In the Woods When First We Met

124. Everything

The day before school let out for a week for Christmas, Gilbert brought something to school to give to Anne when he dropped her off at the edge of the snowy meadow.

He'd kept it in his bookstrap all day, and now could finally present it to her:

"It's a Christmas gift," he explained, placing it into her hands.

"But...I don't have anything for you," she said sorrowfully.

"That's all right," he said with a smile.

"No, it isn't," Anne said.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, the gift isn't really from me, not technically. My father is the one who thought of it. And it's not new, either- It's a book he already had. ...We're just giving it to you. To keep."

Anne looked down at it.

Gilbert smiled at the way she breathed in suddenly, as if the whole world had stopped turning on its axis.

For there, laying in her hands, was Walden.

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau.

She had read the excerpts in their reader over and over, delighting in it, and wishing she could read the whole book.

And now she could.

"He's had it for years...my mother was the one who introduced him to it, actually." Gilbert told her.

Anne looked shocked. "Oh, no," she said pushing it back toward him. "No, Gilbert, I can't take it, not if it was your mother's. It wouldn't be right. At least not to keep. It's a gift enough just to let me borrow it."

Gilbert shook his head, pushing it back toward her. "No, he wants you to have it. I was showing him what we had in our readers, and how much you enjoyed it, and how good your recitations were in class, and...he said you reminded him of her."

"Really?" Anne asked, finding that to be an enormous compliment.

Gilbert nodded. "He said that when he saw the two of us reading together, it made him think of those days when he and my mother used to pass books back and forth and talk about them for hours..."

They stood a moment just looking at each other, neither one noticing the cold.

"Anyway," Gilbert finally said, almost laughing, like he'd somehow forgotten everything he was going to say, "I took a quote from the book- my favorite quote- and wrote it in the cover. It reminded me of you, so..."

Anne opened the book and looked at the inside cover.

It was the quote from Walden that said:

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

Anne smiled up at him, so many thoughts were rushing into her mind, but her eyes shimmered and told him all he needed to know.

Then he said, "My father liked that quote, too. He's the one who told me I ought to write it in the front cover."

Anne smiled. "It's....everything," she said breathlessly.

Then Gilbert spoke up, again. "Sorry if the book is written in in other places, though. My dad said that before he and my mother got married, they used to pass books back and forth, and if there was something they wanted to point out to the other, they'd circle things and make notes to each other in the margins...so your present might be a bit, well, defaced..." 

Anne looked up into his eyes. "Thank you so much. Thank your father too. I...I want to thank him myself."

Gilbert smiled. "He's been asking when I'm going to bring you by again. He said...'she is an open window in a darkened room'."

Anne smiled. What a nice thing for someone to call her.

Gilbert did not tell her that his father had also said, "You've found a precious gem, son. Don't let her get away. I've never seen you so happy just to be in someone's presence." Gilbert had blushed without realizing it, and his father had noticed. When Gilbert said, "It's not like that...she's just a friend, dad," his father had responded, "...All romance is grounded on friendship."

After Gilbert left her, Anne went home in a cloud of happiness and sat down by the fire with her newfound treasure.

She again traced the words Gilbert had so carefully inscribed.

They meant so much.

Gilbert had apologized about the notes and markings in the book, but Anne was fascinated by the idea. She checked the inside back cover first, wondering if there was anything important there before she began reading the book. But all she saw was a page number jotted down in the corner.

But...

She shuffled through the book until she found the right page.

The page number written in the back cover had meant something; for there, in the center of the page, one sentence in the book had been underlined.

And when she read that sentence, something inside her flickered with new light:

"All romance is grounded on friendship."