ll come
straight back and say no word of my errand."

"'Tis the best possible way. Did I not say that you were a wise child!"
declared Captain Enos, his face beaming with delight. "Put on your pretty
hat and cape, and follow that lane up to the main road. Then ask for
Squire Coffin's house of the first person you meet."

In a few moments Anne was ready to start. As she walked up the lane
Captain Enos's eyes followed her anxiously. "I can see no danger in it for
the child," he said aloud, and then, sailor fashion, set about putting his
boat in order.

"'twill be a cold night, but the cabin will be snug and warm," he thought.
"I'll get out of here before sunset and maybe make Province Town by
daybreak."

Anne walked up the pleasant lane. Her feet sank deep in the leaves from
the overarching trees, and made a cheerful, crackling sound. She could see
the roofs of houses not far away, and as she turned from the lane into a
road she met two girls not much larger than herself. They looked at her
curiously, and when Anne stopped they smiled in a friendly way.

"Would you please to tell me where I can find Squire Coffin?" Anne asked,
feeling very brave and a little important.

"Squire Coffin is my uncle," the larger of the two girls replied. "I'm
going there now."

"I have an errand," Anne explained.

"Oh!" responded both the little girls, but Anne could see that they
wondered who this strange little girl could be, and what her errand was.

"You may come with us if you want to," Squire Coffin's niece said, and
Anne was very glad to walk with these silent little girls, for neither of
them spoke again until they stopped in front of a tall, square white house
very near the street. As Anne looked up at it she thought that she had
never seen so many windows before in one house. "That's Uncle Coffin on
the porch," explained his niece.

"Thank you," said Anne, and as the two little girls politely curtseyed she
endeavored to imitate them, and with apparent success. Then she went up
the stone steps toward the dignified looking gentleman who stood in the
doorway.

She held the packet under her cape, and as she came near him she
whispered, as Captain Enos had told her to do, "This is from Boston."

"Great George!" he exclaimed grabbing the package, in what seemed a very
rude manner to Anne, and putting it quickly in his pocket, "and how came
you by it?"

But Anne remembered her promise to keep quiet, and she also remembered