Anne of Ingleside - L. M. Montgomery [108]
She was afraid Susan might scold her for putting on her best dress and hat. But Susan merely inspected her ears, handed her a basket containing the cake, told her to mind her pretty manners and for goodness’ sake not to stop to talk to every cat she met.
Rilla made a rebellious ‘face’ at Gog and Magog and marched away. Susan looked after her tenderly.
‘Fancy our baby being old enough to carry a cake all alone to the church,’ she thought, half proudly, half sorrowfully, as she went back to work, blissfully unaware of the torture she was inflicting on a small mite she would have given her life for.
Rilla had not felt so mortified since the time she had fallen asleep in church and tumbled off the seat. Ordinarily she loved going down to the village: there were so many interesting things to see; but today Mrs Carter Flagg’s fascinating clothes-line, with all those lovely quilts on it, did not win a glance from Rilla, and the new cast-iron deer Mr Augustus Palmer had set up in his yard left her cold. She had never passed it before without wishing they could have one like it on the lawn at Ingleside. But what were cast-iron deer now? Hot sunshine poured along the street like a river and everybody was out. Two girls went by, whispering to each other. Was it about her? She imagined what they might be saying. A man driving along the road stared at her. He was really wondering if that could be the Blythe baby and, by George, what a little beauty she was! But Rilla felt that his eyes pierced the basket and saw the cake. And when Annie Drew drove by with her father, Rilla was sure she was laughing at her. Annie Drew was ten and a very big girl in Rilla’s eyes.
Then there was a whole crowd of boys and girls on Russell’s corner. She had to walk past them. It was dreadful to feel that their eyes were all looking at her and then at each other. She marched by, so proudly desperate that they all thought she was stuck-up and had to be brought down a peg or two. They’d show that kitten-faced thing! A regular hoity-toity like all those Ingleside girls! Just because they lived up at the big house!
Millie Flagg strutted along behind her, imitating her walk and scuffing up clouds of dust over them both.
‘Where’s the basket going with the child?’ shouted ‘Slicky’ Drew.
‘There’s a smudge on your nose, jam-face,’ jeered Bill Palmer.
‘Cat got your tongue?’ said Sarah Warren.
‘Snippet!’ sneered Beenie Bentley.
‘Keep on your side of the road or I’ll make you eat a June bug,’ big Sam Flagg stopped gnawing a raw carrot long enough to say.
‘Look at her blushing,’ giggled Mamie Taylor.
‘Bet you’re taking a cake to the Presbyterian Church,’ said Charlie Warren. ‘Half dough like all Susan Baker’s cakes.’
Pride would not let Rilla cry but there was a limit to what one could bear. After all, an Ingleside cake…
‘The next time any of you are thick I’ll tell my father not to give you any medithine,’ she said defiantly.
Then she stared in dismay. That couldn’t be Kenneth Ford coming around the corner of the Harbour road! It couldn’t be! It was!
It was not to be borne. Ken and Walter were pals and Rilla thought in her small heart that Ken was the nicest, handsomest boy in the whole world. He seldom took much notice of her… though once he had given her a chocolate duck. And one unforgettable day he had sat down beside her on a mossy stone in Rainbow Valley and told her the story of the Three Bears and the Little House in the Wood. But she was content to worship afar. And now this wonderful being had caught her carrying a cake!
‘Lo, Roly-poly! Heat’s something fierce, isn’t it? Hope I’ll get a slice of that cake tonight.’
So he knew it was a cake! Everybody knew it!
Rilla was through the village and thought the worst was over when the worst happened. She looked down a side-road and saw her Sunday School teacher, Miss Emmy Parker, coming along it. Miss Emmy Parker was still quite a distance away, but Rilla knew her by her dress… that frilled organdy dress of pale green with clusters of little white flowers all over