A Little Maid of Province Town

								

sorrowfully to bed and lay sleepless through the long night, trying to
think of some plan to keep Anne Nelson safe and well cared for until
peaceful days should come again.
And Anne, too, lay long awake, wondering what she could do to protect the
little brown cow which now rested so securely on the further side of the
hill.

CHAPTER II
ANNE WINS A FRIEND

"Come, Anne," called Mrs. Stoddard at so early an hour the next morning
that the June sun was just showing itself above the eastern horizon.
"Yes, Mistress Stoddard," answered the little girl promptly, and in a few
minutes she came down the steep stairs from the loft.
"It is early to call you, child," said the good woman kindly, "but the
captain has made an early start for the fishing grounds, and I liked not
to leave you alone in the house in these troublous times; and so eat your
porridge and we'll go and milk Brownie."
Anne hastened to obey; and in a few moments the two were making their way
up the slope through the fragrant bayberry bushes, and breathing in the
sweet morning air. No one else seemed astir in the little settlement. Now
and then a flutter of some wild bird would betray that they had stepped
near some low-nesting bird; and the air was full of the morning songs and
chirrupings of robins, red-winged blackbirds, song sparrows, and of many
sea-loving birds which built their nests among the sand-hills, but found
their food upon the shore.
Anne noticed all these things as they walked along, but her thoughts were
chiefly occupied with other things. There was one question she longed to
ask Mrs. Stoddard, yet almost feared to ask. As they reached the summit of
the hill and turned for a look at the beautiful harbor she gained courage
and spoke:
"Mistress Stoddard, will you please to tell me what a 'spy' is?"
"A spy? and why do you wish to know, Anne?" responded her friend; "who has
been talking to you of spies?"
"Is it an ill-seeming word?" questioned the child anxiously. "The Cary
children did call it after me yesterday when I went to the spring."
"Did they that!" exclaimed Mrs. Stoddard angrily, "and what reply did you
make, Anne?"
The little girl shook her head. "I said nothing. I knew not what they
might mean. Does it mean an orphan child, Mistress Stoddard?" and the
little girl lifted her dark eyes appealingly.
"I will tell you its meaning, Anne, and then you will see that it has
naught to do with little girls. A 'spy' is like this: Suppose some one
should wish to know if I kept my house in order, and what I gave the
captain for dinner, and could not find out, and so she came to you and
said, 'Anne Nelson, if you will tell me about the Stoddard household, and
open the door that I may come in and see for myself, I will give thee a
shilling and a packet of sweets'; then, if you should agree to the
bargain, then you could be called a spy."
"But I would not do such a thing!" declared Anne, a little flash of