`` You give me that basket , '' she ordered with a grimace . Mary was past mistress in the art of `` making faces . '' She could give her countenance a most grotesque and unearthly appearance out of which her strange , brilliant , white eyes gleamed with weird effect . `` I wo n't , '' gasped Rilla , frightened but staunch . `` You let me go , Mary Vanth . '' Mary let go for a minute and looked around here . Just inside the gate was a small `` flake , '' on which a half a dozen large codfish were drying . One of Mr. Meredith 's parishioners had presented him with them one day , perhaps in lieu of the subscription he was supposed to pay to the stipend and never did . Mr. Meredith had thanked him and then forgotten all about the fish , which would have promptly spoiled had not the indefatigable Mary prepared them for drying and rigged up the `` flake '' herself on which to dry them . Mary had a diabolical inspiration . She flew to the `` flake '' and seized the largest fish there -- a huge , flat thing , nearly as big as herself . With a whoop she swooped down on the terrified Rilla , brandishing her weird missile . Rilla 's courage gave way . To be lambasted with a dried codfish was such an unheard-of thing that Rilla could not face it . With a shriek she dropped her basket and fled . The beautiful berries , which Susan had so tenderly selected for the minister , rolled in a rosy torrent over the dusty road and were trodden on by the flying feet of pursuer and pursued . The basket and contents were no longer in Mary 's mind . She thought only of the delight of giving Rilla Blythe the scare of her life . She would teach HER to come giving herself airs because of her fine clothes . Rilla flew down the hill and along the street .
Terror lent wings to her feet , and she just managed to keep ahead XXXXX Mary , who was somewhat hampered by her own laughter , but who had breath enough to give occasional blood-curdling whoops as she ran , flourishing her codfish in the air .
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