Late autumn, when the trees were leafless and the fields were sere and brown, was the only time Green Gables could truly be seen from the Avonlea road. It was set back a quarter of a mile into the woods, on a tidy yard reached by a long lane of wild rose bushes. Mrs. Lynde proclaimed it the loneliest place in the world, for "goodness knows trees aren't much company." But the inmates of Green Gables had never thought so. Matthew Cuthbert was as shy as a forest hare when he had been alive, so that the situation of his home suited him. Marilla Cuthbert was austere and restrained, much like the quiet, foliage-enfolded, gray-green farmhouse. As for Anne Shirley, the redheaded orphan the Cuthberts had adopted five years ago - she could be likened to the wild pink roses or the impetuous brook that ran behind the house, a seeker and giver of companionship wherever she lived, thrilled by the whispers of the maples and the dance of the birches, and the laughter of her friends on the red sandstone steps.
She was perched on those selfsame steps of an evening at sunset. Her book fallen to the ground, but it had grown too dark to read. She was watching a streak of gold on the horizon with her hands clasped under her chin. She listened eagerly for the rumble of Marilla's buggy, but her thoughts were far away. She had confessed her ecstasy to Gilbert Blythe earlier that afternoon:
"I am fated to care for twins all my life, I suppose." she said merrily. "But there is nothing so nice as to care for someone who needs you. I didn't have anyone to care for me for ever so long, you know - eleven whole years until I came to live at Green Gables. I'm so glad that Marilla is taking Davy and Dora, and I will try my best to influence them for good, even if it is only for a little while."
"You'll do it splendidly." Gilbert averred sincerely.
"I do hope so - I am especially eager to meet Davy Keith. Marilla is afraid he will be such a responsibility because he is a boy, and very naughty, but the greater the trial, the greater the reward, don't you think? I intend to win him over." Anne said with a defiant toss of her red curls.
"Speaking of naughty boys, is Anthony Pye causing you as much grief as ever?" Gilbert laughed. He was sorry that Anne had to cope with Anthony Pye's misbehaviour but he could never help roaring with laughter over Anthony's pranks in the Avonlea schoolhouse.
"Yes, he poured ice-cold milk down Aurelia Clay's neck last week and sent her shrieking during arithmetic." Gilbert smiled wryly; he had once employed similar tactics on damsels demure in his irrepressible youth. "I kept him in at recess and tried to talk to him very earnestly about behaving like a gentlemen, but - "Anne's eyes welled up limpidly "he will never put stock by anything I say because I'm a girl."
Anne recalled vividly her arrival at Green Gables as she waited in the dusk. She had been eleven years old, orphaned, and neglected all her life hitherto, and Green Gables was a meed of happiness ever afterward. Matthew had brought her home from Bright River through a wondrous white world of spring blossoms. But her first evening here had not been happy. A stormy line echoed poignantly in her mind: "Nobody ever did want me! You don't want me because I'm not a boy!"
It seemed that the trial had not paled with time. Anne bit her lip, feeling it was rather unjust that Anthony Pye had antagonized her before he knew her simply because she was a girl. Anne could never bear to be judged only on the outside.
"Oh! Suppose Davy Keith thinks boys are better than girls, too," she said tremulously to the slim white birch standing out amongst the shadows. "It seems to me that I can't bear the suspense much longer. Dear God, please let him like me for me."
Anne would have wallowed in fervent thought for much longer, but in that moment the Cuthbert's grey nag pattered into the lane. Anne raced down to the gate to greet them. A smile spread naturally over her face as she caught sight of Davy's snub nose and eyes of mischievious, sparkling blue. She lifted the twins out, Davy clinging affectionately to her with a hearty hug and a loud smack on her cheek. "I'm Mr. Davy Keith." he announced. He was grinning with cordiality and Anne's doubts were forever vanquished.
Davy tugged at her right arm with his sticky paws and pullled towards the house. Anne did not have a moment to pay much attention to the quiet little girl whose hand she held absently in her left.