land now stretched out as if to welcome the returning
voyagers, and the sloop ran in beside the little pier just as Captain
Enos and Jimmie Starkweather came down the beach.

"Been watching your craft since sunup," declared Uncle Enos. "What's
kept you in Boston so long, Starkweather? We began to worry about you,
John, and feared some ill news of our little maid."

Anne did not wait to hear her father tell the story of their great
adventure, but ran swiftly up the path toward home. Aunt Martha was
standing in the doorway, and as Anne saw the loving smile and felt the
kind arms encircle her she was indeed sure that this was home, and that
the most fortunate thing that had ever befallen her had been the welcome
Aunt Martha had given her two years before, when she had come to that
very door asking for shelter.

How much there was to tell! And how Aunt Martha exclaimed over the
adventures of her little maid, and thanked heaven that she was safely
back in Province Town.

Then when Uncle Enos and John Nelson came up the path, each wheeling a
barrow filled with the fine gifts that Anne and her father had brought
home, then indeed did Mistress Stoddard declare that it was enough to
make one believe in good fairies. And that reminded Anne of Caroline's
story, which she had written down in the book.

Captain Enos put on his glasses and looked the book over admiringly.

"It should be in print," he declared; "this book is the finest thing of
all, Anne. 'Twould be an excellent idea, Martha, for us to ask the
neighborhood in to hear it read."

But Mrs. Stoddard shook her head, and said Anne must not think too well
of what, after all, was Miss Rose Freeman's book as much as it was
Anne's. "You must not overpraise our little maid," she warned Captain
Enos reprovingly. But the book was ever one of Mistress Stoddard's most
valued treasures, and was kept with "Pilgrim's Progress" in the big
chest.

It was late in the afternoon before all the dishes, pewter, the fine new
table-cloths, and the pretty brown cloth for Mistress Stoddard's new
gown, were unpacked.

"This package is for Amanda," Anne said, holding up a good-sized bundle.

"For Amanda, indeed!" exclaimed Mistress Stoddard. "I'm not too sure
that she deserves it. 'Twas she that sent you out into the night,
thinking your Aunt Martha hard-hearted and unfair. And now a fine
present for her--I do not know about it."

"Oh, Aunt Martha, Amanda didn't mean to," pleaded Anne,