Excerpted from Anne of Green Gables
by Lucy Maude Montgomery
“When I lived with Mrs. Thomas she had a bookcase in her sitting room with glass doors. [...] One of the doors was broken. Mr. Thomas smashed it one night when he was slightly intoxicated. But the other was whole and I used to pretend that my reflection in it was another little girl who lived in it. I called her Katie Maurice, and we were very intimate.
I used to talk to her by the hour, especially on Sunday, and tell her everything. Katie was the comfort and consolation of my life. We used to pretend that the bookcase was enchanted and that if I only knew the spell I could open the door and step right into the room where Katie Maurice lived. And then Katie Maurice would have taken me by the hand and led me out into a wonderful place, all flowers and sunshine and fairies, and we would have lived there happy forever after.
When I went to live with Mrs. Hammond it just broke my heart to leave Katie Maurice. She felt it dreadfully too, I know she did, for she was crying when she kissed me good-bye through the bookcase door.
Oh my.
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow Anne of Green Gables fan, this is just wonderful, it captures the poignance and loneliness of Anne's early life so well, and the era too.
Your blog content has been wonderful lately! Hope things are going well for you!