Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
It occurs to me to wonder at Matthew’s and Marilla’s motivations in adopting a boy. The putative reason, of course, was that the typical French hired hand wasn’t reliable, with implications of being both not hard working and also, presumably, willing to walk away. Whereas I have to assume that an adopted boy would be both cheaper (food and clothing only and you know that he’d have had to miss school during spring planting and harvest time), but also more “tied,” with the perhaps even explicit threat of being sent back if he didn’t shape up. The implications are worse than they appeared to me at first.
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Do they ever hire a hand after they decide to keep Anne? I don't remember. Anne herself doesn't seem to have much work to do on the farm, so I guess Matthew and Marilla didn't need as much help as they thought.