`` No . I 'm going down east to Valley Road next week . Esther Haythorne wants me to teach for her through July and August . They have a summer term in that school , and Esther is n't feeling well . So I 'm going to substitute for her . In one way I do n't mind . Do you know , I 'm beginning to feel a little bit like a stranger in Avonlea now ? It makes me sorry -- but it 's true . It 's quite appalling to see the number of children who have shot up into big boys and girls -- really young men and women -- these past two years . Half of my pupils are grown up . It makes me feel awfully old to see them in the places you and I and our mates used to fill . '' Anne laughed and sighed . She felt very old and mature and wise -- which showed how young she was . She told herself that she longed greatly to go back to those dear merry days when life was seen through a rosy mist of hope and illusion , and possessed an indefinable something that had passed away forever . Where was it now -- the glory and the dream ? '' ` So wags the world away , ' '' quoted Gilbert practically , and a trifle absently . Anne wondered if he were thinking of Christine . Oh , Avonlea was going to be so lonely now -- with Diana gone ! Chapter XXX Mrs. Skinner 's Romance Anne stepped off the train at Valley Road station and looked about to see if any one had come to meet her . She was to board with a certain Miss Janet Sweet , but she saw no one who answered in the least to her preconception of that lady , as formed from Esther 's letter .
The only person XXXXX sight was an elderly woman , sitting in a wagon with mail bags piled around her .
So at if in into like that through to with