Matthew Cuthbert

matthew had sheepishly unfolded the dress from its paper swathings and held it out with a deprecatory glance at marilla who feigned to be contemptuously filling the teapot but nevertheless watched the scene out of the corner of her eye with a rather interested air ann took the dress and looked at it in reverent silence oh how pretty it was a lovely soft brown gloria with all the gloss of silk a skirt with dainty frills and shirrings a waist elaborately pin tucked in the most fashionable way with a little ruffle of filmy lace at the neck But the sleeves, they were the crowning glory.

Long elbow cuffs, and above them two beautiful puffs divided by rows of shirring and bows of brown silk ribbon.

That's a Christmas present for you, Anne, said Matthew shyly.

Why, why, and don't you like it? Well now, well now.

for ann's eyes had suddenly filled with tears like it oh matthew ann laid the dress over a chair and clasped her hands matthew it's perfectly exquisite oh i can never thank you enough look at those sleeves oh it seems to me this must be a happy dream well well let us have breakfast interrupted marilla i must say ann i don't think you needed the dress but since matthew has got it for you see that you take good care of it there's a hair ribbon mrs lynde left for you it's round to match the dress come now sit in i don't see how i'm going to eat breakfast said ann rapturously breakfast seems so commonplace at such an exciting moment i'd rather feast my eyes on that dress i'm so glad that puffed sleeves are still fashionable it did seem to me that i'd never get over it if they went out before i had a dress with them i'd never have felt quite satisfied you see it was lovely of mrs lind to give me the ribbon too i feel that i ought to be a very good girl indeed it's at times like this i'm sorry i'm not a model little girl and i always resolve that i will be in future but somehow it's hard to carry out your resolutions when irresistible temptations come still i really will make an extra effort after this when the commonplace breakfast was over diana appeared crossing the white log bridge in the hollow a gay little figure in her crimson ulster ann flew down the slope to meet her merry christmas diana and oh it's a wonderful christmas i've something splendid to show you matthew has given me the loveliest dress with such sleeves i couldn't even imagine any nicer i've got something more for you said diana breathlessly here this box aunt josephine sent us out a big box with ever so many things in it and this is for you i'd have brought it over last night but it didn't come till after dark and i never feel very comfortable coming through the haunted wood in the dark now ann opened the box and peeped in first a card with for the ann girl and merry christmas written on it and then a pair of the daintiest little kid slippers with beaded toes and satin bows and glistening buckles oh said ann diana this is too much i must be dreaming i call it providential said diana you wouldn't have to borrow ruby slippers now and that's a blessing for they're two sizes too big for you and it would be awful to hear a fairy shuffling josie pye would be delighted mind you rob wright went home with gertie pye from the practice night before last did you ever hear anything equal to that all the avonlea scholars were in a fever of excitement that day for the hall had to be decorated and a last grand rehearsal held the concert came off in the evening and was a pronounced success the little hall was crowded all the performers did excellently well but ann was the bright particular star of the occasion as even envy in the shape of josie pye dared not deny oh hasn't it been a brilliant evening sighed ann when it was all over and she and diana were walking home together under a dark starry sky everything went off very well said diana practically i guess we must have made as much as ten dollars mind you mr allen is going to send an account of it to the charlottetown papers oh diana will we really see our names in print it makes me thrilled to think of it your solo was perfectly elegant diana i felt prouder than you did when it was encored i just said to myself it is my dear bosom friend who is so honored well your recitations just brought down the house ann that sad one was simply splendid oh i was so nervous diana when mr allen called out my name i really cannot tell how i ever got up on that platform i felt as if a million eyes were looking at me and through me and for one dreadful moment i was sure i couldn't begin at all then i thought of my lovely puffed sleeves and took courage i knew that i must live up to those sleeves diana so i started in and my voice seemed to be coming from ever so far away i just felt like a parrot it's providential that i practice those recitations so often up in the garret or i'd never have been able to get through did i groan all right yes indeed you groaned lovely assured diana i saw old mrs sloane wiping away tears when i sat down it was splendid to think i'd touched somebody's heart it's so romantic to take part in a concert isn't it oh it's been a very memorable occasion indeed wasn't the boy's dialogue fine said diana gilbert blythe was just splendid ann i do think it's awful mean the way you treat gill wait till i tell you when you ran off the platform after the fairy dialogue one of your roses fell out of your hair i saw gill pick it up and put it in his breast pocket there now you're so romantic that i'm sure you ought to be pleased at that it's nothing to me what that person does said ann loftily i simply never waste a thought on him diana that night marilla and matthew who had been out to a concert for the first time in twenty years sat for a while by the kitchen fire after ann had gone to bed well now i guess our ann did as well as any of em said matthew proudly yes she did admitted marilla she's a bright child matthew and she looked real nice too i've been kind of opposed to this concert scheme but i guess there's no real harm in it after all anyhow i was proud of anne to-night although i'm not going to tell her so well now i was proud of her and i did tell her so for she went upstairs said matthew we must see what we can do for her some of these days marilla i guess she'll need something more than avonlea school by and by there's time enough to think of that said marilla she's only thirteen in march though to-night it struck me she was growing quite a big girl mrs lynde made that dress a mite too long and it makes ann look so tall she's quick to learn and i guess the best thing we can do for her will be to send her to queen's after a spell but nothing need be said about that for a year or two yet well now it'll do no harm to be thinking it over off and on said matthew things like that are all the better for lots of thinking over story nineteen story twenty of christmas with lucy maud montgomery a selection of stories story twenty the osbornes christmas cousin myra had come to spend christmas at the firs and all the junior osborns were ready to stand on their heads with delight darby whose real name was charles did it because he was only eight and at eight you have no dignity to keep up the others being older couldn't but the fact of christmas itself awoke no great enthusiasm in the hearts of the junior osbornes frank voiced their opinion of it the day after cousin myra had arrived he was sitting on the table with his hands in his pockets and a cynical sneer on his face at least frank flattered himself that it was cynical he knew that uncle edgar was said to wear a cynical sneer and frank admired uncle edgar very much and imitated him in every possible way but to you and me it would have looked just as it did to cousin myra a very discontented and unbecoming scowl i'm awfully glad to see you cousin myra explained frank carefully and your being here may make some things worth while but christmas is just a bore a regular bore that was what uncle edgar called things that didn't interest him so that frank felt pretty sure of his word nevertheless he wondered uncomfortably what made cousin myra smile so queerly why how dreadful she said brightly i thought all boys and girls looked upon christmas as the very best time in the year we don't said frank gloomily it's just the same old thing year in and year out we know just exactly what is going to happen we even know pretty well what presents we're going to get and christmas day itself is always the same we'll get up in the morning and our stockings will be full of things and half of them we don't want then there's dinner it's always so poky and all the uncles and aunts come to dinner just the same old crowd every year and they say just the same things aunt desda always says why frankie how you have grown she knows i hate to be called frankie and after dinner they'll sit around and talk the rest of the day and that's all yes i call christmas a nuisance there isn't a single bit of fun in it said ida discontentedly not a bit said the twins both together as they always said things there's lots of candy said darby stoutly he rather liked christmas although he was ashamed to say so before frank cousin myra smothered another of those queer smiles you've had too much christmas you osbornes she said seriously it has palled on your taste as all good things will if you overdo them did you ever try giving christmas to somebody else the osbornes looked at cousin myra doubtfully they did not understand we always send presents to all our cousins said frank hesitatingly that's a bore too they've all got so many things already it's no end of bother to think of something new that isn't what i mean said cousin myra how much christmas do you suppose those little rowlands down there in the hollow have or sammy abbott with his lame back or french joe's family over the hill if you have too much christmas why don't you give some to them The Osbournes looked at each other.

But things would only get behind and worse all the time till nobody would want to buy it.

Every cent of our money went to that bank, and there's some notes Matthew gave last fall to pay.

Mrs. Lynde advised me to sell the farm and board somewhere, with her, I suppose.

It won't bring much.

As Mrs. Lynde told her Thomas that night,

"Marilla Cuthbert has got positively mellow, that's what."

Anne went to the little Avonlea graveyard the next evening to put fresh flowers on Matthew's grave and water the Scotch rosebush.

She lingered there until dusk, liking the peace and calm of the little place, with its poplars, whose rustle was like low, friendly speech, and its whispering grasses growing at will among the graves.

First published in 1908, Anne of Green Gables is a classic of children's literature.

The story follows 11-year-old orphan Anne Shirley sent by mistake to live with two middle-aged siblings, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert.

Expecting a strong boy to help them plough through the work on the farm, the spindly redhead girl who knocks on their door instead is a surprise.

But it's not long before Anne charms her way into the Cuthbert's hearts with her big imagination and never-ending chatter.

I think it was two things.

One of them is Anne has a wild passion for the natural world.

When Matthew Cuthbert comes to pick her up, she says, I was beginning to think you weren't coming for me.

And I was thinking that if you didn't come, I would go down that alley to the cherry tree and climb up into it and sleep all night.

Anne Shirley Read by Sweet Pea Marilla Cuthbert Read by Saskatoonie

Matthew Cuthbert Read by Norman Ilfer

On the Monday evening before the picnic, Marilla came down from her room with a troubled face.

and she said to that small personage who was shelling peace by the spotless table and singing nelly of the hazel dell with a vigour and expression that did credit to diana's teaching

"'I've moved the bureau, and I've taken out the drawers, and I've looked in every crack and cranny,' was Marilla's positive answer.

"'The brooch is gone, and that child has taken it and lied about it.

That's the plain ugly truth, Matthew Cuthbert, and we might as well look it in the face.'

"'Well, now, what are you going to do about it?'

The news spread quickly through Avonlea, and all day friends and neighbors thronged Green Gables and came and went on errands of kindness for the dead and the living.

For the first time, shy, quiet Matthew Cuthbert was a person of central importance.

The white majesty of death had fallen on him and set him apart as one crowned.

When the calm night came quietly down over Green Gables, the old house was hushed and tranquil.

In the parlor lay Matthew Cuthbert in his coffin, His long gray hair framed his placid face on which there was a little kindly smile, as if he but slept, dreaming pleasant dreams.

There were flowers about him, sweet old-fashioned flowers which his mother had planted in the homestead garden in her bridal days, and for which Matthew had always had a secret wordless love.

Anne had gathered them and brought them to him, her anguished, tearless eyes burning in her white face.

It's never been easy for me to say things out of my heart, but at times like this, it's easier.

Anne persisted in denying that she knew anything about the brooch, but Marilla was only the more firmly convinced that she did.

She told Matthew the story the next morning.

Matthew was confounded and puzzled.

He could not so quickly lose faith in Anne, but he had to admit that circumstances were against her.

You're sure it hasn't fell down behind the bureau?'

"'I've moved the bureau, and I've taken out the drawers, and I've looked in every crack and cranny,' was Marilla's positive answer.

"'The brooch is gone, and that child has taken it and lied about it.

That's the plain ugly truth, Matthew Cuthbert, and we might as well look it in the face.'

"'It's not the first time I've been glad,' retorted Marilla.

"'You do like to rub things in, Matthew Cuthbert.' Miss Barry, who was sitting behind them, leaned forward and poked Marilla in the back with her parasol.

Aren't you proud of that Anne girl? I am, she said.

Anne went home to Avonlea with Matthew and Marilla that evening.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Story Nineteen: Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves.

Chapter Twenty-Five of Anne of Green Gables.

Matthew was having a bad ten minutes of it.

He had come into the kitchen in the twilight of a cold, gray December evening and had sat down in the woodbox corner to take off his heavy boots, unconscious of the fact that Anne and a bevy of her schoolmates were having a practice of The Fairy Queen in the sitting room.

Presently they came trooping through the hall and out into the kitchen, laughing and chatting gaily.

They did not see Matthew, who shrank bashfully back into the shadows beyond the woodbox, with a boot in one hand and a bootjack in the other, and he watched them shyly for the aforesaid ten minutes as they put on caps and jackets and talked about the dialogue and the concert.

Anne stood among them, bright-eyed and animated as they, but Matthew suddenly became conscious that there was something about her different from her mates.

She's an orphan who comes to live with this elderly brother and sister in PEI who need help on their farm.

She is spunky, she is full of imagination, and she is unlike anyone Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert have ever met.

I really wanted to read this before my trip to PEI, but I ran out of time.

So I brought this copy with me, and it's like this beautiful emerald foresty green with gold edges.