XIV
A Danger Averted
Anne, walking home from the post office one Friday evening,
was joined by Mrs. Lynde, who was as usual cumbered with
all the cares of church and state.
"I've just been down to Timothy Cotton's to see if I could get
Alice Louise to help me for a few days," she said. "I had her last
week, for, though she's too slow to stop quick, she's better than
nobody. But she's sick and can't come. Timothy's sitting there,
too, coughing and complaining. He's been dying for ten years and
he'll go on dying for ten years more. That kind can't even die and
have done with it. . .they can't stick to anything, even to being sick,
long enough to finish it. They're a terrible shiftless family and
what is to become of them I don't know, but perhaps Providence does."
Mrs. Lynde sighed as if she rather doubted the extent of Providential
knowledge on the subject.
"Marilla was in about her eyes again Tuesday, wasn't she?
What did the specialist think of them?" she continued.
"He was much pleased," said Anne brightly. "He says there is a
great improvement in them and he thinks the danger of her losing
her sight completely is past. But he says she'll never be able to
read much or do any fine hand-work again. How are your preparations
for your bazaar coming on?"
The Ladies' Aid Society was preparing for a fair and supper,
and Mrs. Lynde was the head and front of the enterprise.
"Pretty well. . .and that reminds me. Mrs. Allan thinks it
would be nice to fix up a booth like an old-time kitchen and
serve a supper of baked beans, doughnuts, pie, and so on.
We're collecting old-fashioned fixings everywhere. Mrs.
Simon Fletcher is going to lend us her mother's braided rugs
and Mrs. Levi Boulter some old chairs and Aunt Mary Shaw will
lend us her cupboard with the glass doors. I suppose Marilla
will let us have her brass candlesticks? And we want all the
old dishes we can get. Mrs. Allan is specially set on having
a real blue willow ware platter if we can find one. But nobody
seems to have one. Do you know where we could get one?"
"Miss Josephine Barry has one. I'll write and ask her if she'll
lend it for the occasion," said Anne.
"Well, I wish you would. I guess we'll have the supper in about a
fortnight's time. Uncle Abe Andrews is prophesying rain and storms for
about that time; and that's a pretty sure sign we'll have fine weather."
The said "Uncle Abe," it may be mentioned, was at least like
other prophets in that he had small honor in his own country.
He was, in fact, considered in the light of a standing joke,
for few of his weather predictions were ever fulfilled.
Mr. Elisha Wright, who labored under the impression that
he was a local wit, used to say that nobody in Avonlea
ever thought of looking in the Charlottetown dailies for
weather probabilities. No; they just asked Uncle Abe
what it was going to be tomorrow and expected the opposite.
Nothing daunted, Uncle Abe kept on prophesying.
"We want to have the fair over before the election comes off,"
continued Mrs. Lynde, "for the candidates will be sure to come and
spend lots of money. The Tories are bribing right and left, so they
might as well be given a chance to spend their money honestly for once."
Anne was a red-hot Conservative, out of loyalty to Matthew's
memory, but she said nothing. She knew better than to get
Mrs. Lynde started on politics. She had a letter for Marilla,
postmarked from a town in British Columbia.
"It's probably from the children's uncle," she said excitedly,
when she got home. "Oh, Marilla, I wonder what he says about them."
"The best plan might be to open it and see," said Marilla curtly.
A close observer might have thought that she was excited also,
but she would rather have died than show it.
Anne tore open the letter and glanced over the somewhat untidy and
poorly written contents.
"He says he can't take the children this spring. . .he's been sick
most of the winter and his wedding is put off. He wants to know if
we can keep them till the fall and he'll try and take them then.
We will, of course, won't we Marilla?"
"I don't see that there is anything else for us to do," said
Marilla rather grimly, although she felt a secret relief.
"Anyhow they're not so much trouble as they were. . .or else
we've got used to them. Davy has improved a great deal."
"His MANNERS are certainly much better," said Anne cautiously,
as if she were not prepared to say as much for his morals.
Anne had come home from school the previous evening, to find
Marilla away at an Aid meeting, Dora asleep on the kitchen sofa,
and Davy in the sitting room closet, blissfully absorbing the
contents of a jar of Marilla's famous yellow plum preserves. . .
"company jam," Davy called it. . .which he had been forbidden to
touch. He looked very guilty when Anne pounced on him and whisked
him out of the closet.
"Davy Keith, don't you know that it is very wrong of you to be
eating that jam, when you were told never to meddle with anything
in THAT closet?"
"Yes, I knew it was wrong," admitted Davy uncomfortably, "but plum
jam is awful nice, Anne. I just peeped in and it looked so good I
thought I'd take just a weeny taste. I stuck my finger in. . ."
Anne groaned. . ."and licked it clean. And it was so much gooder
than I'd ever thought that I got a spoon and just SAILED IN."
Anne gave him such a serious lecture on the sin of stealing plum
jam that Davy became conscience stricken and promised with
repentant kisses never to do it again.
"Anyhow, there'll be plenty of jam in heaven, that's one comfort,"
he said complacently.
Anne nipped a smile in the bud.
"Perhaps there will. . .if we want it," she said, "But what makes
you think so?"
"Why, it's in the catechism," said Davy.
"Oh, no, there is nothing like THAT in the catechism, Davy."
"But I tell you there is," persisted Davy. "It was in that
question Marilla taught me last Sunday. `Why should we love God?'
It says, `Because He makes preserves, and redeems us.' Preserves
is just a holy way of saying jam."
"I must get a drink of water," said Anne hastily. When she came
back it cost her some time and trouble to explain to Davy that a
certain comma in the said catechism question made a great deal of
difference in the meaning.
"Well, I thought it was too good to be true," he said at last, with
a sigh of disappointed conviction. "And besides, I didn't see when
He'd find time to make jam if it's one endless Sabbath day, as the
hymn says. I don't believe I want to go to heaven. Won't there
ever be any Saturdays in heaven, Anne?"
"Yes, Saturdays, and every other kind of beautiful days. And every
day in heaven will be more beautiful than the one before it, Davy,"
assured Anne, who was rather glad that Marilla was not by to be shocked.
Marilla, it is needless to say, was bringing the twins up in the good old
ways of theology and discouraged all fanciful speculations thereupon.
Davy and Dora were taught a hymn, a catechism question, and two
Bible verses every Sunday. Dora learned meekly and recited like a
little machine, with perhaps as much understanding or interest as if
she were one. Davy, on the contrary, had a lively curiosity, and
frequently asked questions which made Marilla tremble for his fate.
"Chester Sloane says we'll do nothing all the time in heaven but
walk around in white dresses and play on harps; and he says he
hopes he won't have to go till he's an old man, 'cause maybe he'll
like it better then. And he thinks it will be horrid to wear
dresses and I think so too. Why can't men angels wear trousers,
Anne? Chester Sloane is interested in those things, 'cause they're
going to make a minister of him. He's got to be a minister 'cause
his grandmother left the money to send him to college and he can't
have it unless he is a minister. She thought a minister was such a
'spectable thing to have in a family. Chester says he doesn't mind
much. . .though he'd rather be a blacksmith. . .but he's bound to
have all the fun he can before he begins to be a minister, 'cause
he doesn't expect to have much afterwards. I ain't going to be a
minister. I'm going to be a storekeeper, like Mr. Blair, and keep
heaps of candy and bananas. But I'd rather like going to your kind
of a heaven if they'd let me play a mouth organ instead of a harp.
Do you s'pose they would?"
"Yes, I think they would if you wanted it," was all Anne could
trust herself to say.
The A.V.I.S. met at Mr. Harmon Andrews' that evening and a full
attendance had been requested, since important business was to be
discussed. The A.V.I.S. was in a flourishing condition, and had
already accomplished wonders. Early in the spring Mr. Major
Spencer had redeemed his promise and had stumped, graded, and
seeded down all the road front of his farm. A dozen other men,
some prompted by a determination not to let a Spencer get ahead
of them, others goaded into action by Improvers in their own
households, had followed his example. The result was that there
were long strips of smooth velvet turf where once had been
unsightly undergrowth or brush. The farm fronts that had not been
done looked so badly by contrast that their owners were secretly
shamed into resolving to see what they could do another spring.
The triangle of ground at the cross roads had also been cleared and
seeded down, and Anne's bed of geraniums, unharmed by any marauding
cow, was already set out in the center.
Altogether, the Improvers thought that they were getting on
beautifully, even if Mr. Levi Boulter, tactfully approached by a
carefully selected committee in regard to the old house on his
upper farm, did bluntly tell them that he wasn't going to have it
meddled with.
At this especial meeting they intended to draw up a petition to the
school trustees, humbly praying that a fence be put around the
school grounds; and a plan was also to be discussed for planting a
few ornamental trees by the church, if the funds of the society
would permit of it. . .for, as Anne said, there was no use in
starting another subscription as long as the hall remained blue.
The members were assembled in the Andrews' parlor and Jane was
already on her feet to move the appointment of a committee which
should find out and report on the price of said trees, when Gertie
Pye swept in, pompadoured and frilled within an inch of her life.
Gertie had a habit of being late. . ."to make her entrance more
effective," spiteful people said. Gertie's entrance in this
instance was certainly effective, for she paused dramatically on
the middle of the floor, threw up her hands, rolled her eyes,
and exclaimed, "I've just heard something perfectly awful.
What DO you think? Mr. Judson Parker IS GOING TO RENT ALL
THE ROAD FENCE OF HIS FARM TO A PATENT MEDICINE COMPANY TO
PAINT ADVERTISEMENTS ON."
For once in her life Gertie Pye made all the sensation she desired.
If she had thrown a bomb among the complacent Improvers she could
hardly have made more.
"It CAN'T be true," said Anne blankly.
"That's just what _I_ said when I heard it first, don't you know,"
said Gertie, who was enjoying herself hugely. "_I_ said it couldn't
be true. . .that Judson Parker wouldn't have the HEART to do it,
don't you know. But father met him this afternoon and asked him
about it and he said it WAS true. Just fancy! His farm is side-on
to the Newbridge road and how perfectly awful it will look to see
advertisements of pills and plasters all along it, don't you know?"
The Improvers DID know, all too well. Even the least imaginative
among them could picture the grotesque effect of half a mile of
board fence adorned with such advertisements. All thought of
church and school grounds vanished before this new danger.
Parliamentary rules and regulations were forgotten, and Anne,
in despair, gave up trying to keep minutes at all. Everybody
talked at once and fearful was the hubbub.
"Oh, let us keep calm," implored Anne, who was the most excited
of them all, "and try to think of some way of preventing him."
"I don't know how you're going to prevent him," exclaimed Jane bitterly.
"Everybody knows what Judson Parker is. He'd do ANYTHING for money.
He hasn't a SPARK of public spirit or ANY sense of the beautiful."
The prospect looked rather unpromising. Judson Parker and his
sister were the only Parkers in Avonlea, so that no leverage could
be exerted by family connections. Martha Parker was a lady of all
too certain age who disapproved of young people in general and the
Improvers in particular. Judson was a jovial, smooth-spoken man,
so uniformly goodnatured and bland that it was surprising how few
friends he had. Perhaps he had got the better in too many business
transactions. . .which seldom makes for popularity. He was
reputed to be very "sharp" and it was the general opinion that he
"hadn't much principle."
"If Judson Parker has a chance to `turn an honest penny,' as he
says himself, he'll never lose it," declared Fred Wright.
"Is there NOBODY who has any influence over him?" asked Anne
despairingly.
"He goes to see Louisa Spencer at White Sands," suggested Carrie
Sloane. "Perhaps she could coax him not to rent his fences."
"Not she," said Gilbert emphatically. "I know Louisa Spencer well.
She doesn't `believe' in Village Improvement Societies, but she
DOES believe in dollars and cents. She'd be more likely to urge
Judson on than to dissuade him."
"The only thing to do is to appoint a committee to wait on him and protest,"
said Julia Bell, "and you must send girls, for he'd hardly be civil to boys
. . .but _I_ won't go, so nobody need nominate me."
"Better send Anne alone, " said Oliver Sloane. "She can talk Judson
over if anybody can."
Anne protested. She was willing to go and do the talking; but she
must have others with her "for moral support." Diana and Jane were
therefore appointed to support her morally and the Improvers broke
up, buzzing like angry bees with indignation. Anne was so worried
that she didn't sleep until nearly morning, and then she dreamed
that the trustees had put a fence around the school and painted
"Try Purple Pills" all over it.
The committee waited on Judson Parker the next afternoon. Anne
pleaded eloquently against his nefarious design and Jane and Diana
supported her morally and valiantly. Judson was sleek, suave, flattering;
paid them several compliments of the delicacy of sunflowers;
felt real bad to refuse such charming young ladies . . .but
business was business; couldn't afford to let sentiment stand
in the way these hard times.
"But I'll tell what I WILL do," he said, with a twinkle in his
light, full eyes. "I'll tell the agent he must use only handsome,
tasty colors. . .red and yellow and so on. I'll tell him he
mustn't paint the ads BLUE on any account."
The vanquished committee retired, thinking things not lawful to be uttered.
"We have done all we can do and must simply trust the rest to Providence,"
said Jane, with an unconscious imitation of Mrs. Lynde's tone and manner.
"I wonder if Mr. Allan could do anything," reflected Diana.
Anne shook her head.
"No, it's no use to worry Mr. Allan, especially now when the baby's
so sick. Judson would slip away from him as smoothly as from us,
although he HAS taken to going to church quite regularly just now.
That is simply because Louisa Spencer's father is an elder and very
particular about such things."
"Judson Parker is the only man in Avonlea who would dream of
renting his fences," said Jane indignantly. "Even Levi Boulter or
Lorenzo White would never stoop to that, tightfisted as they are.
They would have too much respect for public opinion."
Public opinion was certainly down on Judson Parker when the facts
became known, but that did not help matters much. Judson chuckled
to himself and defied it, and the Improvers were trying to
reconcile themselves to the prospect of seeing the prettiest part
of the Newbridge road defaced by advertisements, when Anne rose
quietly at the president's call for reports of committees on the
occasion of the next meeting of the Society, and announced that
Mr. Judson Parker had instructed her to inform the Society that he
was NOT going to rent his fences to the Patent Medicine Company.
Jane and Diana stared as if they found it hard to believe their ears.
Parliamentary etiquette, which was generally very strictly enforced
in the A.V.I.S., forbade them giving instant vent to their curiosity,
but after the Society adjourned Anne was besieged for explanations.
Anne had no explanation to give. Judson Parker had overtaken her
on the road the preceding evening and told her that he had decided
to humor the A.V.I.S. in its peculiar prejudice against patent
medicine advertisements. That was all Anne would say, then
or ever afterwards, and it was the simple truth; but when
Jane Andrews, on her way home, confided to Oliver Sloane her firm
belief that there was more behind Judson Parker's mysterious change
of heart than Anne Shirley had revealed, she spoke the truth also.
Anne had been down to old Mrs. Irving's on the shore road the
preceding evening and had come home by a short cut which led her
first over the low-lying shore fields, and then through the beech
wood below Robert Dickson's, by a little footpath that ran out to
the main road just above the Lake of Shining Waters. . .known to
unimaginative people as Barry's pond.
Two men were sitting in their buggies, reined off to the side of
the road, just at the entrance of the path. One was Judson Parker;
the other was Jerry Corcoran, a Newbridge man against whom, as
Mrs. Lynde would have told you in eloquent italics, nothing shady had
ever been PROVED. He was an agent for agricultural implements and
a prominent personage in matters political. He had a finger. . .
some people said ALL his fingers. . .in every political pie that
was cooked; and as Canada was on the eve of a general election
Jerry Corcoran had been a busy man for many weeks, canvassing the
county in the interests of his party's candidate. Just as Anne
emerged from under the overhanging beech boughs she heard Corcoran
say, "If you'll vote for Amesbury, Parker. . .well, I've a note
for that pair of harrows you've got in the spring. I suppose you
wouldn't object to having it back, eh?"
"We. . .ll, since you put it in that way," drawled Judson with a
grin, "I reckon I might as well do it. A man must look out for his
own interests in these hard times."
Both saw Anne at this moment and conversation abruptly ceased.
Anne bowed frostily and walked on, with her chin slightly more
tilted than usual. Soon Judson Parker overtook her.
"Have a lift, Anne?" he inquired genially.
"Thank you, no," said Anne politely, but with a fine, needle-like
disdain in her voice that pierced even Judson Parker's none too
sensitive consciousness. His face reddened and he twitched his
reins angrily; but the next second prudential considerations
checked him. He looked uneasily at Anne, as she walked steadily on,
glancing neither to the right nor to the left. Had she heard Corcoran's
unmistakable offer and his own too plain acceptance of it?
Confound Corcoran! If he couldn't put his meaning into less
dangerous phrases he'd get into trouble some of these
long-come-shorts. And confound redheaded school-ma'ams with a
habit of popping out of beechwoods where they had no business to be.
If Anne had heard, Judson Parker, measuring her corn in his
own half bushel, as the country saying went, and cheating himself
thereby, as such people generally do, believed that she would tell
it far and wide. Now, Judson Parker, as has been seen, was not
overly regardful of public opinion; but to be known as having
accepted a bribe would be a nasty thing; and if it ever reached
Isaac Spencer's ears farewell forever to all hope of winning Louisa
Jane with her comfortable prospects as the heiress of a well-to-do
farmer. Judson Parker knew that Mr. Spencer looked somewhat
askance at him as it was; he could not afford to take any risks.
"Ahem. . .Anne, I've been wanting to see you about that little
matter we were discussing the other day. I've decided not to let
my fences to that company after all. A society with an aim like
yours ought to be encouraged."
Anne thawed out the merest trifle.
"Thank you," she said.
"And. . .and. . .you needn't mention that little conversation of
mine with Jerry."
"I have no intention of mentioning it in any case," said Anne icily,
for she would have seen every fence in Avonlea painted with
advertisements before she would have stooped to bargain with
a man who would sell his vote.
"Just so. . .just so," agreed Judson, imagining that they
understood each other beautifully. "I didn't suppose you would.
Of course, I was only stringing Jerry. . .he thinks he's so
all-fired cute and smart. I've no intention of voting for Amesbury.
I'm going to vote for Grant as I've always done. . .you'll see
that when the election comes off. I just led Jerry on to see
if he would commit himself. And it's all right about the fence
. . .you can tell the Improvers that."
"It takes all sorts of people to make a world, as I've often heard,
but I think there are some who could be spared," Anne told her
reflection in the east gable mirror that night. "I wouldn't have
mentioned the disgraceful thing to a soul anyhow, so my conscience
is clear on THAT score. I really don't know who or what is to be
thanked for this. _I_ did nothing to bring it about, and it's hard
to believe that Providence ever works by means of the kind of
politics men like Judson Parker and Jerry Corcoran have."
