through, and Prissy wasn t a dunce in geometry.
I guess you needn t worry about that part of it. When Matthew and I
took you to bring up we resolved we would do the best we could for you
and give you a good education. I believe in a girl being fitted to earn
her own living whether she ever has to or not. You ll always have a home
at Green Gables as long as Matthew and I are here, but nobody knows what
is going to happen in this uncertain world, and it s just as well to be
prepared. So you can join the Queen s class if you like, Anne.
Oh, Marilla, thank you. Anne flung her arms about Marilla s waist and
looked up earnestly into her face. I m extremely grateful to you and
Matthew. And I ll study as hard as I can and do my very best to be a
credit to you. I warn you not to expect much in geometry, but I think I
can hold my own in anything else if I work hard.
I dare say you ll get along well enough. Miss Stacy says you are bright
and diligent. Not for worlds would Marilla have told Anne just what
Miss Stacy had said about her; that would have been to pamper vanity.
You needn t rush to any extreme of killing yourself over your books.
There is no hurry. You won t be ready to try the Entrance for a year and
a half yet. But it s well to begin in time and be thoroughly grounded,
Miss Stacy says.
I shall take more interest than ever in my studies now, said Anne
blissfully, because I have a purpose in life. Mr. Allan says everybody
should have a purpose in life and pursue it faithfully. Only he says
we must first make sure that it is a worthy purpose. I would call it a
worthy purpose to want to be a teacher like Miss Stacy, wouldn t you,
Marilla? I think it s a very noble profession.
The Queen s class was organized in due time. Gilbert Blythe, Anne
Shirley, Ruby Gillis, Jane Andrews, Josie Pye, Charlie Sloane, and Moody
Spurgeon MacPherson joined it. Diana Barry did not, as her parents
did not intend to send her to Queen s. This seemed nothing short of a
calamity to Anne. Never, since the night on which Minnie May had had the
croup, had she and Diana been separated in anything. On the evening when
the Queen s class first remained in school for the extra lessons and
Anne saw Diana go slowly out with the others, to walk home alone through
the Birch Path and Violet Vale, it was all the former could do to keep
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