James A. Harrison and Emily Harrison's reconciliation reverses a separation that had hardened from daily domestic disagreements into a choice between Emily and Ginger, the parrot James kept in memory of his sailor brother. Their reunion does not erase the quarrels: it turns on a shared recognition that each had expected too much of the other, while Anne Shirley's undisclosed “Observer” identity gives the episode an unexpected second cause. The outcome is a restored household, but also a correction to the one-sided story that gossip had circulated about their marriage.

Causes and Background

Before moving to Avonlea, James lived in Scottsford, New Brunswick, where his sister kept house for him. Before her death, she worried about his future and persuaded him to promise that he would marry. She recommended Emily Harrison, who had money of her own and a reputation as a notably capable housekeeper. James was surprised when Emily accepted his proposal. After a fortnight-long wedding trip to St. John, they returned home late at night. Emily began cleaning almost immediately and resumed the work early the next morning. James acknowledged that the house had been somewhat untidy, but said it had already been cleaned and improved before the wedding. For Emily, housework became a constant occupation; for James, the pace and insistence of her standards made their shared home feel like a place where he was continually being corrected.

Their disagreements settled into recurring tests of ordinary habits. Emily expected James to change his boots for slippers indoors, smoke only in the barn, use better grammar, and stop eating with his knife. James felt nagged and resisted changing, later admitting that he became cranky and disagreeable rather than making an effort. He also recalled that his remark about Emily not having objected to his grammar when she agreed to marry him was needlessly tactless. In telling Anne the story, he therefore presented the estrangement not as Emily's fault alone, but as the result of her attempts to reform him and his own stubborn response.

Ginger and the Separation

The quarrel reached its decisive point over Ginger. James was attached to the parrot because his sailor brother had sent it to him while dying. He distinguished the bird's mimicry from deliberate human profanity: Ginger repeated words without understanding them, while Emily could not tolerate either the bird or its speech. Her attempts to stop the parrot, like her attempts to correct James's grammar, seemed only to make the behavior more pronounced. Their continuing irritation culminated when Emily invited two ministers and their wives to tea. James had promised to put Ginger somewhere safe, but forgot. During the meal, as one minister said grace, a turkey came into view outside the dining-room window and provoked Ginger into an especially disruptive outburst.

James carried the parrot to the barn and recognized that the incident had embarrassed Emily as well as himself. He began to feel that he had not been sufficiently considerate and wondered what the ministers would think about Ginger's vocabulary. He decided that the bird would have to be put down and went to tell Emily. Instead, he found a letter: Emily had returned to her own house and said she would stay there until he got rid of Ginger. James, still angry, refused to yield. He packed her belongings and sent them after her. The dispute thus became a prolonged separation, made worse by the fact that neighbors sympathized with Emily and that the story circulated as gossip.

The Return and Reconciliation

James left Scottsford for Avonlea, a place he had liked since visiting as a boy. Emily had objected to living on the Island, so James acknowledged that he moved there partly to be contrary. He heard nothing from or about her until he came home from the back field one Saturday and found her cleaning his floor, with a proper dinner already prepared. She told him to eat first and talk afterward. James took the meal and her return as signs that she had reconsidered how to live with him. By the time Anne heard the story, Emily was staying with him; Ginger had died, and Emily had discovered that the Island was larger than she had thought.

Emily's account confirms that the reconciliation involved more than James's interpretation of her return. She had regretted leaving within an hour of going back to her own house, but had been unwilling to give in. Looking back, she recognized that she had expected too much of James and had been foolish to make his grammar a serious grievance. She also valued his provision for the household and his not policing how much sugar she used. Her reassessment does not make the earlier conflict imaginary: it shows that both spouses had to revise the standards by which they judged the other. James admitted his own cantankerousness; Emily accepted that her expectations and haste had contributed to their separation.

Anne's Part and the Event's Aftermath

Anne is the listener to James's account and later hears Emily's version as well. Mrs. Lynde has already told the story to Marilla Cuthbert, underscoring how widely the separation had become a neighborhood subject. Emily believes James has told Anne the truth, and Anne does not disclose that she is the person Emily knows as “Observer.” The narrative identifies Anne's notes as foolish, without detailing their contents, but makes their effect explicit: they helped reconcile the spouses and also made a prophet's reputation. Emily wishes she knew who “Observer” was so that she could express her gratitude; Anne keeps the secret, leaving her unaware that her thanks would reach their intended recipient.

The reconciliation consequently has two linked resolutions. Within the marriage, the decisive change is not a victory in the argument over housework or Ginger, but each spouse's admission that the other was not solely to blame. In the wider community, the secret authorship of the notes gives Anne's intervention consequences beyond what Emily knows. The episode moves from private incompatibility, through public embarrassment and separation, to a reunion whose causes are partly visible to the reader and partly hidden from the person most grateful for them.