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 36 - (VERSO)

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with eyes and ears for only one student on the platform—a tall girl in pale green, who read with faintly flushed cheeks and starry eyes, who read the best essay and was pointed out and whispered about as the Avery winner.

“Reckon you’re glad we kept her, Marilla”? whispered Matthew, speaking for the first time when since he had entered the hall, when Anne had finished her essay.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been glad,” retorted Marilla. “You do like to rub things in, Matthew Cuthbert.”

Miss Barry, who was sitting behind them, leaned forward and poked Marilla in the back with her parasol.

“Aren’t you proud of that Anne-girl? I am,” she said.

Anne went home to Avonlea with


PHOTO ANNOTATION

yellowed column of newsprint with close type, the left side and the words on it are worn away

"who read the best essay": Montgomery preserved a long article about her own commencement exercises in her scrapbook. The essay she read at the event received high praise. While the edge of the column has worn away, one can make out the words "It was not a subtle, analytical study; it was a [litera]ry gem" (Blue Scrapbook, p. 1; Imagining Anne, p. 13).
Confederation Centre of the Arts