When their schoolteacher, Miss Gordon, found out that one of the students thought that Maud and Nate were acting “absurd”, she asked the student to explain why. She said, “Well, they are always passing notes to each other in school, and walking round together at recess—and talking!”
In fact, a few of their letters have been preserved – some of which were the result of an old superstition at the Cavendish school. If you counted nine stars for nine nights in a row, the first person you shook hands with next would be your future spouse. Nate would only tell Maud that he had shaken hands with her if she agreed to the following: she must answer one question truthfully and in return she could ask him anything she liked.
In her journal, Maud wrote: “When I read that it was I with whom he had shaken hands I nearly had a fit for I had never suspected that. But I forgot surprise and everything else when I saw that fatal question…It was: ‘Which of your boy friends do you like best?’ Horrors! I had never dreamed of this!”
And so, cleverly, Maud replied by letter, saying: “You have a little more brains than the other Cavendish boys and I like brains—as I suppose I like you best—though I don’t see why I should, after the trick you have played on me.” Maud also asked Nate which of his girl friends he liked best, expecting him to say it was Amanda. Maud felt Amanda was nicer to him, where as Maud teased “his life half out”.
Nate replied:
“Well, Polly [Maud's nickname], it must be done. I at first intended to write quite a lengthy epistle, setting forth my poor opinion of myself, my very inferior personal endowments, my happiness, or rather ecstasy if your note proved favorable to my wishes, etc. etc. etc. But I have altered my plan of arrangement and resolved to give you hard, dry, plain facts, for they may possibly appear as such to you, but they are nevertheless as gospel. Here goes:--Of all my feminine friends the one whom I most admire—no, I’m growing reckless—the one whom I love (if the authorities allow that word to come under the school boy’s vocabulary) is L.M. Montgomery, the girl I shook hands with, the girl after my own heart…I always liked you better than any girl and it has kept on increasing till it has obtained ‘prodigious’ proportions. Oh, wouldn’t I like to see you reading this. But I must conclude or you will say it is very lengthy after all…”
Maud reflected in her journal that she didn’t care for Nate in that way, but that she couldn’t help but feel slightly triumphant. “I’ve often wondered if anyone would ever care for me—that way—and now someone really does.”
To read more about Maud’s “beaux”, take a look at The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album and The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889-1910 and The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921.
Photo of Cavendish school children in 1891 from The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album.
