More L. M. Montgomery

P. and I have been reading through Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery at bedtime.  We are enjoying it, but I have to say I don't find it as endearing asAnne of Green Gables.  I like the heroine well enough, but the adults in this book seem flatter, less well-developed, and many of them are just not very nice.  All that said, every so often I come across a passage in Mrs. Montgomery's books that I love and feel the need to share with all of you.  Such as:

"His [Mr. Carpenter's] methods of teaching were so different from Miss Brownell's that the Blair Water pupils at first felt as if he had stood them on their heads.  Miss Brownell had been a martinet for order.  Mr. Carpenter never tried to keep order apparently.  But somehow he kept the children so busy that they had no time to do mischief.  He taught history tempestuously for a month, making his pupils play the different characters and enact the incidents.  He never bothered any one to learn dates -- but the dates stuck in the memory just the same.  If, as Mary Queen of Scots, you were beheaded by the school axe, kneeling blindfolded at the doorstep, with Perry Miller, wearing a mask made out of a piece of Aunt Laura's old black silk, for executioner, wondering what would happen if he brought the axe down too hard, you did not forget the year it all happened; and if you fought the battle of Waterloo all over the school playground, and heard Teddy Kent shouting, "Up, Guards and at 'em!" as he led the last furious charge you remembered 1815 without half trying to.

Next month history would be thrust aside altogether and geography would take its place, when school and playground were mapped out into countries and you dressed up as the animals inhabiting them or traded various commodities over their rivers and cities."

Comments

Sarah said…
I really love L.M. Montgomery. I haven't read any of her works since I was a kid--this makes me want to curl up and get reacquainted.
Shonya said…
LOVE this quote! Thanks so much for the reminder and encouragement.
Beautiful Day said…
As a teacher, that is a really inspiring piece. Love it! xx

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