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chapter xxisweet miss lavendar school opened and anne returned to herwork, with fewer theories but considerably more experience. she had several new pupils, six- and seven-year-olds just venturing, round-eyed, into a world of wonder.among them were davy and dora. davy sat with milty boulter, who had beengoing to school for a year and was therefore quite a man of the world. dora had made a compact at sunday schoolthe previous sunday to sit with lily sloane; but lily sloane not coming thefirst day, she was temporarily assigned to

mirabel cotton, who was ten years old and therefore, in dora's eyes, one of the "biggirls." "i think school is great fun," davy toldmarilla when he got home that night. "you said i'd find it hard to sit still andi did... you mostly do tell the truth, i notice...but you can wriggle your legsabout under the desk and that helps a lot. it's splendid to have so many boys to playwith. i sit with milty boulter and he's fine.he's longer than me but i'm wider. it's nicer to sit in the back seats but youcan't sit there till your legs grow long enough to touch the floor.

milty drawed a picture of anne on his slateand it was awful ugly and i told him if he made pictures of anne like that i'd lickhim at recess. i thought first i'd draw one of him and puthorns and a tail on it, but i was afraid it would hurt his feelings, and anne says youshould never hurt anyone's feelings. it seems it's dreadful to have yourfeelings hurt. it's better to knock a boy down than hurthis feelings if you must do something. milty said he wasn't scared of me but he'djust as soon call it somebody else to 'blige me, so he rubbed out anne's name andprinted barbara shaw's under it. milty doesn't like barbara 'cause she callshim a sweet little boy and once she patted

him on his head." dora said primly that she liked school; butshe was very quiet, even for her; and when at twilight marilla bade her go upstairs tobed she hesitated and began to cry. "i'm...i'm frightened," she sobbed. "i...i don't want to go upstairs alone inthe dark." "what notion have you got into your headnow?" demanded marilla. "i'm sure you've gone to bed alone allsummer and never been frightened before." dora still continued to cry, so anne pickedher up, cuddled her sympathetically, and whispered,

"tell anne all about it, sweetheart.what are you frightened of?" "of...of mirabel cotton's uncle," sobbeddora. "mirabel cotton told me all about herfamily today in school. nearly everybody in her family hasdied...all her grandfathers and grandmothers and ever so many uncles andaunts. they have a habit of dying, mirabel says. mirabel's awful proud of having so manydead relations, and she told me what they all died of, and what they said, and howthey looked in their coffins. and mirabel says one of her uncles was seenwalking around the house after he was

buried.her mother saw him. i don't mind the rest so much but i can'thelp thinking about that uncle." anne went upstairs with dora and sat by heruntil she fell asleep. the next day mirabel cotton was kept in atrecess and "gently but firmly" given to understand that when you were sounfortunate as to possess an uncle who persisted in walking about houses after he had been decently interred it was not ingood taste to talk about that eccentric gentleman to your deskmate of tender years.mirabel thought this very harsh. the cottons had not much to boast of.

how was she to keep up her prestige amongher schoolmates if she were forbidden to make capital out of the family ghost?september slipped by into a gold and crimson graciousness of october. one friday evening diana came over."i'd a letter from ella kimball today, anne, and she wants us to go over to teatomorrow afternoon to meet her cousin, irene trent, from town. but we can't get one of our horses to go,for they'll all be in use tomorrow, and your pony is lame...so i suppose we can'tgo." "why can't we walk?" suggested anne.

"if we go straight back through the woodswe'll strike the west grafton road not far from the kimball place.i was through that way last winter and i know the road. it's no more than four miles and we won'thave to walk home, for oliver kimball will be sure to drive us. he'll be only too glad of the excuse, forhe goes to see carrie sloane and they say his father will hardly ever let him have ahorse." it was accordingly arranged that theyshould walk, and the following afternoon they set out, going by way of lover's laneto the back of the cuthbert farm, where

they found a road leading into the heart of acres of glimmering beech and maple woods,which were all in a wondrous glow of flame and gold, lying in a great purple stillnessand peace. "it's as if the year were kneeling to prayin a vast cathedral full of mellow stained light, isn't it?" said anne dreamily."it doesn't seem right to hurry through it, does it? it seems irreverent, like running in achurch." "we must hurry though," said diana,glancing at her watch. "we've left ourselves little enough time asit is."

"well, i'll walk fast but don't ask me totalk," said anne, quickening her pace. "i just want to drink the day's lovelinessin...i feel as if she were holding it out to my lips like a cup of airy wine and i'lltake a sip at every step." perhaps it was because she was so absorbedin "drinking it in" that anne took the left turning when they came to a fork in theroad. she should have taken the right, but everafterward she counted it the most fortunate mistake of her life. they came out finally to a lonely, grassyroad, with nothing in sight along it but ranks of spruce saplings."why, where are we?" exclaimed diana in

bewilderment. "this isn't the west grafton road.""no, it's the base line road in middle grafton," said anne, rather shamefacedly."i must have taken the wrong turning at the fork. i don't know where we are exactly, but wemust be all of three miles from kimballs' still." "then we can't get there by five, for it'shalf past four now," said diana, with a despairing look at her watch. "we'll arrive after they have had theirtea, and they'll have all the bother of

getting ours over again.""we'd better turn back and go home," suggested anne humbly. but diana, after consideration, vetoedthis. "no, we may as well go and spend theevening, since we have come this far." a few yards further on the girls came to aplace where the road forked again. "which of these do we take?" asked dianadubiously. anne shook her head. "i don't know and we can't afford to makeany more mistakes. here is a gate and a lane leading rightinto the wood.

there must be a house at the other side. let us go down and inquire.""what a romantic old lane this it," said diana, as they walked along its twists andturns. it ran under patriarchal old firs whosebranches met above, creating a perpetual gloom in which nothing except moss couldgrow. on either hand were brown wood floors,crossed here and there by fallen lances of sunlight. all was very still and remote, as if theworld and the cares of the world were far away.

"i feel as if we were walking through anenchanted forest," said anne in a hushed tone."do you suppose we'll ever find our way back to the real world again, diana? we shall presently come to a palace with aspellbound princess in it, i think." around the next turn they came in sight,not indeed of a palace, but of a little house almost as surprising as a palacewould have been in this province of conventional wooden farmhouses, all as much alike in general characteristics as if theyhad grown from the same seed. anne stopped short in rapture and dianaexclaimed, "oh, i know where we are now.

that is the little stone house where misslavendar lewis lives...echo lodge, she calls it, i think.i've often heard of it but i've never seen it before. isn't it a romantic spot?""it's the sweetest, prettiest place i ever saw or imagined," said anne delightedly."it looks like a bit out of a story book or a dream." the house was a low-eaved structure builtof undressed blocks of red island sandstone, with a little peaked roof out ofwhich peered two dormer windows, with quaint wooden hoods over them, and twogreat chimneys.

the whole house was covered with aluxuriant growth of ivy, finding easy foothold on the rough stonework and turnedby autumn frosts to most beautiful bronze and wine-red tints. before the house was an oblong garden intowhich the lane gate where the girls were standing opened. the house bounded it on one side; on thethree others it was enclosed by an old stone dyke, so overgrown with moss andgrass and ferns that it looked like a high, green bank. on the right and left the tall, darkspruces spread their palm-like branches

over it; but below it was a little meadow,green with clover aftermath, sloping down to the blue loop of the grafton river. no other house or clearing was insight...nothing but hills and valleys covered with feathery young firs. "i wonder what sort of a person miss lewisis," speculated diana as they opened the gate into the garden."they say she is very peculiar." "she'll be interesting then," said annedecidedly. "peculiar people are always that at least,whatever else they are or are not. didn't i tell you we would come to anenchanted palace?

i knew the elves hadn't woven magic overthat lane for nothing." "but miss lavendar lewis is hardly aspellbound princess," laughed diana. "she's an old maid...she's forty-five andquite gray, i've heard." "oh, that's only part of the spell,"asserted anne confidently. "at heart she's young and beautifulstill...and if we only knew how to unloose the spell she would step forth radiant andfair again. but we don't know how...it's always andonly the prince who knows that ...and miss lavendar's prince hasn't come yet. perhaps some fatal mischance has befallenhim...though that's against the law of all

fairy tales.""i'm afraid he came long ago and went away again," said diana. "they say she used to be engaged to stephanirving...paul's father...when they were young.but they quarreled and parted." "hush," warned anne. "the door is open."the girls paused in the porch under the tendrils of ivy and knocked at the opendoor. there was a patter of steps inside and arather odd little personage presented herself...a girl of about fourteen, with afreckled face, a snub nose, a mouth so wide

that it did really seem as if it stretched "from ear to ear," and two long braids offair hair tied with two enormous bows of blue ribbon."is miss lewis at home?" asked diana. "yes, ma'am. come in, ma'am.i'll tell miss lavendar you're here, ma'am. she's upstairs, ma'am." with this the small handmaiden whisked outof sight and the girls, left alone, looked about them with delighted eyes.the interior of this wonderful little house was quite as interesting as its exterior.

the room had a low ceiling and two square,small-paned windows, curtained with muslin frills. all the furnishings were old-fashioned, butso well and daintily kept that the effect was delicious. but it must be candidly admitted that themost attractive feature, to two healthy girls who had just tramped four milesthrough autumn air, was a table, set out with pale blue china and laden with delicacies, while little golden-hued fernsscattered over the cloth gave it what anne would have termed "a festal air.""miss lavendar must be expecting company to

tea," she whispered. "there are six places set.but what a funny little girl she has. she looked like a messenger from pixy land.i suppose she could have told us the road, but i was curious to see miss lavendar. s...s...sh, she's coming."and with that miss lavendar lewis was standing in the doorway.the girls were so surprised that they forgot good manners and simply stared. they had unconsciously been expecting tosee the usual type of elderly spinster as known to their experience ...a ratherangular personage, with prim gray hair and

spectacles. nothing more unlike miss lavendar couldpossibly be imagined. she was a little lady with snow-white hairbeautifully wavy and thick, and carefully arranged in becoming puffs and coils. beneath it was an almost girlish face, pinkcheeked and sweet lipped, with big soft brown eyes and dimples...actually dimples. she wore a very dainty gown of cream muslinwith pale-hued roses on it...a gown which would have seemed ridiculously juvenile onmost women of her age, but which suited miss lavendar so perfectly that you neverthought about it at all.

"charlotta the fourth says that you wishedto see me," she said, in a voice that matched her appearance. "we wanted to ask the right road to westgrafton," said diana. "we are invited to tea at mr. kimball's,but we took the wrong path coming through the woods and came out to the base lineinstead of the west grafton road. do we take the right or left turning atyour gate?" "the left," said miss lavendar, with ahesitating glance at her tea table. then she exclaimed, as if in a suddenlittle burst of resolution, "but oh, won't you stay and have tea withme?

please, do. mr. kimball's will have tea over before youget there. and charlotta the fourth and i will be soglad to have you." diana looked mute inquiry at anne. "we'd like to stay," said anne promptly,for she had made up her mind that she wanted to know more of this surprising misslavendar, "if it won't inconvenience you. but you are expecting other guests, aren'tyou?" miss lavendar looked at her tea tableagain, and blushed. "i know you'll think me dreadfullyfoolish," she said.

"i am foolish ...and i'm ashamed of it wheni'm found out, but never unless i am found out. i'm not expecting anybody...i was justpretending i was. you see, i was so lonely. i love company... that is, the right kindof company...but so few people ever come here because it is so far out of the way.charlotta the fourth was lonely too. so i just pretended i was going to have atea party. i cooked for it...and decorated the tablefor it... and set it with my mother's wedding china ...and i dressed up for it."

diana secretly thought miss lavendar quiteas peculiar as report had pictured her. the idea of a woman of forty-five playingat having a tea party, just as if she were a little girl! but anne of the shining eyes exclaimedjoyfuly, "oh, do you imagine things too?" that "too" revealed a kindred spirit tomiss lavendar. "yes, i do," she confessed, boldly. "of course it's silly in anybody as old asi am. but what is the use of being an independentold maid if you can't be silly when you want to, and when it doesn't hurt anybody?

a person must have some compensations.i don't believe i could live at times if i didn't pretend things.i'm not often caught at it though, and charlotta the fourth never tells. but i'm glad to be caught today, for youhave really come and i have tea all ready for you.will you go up to the spare room and take off your hats? it's the white door at the head of thestairs. i must run out to the kitchen and see thatcharlotta the fourth isn't letting the tea boil.

charlotta the fourth is a very good girlbut she will let the tea boil." miss lavendar tripped off to the kitchen onhospitable thoughts intent and the girls found their way up to the spare room, anapartment as white as its door, lighted by the ivy-hung dormer window and looking, as anne said, like the place where happydreams grew. "this is quite an adventure, isn't it?"said diana. "and isn't miss lavendar sweet, if she is alittle odd? she doesn't look a bit like an old maid.""she looks just as music sounds, i think," answered anne.

when they went down miss lavendar wascarrying in the teapot, and behind her, looking vastly pleased, was charlotta thefourth, with a plate of hot biscuits. "now, you must tell me your names," saidmiss lavendar. "i'm so glad you are young girls.i love young girls. it's so easy to pretend i'm a girl myselfwhen i'm with them. i do hate"...with a little grimace..."tobelieve i'm old. now, who are you... just for convenience'sake? diana barry?and anne shirley? may i pretend that i've known you for ahundred years and call you anne and diana

right away?""you, may" the girls said both together. "then just let's sit comfily down and eateverything," said miss lavendar happily. "charlotta, you sit at the foot and helpwith the chicken. it is so fortunate that i made the spongecake and doughnuts. of course, it was foolish to do it forimaginary guests... i know charlotta the fourth thought so,didn't you, charlotta? but you see how well it has turned out. of course they wouldn't have been wasted,for charlotta the fourth and i could have eaten them through time.but sponge cake is not a thing that

improves with time." that was a merry and memorable meal; andwhen it was over they all went out to the garden, lying in the glamor of sunset. "i do think you have the loveliest placehere," said diana, looking round her admiringly."why do you call it echo lodge?" asked anne. "charlotta," said miss lavendar, "go intothe house and bring out the little tin horn that is hanging over the clock shelf."charlotta the fourth skipped off and returned with the horn.

"blow it, charlotta," commanded misslavendar. charlotta accordingly blew, a ratherraucous, strident blast. there was moment's stillness...and thenfrom the woods over the river came a multitude of fairy echoes, sweet, elusive,silvery, as if all the "horns of elfland" were blowing against the sunset. anne and diana exclaimed in delight."now laugh, charlotta...laugh loudly." charlotta, who would probably have obeyedif miss lavendar had told her to stand on her head, climbed upon the stone bench andlaughed loud and heartily. back came the echoes, as if a host of pixypeople were mimicking her laughter in the

purple woodlands and along the fir-fringedpoints. "people always admire my echoes very much,"said miss lavendar, as if the echoes were her personal property."i love them myself. they are very good company...with a littlepretending. on calm evenings charlotta the fourth and ioften sit out here and amuse ourselves with them. charlotta, take back the horn and hang itcarefully in its place." "why do you call her charlotta the fourth?"asked diana, who was bursting with curiosity on this point.

"just to keep her from getting mixed upwith other charlottas in my thoughts," said miss lavendar seriously."they all look so much alike there's no telling them apart. her name isn't really charlotta at all.it is...let me see...what is it? i think it's leonora...yes, it is leonora.you see, it is this way. when mother died ten years ago i couldn'tstay here alone... and i couldn't afford to pay the wages of a grown-up girl.so i got little charlotta bowman to come and stay with me for board and clothes. her name really was charlotta...she wascharlotta the first.

she was just thirteen. she stayed with me till she was sixteen andthen she went away to boston, because she could do better there.her sister came to stay with me then. her name was julietta...mrs. bowman had aweakness for fancy names i think ...but she looked so like charlotta that i keptcalling her that all the time ...and she didn't mind. so i just gave up trying to remember herright name. she was charlotta the second, and when shewent away evelina came and she was charlotta the third.

now i have charlotta the fourth; but whenshe is sixteen...she's fourteen now... she will want to go to boston too, and what ishall do then i really do not know. charlotta the fourth is the last of thebowman girls, and the best. the other charlottas always let me see thatthey thought it silly of me to pretend things but charlotta the fourth never does,no matter what she may really think. i don't care what people think about me ifthey don't let me see it." "well," said diana looking regretfully atthe setting sun. "i suppose we must go if we want to get tomr. kimball's before dark. we've had a lovely time, miss lewis.""won't you come again to see me?" pleaded

miss lavendar. tall anne put her arm about the littlelady. "indeed we shall," she promised."now that we have discovered you we'll wear out our welcome coming to see you. yes, we must go...'we must tear ourselves away,' as paul irving says every time he comes to greengables." "paul irving?" there was a subtle change in misslavendar's voice. "who is he?i didn't think there was anybody of that

name in avonlea." anne felt vexed at her own heedlessness.she had forgotten about miss lavendar's old romance when paul's name slipped out."he is a little pupil of mine," she explained slowly. "he came from boston last year to live withhis grandmother, mrs. irving of the shore road.""is he stephen irving's son?" miss lavendar asked, bending over hernamesake border so that her face was hidden."yes." "i'm going to give you girls a bunch oflavendar apiece," said miss lavendar

brightly, as if she had not heard theanswer to her question. "it's very sweet, don't you think? mother always loved it.she planted these borders long ago. father named me lavendar because he was sofond of it. the very first time he saw mother was whenhe visited her home in east grafton with her brother. he fell in love with her at first sight;and they put him in the spare room bed to sleep and the sheets were scented withlavendar and he lay awake all night and thought of her.

he always loved the scent of lavendar afterthat...and that was why he gave me the name.don't forget to come back soon, girls dear. we'll be looking for you, charlotta thefourth and i." she opened the gate under the firs for themto pass through. she looked suddenly old and tired; the glowand radiance had faded from her face; her parting smile was as sweet withineradicable youth as ever, but when the girls looked back from the first curve in the lane they saw her sitting on the oldstone bench under the silver poplar in the middle of the garden with her head leaningwearily on her hand.

"she does look lonely," said diana softly. "we must come often to see her.""i think her parents gave her the only right and fitting name that could possiblybe given her," said anne. "if they had been so blind as to name herelizabeth or nellie or muriel she must have been called lavendar just the same, ithink. it's so suggestive of sweetness and old-fashioned graces and 'silk attire.' now, my name just smacks of bread andbutter, patchwork and chores." "oh, i don't think so," said diana. "anne seems to me real stately and like aqueen.

but i'd like kerrenhappuch if it happenedto be your name. i think people make their names nice orugly just by what they are themselves. i can't bear josie or gertie for names nowbut before i knew the pye girls i thought them real pretty." "that's a lovely idea, diana," said anneenthusiastically. "living so that you beautify your name,even if it wasn't beautiful to begin with ...making it stand in people's thoughts forsomething so lovely and pleasant that they never think of it by itself. thank you, diana."

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