"He was a good uncle to you, Maria," said Miss Patty, with evident emotion. "You do well to remember him."
"I shall always remember him," said Miss Maria solemnly. "I can see him, this minute, standing there before that fire, with his hands under his coat-tails, beaming on us."
Miss Maria took out her handkerchief and wiped her eyes; but Miss Patty came resolutely back from the regions of sentiment to those of business.
"I shall leave the dogs where they are, if you will promise to be very careful of them," she said. "Their names are Gog and Magog. Gog looks to the right and Magog to the left. And there"s just one thing more. You don"t object, I hope, to this house being called Patty"s Place?"
"No, indeed. We think that is one of the nicest things about it."
"You have sense, I see," said Miss Patty in a tone of great satisfaction. "Would you believe it? All the people who came here to rent the house wanted to know if they couldn"t take the name off the gate during their occupation of it. I told them roundly that the name went with the house. This has been Patty"s Place ever since my brother Aaron left it to me in his will, and Patty"s Place it shall remain until I die and Maria dies. After that happens the next possessor can call it any fool name he likes," concluded Miss Patty, much as she might have said, "After that--the deluge." "And now, wouldn"t you like to go over the house and see it all before we consider the bargain made?"
Further exploration still further delighted the girls. Besides the big living-room, there was a kitchen and a small bedroom downstairs.
Upstairs were three rooms, one large and two small. Anne took an especial fancy to one of the small ones, looking out into the big pines, and hoped it would be hers. It was papered in pale blue and had a little, old-timey toilet table with sconces for candles. There was a diamond-paned window with a seat under the blue muslin frills that would be a satisfying spot for studying or dreaming.
"It"s all so delicious that I know we are going to wake up and find it a fleeting vision of the night," said Priscilla as they went away.
"Miss Patty and Miss Maria are hardly such stuff as dreams are made of,"
laughed Anne. "Can you fancy them "globe-trotting"--especially in those shawls and caps?"
"I suppose they"ll take them off when they really begin to trot," said Priscilla, "but I know they"ll take their knitting with them everywhere.
They simply couldn"t be parted from it. They will walk about Westminster Abbey and knit, I feel sure. Meanwhile, Anne, we shall be living in Patty"s Place--and on Spofford Avenue. I feel like a millionairess even now."
"I feel like one of the morning stars that sang for joy," said Anne.
Phil Gordon crept into Thirty-eight, St. John"s, that night and flung herself on Anne"s bed.
"Girls, dear, I"m tired to death. I feel like the man without a country--or was it without a shadow? I forget which. Anyway, I"ve been packing up."
"And I suppose you are worn out because you couldn"t decide which things to pack first, or where to put them," laughed Priscilla.
"E-zackly. And when I had got everything jammed in somehow, and my landlady and her maid had both sat on it while I locked it, I discovered I had packed a whole lot of things I wanted for Convocation at the very bottom. I had to unlock the old thing and poke and dive into it for an hour before I fished out what I wanted. I would get hold of something that felt like what I was looking for, and I"d yank it up, and it would be something else. No, Anne, I did NOT swear."
"I didn"t say you did."
"Well, you looked it. But I admit my thoughts verged on the profane. And I have such a cold in the head--I can do nothing but sniffle, sigh and sneeze. Isn"t that alliterative agony for you? Queen Anne, do say something to cheer me up."
"Remember that next Thursday night, you"ll be back in the land of Alec and Alonzo," suggested Anne.
Phil shook her head dolefully.
"More alliteration. No, I don"t want Alec and Alonzo when I have a cold in the head. But what has happened you two? Now that I look at you closely you seem all lighted up with an internal iridescence. Why, you"re actually SHINING! What"s up?"
"We are going to live in Patty"s Place next winter," said Anne triumphantly. "Live, mark you, not board! We"ve rented it, and Stella Maynard is coming, and her aunt is going to keep house for us."
Phil bounced up, wiped her nose, and fell on her knees before Anne.
"Girls--girls--let me come, too. Oh, I"ll be so good. If there"s no room for me I"ll sleep in the little doghouse in the orchard--I"ve seen it.
Only let me come."
"Get up, you goose."
"I won"t stir off my marrow bones till you tell me I can live with you next winter."
Anne and Priscilla looked at each other. Then Anne said slowly, "Phil dear, we"d love to have you. But we may as well speak plainly. I"m poor--Pris is poor--Stella Maynard is poor--our housekeeping will have to be very simple and our table plain. You"d have to live as we would.
Now, you are rich and your boardinghouse fare attests the fact."
"Oh, what do I care for that?" demanded Phil tragically. "Better a dinner of herbs where your chums are than a stalled ox in a lonely boardinghouse. Don"t think I"m ALL stomach, girls. I"ll be willing to live on bread and water--with just a LEETLE jam--if you"ll let me come."
"And then," continued Anne, "there will be a good deal of work to be done. Stella"s aunt can"t do it all. We all expect to have our ch.o.r.es to do. Now, you--"
"Toil not, neither do I spin," finished Philippa. "But I"ll learn to do things. You"ll only have to show me once. I CAN make my own bed to begin with. And remember that, though I can"t cook, I CAN keep my temper.
That"s something. And I NEVER growl about the weather. That"s more. Oh, please, please! I never wanted anything so much in my life--and this floor is awfully hard."
"There"s just one more thing," said Priscilla resolutely. "You, Phil, as all Redmond knows, entertain callers almost every evening. Now, at Patty"s Place we can"t do that. We have decided that we shall be at home to our friends on Friday evenings only. If you come with us you"ll have to abide by that rule."
"Well, you don"t think I"ll mind that, do you? Why, I"m glad of it.
I knew I should have had some such rule myself, but I hadn"t enough decision to make it or stick to it. When I can shuffle off the responsibility on you it will be a real relief. If you won"t let me cast in my lot with you I"ll die of the disappointment and then I"ll come back and haunt you. I"ll camp on the very doorstep of Patty"s Place and you won"t be able to go out or come in without falling over my spook."
Again Anne and Priscilla exchanged eloquent looks.
"Well," said Anne, "of course we can"t promise to take you until we"ve consulted with Stella; but I don"t think she"ll object, and, as far as we are concerned, you may come and glad welcome."
"If you get tired of our simple life you can leave us, and no questions asked," added Priscilla.
Phil sprang up, hugged them both jubilantly, and went on her way rejoicing.
"I hope things will go right," said Priscilla soberly.
"We must MAKE them go right," avowed Anne. "I think Phil will fit into our "appy little "ome very well."
"Oh, Phil"s a dear to rattle round with and be chums. And, of course, the more there are of us the easier it will be on our slim purses. But how will she be to live with? You have to summer and winter with any one before you know if she"s LIVABLE or not."
"Oh, well, we"ll all be put to the test, as far as that goes. And we must quit us like sensible folk, living and let live. Phil isn"t selfish, though she"s a little thoughtless, and I believe we will all get on beautifully in Patty"s Place."
Chapter XI
The Round of Life
Anne was back in Avonlea with the l.u.s.ter of the Thorburn Scholarship on her brow. People told her she hadn"t changed much, in a tone which hinted they were surprised and a little disappointed she hadn"t. Avonlea had not changed, either. At least, so it seemed at first. But as Anne sat in the Green Gables pew, on the first Sunday after her return, and looked over the congregation, she saw several little changes which, all coming home to her at once, made her realize that time did not quite stand still, even in Avonlea. A new minister was in the pulpit. In the pews more than one familiar face was missing forever. Old "Uncle Abe,"
his prophesying over and done with, Mrs. Peter Sloane, who had sighed, it was to be hoped, for the last time, Timothy Cotton, who, as Mrs.
Rachel Lynde said "had actually managed to die at last after practicing at it for twenty years," and old Josiah Sloane, whom n.o.body knew in his coffin because he had his whiskers neatly trimmed, were all sleeping in the little graveyard behind the church. And Billy Andrews was married to Nettie Blewett! They "appeared out" that Sunday. When Billy, beaming with pride and happiness, showed his be-plumed and be-silked bride into the Harmon Andrews" pew, Anne dropped her lids to hide her dancing eyes.
She recalled the stormy winter night of the Christmas holidays when Jane had proposed for Billy. He certainly had not broken his heart over his rejection. Anne wondered if Jane had also proposed to Nettie for him, or if he had mustered enough s.p.u.n.k to ask the fateful question himself. All the Andrews family seemed to share in his pride and pleasure, from Mrs. Harmon in the pew to Jane in the choir. Jane had resigned from the Avonlea school and intended to go West in the fall.
"Can"t get a beau in Avonlea, that"s what," said Mrs. Rachel Lynde scornfully. "SAYS she thinks she"ll have better health out West. I never heard her health was poor before."