Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the twenty-sixth chapter of Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

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Take a look in the book and let's see what we can find.

Take it chapter by chapter.

One bite adventures and mountains we can't climb.

Take it worth a word.

Line but line we fight at a time.

Welcome to Bite at a Time Books, where we read 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.

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Today we'll be continuing anne of Aven Lee by Lucy Maud Montgomery, 26 around the bend, Thomas Lind 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, and 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 said once, 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 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.

And Thomas Lynde is gone.

Their hired boy just brought the word.

I'm going right down to Rachel.

On the day after Thomas Lynn'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?

Asked the latter.

She is 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 offense.

But she's very lonely.

Eliza had to go home today.

Her son isn't well, and she felt she couldn't stay any longer.

When I finished these exercises, I'll run down and chat a while with Mrs.

Lynde, said Anne.

I had intended to study some Latin composition tonight, but it can wait.

I suppose Gilbert Blive is going to college in the fall, said Marilla jerkly.

Would you like to go to Anne Ann?

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 that you should go.

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 that I stayed home.

I've been so happy.

All these past two years have been just delightful.

Oh, 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 year at Redmond.

And the money the stock brought 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 meant to discuss with you.

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.

And then, of course, Thomas's illness has cost a good deal.

One way or another, the farm will have to be sold and Rachel thinks there will be hardly anything left after 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 Avon Lee.

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 that I would ask her to come and live with me.

But I thought I ought to talk it over with you first before I said anything to her.

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 know exactly what to do with it, said Anne, dazedly.

But as for asking Mrs.

Lynd to come here, that is for you to decide.

Marilla.

Do you think are you sure you would like it?

Mrs.

Linda is a good woman and a kind neighbor, but she's got her fault.

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 Aven Lee.

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 neighbors for 45 years, and we've never had a quarrel, though we came rather near at that time.

You flew at Mrs.

Rachel for calling you homely and redhaired.

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 while 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 that Rachel and I wouldn't clash at all.

It always seemed to me that the reason two women can't get along in one house is that 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 houseroom?

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 Marilla, 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 100 rainbow hopes and visions.

But Anne realized as well that when she rounded that curve she must leave many sweet things behind, all the little simple 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 had 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.

And sent in her resignation the next day.

And Mrs.

Rachel, after a HeartToHeart 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 Miss Rachel to herself.

But really, Green Gables doesn't seem as out of the world as it used to do.

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 aven Lee.

These two decisions being noised, broad 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 opined that they wouldn't get on together.

They were both too fond of their own way, 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 meant to abide by them.

I won't meddle with you, nor you with me, Mrs.

Rachel had 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 Davey'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 Davies 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 was how I was brought up, and I don't know but what.

It was just as good away as all these newfangled notions for training children.

Well, Anne's methods seem to have worked fairly well with Davy, said Mrs.

Lynn, smilingly.

He is 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 around you somehow.

And Dora is a lovely child, although she is kind of monotonous.

Exactly, supplied Mrs.

Rachel.

Like a book where every page is the same, that's what 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.

Gilbert Blithe was probably the only person to whom the news of Anne's resignation brought unmixed pleasure.

Her pupils looked upon it as a sheer catastrophe.

Annetta Bell had hysterics when she went home.

Anthony Pi fought two pitched and unprovoked battles with other boys by way of relieving his feelings.

Barbara Shaw cried all night.

Paul Irving defiantly told his grandmother that she needed to expect him to eat any porridge for a week.

I can't do it, Grandma, he said.

I don't really know if I can eat anything.

I feel as if there was a dreadful lump in my throat.

I'd have cried coming home from school if Jake Donnell hadn't been watching me.

I believe I will cry after I go to bed.

It wouldn't show on my eyes tomorrow, would it?

And it would be such a relief.

But anyway, I can't eat porridge.

I'm going to need all my strength of mind to bear up against this, Grandma, and I won't have any left to grapple with porridge.

Oh, Grandma, I don't know what I'll do when my beautiful teacher goes away.

Multi bolters as he bets.

Jane Andrews will get the school, I suppose.

Ms.

Andrews is very nice, but I know she won't understand things like Ms.

Shirley.

Diana also took a very pessimistic view of affairs.

It will be horribly lonesome here next winter, she mourned one twilight when the moonlight was raining airy, silver threw the cherry boughs and filling the East Gable with a soft dreamlike radiance in which the two girls sat and talked.

And then on her little rocker by the window, diana sitting Turk fashion on the bed.

You and Gilbert will be gone, and Allen's, too.

They're going to call Mr.

Allen to Charlotte Town and of course he'll accept it's too mean.

We'll be vacant all winter, I suppose, and have to listen to a long string of candidates, and half of them won't be any good.

I hope they won't call Mr.

Baxter from East Crafton here.

Anyhow, said Anne.

Decidedly he wants the call, but he does preach such gloomy sermons.

Mr.

Bell says he's a minister of the old school, but Mrs.

Lynn says there's nothing whatever the matter with him but indigestion.

His wife isn't a very good cook, it seems.

And Mrs.

Lynn says that when a man has to eat sour bread two weeks out of three, his theology is bound to get a kink in it somewhere.

Mrs.

Allen feels very badly about going away.

She says everybody's been so kind to her since she came here as a bride that she feels as if she were leaving lifelong friends.

And then there's the baby's grave, you know.

She says she doesn't see how she can go away and leave, that it was such a little might of a thing and only three months old.

And she says she's afraid it will miss its mother, although she knows better and wouldn't say so to Mr.

Allen for anything.

She says she has slipped through the birch grove back of the mance nearly every night to the graveyard and sung a little lullaby to it.

She told me all about it last evening when I was up putting some of those early wild roses on Matthew's grave.

I promised her that as long as I was in Avonlea, I would put flowers on the baby's grave.

And when I was away, I felt sure that I would do it.

Supplied Diana heartily.

Of course I will.

And I'll put them on Matthew's grave, too, for your sake, Anne.

Oh, thank you.

I meant to ask you, too, if you would, and on little Hester graves, too.

Please don't forget hers.

Do you know, I've thought and dreamed so much about little Hester Gray that she's become strangely real to me.

I think of her back there in her little garden in that cool stillgreen corner.

And I have a fancy that if I could steal back there some spring evening.

Just at the magic time.

Twixed light and dark and tiptoe so softly up the beach hill that my footsteps could not frighten her.

I would find the garden just as it used to be.

All sweet with june lilies and early roses.

With a tiny house beyond it all hung with vines.

And little Hester Gray would be there with her soft eyes and the wind ruffling her dark hair, wandering about, putting her fingertips under the chins of the lilies and whispering secrets with the roses.

And I would go forward, oh, so softly, and hold out my hands and say to her, little Hester Gray, won't you let me be your playmate?

For I love the roses, too.

And we would sit down on the old bench and talk a little and dream a little, or just be beautifully silent together.

And then the moon would rise, and I would look around me, and there would be no Hester gray and no little vine hung house and no roses, only an old waste garden starred with june lilies amid the grasses and the wind sighing oh so sorrowfully in the cherry trees.

And I would not know whether it had been real or if I had just imagined it all.

Diana crawled up and got her back against the headboard of the bed.

When your companion of twilight hours had such spooky things, it was just as well not to be able to fancy there was anything behind you.

I'm afraid the improvement society will go down when you and Gilbert are both gone, she remarked.

Dolefully not a bit of fear of it, said Anne briskly, coming back from dreamland to the affairs of practical life.

It is too firmly established for that, especially since the older people are becoming so enthusiastic about it.

Look what they're doing this summer for their lawns and lanes.

Besides, I'll be watching for hints at redmond, and I'll write a paper for it next winter and send it over.

Don't take such a gloomy view of things, Diana, and don't grudge me my little hour of gladness and jubilation now, later on, when I have to go away, I'll feel anything but glad.

It's all right for you to be glad.

You're going to college, and you'll have a jolly time and make heaps of lovely new friends.

I hope I shall make new friends, said Anne thoughtfully.

The possibilities of making new friends help to make life very fascinating.

But no matter how many friends I make, they'll never be as dear to me as the old ones, especially a certain girl with black eyes and dimples.

Can you guess who she is, Diana.

But there will be so many clever girls at Redmond, sighed Diana.

And I'm only a stupid little country girl who says I see him sometimes, though I really know better when I stop to think.

Well, of course, these past two years have really been too pleasant to last.

I know somebody who is glad you're going to Redmond anyhow.

And I'm going to ask you a question, a serious question.

Don't be vexed and do answer seriously.

Do you care anything for Gilbert?

Ever so much as a friend, and not a bit in the way you mean, said Anne calmly and decidedly.

She also thought she was speaking sincerely.

Diana sighed.

She wished somehow that Anne had answered differently.

Don't you mean ever to marry Anne?

Perhaps some day when I meet the right one, said Anne, smiling dreamily up at the moonlight.

But how can you be sure when you do meet the right one?

Persisted Diana.

Oh, I should know him.

Something would tell me.

You know what my ideal is, Diana.

But people's ideals change sometimes mine won't.

And I couldn't care for any man who didn't fulfill it.

What if you never meet him?

Then I shall die an old maid, was the cheerful response.

I dare say.

It isn't the hardest death by any means.

Oh, I suppose the dying would be easy enough.

It's the living.

An old maid I shouldn't like, said Diana, with no intention of being humorous.

Although I wouldn't mind being an old maid very much if I could be one like Miss Lavender.

But I never could be.

When I'm 45, I'll be horribly fat.

And while there might be some romance about a thin old maid, there couldn't possibly be any about a fat one.

Oh, mind you, nelson Atkins proposed a Ruby Gillis three weeks ago.

Ruby told me all about it.

She says she never had any intention of taking him because anyone who married him will have to go in with the old folks.

But Ruby says that he made such a perfectly beautiful and romantic proposal that it simply swept her off her feet.

But she didn't want to do anything rash, so she asked for a week to consider, and two days later she was at a meeting of the sewing circle at his mother's, and there was a book called The Complete Guide to Etiquette.

Lying on the parlor table, ruby said she simply couldn't describe her feelings when in a section of it headed The Deportment of Courtship and Marriage, she found the very proposal Nelson had made.

Word for word, she went home and wrote him a perfectly scathing refusal.

And she says his father and mother have taken turns watching him ever since for fear he'll drown himself in the river.

But Ruby says they needn't be afraid, for in The Deportment of Courtship and Marriage, it told how a rejected lover should behave.

And there's nothing about drowning in that and she says Wilbur Blair is literally pining away for her.

But she's perfectly helpless in the matter and made an impatient movement.

I hate to say it, it seems so disloyal, but well, I don't like Ruby Gillis.

Now.

I liked her when we went to school in Queens together, though not so well as you and Jane, of course.

But this last year at Carmody, she seems so different.

So I know nodded.

Diana.

It's the Gillis coming out in her.

She can't help it.

Mrs.

Lynn says that if ever a Gillis girl thought about anything but the boys, she never showed it.

In her walk in conversation, she talks about nothing but boys and what compliments they pay her and how crazy they all are about her at Carmody.

And the strange thing is, they are, too.

Diana admitted this somewhat resentfully.

Last night when I saw her in Mr.

Blair's store, she whispered to me that she just made a new mash.

I wouldn't ask her who it was because I knew she was dying to be asked.

Well, it was what Ruby always wanted.

I suppose you remember, even when she was little, she always said she meant to have dozens of bows when she grew up and have the very gayest time she could before she settled down.

She's so different from Jane, isn't she?

Jane is such a nice, sensible ladylike girl.

Dear old Jane is a jewel, agreed Anne.

But, she added, leaning forward to bestow a tender pat on the plump, dimpled little hand hanging over her pillow, there's nobody like my own Diana, after all.

Do you remember that evening we first met, Diana, and swore eternal friendship in your garden?

We've kept that oath, I think.

We've never had a quarrel, nor even a coolness.

I shall never forget the thrill that went over me the day you told me you loved me.

I had had such a lonely, starved heart all through my childhood.

I'm just beginning to realize how starved and lonely it really was.

Nobody cared anything for me or wanted to be bothered with me.

I should have been miserable if it hadn't been for that strange little dream life of mine wherein I imagined all the friends and love I craved.

But when I came to Green Gables, everything was changed.

And then I met you.

You don't know what your friendship meant to me.

I want to thank you here and now, dear, for the warm and true affection you've always given me and always, always will, sobbed Diana.

I shall never love anybody, any girl, half as well as I love you.

And if I ever do marry and have a little girl of my own, I'm going to name her Anne.

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