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 18 - (VERSO)

307
was flung open and in rushed Diana Barry, whitefaced and breathless with a shawl hastily wrapped round her head. F10

“Whatever is the matter, Diana?” cried Anne. “Has your mother relented at last?”

“Oh, Anne, do come quick,” implored Diana nervously. “Minnie May is awful sick—she’s got crouep croup, Young Mary Joe says.—and father and mother are away to town and there’s nobody to go for the doctor. Minnie May is awful bad and Young Mary Joe doesn’t know what to do—and oh, Anne, I’m so scared!”

Matthew, without a word, reached out for cap and coat, slipped past Diana and away into the darkness of the yard.

 

LMM Notes

LMM Note F10
Anne promptly let go of her candle and plate in her surprise and plate candle and apples crashed together down the cellar ladder and were found at the bottom, embedded in melted grease, the next day by Marilla, who gathered them up and thanked mercy the house hadn’t been set on fire.


TEXT ANNOTATION

"croup": An infection of the upper airways, resulting in swelling in the voice-box and wind-pipe and in the lungs, causing a barking cough and difficulty breathing. In Montgomery's Rilla of Ingleside (1921), the grown-up, outspoken orphan, Mary Vance, also has Anne's handiness with treating croup.