Chapter 2: Anne's Arrival
Hey, again, I don't own Anne or the March sisters
Mrs Hammond slowly walked into the office. " I would like for you to take this orphan," she said, pointing at a wiry creature who didn't appear to have received enough to eat. "I can't keep her, and no one else wants her, so here she is going to have to stay."
"I'm very sorry, but we are overcrowded as is, and she may not do the best here. I would suggest you take her to another asylum," Meg said, suddenly turning over her shoulder to ask Beth if they had an extra cot that she could sleep on.
"However, I think we might be able to take her. We do have an extra cot that she could sleep on." Beth replied, secretly hoping to learn what this little creature was like. "However, in order to keep her, we need to know her name and age in order to enter her into the register."
"My name is Anne Shirley, and I am 10 years of age. Isn't it just delightful to be 10? I feel as if I am going to like it here. It is clean, but not painfully clean, like how I had to keep Mrs. Hammonds house." The little creature piped up as soon as Mrs. Hammond left.
"Hello Anne, I'm Amy. I help with the children ages 9 through 12. Come along with me and I'll help you with your things," Amy replied, trying to figure out what she could do to help improve her situation. She could that she didn't get enough to eat, but she couldn't tell what that terrible woman who left her there had done to her. "If it's not too hard, tell me what you have been through."
"It's not too hard, just boring. I was orphaned at the age of…" Anne began
"Amy, look here. It seems she was brought here for a week and then got sent out to work for a Mrs. Thomas," Meg interrupted, "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you two. Sorry."
"That's my oldest sister, Margaret, or Meg. So, where were you?" Amy said to Anne
"Oh, well, I was born in Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia. My father's name was Walter Shirley, and he was a teacher in the Bolingbroke High School. My mother's name was Bertha Shirley. Aren't Walter and Bertha lovely names? I'm so glad my parents had nice names. It would be a real disgrace to have a father named- well , say Jedediah, wouldn't it?"* Anne said exclasically.
"I guess so, I mean, I don't really know. I was never as imaginative as you are." Amy replied
"Well, my mother was a teacher in the High school ,too, but when she married father she gave up teaching, of course. A husband was enough responsibility. Mrs. Thomas said that they were a pair of babies and as poor as church mice. They went to live in a weeny-teeny little yellow house in Bolingbroke. I've never seen that house, but I've imagined it thousands of times. I think it must have had honeysuckle over the parlor window and lilacs in the in the front yard and lilies of the valley just inside the gate. Yes, and muslin curtains in all the windows. Muslin curtains give a house such an air. I was born in that house. Mrs. Thomas said I was the homeliest baby she ever saw, I was so scrawny and nothing but eyes, but that mother thought I was perfectly beautiful. I should think that a mother would be a better judge than a poor lady who came in to scrub, wouldn't you? I'm glad she was satisfied with me anyhow, I would feel so sad if I thought I was a disappointment to her-because she didn't live very long after that, you see. She died of fever when I was just three months old. I do wish she'd lived long enough for me to remember calling her mother. I think it would be so sweet to say 'mother,' don't you?*
Amy, finally being able to to get a word in said it was a very sweet thing to say 'mother' and that part of the reason she and her sisters decided to ask for the orphanage was so that they could help make life better for those less fortunate than them.
"Well, father died four days afterwards from fever too. That left me an orphan and folks were at their wits' end, so Mrs. Thomas said, what to do with me. Father and mother had both come from places far away and it was well known they hadn't any relatives left. What other children are here?"
After a moment, Amy said, "There are plenty of people for you to play with. Would you like to meet them?"
"Of course. That would be of utmost delight for me!"
*See Anne of Green Gables Chapter 5: Anne's History for the full quote