But nothing did . John Douglas came and took Janet driving , and walked home from prayer-meeting with her , as he had been doing for twenty years , and as he seemed likely to do for twenty years more . The summer waned . Anne taught her school and wrote letters and studied a little . Her walks to and from school were pleasant . She always went by way of the swamp ; it was a lovely place -- a boggy soil , green with the greenest of mossy hillocks ; a silvery brook meandered through it and spruces stood erectly , their boughs a-trail with gray-green mosses , their roots overgrown with all sorts of woodland lovelinesses . Nevertheless , Anne found life in Valley Road a little monotonous . To be sure , there was one diverting incident . She had not seen the lank , tow-headed Samuel of the peppermints since the evening of his call , save for chance meetings on the road . But one warm August night he appeared , and solemnly seated himself on the rustic bench by the porch . He wore his usual working habiliments , consisting of varipatched trousers , a blue jean shirt , out at the elbows , and a ragged straw hat . He was chewing a straw and he kept on chewing it while he looked solemnly at Anne . Anne laid her book aside with a sigh and took up her doily . Conversation with Sam was really out of the question . After a long silence Sam suddenly spoke . `` I 'm leaving over there , '' he said abruptly , waving his straw in the direction of the neighboring house . `` Oh , are you ? '' said Anne politely . `` Yep . '' `` And where are you going now ? ''
`` Wall , I 've been thinking some of gitting a XXXXX of my own .
boughs direction home incident letters life peppermints place trousers way