glowing above her raincoat. The good-byes had to be said then somehow.
Mrs. Lynde came in from her quarters to give Anne a hearty embrace and
warn her to be careful of her health, whatever she did. Marilla, brusque
and tearless, pecked Anne's cheek and said she supposed they'd hear from
her when she got settled. A casual observer might have concluded that
Anne's going mattered very little to her--unless said observer had
happened to get a good look in her eyes. Dora kissed Anne primly and
squeezed out two decorous little tears; but Davy, who had been crying on
the back porch step ever since they rose from the table, refused to say
good-bye at all. When he saw Anne coming towards him he sprang to his
feet, bolted up the back stairs, and hid in a clothes closet, out of
which he would not come. His muffled howls were the last sounds Anne
heard as she left Green Gables.

It rained heavily all the way to Bright River, to which station they had
to go, since the branch line train from Carmody did not connect with the
boat train. Charlie and Gilbert were on the station platform when they
reached it, and the train was whistling. Anne had just time to get her
ticket and trunk check, say a hurried farewell to Diana, and hasten on
board. She wished she were going back with Diana to Avonlea; she knew
she was going to die of homesickness. And oh, if only that dismal rain
would stop pouring down as if the whole world were weeping over summer
vanished and joys departed! Even Gilbert's presence brought her no
comfort, for Charlie Sloane was there, too, and Sloanishness could be
tolerated only in fine weather. It was absolutely insufferable in rain.

But when the boat steamed out of Charlottetown harbor things took a turn
for the better. The rain ceased and the sun began to burst out goldenly
now and again between the rents in the clouds, burnishing the gray seas
with copper-hued radiance, and lighting up the mists that curtained the
Island's red shores with gleams of gold foretokening a fine day after
all. Besides, Charlie Sloane promptly became so seasick that he had to
go below, and Anne and Gilbert were left alone on deck.

"I am very glad that all the Sloanes get seasick as soon as they go on
water," thought Anne mercilessly. "I am sure I couldn't take my farewell
look at the 'ould sod' with Charlie standing there pretending to look
sentimentally at it, too."

"Well, we're off," remarked Gilbert unsentimentally.

"Yes, I feel