Mrs. Rachel deposited her substantial person upon the stone bench by the
door, behind which grew a row of tall pink and yellow hollyhocks, with a
long breath of mingled weariness and relief.
I declare I m getting glad to sit down. I ve been on my feet all day,
and two hundred pounds is a good bit for two feet to carry round. It s
a great blessing not to be fat, Marilla. I hope you appreciate it. Well,
Anne, I hear you ve given up your notion of going to college. I was
real glad to hear it. You ve got as much education now as a woman can be
comfortable with. I don t believe in girls going to college with the men
and cramming their heads full of Latin and Greek and all that nonsense.
But I m going to study Latin and Greek just the same, Mrs. Lynde, said
Anne laughing. I m going to take my Arts course right here at Green
Gables, and study everything that I would at college.
Mrs. Lynde lifted her hands in holy horror.
Anne Shirley, you ll kill yourself.
Not a bit of it. I shall thrive on it. Oh, I m not going to overdo
things. As Josiah Allen s wife, says, I shall be mejum . But I ll
have lots of spare time in the long winter evenings, and I ve no
vocation for fancy work. I m going to teach over at Carmody, you know.
I don t know it. I guess you re going to teach right here in Avonlea.
The trustees have decided to give you the school.
Mrs. Lynde! cried Anne, springing to her feet in her surprise. Why, I
thought they had promised it to Gilbert Blythe!
So they did. But as soon as Gilbert heard that you had applied for it
he went to them--they had a business meeting at the school last night,
you know--and told them that he withdrew his application, and suggested
that they accept yours. He said he was going to teach at White Sands. Of
course he knew how much you wanted to stay with Marilla, and I must
say I think it was real kind and thoughtful in him, that s what. Real
self-sacrificing, too, for he ll have his board to pay at White Sands,
and everybody knows he s got to earn his own way through college. So the
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