Hence arose the Community Novel or type of story. One of the earlier examples is Adeline M. Teskey’s _Where the Sugar Maple Grows_ (1901). In telling of the origin of this book, Miss Teskey wrote that when reading Ian MacLaren’s _Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush_ she said within herself, ‘I know just as interesting people in Canada.’ Her sketches of village characters, depicted with a homely but effective simplicity of style, showed that she was right. A delightfully humorous novel of Cranfordian flavor, _The Specimen Spinster_, by Kate Westlake Yeigh, (1906), essayed a larger canvas instead of the smaller etchings and gave an insight into the social relationships of the rural village. The year 1908 may be said to mark the real beginning of the Second Renaissance in Canadian fiction, for in that year there were published three novels of the Community type—_Anne of Green Gables_, by L. M. Montgomery; _Duncan Polite_, by Marian Keith; _Sowing Seeds in Danny_, by Nellie L. McClung. There appeared also a charming collection of short tales, _Little Stories of Quebec_, by James Le Rossignol. This date is still further significant as the year in which Marjorie Pickthall published her first important short story, _La Tristesse_, in _The Atlantic Monthly_, although her work differs greatly in setting and artistic method from the fiction of the Community type. L. M. Montgomery was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, and spent her childhood in Cavendish, a seashore farming settlement which figures as ‘Avonlea’ in her stories. That her life has been spent chiefly within the limits of the little island province and the bounds of an Ontario country parish does not narrow her outlook although she confines herself to themes bounded by rural experiences, for her forte is the portrayal of what she has seen and knows. She has imaginative and creative gifts, but she uses these in enabling us to see the beauty, the humour, and the pathos that lies about our daily paths. _Anne of Green Gables_, her first novel, has an interesting history. Upon being asked for a short serial story for a Sunday School weekly, she cast about for a plot idea. A faded note book entry suggested: ‘Elderly couple apply to orphan asylum for a boy; a girl is sent to them.’ The writing of a serial was started, but time did not allow the author to complete it for the purpose intended. As she brooded over the theme it began to expand and the result was a book which may be confidently labelled a ‘Canadian classic.’