sia" and below it a
beautiful blue place called "Europe." Anna was so delighted and
interested in discovering France, and Africa, the AEgean Sea, and the
British Isles, that she quite forgot where she was. But as she looked at
the very small enclosure marked "England," and then at the long line of
America she suddenly exclaimed: "America need not be afraid."

Mr. Lyon had seated himself at his desk, and at the sound of Anna's
voice he looked up in surprise.

"Why, child! You have been so quiet I had forgotten you. Run out to the
sitting-room to Mrs. Lyon," and Anna obeyed, not forgetting to curtsy as
she left the room.

[Illustration: HOW LONG THE AFTERNOON SEEMED!]

Mrs. Lyon had a basket piled high with work. There were stockings to be
darned, pillow-cases to be neatly repaired, and an apron of stout
drilling to be hemmed. Anna's task was to darn stockings. She was given
Melvina's thimble to use, a smooth wooden ball to slip into the
stocking, and a needle and skein of cotton.

How long the afternoon seemed! Never before had Anna stayed indoors for
the whole of a May afternoon. She felt tired and sleepy, and did not
want to walk about the garden after supper--as Mrs. Lyon kindly
suggested; and not until Mrs. Lyon said that Melvina, on every pleasant
day, walked about the garden after supper, did Anna go slowly down the
path. But she stood at the gate looking in the direction of her home
with wistful eyes.

"Two weeks," she whispered; it seemed so long a time could never pass.
Then she remembered that the next day she would go home for the daily
visit agreed upon.

If the days passed slowly with Anna, to Melvina they seemed only too
short. She had quickly made friends with Rebecca, and the elder girl was
astonished at the daring spirit of the minister's daughter. Melvina
would balance herself on the very edge of the bluff, when she and Rebby,
often followed by a surprised and unhappy Luretta, went for a morning
walk. Or on their trips to the lumber yard for chips Melvina would climb
to the top of some pile of timber and dance about as if trying to make
Rebby frightened lest she fall. She went wading along the shore, and
brought home queerly shaped rocks and tiny mussel-shells; and, as her
father had hoped, her cheeks grew rosy and her eyes bright.

The day set for the erection of the liberty pole was the last day of the
"exchange visit" of the two little girls, and Anna was now sure that
Mrs. Lyon must think