Warning: If you have a visual impairment, use the manuscript transcript version including the Lucy Maud Montgomery’s foot notes and contextual annotation references.

Chapter 1

2

she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

There are plenty of people (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)in Avonlea and out of it(end superscript) who can attend closely to their neighbors [sic] business by dint of neglecting their own: but Mrs. Rachel Lynde was one of those capable creatures who can manage their own business concerns and that those of other folks into the bargain. She was a notable housewife; her work was always done and well done; she “ran” the Sewing Circle, helped run the Sunday School and was the great strongest prop of the Ladies church aid Society and Foreign Missions Auxiliary. Yet with all this Mrs. Rachel found(begin subscript)^(end subscript) (begin superscript)abundant(end superscript) time to sit for hours at her kitchen window, knitting “cotton warp” quilts (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)Note C.(end superscript) and keeping a sharp eye on the main road that crossed the hollow and wound up the steep (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)red (end superscript)hill beyond. Since Avonlea occupied a little (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)triangular(end superscript) peninsula jutting out onto the gulf of St. Lawrence, with water on two

 

LMM Notes

LMM Note C:
— she had knitted (begin strikethrough)twenty(end strikethrough) sixteen of them as Avonlea housekeepers were wont to tell in awed voices —


TEXT ANNOTATION


There are eight individual changes or additions to adjectives or descriptors on this page. Even this early in the manuscript, Montgomery was carefully considering language and description. See "Montgomery’s Processes for Imagining and Planning."

PHOTO ANNOTATION


Montgomery's photo of Cavendish Church

"Church Aid and Foreign Missions" were prominent church women's organizations in many Protestant communities; Montgomery also belonged to the "Sewing Circle" in Cavendish, a women's fund-raising group that helped to build the new Presbyterian church in 1901. Montgomery's photograph of the Cavendish church, page 25 of her Red Scrapbook (Imagining Anne, p. 131). Note: material from Montgomery's scrapbooks is cited by her scrapbook name and by its corresponding page in Imagining Anne: L.M. Montgomery's Island Scrapbooks, edited by Elizabeth Epperly, Viking, 2008.
Confederation Centre Art Gallery

TEXT ANNOTATION


"cotton warp" is a type of yarn used for knitting, crocheting, and quilting. Montgomery was proficient in needlecraft, making lace, stitching quilts, crocheting, and knitting.

TEXT ANNOTATION


"Gulf of St. Lawrence": The Great Lakes in the United States and Canada empty into the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River; the resulting Gulf is a large inland sea surrounding Prince Edward Island and bordering the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador as part of the Atlantic Ocean.