Poor Charlotte indeed ! If I had thrown myself at a man 's head the way Adella Gilbert did at -- but there , there , I must refrain from such thoughts . I must not be uncharitable . The Sewing Circle met at Mary Gillespie 's on my fortieth birthday . I have given up talking about my birthdays , although that little scheme is not much good in Avonlea where everybody knows your age -- or if they make a mistake it is never on the side of youth . But Nancy , who grew accustomed to celebrating my birthdays when I was a little girl , never gets over the habit , and I do n't try to cure her , because , after all , it 's nice to have some one make a fuss over you . She brought me up my breakfast before I got up out of bed -- a concession to my laziness that Nancy would scorn to make on any other day of the year . She had cooked everything I like best , and had decorated the tray with roses from the garden and ferns from the woods behind the house . I enjoyed every bit of that breakfast , and then I got up and dressed , putting on my second best muslin gown . I would have put on my really best if I had not had the fear of Nancy before my eyes ; but I knew she would never condone THAT , even on a birthday . I watered my flowers and fed my cats , and then I locked myself up and wrote a poem on June . I had given up writing birthday odes after I was thirty . In the afternoon I went to the Sewing Circle . When I was ready for it I looked in my glass and wondered if I could really be forty . I was quite sure I did n't look it . My hair was brown and wavy , my cheeks were pink , and the lines could hardly be seen at all , though possibly that was because of the dim light . I always have my mirror hung in the darkest corner of my room . Nancy can not imagine why . I know the lines are there , of course ; but when they do n't show very plain I forget that they are there . We had a large Sewing Circle , young and old alike attending .
I really can not say I ever enjoyed the meetings -- at least not up XXXXX that time -- although I went religiously because I thought it my duty to go .
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