Anne Of Avonlea (Bedtime Story) Part 4

Anne of Avonlea is a novel by Canadian author L.M. Montgomery, and it is the second book in the Anne of Green Gables series. The novel follows the adventures of Anne Shirley as she becomes a teacher at the Avonlea school, experiences the ups and downs of life in a small town, and begins to blossom into a young woman.

Transcript

CHAPTER FOUR DIFFERENT OPINIONS One evening at sunset Jane Andrews, Gilbert Blight, And Anne Shirley were lingering by the fence. In a shadow of gently swaying spruce boughs, Where a woodcut known as the birchbath joined the main road, Jane had been up to spend the afternoon with Anne, Who walked part of the way home with her. At the fence they met Gilbert, And all three were now talking about the fateful morrow, For that morrow was the first of September and the school would open. Jane would go to Newbridge and Gilbert to Whitesands. ''You both have the advantage of me, '' sighed Anne. ''You are going to teach children who don't know you, But I have to teach my own old schoolmates, '' said Mrs. Lynde says, ''she is afraid they won't respect me as they would a stranger unless I am very cross from the first. But I don't believe a teacher should be cross. Oh, It seems to me such a responsibility. '' ''I guess we'll get on all right, '' said Jane comfortably. Jane was not troubled by any aspirations to be an influence for good. She meant to earn her salary fairly, Please the trustees, And get her name on the school inspector's roll of honour. Further ambitions Jane had none. ''The main thing will be to keep order and teach has to be a little cross to do that. If my pupils won't do, As I tell them, I shall punish them. '' ''How? '' ''Give them a good whipping, Of course. '' ''Oh, Jane, You wouldn't, '' cried Anne shocked. ''Jane, You couldn't. '' ''Indeed I could and would, If they deserted, '' said Jane decidedly. ''I could never whip a child, '' said Anne with an equal decision. ''I don't believe in it at all. Miss Daisy never whipped any of us, And she had perfect order. And Mr. Phillips was always whipping, And he had no order at all. No, If I can't get along without whipping, I shall not try to teach school. There are better ways of managing. I shall try to win my pupils' affections, And they will want to do what I tell them. '' ''But suppose they don't? '' said practical Jane. ''I wouldn't whip them anyhow. I'm sure it wouldn't do any good. '' ''Oh, Don't whip your pupils, Jane dear, No matter what they do. '' ''What do you think about it, Gilbert? '' demanded Jane. ''Don't you think there are some children who need the whipping now and then? '' ''Don't you think it's cruel, Barbarous thing, To whip a child? '' ''Any child, '' exclaimed Anne, Her face flushing with earnestness. ''Well, '' said Gilbert slowly, Torn between his real convictions and his wish to measure up Anne's ideal, ''there's something to be said on both sides. I don't believe in whipping children much. I think, As you say, Anne, That there are better ways of managing as a rule, And that corporal punishment should be a last resort. But on the other hand, As Jane says, I believe there is an occasional child who can't be influenced in any other way, And who, In short, Needs a whipping, And would be improved by it. Corporal punishment, As a last resort, Is to be my rule. '' Gilbert, Having tried to please both sides, Succeeded, As is usually and eminently right, In pleasing neither. Jane tossed her head. ''I'll whip my pupils when they are naughty. It is the shortest and easiest way of convincing them. '' Anne gave Gilbert a disappointed glance. ''I shall never whip a child, '' she repeated firmly. ''I feel sure it isn't either right or necessary. Suppose a boy saws to your back when you told him to do something, '' said Jane. ''I'd keep him in after school and talk kindly and firmly to him, '' said Anne. ''There is some good in every person, If you can find it. It is a teacher's duty to find and develop it. That is what our school management professor at Queen's told us, You know. Do you suppose you could find any good in a child by whipping him? It is far more important to influence than it is even to teach them. '' ''The three Rs, '' Professor Rennie says. ''But the inspector examines them in the three Rs, Mind you, And he won't give you a good report if they don't come up to his standard, '' protested Jane. ''I'd rather have my pupils love me and look back to me in after years as a real helper than be on the roll of honour, '' asserted Anne decidedly. ''Wouldn't you punish children at all when they misbehave? '' asked Gilbert. ''Oh yes, I suppose I shall have to, Although I know I'll hate to do it. But you can keep them in at recess or stand them on the floor or give them lines to write. I suppose you won't punish the girls by making them sit with boys? '' said Jane slyly. Gilbert and Anne looked at each other and smiled rather foolishly. Once upon a time Anne had been made to sit with Gilbert for punishment, And sad and bitter had been the consequences thereof. ''Well, Time will tell which is the best way, '' said Jane in a philosophical tone as they departed. Anne went back to Green Gables by way of Birchpath, Shadowy rustling fern-scented through Violet Vale and past Willow Mere, Where bark and light kissed each other under the firs, And down through Lover's Lane, Spots she and Diana had so named long ago. She walked slowly, Enjoying the sweetness of wood and field and the starry summer twilight, And thinking soberly about the new duties she was to take on to-morrow. When she reaped the yard at Green Gables, Mrs. Lind's loud, Decided tones floated out through the open kitchen window. ''Mrs. Lind has come up to give me good advice about to-morrow, '' thought Anne with a grimace, ''but I don't believe I'll go in. Her advice is much like pepper, I think. Excellent in small quantities, But rather scorching in her doses. I'll run over and have a chat with Mr. Harrison instead. '' This was not the first time Anne had run over and chatted with Mr. Harrison, Since the notable affair of the Jersey Cow. She had been there several evenings, And Mr. Harrison and she were very good friends, Although there were times and seasons when Anne found outspokenness on which he prided himself rather trying. Ginger still continued to regard her with suspicion, And never failed to greet her sarcastically as a red-headed snippet. Mr. Harrison had tried vainly to break him of the habit by jumping excitedly up whenever he saw Anne coming and exclaiming, ''Bless my soul, Here is that pretty little girl again, '' or something equally flattering. But Ginger saw through the shame and scorned it. Anne was never to know how many compliments Mr. Harrison paid her behind her back. He certainly never paid her any to her face. ''Well, I suppose you've been back in the woods laying in a supply of switches for tomorrow, '' was his greeting as Anne came up the veranda steps. ''No, Indeed, '' said Anne indignantly. She was an excellent target for teasing, Because she always took things so seriously. ''I shall never have a switch in my school, Mr. Harrison. Of course I shall have to have a pointer, But I shall use it for pointing only. '' ''So you mean to strap them instead? '' ''Well, I don't know, But you are right. A switch stings more at the time, But the straps march longer. That is a fact. I shall not use anything of the sort. I'm not going to whip my pupils. '' ''Bless my soul! '' exclaimed Mr. Harrison in genuine astonishment. ''How do you lay? Ought to keep order, Then? '' ''I shall govern by affection, Mr. Harrison. '' ''It won't do, '' said Mr. Harrison. ''Won't do at all, Anne. Spare the rod and spoil the child. When I went to school the master whipped me regularly every day because he said if I wasn't in the mid-chief just then I was plotting it. Methods have changed since your school days, Mr. Harrison, But human nature hasn't. Mark my words, You will never manage the young fry unless you keep a rod in pickle for them. The thing is impossible. '' ''Well, I'm going to try my way first, '' said Anne, Who had a fairly strong will of her own and was apt to cline very tenaciously to her theories. ''You are pretty stubborn, I reckon, '' was Mr. Harrison's way of putting it. ''Well, We'll see. Some day, When you get riled up and people with hair like yours are desperate apt to get riled, You will forget all your pretty little notions and give some of them a waiting. You're too young to be teaching anyhow. Far too young and childish. '' Altogether, Anne went to bed that night in a rather pessimistic mood. She slept poorly and was so pale and tragic at breakfast next morning that Marilla was alarmed and insisted on making her take a cup of scorched-gin ginger tea. Anne sipped it patiently, Although she could not imagine what good ginger tea would do. Had it been some magic brew potent to confer age and experience, Anne would have swallowed a quart of it without flinching. ''Marilla, What if I fail? '' ''You'll hardly fail completely in one day, And there is plenty more days coming, '' said Marilla. ''The trouble with you, Anne, Is that you will expect to teach those children everything and reform all their faults right off, And if you can't, You'll think you have failed. ''