Anne of Avonlea

Marilla inquires about Lavendar Lewis the next morning at breakfast, revealing that she knew her as a young woman and liked her very much. Anne doesn’t feel like Miss Lavendar has changed much since her younger days, especially regarding her attitude. Both women have to talk over Davy, who continually grumbles about not being fed enough to grow into a man. So many of their conversations now are “punctuated by these rebukes Davy-ward” (157). Davy, untroubled by their words, merely picks up his plate and drains the last of the syrup, much to Anne and Marilla’s horror.

Marilla ponders what happened between Miss Lavendar and Stephen Irving all those years ago, their long engagement suddenly broken off by one of the parties, and Anne believes it must have been something minor, as “the little things in life often make more trouble than the big things” (158). She asks Marilla not to say anything to Mrs. Rachel, who will try and ask too many questions, but Marilla says Rachel is too concerned now with her husband’s health to worry about gossip. Marilla sends Davy out to the hen house to feed the chickens and admonishes him for trying to pluck feathers out of the rooster’s tail like he did the day before. Anne feels sorry for Davy, who merely wanted some feathers for an Indian headdress like Milty Boulter has. She remembers the days of desiring a dress with puffed sleeves like all the other girls had.

Though Marilla accuses Anne of spoiling the boy, Anne points out that there has been such a “difference in him since he came here a year ago” (159), an improvement Marilla chalks up to his going to school and hanging out with other children. She wonders why they haven’t heard from Richard Keith, the children’s uncle, for months now. Two months later, a letter arrives from a friend of Mr. Keith’s saying that Richard died two weeks ago. He left $2,000 to Marilla in trust for the twins until they come of age. Anne is happy they get to keep the children, and Marilla is happy they now have the money to provide for them as they age.

One afternoon in December, Anne decides to walk down to Echo Lodge and visit Miss Lavendar. Since their initial meeting, Anne has visited the quaint little stone house many times, finding in Miss Lavendar the “fervent, helpful friendship [of] a real kindred spirit” (161). The two women—one truly young, one young at heart—often get into their own version of mischief at the stone cottage. But today, the harsh dullness of winter and the promise of coming snow dampen Anne’s journey. Nevertheless, she still finds a way to envision her path as “peopled with merry companions” with whom she “carrie[s] on a gay, pretended conversation” (162).

At the bend in the road before Echo Lodge, Anne finds Miss Lavendar standing under a fir tree. She is excited to see Anne because Charlotta the Fourth is home taking care of her sick mother, and Miss Lavendar is lonely: “The dreams and echoes [aren’t] enough company” (162). Suddenly, Anne appears to her as very young and beautiful, and Miss Lavendar expresses a bit of jealousy because she feels old and gray herself. Still, Anne brings a youthful joy to the cottage, and the women quickly begin cooking, making candy, and laughing about everything.

That evening around the fire, Miss Lavendar asks Anne if anyone has told her about the older woman’s long-ago relationship with Stephen Irving. Anne responds that she knows they were once engaged, and Miss Lavendar fills in the blanks. Miss Lavendar and Stephen knew each other all their lives and had promised to marry each other when they were young children. Twenty-five years ago, as a truly engaged couple, they broke it off due to a “stupid, silly, commonplace quarrel” (164). Miss Lavendar describes her younger self as very vain, a young woman who had quite a few beaus, and Stephen became jealous. Rather than placate him, she teased him about the other young men, and they both became angry. Stephen left for America and never returned. His pride would not let him compete with other men for her affections, even though Miss Lavendar never returned their affections. She recounts harboring this regret for her vanity for the past 25 years.

Suddenly, Miss Lavendar asks about Paul and what kind of young boy he is. She asks Anne to bring him by Echo Lodge. A month later, Anne does so, and the pain she feels when looking at Stephen’s son—who looks much like his father—is visible on her face. However, Paul and Miss Lavendar quickly recognize something about the other—both are kindred spirits driven by their imagination and love for the extraordinary. They all have a wonderful day together. When Anne and Paul leave, Paul asks Miss Lavendar to kiss him on the cheek because she looks at him “just as [his] little mother used to do” (166).

The following May, Avonlea is mildly excited over some anonymous postings in the paper by someone named the “Observer.” Rumor has it that Charlie Sloane is the author because one of the postings included a snub at Gilbert Blythe, and many in Avonlea see Charlie and Gilbert as rivals for Anne’s affection. However, Anne and Gilbert are behind the postings and included the snub to throw people off their scent. The anonymous notes also include gossip about a potential wedding between a “new and highly respected citizen” (166) and a popular lady, in addition to a reference to an upcoming bad storm on May 23rd prophesied by no other than Uncle Abe, Avonlea’s well-known weather prophet, who is notoriously always wrong in his predictions. Both Anne and Gilbert laugh at the responses to their harmless notes.

Meanwhile, the Improvers continue beautifying Avonlea by planting 200 young trees on Arbor Day. Davy and Dora work diligently in their small gardens. A quick glance at the plots tells which is which: Dora’s is orderly and growing, while Davy’s is an absolute disaster because he continues pulling the plants up to see if anything is growing at the other end. Marilla lauds her beautiful Yellow Duchess apple trees, which are in full bloom for production. However, on May 23rd—as the “Observer” predicted—the sky turns black, and the world becomes eerily still.

Anne promptly dismisses school so the children can get home before the storm, and she grabs Davy and Dora and heads for Green Gables. The sunlight vanishes as soon as they arrive, and the worst storm Avonlea has ever seen begins. Hail, strong winds, and vicious rain rage for almost an hour, scaring everyone at Green Gables, including Marilla, who uncharacteristically cries in the corner of the room. The storm ends as quickly as it begins, and the sun emerges. When Anne and Marilla step out to survey the damage, they see hail stones stacked two feet deep as far as they can see, and “every green growing thing in the field or garden was cut off” (171). This destruction encompasses all of the Island.

Mr. Harrison’s field hand, John Henry, comes walking up to check on Green Gables and recounts that lightning struck Mr. Harrison’s house—coming down through the chimney and into the floor, hitting Ginger’s cage. Ginger is dead, and Anne soon goes over to check on Mr. Harrison. She finds him sitting with the bird’s body. He says quietly, “Poor Ginger won’t call you any more names, Anne” (172), and Anne can’t help but cry over the loss of her friend’s one true daily companion.

The next day, all of Avonlea visit each other to compare damages, except for Uncle Abe, who sits victorious at the blacksmith’s forge all day long to gloat that, for once, his prediction was right—even though the “Observer” made the prediction and not him. Gilbert comes over later to break the news to Anne that the storm has destroyed most of the trees they planted. However, there is a silver lining—lightning struck Mr. Levi Boulter’s old house and burned it to the ground, the same house that the entire town tried to dismantle for years and years. Anne sees this as a good omen and vows to replant the trees next year in the spring.

Two weeks after the storm, Anne discovers that the white narcissi she usually puts on Matthew’s grave were also ruined by the storm, making her very sad. She also found that none of Hester Gray’s beautiful narcissi survived either. As she stands at the gate of Green Gables looking out over the world, she can’t help but hope that Mother Nature will recover quickly.

Suddenly, a wagon comes up the lane, and Anne recognizes the driver as the son of the station agent at Bright River, but she does not know the small “scrap of a woman” (175) on the seat next to him. The woman is very pretty, almost 50, and quite neat for having just traveled down a dusty road. She jumps down and asks if this is the home of Mr. James A. Harrison. Stunned by the situation, Anne points toward Mr. Harrison’s home. The lady asks if it’s true that Mr. Harrison is marrying some woman in Avonlea. When Anne denies that rumor, the woman mentions that Mr. Harrison “happens to be married already” (175)—to her. Before she leaves, she demands to know if Ginger is still as rude and profane as ever. When Anne—unable to think of her name at the moment—replies that Ginger is dead, the lady proclaims that she “can manage James A. if that bird is out of the way” (176). Anne stumbles back into the house and tells Marilla that the little woman happens to be Mr. Harrison’s wife. When Marilla chastises him for passing himself off as a bachelor, Anne reminds her that he never said he was; Avonlea just assumed.

The news soon reaches Mrs. Rachel, who, true to form, marches over to Mr. Harrison’s to find out the true story. Even though Anne and Marilla wait for her, she does not return. Davy, tell them that, on his way home from Milty Boulter’s, he passed Mrs. Rachel and some woman in the Hollow talking up a storm. The following day, almost everyone in Avonlea knows some version of the story. Davy returns with a bit of gossip—Mr. Harrison and his wife stopped being married long ago, but no one knew who to blame. Davy marched over to Mr. Harrison’s to see the woman himself, but she was off in Carmody with Mrs. Rachel. He tells Anne that Mr. Harrison asked to see her.

Anne arrives to a home she doesn’t recognize—the floor scrubbed, the kitchen clean, the furniture polished. Even Mr. Harrison looks like a new man, shaved and trimmed, with his clothes patched and brushed. He asks Anne to sit and laments that his “easy times are over…it’s neatness and tidiness for [him] for the rest of [his] natural life” (179). Despite his sad tone, “an irrepressible twinkle in his eye betray[s] him” (179), and Anne admonishes him for being truly glad that his wife is home. He tells her the story of their separation—that he married Emily, a younger woman, and could not handle her desire to keep the house spotless. He felt she tried to change him too much, but the real breaking point was Ginger. She wanted the parrot gone, and he wouldn’t part with the bird. The final breaking point was Ginger cussing up a storm during a dinner with the minister and his wife. Mr. Harrison came home one day to find a letter from Emily telling him to choose between her and the bird. Proud and stubborn, Mr. Harrison sent Emily’s belongings to her parents’ house and decided to move to Avonlea.

Shortly after that, Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. Rachel arrive back at the house, and Emily thanks Anne for taking such good care of her husband. Anne stays for tea, and after, Emily walks her back to Green Gables. Anne finds Marilla and Mrs. Rachel talking about the situation, and it is evident that Mrs. Rachel made quite a friend in Emily Harrison. On her way out the door, Mrs. Rachel mentions that Gilbert resigned from the White Sands School and will be off to college in the fall. She looks quickly at Anne to gauge Anne’s reaction to this news, but Anne is busy putting Davy to bed.

One evening, Thomas Lynde falls asleep holding Rachel’s hand and doesn’t wake up—his wife, “a tender, patient, unwearied nurse” (184) until the end. After the funeral, Marilla often looks at Anne and seems “on the point of saying something” (184) but stops herself short. She visits Mrs. Rachel and returns with the news that the Lynde children did not stay long after the funeral. Suddenly, Marilla asks Anne if she would like to attend college in the fall. Anne believes it isn’t possible to leave Marilla due to her failing eyesight and the twins, but Marilla assures her that she has a plan: she will ask Rachel to move in with her at Green Gables. Due to Thomas’ health, they had to mortgage the farm to pay for bills, and Mrs. Rachel does not want to leave Avonlea to live with her daughter. Anne is speechless at the possibility of going to college but says the decision to live with Rachel is up to Marilla. That evening, Anne sits in her bedroom, contemplating the joyous potential of furthering her education and the heartbreak of what she will leave behind. The next day, Anne sends her resignation to the Avonlea school, and Mrs. Rachel accepts Marilla’s offer to move in because she would “rather live at the bottom of a well than leave Avonlea” (187).

The town goes wild at the thought of Marilla and Rachel living together, believing that each woman holds too strong of a personality to put up with the other, but the two women delegate household responsibilities and put a plan into place—except for Davy. Mrs. Rachel says she will not be answering all of Davy’s far-fetched questions. Meanwhile, Anne’s students are distraught at her upcoming departure. When he hears the news, Paul tells his grandmother that he cannot possibly be expected to eat breakfast. Diana also mourns the loss of her best friend. Still, Anne makes her feel needed when she asks Diana to continue the tradition of putting flowers on Matthew’s grave. Still, Diana wonders if Anne will meet all sorts of new friends at Redmond and forget about her, but Anne assures her that will not happen.

Finally, Diana asks the question that seems to be on the mind of many in Avonlea. Does Anne care anything for Gilbert? Anne’s response frustrates Diana. Anne is holding out hope for the “ideal” man of her dreams and plans to “die an old maid” (191) if she doesn’t meet him. The girls talk about the love affairs of some of their childhood classmates, but before they part for the evening, Anne assures Diana once more that there will be no one to take Diana’s place in her heart.

Anne dresses up for an evening at Echo Lodge, but before she can get out the door, she must answer Davy’s questions about where she’s going and why. Anne takes the opportunity to ask him how Paul Irving fell in the schoolhouse pond the day before, and Davy’s response—Paul fell in on a dare trying to impress his girlfriend—leads Marilla to remind Davy that he needs to become a gentleman himself to ever win a girl’s heart. Davy promptly asks why Marilla never got married, which leads to a conversation about local husbands and their wives that forces Marilla down to the cellar in laughter.

Anne and Paul arrive at Echo Lodge, and Miss Lavendar comments on how much Paul has grown since his last visit. When he replies that he plans to grow tall like his father, Miss Lavendar blushes and says she remembers that his father is quite tall. While Paul plays with the echoes, Miss Lavendar expresses her joy and sadness at Anne’s upcoming departure for college. Anne tries to convince her that she will be back to visit often, but Miss Lavendar seems caught in a storm of depression. She is “tired of everything, even of the echoes…echoes of lost hopes and dreams and joys” (198). It takes Charlotta the Fourth’s announcement that the strawberries are ready for picking in Mr. Kimball’s pasture to draw Miss Lavendar out of her doldrums.

As they pick strawberries, Charlotte the Fourth admires Anne secretly. She practices looking and walking like Anne when she is alone, and her comment to Anne that she would “rather look like [Anne] than be pretty” (199) would seem an insult to anyone else, but not to Anne. Anne is quite familiar with people not knowing what to do with her looks. Some find her unattractive, while others find her captivating. Though her looks may not be stylish, there is a certain vivacity about her that cannot be duplicated. Charlotta confides to Anne that Miss Lavendar has not been herself for a long time—since she met Paul. She acts tired and lonesome and often wanders the grounds by herself. Anne promises to come for a visit as soon as school lets out for the summer.

At tea, Paul and Miss Lavendar engage in their normal conversation about the rock people down at the shore, but Paul suddenly sees that she has lost interest. When he asks her why she is looking at him in such a strange way, Miss Lavendar replies that he “put[s] her in mind of somebody [she] knew long ago” (201). Paul replies that he thinks she “would make a splendid mother” (201), and Miss Lavendar tells him all about the little dream boy that visits her sometimes—a boy that looks much like Paul. He goes and lays his head on her shoulder, and she rests her cheek on his head.

Anne's students cry on the last day of school and give her going-away presents. Three mothers—Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Sloane, and Mrs. Bell—walk home lamenting that Anne is leaving but remain confident that Jane Andrews, who is taking Anne’s place, will do just as fine a job. Mrs. Andrews sees no point in Anne gallivanting off to college, believing that “she’ll probably be marrying Gilbert Blythe” (203) soon, making a college degree obsolete. The women continue to gossip about Mr. Harrison, the upcoming departure of the Allans, the need for a new minister, and the strangeness of Paul Irving, who continues to tell odd stories about imaginary people to the students in his class.

Meanwhile, Anne sits at her desk, looking at her empty classroom, and thinks about how much she has learned and grown over the past two years. She contemplates her initial dreams of becoming a teacher and believes that she “has[d] had her reward…she taught them…to live their lives finely and graciously” (204-205). She is sad, but the thought of moving on to Redmond gives her comfort.

She spends two weeks at Echo Lodge with Miss Lavendar and takes the older woman to town to buy the material for a new dress. In the middle of her vacation, she returns to Green Gables for a day to complete some sewing for the twins. In the evening, she visits Paul and sees him sitting on a strange man's lap. Paul runs out to meet her with the good news—his father has come to visit. Anne goes in to meet Stephen Irving, a tall man of middle age, ruggedly handsome, with kind eyes. Stephen is happy to meet the young teacher of whom Paul has written. Once Paul runs off to complete his chores, Stephen mentions an old friend of his that Paul has written him about—Miss Lavendar Lewis in Grafton. Anne is thrilled that their old romance might return and confirms that Miss Lavendar is a very good friend. Stephen tells Anne he would like to visit Echo Lodge, and Anne agrees to ask Miss Lavender. She returns to Echo Lodge, quivering with excitement.

Before she can even ask, Miss Lavendar senses the truth—that Stephen Irving has returned home. She agrees to see him “as any old friend might” (208). Anne promptly writes to Stephen to let him know Miss Lavendar has accepted. She and Charlotta dance with excitement in anticipation while Miss Lavendar “roam[s] about the garden in a distracted fashion” (208).

Anne is sitting on the porch when Stephen arrives, and he proclaims that “this is the one place where time stands still” (210) as he looks around the garden. She remarks that “time always stands still in an enchanted palace…it is only when the prince comes that things begin to happen” (210), showcasing her never-ending pursuit of romantic ideals. He goes into the parlor to greet Miss Lavendar while Anne and Charlotta remain in the kitchen, dying of suspense. An hour passes, and the girls hear the front door shut. Fearful that he is leaving—which would not be a good sign—Anne and Charlotta run to the window and see the two walking with their arms around each other. They know Stephen must have proposed, and Miss Lavendar must have accepted.

The next month is a whirlwind of planning and preparation for the wedding. Anne’s preparation for Redmond comes second to Miss Lavendar’s dress, the decoration of Echo Lodge, and the planning for the honeymoon. Paul exuberantly announces that he “knew he could trust [his] father to pick [him] out a nice little second mother” (212). Charlotta is also beside herself; she will be going to Boston to live with them. Anne, caught up with the romance of it all, cannot escape fate's role in all of this—if she and Diana hadn’t taken the wrong path on the way to the Kimballs for tea, none of this would have happened. Marilla, ever stoic on the matters of love and romance, replies that none of this would be an issue if the two of them hadn’t parted for stupid reasons 25 years before. Her reality jars Anne, and Marilla decides to keep her mouth closed on the matter instead of being sarcastic.

There is more love in the air than just Miss Lavendar and Stephen. Anne stumbles upon Diana and Fred Wright one evening near the Barry garden, engaged in very close and intimate conversation while holding hands. Suddenly realizing that her best friend has moved closer to adulthood, Anne runs back to her room at Green Gables and tries to collect her scattered thoughts. Though she knew Fred had been courting Diana, seeing it made it real to her, and a “queer, little lonely feeling” surprises her, “as if, somehow, Diana had gone forward into a new world” (215). Anne questions what Diana could possibly see in Fred Wright.

Diana answers that question the following evening when she visits Anne to announce her engagement. She feels she couldn’t imagine being engaged to anyone but Fred and tries to express how that feels. However, to Anne, it seems like Diana acts differently than she ever did before—older and more superior, almost. Anne promises to be Diana’s bridesmaid even though the wedding won’t be for a few more years. Anne slightly hurts Diana’s feelings when she teases her about the number of doilies Diana plans on crocheting for the wedding but quickly makes amends and commends Diana for preparing for her “home o’dreams” (216).

The thought immediately makes Anne think about her own future “home of dreams,” and certainly, her ideal man is there—tall, dark, handsome, melancholy, the same romantic hero that has pervaded her thoughts for years. But strangely enough, Gilbert also makes his way into Anne’s thoughts as the one who helps her with day-to-day activities that her romantic hero “evidently consider[s] beneath his dignity” (216). Though she tries to get Gilbert out of her mind, she cannot. Diana finally interrupts her thoughts by reiterating that Fred is not the type of man she always wanted to marry, but he is the only one she can see herself with. That night in her room, Anne laments how far Diana has strayed from her ideals and vows she will never do so herself.

The last weeks of summer come to an end, and with them, many changes for the folks in Avonlea: Miss Lavendar’s wedding, Anne and Gilbert’s departure for Redmond, Mrs. Rachel’s move to Green Gables, Mr. Allan’s final sermon. One evening on the veranda, a freshly-reformed Mr. Harris tells Anne, “Changes ain’t totally pleasant but they’re excellent things” (218). He expresses how much all of them will miss Anne when she leaves.

Diana and Anne arrive at Echo Lodge to finish preparations for the wedding and find Charlotta bursting with excitement and nervousness. Stephen takes Miss Lavendar for a walk in the woods to get her out of the way so the girls can work, but the threat of rainy weather looms on the horizon. Luckily enough, the morning of the wedding is cool and cloudy, and Miss Lavendar walks down the stairs to meet Stephen. As Mr. Allan pronounces them man and wife, “the sun suddenly burst through the gray” (222) and shines down on the happy couple, which Anne considers a wonderful omen of their life to come. Shortly after the ceremony, the couple leaves for their honeymoon while Paul rings a large brass dinner bell, setting off the famous echoes across every curve and hill.

Anne stays behind to close up Echo Lodge and, once finished, sits down to wait for Gilbert to return from an errand. He walks up the lane and sees her sitting on the steps, thinking of how beautiful it is that Miss Lavendar and Stephen “have come together again after all the years of separation and misunderstanding” (223). Gilbert, unable to tear his eyes from Anne, replies that it would have been much more beautiful if there had been no separation or misunderstanding, “if they had come hand in hand all the way through life, with no memories behind them but those which belonged to each other” (223). At that moment, Anne’s face flushes, and she looks down at the ground, unable to cope with the emotions flooding her at the realization that perhaps love “crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways” (223). As they walk back up the lane, Anne has changed. She is no longer a girl but a woman, and Gilbert’s thoughts flash forward four years later when he will earn her heart. Behind them, Echo Lodge—and her echoes—wait for the laughter and joy to come.