woods. Marilla and I run down and helped the minister get up and brush his coat.
He wasn’t hurt, but he was mad. He seemed to hold Marilla and me responsible
for it all, though we told him the pig didn’t belong to us, and had been pestering
us all summer. Besides, what did he come to the back door for? You’d never
have caught Mr. Allan doing that. It’ll be a long time before we get a man like
Mr. Allan. But it’s an ill wind that blows no good. We’ve never seen hoof or hair
of that pig since, and it’s my belief we never will.
“Things is pretty quiet in Avonlea. I don’t find Green Gables as lonesome as I
expected. I think I’ll start another cotton warp quilt this winter. Mrs. Silas Sloane
has a handsome new apple-leaf pattern.
“When I feel that I must have some excitement I read the murder trials in that
Boston paper my niece sends me. I never used to do it, but they’re real
interesting. The States must be an awful place. I hope you’ll never go there,
Anne. But the way girls roam over the earth now is something terrible. It always
makes me think of Satan in the Book of Job, going to and fro and walking up
and down. I don’t believe the Lord ever intended it, that’s what.
“Davy has been pretty good since you went away. One day he was bad and
Marilla punished him by making him wear Dora’s apron all day, and then he
went and cut all Dora’s aprons up. I spanked him for that and then he went and
chased my rooster to death.
“The MacPhersons have moved down to my place. She’s a great housekeeper
and very particular. She’s rooted all my June lilies up because she says they
make a garden look so untidy. Thomas set them lilies out when we were married.
Her husband seems a nice sort of a man, but she can’t get over being an old
maid, that’s what.
“Don’t study too hard, and be sure and put your winter underclothes on as
soon as the weather gets cool. Marilla worries a lot about you, but I tell her
you’ve got a lot more sense than I ever thought you would have at one time, and
that you’ll be all right.”
Davy’s letter plunged into a grievance at the start.
“Dear anne, please write and tell marilla not to tie me to the rale of the bridge
when I go fishing the boys make fun of me when she does. Its awful lonesome
here without you but grate fun in school. Jane andrews is crosser than you. I
scared mrs. lynde with a jacky lantern last nite. She was offel mad and she was
mad cause I chased her old rooster round the yard till he fell down ded. I didn’t
mean to make him fall down ded. What made him die, anne, I want to know.
mrs. lynde threw him into the pig pen she mite of sold him to mr. blair. mr. blair