Chapter 17
Miss Muriel Stacy promptly and throughly ensnared the hearts of most of Avonlea's school boy population for the first week or two of school. When his chum's eyes went wide at the first lady teacher to teach in Avonlea, over her golden locks, Gilbert from his seat next to Henry whispered, "Myself, I prefer redheads." When Henry shot him a glare and elbowed him, Gilbert added, "At least it isn't Josie Pye this time," referring to his friends previous crush, before giving into his mirth.
"Gilbert Blythe," Miss Stacy said with a gentle frown. "Please refrain from disrupting your peers lessons with intemperate outbursts."
"Yes, mam," Gilbert said.
"Anne's gonna adore her," Henry whispered smirking as soon as Miss Stacy's attention was no longer on them. "First day of school and she's already putting you in your place. What more could Anne ask for?"
"I believe Anne can rightly claim the tittle queen of intemperate outbursts," Gilbert said wryly.
"For that mild little thing last fall? Why she barely even raised an eyebrow at you the other day when you called her carrots," Henry said mischeviously.
"She raised more than an eyebrow when you kept crunching that dang thing and asking Anne if she went well with stew," Gilbert shot back.
Henry snorted and had to pretend a coughing fit to cover his laughter and promptly looked down at his work, attempting to appear engrossed in it.
…
By the end of the week, both boys knew Anne would love their new teacher for more reasons than just her scold of Gilbert. Miss Stacy instituted recitations every other Friday afternoon and what she called field afternoons on the Friday's with out recitations. She also encouraged the children to be active with physical exercises.
Henry and Gilbert spent every evening making sure Anne wouldn't fall behind. Diana would join them for Anne's sake, but found much of what the three got up to when studying difficult to understand, despite being in the same reader as them now. Miss Stacy had quickly identified Gilbert as her brightest student followed closely by Henry. When she heard during the third week that the two were studying every night with the missing Anne Shirley, it wasn't long before her curiosity brought her to Green Gables. She arrived during a livley study session and before knocking she listened, impressed by the sounds coming out of the kitchen. After being admitted and shown into the kitchen she beheld a red headed girl sitting with the two boys, passionately telling them exactly why she was right in her interpretation of a particular reading, Bingen on the Rhine.
"But you can't deny Anne," Gilbert said just as passionatly. "That it is the last he grieves the most. That she is the whole purpose of the poem. Not to miss his sister or his mother who he has lived a life with, but to miss the chance to live a life with his love."
"That doesn't mean she is the whole purpose of the poem. The poem is about all the women left behind by war. Mothers, sisters and yes, sweethearts. It is right there at the beginning, there was a lack of woman's nursing, there was a dearth of woman's tears," Anne quoted. "It wouldn't have been his sweetheart that would have nursed him when he was hurt or ill. It would have been his mother or even his sister that cared for him when he was younger. If he would have lived and married his sweetheart, as his wife she would have nursed him through ill health, therefore the poem is about all the women, not just his sweetheart, " Anne concluded triumphantly.
"My, my," Miss Stacy said stepping forward. "I am impressed. You must be Anne Shirely."
"Miss Stacy," Henry said with a fiery blush.
"Anne," Gilbert said a smile playing around his lips as he leaned back in his seat. "This is Miss Stacy, our new teacher. Miss Stacy this is Anne Shirley, who if she would have used her intelligence to remember she was not a rooster and didn't belong on a ridge pole, would be giving me a run for my money as head of the class."
"Enjoy your spot at the top while it lasts," Anne said with a toss of her head. "You won't get to enjoy it much longer. I plan on beating you out next week."
"The doctor said you can come back," Gilbert said eagerly leaning towards her, Miss Stacy forgotten.
"Say Gil, did I forget to mention Anne got the all clear late yesterday that she can go," Henry drawled out. "Must have slipped my mind. I'm sure I would have remembered it at an opportune time."
"Yea, I'm sure you would have," Gilbert said sarcastically.
"Well we will be glad to have you in class, Anne. Very glad," Miss Stacy said pleased with what she had found.
"That's cause you haven't seen her try to do geometry," Gilbert teased Anne.
"Oh you!" Anne exclaimed, her eyes flashing.
"What does X equal, Anne?" taunted Gilbert, eyes sparkling, grin wide.
"It equals the spot that'll mark your grave when I'm done wiping the floor with you this school year, Gilbert Blythe," Anne declared hotly.
"A puny little thing like you, Anne? You couldn't even lift Gil," Henry teased her.
"Brains over brawn," Anne said primly, lifting her nose in the air.
"But Anne," Gilbert said smugly. "I've got brains and brawn."
Anne rolled her eyes at this.
"I will leave you three to get back to it. I just wanted to come meet Anne," Miss Stacy said. When Anne and Henry both protested her leaving she said, "I don't want to keep you from your studying. I'll see you boys tomorrow and you next Monday I hope, Anne."
"I'll be there," Anne said eagerly.
"Even if she makes me and Gilbert carry her," Henry said with a grin followed by an "owe!" when Anne swatted him.
…
As Miss Stacy left Green Gables she couldn't help but think back on the scene she had witnessed in the kitchen. As a teacher she had always hoped to someday have a pupil that was particularly bright and promising, but to find three of them, and so close knit, was something else. The tangible teasing but loving friendship between the three had been as pleasing as how bright they were. These three she felt in her bones would go far, if given half a chance. It was perhaps to early to think of Queens at the beginning of the year before Anne Shirley had even set foot in Miss Stacy's classroom, but Miss Stacy was already envisioning the study session she had interrupted taking place after school under her guidance and tutelage in the school house. There would of course be other students that might attend Queens and she would attempt to identify them over the next month to invite to the extra study time, but those three in the kitchen, Miss Stacy thought with a thrill, they were in a class all of their own.
Miss Stacy would have been quite surprised to find out that one of those three bright students hadn't even realized yet that she did in fact care about both boys greatly. The love and friendship Miss Stacy had felt as a tangible thing was very real, Anne just didn't know it yet.
…
Gilbert and Henry were doing some repair work to one of the fences at Green Gables one day a week or two later. Gilbert seeing a weary Tommy trudging toward them said,"What's that about?" indicating Tommy.
"He's been fighting," Henry said grimly taking in his little brother's appearance.
"Oye, Tommy!" Gilbert called and then loping over to him said, "What's the other fella look like?" With a grin he asked, "Did you keep your thumbs were I told ya? And your swing?"
"The other fella looks worse than me," Tommy said flashing a grin.
"Tommy, you can't be fighting," Henry said sternly joining them. "What would Marilla have to say?"
"He had it coming," Tommy said stubbornly. "A right git!"
"So not making friends?" Gilbert said cheekily.
"A fella shouldn't be starting fights. I'm real disappointed in you," Henry said with a frown knowing Marilla would be upset Tommy was fighting.
Gilbert cocked a disbelieving eyebrow at Henry as if to remind him that Henry had started both their own fights.
"So who was the right git?" Gilbert asked.
"Jacob Pye," Tommy said with disgust. "He said Charlie Sloan would be my brother someday, because he's dead gone on Anne. And Anne would have to marry him because she was an orphan and wouldn't have a choice, cause she would need somebody to see to her when she grows up, cause Matthew and Marilla are old and won't be around forever and they had never wanted a girl in the first place. And that Charlie would see to it that Anne stopped trying to act like she was as smart as a boy, when she was nothing but a lousy girl."
"That's a load of hogwash and you know it Tommy," Henry said disgusted.
"Pyes have a way of sowing discord with a passel of ridiculous nonsense. You ought to know better than to believe whatever comes out of a Pye's mouth about Anne," Gilbert said with a frown.
"I know that, " Tommy said exasperated. "I told him that me and you had been seeing to Anne for over half my life, Henry, and I reckoned we didn't mean to stop just cause Anne grew up ever. And then he taunted me that Anne was a girl and had to marry and if it wasn't Charlie Sloan, he figured Anne would have to marry you cause we wasn't all really related if we was so determined to see to her. And then he made some comments about what we must really be getting up to at Green Gables that I took exception too, being a vulgar insult to Anne."
Both older boys scowled at this, knowing that if Tommy didn't even want to repeat the insult in his retelling it had been bad indeed.
"Why I oughta-" Henry began but Gilbert cut him off.
"I hope you tounced the little snot," Gilbert said darkly. " If he wasn't half a decade my junior I'd land a few on him as well."
"Shame the little bugger isn't of an age I can make my opinion known to him," Henry said with a scowl.
"Well after I licked him good, I told him Anne didn't have to marry Charlie Sloan or you Henry, she could just marry Gilbert. He spends enough time with all of us as it is and he'd be an okay brother to have. Jacob got real mad about that one and said Gilbert wouldn't want anything to do with a dirty orphan and that he was gonna marry his sister Josie. " Seeing the looks on Henry and Gilbert's faces he said emphatically, "Now that was a load of hogwash. I started laughing cause Gil hates Josie and left Jacob laying there and headed home," Tommy said concluding his story triumphantly. "Nobody saw the fight and cause I licked him real good, I doubt he'll tell anybody, cause he won't want anyone to know he lost to me and will make up some excuse like fallen out of a tree or somethin', so Marilla shouldn't hear about me fighting, unless you or Gil tell her, Henry. And you got to see he had it coming to him."
"She won't hear about it from me," Gilbert said quickly.
"Nor I," Henry said. "The git had it coming. Let's get you cleaned up though, cause if Marilla saw you now, she'd take one look at you and know you were fighting without anyone having to tell her."
