hadn't been so proud and horrid! She determined to "shroud her
feelings in deepest oblivion," and it may be stated here and now
that she did it, so
successfully that Gilbert, who possibly was
not quite so
indifferent as he seemed, could not
console himself
with any
belief that Anne felt his retaliatory scorn. The only
poor comfort he had was that she snubbed Charlie Sloane,
unmercifully,
continually, and un
deservedly.
Otherwise the winter passed away in a round of pleasant duties
and studies. For Anne the days slipped by like golden beads on
the
necklace of the year. She was happy, eager, interested;
there were lessons to be
learned and honor to be won; delightful
books to read; new pieces to be
practiced for the Sunday-school
choir; pleasant Saturday afternoons at the manse with Mrs. Allan;
and then, almost before Anne realized it, spring had come again
to Green Gables and all the world was abloom once more.
Studies palled just a wee bit then; the Queen's class, left
behind in school while the others scattered to green lanes and
leafy wood cuts and
meadow byways, looked
wistfully out of the
windows and discovered that Latin verbs and French exercises had
somehow lost the tang and zest they had possessed in the crisp
winter months. Even Anne and Gilbert lagged and grew
indifferent.
Teacher and taught were alike glad when the term was ended and the
glad
vacation days stretched rosily before them.
"But you've done good work this past year," Miss Stacy told them
on the last evening, "and you
deserve a good, jolly
vacation.
Have the best time you can in the out-of-door world and lay in a
good stock of health and
vitality and
ambition to carry you
through next year. It will be the tug of war, you know--the last
year before the Entrance."
"Are you going to be back next year, Miss Stacy?" asked Josie Pye.
Josie Pye never scrupled to ask questions; in this
instance the
rest of the class felt
grateful to her; none of them would have
dared to ask it of Miss Stacy, but all wanted to, for there had
been alarming rumors
running at large through the school for some
time that Miss Stacy was not coming back the next year--that she
had been offered a position in the grade school of her own home
district and meant to accept. The Queen's class listened in
breathless
suspense for her answer.
"Yes, I think I will," said Miss Stacy. "I thought of taking
another school, but I have
decided to come back to Avonlea. To
tell the truth, I've grown so interested in my pupils here that I
found I couldn't leave them. So I'll stay and see you through."
"Hurrah!" said Moody Spurgeon. Moody Spurgeon had never been so
carried away by his feelings before, and he blushed un
comfortablyevery time he thought about it for a week.
"Oh, I'm so glad," said Anne, with shining eyes. "Dear Stacy, it would
be
perfectlydreadful if you didn't come back. I don't believe I could
have the heart to go on with my studies at all if another teacher came here."
When Anne got home that night she stacked all her textbooks away
in an old trunk in the attic, locked it, and threw the key into
the blanket box.
"I'm not even going to look at a
schoolbook in
vacation," she
told Marilla. "I've
studied as hard all the term as I possibly
could and I've pored over that geometry until I know every
proposition in the first book off by heart, even when the letters
ARE changed. I just feel tired of everything
sensible and I'm
going to let my
imagination run riot for the summer. Oh, you
needn't be alarmed, Marilla. I'll only let it run riot within
reasonable limits. But I want to have a real good jolly time
this summer, for maybe it's the last summer I'll be a little
girl. Mrs. Lynde says that if I keep stretching out next year
as I've done this I'll have to put on longer skirts. She says
I'm all
running to legs and eyes. And when I put on longer skirts
I shall feel that I have to live up to them and be very dignified.
It won't even do to believe in fairies then, I'm afraid; so I'm
going to believe in them with all my whole heart this summer.
I think we're going to have a very gay
vacation. Ruby Gillis
is going to have a birthday party soon and there's the Sunday
school
picnic and the
missionary concert next month.
And Mrs. Barry says that some evening he'll take Diana and me
over to the White Sands Hotel and have dinner there. They have
dinner there in the evening, you know. Jane Andrews was over
once last summer and she says it was a dazzling sight to see the
electric lights and the flowers and all the lady guests in such
beautiful dresses. Jane says it was her first
glimpse into high
life and she'll never forget it to her dying day."
Mrs. Lynde came up the next afternoon to find out why Marilla had
not been at the Aid meeting on Thursday. When Marilla was not at
Aid meeting people knew there was something wrong at Green Gables.
"Matthew had a bad spell with his heart Thursday," Marilla
explained, "and I didn't feel like leaving him. Oh, yes, he's
all right again now, but he takes them spells oftener than he
used to and I'm
anxious about him. The doctor says he must be
careful to avoid
excitement. That's easy enough, for Matthew
doesn't go about looking for
excitement by any means and never did,
but he's not to do any very heavy work either and you might as well
tell Matthew not to breathe as not to work. Come and lay off your
things, Rachel. You'll stay to tea?"
"Well,
seeing you're so pressing, perhaps I might as well, stay"
said Mrs. Rachel, who had not the slightest
intention of doing
anything else.
Mrs. Rachel and Marilla sat
comfortably in the
parlor while Anne
got the tea and made hot biscuits that were light and white
enough to defy even Mrs. Rachel's criticism.
"I must say Anne has turned out a real smart girl," admitted
Mrs. Rachel, as Marilla accompanied her to the end of the lane
at
sunset. "She must be a great help to you."
"She is," said Marilla, "and she's real steady and
reliable now.
I used to be afraid she'd never get over her featherbrained ways,
but she has and I wouldn't be afraid to trust her in anything now."
"I never would have thought she'd have turned out so well that
first day I was here three years ago," said Mrs. Rachel.
"Lawful heart, shall I ever forget that tantrum of hers!
When I went home that night I says to Thomas, says I, `Mark my words,
Thomas, Marilla Cuthbert'll live to rue the step she's took.' But
I was
mistaken and I'm real glad of it. I ain't one of those
kind of people, Marilla, as can never be brought to own up that
they've made a mistake. No, that never was my way, thank
goodness.
I did make a mistake in judging Anne, but it weren't no wonder,
for an odder, unexpecteder witch of a child there never was in
this world, that's what. There was no ciphering her out by
the rules that worked with other children. It's nothing
short of wonderful how she's improved these three years, but
especially in looks. She's a real pretty girl got to be, though I
can't say I'm overly
partial to that pale, big-eyed style myself.
I like more snap and color, like Diana Barry has or Ruby Gillis.
Ruby Gillis's looks are real showy. But somehow--I don't know
how it is but when Anne and them are together, though she ain't
half as handsome, she makes them look kind of common and overdone--
something like them white June lilies she calls narcissus alongside
of the big, red peonies, that's what."
CHAPTER XXXI
Where the Brook and River Meet
Anne had her "good" summer and enjoyed it wholeheartedly. She
and Diana fairly lived outdoors, reveling in all the delights
that Lover's Lane and the Dryad's Bubble and Willowmere and
Victoria Island afforded. Marilla offered no objections to
Anne's gypsyings. The Spencervale doctor who had come the night
Minnie May had the croup met Anne at the house of a patient one
afternoon early in
vacation, looked her over
sharply, screwed up
his mouth, shook his head, and sent a message to Marilla Cuthbert
by another person. It was:
"Keep that redheaded girl of yours in the open air all summer and
don't let her read books until she gets more spring into her step."
This message frightened Marilla wholesomely. She read Anne's death
warrant by
consumption in it unless it was scrupulously obeyed.
As a result, Anne had the golden summer of her life as far as
freedom and
frolic went. She walked, rowed, berried, and dreamed
to her heart's content; and when September came she was bright-eyed
and alert, with a step that would have satisfied the Spencervale
doctor and a heart full of
ambition and zest once more.
"I feel just like studying with might and main," she declared as
she brought her books down from the attic. "Oh, you good old
friends, I'm glad to see your honest faces once more--yes, even
you, geometry. I've had a
perfectly beautiful summer, Marilla,
and now I'm
rejoicing as a strong man to run a race, as Mr. Allan
said last Sunday. Doesn't Mr. Allan
preachmagnificent sermons?
Mrs. Lynde says he is improving every day and the first thing we
know some city church will
gobble him up and then we'll be left
and have to turn to and break in another green
preacher. But I
don't see the use of meeting trouble halfway, do you, Marilla? I
think it would be better just to enjoy Mr. Allan while we have him.
If I were a man I think I'd be a
minister. They can have such
an influence for good, if their
theology is sound; and it
must be thrilling to
preach splendid sermons and stir your
hearers' hearts. Why can't women be
ministers, Marilla? I asked
Mrs. Lynde that and she was shocked and said it would be a
scandalous thing. She said there might be
femaleministers in
the States and she believed there was, but thank
goodness we hadn't
got to that stage in Canada yet and she hoped we never would.
But I don't see why. I think women would make splendid
ministers.
When there is a social to be got up or a church tea or anything
else to raise money the women have to turn to and do the work.
I'm sure Mrs. Lynde can pray every bit as well as Superintendent
Bell and I've no doubt she could
preach too with a little practice."
"Yes, I believe she could," said Marilla dryly. "She does plenty
of unofficial
preaching as it is. Nobody has much of a chance to
go wrong in Avonlea with Rachel to oversee them."
"Marilla," said Anne in a burst of confidence, "I want to tell
you something and ask you what you think about it. It has
worried me terribly--on Sunday afternoons, that is, when I think
specially about such matters. I do really want to be good; and
when I'm with you or Mrs. Allan or Miss Stacy I want it more
than ever and I want to do just what would please you and what
you would
approve of. But
mostly when I'm with Mrs. Lynde I
feel
desperatelywicked and as if I wanted to go and do the very
thing she tells me I oughtn't to do. I feel irresistibly tempted
to do it. Now, what do you think is the reason I feel like that?
Do you think it's because I'm really bad and unregenerate?"
Marilla looked
dubious for a moment. Then she laughed.
"If you are I guess I am too, Anne, for Rachel often has that
very effect on me. I sometimes think she'd have more of an
influence for good, as you say yourself, if she didn't keep
nagging people to do right. There should have been a special
commandment against nagging. But there, I shouldn't talk so.
Rachel is a good Christian woman and she means well. There isn't
a kinder soul in Avonlea and she never shirks her share of work."
"I'm very glad you feel the same," said Anne
decidedly. "It's so
encouraging. I shan't worry so much over that after this. But I
dare say there'll be other things to worry me. They keep coming
up new all the time--things to
perplex you, you know. You settle
one question and there's another right after. There are so many
things to be thought over and
decided when you're
beginning to
grow up. It keeps me busy all the time thinking them over and
deciding what is right. It's a serious thing to grow up, isn't
it, Marilla? But when I have such good friends as you and
Matthew and Mrs. Allan and Miss Stacy I ought to grow up
successfully, and I'm sure it will be my own fault if I don't.
I feel it's a great
responsibility because I have only the one
chance. If I don't grow up right I can't go back and begin over
again. I've grown two inches this summer, Marilla. Mr. Gillis