A Little Maid of Massachusetts Colony

								

very grave. "Anne is not home yet, but I will question her. You may be
sure, Mistress Cary, that I will not let it pass. Her father leaves her
in my care when he is away, and perhaps I am too indulgent, for I love
the child."
It was an hour later when Anne came and peered in at the open door. Mrs.
Cary had gone home. Mrs. Stoddard looked at the little girl, but not
with her usual smile.
"Where is Amanda's basket?" she asked sharply. "Do not stand there; come
in." Anne obeyed. "Now, tell me why you pushed Amanda down, and slapped
her, and ran off with the basket of food? Mrs. Cary has been here and
told me all about it. A nice story indeed for me to hear. But like as
not it is my fault for indulging you in everything. But I shall be firm
now. Go up-stairs and stay until I call you; and as for that visit with
Rose Freeman, think no more of it. I shall not let you go. No, indeed,
after such a performance as this."
Anne thought to herself that she must be dreaming. "I shall wake up in a
minute," she said aloud, but Mrs. Stoddard did not hear her.
"Go right up-stairs," she repeated, and Anne, with a puzzled look over
her shoulder, went slowly up the narrow stairs.

CHAPTER II
ANNE DECIDES

"I don't know what to do," Anne whispered to herself, with a little sob,
as she looked out of the narrow window in her little room. Captain
Stoddard was coming briskly up the path; in a moment he would be
directly under the window. "I'll call to him, and if he answers I shall
know that I am awake," she decided, and leaning out she called softly:
"Uncle Enos! Uncle Enos!"
Captain Stoddard looked up, and answered briskly: "Anne Nelson, ahoy!"
"Uncle Enos, listen!" and Anne leaned out still farther. "I went toward
the outer beach with Amanda Cary, and she slapped me and ran off. And
when I came home Aunt Martha sent me up-stairs. Now what have I done?"
Captain Stoddard chuckled, then he looked very serious indeed, and
replied:
"A pretty affair! What have you been doing?"
"Nothing, Uncle Enos; indeed I have done no mischief. Tell Aunt Martha
that Amanda slapped me, and that I did not slap back."
Uncle Enos nodded, and made a motion for Anne to be silent, and Anne
drew quickly back into the room.
"Uncle Enos will find out," she whispered to the little wooden doll,
"Martha Stoddard," that her father had made for her when she was a very
small girl, and which was still one of her greatest treasures. But the
July afternoon faded into the long twilight and no one called to Anne to
come down. She began to feel hungry. "I wish I had eaten my share of
that luncheon and not given it to Amos to carry home," she thought. For
on her way home she had met Amos and had given the lunch basket into his
charge, telling him to carry it home to Amanda, but saying nothing of
Amanda's anger.
As Anne sat in the loft chamber waiting for the call that did not come,
she began to feel that she had been treated very badly. "And Aunt Martha