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1"We're all pretty well," said Mrs. Rachel. "I was kind of afraid you weren't, though, when I saw Matthew starting off
2today. I thought maybe he was going to the doctor's." Marilla's lips twitched understandingly. She had expected Mrs.
3Rachel up; she had known that the sight of Matthew jaunting off so unaccountably would be too much for her neighbor's
4curiosity. "Oh, no, I'm quite well although I had a bad headache yesterday," she said. "Matthew went to Bright River.
5We're getting a little boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia and he's coming on the train tonight." If Marilla had
6said that Matthew had gone to Bright River to meet a kangaroo from Australia Mrs. Rachel could not have been more
7astonished. She was actually stricken dumb for five seconds. It was unsupposable that Marilla was making fun of her, but
8Mrs. Rachel was almost forced to suppose it. "Are you in earnest, Marilla?" she demanded when voice returned to her.
9"Yes, of course," said Marilla, as if getting boys from orphan asylums in Nova Scotia were part of the usual spring work
10on any well-regulated Avonlea farm instead of being an unheard of innovation. Mrs. Rachel felt that she had received a
11severe mental jolt. She thought in exclamation points. A boy! Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of all people adopting a boy!
12From an orphan asylum! Well, the world was certainly turning upside down! She would be surprised at nothing after this!
13Nothing! "What on earth put such a notion into your head?" she demanded disapprovingly. This had been done without her
14advice being asked, and must perforce be disapproved. "Well, we've been thinking about it for some time--all winter in
15fact," returned Marilla. "Mrs. Alexander Spencer was up here one day before Christmas and she said she was going to get
16a little girl from the asylum over in Hopeton in the spring. Her cousin lives there and Mrs. Spencer has visited her and
17knows all about it. So Matthew and I have talked it over off and on ever since. We thought we'd get a boy. Matthew is
18getting up in years, you know--he's sixty--and he isn't so spry as he once was. His heart troubles him a good deal. And
19you know how desperate hard it's got to be to get hired help. There's never anybody to be had but those stupid,
20half-grown little French boys; and as soon as you do get one broke into your ways and taught something he's up and off
21to the lobster canneries or the States. At first Matthew suggested getting a Home boy. But I said 'no' flat to that.
22'They may be all right--I'm not saying they're not--but no London street Arabs for me,' I said. 'Give me a native born
23at least. There'll be a risk, no matter who we get. But I'll feel easier in my mind and sleep sounder at nights if we
24get a born Canadian.' So in the end we decided to ask Mrs. Spencer to pick us out one when she went over to get her
25little girl. We heard last week she was going, so we sent her word by Richard Spencer's folks at Carmody to bring us a
26smart, likely boy of about ten or eleven. We decided that would be the best age--old enough to be of some use in doing
27chores right off and young enough to be trained up proper. We mean to give him a good home and schooling. We had a
28telegram from Mrs. Alexander Spencer today--the mail-man brought it from the station--saying they were coming on the
29five-thirty train tonight. So Matthew went to Bright River to meet him. Mrs. Spencer will drop him off there. Of course
30she goes on to White Sands station herself." Mrs. Rachel prided herself on always speaking her mind; she proceeded to
31speak it now, having adjusted her mental attitude to this amazing piece of news. "Well, Marilla, I'll just tell you
32plain that I think you're doing a mighty foolish thing--a risky thing, that's what. You don't know what you're getting.
33You're bringing a strange child into your house and home and you don't know a single thing about him nor what his
34disposition is like nor what sort of parents he had nor how he's likely to turn out. Why, it was only last week I read
35in the paper how a man and his wife up west of the Island took a boy out of an orphan asylum and he set fire to the
36house at night--set it on purpose, Marilla--and nearly burnt them to a crisp in their beds. And I know another case
37where an adopted boy used to suck the eggs--they couldn't break him of it. If you had asked my advice in the
38matter--which you didn't do, Marilla--I'd have said for mercy's sake not to think of such a thing, that's what." This
39Job's comforting seemed neither to offend nor to alarm Marilla. She knitted steadily on. "I don't deny there's something
40in what you say, Rachel. I've had some qualms myself. But Matthew was terrible set on it. I could see that, so I gave
41in. It's so seldom Matthew sets his mind on anything that when he does I always feel it's my duty to give in. And as for
42the risk, there's risks in pretty near everything a body does in this world. There's risks in people's having children
43of their own if it comes to that--they don't always turn out well. And then Nova Scotia is right close to the Island. It
44isn't as if we were getting him from England or the States. He can't be much different from ourselves." "Well, I hope it
45will turn out all right," said Mrs. Rachel in a tone that plainly indicated her painful doubts. "Only don't say I didn't
46warn you if he burns Green Gables down or puts strychnine in the well--I heard of a case over in New Brunswick where an
47orphan asylum child did that and the whole family died in fearful agonies. Only, it was a girl in that instance." "Well,
48we're not getting a girl," said Marilla, as if poisoning wells were a purely feminine accomplishment and not to be
49dreaded in the case of a boy. "I'd never dream of taking a girl to bring up. I wonder at Mrs. Alexander Spencer for
50doing it. But there, she wouldn't shrink from adopting a whole orphan asylum if she took it into her head." Mrs. Rachel
51would have liked to stay until Matthew came home with his imported orphan. But reflecting that it would be a good two
52hours at least before his arrival she concluded to go up the road to Robert Bell's and tell the news. It would certainly
53make a sensation second to none, and Mrs. Rachel dearly loved to make a sensation. So she took herself away, somewhat to
54Marilla's relief, for the latter felt her doubts and fears reviving under the influence of Mrs. Rachel's pessimism.
55"Well, of all things that ever were or will be!" ejaculated Mrs. Rachel when she was safely out in the lane. "It does
56really seem as if I must be dreaming. Well, I'm sorry for that poor young one and no mistake. Matthew and Marilla don't
57know anything about children and they'll expect him to be wiser and steadier than his own grandfather, if so be's he
58ever had a grandfather, which is doubtful. It seems uncanny to think of a child at Green Gables somehow; there's never
59been one there, for Matthew and Marilla were grown up when the new house was built--if they ever were children, which is
60hard to believe when one looks at them. I wouldn't be in that orphan's shoes for anything. My, but I pity him, that's
61what." So said Mrs. Rachel to the wild rose bushes out of the fulness of her heart; but if she could have seen the child
62who was waiting patiently at the Bright River station at that very moment her pity would have been still deeper and more
63profound.
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