Ladies' Aid Society

The Ladies' Aid Society is a local women's organization that combines meetings, practical preparations, and social occasions. Its gathering at Green Gables shows how its work depends on help within the household, while plans for a fair and supper turn borrowed furnishings and old-fashioned food into a shared community project.

Organization and Household Work

On a Tuesday afternoon, the Society met at Green Gables, where Anne Shirley hurried home from school because Marilla Cuthbert would need assistance. Dora Keith sat with the members in the parlor, neat in a starched white dress and black sash, speaking when addressed and otherwise keeping quiet. Davy Keith, by contrast, was making mud pies in the barnyard. The difference between the children's scenes made the meeting's decorum visible, but also left Marilla balancing the Society's gathering with the practical demands of caring for them.

Marilla had allowed Davy to play outside because she thought dirt would keep him out of worse mischief. She planned for the Society's tea to be finished before calling him in, and allowed Dora to have tea with the members, while judging that Davy could not be seated at their table. When Anne went to call the members to tea, Dora had disappeared from the parlor. A member reported that Davy had called her out, and Marilla and Anne decided the two children could have tea together later. The interruption thus altered the household's arrangements for the meeting before the Society's own tea was even over.

Fair and Supper Preparations

The Society also prepared for a fair and supper, with Rachel Lynde leading the enterprise. Mrs. Allan proposed an old-time kitchen booth serving baked beans, doughnuts, pie, and other traditional food. The preparations involved gathering furnishings from across the neighborhood: Mrs. Simon Fletcher would lend her mother's braided rugs, Mrs. Levi Boulter some old chairs, and Aunt Mary Shaw a glass-doored cupboard. Anne was asked whether Marilla might lend her brass candlesticks, and the organizers wanted old dishes to complete the display.

A real blue willow-ware platter was a particular requirement, but no one seemed to have one. Anne offered to write to Miss Josephine Barry to ask whether she would lend hers. The supper was expected in about a fortnight, and the discussion of the platter shows the degree to which the event depended on finding and borrowing familiar household objects, not simply deciding on a menu.

Community Life and Domestic Comedy

The Society's scenes present its work through both organization and domestic detail. The fair requires coordination among neighbors and contributions from several households; the Green Gables meeting, meanwhile, depends on Marilla's and Anne's labor and is interrupted by the children in their care. Dora's careful conduct among the members and Davy's muddy play in the barnyard offer contrasting versions of behavior around an adult gathering, while his call to Dora unsettles the orderly parlor scene.

Together, the meeting and the preparations show the Ladies' Aid Society as a practical part of village social life: its plans take shape through local leadership, shared effort, and borrowed goods, while its gatherings remain entangled with the ordinary work of a household.