Warning: If you have a visual impairment, use the manuscript transcript version including the Lucy Maud Montgomery’s foot notes and contextual annotation references.

L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables Manuscript Scan

Chapter 31 - (VERSO)

~~498~~ 572

Chapter 31
Where The Brook and River Meet.

Anne had her “good” summer and enjoyed it whole-heartedly. She and Diana fairly lived out of doors, revelling in all the delights that Lover’s Lane and the Dryad’s Bubble and Willowmere and Victoria Island afforded[.] Marilla offered no objection to Anne’s ~~rovings.~~ gypsyings. The Spencervale doctor who had come the night Minnie May had the croup met Anne at the house of a patient one afternoon early in vacation, looked her over sharply, screwed up his mouth, shook his head, and sent a message to Marilla Cuthbert, . ^{by another person.} It was:-

“Keep that red-headed girl of yours in the open air all summer and don’t let her read books until she gets more spring into her step.”

This message frightened Marilla wholesomely. She read Anne’s death-

AUDIO ANNOTATION

Steve Bellamy, CEO of the Confederation Centre of the Arts, reads the title of this chapter, "Where the Brook and the River Meet."

TEXT ANNOTATION

"Where the Brook and River Meet": Another allusion to one of her favourite poets, Longfellow — the third stanza of his 1842 poem “Maidenhood":
"Standing, with reluctant feet,
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and childhood fleet!"
Like so many chapter titles in the novel, this one aptly suggests Anne's changes and maturing.