Anne of Avonlea

Unable to sleep in anticipation, Anne awakens three times during the night to make sure it isn’t raining. Luckily for her, the dawn brings a beautiful day fit for the occasion. Diana arrives after breakfast, and the two begin decorating the house with bushels and bushels of flowers—roses, peonies, snowballs, and ferns. Then, they prepare the meal, each taking her own specialty and making it perfect. Once everything is finished, the girls go upstairs to get dressed.

Shortly before lunch, the Allans and Miss Stacy arrive, but there is no sign of Priscilla and Mrs. Morgan. Time drags on, and Anne frequently runs to the window to see if they are coming up the lane. While they wait, Miss Stacy asks to see the blue willowware platter from Miss Barry that Anne borrowed for the Aid dinner under the promise that she would “be very careful [with] it” (117). As the women admire it, they hear a crash and clatter from the kitchen. Anne sets the platter down on the stairs as they run into the kitchen, only to find Davy scrambling down from a kitchen table covered in the remnants of their two lemon pies. He had climbed onto the table to put his ball of twine on the shelf above the table and lost his balance. Marilla sends him upstairs to his room and tells Anne that the strawberry preserves can be used for dessert instead.

However, time ticks by with no sign of the guests. At 1:30, Marilla tells Anne and Diana that dinner must be served. Both girls try to put on a good face for the Allans and Miss Stacy, but their disappointment is visible. As everyone says their goodbyes after dinner, another loud crash is heard from the stairway. When they rush into the parlor, they find Davy sitting at the top of the stairs, having knocked an old conch shell all the way down until it hit Miss Barry’s platter and shattered it into a million pieces. That evening, Marilla returns from the post office with a letter from Priscilla saying that Mrs. Morgan sprained her ankle and would not be able to make the trip. Marilla reminds Anne to stop “crashing down into despair” (121) when things don’t go her way. Anne reflects that she will have to pay Miss Barry for the replacement price of the platter, and she and Marilla discuss the local gossip surrounding Mr. Harrison—that he is courting Isabella Andrews.

Ever insistent on asking questions that defy the laws of physics and the boundaries of knowledge, Davy asks Anne one evening, “Where does sleep go?” (123). Anne quotes a line of poetry in response, and Davy chides her for talking nonsense. When she tells him that he is “too little to understand” (123), Anne feels guilty, for she swore to herself that she would never tell that to a child. Marilla soon alerts her that Diana is flashing a light from her bedroom window—the girls’ old communication sign that means “come over immediately.”

When Anne arrives at Diana’s, Diana breathlessly reports that she has found a possible replacement for Miss Barry’s blue willow ware platter—the Copp sisters out on Cory Road. The girls head out on the ten-mile trek to Spencerville the next day. The Copp home, situated far off the road, makes Green Gables look messy by comparison—the Copp sisters keep a neat homestead. However, no one is home. Diana proposes that Anne climb up on the roof and peer into the pantry to see if she can spot the platter on a shelf. Though Anne doubts that the windowsill will hold her weight, she climbs onto a nearby shed to reach the window. Upon glancing inside, she sees the same platter as Miss Barry’s, but before she can report back to Diana, Anne goes crashing through the roof. Diana rushes into the shed to pull Anne out, but it is no use. The splinters are too sharp, and Diana cannot find an ax nearby to cut Anne out.

They decide to wait for the Copp sisters to come home. Suddenly, Anne hears thunder in the distance, and Diana barely has time to give Anne the parasol from the carriage and get herself under the shed before the downpour. True to form, Anne’s imagination carries her through this trial, and she composes a poem while stuck in the roof. Diana gives her some paper and a pencil so she can write it down. Finally, Sarah Copp arrives home and cuts Anne out. She is glad that the shed is ruined so they can finally tear it down. She invites them inside to have tea, and Anne offers her $20 for the platter. Sarah counters with $25, and although Diana gives Anne “a gentle kick under the table” (130) to prompt her to continue bartering, Anne quickly accepts the offer, not wanting to miss this opportunity. As they start home, Diana laments how often Anne gets into unwanted adventures, but Anne cannot wait to tell Miss Barry the story of how she got the replacement platter.

On an afternoon in late August, Anne walks down to the Irving residence to see Paul. Happy to see her, he quickly invites her in for tea, although his grandmother is away in town—it is just Paul and Mary Joe, the servant girl. Before they walk inside, Paul asks Anne if she thinks he is “wrong in his upper story” (132). Surprised by such a cruel thought, Anne vehemently denies that he is. Paul reveals that he overheard Mary Joe talking to a friend about Paul’s imaginative stories and believes he is crazy. Anne assures him he isn’t and makes a note to herself to speak to Mrs. Irving about Mary Joe’s behavior. She tells him he may come to Green Gables and tell her his stories whenever he likes.

Over tea, Paul shares that he overheard Mrs. Rachel the other day telling his grandmother that his father would have to remarry one day. The thought upsets Paul initially, but he trusts that his father will pick another great mother for his son when the time comes. Their conversation moves back into the world of imagination, and Mary Joe, listening from the kitchen, swears that both Paul and Anne are crazy.

Before she leaves, he takes Anne to his room to show her the picture of his mother that he keeps above his bed. Anne is not surprised to see that he looks like her. Suddenly, Paul asks if he can sit at her feet and lay his head in her lap, the way he used to sit with his mother, and Anne obliges. She asks him to tell her what he told Mary Joe that made her think he was crazy, and Paul says he spoke to her quite a bit about fairies and the dryads that live in birch trees. He asks her if she thinks anything wrong with his faults, and she assures him that he is perfectly normal.

At home, Anne finds a sulky Davy, who is quite jealous that she spent the afternoon with Paul Irving. She assures him that she loves both boys equally and makes him say his prayers. In the twilight, she walks down to the Dryad’s Bubble and meets Gilbert, who is also on a nightly walk, and she realizes that he is growing into a man. Though she finds him handsome, he does not match what she considers her ideal man to be. However, if one were to ask Gilbert about his ideal woman, the description would match Anne perfectly. She is unlike any girl he has ever known, and he vows to live his life to be worthy of her one day. Unable to reveal his true feelings to her, Gilbert instead talks about the A.V.I.S. and the new projects in front of the society. When Anne returns to the house, Marilla informs her that she and Rachel are going to town the next morning, and Anne responds that she will be working around the house all day.

The next day, Anne gets up bright and early to see Marilla and Dora off to town. Anne assures her that she will take good care of Davy. The cold ham will do for lunch for the two of them, and Anne will make dinner by the time Marilla arrives home.

Davy goes over to Mr. Harrison’s to help him with some chores, and Anne begins her dirty job of transferring feathers from one bedtick to another. She dons the old cashmere dress she wore during her first year at Green Gables and dives into her task. Upon passing the hall mirror, she notices her freckles popping out on her nose once more. She goes into the dark pantry and grabs what she thinks is the bottle of lemon juice, spreads it all over her nose, and goes back to work. Soon, she hears a knock at the kitchen door and, thinking it is Mr. Shearer coming by to sell meat, goes to open it while covered in down feathers.

To her surprise, the visitor at the door is not Mr. Shearer, but Priscilla and Mrs. Morgan, along with her friend Mrs. Pendexter, stopping by for their aforementioned promised visit. Shocked at her condition but vowing to be a lady, Anne “rises to the occasion” (142) and welcomes them into the parlor. When she goes to the barn with Priscilla to unharness the horses, she notices that Priscilla is staring at her funny, but Anne chalks it up to her general dress that day.

Before Anne can go change her clothes, Diana shows up in the kitchen, and Anne grabs her to tell her who is in the parlor at this very moment. Diana also looks at Anne funny. Finally, Anne breaks down and begs her not to stare at her general condition, considering the circumstances. Diana replies that it isn't the feathers—Anne’s nose is bright red. Anne realizes that she must have put Marilla’s red dye on her nose instead of the lemon juice and goes to scrub it off, mortified that Mrs. Morgan has seen her in such a condition. Diana runs home to get a cooked chicken her mother made this morning while Anne throws together some preserved plums and a bouquet of flowers, and the guests consider it to be a lovely meal. Mrs. Morgan tells them stories about all the people she’s met in her travels and how they have shaped the characters in her books. After dinner, they all go for a walk, and Anne shares with Mrs. Morgan the stories of how her childhood haunts—such as the Haunted Wood—got their names.

When the guests leave and Anne and Diana are alone, the girls consider the lunch a success, even if it was thrown together unexpectedly. That night, Anne throws the bottle of lemon juice out the window and vows to no longer be insecure about her looks.