But as far as seeing through a grindstone goes , I am afraid -- '' Susan shook her head dubiously , `` that they are all tarred with the same brush . '' `` I am thankful Christmas is over , '' Rilla wrote in her diary during the last week of a stormy December . `` We had dreaded it so -- the first Christmas since Courcelette . But we had all the Merediths down for dinner and nobody tried to be gay or cheerful . We were all just quiet and friendly , and that helped . Then , too , I was so thankful that Jims had got better -- so thankful that I almost felt glad -- almost but not quite . I wonder if I shall ever feel really glad over anything again . It seems as if gladness were killed in me -- shot down by the same bullet that pierced Walter 's heart . Perhaps some day a new kind of gladness will be born in my soul -- but the old kind will never live again . `` Winter set in awfully early this year . Ten days before Christmas we had a big snowstorm -- at least we thought it big at the time . As it happened , it was only a prelude to the real performance . It was fine the next day , and Ingleside and Rainbow Valley were wonderful , with the trees all covered with snow , and big drifts everywhere , carved into the most fantastic shapes by the chisel of the northeast wind . Father and mother went up to Avonlea . Father thought the change would do mother good , and they wanted to see poor Aunt Diana , whose son Jock had been seriously wounded a short time before . They left Susan and me to keep house , and father expected to be back the next day . But he never got back for a week . That night it began to storm again , and it stormed unbrokenly for four days . It was the worst and longest storm that Prince Edward Island has known for years . Everything was disorganized -- the roads were completely choked up , the trains blockaded , and the telephone wires put entirely out of commission .
`` And then XXXXX took ill .
Avonlea Courcelette Diana Father Jims Rilla Susan Valley night storm