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“They walked back in silence. Hilary was dreaming. All men dream. His dream was of building beautiful homes for love to dwell in… houses to keep people from the biting wind and the fierce sun and the loneliness of dark night. It must be a fascinating thing to build a house... to create beauty that would last for generations and be shelter and protection and friendliness as well as beauty. And some day he would build a house for Pat... and she must live in it.” (247) So does L. M. Montgomery set up Patricia Gardiner’s incipient dilemma. Beside a girl without equal in love for her home, walks a boy whose dream is to build her a new house to live in! Finished reading Pat of Silver Bush (1933). Anne Shirley, Sara Stanley (“The Story Girl”), and Emily Byrd Starr are joined by the fourth of her series heroines, whom I love just as much. While Anne and Emily are classic orphan leads, who first need to take root in their new homes, Patricia‘s defining trait is her devotion to her family home, Silver Bush, and her wariness of change. The Story Girl, for her part, is a first among equals, the books The Story Girl and The Golden Road more stories about a circle of several friends; Pat of Silver Bush centers on the Gardiner family circle, however, with Patricia boasting just two strong friendships, to Hilary “Jingle” Gordon and Bets Wilcox. Happenings at school verge on non-events; the school’s main significance is as the place Pat sees her bête noire May Binnie, the Binnies being a clan of uncouth nemeses like the Pyes of Avonlea. It is a change itself for Pat to be a Montgomery protagonist whose best subject in school is… mathematics! Yet it fits perfectly with her character, always seeking certainty and stasis. Unfortunately for Pat, she is the last born of Montgomery’s girls, and Twentieth century innovations like the automobiles, the telephone, motion pictures and factory food intrude welcomely or unwelcomely in her corner of Prince Edward Island. The live-in domestic servant Judy Plum, who normally talks in a (very) comprehensible Irish brogue but speaks the King’s English for weddings, is a constant source of generational gossip, doubtful but colorful lore, and comfort and wider perspective when changes do come. Judy has a bigger presence than any one of Pat’s actual relations; she is so much a part of the household, that Pat is astonished when a visitor points out that Judy gets paid for her work. I recall going for chapters without it being clear who Joe and Winnie were; I think even Gentleman Tom, the eldest cat, figures more. Pat’s older brother and sister pop in for a word sometimes, but don’t offer running commentary like Judy. Even though it means departures and new names, love is in the air as Pat of Silver Bush closes. Like Anne at the end of Anne of Green Gables, she makes a change of plans to allow Winnie to marry her beloved Frank, taking charge of the household since her mother is weak following a surgery (which seems to thwart a fated death: Montgomery gives modern times their due). Interestingly, two memorable passages point to something very far removed from the PEI of the 1920s, but always potentially present, and seemingly on the edge of the author’s consciousness. First a musing by Pat, then Winnie’s regret-filled resolution before Pat promises she will keep house. “The house and everything about it were linked inextricably with her life and thought. There was one verse in the Bible she could never understand. Forget also thine own people and thy father‘s house. It always made her shiver. How could anybody do that?” (249) “‘So I must just give up all thoughts of being married just now. Of course Frank doesn't like it, but he’ll just have to reconcile himself to it. If he doesn't... well, there are plenty of other girls ready to keep house for him.’ “In spite of herself Winnie's voice faltered. The thought of all those willing girls was very bitter.” (258) Montgomery is never ostentatiously pious, but as her italicized quotes from the Bible might clue you in, readers will only be able to guess at what she is saying without looking to Scripture (thankfully with search, this is now easy even for those who didn’t apply themselves in Sunday School). “Forget also thine own people and thy father‘s house” comes from Psalm 45 (44 in the Douay-Rheims Bible), a royal wedding psalm that figures in polygamist discourse, as the bride is seemingly a younger plural wife to an already-married king. 45:9 the verse just before the cited 45:10, reads “Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir”, while 45:11 is “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him” in the same KJV. Is this really a proper Christian society, where Winnie feels “bitter” that several other women would gladly have Frank? Either he has to wait, or one of the other girls will “keep house” for him instead, or it is the others who will all be bitterly disappointed. Winnie has herself one popular beau! She wants to be Frank’s wife, whose attitude toward her husband should be, “for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him”: then, should she really be lording it over him now, making him choose between staying a bachelor for years or never taking her to wife, because he already has another? Methinks if these churchgoers followed the attitude implied by this nuptial psalm, the question would not be whether Frank has to wait to wed Winnie or choose another bride, it would be whether Winnie will be the first or a later one of Frank’s several wives—although in that case poor Pat might end up having to teach school, anyway. Pat, after Winnie leaves, reigns the contented mistress of Silver Bush. She muses, “I dwell among my own people. Wise Shulamite!” (278). Ah, shortsighted Pat! She was referencing II Kings 4 (IV Kings in the Douay-Rheims Bible), where the Shulamite woman firmly rejected what the prophet Elisha said would happen, but by the same time a year later… well, you can look up the story for yourself, or wait for it to get spelled out in the sequel to be read next, Mistress Pat. #LMMontgomery #PatOfSilverBush #PEI #home #family #change #modernity #romance #love #Christian #Bible #AncientIsrael #hypergamy #pluralmarriage #polygyny #polygamy #marriage #patriarchy #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books

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