Anne’s past due for more trouble…

Daring was the fashionable amusement among the Avonlea small fry just then. It had begun among the boys, but soon spread to the girls, and all the silly things that were done in Avonlea that summer because the doers thereof were “dared” to do them would fill a book by themselves.

Evidently this was before Truth or Dare was invented, so the only limiting factor is a child’s imagination (although they don’t make a habit of asking really dangerous dares). And Josie Pye generally has a limited imagination, but Anne just had to go and give her an idea.

“I don’t think it’s such a very wonderful thing to walk a little, low, board fence,” [Anne] said. “I knew a girl in Marysville who could walk the ridge-pole of a roof.”

So naturally, Josie dares her to do it, and naturally Anne accepts the challenge.

“I must do it. My honor is at stake,” said Anne solemnly. “I shall walk that ridge-pole, Diana, or perish in the attempt.”

She doesn’t make more than a few steps across the ridge-pole, but neither does she perish. She still falls off the roof, though.

“Anne, are you killed?” shrieked Diana, throwing herself on her knees beside her dear friend. “Oh, Anne, dear Anne, speak just one word to me and tell me if you’re killed.”

[…] “No, Diana, I am not killed, but I think I am rendered unconscious.”

And evidently no one knows what “unconscious” means, not even Anne…

But she hurt her ankle, so Mr. Barry carries her home.

At that moment Marilla had a revelation. In the sudden stab that pierced to her very heart she realized what Anne had come to mean to her. She would have admitted that she liked Anne – nay, that she was very fond of Anne. But now she knew as she hurried wildly down the slope that Anne was dearer to her than anything on earth.

It turns out she broke her ankle, and she finally gets her wish to faint, at which she discovers it to be not nearly as romantic as it looks.

Anne spends several weeks laid up in bed, but between her vibrant imagination and regular visits from her classmates, she could be worse off. The main thing she regrets is not getting to meet the new lady-teacher.

Until next time…