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

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty of Anne of green Gables. This is the
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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.
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Speaker 1: The Queen's class is organized. Marilla laid her knitting on
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Speaker 1: her lap and leaned back in her chair. Her eyes
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Speaker 1: were tired, and she thought vaguely that she must see
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Speaker 1: about having her glasses changed the next time she went
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Speaker 1: to town, for her eyes had grown tired very often.
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Speaker 1: Of late, it was nearly dark, for the full November
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Speaker 1: twilight had fallen around green Gables, and the only light
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Speaker 1: in the kitchen came from the dancing red flames in
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Speaker 1: the stove. Anne was curled up turk fashion on the
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Speaker 1: hearth rug, gazing into that joyous glow where the sunshine
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Speaker 1: of a hundred summers was being distilled from the maple cordwood.
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Speaker 1: She had been reading, but her book had slipped to
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Speaker 1: the floor, and now she was dreaming with a smile
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Speaker 1: on her parted lips. Glittering castles in Spain were shaping
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Speaker 1: themselves out of the mists and rainbows of her. Lively,
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Speaker 1: fancy adventures. Wonderful and enthralling were happening to her in
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Speaker 1: cloud land, adventures that always turned out triumphantly and never
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Speaker 1: involved her in scrapes like those of actual life. Marilla
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Speaker 1: looked at her with a tenderness that would never have
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Speaker 1: been suffered to reveal itself in any clearer light than
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Speaker 1: that soft mingling of fire, shine and shadow. The lesson
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Speaker 1: of a love that should display itself easily in spoken
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Speaker 1: word and open look was one Mariae Marilla could never learn.
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Speaker 1: But she had learned to love this slim, gray eyed
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Speaker 1: girl with an affection all the deeper and stronger from
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Speaker 1: its very undemonstrativeness. Her love made her afraid of being
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Speaker 1: unduly indulgent. Indeed, she had an uneasy feeling that it
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Speaker 1: was rather sinful to set one's heart so intensely on
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Speaker 1: any human creature as she had set hers on Anne.
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Speaker 1: And perhaps she performed a sort of unconscious penance for
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Speaker 1: this by being stricter and more critical than if the
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Speaker 1: girl had been less dear to her. Clearly, Anne herself
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Speaker 1: had no idea how Marilla loved her. She sometimes thought
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Speaker 1: wistfully that Marilla was very hard to please and distinctly
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Speaker 1: lacking in sympathy and understanding, but she always checked the
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Speaker 1: thought reproachfully remembering what she owed to Marilla. Anne said, Marilla, abruptly,
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Speaker 1: Miss Stacy was here this afternoon while you were out
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Speaker 1: with Diana. Anne came back from her other world with
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Speaker 1: a start and a sigh. Was she, Oh, I'm so
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Speaker 1: sorry I wasn't in Why didn't you call me, Marilla?
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Speaker 1: Diana An, I were only over in the Haunted Wood.
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Speaker 1: It's lovely in the woods now. All the little wood things,
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Speaker 1: the ferns and the satin leaves and the cracker berries
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Speaker 1: have gone to sleep, just as if somebody had tucked
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Speaker 1: them away until spring under a blanket of leaves. I
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Speaker 1: think it was a little gray fairy with a rainbow
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Speaker 1: scarf that came tip toeing along the last moonlit night
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Speaker 1: ended it. Diana wouldn't say much about that. Though Diana
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Speaker 1: has never forgotten the scolding her mother gave her about
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Speaker 1: imagining ghosts in the Haunted Wood. It had a very
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Speaker 1: bad effect on Diana's imagination. It blighted it. Missus Lynde says,
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Speaker 1: Myrtle bell is a blighted being. I asked Ruby Gillis
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Speaker 1: why Myrtle was blighted, and Ruby said she guessed it
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Speaker 1: was because her young man had gone back on her.
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Speaker 1: Ruby Gillis thinks of nothing but young men, and the
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Speaker 1: older she gets, the worse she is. Young men are
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Speaker 1: all very well in their place, but it doesn't do
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Speaker 1: to drag them into everything, does it. Diana and I
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Speaker 1: are thinking seriously of promising each other that we will
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Speaker 1: never marry, but be nice old maids and live together forever.
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Speaker 1: Diana hasn't quite made up her mind, though, because she
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Speaker 1: thinks perhaps it will be nobler to marry some wild, dashing,
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Speaker 1: wicked young man and reform him. Diana and I talk
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Speaker 1: a great deal about serious subjects. Now, you know, we
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Speaker 1: feel that we are so much older than we used
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Speaker 1: to be that it isn't becoming to talk of childish matters.
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Speaker 1: It's such a solemn thing to be almost fourteen. Marilla,
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Speaker 1: Miss Stacy took all us girls who are in our
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Speaker 1: teens down to the Brooklass Wednesday and talk to us
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Speaker 1: about it. She said, we couldn't be too careful what
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Speaker 1: habits we formed and what ideals we acquired in our teens,
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Speaker 1: because by the time we were twin twenty, our characters
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Speaker 1: would be developed and the foundation laid for our whole
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Speaker 1: future life. And she said if the foundation was shaky,
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Speaker 1: we could never build anything really worth while on it.
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Speaker 1: Diana and I talked the matter over coming home from school.
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Speaker 1: We felt extremely solemn, Marilla, and we decided that we
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Speaker 1: would try to be very careful, indeed, and form respectable
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Speaker 1: habits and learn all we could and be as sensible
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Speaker 1: as possible, so that by the time we were twenty,
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Speaker 1: our characters will be properly developed. It's perfectly appalling to
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Speaker 1: think of being twenty, Marilla. It sounds so fearfully old
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Speaker 1: and grown up. But why was miss Stacy here this afternoon?
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Speaker 1: That is what I wanted to tell you, Anne, if
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Speaker 1: you'll ever give me a chance to get a word
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Speaker 1: in edgewise. She was talking about you about me. Anne
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Speaker 1: looked rather scared. Then she flushed and exclaimed, oh, I
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Speaker 1: know what she was saying. I meant to tell you, Marilla,
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Speaker 1: honestly I did, but I forgot. Miss Stacy caught me
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Speaker 1: reading ben her in school yesterday afternoon, when I should
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Speaker 1: have been studying my Canadian history. Jane Andrews lent it
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Speaker 1: to me. I was reading it at dinner hour, and
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Speaker 1: I had just got the Chariot race when school went in.
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Speaker 1: I was simply wild to know how it turned out,
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Speaker 1: although I felt sure ben Hur must win, because it
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Speaker 1: wouldn't be poetical justice if he didn't. So I spread
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Speaker 1: the history open on my desk lid and then tucked
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Speaker 1: ben Her between the desk and my knee. I just
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Speaker 1: looked as if I were studying Canadian history, you know,
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Speaker 1: while all the while I was reveling in ben Her.
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Speaker 1: I was so interested in it that I never noticed
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Speaker 1: Miss Stacy coming down the aisle until all at once
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Speaker 1: I just looked up and there she was, looking down
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Speaker 1: at me, so reproachful like. I can't tell you how
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Speaker 1: ashamed I felt, Marilla, especially when I heard Josie Pye giggling.
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Speaker 1: Miss Stacy took ben Her away, but she never said
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Speaker 1: a word. Then she kept me in a recess and
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Speaker 1: talked to me. She said I had done very wrong
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Speaker 1: in two respects. First, I was wasting the time I
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Speaker 1: ought to have put on my studies, and secondly, I
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Speaker 1: was deceiving my teacher. And trying to make it appear
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Speaker 1: I was reading a history when it was a story
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Speaker 1: book instead. I had never realized until that moment, Marilla,
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Speaker 1: that what I was doing was deceitful. I was shocked.
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Speaker 1: I cried bitterly and asked Miss Stacy to forgive me,
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Speaker 1: and I never do such a thing again. And I
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Speaker 1: offered to do penance by never so much as looking
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Speaker 1: at ben Heur for a whole week, not even to
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Speaker 1: see how the chariot race turned out. But Miss Stacy
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Speaker 1: said she wouldn't require that, and she forgave me freely.
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Speaker 1: So I think it wasn't very kind of her to
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Speaker 1: come up here to you about it. After all, Miss
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Speaker 1: Stacy never mentioned such a thing to me. And and
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Speaker 1: it's only your guilty conscience that's the matter with you.
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Speaker 1: You have no business to be taking story cory books
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Speaker 1: to school. You read too any novels anyhow. When I
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Speaker 1: was a girl, I wasn't so much as allowed to
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Speaker 1: look at a novel. Oh, how can you call ben
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Speaker 1: her a novel when it's really a religious book, protested Anne.
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Speaker 1: Of course, it's a little too exciting to be proper
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Speaker 1: reading for Sunday, And I only read it on weekdays,
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Speaker 1: and I never read any book now unless either Miss
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Speaker 1: Stacy or missus Allan thinks it is a proper book
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Speaker 1: for a girl thirteen and three quarters to read. Miss
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Speaker 1: Stacy made me promise that she found me reading a
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Speaker 1: book one day called The Lurid Mystery of the Haunted Hall.
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Speaker 1: It was when Ruby Gillis had lent me and Oh Marilla,
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Speaker 1: it was so fascinating and creepy, it just curdled the
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Speaker 1: blood in my veins. But Miss Stacy said it was
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Speaker 1: a very silly, unwholesome book, and she asked me not
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Speaker 1: to read any more of it or any like it.
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Speaker 1: I didn't mind promising not to read any more like it,
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Speaker 1: but I was agonizing to give back that book without
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Speaker 1: knowing how it turned out. But my love for Miss
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Speaker 1: Stacy stood the test, and I did. It's really wonderful, Marilla,
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Speaker 1: what you can do when you're truly anxious to please
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Speaker 1: a certain person. Well, I guess I'll light the lamp
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Speaker 1: and get to work, said Marilla. I see plainly that
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Speaker 1: you don't want to hear what Miss Stacy had to say.
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Speaker 1: You're more interested in the sound of your own tongue
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Speaker 1: than in anything else. Oh, indeed, Marilla, I do want
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Speaker 1: to hear it, cried Anne contritely. I won't say another word,
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Speaker 1: not one. I know I talk too much, but I'm
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Speaker 1: really trying to overcome it. And although I say far
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Speaker 1: too much, yet, if only you knew how many things
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Speaker 1: I want to say and don't you'd give me some
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Speaker 1: credit for it. Please tell me, Marilla. Well. Miss Stacy
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Speaker 1: wants to organize a class among her advanced students who
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Speaker 1: mean to study for the Entrick's examination into Queen's. She
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Speaker 1: intends to give them extra lessons for an hour after school.
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Speaker 1: When she came to ask Matthew and me if we
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Speaker 1: would like to have you join it. What do you
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Speaker 1: think about it yourself? Anne, would you like to go
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Speaker 1: to Queen's and pass for a teacher? Oh? Marilla. Anne
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Speaker 1: straightened to her knees and clasped her hands. It's been
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Speaker 1: the dream of my life, that is, for the last
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Speaker 1: six months, ever since Ruby and Jane began to talk
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Speaker 1: of studying for the entrance. But I didn't say anything
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Speaker 1: about it because I supposed it would be perfectly useless.
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Speaker 1: I had loved to be a teacher, But won't it
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Speaker 1: be dreadfully expensive? Mister Andrews says it cost him one
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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars to put Prissy through, and Prissy
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Speaker 1: wasn't a dunce in geometry. I guess you needn't worry
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Speaker 1: about that part of it. When Matthew and I took
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Speaker 1: you to bring up, we resolved we would do the
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Speaker 1: best we could for you and give you a good education.
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Speaker 1: I believe in a girl being fitted to earn her
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Speaker 1: own living, whether she ever has to or not. You'll
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Speaker 1: always have a home at Green Gables as long as
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Speaker 1: Matthew and I are here. But nobody knows what is
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Speaker 1: going to happen in this uncertain world, and it's just
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Speaker 1: as well to be prepared, so you can join the
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Speaker 1: Queen's class if you like. Anne, Oh, Marilla, thank you.
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Speaker 1: Anne flung her arms around Marilla's waist and looked up
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Speaker 1: earnestly into her face. I'm extremely grateful to you, Anne,
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Speaker 1: Matthew and I'll study as hard as I can and
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Speaker 1: do my very best to be a credit to you.
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Speaker 1: I warn you not to expect much in geometry, but
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Speaker 1: I think I can hold my own in anything else.
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Speaker 1: If I work hard, I dare say you'll get along
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Speaker 1: well enough, Miss Stacy says, you are bright and diligent,
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Speaker 1: not for worlds. When Marilla have told Anne just what
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Speaker 1: Miss Stacy had said about her, that would have been
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Speaker 1: to pamper vanity. You needn't crush to any extreme of
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Speaker 1: killing yourself over your books. There is no hurry. You
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Speaker 1: won't be ready to try the entrance for a year
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Speaker 1: and a half yet, but it's well to begin in
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Speaker 1: time and be thoroughly grounded. Miss Stacy says, I shall
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Speaker 1: take more interest than ever in my studies now, said
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Speaker 1: Anne blissfully, because I have a purpose in life. Mister
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Speaker 1: Allan says everybody should have a purpose in life and
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Speaker 1: pursue it faithfully. Only he says, we must first make
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Speaker 1: sure that it is a worthy purpose. I would call
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Speaker 1: it a worthy purpose to want to be a teacher,
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Speaker 1: like Miss Stacy, wouldn't you, Marilla. I think it's a
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Speaker 1: very noble profession. The Queen's class was organized in due time.
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Speaker 1: Gilbert Blythe, Anne, Shirley Ruby, Gillis, Jane Andrews, Josie Pye,
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Speaker 1: Charlie Sloane, and Moody Spurgeon mac Pherson joined it. Diana
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Speaker 1: Barry did not, as her parents did not intend to
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Speaker 1: send her to Queen's. This seemed nothing short of a
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Speaker 1: calamity to Anne. Never since the night on which Minnie
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Speaker 1: May had had the croup had she and Diana been
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Speaker 1: separated in anything. On the evening when the Queen's class
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Speaker 1: first remained in school for the extra hours, and Anne
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Speaker 1: saw Diana go slowly out with the others to walk
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Speaker 1: home alone through the birch path and violet veil, it
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Speaker 1: was all the former could do to keep her seat
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Speaker 1: and refrain from rushing impulsively after her chum a lump
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Speaker 1: came into her throat, and she hastily retired behind the
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Speaker 1: pages of her uplifted grammar to hide the tears in
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Speaker 1: her eyes. Not for the world would Anne have had
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Speaker 1: Gilbert Blythe or Josie Pye see those tears. But oh, Marilla,
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Speaker 1: I really felt that I had tasted the bitterness of death,
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Speaker 1: as mister Allen said in his sermon last Sunday, when
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Speaker 1: I saw Diana go out alone, she said mournfully. That night,
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Speaker 1: I thought how splendid it would have been if Diana
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Speaker 1: had only been going to study for the entrance too.
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Speaker 1: But we can't have things perfect in this imperfect world,
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Speaker 1: as missus Lynde says. Missus Lynde isn't exactly a comforting
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Speaker 1: person sometimes, but there's no doubt she says a great
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Speaker 1: many very true things, and I think the Queen's class
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Speaker 1: is going to be extremely interesting. Jane and Ruby are
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Speaker 1: just going to study to be teachers. That is the
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Speaker 1: height of their ambition. Ruby says she will only teach
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Speaker 1: for two years after she gets through, and then she
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Speaker 1: intends to be married. Jane says she will devote her
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Speaker 1: whole life to teaching and never never marry, because you
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Speaker 1: are paid a salary for teaching, but a husband won't
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Speaker 1: pay you anything and growls if you ask for a
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Speaker 1: share in the egg and butter money. I expect. Jane
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Speaker 1: speaks from a mournful experience for missus Lynde says that
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Speaker 1: her father is a perfect old crank and meaner than
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Speaker 1: second Skimmings. Josie Pye says she is just going to
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Speaker 1: college for education's sake, because she won't have to earn
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Speaker 1: her own living. She says, of course, it is different
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Speaker 1: with orphans who are living on charity. They have to hustle.
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Speaker 1: Moody Spurgeon is going to be a minister. Missus Lynde
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Speaker 1: says he couldn't be anything else with a name like
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Speaker 1: that to live up to. I hope it isn't wicked
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Speaker 1: of me, Marilla, but really the thought of Moody Spurgeon
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Speaker 1: being a minister makes me laugh. He's such a funny
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Speaker 1: looking boy, with that big fat face and his little
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Speaker 1: blue eyes and his ears sticking out like flaps. But
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Speaker 1: perhaps he will be more intellectual looking when he grows up.
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Speaker 1: Charlie Sloane says he's going to go into politics and
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Speaker 1: be a member of Parliament, but missus Lynde says he'll
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Speaker 1: never succeed at that because the Sloanes are all honest people,
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Speaker 1: and it's only rascals that get on in politics nowadays.
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Speaker 1: What is Gilbert Blythe going to be? Queried Marilla, seeing
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Speaker 1: that Anne was opening her caesar. I don't happen to
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Speaker 1: know what Gilbert Blige's ambition in life is, if he
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Speaker 1: has any, said Anne scornfully. There was open rivalry between
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Speaker 1: Gilbert and Anne. Now, previously the rivalry had been rather
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Speaker 1: one sided, but there was no longer any doubt that
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Speaker 1: Gilbert was as determined to be first class as Anne was.
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Speaker 1: He was a foeman worthy of her steel. The other
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Speaker 1: members of the class tacitly acknowledged their superiority, and never
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Speaker 1: dreamed of trying to compete with them. Since the day
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Speaker 1: by the pond, when she had refused to listen to
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Speaker 1: his plea for forgiveness, Gilbert, save for the aforesaid determined rivalry,
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Speaker 1: had evinced no recognition whatever of the existence of Anne Shirley.
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Speaker 1: He talked and jested with the other girls, exchanged books
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Speaker 1: and puzzles with them, discussed lessons and plans, sometimes walked
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Speaker 1: home with one or the other of them from prayer
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Speaker 1: meeting or debating club. But Anne Shirley he simply ignored.
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Speaker 1: And Anne found out that it is not pleasant to
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Speaker 1: be ignored. It was in vain that she told herself,
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Speaker 1: with a toss of her head, that she did not care.
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Speaker 1: Deep down, in her wayward, feminine little heart, she knew
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Speaker 1: that she did care, and that if she had had
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Speaker 1: the chance of the Lake of Shining Waters again, she
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Speaker 1: would answer very differently, all at once, as it seemed,
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Speaker 1: and to her secret dismay, she found that the old
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Speaker 1: resentment she had cherished against him was gone, gone, just
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Speaker 1: when she most needed its sustaining power. It was in
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Speaker 1: vain that she recalled every incident an emotion of that
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Speaker 1: memorable occasion, and tried to feel the old satisfying anger.
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Speaker 1: The day by the pond had witnessed its last spasmodic flicker,
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Speaker 1: Anne realized that she had forgiven and forgotten without knowing it.
17:36
Speaker 1: But it was too late, and at least neither Gilbert
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Speaker 1: nor anybody else, not even Diana, should ever suspect how
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Speaker 1: sorry she was, and how much she wished she hadn't
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Speaker 1: been so proud and horrid. She determined to shroud her
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Speaker 1: feelings in deepest oblivion, and it may be stated here
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Speaker 1: and now that she did it so successfully that Gilbert,
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Speaker 1: who possibly was not quite so indifferent as he seemed,
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Speaker 1: could not console himself with any belief that Anne felt
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Speaker 1: his retaliatory scorn. The only poor comfort he had was
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Speaker 1: that she snubbed Charlie Sloane unmercifully, continually and undeservedly. Otherwise,
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Speaker 1: the winter passed away in a round of pleasant duties
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Speaker 1: and studies. For Anne. The days slipped by like golden
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Speaker 1: beads on the necklace of the year. She was happy, eager, interested.
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Speaker 1: There were lessons to be learned, and honor to be one,
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Speaker 1: delightful books to read, new pieces to be practiced for
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Speaker 1: the Sunday school choir, pleasant Saturday afternoons at the manse
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Speaker 1: with Missus Allen. And then almost before Anne realized it,
18:48
Speaker 1: spring had come again to Green Gables, and all the
18:51
Speaker 1: world was a bloom once more. Studies palled just a
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Speaker 1: wee bit. Then the Queen's class left behind in school,
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Speaker 1: while the others scattered to green lanes and leafy woodcuts
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Speaker 1: and meadow byways, looked wistfully out of the windows and
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Speaker 1: discovered the Latin verbs and French exercises had somehow lost
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Speaker 1: the tang and zest they had possessed in the crisp
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Speaker 1: winter months. Even Anne and Gilbert lagged and grew indifferent.
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Speaker 1: Teacher and taught were alike glad when the term was
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Speaker 1: ended and the glad vacation days stretched rosalie before them.
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Speaker 1: What you've done good work this past year, miss Stacy
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Speaker 1: told them on the last evening, And you deserve a
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Speaker 1: good jolly vacation. Have the best time you can in
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Speaker 1: the out of door world, and lay in a good
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Speaker 1: stock of health and vitality and ambition to carry you
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Speaker 1: through next year. It will be the tug of war,
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Speaker 1: you know, the last year before the entrance. Are you
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Speaker 1: going to be back next year, miss Stacy asked Josie Pye.
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Speaker 1: Josie Pye never scrupled asked questions. In this instance, the
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Speaker 1: rest of the class felt grateful to her. None of
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Speaker 1: them would have dared to ask it of Miss Stacy,
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Speaker 1: but all wanted to, for there had been alarming rumors
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Speaker 1: running at large through the school for some time that
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Speaker 1: Miss Stacy was not coming back the next year, that
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Speaker 1: she had been offered a position in the grade school
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Speaker 1: of her own home district and meant to accept. The
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Speaker 1: Queen's class listened in breathless suspense for her answer. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I think I will, said Miss Stacy. I thought of
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Speaker 1: taking another school, but I have decided to come back
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Speaker 1: to Avonlea to tell the truth. I've grown so interested
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Speaker 1: in my pupils here that I found I couldn't leave them,
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Speaker 1: So I'll stay and see you through. Hooray, said Moody Spurgeon.
20:47
Speaker 1: Moody Spurgeon had never been so carried away by his
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Speaker 1: feelings before, and he blushed uncomfortably every time he thought
20:53
Speaker 1: about it. For a week Oh, I'm so glad, said
20:58
Speaker 1: Anne with shining eyes. Dear miss Stacy, it would be
21:01
Speaker 1: perfectly dreadful if he didn't come back. I don't believe
21:04
Speaker 1: I could have the heart to go on with my
21:06
Speaker 1: studies at all if another teacher came here. When Anne
21:11
Speaker 1: got home that night, she stacked all her textbooks away
21:14
Speaker 1: in an old trunk in the attic, locked it, and
21:17
Speaker 1: threw the key into the blanket box. I'm not even
21:20
Speaker 1: going to look at a school book in vacation, she
21:23
Speaker 1: told Marilla. I've studied as hard all the term as
21:26
Speaker 1: I possibly could, and I've pored over that geometry until
21:30
Speaker 1: I know every proposition in the first book off by heart,
21:34
Speaker 1: even when the letters are changed. I just feel tired
21:38
Speaker 1: of everything sensible, and I'm going to let my imagination
21:41
Speaker 1: run riot for the summer. Oh you needn't be alarmed, Marilla.
21:46
Speaker 1: I'll only let it run riot within reasonable limits. But
21:49
Speaker 1: I want to have a real good jolly time this summer.
21:52
Speaker 1: For maybe it's the last summer i'll be a little girl.
21:56
Speaker 1: Missus Lynde says that if I keep stretching out next
21:59
Speaker 1: year as I've done this, I'll have to put on
22:01
Speaker 1: longer skirts. She says, I'm all running to legs and eyes,
22:05
Speaker 1: and when I put on longer skirts, I shall feel
22:08
Speaker 1: that I have to live up to them and be
22:10
Speaker 1: very dignified. It won't even do to believe in fairies, then,
22:14
Speaker 1: I'm afraid. So I'm going to believe in them with
22:16
Speaker 1: all my whole heart. This summer, I think we're going
22:20
Speaker 1: to have a very gay vacation. Ruby Gillis is going
22:23
Speaker 1: to have a birthday party soon, and there's the Sunday
22:26
Speaker 1: School picnic and the Missionary concert next month. And mister
22:30
Speaker 1: Barry says that some evening we'll take Diana and me
22:33
Speaker 1: over to the White Sands Hotel and have dinner there.
22:36
Speaker 1: They have dinner there in the evening, you know. Jane
22:39
Speaker 1: Andrews was over once last summer and she says it
22:41
Speaker 1: was a dazzling sight to see the electric lights and
22:45
Speaker 1: the flowers and all the lady guests in such beautiful dresses.
22:50
Speaker 1: Jane says it was her first glimpse into high life
22:53
Speaker 1: and she'll never forget it to her dying day. Missus
22:57
Speaker 1: Lynde came up the next afternoon to find out why
23:00
Speaker 1: Marilla had not been at the AID meeting on Thursday,
23:03
Speaker 1: when Marilla was not at aid meeting, people knew there
23:07
Speaker 1: was something wrong at Green Gables. Matthew had a bad
23:11
Speaker 1: spell with his heart Thursday, Marilla explained, and I didn't
23:15
Speaker 1: feel like leaving him. Oh yes, he's all right now,
23:19
Speaker 1: but he takes them spells oftener than he used to,
23:23
Speaker 1: and I'm anxious about him. The doctor says he must
23:26
Speaker 1: be careful to avoid excitement. That's easy enough for Matthew
23:30
Speaker 1: doesn't go about looking for excitement by any means, and
23:34
Speaker 1: never did. But he's not to do any very heavy
23:37
Speaker 1: work either. And you might as well tell Matthew not
23:39
Speaker 1: to breathe as not to work. Come and lay off
23:42
Speaker 1: your things, Rachel, you'll stay to tea. Well, seeing you're
23:47
Speaker 1: so pressing, perhaps I might as well stay, said Missus Rachel,
23:51
Speaker 1: who had not the slightest intention of doing anything else.
23:55
Speaker 1: Missus Rachel and Marilla sat comfortably in the parlor while
23:58
Speaker 1: Anne got the tea and hot biscuits that were light
24:01
Speaker 1: and white enough to defy even Missus Rachel's criticism. I
24:06
Speaker 1: must say Anne has turned out a real smart girl,
24:09
Speaker 1: admitted Missus Rachel, as Marilla accompanied her to the end
24:13
Speaker 1: of the lane at sunset. She must be a great
24:16
Speaker 1: help to you. She is, said Marilla. And she's real,
24:20
Speaker 1: steady and reliable. Now. I used to be afraid she'd
24:24
Speaker 1: never get over her feather brained ways, but she has,
24:27
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't be afraid to trust her in anything now.
24:32
Speaker 1: I never would have thought she'd have turned out so
24:34
Speaker 1: well that first day I was here three years ago,
24:37
Speaker 1: said missus Rachel lawful heart. Shall I ever forget that
24:41
Speaker 1: tantrum of hers? When I went home that night, I
24:44
Speaker 1: says to Thomas, says, I mark my words, Thomas. Marilla
24:48
Speaker 1: Cuthbertle lived to rue the step she's took. But I
24:51
Speaker 1: was mistaken, and I'm real glad of it. I ain't
24:55
Speaker 1: one of those kind of people, Marilla, as can never
24:57
Speaker 1: be brought to own up that they've made a mistake. No,
25:01
Speaker 1: that never was my way, Thank goodness. I did make
25:04
Speaker 1: a mistake in judging Anne. But it warn't no wonder
25:07
Speaker 1: for an otter, unexpected or witch of a child. There
25:09
Speaker 1: never was in this world, that's what. There was, no
25:13
Speaker 1: ciphering her out by the rules that worked with other children.
25:16
Speaker 1: It's nothing short of wonderful how she's improved these three years,
25:20
Speaker 1: but especially in looks. She's a real pretty girl, got
25:23
Speaker 1: to be. Though I can't say I'm overly partial to
25:26
Speaker 1: that pale, big eyed style myself. I like more snap
25:30
Speaker 1: and color, like Diana Barry has or Ruby Gillis. Ruby
25:34
Speaker 1: Gillis's looks are real showy. But somehow, I don't know
25:38
Speaker 1: how it is. But when Anne and them are together,
25:41
Speaker 1: though she ain't half as handsome, she makes them look
25:44
Speaker 1: kind of common and overdone, something like them white June
25:47
Speaker 1: lilies she calls Narcissus, alongside of the big red peonies.
25:52
Speaker 1: That's what. End of chapter thirty