tle
animals who live in hollow logs or burrow under rocks, and about the
different birds and their nests! Oh, begin quickly, for my father may
soon return," and she drew Anna toward the big log that lay near the
path.

"Tell her about our rabbits, Danna," suggested Luretta. "My brother Paul
brought me two little gray rabbits from the forest," she explained; and
Melvina listened eagerly to the description of Trit and Trot, and of
their cunning ways and bright eyes, and was told that they had already
lost their fear of Luretta and Anna.

"I wish I could see them. I have never seen any little animals except
kittens," said Melvina. It seemed to Melvina that Anna and Luretta were
very fortunate children. They could run about in old clothes, play on
the shore and among the piles of lumber, and they knew many strange and
interesting things about the creatures of the forest which she had
never before heard. The long lessons that she had to learn each morning,
the stint of neat stitches that she had to set each day, and the
ceremonious visits now and then, when she always had to take her
knitting, and was cautioned by her anxious mother to "remember that she
was a minister's daughter, and behave properly, and set a good
example"--all these things flitted through Melvina's thoughts as
tiresome tasks that she would like to escape, and be free as Anna seemed
to be.

"Mayn't I bring the rabbits down here for Melvina to see?" asked Anna.
"The box would not be very heavy."

But Luretta had objections to this plan. Her brother had told her not to
move the box from the sunny corner near the shed; and, beside this, she
was sure it was too heavy for Anna to lift. "If you should let it fall
they might get out and run away," she concluded. Then, noticing Anna's
look of disappointment, she added: "I know what you may do, Danna. You
and Melvina may go up and see the rabbits, and I will wait here for
Parson Lyon and tell him where Melvina is, and that we will see her
safely home; and then I will hurry after you."

"Oh! Yes, indeed; that is a splendid plan," said Melvina eagerly,
jumping up from the log. "Let us go now, Anna. And is not Luretta kind
to think of it?"

Anna agreed rather soberly. Mrs. Foster had told them to remain near the
log, she remembered, but if Melvina saw no harm in Luretta's plan she
was sure it must be right; so taking Melvina's hand they started off.

"Let's run, Anna," urged Melvina; for Anna was walking seda