Part 3 (1/2)

”Nabby,” said she confidentially to the old servant woether after supper, ”ould they do, if anybody shouldn't let thes--if they hid some of 'em away, I mean?”

”They'd make a dretful tie, stern-looking old wos They hev to be”

Ann was scared when she heard that When the dishes were done, she sat down on the settle and thought it over, and , in the frosty dawning, before the rest of the faure could have been seen speeding across lots toward Mr Silas White's She had the old blue jacket tucked under her ar out of the back door with a ht

He stopped, and stared, when Ann ran up to him

”Mr White,” said she, all breathless, ”here's--souess yer didn't see yesterday”

Mr White set down the milk pail, took the blue jacket which she handed hiht of the lantern

”I guess we _didn't_ see it,” said he, finally

”I will put it down--it's worth about three pence, I judge Where”--

”Silas, Silas!” called a shrill voice from the house Silas White dropped the jacket and trotted briskly in, his lantern bobbing agitatedly He never delayed a moment when his wife called; important and tyrannical as the little man was abroad, he had his own tyrant at home

Ann did not wait for him to return; she snatched up the blue jacket and fled ho like a little deer over the hoary fields She hung up the precious old jacket behind the shed-door again, and no one ever knew the whole story of its entrance in the inventory If she had been questioned, she would have told the truth boldly, though But Samuel Wales' Inventory had for its last item that blue jacket, spelled after Silas White's own individuallist Silas White consulted his own taste with respect to capital letters too

After a feeeks, Grandain; and back she went Grandma was very feeble lately, and everybody huirl leave her She said it onderful how much she had improved But she would not have ad to the different influence she had been under; she said Ann had outgrown herafter this however Mrs Polly had her bound girl at her own disposal in a year's ti while after Grandold beads round her neck, and a sad ache in her heart The dear old woiven theht be no lad Ann had theirl,” said she; ”she set enough sight ain, after a while Affairs in Mrs Polly's house were hter for her, in some ways, than they had ever been before

Either the hot iron of affliction had smoothed some of the puckers out of her , naturally, less sharp and dictatorial Anyway, she was beco with Ann as it was in her nature to be, and Ann, following her ior, and never bestowed a thought on past unpleasantness

For the next two years, Ann's position in the fahter If it had not been for the indentures lying serenely in that tall wooden desk, she would alirl

One spring afternoon, when Ann was about sixteen years old, her mistress called her solemnly into the fore-room ”Ann,” said she, ”coly; and Ann, as she obeyed, felt awed There was so there in the fore-rooh posts and flowered-chintz curtains, the best chest of drawers, and the best chairs, Ann listened to what Mrs Polly had to tell her It was a plan which almost took her breath away; for it was this: Mrs Polly proposed to adopt her, and change her nairl; but Ann Wales, and a daughter in her mother's home

Ann dropped into one of the best chairs, and sat there, her little dark face very pale ”Should I have the--_papers?_” she gasped at length

”Your papers? Yes, child, you can have them”

”I don't want them!” cried Ann, ”never I want them to stay just where they are, till my time is out If I am adopted, I don't want the papers!”

Mrs Polly stared She had never kno Ann had taken the indentures with her on her run-away trip years ago; but now Ann told her the whole story In her gratitude to herago in Ann's childhood, it did not seem so very dreadful to Mrs Polly, probably But Ann insisted on the indentures re in the desk, even after the papers of adoption were o a little way toward satisfying her conscience This adoption al hoht in a comfortable property in the future Mrs Polly Wales was considered very well off She was a smart business-woman, and kne to take care of her property too She still hired Phineas Adams to carry on the blacks just as her husband had Neither she nor Ann were afraid of work, and Ann Wales used to milk the cows, and escort them to and fro in spring time when Ann was adopted, and Mrs Polly fulfilled her part of the contract in the indentures by getting the Sunday suit therein spoken of