BBC：100部英国人最喜欢的文学作品].Anne-of-Green-Gables.pdf

Anne of Green Gables
By Lucy Maud Montgomery
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Chapter I

Mrs. Rachel Lynde
is Surprised
rs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main
Mroad dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with
alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that
had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert
place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in
its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of
pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow
it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a
brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due
regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious
that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp
eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children
up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she
would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and
wherefores thereof.
There are plenty of people in Avonlea and out of it, who
can attend closely to their neighbor’s business by dint of ne-
glecting their own; but Mrs. Rachel Lynde was one of those
 Anne of Green Gables
capable creatures who can manage their own concerns and
those of other folks into the bargain. She was a notable
housewife; her work was always done and well done; she
‘ran’ the Sewing Circle, helped run the Sunday-school, and
was the strongest prop of the Church Aid Society and For-
eign Missions Auxiliary. Yet with all this Mrs. Rachel found
abundant time to sit for hours at her kitchen window, knit-
ting ‘cotton warp’ quilts—she had knitted sixteen of them,
as Avonlea housekeepers were wont to tell in awed voic-
es—and keeping a sharp eye on the main road that crossed
the hollow and wound up the steep red hill beyond. Since
Avonlea occupied a little triangular peninsula