But an August afternoon , with blue hazes scarfing the harvest slopes , little winds whispering elfishly in the poplars , and a dancing slendor of red poppies outflaming against the dark coppice of young firs in a corner of the cherry orchard , was fitter for dreams than dead languages . The Virgil soon slipped unheeded to the ground , and Anne , her chin propped on her clasped hands , and her eyes on the splendid mass of fluffy clouds that were heaping up just over Mr. J. A. Harrison 's house like a great white mountain , was far away in a delicious world where a certain schoolteacher was doing a wonderful work , shaping the destinies of future statesmen , and inspiring youthful minds and hearts with high and lofty ambitions . To be sure , if you came down to harsh facts ... which , it must be confessed , Anne seldom did until she had to ... it did not seem likely that there was much promising material for celebrities in Avonlea school ; but you could never tell what might happen if a teacher used her influence for good . Anne had certain rose-tinted ideals of what a teacher might accomplish if she only went the right way about it ; and she was in the midst of a delightful scene , forty years hence , with a famous personage ... just exactly what he was to be famous for was left in convenient haziness , but Anne thought it would be rather nice to have him a college president or a Canadian premier ... bowing low over her wrinkled hand and assuring her that it was she who had first kindled his ambition , and that all his success in life was due to the lessons she had instilled so long ago in Avonlea school . This pleasant vision was shattered by a most unpleasant interruption . A demure little Jersey cow came scuttling down the lane and five seconds later Mr. Harrison arrived ... if `` arrived '' be not too mild a term to describe the manner of his irruption into the yard . He bounced over the fence without waiting to open the gate , and angrily confronted astonished Anne , who had risen to her feet and stood looking at him in some bewilderment . Mr. Harrison was their new righthand neighbor and she had never met him before , although she had seen him once or twice . In early April , before Anne had come home from Queen 's , Mr. Robert Bell , whose farm adjoined the Cuthbert place on the west , had sold out and moved to Charlottetown . His farm had been bought by a certain Mr. J. A. Harrison , whose name , and the fact that he was a New Brunswick man , were all that was known about him . But before he had been a month in Avonlea he had won the reputation of being an odd person ... `` a crank , '' Mrs. Rachel Lynde said . Mrs. Rachel was an outspoken lady , as those of you who may have already made her acquaintance will remember . Mr. Harrison was certainly different from other people ... and that is the essential characteristic of a crank , as everybody knows . In the first place he kept house for himself and had publicly stated that he wanted no fools of women around his diggings . Feminine Avonlea took its revenge by the gruesome tales it related about his house-keeping and cooking . He had hired little John Henry Carter of White Sands and John Henry started the stories . For one thing , there was never any stated time for meals in the Harrison establishment . Mr. Harrison `` got a bite '' when he felt hungry , and if John Henry were around at the time , he came in for a share , but if he were not , he had to wait until Mr. Harrison 's next hungry spell . John Henry mournfully averred that he would have starved to death if it was n't that he got home on Sundays and got a good filling up , and that his mother always gave him a basket of `` grub '' to take back with him on Monday mornings . As for washing dishes , Mr. Harrison never made any pretence of doing it unless a rainy Sunday came .
Then he went to work and washed them all at once in the rainwater hogshead , and left them XXXXX drain dry .
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