r eye, looking straight, and getting the right swing,"
he said.

Anne's first ball did not go half the proper distance, but she kept on
trying, and before dinner time could send a ball nearly as well as
Frederick himself.

"It's fun," she declared. Her face was flushed with the exercise, and
her eyes shining with pleasure. For the moment she had forgotten all
about the wooden doll. She and Frederick stopped in the sink-room to
wash their hands before going in to dinner.

"Anne plays a good game of bowls," said Frederick, as they took their
places at the table.

"I want to bowl," exclaimed little Millicent.

"You can, any time you want to," said Frederick, with his pleasant
smile. "I'll show you after dinner when Rose and Anne are sewing."

Anne thought to herself that the family all wanted Millicent to do
everything she wanted to, and she remembered "Martha," and wondered what
Millicent had done with her beloved doll, but did not dare ask. They
were all pleasant and kind to Anne, but she felt as if Rose did not look
at her quite as kindly as usual.

"I have your blue dimity all basted, my dear," Mrs. Freeman said to
Anne as they left the dining-room, "and you can sit with me and stitch
up the seams this afternoon. Rose is to help Caroline with some
cooking."

Anne felt rather glad of this, for she dreaded having Rose say something
about the happening of the morning. Mrs. Freeman led the way to her
pleasant chamber. A little rush-bottomed rocking-chair stood near one of
the windows.

"You may sit in the little chair, Anne; that is where Rose always sits.
Now let's see if this will fit your thimble-finger," and Mrs. Freeman
held out a little shining steel thimble, and fitted it on Anne's finger.
"It's just right," she said. "That is a little present for you, Anne; to
go with the work-case that Mrs. Pierce gave you."

"Thank you," said Anne in a very low voice, looking at the pretty
thimble, and wondering if Rose had told her mother about her trying to
take the wooden doll from Millicent. "I'll always keep it," she said,
looking up into the friendly face.

"Here is your work, my dear. Now set your stitches right along the
basting, and set them evenly and as small as possible," and Mrs. Freeman
handed Anne the strips of dimity. "But about your thimble, Anne," she
continued. "I shall be better pleased if some time, when you perhaps
have a thimble of silver, or have outgrown this one, you will give it to
some o