Not a great deal. I went a little the last year I stayed with Mrs.
Thomas. When I went up river we were so far from a school that I
couldn t walk it in winter and there was vacation in summer, so I could
only go in the spring and fall. But of course I went while I was at
the asylum. I can read pretty well and I know ever so many pieces of
poetry off by heart-- The Battle of Hohenlinden and Edinburgh after
Flodden, and Bingen on the Rhine, and lots of the Lady of the Lake
and most of The Seasons, by James Thompson. Don t you just love
poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back? There
is a piece in the Fifth Reader-- The Downfall of Poland --that is just
full of thrills. Of course, I wasn t in the Fifth Reader--I was only in
the Fourth--but the big girls used to lend me theirs to read.
Were those women--Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Hammond--good to you? asked
Marilla, looking at Anne out of the corner of her eye.
O-o-o-h, faltered Anne. Her sensitive little face suddenly flushed
scarlet and embarrassment sat on her brow. Oh, they _meant_ to be--I
know they meant to be just as good and kind as possible. And when
people mean to be good to you, you don t mind very much when they re
not quite--always. They had a good deal to worry them, you know. It s
very trying to have a drunken husband, you see; and it must be very
trying to have twins three times in succession, don t you think? But I
feel sure they meant to be good to me.
Marilla asked no more questions. Anne gave herself up to a silent
rapture over the shore road and Marilla guided the sorrel abstractedly
while she pondered deeply. Pity was suddenly stirring in her heart for
the child. What a starved, unloved life she had had--a life of drudgery
and poverty and neglect; for Marilla was shrewd enough to read between
the lines of Anne s history and divine the truth. No wonder she had been
so delighted at the prospect of a real home. It was a pity she had to be
sent back. What if she, Marilla, should indulge Matthew s unaccountable
whim and let her stay? He was set on it; and the child seemed a nice,
teachable little thing.
She s got too much to say, thought Marilla, but she might be trained
out of that. And there s nothing rude or slangy in what she does say.
She s ladylike. It s likely her people were nice folks.
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