`` You see , I was little for fourteen years and I 've only been grown-uppish for scarcely three . I 'm sure I shall always feel like a child in the woods . These walks home from school are almost the only time I have for dreaming ... except the half-hour or so before I go to sleep . I 'm so busy with teaching and studying and helping Marilla with the twins that I have n't another moment for imagining things . You do n't know what splendid adventures I have for a little while after I go to bed in the east gable every night . I always imagine I 'm something very brilliant and triumphant and splendid ... a great prima donna or a Red Cross nurse or a queen . Last night I was a queen . It 's really splendid to imagine you are a queen . You have all the fun of it without any of the inconveniences and you can stop being a queen whenever you want to , which you could n't in real life . But here in the woods I like best to imagine quite different things ... I 'm a dryad living in an old pine , or a little brown wood-elf hiding under a crinkled leaf . That white birch you caught me kissing is a sister of mine . The only difference is , she 's a tree and I 'm a girl , but that 's no real difference . Where are you going , Diana ? '' `` Down to the Dicksons . I promised to help Alberta cut out her new dress . Ca n't you walk down in the evening , Anne , and come home with me ? '' `` I might ... since Fred Wright is away in town , '' said Anne with a rather too innocent face . Diana blushed , tossed her head , and walked on . She did not look offended , however . Anne fully intended to go down to the Dicksons ' that evening , but she did not .
When she arrived at Green Gables she found a state XXXXX affairs which banished every other thought from her mind .
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