Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the twenty-second chapter of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

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Take it chapter by chapter one fight so many adventures and mountains we can climb.

Welcome to Bite at a Time Books, where we read you your favorite classics one byte at a time.

My name is Brie Carlyle and I love to read and wanted to share my passion with listeners like you.

If you enjoy our show, be sure to follow us so you get all the new episodes.

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You can catch us on all the social medias at Bite at a Time Books.

We are currently running a contest on our social media for the duration of season ten to win a copy of the complete Anifgreen Gables series.

Today we will be continuing Annifgreen Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Chapter 22 Anne is invited out to Tea and what are your eyes popping out of your head about now?

Asked Marla, when Anne had just come in from a run to the post office.

Have you discovered another kindred spirit?

Excitement hung around Anne like a garment shown in her eyes, kindled in every feature.

She had come dancing up the lane like a wind blown sprite through the mellow sunshine and lazy shadows of the August evening.

No, Marilla, but oh, what do you think?

I am invited to tea at the Mance tomorrow afternoon.

Mrs.

Allen left this letter from me at the post office.

Just look at it.

Marilla.

Ms.

Ann Shirley Green Gables.

That is the first time I was ever called Miss.

Such a thrill as it gave me, I shall cherish it forever.

Among my choices treasures.

Mrs.

Allen told me she meant to have all the members of her Sunday school class to tea.

In turn, said Marilla regarding the wonderful event, very coolly.

You'd needn't get in such a fever over it.

Do learn to take things calmly, child.

For Anne to take things calmly would have been a change to her nature.

All spirit and fire and dew as she was, the pleasures and pains of life came to her with troubled intensity.

Marilla felt this and was vaguely troubled over it, realizing that the ups and downs of existence would probably bear hardly on this impulsive soul, and not sufficiently understanding that the equally great capacity for delight might more than compensate.

Therefore, Marilla conceived it to be her duty to drill Anne into a tranquil uniformity of disposition as impossible and alien to her as to a dancing sunbeam in one of the brooks shallows.

She did not make much headway, as she sorrowfully admitted to herself.

The downfall of some dear hope or plan plunged Anne into deeps of affliction, the fulfillment thereof exalted her to dizzy realms of delight.

Marilla had almost begun to despair of ever fashioning this wave of the world into her model little girl of demure manners and prim deportment.

Neither would she have believed that she really liked Anne much better as she was.

Anne went to bed that night speechless with misery because Matthew had said the wind was round northeast and he feared it would be a rainy day tomorrow.

The rustle of the poplar leaves about the house worried her.

It sounded so like pattering raindrops, and the full faraway roar of the gulf to which she listened delightedly.

At other times loving its strange sonorous haunting rhythm now seemed like a prophecy of storm and disaster to a small maiden who particularly wanted a fine day and thought that the morning would never come.

But all things have an end, even nights before the day on which you are invited to take tea at the mance.

The morning, in spite of Matthew's predictions, was fine, and Anne's spirits soared to their highest.

Oh, Marilla, there is something in me today that makes me just love everybody.

I see.

She exclaimed as she washed the breakfast dishes.

You don't know how good I feel.

Wouldn't it be nice if it could last?

I believe I could be a model child if I were just invited out to tea every day.

But oh, Marilla, it's a solemn occasion, too.

I feel so anxious.

What if I shouldn't behave properly?

You know, I never had tea at a man's before, and I'm not sure that I know all the rules of etiquette, although I've been studying the rules given in the etiquette department of the Family Herald ever since I came here.

I'm so afraid I'll do something silly or forget to do something I should.

Would it be good manners to take a second helping of anything if you wanted to?

Very much.

The trouble with you, Anne, is that you're thinking too much about yourself.

You should just think of Mrs.

Allen and what would be nicest and most agreeable to her, said Marilla, hitting for once in her life on a very sound and pithy piece of advice.

Anne instantly realized this.

You're right, Marilla.

I'll try not to think about myself at all.

Anne evidently got through her visit without any serious breach of etiquette, for she came home through the twilight under a great high sprung sky, gloried over with trails of saffron and rosy cloud, in a beautiful state of mind, and hold Marilla all about it happily, sitting on the big red sandstone slab at the kitchen door with her tired curly head in Marilla's gingham lab.

A cool wind was blowing down over the long harvest fields from the rims of furry western hills and whistling through the poplars.

One clear star hung over the orchard, and the fireflies were flitting over in Lover's Lane, in and out among the ferns and rustling boughs, and watched them as she talked, and somehow felt that the wind and stars and fireflies were all tangled up together into something unutterably sweet and enchanting.

Oh, Marilla, I've had a most fascinating time.

I feel that I've not lived in vain, and I shall always feel like that, even if I should never be invited to tea at a Mance again.

When I got there, Mrs.

Allen met me at the door.

She was dressed in the sweetest dress of pale pink organdy with dozens of frills and elbow sleeves, and she looked just like a seraph.

I really think I'd like to be a minister's wife when I grow up, Marilla.

A minister might not mind my red hair because he wouldn't be thinking of such worldly things.

But then, of course, one would have to be naturally good, and I'll never be that, so I suppose there's no use in thinking about it.

Some people are naturally good, you know, and others are not.

I'm one of the others.

Mrs.

Lynn says I'm full of original sin.

No matter how hard I try to be good, I can never make such a success of it as those who are naturally good.

It's a good deal like geometry, I expect.

But don't you think that trying so hard ought to count for something?

Mrs.

Allen is one of the naturally good people.

I love her passionately, you know.

There are some people, like Matthew and Mrs.

Allen, that you can love right off without any trouble.

And there are others, like Mrs.

Lynde, that you have to try very hard to love.

You know, you ought to love them because they know so much and are such active workers in the church.

But you have to keep reminding yourself of it all the time, or else you forget.

There was another little girl at the Mance to tea from the White Sands Sunday School.

Her name was Laurette Bradley, and she was a very nice little girl.

Not exactly a kindred spirit, you know, but still very nice.

We had an elegant tea, and I think I kept all the rules of etiquette pretty well.

After tea, Mrs.

Allen played and sang, and she got Loretta and me to sing, too.

Mrs.

Allen says I have a good voice, and she says I must sing in the Sunday school choir after this.

You can't think how I was thrilled at the mere thought.

I've longed so to sing in the Sunday school choir as Diana does, but I feared it was an honor I could never aspire to.

Loretta had to go home early because there's a big concert in the White Sands Hotel tonight and her sister is to reside at it.

Loretta says that the Americans at the hotel give a concert every fortnight in aid of the Charlotte Town Hospital, and they ask lots of the White Sands people to recite.

Loretta said she expected to be asked herself someday.

I just gazed at her in awe.

After she had gone, Mrs.

Allen and I had a heart to heart talk.

I told her everything about Mrs.

Thomas and the twins and Katie, Maurice and Violetta, and coming to Green Gables, and my trouble over geometry.

And would you believe it, Marilla, mrs.

Allen told me she was a dunset.

Geometry too.

You don't know how that encouraged me.

Mrs.

Lynde came to the mant just before I left.

And what do you think, Marilla?

The trustees have hired a new teacher and it's a lady.

Her name is Ms.

Muriel Stacy.

Isn't that a romantic name?

Mrs.

Lynn says they've never had a female teacher in Avon Lee before, and she thinks it is a dangerous innovation.

But I think it will be splendid to have a lady teacher.

And I really don't see how I'm going to live through the two weeks before school begins.

I'm so impatient to see her.

Thank you for joining Bite at a Time books today.

Well, we read a bite of one of your favorite classics.

If you enjoy our show, be sure to follow us so you get all the new episodes.

If you want to see exclusive behind the scenes of our show, follow us on YouTube.

We would also love for you to drop us a rating on your favorite podcast platform and share our show with your friends.

You can catch us on all the social medias at Byte at a Time Books.

We are currently running a contest on our social media for the duration of season ten to win a copy of the complete ANAF Green Gables series.

Again, my name is Brie Carlyle and I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite of Anna Green Gables.