Gilbert giving up the school for Anne

Gilbert Blythe withdraws his application for the Avonlea school teaching position so that Anne Shirley can have it, enabling her to stay at Green Gables with Marilla Cuthbert after Matthew Cuthbert's death and Marilla's failing eyesight. This self-sacrificing act, which requires Gilbert to take a less convenient and more expensive position at White Sands, marks the decisive end of their long-standing enmity and the beginning of a deep, mature friendship.

Background and the Stakes

After Matthew Cuthbert's sudden death from heart failure, brought on by the news of the Abbey Bank's failure, Marilla Cuthbert faced the prospect of losing Green Gables. The bank failure had wiped out the Cuthberts' savings, and Marilla's worsening eyesight—the oculist warned she would be stone-blind in six months if she did not give up reading, sewing, and any work that strained her eyes—made it impossible for her to manage the farm alone. She told Anne she would have to sell the home. Anne, however, resolved to give up the Avery scholarship and her plans to attend Redmond College in order to stay at Green Gables, teach, and care for Marilla. She applied for the Avonlea school, but the trustees had already promised the position to Gilbert Blythe, who needed to earn his own way through college since his father could not afford to send him.

Gilbert's Decision and Its Consequences

When Gilbert learned that Anne had applied for the Avonlea school, he went directly to the trustees' business meeting at the schoolhouse. He withdrew his own application and suggested they accept Anne's instead. He then signed papers to take the teaching position at White Sands, a less convenient arrangement that required him to pay for his own board. Mrs. Rachel Lynde, who brought the news to Anne and Marilla, called the act "real kind and thoughtful" and "real self-sacrificing." Anne's first reaction was dismay: she murmured that she did not feel she ought to take the school or let Gilbert make such a sacrifice for her. But Mrs. Lynde pointed out that Gilbert had already signed the papers with the White Sands trustees, so refusing would do him no good.

The Reconciliation

The next evening, Anne went to the Avonlea graveyard to put fresh flowers on Matthew's grave and water the Scotch rosebush. Walking home down the long hill that sloped to the Lake of Shining Waters, she met Gilbert coming out of a gate before the Blythe homestead. He lifted his cap courteously and would have passed in silence, but Anne stopped and held out her hand. With scarlet cheeks, she thanked him for giving up the school. Gilbert took her hand eagerly and asked if they were going to be friends after this, if she had really forgiven him his old fault. Anne laughed and admitted she had forgiven him that day by the pond landing when he rescued her from the leaking flat, though she had not known it then. She confessed she had been sorry ever since. Gilbert declared they were going to be the best of friends, that they were born to be good friends, and that he knew they could help each other in many ways. He walked her home, and they stood at the gate talking for half an hour, catching up on five years of lost conversations.

Significance and Aftermath

Gilbert's act of giving up the school was the final, decisive gesture that dissolved the long-standing hostility between him and Anne. It was a practical sacrifice—he would have to pay board at White Sands while Anne could live at home—but it was also a profound moral and emotional turning point. Anne, who had stubbornly refused to speak to him for years after he called her "carrots" and after the humiliation of being made to sit with him as punishment, now freely offered her hand and her friendship. The reconciliation allowed Anne to stay at Green Gables, keep her promise to Marilla, and begin her teaching career in Avonlea. It also opened the way for a partnership of mutual support and shared ambition: both planned to continue their studies, and Gilbert's words—"We were born to be good friends, Anne. You've thwarted destiny enough"—suggested a future in which their rivalry would transform into collaboration. The bend in the road that Anne had spoken of, the unknown future beyond the straight path she had once envisioned, now held the promise of a new kind of companionship.