Picture Dictionary & Books : Free for English Learner!

"So this is what Matthew has been looking so mysterious over and grinning about to himself for two weeks, is it?" she said a little stiffly but tolerantly.

"I knew he was up to some foolishness.

Well, I must say I don't think Anne needed any more dresses.

I made her three good, warm, serviceable ones this fall, and anything more is sheer extravagance.

There's enough material in those sleeves alone to make a waist, I declare there is.

You'll just pamper Anne's vanity, Matthew, and she's as vain as a peacock now.

Well, I hope she'll be satisfied at last, for I know she's been hankering after those silly sleeves ever since they came in, although she never said a word after the first.

The puffs have been getting bigger and more ridiculous right along; they're as big as balloons now.

Next year anybody who wears them will have to go through a door sideways."

Christmas morning broke on a beautiful white world.

It had been a very mild December and people had looked forward to a green Christmas; but just enough snow fell softly in the night to transfigure Avonlea.

Anne peeped out from her frosted gable window with delighted eyes.

The firs in the Haunted Wood were all feathery and wonderful; the birches and wild cherry trees were outlined in pearl; the plowed fields were stretches of snowy dimples; and there was a crisp tang in the air that was glorious.

Anne ran downstairs singing until her voice reechoed through Green Gables.

"Merry Christmas, Marilla! Merry Christmas, Matthew! Isn't it a lovely Christmas? I'm so glad it's white.

Any other kind of Christmas doesn't seem real, does it? I don't like green Christmases.

They're not green-they're just nasty faded browns and grays.

What makes people call them green? Why-why-Matthew, is that for me? Oh, Matthew!"

Matthew had sheepishly unfolded the dress from its paper swathings and held it out with a deprecatory glance at Marilla, who feigned to be contemptuously filling the teapot, but nevertheless watched the scene out of the corner of her eye with a rather interested air.

Anne took the dress and looked at it in reverent silence.

Oh, how pretty it was-a lovely soft brown gloria with all the gloss of silk; a skirt with dainty frills and shirrings; a waist elaborately pintucked in the most fashionable way, with a little ruffle of filmy lace at the neck.

But the sleeves-they were the crowning glory! Long elbow cuffs, and above them two beautiful puffs divided by rows of shirring and bows of brown-silk ribbon.

"That's a Christmas present for you, Anne," said Matthew shyly. "Why-why-Anne, don't you like it? Well now-well now."

For Anne's eyes had suddenly filled with tears.

"Like it! Oh, Matthew!" Anne laid the dress over a chair and clasped her hands. "Matthew, it's perfectly exquisite. Oh, I can never thank you enough. Look at those sleeves! Oh, it seems to me this must be a happy dream."

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