Chapter 1 Summary

Mrs. Rachel Lynde, a small town busybody and self-appointed guardian of personal decorum, sits at her kitchen window, perfectly perched to take note of all of the peninsular Avonlea's comings and goings. And so, on this very sunny June afternoon when Matthew Cuthbert was not sowing his turnip seed as expected, but instead driving his buggy and sorrel mare up the hill away from Avonlea in his very best clothes, Mrs. Lynde took due notice. Perplexed and confounded by Matthew Cuthbert's actions (for he never goes out of town, and certainly not in his best suit), Mrs. Rachel Lynde must know the "wherefores and where-hows." Venturing over to Green Gables, Mrs. Lynde was set to inquire. On learning the astonishing news that the aging brother and sister, neither of whom had ever married or reared a child, were to adopt an orphan boy...