CHAPTER XXIV. Miss Stacy and Her Pupils Get Up a Concert
|IT was October again when Anne was ready to go back to school--aglorious October, all red and gold, with mellow mornings when thevalleys were filled with delicate mists as if the spirit of autumn hadpoured them in for the sun to drain--amethyst, pearl, silver, rose, andsmoke-blue. The dews were so heavy that the fields glistened like clothof silver and there were such heaps of rustling leaves in the hollows ofmany-stemmed woods to run crisply through. The Birch Path was a canopyof yellow and the ferns were sear and brown all along it. There was atang in the very air that inspired the hearts of small maidens tripping,unlike snails, swiftly and willingly to school; and it _was_ jolly tobe back again at the little brown desk beside Diana, with Ruby Gillisnodding across the aisle and Carrie Sloane sending up notes and JuliaBell passing a "chew" of gum down from the back seat. Anne drew a longbreath of happiness as she sharpened her pencil and arranged her picturecards in her desk. Life was certainly very interesting.
In the new teacher she found another true and helpful friend. Miss Stacywas a bright, sympathetic young woman with the happy gift of winning andholding the affections of her pupils and bringing out the best that wasin them mentally and morally. Anne expanded like a flower under thiswholesome influence and carried home to the admiring Matthew and thecritical Marilla glowing accounts of schoolwork and aims.
"I love Miss Stacy with my whole heart, Marilla. She is so ladylikeand she has such a sweet voice. When she pronounces my name I feel_instinctively_ that she's spelling it with an E. We had recitationsthis afternoon. I just wish you could have been there to hear me recite'Mary, Queen of Scots.' I just put my whole soul into it. Ruby Gillistold me coming home that the way I said the line, 'Now for my father'sarm,' she said, 'my woman's heart farewell,' just made her blood runcold."
"Well now, you might recite it for me some of these days, out in thebarn," suggested Matthew.
"Of course I will," said Anne meditatively, "but I won't be able to doit so well, I know. It won't be so exciting as it is when you have awhole schoolful before you hanging breathlessly on your words. I know Iwon't be able to make your blood run cold."
"Mrs. Lynde says it made _her_ blood run cold to see the boys climbing tothe very tops of those big trees on Bell's hill after crows' nests lastFriday," said Marilla. "I wonder at Miss Stacy for encouraging it."
"But we wanted a crow's nest for nature study," explained Anne. "Thatwas on our field afternoon. Field afternoons are splendid, Marilla.And Miss Stacy explains everything so beautifully. We have to writecompositions on our field afternoons and I write the best ones."
"It's very vain of you to say so then. You'd better let your teacher sayit."
"But she _did_ say it, Marilla. And indeed I'm not vain about it. How canI be, when I'm such a dunce at geometry? Although I'm really beginningto see through it a little, too. Miss Stacy makes it so clear. Still,I'll never be good at it and I assure you it is a humbling reflection.But I love writing compositions. Mostly Miss Stacy lets us chooseour own subjects; but next week we are to write a composition on someremarkable person. It's hard to choose among so many remarkable peoplewho have lived. Mustn't it be splendid to be remarkable and havecompositions written about you after you're dead? Oh, I would dearlylove to be remarkable. I think when I grow up I'll be a trained nurseand go with the Red Crosses to the field of battle as a messenger ofmercy. That is, if I don't go out as a foreign missionary. That wouldbe very romantic, but one would have to be very good to be a missionary,and that would be a stumbling block. We have physical culture exercisesevery day, too. They make you graceful and promote digestion."
"Promote fiddlesticks!" said Marilla, who honestly thought it was allnonsense.
But all the field afternoons and recitation Fridays and physical culturecontortions paled before a project which Miss Stacy brought forward inNovember. This was that the scholars of Avonlea school should get upa concert and hold it in the hall on Christmas Night, for the laudablepurpose of helping to pay for a schoolhouse flag. The pupils one andall taking graciously to this plan, the preparations for a programwere begun at once. And of all the excited performers-elect none was soexcited as Anne Shirley, who threw herself into the undertaking heartand soul, hampered as she was by Marilla's disapproval. Marilla thoughtit all rank foolishness.
"It's just filling your heads up with nonsense and taking time thatought to be put on your lessons," she grumbled. "I don't approve ofchildren's getting up concerts and racing about to practices. It makesthem vain and forward and fond of gadding."
"But think of the worthy object," pleaded Anne. "A flag will cultivate aspirit of patriotism, Marilla."
"Fudge! There's precious little patriotism in the thoughts of any ofyou. All you want is a good time."
"Well, when you can combine patriotism and fun, isn't it all right? Ofcourse it's real nice to be getting up a concert. We're going to havesix choruses and Diana is to sing a solo. I'm in two dialogues--'TheSociety for the Suppression of Gossip' and 'The Fairy Queen.' The boysare going to have a dialogue too. And I'm to have two recitations,Marilla. I just tremble when I think of it, but it's a nice thrilly kindof tremble. And we're to have a tableau at the last--'Faith, Hope andCharity.' Diana and Ruby and I are to be in it, all draped in white withflowing hair. I'm to be Hope, with my hands clasped--so--and my eyesuplifted. I'm going to practice my recitations in the garret. Don't bealarmed if you hear me groaning. I have to groan heartrendingly in oneof them, and it's really hard to get up a good artistic groan, Marilla.Josie Pye is sulky because she didn't get the part she wanted inthe dialogue. She wanted to be the fairy queen. That would have beenridiculous, for who ever heard of a fairy queen as fat as Josie? Fairyqueens must be slender. Jane Andrews is to be the queen and I am to beone of her maids of honor. Josie says she thinks a red-haired fairy isjust as ridiculous as a fat one, but I do not let myself mind what Josiesays. I'm to have a wreath of white roses on my hair and Ruby Gillisis going to lend me her slippers because I haven't any of my own. It'snecessary for fairies to have slippers, you know. You couldn't imaginea fairy wearing boots, could you? Especially with copper toes? We aregoing to decorate the hall with creeping spruce and fir mottoes withpink tissue-paper roses in them. And we are all to march in two by twoafter the audience is seated, while Emma White plays a march on theorgan. Oh, Marilla, I know you are not so enthusiastic about it as I am,but don't you hope your little Anne will distinguish herself?"
"All I hope is that you'll behave yourself. I'll be heartily glad whenall this fuss is over and you'll be able to settle down. You are simplygood for nothing just now with your head stuffed full of dialogues andgroans and tableaus. As for your tongue, it's a marvel it's not cleanworn out."
Anne sighed and betook herself to the back yard, over which a young newmoon was shining through the leafless poplar boughs from an apple-greenwestern sky, and where Matthew was splitting wood. Anne perched herselfon a block and talked the concert over with him, sure of an appreciativeand sympathetic listener in this instance at least.
"Well now, I reckon it's going to be a pretty good concert. And Iexpect you'll do your part fine," he said, smiling down into her eager,vivacious little face. Anne smiled back at him. Those two were the bestof friends and Matthew thanked his stars many a time and oft that he hadnothing to do with bringing her up. That was Marilla's exclusive duty;if it had been his he would have been worried over frequent conflictsbetween inclination and said duty. As it was, he was free to, "spoilAnne"--Marilla's phrasing--as much as he liked. But it was not such abad arrangement after all; a little "appreciation" sometimes does quiteas much good as all the conscientious "bringing up" in the world.