Anne finally let Walter take the camera out of the box. "It only takes eight pictures," she explained. "So decide what you want to take pictures of first, before you take them. I won't have you wasting them."

Walter nodded. He reached out for the camera, but Anne didn't give it to him. "If you handle it roughly, it'll break."

"I woooonnnn't," Walter whined.

Anne sighed and gave it to him. She fully expected Walter to wander around taking aimless pictures, but he didn't. He pointed the camera at Gilbert. "Look here," he said.

Gilbert smiled. "Can Mama be in the picture, too?" he asked, pulling Anne close.

"No," Walter said emphatically.

Anne frowned. "I don't want to be in it, anyway," she said. She went back to the sink and started on the dishes.

"Why can't Mama be in it?" Gilbert asked, watching Anne.

Walter just made a face, and Gilbert sighed. He knew that Walter and Anne had a Mrs. Andrew-sized wedge between them at the moment.

"Let's go in here," Gilbert said, leading him into the parlor. No need to take the pictures right in front of Anne.

Walter walked around, carefully looking at his surroundings. Finally he decided Gilbert should stand next to the front door. "'Cause that's where I'm the happiest," he said. "When I see you coming in the door."

Gilbert smiled, warmed by that. He stood still so Walter could get his picture. But Walter had an eye for photography and realized the angle would be wrong. "I needa get higher up," he said. "Help me get higher up."

"What do you mean?" Gilbert asked, coming back over to him.

"'Cuz it isn't good this way, it's gonna go up your nose," Walter said. Gilbert laughed, but he was impressed that Walter at four had the sense to envision how the photograph would turn out if he was shorter than his subject.

Gilbert told him he could stand up on the sofa and sit on the back of it- "Just this once," he said.

After Walter had taken his picture, he wanted Gilbert to help him find Matthew. "Grandpa next," he said. "Gilbert, Grandpa, Grandma, the house, the chickens...and then I still have three pictures left."

I wish Anne was in here, to hear him subtracting five from eight and getting three. That would have made her happy, Gilbert thought to himself.

"And I need one of Aunt Jane's Mama," Walter continued.

Never mind, Gilbert quickly thought. I'm glad Anne isn't in here.

"You don't really need one of Mrs. Andrews, do you?" he coaxed. "You only have eight pictures. You should use them up on mama. Mama loves you and it would be nice to have more pictures of her."

Walter looked unhappy. "I can see mama any old time. She never lets me see Aunt Jane's Mama."

"You must like her a lot, don't you?" Gilbert asked quietly.

Walter nodded firmly.

Gilbert did not know why Walter had to be so attached to Mrs. Andrews. She used to come over to their house and see Walter, but that had been nearly two years ago. He was surprised Walter even remembered it. His only real association with her for the past couple years had been across the aisle on Sundays. But Anne had complained to him that Walter asked for Mrs. Andrews all the time. Gilbert wished Walter would take a liking to someone else. Anyone else.

After Walter had taken his picture- Gilbert amused about how serious Walter was while using his little brownie camera- they went outdoors to take one of the chickens.

"Look here, chickens," Walter instructed them. "Don't blink."

Gilbert laughed.

They had to walk out a ways to take a picture of the house, but that was all right because they would have to head out to the fields anyway to get one of Matthew.

When they finally returned to the house, Anne had finished the dishes and was wiping the table.

"Mama, I taked four pictures. That means I have four left."

Finally Anne smiled, and it was genuine this time. "Did Gilbert tell you how many you had?"

"No," Gilbert said proudly. "I didn't. He figured it out on his own."

Anne was happy.

"Now I go taked one of Grandma, then I have three left."

Gilbert decided not to mention that Walter was saving one of those three for Mrs. Andrews.


"Anne, I know the camera is a sore spot for you," Marilla said later. "But Walter seems so happy. Just look at him walking around with that contraption! I saw him pushing a chair across the floor and I asked him why, and he said something about how the light coming in through the window would show on the flowers and look good in his picture. He told me that the colors on the flower won't show in the picture, so all he could try to show was the way the light rested. And that's the expression he used, too- 'the way the light rested'. Now, have you ever heard a child think of something like that?"

"No," Anne said with a sigh. "But why does it have to be something she gave him that he likes so much? Why couldn't it be something one of us gave him?"

"None of us gave him a brownie camera," Marilla said sensibly. "If you or I had given it to him, he'd like it just the same as if she'd given it."

"But I wouldn't have given him a present like that," Anne argued. "It's too expensive, and I think it's ridiculous for a child that little, because they won't be careful with it and it'll end up ruined."

Marilla agreed, but said: "He's being very careful."

"Yes, he is," Anne said, almost pouting. "Oh, fine, I suppose it won't hurt anything if I buy him another roll of film."

She went over to Walter and sat down on the floor with him. "When you're done with that, mama will give you a new roll and then you can take eight more."

Walter grinned. Anne picked up the brownie and looked at it. "I guess this is where you take the film out…"

"No, mama!" Walter cried hastily. "If light goes on it then they go bad. It says so in the directions."

Anne looked confused. "You read the directions?"

Walter pointed. There were illustrations showing the steps, with one marked with a black X. She shook her head, almost laughing at herself for thinking he had read the instruction manual.


Anne tucked Walter into bed and read him the story she had written for him long ago, The Tale of the Mysterious Wapallumpooley. First she had gotten out her copy of The Children's Fairy House; Anne preferred that version, because she was very proud that the magazine had published it.

But Walter wanted the other one- Anne's copy of the story- the one she'd cut out and pasted and illustrated herself for him when he was a baby.

"I like this one more 'cause it has my aminal in it," he explained. This was true- the copy Anne had made had her drawings of the stuffed animal. The version the magazine had published, on the other hand, contained illustrations that the magazine artist had done, and the artist had drawn the wapallumpooley to look nothing like the animal that Anne had actually designed, stuffed, and sewn for Walter.

Now Walter was holding the wapallumpooley in his arms and listening to Anne read his story.

"I wanna make pictures for it, mama," he said when she was finished.

"I already drew pictures," Anne said with surprise. "But I suppose you could draw some, too...I'll glue yours in next to mine."

"No," Walter tried to explain. "I wanna take pictures with my brownie camera."

"Pictures...like...to act out the story, sort of?"

"Ya," he said, sitting up. "I put the wapallumpooley like this, and take a picture, 'cuz that looks like when he standed on his head. And then when the big bear chases him, I put him here and put my Gil-bear to look like he's running after him."

Anne was impressed with his idea, but looking at the little black bear he'd christened Gil-bear, she pointed out, "In the story, the bear is a lot bigger than the wapallumpooley. ...I think Gil-bear might too small to play the bear in the story."

"I do this," Walter said, starting to demonstrate. "I put wapallumpooley here, and I put Gil-bear here," he moved them to be in a straight row first, but then moved Gil-bear to be very close while the wallalumpooley was far away.

"Why did you do that?" Anne asked.

"Because if Gil-bear is close to the camera, he look big. And the wapallumpooley goes far away, so he looks littler. That way it look like the bear is the big one!"

Anne stared at him.

"That would work," she said finally. "In fact, that's a very good idea, Walter. You were smart to figure out something like that."

Walter smiled. "I have two pictures left. I take one of you, mama. Tomorrow?"

"Yes," Anne smiled, giving him a hug.

"And then one of Aunt Jane's Mama," he continued happily.

Anne stiffened. "Not tomorrow," she said carefully. "Tomorrow we'll just do my picture. And wouldn't it be nice to have one of all of us, all together? ...And I'll get you a new roll so you can make your own wapallumpooley book."

Walter snuggled back down into his bed, the wapallumpooley in one arm, and Gil-bear in the other.


When Anne went back downstairs, she said to Marilla, "Does it seem like Walter is...smarter, somehow, when he's playing with that camera?"

Marilla looked up from her knitting. With a bit of a smile, she asked, "Like how he is when he's playing marbles?"

Anne thought about this. "It's like the camera is...a marble match, but in his mind."

She shrugged, knowing it sounded funny. "I mean, he can envision how things will look on it. The distance apart they should be, the angles, how things should move around them…and he hasn't even seen very many photographs in his life. He's thinking of things I'd expect a...photographer to think of."

Marilla nodded. "I can see that. He figures out how it should go, and he has the coordination to put the plan into action. ...Matthew said he's always thinking of what the next step will be."

Anne had an expression on her face Marilla couldn't identify.

"What is it, Anne?"

"Nothing. It's just very interesting to me."