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.
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 26 Around the Bend Thomas Lynde faded out of life as quietly and unobtrusively as he had lived it.
His wife was a tender,
Patient,
Unwearied nurse.
Sometimes Rachel had been a little hard on her Thomas in health when his slowness or meekness had provoked her,
But when he became ill,
No voice could be lower,
No hand more gently skilful,
No vigil more uncomplaining.
You've been a good wife to me,
Rachel,
He once said simply when she was sitting by him in the dusk holding his thin,
Blanched old hand,
In her work hardened one.
A good wife.
I'm sorry I ain't leaving you better off,
But the children will look after you.
They're all smart,
Capable of children,
Just like their mother.
A good mother.
A good woman.
He had fallen asleep then,
And the next morning,
Just as the white dawn was creeping up over the pointed furs in the hollow,
Marilla went softly into the east gable and wakened Anne.
Anne,
Thomas Lynde's gone.
The hired boy just brought the word.
I'm going right down to Rachel.
On the day after Thomas Lynde's funeral,
Marilla went about green gables with a strangely preoccupied air.
Occasionally,
She looked at Anne,
Seemed on the point of saying something,
Then shook her head and buttoned up her mouth.
After tea,
She went down to see Mrs Rachel,
And when she returned,
She went to the east gable where Anne was correcting school exercises.
How is Mrs Lynde tonight?
Said the latter.
She's feeling calmer and more composed,
Answered Marilla,
Sitting down on Anne's bed,
A proceeding which betokens some unusual mental excitement,
For in Marilla's code of household ethics,
To sit on a bed after it was made up was an unpardonable offence.
But she's very lonely.
Eliza had to go home today.
Her son isn't well,
And she felt she could stay no longer.
When I finish these exercises,
I'll run down and chat a while with her,
Said Anne.
I had intended to study some Latin composition tonight,
But it can wait.
I suppose Gilbert Bly is going to college in the fall,
Said Marilla jerkily.
How would you like to go too,
Anne?
Anne looked up in astonishment.
I would like it of course,
Marilla,
But it isn't possible.
I guess it can be made possible.
I've always felt you should go,
And I've never felt easy to think you were giving it all up on my account.
But Marilla,
I've never been sorry for a moment I stayed home.
I've been so happy.
These past two years have just been delightful.
Yes,
I know you've been contented enough,
But that isn't the question exactly.
You ought to go on with your education.
You've saved enough to put you through one more year at Redmond,
And the money the stock bought in will do for another year.
And there's scholarships and things you might win.
Yes,
But I can't go,
Marilla.
Your eyes are better of course,
But I can't leave you alone with the twins.
They need so much looking after.
I won't be alone with them.
That's what I mean to discuss.
I had a long talk with Rachel tonight,
And she's feeling dreadful bad over a good many things.
She's not left very well off.
It seems they mortgaged the farm eight years ago to give the youngest boy a start when he went west,
And they've never been able to pay much more than the interest since.
Then of course Thomas's illness has cost a good deal one way or another.
The farm would have to be sold,
And Rachel thinks there'll be hardly anything left after all the bills are settled.
She says she'll have to go and live with Eliza,
And it's breaking her heart to think of leaving Avonlea.
A woman of her age doesn't make new friends and interests easy,
And Anne,
As she talked about it,
The thought came to me I'd ask her to come and live with me.
But I thought I ought to talk it over with you first before I said anything.
If I had Rachel living with me,
You could go to college.
How do you feel about it?
" I feel as if somebody had handed me the moon,
And I didn't exactly know what to do with it,
" said Anne dazedly.
But as for asking Mrs.
Lynde to come here,
That's for you to decide,
Marilla.
Do you think.
.
.
Are you sure you'd like it?
Mrs.
Lynde is a good woman and a kind neighbour,
But.
.
.
But she's got her faults,
You mean to say?
Well,
She has,
Of course,
But I think I'd rather put up with far worse faults than see Rachel go away from Avonlea.
I'd miss her terrible.
She's the only close friend I've got here,
And I'd be lost without her.
We've been neighbours for 45 years,
And we've never had a quarrel.
Though we did come rather near at that time you flew at Mrs.
Rachel for calling you homey and red-haired.
Do you remember,
Anne?
" "'I should think I do,
" said Anne ruefully.
"'People don't forget things like that.
How I hated poor Mrs.
Rachel at that moment.
And then that apology you made her.
Well,
You were a handful in all conscience,
Anne.
I did feel so puzzled and bewildered how to manage you.
Matthew understood you better.
' "'Matthew understood everything,
' said Anne softly,
As she always spoke of him.
"'Well,
I think it could be managed so Rachel and I wouldn't clash.
It always seems to me the reason two women can't get along in one house is they try to share the same kitchen and get in each other's way.
Now if Rachel came here she could have the north gable for her bedroom and the spare room for a kitchen as well as not,
For we don't really need a spare room at all.
She could put her stove there and what furniture she wanted to keep and be real comfortable and independent.
She'll have enough to live on,
Of course.
Her children will see to that.
So all I'd be giving her would be house room.
' "'Yes,
Anne,
As far as I'm concerned I'd like it.
' "'Then ask her,
' said Anne promptly,
"'I'd be very sorry myself to see Mrs Rachel go away.
' "'And if she comes,
' continued Bruella,
"'you can go to college as well as not.
She'll be company for me and she'll do for the twins what I can't do,
So there's no reason in the world why you shouldn't go.
' Anne had a long meditation at her window that night.
Joy and regret struggled together in her heart.
She had come at last suddenly and unexpectedly to the bend in the road,
And college was around it with a hundred rainbow hopes and visions.
But Anne realised as well that when she rounded that curve she must leave many sweet things behind.
All the simple little duties and interests which had grown so dear to her in the last two years,
And which she had glorified into beauty and delight by the enthusiasm she'd put into them.
She must give up her school and she loved every one of her pupils,
Even the stupid and naughty ones.
The mere thought of Paul Irving made her wonder if Redmond were such a name to conjure with after all.
"'I've put out a lot of little roots these two years,
' Anne told the moon,
"'and when I'm pulled up they're going to hurt a great deal.
But it's best to go,
I think,
And as Marilla says,
There's no good reason why I shouldn't.
I must get out all my ambitions and dust them.
' Anne sent in her resignation the next day and Mrs Rachel,
After a heart-to-heart talk with Marilla,
Gratefully accepted the offer of a home at Green Gables.
She elected to remain in her own house for the summer,
However.
The farm was not to be sold until the fall and there were many arrangements to be made.
"'I certainly never thought of living as far off the road as Green Gables,
' sighed Mrs Rachel.
"'But really,
Green Gables doesn't seem as out of the world as it used to.
Anne has lots of company and the twins make it real lively.
And anyhow,
I'd rather live at the bottom of a well than leave Avonlea.
'" These two decisions being noised abroad speedily ousted the arrival of Mrs Harrison in popular gossip.
Sage heads were shaken over Marilla Cuthbert's rash step in asking Mrs Rachel to live with her.
People thought they wouldn't get on together.
They were both too fond of their own way,
They said,
And many doleful predictions were made.
None of which disturbed the parties in question at all.
They had come to a clear and distinct understanding of the respective duties and rights of their new arrangements and made to abide by them.
"'I won't meddle with you,
Nor you with me,
' Mrs Rachel said decidedly.
"'And as for the twins,
I'll be glad to do all I can for them.
But I won't undertake to answer Davy's questions,
That's what.
I'm not an encyclopedia,
Neither am I a Philadelphia lawyer.
You'll miss Anne for that.
'" "'Sometimes Anne's answers were about as queer as Davy's questions,
' said Marilla dryly.
"'The twins will miss her,
And no mistake.
But her future can't be sacrificed to Davy's thirst for information.
When he asks questions I can't answer.
I'll just tell him children should be seen and not heard.
That's how I was brought up.
'" "'Well,
Anne Smith has seemed to have worked fairly with Davy,
' said Mrs Lynn smilingly.
"'He's a reformed character,
That's what.
'" "'He isn't a bad little soul,
' conceded Marilla.
"'I never expected to get as fond of those children as I have.
Davy gets round you somehow and Dor is a lovely child.
Although she is kind of monotonous.
Like a book where every page is the same,
That's what,
' supplied Mrs Rachel.
"'Dora will make a good,
Reliable woman,
But she'll never set the pond on fire.
Well,
That sort of folks are comfortable to have round,
Even if they're not as interesting as the other kind.
'"
