Chapter XVIII
Miss Josephine Remembers the Anne-girl
When Christmas holidays came the girls of Patty’s Place scattered to their
respective homes, but Aunt Jamesina elected to stay where she was.
“I couldn’t go to any of the places I’ve been invited and take those three cats,”
she said. “And I’m not going to leave the poor creatures here alone for nearly
three weeks. If we had any decent neighbors who would feed them I might, but
there’s nothing except millionaires on this street. So I’ll stay here and keep
Patty’s Place warm for you.”
Anne went home with the usual joyous anticipations—which were not wholly
fulfilled. She found Avonlea in the grip of such an early, cold, and stormy winter
as even the “oldest inhabitant” could not recall. Green Gables was literally
hemmed in by huge drifts. Almost every day of that ill-starred vacation it
stormed fiercely; and even on fine days it drifted unceasingly. No sooner were
the roads broken than they filled in again. It was almost impossible to stir out.
The A.V.I.S. tried, on three evenings, to have a party in honor of the college
students, and on each evening the storm was so wild that nobody could go, so
they gave up the attempt in despair. Anne, despite her love of and loyalty to
Green Gables, could not help thinking longingly of Patty’s Place, its cosy open
fire, Aunt Jamesina’s mirthful eyes, the three cats, the merry chatter of the girls,
the pleasantness of Friday evenings when college friends dropped in to talk of
grave and gay.
Anne was lonely; Diana, during the whole of the holidays, was imprisoned at
home with a bad attack of bronchitis. She could not come to Green Gables and it
was rarely Anne could get to Orchard Slope, for the old way through the
Haunted Wood was impassable with drifts, and the long way over the frozen
Lake of Shining Waters was almost as bad. Ruby Gillis was sleeping in the
white-heaped graveyard; Jane Andrews was teaching a school on western
prairies. Gilbert, to be sure, was still faithful, and waded up to Green Gables
every possible evening. But Gilbert’s visits were not what they once were. Anne
almost dreaded them. It was very disconcerting to look up in the midst of a
sudden silence and find Gilbert’s hazel eyes fixed upon her with a quite