Hey there, kindred spirits! It's that time of week again when we visit the Blythes and other friends in the Glen. I'll miss them, and that you may tie to!
Summary
Rilla recalls it's been two years since the momentous dance at the lighthouse. Aunt Sophia declares the war will last another five years. Susan says if joins, it will be shortened. talked to German POWs who knew they had lost.
Little Jim Kitchener’s dad wrote back to Rilla. Her letter was lost, but Mr Meredith wrote to him about Rilla. She was hoping he'd forget about him after two years. Rilla reminisces about the dance but has the sobering thought that there's no fun to be had in She has grown up in those two years.
The stress wears on Anne, who is advised to rest. Rilla awoke one morning with a bad feeling. She hears a dog howling. It is Dog Monday. After five days, they receive the terrible news that Walter was killed in action. Rilla faints. Anne lay in bed from grief. Rilla has to keep busy else she'll fall apart. His commanding officer sent a letter saying his death was instant at
Walter sent one last letter to Rilla. He had written it before he went He mentioned the vision of the Piper he first saw when he was young. The same Piper was marching through no-man's-land. He was not afraid because he proved his bravery by enlisting and going through with it. Rilla showed it to Una who had been sweet on him. Rilla let Una keep it even though it was his last one.
People like Irene think the Blythes are too blithe about mourning. Mary Mead defends them. Germany kept winning in Romania. becomes Prime Minister of England. Susan believes she would make a better advisor to the American president than anyone else.
In December the Blythe elders visit Diana in Avonlea. Her son Jack was wounded. A large snowstorm stranded them there for a week. Jims gets sick. Rilla let herself cry in bed for three days. Meanwhile, Jims’s got worse. He was dying. Mary Vance knocks on the door covered in snow. She learned a cure for sulphur spooned over hot coals. Jims is held over the fumes until he coughs up the membrane in his throat. She saved his life. (Much like Anne when Minnie May Barry got croup in book one.) Rilla didn't hate Mary as much after that.
Susan makes fudge for Shirley despite the rationing. It's 1917, and the happens. Shirley just turned eighteen and thinks it's time he enlist in the Air Force. He presents himself in uniform to Susan. She tells Anne she feels very old. All their boys were in the war, and one died already.
Jerry Meredith was wounded in the back at The Canadians won that battle at a high cost. Faith went overseas as a Bruce Meredith brings the first to Anne because Shirley wasn't there. A plane flies over the village. They think of Shirley who was already gone
Mr Pryor drove away an automobile driver with a pitchfork. Gilbert predicts his grandson will fly a plane with his sweetheart. It won't be as romantic and low stakes as a horse and carriage.
Mary Vance’s beau Miller Douglas needed his leg amputated after the She will help with the harvest and wear scandalous overalls. Rilla works in Carter Flagg’s store while Jack works in the fields. Even Susan helps with the harvest. She only shortened her skirt though. Mr Pryor sees her working and thinks she would make a good wife and housekeeper for him. (Must be the glimpse of her ankles and calves.)
Anne comes home to see Mr Pryor running away from a wrathful Susan holding a boiling pot. He had proposed marriage and thought she would be grateful and desperate enough to accept. But couldn't she have refused in a less dramatic and public way? The cat bit him, too. Of course, Hyde bites everybody.
Rilla writes in her diary that fall. put Venice in the crosshairs. The villagers promote Victory Loans. Rilla convinces Mr Pryor to take a thousand dollar bond (worth $20,143 CAD today). At a meeting, none of the men signed up, so Susan was compelled to make a fiery speech which compelled them to sign up for a record amount of bonds.
Dr Blythe's automobile came. Elizabeth Carr (see the irony of her name?) on her horse wouldn't let them pass.
Canada took Lenin was dictator of Russia. Canada has Women who have family in the war can vote. The big issue is conscription. (All Canadian women got the vote in 1918.)
Rilla has worn the hated green velvet hat a fourth winter. Jims gets croup but not as bad as before. When Susan turns him out of her favorite chair, he asks if he could sit in it when she dies. He calls stars “little moons.” The British capture
Susan spied on the phone's for news of the election. The Union government won, so conscription is legal. So is rationing which makes Susan fume. How can she make a proper cake now?
Jen is promoted to Lieutenant. Rilla admits to herself in the mirror that the only ambition she has is to be Ken Ford's wife. Dog Monday is still waiting at the station. Anne wishes to fall asleep for three months until the German offensive is over. Susan had opened up her Bible to about victory and knew the Germans would not win.
They attend church, and when they come home, there's terrible news: the Germans are shelling Jims asks if God is dead because they are acting distraught and grieving. Dr Blythe returns with better news: the Germans are fifty miles from Paris and used a (Good thing Rilla goes by her middle name because the gun’s nickname is Big Bertha.) Only one part of the line broke. The Germans keep chipping away at the defenses.
They receive news that Jem is wounded and missing. Rilla despairs, but Susan tells her that Dog Monday didn't howl four days ago, so he is okay. Daylight Savings Time is enacted. Susan rebels and feeds her chickens and prays by the old time. was discovered. The war doesn't matter on Mars. wrote a book during the that praised the young Kaiser. If he could see the Kaiser now, he'd be shocked.
There's no news of Jem. Miss Oliver had a dream that the tide turned. The Americans and French turned the Germans back at again. Susan raised the flag and saluted it.
Rilla and Jim's ride the train to Charlottetown to see a friend and shop. James Anderson was wounded and will come home soon. She hopes he won't move far away. Jims leaned over too far and fell off the side steps of the train! Rilla jumped off the train as it just started to move. Both are all right, but Rilla is the one who cries. They're stranded in the middle of nowhere Millward.
They walk two miles to her friend's house, Rilla carrying Jims half of the way. Her friend Hannah Brewster isn't home, so Rilla breaks in through an unlocked kitchen window before it rains. They eat and go to bed. In the morning, she wakes up to three strangers staring at her in shock and consternation. You're not the Brewsters! The Brewsters moved last fall. They're the Chapleys. (Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.) The older woman in black can't stop laughing.
Well then, Rilla and Jims will pay and leave. Mrs Matilda Pitman will hear of no such thing! She bosses the couple around. Amelia is her stepdaughter. Jims says she's pretty and kisses her. He's the only one who wasn't scared of her. She has an idea about him and her will. She makes them eat breakfast and won't take any compensation for their hospitality. Robert drives her to the station.
Rilla writes in her diary on the fourth anniversary of the lighthouse dance. She is nineteen. She overheard her mom say that she has matured and is like a friend.
Carl Meredith lost an eye but only needs one to watch bugs. He will come home soon. Rilla and Anne watch a film called Rilla got so involved that she stood up and yelled, “The knife is in your stocking!” The woman on screen stabbed the German soldier right after she said it. How embarrassing!
Bruce Meredith drowned his kitten as a sacrifice so God could bring Jem back. Rilla was moved. (Me not so much. Poor kitten. We're not in the Old Testament.) Rilla answers the phone one night, and it's the telegraph company with a message: Jem escaped and is in Holland. Anne knew it was about her son even before Rilla told her. She calls the doctor.
A letter from Jem arrives a few weeks later. He was wounded in the thigh and feverish when the Germans captured him. He attempted to escape once before, but the second time was successful. He will be treated at a British hospital.
Jim Anderson married an English girl and will be home soon. Mrs Matilda Pittman dies, and a lawyer contacts Rilla. She left Jims $5,000 in trust ($89,000 in CAD today), and the interest is to be used for his education.
They celebrate on October 6th when The war will soon be over. Jim Anderson and his wife come home. She is kind, and they will live just outside the village. Rilla will get to see Jims whenever she wants.
finally comes, and Rilla kicks her hated green hat around her room. Bruce Meredith on stilts scared Mr Hyde the cat away for good. (He probably heard through the cat grapevine about what happened to Stripey and high tailed it out of there.) Mr Pryor had a stroke and was paralyzed. Susan thinks it's karmic justice. She will go on a honeymoon by herself to visit his brother and his wife in Charlottetown.
The boys return home in 1919. Mary Vance is to marry Miller Douglas. One spring day, a soldier steps off the train, and Dog Monday is excited to greet him. Jem came home! The dog follows him everywhere, even into church. Jem didn't know Walter died until he got home. His grief is still fresh. They will rebuild their lives and the world.
Ken Ford had been back in Canada for two weeks. He must have forgotten about Rilla. One day there was a knock at the Blythes’ door. Rilla answered it. A soldier stood there with a scar on his cheek. It was Ken, and he asked if it was really his love, Rilla-my-Rilla? “Yeth,” said Rilla. (That pesky lisp again!)
Here's the if you need it. Questions are in the comments.
Til we meet again in another discussion, Bookshelf. 📚
