ether,--Captain Enos bound for
the shore, and Anne started for Mistress Starkweather's to thank her for
the coral beads.

"Be a good child," said Captain Enos, as he turned from the path and left
Anne to go on alone.

As the little girl came near the spring, she saw a man rolling a water
cask toward it, and toward the shore she could see several other men, whom
she knew came from the British ship. She looked closely at the man at the
spring, and as she passed near him, noticed that his hair was red. He
smiled and nodded as Anne went by, and then she saw that he had pleasant
blue eyes, and she stopped and said: "Have you forgotten the little girl
you saved from the Indians?"

"No, indeed!" replied the big man heartily; "and so you are John Nelson's
little girl. And you are not afraid of a Britisher?"

"Oh, no!" said Anne, in surprise; "you have two little maids in England."

"That I have, safe with their mother. But I should like well to see their
bright faces, and your father would like to see you, child. You do not
forget him?"

"No," said Anne soberly. "We plan to write him a letter for you to take."

"Speak not so loud," cautioned the man; "the other sailors may hear. And
get your letter ready soon, for, come a fair wind, we'll be off up the
coast again to Boston Harbor."

"Do your little girls write you letters?" asked Anne.

The big man shook his head. "No, they are not yet taught to write," he
said. "It may be I'll be sailing back come spring, and then I'll tell them
about the little maid I saw in Province Town."

"Tell them my name is Anne," said she eagerly. "I wish I could go to
Boston and find my father. I must hurry now, but I wish I knew the names
of your little girls."

"They have good names," said the big man. "Each one is named for a
grandmother. One is Betsey and the other Hannah."

"I'll remember," said Anne, and she said "Good-bye" and went quickly on
toward Mrs. Starkweather's.

"I do wish I could go and find my father," she thought as she walked
along. "I know he'd like to see me better than a letter. I wish I had
asked William Trull to take me in the big ship. But maybe Aunt Martha
would not wish me to ask him."

All day Anne thought about the letter that Captain Enos had promised to
write for her; and when supper was over and the kitchen began to grow
dusky with the shadows of the October evening, she ran out to the little
shed and came tugging in a big root of pine.

"May I put