Cavendish, P.E.I. - Lucy Maud Montgomery herself couldn't imagine a scene more Island, more Canadian.

The people of Cavendish are gathered on the old Macneill farm - site of her fictional Green Gables, now a National Heritage Place - and the women of the day (pretend it's turn of the previous century) are serving hot chocolate and homemade cookies.

It is cold, so cold that even dog breath puffs, so cold that Reggie, a Labrador-husky cross, has curled in a ball and lies by the bonfire that crackles back of the barn.

A small cadet band stands in formation, lips already at tremolo as the tiny, shivering groups works its way through Anchors Away and practices the O Canada the band will play when the big moment arrives.

A flock of Canada geese, also in perfect formation, slides over the barn, singing its own incomprehensible song.

And along comes a horse and buggy....Wayne Bernard in denim coveralls and winter beard working "Farmer," his eight-year-old with deft flicks of the reign and tiny clicks from the side of his mouth, Cassie Campbell standing tall behind him with an Olympic Torch in one hand and a secret in the other.

"I had a hold of his suspenders," she later confessed.

There was a momentary flash - perhaps only Wayne Bernard and Farmer were completely aware of it - when this thing might have gone the wrong way.

The horse and buggy carrying the celebrity torch bearer came up the red dirt path, fine, and then turned back of the barn where, in an instant, a crowd of several hundred flag-carrying camera-snapping Islanders surged slightly, causing Farmer to come an abrupt halt - no "whoa" required - and very nearly turn skittish. But for Wayne Bernard's calming clicks and a very gentle, reassuring skip of the reins over the horse's haunches, Farmer might have reared, or worse.

"You have to have faith in your animal," Bernard said later, "'course the animal's got to have faith in you, too."

Horse and owner had to have faith, but everyone else gathered here this late November Sunday had to have imagination - and where better to find it than Green Gables?

Over there, for example, is Marilla herself - or at least a local woman in period costume shouting like Marilla at virtually everyone who moves. Didn't she once say, "Did ever anyone hear the like! Anne Shirley, do you mean to tell me you believe all that wicked nonsense of your own imagination?"

Well, you could call this "nonsense" if you liked, but it's far more harmless than "wicked." A bunch of people in period costume and hundreds of people carrying the latest digital cameras.

A horse and buggy carrying a woman who was once a hockey star and who is herself carrying a super-modern $400 gizmo that, for a moment, has a piece of the flame that will ignite the real Olympic Torch at Vancouver in less than three months.

The connection is actually fair enough. This week marks the 135th birthday of Lucy Maud Montgomery, creator of the world's favourite Canadian fictional character, Anne ("with an ‘e'") of Green Gables. This Sunday was also the 36th birthday of Cassie Campbell, who is related to the famous author who lies buried in nearby Cavendish.

In fact, the quiet ride in along the red dirt path probably meant as much to Campbell as the crowds and cheers that greeted the two gold medals she won as captain of the Canadian women's hockey team.

Wayne Bernard had gone to school with her father, Donald Campbell, and knew the family line better than Cassie herself.

"He was telling me stories about my grandfather when we were coming in," Campbell said, "and I had never met my grandfather - so it was more than just the torch."

But it was also about the torch.
She herself hadn't quite expected what it would feel like to do something so remarkably simple as stand in the back of a buggy - albeit hanging on for life to Wayne Bernard's suspenders - and carry a flame that should, really, be no different that one anyone can have for the mere striking of a match.

Unless, of course, you use your imagination.

"Rushing here I really didn't have time to think about it," Campbell said. "And then, all of a sudden, you have this suit on and you see the runner coming toward you and you realize the ‘bigness' of the moment.

"It's right up there with when I walked into my first Opening Ceremonies."

It's easy to be cynical, she conceded - though cynicism is something Anne Shirley would never embrace - but equally simple to accept that, to those who come out to these events, something fascinating is happening.

"The Olympics is the closest thing to bringing the world together," said Campbell. "And even though the Games are happening in Vancouver, the importance of having this torch going around the country is that the people who won't get a chance to be in Vancouver are going to feel a part of it.

"It's important to get out in the communities - especially the smaller places."

Like little Cavendish where, when the torch arrived, so, too, did the sun.

As someone who once lived around here might have written it.