`` There must be some mistake ... there must . I knew those Pyes would make a mess of things . '' Mrs. Lynde drove home , meeting several people on the road and stopping to tell them about the hall . The news flew like wildfire . Gilbert Blythe , poring over a text book at home , heard it from his father 's hired boy at sunset , and rushed breathlessly to Green Gables , joined on the way by Fred Wright . They found Diana Barry , Jane Andrews , and Anne Shirley , despair personified , at the yard gate of Green Gables , under the big leafless willows . `` It is n't true surely , Anne ? '' exclaimed Gilbert . `` It is true , '' answered Anne , looking like the muse of tragedy . `` Mrs. Lynde called on her way from Carmody to tell me . Oh , it is simply dreadful ! What is the use of trying to improve anything ? '' `` What is dreadful ? '' asked Oliver Sloane , arriving at this moment with a bandbox he had brought from town for Marilla . `` Have n't you heard ? '' said Jane wrathfully . `` Well , its simply this ... Joshua Pye has gone and painted the hall blue instead of green ... a deep , brilliant blue , the shade they use for painting carts and wheelbarrows . And Mrs. Lynde says it is the most hideous color for a building , especially when combined with a red roof , that she ever saw or imagined . You could simply have knocked me down with a feather when I heard it . It 's heartbreaking , after all the trouble we 've had . ''
`` How XXXXX earth could such a mistake have happened ? ''
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