Jem is studying in the garret . '' `` They are all crazy about Rainbow Valley . Mary Vance thinks it 's the only place in the world . She 'd be off up here every evening if I 'd let her . But I do n't encourage her in gadding . Besides , I miss the creature when she is n't around , Anne dearie . I never thought I 'd get so fond of her . Not but what I see her faults and try to correct them . But she has never said one saucy word to me since she came to my house and she is a GREAT help -- for when all is said and done , Anne dearie , I am not so young as I once was , and there is no sense denying it . I was fifty-nine my last birthday . I do n't FEEL it , but there is no gainsaying the Family Bible . '' CHAPTER XXVII . A SACRED CONCERT In spite of Miss Cornelia 's new point of view she could not help feeling a little disturbed over the next performance of the manse children . In public she carried off the situation splendidly , saying to all the gossips the substance of what Anne had said in daffodil time , and saying it so pointedly and forcibly that her hearers found themselves feeling rather foolish and began to think that , after all , they were making too much of a childish prank . But in private Miss Cornelia allowed herself the relief of bemoaning it to Anne . `` Anne dearie , they had a CONCERT IN THE GRAVEYARD last Thursday evening , while the Methodist prayer meeting was going on . There they sat , on Hezekiah Pollock 's tombstone , and sang for a solid hour . Of course , I understand it was mostly hymns they sang , and it would n't have been quite so bad if they 'd done nothing else . But I 'm told they finished up with Polly Wolly Doodle at full length -- and that just when Deacon Baxter was praying . '' `` I was there that night , '' said Susan , '' and , although I did not say anything about it to you , Mrs. Dr. dear , I could not help thinking that it was a great pity they picked that particular evening .
It was truly blood-curdling to hear them sitting there in XXXXX abode of the dead , shouting that frivolous song at the tops of their lungs . ''
Besides IN although as if on since that to while