That evening Marilla told the whole story to Matthew over her stocking
basket.
I m willing to own up that I made a mistake, she concluded candidly,
but I ve learned a lesson. I have to laugh when I think of Anne s
confession, although I suppose I shouldn t for it really was a
falsehood. But it doesn t seem as bad as the other would have been,
somehow, and anyhow I m responsible for it. That child is hard to
understand in some respects. But I believe she ll turn out all right
yet. And there s one thing certain, no house will ever be dull that
she s in.
CHAPTER XV. A Tempest in the School Teapot
WHAT a splendid day! said Anne, drawing a long breath. Isn t it good
just to be alive on a day like this? I pity the people who aren t born
yet for missing it. They may have good days, of course, but they can
never have this one. And it s splendider still to have such a lovely way
to go to school by, isn t it?
It s a lot nicer than going round by the road; that is so dusty
and hot, said Diana practically, peeping into her dinner basket and
mentally calculating if the three juicy, toothsome, raspberry tarts
reposing there were divided among ten girls how many bites each girl
would have.
The little girls of Avonlea school always pooled their lunches, and
to eat three raspberry tarts all alone or even to share them only with
one s best chum would have forever and ever branded as awful mean the
girl who did it. And yet, when the tarts were divided among ten girls
you just got enough to tantalize you.
The way Anne and Diana went to school _was_ a pretty one. Anne thought
those walks to and from school with Diana couldn t be improved upon
even by imagination. Going around by the main road would have been so
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