It was a little narrow , twisting path , winding down over a long hill straight through Mr. Bell 's woods , where the light came down sifted through so many emerald screens that it was as flawless as the heart of a diamond . It was fringed in all its length with slim young birches , white stemmed and lissom boughed ; ferns and starflowers and wild lilies-of-the-valley and scarlet tufts of pigeonberries grew thickly along it ; and always there was a delightful spiciness in the air and music of bird calls and the murmur and laugh of wood winds in the trees overhead . Now and then you might see a rabbit skipping across the road if you were quiet -- which , with Anne and Diana , happened about once in a blue moon . Down in the valley the path came out to the main road and then it was just up the spruce hill to the school . The Avonlea school was a whitewashed building , low in the eaves and wide in the windows , furnished inside with comfortable substantial old-fashioned desks that opened and shut , and were carved all over their lids with the initials and hieroglyphics of three generations of school children . The schoolhouse was set back from the road and behind it was a dusky fir wood and a brook where all the children put their bottles of milk in the morning to keep cool and sweet until dinner hour . Marilla had seen Anne start off to school on the first day of September with many secret misgivings . Anne was such an odd girl . How would she get on with the other children ? And how on earth would she ever manage to hold her tongue during school hours ? Things went better than Marilla feared , however . Anne came home that evening in high spirits . `` I think I 'm going to like school here , '' she announced . `` I do n't think much of the master , through . He 's all the time curling his mustache and making eyes at Prissy Andrews . Prissy is grown up , you know . She 's sixteen and she 's studying for the entrance examination into Queen 's Academy at Charlottetown next year . Tillie Boulter says the master is DEAD GONE on her . She 's got a beautiful complexion and curly brown hair and she does it up so elegantly . She sits in the long seat at the back and he sits there , too , most of the time -- to explain her lessons , he says .
But Ruby Gillis says she saw him writing something on her slate and when Prissy read it she blushed as red as a beet and giggled ; and Ruby Gillis says she does n't believe it had anything to do XXXXX the lesson . ''
along at during for if in than through to with