LongBench v2 / 66f91f2cbb02136c067c4b1e / Why does the mistake happen?

CHAPTER I. Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised
Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed
with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods
of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course
through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's
Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel
Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs.
Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and
children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had
ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.
There are plenty of people in Avonlea and out of it, who can attend closely to their neighbor's
business by dint of neglecting their own; but Mrs. Rachel Lynde was one of those capable creatures
who can manage their own concerns and those of other folks into the bargain. She was a notable
housewife; her work was always done and well done; she "ran" the Sewing Circle, helped run the
Sunday-school, and was the strongest prop of the Church Aid Society and Foreign Missions
Auxiliary. Yet with all this Mrs. Rachel found abundant time to sit for hours at her kitchen window,
knitting "cotton warp" quilts—she had knitted sixteen of them, as Avonlea housekeepers were wont to
tell in awed voices—and keeping a sharp eye on the main road that crossed the hollow and wound up
the steep red hill beyond. Since Avonlea occupied a little triangular peninsula jutting out into the Gulf
of St. Lawrence with water on two sides of it, anybody who went out of it or into it had to pass over
that hill road and so run the unseen gauntlet of Mrs. Rachel's all-seeing eye.
She was sitting there one afternoon in early June. The sun was coming in at the window warm and
bright; the orchard on the slope below the house was in a bridal flush of pinky-white bloom, hummed
over by a myriad of bees. Thomas Lynde—a meek little man whom Avonlea people called "Rachel
Lynde's husband"—was sowing his late turnip seed on the hill field beyond the barn; and Matthew
Cuthbert ought to have been sowing his on the big red brook field away over by Green Gables. Mrs.
Rachel knew that he ought because she had heard him tell Peter Morrison the evening before in
William J. Blair's store over at Carmody that he meant to sow his turnip seed the next afternoon. Peter
had asked him, of course, for Matthew Cuthbert had never been known to volunteer information about
anything in his whole life.
And yet here was Matthew Cuthbert, at half-past three on the afternoon of a busy day, placidly
driving over the hollow and up the hill; moreover, he wore a white collar and his best suit of clothes,
which was plain proof that he was going out of Avonlea; and he had the buggy and the sorrel mare,
which betokened that he was going a considerable distance. Now, where was Matthew Cuthbert going
and why was he going there?
Had it been any other man in Avonlea, Mrs. Rachel, deftly putting this and that together, might have
given a pretty good guess as to both questions. But Matthew so rarely went from home that it must be
something pressing and unusual which was taking him; he was the shyest man alive and hated to have
to go among strangers or to any place where he might have to talk. Matthew, dressed up with a white
collar and driving in a buggy, was something that didn't happen often. Mrs. Rachel, ponder as she
might, could make nothing of it and her afternoon's enjoyment was spoiled.
"I'll just step over to Green Gables after tea and find out from Marilla where he's gone and why,"


the worthy woman finally concluded. "He doesn't generally go to town this time of year and he
NEVER visits; if he'd run out of turnip seed he wouldn't dress up and take the buggy to go for more;
he wasn't driving fast enough to be going for a doctor. Yet something must have happened since last
night to start him off. I'm clean puzzled, that's what, and I won't know a minute's peace of mind or
conscience until I know what has taken Matthew Cuthbert out of Avonlea today."
Accordingly after tea Mrs. Rachel set out; she had not far to go; the big, rambling, orchard-
embowered house where the Cuthberts lived was a scant quarter of a mile up the road from Lynde's
Hollow. To be sure, the long lane made it a good deal further. Matthew Cuthbert's father, as shy and
silent as his son after him, had got as far away as he possibly could from his fellow men without
actually retreating into the woods when he founded his homestead. Green Gables was built at the
furthest edge of his cleared land and there it was to this day, barely visible from the main road along
which all the other Avonlea houses were so sociably situated. Mrs. Rachel Lynde did not call living in
such a place LIVING at all.
"It's just STAYING, that's what," she said as she stepped along the deep-rutted, grassy lane bordered
with wild rose bushes. "It's no wonder Matthew and Marilla are both a little odd, living away back
here by themselves. Trees aren't much company, though dear knows if they were there'd be enough of
them. I'd ruther look at people. To be sure, they seem contented enough; but then, I suppose, they're
used to it. A body can get used to anything, even to being hanged, as the Irishman said."
With this Mrs. Rachel stepped out of the lane into the backyard of Green Gables. Very green and
neat and precise was that yard, set about on one side with great patriarchal willows and the other with
prim Lombardies. Not a stray stick nor stone was to be seen, for Mrs. Rachel would have seen it if
there had been. Privately she was of the opinion that Marilla Cuthbert swept that yard over as often as
she swept her house. One could have eaten a meal off the ground without overbrimming the
proverbial peck of dirt.
Mrs. Rachel rapped smartly at the kitchen door and stepped in when bidden to do so. The kitchen at
Green Gables was a cheerful apartment—or would have been cheerful if it had not been so painfully
clean as to give it something of the appearance of an unused parlor. Its windows looked east and west;
through the west one, looking out on the back yard, came a flood of mellow June sunlight; but the
east one, whence you got a glimpse of the bloom white cherry-trees in the left orchard and nodding,
slender birches down in the hollow by the brook, was greened over by a tangle of vines. Here sat
Marilla Cuthbert, when she sat at all, always slightly distrustful of sunshine, which seemed to her too
dancing and irresponsible a thing for a world which was meant to be taken seriously; and here she sat
now, knitting, and the table behind her was laid for supper.
Mrs. Rachel, before she had fairly closed the door, had taken a mental note of everything that was
on that table. There were three plates laid, so that Marilla must be expecting some one home with
Matthew to tea; but the dishes were everyday dishes and there was only crab-apple preserves and one
kind of cake, so that the expected company could not be any particular company. Yet what of
Matthew's white collar and the sorrel mare? Mrs. Rachel was getting fairly dizzy with this unusual
mystery about quiet, unmysterious Green Gables.
"Good evening, Rachel," Marilla said briskly. "This is a real fine evening, isn't it? Won't you sit
down? How are all your folks?"
Something that for lack of any other name might be called friendship existed and always had
existed between Marilla Cuthbert and Mrs. Rachel, in spite of—or perhaps because of—their
dissimilarity.
Marilla was a tall, thin woman, with angles and without curves; her dark hair showed some gray


streaks and was always twisted up in a hard little knot behind with two wire hairpins stuck
aggressively through it. She looked like a woman of narrow experience and rigid conscience, which
she was; but there was a saving something about her mouth which, if it had been ever so slightly
developed, might have been considered indicative of a sense of humor.
"We're all pretty well," said Mrs. Rachel. "I was kind of afraid YOU weren't, though, when I saw
Matthew starting off today. I thought maybe he was going to the doctor's."
Marilla's lips twitched understandingly. She had expected Mrs. Rachel up; she had known that the
sight of Matthew jaunting off so unaccountably would be too much for her neighbor's curiosity.
"Oh, no, I'm quite well although I had a bad headache yesterday," she said. "Matthew went to Bright
River. We're getting a little boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia and he's coming on the train
tonight."
If Marilla had said that Matthew had gone to Bright River to meet a kangaroo from Australia Mrs.
Rachel could not have been more astonished. She was actually stricken dumb for five seconds. It was
unsupposable that Marilla was making fun of her, but Mrs. Rachel was almost forced to suppose it.
"Are you in earnest, Marilla?" she demanded when voice returned to her.
"Yes, of course," said Marilla, as if getting boys from orphan asylums in Nova Scotia were part of
the usual spring work on any well-regulated Avonlea farm instead of being an unheard of innovation.
Mrs. Rachel felt that she had received a severe mental jolt. She thought in exclamation points. A
boy! Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of all people adopting a boy! From an orphan asylum! Well, the
world was certainly turning upside down! She would be surprised at nothing after this! Nothing!
"What on earth put such a notion into your head?" she demanded disapprovingly.
This had been done without her advice being asked, and must perforce be disapproved.
"Well, we've been thinking about it for some time—all winter in fact," returned Marilla. "Mrs.
Alexander Spencer was up here one day before Christmas and she said she was going to get a little
girl from the asylum over in Hopeton in the spring. Her cousin lives there and Mrs. Spencer has
visited here and knows all about it. So Matthew and I have talked it over off and on ever since. We
thought we'd get a boy. Matthew is getting up in years, you know—he's sixty—and he isn't so spry as
he once was. His heart troubles him a good deal. And you know how desperate hard it's got to be to
get hired help. There's never anybody to be had but those stupid, half-grown little French boys; and as
soon as you do get one broke into your ways and taught something he's up and off to the lobster
canneries or the States. At first Matthew suggested getting a Home boy. But I said 'no' flat to that.
'They may be all right—I'm not saying they're not—but no London street Arabs for me,' I said. 'Give
me a native born at least. There'll be a risk, no matter who we get. But I'll feel easier in my mind and
sleep sounder at nights if we get a born Canadian.' So in the end we decided to ask Mrs. Spencer to
pick us out one when she went over to get her little girl. We heard last week she was going, so we sent
her word by Richard Spencer's folks at Carmody to bring us a smart, likely boy of about ten or
eleven. We decided that would be the best age—old enough to be of some use in doing chores right
off and young enough to be trained up proper. We mean to give him a good home and schooling. We
had a telegram from Mrs. Alexander Spencer today—the mail-man brought it from the station—
saying they were coming on the five-thirty train tonight. So Matthew went to Bright River to meet
him. Mrs. Spencer will drop him off there. Of course she goes on to White Sands station herself."
Mrs. Rachel prided herself on always speaking her mind; she proceeded to speak it now, having
adjusted her mental attitude to this amazing piece of news.
"Well, Marilla, I'll just tell you plain that I think you're doing a mighty foolish thing—a risky thing,
that's what. You don't know what you're getting. You're bringing a strange child into your house and


home and you don't know a single thing about him nor what his disposition is like nor what sort of
parents he had nor how he's likely to turn out. Why, it was only last week I read in the paper how a
man and his wife up west of the Island took a boy out of an orphan asylum and he set fire to the house
at night—set it ON PURPOSE, Marilla—and nearly burnt them to a crisp in their beds. And I know
another case where an adopted boy used to suck the eggs—they couldn't break him of it. If you had
asked my advice in the matter—which you didn't do, Marilla—I'd have said for mercy's sake not to
think of such a thing, that's what."
This Job's comforting seemed neither to offend nor to alarm Marilla. She knitted steadily on.
"I don't deny there's something in what you say, Rachel. I've had some qualms myself. But Matthew
was terrible set on it. I could see that, so I gave in. It's so seldom Matthew sets his mind on anything
that when he does I always feel it's my duty to give in. And as for the risk, there's risks in pretty near
everything a body does in this world. There's risks in people's having children of their own if it
comes to that—they don't always turn out well. And then Nova Scotia is right close to the Island. It
isn't as if we were getting him from England or the States. He can't be much different from
ourselves."
"Well, I hope it will turn out all right," said Mrs. Rachel in a tone that plainly indicated her painful
doubts. "Only don't say I didn't warn you if he burns Green Gables down or puts strychnine in the well
—I heard of a case over in New Brunswick where an orphan asylum child did that and the whole
family died in fearful agonies. Only, it was a girl in that instance."
"Well, we're not getting a girl," said Marilla, as if poisoning wells were a purely feminine
accomplishment and not to be dreaded in the case of a boy. "I'd never dream of taking a girl to bring
up. I wonder at Mrs. Alexander Spencer for doing it. But there, SHE wouldn't shrink from adopting a
whole orphan asylum if she took it into her head."
Mrs. Rachel would have liked to stay until Matthew came home with his imported orphan. But
reflecting that it would be a good two hours at least before his arrival she concluded to go up the road
to Robert Bell's and tell the news. It would certainly make a sensation second to none, and Mrs. Rachel
dearly loved to make a sensation. So she took herself away, somewhat to Marilla's relief, for the latter
felt her doubts and fears reviving under the influence of Mrs. Rachel's pessimism.
"Well, of all things that ever were or will be!" ejaculated Mrs. Rachel when she was safely out in the
lane. "It does really seem as if I must be dreaming. Well, I'm sorry for that poor young one and no
mistake. Matthew and Marilla don't know anything about children and they'll expect him to be wiser
and steadier that his own grandfather, if so be's he ever had a grandfather, which is doubtful. It seems
uncanny to think of a child at Green Gables somehow; there's never been one there, for Matthew and
Marilla were grown up when the new house was built—if they ever WERE children, which is hard to
believe when one looks at them. I wouldn't be in that orphan's shoes for anything. My, but I pity him,
that's what."
So said Mrs. Rachel to the wild rose bushes out of the fulness of her heart; but if she could have
seen the child who was waiting patiently at the Bright River station at that very moment her pity would
have been still deeper and more profound.


CHAPTER II. Matthew Cuthbert is surprised
Matthew Cuthbert and the sorrel mare jogged comfortably over the eight miles to Bright River. It
was a pretty road, running along between snug farmsteads, with now and again a bit of balsamy fir
wood to drive through or a hollow where wild plums hung out their filmy bloom. The air was sweet
with the breath of many apple orchards and the meadows sloped away in the distance to horizon mists
of pearl and purple; while
     "The little birds sang as if it were
     The one day of summer in all the year."
Matthew enjoyed the drive after his own fashion, except during the moments when he met women
and had to nod to them—for in Prince Edward island you are supposed to nod to all and sundry you
meet on the road whether you know them or not.
Matthew dreaded all women except Marilla and Mrs. Rachel; he had an uncomfortable feeling that
the mysterious creatures were secretly laughing at him. He may have been quite right in thinking so,
for he was an odd-looking personage, with an ungainly figure and long iron-gray hair that touched
his stooping shoulders, and a full, soft brown beard which he had worn ever since he was twenty. In
fact, he had looked at twenty very much as he looked at sixty, lacking a little of the grayness.
When he reached Bright River there was no sign of any train; he thought he was too early, so he
tied his horse in the yard of the small Bright River hotel and went over to the station house. The long
platform was almost deserted; the only living creature in sight being a girl who was sitting on a pile
of shingles at the extreme end. Matthew, barely noting that it WAS a girl, sidled past her as quickly as
possible without looking at her. Had he looked he could hardly have failed to notice the tense rigidity
and expectation of her attitude and expression. She was sitting there waiting for something or
somebody and, since sitting and waiting was the only thing to do just then, she sat and waited with all
her might and main.
Matthew encountered the stationmaster locking up the ticket office preparatory to going home for
supper, and asked him if the five-thirty train would soon be along.
"The five-thirty train has been in and gone half an hour ago," answered that brisk official. "But
there was a passenger dropped off for you—a little girl. She's sitting out there on the shingles. I asked
her to go into the ladies' waiting room, but she informed me gravely that she preferred to stay
outside. 'There was more scope for imagination,' she said. She's a case, I should say."
"I'm not expecting a girl," said Matthew blankly. "It's a boy I've come for. He should be here. Mrs.
Alexander Spencer was to bring him over from Nova Scotia for me."
The stationmaster whistled.
"Guess there's some mistake," he said. "Mrs. Spencer came off the train with that girl and gave her
into my charge. Said you and your sister were adopting her from an orphan asylum and that you
would be along for her presently. That's all I know about it—and I haven't got any more orphans
concealed hereabouts."
"I don't understand," said Matthew helplessly, wishing that Marilla was at hand to cope with the
situation.
"Well, you'd better question the girl," said the station-master carelessly. "I dare say she'll be able to
explain—she's got a tongue of her own, that's certain. Maybe they were out of boys of the brand you
wanted."


He walked jauntily away, being hungry, and the unfortunate Matthew was left to do that which was
harder for him than bearding a lion in its den—walk up to a girl—a strange girl—an orphan girl—
and demand of her why she wasn't a boy. Matthew groaned in spirit as he turned about and shuffled
gently down the platform towards her.
She had been watching him ever since he had passed her and she had her eyes on him now. Matthew
was not looking at her and would not have seen what she was really like if he had been, but an
ordinary observer would have seen this: A child of about eleven, garbed in a very short, very tight,
very ugly dress of yellowish-gray wincey. She wore a faded brown sailor hat and beneath the hat,
extending down her back, were two braids of very thick, decidedly red hair. Her face was small, white
and thin, also much freckled; her mouth was large and so were her eyes, which looked green in some
lights and moods and gray in others.
So far, the ordinary observer; an extraordinary observer might have seen that the chin was very
pointed and pronounced; that the big eyes were full of spirit and vivacity; that the mouth was sweet-
lipped and expressive; that the forehead was broad and full; in short, our discerning extraordinary
observer might have concluded that no commonplace soul inhabited the body of this stray woman-
child of whom shy Matthew Cuthbert was so ludicrously afraid.
Matthew, however, was spared the ordeal of speaking first, for as soon as she concluded that he was
coming to her she stood up, grasping with one thin brown hand the handle of a shabby, old-fashioned
carpet-bag; the other she held out to him.
"I suppose you are Mr. Matthew Cuthbert of Green Gables?" she said in a peculiarly clear, sweet
voice. "I'm very glad to see you. I was beginning to be afraid you weren't coming for me and I was
imagining all the things that might have happened to prevent you. I had made up my mind that if you
didn't come for me to-night I'd go down the track to that big wild cherry-tree at the bend, and climb up
into it to stay all night. I wouldn't be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to sleep in a wild cherry-tree
all white with bloom in the moonshine, don't you think? You could imagine you were dwelling in
marble halls, couldn't you? And I was quite sure you would come for me in the morning, if you didn't
to-night."
Matthew had taken the scrawny little hand awkwardly in his; then and there he decided what to do.
He could not tell this child with the glowing eyes that there had been a mistake; he would take her
home and let Marilla do that. She couldn't be left at Bright River anyhow, no matter what mistake had
been made, so all questions and explanations might as well be deferred until he was safely back at
Green Gables.
"I'm sorry I was late," he said shyly. "Come along. The horse is over in the yard. Give me your
bag."
"Oh, I can carry it," the child responded cheerfully. "It isn't heavy. I've got all my worldly goods in
it, but it isn't heavy. And if it isn't carried in just a certain way the handle pulls out—so I'd better keep
it because I know the exact knack of it. It's an extremely old carpet-bag. Oh, I'm very glad you've
come, even if it would have been nice to sleep in a wild cherry-tree. We've got to drive a long piece,
haven't we? Mrs. Spencer said it was eight miles. I'm glad because I love driving. Oh, it seems so
wonderful that I'm going to live with you and belong to you. I've never belonged to anybody—not
really. But the asylum was the worst. I've only been in it four months, but that was enough. I don't
suppose you ever were an orphan in an asylum, so you can't possibly understand what it is like. It's
worse than anything you could imagine. Mrs. Spencer said it was wicked of me to talk like that, but I
didn't mean to be wicked. It's so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn't it? They were good, you
know—the asylum people. But there is so little scope for the imagination in an asylum—only just in
the other orphans. It was pretty interesting to imagine things about them—to imagine that perhaps the


girl who sat next to you was really the daughter of a belted earl, who had been stolen away from her
parents in her infancy by a cruel nurse who died before she could confess. I used to lie awake at
nights and imagine things like that, because I didn't have time in the day. I guess that's why I'm so thin
—I AM dreadful thin, ain't I? There isn't a pick on my bones. I do love to imagine I'm nice and plump,
with dimples in my elbows."
With this Matthew's companion stopped talking, partly because she was out of breath and partly
because they had reached the buggy. Not another word did she say until they had left the village and
were driving down a steep little hill, the road part of which had been cut so deeply into the soft soil,
that the banks, fringed with blooming wild cherry-trees and slim white birches, were several feet
above their heads.
The child put out her hand and broke off a branch of wild plum that brushed against the side of the
buggy.
"Isn't that beautiful? What did that tree, leaning out from the bank, all white and lacy, make you
think of?" she asked.
"Well now, I dunno," said Matthew.
"Why, a bride, of course—a bride all in white with a lovely misty veil. I've never seen one, but I can
imagine what she would look like. I don't ever expect to be a bride myself. I'm so homely nobody will
ever want to marry me—unless it might be a foreign missionary. I suppose a foreign missionary
mightn't be very particular. But I do hope that some day I shall have a white dress. That is my highest
ideal of earthly bliss. I just love pretty clothes. And I've never had a pretty dress in my life that I can
remember—but of course it's all the more to look forward to, isn't it? And then I can imagine that I'm
dressed gorgeously. This morning when I left the asylum I felt so ashamed because I had to wear this
horrid old wincey dress. All the orphans had to wear them, you know. A merchant in Hopeton last
winter donated three hundred yards of wincey to the asylum. Some people said it was because he
couldn't sell it, but I'd rather believe that it was out of the kindness of his heart, wouldn't you? When
we got on the train I felt as if everybody must be looking at me and pitying me. But I just went to work
and imagined that I had on the most beautiful pale blue silk dress—because when you ARE imagining
you might as well imagine something worth while—and a big hat all flowers and nodding plumes,
and a gold watch, and kid gloves and boots. I felt cheered up right away and I enjoyed my trip to the
Island with all my might. I wasn't a bit sick coming over in the boat. Neither was Mrs. Spencer
although she generally is. She said she hadn't time to get sick, watching to see that I didn't fall
overboard. She said she never saw the beat of me for prowling about. But if it kept her from being
seasick it's a mercy I did prowl, isn't it? And I wanted to see everything that was to be seen on that
boat, because I didn't know whether I'd ever have another opportunity. Oh, there are a lot more
cherry-trees all in bloom! This Island is the bloomiest place. I just love it already, and I'm so glad I'm
going to live here. I've always heard that Prince Edward Island was the prettiest place in the world,
and I used to imagine I was living here, but I never really expected I would. It's delightful when your
imaginations come true, isn't it? But those red roads are so funny. When we got into the train at
Charlottetown and the red roads began to flash past I asked Mrs. Spencer what made them red and she
said she didn't know and for pity's sake not to ask her any more questions. She said I must have asked
her a thousand already. I suppose I had, too, but how you going to find out about things if you don't
ask questions? And what DOES make the roads red?"
"Well now, I dunno," said Matthew.
"Well, that is one of the things to find out sometime. Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there
are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive—it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't
be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination


then, would there? But am I talking too much? People are always telling me I do. Would you rather I
didn't talk? If you say so I'll stop. I can STOP when I make up my mind to it, although it's difficult."
Matthew, much to his own surprise, was enjoying himself. Like most quiet folks he liked talkative
people when they were willing to do the talking themselves and did not expect him to keep up his end
of it. But he had never expected to enjoy the society of a little girl. Women were bad enough in all
conscience, but little girls were worse. He detested the way they had of sidling past him timidly, with
sidewise glances, as if they expected him to gobble them up at a mouthful if they ventured to say a
word. That was the Avonlea type of well-bred little girl. But this freckled witch was very different,
and although he found it rather difficult for his slower intelligence to keep up with her brisk mental
processes he thought that he "kind of liked her chatter." So he said as shyly as usual:
"Oh, you can talk as much as you like. I don't mind."
"Oh, I'm so glad. I know you and I are going to get along together fine. It's such a relief to talk
when one wants to and not be told that children should be seen and not heard. I've had that said to me a
million times if I have once. And people laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big
ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?"
"Well now, that seems reasonable," said Matthew.
"Mrs. Spencer said that my tongue must be hung in the middle. But it isn't—it's firmly fastened at
one end. Mrs. Spencer said your place was named Green Gables. I asked her all about it. And she said
there were trees all around it. I was gladder than ever. I just love trees. And there weren't any at all
about the asylum, only a few poor weeny-teeny things out in front with little whitewashed cagey
things about them. They just looked like orphans themselves, those trees did. It used to make me want
to cry to look at them. I used to say to them, 'Oh, you POOR little things! If you were out in a great
big woods with other trees all around you and little mosses and Junebells growing over your roots
and a brook not far away and birds singing in you branches, you could grow, couldn't you? But you
can't where you are. I know just exactly how you feel, little trees.' I felt sorry to leave them behind this
morning. You do get so attached to things like that, don't you? Is there a brook anywhere near Green
Gables? I forgot to ask Mrs. Spencer that."
"Well now, yes, there's one right below the house."
"Fancy. It's always been one of my dreams to live near a brook. I never expected I would, though.
Dreams don't often come true, do they? Wouldn't it be nice if they did? But just now I feel pretty
nearly perfectly happy. I can't feel exactly perfectly happy because—well, what color would you call
this?"
She twitched one of her long glossy braids over her thin shoulder and held it up before Matthew's
eyes. Matthew was not used to deciding on the tints of ladies' tresses, but in this case there couldn't be
much doubt.
"It's red, ain't it?" he said.
The girl let the braid drop back with a sigh that seemed to come from her very toes and to exhale
forth all the sorrows of the ages.
"Yes, it's red," she said resignedly. "Now you see why I can't be perfectly happy. Nobody could who
has red hair. I don't mind the other things so much—the freckles and the green eyes and my
skinniness. I can imagine them away. I can imagine that I have a beautiful rose-leaf complexion and
lovely starry violet eyes. But I CANNOT imagine that red hair away. I do my best. I think to myself,
'Now my hair is a glorious black, black as the raven's wing.' But all the time I KNOW it is just plain
red and it breaks my heart. It will be my lifelong sorrow. I read of a girl once in a novel who had a
lifelong sorrow but it wasn't red hair. Her hair was pure gold rippling back from her alabaster brow.


What is an alabaster brow? I never could find out. Can you tell me?"
"Well now, I'm afraid I can't," said Matthew, who was getting a little dizzy. He felt as he had once
felt in his rash youth when another boy had enticed him on the merry-go-round at a picnic.
"Well, whatever it was it must have been something nice because she was divinely beautiful. Have
you ever imagined what it must feel like to be divinely beautiful?"
"Well now, no, I haven't," confessed Matthew ingenuously.
"I have, often. Which would you rather be if you had the choice—divinely beautiful or dazzlingly
clever or angelically good?"
"Well now, I—I don't know exactly."
"Neither do I. I can never decide. But it doesn't make much real difference for it isn't likely I'll ever
be either. It's certain I'll never be angelically good. Mrs. Spencer says—oh, Mr. Cuthbert! Oh, Mr.
Cuthbert!! Oh, Mr. Cuthbert!!!"
That was not what Mrs. Spencer had said; neither had the child tumbled out of the buggy nor had
Matthew done anything astonishing. They had simply rounded a curve in the road and found
themselves in the "Avenue."
The "Avenue," so called by the Newbridge people, was a stretch of road four or five hundred yards
long, completely arched over with huge, wide-spreading apple-trees, planted years ago by an
eccentric old farmer. Overhead was one long canopy of snowy fragrant bloom. Below the boughs the
air was full of a purple twilight and far ahead a glimpse of painted sunset sky shone like a great rose
window at the end of a cathedral aisle.
Its beauty seemed to strike the child dumb. She leaned back in the buggy, her thin hands clasped
before her, her face lifted rapturously to the white splendor above. Even when they had passed out and
were driving down the long slope to Newbridge she never moved or spoke. Still with rapt face she
gazed afar into the sunset west, with eyes that saw visions trooping splendidly across that glowing
background. Through Newbridge, a bustling little village where dogs barked at them and small boys
hooted and curious faces peered from the windows, they drove, still in silence. When three more
miles had dropped away behind them the child had not spoken. She could keep silence, it was evident,
as energetically as she could talk.
"I guess you're feeling pretty tired and hungry," Matthew ventured to say at last, accounting for her
long visitation of dumbness with the only reason he could think of. "But we haven't very far to go
now—only another mile."
She came out of her reverie with a deep sigh and looked at him with the dreamy gaze of a soul that
had been wondering afar, star-led.
"Oh, Mr. Cuthbert," she whispered, "that place we came through—that white place—what was it?"
"Well now, you must mean the Avenue," said Matthew after a few moments' profound reflection. "It
is a kind of pretty place."
"Pretty? Oh, PRETTY doesn't seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don't go far
enough. Oh, it was wonderful—wonderful. It's the first thing I ever saw that couldn't be improved
upon by imagination. It just satisfies me here"—she put one hand on her breast—"it made a queer
funny ache and yet it was a pleasant ache. Did you ever have an ache like that, Mr. Cuthbert?"
"Well now, I just can't recollect that I ever had."
"I have it lots of time—whenever I see anything royally beautiful. But they shouldn't call that lovely
place the Avenue. There is no meaning in a name like that. They should call it—let me see—the White
Way of Delight. Isn't that a nice imaginative name? When I don't like the name of a place or a person I


always imagine a new one and always think of them so. There was a girl at the asylum whose name
was Hepzibah Jenkins, but I always imagined her as Rosalia DeVere. Other people may call that place
the Avenue, but I shall always call it the White Way of Delight. Have we really only another mile to go
before we get home? I'm glad and I'm sorry. I'm sorry because this drive has been so pleasant and I'm
always sorry when pleasant things end. Something still pleasanter may come after, but you can never
be sure. And it's so often the case that it isn't pleasanter. That has been my experience anyhow. But I'm
glad to think of getting home. You see, I've never had a real home since I can remember. It gives me
that pleasant ache again just to think of coming to a really truly home. Oh, isn't that pretty!"
They had driven over the crest of a hill. Below them was a pond, looking almost like a river so
long and winding was it. A bridge spanned it midway and from there to its lower end, where an
amber-hued belt of sand-hills shut it in from the dark blue gulf beyond, the water was a glory of many
shifting hues—the most spiritual shadings of crocus and rose and ethereal green, with other elusive
tintings for which no name has ever been found. Above the bridge the pond ran up into fringing
groves of fir and maple and lay all darkly translucent in their wavering shadows. Here and there a
wild plum leaned out from the bank like a white-clad girl tip-toeing to her own reflection. From the
marsh at the head of the pond came the clear, mournfully-sweet chorus of the frogs. There was a little
gray house peering around a white apple orchard on a slope beyond and, although it was not yet quite
dark, a light was shining from one of its windows.
"That's Barry's pond," said Matthew.
"Oh, I don't like that name, either. I shall call it—let me see—the Lake of Shining Waters. Yes, that
is the right name for it. I know because of the thrill. When I hit on a name that suits exactly it gives me
a thrill. Do things ever give you a thrill?"
Matthew ruminated.
"Well now, yes. It always kind of gives me a thrill to see them ugly white grubs that spade up in the
cucumber beds. I hate the look of them."
"Oh, I don't think that can be exactly the same kind of a thrill. Do you think it can? There doesn't
seem to be much connection between grubs and lakes of shining waters, does there? But why do other
people call it Barry's pond?"
"I reckon because Mr. Barry lives up there in that house. Orchard Slope's the name of his place. If it
wasn't for that big bush behind it you could see Green Gables from here. But we have to go over the
bridge and round by the road, so it's near half a mile further."
"Has Mr. Barry any little girls? Well, not so very little either—about my size."
"He's got one about eleven. Her name is Diana."
"Oh!" with a long indrawing of breath. "What a perfectly lovely name!"
"Well now, I dunno. There's something dreadful heathenish about it, seems to me. I'd ruther Jane or
Mary or some sensible name like that. But when Diana was born there was a schoolmaster boarding
there and they gave him the naming of her and he called her Diana."
"I wish there had been a schoolmaster like that around when I was born, then. Oh, here we are at the
bridge. I'm going to shut my eyes tight. I'm always afraid going over bridges. I can't help imagining
that perhaps just as we get to the middle, they'll crumple up like a jack-knife and nip us. So I shut my
eyes. But I always have to open them for all when I think we're getting near the middle. Because, you
see, if the bridge DID crumple up I'd want to SEE it crumple. What a jolly rumble it makes! I always
like the rumble part of it. Isn't it splendid there are so many things to like in this world? There we're
over. Now I'll look back. Good night, dear Lake of Shining Waters. I always say good night to the
things I love, just as I would to people. I think they like it. That water looks as if it was smiling at me."


When they had driven up the further hill and around a corner Matthew said:
"We're pretty near home now. That's Green Gables over—"
"Oh, don't tell me," she interrupted breathlessly, catching at his partially raised arm and shutting her
eyes that she might not see his gesture. "Let me guess. I'm sure I'll guess right."
She opened her eyes and looked about her. They were on the crest of a hill. The sun had set some
time since, but the landscape was still clear in the mellow afterlight. To the west a dark church spire
rose up against a marigold sky. Below was a little valley and beyond a long, gently-rising slope with
snug farmsteads scattered along it. From one to another the child's eyes darted, eager and wistful. At
last they lingered on one away to the left, far back from the road, dimly white with blossoming trees
in the twilight of the surrounding woods. Over it, in the stainless southwest sky, a great crystal-white
star was shining like a lamp of guidance and promise.
"That's it, isn't it?" she said, pointing.
Matthew slapped the reins on the sorrel's back delightedly.
"Well now, you've guessed it! But I reckon Mrs. Spencer described it so's you could tell."
"No, she didn't—really she didn't. All she said might just as well have been about most of those
other places. I hadn't any real idea what it looked like. But just as soon as I saw it I felt it was home.
Oh, it seems as if I must be in a dream. Do you know, my arm must be black and blue from the elbow
up, for I've pinched myself so many times today. Every little while a horrible sickening feeling would
come over me and I'd be so afraid it was all a dream. Then I'd pinch myself to see if it was real—until
suddenly I remembered that even supposing it was only a dream I'd better go on dreaming as long as I
could; so I stopped pinching. But it IS real and we're nearly home."
With a sigh of rapture she relapsed into silence. Matthew stirred uneasily. He felt glad that it would
be Marilla and not he who would have to tell this waif of the world that the home she longed for was
not to be hers after all. They drove over Lynde's Hollow, where it was already quite dark, but not so
dark that Mrs. Rachel could not see them from her window vantage, and up the hill and into the long
lane of Green Gables. By the time they arrived at the house Matthew was shrinking from the
approaching revelation with an energy he did not understand. It was not of Marilla or himself he was
thinking of the trouble this mistake was probably going to make for them, but of the child's
disappointment. When he thought of that rapt light being quenched in her eyes he had an
uncomfortable feeling that he was going to assist at murdering something—much the same feeling
that came over him when he had to kill a lamb or calf or any other innocent little creature.
The yard was quite dark as they turned into it and the poplar leaves were rustling silkily all round
it.
"Listen to the trees talking in their sleep," she whispered, as he lifted her to the ground. "What nice
dreams they must have!"
Then, holding tightly to the carpet-bag which contained "all her worldly goods," she followed him
into the house.


CHAPTER III. Marilla Cuthbert is Surprised
Marilla came briskly forward as Matthew opened the door. But when her eyes fell on the odd little
figure in the stiff, ugly dress, with the long braids of red hair and the eager, luminous eyes, she
stopped short in amazement.
"Matthew Cuthbert, who's that?" she ejaculated. "Where is the boy?"
"There wasn't any boy," said Matthew wretchedly. "There was only HER."
He nodded at the child, remembering that he had never even asked her name.
"No boy! But there MUST have been a boy," insisted Marilla. "We sent word to Mrs. Spencer to
bring a boy."
"Well, she didn't. She brought HER. I asked the station-master. And I had to bring her home. She
couldn't be left there, no matter where the mistake had come in."
"Well, this is a pretty piece of business!" ejaculated Marilla.
During this dialogue the child had remained silent, her eyes roving from one to the other, all the
animation fading out of her face. Suddenly she seemed to grasp the full meaning of what had been
said. Dropping her precious carpet-bag she sprang forward a step and clasped her hands.
"You don't want me!" she cried. "You don't want me because I'm not a boy! I might have expected it.
Nobody ever did want me. I might have known it was all too beautiful to last. I might have known
nobody really did want me. Oh, what shall I do? I'm going to burst into tears!"
Burst into tears she did. Sitting down on a chair by the table, flinging her arms out upon it, and
burying her face in them, she proceeded to cry stormily. Marilla and Matthew looked at each other
deprecatingly across the stove. Neither of them knew what to say or do. Finally Marilla stepped
lamely into the breach.
"Well, well, there's no need to cry so about it."
"Yes, there IS need!" The child raised her head quickly, revealing a tear-stained face and trembling
lips. "YOU would cry, too, if you were an orphan and had come to a place you thought was going to
be home and found that they didn't want you because you weren't a boy. Oh, this is the most
TRAGICAL thing that ever happened to me!"
Something like a reluctant smile, rather rusty from long disuse, mellowed Marilla's grim
expression.
"Well, don't cry any more. We're not going to turn you out-of-doors to-night. You'll have to stay
here until we investigate this affair. What's your name?"
The child hesitated for a moment.
"Will you please call me Cordelia?" she said eagerly.
"CALL you Cordelia? Is that your name?"
"No-o-o, it's not exactly my name, but I would love to be called Cordelia. It's such a perfectly
elegant name."


"I don't know what on earth you mean. If Cordelia isn't your name, what is?"
"Anne Shirley," reluctantly faltered forth the owner of that name, "but, oh, please do call me
Cordelia. It can't matter much to you what you call me if I'm only going to be here a little while, can
it? And Anne is such an unromantic name."
"Unromantic fiddlesticks!" said the unsympathetic Marilla. "Anne is a real good plain sensible
name. You've no need to be ashamed of it."
"Oh, I'm not ashamed of it," explained Anne, "only I like Cordelia better. I've always imagined that
my name was Cordelia—at least, I always have of late years. When I was young I used to imagine it
was Geraldine, but I like Cordelia better now. But if you call me Anne please call me Anne spelled
with an E."
"What difference does it make how it's spelled?" asked Marilla with another rusty smile as she
picked up the teapot.
"Oh, it makes SUCH a difference. It LOOKS so much nicer. When you hear a name pronounced
can't you always see it in your mind, just as if it was printed out? I can; and A-n-n looks dreadful, but
A-n-n-e looks so much more distinguished. If you'll only call me Anne spelled with an E I shall try to
reconcile myself to not being called Cordelia."
"Very well, then, Anne spelled with an E, can you tell us how this mistake came to be made? We
sent word to Mrs. Spencer to bring us a boy. Were there no boys at the asylum?"
"Oh, yes, there was an abundance of them. But Mrs. Spencer said DISTINCTLY that you wanted a
girl about eleven years old. And the matron said she thought I would do. You don't know how
delighted I was. I couldn't sleep all last night for joy. Oh," she added reproachfully, turning to
Matthew, "why didn't you tell me at the station that you didn't want me and leave me there? If I hadn't
seen the White Way of Delight and the Lake of Shining Waters it wouldn't be so hard."
"What on earth does she mean?" demanded Marilla, staring at Matthew.
"She—she's just referring to some conversation we had on the road," said Matthew hastily. "I'm
going out to put the mare in, Marilla. Have tea ready when I come back."
"Did Mrs. Spencer bring anybody over besides you?" continued Marilla when Matthew had gone
out.
"She brought Lily Jones for herself. Lily is only five years old and she is very beautiful and had
nut-brown hair. If I was very beautiful and had nut-brown hair would you keep me?"
"No. We want a boy to help Matthew on the farm. A girl would be of no use to us. Take off your hat.
I'll lay it and your bag on the hall table."
Anne took off her hat meekly. Matthew came back presently and they sat down to supper. But Anne
could not eat. In vain she nibbled at the bread and butter and pecked at the crab-apple preserve out of
the little scalloped glass dish by her plate. She did not really make any headway at all.
"You're not eating anything," said Marilla sharply, eying her as if it were a serious shortcoming.
Anne sighed.
"I can't. I'm in the depths of despair. Can you eat when you are in the depths of despair?"
"I've never been in the depths of despair, so I can't say," responded Marilla.
"Weren't you? Well, did you ever try to IMAGINE you were in the depths of despair?"
"No, I didn't."
"Then I don't think you can understand what it's like. It's very uncomfortable feeling indeed. When
you try to eat a lump comes right up in your throat and you can't swallow anything, not even if it was
a chocolate caramel. I had one chocolate caramel once two years ago and it was simply delicious. I've


often dreamed since then that I had a lot of chocolate caramels, but I always wake up just when I'm
going to eat them. I do hope you won't be offended because I can't eat. Everything is extremely nice,
but still I cannot eat."
"I guess she's tired," said Matthew, who hadn't spoken since his return from the barn. "Best put her
to bed, Marilla."
Marilla had been wondering where Anne should be put to bed. She had prepared a couch in the
kitchen chamber for the desired and expected boy. But, although it was neat and clean, it did not seem
quite the thing to put a girl there somehow. But the spare room was out of the question for such a
stray waif, so there remained only the east gable room. Marilla lighted a candle and told Anne to
follow her, which Anne spiritlessly did, taking her hat and carpet-bag from the hall table as she
passed. The hall was fearsomely clean; the little gable chamber in which she presently found herself
seemed still cleaner.
Marilla set the candle on a three-legged, three-cornered table and turned down the bedclothes.
"I suppose you have a nightgown?" she questioned.
Anne nodded.
"Yes, I have two. The matron of the asylum made them for me. They're fearfully skimpy. There is
never enough to go around in an asylum, so things are always skimpy—at least in a poor asylum like
ours. I hate skimpy night-dresses. But one can dream just as well in them as in lovely trailing ones,
with frills around the neck, that's one consolation."
"Well, undress as quick as you can and go to bed. I'll come back in a few minutes for the candle. I
daren't trust you to put it out yourself. You'd likely set the place on fire."
When Marilla had gone Anne looked around her wistfully. The whitewashed walls were so
painfully bare and staring that she thought they must ache over their own bareness. The floor was
bare, too, except for a round braided mat in the middle such as Anne had never seen before. In one
corner was the bed, a high, old-fashioned one, with four dark, low-turned posts. In the other corner
was the aforesaid three-corner table adorned with a fat, red velvet pin-cushion hard enough to turn the
point of the most adventurous pin. Above it hung a little six-by-eight mirror. Midway between table
and bed was the window, with an icy white muslin frill over it, and opposite it was the wash-stand. The
whole apartment was of a rigidity not to be described in words, but which sent a shiver to the very
marrow of Anne's bones. With a sob she hastily discarded her garments, put on the skimpy nightgown
and sprang into bed where she burrowed face downward into the pillow and pulled the clothes over
her head. When Marilla came up for the light various skimpy articles of raiment scattered most
untidily over the floor and a certain tempestuous appearance of the bed were the only indications of
any presence save her own.
She deliberately picked up Anne's clothes, placed them neatly on a prim yellow chair, and then,
taking up the candle, went over to the bed.
"Good night," she said, a little awkwardly, but not unkindly.
Anne's white face and big eyes appeared over the bedclothes with a startling suddenness.
"How can you call it a GOOD night when you know it must be the very worst night I've ever had?"
she said reproachfully.
Then she dived down into invisibility again.
Marilla went slowly down to the kitchen and proceeded to wash the supper dishes. Matthew was
smoking—a sure sign of perturbation of mind. He seldom smoked, for Marilla set her face against it
as a filthy habit; but at certain times and seasons he felt driven to it and them Marilla winked at the