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When she had reached Mrs. Lynde's house she found that
lady gone. Nothing daunted, Anne proceeded onward to the
church alone. In the porch she found a crowd of little
girls, all more or less gaily attired in whites and blues
and pinks, and all staring with curious eyes at this stranger
in their midst, with her extraordinary head adornment. Avonlea
little girls had already heard queer stories about Anne.
Mrs. Lynde said she had an awful temper; Jerry Buote, the
hired boy at Green Gables, said she talked all the time
to herself or to the trees and flowers like a crazy girl.
They looked at her and whispered to each other behind their
quarterlies. Nobody made any friendly advances, then or later on
when the opening exercises were over and Anne found herself in
Miss Rogerson's class.
Miss Rogerson was a middle-aged lady who had taught a
Sunday-school class for twenty years. Her method of teaching
was to ask the printed questions from the quarterly and
look sternly over its edge at the particular little girl
she thought ought to answer the question. She looked very
often at Anne, and Anne, thanks to Marilla's drilling,
answered promptly; but it may be questioned if she understood
very much about either question or answer.
She did not think she liked Miss Rogerson, and she felt
very miserable; every other little girl in the class had
puffed sleeves. Anne felt that life was really not worth
living without puffed sleeves.
"Well, how did you like Sunday school?" Marilla wanted
to know when Anne came home. Her wreath having faded,
Anne had discarded it in the lane, so Marilla was spared
the knowledge of that for a time.
"I didn't like it a bit. It was horrid."
"Anne Shirley!" said Marilla rebukingly.
Anne sat down on the rocker with a long sigh, kissed one of
Bonny's leaves, and waved her hand to a blossoming fuchsia.
"They might have been lonesome while I was away," she
explained. "And now about the Sunday school. I behaved
well, just as you told me. Mrs. Lynde was gone, but I
went right on myself. I went into the church, with a
lot of other little girls, and I sat in the corner of a pew
by the window while the opening exercises went on. Mr. Bell
made an awfully long prayer. I would have been dreadfully
tired before he got through if I hadn't been sitting by
that window. But it looked right out on the Lake of
Shining Waters, so I just gazed at that and imagined all
sorts of splendid things."
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