had avenged her on Ginger.

Mr. Roger Pye brought the hall paint home that night and Mr. Joshua Pye,
a surly, taciturn man, began painting the next day. He was not disturbed
in his task. The hall was situated on what was called "the lower road."
In late autumn this road was always muddy and wet, and people going to
Carmody traveled by the longer "upper" road. The hall was so closely
surrounded by fir woods that it was invisible unless you were near it.
Mr. Joshua Pye painted away in the solitude and independence that were
so dear to his unsociable heart.

Friday afternoon he finished his job and went home to Carmody. Soon
after his departure Mrs. Rachel Lynde drove by, having braved the mud of
the lower road out of curiosity to see what the hall looked like in its
new coat of paint. When she rounded the spruce curve she saw.

The sight affected Mrs. Lynde oddly. She dropped the reins, held up her
hands, and said "Gracious Providence!" She stared as if she could not
believe her eyes. Then she laughed almost hysterically.

"There must be some mistake . . . there must. I knew those Pyes would make
a mess of things."

Mrs. Lynde drove home, meeting several people on the road and stopping
to tell them about the hall. The news flew like wildfire. Gilbert
Blythe, poring over a text book at home, heard it from his father's
hired boy at sunset, and rushed breathlessly to Green Gables, joined on
the way by Fred Wright. They found Diana Barry, Jane Andrews, and Anne
Shirley, despair personified, at the yard gate of Green Gables, under
the big leafless willows.