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 19

329
peated Matthew firmly. Argument was not his strong point, but holding fast to his opinion certainly was. Marilla gave a gasp of helplessness and took refuge in silence. The next morning, when Anne was washing the breakfast dishes in the pantry, Matthew paused on his way out to the barn to say to Marilla again,

“I think you ought to let Anne go, Marilla.”

For a moment Marilla looked things not lawful to be uttered. Then she yielded to the inevitable and said tartly,

“Very well, she can go, since nothing else’ll please you.”

Anne flew out of the pantry, dripping dish-cloth in hand.


PHOTO ANNOTATION

two photos, one of the back of the house in Montgomery's time with a a-frame wood well cover in the back, the other a contemporary photo of Green Gables with the same type of well cover

"washing the breakfast dishes in the pantry": Dishes could be done in the pantry or wherever there was space to hold the dishpan and possibly another pan with clear water since there would not have been running water in the house. The water would have been brought in from the well out back, heated on the stove, and then emptied into the yard or onto the garden when the dishes were finished. A well cover was necessary to keep debris out of the water and to make it accessible in all weather. Pictured here, the well cover behind the house that became Green Gables Heritage House and the well cover today.
Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph and Parks Canada