Here are Katherine and my answers for the
"Anne Experiences Tag"
Grace's Answers
1.
"No. But please, Marilla, go away and don't look at me. I'm in the depths of despair and i don't care who gets ahead in class or writes the best composition or sings in the Sundayschool choir any more. Little things like that are of no importance now because I don't suppose I'll ever go anywhere again. My career is closed. Please Marilla, go away and don't look at me."
"Anne Shirley, what have you done to your hair? Why, it's GREEN!"... "Yes it's green." moaned Anne. "I thought nothing could be as bad a red hair. But now I know it's ten times worse to have green hair. O Marilla, you little know how wretched I am."
~ What is your most embarrassing Moment? ~
When thinking about this question, I have realized that I have MANY embarrassing moments! One of the worst occurred when we had just moved into our new Missouri house and a car pulled up the driveway. I thought it was my brother and ran out jumping and chattering to find out that it was not my brother, but the man who leased our land at the time for his cows! I literally turned on a dime and ran away behind the house! It was awful!
2.
"We had a plum pudding for dinner on Tuesday and there was half the pudding and a pitcherful of sauce left over. Marilla said there was enough for another dinner and told me to set it on the pantry shelf and cover it. I meant to cover it just as much as could be, Diana, but when I carried it in I was imagining I was a nun--of course I'm a Protestant but I imagined I was a Catholic--taking the veil to bury a broken heart in cloistered seclusion; and I forgot all about covering the pudding sauce. I thought of it next morning and ran to the pantry. Diana, fancy if you can my extreme horror at finding a mouse drowned in that pudding sauce! I lifted the mouse out with a spoon and threw it out in the yard and then I washed the spoon in three waters. "
~ What is your cooking disaster story? ~
Once I was charged with making our Spaghetti sauce recipe using our canned tomatoes and when I opened one of the jars it smelled a bit funny, but I didn't think anything of it and used it anyways. Oh my word, that thing stunk up the house so bad and tasted awful! Thankfully it was only us and no company!
3.
When Matthew came to think the matter over he decided that a woman was required to cope with the situation. Marilla was out of the question. Matthew felt sure she would throw cold water on his project at once. Remained only Mrs. Lynde; for of no other woman in Avonlea would Matthew have dared to ask advice. To Mrs. Lynde he went accordingly, and that good lady promptly took the matter out of the harassed man's hands.
"Pick out a dress for you to give Anne? To be sure I will. I'm going to Carmody tomorrow and I'll attend to it. Have you something particular in mind? No? Well, I'll just go by my own judgment then. I believe a nice rich brown would just suit Anne, and William Blair has some new gloria in that's real pretty. Perhaps you'd like me to make it up for her, too, seeing that if Marilla was to make it Anne would probably get wind of it before the time and spoil the surprise? Well, I'll do it. No, it isn't a mite of trouble. I like sewing. I'll make it to fit my niece, Jenny Gillis, for she and Anne are as like as two peas as far as figure goes."
"Well now, I'm much obliged," said Matthew, "and--and--I dunno--but I'd like--I think they make the sleeves different nowadays to what they used to be. If it wouldn't be asking too much I--I'd like them made in the new way."
"Puffs? Of course. You needn't worry a speck more about it, Matthew. I'll make it up in the very latest fashion," said Mrs. Lynde.
~ Do you own a dress with puffed sleeves?~
I do!! A friend made me a period dress and it has puffed sleeves; unfortunately the fabric I chose is too heavy so it just kinda hangs there! When we get around to it we're going to try stuffing the sleeves with tissue paper and see if that helps!
4.
"Brown sugar!" exclaimed Marilla. "Whatever possessed you to get so much? You know I never use it except for the hired man's porridge or black fruit cake. Jerry's gone and I've made my cake long ago. It's not good sugar, either--it's coarse and dark--William Blair doesn't usually keep sugar like that."
"I--I thought it might come in handy sometime," said Matthew, making good his escape.
~ What is a hasty purchase you regret ?~
As a child I always had difficulty buying things at stores, due to the plethora of choices and my indecisiveness! Mom used to dread taking me shopping, I would take so long! Thankfully I have outgrown that, but it did not stop me from buying a hot pink, inflatable bean bag like chair. It was hideous, cheap (popping a hole very soon thereafter) and not at all comfortable, but I had to have it at the time! I look back now and wonder what I was thinking!
5.
"Gilbert reached across the aisle, picked up the end of Anne's long red braid, held it out at arm's length and said in a piercing whisper: "Carrots! Carrots!" Then Anne looked at him with a vengeance! She did more than look. She sprang to her feet, her bright fancies fallen into cureless ruin. She flashed one indignant glance at Gilbert from eyes whose angry sparkle was swiftly quenched in equally angry tears. "You mean, hateful boy!" she exclaimed passionately. "How dare you!" And then--thwack! Anne had brought her slate down on Gilbert's head and cracked it--slate not head--clear across."
~ What do you get teased about? ~
We don't really tease at our house, we banter back and forth. But, I have the nickname of Nate Bracie which comes from The Andy Griffith Show episode The Reunion, where Andy and Barney can't recognize their classmates. One man says his name is Nate Bracie and Andy and Barney pretend they remember him and stall to help recover from the awkward moment by repeating his name 3 times. My mom loved the way it sorta rhymed with another nickname of mine and dubbed me "Nate Bracie".
6.
"There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott."
~ What is your most dramatic moment? ~
We are a very dramatic lot over here especially when there is music on and especially when that music is Broadway soundtracks! Katherine and I are the youngest in our family and we are each others best friends. As kids we would play house or doll house or paper dolls all the time. Mostly it was Pioneers and Indians, orphans or some other extreme situation. Sherlock would always laugh at us cause we would plan out everything before we started playing, then just act it out, never going in blind! Those roles could get very dramatic and we haven't even gone into my famous "Mean Mother"role! Ahh, childhood, how I miss thee!
7.
"The Haunted Wood! Are you crazy? What under the canopy is the Haunted Wood?"
"The spruce wood over the brook," said Anne in a whisper.
"Fiddlesticks! There is no such thing as a haunted wood anywhere. Who has been telling you such stuff?"
"Nobody," confessed Anne. "Diana and I just imagined the wood was haunted. All the places around here are so--so--commonplace. We just got this up for our own amusement. We began it in April. A haunted wood is so very romantic, Marilla. We chose the spruce grove because it's so gloomy. Oh, we have imagined the most harrowing things. There's a white lady walks along the brook just about this time of the night and wrings her hands and utters wailing cries. She appears when there is to be a death in the family. And the ghost of a little murdered child haunts the corner up by Idlewild; it creeps up behind you and lays its cold fingers on your hand--so. Oh, Marilla, it gives me a shudder to think of it. And there's a headless man stalks up and down the path and skeletons glower at you between the boughs. Oh, Marilla, I wouldn't go through the Haunted Wood after dark now for anything. I'd be sure that white things would reach out from behind the trees and grab me."
"Did ever anyone hear the like!" ejaculated Marilla, who had listened in dumb amazement.
~ Has your imagination ever run away with you? ~
YES! Oh my, this summer I was so scared I'd see snakes that I imagined every innocent movement of grass was a horde of them slithering to get me... even with two dogs with me! I am terrified of snakes, but I am better now, though I haven't gotten up the nerve to walk around our pond yet this summer!
8.
"Oh, Marilla," she exclaimed breathlessly, "there's going to be a Sunday-school picnic next week--in Mr. Harmon Andrews's field, right near the lake of Shining Waters. And Mrs. Superintendent Bell and Mrs. Rachel Lynde are going to make ice cream--think of it, Marilla--ice cream! And, oh, Marilla, can I go to it?"
~ What is a dessert you most recently tried? ~
Plum Pudding with caramel sauce! It was delicious and everybody loved it!
9.
“But pearls are for tears, the old legend says," Gilbert had objected. "I'm not afraid of that. And tears can be happy as well as sad. My very happiest moments have been when I had tears in my eyes—when Marilla told me I might stay at Green Gables—when Matthew gave me the first pretty dress I ever had—when I heard that you were going to recover from the fever. So give me pearls for our troth ring, Gilbert, and I'll willingly accept the sorrow of life with its joy." -Anne”
~ Where did you get your first set of pearls? ~
When Jane and Warren got married Katherine and I were among the bridesmaids. Along with our lavender dresses, they gave us a string of pearls that I still have, though not being much of a necklace person, they don't get much use!
10.
'A man in khaki was standing on the steps–a tall fellow, with dark eyes and hair, and a narrow white scar running across his brown cheek. Rilla stared at him foolishly for a moment. Who was it?
She ought to know him–there was certainly something very familiar about him–
"Rilla-my-Rilla," he said.
"Ken," gasped Rilla. Of course, it was Ken–but he looked so much older–he was so much changed–that scar–the lines about his eyes and lips–her thoughts went whirling helplessly.
Ken took the uncertain hand she held out, and looked at her. The slim Rilla of four years ago had rounded out into symmetry. He had left a school girl, and he found a woman–a woman with wonderful eyes and a dented lip, and rose-bloom cheek–a woman altogether beautiful and desirable–the woman of his dreams.
"Is it Rilla-my -Rilla?" he asked, meaningly.
Emotion shook Rilla from head to foot. Joy–happiness–sorrow–fear–every passion that had wrung her heart in those four long years seemed to surge up in her soul for a moment as the deeps of being were stirred. She had tried to speak; at first voice would not come. Then–
"Yeth," said Rilla.'
~ Have you ever had a lisp? ~
No, but I LOVE this scene from the book! It's just perfect!
11.
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
~
Back, he spurred like a madman, shouting a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high.
Blood-red were his spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat;
When they shot him down on the highway. Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat
~ Have you ever recited in public? ~
Never have I ever, though I have given reports before an audience and sung with our Home-school choir at a nursing home and our church.
12.
Anne, by what somebody has called "a Herculaneum effort," kept back her tears until she got home that night. Then she shut herself in the east gable room and wept all her shame and remorse and disappointment into her pillows. . .wept so long that Marilla grew alarmed, invaded the room, and insisted on knowing what the trouble was.
"The trouble is, I've got things the matter with my conscience," sobbed Anne. "Oh, this has been such a Jonah day, Marilla. I'm so ashamed of myself. I lost my temper and whipped Anthony Pye."
"I'm glad to hear it," said Marilla with decision. "It's what you should have done long ago."
"Oh, no, no, Marilla. And I don't see how I can ever look those children in the face again. I feel that I have humiliated myself to the very dust. You don't know how cross and hateful and horrid I was. I can't forget the expression in Paul Irving's eyes. . .he looked so surprised and disappointed. Oh, Marilla, I have tried so hard to be patient and to win Anthony's liking. . .and now it has all gone for nothing."
Marilla passed her hard work-worn hand over the girl's glossy, tumbled hair with a wonderful tenderness. When Anne's sobs grew quieter she said, very gently for her,
"You take things too much to heart, Anne. We all make mistakes. . .but people forget them. And Jonah days come to everybody. As for Anthony Pye, why need you care if he does dislike you? He is the only one."
"I can't help it. I want everybody to love me and it hurts me so when anybody doesn't. And Anthony never will now. Oh, I just made an idiot of myself today, Marilla. I'll tell you the whole story."
Marilla listened to the whole story, and if she smiled at certain parts of it Anne never knew. When the tale was ended she said briskly,
"Well, never mind. This day's done and there's a new one coming tomorrow, with no mistakes in it yet, as you used to say yourself. Just come downstairs and have your supper. You'll see if a good cup of tea and those plum puffs I made today won't hearten you up."
"Plum puffs won't minister to a mind diseased," said Anne disconsolately; but Marilla thought it a good sign that she had recovered sufficiently to adapt a quotation.
~ Have you ever had a Jonah Day? ~
My Jonah Day has a happy ending; the birth of my latest and greatest nephew aka The Duckling! The day started out with me babysitting for Jane while she went for a routine checkup to make sure everything with the baby was fine. The checkup ended with an induced birth due to a Preeclamsia scare. I was left at home with two hyper boys and a special needs baby, while my Calvary (Mom, Katherine and an ice cream sundae) were stuck in Springfield, having locked the keys in the car! Any who it all worked out, Little B slept till the night nurse arrived and the other boys enjoyed Peter Rabbit. And in the end The Duckling was born healthy and happy as was Jane!
13.
Around the next turn they came in sight, not indeed of a palace, but of a little house almost as surprising as a palace would have been in this province of conventional wooden farmhouses, all as much alike in general characteristics as if they had grown from the same seed. Anne stopped short in rapture and Diana exclaimed, "Oh, I know where we are now. That is the little stone house where Miss Lavendar Lewis lives. . .Echo Lodge, she calls it, I think. I've often heard of it but I've never seen it before. Isn't it a romantic spot?"
"It's the sweetest, prettiest place I ever saw or imagined," said Anne delightedly. "It looks like a bit out of a story book or a dream."
The house was a low-eaved structure built of undressed blocks of red Island sandstone, with a little peaked roof out of which peered two dormer windows, with quaint wooden hoods over them, and two great chimneys. The whole house was covered with a luxuriant growth of ivy, finding easy foothold on the rough stonework and turned by autumn frosts to most beautiful bronze and wine-red tints.
~ Have you ever discovered a place, that has always been there, but you never noticed? ~
Behind our PA house was a meadow with a stream and 100 acres of hillside and forest that was owned by the family across the street. The neighbors very kindly let us wander all over it and one Saturday Jane and I took a walk down there. We went on a path I'd never gone on before and Jane showed me a waterfall that was so beautiful, but completely hidden. I'd seen that path a dozen times, but had never thought to venture down it!
14.
"Davy Keith, don't you know that it is very wrong of you to be eating that jam, when you were told never to meddle with anything in that closet?"
"Yes, I knew it was wrong," admitted Davy uncomfortably, "but plum jam is awful nice, Anne. I just peeped in and it looked so good I thought I'd take just a weeny taste. I stuck my finger in. . ." Anne groaned. . ."and licked it clean. And it was so much gooder than I'd ever thought that I got a spoon and just sailed in."
Anne gave him such a serious lecture on the sin of stealing plum jam that Davy became conscience stricken and promised with repentant kisses never to do it again.
"Anyhow, there'll be plenty of jam in heaven, that's one comfort," he said complacently.
Anne nipped a smile in the bud.
"Perhaps there will. . .if we want it," she said, "But what makes you think so?"
"Why, it's in the catechism," said Davy.
"Oh, no, there is nothing like that in the catechism, Davy."
"But I tell you there is," persisted Davy. "It was in that question Marilla taught me last Sunday. `Why should we love God?' It says, `Because He makes preserves, and redeems us.' Preserves is just a holy way of saying jam."
"I must get a drink of water," said Anne hastily. When she came back it cost her some time and trouble to explain to Davy that a certain comma in the said catechism question made a great deal of difference in the meaning.
~ What is the craziest thing you ever heard a child say? ~
I just love Davey Keith, don't you? Something crazy.... from a child. Ok, this is more adorable than crazy, but whatever! I was staying over at Jane's house and we were having a discussion about the ever prevalent subject of "mawwaige", when Mr. Munchkin piped up saying that he wanted to get married. Warren explained to him that one day he would find a girl who he would marry. To this he replied "Aunt Grace is a girl!". What a cutie!
Katherine's Answers
1.
"No. But please, Marilla, go away and don't look at me. I'm in the depths of despair and i don't care who gets ahead in class or writes the best composition or sings in the Sundayschool choir any more. Little things like that are of no importance now because I don't suppose I'll ever go anywhere again. My career is closed. Please Marilla, go away and don't look at me."
"Anne Shirley, what have you done to your hair? Why, it's GREEN!"... "Yes it's green." moaned Anne. "I thought nothing could be as bad a red hair. But now I know it's ten times worse to have green hair. O Marilla, you little know how wretched I am."
~ What is your most embarrassing moment? ~
I think this has already been mentioned on the blog, but I'll say it again. (It is quite amusing). Grace and I were playing music in the kitchen while working one day. We were singing along and even bursting into dance at times. The propane delivery truck drove up the driveway and the driver went about filling up the propane tank. Then Pappa walks into the kitchen, where I am still singing, and when I see him I start dancing, not realizing until the last minute that the propane delivery guy was right behind him! Well, as soon as I saw him come through, I shut right up, and whirled around to face the opposite direction. Grace, who was standing on a chair, cleaning the fan above the table, didn't know what had happened, and looked up and her face just fell when she saw the propane guy walking through! Oh, that was so embarrassing! I don't know that he saw me, but I know he heard me at least.
2.
"We had a plum pudding for dinner on Tuesday and there was half the pudding and a pitcherful of sauce left over. Marilla said there was enough for another dinner and told me to set it on the pantry shelf and cover it. I meant to cover it just as much as could be, Diana, but when I carried it in I was imagining I was a nun--of course I'm a Protestant but I imagined I was a Catholic--taking the veil to bury a broken heart in cloistered seclusion; and I forgot all about covering the pudding sauce. I thought of it next morning and ran to the pantry. Diana, fancy if you can my extreme horror at finding a mouse drowned in that pudding sauce! I lifted the mouse out with a spoon and threw it out in the yard and then I washed the spoon in three waters. "
~ What is your cooking disaster story? ~
Oh, I wish I could think of a better story than this, but once I was making a Chocolate Pavlova and my egg whites that I was supposed to beat till stiff fell and didn't set up. The batter was soupy, not lusciously thick like it was supposed to be, so I ended up using the batter to make these "Failed Meringue Cookies" (which were really good other than being a little too sweet). And then I had to make a fresh Pavlova up again! The things we do for Pavlova!
3.
When Matthew came to think the matter over he decided that a woman was required to cope with the situation. Marilla was out of the question. Matthew felt sure she would throw cold water on his project at once. Remained only Mrs. Lynde; for of no other woman in Avonlea would Matthew have dared to ask advice. To Mrs. Lynde he went accordingly, and that good lady promptly took the matter out of the harassed man's hands.
"Pick out a dress for you to give Anne? To be sure I will. I'm going to Carmody tomorrow and I'll attend to it. Have you something particular in mind? No? Well, I'll just go by my own judgment then. I believe a nice rich brown would just suit Anne, and William Blair has some new gloria in that's real pretty. Perhaps you'd like me to make it up for her, too, seeing that if Marilla was to make it Anne would probably get wind of it before the time and spoil the surprise? Well, I'll do it. No, it isn't a mite of trouble. I like sewing. I'll make it to fit my niece, Jenny Gillis, for she and Anne are as like as two peas as far as figure goes."
"Well now, I'm much obliged," said Matthew, "and--and--I dunno--but I'd like--I think they make the sleeves different nowadays to what they used to be. If it wouldn't be asking too much I--I'd like them made in the new way."
"Puffs? Of course. You needn't worry a speck more about it, Matthew. I'll make it up in the very latest fashion," said Mrs. Lynde.
~ Do you own a dress with puffed sleeves? ~
Yes, I do! I found a regency gown at a thrift store for 25 cents! Woo-hoo!
4.
"Brown sugar!" exclaimed Marilla. "Whatever possessed you to get so much? You know I never use it except for the hired man's porridge or black fruit cake. Jerry's gone and I've made my cake long ago. It's not good sugar, either--it's coarse and dark--William Blair doesn't usually keep sugar like that."
"I--I thought it might come in handy sometime," said Matthew, making good his escape.
~ What is a hasty purchase you regret ?~
I can't really think of one! (This is terrible, I know)
5.
"Gilbert reached across the aisle, picked up the end of Anne's long red braid, held it out at arm's length and said in a piercing whisper: "Carrots! Carrots!" Then Anne looked at him with a vengeance! She did more than look. She sprang to her feet, her bright fancies fallen into cureless ruin. She flashed one indignant glance at Gilbert from eyes whose angry sparkle was swiftly quenched in equally angry tears. "You mean, hateful boy!" she exclaimed passionately. "How dare you!" And then--thwack! Anne had brought her slate down on Gilbert's head and cracked it--slate not head--clear across."
~ What do you get teased about? ~
Hmmm.....my friend teased me because I'm a slow reader, and spent months reading through a book she loaned me, and I ended up returning it to her unfinished on top of that!...Does that count?
6.
"There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott."
~ Have you ever "play acted"? ~
Once Grace and I attempted to reenact a scene from a dramatized recording of "The Count of Monte Cristo". There's a part where two men are bringing in Jakapo up to the Chateau D"if while Edmond Dantes is escaping. One of Jakapo's captors then stands up in the boat calling for Edmond and Jakapo (who dove out of the boat) to surrender and loses his balance, falling into the depths. So Grace and I tried to recreate that a bit, and it ended with my foot hitting the side of the canoe as I "fell" out of the canoe. Yeah, it didn't end well.....
7.
"The Haunted Wood! Are you crazy? What under the canopy is the Haunted Wood?"
"The spruce wood over the brook," said Anne in a whisper.
"Fiddlesticks! There is no such thing as a haunted wood anywhere. Who has been telling you such stuff?"
"Nobody," confessed Anne. "Diana and I just imagined the wood was haunted. All the places around here are so--so--commonplace. We just got this up for our own amusement. We began it in April. A haunted wood is so very romantic, Marilla. We chose the spruce grove because it's so gloomy. Oh, we have imagined the most harrowing things. There's a white lady walks along the brook just about this time of the night and wrings her hands and utters wailing cries. She appears when there is to be a death in the family. And the ghost of a little murdered child haunts the corner up by Idlewild; it creeps up behind you and lays its cold fingers on your hand--so. Oh, Marilla, it gives me a shudder to think of it. And there's a headless man stalks up and down the path and skeletons glower at you between the boughs. Oh, Marilla, I wouldn't go through the Haunted Wood after dark now for anything. I'd be sure that white things would reach out from behind the trees and grab me."
"Did ever anyone hear the like!" ejaculated Marilla, who had listened in dumb amazement.
~ Has your imagination ever run away with you? ~
When I was younger, I used to sleep with one leg out of the covers and one inside. I would get to a point where my leg would get cold and I'd want to pull it into the covers, but would be scared to move it, like there were "big, bad boogie men" in the room going to "catch" me. I'm not sure exactly what I was afraid of, but I'd finally just ease it slowly under the covers, like so slow they "wouldn't see". Crazy, right?
8.
"Oh, Marilla," she exclaimed breathlessly, "there's going to be a Sunday-school picnic next week--in Mr. Harmon Andrews's field, right near the lake of Shining Waters. And Mrs. Superintendent Bell and Mrs. Rachel Lynde are going to make ice cream--think of it, Marilla--ice cream! And, oh, Marilla, can I go to it?"
~ What is a dessert you've most recently tried?
Cream Tarts!! So delicious!
9.
“But pearls are for tears, the old legend says," Gilbert had objected.
"I'm not afraid of that. And tears can be happy as well as sad. My very happiest moments have been when I had tears in my eyes—when Marilla told me I might stay at Green Gables—when Matthew gave me the first pretty dress I ever had—when I heard that you were going to recover from the fever. So give me pearls for our troth ring, Gilbert, and I'll willingly accept the sorrow of life with its joy." -Anne”
~ Where did you get your first set of pearls? ~
Jane gave me a set of pearls to wear in her, and Warren's wedding. It's been years and I'm still wearing them! Thanks, Jane! :)
10.
'A man in khaki was standing on the steps–a tall fellow, with dark eyes and hair, and a narrow white scar running across his brown cheek. Rilla stared at him foolishly for a moment. Who was it?
She ought to know him–there was certainly something very familiar about him–
"Rilla-my-Rilla," he said.
"Ken," gasped Rilla. Of course, it was Ken–but he looked so much older–he was so much changed–that scar–the lines about his eyes and lips–her thoughts went whirling helplessly.
Ken took the uncertain hand she held out, and looked at her. The slim Rilla of four years ago had rounded out into symmetry. He had left a school girl, and he found a woman–a woman with wonderful eyes and a dented lip, and rose-bloom cheek–a woman altogether beautiful and desirable–the woman of his dreams.
"Is it Rilla-my -Rilla?" he asked, meaningly.
Emotion shook Rilla from head to foot. Joy–happiness–sorrow–fear–every passion that had wrung her heart in those four long years seemed to surge up in her soul for a moment as the deeps of being were stirred. She had tried to speak; at first voice would not come. Then–
"Yeth," said Rilla.'
~ Have you ever had a lisp? ~
No, unless I lisped when I was losing teeth, but Mamma has never mentioned it.
11.
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
~
Back, he spurred like a madman, shouting a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high.
Blood-red were his spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat;
When they shot him down on the highway. Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat
~ Have you ever recited in public? ~
I have not recited in public, but I have read reports for homeschooling events we've had with friends.
12.
Anne, by what somebody has called "a Herculaneum effort," kept back her tears until she got home that night. Then she shut herself in the east gable room and wept all her shame and remorse and disappointment into her pillows. . .wept so long that Marilla grew alarmed, invaded the room, and insisted on knowing what the trouble was.
"The trouble is, I've got things the matter with my conscience," sobbed Anne. "Oh, this has been such a Jonah day, Marilla. I'm so ashamed of myself. I lost my temper and whipped Anthony Pye."
"I'm glad to hear it," said Marilla with decision. "It's what you should have done long ago."
"Oh, no, no, Marilla. And I don't see how I can ever look those children in the face again. I feel that I have humiliated myself to the very dust. You don't know how cross and hateful and horrid I was. I can't forget the expression in Paul Irving's eyes. . .he looked so surprised and disappointed. Oh, Marilla, I have tried so hard to be patient and to win Anthony's liking. . .and now it has all gone for nothing."
Marilla passed her hard work-worn hand over the girl's glossy, tumbled hair with a wonderful tenderness. When Anne's sobs grew quieter she said, very gently for her,
"You take things too much to heart, Anne. We all make mistakes. . .but people forget them. And Jonah days come to everybody. As for Anthony Pye, why need you care if he does dislike you? He is the only one."
"I can't help it. I want everybody to love me and it hurts me so when anybody doesn't. And Anthony never will now. Oh, I just made an idiot of myself today, Marilla. I'll tell you the whole story."
Marilla listened to the whole story, and if she smiled at certain parts of it Anne never knew. When the tale was ended she said briskly,
"Well, never mind. This day's done and there's a new one coming tomorrow, with no mistakes in it yet, as you used to say yourself. Just come downstairs and have your supper. You'll see if a good cup of tea and those plum puffs I made today won't hearten you up."
"Plum puffs won't minister to a mind diseased," said Anne disconsolately; but Marilla thought it a good sign that she had recovered sufficiently to adapt a quotation.
~ Have you ever had a Jonah Day? ~
I don't know if this qualifies, but I have had days where I'm really tired, and I've noticed my outlook on everything can get quite negative when I'm in that tired state. So if you want my opinion on something, don't ask me when I'm tired! :)
13.
Around the next turn they came in sight, not indeed of a palace, but of a little house almost as surprising as a palace would have been in this province of conventional wooden farmhouses, all as much alike in general characteristics as if they had grown from the same seed. Anne stopped short in rapture and Diana exclaimed, "Oh, I know where we are now. That is the little stone house where Miss Lavendar Lewis lives. . .Echo Lodge, she calls it, I think. I've often heard of it but I've never seen it before. Isn't it a romantic spot?"
"It's the sweetest, prettiest place I ever saw or imagined," said Anne delightedly. "It looks like a bit out of a story book or a dream."
The house was a low-eaved structure built of undressed blocks of red Island sandstone, with a little peaked roof out of which peered two dormer windows, with quaint wooden hoods over them, and two great chimneys. The whole house was covered with a luxuriant growth of ivy, finding easy foothold on the rough stonework and turned by autumn frosts to most beautiful bronze and wine-red tints.
~ Have you ever discovered a place, that has always been there, but you never noticed? ~
We discovered a big thrift store in a town near us that we had driven by for years, and never knew it was there. Yay, more clothes!
14.
"Davy Keith, don't you know that it is very wrong of you to be eating that jam, when you were told never to meddle with anything in that closet?"
"Yes, I knew it was wrong," admitted Davy uncomfortably, "but plum jam is awful nice, Anne. I just peeped in and it looked so good I thought I'd take just a weeny taste. I stuck my finger in. . ." Anne groaned. . ."and licked it clean. And it was so much gooder than I'd ever thought that I got a spoon and just sailed in."
Anne gave him such a serious lecture on the sin of stealing plum jam that Davy became conscience stricken and promised with repentant kisses never to do it again.
"Anyhow, there'll be plenty of jam in heaven, that's one comfort," he said complacently.
Anne nipped a smile in the bud.
"Perhaps there will. . .if we want it," she said, "But what makes you think so?"
"Why, it's in the catechism," said Davy.
"Oh, no, there is nothing like that in the catechism, Davy."
"But I tell you there is," persisted Davy. "It was in that question Marilla taught me last Sunday. `Why should we love God?' It says, `Because He makes preserves, and redeems us.' Preserves is just a holy way of saying jam."
"I must get a drink of water," said Anne hastily. When she came back it cost her some time and trouble to explain to Davy that a certain comma in the said catechism question made a great deal of difference in the meaning.
~ What is the craziest thing you ever heard a child say? ~
My nephew, Mr. Munchkin, was recently talking to his mom, Jane about their newest baby (9 months old now). He said,'You like him? We keep him?' So, so funny!
Yay, we did it!
Why is it that whenever I go to answer these types of questions, I have to call across the room to Grace and say," Hey, what's my most embarrassing moment?", and "What's a hasty purchase I've made?', etc. And what's worse is that I made up these questions with Grace! Hee, hee! Well, we hope you guys enjoy this!
