Chapter 6
91
A blight seemed to have descended on her.
“I suppose we’ll stay a little while to rest the mare,” said Marilla, “but I promised Matthew I’d be home early. (begin strikethrough)”(end strikethrough)The fact is, Mrs Spencer, there’s been a queer mistake somewhere, and I’ve come over to see where it is. We sent word, Matthew and I, for you to bring us a boy from the asylum. We told your brother Robert to tell you we wanted a boy ten or eleven years old.”
“Marilla Cuthbert, you don’t say so!” said Mrs. Spencer in distress. “Why, Robert sent the word down by his daughter Nancy and she said you wanted a girl—didn’t she, Flora Jane?” appealing to her daughter who had come out to the steps.
PHOTO ANNOTATION
"to rest the mare": Montgomery's 1917 photograph of her young son Chester and cousin Hamilton (Hammy) Macneill in a horse-drawn buggy not unlike the one Marilla and Anne took to Mrs. Spencer's.
Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph, L.M. Montgomery Collection