Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the fourth chapter of Anne's House of Dreams.
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Wherever you listen to podcasts today, we'll be continuing anne's House of Dreams by Lucy Maud Montgomery chapter Four The First Bride of Green Gables anne awakened on the morning of her wedding day to find sunshine winking in at the window of the little porch gable and a September breeze frolicking with her curtains.
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I'm so glad the sun will shine on me, she thought happily.
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She recalled the first morning she had wakened in that little porch room, when the sunshine had crept in on her through the blossom drift of the old snow queen.
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That had not been a happy awakening, for it brought with it the bitter disappointment of the preceding night.
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But since then the little room had been endeared and consecrated by years of happy childhood dreams and maiden visions to it.
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She had come back joyfully after all her absences at its window.
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She had knelt through that night of bitter agony when she believed Gilbert dying, and by it she had sat in speechless happiness the night of her betrothal.
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Many vigils of joy and some of sorrow had been kept there, and today she must leave it forever.
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Henceforth it would be hers no more.
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15 year old Dora was to inherit it when she had gone, nor did Anne wish it otherwise.
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The little room was sacred to youth and girlhood to the past that was to close today before the chapter of wifehood opened.
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Green Gables was a busy and joyous house that forenoon Diana arrived early with little Fred and small Ann Cordelia to lend a hand.
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Davy and Dora, the Green Gables twins, whisked the babies off to the garden.
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Don't let small an Cordelia spoil her clothes, warned Diana anxiously.
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You needn't be afraid to trust her with Dora, said Marilla.
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That child is more sensible and careful than most of the mothers I've known.
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She's really a wonder in some ways.
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Not much like that other harem scarum I brought up.
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Marilla smiled across her chicken salad at Anne.
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It might even be suspected that she liked the harem scarum best after all.
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Those twins are real nice children, said Mrs.
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Rachel, when she was sure they were out of earshot.
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Dora is so womanly and helpful, and Davy is developing into a very smart boy.
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He isn't the holy terror for mischief he used to be.
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I was never so distracted in my life as I was the first six months he was here, acknowledged Marilla.
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After that, I suppose I got used to him.
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He's taken a great notion to farming lately and wants me to let him try running the farm next year.
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I may, for Mr.
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Berry doesn't think he'll want to rent it much longer, and some new arrangement will have to be made.
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Well, you certainly have a lovely day for your wedding, Anne, said Diana as she slipped a voluminous apron over her silken array.
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You couldn't have had a finer one if you'd ordered it from Eatons.
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Indeed, there's too much money going out of this island to that same Eatons, said Mrs.
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Lind indignantly.
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She had strong views on the subject of octopus like department stores, and never lost an opportunity of airing them.
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And as for those catalogues of theirs, they're the Avonlee girls'bible now.
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That's what they pour over them on Sundays instead of studying the Holy Scriptures.
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Well, they're splendid to amuse children with, said Diana.
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Fred and Small Ann.
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Look at the pictures by the hour.
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I am used ten children without the aid of Eaton's catalog, said Mrs.
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Rachel severely.
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Come, you too.
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Don't quarrel over Eaton's catalog, said Anne Gaily.
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This is my day of days, you know.
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I'm so happy.
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I want everyone else to be happy, too, I'm sure.
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I hope your happiness will last, child, sighed Mrs.
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Rachel.
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She did hope it, truly, and believed it, but she was afraid it was in the nature of a challenge to Providence to flaunt your happiness too openly.
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Anne, for her own good, must be toned down a trifle.
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But it was a happy and beautiful bride who came down the old homespun carpeted stairs that September noon.
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The first bride of Green Gables, slender and shining eyed in the midst of her maiden veil, with her arms full of roses.
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Gilbert, waiting for her in the hall below, looked up at her with adoring eyes.
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She was his at last.
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This evasive, long sought Anne won after years of patient waiting.
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It was to him she was coming in the sweet surrender of the bride.
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Was he worthy of her?
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Could he make her as happy as he had hoped if he failed her, if he could not measure up to her standard of manhood?
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Then, as she held out her hand, their eyes met and all doubt was swept away in a glad certainty.
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They belonged to each other, and no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that.
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Their happiness was in each other's keeping, and both were unafraid.
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They were married in the sunshine of the old orchard, circled by the loving and kindly faces of long familiar friends.
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Mr.
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Allen married them, and the Reverend Joe made what Mrs.
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Rachel Lind afterwards pronounced to be the most beautiful wedding prayer she had ever heard.
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Birds do not often sing in September, but one sang sweetly from some hidden bow, while Gilbert and Anne repeated their deathless vows.
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Anne heard it and thrilled to it.
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Gilbert heard it and wondered only that all the birds in the world had not burst into jubilant song.
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Paul heard it and later wrote a lyric about it, which was one of the most admired in his first volume of verse.
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Charlotte IV heard it and was blissfully short.
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It meant good luck for her adored Miss Shirley.
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The bird sang until the ceremony was ended, and then it wound up with one mad little glad, little trill.
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Never had the old grey green house among its unfolding orchards known a blither merrier afternoon, and all the old jests and quips that must have done duty at wedding since Eden were served up and seemed as new and brilliant and mirth provoking as if they had never been uttered before.
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Laughter and joy had their way, and when Ann and Gilbert left to catch the carmody train with Paula's driver, the twins were ready with rice and old shoes in the throwing of which Charlotte IV and Mr.
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Harrison bore a valiant part.
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Merla stood at the gate and watched the carriage out of sight down the long lane with its banks of goldenrod.
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Anne turned at its end to wave her last goodbye.
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She was gone.
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Green Gables was her home no more.
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Marilla's face looked very gray and old as she turned to the house which Anne had filled for 14 years, and even in her absence, with light and life.
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But Diana and her small fry, the Echo Lodge people and the Allens had stayed to help the two old ladies over the loneliness of the first evening, and they contrived to have a quietly pleasant little supper time, sitting long around the table and chatting over all the details of the day.
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While they were sitting there, Anne and Gilbert were alighting from the train at Glen St.
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Mary.
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Thank you for joining Bite at a Time Books today while we read a bite of one of your favorite classics.
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Again, my name is Brie Carlyle, and I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite of Anne's house of Dreams.
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You can check out the show notes or our website, biteedimebookscom, for the rest of the links for our show.
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And we can find take it chapter by chapter one by time.
