LITMIR.BIZ

      3. Her face was small and white, she also had candle/freckles.

      Chapter 5

      “Do you know,” said Anne, “I’ve decided to enjoy this ride. I’m not going to think about returning to the children’s home, I’ll just think about the road. Oh, look, there’s a wild rose. Don’t you think it’s nice to be a rose? Wouldn’t it be nice, if flowers talked? Do you know any girl whose hair was black and then turned another color when she grew up?”

      “No, I don’t. And I think your hair won’t turn another color either,” said Marilla.

      Anne sighed39.

      “If you like talking so much, you can tell me what you know about yourself,” said Marilla.

      “What I know is not interesting. Let me tell you what I imagine40.”

      “No, I don’t want to hear you imagination. Just tell me the facts.”

      “I was eleven last March,” said Anne. “I was born in Bolingbroke. My father was a teacher in a high school. My mother was a teacher too. They were poor and lived in a tiny41 house. My mother died of fever42 when I was three months old. And father died of fever too, four days after her.

      Mrs. Thomas, the woman who came in to clean, took me and I lived with her and her children for eight years. I looked after 43her children, there were four of them. But Mr. Thomas fell under the train and died. The mother of Mrs. Thomas took her and her children but she didn’t want me.

      Then Mrs. Hammond saw that I could be handy44 with children and took me. She had eight children. I lived with them over two years.

      Then Mr. Hammond died, Mrs. Hammond became very poor, divided45 her children among her relatives and went to the United States. I went to the children’s house because nobody wanted to take me. They didn’t want to take me either46, they said there were too many children in the children’s house. But they had to take me and I lived there four months before Mrs. Spencer came.”

      Anne finished her story.

      “Did you go to school?” asked Marilla.

      “Not much. I went a little last year when I lived with Mrs. Thomas. But they lived so far away from school and I couldn’t go there in winter. But I can read pretty well and I know a lot of poems by heart.”

      “Were those women, Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Hammond good to you?” asked Marilla, looking at Anne out of the corner of her eye.

      “O-o-h,” said Anne. “I’m sure they wanted to be, but it’s hard sometimes when you have to work so much and have so many children. But I’m sure they wanted to be good.”

      Marilla didn’t ask questions anymore and they drove in silence. Suddenly, Marilla felt such a pity47 for the child. Poor unloved child, she thought. No wonder the girl wanted a real home. Maybe they could have her, thought the woman again.

      She talked too much, thought Marilla. But we can train her out of that. She’s ladylike48.

      “What is that big house ahead of us?” asked the girl.

      “Hotel. A lot of Americans come here. But the season hasn’t started yet,” said Marilla.

      “I was afraid it might be Mrs. Spencer’s house,” said Anne sadly. “I don’t want to go there.”

      Exercise: What are these words?

      to sigh