Anne Of Avonlea - Chapter 20

"Anne of Avonlea" was written by L. M. Montgomery and published in 1909, following the enormous success of Anne of Green Gables the prior year.

In this second book, Anne Shirley is sixteen years old and working in Avonlea as the local schoolteacher, determined to be sensible, responsible and worthy of the life she’s been given...

Chapter 20 shows how plans can unravel and how grace sometimes arises from chaos...!

A peaceful morning at Green Gables turns unexpectedly social, catching Anne completely unprepared. Embarrassment threatens, pride is tested and vanity receives a sharp lesson, yet warmth, humour and good company prevail.

The chapter gently contrasts appearances with character, reminding us that sincerity, kindness and imagination matter far more than perfection...and that some of the best days are the ones that happen “the way it often does,” rather than the way we intend...!

Transcript

Hello there.

Thank you so much for joining me for this continued reading of Anne of Avonlea,

The charming sequel to Anne of Green Gables,

The hugely popular books from Lucy Maud Montgomery.

These were published in 1908 and 1909 respectively.

In this sequel,

We are hearing about Anne as a 16 and 17 year old schoolteacher and community helper in her little town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island in Canada.

Perhaps you've already heard the preceding parts of this book.

If you haven't and you'd like to,

You can certainly look for the playlist for Anne of Avonlea and you'll find everything there in order.

But for now,

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

Deep exhale,

Letting go of the day,

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

For right now,

There's nowhere else we have to go,

Nothing else we have to be doing.

So we can just relax,

Get ourselves comfortable and enjoy the ongoing charming old tale of Anne of Avonlea.

Chapter 20.

The way it often happens.

Anne rose betimes the next morning and blithely greeted the fresh day,

When the banners of the sunrise were shaken triumphantly across the pearly skies.

Green gables lay in a pool of sunshine,

Flecked with the dancing shadows of poplar and willow.

Beyond the land was Mr.

Harrison's wheat field,

A great wind-rippled expanse of pale gold.

The world was so beautiful that Anne spent ten blissful minutes hanging idly over the garden gate,

Drinking the loveliness in.

After breakfast,

Marilla made ready for her journey.

Dora was to go with her,

Having been long promised this treat.

Now,

Davy,

You try to be a good boy and don't bother Anne,

She straightly charged him.

If you are good,

I'll bring you a striped candy cane from town.

For,

Alas,

Marilla had stooped to the evil habit of bribing people to be good.

I won't be bad on purpose,

But supposing I'm bad accidentally,

Davy wanted to know,

You'll have to guard against accidents,

Admonished Marilla.

Anne,

If Mr.

Shearer comes today,

Get a nice roast and some steak.

If he doesn't,

You'll have to kill a fowl for dinner tomorrow,

Anne nodded.

I'm not going to bother cooking any dinner for just Davy and myself today,

She said.

That cold ham bone will do for noon lunch and I'll have some steak fried for you when you come home at night.

I'm going to help Mr.

Harrison all dulse this morning,

Announced Davy.

He asked me to,

And I guess he'll ask me to dinner too.

Mr.

Harrison is an awful kind man,

He's a real sociable man.

I hope I'll be like him when I grow up.

I mean behave like him,

I don't want to look like him,

But I guess there's no danger for Mrs.

Lynn says,

I'm a very handsome child.

Do you suppose it'll last,

Anne?

I want to know.

I dare say it will,

Said Anne gravely.

You are a handsome boy,

Davy.

Marilla looked volumes of disapproval,

But you must live up to it and be just as nice and gentlemanly as you look to be.

And you told Minnie Mae Barry the other day when you found her crying because someone said she was ugly,

That if she was nice and kind and loving people wouldn't mind her looks,

Said Davy discontentedly.

Seems to me you can't get out of being good in this world for some reason or another.

You just have to behave.

Don't you want to be good?

Asked Marilla,

Who had learned a great deal,

But had not yet learned the futility of asking such questions.

Yes,

I want to be good,

But not too good,

Said Davy cautiously.

You don't have to be very good to be a Sunday school superintendent.

Mr.

Bell's that,

And he's a real bad man.

Indeed he's not,

Said Marilla indignantly.

He is,

He says he is himself,

A severated Davy.

He said it when he prayed in Sunday school last Sunday.

He said he was a vile worm and a miserable sinner and guilty of the blackest iniquity.

What did he do that was so bad,

Marilla?

Did he kill anybody or steal the collection cents?

I want to know.

Fortunately,

Mrs.

Lind came driving up the lane at this moment and Marilla made off,

Feeling that she had escaped from the snare of the fowler and wishing devoutly that Mr.

Bell were not quite so highly figurative in his public petitions,

Especially in the hearing of small boys who were always wanting to know.

Anne,

Left alone in her glory,

Worked with a will.

The floor was swept,

The beds made,

The hens fed,

The muslin dress washed and hung out on the line.

Then Anne prepared for the transfer of feathers.

She mounted to the garret and on the first old dress that came to hand,

A navy blue cashmere she had worn at fourteen,

It was decidedly on the short side and as skimpy as the notable wincy Anne had worn upon the occasion of her debut at Green Gables,

But at least it would not be materially injured by down and feathers.

Anne completed her toilette by tying a big red and white spotted handkerchief that had belonged to Matthew over her head and,

Thus accoutered,

Betook herself to the kitchen chamber,

With a marilla before her departure had helped her carry the feather bed.

A cracked mirror hung by the chamber window and in an unlucky moment Anne looked into it.

There were those seven freckles on her nose,

More rampant than ever,

Or so it seemed in the glare of light from the unshaded window.

Oh,

I forgot to rub that lotion on last night,

She thought.

I'd better run down to the pantry and do it now.

Anne had already suffered many things trying to remove those freckles.

On one occasion the entire skin had peeled off her nose,

But the freckles remained.

A few days previously she had found a recipe for a freckle lotion in a magazine and,

As the ingredients were within her reach,

She straightway compounded it,

Much to the disgust of Marilla,

Who thought that if Providence had placed freckles on your nose,

It was your bounden duty to leave them there.

Anne scurried down to the pantry,

Which,

Always dim from the big willow growing close to the window,

Was now almost dark by reason of the shade drawn to exclude flies.

Anne caught the bottle containing the lotion from the shelf and copiously anointed her nose therewith by means of a little sponge,

Sacred to the purpose.

This important duty done,

She returned to her work.

Anyone who has ever shifted feathers from one tick to another will not need to be told that when Anne finished,

She was a sight to behold.

Her dress was white with down and fluff,

And her front hair,

Escaping from under the handkerchief,

Was adorned with a veritable halo of feathers.

At this auspicious moment,

A knock sounded at the kitchen door.

That must be Mr Shearer,

Thought Anne.

I'm in a dreadful mess,

But I'll have to run down as I am,

For he's always in a hurry.

Down flew Anne to the kitchen door.

If ever a charitable floor did open to swallow up a miserable,

Befeathered damsel,

The green gable's porch floor should promptly have engulfed Anne at that moment.

On the doorstep were standing Priscilla Grant,

Golden and fair in silk attire,

A short,

Stout,

Grey-haired lady in a tweed suit,

And another lady,

Tall,

Stately,

Wonderfully gowned,

With a beautiful,

High-bred face and large,

Black-lashed,

Violet eyes,

Whom Anne instinctively felt,

As she would have said in her earlier days,

To be Mrs Charlotte E.

Morgan.

In the dismay of the moment,

One thought stood out from the confusion of Anne's mind,

And she grasped at it as at the proverbial straw.

All Mrs Morgan's heroines were noted for rising to the occasion.

No matter what their troubles were,

They invariably rose to the and showed their superiority over all ills of time,

Space and quantity.

Anne therefore felt it was her duty to rise to the occasion.

And she did it,

So perfectly that Priscilla afterward declared she never admired Anne Shirley more than at that moment.

No matter what her outraged feelings were,

She did not show them.

She greeted Priscilla,

And was introduced to her companions as calmly and composedly as if she had been arrayed in purple and fine linen.

To be sure,

It was somewhat of a shock to find that the lady she had instinctively felt to be Mrs Morgan was not Mrs Morgan at all,

But an unknown Mrs Pendexter,

While the stout little grey-haired woman was Mrs Morgan.

But in the greater shock,

The lesser lost its power.

Anne ushered her guests to the spare room,

And thence into the parlour,

Where she left them while she hastened out to help Priscilla unharness her horse.

It's dreadful to come upon you so unexpectedly as this,

Apologised Priscilla,

But I did not know till last night that we were coming.

Aunt Charlotte is going away Monday,

And she had promised to spend a day with a friend in town,

But last night her friend telephoned to her not to come,

Because they were quarantined for scarlet fever.

So I suggested we come here instead,

For I knew you were longing to see her.

We called at the White Sands Hotel,

And brought Mrs Pendexter with us.

She is a friend of Aunt's and lives in New York,

And her husband is a millionaire.

We can't stay very long,

For Mrs Pendexter has to be back at the hotel by five o'clock.

Several times while they were putting away the horse,

Anne caught Priscilla looking at her in a furtive,

Puzzled way.

She needn't stare at me so,

Anne thought,

A little resentfully.

If she doesn't know what it is to change a feather bed,

She might imagine it.

When Priscilla had gone to the parlour,

And before Anne could escape upstairs,

Diana walked into the kitchen.

Anne caught her astonished friend by the arm.

Diana Barry,

Who do you suppose is in that parlour at this very moment?

Mrs Charlotte E.

Morgan,

And a New York millionaire's wife,

And here I am,

Like this.

And not a thing in the house for dinner,

But a cold ham bone,

Diana.

By this time,

Anne had become aware that Diana was staring at her in precisely the same bewildered fashion as Priscilla had done.

It was really too much.

Oh,

Diana,

Don't look at me so,

She implored.

You,

At least,

Must know that the neatest person in the world couldn't empty feathers from one tick into another and remain neat in the process.

It isn't the feathers,

Hesitated Diana.

It's your nose,

Anne.

My nose?

Oh,

Diana,

Surely nothing has gone wrong with it?

Anne rushed to the little looking-glass over the sink.

One glance revealed the fatal truth.

Her nose was a brilliant scarlet.

Anne sat down on the sofa,

Her dauntless spirit subdued at last.

What is the matter with it?

Asked Diana,

Curiosity overcoming delicacy.

I thought I was rubbing my freckle lotion on it.

But I must have used that red dye Marilla has for marking the pattern on her rugs,

Was the despairing response.

What shall I do?

Wash it off,

Said Diana,

Practically.

Perhaps it won't wash off?

First,

I dye my hair,

Then I dye my nose.

Marilla cut my hair off when I dyed it.

But that remedy would hardly be practicable in this case.

Well,

This is another punishment for vanity.

And I suppose I deserve it.

Though there's not much comfort in that.

It is really almost enough to make one believe in ill luck.

Though Mrs.

Lynn says there is no such thing because everything is foreordained.

Fortunately,

The dye washed off easily,

And Anne,

Somewhat consoled,

Betook herself to the East Gable while Diana ran home.

Presently,

Anne came down again,

Clothed and in her right mind.

The muslin dress she had fondly hoped to wear was bobbing merrily about on the line outside,

So she was forced to content herself with her black lawn.

She had the fire on and the tea steeping when Diana returned.

The latter wore her muslin,

At least,

And carried a covered platter in her hand.

Mother sent you this,

She said,

Lifting the cover and displaying a nicely carved and jointed chicken.

To Anne's grateful eyes.

The chicken was supplemented by light new bread,

Excellent butter and cheese,

Marilla's fruitcake and a dish of preserved plums,

Floating in their golden syrup as in congealed summer sunshine.

There was a big bowlful of pink and white asters,

Also by way of decoration.

Yet the spread seemed very meagre,

Beside the elaborate one formally prepared for Mrs Morgan.

Anne's hungry guests,

However,

Did not seem to think anything was lacking,

And they ate the simple viands with apparent enjoyment.

But after the first few moments,

Anne thought no more of what was or was not on her bill of fare.

Mrs Morgan's appearance might be somewhat disappointing,

As even her loyal worshippers had been forced to admit to each other,

But she proved to be a delightful conversationalist.

She had travelled extensively and was an excellent storyteller.

She had seen much of men and women and crystallised her experiences into witty little sentences and epigrams,

Which made her hearers feel as if they were listening to one of the people in clever books.

But under all her sparkle,

There was a strongly felt undercurrent of true,

Womanly,

Sympathy and kind-heartedness,

Which won affection as easily as her brilliancy won admiration.

Nor did she monopolise the conversation.

She could draw others out as skilfully and fully as she could talk herself,

And Anne and Diana found themselves chattering freely to her.

Mrs Pendexter said little.

She merely smiled with her lovely eyes and lips,

And ate chicken and fruitcake and preserves with such exquisite grace that she conveyed the impression of dining on ambrosia and honeydew.

But then,

As Anne said to Diana later on,

Anybody so divinely beautiful as Mrs Pendexter didn't need to talk.

It was enough for her just to look.

After dinner,

They all had a walk through Lover's Lane and Violet Vale and the Birch Path,

Then back through the Haunted Wood to the Dryad's Bubble,

Where they sat down and talked for a delightful last half hour.

Mrs Morgan wanted to know how the Haunted Wood came by its name,

And laughed until she cried when she heard the story and Anne's dramatic account of a certain memorable walk through it at the witching hour of twilight.

It has indeed been a feast of reason and flow of soul,

Hasn't it?

Said Anne,

When her guests had gone and she and Diana were alone again.

I don't know which I enjoyed more,

Listening to Mrs Morgan or gazing at Mrs Pendexter.

I believe we had a nicer time than if we'd known they were coming and been cumbered with much serving.

You must stay to tea with me,

Diana,

And we'll talk it all over.

Priscilla says Mrs Pendexter's husband's sister is married to an English earl,

And yet she took a second helping of the plum preserves,

Said Diana,

As if the two facts were somehow incompatible.

I dare say even the English earl himself wouldn't have turned up his aristocratic nose at Marilla's plum preserves,

Said Anne proudly.

Anne did not mention the misfortune which had befallen her nose when she related the day's history to Marilla that evening,

But she took the bottle of freckle lotion and emptied it out of the window.

I shall never try any beautifying messes again,

She said,

Darkly resolute.

They may do for careful,

Deliberate people,

But for anyone so hopelessly given over to making mistakes as I seem to be,

It's tempting fate to meddle with them.