Anne ran to the east gable and saw flashes of light coming through the twilight from Diana 's window in groups of five , which meant , according to their old childish code , `` Come over at once for I have something important to reveal . '' Anne threw her white shawl over her head and hastened through the Haunted Wood and across Mr. Bell 's pasture corner to Orchard Slope . `` I 've good news for you , Anne , '' said Diana . `` Mother and I have just got home from Carmody , and I saw Mary Sentner from Spencer vale in Mr. Blair 's store . She says the old Copp girls on the Tory Road have a willow-ware platter and she thinks it 's exactly like the one we had at the supper . She says they 'll likely sell it , for Martha Copp has never been known to keep anything she COULD sell ; but if they wo n't there 's a platter at Wesley Keyson 's at Spencervale and she knows they 'd sell it , but she is n't sure it 's just the same kind as Aunt Josephine 's . '' `` I 'll go right over to Spencervale after it tomorrow , '' said Anne resolutely , `` and you must come with me . It will be such a weight off my mind , for I have to go to town day after tomorrow and how can I face your Aunt Josephine without a willow-ware platter ? It would be even worse than the time I had to confess about jumping on the spare room bed . '' Both girls laughed over the old memory ... concerning which , if any of my readers are ignorant and curious , I must refer them to Anne 's earlier history . The next afternoon the girls fared forth on their platter hunting expedition . It was ten miles to Spencervale and the day was not especially pleasant for traveling . It was very warm and windless , and the dust on the road was such as might have been expected after six weeks of dry weather . `` Oh , I do wish it would rain soon , '' sighed Anne . `` Everything is so parched up . The poor fields just seem pitiful to me and the trees seem to be stretching out their hands pleading for rain . As for my garden , it hurts me every time I go into it . I suppose I should n't complain about a garden when the farmers ' crops are suffering so . Mr. Harrison says his pastures are so scorched up that his poor cows can hardly get a bite to eat and he feels guilty of cruelty to animals every time he meets their eyes . '' After a wearisome drive the girls reached Spencervale and turned down the `` Tory '' Road ... a green , solitary highway where the strips of grass between the wheel tracks bore evidence to lack of travel .
Along most of its extent it was lined with thick-set young spruces crowding down to the roadway , with here and there a break where the back field of a Spencervale farm came out XXXXX the fence or an expanse of stumps was aflame with fireweed and goldenrod .
about across from if like off on than through to