Читать книгу Энн из Зеленых Крыш. Уровень 1 / Anne of Green Gables - Люси Мод Монтгомери, Kate Harper - Страница 2

Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where[1] the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow. She sat at her kitchen window one afternoon in June. The sun was warm and bright.

At half-past three, Matthew Cuthbert placidly drove over the hollow and up the hill. He wore a white collar and his best suit. Where did he go and why did he go there? Mrs. Rachel was very curious about that. Matthew rarely left home. He was very shy and hated to be among people.

"I'll go to Green Gables after tea and ask Marilla,” the woman finally concluded. "Something must have happened last night!”

After tea Mrs. Rachel set out[2]. The big, rambling house – Green Gables – where the Cuthberts lived was not far, it was built at the furthest edge of the other Avonlea houses.

Mrs. Rachel stepped out of the lane into the backyard of Green Gables. She rapped smartly at the kitchen door and stepped in.

Mrs. Rachel closed the door and noticed everything that was on that table. There were three plates, so Marilla expected someone.

"Good evening, Rachel,” Marilla said briskly. "This is a fine evening, isn't it? Won't you sit down?”

Marilla was a tall, thin woman. She looked like a woman of rigid conscience.

"I was afraid,” said Mrs. Rachel, "when I saw Matthew. I thought maybe he went to the doctor's.”

Marilla's lips twitched understandingly.

"Oh, no,” she said. "Matthew went to Bright River. We want to get a little boy from an orphan asylum[3] in Nova Scotia. He'll come on the train tonight.”

Mrs. Rachel was actually shocked.

"Are you serious, Marilla?” she demanded.

"Yes, of course,” said Marilla.

Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert adopt a boy! From an orphan asylum!

"But why? But how…” she demanded disapprovingly.

"Well, we thought about it,” answered Marilla. "Mrs. Spencer was up here one day before Christmas. She said she wanted to get a little girl from the asylum over in Hopeton in the spring. Her cousin lives there. So we thought about a boy. Matthew is not young, you know – he's sixty. He isn't so spry as he once was. His heart troubles him. So we decided to ask Mrs. Spencer to pick us out a good boy when she went over to get her little girl. We want to get a smart boy of about ten or eleven. We had a telegram from Mrs. Spencer today – the mailman brought it from the station. So Matthew went to Bright River to meet him.”

"Well, Marilla, I'll just tell you that I think. You will do a very foolish thing – a risky thing. You don't know what you get. You want to bring a strange child into your house! It was only last week I read in the newspaper how a man and his wife took a boy out of an orphan asylum and he set fire to the house[4] at night!”

Marilla knitted.

"I don't deny there's something in what you say, Rachel. But Matthew wanted to get a boy.”

Mrs. Rachel decided to go up the road to Robert Bell's and tell him the news. So she went away, to Marilla's relief.