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"Well, of all things that ever were or will be!" ejaculated Mrs. Rachel when she was safely out in the lane. "It does really seem as if I must be dreaming. Well, I'm sorry for that poor young one and no mistake. Matthew and Marilla don't know anything about children and they'll expect him to be wiser and steadier than his own grandfather, if so be’s he ever had a grandfather, which is doubtful. It seems uncanny to think of a child at Green Gables somehow; there's never been one there, for Matthew and Marilla were grown up when the new house was built—if they ever were children, which is hard to believe when one looks at them. I wouldn't be in that orphan's shoes for anything. My, but I pity him, that's what."

-- L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

If there were if so be he ever had a grandfather, I wouldn’t have wondered. But why is there ‘s after be?

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The character of Mrs. Rachel is using a regional dialect from Atlantic Canada.

See this entry in a dictionary of Newfoundland English.

This is next to useless if you're learning English; forget about it.

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  • Exactly. Be's is a dialect 3d person singular: I be, you be, he be's. The phrase may be paraphrased "If [it] be so [=the case] that he ever had ..."
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Nov 29, 2013 at 8:22
  • @StoneyB I almost wrote that into the answer, but there may be something more to it. Undoubtedly there are creole dialects in which be conjugates like see.
    – Kaz
    Commented Nov 29, 2013 at 8:29
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I suspect that the 's is for as: if so be as he ever had

It's not a commonly used construction today. We'd be more likely to say something like:

If it's the case that he ever had a grandfather.

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