`` It will be a long time now before the war is ended , '' said Mrs. Blythe despairingly . Susan 's faith , which had for a moment been temporarily submerged , now reappeared triumphantly . `` Remember , Mrs. Dr. dear , that the British army is not the British navy . Never forget that . And the Russians are on their way , too , though Russians are people I do not know much about and consequently will not tie to . '' `` The Russians will not be in time to save Paris , '' said Walter gloomily . `` Paris is the heart of France -- and the road to it is open . Oh , I wish '' -- he stopped abruptly and went out . After a paralysed day the Ingleside folk found it was possible to `` carry on '' even in the face of ever-darkening bad news . Susan worked fiercely in her kitchen , the doctor went out on his round of visits , Nan and Di returned to their Red Cross activities ; Mrs. Blythe went to Charlottetown to attend a Red Cross Convention ; Rilla after relieving her feelings by a stormy fit of tears in Rainbow Valley and an outburst in her diary , remembered that she had elected to be brave and heroic . And , she thought , it really was heroic to volunteer to drive about the Glen and Four Winds one day , collecting promised Red Cross supplies with Abner Crawford 's old grey horse . One of the Ingleside horses was lame and the doctor needed the other , so there was nothing for it but the Crawford nag , a placid , unhasting , thick-skinned creature with an amiable habit of stopping every few yards to kick a fly off one leg with the foot of the other . Rilla felt that this , coupled with the fact that the Germans were only fifty miles from Paris , was hardly to be endured . But she started off gallantly on an errand fraught with amazing results . Late in the afternoon she found herself , with a buggy full of parcels , at the entrance to a grassy , deep-rutted lane leading to the harbour shore , wondering whether it was worth while to call down at the Anderson house . The Andersons were desperately poor and it was not likely Mrs. Anderson had anything to give . On the other hand , her husband , who was an Englishman by birth and who had been working in Kingsport when the war broke out , had promptly sailed for England to enlist there , without , it may be said , coming home or sending much hard cash to represent him . So possibly Mrs. Anderson might feel hurt if she were overlooked . Rilla decided to call . There were times afterwards when she wished she had n't , but in the long run she was very thankful that she did .
The Anderson house was a small and tumbledown affair , crouching in a grove XXXXX battered spruces near the shore as if rather ashamed of itself and anxious to hide .
about by from if of off on though whether with