?" she continued.

"He was much pleased," said Anne brightly. "He says there is a great
improvement in them and he thinks the danger of her losing her sight
completely is past. But he says she'll never be able to read much or
do any fine hand-work again. How are your preparations for your bazaar
coming on?"

The Ladies' Aid Society was preparing for a fair and supper, and Mrs.
Lynde was the head and front of the enterprise.

"Pretty well . . . and that reminds me. Mrs. Allan thinks it would be nice
to fix up a booth like an old-time kitchen and serve a supper of baked
beans, doughnuts, pie, and so on. We're collecting old-fashioned fixings
everywhere. Mrs. Simon Fletcher is going to lend us her mother's braided
rugs and Mrs. Levi Boulter some old chairs and Aunt Mary Shaw will lend
us her cupboard with the glass doors. I suppose Marilla will let us have
her brass candlesticks? And we want all the old dishes we can get. Mrs.
Allan is specially set on having a real blue willow ware platter if we
can find one. But nobody seems to have one. Do you know where we could
get one?"

"Miss Josephine Barry has one. I'll write and ask her if she'll lend it
for the occasion," said Anne.

"Well, I wish you would. I guess we'll have the supper in about a
fortnight's time. Uncle Abe Andrews is prophesying rain and storms for
about that time; and that's a pretty sure sign we'll have fine weather."

The said "Uncle Abe," it may be mentioned, was at least like other
prophets in that he had small honor in his own country. He was, in
fact, considered in the light of a standing joke, for few of his weather
predictions were ever fulfilled. Mr. Elisha Wright, who labored under
the impression that he was a local wit, used to say that nobody in
Avonlea ever thought of looking in the Charlottetown dailies for weather
probabilities. No; they just asked Uncle Abe what it was going to be
tomorrow and expected the opposite. Nothing daunted, Uncle Abe kept on
prophesying.

"We want to have the fair over before the election comes off," continued
Mrs. Lynde, "for the candidates will be sure to come and spend lots of
money. The Tories are bribing right and left, so they might as well be
given a chance to spend their money honestly for once."

Anne was a red-hot Conservative, out of loyalty to Matthew's memory,
but she said nothing. She knew better than to get Mrs. Lynde started
on politics. She had a letter for Marilla, postmarked from a town in