Part 12 (2/2)

”I think he will scold, Tommy--he was awfully angry--but your mother will be so pleased.”

”It was horrid sleeping out at night and tramping days.” Tommy was unburdening his soul. It was so easy to tell things to gentle, sympathetic Anne. ”And the men around the wharf were so rough--”

”I am sure you won't want to go again,” said little Anne, ”not for a long time, Tommy.”

Tommy looked around cautiously. He didn't want Judy to hear, somehow.

He was afraid of her teasing laugh. Then he leaned down close to Anne's ear:

”I'll stay here for awhile, Anne.”

”I'm so glad, Tommy,” said Anne, with a sigh of relief.

But as they drove into the great gateway, and the lights from the big house shone out in welcome, Tommy sighed:

”But I would like to find a treasure island, Anne,” he said.

CHAPTER VIII

A WHITE SUNDAY

Anne was feeling very important. She was wrapped in a pale blue kimona of Judy's, and she had had her breakfast in bed!

Piled up ten deep at her side were books--a choice collection from the Judge's bookcases, into which she dipped here and there with sighs of deep content and antic.i.p.ation.

At the end of the room was a mirror, and Anne could just see herself in it. It was a distracting vision, for Judy had done Anne's hair up that morning, and had puffed it out over her ears and had tied it with broad black ribbon, and this effect, in combination with the sweeping blue robe, made Anne feel as interesting as the heroine of a book--and she had never expected that!

Judy in a rose-pink kimona lay on the couch, looking out of the window.

The peace of the Sabbath was upon the world; and the house was very still.

Suddenly with a ”click” and a ”whirr-rr,” the doors of the little carved clock on the wall new open and a cuckoo came out and piped ten warning notes.

”Goodness,” cried Anne, and shut her book with a bang, ”it is almost church time, and we aren't dressed.”

But Judy did not move. ”We are not going to church,” she said, lazily.

Not going to church! Anne faced Judy in amazement. Never since she could remember had she stayed away from church--except when she had had the measles and the mumps!

”I told grandfather last night that we should be too tired,” explained Judy, ”and he won't expect us to go.”

”Oh,” said Anne, and picked up her book, luxuriating in the prospect of a whole morning in which to read.

She wasn't quite comfortable, however. She was not a bit tired, and she had never felt better in her life--and yet she was staying away from church.

But the book she had opened was a volume of d.i.c.kens' Christmas stories, and in three minutes she was carried away from the little town of Fairfax to the heart of old London, and from the warmth of spring to the bitterness of winter, as she listened with Toby Veck to the music of the chimes that rang from the belfry tower.

It seemed only a part of the tale, therefore, when the bell of Fairfax church pealed out the first warning of the Sunday service to all the countryside.

<script>