`` I 'll jest have time to walk home before sundown . Thank you for a beautiful Christmas , Mistress Blythe . Bring Master Davy down to the light some night before he goes home . `` I want to see those stone gods , '' said Davy with a relish . CHAPTER 16 NEW YEAR 'S EVE AT THE LIGHT The Green Gables folk went home after Christmas , Marilla under solemn covenant to return for a month in the spring . More snow came before New Year 's , and the harbor froze over , but the gulf still was free , beyond the white , imprisoned fields . The last day of the old year was one of those bright , cold , dazzling winter days , which bombard us with their brilliancy , and command our admiration but never our love . The sky was sharp and blue ; the snow diamonds sparkled insistently ; the stark trees were bare and shameless , with a kind of brazen beauty ; the hills shot assaulting lances of crystal . Even the shadows were sharp and stiff and clear-cut , as no proper shadows should be . Everything that was handsome seemed ten times handsomer and less attractive in the glaring splendor ; and everything that was ugly seemed ten times uglier , and everything was either handsome or ugly . There was no soft blending , or kind obscurity , or elusive mistiness in that searching glitter . The only things that held their own individuality were the firs -- for the fir is the tree of mystery and shadow , and yields never to the encroachments of crude radiance . But finally the day began to realise that she was growing old . Then a certain pensiveness fell over her beauty which dimmed yet intensified it ; sharp angles , glittering points , melted away into curves and enticing gleams . The white harbor put on soft grays and pinks ; the far-away hills turned amethyst . `` The old year is going away beautifully , '' said Anne . She and Leslie and Gilbert were on their way to the Four Winds Point , having plotted with Captain Jim to watch the New Year in at the light . The sun had set and in the southwestern sky hung Venus , glorious and golden , having drawn as near to her earth-sister as is possible for her . For the first time Anne and Gilbert saw the shadow cast by that brilliant star of evening , that faint , mysterious shadow , never seen save when there is white snow to reveal it , and then only with averted vision , vanishing when you gaze at it directly . `` It 's like the spirit of a shadow , is n't it ? ''
whispered XXXXX .
Anne Gilbert Leslie Marilla Point days evening firs mistiness month