With the end of June came the
close of the term and the close
of Miss Stacy's rule in Avonlea
school. Anne and Diana walked
home that evening feeling very
sober indeed. Red eyes and damp
handkerchiefs bore convincing
testimony to the fact that Miss
Stacy's farewell words must have
been quite as touching as Mr.
Phillips's had been under similar
circumstances three years before.
Diana looked back at the schoolhouse
from the foot of the spruce hill
and sighed deeply.
"It does seem as if it was
the end of everything, doesn't
it?" she said dismally.
"You oughtn't to feel half
as badly as I do," said Anne,
hunting vainly for a dry spot
on her handkerchief. "You'll
be back again next winter, but
I suppose I've left the dear
old school forever-- if I have
good luck, that is."
"It won't be
a bit the same. Miss Stacy
won't be there, nor
you nor Jane nor Ruby probably.
I shall have to sit all alone,
for I couldn't bear to have another
deskmate after you. Oh, we have
had jolly times, haven't we,
Anne? It's dreadful to think
they're all over."
Two big tears rolled down by
Diana's nose.
"If you would stop crying I
could," said Anne imploringly. "Just
as soon as I put away my hanky
I see you brimming up and that
starts me off again. As Mrs.
Lynde says, `If you can't be
cheerful, be as cheerful as you
can.' After all, I dare say I'll
be back next year. This is one
of the times I KNOW I'm not going
to pass. They're getting alarmingly
frequent."
"Why, you came
out splendidly in the exams
Miss Stacy gave."
"Yes, but those
exams didn't make me nervous.
When I think
of the real thing you can't imagine
what a horrid cold fluttery feeling
comes round my heart. And then
my number is thirteen and Josie
Pye says it's so unlucky. I am
NOT superstitious and I know
it can make no difference. But
still I wish it wasn't thirteen."
"I do wish I was going in with
you," said Diana. "Wouldn't we
have a perfectly elegant time?
But I suppose you'll have to
cram in the evenings."
"No; Miss Stacy
has made us promise not to
open a book at
all. She says it would only tire
and confuse us and we are to
go out walking and not think
about the exams at all and go
to bed early. It's good advice,
but I expect it will be hard
to follow; good advice is apt
to be, I think. Prissy Andrews
told me that she sat up half
the night every night of her
Entrance week and crammed for
dear life; and I had determined
to sit up AT LEAST as long as
she did. It was so kind of your
Aunt Josephine to ask me to stay
at Beechwood while I'm in town."
"You'll write
to me while you're in, won't
you?"
"I'll write Tuesday night and
tell you how the first day goes," promised
Anne.
"I'll be haunting the post
office Wednesday," vowed Diana.
Anne went to town the following
Monday and on Wednesday Diana
haunted the post office, as agreed,
and got her letter.
"Dearest Diana" [wrote
Anne],
"Here it is Tuesday night and
I'm writing this in the library
at Beechwood. Last night I was
horribly lonesome all alone in
my room and wished so much you
were with me. I couldn't "cram" because
I'd promised Miss Stacy not to,
but it was as hard to keep from
opening my history as it used
to be to keep from reading a
story before my lessons were
learned.
"This morning
Miss Stacy came for me and
we went to the Academy,
calling for Jane and Ruby and
Josie on our way. Ruby asked
me to feel her hands and they
were as cold as ice. Josie said
I looked as if I hadn't slept
a wink and she didn't believe
I was strong enough to stand
the grind of the teacher's course
even if I did get through. There
are times and seasons even yet
when I don't feel that I've made
any great headway in learning
to like Josie Pye!
"When we reached
the Academy there were scores
of students
there from all over the Island.
The first person we saw was Moody
Spurgeon sitting on the steps
and muttering away to himself.
Jane asked him what on earth
he was doing and he said he was
repeating the multiplication
table over and over to steady
his nerves and for pity's sake
not to interrupt him, because
if he stopped for a moment he
got frightened and forgot everything
he ever knew, but the multiplication
table kept all his facts firmly
in their proper place!
"When we were
assigned to our rooms Miss
Stacy had to leave
us. Jane and I sat together and
Jane was so composed that I envied
her. No need of the multiplication
table for good, steady, sensible
Jane! I wondered if I looked
as I felt and if they could hear
my heart thumping clear across
the room. Then a man came in
and began distributing the English
examination sheets. My hands
grew cold then and my head fairly
whirled around as I picked it
up. Just one awful moment--Diana,
I felt exactly as I did four
years ago when I asked Marilla
if I might stay at Green Gables--and
then everything cleared up in
my mind and my heart began beating
again--I forgot to say that it
had stopped altogether!--for
I knew I could do something with
THAT paper anyhow.
"At noon we
went home for dinner and then
back again for history
in the afternoon. The history
was a pretty hard paper and I
got dreadfully mixed up in the
dates. Still, I think I did fairly
well today. But oh, Diana, tomorrow
the geometry exam comes off and
when I think of it it takes every
bit of determination I possess
to keep from opening my Euclid.
If I thought the multiplication
table would help me any I would
recite it from now till tomorrow
morning.
"I went down
to see the other girls this
evening. On my way
I met Moody Spurgeon wandering
distractedly around. He said
he knew he had failed in history
and he was born to be a disappointment
to his parents and he was going
home on the morning train; and
it would be easier to be a carpenter
than a minister, anyhow. I cheered
him up and persuaded him to stay
to the end because it would be
unfair to Miss Stacy if he didn't.
Sometimes I have wished I was
born a boy, but when I see Moody
Spurgeon I'm always glad I'm
a girl and not his sister.
"Ruby was in
hysterics when I reached their
boardinghouse;
she had just discovered a fearful
mistake she had made in her English
paper. When she recovered we
went uptown and had an ice cream.
How we wished you had been with
us.
"Oh, Diana,
if only the geometry examination
were over! But there,
as Mrs. Lynde would say, the
sun will go on rising and setting
whether I fail in geometry or
not. That is true but not especially
comforting. I think I'd rather
it didn't go on if I failed!
Yours devotedly,
Anne"
The geometry examination and
all the others were over in due
time and Anne arrived home on
Friday evening, rather tired
but with an air of chastened
triumph about her. Diana was
over at Green Gables when she
arrived and they met as if they
had been parted for years.
"You old darling,
it's perfectly splendid to
see you back again.
It seems like an age since you
went to town and oh, Anne, how
did you get along?"
"Pretty well,
I think, in everything but
the geometry. I don't know
whether I passed in it or not
and I have a creepy, crawly presentiment
that I didn't. Oh, how good it
is to be back! Green Gables is
the dearest, loveliest spot in
the world."
"How did the
others do?"
"The girls
say they know they didn't pass,
but I think they
did pretty well. Josie says the
geometry was so easy a child
of ten could do it! Moody Spurgeon
still thinks he failed in history
and Charlie says he failed in
algebra. But we don't really
know anything about it and won't
until the pass list is out. That
won't be for a fortnight. Fancy
living a fortnight in such suspense!
I wish I could go to sleep and
never wake up until it is over."
Diana knew it would be useless
to ask how Gilbert Blythe had
fared, so she merely said:
"Oh, you'll
pass all right. Don't worry."
"I'd rather not pass at all
than not come out pretty well
up on the list," flashed Anne,
by which she meant--and Diana
knew she meant--that success
would be incomplete and bitter
if she did not come out ahead
of Gilbert Blythe.
With this end in view Anne
had strained every nerve during
the examinations. So had Gilbert.
They had met and passed each
other on the street a dozen times
without any sign of recognition
and every time Anne had held
her head a little higher and
wished a little more earnestly
that she had made friends with
Gilbert when he asked her, and
vowed a little more determinedly
to surpass him in the examination.
She knew that all Avonlea junior
was wondering which would come
out first; she even knew that
Jimmy Glover and Ned Wright had
a bet on the question and that
Josie Pye had said there was
no doubt in the world that Gilbert
would be first; and she felt
that her humiliation would be
unbearable if she failed.
But she had
another and nobler motive for
wishing to do well.
She wanted to "pass high" for
the sake of Matthew and Marilla--
especially Matthew. Matthew had
declared to her his conviction
that she "would beat the whole
Island." That, Anne felt, was
something it would be foolish
to hope for even in the wildest
dreams. But she did hope fervently
that she would be among the first
ten at least, so that she might
see Matthew's kindly brown eyes
gleam with pride in her achievement.
That, she felt, would be a sweet
reward indeed for all her hard
work and patient grubbing among
unimaginative equations and conjugations.
At the end
of the fortnight Anne took
to "haunting" the post
office also, in the distracted
company of Jane, Ruby, and Josie,
opening the Charlottetown dailies
with shaking hands and cold,
sinkaway feelings as bad as any
experienced during the Entrance
week. Charlie and Gilbert were
not above doing this too, but
Moody Spurgeon stayed resolutely
away.
"I haven't got the grit to
go there and look at a paper
in cold blood," he told Anne. "I'm
just going to wait until somebody
comes and tells me suddenly whether
I've passed or not."
When three weeks had gone by
without the pass list appearing
Anne began to feel that she really
couldn't stand the strain much
longer. Her appetite failed and
her interest in Avonlea doings
languished. Mrs. Lynde wanted
to know what else you could expect
with a Tory superintendent of
education at the head of affairs,
and Matthew, noting Anne's paleness
and indifference and the lagging
steps that bore her home from
the post office every afternoon,
began seriously to wonder if
he hadn't better vote Grit at
the next election.
But one evening the news came.
Anne was sitting at her open
window, for the time forgetful
of the woes of examinations and
the cares of the world, as she
drank in the beauty of the summer
dusk, sweet-scented with flower
breaths from the garden below
and sibilant and rustling from
the stir of poplars. The eastern
sky above the firs was flushed
faintly pink from the reflection
of the west, and Anne was wondering
dreamily if the spirit of color
looked like that, when she saw
Diana come flying down through
the firs, over the log bridge,
and up the slope, with a fluttering
newspaper in her hand.
Anne sprang to her feet, knowing
at once what that paper contained.
The pass list was out! Her head
whirled and her heart beat until
it hurt her. She could not move
a step. It seemed an hour to
her before Diana came rushing
along the hall and burst into
the room without even knocking,
so great was her excitement.
"Anne, you've passed," she
cried, "passed the VERY FIRST--you
and Gilbert both--you're ties--but
your name is first. Oh, I'm so
proud!"
Diana flung the paper on the
table and herself on Anne's bed,
utterly breathless and incapable
of further speech. Anne lighted
the lamp, oversetting the match
safe and using up half a dozen
matches before her shaking hands
could accomplish the task. Then
she snatched up the paper. Yes,
she had passed--there was her
name at the very top of a list
of two hundred! That moment was
worth living for.
"You did just splendidly, Anne," puffed
Diana, recovering sufficiently
to sit up and speak, for Anne,
starry eyed and rapt, had not
uttered a word. "Father brought
the paper home from Bright River
not ten minutes ago--it came
out on the afternoon train, you
know, and won't be here till
tomorrow by mail--and when I
saw the pass list I just rushed
over like a wild thing. You've
all passed, every one of you,
Moody Spurgeon and all, although
he's conditioned in history.
Jane and Ruby did pretty well--they're
halfway up--and so did Charlie.
Josie just scraped through with
three marks to spare, but you'll
see she'll put on as many airs
as if she'd led. Won't Miss Stacy
be delighted? Oh, Anne, what
does it feel like to see your
name at the head of a pass list
like that? If it were me I know
I'd go crazy with joy. I am pretty
near crazy as it is, but you're
as calm and cool as a spring
evening."
"I'm just dazzled inside," said
Anne. "I want to say a hundred
things, and I can't find words
to say them in. I never dreamed
of this--yes, I did too, just
once! I let myself think ONCE,
`What if I should come out first?'
quakingly, you know, for it seemed
so vain and presumptuous to think
I could lead the Island. Excuse
me a minute, Diana. I must run
right out to the field to tell
Matthew. Then we'll go up the
road and tell the good news to
the others."
They hurried to the hayfield
below the barn where Matthew
was coiling hay, and, as luck
would have it, Mrs. Lynde was
talking to Marilla at the lane
fence.
"Oh, Matthew," exclaimed Anne, "I've
passed and I'm first--or one
of the first! I'm not vain, but
I'm thankful."
"Well now, I always said it," said
Matthew, gazing at the pass list
delightedly. "I knew you could
beat them all easy."
"You've done pretty well, I
must say, Anne," said Marilla,
trying to hide her extreme pride
in Anne from Mrs. Rachel's critical
eye. But that good soul said
heartily:
"I just guess
she has done well, and far
be it from me to
be backward in saying it. You're
a credit to your friends, Anne,
that's what, and we're all proud
of you."
That night Anne, who had wound
up the delightful evening with
a serious little talk with Mrs.
Allan at the manse, knelt sweetly
by her open window in a great
sheen of moonshine and murmured
a prayer of gratitude and aspiration
that came straight from her heart.
There was in it thankfulness
for the past and reverent petition
for the future; and when she
slept on her white pillow her
dreams were as fair and bright
and beautiful as maidenhood might
desire.
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