Rainbow Valley

It was a clear, apple-green evening in May, and Four Winds Harbour was mirroring back the clouds of the golden west between its softly dark shores. The sea moaned eerily on the sand-bar, sorrowful even in spring, but a sly, jovial wind came piping down the red harbor road along which Miss Cornelia’s comfortable, matronly figure was making its way towards the village of Glen St. Mary. Miss Cornelia was rightfully Mrs. Marshall Elliott, and had been Mrs. Marshall Elliott for thirteen years, but even yet more people referred to her as Miss Cornelia than as Mrs. Elliott. The old name was dear to her old friends, only one of them contemptuously dropped it. Susan Baker, the gray and grim and faithful handmaiden of the Blythe family at Ingleside, never lost an opportunity of calling her “Mrs. Marshall Elliott,” with the most killing and pointed emphasis, as if to say “You wanted to be Mr. and Mrs. you shall be with a vengeance as far as I am concerned.”

That’s all part of the follow-up story to Anne of Green Gables. Sure, many remember Anne: she was sent from the Hopetown orphanage on Prince Edward Island at age eleven and grew up there in a heart-warming tale. In this story, she’s grown up, married, and has six children of her own. Let’s listen for more.

Originally published in 1919.