Anne's House of Dreams

s house, Captain Jim?" Anne asked, as th

onnected with this house?" asked Gilbert. "So

t can remember the schoolmaster's bride as she was when she come to the Island.

want to find out all about the women w

choolmaster's bride. Elizabeth Russell was a nice, clever little critter, and Mrs

lambasted them when they wasn't. But John Selwyn was a fine, handsome young fellow. He boarded at my father's, and he and me were cronies, though he was ten years older'n me. We read and walked and talked a heap together. He knew about all the poetry that was ever written, I reckon, and he used to quote it to me along shore in the evenings. Dad

nto the glowing fire in a quest of the bygon

him. I wasn't more'n half pleased, ornery young lump of selfishness that I was; I thought he wouldn't be as much my friend after she came. But I'd enough decency not to let him see it. He told me all about her. Her name was Persis Leigh, and she would have come out with him if it

ou expect h

by mid-July. I must set Carpenter Johnson to building me a home for her. Her letter come

, Mistress Blythe-a gift or a curse. He didn't know which it was. He said a great-great-grandmother of his had had it, and they burned her for a

ed Gilbert. "The matter is more in the line of psychical resear

said the old Do

things in them," sai

and sometimes a horror. Four nights before this he'd been in one-went into it while he was sitting looking at the fire. And he saw an old room he kne

am," scoffed t

at the time. It was a vast more comfortable to think so. I didn'

won't talk of this again. You won't be so

any less his friend. But he jest

el hardly friendly to myself because of it. Such a power has a bit of divinity in it-whether of a good

s yesterday, though I didn't know jest what he

t he meant himself," sa

old attitude of clasped lips and shining eyes. Captain Jim trea

ecause you could see the harbor and hear the sea from it. He made the garden out there for his bride, but he didn't plant the Lombardies. Mrs. Ned Russell planted THEM. But there's a double row of rose-bushes in the garden that the little girls

first furniture that went into it was plain enough. This little house was rich in love, though. The women sent in quilts and tablecloths and towels, and one man made a chest for her, and another

hough 'twas in the same place. Miss Elizabeth had this put in when she made the house over fifteen years ago. It was a big, old-

mirth and bridal joy shining in eyes long since closed forever under churchyard sod or heaving leagues of sea. Here on olden nights children had tossed laughter lightly to and fro. Here on wi

ter began to count the days then. We used to see him walking along t

bear to look into John Selwyn's eyes. D'ye know, Mistress Blythe"-Captain Jim lowered his voice-"I used to think that they looked just like what his old great-great-grandmother's must have been when they were burning her to death. He never said much but he taught school like a man in a dre

after it died away I went to the shore. I found the schoolmaster ther

es seemed to be looking at something I could

t like that-jest like a fright

look seemed to sorter

've never forgot his face-never will fo

coming around East Point. She will be here by dawn. Tomor

see it?" demanded C

"Great love and great pain might

id see it," sai

Dave, but he spoke with

emnly, "the Royal William came into Four

wharf to meet her. The schoolmaster had been watching the

the Four Winds Harbor of sixty years agone, with a b

igh was on boa

hey were at last. When Persis Leigh stepped onto the old wharf John Selwyn took her in his arms-and folks stopped cheering and

eigh beautifu

d to love her, that was all. But she was pleasant to look at-big, clear, hazel eyes and heaps of glossy brown hair, and an English skin. John and her were married at our house that night at early candle-lighting; everybody from far and near was there to see it

shook his

at for once she had got enough romance to

tter what happened. They quarrelled once or twice, for they was both high-sperrited. But Mistress Selwyn says to me once, says she, laughing in that pretty way of hers, 'I felt dreadful when John and I quarrelled, but underneath it all I was very happy because I had such a nice husband to quarrel with and make it up with.' Then they moved to Charlottetown, and Ned Russell

best that night, with the bridal rose on her cheeks and the love-light in her eyes; even gruff old Doctor Dave gave her an appr

," announced Captain Jim. "I've enj'

often to see

if you knew how likely I'll be to acce

r if I mean it," smiled Anne. "I do, 'cro

talk to but the First Mate, bless his sociable heart. He's a mighty good listener, and has forgot more'n any MacAllister of them all ever knew, but he isn't much of a

knows Joseph?

he race that don't. If a person sorter sees eye to eye with you, and has pretty much the same ide

xclaimed Anne, light

and still call in quotatio

o myself, says I, 'Yes, she's of the race that knows Joseph.' And mighty glad I was, for if it wasn't so we couldn't

ing to be a thing of dream and glamour and enchantment-a spellbound haven where no tempest might ever ravin. T

. So they do-so they do, if you don't risk your neck every spring climbing up a light ladder to trim them out. I always did it for Miss Elizabeth, so her Lombardies never got out-at-elbows. She wa

d Mrs. Doctor Dave, as she cl

wasn't missed. I woke up along in the night and I was most scared to death. What shadows and queer noises there was! I dursn't move. Jest crouched there quaking, poor small mite. Seemed 's if there weren't anyone in the world but meself and it was mighty big. Then all at once I saw the moon looking down at m

ly in the shadows of the birches. The poppies along its banks were like shallow cups of moonlight. Flowers that had been planted by the hands of the scho

soul then. Oh, Gilbert, this little house is all I've dreamed it. And