Anne thought those Friday evening gypsyings over the autumnal hills in the crisp golden air , with the homelights of Avonlea twinkling beyond , were the best and dearest hours in the whole week . Gilbert Blythe nearly always walked with Ruby Gillis and carried her satchel for her . Ruby was a very handsome young lady , now thinking herself quite as grown up as she really was ; she wore her skirts as long as her mother would let her and did her hair up in town , though she had to take it down when she went home . She had large , bright-blue eyes , a brilliant complexion , and a plump showy figure . She laughed a great deal , was cheerful and good-tempered , and enjoyed the pleasant things of life frankly . `` But I should n't think she was the sort of girl Gilbert would like , '' whispered Jane to Anne . Anne did not think so either , but she would not have said so for the Avery scholarship . She could not help thinking , too , that it would be very pleasant to have such a friend as Gilbert to jest and chatter with and exchange ideas about books and studies and ambitions . Gilbert had ambitions , she knew , and Ruby Gillis did not seem the sort of person with whom such could be profitably discussed . There was no silly sentiment in Anne 's ideas concerning Gilbert . Boys were to her , when she thought about them at all , merely possible good comrades . If she and Gilbert had been friends she would not have cared how many other friends he had nor with whom he walked . She had a genius for friendship ; girl friends she had in plenty ; but she had a vague consciousness that masculine friendship might also be a good thing to round out one 's conceptions of companionship and furnish broader standpoints of judgment and comparison . Not that Anne could have put her feelings on the matter into just such clear definition . But she thought that if Gilbert had ever walked home with her from the train , over the crisp fields and along the ferny byways , they might have had many and merry and interesting conversations about the new world that was opening around them and their hopes and ambitions therein . Gilbert was a clever young fellow , with his own thoughts about things and a determination to get the best out of life and put the best into it . Ruby Gillis told Jane Andrews that she did n't understand half the things Gilbert Blythe said ; he talked just like Anne Shirley did when she had a thoughtful fit on and for her part she did n't think it any fun to be bothering about books and that sort of thing when you did n't have to . Frank Stockley had lots more dash and go , but then he was n't half as good-looking as Gilbert and she really could n't decide which she liked best ! In the Academy Anne gradually drew a little circle of friends about her , thoughtful , imaginative , ambitious students like herself . With the `` rose-red '' girl , Stella Maynard , and the `` dream girl , '' Priscilla Grant , she soon became intimate , finding the latter pale spiritual-looking maiden to be full to the brim of mischief and pranks and fun , while the vivid , black-eyed Stella had a heartful of wistful dreams and fancies , as aerial and rainbow-like as Anne 's own .
After the Christmas holidays the Avonlea students gave up going home on Fridays and settled down XXXXX hard work .
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