After his birth Anne had been very ill for a long time , and Susan `` mothered '' the baby with a passionate tenderness which none of the other children , dear as they were to her , had ever called out . Dr. Blythe had said that but for her he would never have lived . `` I gave him life just as much as you did , Mrs. Dr. dear , '' Susan was wont to say . `` He is just as much my baby as he is yours . '' And , indeed , it was always to Susan that Shirley ran , to be kissed for bumps , and rocked to sleep , and protected from well-deserved spankings . Susan had conscientiously spanked all the other Blythe children when she thought they needed it for their souls ' good , but she would not spank Shirley nor allow his mother to do it . Once , Dr. Blythe had spanked him and Susan had been stormily indignant . `` That man would spank an angel , Mrs. Dr. dear , that he would , '' she had declared bitterly ; and she would not make the poor doctor a pie for weeks . She had taken Shirley with her to her brother 's home during his parents ' absence , while all the other children had gone to Avonlea , and she had three blessed months of him all to herself . Nevertheless , Susan was very glad to find herself back at Ingleside , with all her darlings around her again . Ingleside was her world and in it she reigned supreme . Even Anne seldom questioned her decisions , much to the disgust of Mrs. Rachel Lynde of Green Gables , who gloomily told Anne , whenever she visited Four Winds , that she was letting Susan get to be entirely too much of a boss and would live to rue it . `` Here is Cornelia Bryant coming up the harbour road , Mrs. Dr. dear , '' said Susan . `` She will be coming up to unload three months ' gossip on us . '' `` I hope so , '' said Anne , hugging her knees . `` I 'm starving for Glen St. Mary gossip , Susan . I hope Miss Cornelia can tell me everything that has happened while we 've been away -- EVERYTHING -- who has got born , or married , or drunk ; who has died , or gone away , or come , or fought , or lost a cow , or found a beau . It 's so delightful to be home again with all the dear Glen folks , and I want to know all about them . Why , I remember wondering , as I walked through Westminster Abbey which of her two especial beaux Millicent Drew would finally marry . Do you know , Susan , I have a dreadful suspicion that I love gossip . ''
`` Well , XXXXX course , Mrs. Dr. dear , '' admitted Susan , `` every proper woman likes to hear the news .
about around at during for of on that to while