Anne Of Green Gables, Part 14

Hello there.

Thank you so much for joining me for this continued reading of Anne of Green Gables.

Maybe you've already heard all the preceding parts.

Maybe this is your first time listening.

Either way,

It doesn't really matter.

If you want to hear the preceding parts,

You can look for the playlist for Anne of Green Gables.

All of the parts are in there,

In order.

But for now,

Let's take a moment here to have a nice,

Deep exhale,

Letting go of the day,

Letting go of whatever baggage we might be bringing along with us into this moment.

For right now,

There's nowhere else that we have to be and nothing else that we have to do.

So we can just relax,

Get ourselves comfortable and enjoy the next part of Anne of Green Gables.

Chapter 24.

Miss Stacy and her pupils get up a concert.

It was October again when Anne was ready to go back to school.

A glorious October,

All red and gold,

With mellow mornings when the valleys were filled with delicate mists as if the spirit of autumn had poured them in for the sun to drain.

Amethyst,

Pearl,

Silver,

Rose and smoke blue.

The dews were so heavy that the fields glistened like cloth of silver.

And there were such heaps of rustling leaves in the hollows of many stemmed woods to run crisply through.

The birch path was a canopy of yellow and the ferns were sere and brown all along it.

There was a tang in the very air that inspired the hearts of small maidens,

Tripping,

Unlike snails,

Swiftly and willingly to school.

And it was jolly to be back again at the little brown desk beside Diana,

With Ruby Gillis nodding across the aisle and Carrie Sloan sending up notes and Julia Bell passing a chew of gum down from the back seat.

Anne drew a long breath of happiness as she sharpened her pencil and arranged her picture cards in her desk.

Life was certainly very interesting.

In the new teacher she found another true and helpful friend.

Miss Stacy was a bright,

Sympathetic young woman with the happy gift of winning and holding the affections of her pupils and bringing out the best that was in them mentally and morally.

Anne expanded like a flower under this wholesome influence and carried home to the admiring Matthew and the critical Marilla glowing accounts of schoolwork and aims.

I love Miss Stacy with my whole heart,

Marilla.

She is so ladylike and she has such a sweet voice.

When she pronounces my name,

I feel instinctively that she's spelling it with an E.

We had recitations this afternoon.

I just wish you could have been there to hear me recite Mary,

Queen of Scots.

I just put my whole soul into it.

Ruby Gillis told me coming home that the way I said the line,

The line,

Now for my father's arm,

She said my woman's heart farewell,

Just made her blood run cold.

Well now,

You might recite it for me some of these days out in the barn,

Suggested Matthew.

Of course,

I will,

Said Anne meditatively,

But I won't be able to do it so well.

I know it won't be so exciting as it is when you have a whole school full before you hanging breathlessly on your words.

I know I won't be able to make your blood run cold.

Mrs Linde says it made her blood run cold to see the boys climbing to the very tops of those big trees on Bell's Hill after crow's nests last Friday,

Said Marilla.

I wonder at Miss Stacey for encouraging it.

But we wanted a crow's nest for nature study,

Explained Anne.

That was on our field afternoon.

Field afternoons are splendid,

Marilla,

And Miss Stacey explains everything so beautifully.

We have to write compositions on our field afternoons,

And I write the best ones.

It's very vain of you to say so,

Then.

You'd better let your teacher say it.

But she did say it,

Marilla.

And indeed,

I'm not vain about it.

How can I be when I'm such a dunce at geometry?

Although I'm really beginning to see through it a little,

Too.

Miss Stacey makes it so clear.

Still,

I'll never be good at it,

And I assure you it is a humbling reflection.

But I love writing compositions.

Mostly,

Miss Stacey lets us choose our own subjects,

But next week we are to write a composition on some remarkable person.

It's hard to choose among so many remarkable people who have lived.

Mustn't it be splendid to be remarkable and have compositions written about you after you're dead?

I would dearly love to be remarkable.

I think when I grow up,

I'll be a trained nurse and go with the Red Crosses to the field of battle as a messenger of mercy.

That is,

If I don't go out as a foreign missionary.

That would be very romantic.

But one would have to be very good to be a missionary,

And that would be a stumbling block.

We have physical culture exercises every day,

Too.

They make you graceful and promote digestion.

Promote fiddlesticks,

Said Marilla,

Who honestly thought it was all nonsense.

Nonsense.

But all the field afternoons and recitation Fridays and physical culture contortions paled before a project which Miss Stacey brought forward in November.

This was that the scholars of Avonlea School should get up a concert and hold it in the hall on Christmas night for the laudable purpose of helping to pay for a schoolhouse flag.

Flag.

The pupils,

One and all,

Taking graciously to this plan,

The preparations for a programme were begun at once.

And of all the excited performers-elect,

None was so excited as Anne Shirley,

Who threw herself into the undertaking heart and soul,

Hampered as she was by Marilla's disapproval.

Marilla thought it all rank foolishness.

It's just filling your heads up with nonsense and taking time that ought to be put on your lessons,

She grumbled.

I don't approve of children's getting up concerts and racing about to practices.

Practices.

It makes them vain and forward and fond of gadding.

But think of the worthy object,

Pleaded Anne.

A flag will cultivate a spirit of patriotism,

Marilla.

Fudge.

There's precious little patriotism in the thoughts of any of you.

All you want is a good time.

Well,

When you can combine patriotism and fun,

Isn't it all right?

Of course,

It's real nice to be getting up a concert.

We're going to have six choruses and Diana is to sing a solo.

I'm in two dialogues,

The Society for the Suppression of Gossip and The Fairy Queen.

The boys are going to have a dialogue too.

And I'm to have two recitations,

Marilla.

I just tremble when I think of it.

But it's a nice,

Thrilly kind of tremble.

And we're to have a tableau at the last,

Faith,

Hope and Charity.

Diana and Ruby and I are to be in it,

All draped in white with flowing hair.

I'm to be hope with my hands clasped so and my eyes uplifted.

I'm going to practice my recitations in the garret.

Don't be alarmed if you hear me groaning.

I have to groan heartrendingly in one of them.

And it's really hard to get up a good artistic groan,

Marilla.

Josie Pie is sulky because she didn't get the part she wanted in the dialogue.

She wanted to be the Fairy Queen.

That would have been ridiculous.

For who ever heard of a Fairy Queen as fat as Josie?

Fairy Queens must be slender.

Jane Andrews is to be the Queen and I am to be one of her maids of honour.

Josie says she thinks a red-haired fairy is just as ridiculous as a fat one.

But I do not let myself mind what Josie says.

I'm to have a wreath of white roses on my hair.

And Ruby Gillis is going to lend me her slippers because I haven't got any of my own.

It's necessary for fairies to have slippers,

You know.

You couldn't imagine a fairy wearing boots,

Could you?

Especially with copper toes.

We're going to decorate the hall with creeping spruce and firm mottos with pink tissue paper roses in them.

And we are all to march in two by two after the audience is seated while Emma White plays a march on the organ.

Oh,

Marilla.

I know you are not so enthusiastic about it as I am but don't you hope your little Anne will distinguish herself?

All I hope is that you'll behave yourself.

I'll be heartily glad when all this fuss is over and you'll be able to settle down.

You are simply good for nothing just now with your head stuffed full of dialogues and groans and tableaus.

As for your tongue,

It's a marvel it's not clean worn out.

Anne sighed and betook herself to the backyard over which a young new moon was shining through the leafless poplar boughs from an apple green western sky and where Matthew was splitting wood.

Anne perched herself on a block and talked the concert over with him sure of an appreciative and sympathetic listener in this instance at least.

Well now,

I reckon it's going to be a pretty good concert and I expect you'll do your part fine.

He said smiling down into her eager vivacious little face.

Anne smiled back at him those two were the best of friends and Matthew thanked his stars many a time and oft that he had nothing to do with bringing her up.

That was Marilla's exclusive duty.

If it had been his he would have been worried over frequent conflicts between inclination and said duty.

As it was he was free to spoil Anne,

Marilla's phrasing,

As much as he liked.

But it was not such a bad arrangement after all.

A little appreciation sometimes does quite as much good as all the conscientious bringing up in the world.

Chapter 25.

Matthew insists on puffed sleeves.

Matthew was having a bad 10 minutes of it.

He had come into the kitchen in the twilight of a cold He had come into the kitchen in the twilight of a cold grey December evening and had sat down in the woodbox corner to take off his heavy boots unconscious of the fact that Anne and a bevy of her schoolmates were having a practice of the fairy queen in the sitting room.

Presently they came trooping through the hall and out into the kitchen laughing and chattering gaily.

They did not see Matthew who shrank bashfully back into the shadows beyond the woodbox with a boot in one hand and a boot jack in the other and he watched them shyly for the aforesaid 10 minutes as they put on caps and jackets and talked about the dialogue and the concert.

Anne stood among them bright-eyed and animated as they but Matthew suddenly became conscious that there was something about her different from her mates and what worried Matthew was that the difference impressed him as being something that should not exist.

Anne had a brighter face and bigger starrier eyes and more delicate features than the other.

Even shy unobservant Matthew had learned to take note of these things but the difference that disturbed him did not consist in any of these respects.

Then in what did it consist?

Matthew was haunted by this question long after the girls had gone arm in arm down the long hard frozen lane and Anne had betaken herself to her books.

He could not refer it to Marilla who he felt would be quite sure to sniff scornfully and remark that the only difference she saw between Anne and the other girls was that they sometimes kept their tongues quiet while Anne never did.

This Matthew felt would be no great help.

He had recourse to his pipe that evening to help him study it out,

Much to Marilla's disgust.

After two hours of smoking and hard reflection Matthew arrived at a solution of his problem.

Anne was not dressed like the other girls.

The more Matthew thought about the matter the more he was convinced that Anne never had been dressed like the other girls never since she had come to Green Gables.

Marilla kept her clothed in plain dark dresses all made after the same unvarying pattern.

If Matthew knew there was such a thing as fashion in dress it was as much as he did but he was quite sure that Anne's sleeves did not look at all like the sleeves the other girls wore.

He recalled the cluster of little girls he had seen around her that evening all gay in wastes of red and blue and pink and white and he wondered why Marilla always kept her so plainly and soberly gowned.

Of course it must be all right.

Marilla knew best and Marilla was bringing her up.

Probably some wise inscrutable motive was to be served thereby.

But surely it would do no harm to let the child have one pretty dress something like Diana Barry always wore.

Matthew decided that he would give her one.

That surely could not be objected to as an unwarranted putting in of his oar.

Christmas was only a fortnight off.

A nice new dress would be the very thing for a present.

Matthew with a sigh of satisfaction put away his pipe and went to bed while Marilla opened all the doors and aired the house.

The very next evening Matthew betook himself to Carmody to buy the dress determined to get the worst over and have done with it.

It would be he felt assured no trifling ordeal.

There were some things Matthew could buy and prove himself no mean bargainer but he knew he would be at the mercy of shopkeepers when it came to buying a girl's dress.

After much cogitation Matthew resolved to go to Samuel Lawson's store instead of William Blair's.

To be sure the Cuthberts always had gone to William Blair's.

It was almost as much a matter of conscience with them as to attend the Presbyterian church and vote Conservative but William Blair's two daughters frequently waited on customers there and Matthew held them in absolute dread.

He could contrive to deal with them when he knew exactly what he wanted and could point it out but in such a matter as this requiring explanation and consultation Matthew felt that he must be sure of a man behind the counter.

So he would go to Lawson's where Samuel or his son would wait on him.

Alas Matthew did not know that Samuel in the recent expansion of his business had set up a lady clerk also.

She was a niece of his wife's and a very dashing young person indeed with a huge drooping pompadour big rolling brown eyes and a most extensive and bewildering smile.

She was dressed with exceeding smartness and wore several bangle bracelets that glittered and rattled and tinkled with every movement of her hands.

Matthew was covered with confusion at finding her there at all and those bangles completely wrecked his wits at one fell swoop.

What can I do for you this evening Mr Cuthbert?

Miss Lucilla Harris inquired briskly and ingratiatingly tapping the counter with both hands.

Have you any any any well now say any any garden rakes stammered Matthew.

Miss Harris looked somewhat surprised as well she might to hear a man inquiring for garden rakes in the middle of December.

I believe we have one or two left over she said but they're upstairs in the lumber room I'll go and see.

During her absence Matthew collected his scattered senses for another effort when Miss Harris returned with the rake and cheerfully inquired anything else tonight Mr Cuthbert.

Matthew took his courage in both hands and replied well now since you suggest it I might as well take that is look at by some some hayseed.

Miss Harris had heard Matthew Cuthbert called odd.

She now concluded that he was entirely crazy.

We only keep hayseed in the spring she explained loftily we've none on hand just now.

Just as you say stammered unhappy Matthew seizing the rake and making for the door at the threshold he recollected that he had not paid for it and he turned miserably back.

While Miss Harris was counting out his change he rallied his powers for a final desperate attempt.

Well now if it isn't too much trouble I might as well that is I'd like to look at at some sugar sugar.

White or brown queried Miss Harris patiently.

Oh well now brown said Matthew feebly.

There's a barrel of it over there said Miss Harris shaking her bangles at it.

It's the only kind we have.

I'll I'll take 20 pounds of it said Matthew with beads of perspiration standing on his forehead.

Matthew had driven halfway home before he was his own man again.

It had been a gruesome experience but it served him right he thought for committing the heresy of going to a strange store.

When he reached home he hid the rake in the tall house but the sugar he carried in to Marilla.

Brown sugar exclaimed Marilla.

What ever possessed you to get so much?

Much?

You know I never use it except for the hired man's porridge or black fruit cake.

Jerry's gone and I've made my cake long ago.

It's not good sugar either.

It's coarse and dark.

William Blair doesn't usually keep sugar like that.

I I thought it might come in handy sometime said Matthew making good his escape.

When Matthew came to think the matter over he decided that a woman was required to cope with the situation.

Marilla was out of the question.

Matthew felt sure she would throw cold water on his project at once.

Remained only Mrs.

Lynde for of no other woman in Avonlea would Matthew have dared to ask advice.

To Mrs.

Lynde he went accordingly and that good lady promptly took the matter out of the harassed man's hands.

Pick out a dress for you to give Anne.

To be sure I will.

I'm going to Carmody tomorrow and I'll attend to it.

Have you something particular in mind?

No well I'll just go by my own judgment then.

I believe a nice rich brown would just suit Anne.

And William Blair has some new Gloria in that's real pretty.

Perhaps you'd like me to make it up for her too seeing that if Marilla was to make it Anne would probably get wind of it before the time and spoil the surprise.

Well I'll do it.

No it isn't the might of trouble.

I like sewing.

I'll make it to fit my niece Jenny Gillis for she and Anne are as like as two peas as far as figure goes.

Well now I'm much obliged said Matthew and and I don't know but I'd like I think they make the sleeves different nowadays to what they used to be.

If it wouldn't be asking too much I I'd like them made in the new way.

Puffs of course you needn't worry a speck more about it Matthew.

I'll make it up in the very latest fashion said Mrs.

Lynde.

Said Mrs.

Lynde.

To herself she added when Matthew had gone it'll be a real satisfaction to see that poor child wearing something decent for once.

The way Marilla dresses her is positively ridiculous that's what and I've ached to tell her so plainly a dozen times.

I've held my tongue though for I can see Marilla doesn't want advice and she thinks she knows more about bringing children up than I do.

For all she's an old maid but that's always the way.

Folks that has brought up children know that there's no hard and fast method in the world that'll suit every child but them as never have think it's all as plain and easy as rule of three just set your three terms down so fashion and thus some will work out correct.

But flesh and blood don't come under the head of arithmetic and that's where Marilla Cuthbert makes her mistake.

I suppose she's trying to cultivate a spirit of humility in Anne by dressing her as she does but it's more likely to cultivate envy and discontent.

I'm sure the child must feel the difference between her clothes and the other girls but to think of Matthew taking notice of it that man is waking up after being asleep for over 60 years.

Marilla knew all the following fortnight that Matthew had something on his mind but what it was she could not guess until Christmas Eve when Mrs Lind brought up the new dress.

Marilla behaved pretty well on the whole although it is very likely she distrusted Mrs Lind's diplomatic explanation that she had made the dress because Matthew was afraid Anne would find out about it too soon if Marilla made it.

So this is what Matthew has been looking so mysterious over and grinning about to himself for two weeks is it?

She said a little stiffly but tolerantly.

I knew he was up to some foolishness.

Well I must say I don't think Anne needed any more dresses.

I made her three good warm serviceable ones this fall and anything more is sheer extravagance.

Extravagance.

There's enough material in those sleeves alone to make a waste.

I declare there is.

You'll just pamper Anne's vanity Matthew and she's as vain as a peacock now.

Well I hope she'll be satisfied at last for I know she's been hankering after those silly sleeves ever since they came in although she never said a word after the first.

The puffs have been getting bigger and more ridiculous right along.

Right along.

They're as big as balloons now.

Next year anybody who wears them will have to go through a door sideways.

Christmas morning broke on a beautiful white world.

It had been a very mild December and people had looked forward to a green Christmas but just enough snow fell softly in the night to transfigure Avonlea.

Anne peeped out from her frosted gable window with delighted eyes.

The firs in the haunted wood were all feathery and wonderful.

The birches and wild cherry trees were outlined in pearl.

The ploughed fields were stretches of snowy dimples and there was a crisp tang in the air that was glorious.

Anne ran downstairs singing until her voice re-echoed through green gables.

Merry Christmas Marilla.

Merry Christmas Matthew.

Isn't it a lovely Christmas?

I'm so glad it's white.

Any other kind of Christmas doesn't seem real does it?

I don't like green Christmases.

They're not green.

They're just nasty faded browns and greys.

What makes people call them green?

Why?

Why Matthew?

Is that for me?

Oh Matthew.

Matthew had sheepishly unfolded the dress from its paper swathings and held it out with a deprecatory glance at Marilla who feigned to be contemptuously filling the teapot but nevertheless watched the scene out of the corner of her eye with a rather interested air.

Anne took the dress and looked at it in reverent silence.

Oh how pretty it was.

A lovely soft brown gloria with all the gloss of silk.

A skirt with dainty frills and shearings.

A waist elaborately pin-tucked in the most fashionable way with a little ruffle of filmy lace at the neck.

But the sleeves.

They were the crowning glory.

Long elbow cuffs and above them two beautiful puffs divided by rows of shearing and bows of brown silk ribbon.

That's a Christmas present for you,

Anne,

Said Matthew shyly.

Why,

Why,

Anne,

Don't you like it?

Well now,

Well now,

For Anne's eyes had suddenly filled with tears.

Like it?

Oh Matthew.

Anne laid the dress over a chair and clasped her hands.

Matthew,

It's perfectly exquisite.

Oh,

I can never thank you enough.

Look at those sleeves.

Oh,

It seems to me this must be a happy dream.

Well,

Well,

Let us have breakfast,

Interrupted Marilla.

I must say,

Anne,

I don't think you needed the dress.

But since Matthew has got it for you,

See that you take good care of it.

There's a hair ribbon Mrs.

Lynde left for you.

It's brown to match the dress.

Come now,

Sit in.

I don't see how I'm going to eat breakfast,

Said Anne rapturously.

Breakfast seems so commonplace at such an exciting moment.

I'd rather feast my eyes on that dress.

I'm so glad that puffed sleeves are still fashionable.

It did seem to me that I'd never get over it if they went out before I had a dress with them.

I'd never have felt have felt quite satisfied,

You see.

It was lovely of Mrs.

Lynde to give me the ribbon too.

I feel that I ought to be a very good girl indeed.

It's at times like this I'm sorry I'm not a model little girl and I always resolve that I will be in future,

But somehow it's hard to carry out your resolutions when irresistible temptations come.

Still,

I really will make an extra effort after this.

When the commonplace breakfast was over,

Diana appeared crossing the white log bridge in the crossing the white log bridge in the hollow,

A gay little figure in her crimson ulster.

Anne flew down the slope to meet her.

Merry Christmas,

Diana,

And oh it's a wonderful Christmas.

I've something splendid to show you.

Matthew has given me the loveliest dress with such sleeves I couldn't even imagine any nicer.

I've got something more for you,

Said Diana breathlessly.

Here,

This box.

Aunt Josephine sent us out a big box with ever so many things in it and this is for you.

I'd have brought it over last night but it didn't come until after dark and I never feel very comfortable coming through the haunted wood in the dark now.

Anne opened the box and peeped in.

First,

A card with for the Anne girl and Merry Christmas written on it and then a pair of the daintiest little kid slippers with beaded toes and satin bows and glistening buckles.

Oh,

Said Anne.

Diana,

This is too much.

I must be dreaming.

I call it providential,

Said Diana.

You won't have to borrow ruby slippers now and that's a blessing for they're two sizes too big for you and it would be awful to hear a fairy shuffling.

Josie Pie would be delighted.

Mind you,

Rob Wright went home with Gertie Pie from the practice night before last.

Did you ever hear anything equal to that?

All the Avonlea scholars were in a fever of excitement that day for the hall had to be decorated and a last grand rehearsal held.

The concert came off in the evening and was a pronounced success.

The little hall was crowded.

All the performers did excellently well but Anne was the bright particular star of the occasion as even envy in the shape of Josie Pie dared not deny.

Oh,

Hasn't it been a brilliant evening,

Sighed Anne,

When it was all over and she and Diana were walking home together under a dark starry sky.

Everything went off very well,

Said Diana practically.

I guess we must have made as much as ten dollars.

Mind you,

Mr Allen is going to send an account of it to the Charlottetown Papers.

Oh,

Diana,

Will we really see our names in print?

It makes me thrill to think of it.

Your solo was perfectly elegant,

Diana.

I felt prouder than you did when it was on chord.

I just said to myself,

It is my dear bosom friend who is so honoured.

Well,

Your recitations just brought down the house,

Anne.

That sad one was simply splendid.

Oh,

I was so nervous,

Diana,

When Mr Allen called out my name.

I really cannot tell how I ever got up on that platform.

I felt as if a million eyes were looking at me and through me.

And for one dreadful moment,

I was sure I couldn't begin at all.

Then I thought of my lovely puffed sleeves and took courage.

I knew that I must live up to those sleeves,

Diana.

So I started in and my voice seemed to be coming from ever so far away.

I just felt like a parrot.

It's providential that I practised those recitations so often up in the garret,

Or I'd never have been able to get through.

Did I groan all right?

Yes,

Indeed,

You groaned lovely,

Assured Diana.

I saw old Mrs Sloan wiping away tears when I sat down.

It was splendid to think I had touched somebody's heart.

It's so romantic to take part in a concert,

Isn't it?

Oh,

It's been a very memorable occasion,

Indeed.

Wasn't the boys' dialogue fine?

Said Diana.

Gilbert Blythe was just splendid.

Anne,

I do think it's awful mean,

The way you treat Gil.

Wait till I tell you.

When you ran off the platform after the fairy dialogue,

One of your roses fell out of your hair.

I saw Gil pick it up and put it in his breast pocket.

There now,

You're so romantic,

But I'm sure you ought to be pleased at that.

It's nothing to me what that person does,

Said Anne loftily.

I simply never waste a thought on him,

Diana.

That night,

Marilla and Matthew,

Who had been out to a concert for the first time in 20 years,

Sat for a while by the kitchen fire after Anne had gone to bed.

Well now,

I guess our Anne did as well as any of them,

Said Matthew proudly.

Yes,

She did,

Admitted Marilla.

She's a bright child,

Matthew,

And she looked real nice too.

I've been kind of opposed to this concert scheme,

But I suppose there's no real harm in it after all.

Anyhow,

I was proud of Anne tonight,

Although I'm not going to tell her so.

Well now,

I was proud of her,

And I did tell her so,

Before she went upstairs,

Said Matthew.

We must see what we can do for her some of these days,

Marilla.

I guess she'll need something more than Avonlea School,

By and by.

There's time enough to think of that,

Said Marilla.

She's only thirteen in March,

Though tonight it struck me she was growing quite a big girl.

Mrs.

Linde made that dress a mite too long,

And it makes Anne look so tall.

She's quick to learn,

And I guess the best thing we can do for her will be to send her to Queens after a spell.

But nothing need be said about that for a year or two yet.

Well now,

It'll do no harm to be thinking it over off and on,

Said Matthew.

Things like that are all the better for lots of thinking over.