grinned at her and took a huge bite. When he had finished the slice he said,
“If you’ll give me another piece I’ll say thank you for it.”
“No, you have had plenty of cake,” said Marilla in a tone which Anne knew and Davy was to learn to be final.
Davy winked at Anne, and then, leaning over the table, snatched Dora’s first piece of cake, from which she had just taken one dainty little bite, out of her very fingers and, opening his mouth to the fullest extent, crammed the whole slice in. Dora’s lip trembled and Marilla was speechless with horror. Anne promptly exclaimed, with her best “schoolma’am” air,
“Oh, Davy, gentlemen don’t do things like that.”
“I know they don’t,” said Davy, as soon as he could speak, “but I ain’t a gemplum.”
“But don’t you want to be?” said shocked Anne.
“Course I do. But you can’t be a gemplum till you grow up.”
“Oh, indeed you can,” Anne hastened to say, thinking she saw a chance to sow good seed betimes. “You can begin to be a gentleman when you are a little boy. And gentlemen never snatch things from ladies . . . or forget to say thank you . . . or pull anybody’s hair.”
“They don’t have much fun, that’s a fact,” said Davy frankly. “I guess I’ll wait till I’m grown up to be one.”
Marilla, with a resigned air, had cut another piece
