After Many Years Read online

  Praise For: After Many Years

  A ghost story, lessons in kindness and love, and truly comic first-person narrations: they are all here in a delightful mixture of short stories published long ago by L. M. Montgomery but not since republished. We find her writing in different voices and for different audiences—and the collection has the bonus for scholars and fans of having the stories in chronological order by publication. Imagine Emily’s Disappointed House showing up in a new and charming setting, and subplots from Magic for Marigold tickling audiences as early as 1918. For Montgomery fans, for those sampling her writing, and for those studying her narrative strategies, [this book is] not to be missed!

  —Elizabeth Rollins Epperly, Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute (LMMI) Founder, Professor Emerita, UPEI

  L. M. Montgomery’s short stories show the same insight, wit, and charm as her novels. This collection of newly discovered examples of her skill, presented by Montgomery experts Carolyn Collins and Christy Woster, includes a fine preface and notes relating each story to Montgomery’s development as a writer between 1900 and 1939. Here are stories to delight “Anne fans” and to bring new readers into the worldwide circle of Montgomery’s admirers.

  —Elizabeth Waterston, Professor Emerita, University of Guelph

  It’s always a joy to find new writings by L. M. Montgomery, and these stories do not disappoint. They are set in earlier eras, but her understanding of human nature keeps them fresh. Spanning the years from 1900 to 1939, they show Canadian life moving from agrarian pre-war Prince Edward Island to postwar Ontario, reflecting the changing cultural attitudes and lifestyles. Because Montgomery builds so many of her stories out of her own emotions—her deepest fears, most painful longings, and greatest joys—they provide another level of interest for those who try to decode her creative process.

  —Mary Henley Rubio, author of Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings and co-editor, with Elizabeth Waterston, of Montgomery’s “selected” journals

  When a reader has finished all of L. M. Montgomery’s books, there is a hunger for more. Montgomery’s short stories are literary hors d’oeuvres for that desire. Stories bring a different experience to the reader, often a simple moment in time, yet they also invite us to recognize the seeds of personalities, places, and lessons that grow into fullness in the author’s novels. There is always something new to discover about Montgomery’s work, and this publication shows, happily, that there is more to be revealed.

  —Mary Beth Cavert, independent L. M. Montgomery scholar, publisher of The Shining Scroll

  Copyright

  Copyright 2017 L. M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission from the publisher, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, permission from Access Copyright, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1E5.

  Nimbus Publishing Limited

  3731 Mackintosh St, Halifax, NS B3K 5A5

  (902) 455-4286 nimbus.ca

  NB1309

  Printed and bound in Canada

  Design: Heather Bryan

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud), 1874-1942

  [Short stories. Selections]

  After many years : twenty-one “long-lost” stories by L.M. Montgomery / edited by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christy Woster.

  ISBN 978-1-77108-499-4 (softcover)

  I. Collins, Carolyn, editor II. Woster, Christy, editor III. Title.

  PS8526.O55A6 2017 C813’.52 C2016-908061-7

  Nimbus Publishing acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities from the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and from the Province of Nova Scotia. We are pleased to work in partnership with the Province of Nova Scotia to develop and promote our creative industries for the benefit of all Nova Scotians.

  The L. M. Montgomery Institute (lmmontgomery.ca) promotes research into, and informed celebration of, the life, works, culture, and influence of the Prince Edward Island-born acclaimed Canadian writer, L. M. Montgomery.

  L. M. Montgomery is a trademark of Heirs of L. M. Montgomery Inc.

  Dedication

  Dedicated to the memory of Christy Schreck Woster who died April 29, 2016

  Preface

  In addition to writing Anne of Green Gables and other novels, L. M. Montgomery also wrote over five hundred stories and five hundred poems which were published in her lifetime (1874–1942). She pasted many of those stories and poems into twelve scrapbooks. In the 1970s, Rea Wilmshurst noticed those scrapbooks while visiting Montgomery’s birthplace in New London, Prince Edward Island, and quickly began to search for bibliographic information on the stories and poems she found in them. Soon she discovered that Montgomery had made a handwritten record of most of her publications in her “ledger list,” now part of the University of Guelph Archives. Using these resources, Wilmshurst found many references for Montgomery’s stories and poems, eventually publishing them as a part of Lucy Maud Montgomery: A Preliminary Bibliography, published in 1986 by the University of Waterloo. (Ruth Weber Russell and D. W. Russell compiled the portion of the bibliography on Montgomery’s novels and Wilmshurst produced the portion of the bibliography on Montgomery’s stories, poems, and miscellaneous pieces.)

  Some years ago, using the 1986 Preliminary Bibliography as a guide, several independent researchers interested in the works of L. M. Montgomery began to find additional references for the stories and poems in Wilmshurst’s list as well as references to titles she had not been able to locate before her list was published. (These titles are listed in the “Unverified Ledger Titles” in her bibliography.) In the process, several stories were found that were not listed at all in the Wilmshurst bibliography. Twenty-one of those stories are presented here for the first time since their original publications.

  Seven of the stories found by a “team” of Montgomery bibliographic researchers (even though they often did not know each other’s discoveries or sources) were published before Montgomery’s first and best-known novel, Anne of Green Gables, was published in 1908. Like many of Montgomery’s earliest stories, most of these were published in the Western Christian Advocate, which she termed “a Sunday School paper,” and featured school-aged children as the main characters.

  “The Chivers Light” (1924) was first published in 1900 as “The Glenn’s Light.” Jack Haslit, aged fourteen, is left in charge of the lighthouse while his father, the lighthouse keeper, has to go away overnight. A sudden storm comes up and Jack, having left the island for a few hours, is unable to get back in time to light the lamp, endangering the lives of sailors depending on it to guide them into the harbour.

  “Elvie’s Necklace” (1906) concerns a young girl who has lost a treasured gold necklace and blames the hired boy for its disappearance, ruining his reputation in the community. “What Happened at Brixley’s” (1906) is the story of a group of boys being threatened by another rougher group of boys and how they managed to end the bullying by their wits and tricks. In “Janie’s Bouquet” (1907), a young girl wants to find a way to show her friend who is in the hospital how much she misses her. The very poor Jean Watson in “Jean’s Birthday Party” (1907) is ashamed that her family cannot host her birthday party for her school friends as promised. A lost and neglected kitten shows up at little Maggie Taylor’s house but since Maggie’s mother does not like cats, Maggie has to find another home for it in “Maggie’s Kitten” (190
7).

  “The Old Homestead” (1907), one of the stories that was not in the 1986 bibliography, was found by two researchers who shared their discoveries for this present collection. The story was first published in The Kentuckian (and other newspapers) and is the story of a couple who feel it is time to sell their family farm and make their home in the city.

  About the time Anne of Green Gables was published, “The Pineapple Apron” (1908) and “How Bobby Got to the Picnic” (1909) appeared in the Western Christian Advocate. “The Pineapple Apron” shows us how girls in school vied with each other to create new patterns for knitted and crocheted lace and how friendships were affected by the rivalry that sometimes ensued. (Readers of Anne of Green Gables may remember that “Sophia Sloane offered to teach her a perfectly elegant pattern for knit lace” in Chapter XVII.) The story of “How Bobby Got to the Picnic” (1909) is similar to the story of the Sunday School picnic in Anne of Green Gables but features a poor schoolboy as the main character. “Peter of the Lane” (1909) recounts the blossoming friendship between an elderly and very dignified Judge Raymond and a precocious seven-year-old Peter who has just moved to the neighbourhood.

  “For the Good of Anthony” (1910) was published in the Sunday Magazine supplement of many newspapers. By that time, Montgomery had published two more novels—Anne of Avonlea and Kilmeny of the Orchard—and clearly was beginning to write for adult audiences, publishing in more sophisticated periodicals. This story was a romance that was being threatened by a misunderstanding but was saved by a very determined young lady who meant to see her sister and Anthony Allen reunited.

  “Our Neighbours at the Tansy Patch” (1918) is the rather comical story of very different sorts of neighbours: one set is decidedly traditional and the other set is completely non-traditional with a vicious-tongued Granny as the head of the eccentric family.

  A year later, “The Matchmaker” (1919) was published, featuring a busybody woman who decided to use “reverse psychology” to bring a couple together by commenting at every opportunity on why they should not get together. Montgomery used this story twenty years later in Anne of Ingleside with Anne as the so-called “matchmaker.”

  “The Bloom of May” (1921) is an unusual story with a beautifully blossoming apple tree as its main “character.” The apple tree offers shelter and respite for several members of the surrounding community as they pass by it over the course of one day at the height of its bloom.

  More than a short story, the novelette “Hill o’ the Winds” (1923) is the story of a romance between two young people who seem determined not to fall in love with each other.

  Idealistic schoolmaster Jim Kennedy enlists the aid of a shy, plain young woman to help him decorate and furnish a cottage for his intended bride in “Jim’s House” (1926). In a somewhat darker plot than is usually associated with Montgomery, “The Mirror” (1931) reveals the story of a young woman who died suddenly before her wedding and then prevents what could have been the disastrous marriage of her sister.

  In “Tomorrow Comes” (1934) we see overtones of Montgomery’s novel Jane of Lantern Hill (1937) when a young girl discovers that the father she had been told was dead is actually alive and still in love with her mother.

  Amanda Page, paralyzed for ten years and resigned to her fate, has once again turned down the proposal of Captain Jonas because she no longer has “The Use of Her Legs” (1936). The sudden appearance of a madman who is determined to “sacrifice” Amanda to save his own soul changes Amanda’s—and Captain Jonas’s—life forever.

  Orphaned as a baby, Janet Stannard had been taken in by her aunt and cousins but was treated more as a servant and was always given hand-me-down dresses to wear, to her great humiliation. On an impulse, she rebels by wearing a gingham school dress to a society wedding rather than the made-over formal gown in “Janet’s Rebellion” (1938).

  Finally, “More Blessed to Give” (1939)—not listed in the 1986 bibliography and discovered a few years ago—tells the story of Helen Lewis, the best student in her college class, who cannot return for her senior year due to her family’s financial situation. A friend offers to pay for her final year in order to maintain the high ranking of the class but Helen cannot accept the offer out of personal pride. An overheard discussion on the “gracious acceptance of a favour” helps her reconsider her position.

  After each of the stories in this collection, a note on its publication history and those who located it (and shared their discovery with us) is included, along with a bit about Montgomery’s own story taking place at the time the story was published. We also note when a story appears in the online Ryrie-Campbell periodical collection, KindredSpaces.

  This volume of long-lost stories joins other volumes of L. M. Montgomery’s collected stories, beginning with her own selections in Chronicles of Avonlea (1912). A few years later, her publisher L. C. Page produced another collection he entitled Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920). This resulted in Montgomery successfully suing Page for his audacity and greed in publishing this collection without her permission. Two more volumes of stories were published a number of years after Montgomery died: The Road to Yesterday (1974) [re-published in its entirety and restored to its original form as The Blythes are Quoted, edited by Dr. Benjamin Lefebvre in 2009] and The Doctor’s Sweetheart (1979). In the 1980s, Rea Wilmshurst began publishing more Montgomery stories in eight themed collections: Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans(1988); Along the Shore: Adventures by the Sea (1989); Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side (1990); After Many Days: Tales of Time Passed (1991); Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement (1993); At the Altar: Matrimonial Tales (1994); Across the Miles: Tales of Correspondence (1995); and Christmas with Anne (and other Holiday Stories) (1995). These collections contained from fourteen to twenty stories each.

  Of the approximately five hundred stories that Montgomery wrote and published in her career, less than half have appeared in print since their original publications; thus, these collections represent only a part of her work. We hope that more of her stories can be made available, in the near future, to today’s readers.

  —Carolyn Strom Collins and Christy Woster, March 2016

  Foreword

  As one of L. M. Montgomery’s granddaughters, I am proud and delighted that these short stories are now available for a wider audience. Even though my grandmother died before I was born, she was a large presence in my life. I grew up with great pride in her achievements and continue to honour her legacy to this day.

  After Many Years is a delicious collection of my grandmother’s “long-lost” stories. I love reading short fiction; perhaps it’s because of time restraints of a busy life, or perhaps it’s the satisfaction of completing a story in a relatively short period of time. It’s also fun to begin and end a story before falling asleep! For me, the editorial notes at the end of each story in this collection make this a most fulfilling read. These notes often answered questions that were in the back of my mind, and illuminated my reading experience.

  My father, Stuart, sitting at the dining room table of our family home in Toronto, would recount story after story about growing up in Leaskdale and Norval, Ontario, with his family and his famous mother. Stuart was also a talented storyteller and I only wish he had pursued his desire to be a writer as well; I think he would have been a good one!

  Thank you to Carolyn Strom Collins, Christy Woster, and all the independent researchers involved in this project for seeing it through and adding these stories to the other published collections of my grandmother’s work. Thank you as well to the L. M. Montgomery Institute and its founder, Dr. Elizabeth Epperly, for supporting the project—I am grateful to you all for your efforts. I would also like to add my profound sadness to the late Christy Woster’s family and friends that she is not here to enjoy the publication of this book; her warmth and dedication to the world of L. M. Montgomery and her zest for life are missed by all who knew her.


  —Kate Macdonald Butler, February 2017

  The Chivers Light

  (1900/1924)

  “Jack,” said William Haslit one morning, as they sat down to breakfast in the lighthouse, “your mother and I have had bad news. Word has just come that your Aunt Grace is very ill, and we must go at once. Most likely we shall not be back until tomorrow, if then, and we must leave you in charge. You must not leave the Chivers to-day, and be very careful about the light.”

  “But, father, the cycle races over at Southport!” exclaimed Jack. “I want to see them. There will be plenty of time to get back after they are over.”

  Haslit shook his head gravely. “I’m very sorry, my boy, but I can’t let you go. The wind sometimes blows up so quickly in the afternoon that you might not be able to get back, and that would be a terrible thing. Vessels might be wrecked and lives lost; and at the best I should lose my job.”

  “But Father,” pleaded Jack, “I’d be careful, and if I saw the least sign of a gale I’d start home at once.”

  “No, Jack, you mustn’t go; I can’t take the risk. I know what you are like too well. If you went over to Southport and got watching the races, a hurricane might come up without your noticing it. I don’t like to disappoint you, as you well know, but it can’t be helped, so don’t let us hear anything more about it.”

  When his father spoke in that tone Jack knew it was no use to plead, but he felt that he was a very ill-used boy and ate his breakfast in sulky silence.

  After breakfast Mr. and Mrs. Haslit started. They had to sail across to the mainland and take the train at St. Eleanor’s. Chivers Island, on which the lighthouse was built, was a tiny bit of rock at the mouth of the harbour. The Haslits were the only people living on it, so it could not be called very lively. But it was within an hour’s sail of Southport and St. Eleanor’s and other villages, and Jack liked the life very well.