loyally, but there was a
note of anxiety in her voice; "as you said yourself, Enos, she's a good
child."

"I'll not be keeping her if it proves true," declared the man stubbornly.
"True it is that they ask no military duty of any man in Province Town,
but we're loyal folk just the same. We may have to barter with the British
to save our poor lives, instead of turning guns on them as we should; but
no man shall say that I took in a British spy's child and cared for it."

"They'd but say you did a Christian deed at the most," said his wife.
"You're not a hard man, Enos."

"I'll not harbor a traitor's child," he insisted, and Mrs. Stoddard went
sorrowfully to bed and lay sleepless through the long night, trying to
think of some plan to keep Anne Nelson safe and well cared for until
peaceful days should come again.

And Anne, too, lay long awake, wondering what she could do to protect the
little brown cow which now rested so securely on the further side of the
hill.

CHAPTER II

ANNE WINS A FRIEND

"Come, Anne," called Mrs. Stoddard at so early an hour the next morning
that the June sun was just showing itself above the eastern horizon.

"Yes, Mistress Stoddard," answered the little girl promptly, and in a few
minutes she came down the steep stairs from the loft.

"It is early to call you, child," said the good woman kindly, "but the
captain has made an early start for the fishing grounds, and I liked not
to leave you alone in the house in these troublous times; and so eat your
porridge and we'll go and milk Brownie."

Anne hastened to obey; and in a few moments the two were making their way
up the slope through the fragrant bayberry bushes, and breathing in the
sweet morning air. No one else seemed astir in the little settlement. Now
and then a flutter of some wild bird would betray that they had stepped
near some low-nesting bird; and the air was full of the morning songs and
chirrupings of robins, red-winged blackbirds, song sparrows, and of many
sea-loving birds which built their nests among the sand-hills, but found
their food upon the shore.

Anne noticed all these things as they walked along, but her thoughts were
chiefly occupied with other things. There was one question she longed to
ask Mrs. Stoddard, yet almost feared to ask. As they reached the summit of
the hill and turned for a look at the beautiful harbor she gained courage
and spoke:

"Mistress Stoddard, will you please to tell me wha