22 Anne Of Green Gables - Stephanie Poppins

This is S.

D.

Hudson Magic.

I'm delighted to be able to read for you.

Anne of Green Gables.

This I consider to be my favourite story of all time.

And even though I am English,

And not Canadian,

I hope I will do this story justice.

Chapter 22.

Anne is invited out to tea.

And what are your eyes popping out of your head about now?

Asked Marilla,

When Anne had just come in from a run to the post office.

Have you discovered another kindred spirit?

Excitement hung around Anne like a garment,

Shone in her eyes,

Kindled in every feature.

She had come dancing up the lane like a windblown sprite through the mellow sunshine and lazy shadows of the August evening.

No,

Marilla,

But oh,

What do you think?

I'm invited to tea at the manse tomorrow afternoon.

Mrs.

Allen left the letter for me at the post office.

Just look at it,

Marilla.

Miss Anne Shirley,

Green Gables.

That is the first time I was ever called Miss.

Such a thrill as it gave me,

I shall cherish it forever amongst my choicest treasures.

Mrs.

Allen told me she meant to have all the members of her Sunday school class to tea in turn,

Said Marilla,

Regarding the wonderful event very coolly.

You needn't get in such a fever over it.

Do learn to take things calmly,

Child.

For Anne to take things calmly would have been to change her nature.

All spirit and fire and dew as she was,

The pleasures and pains of life came to her with trebled intensity.

Marilla felt this and was vaguely troubled over it,

Realising that the ups and downs of existence would probably bear hardly on this impulsive soul and not sufficiently understanding that the equal great capacity for delight might more than compensate.

Therefore,

Marilla conceived it to be her duty to drill Anne into a tranquil uniformity of disposition as impossible and alien to her as to a dancing sunbeam in one of the brook's shallows.

She did not make much headway as she sorrowfully admitted to herself.

The downfall of some dear hope or plan plunged Anne into deeps of affliction.

The fulfilment thereof exalted her to dizzy realms of delight.

Marilla had almost begun to despair of ever having fashioned this waif of the world into her model little girl of demure manners and prim deportment.

Neither would she have believed that she really liked Anne much better as she was.

Anne went to bed that night speechless with misery because Matthew had said the wind was round northeast and he feared it would be a rainy day tomorrow.

The rustle of the poplar leaves about the house worried her.

It sounded so like pattering raindrops and the full faraway roar of the gulf to which he listened delightedly at other times.

Loving its strange sonorous haunting rhythm now seemed like a prophecy of storm and disaster to a small maiden who particularly wanted a fine day and thought the morning would never come.

But all things have an end,

Even nights before the day on which you are invited to take tea at the manse.

The morning,

In spite of Matthew's predictions,

Was fine and Anne's spirit soared to their highest.

Oh Marilla,

There is something in me today that makes me just love everybody I see!

She exclaimed as she washed the breakfast dishes.

You don't know how good I feel.

Wouldn't it be nice if it could last?

I believe I could be a model child if I was just invited out to tea every day.

But oh Marilla,

It is a solemn occasion too.

I feel so anxious,

What if I shouldn't behave properly?

You know I never had tea at a manse before and I'm not sure I know all the rules of etiquette,

Although I've been studying the rules given in the etiquette department of the family herald ever since I came here.

I'm so afraid I'll do something silly or forget to do something I should do.

Would it be good manners to take a second helping of anything if you wanted to very much?

The trouble with you Anne is that you're thinking too much about yourself.

You should just think of Mrs.

Allen and what would be nicest and most agreeable to her,

Said Marilla,

Hitting for once in her life on a very sound and pithy piece of advice.

Anne instantly realised this.

You're right Marilla,

I'll try not to think about myself at all.

Anne evidently got through her visit without any serious breach of etiquette,

For she came home through the twilight under a great high sprung sky,

Gloried over with trails of saffron and rosy cloud in a beautified state of mind and told Marilla all about it happily sitting on the big red sandstone slab at the kitchen door with her tired curly head in Marilla's gingham lap.

A cool wind was blowing down over the long harvest fields,

From the rims of furry western hills and whistling through the poplars.

One clear star hung over the orchard and the fireflies were flitting over in lovers lane in and out amongst the ferns and rustling boughs.

Anne watched them as she talked and somehow felt that wind and stars and fireflies were all tangled up together into something unutterably sweet and enchanting.

Oh Marilla,

I've had the most fascinating time.

I feel that I have not lived in vain and I should always feel like that,

Even if I should never be invited to Teardamance again.

When I got there Mrs Allen met me at the door.

She was dressed in the sweetest dress of pale pink organdy with dozens of frills and elbow sleeves and she looked just like a seraph.

I really think I'd like to be a minister's wife when I grow up Marilla.

A minister might mind my red hair because he wouldn't be thinking of such worldly things.

But then again of course one would have to be naturally good and I'll never be that,

So I suppose there's no use in thinking about it.

Some people are naturally good you know and others are not.

I'm one of the others.

Mrs Lynn said I'm full of original sin.

No matter how hard I try to be good and I can never make such a success of it as those who are naturally good.

It's a good deal like geometry I expect.

But don't you think that trying so hard ought to count for something?

Mrs Allen is one of the naturally good people.

I love her passionately.

You know there are some people like Matthew and Mrs Allen that you can love right off without any trouble.

And there are others like Mrs Lynn that you have to try very hard to love.

You know you ought to love them because they know so much and are such active workers in the church.

But you have to keep reminding yourself of it all the time else you forget.

There was another little girl at the Manchester Tea from the White Sands Sunday School.

Her name was Loretta Bradley and she was a very nice little girl.

Not exactly a kindred spirit you know but still very nice.

We had an elegant tea and I think I kept all the rules of etiquette pretty well.

After tea Mrs Allen played and sang and she got Loretta and me to sing too.

Mrs Allen says I have a good voice and she says I must sing at the Sunday School Choir after this.

You can't think how thrilled I was at the mere thought of it.

I've longed so to sing in the Sunday School Choir as Diana does but I feel it was an honour I could never aspire to.

Loretta had to go home early because there's a big concert at the White Sands Hotel tonight and her sister is still reciting it.

Loretta says the Americans at the hotel give a concert every fortnight in age of the Charlottetown Hospital and they ask lots of the White Sands people to recite.

Loretta says she expected to be asked herself someday.

I just gazed at her in awe.

After she had gone Mrs Allen and I had a heart to heart talk.

I told her everything about Mrs Thomas and the twins and Katie Maurice and Violetta and coming to Green Gables and my troubles over geometry.

And would you believe it Marilla,

Mrs Allen told me she was a dunce at geometry too.

You don't know how that encouraged me.

Mrs Lynn came to the manse just before I left and what do you think Marilla?

The trustees have hired a new teacher and it's a lady.

Her name is Miss Muriel Stacey.

Isn't that a romantic name?

Mrs Lynn said they'd never had a female teacher in Avonlea before and she thinks it's a dangerous innovation.

But I think it will be splendid to have a lady teacher and I really don't see how I'm going to live through the next two weeks before school begins.

I'm so impatient just to see her.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

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