Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 28: An Unfortunate Lily Maid Summary & Analysis

Anne, Diana, Jane Andrews, and Ruby Gillis are planning to reenact a scene from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. The others talk Anne into being Elaine since, despite her red hair, Anne is the only one who isn’t afraid to float on the pond. The girls are gathered beside the pond at Orchard Slope. Last term they’d studied Tennyson’s poem in school, and they’ve discovered that if Mr. Barry’s little dory boat is pushed off from the dock, the current will carry it under the bridge until it’s beached on a headland further down. Anne assigns Ruby and Jane their roles in the drama and then lies in the boat under a black shawl, a flower clutched in her folded hands.

In character, the girls take turns kissing Anne farewell, then they push the dory off from the dock. It scrapes over a stake in the ground, but they don’t notice; they just wait for the current to catch the boat, then run off to meet it on the headland below. Anne, meanwhile, enjoys the romantic scenario. But all of a sudden, she realizes the dory is leaking; a hole has been torn in its bottom. The boat is going to sink, and Anne has no means of steering. She later tells Mrs. Allan that she prayed desperately that God would let the boat drift against the bridge pilings so she could climb out. Sure enough, the boat bumps against one of the pilings, and Anne scrambles out. But now she’s stranded on the piling; there’s enough of a ledge for her to cling to, but she can’t climb up or down.

Down at the headland, Diana, Ruby, and Jane don’t know what’s happened. When they see the dory sinking in the distance, they think Anne has drowned and run screaming through the woods for help. In their panic, they don’t even glance toward the bridge, where Anne still clings desperately. Just as Anne’s imagination is running away with her and she fears her fate, someone rows underneath the bridge—it’s Gilbert Blythe. Amazed, he pulls his boat against the pilings and helps her down. Anne is furious, but she has no choice but to accept his help. Refusing to look at Gilbert, she explains what happened and asks him to return her to the dock.

Before she can scramble out, Gilbert touches Anne’s arm. He asks if they can be friends—he didn’t mean to upset her with his joke about her hair (which he now thinks is pretty). Anne hesitates for a brief moment. Gilbert’s shy, eager look makes her heart skip a beat—something she’s never felt before. But then she replays the “carrots” joke in her mind and feels a fresh wave of resentment. She hates Gilbert and will never forgive him. She tells him she’ll never be his friend, and he angrily rows away. Anne feels a twinge of regret and an odd impulse to cry.

Further up the path, Anne meets the rest of the girls and explains how she was rescued. They think Gilbert’s rescue was “romantic,” but Anne never wants to hear that word again. That night (after having a good cry in private), Anne tells Marilla that after this, she believes she might become “sensible” after all. Every mistake she makes cures her of a particular shortcoming. Today’s has cured her of romance. Marilla hopes so, but Matthew gently encourages her to “keep a little of it.”