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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty five of Anne of green Gables. This is
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  Speaker 1: a 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 Lucymaud Montgomery, Chapter thirty five,
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  Speaker 1: The Winter at Queen's Anne's homesickness wore off greatly helped
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  Speaker 1: in the wearing by her weekend visits home. As long
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  Speaker 1: as the open weather lasted, the Avonlea students went out
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  Speaker 1: to Carmody on the New Branch Railway every Friday night.
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  Speaker 1: Diana and several other Avonlea young folks were generally on
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  Speaker 1: hand to meet them, and they all walked over to
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  Speaker 1: Avonlea in a merry party. Anne thought those Friday evening
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  Speaker 1: gypsyings over the autumnal hills in the crisp golden air,
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  Speaker 1: with the home lights of Avonlea twinkling beyond, were the
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  Speaker 1: best and dearest hours in the whole week. Gilbert blythe
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  Speaker 1: Nearly always walked her through Begillis and carried her satchel
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  Speaker 1: for her. Ruby was a very handsome young lady, now
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  Speaker 1: thinking herself quite as grown up as she really was.
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  Speaker 1: She wore her skirts as long as her mother would
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  Speaker 1: let her, and did her hair up in town, though
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  Speaker 1: she had to take it down when she went home.
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  Speaker 1: She had large, bright blue eyes, a brilliant complexion, and
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  Speaker 1: a plump, showy figure. She laughed a great deal, was
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  Speaker 1: cheerful and good tempered, and enjoyed the pleasant things of life. Frankly,
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  Speaker 1: but I shouldn't think she was the sort of girl
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  Speaker 1: Gilbert would like, whispered Jane to Anne. Anne did not
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  Speaker 1: think so either, but she would not have said so
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  Speaker 1: for the Avery scholarship. She could not help thinking, too,
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  Speaker 1: that it would be very pleasant to have such a
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  Speaker 1: friend as Gilbert to jest and chatter with and exchange
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  Speaker 1: ideas about books and studies and ambitions. Gilbert had ambitions too,
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  Speaker 1: she knew, and Ruby Gillis did not seem the sort
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  Speaker 1: of person with whom such could be profitably discussed. There
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  Speaker 1: was no silly sentiment in Anne's ideas concerning Gilbert. Boys were,
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  Speaker 1: to her, when she thought about them, at all, merely
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  Speaker 1: possible good comrades. If she and Gilbert had been friends,
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  Speaker 1: she would not have cared how many other friends he had,
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  Speaker 1: nor with whom he walked. She had a genius for friendship,
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  Speaker 1: girl friends she had in plenty, but she had a
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  Speaker 1: vague consciousness that masculine friendship might also be a good
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  Speaker 1: thing to round out one's conceptions of companionship and furnish
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  Speaker 1: broader standpoids of judgment and comparison. Not that Ann could
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  Speaker 1: have put her feelings on the matter into just such
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  Speaker 1: clear definition, but she thought that if Gilbert had ever
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  Speaker 1: walked home with her from the train, over the Crisp
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  Speaker 1: Fields and along the Ferney Byways, they might have had many,
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  Speaker 1: and mary and interesting conversation about the new world that
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  Speaker 1: was opening around them and their hopes and ambitions. Therein,
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  Speaker 1: Gilbert was a clever young fellow, with his own thoughts
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  Speaker 1: about things and a determination to get the best out
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  Speaker 1: of life and put the best into it. Ruby Gillis
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  Speaker 1: told Jane Anders that she didn't understand half the things
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  Speaker 1: Gilbert Blythe said he talked just like Anne Shirley did
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  Speaker 1: when she had a thoughtful fit on, And for her part,
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  Speaker 1: she didn't think it any fun to be bothering about
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  Speaker 1: books and that sort of thing when you didn't have
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  Speaker 1: to Frank Stockley had lots more dash and go, but
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  Speaker 1: then he wasn't half as good looking as Gilbert, and
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  Speaker 1: she really couldn't decide which she liked best. In the academy,
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  Speaker 1: Anne gradually drew a little circle of friends about her, thoughtful, imaginative,
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  Speaker 1: ambitious students like herself. With the rose red girl Stella
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  Speaker 1: Maynard and the dream girl Priscilla Grant, she soon became intimate,
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  Speaker 1: finding the latter, pale, spiritual looking maiden to be full
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  Speaker 1: to the brim of mischief, pranks and fun, while the vivid,
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  Speaker 1: black eyed Stella had a heart full of wistful dreams
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  Speaker 1: and fancies as aerial and rainbow like as Anne's own.
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  Speaker 1: After the Christmas holidays, the Avonlea students gave up going
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  Speaker 1: home on Fridays and settled down to hard work. By
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  Speaker 1: this time, all the Queen's scholars had gravitated into their
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  Speaker 1: own places in the ranks, and the various classes had
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  Speaker 1: assumed distinct and settled shadings of individuality. Certain facts had
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  Speaker 1: become generally accepted. It was admitted that the metal contestants
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  Speaker 1: had practically narrowed down to three, Gilbert blythe Anne Shirley
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  Speaker 1: and Lewis Wilson. The Avery Scholarship was more doubtful any
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  Speaker 1: one of a certain six being a possible winner. The
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  Speaker 1: bronze medal for Mathematics was considered as good as one
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  Speaker 1: by a fat, funny, little up country boy with a
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  Speaker 1: bumpy forehead and a patched coat. Ruby Gillis was the
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  Speaker 1: handsomest girl of the year at the Academy me in
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  Speaker 1: the second year classes. Stella Maynard carried off the palm
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  Speaker 1: for beauty with a small but critical minority in favor
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  Speaker 1: of Anne. Shirley ethel Marr was admitted by all competent
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  Speaker 1: judges to have the most stylish modes of hair dressing,
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  Speaker 1: and Jane Andrews, playing plodding, conscientious Jane carried off the
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  Speaker 1: honors in the domestic science course. Even Josie Pye attained
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  Speaker 1: a certain pre eminence as the sharpest tongued young lady
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  Speaker 1: in attendance at Queen's. So it may be fairly stated
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  Speaker 1: that Miss Stacy's old pupils held their own in the
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  Speaker 1: wider arena of the academical course. Anne worked hard and steadily.
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  Speaker 1: Her rivalry with Gilbert was as intense as it had
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  Speaker 1: ever been in Avonlea School, although it was not known
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  Speaker 1: in the class at large, but somehow the bitterness had
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  Speaker 1: gone out of it. Anne no longer wished to win
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of defeating Gilbert, rather for the proud
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  Speaker 1: consciousness of a well won victory over a worthy foeman.
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  Speaker 1: It would be worth while to win, but she no
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  Speaker 1: longer thought life would be insupportable if she did not.
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  Speaker 1: In spite of lessons, the students found opportunities for pleasant times.
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  Speaker 1: Anne spent many of her spare hours at Beechwood and
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  Speaker 1: generally ate her Sunday dinners there, and went to church
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  Speaker 1: with Miss Barry. The latter was, as she admitted, growing old,
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  Speaker 1: but her black eyes were not dim nor the vigor
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  Speaker 1: of her tongue in the least abated. But she never sharpened.
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  Speaker 1: The latter on Anne, who continued to be a prime
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  Speaker 1: favorite with the critical old lady. That Anne girl improves
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  Speaker 1: all the time, she said, I get tired of other girls.
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  Speaker 1: There is such a provoking and eternal sameness about them.
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  Speaker 1: Anne has as many shades as a rainbow, and every
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  Speaker 1: shade is the prettiest wile it lasts. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: that she is as amusing as she was when she
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  Speaker 1: was a child. But she makes me love her. And
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  Speaker 1: I like people who make me love them. It saves
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  Speaker 1: me so much trouble and making myself love them. Then,
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  Speaker 1: almost before anybody realized it, spring had come out in Avonlea.
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  Speaker 1: The mayflowers were peeping pinkly out on the sere barrens,
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  Speaker 1: where snow wreaths lingered, and the mist of green was
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  Speaker 1: on the woods and in the valleys. But in Charlottetown,
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  Speaker 1: harassed Queen's students thought and talked only of examinations. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't seem possible that the term is nearly over, said Anne.
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  Speaker 1: Why last fall it seems so long to look forward
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  Speaker 1: to a whole winter of studies and classes, and here
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  Speaker 1: we are with the exams looming up next week. Girls,
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes I feel as if those exams meant everything. But
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  Speaker 1: when I look at the big buds swelling on those
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  Speaker 1: chestnut trees, and the misty blue air at the end
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  Speaker 1: of the streets, they don't seem half so important. Jane
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  Speaker 1: and Ruby and Josie, who had dropped in, did not
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  Speaker 1: take this view of it. The coming examinations were constantly
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  Speaker 1: very important, indeed far more important than chestnut buds or
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  Speaker 1: maytime Haze's. It was all very well for Anne, who
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  Speaker 1: was sure of passing at least to have her moments
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  Speaker 1: of belittling them. But when your whole future depended on them,
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  Speaker 1: as the girls truly thought theirs did, you cannot regard
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  Speaker 1: them philosophically. I've lost seven pounds in the last two weeks,
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  Speaker 1: sighed Jane. It's no use to say, don't worry, I
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  Speaker 1: will worry. Worrying helps you some. It seems as if
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  Speaker 1: you were doing something when you're worrying. It would be
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  Speaker 1: dreadful if I failed to get my license after going
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  Speaker 1: to Queen's all winter and spending so much money. I
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  Speaker 1: don't care, said Josie Pye. If I don't pass this year,
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  Speaker 1: I'm coming back next. My father can afford to send me. Anne.
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  Speaker 1: Frank Stockley says that Professor Tremaine said Gilbert Blythe was
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  Speaker 1: sure to get the medal, that Emily Clay would likely
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  Speaker 1: win the Avery Scholarship. That may make me feel badly tomorrow,
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  Speaker 1: Josie laughed Anne. But just now, I honestly feel that,
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  Speaker 1: as long as I know, the violets are coming out
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  Speaker 1: all purple down in the hollow below green gables, and
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  Speaker 1: that little ferns are poking their heads up in lover's lane.
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  Speaker 1: It's not a great deal of difference whether I win
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  Speaker 1: the avery or not. I've done my best, and I
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  Speaker 1: begin to understand what is meant by the joy of
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  Speaker 1: the strife. Next to trying and winning, the best thing
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  Speaker 1: is trying and failing. Girls don't talk about exams. Look
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  Speaker 1: at that arch of pale green sky over those houses,
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  Speaker 1: and picture to yourselves what it must look like over
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  Speaker 1: the purply dark beech woods back of Avonlea. What are
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  Speaker 1: you going to wear for commencement? Jane asked Ruby practically.
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  Speaker 1: Jane and Josie both answered at once, and the chatter
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  Speaker 1: drifted into a side eddy of fashions. But Anne, with
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  Speaker 1: her elbows on the windowsill, her soft cheek laid again
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  Speaker 1: since her clasped hands and her eyes filled with visions,
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  Speaker 1: looked out unheedingly across city roof and spire to that
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  Speaker 1: glorious dome of sunset sky, and wove her dreams of
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  Speaker 1: a possible future from the golden tissue of youth's own optimism.
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  Speaker 1: All the beyond was hers, with its possibilities lurking Rosalie
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  Speaker 1: in the oncoming years. Each year a rose a promise
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  Speaker 1: to be woven into an immortal chaplet. End of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: thirty five, recorded by Annie Coleman in Saint Louis, Missouri,
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  Speaker 1: in March two thousand eight,