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 - (VERSO)

338 accents,

“Merciful goodness!”

Anne and Diana were never able to tell just how they got off that bed and out of the room. They only knew that after one frantic rush they found themselves tiptoeing up shiveringly upstairs.

“Oh, who was it—what was it?” whispered Anne, her teeth chattering with fright cold and fright.

“It was Aunt Josephine,” said Diana, gasping with laughter. “Oh, Anne, it was Aunt Josephine, however she came to be there. Oh, and I know she will be furious. It’s dreadful but —it’s really dreadful—but did you ever know anything so funny, Anne?”

“Who is your Aunt Josephine?”



TEXT ANNOTATION

"Merciful goodness!": The story of Anne and Diana jumping on Miss Josephine Barry was inspired by Montgomery's father’s real-life boyhood misadventure. She fashioned a short story out of her father's tale, published it, and then reworked the story again to create Anne's mishap. Cecily Devereux's Broadview edition of Anne of Green Gables reproduces Montgomery's 1898 Golden Days short story, "Our Uncle Wheeler."