I knew she had expected me to choose the girls . `` They are a very wild set of boys , '' she said . `` I never knew boys who were n't , '' I retorted . `` I -- I -- think perhaps you would like the girls best , '' said Mrs. Allan hesitatingly . If it had not been for one thing -- which I would never in this world have admitted to Mrs. Allan -- I might have liked the girls ' class best myself . But the truth was , Anne Shirley was in that class ; and Anne Shirley was the one living human being that I was afraid of . Not that I disliked her . But she had such a habit of asking weird , unexpected questions , which a Philadelphia lawyer could n't answer . Miss Rogerson had that class once and Anne routed her , horse , foot and artillery . I was n't going to undertake a class with a walking interrogation point in it like that . Besides , I thought Mrs. Allan required a slight snub . Ministers ' wives are rather apt to think they can run everything and everybody , if they are not wholesomely corrected now and again . `` It is not what I like best that must be considered , Mrs. Allan , '' I said rebukingly . `` It is what is best for those boys . I feel that I shall be best for THEM . '' `` Oh , I 've no doubt of that , Miss MacPherson , '' said Mrs. Allan amiably . It was a fib for her , minister 's wife though she was . She HAD doubt . She thought I would be a dismal failure as teacher of a boys ' class . But I was not .
I am not often a dismal failure when I make up my mind XXXXX do a thing .
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