Anne of Windy Poplars - L. M. Montgomery [111]
Little Elizabeth hated the gloomy, splendid Evergreens, where everything seemed unacquainted with her, even though she had lived in it all her life. But after Miss Shirley had come to Windy Willows everything had changed magically. Little Elizabeth lived in a world of romance after Miss Shirley’s coming. There was beauty wherever you looked. Fortunately Grandmother and the Woman couldn’t prevent you from looking, though Elizabeth had no doubt they would if they could. The short walks along the red magic of the harbour road, which she was all too rarely permitted to share with Miss Shirley, were the highlights in her shadowy life. She loved everything she saw. The faraway lighthouse, painted in odd red-and-white rings, the far, dim blue shores, the little silvery-blue waves, the range lights that gleamed through the violet dusks, all gave her so much delight that it hurt. And the harbour with its smoky islands and glowing sunsets! Elizabeth always went up to a window in the mansard roof to watch them through the tree-tops, and the ships that sailed at the rising of the moon. Ships that came back, ships that never came back. Elizabeth longed to go in one of them on a voyage to the Island of Happiness. The ships that never came back stayed there, where it was always Tomorrow.
That mysterious red road ran on and on, and her feet itched to follow it. Where did it lead to? Sometimes Elizabeth thought she would burst if she didn’t find out. When Tomorrow really came she would fare forth on it, and perhaps find an island all her own, where she and Miss Shirley could live alone, and Grandmother and the Woman could never come. They both hated water, and would not put foot in a boat for anything. Little Elizabeth liked to picture herself standing on her island and mocking them as they stood vainly glowering on the mainland shore.
‘This is Tomorrow,’ she would taunt them. ‘You can’t catch me any more. You’re only in Today.’
What fun it would be! How she would enjoy the look on the Woman’s face!
Then one evening in late June an amazing thing happened. Miss Shirley had told Mrs Campbell that she had an errand next day to Flying Cloud, to see a certain Mrs Thompson, who was convener of the refreshment committee of the Ladies’ Aid, and might she take Elizabeth with her? Grandmother had agreed with her usual dourness – Elizabeth could never understand why she agreed at all, being completely ignorant of the Pringle horror of a certain bit of information Miss Shirley possessed – but she had agreed.
‘We’ll go right down to the harbour mouth,’ whispered Anne, ‘after I’ve done my errand at Flying Cloud.’
Little Elizabeth went to bed in such excitement that she didn’t expect to sleep a wink. At last she was going to answer the lure of the road that had called so long. In spite of her excitement she conscientiously went through her little ritual of retiring. She folded her clothes and cleaned her teeth and brushed her golden hair. She thought she had rather pretty hair, though, of course, it wasn’t like Miss Shirley’s lovely red-gold, with the ripples in it and the little love-locks that curled round her ears. Little Elizabeth would have given anything to have had hair like Miss Shirley’s.
Before she got into bed little Elizabeth opened one of the drawers in the high, polished old black bureau and took a carefully hidden picture from under a pile of hankies, a picture of Miss Shirley which she had cut out of a special edition of the Weekly Courier, which had reproduced a photograph of the High School staff.
‘Good night, dearest Miss Shirley.’
She kissed the picture and returned it to its hiding-place. Then she climbed into bed and cuddled down under the blankets, for the June night was cool, and the breeze off the harbour searching. Indeed, it was more than a breeze tonight. It whistled and banged and shook and thumped, and Elizabeth knew the harbour would be a tossing expanse of waves under the moonlight. What fun it would be to steal down close to