11 Anne Of Avonlea: Read By Stephanie Poppins

In this series, Anne discovers the delights and troubles of being a teacher, takes part in the raising of Davy and Dora, and organizes the A.V.I.S. (Avonlea Village Improvement Society) together with Gilbert, Diana, and Fred Wright, through their efforts to improve the town are not always successful.

In this episode, Anne reflects on the response of her pupils to an unusual task she set...

Transcript

Hello.

Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,

Your go-to romantic podcast that guarantees you a calm and entertaining transition into a great night's sleep.

Come with me as we immerse ourselves in a romantic journey to a time long since forgotten.

But before we begin,

Let's take a moment to focus on where we are now.

Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.

That's it.

Now close your eyes and feel yourself sink deeper into the support beneath you.

It is time to relax and fully let go.

There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.

Happy listening.

Anne of Avonlea This is the second book in the Anne of Green Gables series.

I am delighted to present to you Anne as she has now grown up into an elegant teenager.

Come with me as we hear all the trials and tribulations as she continues on her journey to womanhood.

Chapter 11.

Facts and Fancies Teaching is really very interesting work,

Wrote Anne to a Queen's Academy chum.

Jane says she thinks it's monotonous,

But I don't find it so.

Something funny is almost sure to happen every day,

And the children say such amusing things.

Jane says she punishes her pupils when they make funny speeches,

Which is probably why she finds teaching when it's not so fun.

This afternoon,

Little Jimmy Andrews was trying to spell speckled and couldn't manage it.

Well,

He said finally,

I can't spell it,

But I know what it means.

What?

I asked.

St.

Clair Donald's face,

Miss,

He said.

St.

Clair is certainly very much freckled,

Although I try to prevent the others from commenting on it.

But I was freckled once,

And I do remember it,

But I don't think St.

Clair minds.

It was because Jimmy called him St.

Clair that St.

Clair pounded on him on the way home from school.

I heard the pounding,

But not officially,

So I don't think I'll take any notice of it.

Yesterday,

I was trying to teach Lottie Wright to do addition.

I said,

If you had three minutes,

I'd like to see you do addition.

I was trying to teach Lottie Wright to do addition.

I said,

If you had three candles in one hand and two in the other,

How many would you have altogether?

A mouthful,

Said Lottie.

And in the nature study class,

When I asked them to give me a good reason why Toad shouldn't be killed,

Benji Sloan gravely answered,

Because it would rain the next day.

It's so hard not to laugh,

Stella.

I have to save up all my amusement until I get home.

And Marilla says it makes her nervous to hear wild shrieks of mirth proceeding from the East Gable without any apparent cause.

She says a man in Grafton went insane once,

And that was how it began.

Did you know that Thomas A.

Beckett was canonised as a snake?

Rosie Bell says he was.

Also that William Tyndall wrote the New Testament.

Claude White says a glacier is a man who puts in window frames.

I think the most difficult thing in teaching,

As well as the most interesting,

Is to get the children to tell you their real thoughts about things.

One stormy day last week,

I gathered them round me at dinner hour and tried to get them to talk to me as if I were one of themselves.

I asked me to tell the things they most wanted.

Some of the answers were commonplace enough.

Dolls,

Ponies and skates.

Others were decidedly original.

Hester Bolter wanted to wear her Sunday dress every day and eat in the sitting room.

Hannah Bell wanted to be good without having to take any trouble about it.

Marjorie Joy White,

Aged ten,

Wanted to be a widow.

And when questioned why,

She gravely said,

If you weren't married,

People called you an old maid,

And if you were,

Your husband bossed you about.

But if you were a widow,

There'd be no danger of either.

The most remarkable wish was Sally Bell's.

She wanted a honeymoon.

I asked her if she knew what it was,

And she said she thought it was an extra nice kind of bicycle,

Because her cousin in Montreal went on a honeymoon when he was married,

And he had always the very latest in bicycles.

Another day,

I asked them to tell me the naughtiest thing they had ever done.

I couldn't get the older ones to do so,

I couldn't get the older ones to do so,

But the third class answered quite freely.

Eliza Bell had set fire to her aunt's carded rolls.

And asked if she meant to do it,

She said,

Not altogether.

She just tried a little end to see how it would burn,

And the whole bundle blazed up in a jiffy.

Emerson Gillis spent ten cents for candy when he should have put it in his missionary box,

And Annetta Bell's worst crime was eating some blueberries that grew in the graveyard.

Willie White slid down the sheep house roof a lot of times with his Sunday school trousers on,

But I was punished for it because I had to wear patch pants to Sunday school all summer,

He said,

And when you're punished for a thing,

You don't have to repent of it.

I wish you could see some of their compositions,

Said Anne.

So much do I wish.

I'll send you some copies of some written recently.

Last week,

I told the fourth class I wanted them to write me letters about anything they pleased,

Adding by way of suggestion,

They might tell me of some place they'd visited or interesting thing or person they'd seen.

They were to write the letters on real notepaper,

Seal them in an envelope,

And address them all to me,

Without any assistance from other people.

Last Friday morning,

I found a pile of letters on my desk,

And that evening,

I realised afresh that teaching has its pleasures as well as its pains.

Those compositions would atone for much.

Here is Ned Clay's address spelling and grammar as originally penned.

Miss Teacher Shirley,

With a capital R.

Green Gables,

ELS.

P.

E.

Island,

CAN.

Birds.

Dear Teacher,

He said,

I think I'll write you a composition about birds.

Birds is very useful animals.

My cat catches birds.

His name is William,

But Pa calls him Tom.

He's all striped and he's got one of those ears frozen last winter.

Only for that,

He would be a good looking cat.

My uncle has adopted a cat.

He'd come to his house one day and wouldn't go away,

And Uncle says it has forgot most more than any people ever knowed.

He lets it sleep on his rocking chair,

And my aunt says he thinks more of it than he does of his children.

That is not right.

We ought to be kind to cats and give them new milk,

But we ought not to be better to them than our children.

This is all I can think of no more at present from Edward Blake Clay.

St.

Clair Donald's,

Meanwhile,

Was shortened to the point,

Said Anne.

St.

Clair never waste words.

I do not think he chose his subject or added the post-it out of malice afterthought.

It is just that he has not a great deal of tact or imagination.

Dear Miss Shirley,

You told us to describe something strange we've seen.

I will describe the Avonlea Hall.

It has two doors,

An inside one and an outside one.

It has six windows and a chimney.

It has two ends and two sides.

It is painted blue.

That's what makes it strange.

It's built on the lower Carmody Road.

It is the most third,

Most important building in Avonlea.

The others are the church and the blacksmith's shop.

They hold debating clubs and lectures in it,

And concerts.

Yours truly,

Jacob Donald.

P.

S.

The hall is a very bright blue.

Annetta Bell's letter was quite long,

She continued,

Which surprised me,

For writing letters is not Annetta's forte and hers are generally as brief as St.

Clair's.

Annetta is quite a little puss and a model of good behaviour.

But there isn't a shadow of originality in her.

Here is her letter.

Dearest teacher,

I think I will write you a letter to tell you how much I love you.

I love you with all my whole heart and soul and mind.

With all there is of me to love,

And I want to serve you forever.

It would be my highest privilege.

That is why I try so hard to be good in school and earn my lessons.

You are so beautiful,

My teacher.

Your voice is like music and your eyes are like pansies when the Jew is on them.

You are like a tall stately queen.

Your hair is like rippling gold.

Anthony Pye says it's red,

But you needn't pay any attention to Anthony.

I have only known you for a few months,

But I cannot realise there was ever a time when I did not know you,

When you had not come into my life to bless and hallow it.

I will always look back to this year as the most wonderful in my life,

Because it brought you to me.

Besides,

It's the year we moved to Avonlea from Newbridge.

My love for you has made my life very rich and has kept me from much of harm and evil.

I owe this all to you,

My sweetest teacher.

I can never forget how sweet you looked the last time I saw you in that black dress with flowers in your hair.

I shall see you like that forever,

Even when we're both old and grey.

You will always be young and fair to me,

Dearest teacher.

I am thinking of you all the time,

In the morning and the noon and the twilight.

I love you when you laugh and when you sigh,

Even when you look disdainful.

I never saw you look cross,

Though Anthony Pye says you always look it,

But I don't want you to look cross at him,

For he deserves it.

I love you in every dress.

You seem more adorable in each new dress than the last.

Dearest teacher,

Good night.

The sun has set and the stars are shining,

Stars that are as bright and beautiful as your eyes.

I kiss your hands and face,

My sweet.

May God watch over you and protect you from harm.

Your affectionate pupil,

Annette Bell.

Anne frowned.

This extraordinary letter puzzled me not a little,

She continued.

I knew Annette couldn't have composed it any more than she could fly.

When I went to school the next day,

I took her for a walk down to the brook at recess and asked her to tell me the truth.

Annette cried and fessed up freely.

She said she'd never written a letter and didn't know how to or what to say.

But there was a bundle of love letters in her mother's top bureau drawer which had been written to her by an old beau.

It wasn't father,

She sobbed.

It was someone who was studying for a minister so he could write lovely letters but Ma didn't marry him after all.

She said she couldn't make out what he was driving at half the time but I thought the letters were sweet and that I'd just copy things out of them here and there to write to you.

I put teacher where he put lady and I put in something of my own when I couldn't think of it and change some words.

Dress in place of mood.

I didn't know what a mood was but I supposed it was something to wear.

I didn't suppose you'd know the difference.

I don't see how you found out it wasn't all mine.

You must be awfully clever teacher.

I told Annette it was very wrong to copy another person's letter,

Said Ann and pass it off as her own but I'm afraid all she repented of was being found out.

And I do love you teacher,

She sobbed to me.

It was all true even if the minister wrote it first.

Here is Barbara Shaw's letter,

Ann continued.

I can't reproduce the blots of the original.

Dear teacher,

She said.

You said we might write about a visit.

I never visited but once and that was at my Aunt Mary's last winter.

My Aunt Mary's a very particular woman and a great housekeeper.

The first night I was there we were at tea.

I knocked over a jug and broke it.

Aunt Mary said she had that jug ever since she was married and nobody had ever broken it before.

When we got up I stepped on her dress and all the gathers tore out of the skirt.

The next morning when I got up I hit the pitcher against the basin and cracked them both and upset a cup of tea on the tablecloth at breakfast.

When I was helping Aunt Mary with the dinner dishes I dropped a china plate and it smashed.

That evening I fell downstairs and sprained my ankle and had to stay in bed for a week.

I heard Aunt Mary tell Uncle Joseph it was a mercy or I'd have broken everything else in the house.

When I got better it was time to go home.

I don't like visiting very much Miss Shirley.

I like going to school better especially since I came to Avonlea.

Yours respectfully,

Barbara Shaw.

And I've saved the best till last,

Went on Anne.

You'll laugh at me because I think Paul's a genius but I'm sure his letter will convince you he's a very uncommon child.

Paul lives away down near the shore with his grandmother.

He has no playmates.

No real playmates at all.

You remember our school management,

Professor told us.

We must not have favourites among our pupils.

But I can't help loving Paul Irving the best of mine.

I don't think it does any harm though for everybody loves Paul even Mrs Lynde who says she could never have believed she'd get so fond of a Yankee.

The other boys in school like him too.

There's nothing weak or girlish about him in spite of his dreams and fancies.

He's very manly and can hold his own in all games.

He fought St Clair recently because St Clair said the Union Jack was way ahead of the Stars and Stripes as a flag.

The result was a drawn battle and the mutual agreement to respect each other's patriotism henceforth.

St Clair says he can hit the hardest but Paul can hit the oftenest.

This is Paul's letter.

My dearest teacher you told us me you might write you about some interesting people we knew.

I think the most interesting people I know are my rock people and I mean to tell you about them.

I've never told anybody about them except grandma and father but I'd like to have you know about them because you understand things.

There are a great many people who do not understand things so there's no use in telling them.

My rock people live at the shore.

I used to visit them almost every evening before the winter came.

Now I can't go till spring but they will still be there for people like that never change.

That is the splendid thing about them.

Nora was the first one of them I got acquainted with and I think I love her the most.

She lives in Andrews Cove.

She has black hair and black eyes and she knows all about the mermaids and the water kelpies.

You ought to hear the story she can tell.

Then there are the twin sailors.

They don't live anywhere.

They sail all the time but they often come ashore to talk to me.

They're a pair of jolly tars and they've seen everything in the world.

More than what is in the world actually.

Do you know what happened to the youngest twin sailor once?

He was sailing and he sailed right into a moonglade.

A moonglade is the track the full moon makes on the water when it's rising from the sea you know.

Well the youngest twin sailor sailed along the moonglade till he came right up to the moon and there was a little golden door in the moon and he opened it and sailed right through.

He had some wonderful adventures in the moon but it would make this letter too long to tell them.

Then there is the golden lady of the cave.

One day I found a big cave down on the shore and I went away in and after a while I saw the golden lady.

She has golden hair right down to her feet and her dress is all glittering and glistening like gold.

She has a golden harp and she plays on it all day long.

You can hear the music any time if you listen carefully but most people would think it's only the wind among the rocks.

I never told Nora about the golden lady.

I was afraid it might hurt her feelings.

It even hurt her feelings when I talked too long with the twin sailors.

I always met the twin sailors at the striped rocks.

The youngest twin sailor is very good tempered but the oldest can look dreadfully fierce at times.

I have my suspicions about that oldest twin.

I believe he'd be a pirate if he dared.

There's really something very mysterious about him.

He swore once and I told him if he ever did it again he needn't come ashore to talk to me because I promised grandmother I'd never associate with anyone that swore.

And he said if I would forgive him he would take me to the sunset.

So the next evening when I was sitting on the striped rocks the oldest twin came sailing over to me the oldest twin came sailing over the sea in an enchanted boat and I got in her.

She was all pretty and rainbowy like the inside of the mussel shells and her sail was like moonshine.

Well we sailed right across to the sunset.

Think of that teacher.

I've been in the sunset.

And what do you suppose it is?

The sunset is a land of all flowers.

The clouds are beds of flowers.

We sailed into a great harbour all the colour of gold and I stepped right out of the boat on a big meadow covered with buttercups as big as roses.

I stayed there for ever so long.

It seemed nearly a year but the oldest twin says it was only a few minutes.

You see in the sunset land the time is ever so much longer than it is here.

P.

S.

Of course this letter isn't really true,

Teacher.

Signed,

P.

I.

Reviews

I love anne! Love this chapter… probably listened ten times through the night to hear all of it but that was perfect… love your reading too, as always🙏🏽🥰❤️