01x16 - It's Nicer Not to Know

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It has been a summer of

marvelous developments.

Miss Lavendar's wedding.

Diana's engagement.

And as for myself,

I will be going to Redmond College.

It's from Priscilla Grant.

She is going to Redmond, too.

We're to board together.

Is that so?

I can face all the professors in one

fell phalanx with Priscilla by my side.

I'm glad to hear it.

I think we'll like Kingsport.

It's a nice old burg, they tell me, and

has the finest natural park in the world.

I can hardly wait.

Neither can I.

But will it be more beautiful than this?

Can it be more beautiful than this?

I wonder.

You are very quiet, Anne.

Anne?

I'm afraid to speak or move for

fear all this wonderful beauty

will vanish just like a broken silence.

Anne

I must go home.

Our friendship will be spoiled if

he goes on with this nonsense.

My friend says his mother says you're

going to college to see if you can catch a man.

Are you, Anne?

No, I'm not.

I'm going to study and grow

and learn about many things.

But if you did want to catch a man,

how would you go about it?

I want to know.

It's time you went to bed, Davy-boy.

Chapter 16

It's Nicer Not to Know

Allow me to present tokens of

our respect to Anne and Gilbert

as founders of the Avonlea

Village Improvement Society.

Best of luck.

We will carry on the Society,

so pursue your studies without fear.

Congratulations on going off to college.

Congratulations!

Take care!

Good luck at Redmond.

Congratulations.

Isn't it a fine night?

It was nice of them to go through all

that trouble for us, don't you think?

Yes, it was.

What wonderful friends they are.

Anne

I'm sorry I surprised you last night.

If you don't mind,

I wanted to talk about our—

Let's not!

I don't want to hear that sort of talk now.

Gilbert! Won't you walk home with me?

Oh, of course.

I'd be happy to escort you.

Oh, good!

Shall I see you home, Anne?

It's getting late. We'd best get going.

Come on!

R-Right.

Wasn't today a jolly good time?

Yes, I suppose.

I hope we'll stay friends

once you go to Redmond.

Yes, I suppose.

I don't want to hear that sort of talk now.

What did they give you as a present?

Yes, I suppose.

Yes?

Good morning, Marilla.

I've come to say goodbye to Anne.

I cannot for the life of me see what

a woman needs with so much education.

Is it too late to reconsider?

Well

Hello. Is Anne in?

It must cost an awful lot to

put in four years at Redmond.

That can't be easy on Marilla.

No.

Where is Anne?

I can't help worrying

if you won't come back from Kingsport

thinking you know it all and looking down

on everything and everybody in Avonlea.

Don't misunderstand me.

It's your own good I'm thinking of.

What are you daydreaming for?

You leave tomorrow.

Will your things be packed in time?

I'm packing them now.

Honestly.

I cannot for the life of me see what

a woman needs with so much education.

They let me see they thought I was crazy

going to Redmond and trying to take a B.A.,

and ever since,

I've been wondering if I am.

You surely don't care for what they said.

You know exactly how narrow

their outlook on life is,

excellent creatures though they are.

Oh, I know.

You are the first Avonlea girl

who has ever gone to college;

and you know that all pioneers

have their struggles.

Come, forget it all and take a walk with me.

There's something I want to show you.

Ah, here it is!

An apple tree!

And away back here!

I was here one day last spring and

found it, all white with blossom.

So I resolved I'd come again in the

fall and see if it had been apples.

I suppose it sprang years ago

from some chance-sown seed.

And how it has grown and flourished and

held its own here all alone among aliens,

the brave determined thing!

Here's a fallen tree with a cushion of moss.

It will serve for a woodland throne.

Sit down, Anne.

Delicious!

The fatal apple of Eden couldn't

have had a rarer flavor.

That may be the best apple I've ever eaten.

Do you feel better now?

Yes.

Those apples have been as

manna to a hungry soul.

I feel that I shall love Redmond and

have a splendid four years there.

And after those four years—what?

Oh, there's another bend

in the road at their end.

I've no idea what may be around it—

I don't want to have.

It's nicer not to know.

If Gilbert were always

as he has been this evening,

how nice and simple

everything would be.

I wonder if I can ever

make her care for me.

Be careful of your health,

whatever you do.

Thank you, Mrs. Lynde.

And the same to you.

I suppose we'll hear from you

once you've got settled?

I'll write at once.

Dora.

When will we see you again, Anne?

I'll come home for Christmas.

You must.

Play nice with Davy.

I will.

Let me give you a

kiss goodbye, Davy-boy.

Uh-uh.

Davy

So that is Kingsport!

Well then, we'll all meet

at Redmond tomorrow.

Take a good night's rest.

Good night.

Good night to you both.

Anne!

Prissy!

Welcome to Kingsport!

I suppose you must be tired.

Tired! Priscilla, don't speak of it.

Then I'll show you around

the boardinghouse.

Yes.

And introduce you to our landladies.

Ladies?

Please, come in.

We've been expecting you.

I can't get away from twins, it seems.

Your room is a front one and looks

out on Old St. John's graveyard.

A graveyard?

That sounds gruesome.

Oh, no, it isn't.

It has "scope for imagination,"

as you always say.

I suppose that very moon is looking

down on Green Gables now.

But I won't think about it.

I'm not even going to have my good cry.

Just now, I'll go calmly and

sensibly to bed and to sleep.

Everybody is so fast and so lively.

Oh, Prissy, I feel as insignificant as the

teeniest drop in a most enormous bucket.

Wait a while.

Then we'll be able to look as bored

and sophisticated as any of them.

Anne!

Why, Gilbert, it's been ages!

Priscilla! I'm glad we'll

be classmates again.

Not as glad as I am.

How is your boardinghouse?

Delightful.

We're on our way to register as students.

But I see you've already done that.

Yes.

In that case—

Hey!

Gilbert! Over here!

I'll be right there!

I'm going to eat with some

people in our year I met.

I'll see you later.

I see he's already made friends.

He's like a duck to water.

But how he has grown up this past year.

What? Has he?

Don't you think he's handsomer than ever?

Come on, we'd better register!

Hurry up!

Not so fast!

A new school, and new people

in the years above me.

I'm glad to have Priscilla with me,

but will we find a place of our own here?

Is she new here, too, do you

think? She's awfully citified.

And awfully pretty.

Tell me, do you think

we'll ever get on in this town?

I don't know.

But I'm thankful that none of the Avonlea

ladies know my state of mind at present.

They would exult in saying,

"I told you so."

That sounds more Anneish.

In a little while, we'll be acclimated

and acquainted, and all will be well.

I certainly hope so.

Now, there's a place

I'd like to go after lunch.

Where?

A place with "scope for imagination."

It's everything you said it was.

There are so many trees here, I can

imagine I'm in the Avonlea woods.

"Here lieth the body of

Albert Crawford, Esq.,"

"for many years Keeper of His

Majesty's Ordnance at Kingsport."

"He was a brave officer,

the best of husbands,"

"the best of fathers, the best of friends."

There's an epitaph for you.

Yes, it is.

How full such a life must

have been of adventure!

What a wonder old graveyards are.

I shall come here often.

It's the very girl we saw

at Redmond this morning.

Yes, it is.

Good day.

We wondered if we might—

Oh, I want to know who you two girls are!

I've been dying to know.

I saw you at Redmond this morning.

Say, wasn't it awful there?

For the time, I wished I had

stayed home and got married!

Married?

What a way to put it.

Come, let's all sit down on this

gravestone and get acquainted.

I know we're going to adore each other.

I knew it as soon as I saw

you at Redmond this morning.

I wanted so much to go right

over and hug you both.

Why didn't you?

Because I never can make up my

mind about anything myself.

Philippa Gordon simply—

Oh, do call me Phil.

Now, what are your handles?

She's Priscilla Grant.

Call me Prissy.

And she's Anne Shirley.

And we're from the Island.

I hail from Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia.

Bolingbroke! Why, that is

where I was born.

Why, that makes you a

Bluenose after all.

No, it doesn't. I'm Island to the core.

Well, I'm glad, anyway.

No, I'm—

It makes us kind of neighbors, doesn't it?

Tell me, what do you think of my looks?

What?

I want your honest opinion!

We thought this morning that you were

the prettiest girl we saw at Redmond.

I thought that myself,

but I wanted someone else's

opinion to bolster mine up.

I can't decide even on my own appearance.

I don't know how you managed to make up

your mind to come to Redmond at all.

It was father who wanted me to come here.

I knew if I stayed home, I'd have

to get married. Mother wanted that.

And how could I ever have made

up my mind which man to marry?

Were there so many?

Heaps.

The boys like me awfully—they really do.

But most were too young and too poor.

I must marry a rich man, you know.

Why must you?

I am very extravagant.

So that narrowed it down to Alec and Alonzo.

The trouble was

You couldn't decide between the two of them?

That's just it!

Didn't you—love—either of them?

Goodness, no!

I couldn't love anybody.

Being in love makes you a

perfect sl*ve, I think.

I haven't quite disgusted you

with my frivolity, have I?

Isn't this graveyard a sweet place?

I'd love to be buried here.

Oh, girls, look, see.

It's the grave of a middy who was k*lled

in the fight between the

Shannon and the Chesapeake.

You know, the sea battle in 1813.

What is it, Anne?

Anne?

Anne Shirley.

Come back!

Anne Shirley!

Are you all right?

You were a hundred years

away from us just now.

Well, what do you think of our new friend?

That's a good question.

I like her. There is something

very lovable about her.

I like her, too. I'll be

glad to see more of her.

Yes!

I believe I've put forth a tiny soul-root

into Kingsport soil this afternoon.

I've made a new friend and learned

something of local history.

So I'll stop feeling frightened

that there's no place for me here.

After all, I came by my own choice.

Next Time

The Thing That Transforms

Everything Else—That's Love