ket, and in a few moments was
following a sandy path which led toward the salt meadows.

She stopped often to pick the yellowing beach-plums, and now and then
tasted one hopefully, expecting to find the sweet pungent flavor which the
children so well loved, but only once or twice did she discover any sign
of ripeness.

"I'll cross the upper marsh," she decided; "'Tis not so shaded there, and
the sun lies warm till late in the day, and the plums are sure to be
sweeter. I hope my father finds many to eat along his journey. I wish I
had told him that it was best for me to go with him. We could have made
little fires at night and cooked a fish, and, with berries to eat, it
would not have been unpleasant."

The July sun beat warmly down, but a little breath of air from the sea
moved steadily across the marshes filled with many pleasant odors. Here
and there big bunches of marsh rosemary made spots of soft violet upon the
brown grass, and now and then little flocks of sand-peeps rose from the
ground and fluttered noisily away. But there was a pleasant midsummer
stillness in the air, and by the time Anne had crossed the marsh and
reached the shade of a low-growing oak tree she began to feel tired and
content to rest a time before continuing her search for ripe beach-plums.

"I wish I had put Martha in the basket," she thought as she leaned
comfortably back against the scrubby trunk of the little tree; "then I
could have something to talk to." But she had not much time to regret her
playmate, for in a second her eyes had closed and she was fast asleep.
There was a movement in the bushes behind her, a breaking of twigs, a soft
fall of padded feet, but she did not awaken.

A big animal with a soft, gray coat of fur, with sharp nose and ears
alertly pointed, came out from the woods, sniffed the soft air cautiously,
and turned his head warily toward the oak tree. The creature was evidently
not alarmed at what he saw there, for he approached the sleeping child
gently, made a noiseless circle about her, and then settled down at her
feet, much as a big dog might have done. His nose rested upon his paws and
his sharp eyes were upon the sleeping child.

In a little while Anne awoke. She had dreamed that Jimmie Starkweather had
led a beautiful, big gray animal to Mistress Stoddard's door, and told her
that it was a wolf that he had tamed; so when she opened her eyes and saw
the animal so near her she did not jump with surprise, but