`` Vanilla , '' said Anne , her face scarlet with mortification after tasting the cake . `` Only vanilla . Oh , Marilla , it must have been the baking powder . I had my suspicions of that bak -- '' `` Baking powder fiddlesticks ! Go and bring me the bottle of vanilla you used . '' Anne fled to the pantry and returned with a small bottle partially filled with a brown liquid and labeled yellowly , `` Best Vanilla . '' Marilla took it , uncorked it , smelled it . `` Mercy on us , Anne , you 've flavored that cake with ANODYNE LINIMENT . I broke the liniment bottle last week and poured what was left into an old empty vanilla bottle . I suppose it 's partly my fault -- I should have warned you -- but for pity 's sake why could n't you have smelled it ? '' Anne dissolved into tears under this double disgrace . `` I could n't -- I had such a cold ! '' and with this she fairly fled to the gable chamber , where she cast herself on the bed and wept as one who refuses to be comforted . Presently a light step sounded on the stairs and somebody entered the room . `` Oh , Marilla , '' sobbed Anne , without looking up , `` I 'm disgraced forever . I shall never be able to live this down . It will get out -- things always do get out in Avonlea . Diana will ask me how my cake turned out and I shall have to tell her the truth . I shall always be pointed at as the girl who flavored a cake with anodyne liniment . Gil -- the boys in school will never get over laughing at it .
Oh , XXXXX , if you have a spark of Christian pity do n't tell me that I must go down and wash the dishes after this .
ANODYNE Anne Avonlea Diana Gil Marilla Mercy bak left powder