er and mother were awful rich. They brought her
home in a great big ship! And gave her twelve new dresses and the front
parlor and a brown piano! But she wouldn't stay in any of them! All
she'd stay in was a little old blue silk dress she'd had before she went
away!

Carol and I got excused from school one day because we were afraid our
heads might ache, and went to see what it was all about.

It seemed to be about a great many things.

But after we'd walked all around Annie Halliway twice and looked at her
all we could and asked how old she was and found out that she was
nineteen, we felt suddenly very glad about something.--We felt suddenly
very glad that if she really was obliged to lose anything out of her
face, it was her _mind_ that she lost! Instead of her eyes! Or her nose!
Or her red, red mouth! Or her cunning little ears! _She was so pretty!_

She seemed to like us very much too. She asked us to come again.

We said we would.

We did.

We went every Saturday afternoon.

They let us take her to walk if we were careful. We didn't walk her in
the village because her hair looked so funny. We walked her in the
pleasant fields. We gathered flowers. We gathered ferns. We explored
birds. We built little gurgling harbors in the corners of the brook.
Sometimes we climbed hills and looked off. Annie Halliway seemed to like
to climb hills and look off.

It was the day we climbed the Sumac Hill that we got our Idea!

It was a nice day!

Annie Halliway wore her blue dress! And her blue scarf! Her hair hung
down like two long, loose black ropes across her shoulders! Blue
Larkspur was braided into her hair! And a little tin trumpet tied with
blue ribbon! And a blue Japanese fan! And a blue lead pencil! And a blue
silk stocking! And a blue-handled basket! She looked like a Summer
Christmas Tree. It was pretty.

There were lots of clouds in the sky. They seemed very near. It sort of
puckered your nose.

"Smell the clouds!" said Annie Halliway.

Somebody had cut down a tree that used to be there. It made a lonely
hole in the edge of the hill and the sky. Through the lonely hole in the
edge of the hill and the sky you could see miles and miles. Way down in
the valley a bright light glinted. It was as though the whole sun was
trying to bore a hole in a tiny bit of glass and couldn't do it.

Annie Halliway stretched out her arms towards the glint. And started for
it.

I looked at Carol. Carol looked at me. We k