In 1905 Maud explained in her journal that the very first item of her scrapbook had been given to her by her Cavendish teacher: "Selena Robinson, who was teaching here when I began it, made one at the same time and we collected 'srewveneers' for those scrapbooks with zeal and diligence." She went on to explain the central item on the inside front cover: "On the first page of mine is a tiny shoe-buckle which once adorned one of Selena's slippers and which she gave me for a mascot for my scrapbook because it was in the shape of a horse shoe" (SJ,I,308). The calendar in the shape of a glove was given to her by Willie Pritchard, whom she had known during her trip to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, when visiting her father in 1890-91. Willie Pritchard died a few years later, but Montgomery remained friends with his sister Laura Pritchard Agnew and visited her again in 1930, almost forty years after they had been girlhood friends.

The coming of Ewan Macdonald, the eligible new Presbyterian minister, to Cavendish in 1903 would have to have created a sensation among the unmarried women of the community. The published journal is almost silent about Maud's possible interest in Ewan Macdonald, but the scrapbook supplies some information for speculation. Montgomery sometimes wrote on small cards a humorous setting for a souvenir--suggesting a real-life comic drama that gave a souvenir or date significance. She noted in 1903 "When minister meets Monty"--is this referring to some early encounter with Ewan Macdonald, or on-going struggles with the rejected Rev. Edwin Simpson or possibly even some encounter with the Rev. Edwin Smith (whom the Cavendish Literary Society minutes suggest Maud could have met as early as 1901 when he gave a talk in Cavendish)? A few pages later she pasted in without commentary the news clipping announcing the Rev. Macdonald's ordination in Cavendish Church. The first scrapbook ends with a news advertisement "I was a bride in 1903." Was Maud laughing at her own ambitions where Ewan was concerned?

At Ewan Macdonald's ordination, as the clipping tells, the sermon was given by Rev. Edwin Smith. Many pages still later in this scrapbook appears a picture of the Rev. Edwin Smith. Ewan Macdonald and Edwin Smith both attended Pine Hill Seminary in Nova Scotia. Years later, Edwin Smith and his wife became friends with the Macdonalds in Ontario. Smith joined the military in the First World War, and Maud pasted into her scrapbook a clipping about a movie called The Empire's Shield that Captain Smith was introducing to movie audiences around the country. The film dealt with naval tactics in the First World War that helped to keep the Empire safe. In her published journals Maud does not mention the movie but does tell of the Smiths and the Macdonalds taking a motor trip together in the summer of 1921 from Ontario to Prince Edward Island by way of Boston. The scrapbooks and the journals work together to reveal details of Montgomery's life.