Chapter 7 The Community Hall Disaster.
The Avonlea Village Improvement Society did not get off to a good start.
Their first project was to paint the community hall.
The committee, after much discussion, chose the color green, a very pretty green, as Anne put it.
Mr. Joshua Pye was hired to paint the hall.
Mr. Roger Pye, one of his cousins, drove to Carmody to buy the paint.
He delivered it to Joshua on a Thursday.
By the time Mrs. Rachel Lynde rode past the hall on the Friday, Joshua was already done.
Mrs. Lynde did not stop to admire Joshua's fine work, though.
Instead, she rushed over to Green Gables.
Marilla, Mrs. Lind called.
You'll never believe it.
Goodness me, Marilla said and walked out the kitchen door.
What has you so excited?
That Joshua Pye has painted the hall blue, Mrs. Lind said.
A bright blue.
It wasn't long before the Village Improvement Society heard the news.
They all gathered at Green Gable's front gate.
It can't be true, Gilbert said.
We put so much thought into it.
How did we end up with a blue hall instead of the green we picked?
It's dreadful, isn't it?
Anne moaned.
It seems that Roger Pye bought the paint color number 157, Diana said, when we asked for number 147.
We should have gone to comedy ourselves, Fred Wright said.
Joshua didn't know it was supposed to be green, although I must say he doesn't seem too upset about it.
We simply can't afford to paint it again.
We'll have to live with the bright blue.
But, oh, the roof is so red.
This is all the society's fault.
Everyone will laugh at our mistake.
Anne sobbed while her friends tried to comfort her.
At first, the people of Avonlea did not think it was funny.
They were furious that their donation money had been spent on such an awful color.
Eventually, however, they realized how hard Anne and her friends had worked.
It was an honest mistake that the hall was blue.
Some people even began to put an extra effort into helping the society with their projects.
Major Spencer called to say that he would pull all the stumps from his yard and Mrs Spencer said that she would help to plant flowers along the roadway.
But Mr. Harrison offered the best advice of all.
"'No need to worry, Anne,' he said.
'Everyone knows that as paint fades, it gets uglier every year, but that hall is already the ugliest thing I've seen.
It has to improve with age.'
Mr. Harrison was right.
People soon forgot all about the hall, and life in Avonlea returned to normal.
Marilla, meanwhile, was kept very busy.
Aside from the twins, her house and her own troubling eyesight, she was called on more and more to help at the Lynn's
Mr Lynde was still not well and it was hard for Rachel to get all of her work done and care for her husband, so Marilla helped with the chores whenever she could.
Rachel promised that she would not need Marilla for long.
Marilla, however, suspected that Mr. Lynde's illness might be more serious than Rachel thought.
All of this meant more work for Anne, but she did not mind.
She was happy with her work as a teacher and was no longer nervous around her students.
She was happy to help out at home, too.
She loved having the twins at Green Gables.
Despite the accidents and new adventures, they made it a bright and active place.
It was not uncommon to see Anne walking with a spring in her step.
In fact, she often talked to herself as she walked.
She said hello to the trees.
She complimented the leaves on their beautiful colors.
When the birds whistled, she whistled back.
One day Diana caught Anne talking to herself.
Anne Shirley, she said with a laugh.
You only pretended being a grown-up.
You're still a little girl talking to yourself.
Diana, Anne replied.
I was a little girl for so many years.
I've only been a grown-up for a very little time.
It takes some getting used to.
