om amid
hearty cheers. "Oh, Anne I'm so proud! Isn't it splendid?"

And then the girls were around them and Anne was the center of a
laughing, congratulating group. Her shoulders were thumped and her hands
shaken vigorously. She was pushed and pulled and hugged and among it all
she managed to whisper to Jane:

"Oh, won't Matthew and Marilla be pleased! I must write the news home
right away."

Commencement was the next important happening. The exercises were held
in the big assembly hall of the Academy. Addresses were given, essays
read, songs sung, the public award of diplomas, prizes and medals made.

Matthew and Marilla were there, with eyes and ears for only one student
on the platform--a tall girl in pale green, with faintly flushed
cheeks and starry eyes, who read the best essay and was pointed out and
whispered about as the Avery winner.

"Reckon you're glad we kept her, Marilla?" whispered Matthew, speaking
for the first time since he had entered the hall, when Anne had finished
her essay.

"It's not the first time I've been glad," retorted Marilla. "You do like
to rub things in, Matthew Cuthbert."

Miss Barry, who was sitting behind them, leaned forward and poked
Marilla in the back with her parasol.

"Aren't you proud of that Anne-girl? I am," she said.

Anne went home to Avonlea with Matthew and Marilla that evening. She had
not been home since April and she felt that she could not wait another
day. The apple blossoms were out and the world was fresh and young.
Diana was at Green Gables to meet her. In her own white room, where
Marilla had set a flowering house rose on the window sill, Anne looked
about her and drew a long breath of happiness.

"Oh, Diana, it's so good to be back again. It's so good to see those
pointed firs coming out against the pink sky--and that white orchard and
the old Snow Queen. Isn't the breath of the mint delicious? And that tea
rose--why, it's a song and a hope and a prayer all in one. And it's GOOD
to see you again, Diana!"

"I thought you liked that Stella Maynard better than me," said
Diana reproachfully. "Josie Pye told me you did. Josie said you were
INFATUATED with her."

Anne laughed and pelted Diana with the faded "June lilies" of her
bouquet.

"Stella Maynard is the dearest girl in the world except one and you are
that one, Diana," she said. "I love you more than ever--and I've so many
things to tell you. But just now I feel as if it were joy enough to sit