12 Emily Of New Moon - Guided Reading

L.M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon mirrors core tenets of Stoic philosophy. Orphaned and navigating an oppressive environment, young Emily Byrd Starr practices Stoic resilience by distinguishing between what she cannot control (family cruelty, societal limitations) and what she can: her integrity, artistic purpose, and emotional endurance.

In this episode, an argument generates unusual results.

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Music by Jean-Miles Carter. Copyright Neworld Books

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 12 the Tansy patch. Emily and Ilse had spent a splendid fortnight of fun before their first fight. It really was a terrible fight, Arising out of a simple argument as to whether they would or would not have a parlour in the playhouse they were building in Lofty John's Bush. Emily wanted a parlour and Ilse didn't. Ilse lost her temper at once and went into a true Burnley tantrum. She was very fluent in her ages and the volley of abusive dictionary words which she hurled would have staggered most of the Blair Walter girls. But Emily was too much at home with words to be flawed so easily. She grew angry too, But in the cool, Dignified Murray way, Which was far more exasperating than violence. When Ilse had to pause for breath in her diatribes, Emily, Sitting on a big stone with her knees crossed, Her eyes black and her cheeks crimson, Interjected little sarcastic retorts that infuriated Ilse still further. Elsa was crimson too and her eyes were pools of scintillating tawny fire. They were both so pretty in their fury, It was almost a pity they couldn't have been angry all the time. You don't suppose you pudding, Snivelling, Chit you're going to boss me just because you live in New Moon? Shreek Ill say. As an ultimatum stamping her foot. I'm not going to boss you. I'm not going to associate with you ever again, " retorted Emily disdainfully. I'm glad to be rid of you, You proud, Stuck-up, Conceited, Top-lofty biped. Cried Ilse. Never you speak to me again and don't you go about Blair Water saying things about me either. This was unbearable to a girl who never said things about her friends or once friends. I'm not going to say things about you, " said Emily deliberately. I'm just going to think them. This was far more aggravating than speech and Emily knew it. Elsie was driven quite frantic about it. Who knew what unearthly things Emily Byrd's star might be thinking about her any time she took the notion to? Elsie had already discovered what a fertile invention Emily had. Do you suppose I care what you think, You insignificant serpent? Why, You haven't any sense. I've got something far better! " said Emily with a maddening superior smile. Something you can never have, Elsie Burnley. Elsa doubled her fists as if she would like to demolish Emily by physical force. If I couldn't write better poetry than you, I'd hang myself, She divided. I lend you a dime to buy a rope. Of Emily. Elsie glared at her vanquished. Go to the devil! She said. Emery got up and went. Not to the devil, But back to New Moon. It will see relieved her feelings by knocking the boards of their china closet down and kicking their moss garden to pieces. Only felt exceedingly bad. Here was another friendship destroyed. A friendship too that had been very delightful and satisfying. Yossi had been a splendid chum, There was no doubt about it. After she cooled down, She went to the dormer window and cried. What you, What you mean? She sobbed dramatically but very sincerely. Yet the bitterness of her break with Rhoda was not present. This quarrel was fair and open and above board. She had not been stabbed in the back. But of course she and Ilse could never be chums again. You couldn't be charms with a person you called a chit and a biped and a serpent and told you to go to the devil. The thing was impossible. Besides, Ilse could never forgive her, But Emily was honest enough to admit that she'd been very aggravating too. Yet when Emily went to the playhouse next morning, Bent on retrieving her share of broken dishes and boards, There was Ilse skipping around. Hard at work with all the shelves back in place. Hello you, Here's your parlour. I hope you'll be satisfied now. She said gaily, What kept you so long? I thought you were never coming. This rather posed Emily after her tragic night wherein she'd buried her second friendship forever. She was not prepared for so speedy a resurrection. As far as Ilse was concerned, It seemed as if no quarrel had ever taken place. Why, That was yesterday! She said in amazement, When Emily rather distantly referred to it. Apparently, Yesterday and today were two entirely different things. Emily accepted it. She had to. Ilse, Transpired, Could no more help flying into tantrums now and then than she could help being jolly and affectionate. What amazed Emily, In whom things were bound to wrangle for a time, Was the way in which Elsie appeared to forget a quarrel the moment it was over. To be called a serpent and a crocodile one minute and hugged and darling the next. Are somewhat disconcerting. Until time and experience took the edge off it. Aren't I nice enough between times to make up for it? You'll see tomorrow, I did. Doc Payne never flies into tempers, But would you like her for a chum? No, She's too stupid, Admitted Emily. And Modest Stuart's never out of temper, But you've got enough of her. Do you think I'd ever treat you as shaded? Emily had no doubt on this point. Whatever else he was or not, She was loyal and true. And certainly Rhoda Stewart and Doc Payne compelled to ill-see, Whereas moonlight onto sunlight and water onto wine. He can't have everything, Said Elsie. I've got Dad's temper and that's all there is to it. Wait till you see him in one of his rages. Emily had not seen this so far. She had often been down in the Burnies' house, But on the few occasions when Dr. Burnie had been home, He'd ignored her save for a curt nod. He was a busy man. For whatever his shortcomings were, His skills unquestioned, And the bounds of his practice extended far. By the sickbed he was as gentle and sympathetic as he was brusque and sarcastic. As long as you were ill, There was nothing Dr. Burnley would not do for you. But once you were well, He had apparently no further use. He'd been absorbed all through July trying to save Teddy Kent's life up at the Tansy Patch. Teddy was out of danger now and able to be up. But his improvement was not speedy enough to satisfy Dr Burnley. One day he held up Emily and Ilse who were heading through the lawn to the pond. Teddy's lonesome and moping go and cheer him up, " said the doctor. Elsie was rather loathe to go. She liked Teddy but she seemed. . . Not to like his mother. Emily was secretly not averse. She'd seen Teddy Kent but once in Sunday school the day before he was taken seriously ill and she had liked his looks. It had seemed he liked hers too, For she caught him staring shyly at her over the intervening pew several times. He was very handsome, Emily decided. He had thick dark brown hair and his black-browed blue eyes were beautiful. Not for the first time it occurred to her, It might be rather nice to have a boy playmate too. Not a bow, Of course. Emily hated the school jargon that called a boy your bow if he happened to give you a pencil or an apple, And picked you out frequently for his part during the games. Teddy's nice, But his mother's queer. Elsie told her on the way to the Tansy patch. She never goes out anywhere, Not even to church. I guess it's because of the scar on her face. They're not Blair Water people, They've only been living in the Tansy Patch since last fall. They're proud and poor, And not very many people visit them. Teddy's awfully nice though, So if his mother gives us some black locks we needn't mind. Mrs Kent gave them no black locks, Though her reception was rather distant. Perhaps she too had received some orders from the Doctor. She was a tiny creature with enormous masses of dull, Soft, Silky-fawn hair. She had dark mournful eyes and a broad scar running slantwise across her pale face. Without the scar she must have been pretty, Emily thought, And she had a voice as soft and uncertain as the wind in the tansy. Mrs. Kent? Was not a happy woman. The Tansy Patch was east of the Disappointed House, Between the Blair Water and the Sand Dunes. Most people considered it a bare, Lonely, Neglected place. But Emily thought it was fascinating. The little clapboarded house topped a small hill, Over which Tansy grew in hard, Flaunting, Aromatic luxuriance. A straggling rail fence, Almost smothered in wild rose bushes, Bounded the domain, And a sagging, Ill-used little gate gave ingress from the road. Stones were let into the side of the hill for steps up to the front door. Behind the house was a tumbledown little barn and a field of flowering buckwheat, Creamy green sloping down to the Blair Water. In front was a crazy veranda around which a brilliant band of red poppies held up their enchanted cups. Teddy was unfeignedly glad to see them. They had a happy afternoon together. There was some colour in his clear olive skin when it ended and his dark blue eyes were brighter. Mrs Kent took in these signs greedily and she asked the girls to come back. They'd found the Tanzi patch, A charming place, And were glad to go. And for the rest of the vacation there was hardly a day when they did not go up to it. Preferably in the long, Smoky, Delicious autumn evenings when the white moths sailed over the tansy plantation and the golden twilight faded into dusk and purple over the green slopes beyond. Sometimes they played games in the Tanzi patch when Emily and Teddy somehow generally found themselves on the same side. They were no more than a match for agile, Quick-witted Ilsy, Though. Sometimes Teddy took them to the barn loft and showed them his little collection of drawings. Both girls thought those very wonderful, Without knowing in the least how wonderful they really were. It seemed like magic to see Teddy take a pencil and a piece of paper and with a quick few strokes of his slim round fingers bring out a sketch of Ilse or Emily or Smoke or Buttercup. That looked ready to speak or meow. Smoke and buttercup with the Tansy Patch Cats. Buttercup was a chubby, Yellow, Delightful creature hardly out of Kittenhood. Smoke was a big Maltese and an aristocrat from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. There is no doubt whatever that he belonged to the cat cast of Veer de Veer. He had emerald eyes and a coat of plush. The only white thing about him. Wasn't that adorable, Dicky? Emily thought of all the pleasant hours spent at the Tansy Patch. Mrs Kent never joined them, Though Emily had a creepy conviction she was watching them stealthily from behind the kitchen blind. Isn't it good to be alive like this? Emily said once. Wouldn't it be dreadful if one had never lived? Still, Existence was not wholly unclouded. Aunt Elizabeth took care of that. Aunt Elizabeth only permitted the visits to the Tansy Patch under protest and because Dr Burnley had ordered them. Aunt Elizabeth does not approve of Teddy. Emily wrote in one of her lessons to her further. Which epistles were steadily multiplying on the old Garrett's sofa shelf. The first time I asked her if I might go and play with Teddy, She looked at me severely and said, Who is this Teddy person? We do not know anything about these Kents. Remember Emily, The Murrays do not associate with everyone. I said, I'm a star, I'm not a Murray. You said so yourself. Dear father, I did not mean to be impertinent. But Aunt Elizabeth said I was and would not speak to me for the rest of the day. She seemed to think that was a very bad punishment, But I didn't mind it so much. And it is rather unpleasant to have your own family preserve a disdainful silence towards you. But since then she let me go to the Tansy Patch because Dr Burnley came and told her to. Dr. Burnley has a strange influence over Aunt Elizabeth. I don't understand it. Rhoda said once Aunt Elizabeth hoped Dr. Burney and Aunt Laura would make a match of it, Which means get married. That is not so! Mrs Thomas Anderson was here once today. And she asked Aunt Elizabeth if she thought Dr. Burnley would marry again, And Aunt Elizabeth said no he would not, And she did not think it right for people to marry a second time. Mrs Anderson said sometimes I thought he would take Laura and Aunt Elizabeth just swept her a haughty glance. There's no denying it. At times I'm very proud of Aunt Elizabeth. Even if I do not like her. Teddy's a very nice boy, Father. I think you'd approve of him. Should be there be two Ps in approve. He can make splendid pictures and he's going to be a famous artist someday and he's going to paint my portrait. He keeps his pictures in the barn loft because his mother doesn't like them. He can whistle just like a bird. The Tansy Patch is a very quaint place, Especially at night. I love the twilight there. We always have such fun in the twilight. The wind woman makes herself small in the pansy like a tiny, Tiny fairy. And the cats are so quip, Creepy and delightful. They belong to Mrs Kent and Teddy's afraid to pet them for much fear that she will drown them. She drowned Kittenwatch because she thought he liked it better than her. Elsie said, Because Teddy washes the dishes and keeps helping with all the housework. He is a sissy, But. . . I think it's noble and manly of him. Teddy wishes she would let him have a dog, His mother. But she won't. I'd have thought Aunt Elizabeth was tyrannical, But Mrs Kent, I think, Is far worse in some ways. Mind you, She loves Teddy and Aunt Elizabeth does not love me. But Mrs Kent doesn't like Ilse or me. She never says so, But we feel it. She never asks us to tea, And we've always been so polite. Teddy gave me the sweetest picture of the Blair Watery painted on a big white cohort shell. But he said I mustn't let his mother know because she would cry. She's jealous of us, I think, Because Teddy likes us. She's a very mysterious person, Like some people you read of in books. Like mysterious people but not too close. Her eyes always look hungry though she's plenty to eat and she never goes anywhere because she's got a scar on her face when she was burned with a lamp exploding. Makes my blood run cold, Dear father. How thankful I am Aunt Elizabeth only burns candles. Mrs Kent is very religious, Or what she calls religious. She prays even in the middle of the day. Teddy says that before he was born into this world, He lived in another one where there were two suns, One red and one blue. The days were red and the nights blue. I don't know where he got that idea, But it sounds attractive to me. What do you think you do when you're thirsty? I said. Because the brooks run honey instead of water. Oh, We were never thirsty, They said. But I think I would like to be thirsty because then the cold water would taste so good. I would like to live in the moon, Father. It must be such a nice, Silvery place. Ilse said Teddy ought to like her best because there's more fun in her than me, But that's not true. It's just as much fun in me when my conscience doesn't bother me. I guess he also wants Teddy to like her best, But she's not a jealous girl. I'm glad to say Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Laura both approve of my friendship with Ilse. It's so seldom they approve of anything. I'm getting used to fighting with her now and I don't mind it much. Besides, I can fight pretty well myself when my blood is up. We fight about once a week, But we make up right away. And he also says things would be dull if there was never a row. I'd like it better without rows but you can never tell what will make Ilse mad. She never gets mad twice over the same thing. She calls me dreadful names. Yesterday she called me a lousy lizard and a toothless viper. But somehow I didn't mind because I knew I wasn't lousy or toothless and she knew it too. I don't call names because that's unladylike. But I smile, And that makes Ilse far madder than if I scowled and stamped. That's why I do it. Aunt Laura says I must be careful not to pick up the words Ilse uses and try to set her a good example because the poor child has got no one to look after her properly. Wish I could use some of her words because they're so striking. She gets them from her father. I think my aunts are far too particular. But, Aunt Glory's giving me five cents a week for washing the dishes. I can only spend one cent of it and the other four have to be put back in the toad bank in the sitting room on the mantel. The toad's made of brass and sits on the top of the bank and you put the scents in his mouth one at a time. He swallows them and they drop into the bank. It's very fascinating. I should not write fascinating again because you told me I must not use the same word too often, But I can't think of any other that describes my feelings so well. The toad bank is Aunt Laura's but she said I could use it. I just hugged her. Of course I never hug Aunt Elizabeth, She's too rigid and bony. She does not approve of Aunt Laura paying me for washing the dishes. I tremble to think what she'd say if she knew Cousin Jimmy gave me a whole dollar on the sly last week. I wish she'd not give me so much, It worries me. It's an awful responsibility. Would be so difficult to spend it wisely without Aunt Elizabeth finding out. I keep my dollar hidden on the shelf with my letters and I put it in an old envelope and wrote on it, Cousin Jimmy Murray gave me this, So if I died suddenly and Aunt Elizabeth found it, She would know I came by it honestly. I wrote two poems yesterday. One was short and entitled Lines Addressed to a Blue-Eyed Grass Flower Gathered in the Old Orchard. Here it is. Sweet little flower, Thy modest face is ever lifted towards the sky, And a reflection of its face is caught within thine own blue eyes. The meadow queens are tall and fair, The columbines are lovely too, But the poor talent I possess Shall laurel thee my flower of blues. The other poem was long and I wrote it on a letter bill. It's called The Monarch of the Forest. The monarch's the big birch in lofty John's bush. I love that bush so much it hurts. Do you understand that kind of hurting? Elsie likes it too. We play there most of the time when we're not in the Tansy patch. We have three paths in it. We call them the today road, The yesterday road and the tomorrow road. The today road is by the brook and we call it that because it's lovely now. The Yesterday Road is out in the stumps where Lofty John cut some trees down and we call it that because it used to be lovely. The tomorrow road is just a tiny path in the maple clearing and we call it that because it's going to be lovely someday when the maples grow bigger. But oh father dear, I haven't forgotten the dear old trees down home. I always think of them after I go to bed. But I am happy here. It isn't wrong to be happy, Is it, Father? Aunt Elizabeth says I got over being homesick very quick. But I'm very often homesick inside. School begins again next week. Elsie's going to ask Mrs Branwell if I can sit with her. I intend to act as if Rhoda was not there at all. Teddy's going too. Dr Burney said he's well enough to go, Though his mother doesn't like the idea. Teddy says she never likes him to have to go to school, But she's glad that he hates Mrs Brown. Aunt Laura says the right way to end a letter to a dear friend is yours affectionately. So I am yours very, Very affectionately. Emily Bird Star because you are still my very dearest friend, Father. Oh, And Ilse says she loves me, The very next best thing in the world, And her red leather boots that she was given. They come next. Goodnight.