Anne picked up her thimble and said: “I’m sorry I went to sleep. I sewed only a little.”

“Let me see,” and Mrs. Freeman picked up the dress, and looked at the neatly stitched seams. “These seams are all stitched,” she said smilingly.

Anne looked at them in surprise. “Did you do them?” she asked.

Mrs. Freeman shook her head. “No,” she replied; “you see, I went to sleep, and awoke only a few moments since.”

Anne hardly knew what to make of this, for she was quite sure that she had waked when Rose entered the room.

“P’raps it’s fairies!” said little Millicent hopefully. “Don’t you know about fairies, Anne?” and Millicent came close to Anne and laid the beloved “Martha” in her lap. “I’ll tell you,” she went on, in response to Anne’s puzzled look. “Fairies are little, oh, littler than my thumb. I’ve never seen one, but Caroline’s grandmother saw one, and real good children may see them some time.”

“But how could anything so small sew?” questioned Anne.

“Fairies can do anything!” declared Millicent. “Caroline knows all about them. Let’s go out in the yard where she is sitting with her sewing and get her to tell us a fairy story.”

“Run along,” said Mrs. Freeman. “You see you need not stay in to sew, since the seams are stitched.”

Anne actually forgot “Martha Stoddard,” so that when she jumped up to follow Millicent the wooden doll fell to the floor without either Anne or Millicent heeding it.

Rose smiled as she picked it up. “Fairies are useful little people sometimes,” she said to her mother.

The days went very rapidly. Every morning Anne helped Rose with the household work, and sewed on the garments Mrs. Freeman basted for her. Every day, too, she wrote in the book for Aunt Martha. Rose made tiny sketches on many pages: of a wasp’s nest, of Anne riding “Range,” of Aunt Anne Rose; and here and there were little landscapes. Anne had made up her mind to let Millicent keep the wooden doll, but she sometimes wished that she had left “Martha Stoddard” safe at home in Province Town.

Beside the work there were games of bowls on the green back of the house, and pleasant walks about the town. Rose and Anne had made several visits to Mistress Mason, and Anne had already purchased a fine pewter pitcher to take home to Aunt Martha, and was knitting a warm scarf for Uncle Enos. She had not spent all of her money, and planned to buy a wonderful blue silk sash, which Mistress Mason had shown the girls on one of their visits, as a gift for Amanda. She had sent a letter to Aunt Martha Stoddard by a Province Town fisherman known to the Freemans, and the time was near when “The Yankee Hero,” of which Anne’s father was first mate, was due in Boston.

“Like as not your father’s vessel will bring a fine prize into harbor,” Frederick said one morning as he and Anne were teaching Millicent to bowl, “unless some English frigate has captured her,” he added.

All up and down the coast English vessels were on the alert to seize American ships; but the American vessels were also on the outlook and had captured many of the enemy’s ships.

“They’ll not capture ‘The Yankee Hero,’” declared Anne. “She’s sailed by Province Town sailors,” and Anne gave her head a little toss, as if to say that Province Town sailors were the best in the world, as she indeed thought they were.

Frederick laughed pleasantly. “You think a good deal of that old sand heap,” he replied.

Anne held a ball ready to roll, but at Frederick’s remark she dropped it, and stood looking at him angrily.

“It’s your turn!” he reminded her, looking at her in surprise.

“It’s not an old sand heap. It’s the loveliest place in the world. You can see twice as much salt water there as you can in Boston,” she declared.

“So you can,” agreed Frederick, “but it’s a sand heap just the same. A good place to catch cod, though.”

“Want to see my workshop?” the boy asked when they were all tired of bowling. “Father’s given me some fine pieces of wood, and I’m making a sled for Millicent to play with next winter.”Frederick’s workshop was a corner of the carriage-house, where the fine chaise stood, and he had a work-bench there well supplied with tools, and spent many happy hours over his work.

“I’m going to have a shipyard and build ships,” he told Anne. “See this little model!” and he held up a tiny wooden ship, fully rigged, with a little American flag fastened at the top of the mainmast. “Rose made that flag,” he said proudly. “See, there’s a star for each colony, thirteen of ’em.”

Almost every day Anne and Rose walked to the wharves with Mr. Freeman to hear if there was any news of “The Yankee Hero.” It was the very last day of July when Mr. Freeman said, as they walked down the wharf, “There’s a Province Town schooner in harbor, Anne—‘The Sea Gull.’ She came for a new mainsail and will probably sail when the tide serves. There’s a boat from her now, headed for my wharf.”

Anne did not know that Amos Cary was on board the “Sea Gull,” but she was eager to see any one who came from the place Frederick had called “the old sand heap,” and watched the boat from the schooner as it came swiftly toward the Freeman wharf.

“Oh!” she exclaimed suddenly, and ran further out on the pier, quickly followed by Rose. “It looks just like Amos Cary’s head. Do you suppose it is?” she asked turning to Rose.

“If it is, Amos is probably with it,” Rose answered laughingly. “I suppose Amos is Amanda’s brother, who came to Brewster with you. Is it that red-headed boy sitting in the bow?”

“Yes, yes!” answered Anne, fairly jumping up and down in her excitement.

Amos was now near enough to recognize Anne, and took off his cap and waved it gaily. The boat drew up to the wharf, but Amos did not jump out as Anne expected.

“I can’t,” he explained. “Father told Captain Nash not to let me set foot on shore,” and Amos grinned as if he was delighted at what his father thought would be discipline. “I’m going to be on the ‘Sea Gull’ for months; maybe a whole year! Isn’t that fine?”

“Jump out, Amos,” said Captain Nash.

“But father said I wasn’t to step foot on shore,” responded the surprised boy.“Unless I told you to,” added the captain, and Amos scrambled up onto the wharf a little disappointed at the permission. “Mr. Freeman has invited you to dinner,” added the captain, “but you must be here at the wharf at two sharp.”

“Yes, indeed, sir,” Amos answered promptly, looking back almost reluctantly toward the boat.

“Born for a sailor,” the captain said to Mr. Freeman, as Amos walked with Anne and Rose toward the Freemans’ house. He answered Anne’s questions about Aunt Martha, Uncle Enos, Amanda and the Starkweathers, and listened to her account of the wonderful journey to Boston.

“Wasn’t it great to be shut up in that dark room!” he exclaimed, when Anne told him of Bill Mains’ mistake. “Wish I’d been there. But maybe the ‘Sea Gull’ will run afoul of a pirate ship before long,” he concluded hopefully.

When Anne introduced him to Mrs. Freeman Amos took off his cap and bowed very politely, as he had noticed Captain Nash do. Frederick and he became friends instantly, and Amos was taken out to the workshop to see the model ship which had the American flag fastened to its mainmast, and he listened to Frederick’s plans for building ships approvingly.

“Maybe I’ll sail one of your vessels for you,” he said. “I’m going to learn navigation. I’m not planning to be on shore much after this, I can tell you.”

Frederick listened enviously; he thought Amos was a very fortunate boy to be going for a year’s voyage on the “Sea Gull.”