`` Well , you 'll get into no end of hot water if you do . Better leave it alone , Anne , that 's what . People do n't like being improved . '' `` Oh , we are not going to try to improve the PEOPLE . It is Avonlea itself . There are lots of things which might be done to make it prettier . For instance , if we could coax Mr. Levi Boulter to pull down that dreadful old house on his upper farm would n't that be an improvement ? '' `` It certainly would , '' admitted Mrs. Rachel . `` That old ruin has been an eyesore to the settlement for years . But if you Improvers can coax Levi Boulter to do anything for the public that he is n't to be paid for doing , may I be there to see and hear the process , that 's what . I do n't want to discourage you , Anne , for there may be something in your idea , though I suppose you did get it out of some rubbishy Yankee magazine ; but you 'll have your hands full with your school and I advise you as a friend not to bother with your improvements , that 's what . But there , I know you 'll go ahead with it if you 've set your mind on it . You were always one to carry a thing through somehow . '' Something about the firm outlines of Anne 's lips told that Mrs. Rachel was not far astray in this estimate . Anne 's heart was bent on forming the Improvement Society . Gilbert Blythe , who was to teach in White Sands but would always be home from Friday night to Monday morning , was enthusiastic about it ; and most of the other folks were willing to go in for anything that meant occasional meetings and consequently some `` fun . '' As for what the `` improvements '' were to be , nobody had any very clear idea except Anne and Gilbert . They had talked them over and planned them out until an ideal Avonlea existed in their minds , if nowhere else . Mrs. Rachel had still another item of news . `` They 've given the Carmody school to a Priscilla Grant .
Did n't you go to Queen 's with a girl of that name , XXXXX ? ''
Anne Avonlea Boulter Carmody Gilbert Grant Improvers Sands eyesore years