"Montgomery, Lucy Maud - Anne Of Green Gables" - читать интересную книгу автора (Montgomery Lucy Maud)

"I don't deny there's something in what you say, Rachel. I've had
some qualms myself. But Matthew was terrible set on it. I could see that,
so I gave in. It's so seldom Matthew sets his mind on anything that when
he does I always feel it's my duty to give in. And as for the risk,
there's risks in pretty near everything a body does in this world. There's
risks in people's having children of their own if it comes to that-they
don't always turn out well. And then Nova Scotia is right close to the
Island. It isn't as if we were getting him from England or the States. He
can't be much different from ourselves."
"Well, I hope it will turn out all right," said Mrs. Rachel in a tone
that plainly indicated her painful doubts. "Only don't say I didn't warn
you if he burns Green Gables down or puts strychnine in the well-I heard
of a case over in New Brunswick where an orphan asylum child did that and
the whole family died in fearful agonies. Only, it was a girl in that
instance."
"Well, we're not getting a girl," said Marilla, as if poisoning wells
were a purely feminine accomplishment and not to be dreaded in the case of
a boy. "I'd never dream of taking a girl to bring up. I wonder at Mrs.
Alexander Spencer for doing it. But there, SHE wouldn't shrink from
adopting a whole orphan asylum if she took it into her head."
Mrs. Rachel would have liked to stay until Matthew came home with his
imported orphan. But reflecting that it would be a good two hours at least
before his arrival she concluded to go up the road to Robert Bell's and
tell them the news. It would certainly make a sensation second to none,
and Mrs. Rachel dearly loved to make a sensation. So she took herself
away, somewhat to Marilla's relief, for the latter felt her doubts and
fears reviving under the influence of Mrs. Rachel's pessimism.
"Well, of all things that ever were or will be!" ejaculated Mrs.
Rachel when she was safely out in the lane. "It does really seem as if I
must be dreaming. Well, I'm sorry for that poor young one and no mistake.
Matthew and Marilla don't know anything about children and they'll expect
him to be wiser and steadier that his own grandfather, if so be's he ever
had a grandfather, which is doubtful. It seems uncanny to think of a child
at Green Gables somehow; there's never been one there, for Matthew and
Marilla were grown up when the new house was built-if they ever WERE
children, which is hard to believe when one looks at them. I wouldn't be
in that orphan's shoes for anything. My, but I pity him, that's what."
So said Mrs. Rachel to the wild rose bushes out of the fulness of her
heart; but if she could have seen the child who was waiting patiently at
the Bright River station at that very moment her pity would have been
still deeper and more profound.



2. Matthew Cuthbert is surprised

Matthew Cuthbert and the sorrel mare jogged comfortably over the
eight miles to Bright River. It was a pretty road, running along between
snug farmsteads, with now and again a bit of balsamy fir wood to drive
through or a hollow where wild plums hung out their filmy bloom. The air