Oh, I m so glad. I know you and I are going to get along together
fine. It s such a relief to talk when one wants to and not be told
that children should be seen and not heard. I ve had that said to me a
million times if I have once. And people laugh at me because I use big
words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express
them, haven t you?
Well now, that seems reasonable, said Matthew.
Mrs. Spencer said that my tongue must be hung in the middle. But it
isn t--it s firmly fastened at one end. Mrs. Spencer said your place was
named Green Gables. I asked her all about it. And she said there were
trees all around it. I was gladder than ever. I just love trees. And
there weren t any at all about the asylum, only a few poor weeny-teeny
things out in front with little whitewashed cagey things about them.
They just looked like orphans themselves, those trees did. It used to
make me want to cry to look at them. I used to say to them, Oh, you
_poor_ little things! If you were out in a 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. I know just
exactly how you feel, little trees. I felt sorry to leave them behind
this morning. You do get so attached to things like that, don t you? Is
there a brook anywhere near Green Gables? I forgot to ask Mrs. Spencer
that.
Well now, yes, there s one right below the house.
Fancy. It s always been one of my dreams to live near a brook. I
never expected I would, though. Dreams don t often come true, do they?
Wouldn t it be nice if they did? But just now I feel pretty nearly
perfectly happy. I can t feel exactly perfectly happy because--well,
what color would you call this?
She twitched one of her long glossy braids over her thin shoulder and
held it up before Matthew s eyes. Matthew was not used to deciding on
the tints of ladies tresses, but in this case there couldn t be much
doubt.
15