184 OVER ON THE ISLAND

Lover’s Lane. Down this path from the pasture beyond, Anne used to drive the cows home for milking. There are other Lovers’ Lanes on the Island. There are others that are far more beautiful. But this lane, lined with birches and spruce and ferns, spells Anne of Green Gables.

There have been disputes for years regarding the Lake of Shining Waters. Some claim it is in Caven- dish. Others say it is the old mill pond at Park Corner. The book itself has adopted the attributes of both, so that it is hard to decide. On her first Island drive to Green Gables, Anne saw the Lake of Shining VVaters—so it must have been near Green Gables. But when she floated down the stream as Elaine she passed under a bridge. That means Park Corner. I guess it is a matter of individual judgment. “You pays your money and you takes your choice." I prefer the marshy little pond, hemmed in from the Gulf by the high sand hills. Though the other bears the placard, this pond will always be to me—the Lake of Shining Waters.

Cavendish is certainly Anne of Green Gables. And after one has explored that country to one’s heart’s content, and has lived with Anne and wandered with her through the countryside, one begins to understand and appreciate her truthful childish remark: “I have always heard that Prince Edward Island was the prettiest place in the world.”

Anne was right.

But up on the North Shore there is still another figure striding, not through the pages of an exciting book, but around a wind—swept parish on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and up in Cavendish stands a church, gaunt, square, and stately. It is the John Geddie