Eight-year-old Tenny Blythe had a problem. His last assignment of the school year was due in two days, and he didn't even know where to begin. The assignment had been given out a week before by Miss Drew, and it seemed that everyone had their composition finished except for him. It wasn't that he didn't want to complete it; he just didn't know what to write. Walt had suggested that he just make something up, but Tenny felt that he couldn't do that because that would be like telling a falsehood, and they were taught never to tell falsehoods.

He moped his way to where all of his friends and cousins were playing, but he didn't feel like joining them. He knew he shouldn't have been in Rainbow Valley at all, but locked away in his room at Hope's Cove, feverishly working away at his assignment. However, he had often heard his father, Mr. Ford, Grandmother, and Uncle Ken talk of something called a muse, and how they couldn't write a letter if they couldn't find theirs.

He imagined if his muse was anywhere, it would be in Rainbow Valley on a Sunday afternoon, there wasn't another place like it. Besides, the mayflowers were out, and he needed to pick some for his Mum and also some for the vase on his nightstand that he kept next to the picture of his dear Mama. It was a family tradition for the sons of the family to bring their mothers mayflowers. He had two mothers to pick flowers for now; his real mother, his Mama, and his new step-mother, his Mum.

Though he looked just like his father, Albert Tennyson Blythe, or Tenny, known by those who loved him best, was far more like both of his practical grandfathers than his dreamy father. He was far more Darcy and Blythe than Shirley. He saw things that he thought were beautiful, and he liked to imagine things, but he never got carried away by such flights of fancy. He was the polar opposite of his twin sister, who was always getting carried away by flights of fancy.

He slumped down on an old fallen oak tree, seeing the reality of his predicament. He was close to getting his first failing grade since starting school, and the thought didn't settle well in his proud little body.

Hope saw her brother's apparent depression, and rushed over to see what his problem was. "Why are you so unhappy, Tenny? It's such a beautiful day; don't you see the fairies dancing around?"

Tenny furrowed his black brow, folded his arms across his chest, then told his sister, "There aren't any fairies here, Hope. There's just a bunch of kids running around, like chickens with their heads cut off."

Hope was always hurt when someone told her that there were no fairies, and she never expected to hear such blasphemy from her own twin's lips. "Why are you being such a sourpuss, Albert?"

He turned his little black head away from her, declaring, "I don't want to talk about it, Abigail. Besides, you wouldn't understand. You're a girl, and girls don't have to have a pro – a pro… a, a job!"

Hope suddenly realized what Tenny's problem was, and yelled it out to where all of the children in Rainbow Valley heard it over their own whoops and hollers, "You haven't written your composition yet, have you?"

"Oh, why don't you just go to the radio station in Charlottetown and broadcast it to everyone, Hope?" he complained. It was too late though, everyone was descending upon him to help him with his problem.

Walt was the first to speak, "So you don't have it done yet? I was sure you'd take my advice and just make something up."

Tenny shook his head, "I couldn't do it, Walt. That seems to much like telling a fib."

Maddie McGowan glared at Walt indignantly, and her usually jolly hazel eyes turned stone gray. She felt that Walt was often a bad influence on her old friend, Tenny. "Tenny is above that sort of thing, Walt Blythe. We all know you probably made up your composition about what you want to do when you grow up. You never take anything seriously, except for you next meal!"

Walt was a little ashamed, realizing how lowly Maddie must've thought of him. She was such a pretty girl with her rosy cheeks and sandy blonde hair, and she always seemed to smell wonderful, like something off of his mother or grandmother's dressing table at Ingleside. It didn't seem right to have her think lowly of him. He had to tell her the truth to impress her, and everyone else as well.

"I have too written my composition, Madeline McGowan! I wrote it the other night with Gilly. I wrote all about how I want to be a doctor like Dad and Grandad. It's a family tradition now. I'm going to go to college and study real hard. Then I'll come home and let Grandad retire cause he's old and will really be old then. A 'pidemic of 'fluenza will hit the Glen like it did right before we were born. I'll save everybody's lives cept yours, cause you said I don't take things seriously!"

Maddie stood right in front of Walt. They were so close that there noses almost touched, and she stared into his eyes angrily and yelled, "You won't have to save my life, cause I'm gonna run away with a movie star and go live in California for the rest of my days! We'll eat oranges for breakfast and Chop Suey for dinner! He'll shower me in jewelry and be devastatingly handsome. Every word out of his mouth will be, "Yes, my beautiful Madeline! Of course, my gorgeous Madeline!" I'll have doctors from the States who drive around in Rolls Royce's, and we'll travel to Europe in an airship."

"Oh brother!" exclaimed Maddie's ten-year-old brother, Jake, "That's not a very realistic dream, Maddie, and why don't you and Walt both stop yelling. It's not helping Tenny at all."

"What did you write about, Jake?" Nell Douglas asked interested in what the handsome older boy wanted to do with his life.

Gilly didn't like the way Nell batted her lashes when she spoke to Jake, but he too wanted to know what the older boy wanted to be. "Yeah, what did you write about, Jake? I'm going to be a publisher and editor like my dad. I'm going to put out the best magazines in all of Canada, and from right here in the Glen too!" There, he didn't want to be upstaged too much.

"Oh," Jake said a little laconically. He liked that he was the oldest out of the group of friends. It made him feel important. He never had too many friends in Oklahoma. "My Uncle Robert is a Captain in the United States Navy, and he went to the Academy in Maryland. He wrote to Mama, and said if my grades were good enough, he'd get me in when I'm old enough. I want to be a sailor like my Uncle Robert. He's my only uncle that still speaks to Mama after she ran off to marry Daddy."

"He does look splendid in his uniform," Maddie said dreamily of her uncle.

Elliot Miller wasn't much younger than Jake McGowan, and he didn't always like how he moved in and took his place as oldest. "You can't join the US Navy, McGowan, you're a Canadian!"

"I'm still a citizen in the States. I was born there. Tenny and Hope are still citizens of the States too."

Elliot shook his head, thinking about he needed to talk this matter over with Mr. Elliot later in the evening. He liked to talk about Mr. Elliot. He was a jolly sort of grandfather, and he probably loved him and his brothers and sisters more than a real grandfather would have. He was far easier to talk to than his Ma, whom he always thought was a little too bossy, and his Pa sometimes had a dark look in his eyes. He guessed that his Pa was thinking about losing his leg in the Great War when that dark look overcame him. He sometimes wished he had a jolly Pa like Walt or Gilly, but he was proud of his Pa and loved him still yet.

"I'm going to be a farmer like my Pa was going to be before he lost his leg in the War. We talk sometimes about all the things we can do to have a modern farm these days," he announced.

Tenny looked to Bryant Douglas who was being a little quiet, which was odd for any Douglas child. "What about you, Bryant? What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I want to be a soldier and win a DC medal like Pa did."

"That's not a big deal," Gilly told him. "Uncle Walter got one too."

Tenny looked up to the sky and complained, "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!"

Someone cleared their throat. It was Grace, and she made her way to the middle of the group, tripping over a root as she walked. "I'm going to be a ballerina when I'm older." Everyone looked at her like she was insane.

John spoke up from where he had been dreaming under a spruce tree, "I want to make the world beautiful with poetry. Hope and I are going to write together and live in Paris, aren't we Hope?"

Hope was a little embarrassed because she didn't want the others to take notice of her and John. They just understood each other and thought a lot of the same thoughts. She wasn't going to marry him or anything! "Yes. Until I decide to get married. Then, I'm going to devote myself to my husband like Grandfather Meredith preached in church Sunday."

John looked to Tenny and then came up with an idea, "Hey Tenny, why don't you go talk to Grandmother? She's great with advice and ideas."

"I think I'll do that, John. You people aren't helping me a bit." Then he left to find his Grandmother at Ingleside.

He found Grandmother with Aunt Faith, Aunt Rilla, Mum, Aunt Persis, Mrs. McGowan, Mrs. Douglas, Mrs. Meredith, and Mrs. Ford, laughing and talking as they fixed supper. There were so many women in there, that they didn't notice him at first. Before sitting down, he checked the cookie jar for a snack. Of course, it was empty. That seemed to be his fate that day.

He slumped down in a chair at the kitchen table and sighed so heavily that the ladies abruptly stopped their discussion on over Irene Potts' nee' Howard's inappropriately high heels that she wore to the church social the past Saturday night, and the fact that she attended socials but not church itself.

Una started to go to him, but Anne was already there with a loving hug. "Tenny my boy, what on Earth has caused your sweet smile to turn so dour?"

"I've got a terrible trouble, Grandmother. You see, I've got to write a composition about what I want to be when I grow up, but I don't know what I want to be. Walt said I should just make something up, but that would be telling a falsehood, and Dad, Mum, you, and Grandad, and Mama all taught me never to tell a fib. I can't do it."

"Why that little…" Aunt Faith started to say about her own son. "I'm going to have to have a talk with that boy when he gets home tonight."

Rosemary put a hand on Faith's back to calm her down as Anne told Tenny. "Well Tenny, you know you're still very young, and you don't have to make a decision about what you want to do with your life for several years still. You know your Uncle Jem wanted to be a sailor when he was your age, then a soldier, then a politician before settling on medicine."

"That makes me feel a little better, but I still have to write something or Miss Drew will give me a failing grade for this assignment," he lamented.

Rilla indignantly said, "That Tilly Drew would flunk her own son if she ever had one, just to see him squirm. "

"You don't have to worry about that woman ever having a son. First she'd have to catch a husband, and the fish just don't bite that bitter of bait," Mary Douglas said.

Una sat next to her dear little boy, took his hand, and said, "Well, let's figure out what you like to do, and you can go from there. Remember that this is just a school project, and if you change your mind some day, you haven't written a falsehood." Oh how good it was to be someone's mother, especially someone as wonderful as Tenny.

The women all gathered around Tenny, making him feel like he was part of some female ritual. Mrs. Ford spoke up, "What do you like to do, Tenny?"

He thought hard about his answer, knowing all eyes were on him. I like build model aeroplanes, I liked building that bridge across the brook at the House of Dreams with Gilly and Walt. I like watching Captain Jacobs work the new electric lamp at the lighthouse. I love it when someone turns a radio to where you can see all the tubes and other workings inside. I didn't like seeing all the gore when Gilly cut his leg on that barbed wire at Jake's house a few weeks ago. I really didn't like watching Uncle Jem stitch him back up. It made me feel all queer at my stomach," he admitted, wearily rubbing his abdomen.

Una laughed. "Hope wanted to be the first woman doctor in the family until that incident. She too became somewhat ill at seeing Gilly's leg. I think she wants to go to Paris with John now and write."

"They're both definatley Walter's children," Faith said. "He's never been able to stand much blood and gore."

Una agreed. "It's too ugly, but he overcomes that feeling when he must."

Tenny perked up, remembering such a time, "Like when Sooner was stepped on by the cow. He was so gentle with her, even when he had to put her down."

Ginny remembered that time too. "That poor dog hadn't been the same since Walter and Katie had brought Bertie's body home from the war. She spent every night on his grave. I think she finally got tired of life without Bertie and let the cow step on her. Boomer, her pup that Katie raised, didn't last long at all after…" She saw the sad look on everyone's face; especially Tenny's and said, "I think you would make a very good engineer of some sort, Tenny. You like to build things and see how things work."

Tenny looked confused. "I thought Uncle Jack was an engineer, and he doesn't build things. He drives the train from Charlottetown to Carmody."

"That's a different kind of engineer, Tenny," Grandmother told him.

"I think I would like to build things, and make life better that way. John and Hope can write to make the world prettier, but I'll build the things that make it easy for them to write." His frown had turned back around to a smile again. It seemed that with a little help from the women of his family, Tenny started to see his calling in life. Though, he still wanted Dad or Grandad to explain the different types of engineers sometime.


Well, tell me what do think so far? This is going to be loosley put together ala "Anne of Ingleside." I want everyone to get to know the adults and children better. We're going to see the children grow up here; setting the stage for my own WWII melodrama (s). Please Read and Review. Really, I do love the reviews. Also, for those who've yet to visit a blog that I and several other LM Montgomery fanfictioners have, please do so at http/lmmontgomeryfanfiction. There's a blogspot then dot com after that. This site just won't let me post it right.