Anne of Green Gables Chapter 4 Summary

Morning at Green Gables

  • Anne wakes up and takes in the sights from her window: a large cherry tree, a garden, a clover-filled field, a brook, barns, fields, and a glimpse of the sea. No wonder she wants to stay.
  • She's also in a better mood. As Marilla comes in to wake her and they have breakfast, she tells Marilla that she's glad there's a brook at Green Gables, and "Isn't it a splendid thing that there are mornings?" (4.15).
  • She's still sad, she says, but she eats breakfast and talks endlessly.
  • Marilla tells her to stop talking, but Anne's weird, spacey silence makes her even more nervous. Later Marilla tells Anne to go outside but Anne refuses, because leaving will be harder the more she falls in love with the place.
  • Marilla thinks about how Matthew wants to keep Anne and feels herself falling under Anne's spell too, wondering what Anne will say next.
  • Marilla and Anne set out for Mrs. Spencer's to figure out what happened and what to do with Anne. In his quiet way, Matthew makes it clear, when they leave, that he still wants Anne to stay.