Chapter Three
"Please, class, turn to page forty-two in your books and work on the questions till the end of class, I MUST work with my Queens student now," Mr. Philips gave a stupid-looking smile to Prissy Andrews in the back seat. Sara grimaced and Anne made a face. The talking in the classroom quieted down to whispers and giggles.
Sara returned to her history notes and Anne to hers. It had been a week since Anne's arrival at school and she was quite popular among the girls. Jane Andrews had given her a little card with a doily that said:
"When twilight drops her curtain down,
and pins it with a star,
Remember that you have a friend,
Though she may wander far."
Ruby Gillis offered to teach Anne a new pattern to stitch lace. Another girl gave her an old perfume bottle to keep slate water in.
All of the girls lent each other parts of their dinners, especially dessert, as Sara explained to Anne. And if you didn't have enough to go around, then you were considered rude and selfish. The schoolmates also did readings during recess, during which each girl read aloud a chapter from a book. Anne was a favorite to read aloud, with her dauntless and dramatic expressions. She was quite admired by some of the boys as well. Ruby Gillis excitedly told Anne one morning that "Charlie Sloane was dead gone on" her. It was a tradition to write up paired names on the whitewashed wall of the schoolhouse; they called it take-notices. Anne hoped never to have her name up with anyone's as she haughtily told Sara on their way home one day, especially with goggle-eyed Charlie Sloane.
Sara was the most beloved of Anne's many friends, for after all they were sworn to each other bosom friends for eternity. But Anne liked being in the company of Sara the best anyhow, vow or no vow. With Anne's help, Sara was welcomed into the group of little girls with open arms. She did much better in school and was happier going.
Anne and Sara had many wanderings through the woods in the afternoons. They'd sit in Idlewild to do their homework and take walks along the Lake of Shining Waters.
Their first adventure was after school when they took a journey up the shore road. They talked nonchalantly about school and things and picked the Queen Anne's Lace on the side of the dirt road.
The sun was hot that day and they enjoyed the cool wind on their bare heads as their hats hung loosely around their necks. The hills spread out before them and the red cliffs rose to their right, falling sharply to the sands of the Avonlea shore. They heard the gulls screeching in among the clouds, which were floating carelessly in the ethereal blue sky. Anne gazed out on the azure blue of the ocean and the golden ripples reflecting the bright light of the winking sunbeams.
"A magic casement opening on the foam,
Of perilous seas and fairylands forlorn.
The sea is beautiful today isn't it? It just makes me want to fly over it and soar among the clouds. Looking at such things gives me that pleasant ache I always get whenever I look at something beautiful. I just love pretty things. Aren't these red roads peculiar? I've asked many people here why they were red, and nobody would tell me. Isn't it splendid to know there are so many things to find out about? It makes me feel glad to be alive, it's such an interesting world." Here she paused and gazed thoughtfully again out to the horizon.
"Look at that sea, all silver and shadow and visions of things not seen. Hey, look there, someone's coming up the road."
The two girls looked at the person coming up the hill. It seemed to be a peddler man and he was pushing a big cart of various objects. When he got closer, Anne and Sara saw that he wasn't a very good-looking man. He was small with dirty clothes and ruffled dark black hair. His face and skin was rough and his features were quite big. His large, dark eyes seemed to be taking in the two girls and he stopped in front of them.
"Care to buy anything off the cart, girls?" he had some sort of a foreign accent that Sara couldn't place. Anne and Sara edged over to the pile of bottles and cloths and bulging bundles of other interesting things.
"I've got everything from ladies perfume to some hayseed, but I doubt you'd be buyin' any o'that."
"What's this?" Sara felt a royal purple cloth that was pleasantly soft to the touch.
"Why, that's silk material. One dollar," the peddler explained. Sara wasn't intending to buy anything from this curious-looking stranger. She wasn't sure if he could be trusted. But Anne was searching through the bottles. She picked up one that was small and dark-colored and had some thick liquid inside.
"What's this?" she asked interested.
"Oh, that's hair dye. That'll make yer hair change to a beautiful raven black. Rather like mine."
Sara wasn't sure about that and neither, it seemed, was Anne.
"Um, how much is it?"
"Fifty cents."
"I'll take it," Anne fished out two coins from her apron pocket and placed them into the peddler's eager hand. Sara stared wide-eyed at her companion.
"Anything fer you, ma'am?" the man turned to Sara.
"No," Sara said sharply.
"Oh well, yer missin' out. Well, bye now, girls."
With that the peddler continued his pace down the road. The girls watched him until he turned the bend.
Sara faced Anne.
"What did you buy that for?"
"Just like he said, it'll turn my hair a beautiful raven black."
"I'm not sure if you should trust a person like that."
"Well, black hair is better than red hair any day."
Sara shifted uneasily and fell into step next to Anne, who started walking home.
That night, Sara sat in her room at her usual window, writing. A tiny light flickering through the trees caught her eye. Anne. They set up this system of moving the candlelight in the window, whenever one wanted the other. Sara got her candle from her bedside table and put it in her window to show that she was there. Anne's light disappeared then came back, disappeared and came back. This meant that Anne needed to tell news to Sara and for Sara to come over right away. Sara answered by putting a hand in front of her candle, saying that she was coming.
"Mum, I'm going to Anne's for a moment!" she yelled through the hall and ran out the front door. She swiftly made her way over the field in the moonlight, through the apple orchard, over the bridge over the brook behind Green Gables, and into the Green Gables backyard. She slipped into the side door.
"Hello, Miss Cuthbert," Sara greeted a tall and thin woman, with angles and no curves and nut-brown hair pulled into a tight bun with two hair pins stuck vigorously through it. Her hair was streaked with grey. She was leaning over a pot on the stove.
"Hello Sara. Oh, please call me Marilla. Anne's upstairs waiting for you. You're in for a rather interesting greeting."
Thank you, Miss- Marilla," Sara, still figuring out what Marilla meant, climbed the stairs to the east gable room and opened the door.
What she met in that room was something so surprising that she was stricken dumb for ten whole seconds. There was Anne sprawled on her bed, with (oh, my) GREEN hair.
"A-Anne, what did you do?" Sara found her voice and looked, horrified, at the poor girl positively weeping into her pillow.
"He said it would turn my hair into a beautiful raven black," Anne moaned, "I've tried three times to wash it out with shampoo until I thought my scalp would rip off. I'll have green hair forever. I thought nothing could be as awful as red hair, but GREEN is ten times worse." Anne moaned again and sank her face deep into the pillow and proceeded to cry bitter tears all over again. Sara stared at the long wavy locks of green hair that stained her school dress and the bed sheets. Well maybe you could cut it," Sara said timidly, unsure of what to do.
"Marilla is going to--there, I can hear her coming up the stairs."
Sure enough, Marilla Cuthbert walked into the room carrying a pair of scissors and a grim expression, yet with a curve in her set lips, that looked as if she had a desire to laugh.
"Come now, Anne, you're still going to school tomorrow so let me cut it."
Anne sat up and replied miserably, "Some girls in books lose their hair in doing some good deed, or in sickness, but there's nothing romantic about cutting your hair because you dyed it."
"Oh, stuffinnonsense, it'll look fine, now turn to me," Marilla sat down on the bed.
Sara walked over and sat in front of Anne and watched as curl after green curl fell to the floor.
When Marilla was finished, Anne's hair was cut short to curl under her ears.
"Oh, it's awful," Anne cried, looking in the mirror, "I'll never be able to live this down. Oh, Josie Pye will just love this."
"Oh, Anne, it's really not that bad. I think it looks rather handsome, with those wee curls just peeking out from behind your ears," Sara encouraged her, thoroughly meaning everything she said.
"Thank you a million times over for your encouraging comments, Sara, but I am humiliated beyond encouragement. I guess I will see you tomorrow, if I don't die from embarrassment first," she finished dramatically.
Sara caught Marilla's eye and stopped herself from letting a snort of laughter escape and let herself out.
She kept quiet until she reached the bridge, and then laughed for a long time, not at Anne's poor head of green or her dramatic statements, but of the whole prospect altogether.
"Well, we've learned an important lesson here anyway," she thought, "never to trust the word of a peddler."
"Please, class, turn to page forty-two in your books and work on the questions till the end of class, I MUST work with my Queens student now," Mr. Philips gave a stupid-looking smile to Prissy Andrews in the back seat. Sara grimaced and Anne made a face. The talking in the classroom quieted down to whispers and giggles.
Sara returned to her history notes and Anne to hers. It had been a week since Anne's arrival at school and she was quite popular among the girls. Jane Andrews had given her a little card with a doily that said:
"When twilight drops her curtain down,
and pins it with a star,
Remember that you have a friend,
Though she may wander far."
Ruby Gillis offered to teach Anne a new pattern to stitch lace. Another girl gave her an old perfume bottle to keep slate water in.
All of the girls lent each other parts of their dinners, especially dessert, as Sara explained to Anne. And if you didn't have enough to go around, then you were considered rude and selfish. The schoolmates also did readings during recess, during which each girl read aloud a chapter from a book. Anne was a favorite to read aloud, with her dauntless and dramatic expressions. She was quite admired by some of the boys as well. Ruby Gillis excitedly told Anne one morning that "Charlie Sloane was dead gone on" her. It was a tradition to write up paired names on the whitewashed wall of the schoolhouse; they called it take-notices. Anne hoped never to have her name up with anyone's as she haughtily told Sara on their way home one day, especially with goggle-eyed Charlie Sloane.
Sara was the most beloved of Anne's many friends, for after all they were sworn to each other bosom friends for eternity. But Anne liked being in the company of Sara the best anyhow, vow or no vow. With Anne's help, Sara was welcomed into the group of little girls with open arms. She did much better in school and was happier going.
Anne and Sara had many wanderings through the woods in the afternoons. They'd sit in Idlewild to do their homework and take walks along the Lake of Shining Waters.
Their first adventure was after school when they took a journey up the shore road. They talked nonchalantly about school and things and picked the Queen Anne's Lace on the side of the dirt road.
The sun was hot that day and they enjoyed the cool wind on their bare heads as their hats hung loosely around their necks. The hills spread out before them and the red cliffs rose to their right, falling sharply to the sands of the Avonlea shore. They heard the gulls screeching in among the clouds, which were floating carelessly in the ethereal blue sky. Anne gazed out on the azure blue of the ocean and the golden ripples reflecting the bright light of the winking sunbeams.
"A magic casement opening on the foam,
Of perilous seas and fairylands forlorn.
The sea is beautiful today isn't it? It just makes me want to fly over it and soar among the clouds. Looking at such things gives me that pleasant ache I always get whenever I look at something beautiful. I just love pretty things. Aren't these red roads peculiar? I've asked many people here why they were red, and nobody would tell me. Isn't it splendid to know there are so many things to find out about? It makes me feel glad to be alive, it's such an interesting world." Here she paused and gazed thoughtfully again out to the horizon.
"Look at that sea, all silver and shadow and visions of things not seen. Hey, look there, someone's coming up the road."
The two girls looked at the person coming up the hill. It seemed to be a peddler man and he was pushing a big cart of various objects. When he got closer, Anne and Sara saw that he wasn't a very good-looking man. He was small with dirty clothes and ruffled dark black hair. His face and skin was rough and his features were quite big. His large, dark eyes seemed to be taking in the two girls and he stopped in front of them.
"Care to buy anything off the cart, girls?" he had some sort of a foreign accent that Sara couldn't place. Anne and Sara edged over to the pile of bottles and cloths and bulging bundles of other interesting things.
"I've got everything from ladies perfume to some hayseed, but I doubt you'd be buyin' any o'that."
"What's this?" Sara felt a royal purple cloth that was pleasantly soft to the touch.
"Why, that's silk material. One dollar," the peddler explained. Sara wasn't intending to buy anything from this curious-looking stranger. She wasn't sure if he could be trusted. But Anne was searching through the bottles. She picked up one that was small and dark-colored and had some thick liquid inside.
"What's this?" she asked interested.
"Oh, that's hair dye. That'll make yer hair change to a beautiful raven black. Rather like mine."
Sara wasn't sure about that and neither, it seemed, was Anne.
"Um, how much is it?"
"Fifty cents."
"I'll take it," Anne fished out two coins from her apron pocket and placed them into the peddler's eager hand. Sara stared wide-eyed at her companion.
"Anything fer you, ma'am?" the man turned to Sara.
"No," Sara said sharply.
"Oh well, yer missin' out. Well, bye now, girls."
With that the peddler continued his pace down the road. The girls watched him until he turned the bend.
Sara faced Anne.
"What did you buy that for?"
"Just like he said, it'll turn my hair a beautiful raven black."
"I'm not sure if you should trust a person like that."
"Well, black hair is better than red hair any day."
Sara shifted uneasily and fell into step next to Anne, who started walking home.
That night, Sara sat in her room at her usual window, writing. A tiny light flickering through the trees caught her eye. Anne. They set up this system of moving the candlelight in the window, whenever one wanted the other. Sara got her candle from her bedside table and put it in her window to show that she was there. Anne's light disappeared then came back, disappeared and came back. This meant that Anne needed to tell news to Sara and for Sara to come over right away. Sara answered by putting a hand in front of her candle, saying that she was coming.
"Mum, I'm going to Anne's for a moment!" she yelled through the hall and ran out the front door. She swiftly made her way over the field in the moonlight, through the apple orchard, over the bridge over the brook behind Green Gables, and into the Green Gables backyard. She slipped into the side door.
"Hello, Miss Cuthbert," Sara greeted a tall and thin woman, with angles and no curves and nut-brown hair pulled into a tight bun with two hair pins stuck vigorously through it. Her hair was streaked with grey. She was leaning over a pot on the stove.
"Hello Sara. Oh, please call me Marilla. Anne's upstairs waiting for you. You're in for a rather interesting greeting."
Thank you, Miss- Marilla," Sara, still figuring out what Marilla meant, climbed the stairs to the east gable room and opened the door.
What she met in that room was something so surprising that she was stricken dumb for ten whole seconds. There was Anne sprawled on her bed, with (oh, my) GREEN hair.
"A-Anne, what did you do?" Sara found her voice and looked, horrified, at the poor girl positively weeping into her pillow.
"He said it would turn my hair into a beautiful raven black," Anne moaned, "I've tried three times to wash it out with shampoo until I thought my scalp would rip off. I'll have green hair forever. I thought nothing could be as awful as red hair, but GREEN is ten times worse." Anne moaned again and sank her face deep into the pillow and proceeded to cry bitter tears all over again. Sara stared at the long wavy locks of green hair that stained her school dress and the bed sheets. Well maybe you could cut it," Sara said timidly, unsure of what to do.
"Marilla is going to--there, I can hear her coming up the stairs."
Sure enough, Marilla Cuthbert walked into the room carrying a pair of scissors and a grim expression, yet with a curve in her set lips, that looked as if she had a desire to laugh.
"Come now, Anne, you're still going to school tomorrow so let me cut it."
Anne sat up and replied miserably, "Some girls in books lose their hair in doing some good deed, or in sickness, but there's nothing romantic about cutting your hair because you dyed it."
"Oh, stuffinnonsense, it'll look fine, now turn to me," Marilla sat down on the bed.
Sara walked over and sat in front of Anne and watched as curl after green curl fell to the floor.
When Marilla was finished, Anne's hair was cut short to curl under her ears.
"Oh, it's awful," Anne cried, looking in the mirror, "I'll never be able to live this down. Oh, Josie Pye will just love this."
"Oh, Anne, it's really not that bad. I think it looks rather handsome, with those wee curls just peeking out from behind your ears," Sara encouraged her, thoroughly meaning everything she said.
"Thank you a million times over for your encouraging comments, Sara, but I am humiliated beyond encouragement. I guess I will see you tomorrow, if I don't die from embarrassment first," she finished dramatically.
Sara caught Marilla's eye and stopped herself from letting a snort of laughter escape and let herself out.
She kept quiet until she reached the bridge, and then laughed for a long time, not at Anne's poor head of green or her dramatic statements, but of the whole prospect altogether.
"Well, we've learned an important lesson here anyway," she thought, "never to trust the word of a peddler."
