A month later, as Anne sits at her table surrounded by schoolwork and textbooks, she finds that her creative genius has fled her due to the amount of grading and planning she must do for school. Gilbert arrives to remind her that she is well-loved in the Avonlea classroom, and Anne agrees—except for Anthony Pye, who refuses to like or respect her. However, she cannot help but think there is a way to get through to the young student and vows to “see what patience and kindness will do” (42).

Gilbert has also earned quite a bit of success at the school in White Sands, but his heart lies in furthering his education in college. He reveals to Anne that he has decided to become a doctor, believing that doing so will allow him to “do [his] share of honest, real work in the world” (43) and contribute to future generations. In contrast to Gilbert’s practicality, Anne still desires to add some sort of beauty to the world—a fact that Gilbert asserts she has already done.

When Anne gets home, she makes tea and waits for Marilla to return from town. When Marilla does, she brings with her a letter from Mary Keith, whom Marilla thinks will not be alive much longer. Mary’s brother—who will be taking the twins—cannot “possibly take the children till the spring” (44), and Marilla believes Mary wants her to take them in until then. Anne, thrilled with the prospect of raising twins again in her life, desperately wants Marilla to say yes, but Marilla’s concerns about two six-year-olds are valid, especially since the boy, Davy, seems to be a holy terror. Still, Anne cannot escape the memories of “her own neglected childhood” (45) and convinces Marilla that taking in the children would be the best for them. Anne promises to help Marilla with everything the children may need.

From her window, Mrs. Rachel watches as Marilla returns from Mary Keith’s funeral, trying desperately to keep Davy in the carriage. Rachel flashes back to another afternoon years before when she watched Matthew return from Bright River Station with another unknown child on her way to Green Gables. From Rachel’s vantage point, Dora is quite the young lady, sitting prim and proper in the carriage seat, while Davy is “leaning over the dashboard grabbing at the pony’s tail” (46).

Though Marilla’s face is stern and unyielding as she tries to corral the small boy from getting himself killed, his honesty and affection slowly break her, and she “fe[els] her heart waxing soft within her under Davy’s impulsive caresses” (47). However, immediately after the hug, Davy pulls Dora’s hair and makes her scream, leading Marilla to scold him for being so disrespectful so soon after his mother’s death. Davy swears that he wouldn’t let anyone else harm Dora; he just finds great joy in picking on her.

The antics continue at dinner, with Davy behaving horribly and Dora acting like a perfect lady. Davy demands more cake, then steals Dora’s slice, which prompts Anne to give a quick lesson on what it means to be a gentleman. Davy does not understand nor want to be a gentleman because “they don’t have much fun” (48). Exhausted by the day’s events, Marilla sends the twins to bed and harshly reprimands Davy when he refuses to go. Years later, when she looks back on this first week with the twins, Marilla wonders how she survived.

It doesn’t take long for Davy to hate Paul Irving, whom Anne often casts up to Davy as the perfect example of what it means to be a gentleman. Even so, Davy refuses to act according to Marilla and Anne’s wishes. He does not want to bathe and creates havoc at church when he drops a caterpillar down a girl’s neck. A few afternoons later, when the Aid Society ladies meet at Green Gables, Davy is allowed to make mud pies in the barnyard while Dora has tea with the women. Unbeknownst to Anne and Marilla, Davy comes and gets Dora and convinces her to walk the pigpen fence, knowing she would fall into the mud. A muddy, wet, and disheveled Dora returns to the tea, crying profusely. Marilla leaves the tea to console and bathe Dora while Anne deals with Davy, who shows no remorse for his actions until he thinks about how Paul Irving would never have done such a thing. He hugs Anne, promises her he will be better, and then warns her that he put a big frog in Marilla’s bed earlier. Anne hurries to remove the amphibian before Marilla goes to sleep.

On Mr. Harrison’s veranda one September evening, Anne listens to him complain about Mrs. Rachel, who visited earlier to solicit donations for the church vestry. Anne, who sees far more similarities between the two than Mr. Harrison is willing to admit, encourages him to “come to understand” (54) Mrs. Rachel instead of despising her. The two engage in a battle of wits, with Mr. Harrison priding himself on always telling a person the truth even if it hurts their feelings. He changes the subject to the current A.V.I.S. project of painting the town hall, to which Anne replies that “most people gave liberally” (55) to the fundraiser, snubbing him for refusing to donate. The A.V.I.S. decided to paint the town hall green with a red roof, and Mr. Joshua Pye received the job offer because, otherwise, no other Pyes would have donated. Before Anne returns home, Mr. Harrison tells her that Davy came over earlier and pulled six feathers out of Ginger’s tail, a feat Anne promises herself she will reward the young boy for later.

Mr. Pye finishes his paint job the following Friday. Since the town hall sits off the road, not many saw him complete his task until Mrs. Rachel, driving by out of curiosity, discovers that the man painted the hall blue instead of green. The Improvers are beside themselves in horror, for a blue hall reminds them of wheelbarrows and carts, “the most hideous color for a building” (57). As usual, Anne responds with great dismay, believing that this error has “sound[ed] the death knell of [the] society” (57). However, just the opposite happens. The townspeople of Avonlea, angry that their donations were not used correctly, throw their support behind the A.V.I.S., with many promising to fulfill the goals that the Society has set for the town.

While walking home from school one day in November, Anne talks to herself about what a wonderful month it has been at school. She is in such a good mood that she “throw[s] her arm about a slim young birch [tree] and kiss[es] its cream-white trunk” (59). Diana suddenly rounds the corner, sees Anne, and laughs, saying that Anne is “only pretending to be grown up” (59) most of the time. Undeterred, Anne reminds Diana that the only free time she seems to have these days is on these 30-minute walks home from school, and she enjoys feeling like a child again. Diana, who is on her way to visit Alberta Dickson, asks Anne to come over the next evening, and Anne teases her about her beau, Fred Wright, being out of town.

When Anne arrives home, she meets a frantic Marilla, who cannot find Dora anywhere. Anne sees Davy’s eyes glisten with amusement and immediately asks him if he knows where his sister is, but he swears he does not. Anne and Marilla search the entire grounds but cannot find the girl. Cheerfully, Davy suggests that “maybe she tumbled into the well” (61). His words convey their innermost fears, as the Green Gables well is the deepest in Avonlea. They call Mr. Barry, who comes over and drags the well with a long hook, but he finds nothing. Mr. Barry asks Davy again if he knows what happened to Dora, but Davy refuses and instead offers that “maybe a tramp came and stole her” (61). Marilla concedes that Dora may have wandered over to Mr. Harrison’s, and neither see Davy suddenly become concerned and run off.

Anne runs to Mr. Harrison’s, but he is not home. As she walks around the property yelling for Dora, she hears sobbing coming from an old shed. She opens the door and finds Dora sitting there. Dora reveals that Davy lured her there to see Ginger and then locked his sister in the shed as a joke. As Anne carries Dora home, she cannot overcome her disappointment that Davy “told downright cold-blooded falsehoods” (62). Anne bathes Dora feeds her supper, and then puts her to bed while Marilla drags Davy inside from his hiding place in the stables.

Neither one of the women can look at the little boy. Davy searches Anne’s eyes with a smile as if he knew he would be punished but “could count on a laugh over it all with Anne later on” (63), but he finds only disappointment in her eyes. When Anne confronts him about his lies, Davy swears he did not know that telling lies was bad because his friends back home always told lies. Anne takes this as an excuse, and so does Marilla, who understands that the boy has had no real parenting up until now. They send him to bed with no supper as punishment. Afterward, Anne and Marilla agree that they can’t help but love Davy, even though he drives them crazy.