With this Mrs. Rachel stepped out of the lane into the backyard of Green Gables.
Very green and neat and precise was that yard, set about on one side with great
patriarchal willows and the other with prim Lombardies. Not a stray stick nor stone
was to be seen, for Mrs. Rachel would have seen it if there had been. Privately she
was of the opinion that Marilla Cuthbert swept that yard over as often as she swept
her house. One could have eaten a meal off the ground without overbrimming the
proverbial peck of dirt