Anne Of Avonlea (Bedtime Story) Chapter 22

Chapter 22 Odds and Ends So you had tea at the Stone House with Lavender Lewis,

Said Marilla,

At the breakfast table next morning.

What is she like now?

It's over fifteen years since I saw her last.

It was one Sunday in Grafton Church.

I suppose she has changed a great deal.

Davy Keat,

When you want something you can't reach,

Ask to have it passed and don't spread yourself over the table in that fashion.

Do you ever see Paul Irving doing that when he was here to meals?

But Paul's arms are longer than mine,

Rambled Davy.

They've had eleven years to grow and mine only seven.

Sigheds.

I did ask.

But you and Anne were so busy talking you didn't pay any attention.

Besides,

Paul's never been here to any meal except tea,

And it's easier to have a little tea than breakfast.

We ain't half as hungry.

It's an awful long while between supper and breakfast.

Now Anne,

That spoonful ain't any bigger than it was last year,

And I'm ever so much bigger.

Of course I don't know what Miss Lavender used to look like,

But I don't fancy somehow that she has changed a great deal,

Said Anne,

After she had helped Davy to maple syrup,

Giving him two spoonfuls to pacify him.

Her hair is now white,

But her face is fresh and almost girlish,

And she has the sweetest brown eyes.

Such a pretty shade of wood brown with little golden glints in them,

And her voice makes you think of white satin and tinkling water,

And fairy bells all mixed up together.

She was reckoned a great deal beauty when she was a girl,

Said Marilla.

I never knew her very well,

But I liked her as far as I did know her.

Some folks thought her peculiar even then.

Davy,

If ever I catch you at such trick again,

You'll be made to wait for your meals till everyone else is done.

Most conversations between Anne and Marilla in the presence of the twins were punctuated by these rebukes Davy wore.

In this instance Davy sat to relate,

Not being able to scoop up the last drops of his syrup with his spoon,

Had solved the difficulty by lifting his plate in both hands and applying his small pink tongue to it.

Anne looked at him with such horrified eyes that the little sinner turned red and said,

Half shamefacedly,

Half divinely,

There ain't any wasted that way.

People who are different from other people are always called peculiar,

Said Anne,

And Miss Lavender is certainly different,

Though it's hard to say just where the difference comes in.

Perhaps it is because she is one of those people who never grew old.

One might as well grow old when all your generation do,

Said Marilla,

Rather reckless of her pronounce.

If you don't,

You don't fit in anywhere,

Far as I can learn Lavender Lewis has just dropped out of everything.

She's lived in that out-of-the-way place until everybody has forgotten her.

That stone house is one of the oldest on the island.

Old Mr.

Lewis built it eighty years ago,

And he came from England.

Davy stopped juggling Dora's elbow.

Oh,

I saw you.

You don't need to try to look innocent.

What does make you behave so this morning?

Maybe I got out of the wrong side of the bed,

Suggested Davy.

Meaty Bolter says if you do,

That things are bound to go wrong with you all day,

His grandfather told him.

But which is the right side?

And what are you to do in your beds against the war?

I want to know.

I've always wondered what went wrong between Stephen Irving and Lavender Lewis,

Continued Marilla,

Ignoring Davy.

They were certainly engaged twenty-five years ago,

And then all at once it was broken off.

I don't know what the trouble was,

But it must have been something terrible,

For he went away to the States and never came home since.

Perhaps it was nothing very dreadful after all.

I think the little things in life often make more trouble than the big things,

Said Anne.

With one of those flashes of insight,

Which experience could not have bettered?

Marilla,

Please don't say anything about my being at Miss Lavender's to Miss Lint.

She'd be sure to ask a hundred questions,

And somehow I wouldn't like it.

Nor Miss Lavender either,

If she knew,

I feel sure.

I dare say Rachel would be curious,

Admitted Marilla.

Though she hasn't as much time as she used to have for looking after other people's affairs.

She died home now on account of Thomas,

And she's feeling pretty downhearted,

For I think she is beginning to lose hope of his ever getting better.

Rachel will be left pretty lonely,

If anything happens to him.

With all her children settled out west,

Except Eliza in town,

And she doesn't like her husband.

Marilla's pronouns slandered Eliza,

Who was very fond of her husband.

Rachel says if he'd only brace up and exert his willpower he'd get better.

But what is the use of asking a jellyfish to sit up straight,

Continued Marilla.

Thomas Lint never had any willpower to exert.

His mother ruled him till he married,

And then Rachel carried it on.

It's a wonder he dared to get sick without asking her permission.

But there,

I shouldn't talk so.

Rachel has been a good wife to him.

He'd never have amounted to anything without her,

That is certain.

He was born to be rude,

And it's well he fell into the hands of a clever,

Capable manager like Rachel.

He didn't mind her way.

It saved him the bother of ever making up his own mind about anything.

Davy do stop squirming like an eel.

I've got nothing else to do,

Protested Davy.

I cannot eat any more,

And it's no fun watching you and Anne eat.

Well,

You and Dora go out and give the hens their weed,

Said Marilla.

Don't you try to pull any more feathers out of the white rooster's tail either.

I wanted some feathers for an Indian headdress,

Said Davy sulkily.

Milty Boulter has a dandy one,

Made out of the feathers his mother gave him when she killed the old white gobbler.

You might have let me some.

That rooster's got ever so more he wants.

You may have the old feather duster in the garret,

Said Anne,

And I will dye them green and red and yellow for you.

You do spoil that boy dreadfully,

Said Marilla,

And Davy,

With a radiant face,

Had followed prim Dora out.

Marilla's education had made great strides in the past six years,

But she had not yet been able to rid herself of the idea that it was very bad for a child to have too many of its wishes indulged.

All the boys of his class have Indian headdresses,

And Davy wants one too,

Said Anne.

I know how it feels.

I'll never forget how I used to long for puffed sleeves when all the other girls had them.

And Davy isn't being spoilt,

He's improving every day.

Think what a difference there is in him,

Since he came here a year ago.

He certainly doesn't get into as much midchief since he began to go to school,

Acknowledged Marilla.

I suppose he works off the tendency with the other boys,

But it is wonder to me we haven't heard from Richard Keith before this.

Never a word since last May.

I'll be afraid to hear from him,

Said Anne,

Beginning to clear away the dishes.

If a letter should come I'd dread opening it,

For fear it would tell us to send the twins to him.

A month later a letter did come,

But it was not from Richard Keith.

A friend of his wrote to say that Richard Keith had died of consumption of a fortnight previously.

The writer of the letter was the executor of his will,

And by that will the sum of two thousand dollars was left to Miss Marilla Cuthbert in trust for David and Dora Keith until they came of age or married.

In the meantime the interest was to be used for their maintenance.

It seems dreadful to be glad of anything in connection with death,

Said Anne soberly.

I'm sorry for poor Mr.

Keith,

But I am glad that we can keep the twins.

It is very good thing about the money,

Said Marilla practically.

I wanted to keep them,

But I really didn't see how I could afford to do it,

Especially when they grew older.

The rent of the farm doesn't do any more house,

And I was bound that not a cent of your money should be spent on them.

You do far too much for them as it is.

Dora didn't need that new hat.

You brought her any more than a cat needs two tails.

But now the way is made clear,

And they are provided for.

Davy and Dora were delighted when they heard that they were to live at Green Gables for good.

The death of an uncle who they had never seen could not weigh a moment in the balance against that,

But Dora had one misgiving.

Was Uncle Richard very,

She whispered to Anne.

Yes,

Dear,

Of course.

He isn't like Marible Cotton's uncle,

Is he?

In a still more agitated whisper.

He won't walk about houses after being buried,

Will he,

Anne?

No,

My dear,

He won't.