Special Sub-Topic: "Anne of Green Gables"- Avonlea Gossip Click Here To Play: "Anne of Green Gables"- Avonlea Gossip

In chapter six, Marilla meets a woman named Mrs Blewett, whom she considers briefly giving Anne over to. She had heard rumours in Avonlea that Mrs Blewett was... what?

a terrible worker and driver. "She knew Mrs Blewett only by sight... but she had heard of her... "a terrible worker and driver" Mrs Blewett was said to be..." Marilla considers taking Anne back to the orphanage she came from, but Mrs Spencer, who had got Anne for her in Nova Scotia, suggests giving her to Mrs Blewett to raise Mrs Blewett's children instead. When Mrs Blewett arrives and Mrs Spencer blurts out the good news to her, Marilla makes up her mind. She couldn't give such a sensitive child like Anne, who had led such a miserable life, over to such a woman!

Anne caused a great deal of gossip in Avonlea when she went to church alone for the first time. What did she do that was so sensational?

Went to church with wild flowers wreathed around her hat. Anne caused a real sensation that day in defying the propriety of the day, though she didn't know any better and just thought the flowers would look pretty. Mrs Rachel Lynde told Marilla, and Marilla was horrified.

Who did Anne report as nearly having fallen overboard from a dory at the Avonlea Sunday School picnic?

Jane Andrews. In the movie it's Josie, but in the book, Jane Andrews is reaching out to pick water lilies and overbalances. Luckily her father was rowing the boat and reached out to grab her by the sash of her dress in the nick of time!

Which schoolgirl is clearly having a blatant love-affair with Mr Phillips, the Avonlea Schoolmaster?

Prissy Andrews. Yes, the master is "dead gone" on Prissy. Scandalous!

Who charmed all her warts away with a magic stone that a French girl gave her?

Ruby Gillis. Or so Diana tells Anne. Following an "incident" with the schoolmaster, Anne refuses to go to school, so Diana must fill Anne in on all the schoolyard gossip!

Whose grandmother saw her husband driving the cows home one night- a year after he'd been buried?

Charlie Sloane. Yes, it was the venerable old Mrs Sloane who saw her husband's phantom, and she's a very religious woman who wouldn't tell a lie for anything.

Why does Mrs Lynde think the minister's wife at Newbridge sets a bad example?

she dresses so fashionably. In those days, a minister's wife was meant to be a sober, temperate, placid little being who didn't pay much, if any, attention to making herself look pretty. Mrs Lynde is scandalised that the minister's wife in Newbridge always wears the most fashionable of clothes. Apparently, it sets a bad example!

Mr Marshall, a candidate for the Avonlea pulpit, wasn't married or even engaged. Why did Mrs Lynde think that was a bad idea?

He might marry into the congregation, and that would make trouble. As Anne says, Mrs Lynde is a far-seeing woman!

Most of Avonlea's gossip comes from the kindly but meddling Mrs Lynde. What does Mrs Lynde think of Mr. Harmon Andrews, Jane's father?

He's a perfect old crank, and meaner than second skimmings. Harmon Andrews plays a very small part in this book and those to follow, but there is little evidence shown of what Mrs. Lynde says.

When Gilbert heard that Marilla's eyes were bad and Anne wanted to stay near home while teaching, he gave her the Avonlea school, which had already been promised to him. Which school did he take instead?

White Sands. Such an action on Gilbert's part ended the Blythe-Shirley feud for all time. Hurrah!