They were out ; and when Anne re-entered her house of dreams the red embers were still glowing on the hearth , and all the haunting presences were gone . CHAPTER 14 NOVEMBER DAYS The splendor of color which had glowed for weeks along the shores of Four Winds Harbor had faded out into the soft gray-blue of late autumnal hills . There came many days when fields and shores were dim with misty rain , or shivering before the breath of a melancholy sea-wind -- nights , too , of storm and tempest , when Anne sometimes wakened to pray that no ship might be beating up the grim north shore , for if it were so not even the great , faithful light whirling through the darkness unafraid , could avail to guide it into safe haven . `` In November I sometimes feel as if spring could never come again , '' she sighed , grieving over the hopeless unsightliness of her frosted and bedraggled flower-plots . The gay little garden of the schoolmaster 's bride was rather a forlorn place now , and the Lombardies and birches were under bare poles , as Captain Jim said . But the fir-wood behind the little house was forever green and staunch ; and even in November and December there came gracious days of sunshine and purple hazes , when the harbor danced and sparkled as blithely as in midsummer , and the gulf was so softly blue and tender that the storm and the wild wind seemed only things of a long-past dream . Anne and Gilbert spent many an autumn evening at the lighthouse . It was always a cheery place . Even when the east wind sang in minor and the sea was dead and gray , hints of sunshine seemed to be lurking all about it . Perhaps this was because the First Mate always paraded it in panoply of gold . He was so large and effulgent that one hardly missed the sun , and his resounding purrs formed a pleasant accompaniment to the laughter and conversation which went on around Captain Jim 's fireplace . Captain Jim and Gilbert had many long discussions and high converse on matters beyond the ken of cat or king . `` I like to ponder on all kinds of problems , though I ca n't solve 'em , '' said Captain Jim . `` My father held that we should never talk of things we could n't understand , but if we did n't , doctor , the subjects for conversation would be mighty few . I reckon the gods laugh many a time to hear us , but what matters so long as we remember that we 're only men and do n't take to fancying that we 're gods ourselves , really , knowing good and evil . I reckon our pow-wows wo n't do us or anyone much harm , so let 's have another whack at the whence , why and whither this evening , doctor . '' While they `` whacked , '' Anne listened or dreamed . Sometimes Leslie went to the lighthouse with them , and she and Anne wandered along the shore in the eerie twilight , or sat on the rocks below the lighthouse until the darkness drove them back to the cheer of the driftwood fire . Then Captain Jim would brew them tea and tell them `` tales of land and sea And whatsoever might betide The great forgotten world outside . '' Leslie seemed always to enjoy those lighthouse carousals very much , and bloomed out for the time being into ready wit and beautiful laughter , or glowing-eyed silence .
There was a certain tang and savor in the conversation when Leslie was present which they XXXXX when she was absent .
betide faded grieving hear listened lurking missed sat tell whacked