nd
transfiguring it. Her light had not yet reached the harbor, the
further side of which was shadowy and suggestive, with dim coves and
rich glooms and jewelling lights.

"How the home lights shine out tonight through the dark!" said Anne.
"That string of them over the harbor looks like a necklace. And what a
coruscation there is up at the Glen! Oh, look, Gilbert; there is ours.
I'm so glad we left it burning. I hate to come home to a dark house.
OUR homelight, Gilbert! Isn't it lovely to see?"

"Just one of earth's many millions of homes, Anne--girl--but
ours--OURS--our beacon in 'a naughty world.' When a fellow has a home
and a dear, little, red-haired wife in it what more need he ask of
life?"

"Well, he might ask ONE thing more," whispered Anne happily. "Oh,
Gilbert, it seems as if I just COULDN'T wait for the spring."

CHAPTER 15

CHRISTMAS AT FOUR WINDS

At first Anne and Gilbert talked of going home to Avonlea for
Christmas; but eventually they decided to stay in Four Winds. "I want
to spend the first Christmas of our life together in our own home,"
decreed Anne.

So it fell out that Marilla and Mrs. Rachel Lynde and the twins came to
Four Winds for Christmas. Marilla had the face of a woman who had
circumnavigated the globe. She had never been sixty miles away from
home before; and she had never eaten a Christmas dinner anywhere save
at Green Gables.

Mrs. Rachel had made and brought with her an enormous plum pudding.
Nothing could have convinced Mrs. Rachel that a college graduate of the
younger generation could make a Christmas plum pudding properly; but
she bestowed approval on Anne's house.

"Anne's a good housekeeper," she said to Marilla in the spare room the
night of their arrival. "I've looked into her bread box and her scrap
pail. I always judge a housekeeper by those, that's what. There's
nothing in the pail that shouldn't have been thrown away, and no stale
pieces in the bread box. Of course, she was trained up with you--but,
then, she went to college afterwards. I notice she's got my tobacco
stripe quilt on the bed here, and that big round braided mat of yours
before her living-room fire. It makes me feel right at home."

Anne's first Christmas in her own house was as delightful as she could
have wished. The day was fine and bright; the first skim of snow had
fallen on Christmas Eve and made the world beautiful; the harbor was
still open and glittering.

Captain J