1 Anne's House Of Dreams - Guided Reading

When Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert adopt an orphan from Nova Scotia, they assume the little boy that they receive into their home will be better than any hired help and a good hand on the farm. But instead, they welcome the greatest gift ever, in the form of Anne - an orphan girl.

In this series, she is all grown up and about to begin a life of her own.

Transcript

Welcome to sleep stories with Steph your go-to podcast. That offers you a calm and relaxing transition. Into a great night's sleep. It is time to relax and fully let go. There is nothing you need to be doing now. And know where you need to go. Close your eyes. And feel yourself sink into the support beneath you. And let all the worries of the day go. Drift away. This is your time. And your space. Take a deep breath in through your nose. And let it out with a long sigh. That's it! There is nothing you need to be doing now. And know where you need to go. Happy listening. Chapter 1 in the garret of green gables. Thanks Bea, I'm done with geometry, Learning or teaching it. Sit down surely. A trifle vindictively, As she thumped a somewhat battered volume of euclid into a big chest of books, Banged the lid in triumph, And sat down upon it, Looking its diner right across the green gables garret with grey eyes that were like a morning sky. The garret was a shadowy, Suggestive, Delightful place, As all garret should be. Through the open window by which Anne sat, Blew the sweet scented sun-warm air of the August afternoon. Outside, Poplar boughs rustled and tossed in the wind. Beyond them were the woods where love is laying round its enchanted path, And the old apple orchard which still bore its rosy harvests magnificently. And overall was a great mountain range of snowy clouds in the blue southern sky. Through the other window is glimpsed a distant white-capped blue sea, The beautiful St Lawrence Gulf, On which floats like a jewel Abigwight, Whose softer, Sweeter Indian name has long been forsaken for the more prosaic one of Prince Edward Island. Diana Wright, Three years older than when we last saw her, Had grown somewhat matronly in the intervening time, But her eyes were as black and brilliant, Her cheeks as rosy and her dimples as enchanting as in the long-ago days when she and Anne Shirley had vowed eternal friendship in the garden at Orchard Slope. In her arms she held a small sleeping black cold creature. Who for two happy years had been known to the world of Avonlea as Small Anne Cordelia. Avonlea folks knew why Diana had called her Anne, Of course. But Avonlea folks were puzzled by the Cordelia. There had never been a Cordelia in the Wright or Barry connections. Mrs Harman Andrews said she supposed Diana had found the name in some trashy novel and wondered that Fred hadn't more sense than to allow it. But Diana and Anne smiled at each other. They knew how small Anne Cordelia had come by her name. He always hated geometry, Said Diana with a retrospective smile. I should think you'd be real glad to be through teaching it now, Anne. Oh, I've always liked teaching apart from geometry. These past three years in Somerset have been very pleasant ones. Mrs Harmon Andrews told me when I came home, I wouldn't likely find married life as much better than teaching as I expected. Evidently Mrs. Harmon is of Hamlet's opinion that it may be better to bear the ills that we have than fly to others that we know not of. Anne's laugh, As blithe and irresistible as of yore, With an added note of sweetness and maturity, Rang through the garret. Marilla in the kitchen below, Compounding blue plum preserve, Heard it and smiled. Then sigh to think how seldom that dear laugh would echo through green gables in the years to come. Nothing in her life had ever given Marilla so much happiness as the knowledge that Anne was going to marry Gilbert Blythe. But every joy must bring with it its little shadow of sorrow. During the three summer side years, Anne had been home often for vacations and weekends. But after this, A biannual visit would be as much as could be hoped for. You needn't let what Mrs Harman say worry you, " said Diana with a calm assurance of a four years matron. Married life has its ups and downs, Of course. You mustn't expect everything will always go smoothly. But I can assure you, Anne, It's a happy life when you're married to the right man. And smothered a smile. Diana's airs of vast experience always amused her a little. I dare say I'll be putting them on too when I've been married four years, " she thought. Surely my sense of humour will preserve me from it though. Is it settled yet where you're going to live? " asked Diana, Cuddling small old Anne Cordelia with the inimitable gesture of motherhood which always sent through Anne's heart, Filled with sweet, Unuttered dreams and hopes. A thrill that was half pure pleasure and a half strange ethereal pain. Yes, That was what I wanted to tell you when I phoned you to come down today. By the way, I can't realise we really have telephones in Avonlea now. It sounds so preposterously up-to-date and modern-ish for this darling leisurely old place. We can thank the Avis for them, " said Diana. We should never even got the line if they hadn't taken the matter up and carried it through. There is enough cold water thrown down to discourage any society. But they stuck to it nevertheless. You did a splendid thing for Avonlea when you founded that society, Anne. What fun we did have in our meetings. Will you ever forget the Blue Hall and Judson Parker's scheme for painting medicine adverts on his fence? I don't know that I'm wholly a-grateful to the Avis in the matter of the telephone. Ta-da! I know it's most convenient, Even more so than our old device of signalling to each other by flashes of candlelight. And Mrs Rachel said Avonlea must keep up with the procession, That's what. But somehow I feel as if I didn't want to have any spoiled by what Mr. Harrison, When he wants to be witty, Calls modern inconveniences. I should like to have kept it always just as it was in the dear old years. That's foolish and sentimental and impossible, I know. So I shall immediately become wise and practical and possible. The telephone, As Mr Harrison concedes, Is a buster of a good thing. Even if you do know that probably half a dozen interested people are listening on the line. That's the worst of it. Sorry Diana. It's so annoying to hear the receivers going down whenever you ring anyone up. They say Mrs Holman Andrews insisted their phone should be put in the kitchen so that she could listen whenever it rang and keep an eye on the dinner at the same time. Today when you called me, I distinctly heard that queer clock of the pies striking. So no doubt Josie or Gertie was listening. Oh, So that's why you said, You've got a new clock at Green Gables, Haven't you? I couldn't imagine what you meant, " said Anne. I heard a vicious click as soon as you'd spoken. I suppose it was the pi receiver being hung up with profane energy. Well, Well, Never mind the pies. As Mrs Rachel said, Pies they always were and pies they will always be. World without end. Amen. I want to talk of pleasanter things, Diana. It's all settled as to where my new home shall be. And where? I hope it's near here. No, That's the drawback. Gilbert's going to settle at Four Winds Harbour, 60 miles from here. Sixty? Might as well be six hundred! Sighed Diana. I can never get further from home now than Charlottetown. You'll have to come up to Four Winds. It's the most beautiful harbour on the island. There's a little village called Glen St Mary at its head, And Dr David Blythe has been practising there for 50 years. He's Gilbert's great uncle, You know. He is going to retire and Gilbert is going to take over his practice. Dr Blythe is going to keep his house though so we'll have to find a habitation for ourselves. I don't know yet what it is or where it will be in reality. But I have a little house of dreams all furnished in my imagination. Tiny delightful castle in space. Where are you going for your wedding tour? I'll stay in it. Nowhere. Don't look horrified, Diana Dearest. You suggested Mrs. Harmon Andrews. She no doubt will remark condescendingly. People who can't afford wedding talents are really sensible not to take them. And then she'll remind me that Jane went to Europe for hers. I want to spend my honeymoon at Four Winds in my own dear little house of dreams. And you've decided not to have any bridesmaid? There isn't really one to have. Hugh and Phil and Priscilla and Jane all stole a march on me in the matter of marriage instead of his teaching in Vancouver. I have no other kindred soul and I won't have a bridesmaid who isn't. But you are going to wear a veil, Aren't you? I'll stay anew anxiously. Yes, Indeedy. I shouldn't feel like a bride without one. I remember telling Matthew, That evening when he brought me to Green Gables, I never expected to be a bride because I was so homely that no one would ever want to marry me. Lest it was some old foreign missionary. I had an idea then that a foreign missionary couldn't afford to be finicky in the matter of looks if they wanted a girl to risk her life among cannibals. You should have seen the foreign missionary Priscilla married. He was as handsome and inscrutable as those daydreams we once planned to marry ourselves, Diana. He was the best-dressed man I ever met, And he raved over Priscilla's ethereal golden beauty. But of course there are no cannibals in Japan. Your wedding dress is a dream anyhow, Sighed Diana rapturously. You look like a perfect queen in it, Anne. You're so tall and slender. How do you keep so slim? I'm fatter than ever. I'll soon have no waist at all. Stoutness and slimness seem to be matters of predestination, " said Anna. At all events, Mrs Harman-Andrews can't say to you what she said to me when I came home from Somerside. Well Anne, You're about as skinny as ever. Sounds quite romantic to be slender, But Skinny has a very different tan. Mrs Harman's been talking about your trousseau, " said Diana. She admits it's as nice as Jane's, Although she said Jane married a millionaire and you're only marrying a poor young doctor without a cent to his name. And love. My dresses are nice. I love pretty things. I remember the first pretty dress I ever had, The brown Gloria Matthew gave me for our school concert. Before that, Everything I had was so ugly. Seemed to me I stepped into a new world that night. That was the night Gilbert recited Bingham on the Rhine and looked at you when he said, There's another, Not a sister. Said Diana. And you were so furious because he put your pink tissue rose in his breast pocket. You didn't much imagine then you'd marry him. Oh well, That's another instance of predestination love, Dan. As they both went together down the garret stairs.