g for Boston, and I
want to go out and sleep in the cabin to-night. Then I will keep as quiet
as I can till he is nearly in Boston, and then I will tell him all about
it, and he will take me to see my father."

Jimmie shook his head.

"Doesn't Captain Enos want you to go?" he asked.

"He says I may go next spring," answered Anne, "but if you row me out to
the sloop, Jimmie, 'twould be no harm. You could tell Aunt Martha
to-morrow, and I would soon be home. But 'Tis a long time since I saw my
father. You see yours every day."

There was a little sob in Anne's throat and Jimmie wondered if she was
going to cry. He hoped she wouldn't.

"Jump into the dory," he said. "I'll get a good lesson from my father,
I'll warrant, for this; but jump in. And mind you tell Captain Enos that I
told you to go home, but that you would not."

"Yes, Jimmie," said Anne, putting her shoes and stockings into the boat,
and then climbing in herself. The boy sprang in after her, pushed off the
dory, and in a short time had reached the sloop.

"Now go straight to the cabin and shut the door," cautioned Jimmie, and
Anne obeyed, creeping into the top bunk and pulling a rough blanket over
her.

She heard the sound of Jimmie's oars, as he pulled toward shore, felt the
motion of the tide, as the big sloop rose and fell, and soon was asleep
and dreaming that her father and William Trull were calling her a brave
little maid.

Jimmie had many misgivings after he reached shore, and made up his mind to
go straight to Captain Stoddard and tell him of Anne's plan. Then he
remembered that Anne had trusted him with her secret. "I guess I'll have
to let her go," he decided.

CHAPTER XIII

ANNE FINDS HER FATHER

It was just daybreak when Captain Enos, carrying a basket of provisions
for his cruise, made his way to the shore and pushed off his dory.

"Not a soul stirring," he said, as he stepped aboard the sloop, fastened
the dory, which he intended to tow, and then carried the basket of food to
the little cabin.

As he pushed open the door Anne awoke, but she did not stir, and Captain
Enos did not look in the direction of the upper bunk. She heard him
hoisting the big mainsail, then came the rattle of the anchor chain, the
sloop swung round, and Anne knew that at last she was really on her way to
find her father.

"I must keep very still," she whispered to herself, "or Uncle Enos might
'bout ship and sail straight back to Province Town,