"Miss Stacy has been offered a principalship," Rachel Lynde announced to Marilla the moment she arrived at Green Gables.
It was clear that this news was her reason for coming over; Rachel needed only two things in life to be happy- a bit of information, and a person to tell it to.
Anne already knew this, as Miss Stacy sometimes dropped by to visit her old pupil. Anne had been saddened by the news; Miss Stacy had been a kindred spirit and she would miss her.
"It's a shame for our young people," Marilla said. "But I'm sure she'll be just as loved in her next position."
"I don't think women ought to be traipsing about having lofty careers," Rachel declared, "But then I heard that she has been keeping correspondence with a young man she met at a teaching conference, and this new position she's taken on will put her much closer proximity to him. We may be getting wedding invitations before too long, and it won't be soon enough! She's a real nice young thing, and pretty, too, and she ought to be married. It doesn't suit a woman to..."
Anne began to tune Mrs. Lynde out. She couldn't help thinking, If I had gone to Queens, I would be graduating this month with my teaching license and I could have applied for Miss Stacy's job...
But then she remembered she had planned to go on to Redmond after Queens, so she wouldn't have been in town to apply for the job anyway. That made her not mind so much. She realized how much she would have missed Matthew and Marilla. She didn't really wish to be away from them, now.
"Maybe Ruby Gillis, or Jane Andrews," Mrs. Lynde was saying.
"What?" Anne came back to earth.
"I was just saying that thanks to Miss Stacy, we've got a nice lot of young people in our own community who are licensed! I wouldn't wonder if one of them will get the position."
"Oh, I don't know," Marilla said. "They may want to branch out more- go out into the world and see the sights!" But then, with a glance at Anne, she quickly said, "But I hope so, it would be nice for you to have one of your friends so close by."
Anne shook her head. "Jane and Ruby have both already gotten schools. Ruby wrote to me last week that she got some place out west, and Jane told me when she came for Easter that she got Newbridge."
"Oh, that's a shame," Marilla said. Of course it's good for them, but it leaves my dear girl alone yet again... "Perhaps Moody?" she spoke up, her voice hopeful.
"Moody's felt a calling to God- I don't wonder, given his name- and he intends to enter the seminary and become a minister. He's still going to go to Redmond, but I don't know if he intends to use his teaching license in the meantime or not."
"Good for him," Rachel said. "It does my heart good to know a young person is so inclined. You just never know, these days."
"Moody's a kind boy, I'm not surprised he wants to help people spiritually," Marilla put in. "Anyway he'll do good work in whatever field he's in."
"And I know Charlie Sloane won't apply, I spoke to his mother the other day at church and she mentioned he's staying at Queens another year. So is Josie," Rachel supplied. "But Josie only went to Queens for education's sake, she has no plans to work at all, so I wouldn't expect her to apply anyway."
"Well, we'll get someone from somewhere else," Marilla said. "I just hope it's a person from the Island. And a Presbyterian."
Anne couldn't believe it when the school year was over.
She was happy that Gilbert had reached one of his goals- going to Queens was the first step in building their life together. But, she was very aware that the next part of building their life together meant missing Gilbert, as he would be attending Redmond for four long years. She tried not to think about it too much, and whenever she did, she tried to be positive.
"Four years isn't really a very long time, not compared to the whole rest of our lives. ...And he's done a wonderful thing by finishing Queens in one year instead of two. We'll be together a year faster, that way," she'd tell herself.
Anne knew that Gilbert was a good student and a hard worker, and that his goal was to win scholarship money to help pay for Redmond.
And win he did. He got off the train for the last time with a smile on his face.
"We got the scholarship, Anne," he said, his eyes full of love for her. "The Avery Scholarship. We won it."
Anne smiled, shaking her head. "We?"
"Yes, we," he murmured into her ear, kissing her cheek. "I couldn't have done it without you."
"Oh, really?" she asked, amused. "I wasn't even at Queens."
"If you had been there," Gilbert said, smiling, "I wouldn't have won it, you would have. ...So now it's ours together."
He stopped talking then, so he could kiss her.
Walter did not understand what graduation meant, but he did understand that school- the bad place that make Gil-ber go 'way- would not be taking him away for the whole rest of the summer.
Anne showed him on the calendar what that meant.
"Look, Walter, here we are- this is today- and here's the day Gil-ber goes to Redmond. Let's count the days in between them."
Walter, who was no fan of math, was happy to see that mama had to count to a very high number before she reached the day Gil-ber had to go 'way.
Marilla offered to let Gilbert stay the summer with them, but he declined, saying he needed to be on his own land and get in his fair share of the work he'd been delegating to his hired hands.
At first Anne thought he ought to stay with them anyway- he could always drive his buggy over to his house in the morning to work and then drive "home" to Green Gables when he was done for the day.
But then she realized what Gilbert probably wasn't telling her: He did not want to sleep right across the hall from her.
Even though Gilbert was on his own land all through the mornings and afternoons as he managed his farm, and he was back home again for the night to sleep in his own bed, he spent all of his evenings with his newfound family, and that was his favorite time of the day.
Anne often made lunch for Gilbert and took it over to his farm as a picnic, bringing Walter with her. Those were the best times of all.