me. You see, nobody wanted me even then. It seems to be my fate.
Father and mother had both come from places far away and it was well
known they hadn t any relatives living. Finally Mrs. Thomas said she d
take me, though she was poor and had a drunken husband. She brought
me up by hand. Do you know if there is anything in being brought up
by hand that ought to make people who are brought up that way better
than other people? Because whenever I was naughty Mrs. Thomas would
ask me how I could be such a bad girl when she had brought me up by
hand--reproachful-like.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas moved away from Bolingbroke to Marysville, and I
lived with them until I was eight years old. I helped look after the
Thomas children--there were four of them younger than me--and I can tell
you they took a lot of looking after. Then Mr. Thomas was killed
falling under a train and his mother offered to take Mrs. Thomas and the
children, but she didn t want me. Mrs. Thomas was at _her_ wits end, so
she said, what to do with me. Then Mrs. Hammond from up the river came
down and said she d take me, seeing I was handy with children, and
I went up the river to live with her in a little clearing among the
stumps. It was a very lonesome place. I m sure I could never have
lived there if I hadn t had an imagination. Mr. Hammond worked a little
sawmill up there, and Mrs. Hammond had eight children. She had twins
three times. I like babies in moderation, but twins three times in
succession is _too much_. I told Mrs. Hammond so firmly, when the last
pair came. I used to get so dreadfully tired carrying them about.
I lived up river with Mrs. Hammond over two years, and then Mr. Hammond
died and Mrs. Hammond broke up housekeeping. She divided her children
among her relatives and went to the States. I had to go to the asylum
at Hopeton, because nobody would take me. They didn t want me at the
asylum, either; they said they were overcrowded as it was. But they had
to take me and I was there four months until Mrs. Spencer came.
Anne finished up with another sigh, of relief this time. Evidently
she did not like talking about her experiences in a world that had not
wanted her.
Did you ever go to school? demanded Marilla, turning the sorrel mare
down the shore road.
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