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

own, that's certain. Maybe they were out of boys of the brand you wanted."
He walked jauntily away, being hungry, and the unfortunate Matthew
was left to do that which was harder for him than bearding a lion in its
den-walk up to a girl-a strange girl-an orphan girl-and demand of her why
she wasn't a boy. Matthew groaned in spirit as he turned about and
shuffled gently down the platform towards her.
She had been watching him ever since he had passed her and she had
her eyes on him now. Matthew was not looking at her and would not have
seen what she was really like if he had been, but an ordinary observer
would have seen this:
A child of about eleven, garbed in a very short, very tight, very
ugly dress of yellowish gray wincey. She wore a faded brown sailor hat and
beneath the hat, extending down her back, were two braids of very thick,
decidedly red hair. Her face was small, white and thin, also much
freckled; her mouth was large and so were her eyes, that looked green in
some lights and moods and gray in others.
So far, the ordinary observer; an extraordinary observer might have
seen that the chin was very pointed and pronounced; that the big eyes were
full of spirit and vivacity; that the mouth was sweet-lipped and
expressive; that the forehead was broad and full; in short, our discerning
extraordinary observer might have concluded that no commonplace soul
inhabited the body of this stray womanchild of whom shy Matthew Cuthbert
was so ludicrously afraid.
Matthew, however, was spared the ordeal of speaking first, for as
soon as she concluded that he was coming to her she stood up, grasping
with one thin brown hand the handle of a shabby, old-fashioned carpet-bag;
the other she held out to him.
"I suppose you are Mr. Matthew Cuthbert of Green Gables?" she said in
a peculiarly clear, sweet voice. "I'm very glad to see you. I was
beginning to be afraid you weren't coming for me and I was imagining all
the things that might have happened to prevent you. I had made up my mind
that if you didn't come for me to-night I'd go down the track to that big
wild cherry-tree at the bend, and climb up into it to stay all night. I
wouldn't be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to sleep in a wild
cherry-tree all white with bloom in the moonshine, don't you think? You
could imagine you were dwelling in marble halls, couldn't you? And I was
quite sure you would come for me in the morning, if you didn't to-night."
Matthew had taken the scrawny little hand awkwardly in his; then and
there he decided what to do. He could not tell this child with the glowing
eyes that there had been a mistake; he would take her home and let Marilla
do that. She couldn't be left at Bright River anyhow, no matter what
mistake had been made, so all questions and explanations might as well be
deferred until he was safely back at Green Gables.
"I'm sorry I was late," he said shyly. "Come along. The horse is over
in the yard. Give me your bag."
"Oh, I can carry it," the child responded cheerfully. "It isn't
heavy. I've got all my worldly goods in it, but it isn't heavy. And if it
isn't carried in just a certain way the handle pulls out-so I'd better
keep it because I know the exact knack of it. It's an extremely old
carpet-bag. Oh, I'm very glad you've come, even if it would have been nice