On such a night as this, long ago, Carl would come over to Ingleside and whistle her out to the gate.

"Let's go on a moon-spree, Rilla," he would say, and the two of them would scamper off to Rainbow Valley.

Rilla had never been afraid of his beetles and bugs, though she drew a hard and fast line at snakes.

They used to talk together of almost everything and were teased about each other at school; but one evening when they were about ten years of age they had solemnly promised, by the old spring in Rainbow Valley, that they would never marry each other.

Alice Clow had "crossed out" their names on her slate in school that day, and it came out that "both married." They did not like the idea at all, hence the mutual vow in Rainbow Valley.