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 the pretty, caressing gestures that came so natural to her.

“Then you’ll be glad to hear that Mr. Major Spencer has decided to set out a row of white birches all along the road front of his farm, by way of encouraging the A. V. I. S.,” said Gilbert. “He was talking to me about it to-day. Major Spencer is the most progressive and public-spirited man in Avonlea. And Mr. William Bell is going to set out a spruce hedge along his road front and up his lane. Our Society is getting on splendidly, Anne. It is past the experimental stage and is an accepted fact. The older folks are beginning to take an interest in it and the White Sands people are talking of starting one too. Even Elisha Wright has come around since that day the Americans from the hotel had the picnic at the shore. They praised our roadsides so highly and said they were so much prettier than in any other part of the Island. And when, in due time, the other farmers follow Mr. Spencer’s good example and plant ornamental trees and hedges along their road fronts Avonlea will be the prettiest settlement in the province.”

“The Aids are talking of taking up the graveyard,” said Anne, “and I hope they will, because there will have to be a subscription for that, and it would be no use for the Society to try it after the hall affair. But the Aids would never have stirred in the matter if the Society hadn’t put it into their thoughts unofficially. Those trees we planted on the church Rh