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 5

79

“We’re not going over Barry’s Pond, if that’s what you mean by your Lake of Shining Waters. We’re going by the Shore Road.”

“Shore road sounds nice,” said Anne dreamily. (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)F3(end superscript) “And White Sands is a pretty name, too, but I don’t like it as well as Avonlea. Avonlea is a lovely name. It just sounds like music. How far is it to White Sands?

“It’s five miles; and as you’re evidently bent on talking you might as well talk to some purpose by telling me about yourself.” G3.

“I was eleven last March,” said Anne resigning herself to bald facts with a little sigh. “And I was born in Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia. My father’s name was Walter Shirley and he was a teacher in the Bolingbroke High School. My mother’s name was Bertha Shirley. (begin superscript)H3(end superscript) She was a teache

 

LMM Notes

LMM Note F3
"Is it as nice as it sounds? Just when you said 'shore road' I saw it in a picture in my mind, as quick as that!

LMM Note G3
what you know about yourself."

"Oh, what I know about myself isn't really worth telling," said Anne eagerly. "If you'll only let me tell you what I imagine about myself you'll think it ever so much more interesting."

"No, I don't want any of your imaginings. Just you stick to bald facts. Begin at the beginning. Where were you born and how old are you?"

"I was eleven last March." said Anne,

LMM Note H3
Aren't Walter and Bertha lovely names? I'm so glad my parents had nice names (begin strikethrough)"(end strikethrough) It would be a real (begin strikethrough)"I guess it (end strikethrough) disgrace to have a father named—well, say Jedediah, wouldn't it?"

"I guess it doesn't matter what a person's name is as long as he behaves himself," said Marilla, (begin strikethrough)"Well, I don't(end strikethrough) feeling herself called upon to inculcate a good and useful moral.

"Well, I don't know," Anne looked doubtful. "I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a (begin strikethrough)skunk(end strikethrough) skunk cabbage. I suppose my father could have been a good man even if he had been called Jedediah: but I'm sure it would have been a cross. Well, my mother was a teacher


PHOTO ANNOTATION

high contrast, black and white image of a rocky shore, with large rock formations and small figures in the distance

"Shore Road": A road that Montgomery knew well as the road between Cavendish and North Rustico. Montgomery's photo of "Cape LeForce," just off the on the Cavendish Shore Road.
Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph, L.M. Montgomery Collection

TEXT ANNOTATION

"a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" [in H3]: An allusion to Romeo and Juliet, Act II, scene ii, lines 43–44. The fact that Anne can quote the lines without attributing them to Shakespeare suggests that, perhaps, she "read it in a book" on her own, rather than in school.