I went to old Granny Thomas -- and got a love ointment from her -- to make Avery love you , because I knew she did n't -- and I wanted you to be happy -- Randall , do n't -- I ca n't talk when you do that ! Do you think Granny 's ointment could have made her care for Bruce ? '' Randall laughed -- the little , low laugh of the triumphant lover . `` If it did , I 'm glad of it . CHAPTER I. HOME AGAIN It was a clear , apple-green evening in May , and Four Winds Harbour was mirroring back the clouds of the golden west between its softly dark shores . The sea moaned eerily on the sand-bar , sorrowful even in spring , but a sly , jovial wind came piping down the red harbour road along which Miss Cornelia 's comfortable , matronly figure was making its way towards the village of Glen St. Mary . Miss Cornelia was rightfully Mrs. Marshall Elliott , and had been Mrs. Marshall Elliott for thirteen years , but even yet more people referred to her as Miss Cornelia than as Mrs. Elliott . The old name was dear to her old friends , only one of them contemptuously dropped it . Susan Baker , the gray and grim and faithful handmaiden of the Blythe family at Ingleside , never lost an opportunity of calling her `` Mrs. Marshall Elliott , '' with the most killing and pointed emphasis , as if to say `` You wanted to be Mrs. and Mrs. you shall be with a vengeance as far as I am concerned . '' Miss Cornelia was going up to Ingleside to see Dr. and Mrs. Blythe , who were just home from Europe . They had been away for three months , having left in February to attend a famous medical congress in London ; and certain things , which Miss Cornelia was anxious to discuss , had taken place in the Glen during their absence . For one thing , there was a new family in the manse . And such a family ! Miss Cornelia shook her head over them several times as she walked briskly along . Susan Baker and the Anne Shirley of other days saw her coming , as they sat on the big veranda at Ingleside , enjoying the charm of the cat 's light , the sweetness of sleepy robins whistling among the twilit maples , and the dance of a gusty group of daffodils blowing against the old , mellow , red brick wall of the lawn . Anne was sitting on the steps , her hands clasped over her knee , looking , in the kind dusk , as girlish as a mother of many has any right to be ; and the beautiful gray-green eyes , gazing down the harbour road , were as full of unquenchable sparkle and dream as ever . Behind her , in the hammock , Rilla Blythe was curled up , a fat , roly-poly little creature of six years , the youngest of the Ingleside children . She had curly red hair and hazel eyes that were now buttoned up after the funny , wrinkled fashion in which Rilla always went to sleep . Shirley , `` the little brown boy , '' as he was known in the family `` Who 's Who , '' was asleep in Susan 's arms . He was brown-haired , brown-eyed and brown-skinned , with very rosy cheeks , and he was Susan 's especial love .
After his birth Anne had been very ill for a long time , and Susan `` mothered '' the baby with a passionate tenderness which none XXXXX the other children , dear as they were to her , had ever called out .
Behind For If after at because down from in of