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

4

And yet here was Matthew Cuthbert (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)Note F (end superscript)placidly driving over the hollow and up the hill; moreover, he wore a white collar and his best suit of clothes, which was (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)plain(end superscript) proof that he was going out of Avonlea; and he had the buggy and the sorrel mare, which betokened that he was going a considerable distance. (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)Now (end superscript)(begin strikethrough)W(end strikethrough)here was Matthew (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)Cuthbert(end superscript) going and where why was he going there?

Had it been any other man in Avonlea, Mrs. Rachel (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)Note G(end superscript) might have given a pretty good guess to both questions. But Matthew so rarely went from home that it must be something pressing and unusual what was taking him; he was the shyest man alive and hated to have go among strangers or to any place where he might have to talk. Matthew dressed up with a white collar and driving in a buggy was something

 

LMM Notes

LMM Note F:
at half past three on the afternoon of a busy day,

LMM Note G:
, deftly putting this and that together,


PHOTO ANNOTATION

blue-tinted photograph of a couple in a small horse-drawn buggy

"sorrel": reddish-brown in colour. Montgomery's photograph of cousin Stella riding in a buggy; the image is pasted into her Red Scrapbook (p. 21) and is slightly askew (Imagining Anne, p. 126).
Confederation Centre Art Gallery

TEXT ANNOTATION

"hated to have go": In the published novel, this phrase is corrected to "hated to have to go among strangers."

AUDIO ANNOTATION

REFERENCE
 The people of Avonlea sing "Where is Matthew Going?" from Anne of Green Gables: The Musical(begin superscript)TM(end superscript).

Where is Matthew going / and why is he going there?
Matthew Cuthbert never / never goes anywhere
He’s wearing a clean white collar
He’s wearing his store-bought suit

Let's get us a rig and foller
Don’t be silly / Don’t be sassy / Don’t be cute

Where do you suppose he’s going / He’s hitched up his Sunday steed
He should be a-sowing / Sowing turnip seed
It must be a fearful task then / It must be something bad!

Why don't we all go and ask him
Are you barmy? / Are you bratty? / Are you mad?

If it was bad, he’d ride much faster / If it was nothing he’d drive slow
I’d better go ask his sister / Marilla’d be sure to know

You’d better go ask Marilla / you’d better go pay a call
I’ll borrow a drop of vanilla / and act sort of dumb and all
You can talk about the weather / then ask her all at once

Why don’t we all go together?
We’re no snoopers / We’re no gossips / Oh, you dunce!