room and opened only when company was
asked to tea, or when some distinguished person came to call.

Rose turned the brass knob, pushed open the white-paneled door and
tiptoed into the shadowy room. "Come in, Anne!" she called, and Anne
followed. She had not seen this room when she had visited the Freemans
with Uncle Enos two years before.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, half fearfully, as her feet sank into the soft
carpet. Then she stood quite still until Rose had opened the paneled
inside shutters at one of the large windows. She looked about her in
wonder. Directly opposite the door was a fireplace with a high white
mantel and over the mantel was the portrait of a very old lady who
seemed to be smiling straight at Anne.

"Come in," Rose repeated, with a little laugh of pleasure at Anne's
evident admiration, and she led her little visitor toward the front of
the room where a long mirror, from ceiling to floor, was fastened
against the wall between the two windows. "Look at yourself, Anne. You
can see the room afterward," she said, and Anne looked into the mirror
and smiled, for she saw a little dark-eyed girl with smoothly braided
hair, wearing a hat of plaited straw with a brown ribbon, and a dress of
brown linen with a pretty frill at the neck. She looked down admiringly
at her white stockings and new shoes, and then twisted her head in the
hope of seeing the back of this neat little girl. She quite forgot the
soft carpet, and the shining tables and cushioned chairs.

"I do wish Amanda could see me," she said; "she'd be real glad I had
these fine things."

CHAPTER XII

A WONDERFUL DAY

Anne held Rose's hand very tightly as they walked along. It seemed to
the little girl that all the people of the town were out walking up and
down the streets. Now and then there would be a clatter of hoofs over
the cobblestone pavements and Anne would look up to see a man go by on
horseback. And Mrs. Freeman told her to notice a fine coach drawn by two
horses, that stood in front of the very shop they were about to enter.

"If I spend a guinea for clothes will it not be enough?" Anne
questioned, as Mrs. Freeman asked a smiling clerk to show them blue
dimity.

"Why, yes, Anne; I think we can manage very nicely with a guinea,"
responded Mrs. Freeman, who meant to supply Anne with many needful
things from her own stores. "Do you wish to save one?"

Anne shook her head. "No," she responded, "but I want to buy a grand
present