سال دوم - فصل 09

9 “Tower Room,

“Windy Poplars,

“April 20th.

“POOR DEAR GILBERT:

“‘I said of laughter, it is mad, and of mirth, what doeth it?’ I’m afraid I’ll turn gray young . . . I’m afraid I’ll end up in the poorhouse . . . I’m afraid none of my pupils will pass their finals . . . Mr. Hamilton’s dog barked at me Saturday night and I’m afraid I’ll have hydrophobia . . . I’m afraid my umbrella will turn inside out when I keep a tryst with Katherine tonight . . . I’m afraid Katherine likes me so much now that she can’t always like me as much . . . I’m afraid my hair isn’t auburn after all . . . I’m afraid I’ll have a mole on the end of my nose when I’m fifty . . . I’m afraid my school is a fire-trap . . . I’m afraid I’ll find a mouse in my bed tonight . . . I’m afraid you got engaged to me just because I was always around . . . I’m afraid I’ll soon be picking at the counterpane.

“No, dearest, I’m not crazy . . . not yet. It’s only that Cousin Ernestine Bugle is catching.

“I know now why Rebecca Dew has always called her ‘Miss Much-afraid.’ The poor soul has borrowed so much trouble, she must be hopelessly in debt to fate.

“There are so many Bugles in the world . . . not many quite so far gone in Buglism as Cousin Ernestine, perhaps, but so many kill-joys, afraid to enjoy today because of what tomorrow will bring.

“Gilbert darling, don’t let’s ever be afraid of things. It’s such dreadful slavery.

Let’s be daring and adventurous and expectant. Let’s dance to meet life and all it can bring to us, even if it brings scads of trouble and typhoid and twins!

“Today has been a day dropped out of June into April. The snow is all gone and the fawn meadows and golden hills just sing of spring. I know I heard Pan piping in the little green hollow in my maple bush and my Storm King was bannered with the airiest of purple hazes. We’ve had a great deal of rain lately and I’ve loved sitting in my tower in the still, wet hours of the spring twilights. But tonight is a gusty, hurrying night . . . even the clouds racing over the sky are in a155 hurry and the moonlight that gushes out between them is in a hurry to flood the world.

“Suppose, Gilbert, we were walking hand in hand down one of the long roads in Avonlea tonight!

“Gilbert, I’m afraid I’m scandalously in love with you. You don’t think it’s irreverent, do you? But then, you’re not a minister.”