“Trees haven’t souls,” said practical Diana, “but the smell of dead fir is certainly lovely.  I’m going to make a cushion and fill it with fir needles.  You’d better make one too, Anne.”

“I think I shall . . . and use it for my naps.  I’d be certain to dream I was a dryad or a woodnymph then.  But just this minute I’m well content to be Anne Shirley, Avonlea schoolma’am, driving over a road like this on such a sweet, friendly day.”

“It’s a lovely day but we have anything but a lovely task before us,” sighed Diana.  “Why on earth did you offer to canvass this road, Anne?  Almost all the cranks in Avonlea live along it, and we’ll probably be treated as if we were begging for ourselves.  It’s the very worst road of all.”

“That is why I chose it.  Of course Gilbert and Fred would have taken this road if we had asked them.  But you see, Diana, I feel myself responsible for the A.V.I.S., since I was the first to suggest it, and it seems to me that I ought to do the most disagreeable things.  I’m sorry on your account; but you needn’t say a word at the cranky places.  I’ll do all the talking . . .  Mrs. Lynde would say I was well able to.  Mrs. Lynde doesn’t know whether to approve of our enterprise or not.  She inclines to, when she remembers that Mr. and Mrs. Allan are in favor of it; but the fact that village improvement societies first originated in the States is a count against it.  So she is halting between two opinions and only success will justify us in Mrs. Lynde’s eyes.  Priscilla is going to write a paper for our next Improvement meeting, and I expect it will be good, for her aunt is such a clever writer and no doubt it runs in the family.  I shall never forget the thrill it gave me when I found out that Mrs. Charlotte E. Morgan was Priscilla’s aunt.  It seemed so wonderful that I was a friend of the girl whose aunt wrote ’Edgewood Days’ and ‘The Rosebud Garden.’”

“Where does Mrs. Morgan live?”

“In Toronto.  And Priscilla says she is coming to the Island for a visit next summer, and if it is possible Priscilla is going to arrange to have us meet her.  That seems almost too good to be true—­but it’s something pleasant to imagine after you go to bed.”

The Avonlea Village Improvement Society was an organized fact.  Gilbert Blythe was president, Fred Wright vice-president, Anne Shirley secretary, and Diana Barry treasurer.  The “Improvers,” as they were promptly christened, were to meet once a fortnight at the homes of the members.  It was admitted that they could not expect to affect many improvements so late in the season; but they meant to plan the next summer’s campaign, collect and discuss ideas, write and read papers, and, as Anne said, educate the public sentiment generally.