I always judge a housekeeper by those , that 's what . There 's nothing in the pail that should n't have been thrown away , and no stale pieces in the bread box . Of course , she was trained up with you -- but , then , she went to college afterwards . I notice she 's got my tobacco stripe quilt on the bed here , and that big round braided mat of yours before her living-room fire . It makes me feel right at home . '' Anne 's first Christmas in her own house was as delightful as she could have wished . The day was fine and bright ; the first skim of snow had fallen on Christmas Eve and made the world beautiful ; the harbor was still open and glittering . Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia came to dinner . Leslie and Dick had been invited , but Leslie made excuse ; they always went to her Uncle Isaac West 's for Christmas , she said . `` She 'd rather have it so , '' Miss Cornelia told Anne . `` She ca n't bear taking Dick where there are strangers . Christmas is always a hard time for Leslie . She and her father used to make a lot of it . '' Miss Cornelia and Mrs. Rachel did not take a very violent fancy to each other . `` Two suns hold not their courses in one sphere . '' But they did not clash at all , for Mrs. Rachel was in the kitchen helping Anne and Marilla with the dinner , and it fell to Gilbert to entertain Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia , -- or rather to be entertained by them , for a dialogue between those two old friends and antagonists was assuredly never dull . `` It 's many a year since there was a Christmas dinner here , Mistress Blythe , '' said Captain Jim . `` Miss Russell always went to her friends in town for Christmas . But I was here to the first Christmas dinner that was ever eaten in this house -- and the schoolmaster 's bride cooked it . That was sixty years ago today , Mistress Blythe -- and a day very like this -- just enough snow to make the hills white , and the harbor as blue as June .
I was only a lad , and I 'd never been invited out to XXXXX before , and I was too shy to eat enough .
Miss antagonists bed dinner father housekeeper kitchen pieces strangers stripe