interested in the rabbits, and in Melvina and Luretta,
than in the safety of the emblem of freedom. But she was glad that
Luretta was no longer angry at her.

"You don't care much about the rabbits, do you, Danna?" Luretta asked,
as they stopped near Luretta's house to say good-bye.

"I am glad they are free," replied Anna. "It would be dreadful to have
giants catch us, wouldn't it?"

Luretta agreed soberly, thinking that to the rabbits she must have
seemed a giant.

"Father will say 'twas best to let them go, whatever Paul says," she
added, and promising to meet the next day the friends parted.

Anna danced along the path in her old fashion, quite forgetting
Melvina's measured steps. Everything was all right now. She and Luretta
were friends; Mrs. Foster had pardoned her; and the liberty pole was
found. So she was smiling and happy as she pushed open the door and
entered the pleasant kitchen, expecting to see her mother and Rebby; but
no one was there. The room looked deserted. She opened the door leading
into the front room and her happy smile vanished.

Her mother sat there, looking very grave and anxious; and facing the
kitchen door and looking straight at Anna was Mrs. Lyon, while on a
stool beside her sat Melvina, her flounced linen skirt and embroidered
white sunbonnet as white as a gull's breast.

Anna looked from one to the other wonderingly. Of course, she thought,
Mrs. Lyon had come to call her a mischievous girl on account of the
rabbits. All her happiness vanished; and when her mother said: "Come in,
Anna. Mrs. Lyon has come on purpose to speak with you," she quite forgot
to curtsy to the minister's wife, and stood silent and afraid.

CHAPTER XI

AN EXCHANGE OF VISITS

"IT is Mr. Lyon's suggestion," concluded Mrs. Lyon, "and Melvina is
eager to come and live with you, Mrs. Weston, if Anna is ready to come
to me."

Mrs. Lyon, it seemed to Anna, had been talking a long time. She had said
that Melvina was not very strong, and that possibly she was kept too
much indoors; and then had come the astounding suggestion that, on the
very next day, Anna should go and live with the minister and his wife,
and Melvina should come and take her place.

"Oh, do, Anna! Say you will," Melvina whispered, as the two little girls
found a chance to speak together while their mothers discussed the plan.
For Melvina was sure that if she came to live in An