`` It certainly would , '' admitted Mrs. Rachel . `` That old ruin has been an eyesore to the settlement for years . But if you Improvers can coax Levi Boulter to do anything for the public that he is n't to be paid for doing , may I be there to see and hear the process , that 's what . I do n't want to discourage you , Anne , for there may be something in your idea , though I suppose you did get it out of some rubbishy Yankee magazine ; but you 'll have your hands full with your school and I advise you as a friend not to bother with your improvements , that 's what . But there , I know you 'll go ahead with it if you 've set your mind on it . You were always one to carry a thing through somehow . '' Something about the firm outlines of Anne 's lips told that Mrs. Rachel was not far astray in this estimate . Anne 's heart was bent on forming the Improvement Society . Gilbert Blythe , who was to teach in White Sands but would always be home from Friday night to Monday morning , was enthusiastic about it ; and most of the other folks were willing to go in for anything that meant occasional meetings and consequently some `` fun . '' As for what the `` improvements '' were to be , nobody had any very clear idea except Anne and Gilbert . They had talked them over and planned them out until an ideal Avonlea existed in their minds , if nowhere else . Mrs. Rachel had still another item of news . `` They 've given the Carmody school to a Priscilla Grant . Did n't you go to Queen 's with a girl of that name , Anne ? '' `` Yes , indeed . Priscilla to teach at Carmody ! How perfectly lovely ! '' exclaimed Anne , her gray eyes lighting up until they looked like evening stars , causing Mrs. Lynde to wonder anew if she would ever get it settled to her satisfaction whether Anne Shirley were really a pretty girl or not . II Selling in Haste and Repenting at Leisure Anne drove over to Carmody on a shopping expedition the next afternoon and took Diana Barry with her . Diana was , of course , a pledged member of the Improvement Society , and the two girls talked about little else all the way to Carmody and back .
`` The very first thing we ought to do when we get started is to have that hall painted , '' said Diana , as they drove past the Avonlea hall , a rather shabby building set down in a wooded hollow , XXXXX spruce trees hooding it about on all sides .
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