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Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery, IX A Question of Color

IX A Question of Color

"That old nuisance of a Rachel Lynde was here again today, pestering me for a subscription towards buying a carpet for the vestry room," said Mr. Harrison wrathfully. "I detest that woman more than anybody I know. She can put a whole sermon, text, comment, and application, into six words, and throw it at you like a brick." Anne, who was perched on the edge of the veranda, enjoying the charm of a mild west wind blowing across a newly ploughed field on a gray November twilight and piping a quaint little melody among the twisted firs below the garden, turned her dreamy face over her shoulder.

"The trouble is, you and Mrs. Lynde don't understand one another," she explained. "That is always what is wrong when people don't like each other. I didn't like Mrs. Lynde at first either; but as soon as I came to understand her I learned to." "Mrs. Lynde may be an acquired taste with some folks; but I didn't keep on eating bananas because I was told I'd learn to like them if I did," growled Mr. Harrison. "And as for understanding her, I understand that she is a confirmed busybody and I told her so." "Oh, that must have hurt her feelings very much," said Anne reproachfully. "How could you say such a thing? I said some dreadful things to Mrs. Lynde long ago but it was when I had lost my temper. I couldn't say them DELIBERATELY." "It was the truth and I believe in telling the truth to everybody." "But you don't tell the whole truth," objected Anne. "You only tell the disagreeable part of the truth. Now, you've told me a dozen times that my hair was red, but you've never once told me that I had a nice nose." "I daresay you know it without any telling," chuckled Mr. Harrison. "I know I have red hair too . although it's MUCH darker than it used to be . so there's no need of telling me that either." "Well, well, I'll try and not mention it again since you're so sensitive. You must excuse me, Anne. I've got a habit of being outspoken and folks mustn't mind it." "But they can't help minding it. And I don't think it's any help that it's your habit. What would you think of a person who went about sticking pins and needles into people and saying, 'Excuse me, you mustn't mind it . it's just a habit I've got.' You'd think he was crazy, wouldn't you? And as for Mrs. Lynde being a busybody, perhaps she is. But did you tell her she had a very kind heart and always helped the poor, and never said a word when Timothy Cotton stole a crock of butter out of her dairy and told his wife he'd bought it from her? Mrs. Cotton cast it up to her the next time they met that it tasted of turnips and Mrs. Lynde just said she was sorry it had turned out so poorly." "I suppose she has some good qualities," conceded Mr. Harrison grudgingly. "Most folks have. I have some myself, though you might never suspect it. But anyhow I ain't going to give anything to that carpet. Folks are everlasting begging for money here, it seems to me. How's your project of painting the hall coming on?" "Splendidly. We had a meeting of the A.V.I.S. last Friday night and found that we had plenty of money subscribed to paint the hall and shingle the roof too. MOST people gave very liberally, Mr. Harrison." Anne was a sweet-souled lass, but she could instill some venom into innocent italics when occasion required.

"What color are you going to have it?" "We have decided on a very pretty green. The roof will be dark red, of course. Mr. Roger Pye is going to get the paint in town today." "Who's got the job?" "Mr. Joshua Pye of Carmody. He has nearly finished the shingling. We had to give him the contract, for every one of the Pyes . and there are four families, you know . said they wouldn't give a cent unless Joshua got it. They had subscribed twelve dollars between them and we thought that was too much to lose, although some people think we shouldn't have given in to the Pyes. Mrs. Lynde says they try to run everything." "The main question is will this Joshua do his work well. If he does I don't see that it matters whether his name is Pye or Pudding." "He has the reputation of being a good workman, though they say he's a very peculiar man. He hardly ever talks." "He's peculiar enough all right then," said Mr. Harrison drily. "Or at least, folks here will call him so. I never was much of a talker till I came to Avonlea and then I had to begin in self-defense or Mrs. Lynde would have said I was dumb and started a subscription to have me taught sign language. You're not going yet, Anne?" "I must. I have some sewing to do for Dora this evening. Besides, Davy is probably breaking Marilla's heart with some new mischief by this time. This morning the first thing he said was, 'Where does the dark go, Anne? I want to know.' I told him it went around to the other side of the world but after breakfast he declared it didn't . that it went down the well. Marilla says she caught him hanging over the well-box four times today, trying to reach down to the dark." "He's a limb," declared Mr. Harrison. "He came over here yesterday and pulled six feathers out of Ginger's tail before I could get in from the barn. The poor bird has been moping ever since. Those children must be a sight of trouble to you folks." "Everything that's worth having is some trouble," said Anne, secretly resolving to forgive Davy's next offence, whatever it might be, since he 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.

"It isn't true surely, Anne?" exclaimed Gilbert.

"It is true," answered Anne, looking like the muse of tragedy. "Mrs. Lynde called on her way from Carmody to tell me. Oh, it is simply dreadful! What is the use of trying to improve anything?" "What is dreadful?" asked Oliver Sloane, arriving at this moment with a bandbox he had brought from town for Marilla.

"Haven't you heard?" said Jane wrathfully. "Well, its simply this. Joshua Pye has gone and painted the hall blue instead of green. a deep, brilliant blue, the shade they use for painting carts and wheelbarrows. And Mrs. Lynde says it is the most hideous color for a building, especially when combined with a red roof, that she ever saw or imagined. You could simply have knocked me down with a feather when I heard it. It's heartbreaking, after all the trouble we've had." "How on earth could such a mistake have happened?" wailed Diana.

The blame of this unmerciful disaster was eventually narrowed down to the Pyes. The Improvers had decided to use Morton-Harris paints and the Morton-Harris paint cans were numbered according to a color card. A purchaser chose his shade on the card and ordered by the accompanying number. Number 147 was the shade of green desired and when Mr. Roger Pye sent word to the Improvers by his son, John Andrew, that he was going to town and would get their paint for them, the Improvers told John Andrew to tell his father to get 147. John Andrew always averred that he did so, but Mr. Roger Pye as stanchly declared that John Andrew told him 157; and there the matter stands to this day.

That night there was blank dismay in every Avonlea house where an Improver lived. The gloom at Green Gables was so intense that it quenched even Davy. Anne wept and would not be comforted.

"I must cry, even if I am almost seventeen, Marilla," she sobbed. "It is so mortifying. And it sounds the death knell of our society. We'll simply be laughed out of existence." In life, as in dreams, however, things often go by contraries. The Avonlea people did not laugh; they were too angry. Their money had gone to paint the hall and consequently they felt themselves bitterly aggrieved by the mistake. Public indignation centered on the Pyes. Roger Pye and John Andrew had bungled the matter between them; and as for Joshua Pye, he must be a born fool not to suspect there was something wrong when he opened the cans and saw the color of the paint. Joshua Pye, when thus animadverted upon, retorted that the Avonlea taste in colors was no business of his, whatever his private opinion might be; he had been hired to paint the hall, not to talk about it; and he meant to have his money for it.

The Improvers paid him his money in bitterness of spirit, after consulting Mr. Peter Sloane, who was a magistrate.

"You'll have to pay it," Peter told him. "You can't hold him responsible for the mistake, since he claims he was never told what the color was supposed to be but just given the cans and told to go ahead. But it's a burning shame and that hall certainly does look awful." The luckless Improvers expected that Avonlea would be more prejudiced than ever against them; but instead, public sympathy veered around in their favor. People thought the eager, enthusiastic little band who had worked so hard for their object had been badly used. Mrs. Lynde told them to keep on and show the Pyes that there really were people in the world who could do things without making a muddle of them. Mr. Major Spencer sent them word that he would clean out all the stumps along the road front of his farm and seed it down with grass at his own expense; and Mrs. Hiram Sloane called at the school one day and beckoned Anne mysteriously out into the porch to tell her that if the "Sassiety" wanted to make a geranium bed at the crossroads in the spring they needn't be afraid of her cow, for she would see that the marauding animal was kept within safe bounds. Even Mr. Harrison chuckled, if he chuckled at all, in private, and was all sympathy outwardly.

"Never mind, Anne. Most paints fade uglier every year but that blue is as ugly as it can be to begin with, so it's bound to fade prettier. And the roof is shingled and painted all right. Folks will be able to sit in the hall after this without being leaked on. You've accomplished so much anyhow." "But Avonlea's blue hall will be a byword in all the neighboring settlements from this time out," said Anne bitterly. And it must be confessed that it was.

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IX A Question of Color IX Une question de couleur IX Uma questão de cor

"That old nuisance of a Rachel Lynde was here again today, pestering me for a subscription towards buying a carpet for the vestry room," said Mr. Harrison wrathfully. "Cette vieille nuisance d'une Rachel Lynde était encore ici aujourd'hui, me harcelant pour un abonnement à l'achat d'un tapis pour la salle de la sacristie", a déclaré M. Harrison avec colère. "I detest that woman more than anybody I know. She can put a whole sermon, text, comment, and application, into six words, and throw it at you like a brick." Elle peut faire tenir tout un sermon, texte, commentaire et application, en six mots, et vous le lancer comme une brique". Anne, who was perched on the edge of the veranda, enjoying the charm of a mild west wind blowing across a newly ploughed field on a gray November twilight and piping a quaint little melody among the twisted firs below the garden, turned her dreamy face over her shoulder. Anne, qui était perchée sur le bord de la véranda, profitant du charme d'un doux vent d'ouest soufflant sur un champ fraîchement labouré par un crépuscule gris de novembre et pipant une petite mélodie pittoresque parmi les sapins tordus en contrebas du jardin, tourna son visage rêveur par-dessus son épaule.

"The trouble is, you and Mrs. Lynde don't understand one another," she explained. "That is always what is wrong when people don't like each other. "C'est toujours ce qui ne va pas lorsque les gens ne s'aiment pas. I didn't like Mrs. Lynde at first either; but as soon as I came to understand her I learned to." Au début, je n'aimais pas non plus Mme Lynde, mais dès que je l'ai comprise, j'ai appris à l'aimer". "Mrs. Lynde may be an acquired taste with some folks; but I didn't keep on eating bananas because I was told I'd learn to like them if I did," growled Mr. Harrison. "Mme Lynde est peut-être un goût acquis pour certaines personnes, mais je n'ai pas continué à manger des bananes parce qu'on m'a dit que j'apprendrais à les aimer si je le faisais", a grogné M. Harrison. "And as for understanding her, I understand that she is a confirmed busybody and I told her so." "Oh, that must have hurt her feelings very much," said Anne reproachfully. "How could you say such a thing? "Comment pouvez-vous dire une telle chose ? I said some dreadful things to Mrs. Lynde long ago but it was when I had lost my temper. I couldn't say them DELIBERATELY." "It was the truth and I believe in telling the truth to everybody." "But you don't tell the whole truth," objected Anne. "Mais vous ne dites pas toute la vérité", objecte Anne. "You only tell the disagreeable part of the truth. Now, you've told me a dozen times that my hair was red, but you've never once told me that I had a nice nose." Tu m'as dit une douzaine de fois que j'avais les cheveux roux, mais tu ne m'as jamais dit que j'avais un joli nez". "I daresay you know it without any telling," chuckled Mr. Harrison. "J'ose croire que vous le savez sans le savoir", s'esclaffe M. Harrison. "I know I have red hair too . although it's MUCH darker than it used to be . bien qu'il soit BEAUCOUP plus sombre qu'auparavant . so there's no need of telling me that either." "Well, well, I'll try and not mention it again since you're so sensitive. "Bon, bon, j'essaierai de ne pas en reparler puisque tu es si sensible. You must excuse me, Anne. I've got a habit of being outspoken and folks mustn't mind it." J'ai l'habitude d'être franche et les gens ne doivent pas s'en préoccuper." "But they can't help minding it. "Mais ils ne peuvent s'empêcher de s'en préoccuper. And I don't think it's any help that it's your habit. Et je ne pense pas que le fait que ce soit votre habitude vous aide. What would you think of a person who went about sticking pins and needles into people and saying, 'Excuse me, you mustn't mind it . Que penseriez-vous d'une personne qui planterait des épingles et des aiguilles dans les gens et leur dirait : "Excusez-moi, ça ne doit pas vous déranger ?". it's just a habit I've got.' c'est juste une habitude que j'ai prise". You'd think he was crazy, wouldn't you? Vous penseriez qu'il était fou, n'est-ce pas ? And as for Mrs. Lynde being a busybody, perhaps she is. But did you tell her she had a very kind heart and always helped the poor, and never said a word when Timothy Cotton stole a crock of butter out of her dairy and told his wife he'd bought it from her? Mais lui avez-vous dit qu'elle avait un cœur très bon et qu'elle aidait toujours les pauvres, et qu'elle n'a jamais dit un mot quand Timothy Cotton a volé un pot de beurre dans sa laiterie et a dit à sa femme qu'il le lui avait acheté ? Mrs. Cotton cast it up to her the next time they met that it tasted of turnips and Mrs. Lynde just said she was sorry it had turned out so poorly." Mme Cotton le lui a lancé la prochaine fois qu'ils se sont rencontrés que ça avait un goût de navets et Mme Lynde a juste dit qu'elle était désolée que ça se soit si mal passé." "I suppose she has some good qualities," conceded Mr. Harrison grudgingly. "Most folks have. I have some myself, though you might never suspect it. But anyhow I ain't going to give anything to that carpet. Folks are everlasting begging for money here, it seems to me. Il me semble que les gens ne cessent de demander de l'argent ici. How's your project of painting the hall coming on?" "Splendidly. We had a meeting of the A.V.I.S. last Friday night and found that we had plenty of money subscribed to paint the hall and shingle the roof too. MOST people gave very liberally, Mr. La plupart des gens ont donné très généreusement, Monsieur. Harrison." Anne was a sweet-souled lass, but she could instill some venom into innocent italics when occasion required. Anne était une jeune fille à l'âme douce, mais elle pouvait instiller un peu de venin dans d'innocentes italiques lorsque l'occasion l'exigeait.

"What color are you going to have it?" "We have decided on a very pretty green. The roof will be dark red, of course. Mr. Roger Pye is going to get the paint in town today." "Who's got the job?" "Mr. Joshua Pye of Carmody. He has nearly finished the shingling. Il a presque terminé la pose des bardeaux. We had to give him the contract, for every one of the Pyes . Nous avons dû lui donner le contrat, pour chacun des Pyes. and there are four families, you know . et il y a quatre familles, vous savez . said they wouldn't give a cent unless Joshua got it. ont dit qu'ils ne donneraient pas un centime à moins que Joshua ne l'obtienne. They had subscribed twelve dollars between them and we thought that was too much to lose, although some people think we shouldn't have given in to the Pyes. Ils avaient souscrit douze dollars à eux deux et nous pensions que c'était trop pour perdre, même si certains pensent que nous n'aurions pas dû céder aux Pyes. Mrs. Lynde says they try to run everything." Mme Lynde dit qu'ils essaient de tout diriger". "The main question is will this Joshua do his work well. If he does I don't see that it matters whether his name is Pye or Pudding." Si c'est le cas, je ne vois pas en quoi il est important qu'il s'appelle Pye ou Pudding". "He has the reputation of being a good workman, though they say he's a very peculiar man. "Il a la réputation d'être un bon ouvrier, bien qu'on dise que c'est un homme très particulier. He hardly ever talks." "He's peculiar enough all right then," said Mr. Harrison drily. "Or at least, folks here will call him so. "Ou du moins, les gens d'ici l'appelleront ainsi. I never was much of a talker till I came to Avonlea and then I had to begin in self-defense or Mrs. Lynde would have said I was dumb and started a subscription to have me taught sign language. Je n'ai jamais été très bavard jusqu'à mon arrivée à Avonlea, puis j'ai dû commencer par l'autodéfense, sinon Mme Lynde aurait dit que j'étais stupide et aurait souscrit un abonnement pour m'enseigner la langue des signes. You're not going yet, Anne?" Tu n'y vas pas encore, Anne ?" "I must. I have some sewing to do for Dora this evening. Besides, Davy is probably breaking Marilla's heart with some new mischief by this time. This morning the first thing he said was, 'Where does the dark go, Anne? Ce matin, la première chose qu'il a dite, c'est : "Où va l'obscurité, Anne ? I want to know.' I told him it went around to the other side of the world but after breakfast he declared it didn't . Je lui ai dit qu'il était allé à l'autre bout du monde, mais après le petit déjeuner, il a déclaré que ce n'était pas le cas. that it went down the well. qu'il est descendu dans le puits. Marilla says she caught him hanging over the well-box four times today, trying to reach down to the dark." Marilla dit qu'elle l'a surpris quatre fois aujourd'hui suspendu à la boîte du puits, essayant de descendre dans l'obscurité". "He's a limb," declared Mr. Harrison. "C'est un membre", a déclaré M. Harrison. "He came over here yesterday and pulled six feathers out of Ginger's tail before I could get in from the barn. "Il est venu ici hier et a arraché six plumes de la queue de Ginger avant que je puisse arriver de l'étable. The poor bird has been moping ever since. Depuis, le pauvre oiseau se morfond. Those children must be a sight of trouble to you folks." Ces enfants doivent vous causer bien des soucis". "Everything that's worth having is some trouble," said Anne, secretly resolving to forgive Davy's next offence, whatever it might be, since he 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. M. Roger Pye a apporté la peinture du hall à la maison ce soir-là et M. Joshua Pye, un homme bourru et taciturne, a commencé à peindre le lendemain. He was not disturbed in his task. Il n'a pas été dérangé dans sa tâche. 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. À la fin de l'automne, cette route était toujours boueuse et humide, et les personnes se rendant à Carmody empruntaient la route "supérieure", plus longue. 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. M. Joshua Pye a peint dans la solitude et l'indépendance qui étaient si chères à son cœur insociable.

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. Quand elle a contourné la courbe d'épinette, elle a vu.

The sight affected Mrs. Lynde oddly. La vue a étrangement affecté Mme Lynde. She dropped the reins, held up her hands, and said "Gracious Providence!" Elle lâche les rênes, lève les mains et dit : "Gracieuse 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. Gilbert Blythe, qui étudiait un livre à la maison, l'a appris au coucher du soleil par l'employé de son père et s'est précipité à bout de souffle à Green Gables, rejoint en chemin par 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. Ils ont trouvé Diana Barry, Jane Andrews et Anne Shirley, le désespoir personnifié, à la porte de la cour de Green Gables, sous les grands saules sans feuilles.

"It isn't true surely, Anne?" exclaimed Gilbert.

"It is true," answered Anne, looking like the muse of tragedy. "Mrs. Lynde called on her way from Carmody to tell me. Oh, it is simply dreadful! What is the use of trying to improve anything?" "What is dreadful?" asked Oliver Sloane, arriving at this moment with a bandbox he had brought from town for Marilla.

"Haven't you heard?" "Tu n'as pas entendu ?" said Jane wrathfully. "Well, its simply this. Joshua Pye has gone and painted the hall blue instead of green. Joshua Pye a peint le hall en bleu au lieu du vert. a deep, brilliant blue, the shade they use for painting carts and wheelbarrows. And Mrs. Lynde says it is the most hideous color for a building, especially when combined with a red roof, that she ever saw or imagined. Et Mme Lynde affirme que c'est la couleur la plus hideuse pour un bâtiment, surtout lorsqu'elle est associée à un toit rouge, qu'elle ait jamais vue ou imaginée. You could simply have knocked me down with a feather when I heard it. Vous auriez pu m'assommer avec une plume lorsque je l'ai entendue. It's heartbreaking, after all the trouble we've had." "How on earth could such a mistake have happened?" wailed Diana.

The blame of this unmerciful disaster was eventually narrowed down to the Pyes. La responsabilité de ce désastre sans pitié a finalement été attribuée aux Pyes. The Improvers had decided to use Morton-Harris paints and the Morton-Harris paint cans were numbered according to a color card. Les Improvers avaient décidé d'utiliser les peintures Morton-Harris et les pots de peinture Morton-Harris étaient numérotés selon une carte de couleurs. A purchaser chose his shade on the card and ordered by the accompanying number. L'acheteur choisissait sa teinte sur la carte et commandait par le numéro qui l'accompagnait. Number 147 was the shade of green desired and when Mr. Roger Pye sent word to the Improvers by his son, John Andrew, that he was going to town and would get their paint for them, the Improvers told John Andrew to tell his father to get 147. Le numéro 147 était la nuance de vert souhaitée et lorsque M. Roger Pye fit savoir aux Improvers par l'intermédiaire de son fils, John Andrew, qu'il se rendait en ville et qu'il irait leur chercher de la peinture, les Improvers dirent à John Andrew de dire à son père d'aller chercher le numéro 147. John Andrew always averred that he did so, but Mr. Roger Pye as stanchly declared that John Andrew told him 157; and there the matter stands to this day. John Andrew a toujours affirmé qu'il l'avait fait, mais M. Roger Pye a déclaré avec autant de fermeté que John Andrew lui avait dit 157, et l'affaire en est restée là jusqu'à ce jour.

That night there was blank dismay in every Avonlea house where an Improver lived. Cette nuit-là, chaque maison d'Avonlea où vivait un Improver était plongée dans la consternation la plus totale. The gloom at Green Gables was so intense that it quenched even Davy. La morosité à Green Gables était si intense qu'elle étouffait même Davy. Anne wept and would not be comforted. Anne pleurait et ne serait pas consolée.

"I must cry, even if I am almost seventeen, Marilla," she sobbed. "Je dois pleurer, même si j'ai presque dix-sept ans, Marilla", sanglote-t-elle. "It is so mortifying. And it sounds the death knell of our society. We'll simply be laughed out of existence." In life, as in dreams, however, things often go by contraries. Dans la vie, comme dans les rêves, les choses vont souvent à l'inverse. The Avonlea people did not laugh; they were too angry. Les habitants d'Avonlea ne rient pas, ils sont trop en colère. Their money had gone to paint the hall and consequently they felt themselves bitterly aggrieved by the mistake. Leur argent était allé pour peindre la salle et par conséquent ils se sont sentis amèrement lésés par l'erreur. Public indignation centered on the Pyes. L'indignation publique s'est centrée sur les Pyes. Roger Pye and John Andrew had bungled the matter between them; and as for Joshua Pye, he must be a born fool not to suspect there was something wrong when he opened the cans and saw the color of the paint. Roger Pye et John Andrew avaient bâclé l'affaire entre eux ; quant à Joshua Pye, il devait être un imbécile né pour ne pas se douter qu'il y avait un problème lorsqu'il a ouvert les boîtes et vu la couleur de la peinture. Joshua Pye, when thus animadverted upon, retorted that the Avonlea taste in colors was no business of his, whatever his private opinion might be; he had been hired to paint the hall, not to talk about it; and he meant to have his money for it. Joshua Pye, lorsqu'on l'animait ainsi, rétorquait que le goût d'Avonlea pour les couleurs ne le concernait pas, quelle que soit son opinion personnelle ; il avait été engagé pour peindre le hall, pas pour en parler ; et il entendait bien avoir son argent pour cela.

The Improvers paid him his money in bitterness of spirit, after consulting Mr. Peter Sloane, who was a magistrate.

"You'll have to pay it," Peter told him. "You can't hold him responsible for the mistake, since he claims he was never told what the color was supposed to be but just given the cans and told to go ahead. "Vous ne pouvez pas le tenir pour responsable de l'erreur, puisqu'il affirme qu'on ne lui a jamais dit quelle devait être la couleur, mais qu'on lui a simplement donné les boîtes et qu'on lui a dit d'aller de l'avant. But it's a burning shame and that hall certainly does look awful." The luckless Improvers expected that Avonlea would be more prejudiced than ever against them; but instead, public sympathy veered around in their favor. Les improvisateurs s'attendaient à ce qu'Avonlea ait plus de préjugés que jamais à leur égard, mais au lieu de cela, la sympathie du public s'est retournée en leur faveur. People thought the eager, enthusiastic little band who had worked so hard for their object had been badly used. Les gens pensaient que le petit groupe enthousiaste qui avait travaillé si dur pour son objet avait été mal utilisé. Mrs. Lynde told them to keep on and show the Pyes that there really were people in the world who could do things without making a muddle of them. Mme Lynde leur dit de continuer et de montrer aux Pyes qu'il y a vraiment des gens dans le monde qui peuvent faire les choses sans les embrouiller. Mr. Major Spencer sent them word that he would clean out all the stumps along the road front of his farm and seed it down with grass at his own expense; and Mrs. Hiram Sloane called at the school one day and beckoned Anne mysteriously out into the porch to tell her that if the "Sassiety" wanted to make a geranium bed at the crossroads in the spring they needn't be afraid of her cow, for she would see that the marauding animal was kept within safe bounds. M. Major Spencer leur fit savoir qu'il nettoierait toutes les souches le long de la route devant sa ferme et qu'il ensemencerait à ses frais ; et Mme Hiram Sloane passa un jour à l'école et fit mystérieusement signe à Anne de sortir sous le porche pour lui dire que si les "Sassiety" voulaient faire un parterre de géraniums au carrefour au printemps, ils n'avaient pas à avoir peur de sa vache, car elle veillerait à ce que l'animal maraudeur soit gardé dans des limites sûres. Even Mr. Harrison chuckled, if he chuckled at all, in private, and was all sympathy outwardly. Même M. Harrison gloussait, s'il gloussait tout court, en privé, et il était tout à fait sympathique à l'extérieur.

"Never mind, Anne. Most paints fade uglier every year but that blue is as ugly as it can be to begin with, so it's bound to fade prettier. La plupart des peintures s'enlaidissent d'année en année, mais ce bleu est aussi laid qu'il peut l'être au départ, il est donc voué à s'enlaidir. And the roof is shingled and painted all right. Le toit est recouvert de bardeaux et peint. Folks will be able to sit in the hall after this without being leaked on. Après cela, les gens pourront s'asseoir dans le hall sans être inquiétés. You've accomplished so much anyhow." "But Avonlea's blue hall will be a byword in all the neighboring settlements from this time out," said Anne bitterly. "Mais le hall bleu d'Avonlea sera désormais un mot d'ordre dans tous les villages voisins", dit Anne avec amertume. And it must be confessed that it was. Et il faut bien avouer que c'est le cas.