01x17 - Love is the Power That Transforms Everything

[bunniefuu]

I've been at Redmond three weeks now.

What a pleasant morning.

If feels as though it's blessing our futures.

Philippa and I became friends

almost as soon as we'd met.

Why, I was just thinking

that exact same thing.

Despite my misgivings,

my school life fell into focus.

I'm amazed.

What if you were friends

before you were born?

Perhaps we have been.

Hey, they say that Philippa's

the daughter of a rich man.

Pretty, smart, and a good family, too?

I'd sure like to get to know her.

Alec and Alonzo don't seem to

have any serious rival yet.

What do you mean?

Phil said she writes them both every

week about her worshipers here.

They must be beside themselves.

But, of course, the one

I like best I can't get.

Who?!

Gilbert Blythe

won't take any notice of me, except to look

at me as if I were a nice little kitten.

Too well I know the reason.

Anne Shirley?!

Listen here, Phil.

There's nothing at all

between Gilbert and me.

I know that, but I still owe you a grudge.

I really ought to hate you

and instead I love you madly,

Queen Anne.

And you, too, Prissy.

Thanks, Phil.

And what about you two?

Please tell me over again that

you like me a little bit.

Yes, of course!

I like you a big bit, Phil.

You're a dear, sweet, adorable kitten.

Chapter 17

Love is the Power

That Transforms Everything

Isn't it heavy?

Not a bit.

Honestly, that Philippa.

I don't mind. It's good exercise.

When you think of it like that,

being a porter doesn't sound so bad.

Well, this is where I leave you.

What? Why?

I need to make a stop. Thank you, Gilbert.

You're welcome.

Goodbye, Anne. I'll see you tomorrow.

S-See you.

Isn't she a marvel?

She holds her own in every class she takes.

Yes. When she finds time

to study is a mystery.

I hear you're top of your year

in English literature yourself.

If I am,

it must be because I was so desperate

to compete with someone in Avonlea.

I hear you have been elected

president of the freshman class.

Only because everybody put my name forward.

A position of honor and responsibility.

Anyway, I got asked to join

a fraternity, the "Lambs,"

only there was a bit of

an initiation ordeal.

What kind of "ordeal"?

I had to parade the business streets

in broad daylight, wearing

You should have told me!

I would have gone to see you.

I had to keep it up all day long!

And did any gentlemen try to court you?

If only!

My happiest moments now are those

in which letters come from home.

I particularly enjoyed Mrs. Lynde's.

Why, yesterday I ate so much,

my belly puffed up big as anything.

It makes me mad, such hopeless

candidates as they have sent us

But then, it's not the first time

I ate more than was good for me.

to fill the vacancy in the Avonlea church.

What am I going to do with myself?

And such nonsense as they preach!

And now talking about it

has me feeling peckish again.

Can anybody here spare a bite to eat?

Worst of all, this one goes on about

things you'll never find in Holy Writ.

Only my little joke, of course.

But really, I am famished.

Next week, I'll tell you

about the axe-head that swam.

But it seems everybody has

something to recommend him.

One day, that old pig of Mr. Harrison's

wandered into the church.

The poor pig was near scared to death.

I've never seen another minister hang on

to a pig's back as well as that one.

I wish you could have seen it!

I hate to laugh, but I can't help it.

Davy wrote me a charming letter, too.

Its awful lonesome here without

you but grate fun in school.

Jane andrews is crosser than you.

I showed mrs. lynde a jacky

lantern I made last nite.

Davy Keith, how many

times must I tell you?!

Marilla was offel mad about it.

Why was she mad? It was a good lantern.

Are you listening to me?!

Go to your room and stay there!

I herd mrs. lynde asking the minister

Say a prayer for me.

What did she do that was so bad, anne,

I want to know.

I'd like to know that myself.

Marilla's letter gives me

a whiff of Green Gables.

Yes?

Diana's is nothing but Fred.

You can't fault her for that.

And Ruby's

You all seem to be enjoying Redmond,

judging from Gilbert's letters.

Gilbert? Gilbert is writing to Ruby?

Of course I don't mind.

He has a perfect right to.

Anne?

O-Oh, Ruby wrote that she

misses me horribly.

That sounds just like her.

I'm glad to hear they're all well.

So am I.

Avonlea is on the other side of this sea.

It is far, but letters keep us tied to it.

Letters may not be the only thing that

allows me to feel close to Avonlea.

But really,

a pig running off with a

minister on his back?

Come in.

Oh, you're just in the nick of time.

We are going for a walk in the park.

Gilbert and Charlie, too.

How would you like to join us?

Two couples and me playing gooseberry?

Not at all.

Very well. That will be a new

experience for Philippa Gordon.

Is something the matter?

I got letters from Alec and Alonzo this

morning, and they're both furious.

It seems I sent a letter to Alec in

an envelope addressed to Alonzo,

and a letter to Alonzo in an

envelope addressed to Alec.

Goodness!

Of course they'll get over it,

and I don't care if they don't,

but I thought I'd come to you

darlings to get cheered up.

All the more reason you should join us!

Yes! It will take your mind

off the whole thing.

Yes, I think I will.

But Anne, why does your Gilbert go around

so much with a goose like Charlie?

Charlie and Gilbert have

always been friends.

Don't call him names.

What a fog we have today.

The warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador

Current run into each other near here.

Icebergs even float in now and then.

My!

You know the highlands in the

center of the Peninsula?

Aren't they perfect together?

The Labrador Current brings cold winds

that stop trees growing there,

Oh, I know.

So what's the problem?

Anne says she's had her heart set

on someone since she was a girl.

so they're covered in meadows.

Are they engaged?

It's not quite like that.

She hasn't even found him yet.

Oh?

Where is our boardinghouse?

That's Redmond College, so

It must be around there!

I know.

Let's go home around by Spofford Avenue.

We can see all "the handsome houses

where the wealthy nobles dwell."

I'd like that.

Then there's a perfectly k*lling

little place I want to show you.

It wasn't built—it grew!

How much would one have to work

to live in houses like these?

Where is the place you

wanted to show me, Phil?

Just ahead.

Oh, my!

It's the dearest place I ever saw!

It's dearer and quainter than even

Miss Lavendar's stone house.

It has a k*lling name, too,

especially on this avenue of

grand-sounding Cedarcrofts and suchlike.

"Patty's Place."

Patty's Place!

Do you have any idea who lives there?

Old Patty Spofford lives

there with her niece.

"Spofford"?

Yes. I've made a thorough study.

It was the very first house built

here a hundred years ago.

A hundred years? That can't be right.

Well, maybe a little less.

Exaggeration is merely a flight

of poetic fancy, Charlie.

This house is a piece of

local history, then.

Yes. Wealthy folk have tried to

buy the lot time and again,

but "Patty" won't sell

upon any consideration.

Look, Anne. An apple orchard.

Goodness!

A real apple orchard on Spofford Avenue!

I'm going to dream about

"Patty's Place" tonight.

I wonder if, by any chance,

we'll ever see the inside of it.

It isn't likely.

No, it isn't likely.

But I have a q*eer, creepy, crawly feeling—

you can call it a presentiment—

that "Patty's Place" and I are going

to be better acquainted yet.

We made it through exams somehow.

Tomorrow, the Christmas

holidays start at last.

I can't really believe that this time

tomorrow, I'll be in Green Gables.

None of us have been home in an age.

And you, Phil, will be

with Alec and Alonzo.

Yes. They're longing to see me back again.

There's to be no end of dances and

drives and general jamborees.

Anne,

I shall never forgive you for not coming

home with me for the holidays.

I'd love to go to Bolingbroke some day.

Why, then—

But I can't go this year—I must go home.

You don't know how

my heart longs for it, Phil.

All the old gossips will talk you over

to your face and behind your back.

You'll die of lonesomeness, child.

In Avonlea?

If you're going to be with

Gilbert, I could understand it.

I'm sorry to say I've no plans

to spend Christmas with him.

Then do come with me.

Bolingbroke would go wild over you—

your hair and your style and, oh, everything!

Your picture of social triumphs

is quite fascinating, Phil.

Isn't it just?

But I'll paint one to offset it.

I'm going home to an old country farmhouse,

once green, rather faded now.

There is a brook below and a pond nearby

that will be gray and brooding now.

There will be two oldish

ladies in the house;

and there will be two twins, one a perfect

model, the other a "holy terror."

There will be a little room upstairs over

the porch, where old dreams hang thick.

How do you like my picture, Phil?

It seems a very dull one.

Oh, but I've left out the

transforming thing.

The power that transforms everything.

A power called "love."

Oh, Anne, I wish I was like you!

What are you doing, Davy?

Anne!

Davy! Dora!

It's good to see you again, Anne!

Welcome home.

Look. Isn't that a bully bonfire?

I did it for you, Anne, 'cause

I was so glad you were coming home.

Welcome home, Anne.

What did you ask the minister for?

I put it in my letter.

Davy! Have you been spying?

Has Diana gone home?

Yes.

I suppose you girls talked all night

and got hardly a wink of sleep.

Yes.

We had so much to tell each other,

just like we did when we first met.

And Jane is going to stay the night.

I've had a letter from her.

She says she wants my opinion on something.

Oh, honestly.

Where's the harm?

They won't be so free to

come and go much longer.

Even Ruby Gillis has gotten

engaged, they say.

Has she really?

What, haven't you heard?

Rumor has it the man is the

Spencervale schoolteacher.

I see.

Isn't that nice?

Diana didn't say a thing.

Maybe Jane is engaged, too.

Is that what she's coming to talk about?

If so, I'll soon be the only fancy-free

maiden of our old quartet.

Just the sort of night people like to

cuddle down between their blankets

and count their mercies!

Anne.

I want to tell you something. May I?

Really, Jane. You could at

least try to look happy.

Of course.

What do you think of my brother?

Come again?

What do you think of Billy?

What do you mean, exactly?

Do you like Billy?

Why—why—yes, I like him, of course.

Would you like him for a husband?

Whose husband?

Yours, of course!

What?!

Billy wants to marry you!

He's always been crazy about you!

But he's so shy he couldn't ask

you himself if you'd have him,

so he got me to do it. I'd rather not have.

I I'm sorry, Jane.

I couldn't marry Billy!

Why, such an idea never

occurred to me—never!

I don't suppose it did.

But Billy is a good fellow.

He's a great worker, he's gentle,

and he'd be very good to you.

Jane!

I appreciate the thought, Jane, but I don't

care anything for Billy in that way.

Well, I didn't suppose you would.

I told Billy I didn't believe it was a

bit of use to ask you, but he insisted.

I hope Billy won't feel very badly over it.

Oh, he won't break his heart.

He likes Nettie Blewett pretty well, too,

and mother would rather he

married her than anyone.

She's such a good cook, and her

people are so respectable.

Yes. I hope it all works out for them.

Please don't mention what

I said last night.

I won't.

Was there ever anything so ridiculous?

How was that for the first

proposal I ever received?

I thought it would happen someday,

but I never dreamed it would be secondhand.

My

My ideal is

dark-eyed and distinguished-looking,

and he would

I swear to defend you for

so long as I shall live.

Please, permit me to make your kindness,

wit, and beauty mine alone!

I will!

Or else

I cannot conceive of life without you.

I promise to make you happy.

Won't you live your life with me?

Forgive me!

Then at least give me leave to

go on adoring you from afar.

Of course.

I suppose there's no getting round it.

Life is one long series

of bends in the road.

Little dreams break,

and people change.

Even Jane and Ruby and Diana.

Hey!

What are you doing out so early?

The snow looked so lovely,

I thought I'd ask you to walk with me.

And you?

Oh, nothing really.

But this snowy landscape is breathtaking.

Yes.

I think, if ever any great

sorrow came to me,

I would think of this sight for comfort.

I hope no great sorrow

ever will come to you.

But there must—sometime.

There have, and there will.

I know. Won't you come by the house?

You haven't seen Marilla or

Mrs. Lynde in ages, have you?

No, I haven't.

Davy and Dora will be delighted.

Anne!

Wait!

Your bootlace.

So I've avoided one small sorrow.

Thank you.

If I had my way

I'd shut everything out of your

life but happiness and pleasure.

Gilbert.

You would be very unwise.

No life can be properly developed and

rounded out without some trial and sorrow—

though I suppose it is only when we are

pretty comfortable that we admit it.

Come! What are we waiting for?

I can't go on deceiving myself!

Wait for me,

Anne Shirley!

Next Time

I Feel as if I Had Opened a Book and Found Roses of Yesterday,

Sweet and Beloved, Between Its Leaves