asked Anne . `` Mr. Allan says it is on the principle of calling a place a grove because there are no trees in it , '' said Diana , `` for nobody lives along the road except the Copp girls and old Martin Bovyer at the further end , who is a Liberal . The Tory government ran the road through when they were in power just to show they were doing something . '' Diana 's father was a Liberal , for which reason she and Anne never discussed politics . Green Gables folk had always been Conservatives . Finally the girls came to the old Copp homestead ... a place of such exceeding external neatness that even Green Gables would have suffered by contrast . The house was a very old-fashioned one , situated on a slope , which fact had necessitated the building of a stone basement under one end . The house and out-buildings were all whitewashed to a condition of blinding perfection and not a weed was visible in the prim kitchen garden surrounded by its white paling . `` The shades are all down , '' said Diana ruefully . `` I believe that nobody is home . '' This proved to be the case . The girls looked at each other in perplexity . `` I do n't know what to do , '' said Anne . `` If I were sure the platter was the right kind I would not mind waiting until they came home . But if it is n't it may be too late to go to Wesley Keyson 's afterward . '' Diana looked at a certain little square window over the basement . `` That is the pantry window , I feel sure , '' she said , `` because this house is just like Uncle Charles ' at Newbridge , and that is their pantry window . The shade is n't down , so if we climbed up on the roof of that little house we could look into the pantry and might be able to see the platter . Do you think it would be any harm ? '' `` No , I do n't think so , '' decided Anne , after due reflection , `` since our motive is not idle curiosity . ''
This important point of ethics being settled , Anne prepared XXXXX mount the aforesaid `` little house , '' a construction of lathes , with a peaked roof , which had in times past served as a habitation for ducks .
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