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 3

56

looks dreadful but A-n-n-e looks so much more distinguished. If you’ll only call me Anne spelled with an E I shall try to reconcile myself to not being called Cordelia.”

“Very well, then, Anne spelled with an e, can you tell us how this mistake hap came to be made? We sent word to Mrs. Spencer to bring us a boy. Were there no boys at the asylum?”

“Oh yes, there were plenty was an abundance of them. But Mrs. Spencer said (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)distinctly(end superscript) you wanted a girl about eleven years old. And the matron said she thought I would do. You don’t know how delighted I was. I couldn’t sleep all last night for joy. Oh,” she added (begin subscript)^(end subscript) (begin superscript)reproachfully, (end superscript) turning to Matthew, “why didn’t you tell me at the station you didn’t want me and leave me there? If I hadn’t seen


TEXT ANNOTATION

"abundance": Note that Montgomery's small edit, changing "there were plenty" to "there was an abundance of them" adds to the humour of the scene, emphasizing Anne's preference for big, adult-sounding words.