Chatty's grandmother."
"School closed today. Two months of Green Gables and dew-wet,
spicy ferns ankle-deep along the brook and lazy, dappling shadows
in Lover's Lane and wild strawberries in Mr. Bell's pasture and the
dark loveliness of firs in the Haunted Wood! My very soul has
wings.
"Jen Pringle brought me a bouquet of lilies of the valley and
wished me a happy vacation. She's coming down to spend a week-end
with me some time. Talk of miracles!
"But little Elizabeth is heart-broken. I wanted her for a visit,
too, but Mrs. Campbell did not 'deem it advisable.' Luckily, I
hadn't said anything to Elizabeth about it, so she was spared that
disappointment.
"'I believe I'll be Lizzie all the time you're away, Miss Shirley,'
she told me. 'I'll feel like Lizzie anyway.'
"'But think of the fun we'll have when I come back,' I said. 'Of
course you won't be Lizzie. There's no such person as Lizzie in
you. And I'll write you every week, little Elizabeth.'
"'Oh, Miss Shirley, will you! I've never had a letter in my life.
Won't it be fun! And I'll write you if they'll let me have a
stamp. If they don't, you'll know I'm thinking of you just the
same. I've called the chipmunk in the back yard after you . . .
Shirley. You don't mind, do you? I thought at first of calling it
Anne Shirley . . . but then I thought that mightn't be respectful
. . . and, anyway, Anne doesn't sound chipmunky. Besides, it might
be a gentleman chipmunk. Chipmunks are such darling things, aren't
they? But the Woman says they eat the rosebush roots.'
"'She would!' I said.
"I asked Katherine Brooke where she was going to spend the summer
and she briefly answered, 'Here. Where did you suppose?'
"I felt as if I ought to ask her to Green Gables, but I just
couldn't. Of course I don't suppose she'd have come, anyway. And
she's such a kill-joy. She'd spoil everything. But when I think
of her alone in that cheap boarding-house all summer, my conscience
gives me unpleasant jabs.
"Dusty Miller brought in a live snake the other day and dropped it
on the floor of the kitchen. If Rebecca Dew could have turned pale
she would have. 'This is really the last straw!' she said. But
Rebecca Dew is just a little peevish these days because she has to
spend all her spare time picking big gray-green beetles off the
rose trees and dropping them in a can of kerosene. She thinks
there are entirely too many insects in the world.
"'It's just going to be eaten up by them some day,' she predicts
mournfully.
"Nora Nelson is to be married to Jim Wilcox in September. Very
quietly . . . no fuss, no guests, no bridesmaids. Nora told me
that was the only way to escape Aunt Mouser, and she will not have
Aunt Mouser to see her married. I'm to be present, however, sort
of unofficially. Nora says Jim would never have come back if I
hadn't set that light in the window. He was going to sell his
store and go west. Well, when I think of all the matches I'm
supposed to have made . . .
"Sally says they'll fight most of their time but that they'll be
happier fighting with each other than agreeing with anybody else.
But I don't think they'll fight . . . much. I think it is just
misunderstanding that makes most of the trouble in the world. You
and I for so long, now . . .
"Good night, belovedest. Your sleep will be sweet if there is any
influence in the wishes of
"YOUR OWN.
"P.S. The above sentence is quoted verbatim from a letter of Aunt
Chatty's grandmother."