At first Matthew suggested getting a Home boy . But I said ` no ' flat to that . ` They may be all right -- I 'm not saying they 're not -- but no London street Arabs for me , ' I said . ` Give me a native born at least . There 'll be a risk , no matter who we get . But I 'll feel easier in my mind and sleep sounder at nights if we get a born Canadian . ' So in the end we decided to ask Mrs. Spencer to pick us out one when she went over to get her little girl . We heard last week she was going , so we sent her word by Richard Spencer 's folks at Carmody to bring us a smart , likely boy of about ten or eleven . We decided that would be the best age -- old enough to be of some use in doing chores right off and young enough to be trained up proper . We mean to give him a good home and schooling . We had a telegram from Mrs. Alexander Spencer today -- the mail-man brought it from the station -- saying they were coming on the five-thirty train tonight . So Matthew went to Bright River to meet him . Mrs. Spencer will drop him off there . Of course she goes on to White Sands station herself . '' Mrs. Rachel prided herself on always speaking her mind ; she proceeded to speak it now , having adjusted her mental attitude to this amazing piece of news . `` Well , Marilla , I 'll just tell you plain that I think you 're doing a mighty foolish thing -- a risky thing , that 's what . You do n't know what you 're getting . You 're bringing a strange child into your house and home and you do n't know a single thing about him nor what his disposition is like nor what sort of parents he had nor how he 's likely to turn out . Why , it was only last week I read in the paper how a man and his wife up west of the Island took a boy out of an orphan asylum and he set fire to the house at night -- set it ON PURPOSE , Marilla -- and nearly burnt them to a crisp in their beds . And I know another case where an adopted boy used to suck the eggs -- they could n't break him of it .
If you had asked my advice in the matter -- which you did n't do , Marilla -- I 'd have said XXXXX mercy 's sake not to think of such a thing , that 's what . ''
At about by for from in into of off that