L. M. Montgomery - Anne of the Island

Harvest is ended and summer is gone, quoted Anne Shirley, gazing across the shorn fields dreamily. She and Diana Barry had been picking apples in the Green Gables orchard, but were now resting from their labors in a sunny corner, where airy fleets of thistledown drifted by on the wings of a wind that was still summer-sweet with the incense of ferns in the Haunted Wood.

But everything in the landscape around them spoke of autumn. The sea was roaring hollowly in the distance, the fields were bare and sere, scarfed with goldenrod, the brook valley below Green Gables overflowed with asters of ethereal purple, and the Lake of Shining Waters was blueblueblue; not the changeful blue of spring, nor the pale azure of summer, but a clear, steadfast, serene blue, as if the water were past all moods and tenses of emotion and had settled down to a tranquility unbroken by fickle dreams.

It has been a nice summer, said Diana, twisting the new ring on her left hand with a smile. And Miss Lavendars wedding seemed to come as a sort of crown to it. I suppose Mr. and Mrs. Irving are on the Pacific coast now.

It seems to me they have been gone long enough to go around the world, sighed Anne. I cant believe it is only a week since they were married. Everything has changed. Miss Lavendar and Mr. and Mrs. Allan gonehow lonely the manse looks with the shutters all closed! I went past it last night, and it made me feel as if everybody in it had died.

Well never get another minister as nice as Mr. Allan, said Diana, with gloomy conviction. I suppose well have all kinds of supplies this winter, and half the Sundays no preaching at all. And you and Gilbert goneit will be awfully dull.

Fred will be here, insinuated Anne slyly.

When is Mrs. Lynde going to move up? asked Diana, as if she had not heard Annes remark.

Tomorrow. Im glad shes comingbut it will be another change. Marilla and I cleared everything out of the spare room yesterday. Do you know, I hated to do it? Of course, it was sillybut it did seem as if we were committing sacrilege. That old spare room has always seemed like a shrine to me. When I was a child I thought it the most wonderful apartment in the world. You remember what a consuming desire I had to sleep in a spare room bedbut not the Green Gables spare room. Oh, no, never there! It would have been too terribleI couldnt have slept a wink from awe. I never walked through that room when Marilla sent me in on an errandno, indeed, I tiptoed through it and held my breath, as if I were in church, and felt relieved when I got out of it. The pictures of George Whitefield and the Duke of Wellington hung there, one on each side of the mirror, and frowned so sternly at me all the time I was in, especially if I dared peep in the mirror, which was the only one in the house that didnt twist my face a little. I always wondered how Marilla dared houseclean that room. And now its not only cleaned but stripped bare. George Whitefield and the Duke have been relegated to the upstairs hall. So passes the glory of this world, concluded Anne, with a laugh in which there was a little note of regret. It is never pleasant to have our old shrines desecrated, even when we have outgrown them.

Ill be so lonesome when you go, moaned Diana for the hundredth time. And to think you go next week!

But were together still, said Anne cheerily. We mustnt let next week rob us of this weeks joy. I hate the thought of going myselfhome and I are such good friends. Talk of being lonesome! Its I who should groan. Youll be here with any number of your old friends and Fred! While I shall be alone among strangers, not knowing a soul!

Except Gilbert and Charlie Sloane, said Diana, imitating Annes italics and slyness.

Charlie Sloane will be a great comfort, of course, agreed Anne sarcastically; whereupon both those irresponsible damsels laughed. Diana knew exactly what Anne thought of Charlie Sloane; but, despite sundry confidential talks, she did not know just what Anne thought of Gilbert Blythe. To be sure, Anne herself did not know that.

The boys may be boarding at the other end of Kingsport, for all I know, Anne went on. I am glad Im going to Redmond, and I am sure I shall like it after a while. But for the first few weeks I know I wont. I shant even have the comfort of looking forward to the weekend visit home, as I had when I went to Queens. Christmas will seem like a thousand years away.

Everything is changingor going to change, said Diana sadly. I have a feeling that things will never be the same again, Anne.

We have come to a parting of the ways, I suppose, said Anne thoughtfully. We had to come to it. Do you think, Diana, that being grown-up is really as nice as we used to imagine it would be when we were children?

I dont knowthere are some nice things about it, answered Diana, again caressing her ring with that little smile which always had the effect of making Anne feel suddenly left out and inexperienced. But there are so many puzzling things, too. Sometimes I feel as if being grown-up just frightened meand then I would give anything to be a little girl again.

I suppose well get used to being grown-up in time, said Anne cheerfully. There wont be so many unexpected things about it by and bythough, after all, I fancy its the unexpected things that give spice to life. Were eighteen, Diana. In two more years well be twenty. When I was ten I thought twenty was a green old age. In no time youll be a staid, middle-aged matron, and I shall be nice, old maid Aunt Anne, coming to visit you on vacations. Youll always keep a corner for me, wont you, Di darling? Not the spare room, of courseold maids cant aspire to spare rooms, and I shall be as umble as Uriah Heep, and quite content with a little over-the-porch or off-the-parlor cubbyhole.

What nonsense you do talk, Anne, laughed Diana. Youll marry somebody splendid and handsome and richand no spare room in Avonlea will be half gorgeous enough for youand youll turn up your nose at all the friends of your youth.

That would be a pity; my nose is quite nice, but I fear turning it up would spoil it, said Anne, patting that shapely organ. I havent so many good features that I could afford to spoil those I have; so, even if I should marry the King of the Cannibal Islands, I promise you I wont turn up my nose at you , Diana.

With another gay laugh the girls separated, Diana to return to Orchard Slope, Anne to walk to the Post Office. She found a letter awaiting her there, and when Gilbert Blythe overtook her on the bridge over the Lake of Shining Waters she was sparkling with the excitement of it.

Priscilla Grant is going to Redmond, too, she exclaimed. Isnt that splendid? I hoped she would, but she didnt think her father would consent. He has, however, and were to board together. I feel that I can face an army with bannersor all the professors of Redmond in one fell phalanxwith a chum like Priscilla by my side.

I think well like Kingsport, said Gilbert. Its a nice old burg, they tell me, and has the finest natural park in the world. Ive heard that the scenery in it is magnificent.

I wonder if it will becan beany more beautiful than this, murmured Anne, looking around her with the loving, enraptured eyes of those to whom home must always be the loveliest spot in the world, no matter what fairer lands may lie under alien stars.

They were leaning on the bridge of the old pond, drinking deep of the enchantment of the dusk, just at the spot where Anne had climbed from her sinking Dory on the day Elaine floated down to Camelot. The fine, empurpling dye of sunset still stained the western skies, but the moon was rising and the water lay like a great, silver dream in her light. Remembrance wove a sweet and subtle spell over the two young creatures.