Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery (read novels website .TXT) š
- Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery
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āItās so nice to be appreciated,ā sighed Anne rapturously to Marilla that night.
The girls were not the only scholars who āappreciatedā her. When Anne went to her seat after dinner hourāshe had been told by Mr. Phillips to sit with the model Minnie Andrewsāshe found on her desk a big luscious āstrawberry apple.ā Anne caught it up all ready to take a bite when she remembered that the only place in Avonlea where strawberry apples grew was in the old Blythe orchard on the other side of the Lake of Shining Waters. Anne dropped the apple as if it were a red-hot coal and ostentatiously wiped her fingers on her handkerchief. The apple lay untouched on her desk until the next morning, when little Timothy Andrews, who swept the school and kindled the fire, annexed it as one of his perquisites. Charlie Sloaneās slate pencil, gorgeously bedizened with striped red and yellow paper, costing two cents where ordinary pencils cost only one, which he sent up to her after dinner hour, met with a more favorable reception. Anne was graciously pleased to accept it and rewarded the donor with a smile which exalted that infatuated youth straightway into the seventh heaven of delight and caused him to make such fearful errors in his dictation that Mr. Phillips kept him in after school to rewrite it.
But as,
The Caesarās pageant shorn of Brutusā bust Did but of Romeās best son remind her more.
so the marked absence of any tribute or recognition from Diana Barry who was sitting with Gertie Pye embittered Anneās little triumph.
āDiana might just have smiled at me once, I think,ā she mourned to Marilla that night. But the next morning a note most fearfully and wonderfully twisted and folded, and a small parcel were passed across to Anne.
Dear Anne (ran the former)
Mother says Iām not to play with you or talk to you even in school. It isnāt my fault and donāt be cross at me, because I love you as much as ever. I miss you awfully to tell all my secrets to and I donāt like Gertie Pye one bit. I made you one of the new bookmarkers out of red tissue paper. They are awfully fashionable now and only three girls in school know how to make them. When you look at it remember Your true friend Diana Barry.
Anne read the note, kissed the bookmark, and dispatched a prompt reply back to the other side of the school.
My own darling Diana:ā
Of course I am not cross at you because you have to obey your mother. Our spirits can commune. I shall keep your lovely present forever. Minnie Andrews is a very nice little girlāalthough she has no imaginationābut after having been Dianaās busum friend I cannot be Minnieās. Please excuse mistakes because my spelling isnāt very good yet, although much improoved. Yours until death us do part Anne or Cordelia Shirley.
P.S. I shall sleep with your letter under my pillow tonight. A. OR C.S.
Marilla pessimistically expected more trouble since Anne had again begun to go to school. But none developed. Perhaps Anne caught something of the āmodelā spirit from Minnie Andrews; at least she got on very well with Mr. Phillips thenceforth. She flung herself into her studies heart and soul, determined not to be outdone in any class by Gilbert Blythe. The rivalry between them was soon apparent; it was entirely good natured on Gilbertās side; but it is much to be feared that the same thing cannot be said of Anne, who had certainly an unpraiseworthy tenacity for holding grudges. She was as intense in her hatreds as in her loves. She would not stoop to admit that she meant to rival Gilbert in schoolwork, because that would have been to acknowledge his existence which Anne persistently ignored; but the rivalry was there and honors fluctuated between them. Now Gilbert was head of the spelling class; now Anne, with a toss of her long red braids, spelled him down. One morning Gilbert had all his sums done correctly and had his name written on the blackboard on the roll of honor; the next morning Anne, having wrestled wildly with decimals the entire evening before, would be first. One awful day they were ties and their names were written up together. It was almost as bad as a take-notice and Anneās mortification was as evident as Gilbertās satisfaction. When the written examinations at the end of each month were held the suspense was terrible. The first month Gilbert came out three marks ahead. The second Anne beat him by five. But her triumph was marred by the fact that Gilbert congratulated her heartily before the whole school. It would have been ever so much sweeter to her if he had felt the sting of his defeat.
Mr. Phillips might not be a very good teacher; but a pupil so inflexibly determined on learning as Anne was could hardly escape making progress under any kind of teacher. By the end of the term Anne and Gilbert were both promoted into the fifth class and allowed to begin studying the elements of āthe branchesāāby which Latin, geometry, French, and algebra were meant. In geometry Anne met her Waterloo.
āItās perfectly awful stuff, Marilla,ā she groaned. āIām sure Iāll never be able to make head or tail of it. There is no scope for imagination in it at all. Mr. Phillips says Iām the worst dunce he ever saw at it. And GilāI mean some of the others are so smart at it. It is extremely mortifying, Marilla.
āEven Diana gets along better than I do. But I donāt mind being beaten by Diana. Even although we meet as strangers now I still love her with an INEXTINGUISHABLE love. It makes me very sad at times to think about her. But really, Marilla, one canāt stay sad very long in such an interesting world, can one?ā
ALL things great are wound up with all things little. At first glance it might not seem that the decision of a certain Canadian Premier to include Prince Edward Island in a political tour could have much or anything to do with the fortunes of little Anne Shirley at Green Gables. But it had.
It was a January the Premier came, to address his loyal supporters and such of his nonsupporters as chose to be present at the monster mass meeting held in Charlottetown. Most of the Avonlea people were on Premierās side of politics; hence on the night of the meeting nearly all the men and a goodly proportion of the women had gone to town thirty miles away. Mrs. Rachel Lynde had gone too. Mrs. Rachel Lynde was a red-hot politician and couldnāt have believed that the political rally could be carried through without her, although she was on the opposite side of politics. So she went to town and took her husbandāThomas would be useful in looking after the horseāand Marilla Cuthbert with her. Marilla had a sneaking interest in politics herself, and as she thought it might be her only chance to see a real live Premier, she promptly took it, leaving Anne and Matthew to keep house until her return the following day.
Hence, while Marilla and Mrs. Rachel were enjoying themselves hugely at the mass meeting, Anne and Matthew had the cheerful kitchen at Green Gables all to themselves. A bright fire was glowing in the old-fashioned Waterloo stove and blue-white frost crystals were shining on the windowpanes. Matthew nodded over a FARMERSā ADVOCATE on the sofa and Anne at the table studied her lessons with grim determination, despite sundry wistful glances at the clock shelf, where lay a new book that Jane Andrews had lent her that day. Jane had assured her that it was warranted to produce any number of thrills, or words to that effect, and Anneās fingers tingled to reach out for it. But that would mean Gilbert Blytheās triumph on the morrow. Anne turned her back on the clock shelf and tried to imagine it wasnāt there.
āMatthew, did you ever study geometry when you went to school?ā
āWell now, no, I didnāt,ā said Matthew, coming out of his doze with a start.
āI wish you had,ā sighed Anne, ābecause then youād be able to sympathize with me. You canāt sympathize properly if youāve never studied it. It is casting a cloud over my whole life. Iām such a dunce at it, Matthew.ā
āWell now, I dunno,ā said Matthew soothingly. āI guess youāre all right at anything. Mr. Phillips told me last week in Blairās store at Carmody that you was the smartest scholar in school and was making rapid progress. `Rapid progressā was his very words. Thereās them as runs down Teddy Phillips and says he aināt much of a teacher, but I guess heās all right.ā
Matthew would have thought anyone who praised Anne was āall right.ā
āIām sure Iād get on better with geometry if only he wouldnāt change the letters,ā complained Anne. āI learn the proposition off by heart and then he draws it on the blackboard and puts different letters from what are in the book and I get all mixed up. I donāt think a teacher should take such a mean advantage, do you? Weāre studying agriculture now and Iāve found out at last what makes the roads red. Itās a great comfort. I wonder how Marilla and Mrs. Lynde are enjoying themselves. Mrs. Lynde says Canada is going to the dogs the way things are being run at Ottawa and that itās an awful warning to the electors. She says if women were allowed to vote we would soon see a blessed change. What way do you vote, Matthew?ā
āConservative,ā said Matthew promptly. To vote Conservative was part of Matthewās religion.
āThen Iām Conservative too,ā said Anne decidedly. āIām glad because Gilābecause some of the boys in school are Grits. I guess Mr. Phillips is a Grit too because Prissy Andrewsās father is one, and Ruby Gillis says that when a man is courting he always has to agree with the girlās mother in religion and her father in politics. Is that true, Matthew?ā
āWell now, I dunno,ā said Matthew.
āDid you ever go courting, Matthew?ā
āWell now, no, I dunnoās I ever did,ā said Matthew, who had certainly never thought of such a thing in his whole existence.
Anne reflected with her chin in her hands.
āIt must be rather interesting, donāt you think, Matthew? Ruby Gillis says when she grows up sheās going to have ever so many beaus on the string and have them all crazy about her; but I think that would be too exciting. Iād rather have just one in his right mind. But Ruby Gillis knows a great deal about such matters because she has so many big sisters, and Mrs. Lynde says the Gillis girls have gone off like hot cakes. Mr. Phillips goes up to see Prissy Andrews nearly every evening. He says it is to help her with her lessons but Miranda Sloane is studying for Queenās too, and I should think she needed help a lot more than Prissy because sheās ever so much stupider, but he never goes to help her in the evenings at all. There are a great many things in this world that I canāt understand very well, Matthew.ā
āWell now, I dunno as I comprehend them all myself,ā acknowledged Matthew.
āWell, I suppose I must finish up my lessons. I wonāt allow myself to open that new book Jane lent me until Iām through. But itās a terrible temptation, Matthew. Even when I turn my back on it I can see it there just as plain. Jane said she cried herself sick over
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