Oh , Anne , you must have thought me hateful in those weeks before I went away . I did n't mean to be -- but I could n't think of anything except what I had to do , and everything and everybody about me were like shadows . '' `` I know -- I understood , Leslie . And now it is all over -- your chain is broken -- there is no cage . '' `` There is no cage , '' repeated Leslie absently , plucking at the fringing grasses with her slender , brown hands . `` But -- it does n't seem as if there were anything else , Anne . You -- you remember what I told you of my folly that night on the sand-bar ? I find one does n't get over being a fool very quickly . Sometimes I think there are people who are fools forever . And to be a fool -- of that kind -- is almost as bad as being a -- a dog on a chain . '' `` You will feel very differently after you get over being tired and bewildered , '' said Anne , who , knowing a certain thing that Leslie did not know , did not feel herself called upon to waste overmuch sympathy . Leslie laid her splendid golden head against Anne 's knee . `` Anyhow , I have YOU , '' she said . `` Life ca n't be altogether empty with such a friend . Anne , pat my head -- just as if I were a little girl -- MOTHER me a bit -- and let me tell you while my stubborn tongue is loosed a little just what you and your comradeship have meant to me since that night I met you on the rock shore . '' CHAPTER 34 THE SHIP O'DREAMS COMES TO HARBOR One morning , when a windy golden sunrise was billowing over the gulf in waves of light , a certain weary stork flew over the bar of Four Winds Harbor on his way from the Land of Evening Stars . Under his wing was tucked a sleepy , starry-eyed , little creature . The stork was tired , and he looked wistfully about him . He knew he was somewhere near his destination , but he could not yet see it . The big , white light-house on the red sandstone cliff had its good points ; but no stork possessed of any gumption would leave a new , velvet baby there .
An old gray house , surrounded by willows , XXXXX a blossomy brook valley , looked more promising , but did not seem quite the thing either .
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