e Sandwich tavern. Just then
she felt something placed gently on her head and saw two broad brown
ribbons falling each side of her face.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, looking up in wonder.

Mrs. Pierce stood beside her. "There!" she exclaimed. "What kind of a
milliner do you think I should make for the fine ladies in Boston?" and
she lifted the hat from Anne's head, holding it up for the girls to see.

It was a round flat hat, plaited of straw. It had no trimming save a
pretty bow and strings of brown ribbon, but Anne thought it was a
beautiful hat.

"It's one I plaited last year," continued Mrs. Pierce, putting the hat
back on Anne's head, and tying the brown ribbon under her chin. "I did
it evenings, just to keep busy. I do wish I had a prettier ribbon for
it."

"Is it for me?" asked Anne, almost afraid that it was almost too much
good fortune to expect.

"Of course it is. 'Twill serve to remind you of your Aunt Anne," and the
friendly woman smiled down at Anne's happy face.

"We will write you a letter, Aunt Anne Rose," said Rose, as they walked
down the path to where the chaise awaited them, "and you will come and
visit my mother in Boston, will you not?"

"Mr. Pierce has already promised that they will both come," said Mr.
Freeman.

"And, Anne," and Mrs. Pierce patted the little hand she was holding so
closely, "you tell your father that you have found another aunt, and
that he must let you come and stay with me for a long long visit."

Then good-byes were said, and they were again started on their journey.

"No stops this time--except to ask for news of Lady--until I reach my
own house," declared Mr. Freeman. "'Tis a good cool morning and we ought
to get home by midday."

"Perhaps we shall find Lady," suggested Rose. But Mr. Freeman shook his
head.

"I'm afraid it will be a long time before we get any news of her," he
said soberly. "I only hope the thief will not abuse her." The brown
horse had always been petted and made much of, and neither Mr. Freeman
nor Rose could bear to think of her in the hands of people who would not
be kind to her.

Every now and then Anne would take off the plaited straw hat and look at
it with admiring eyes. "I shall not have to buy a hat now, Rose," she
said.

"But you will want a prettier one than that," responded her friend.

"A prettier hat!" Anne's tone seemed to say that she could not imagine
a prettier hat, and she shook her head. "I sha'n't ever want any other
hat