She and her father used to make a lot of it . '' Miss Cornelia and Mrs. Rachel did not take a very violent fancy to each other . `` Two suns hold not their courses in one sphere . '' But they did not clash at all , for Mrs. Rachel was in the kitchen helping Anne and Marilla with the dinner , and it fell to Gilbert to entertain Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia , -- or rather to be entertained by them , for a dialogue between those two old friends and antagonists was assuredly never dull . `` It 's many a year since there was a Christmas dinner here , Mistress Blythe , '' said Captain Jim . `` Miss Russell always went to her friends in town for Christmas . But I was here to the first Christmas dinner that was ever eaten in this house -- and the schoolmaster 's bride cooked it . That was sixty years ago today , Mistress Blythe -- and a day very like this -- just enough snow to make the hills white , and the harbor as blue as June . I was only a lad , and I 'd never been invited out to dinner before , and I was too shy to eat enough . I 've got all over THAT . '' `` Most men do , '' said Miss Cornelia , sewing furiously . Miss Cornelia was not going to sit with idle hands , even on Christmas . Babies come without any consideration for holidays , and there was one expected in a poverty-stricken household at Glen St. Mary . Miss Cornelia had sent that household a substantial dinner for its little swarm , and so meant to eat her own with a comfortable conscience . `` Well , you know , the way to a man 's heart is through his stomach , Cornelia , '' explained Captain Jim . `` I believe you -- when he HAS a heart , '' retorted Miss Cornelia . `` I suppose that 's why so many women kill themselves cooking -- just as poor Amelia Baxter did . She died last Christmas morning , and she said it was the first Christmas since she was married that she did n't have to cook a big , twenty-plate dinner . It must have been a real pleasant change for her . Well , she 's been dead a year , so you 'll soon hear of Horace Baxter taking notice . ''
`` I heard he was taking notice already , '' said Captain XXXXX , winking at Gilbert .
Baxter Blythe Jim Marilla Rachel Russell day first morning year