The Avonlea Improvement Society met at Green Gables that evening.
The members had important business to discuss.
The society was flourishing and had already accomplished wonders.
Local farmers had painted their fences and cleaned up the roadsides.
No one objected when the society planted a new garden of geraniums at the crossroads, where two main roads met.
The meeting was about to start when Gertie Pye arrived. Gertie was often late.
Some people said she did it on purpose—to make her entrance more dramatic.
Gertie stood in the middle of the room and exclaimed, "I've just heard something awful.
Mr. Parker is going to rent all of his fences to a medicine company for advertising!"
"It can't be true," said Anne blankly.
"That's just what I said," said Gertie, enjoying the attention.
"His farm is on the main road.
It'll be awful to see advertisements for pills all along his fence!"
Everybody talked at once, saying how ugly the main road of Avonlea would look with the advertisements.
"Stay calm," implored Anne, "and let's try to think of some way to stop him."
"How can we stop him?" asked Jane bitterly.
"Everybody knows Sam Parker would do anything for money. He doesn't care about the community."
The situation did not look promising. After much discussion Anne agreed to talk to Mr. Parker.
Anne met with Mr. Parker the next day, but Mr. Parker refused to change his mind.
"However," he said smiling, "I'll tell the painters to use only pretty colors when they paint the advertisements. They mustn't use blue!"
Mr. Parker was, of course, referring to the incident of the blue town hall.
Anne knew when she was being made fun of, and she said good-bye.
The next day two men, Mr. Parker and Jerry Walker, were sitting in their buggies at the side of the road.
Canada was on the eve of a general election, and Mr. Walker was busy campaigning for his party's candidate.
Anne was walking quietly to the graveyard, as she did every Saturday, to lay flowers on Matthew Cuthbert's grave.
Anne had loved Marilla's kind brother, Matthew, and she missed him every day.
As Anne came around the corner, she heard Mr. Walker say, "If you'll vote for him, I'll give you one-hundred dollars."
"Well," said Mr. Parker with a grin, "all right."
At this moment, both men saw Anne, and their conversation abruptly ceased.
Anne looked at them frostily and walked on.
Mr. Parker rode up on his buggy and inquired, "Would you like a lift, Anne?"
"No, thank you," said Anne politely.
Mr. Parker usually didn't care what people thought of him, but this situation was different.
He didn't want people to know he had accepted a bribe.
"Excuse me," he said, hesitating. "Anne, I've decided not to rent my fences for advertisements.
And I . . . um . . . hope you won't mention that little conversation with Mr. Walker to anyone."
"No, I won't," said Anne icily.
Anne didn't gossip and would never discuss a private conversation she had overheard.
But Mr. Parker thought she was making a deal, and so he never did rent his fences for advertisements.
Quite by luck the Improvement Society's problem was solved.
As Anne walked on, she spotted a small boy sitting at the crossroads.
The boy had big eyes and a sensitive face.
It was Paul Irving—one of Anne's favorite students.
Paul stood up and smiled. "I waited for you, Teacher, because I knew you were going to the graveyard." He put his hand in hers.
In his other hand, he carried a bunch of fresh white roses.
"I'm going there, too, to put these roses on my mother's grave.
You see, Teacher, today is exactly three years since my mother died.
It's such a long, long time, but when I think about her it still hurts just as much . . ."
Paul's voice quivered and his lip trembled.
"Sometimes I can't bear it, it hurts so."
"And yet," said Anne, very softly, "you wouldn't want it to stop hurting, would you?
You wouldn't want to forget your mother even if you could."
"No, I wouldn't. That's just the way I feel," Paul said. "You're so good at understanding, Teacher."
When they reached the cemetery, Paul said, "Father understood pretty well, but still I couldn't talk to him about Mother much.
It made him feel so sad." He gently laid the roses down on his mother's grave.
"Poor Father, he must be dreadfully lonely without me."
Anne thought sadly of her own mother and father, who had both died so long ago, when Anne was just a baby.
Anne could not remember her mother or father, and for this reason she almost envied Paul.
She put flowers on Matthew's grave and walked home with Paul in the soft evening light.