What is the reason ? I never feel like that when I 'm really in the darkness -- when it is close all around me -- I 'm not the least frightened . '' `` I 've something of that feeling myself , '' admitted Captain Jim . `` I reckon when the darkness is close to us it is a friend . But when we sorter push it away from us -- divorce ourselves from it , so to speak , with lantern light -- it becomes an enemy . But the fog is lifting . `` There 's a smart west wind rising , if you notice . The stars will be out when you get home . '' They were out ; and when Anne re-entered her house of dreams the red embers were still glowing on the hearth , and all the haunting presences were gone . CHAPTER 14 NOVEMBER DAYS The splendor of color which had glowed for weeks along the shores of Four Winds Harbor had faded out into the soft gray-blue of late autumnal hills . There came many days when fields and shores were dim with misty rain , or shivering before the breath of a melancholy sea-wind -- nights , too , of storm and tempest , when Anne sometimes wakened to pray that no ship might be beating up the grim north shore , for if it were so not even the great , faithful light whirling through the darkness unafraid , could avail to guide it into safe haven . `` In November I sometimes feel as if spring could never come again , '' she sighed , grieving over the hopeless unsightliness of her frosted and bedraggled flower-plots . The gay little garden of the schoolmaster 's bride was rather a forlorn place now , and the Lombardies and birches were under bare poles , as Captain Jim said . But the fir-wood behind the little house was forever green and staunch ; and even in November and December there came gracious days of sunshine and purple hazes , when the harbor danced and sparkled as blithely as in midsummer , and the gulf was so softly blue and tender that the storm and the wild wind seemed only things of a long-past dream . Anne and Gilbert spent many an autumn evening at the lighthouse . It was always a cheery place . Even when the east wind sang in minor and the sea was dead and gray , hints of sunshine seemed to be lurking all about it . Perhaps this was because the First Mate always paraded it in panoply of gold . He was so large and effulgent that one hardly missed the sun , and his resounding purrs formed a pleasant accompaniment to the laughter and conversation which went on around Captain Jim 's fireplace . Captain Jim and Gilbert had many long discussions and high converse on matters beyond the ken of cat or king .
`` I like to ponder on all kinds of problems , though I ca n't solve 'em , '' said Captain XXXXX .
Anne DAYS Gilbert Harbor Jim flower-plots gray-blue panoply sea-wind unsightliness