large as Millicent, and my mother had died, and my father and I were
all alone, he made me that wooden doll! I never had anything else to
play with until I went to live with Aunt Martha. It isn't just a doll,
Rose; it's--why, it's most like a real person," and Anne's voice sounded
as if it was hard work to keep back the tears.

"You ought to have told me before," replied Rose kindly. "You see,
Millicent is too little to understand, and we all love her and don't
like to make her unhappy. 'Martha' is all right, and you shall have her
safely back, dear," and Rose's voice was even more kind and friendly
than usual as she told Anne of the new doll that Fred was making for
Millicent.

"A new doll!" exclaimed Millicent happily, and could hardly wait for the
time when Fred would finish it.

"So there goes my great secret!" laughed Rose. Anne was looking quite
her happy self again, and Millicent was skipping along quite forgetting
that she had ever wanted the wooden doll from Province Town.

"I don't believe I like secrets anyway," continued Rose; "let's go back
to the carriage-house and watch Fred make the new doll, and I'll bring
out the clothes I have made to dress it."

Frederick looked up from his work in surprise when the girls entered the
carriage-house. "Thought it was a secret!" he exclaimed.

"No more secrets in this family," declared Rose.

"Glad to hear it. Now I can know what's going to happen to me,"
responded Fred.

"Of course you can. Father has to go to Salem next week and he is going
to take you with him."

"Nothing will happen in driving to Salem in the morning and back at
night," said Frederick, a little scornfully.

"Wait and see!" and Rose nodded so hopefully that Frederick wondered to
himself if she had really told him all she knew about his father's
plans.

While the children were in the carriage-house they heard the clatter of
horses' hoofs on the driveway.

"Look!" exclaimed Frederick. "There's a man and a woman riding into our
yard. Why, the woman is riding that black colt that brought you home."

But Rose and Anne had not waited for the end of Frederick's exclamation.
Looking out they had seen the pretty black colt, and on its back a
slight figure in a brown dress sitting very straight indeed, and wearing
a hat of plaited straw with a brown ribbon--a hat exactly like the one
Anne was so proud of.

There was a chorus of "Aunt Anne Rose! Aunt Anne Rose!" in which
Millicent and Freder