Rachel Lynde is Surprised (Anne of Green Gables (Full Cast))

01CHAPTER I.

02RACHEL LIND IS SURPRISED Mrs.

03Rachel LIND lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' ear-drops, and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place.

04It 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 Lynn's hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs.

05Rachel Lynn's door without due regard for decency and decorum.

06It probably was conscious that Mrs.

07Rachel 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.

08There 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.

09Rachel Lynn was one of those capable creatures who can manage their own concerns and those of other folks into the bargain.

10She 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.

11Yet with all this Mrs.

12Rachel 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 odd voices, and keeping a sharp eye on the main road that crossed the hollow and wound up the steep red hill beyond.

13Since Avonlea occupied a little triangular peninsula jutting out into the Gulf of St.

14Lawrence 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.

15Rachel's all-seeing eye.

16She was sitting there one afternoon in early June.

17The 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.

18Thomas 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.

19Mrs.

20Rachel knew that he ought because she had heard him tell Peter Morrison, the evening before in William J.

21Blair's store over at Carmody, that he meant to sow his turnip seed the next afternoon.

22Peter had asked him, of course, for Matthew Cuthbert had never been known to volunteer information about anything in his whole life.

23And 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.

24Moreover, he wore a white collar and his best suit of clothes, which was plain proof that he was going out of Avonlea.

25And he had the buggy and the sorrel mare, which betokened that he was going a considerable distance.

26Now where was Matthew Cuthbert going, and why was he going there?

27Had it been any other man in Avonlea, Mrs.

28Rachel, deftly putting this and that together, might have given a pretty good guess as to both questions.

29But Matthew so rarely went from home that it must be something pressing and unusual which was taking him.

30He was the shyest man alive, and hated to have to go among strangers or to any place where he might have to talk.

31Matthew, dressed up with a white collar and driving in a buggy, was something that didn't happen often.

32Mrs.

33Rachel, ponder as she might, could make nothing of it, and her afternoon's enjoyment was spoiled.

34Mrs.

35Rachel, ponder as she might have been a little bit.

36I'll just step over to Green Gables after tea and find out from Marilla where he's gone and why.

37The worthy woman finally concluded.

38Mrs.

39Rachel, ponder as she might have been a little bit.

40He doesn't generally go to town this time of year, and he never visits.

41If he'd run out of turnip seed, he wouldn't dress up and take the buggy to go for more.

42He wasn't driving fast enough to be going for a doctor.

43Yet something must have happened since last night to start him off.

44I'm clean puzzled, that's what, and I won't know a minute's peace of mind or conscience, until I know what has taken Matthew Cuthbert out of Avonlea to-day.

45Accordingly after tea Mrs.

46Rachel set out.

47She had not far to go.

48The big, rambling, orchard-embowered house where the Cuthberts lived was a scant quarter of a mile up the road from Lynn's Hollow.

49To be sure, the long lane made it a good deal further.

50Matthew Cuthbert's father, as shy and silent as his son after him, had got as far away as he possibly could from his fellow-men without actually retreating into the woods when he founded his homestead.

51Green Gables was built at the furthest edge of his cleared land, and there it was to this day, barely visible from the main road along which all the other Avonlea houses were so sociably situated.

52Mrs.

53Rachel Lynde did not call living in such a place living at all.

54It's just staying, that's what, she said as she stepped along the deep-rutted, grassy lane, bordered with wild rose-bushes.

55It's no wonder Matthew and Marilla are both a little odd, living away back here by themselves.

56Trees aren't much company, though dear knows if they were there'd be enough of them.

57I'd rather look at people.

58To be sure they seem contented enough, but then I suppose they're used to it.

59A body can get used to anything, even to being hanged, as the Irishman says.

60With this Mrs.

61Rachel stepped out of the lane into the back yard of Green Gables.

62Very green and neat and precise was that yard, set about on one side with great patriarchal willows and the other with prim lombardies.

63Not a stray stick nor stone was to be seen, for Mrs.

64Rachel would have seen it if there had been.

65Privately she was of the opinion that Marilla Cuthbert swept that yard over as often as she swept her house.

66One could have eaten a meal off the ground without overbrimming the proverbial pack of dirt.

67Mrs.

68Rachel rapped smartly at the kitchen door and stepped in when bidden to do so.

69The kitchen at Green Gables was a cheerful apartment, or would have been cheerful if it had not been so painfully clean as to give it something of the appearance of an unused parlor.

70Its windows looked east and west.

71Through the west one, looking out on the back yard, came a flood of mellow June sunlight.

72But the east one, whence you got a glimpse of the bloom-white cherry trees in the left orchard and nodding slender birches down in the hollow by the brook, was greened over by a tangle of vines.

73Here sat Marilla Cuthbert, when she sat at all, always slightly distrustful of sunshine, which seemed to her too dancing and irresponsible a thing for a world which was meant to be taken seriously.

74And here she sat now, knitting, and the table behind her was laid for supper.

75Mrs.

76Rachel, before she had fairly closed the door, had taken a mental note of everything that was on that table.

77There were three plates laid, so that Marilla must be expecting someone home with Matthew to tea.

78But the dishes were everyday dishes, and there was only crab-apple preserves and one kind of cake, so that the expected company could not be any particular company.

79Yet what of Matthew's white collar and the sorrel mare?

80Mrs.

81Rachel was getting fairly dizzy with this unusual mystery about quiet, unmysterious green gables.

82"'Good evening, Rachel,' Marilla said briskly.

83"'This is a real fine evening, isn't it?

84Won't you sit down?

85How are all your folks?' Something that for lack of any other name might be called friendship existed and always had existed between Marilla Cuthbert and Mrs.

86Rachel, in spite of, or perhaps because of, their dissimilarity.

87Marilla was a tall, thin woman, with angles and without curves.

88Her dark hair showed some grey streaks, and was always twisted up in a hard little knot behind, with two wire hairpins stuck aggressively through it.

89She looked like a woman of narrow experience and rigid conscience, which she was, but there was a saving something about her mouth which, if it had been ever so slightly developed, might have been considered indicative of a sense of humour.

90"'We're all pretty well,' said Mrs.

91Rachel.

92"'I was kind of afraid you weren't, though.

93When I saw Matthew starting off to-day I thought maybe he was going to the doctors.' Marilla's lips twitched understandingly.

94She had expected Mrs.

95Rachel up.

96She had known that the sight of Matthew jaunting off so unaccountably would be too much for her neighbour's curiosity.

97"'Oh, no, I'm quite well, although I had a bad headache yesterday,' she said.

98"'Matthew went to Bright River.

99We're getting a little boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia, and he's coming on the train to-night.' If Marilla had said that Matthew had gone to Bright River to meet a kangaroo from Australia, Mrs.

100Rachel could not have been more astonished.

101She was actually stricken dumb for five seconds.

102It was unsupposable that Marilla was making fun of her, but Mrs.

103Rachel was almost forced to suppose it.

104"'Are you an earnest, Marilla?' she demanded when voice returned to her.

105"'Yes, of course,' said Marilla, as if getting boys from orphan asylums in Nova Scotia were part of the usual spring work on any well-regulated Avonlea farm, instead of being an unheard-of innovation.

106Mrs.

107Rachel felt that she had received a severe mental jolt.

108She thought in exclamation points—a boy!

109Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of all people adopting a boy!

110From an orphan asylum!

111Well, the world was certainly turning upside down.

112She would be surprised at nothing after this—nothing!' "'What on earth put such a notion into your head?' she demanded disapprovingly.

113This had been done without her advice being asked, and must perforce be disapproved.

114"'Well, we've been thinking about it for some time—all winter, in fact,' returned Marilla.

115"'Mrs.

116Alexander Spencer was up here one day before Christmas, and she said she was going to get a little girl from the asylum over in Hopeton in the spring.

117Her cousin lives there, and Mrs.

118Spencer is visited here and knows all about it.

119So Matthew and I have talked it over, off, and on ever since.

120We thought we'd get a boy.

121Matthew is getting up in years, you know.

122He's sixty, and he isn't so spry as he once was.

123His heart troubles him in good deal.

124And you know how desperate hard it's got to be to get hired help.

125There's never anybody to be had but those stupid half-grown little French boys.

126And as soon as you do get one broke into your ways and taught something, he's up and off to the lobster canneries or the States.

127At first Matthew suggested getting a homeboy, but I said no flat to that.

128They may be all right—I'm not saying they're not—but no London Street Arabs for me,' I said.

129Give me a native-born at least.

130There'll be a risk, no matter who we get.

131But I'll feel easier in my mind and sleep sounder at nights if we get a born Canadian." So in the end we decided to ask Mrs.

132Spencer to pick us out one when she went over to get her little girl.

133We heard last week she was going, so we sent her word by Richard Spencer's folks at Carmody to bring us a smart, likely boy of about a ten or eleven.

134We decided that would be the best age—old enough to be of some use in doing chores right off and young enough to be trained up proper.

135We mean to give him a good home and schooling.

136We had a telegram from Mrs.

137Alexander Spencer to-day.

138The mailman brought it from the station, saying they were coming on the five-thirty train to-night.

139So Matthew went to Bright River to meet him.

140Mrs.

141Spencer will drop him off there.

142Of course she goes on to White Sands Station herself." Mrs.

143Rachel prided herself on always speaking her mind.

144She proceeded to speak it now, having adjusted her mental attitude to this amazing piece of news.

145"'Well, Marilla, I'll just tell you plain that I think you're doing a mighty foolish thing—a risky thing, that's what.

146You don't know what you're getting.

147You're bringing a strange child into your house and home, and you don't know a single thing about him, nor what his disposition is like, nor what sort of parents he had, nor how he's likely to turn out.' "'Why, it was only last week I read in the paper how a man and his wife up west of the island took a boy out of an orphan asylum, and he set fire to the house at night—said it on purpose, Marilla, and nearly burnt them to a crisp in their beds.

148And I know another case where an adopted boy used to suck the eggs.

149They couldn't break him of it.' "'If you had asked my advice on the matter—which you didn't do, Marilla—I'd have said for mercy's sake not to think of such a thing.

150That's what.' This job's comforting seemed neither to offend nor to alarm Marilla.

151She knitted steadily on.

152"'I don't deny there's something in what you say, Rachel.

153I've had some qualms myself.

154But Matthew was terrible set on it.

155I could see that, so I gave in.

156It's so seldom Matthew sets his mind on anything that when he does I always feel it's my duty to give in.

157And ask for the risk.

158There's risks in pretty near everything a body does in this world.

159There's risks in people's having children of their own, if it comes to that.

160They don't always turn out well.

161And then Nova Scotia is right close to the island.

162It isn't as if we were getting him from England or the States.

163He can't be much different from ourselves.' "'Well, I hope it will turn out all right,' said Mrs.

164Rachel, in a tone that plainly indicated her painful doubts.

165"'Only don't say I didn't warn you if he burns green gables down or puts strychnine in the well.

166I heard of a case over in New Brunswick where an orphan asylum child did that, and the whole family died in fearful agonies.

167Only it was a girl in that instance.' "'Well were not getting a girl,' said Marilla, as if poisoning wells were a purely feminine accomplishment and not to be dreaded in the case of a boy.

168"'I'd never dream of taking a girl to bring up.

169I wonder at Mrs.

170Alexander Spencer for doing it.

171But there she wouldn't shrink from adopting a whole orphan asylum if she took it into her head.' "'Mrs.

172Rachel would have liked to stay until Matthew came home with his imported orphan.

173But reflecting that it would be a good two hours at least before his arrival, she concluded to go up the road to Robert Bell's and tell the news.

174It would certainly make a sensation second to none, and Mrs.

175Rachel dearly loved to make a sensation.

176So she took herself away, somewhat to Marilla's relief, for the latter felt her doubts and fears reviving under the influence of Mrs.

177Rachel's pessimism.

178"'Well, of all things that ever were or will be,' ejaculated Mrs.

179Rachel when she was safely out in the lane.

180"'It does really seem as if I must be dreaming.

181Well, I'm sorry for that poor young one, and no mistake.

182Matthew and Marilla don't know anything about children, and they'll expect him to be wiser and steadier than his own grandfather.

183If so be's he ever had a grandfather, which is doubtful.

184It seems uncanny to think of a child at Green Cable somehow.

185There's never been one there.

186For Matthew and Marilla were grown up when the new house was built.

187If they ever were children, which is hard to believe when one looks at them.

188I wouldn't be in that orphan's shoes for anything.

189My, but I pity him.

190That's what.' So said Mrs.

191Rachel to the wild rose-bushes out of the fullness of her heart.

192But if she could have seen the child who was waiting patiently at the Bright River Station at that very moment, her pity would have been still deeper and more profound.

193End of Chapter 1 End of Chapter 1 End of Chapter 1 End of Chapter 1 End of Chapter 1 End of Chapter 1 End of Chapter 1 End of Chapter 1 End of Chapter 1 End of Chapter 1