of regret for a lost dream. Since you are determined to
• 6:56:12
  be married, Miss Cornelia, said Gilbert solemnly, I shall give you the
• 6:56:18
  excellent rules for the management of a husband, which my grandmother gave my mother
• 6:56:22
  when she married my father. Well, I reckon I can manage Marshall Elliot
• 6:56:26
  said Miss Cornelia placidly. But let us hear your rules. The first one
• 6:56:30
  is catch him. He's caught, go on. The second one is feed
• 6:56:36
  him well with enough pie? What next? The third and fourth are keep
• 6:56:40
  your eye on him. I believe you, said Miss Cornelia emphatically, end
• 6:56:47
  of chapter thirty seven. Chapter thirty eight Red Roses. The garden of the
• 6:56:53
  little house was a haunt, beloved of bees and reddened by late roses that
• 6:56:57
  August. The little house folk lived much in it, and were given to
• 6:57:03
  taking picnic suppers in the grassy corner beyond the brook, and sitting about in
• 6:57:07
  it through the twilights when great night moth sailed athwart the velvet gloom. One
• 6:57:11
  evening, owen Ford found Leslie alone in it. Anne and Gilbert were away,
• 6:57:17
  and Susan, who was expected back that night, had not yet returned.
• 6:57:22
  The northern sky was amber and pale green over the fir tops. The
• 6:57:26
  air was cool, for August was nearing September, and Leslie wore a crimson
• 6:57:30
  scarf over her white dress. Together they wandered through the little friendly flower crowded
• 6:57:34
  paths in silence. Owen must go soon, his holiday was nearly over.
• 6:57:41
  Leslie found her heart beating wildly. She knew that this beloved garden was to
• 6:57:45
  be the scene of the binding words that must seal their as yet unwarded understanding.
• 6:57:51
  Some evenings, a strange odor blows down the air of this garden like
• 6:57:55
  a phantom perfume, said Owen. I have never been able to discover from
• 6:58:00
  just what flower it comes. It is elusive and haunting and wonderfully sweet.
• 6:58:07
  I like to fancy it is the soul of grandmother Selwyn, passing on a
• 6:58:11
  little visit to the old spot she loved so well. There should be a
• 6:58:15
  lot of friendly ghosts about this little old house. I have lived under its
• 6:58:18
  roof only a month, said Leslie. But I love it as I never
• 6:58:22
  loved the house over there, where I have lived all my life. This
• 6:58:26
  house was builded and consecrated by love, said Owen. Such houses must exert
• 6:58:33
  an influence over those who live in them. And this garden, it is
• 6:58:37
  over sixty years old, and the history of a thousand hopes and joys is
• 6:58:41
  written in its blossoms. Some of those flowers were actually set out by the
• 6:58:45
  schoolmaster's bride, and she has been dead for thirty years. Yet they bloom
• 6:58:49
  on every summer. Look at those red roses, Leslie, how they queen
• 6:58:55
  it over everything else. I love the red roses, said Leslie. One
• 6:59:00
  likes the pink one's best, and Gilbert likes the white. But I want
• 6:59:03
  the crimson ones. They satisfy some craving in me, as no other flower
• 6:59:07
  does. These roses are very late. They bloom after all the others have
• 6:59:11
  gone, and they hold all the warmth and soul of the summer come to
• 6:59:15
  fruition, said Owen, plucking some of the glowing, half opened buds.
• 6:59:21
  The rose is the flower of love. The world has acclaimed it so for
• 6:59:26
  centuries. The pink roses are love hopeful and expectant. The white roses are
• 6:59:32
  love dead or forsaken. But the red roses, Ah, Leslie, what
• 6:59:37
  are the red roses? Love triumphant? Said Leslie in a low voice.
• 6:59:42
  Yes, love triumphant and perfect, Leslie. You know you understand. I
• 6:59:48
  have loved you from the first and I know you love me. I don't
• 6:59:53
  need to ask you, but I want to hear you say it. My
• 6:59:56
  darling, My darling, Leslie, He said something in a very low and
• 7:00:00
  tremulous voice. Their hands and lips met. It was life's supreme moment for
• 7:00:07
  them, and as they stood there in the old garden with its many years
• 7:00:10
  of love and delight and sorrow and glory, he crowned her shining hair with
• 7:00:15
  the red red rose of a love triumphant. Anne and Gilbert returned, presently
• 7:00:19
  accompanied by Captain Jim. Anne lighted a few sticks of driftwood in the fireplace
• 7:00:25
  for love of the Pixie flames, and they sat around it for an hour
• 7:00:29
  of good fellowship. When I sit looking at a driftwood fire, it's easy
• 7:00:33
  to believe I'm young again, said Captain Jim. Can you read futures in
• 7:00:38
  the fire? Captain Jim asked Owen. Captain Jim looked at them all affectionately,
• 7:00:44
  and then back again at Leslie's vivid face and glowing eyes. I don't
• 7:00:48
  need the fire to read your futures, he said. I see happiness for
• 7:00:53
  all of you, all of you, for Leslie and missed a Ford,
• 7:00:57
  and the doctor here, and Mistress Blythe and little Jim, and children that
• 7:01:03
  ain't born yet, but will be happiness for you all. Though mind you,
• 7:01:08
  I reckon you have your troubles and worries and sorrows too. They're bound
• 7:01:14
  to come in. No house, whether it's a palace or a little house,
• 7:01:17
  of dreams can born about, but they won't get the better of you.
• 7:01:22
  If you face them twogether with love and trust, you can weather any
• 7:01:30
  storm with them too. For Compass and pilot. The old man rose suddenly
• 7:01:34
  and placed one hand on Leslie's head and one on Anne's. Two good sweet
• 7:01:40
  women, he said, true and faithful, and to be dependent on him
• 7:01:45
  your husbands will have the honor in the gates because of you. Your children
• 7:01:51
  will rise up and call you blessed in the years to come. There was
• 7:01:56
  a strange solemnity about the little scene, and Leslie bowed as those receiving a
• 7:02:00
  benediction. Gilbert suddenly brushed his hand over his eyes. Owen Ford was rapped
• 7:02:07
  as one who can see visions. All were silent for a space. The
• 7:02:11
  little House of Dreams added another poignant and unforgettable moment to its store of memories.
• 7:02:17
  I must be going now, said Captain Jim slowly. At last,
• 7:02:21
  he took up his hat and looked lingeringly about the room. Good Night,
• 7:02:26
  all of you, he said, as he went out. Anne, pierced
• 7:02:30
  by the unusual wistfulness of his farewell, ran to the door after him.
• 7:02:34
  Come back soon, Captain Jim, she called, as he passed through the
• 7:02:38
  little gate hung between the firs. Aye Aye, he called cheerily back to
• 7:02:44
  her, But Captain Jim had sat by the old fireside of the House of
• 7:02:48
  Dreams for the last time. Anne went slowly back to the others. It's
• 7:02:53
  so so pitiful to think of him going all alone down to that lonely point
• 7:02:59
  she said, and there is no one to welcome him there. Captain Jim
• 7:03:03
  is such good company for others, one can't imagine him being anything but good
• 7:03:07
  company for himself, said Owen. But he must often be lonely. There
• 7:03:11
  was a touch of the seer about him. To night he spoke as one
• 7:03:15
  to whom it had been given to speak. Well, I must be going
• 7:03:19
  too. Anne and Gilbert discreetly melted away. But when Owen had gone,
• 7:03:23
  Anne returned to find Leslie's standing by the hearth. Oh, Leslie, I
• 7:03:29
  know, and I'm so glad, dear, she said, putting her arms
• 7:03:33
  about her. Anne. My happiness frightens me, whispered Leslie. It seems
• 7:03:38
  too great to be real. I'm afraid to speak of it, to think
• 7:03:41
  of it. It seems to me that it must be another dream of this
• 7:03:45
  house of dreams, and it will vanish when I leave here. Well,
• 7:03:48
  you are not going to leave here until Owen takes you. You are going
• 7:03:52
  to stay with me until that time comes. Do you think i'd let you
• 7:03:55
  go over to that lonely, sad place again? Thank you, dear.
• 7:03:59
  I meant to ask you if I might stay with you. I didn't want
• 7:04:00
  to go back there, It would seem like going back into the chill and
• 7:04:04
  dreariness of the old life again. Anne, Anne, what a friend you've
• 7:04:08
  been to me? A good, sweet woman, true and fruitful, and
• 7:04:12
  to be depended on. Captain Jim summed you up, he said, women,
• 7:04:17
  not woman, smiled Anne. Perhaps Captain Jim sees us both through the
• 7:04:22
  rose colored spectacles of his love for us. But we can try to live
• 7:04:26
  up to his belief in us at least. Do you remember, Anne,
• 7:04:29
  said Leslie slowly, that I once said, that night we met on the
• 7:04:33
  shore, that I hated my good looks. I did. Then it seemed
• 7:04:38
  to me that if I had only been homely, Dick would never have thought
• 7:04:41
  of me. I hated my beauty because it attracted him. But now,
• 7:04:45
  oh, I'm glad I have it. It's all I have to offer.
• 7:04:48
  Owen, his artist soul delights in it. I feel as if I do
• 7:04:52
  not come to him quite empty handed. Owen loves your beauty, Leslie,
• 7:04:56
  who would not. But it's foolish of you to say think that that is
• 7:05:00
  all you bring him. He will tell you that I needn't, And now
• 7:05:04
  I must lock up, I expected, Susan back tonight, but she has
• 7:05:07
  not come. Oh, yes, here I am, missus doctor dear,
• 7:05:11
  said Susan, entering unexpectedly from the kitchen and puffing like a hen, drawing
• 7:05:15
  rails at that. It's quite a walk from the glen down here. I'm
• 7:05:19
  glad to see you back, Susan. How is your sister? She is
• 7:05:22
  able to sit up, but of course she cannot walk yet. However,
• 7:05:25
  she is very well able to get on without me now, for her daughter
• 7:05:27
  has come home from her vacation. I am thankful to be back, missus
• 7:05:32
  doctor dear. Matilda's leg was broken and no mistake, but her tongue was
• 7:05:34
  not. She would talk the legs off an iron pot, she would,
• 7:05:37
  missus doctor dear. Though I grieved to say of my own sister, she
• 7:05:41
  was always a great talker, and yet she was the first enough family to
• 7:05:44
  get married. She really did not care much about marrying James Chloe, but
• 7:05:48
  she could not bear to disoblige him. Not. But what James is a
• 7:05:49
  good man. For only faults I have to find with him is that he
• 7:05:52
  always starts in to say grace with such an unearthly ground, Missus doctor dear.
• 7:05:56
  It always frightens my appetite clear away and speakin of getting married. Missus
• 7:06:00
  doctor dear, is it true that Cornelia Bryant is going to be married to
• 7:06:03
  Marshall Elliot? Yes, quite true, Susan. Well, missus doctor dear,
• 7:06:07
  it does not seem very fair. He is me who never said a
• 7:06:11
  word against men, and I cannot get married nohow. And there is Cornelia
• 7:06:15
  Bryant, who has done nothing but abuse them on. All she has to
• 7:06:17
  do is reach out her rand and pick up one, as it were.
• 7:06:19
  It's a strange world, missus doctor dear. There's another world, you know,
• 7:06:23
  Susan. Yes, said Susan with a heavy sigh. But missus doctor
• 7:06:29
  dear, there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage there. End of chapter
• 7:06:33
  thirty eight. Chapter thirty nine, Captain Jim crosses the bar. One day
• 7:06:41
  in late September, owen Ford's book came at last. Captain Jim had gone
• 7:06:45
  faithfully to the Glen Post office every day for a month, expecting it.
• 7:06:49
  This day he had not gone, and Leslie brought his copy home with hers
• 7:06:53
  and Anne's. We'll take it down to him this evening, said Anne,
• 7:06:57
  excited as a schoolgirl. The long walk to the point on that clear beguiling
• 7:07:03
  evening along the Red Harbor Road was very pleasant. Then the sun dropped down
• 7:07:07
  behind the western hills into some valley that must have been full of lost sunsets,
• 7:07:11
  and at the same instant the big light flashed out on the white tower
• 7:07:15
  of the Point. Captain Jim is never late by the fraction of a second,
• 7:07:19
  said Leslie. Neither Anne nor Leslie ever forgot Captain Jim's face when they
• 7:07:26
  gave him the book. His book transfigured and glorified. The cheeks that had
• 7:07:30
  been blanched of late suddenly flamed with the color of boyhood. His eyes glowed
• 7:07:34
  with all the fire of youth, but his hands trembled as he opened it.
• 7:07:40
  It was called simply the Life Book of Captain Jim, and on the
• 7:07:42
  title page the names of owen Ford and James Boyd were printed as collaborators.
• 7:07:48
  The frontispiece was a photograph of Captain Jim himself standing at the door of the
• 7:07:52
  lighthouse, looking across the gulf. Owen Ford had snapped him one day while
• 7:07:56
  the book was being written. Captain Jim had known this, but he had
• 7:08:00
  not known that the picture was to be in the book. Just think of
• 7:08:04
  it, he said the old sailor, right there, in a real printed
• 7:08:10
  book. This is the proudest day of my life. I'm like to bust
• 7:08:15
  girls. There'll be no sleep for me to night. I'll read my book
• 7:08:19
  clean through before Sonna, we'll go right away and leave you free to begin
• 7:08:23
  it, said Anne. Captain Jim had been handling the book in a kind
• 7:08:27
  of reverent rapture. Now he decidedly closed it and laid it aside. No,
• 7:08:33
  no, you're not going away before you take a cup of tea with
• 7:08:36
  an old man, he protested. I couldn't hear that, could you,
• 7:08:41
  Madie? The Life book will keep I reckon. I've waited for it this
• 7:08:45
  many a year. I can wait a little longer while I'm enjoying my friends.
• 7:08:51
  Captain Jim moved about, getting his kettle on to boil and setting out
• 7:08:53
  his bread and butter. Despite his excitement, he did not move with his
• 7:08:57
  old briskness. His movements were slow and halting. But the girls did not
• 7:09:03
  offer to help him. They knew it would hurt his feelings. You just
• 7:09:07
  picked the ride evening to visit me, he said, producing a cake from
• 7:09:11
  his cupboard. Little Joe's mother sent me down a big basket full of cakes
• 7:09:15
  and pies to day. A blessin on all good cooks, says I look
• 7:09:22
  at this purda cake, all frostin and nuts tain't off, and I can
• 7:09:26
  entertain in such style. SETTI in girls setting, we'll take a cup of
• 7:09:33
  kind as yet for old Langsyne. The girls set in right merrily. The
• 7:09:37
  tea was up to Captain Jim's best brewing. Little Joe's mother's cake was the
• 7:09:41
  last word in cakes. Captain Jim was the prince of gracious hosts, never
• 7:09:47
  even permitting his eyes to wander to the corner where the Life book lay in
• 7:09:51
  all its bravery of green and gold. But when his door finally closed behind
• 7:09:56
  Anne and Leslie, they knew that he went straight to it. And as
• 7:10:00
  they walked home they pictured the delight of the old man poring over the printed
• 7:10:03
  pages, wherein his own life was portrayed with all the charm and color of
• 7:10:07
  reality itself. I wonder how he will like the ending, the ending,
• 7:10:11
  I suggested, said Leslie. She was never to know. Early the next
• 7:10:17
  morning, Anne awakened to find Gilbert bending over her, fully dressed and with
• 7:10:21
  an expression of anxiety on his face. Are you called out. She asked
• 7:10:26
  drowsily. No, and I'm afraid there's something wrong at the point. It's
• 7:10:32
  an hour after sunrise now and the light is still burning. You know,
• 7:10:36
  it's always been a matter of pride with Captain Jim to start the light the
• 7:10:38
  moment the sun sets, and put it out the moment it rises. Anne
• 7:10:42
  sat up in dismay. Through her window, she saw the light blinking palely
• 7:10:48
  against the blue skies of dawn. Perhaps he has fallen asleep over his life
• 7:10:52
  book, she said, anxiously, or become so absorbed in it that he
• 7:10:56
  has forgotten the light. Gilbert shook his head. That wouldn't be like Captain
• 7:11:00
  Jim anywhere. I'm going down to see. Wait a minute, and I'll
• 7:11:04
  go with you, exclaimed Anne. Oh yes, I must. Little Jem
• 7:11:07
  will sleep for an hour yet, and I'll call Susan. You may need
• 7:11:11
  a woman's help if Captain Jim is ill. It was an exquisite morning,
• 7:11:15
  full of tints and sounds at once ripe and delicate. The harbor was sparkling
• 7:11:21
  and dimpling like a girl. White gulls were soaring over the dunes. Beyond
• 7:11:26
  the bar was a shining, wonderful sea. The long fields by the shore
• 7:11:30
  were dewy and fresh. In that first fine, purely tinted light. The
• 7:11:33
  wind came dancing and whistling up the channel, to replace the beautiful silence with
• 7:11:38
  a music more beautiful still. Had it not been for the baleful star on
• 7:11:42
  the white tower, that early walk would have been a delight to Anne and
• 7:11:45
  Gilbert. But they went softly with fear. Their knock was not responded to.
• 7:11:52
  Gilbert opened the door and they went in. The old room was very
• 7:11:56
  quiet. On the table were the remnants of the little evening feast. The
• 7:12:00
  lamp still burned on the corner stand. The first mate was asleep in a
• 7:12:04
  square of sunshine by the sofa. Captain Jim lay on the sofa with his
• 7:12:10
  hands clasped over the Life book, open at the last page, lying on
• 7:12:14
  his breast. His eyes were closed, and on his face was a look
• 7:12:18
  of the most perfect peace and happiness, the look of one who has long
• 7:12:22
  sought and found at last. He is asleep, whispered Anne tremulously. Gilbert
• 7:12:29
  went to the sofa and bent over him for a few moments. Then he
• 7:12:33
  straightened up. Yes he sleeps well, he added quietly. Anne. Captain
• 7:12:40
  Jim has crossed the bar. They could not know precisely at what hour he
• 7:12:44
  had died, but Anne always believed that he had had his wish and went
• 7:12:48
  out when the morning came across the gulf. Out on that shining tide,
• 7:12:52
  his spirit drifted over the sunrise sea of pearl and silver, to the haven
• 7:12:57
  where lost Margaret waited, beyond the storms and calms. End of chapter thirty
• 7:13:03
  nine, Chapter forty, Farewell to the House of Dreams. Captain Jim was
• 7:13:11
  buried in the Little Over Harbor Graveyard, very near to the spot where the
• 7:13:15
  wee White Lady slept. His relatives put up a very expensive, very ugly
• 7:13:19
  monument, a monument at which he would have poked sly fun had he seen
• 7:13:23
  it in life. But his real monument was in the hearts of those who
• 7:13:27
  knew him, and in the book that was to live for generations. Leslie
• 7:13:32
  mourned that Captain Jim had not lived to see the amazing success of it.
• 7:13:37
  How he would have delighted in the reviews they are almost all so kindly,
• 7:13:41
  and who have seen his life book heading the lists of the best sellers.
• 7:13:45
  Oh, if he could have just lived to see it, Anne, But
• 7:13:48
  Anne, despite her grief, was wiser it was the book itself. He
• 7:13:52
  cared for Leslie, not what might be said of it. And he had
• 7:13:55
  it. He had read it all through. That last night must have been
• 7:13:59
  one of the greatest happiness for him, with the quick, painless ending he
• 7:14:03
  had hoped for in the morning. I am glad, for Owen's sake and
• 7:14:06
  yours, that the book is such a success. But Captain Jim was satisfied.
• 7:14:10
  I know the lighthouse Star still kept a nightly vigil. A substitute keeper
• 7:14:15
  had been sent to the point until such time as an all wise government could
• 7:14:19
  decide which of many applicants was best fitted for the place or had the strongest
• 7:14:23
  pull. The first mate was at home in the little house, beloved by
• 7:14:27
  Anne and Gilbert and Leslie, and tolerated by as Susan, who had small
• 7:14:32
  liking for cats. I can put up with him for the sake of Captain
• 7:14:34
  Jim, Missus doctor Dea, for I like the old man, and I
• 7:14:37
  will see he gets his bitings up and every mouse the traps account for.
• 7:14:41
  But do not ask me anything more than that, Missus doctor Dea. Cats
• 7:14:45
  is cats, and t hate my word Fritz. They will never be anything
• 7:14:47
  else. At least, missus, doctor dear, do keep him away from
• 7:14:51
  the blessed we man. Picture to yourself how awful it would be if he
• 7:14:53
  was to duck the darling's breath. That might be fitly called a catastrophe,
• 7:14:59
  said Gillbert. You may laugh, doctor dear, but it would be no
• 7:15:02
  laughing matter. Cats never suck baby's breath, said Gilbert. That's only an
• 7:15:07
  old superstition, Susan Ah well, and may be a superstition or it may
• 7:15:11
  not, doctor dear. All I know is it has happens. My sister's
• 7:15:15
  husband's nephew's wife's cat sucked their baby's breath, and the poor innocent was all
• 7:15:19
  but gone when they found it, Anne, superstition or not. If I
• 7:15:23
  find that yellow beast lurking near our baby, I will whack him with a
• 7:15:26
  poker, Missus, doctor Dear. Mister and Missus Marshall Elliott were living comfortably
• 7:15:30
  and harmoniously in the green house. Leslie was busy with sewing, for she
• 7:15:34
  and Owen were to be married at Christmas. Anne wondered what she would do
• 7:15:38
  when Leslie was gone. Changes come all the time, just as soon as
• 7:15:44
  things get really nice. They change, she said with a sigh. The
• 7:15:48
  old Morgan plays up at the glenis for sale, said Gilbert, apropos of
• 7:15:52
  nothing in a special is it, asked Anne indifferently. Yes, now that
• 7:15:57
  mister Morgan is gone, missus Morgan wants to go live with her children in
• 7:16:00
  Vancouver. She will sell cheaply for a big place like that. In a
• 7:16:06
  small village like the Glen will not be very easy to dispose of. Well,
• 7:16:10
  it's certainly a beautiful place, so it is likely she will find a
• 7:16:12
  purchaser, said Anne, absently, wondering whether she should hemstitch or featherstitch little
• 7:16:18
  gems short dresses. He was to be shortened the next week, and Anne
• 7:16:22
  felt ready to cry at the thought of it. Suppose we buy it,
• 7:16:26
  anne remarked Gilbert Quietly. Anne dropped her sewing and stared at him. You're
• 7:16:33
  not in earnest, Gilbert. Indeed I am, dear, and leave this
• 7:16:37
  darling spot our house of dreams, said Anne incredulously. Oh, Gilbert,
• 7:16:42
  it's it's unthinkable. Listen patiently to me, Dear. I know just how
• 7:16:48
  you feel about it. I feel the same. But we've always known we
• 7:16:51
  would have to move someday. Oh, but not so soon, Gilbert,
• 7:16:55
  not just yet. We may never get such a chance again. If we
• 7:16:59
  don't buy Morgan Place, someone else will. And there's no other house in
• 7:17:03
  the glen we would care to have, and no other really good sight on
• 7:17:07
  which to build. This little house is well, it is and has been
• 7:17:11
  what no other house can ever be to us, I admit, but you
• 7:17:15
  know it is out of the way down here for a doctor. We felt
• 7:17:18
  the inconvenience, though We've made the best of it, and it's a tight
• 7:17:21
  fit for us now. Perhaps in a few years, when Jem wants a
• 7:17:26
  room of his own, it will be entirely too small. Oh I know,
• 7:17:30
  I know, said Anne, tears filling her eyes. I know all
• 7:17:33
  that can be set against it. But I love it so and it's so
• 7:17:37
  beautiful here. You would find it very lonely here after Leslie goes and Captain
• 7:17:44
  Jim has gone too. The Morgan Place is beautiful, and in time we
• 7:17:48
  would love it. You know you've always admired it, Anne. Oh,
• 7:17:52
  yes, but but this has all seems to come up so suddenly, Gilbert,
• 7:17:56
  I'm dizzy. Ten minutes ago, I had no thought of leaving this
• 7:17:59
  toar. I was planning what I meant to do for it in the spring,
• 7:18:03
  what I meant to do in the garden. And if we leave this
• 7:18:06
  place, who will get it? It is out of the way, so
• 7:18:08
  it's likely some poor, shipless, wandering family will rent it and overrun it.
• 7:18:14
  And oh, that would be desecration. It would hurt me horribly,
• 7:18:18
  I know. But we cannot sacrifice our own interests to such consideration, sang
• 7:18:22
  girl. The Morgan Place will suit us in every essential particular. We really
• 7:18:29
  can't afford to miss such a chance. Think of that big lawn with those
• 7:18:33
  magnificent old trees, and if that splendid hardwood grove behind it, twelve acres
• 7:18:38
  of it, What a play place for our children. There's a fine orchard
• 7:18:44
  too. And you've always admired that high brick wall around the garden with the
• 7:18:47
  door in it. You've thought it was so like a storybook garden. And
• 7:18:52
  there is almost as fon a you of the harbor and the dunes from the
• 7:18:55
  Morgan Places. From here you can't see the lighthouse star from it. You
• 7:19:00
  can see it from the attic window. There's another advantage, a girl you
• 7:19:03
  love, Big Garretts there's no brook in the garden. Well no, but
• 7:19:08
  there is one running through the maple grove into the glen pond, and the
• 7:19:12
  pond itself isn't far away. You'll be able to fancy you have your own
• 7:19:15
  lake of shining waters. Again, well, don't say anything more about it
• 7:19:19
  just now, Gilbert, give me time to think, to get used to
• 7:19:22
  the idea. All right, there's no great hurry, of course. Only
• 7:19:27
  if we'd decide to buy, it would be well to be moved in and
• 7:19:30
  settled before winter. Gilbert went out, and Anne put away little gems short
• 7:19:36
  dresses with trembling hands she could not sew any more. That day, With
• 7:19:41
  tear wet eyes, she wandered over the little domain where she had reigned so
• 7:19:44
  happy a queen. The Morgan Place was all that Gilbert claimed. The grounds
• 7:19:48
  were beautiful, the house old enough to have dignity and repose and traditions,
• 7:19:53
  and new enough to be comfortable and up to date. Anne had always admired
• 7:19:57
  it. But admiring is no loving, and she loved this house of dreams
• 7:20:02
  so much. She loved everything about it. The garden she had tended,
• 7:20:07
  and which so many women had tended before her, the gleam and sparkle of
• 7:20:11
  the little brook that crept so roguishly across the corner, the gate between the
• 7:20:15
  creaking fir trees, the old red sandstone step, the stately lombardies, the
• 7:20:21
  two tiny, quaint glass cupboards over the chimney piece in the living room,
• 7:20:25
  the crooked pantry door in the kitchen, the two funny dormer windows upstairs,
• 7:20:30
  the little jog in the staircase. Why these things were a part of her.
• 7:20:33
  How could she leave them? And how this little house, consecrated aforetime
• 7:20:38
  by love and joy, had been reconsecrated for her by her happiness and sorrow.
• 7:20:44
  Here she had spent her bridal moon. Here we joyce, had lived
• 7:20:48
  her one brief day. Here the sweetness of motherhood had come again with little
• 7:20:52
  gem. Here she had heard the exquisite music of her baby's cooing laughter.
• 7:20:56
  Here beloved friends had sat by her fireside. Joy and grief, birth and
• 7:21:02
  death had made sacred forever this little house of dreams. And now she must
• 7:21:07
  leave it. She knew that, even while she had contended against the idea
• 7:21:11
  to Gilbert, the little house was outgrown. Gilbert's interests made the change necessary.
• 7:21:17
  His work successful though it had been, was hampered by his location.
• 7:21:22
  Anne realized that the end of their life in this dear place drew nigh,
• 7:21:26
  and that she must face the fact bravely. But how her heart ached.
• 7:21:30
  It will be just like tearing something out of my life, she sobbed.
• 7:21:34
  And Oh, if I could hope that some nice folk would come here in
• 7:21:38
  our place, or even that it would be left vacant, that itself would
• 7:21:42
  be better than having it overrun with some horde who knew nothing of the geography
• 7:21:45
  of Dreamland, and nothing of the history that has given this house its soul
• 7:21:49
  and its identity. And if such a tribe come here, the place will
• 7:21:53
  go to rack and ruin in no time. An old place goes down so
• 7:21:57
  quickly if it is not carefully attended to. They'll tear up my garden and
• 7:22:02
  let the lombardies get ragged, and the paling will come to look like a
• 7:22:04
  mouth with half the teeth missing, and the rueful leak and the plaster fall,
• 7:22:08
  and they'll stuff pillows and rags and broken window panes, and everything will
• 7:22:12
  be out at elbows. Anne's imagination pictured forth so vividly the coming degeneration of
• 7:22:18
  her dear little house, that it hurt her as severely as if it had
• 7:22:22
  already been an accomplished fact. She sat down on the stairs and had a
• 7:22:26
  long bitter cry. Susan found her there and inquired with much concern what the
• 7:22:32
  trouble was. You have not quarreled with the doctor, have you now,
• 7:22:34
  missus doctor dear? But if you have, do not worry. It's a
• 7:22:38
  thing quite likely to happen to married couples, I'm told, although I have
• 7:22:41
  no experience, not by myself. You will be sorry and you can soon
• 7:22:45
  make up. No, no, Susan, we haven't quarreled. It's only
• 7:22:49
  Gilbert is going to buy the Morgan place and we'll have to go and live
• 7:22:52
  at the Glen, and it will break my heart. Susan did not enter
• 7:22:56
  into Anne's feelings at all. She was indeed quite rejoiced over the prospect of
• 7:23:02
  living at the Glen. Her one grievance against her place in the Little House
• 7:23:06
  was its lonesome location. Why, missus, doctor dee, it will be
• 7:23:08
  splendid. The Morgan house is such a fine, big one. I hate
• 7:23:12
  big houses, sobbed Anne. Oh well, you will not hate them by
• 7:23:17
  the time you have half a dozen children, remarked Susan calmly. And this
• 7:23:21
  house is too small for us anyway. We have no spare room since missus
• 7:23:25
  Moore is here, and that pantry is the most aggravating place I've ever tried
• 7:23:27
  to work in. There is a corner every way you turn. Besides,
• 7:23:30
  it is out of the world down here. There is nothing at all but
• 7:23:33
  scenery. Out of your world, perhaps, Susan, but not out of
• 7:23:37
  mine, said Anne with a faint smile. I do not quite understand you,
• 7:23:42
  missus doctor dear, but of course I am not well educated. But
• 7:23:45
  if doctor Blythe buys the Morgan house, he will make no mistake and you
• 7:23:48
  may tie to its. They have water in it, and the pantries and
• 7:23:52
  closets are beautiful, and there is not another such cellar in p E Island.
• 7:23:56
  So I've been told. Why the cellar here, missus, doctor dear,
• 7:24:00
  has been a heartbreak to me as well? You know, Oh,
• 7:24:02
  go away, Susan, go away, said Anne, forlornly, cellars and
• 7:24:07
  pantries and closets don't make a home. Why don't you weep with those who
• 7:24:11
  weep? Well? I never was much for weep, and missus doctor dear,
• 7:24:15
  I'd rather fall to cheer people up than weep with them. Now,
• 7:24:18
  do not you cry and spoil your pretty ice. This house is very well
• 7:24:21
  in a serf to turn, but it's high time you had better. Susan's
• 7:24:23
  point of view seemed to be that of most people. Leslie was the only
• 7:24:27
  one who sympathized understandingly with Anne. She had a good cry too when she
• 7:24:32
  heard the news. Then they both dried their tears and went to work at
• 7:24:36
  the preparations for moving. Since we must go, let us go as soon
• 7:24:40
  as we can and have it over, said poor Anne, with bitter resignation.
• 7:24:44
  You know you will like that lovely old place of the glen after you
• 7:24:48
  have lived in it long enough to have dear memories woven about it, said
• 7:24:51
  Leslie. Friends will come there as they have come here. Happiness will glorify
• 7:24:56
  it for you. Now it's just a house to you, but the years
• 7:24:59
  will get a home. Anne and Leslie had another cry the next week when
• 7:25:03
  they shortened little jem. Anne felt the tragedy of it until evening, when
• 7:25:07
  in his long nighty she found her own dear baby again. But it will
• 7:25:11
  be rompers next, and then trousers and in no time he will be grown
• 7:25:15
  up. She sighed, Well, you wouldn't want him to stay a baby
• 7:25:19
  always, missus, doctor dear, would you, said Susan. Bless his
• 7:25:23
  innocent hearts. He looks too sweet for anything in his shorts. Fiel dresses
• 7:25:26
  with his dear feet sticking out, and think of the save in the ironing,
• 7:25:30
  missus, doctor, dear Anne. I have just had a letter from
• 7:25:33
  Owen, said Leslie, entering with a bright face. And oh, I
• 7:25:37
  have such good news. He writes me that he is going to buy this
• 7:25:41
  place from the church trustees and keep it to spend our summer vacations in,
• 7:25:45
  Anne. Are you not glad, oh, Leslie? Glad isn't the word
• 7:25:49
  for it. It seems almost too good to be true. I shan't feel
• 7:25:52
  half so badly now that I know this dear spot will never be desecrated by
• 7:25:56
  a vandal tribe or left to tumble down in decay. Why it's lovely,
• 7:26:02
  it's lovely. One October morning, Anne wakened to the realization that she had
• 7:26:07
  slept for the last time under the roof of her little house. The day
• 7:26:11
  was too busy to indulge regret, and when evening came. The house was
• 7:26:14
  stripped and bare. Anne and Gilbert were alone in it to say farewell.
• 7:26:18
  Leslie and Susan and little Jem had gone to the glen with the last load
• 7:26:22
  of furniture. The sunset light streamed in through the curtainless windows. It has
• 7:26:27
  all such a heart broken, reproachful look, hasn't it, said Anne.
• 7:26:33
  Oh, I shall be so homesick at the glen tonight. We've been very
• 7:26:37
  happy here, haven't we, an girl, said Gilbert, his voice full
• 7:26:41
  of feeling. Anne choked, unable to answer. Gilbert waited for her at
• 7:26:47
  the fir tree gate while she went over the house and said farewell to every
• 7:26:51
  room. She was going away, But the old house would still be there,
• 7:26:56
  looking seaward through its quaint windows. The autumn winds would blow around it
• 7:27:00
  mournfully, and the gray rain would beat upon it, and the white mists
• 7:27:03
  would come in from the sea to unfold it, and the moonlight would fall
• 7:27:07
  over it and light up the old paths where the schoolmaster and his bride had
• 7:27:11
  walked there. On that old harbor shore, the charm of story would linger.
• 7:27:17
  The wind would still whistle alluringly over the silver sand dunes. The waves
• 7:27:21
  would still call from the red rock coves. But we will be gone,
• 7:27:26
  said Anne through her tears. She went out, closing and locking the door
• 7:27:30
  behind her. Gilbert was waiting for her with a smile. The lighthouse star
• 7:27:36
  was gleaming northward. The little garden, where only Marigold still bloomed, was
• 7:27:41
  already hooding itself in shadows. Anne knelt down and kissed the worn old step
• 7:27:47
  which she had crossed as a bride. Good Bye, dear little house of
• 7:27:52
  dreams, she said. End of Chapter forty