Anne of Green Gables (Anne Shirley Series #1). Lucy Maud Montgomery

      

Anne of Green Gables

      Contents

      1. Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised

      2. Matthew Cuthbert is surprised

      3. Marilla Cuthbert is Surprised

      4. Morning at Green Gables

      5. Anne's History

      6. Marilla Makes Up Her Mind

      7. Anne Says Her Prayers

      8. Anne's Bringing-up Is Begun

      9. Mrs. Rachel Lynde Is Properly Horrified

      10. Anne's Apology

      11. Anne's Impressions of Sunday-School

      12. A Solemn Vow and Promise

      13. The Delights of Anticipation

      14. Anne's Confession

      15. A Tempest in the School Teapot

      16. Diana Is Invited to Tea with Tragic Results

      17. A New Interest in Life

      18. Anne to the Rescue

      19. A Concert a Catastrophe and a Confession

      20. A Good Imagination Gone Wrong

      21. A New Departure in Flavorings

      22. Anne is Invited Out to Tea

      23. Anne Comes to Grief in an Affair of Honor

      24. Miss Stacy and Her Pupils Get Up a Concert

      25. Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves

      26. The Story Club Is Formed

      27. Vanity and Vexation of Spirit

      28. An Unfortunate Lily Maid

      29. An Epoch in Anne's Life

      30. The Queens Class Is Organized

      31. Where the Brook and River Meet

      32. The Pass List Is Out

      33. The Hotel Concert

      34. A Queen's Girl

      35. The Winter at Queen's

      36. The Glory and the Dream

      37. The Reaper Whose Name Is Death

      38. The Bend in the road

      1

      Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised

      Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

      There are plenty of people in Avonlea and out of it, who can attend closely to their neighbor's business by dint of neglecting their own; but Mrs. Rachel Lynde was one of those capable creatures who can manage their own concerns and those of other folks into the bargain. She was a notable housewife; her work was always done and well done; she "ran" the Sewing Circle, helped run the Sunday-school, and was the strongest prop of the Church Aid Society and Foreign Missions Auxiliary. Yet with all this Mrs. Rachel found abundant time to sit for hours at her kitchen window, knitting "cotton warp" quilts-she had knitted sixteen of them, as Avonlea housekeepers were wont to tell in awed voices-and keeping a sharp eye on the main road that crossed the hollow and wound up the steep red hill beyond. Since Avonlea occupied a little triangular peninsula jutting out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence with water on two sides of it, anybody who went out of it or into it had to pass over that hill road and so run the unseen gauntlet of Mrs. Rachel's all-seeing eye.

      She was sitting there one afternoon in early June. The sun was coming in at the window warm and bright; the orchard on the slope below the house was in a bridal flush of pinky-white bloom, hummed over by a myriad of bees. Thomas Lynde-a meek little man whom Avonlea people called "Rachel Lynde's husband"-was sowing his late turnip seed on the hill field beyond the barn; and Matthew Cuthbert ought to have been sowing his on the big red brook field away over by Green Gables. Mrs. Rachel knew that he ought because she had heard him tell Peter Morrison the evening before in William J. Blair's store over at Carmody that he meant to sow his turnip seed the next afternoon. Peter had asked him, of course, for Matthew Cuthbert had never been known to volunteer information about anything in his whole life.

      And yet here was Matthew Cuthbert, at half-past three on the afternoon of a busy day, placidly driving over the hollow and up the hill; moreover, he wore a white collar and his best suit of clothes, which was plain proof that he was going out of Avonlea; and he had the buggy and the sorrel mare, which betokened that he was going a considerable distance. Now, where was Matthew Cuthbert going and why was he going there?

      Had it been any other man in Avonlea, Mrs. Rachel, deftly putting this and that together, might have given a pretty good guess as to both questions. But Matthew so rarely went from home that it must be something pressing and unusual which was taking him; he was the shyest man alive and hated to have to go among strangers or to any place where he might have to talk. Matthew, dressed up with a white collar and driving in a buggy, was something that didn't happen often. Mrs. Rachel, ponder as she might, could make nothing of it and her afternoon's enjoyment