Matthew Cuthbert Is Surprised (Anne of Green Gables)

01CHAPTER II.

02MATTHEW CUTHBERT IS SURPRISED.

03MATTHEW CUTHBERT and the sorrel mare jogged comfortably over the eight miles to Bright River.

04It was a pretty road, running along between snug farmsteads, with now and again a bit of balsamy fir-wood to drive through, or a hollow where wild plums hung out their filmy bloom.

05The air was sweet with the breath of many apple-orchards, and the meadows sloped away in the distance to horizon mists of pearl and purple, while the little birds sang as if it were the one day of summer in all the year.

06Matthew enjoyed the drive after his own fashion, except during the moments when he met women and had to nod to them—for in Prince Edward Island you are supposed to nod to all and sundry you meet on the road, whether you know them or not.

07Matthew dreaded all women except Marilla and Mrs.

08Rachel.

09He had an uncomfortable feeling that the mysterious creatures were secretly laughing at him.

10He may have been quite right in thinking so, for he was an odd-looking personage, with an ungainly figure, and long iron-grey hair that touched his stooping shoulders, and a full, soft brown beard which he had worn ever since he was twenty.

11In fact, he had looked at twenty very much as he looked at sixty, lacking a little of the greyness.

12When he reached Bright River there was no sign of any train.

13He thought he was too early, so he tied his horse in the yard of the small Bright River hotel, and went over to the station-house.

14The long platform was almost deserted, the only living creature in sight being a girl who was sitting on a pile of shingles at the extreme end.

15Matthew, barely noticing that it was a girl, sidled past her as quickly as possible without looking at her.

16Had he looked, he could hardly have failed to notice the tense rigidity and expectation of her attitude and expression.

17She was sitting there waiting for something or somebody, and, since sitting and waiting was the only thing to do just then, she sat and waited with all her might and main.

18Matthew encountered the station-master locking up the ticket-office preparatory to going home for supper, and asked him if the 5.30 train would soon be along.

19"'The 5.30 train has been in and gone half an hour ago,' answered that brisk official.

20"'But there was a passenger dropped off for you—a little girl.

21She's sitting out there on the shingles.

22I asked her to go into the ladies' waiting-room, but she informed me gravely that she preferred to stay outside.

23There was more scope for the imagination,' she said.

24"'She's a case, I should say.' "'I'm not expecting a girl,' said Matthew, blankly.

25"'It's a boy I've come for.

26He should be here.

27Mrs.

28Alexander Spencer was to bring him over from Nova Scotia for me.' The station-master whistled.

29"'Guess there's some mistake,' he said.

30"'Mrs.

31Spencer came off the train with that girl and gave her into my charge.

32Said you and your sister were adopting her from an orphan asylum and that you would be along for her presently.

33That's all I know about it, and I haven't got any more orphans concealed hereabouts.' "'I don't understand,' said Matthew helplessly, wishing that Marilla was at hand to cope with the situation.

34"'Well, you'd better question the girl,' said the station-master carelessly.

35"'I daresay she'll be able to explain.

36She's got a tongue of her own, that's certain.

37Maybe they were out of boys of the brand you wanted.' He walked jauntily away, being hungry, and the unfortunate Matthew was left to do that which was harder for him than bearding a lion in its den.

38Walk up to a girl—a strange girl, an orphan girl—and demand of her why she wasn't a boy.

39"'Matthew groaned in spirit as he turned about and shuffled gently down the platform towards her.

40She had been watching him ever since he had passed her, and she had her eyes on him now.

41Matthew was not looking at her, and he would not have seen what she was really like if he had been, but an ordinary observer would have seen this.

42A child of about eleven, garbed in a very short, very tight, very ugly dress of yellowish-grey wincy, she wore a faded brown sailor hat, and beneath the hat, extending down her back, were two braids of very thick, decidedly red hair.

43Her face was small, white, and thin, also much freckled.

44Her mouth was large, and so were her eyes, which looked green in some lights and moods, and grey in others.

45So far the ordinary observer.

46An extraordinary observer might have seen that the chin was very pointed and pronounced, that the big eyes were full of spirit and vivacity, that the mouth was sweet-lipped and expressive, that the forehead was broad and full.

47In short, our discerning, extraordinary observer, might have concluded that no commonplace soul inhabited the body of this stray woman-child of whom shy Matthew Cuthbert was so ludicrously afraid.

48Matthew, however, was spared the ordeal of speaking first, for as soon as she concluded that he was coming to her, she stood up, grasping with one thin, brown hand the handle of a shabby, old-fashioned carpet-bag, the other she held out to him.

49"'I suppose you are Mr.

50Matthew Cuthbert of Green Gables,' she said in a peculiarly clear, sweet voice, "'I am very glad to see you.

51I was beginning to be afraid you weren't coming for me, and I was imagining all the things that might have happened to prevent you.

52I had made up my mind that if you didn't come for me to-night I'd go down the track to that big wild cherry tree at the bend and climb up into it and stay all night.

53I wouldn't be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to sleep in a wild cherry tree all white with bloom in the moonshine, don't you think?

54You could imagine you were dwelling in marble halls, couldn't you?

55And I was quite sure you would come for me in the morning if you didn't to-night.' Matthew had taken the scrawny little hand awkwardly in his.

56Then and there he decided what to do.

57He could not tell this child with the glowing eyes that there had been a mistake.

58He would take her home and let Marilla do that.

59She couldn't be left at Bright River anyhow, no matter what mistake had been made, so all questions and explanations might as well be deferred until he was safely back at Green Gables.

60"'I'm sorry I was late,' he said shyly.

61"'Come along.

62The horse is over in the yard.

63Give me your bag.' "'Oh, I can carry it,' the child responded cheerfully.

64"'It isn't heavy.

65I've got all my worldly goods in it, but it isn't heavy.

66And if it isn't carried in just a certain way the handle pulls out, so I'd better keep it because I know the exact knack of it.

67It's an extremely old carpet-bag.' "'Oh, I'm very glad you've come, even if it would have been nice to sleep in a wild cherry tree.

68We've got to drive a long piece, haven't we?

69Mrs.

70Spencer said it was eight miles.

71I'm glad, because I love driving.

72Oh, it seems so wonderful that I'm going to live with you and belong to you.

73I've never belonged to anybody.

74Not really.

75But the asylum was the worst.

76I've only been in it four months, but that was enough.

77I don't suppose you ever were an orphan in an asylum, so you can't possibly understand what it is like.

78It's worse than anything you can imagine.

79Mrs.

80Spencer said it was wicked of me to talk like that, but I didn't mean to be wicked.

81It's so easy to be wicked without knowing, isn't it?

82They were good—you know, the asylum people.

83But there is so little scope for the imagination in an asylum.

84Only just in the other orphans.

85It was pretty interesting to imagine things about them, to imagine that perhaps the girl who sat next to you was really the daughter of a belted earl who had been stolen away from her parents in her infancy by a cruel nurse who died before she could confess.

86I used to lie awake at night and imagine things like that, because I didn't have time in the day.

87I guess that's why I'm so thin.

88I am dreadful thin, ain't I?

89There isn't a pig on my bones.

90I do love to imagine I'm nice and plump, with dimples in my elbows." With this Matthew's companion stopped talking—partly because she was out of breath, and partly because they had reached the buggy.

91Not another word did she say until they had left the village and were driving down a steep little hill, the road part of which had been cut so deeply into the soft soil that the banks, fringed with blooming wild cherry trees and slim white birches, were several feet above their heads.

92The child put out her hand and broke off a branch of wild plum that brushed against the side of the buggy.

93Isn't that beautiful?" What did that tree, leaning out from the bank, all white and lacy, make you think of?

94she asked.

95Well, now, I don't know, said Matthew.

96Why, a bride, of course—a bride all in white, with a lovely misty veil.

97I've never seen one, but I can imagine what she would look like.

98I don't ever expect to be a bride myself.

99I'm so homely nobody will ever want to marry me—unless it might be a foreign missionary.

100I suppose a foreign missionary mightn't be very particular—but I do hope that some day I shall have a white dress.

101That is my highest ideal of earthly bliss.

102I just love pretty clothes.

103And I've never had a pretty dress in my life that I can remember.

104But of course, it's all the more to look forward to, isn't it?

105And then I can imagine that I'm dressed gorgeously.

106This morning when I left the asylum I felt so ashamed because I had to wear this horrid old wincy dress.

107All the orphans had to wear them, you know.

108A merchant in Hopeson last winter donated three hundred yards of wincy to the asylum.

109Some people said it was because he couldn't sell it, but I'd rather believe that it was out of the kindness of his heart, wouldn't you?

110When we got on the train I felt as if everybody must be looking at me and pitying me.

111But I just went to work and imagined that I had on the most beautiful pale blue silk dress, because when you are imagining you might as well imagine something worth while.

112And a big hat all flowers and nodding plumes, and a gold watch and kid gloves and boots.

113I felt cheered up right away, and I enjoyed my trip to the island with all my might.

114I wasn't a bit sick coming over in the boat.

115Neither was Mrs.

116Spencer, although she generally is.

117She said she hadn't time to get sick, watching to see that I didn't fall overboard.

118She said she never saw the beat of me for prowling about.

119But if it kept her from being sea-sick, it's a mercy I did prowl, isn't it?

120And I wanted to see everything that was to be seen on that boat, because I didn't know whether I'd ever have another opportunity.

121Oh!

122There are a lot more cherry trees all in bloom.

123This island is the bloomiest place.

124I just love it already, and I'm so glad I'm going to live here.

125I've always heard that Prince Edward Island was the prettiest place in the world, and I used to imagine I was living here.

126But I never really expected I would.

127It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?

128But those red roads are so funny.

129When we got into the train at Charlottetown and the red roads began to flash past, I asked Mrs.

130Spencer what made them red, and she said she didn't know, and for pity's sake not to ask her any more questions.

131She said I must have asked her a thousand already.

132I suppose I had, too, but how are you going to find out about things if you don't ask questions?

133And what does make the roads red?" Well, now?

134I don't know," said Matthew.

135Well, that is one of the things to find out sometime.

136Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about?

137It just makes me feel glad to be alive.

138It's such an interesting world.

139It wouldn't be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it?

140There'd be no scope for the imagination, then, would there?

141But am I talking too much?

142People are always telling me I do.

143Would you rather I didn't talk?

144If you say so, I'll stop.

145I can stop when I make up my mind to it, although it's difficult." Matthew, much to his own surprise, was enjoying himself.

146Like most quiet folks, he liked talkative people when they were willing to do the talking themselves and did not expect him to keep up his end of it.

147But he had never expected to enjoy the society of a little girl.

148Women were bad enough in all conscience, but little girls were worse.

149He detested the way they had of sidling past him timidly with sidewise glances, as if they expected him to gobble them up at a mouthful if they ventured to say a word.

150That was the Avonlea type of well-bred little girl.

151But this freckled wish was very different, and although he found it rather difficult for his slower intelligence to keep up with her brisk mental processes, he thought that he kind of liked her chatter.

152So he said, as shyly as usual, Oh, you can talk as much as you like.

153I don't mind.

154Oh, I'm so glad.

155I know you and I are going to get along together fine.

156It's such a relief to talk when one wants to and not be told that children should be seen and not heard.

157I've had that said to me a million times if I have once.

158And people laugh at me because I use big words.

159But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?" Well, now, that seems reasonable," said Matthew.

160Mrs.

161Spencer said that my tongue must be hung in the middle.

162But it isn't.

163It's firmly fastened at one end.

164Mrs.

165Spencer said your place was named Green Gables.

166I asked her all about it.

167And she said there were trees all around it.

168I was gladder than ever.

169I just love trees.

170And there weren't any at all about the asylum, only a few poor weeny-teeny things out in front with little white-washed cagey things about them.

171They just looked like orphans themselves, those trees did.

172It used to make me want to cry to look at them.

173I used to say to them, "'Oh, you poor little things!

174If you were out in the great big woods with other trees all around you and little mosses and june-bells growing over your roots and a brook not far away and birds singing in your branches, you could grow, couldn't you?' But you can't where you are.

175I know just exactly how you feel, little trees.

176I felt sorry to leave them behind this morning.

177You do get so attached to things like that, don't you?

178Is there a brook anywhere near Green Gables?

179I forgot to ask Mrs.

180Spencer that." "'Well, now?' "'Yes.

181There's one right below the house.' "'Fancy!

182It's always been one of my dreams to live near a brook.

183I never expected I would, though.

184Dreams don't often come true, do they?' "'Wouldn't it be nice if they did?

185But just now I feel pretty nearly perfectly happy.

186I can't feel exactly perfectly happy because—well, what colour would you call this?' She twitched one of her long glossy braids over her thin shoulder and held it up before Matthew's eyes.

187Matthew was not used to deciding on the tints of ladies' tresses, but in this case there couldn't be much doubt.

188"'It's red, ain't it?' he said.

189The girl let the braid drop back with a sigh that seemed to come from her very toes and to exhale forth all the sorrows of the ages.

190"'Yes, it's red,' she said resignedly.

191Now you see why I can't be perfectly happy.

192Nobody could who has red hair.

193I don't mind the other things so much—the freckles and the green eyes and my skinniness.

194I can imagine them away.

195I can imagine I have a beautiful rose-leaf complexion and lovely starry violet eyes.

196But I cannot imagine that red hair away.

197I do my best.

198I think to myself, now my hair is a glorious black, black as the raven's wing.

199But all the time I know it is just plain red and it breaks my heart.

200It will be my life-long sorrow.

201I read of a girl once in a novel who had a life-long sorrow, but it wasn't red hair.

202Her hair was pure gold rippling back from her alabaster brow.

203What is an alabaster brow?

204I never could find out.

205Can you tell me?" "'Well, now?

206I'm afraid I can't,' said Matthew, who was getting a little dizzy.

207He felt as he had once felt in his rash youth when another boy had enticed him on the merry-go-round at a picnic.

208"'Well, whatever it was, it must have been something nice, because she was divinely beautiful.' "'Have you ever imagined what it must feel like to be divinely beautiful?' "'Well, now?

209No, I haven't,' confessed Matthew ingenuously.

210"'I have.

211Often.

212Which would you rather be if you had the choice?

213Divinely beautiful, or dazzlingly clever, or angelically good?' "'Well, now?

214I—I don't know exactly.' "'Neither do I.

215I can never decide.

216But it doesn't make much real difference, for it isn't likely I'll ever be either.

217It's certain I'll never be angelically good.

218Mrs.

219Spencer says, "'Oh, Mr.

220Cuthbert!

221Oh, Mr.

222Cuthbert!

223Oh, Mr.

224Cuthbert!' That was not what Mrs.

225Spencer had said.

226Neither had the child tumbled out of the buggy, nor had Matthew done anything astonishing.

227They had simply rounded a curve in the road, and found themselves in the avenue.

228The avenue, so called by the Newbridge people, was a stretch of road four or five hundred yards long, completely arched over with huge, wide-spreading apple trees, planted years ago by an eccentric old farmer.

229Overhead was one long canopy of snowy, fragrant bloom.

230Below the boughs the air was full of a purple twilight, and far ahead a glimpse of painted sunset sky shone like a great rose window at the end of a cathedral aisle.

231Its beauty seemed to strike the child dumb.

232She leaned back in the buggy, her thin hands clasped before her, her face lifted rapturously to the white splendor above.

233Even when they had passed out, and were driving down the long-slope to Newbridge, she never moved or spoke.

234Still, with rapt face, she gazed afar into the sunset west, with eyes that saw visions trooping splendidly across that glowing background.

235Through Newbridge, a bustling little village where dogs barked at them and small boys hooted and curious faces peered from the windows, they drove, still in silence.

236When three more miles had dropped away behind them, the child had not spoken.

237She could keep silence, it was evident, as energetically as she could talk.

238"'I guess you're feeling pretty tired and hungry,' Matthew ventured to say at last, accounting for her long visitation of dumbness with the only reason he could think of.

239But we haven't very far to go now.

240Only another mile.' She came out of her reverie with a deep sigh, and looked at him with the dreamy gaze of a soul that had been wandering afar, star-led.

241"'Oh, Mr.

242Cuthbert,' she whispered, "'that place we came through—that white place.

243What was it?' "'Well, now, you must mean the avenue,' said Matthew, after a few moments' profound reflection.

244"'It is a kind of pretty place.' "'Pretty?

245Oh, pretty doesn't seem the right word to use, nor beautiful either.

246They don't go far enough.

247Oh, it was wonderful, wonderful.

248It's the first thing I ever saw that couldn't be improved upon by imagination.

249It just satisfies me here.' She put one hand on her breast.

250It made a queer, funny ache, and yet it was a pleasant ache.

251Did you ever have an ache like that, Mr.

252Cuthbert?' "'Well, now, I just can't recollect that I ever had.' "'I have it lots of times, whenever I see anything royally beautiful.

253But they shouldn't call that lovely place the avenue.

254There's no meaning in a name like that.

255They should call it—let me see—the White Way of Delight.

256Isn't that a nice imaginative name?

257When I don't like the name of a place or a person, I always imagine a new one, and always think of them so.

258There was a girl at the asylum whose name was Hepzibah Jenkins, but I always imagined her as Rosalia de Vere.

259Other people may call that place the avenue, but I shall always call it the White Way of Delight.

260Have we really only another mile to go before we get home?

261I'm glad and I'm sorry.

262I'm sorry because this drive has been so pleasant, and I'm always sorry when pleasant things end.

263Still, something still pleasanter may come after.

264But you can never be sure.

265And it's so often the case that it isn't pleasanter.

266That has been my experience anyhow.

267But I'm glad to think of getting home.

268You see, I've never had a real home since I can remember.

269It gives me that pleasant ache again just to think of coming home to a really truly home.

270Oh, isn't that pretty!

271They had driven over the crest of a hill.

272Below them was a pond, looking almost like a river, so long and winding was it.

273A bridge spanned it midway, and from there to its lower end, where an amber-hued belt of sand-hills shut it in from the dark blue gulf beyond, the water was a glory of many shifting hues, the most spiritual shadings of crocus and rose and ethereal green, with other elusive tintings for which no name has ever been found.

274Above the bridge the pond ran up into fringing groves of fir and maple, and lay all darkly translucent in their wavering shadows.

275Here and there a wild plum leaned out from the bank like a white-clad girl tiptoeing to her own reflection.

276From the marsh at the head of the pond came the clear, mournfully sweet chorus of the frogs.

277There was a little gray house peering around a white apple orchard on a slope beyond, and, although it was not yet quite dark, a light was shining from one of its windows.

278"'That's Barry's Pond,' said Matthew.

279"'Oh, I don't like that name either.

280I shall call it—let me see—the Lake of Shining Waters.

281Yes, that is the right name for it.

282I know because of the thrill.

283When I hit on a name that suits exactly it gives me a thrill.

284Do things ever give you a thrill?' Matthew ruminated.

285"'Well, now?' "'Yes.

286It always kind of gives me a thrill to see them ugly white grubs that spade up in the cucumber beds.

287I hate the look of them.' "'Oh, I don't think that can be exactly the same kind of a thrill.

288Do you think it can?' There doesn't seem to be much connection between grubs and lakes of shining waters, does there?

289But why do other people call it Barry's Pond?' "'I reckon because Mr.

290Barry lives up there in that house.

291Orchard Slope's the name of his place.

292If it wasn't for that big bush behind it, you could see green gables from here.

293But we have to go over the bridge and round by the road, so it's near half a mile further.

294Has Mr.

295Barry any little girls?

296Well, not so very little either.

297About my size.

298He's got one about eleven.

299Her name is Diana.' "'Oh!' with a long in-drawing of breath.

300What a perfectly lovely name.

301Well, now, I don't know.

302There's something dreadful heathenish about it, it seems to me.

303I'd rather Jane or Mary or some sensible name like that.

304But when Diana was born, there was a schoolmaster boarding there, and they gave him the naming of her.

305And he called her Diana.

306I wish there had been a schoolmaster like that around when I was born then.

307Oh, here we are at the bridge.

308I'm going to shut my eyes tight.

309I'm always afraid going over bridges.

310I can't help imagining that perhaps just as we get to the middle they'll crumple up like a jackknife and nip us.

311So I shut my eyes.

312But I always have to open them for all when I think we're getting near the middle.

313Because, you see, if the bridge did crumple up, I'd want to see it crumple.

314What a jolly rumble it makes!

315I always like the rumble part of it.

316Isn't it splendid there are so many things to like in this world?

317There, we're over.

318Now I'll look back.

319Good night, dear lake of shining waters.

320I always say good night to the things I love, just as I would to people.

321I think they like it.

322That water looks as if it were smiling at me.

323When they had driven up the further hill and around a corner, Matthew said, We're pretty near home now.

324That's Green Gables over— Oh, don't tell me, she interrupted breathlessly, catching at his partially raised arm and shutting her eyes that she might not see his gesture.

325Let me guess.

326I'm sure I'll guess right.

327She opened her eyes and looked about her.

328They were on the crest of a hill.

329The sun had set some time since, but the landscape was still clear in the mellow afterlight.

330To the west a dark church spire rose up against a marigold sky.

331Below was a little valley, and beyond a long, gently rising slope with snug farmsteads scattered along it.

332From one to another the child's eyes darted, eager and wistful.

333At last they lingered on one away to the left, far back from the road, dimly white with blossoming trees in the twilight of the surrounding woods.

334Over it, in the stainless southwest sky, a great crystal-white star was shining like a lamp of guidance and promise.

335That's it, isn't it?

336She said, pointing.

337Matthew slapped the reins on the sorrel's back delightedly.

338Well, now, you guessed it.

339But I reckon Mrs.

340Spencer described it so as you could tell.

341No, she didn't.

342Really, she didn't.

343All she said might just as well have been about most of those other places.

344I hadn't any real idea what it looked like, but just as soon as I saw it I felt it was home.

345Oh, it seems as if I must be in a dream.

346Do you know?

347My arm must be black and blue from the elbow up, for I've pinched myself so many times to-day.

348Every little while a horrible, sickening feeling would come over me, and I'd be so afraid it was all a dream.

349Then I'd pinch myself to see if it was real.

350Until suddenly I remembered that even supposing it was only a dream, I'd better go on dreaming as long as I could.

351So I stopped pinching.

352But it is real, and we're nearly home.

353With a sigh of rapture she relapsed into silence.

354Matthew stirred uneasily.

355He felt glad that it would be Marilla, and not he, who would have to tell this waif of the world that the home she longed for was not to be hers after all.

356They drove over Lynn's Hollow, where it was already quite dark, but not so dark that Mrs.

357Rachel could not see them from her window vantage, and up the hill and into the long lane of green gables.

358By the time they arrived at the house Matthew was shrinking from the approaching revelation with an energy he did not understand.

359It was not of Marilla or himself he was thinking of the trouble this mistake was probably going to make for them, but of the child's disappointment.

360When he thought of that rapt light being quenched in her eyes, he had an uncomfortable feeling that he was going to assist at murdering something—much the same feeling that came over him when he had to kill a lamb or calf or any other innocent little creature.

361The yard was quite dark as they turned into it, and the poplar leaves were rustling silkily all around it.

362"'Listen to the trees talking in their sleep,' she whispered as he lifted her to the ground.

363"'What nice dreams they must have!' Then, holding tightly to the carpet-bag which contained all her worldly goods, she followed him into the house.

364End of chapter 2