behind--I guess there will be room enough."

"Oh, I say," said Launcelot, as Tommy and Anne sat down on the floor at
the back, with their feet on the step, "that won't do. You sit with
Judy, Anne."

But Anne shook her head.

"Tommy and I are going to sit here," she said. "He wants me to tell
him all the news."

But that was not all that Tommy wanted, for when they were alone and
unseen by those in the front of the wagon, he opened a handkerchief
which he had carried knotted into a bundle.

"I brought you some things. They ain't much, but I thought you would
like to have them."

There were a half-dozen pink and white shells, a starfish, and a few
pretty pebbles.

"I picked them up on the beach," said Tommy, "and I thought you might
like them."

"It was awfully good of you to think of me," said little Anne,
gratefully.

"I wanted to buy you something," apologized Tommy. "There was some
lovely jewelry made out of fish-scales, but I didn't have a cent to
spare."

"I would rather have these, really, Tommy," said Anne, with
appreciation, "because you found them yourself."

She tied them up carefully in her little clean white handkerchief, and
then she folded her hands in her lap and told Tommy everything that had
happened since he left home.

The sky was red with the blaze of the setting sun when the carriage
started. Overhead the crows were flying in a straight black line to
the woods to roost. As Anne talked on, the fireflies began to shine
against the blue-gray of the twilight; then came darkness and the stars.

"It seems awfully good to be at home," confessed Tommy, as the lights
began to twinkle in the nearest farmhouse, "if only father won't scold."

"I think he will scold, Tommy--he was awfully angry--but your mother
will be so pleased."

"It was horrid sleeping out at night and tramping days." Tommy was
unburdening his soul. It was so easy to tell things to gentle,
sympathetic Anne. "And the men around the wharf were so rough--"

"I am sure you won't want to go again," said little Anne, "not for a
long time, Tommy."

Tommy looked around cautiously. He didn't want Judy to hear, somehow.
He was afraid of her teasing laugh. Then he leaned down close to
Anne's ear:

"I'll stay here for awhile, Anne."

"I'm so glad, Tommy," said Anne, with a sigh of relief.

But as they drove into the great gateway, and the lights from the big
house shone out in welcome, Tommy sighed:

"But I would