A Cake for Mrs. Allan

The long summer vacation began at the end of June. Mr. Phillips left the Avonlea school. The old minister left the church, too, and a new minister came. His name was Mr. Allan. He brought his pretty young wife with him.

«I’ll ask Mr. and Mrs. Allan to tea on Wednesday,» said Marilla. «Oh, Marilla,» said Anne excitedly. «Can I make a cake?»

«All right, Anne,» said Marilla.

On Wednesday morning, Anne got up early and made her cake. It looked very good. In the afternoon, Anne put flowers around the table. Then Mr. and Mrs. Allan arrived.

«The table looks beautiful,» they said.

Anne felt very happy. She sat at the table with Matthew and Marilla. Matthew wore his best clothes.

«Would you like some cake, Mrs. Allan?» asked Anne. «I made it for you.»

«Yes, please,» said Mrs. Allan, and she smiled.

Anne cut some cake for Mrs. Allan. Mrs. Allan put the cake in her mouth and started to eat it. But she didn’t look very happy.

«Is something wrong?» thought Marilla. She tried some cake, too. «Anne Shirley!» she cried. «What did you put in this?»

«Only-only vanilla,» answered Anne. She went to the kitchen and brought back a small bottle. On the front of the bottle, it said «Best Vanilla.»

Marilla opened the bottle. «This isn’t vanilla,» she said. «It’s medicine. Last week I broke the medicine bottle. I put the medicine into this old vanilla bottle.»

«Medicine!» said Anne. «Oh!»

She ran upstairs to her room. She cried and cried.

A little later, Anne heard somebody on the stairs, but she didn’t look up. «Oh, Marilla,» she said, «I’m very unhappy. Everybody in Avonlea will hear about my cake. They’ll laugh at me. I can’t go downstairs. I can’t look at Mrs. Allan again. I’m very sorry, Marilla. Please tell Mrs. Allan.»

«You tell her, Anne,» said Mrs. Allan.

Anne looked up. «Mrs. Allan!» she said in surprise.

«Yes, it’s me,» said Mrs. Allan, and laughed. «Don’t cry, Anne. The medicine in the cake was a very funny mistake.»

«I’m sorry, Mrs. Allan,» said Anne. «I wanted to make a nice cake for you.»

«I know,» said Mrs. Allan. «Now please come down and show me your flowers. I’m very interested in flowers.»

Anne felt happy again. She went downstairs with Mrs. Allan and nobody said anything about the cake.

***

A week later, Anne ran into the kitchen at Green Gables. She was very excited. She had a letter in her hand.

«Mrs. Allan is inviting me to tea tomorrow afternoon,» she said. «Look at this letter, Marilla. It says, ‘Miss Anne Shirley, Green Gables.’ Nobody called me ‘Miss’ before.»

The next afternoon, Anne went to tea with Mrs. Allan.

«I had a wonderful time with Mrs. Allan,» she told Marilla later. «She’s very kind. And she wore a beautiful dress. We talked for a long time. I told her about Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Hammond, and the orphanage. I told her about Green Gables and the school, too.»

«Mrs. Allan told me something interesting. A new teacher is coming to Avonlea after the vacation. Her name is Miss Muriel Stacy. Isn’t that a pretty name? I want to meet her very much.»