Marilla Takes in the Keith Twins begins with a family emergency and becomes a decision to assume responsibility for two young children. When Mary Keith grows gravely ill, her brother cannot care for the twins through the winter, and Marilla must decide whether to take them in. Anne Shirley’s appeal to duty helps tip the balance, but the choice carries practical costs: Marilla anticipates the labor of raising six-year-olds, while Anne agrees to take on the sewing her guardian can no longer manage comfortably.

Crisis and the question of care

Mary’s worsening illness gives the decision its urgency. Marilla tells Anne that Mary cannot last much longer and worries aloud about what will happen to the children. Their uncle has replied from a lumber camp that he cannot take them until spring. He expects to marry then and provide them a home, but asks that neighbors keep the children over the winter. Mary is reluctant to ask the people around her; she has not been on easy terms with the people of East Grafton. The proposed arrangement therefore leaves an immediate gap between the children’s needs and their uncle’s future plan.

For Marilla, kinship alone does not settle the matter. The twins are her third cousins, a distant connection, and both are only six. She regards taking them on as a serious responsibility, not a simple act of hospitality. Although she thinks Dora seems quiet and well behaved, she already has reservations about Davy, whom she considers difficult. Her hesitation makes clear that agreeing means accepting the demands of two distinct children, rather than merely offering a temporary place to stay.

Anne’s appeal and Marilla’s decision

Anne responds with excitement at the possibility of taking the twins, but her argument rests on their need for care. If Davy is unruly, she reasons, that is a stronger reason to give him good training, not a reason to reject him. She also asks Marilla to consider what kind of household might take the children if they refuse. Drawing on Rachel Lynde’s unfavorable accounts of nearby families, Anne imagines the twins exposed to bad examples or inadequate provision. She frames the decision as a duty to protect and guide them.

Marilla is persuaded, though not swept into Anne’s enthusiasm. She gloomily accepts that taking the children is the right course and decides to tell Mary she will do so. Her consent immediately brings a further burden into view: because her eyes prevent her from sewing, Anne will have to make and mend the twins’ clothes. Anne dislikes sewing, but accepts that work as her own share of the duty. Their exchange makes care concrete: it will mean not only providing a home, but also clothing the children and taking on labor that neither woman particularly welcomes.

Arrival in Avonlea

The decision is shown in action later that autumn. Rachel Lynde watches from her kitchen window as Marilla returns from the funeral with the twins in a buggy. The timing and setting mark a contrast with the earlier arrival of Anne, whom Rachel remembers Matthew Cuthbert bringing home in spring: now the woods are bare, the fields brown, and the sun is setting over Avonlea. Rachel recognizes that Marilla has taken the children in and expects a demanding winter, while also noting Anne’s enthusiasm and knack with children.

At the gate, Anne helps lift the twins from the buggy. Dora calmly accepts Anne’s kiss; Davy answers the welcome with a hearty hug and introduces himself as Mr. Davy Keith. Their different manners are apparent again at supper. Dora behaves like a little lady, while Davy objects to being expected to eat politely because he is so hungry. He praises the cake and explains that there has been little such food at home: Mary has been too sick to bake, and the neighbors who helped with bread have not provided the same kind of treat. His appetite and account of home give the new arrangement an immediate human measure: the children arrive not as an abstract obligation, but with needs shaped by their mother’s illness and the limits of the help available to her.

Family history and narrative significance

Rachel’s recollection links Marilla’s decision to an earlier change in the household. She remembers the surprise people felt when Marilla took in Anne, and sees the twins’ arrival as another reversal of expectations about who Marilla will raise. The parallel does not make the two arrivals identical: the twins come together, already six, and their care falls to Marilla and Anne as a shared practical responsibility. But Rachel’s comparison places the new decision within a history of unexpected family-making at Green Gables.

The event also sets Anne’s idealism beside Marilla’s deliberation without reducing either to a single trait. Anne is quick to see the children’s vulnerability and turns that perception into an argument about training and obligation. Marilla weighs the distant kinship, the children’s ages, Davy’s behavior, and the work involved before agreeing. The result is not effortless generosity but a negotiated commitment: Marilla accepts the principal responsibility, and Anne takes on a specific share of its daily labor. Their welcome gives the twins a home for the winter and makes care, rather than blood closeness or convenience, the decisive basis for family life.