In the Woods When First We Met

107. Anne Shirley, Author

Anne wanted to dive headfirst into Gilbert's father's magazine, but first she needed to figure out what she could give him.

The trouble was, she didn't really have anything.

She looked at her dresser and the things she'd laid on it.

She'd been collecting various colors of pebbles, trying to get one in every shade from rust red to sky blue (Marilla had asked, "Why are you bringing rocks into the house?" and Anne had tried to explain that when you see rocks on the ground you don't notice them, but if you pick them up and look at them- really look at them- you notice all of the "intricacies", she'd told Marilla. "Intricacies, eh?" Matthew had asked, bemused. "It was on our spelling list this week," Anne explained excitedly. "Isn't it a positively delicious word?") but even though she liked her pebble collection, she didn't think giving those was much of a present.

She had a button string she'd started. Marilla had told her that when she was a young girl, having a button string was the thing to do. Girls would collect buttons and trade them, and you were most impressive if you had the longest string of buttons. And, Marilla had added, "It's a practical thing to collect, because it's useful- you'll always need them in your sewing." Anne liked her button string, but she didn't want to think about sewing. She'd rather think about her rocks and wonder how rocks got to be different colors and if there were different names for different types of stones. Anyway, even though she knew Gilbert had to do all his own sewing, she still didn't think a button string made a very good present for a boy.

She looked at the other things she'd put on her dresser.

She had a fossil she'd come across in the brook. She knew it was a fossil, but she didn't have a book that would tell her what kind it might be.

She had a big collection of pressed flowers. She was pressing them with wax paper and books. She had started out with dried flowers, but Marilla had not liked her doing that in the house, either. She hadn't known Anne was going to do it until she'd walked into the pantry and the flowers hanging upside down hit her in the face. Anne had explained that you had to have a dark, dry place to do it, and the pantry seemed like a good spot. Marilla had said, exasperated, "When you asked me for a spare hanger and some string, I ought to have asked what it was for." She said Anne was going to bring bugs into the house doing that. So Anne had to stop, and switch to pressed flowers. The flowers were lovely ...But she couldn't give flowers to a boy.

Anyway, none of that seemed special enough to give him.

She wanted to give him something to read, like he'd given her, but she didn't have anything to read besides her school books and the books Marilla and Matthew had, which of course she couldn't give away.

Then she had a thought.

Maybe she could give him something to read that she had written. But...did she have anything good enough? She couldn't give him anything with romantic love in it, that would be too embarrassing. She began looking through her papers to find something decent.

She finally decided on The Tale of Persephone and the Dragon, which she'd written the day she had to sit with Billy. It wasn't about love, it was about a brave girl slaying a horrible dragon.

When Billy had grabbed the paper away from her, he'd ripped it. But that was okay; she'd re-write it. In her best handwriting. And maybe she could even add pictures.

She worked on it for what seemed like hours, until at last it was perfect. She felt very pleased with herself. She used the wax paper Gilbert had brought her the magazine in, and rolled it up tight.

She waited until Marilla was busy and slipped out again, running this time, to the spot Gilbert had left her his magazine. She placed her story carefully on the log, being sure the wax paper was keeping it clean, and then piled up the stones the same way he had.

She was about to leave, but then had another thought. She went back and used the sharp end of one rock to scratch a smiley face into another and then set them back up. She hoped he would notice the smiley face there before he lifted the rocks away.

She started quickly for home, glancing back at it once, smiling.

Marilla didn't hear her come in, thankfully, and she was able to get back upstairs with no notice.

She was excited to dive into the magazine, now, but hesitated. She had one more important thing to do.

She took a piece of paper and folded it in half. Then she went down to where Marilla kept a basket of fabric scraps left over from various sewing projects. She dug through until she found a piece of light blue cloth that was almost the same shade as one of Diana's blue dresses. Then she found a bit of lace.

She went back upstairs with scissors and a jar of paste. She cut a heart out of the light blue fabric scrap and then pasted it onto the paper. Then she took the bit of lace and pasted it over top. She was making a get well card for Diana.

(Author's Note- I am excited for you guys to see the next chapter because the next chapter was a fun to chapter to write so i hope youll like reading it too. Ill post it tomorrow afternoon)