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32 - Anne of Green Gables (version 4) by Lucy Maud Montgomery · Anne of Green Gables (version 4)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty two of Anne of Green Gables. This is
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  Speaker 1: the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recorded by Annie Coleman www dot Annie Cooleman dot com.
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  Speaker 1: Anne of green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter thirty two.
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  Speaker 1: The past list is out. With the end of June
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  Speaker 1: came the close of the term and the close of
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  Speaker 1: Miss Stacy's rule in Avonlea School. Anne and Diana walked
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  Speaker 1: home that evening feeling very sober. Indeed, red eyes and
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  Speaker 1: damp handkerchiefs bore convincing testimony to the fact that Miss
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  Speaker 1: Stacy's farewell words must have been quite as touching as
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  Speaker 1: mister Phillips's had been under similar circumstances three years before.
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  Speaker 1: Diana looked back at the schoolhouse from the foot of
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  Speaker 1: the Spruce hill and sighed deeply. It does seem as
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  Speaker 1: if it was the end of everything, doesn't it, she
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  Speaker 1: said dismally. You oughtn't to feel half as badly as
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  Speaker 1: I do, said Anne, hunting vainly for a dry spot
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  Speaker 1: on her handkerchief. You'll be back again next winter. But
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  Speaker 1: I suppose I've left the dear old school forever. If
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  Speaker 1: I have good luck that is, it won't be a
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  Speaker 1: bit the same. Miss Stacy won't be there, nor you,
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  Speaker 1: nor Jane nor Ruby. Probably I shall have to sit
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  Speaker 1: all alone, for I couldn't bear to have another desk
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  Speaker 1: mate after you. Oh we have had jolly times, haven't we, Anne.
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  Speaker 1: It's dreadful to think they're all over. Two big tears
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  Speaker 1: rolled down by Diana's nose. If you'd stop crying, I could,
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  Speaker 1: said Anne imploringly. Just as soon as I put away
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  Speaker 1: my hanky, I see you brimming up, and that starts
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  Speaker 1: me off again. As missus Lynde says, if you can't
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  Speaker 1: be cheerful, be as cheerful as you can. After all,
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  Speaker 1: I dare say I'll be back next year. This is
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  Speaker 1: one of the times I know I'm not going to pass.
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  Speaker 1: They're getting alarmingly frequent. Why you came out splendidly in
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  Speaker 1: the exams, Miss Stacy gave yes? But those exams didn't
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  Speaker 1: make me nervous. When I think of the real thing.
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  Speaker 1: You can't imagine what a horrid, cold, fluttery feeling comes
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  Speaker 1: round my heart and then my number is thirteen, and
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  Speaker 1: Josie Pye says it's so unlucky. I am not superstitious,
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  Speaker 1: and I know it can make no difference, but still
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  Speaker 1: I wish it wasn't thirteen. I do wish I was
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  Speaker 1: going in with you, said Diana. Wouldn't we have a
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  Speaker 1: perfectly elegant time? But I suppose you'll have to cram
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  Speaker 1: in the evenings. No, Miss Stacy has made us promise
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  Speaker 1: not to open a book at all. She says it
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  Speaker 1: would only tire and confuse us. And we are to
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  Speaker 1: go out walking and not think about the exams at all,
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  Speaker 1: and go to bed early. It's good advice, but I
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  Speaker 1: expect it'll be hard to follow. Good advice is apt
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  Speaker 1: to be. I think Prissy Andrews told me that she
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  Speaker 1: sat up half the night every night of her entrance
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  Speaker 1: week and crammed for dear life, and I had determined
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  Speaker 1: to sit up at least as long as she did.
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  Speaker 1: It was so kind of your aunt Josephine to ask
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  Speaker 1: me to stay at Beechwood while I'm in town. You'll
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  Speaker 1: write to me while you're in won't you. I'll write
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  Speaker 1: Tuesday night and tell you how the first day goes
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  Speaker 1: promised Anne, I'll be haunting the post office Wednesday, vowed Diana.
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  Speaker 1: Anne went to town the following Monday, and on Wednesday,
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  Speaker 1: Diana haunted the post office as agreed, and got her letter.
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  Speaker 1: Dearest Diana wrote, Anne, Here, it is Tuesday night, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm right this in the library at Beechwood. Last night
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  Speaker 1: I was horribly lonesome, all alone in my room, and
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  Speaker 1: wished so much you were with me. I couldn't cram
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  Speaker 1: because I'd promised Miss Stacy not to, but it was
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  Speaker 1: as hard to keep from opening my history as it
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  Speaker 1: used to be to keep from reading a story before
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  Speaker 1: my lessons were learned. This morning, Miss Stacy came for me,
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  Speaker 1: and we went to the academy, calling for Jane and
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  Speaker 1: Ruby and Josie. On our way, Ruby asked me to
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  Speaker 1: feel her hands, and they were as cold as ice.
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  Speaker 1: Josie said, I looked as if I hadn't slept a wink,
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  Speaker 1: and she didn't believe I was strong enough to stand
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  Speaker 1: the grind of the teacher's course. Even if I did
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  Speaker 1: get through, there are times and seasons even yet, when
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  Speaker 1: I don't feel that I've made any great headway in
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  Speaker 1: learning to like Josie Pye When we reached the academy,
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  Speaker 1: there were scores of students there from all over the island.
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  Speaker 1: The first person we saw was Moody Spurgeon, sitting on
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  Speaker 1: the steps and muttering away to himself. Jane asked him
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  Speaker 1: what on earth he was doing, and he said he
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  Speaker 1: was repeating the multiplication table over and over to steady
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  Speaker 1: his nerves, and for pity's sake, not to interrupt him,
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  Speaker 1: because if he stopped for a moment, he got frightened
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  Speaker 1: and forgot everything he ever knew. But the multiplication table
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  Speaker 1: kept all his facts firmly in their proper place. When
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  Speaker 1: we were assigned to our rooms, Miss Stacy had to
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  Speaker 1: leave us. Jane and I sat together, and Jane was
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  Speaker 1: so composed that I envied her. No need of the
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  Speaker 1: multiplication table for good, steady, sensible Jane. I wondered if
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  Speaker 1: I looked as I felt, and if they could hear
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  Speaker 1: my heart thumping clear across the room. Then a man
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  Speaker 1: came in and began distributing the English examination sheets. My
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  Speaker 1: hands grew cold then, and my head fairly whirled around
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  Speaker 1: as I picked it up. Just one awful moment, Diana,
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  Speaker 1: I felt exactly as I did four years ago when
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  Speaker 1: I asked Marilla if I might day of Green Gables,
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  Speaker 1: and then everything cleared up in my mind, and my
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  Speaker 1: heart began beating again. I forgot to say that it
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  Speaker 1: had stopped altogether, for I knew I could do something
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  Speaker 1: with that paper. Anyhow, at noon we went home for dinner,
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  Speaker 1: and then back again for history in the afternoon. The
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  Speaker 1: history was a pretty hard paper, and I got dreadfully
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  Speaker 1: mixed up in the dates. Still, I think I did
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  Speaker 1: fairly well today, But oh Diana, tomorrow the geometry exam
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  Speaker 1: comes off, and when I think of it, it takes
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  Speaker 1: every bit of determination I possess to keep from opening
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  Speaker 1: my euclid. If I thought the multiplication table would help
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  Speaker 1: me any I would recite it from now till tomorrow. Morning.
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  Speaker 1: I went down to see the other girls this evening.
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  Speaker 1: On my way I met Moody Spurgeon, wandering distractedly around.
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  Speaker 1: He said he knew he had failed in history, and
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  Speaker 1: he was born to be a disappointment to his parents,
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  Speaker 1: and he was going home on the morning train, and
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  Speaker 1: it would be easier to be a carpenter than a minister. Anyhow,
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  Speaker 1: I cheered him up and persuaded him to stay to
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  Speaker 1: the end, because it would be unfair to Miss Stacy
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  Speaker 1: if he didn't. Sometimes I have wished I was born
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  Speaker 1: a boy, But when I see Moody Spurgeon, I'm always
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  Speaker 1: glad I'm a girl and not his sister Ruby was
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  Speaker 1: in hysterics when I reached their boarding house. She had
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  Speaker 1: just discovered a fearful mistake she had made in her
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  Speaker 1: English paper. When she recovered, we went uptown and had
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  Speaker 1: an ice cream. How we wished you had been with us,
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  Speaker 1: oh Diana, if only the geometry examination were over. But there,
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  Speaker 1: as missus Lynde would say, the sun will go on
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  Speaker 1: rising and setting whether I fail in geometry or not.
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  Speaker 1: That is true, but not especially comforting. I think I'd
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  Speaker 1: rather it didn't go on if I failed, yours devotedly Anne.
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  Speaker 1: The geometry examination and all the others were over in
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  Speaker 1: due time, and Anne arrived home on Friday evening, rather tired,
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  Speaker 1: but with an air of chastened triumph about her. Diana
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  Speaker 1: was over at Green Gables when she arrived, and they
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  Speaker 1: met as if they had been parted for years. You,
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  Speaker 1: old darling, It's perfectly splendid to see you back again.
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  Speaker 1: It seems like an age since you went to town,
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  Speaker 1: and oh, Anne, how did you get along? Pretty well?
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  Speaker 1: I think and everything but the geometry. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: whether I passed in it or not, and I have
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  Speaker 1: a creepy Crawley presentiment that I didn't. Oh how good
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  Speaker 1: it is to be back. Green Gables is the dearest,
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  Speaker 1: loveliest spot in the world. How did the others do?
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  Speaker 1: The girls say they know they didn't pass, but I
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  Speaker 1: think they did pretty well. Josie says that geometry was
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  Speaker 1: so easy a child of ten could do it. Moody
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  Speaker 1: Spurgeon still thinks he failed in history, and Charlie says
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  Speaker 1: he failed in algebra, but we don't really know anything
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  Speaker 1: about it, and won't until the past list is out.
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  Speaker 1: That won't be for a fortnight. Fancy living a fortnight
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  Speaker 1: in such suspense. I wish I could go to sleep
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  Speaker 1: and never wake up until it is over. Diana knew
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  Speaker 1: it would be useless to ask how Gilbert blythe had fared,
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  Speaker 1: so she merely said, Oh, you'll pass all right, don't worry.
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  Speaker 1: I'd rather not pass at all than not come up
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  Speaker 1: pretty well on the list, flashed Anne, by which she meant,
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  Speaker 1: and Diana knew she meant. That success would be incomplete
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  Speaker 1: and bitter if she did not come out ahead of
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  Speaker 1: Gilbert blythe With this end in view, Anne had strained
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  Speaker 1: every nerve during the examinations. So had Gilbert. They had
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  Speaker 1: met and passed each other on the street a dozen
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  Speaker 1: times without any sign of recognition, and every time Anne
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  Speaker 1: had held her head a little higher and wished a
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  Speaker 1: little more earnestly that she had made friends with Gilbert
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  Speaker 1: when he asked her, and vowed a little more determinedly
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  Speaker 1: to surpass him in the examination. She knew that all
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  Speaker 1: Avonlea Junior was wondering which would come out first. She
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  Speaker 1: even knew that Jimmy Glover and Ned Wright had a
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  Speaker 1: bet on the question, and that Josie Pye had said
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  Speaker 1: there was no doubt in the world that Gilbert would
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  Speaker 1: be first. And she felt that her humiliation would be
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  Speaker 1: unbearable if she failed. But she had another and nobler
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  Speaker 1: motive for wishing to do well. She wanted to pass
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  Speaker 1: high for the sake of Matthew and Marilla, especially Matthew.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew had declared to her his conviction that she would
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  Speaker 1: beat the whole island. That Anne felt was something It
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  Speaker 1: would be foolish to hope for even in the wildest dreams,
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  Speaker 1: but she did hope fervently that she would be amongst
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  Speaker 1: the first ten, at least so that she might see
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  Speaker 1: Matthew's kindly brown eyes gleam with pride in her achievement
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  Speaker 1: that she felt would be a sweet reward, indeed, for
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  Speaker 1: all her hard work and patient grubbing among unimaginative equations
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  Speaker 1: and conjugations. At the end of the fortnight, Anne took
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  Speaker 1: to haunting the post office also, and the distracted company
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  Speaker 1: of Jane Ruby and Josie opening the Charlottetown dailies with
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  Speaker 1: shaking hands and cold sinkway feelings as bad as any
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  Speaker 1: experienced during the entrance week. Charlie and Gilbert were not
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  Speaker 1: above doing this too, but Moody Spurgeon stayed resolutely away.
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  Speaker 1: I haven't got the grit to go there and look
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  Speaker 1: at a paper in cold blood, he told Anne, I'm
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  Speaker 1: just going to wait until somebody comes and tells me
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  Speaker 1: suddenly whether I've passed or not. When three weeks had
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  Speaker 1: gone by without the pass list appearing, Anne began to
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  Speaker 1: feel that she really couldn't stand in the strain much longer.
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  Speaker 1: Her appetite failed, and her interest in avonlea doings life.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Lynde wanted to know what else you could expect
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  Speaker 1: with a Tory superintendent of education at the head of affairs,
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  Speaker 1: and Matthew, noting Anne's paleness and indifference and the lagging
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  Speaker 1: steps that bore her home from the post office every afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: began seriously to wonder if he hadn't better vote Grit
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  Speaker 1: at the next election. But one evening the news came.
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  Speaker 1: Anne was sitting at her open window for the time,
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  Speaker 1: forgetful of the woes of examinations and the cares of
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  Speaker 1: the world, as she drank in the beauty of the
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  Speaker 1: summer dusk, sweet scented with flower breaths from the garden below,
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  Speaker 1: and sibilant and rustling from the stir of poplars. The
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  Speaker 1: eastern sky above the Firs was flushed faintly pink from
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  Speaker 1: the reflection of the west, and Anne was wondering dreamily
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  Speaker 1: if the spirit of color looked like that. When she
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  Speaker 1: saw Diana come flying down through the firs, over the
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  Speaker 1: log bridge and up the s with a fluttering newspaper
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  Speaker 1: in her hand, Anne sprang to her feet, knowing at
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  Speaker 1: once what that paper contained. The pass list was out.
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  Speaker 1: Her head whirled and her heart beat until it hurt her.
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  Speaker 1: She could not move a step. It seemed an hour
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  Speaker 1: to her before Diana came rushing along the hall and
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  Speaker 1: burst into the room without even knocking. So great was
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  Speaker 1: her excitement. Anne, you've passed, she cried, past the very first.
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  Speaker 1: You and Gilbert both your ties, but your name is first. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I'm so proud. Diana flung the paper on the table
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  Speaker 1: and herself on Anne's bed, Utterly breathless and incapable of
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  Speaker 1: further speech, Anne lighted the lamp, oversetting the match safe
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  Speaker 1: and using up half a dozen matches before her shaking
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  Speaker 1: hands could accomplish the task. Then she snatched up the paper. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: she had passed. There was her name at the very
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  Speaker 1: top of a list of two hundred. That moment was
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  Speaker 1: worth living for. You did just splendidly, Anne puffed, Diana,
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  Speaker 1: recovering sufficiently to sit up and speak. For Anne, starry
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  Speaker 1: eyed and rapped, had not uttered a word. Father brought
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  Speaker 1: the paper home from bright River not ten minutes ago.
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  Speaker 1: It came out on the afternoon train, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: won't be here till tomorrow by mail. And when I
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  Speaker 1: saw the pass list, I just rushed over like a
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  Speaker 1: wild thing. You've all passed, every one of you, Moody, Spurgeon,
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  Speaker 1: and Doll, although he's conditioned in history. Jane and Ruby
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  Speaker 1: did pretty well. They're half way up, and so did Charlie.
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  Speaker 1: Josie just scraped through with three marks to spare. But
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  Speaker 1: you'll see she'll put on as many airs as if
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  Speaker 1: she'd led. Won't Miss Stacy be delighted? Oh? Anne, what
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  Speaker 1: does it feel like to see your name at the
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  Speaker 1: head of a pass list like that? If it were me,
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  Speaker 1: I know i'd go crazy with joy. I am pretty
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  Speaker 1: near crazy as it is, But you're as calm and
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  Speaker 1: cool as a spring evening. I'm just dazzled inside, said Anne.
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  Speaker 1: I want to say a hundred things, and I can't
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  Speaker 1: find words to say them in I never dreamed of this, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I did too, just once. I let myself think once,
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  Speaker 1: what if I should come out first? Quakingly, you know,
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  Speaker 1: for it seems so vain and presumptuous to think I
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  Speaker 1: could lead the island. Excuse me a minute, Diana. I
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  Speaker 1: must run right out to the field to tell Matthew.
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  Speaker 1: Then we'll go up the road. And tell the good
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  Speaker 1: news to the others. They hurried to the hayfield below
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  Speaker 1: the barn, where Matthew was coiling hay, and as luck
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  Speaker 1: would have it, Missus Lynde was talking to Marilla at
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  Speaker 1: the lane fence. Oh, Matthew, exclaimed Anne. I've passed, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm first, or one of the first. I'm not vain,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm thankful. Well now, I always said it, said Matthew,
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  Speaker 1: gazing at the past list delightedly. I knew you could
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  Speaker 1: beat them all easy. You've done pretty well, I must say, Anne,
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  Speaker 1: said Marilla, trying to hide her extreme pride in Anne
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  Speaker 1: from Missus Rachel's critical eye. But that good soul, said heartedly,
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  Speaker 1: I just guess she has done well, and far be
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  Speaker 1: it from me to be backward in saying it. You're
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  Speaker 1: a credit to your friends, Anne, that's what, and we're
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  Speaker 1: all proud of you. That night, Anne, who had wound
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  Speaker 1: up the delightful evening with a serious little talk with
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  Speaker 1: Missus Allen at the manse, knelt sweetly by her open
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  Speaker 1: window in a great sheen of moonlight, and murmured a
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  Speaker 1: prayer of gratitude and aspiration that came straight from her heart.
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  Speaker 1: There was in it thankfulness for the past and reverent
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  Speaker 1: petition for the future. And when she slept on her
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  Speaker 1: white pillow, her dreams were as fair and bright and
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  Speaker 1: beautiful as maidenhood might desire. End of chapter thirty two.
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  Speaker 1: The pass list is out.