I ll look back. Good night, dear Lake of Shining Waters. I always say
good night to the things I love, just as I would to people. I think they
like it. That water looks as if it was smiling at me.
When they had driven up the further hill and around a corner Matthew
said:
We re pretty near home now. That s Green Gables over--
Oh, don t tell me, she interrupted breathlessly, catching at his
partially raised arm and shutting her eyes that she might not see his
gesture. Let me guess. I m sure I ll guess right.
She opened her eyes and looked about her. They were on the crest of a
hill. The sun had set some time since, but the landscape was still
clear in the mellow afterlight. To the west a dark church spire rose
up against a marigold sky. Below was a little valley and beyond a long,
gently-rising slope with snug farmsteads scattered along it. From one
to another the child s eyes darted, eager and wistful. At last they
lingered on one away to the left, far back from the road, dimly white
with blossoming trees in the twilight of the surrounding woods. Over it,
in the stainless southwest sky, a great crystal-white star was shining
like a lamp of guidance and promise.
That s it, isn t it? she said, pointing.
Matthew slapped the reins on the sorrel s back delightedly.
Well now, you ve guessed it! But I reckon Mrs. Spencer described it
so s you could tell.
No, she didn t--really she didn t. All she said might just as well have
been about most of those other places. I hadn t any real idea what it
looked like. But just as soon as I saw it I felt it was home. Oh, it
seems as if I must be in a dream. Do you know, my arm must be black and
blue from the elbow up, for I ve pinched myself so many times today.
Every little while a horrible sickening feeling would come over me and
I d be so afraid it was all a dream. Then I d pinch myself to see if it
was real--until suddenly I remembered that even supposing it was only
a dream I d better go on dreaming as long as I could; so I stopped
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