my seeing any one but my husband and the boys. Now we'll sit
down here and you tell me all about your journey."

"It's just like a story!" declared Mrs. Pierce, when they had finished.
"And now you are going to Boston, and you will see the streets and
shops, and churches." She gave a little sigh as she finished, and Anne
and Rose wished that it was possible for Mrs. Pierce to go to Boston
with them.

"I don't suppose you could mark out a little plan of Boston, could you?"
she said to Rose. "I like to imagine things to myself when I'm here
alone, and if I knew how the streets went, and where you lived, why, I
could say to myself, 'To-day Rose and Anne are going up King Street
toward the State House, and up Long-acre Street to the Common,' and it
would seem almost as if I saw you when I looked at the plan."

"Yes, I think I could," said Rose, and Mrs. Pierce brought a sheet of
paper and a red crayon from a big desk in the corner and laid them on
the table.

Mrs. Pierce and Anne watched Rose mark out the Common and the Mall. "The
Mall is where the fine people walk in the afternoon," she said. "Mr.
Hancock's mansion is right here, on Beacon Hill, where you get a fine
view across the Charles River to Charlestown."

Then she marked Copp's Hill. "This is where the British had their guns
when the great battle was fought at Bunker Hill," she said.

Mrs. Pierce listened eagerly. "I can 'most see it all!" she exclaimed.
"Now show me where your house is," and Rose made a little square for her
home.

"We are nearer the harbor than many houses are," she explained, "for my
father owns a wharf, and it is convenient to be where he can see boats
and vessels coming in."

The girls had been so interested, Rose in drawing and explaining, and
Anne in listening, that time passed very rapidly, and when Rose finished
Mrs. Pierce opened the door of a queer little cupboard beside the
chimney and took out a small square box.

"My! Is that a gold box!" exclaimed Anne admiringly, for the box shone
and glittered in the light.

"If it was I wouldn't keep it these days, when our poor soldiers need
food and clothes," replied Mrs. Pierce; "it is brass, one my grandfather
brought from France." As she spoke she lifted the cover and took out two
little cases of brown leather, and handed one to Rose and the other to
Anne. "Open the little clasps," she said.

The girls obeyed, and as the little cases opened they exclaimed
admiringly, for each ca