Oh, isn t it wonderful? she said, waving her hand comprehensively at
the good world outside.
It s a big tree, said Marilla, and it blooms great, but the fruit
don t amount to much never--small and wormy.
Oh, I don t mean just the tree; of course it s lovely--yes, it s
_radiantly_ lovely--it blooms as if it meant it--but I meant everything,
the garden and the orchard and the brook and the woods, the whole big
dear world. Don t you feel as if you just loved the world on a morning
like this? And I can hear the brook laughing all the way up here.
Have you ever noticed what cheerful things brooks are? They re always
laughing. Even in winter-time I ve heard them under the ice. I m so glad
there s a brook near Green Gables. Perhaps you think it doesn t make any
difference to me when you re not going to keep me, but it does. I shall
always like to remember that there is a brook at Green Gables even if
I never see it again. If there wasn t a brook I d be _haunted_ by the
uncomfortable feeling that there ought to be one. I m not in the depths
of despair this morning. I never can be in the morning. Isn t it a
splendid thing that there are mornings? But I feel very sad. I ve just
been imagining that it was really me you wanted after all and that I was
to stay here for ever and ever. It was a great comfort while it lasted.
But the worst of imagining things is that the time comes when you have
to stop and that hurts.
You d better get dressed and come down-stairs and never mind your
imaginings, said Marilla as soon as she could get a word in edgewise.
Breakfast is waiting. Wash your face and comb your hair. Leave the
window up and turn your bedclothes back over the foot of the bed. Be as
smart as you can.
Anne could evidently be smart to some purpose for she was down-stairs
in ten minutes time, with her clothes neatly on, her hair brushed and
braided, her face washed, and a comfortable consciousness pervading her
soul that she had fulfilled all Marilla s requirements. As a matter of
fact, however, she had forgotten to turn back the bedclothes.
I m pretty hungry this morning, she announced as she slipped into the
chair Marilla placed for her. The world doesn t seem such a howling
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