The long “arm” of land now stretched out as if to welcome the returning voyagers, and the sloop ran in beside the little pier just as Captain Enos and Jimmie Starkweather came down the beach.
“Been watching your craft since sunup,” declared Uncle Enos. “What’s kept you in Boston so long, Starkweather? We began to worry about you, John, and feared some ill news of our little maid.”
Anne did not wait to hear her father tell the story of their great adventure, but ran swiftly up the path toward home. Aunt Martha was standing in the doorway, and as Anne saw the loving smile and felt the kind arms encircle her she was indeed sure that this was home, and that the most fortunate thing that had ever befallen her had been the welcome Aunt Martha had given her two years before, when she had come to that very door asking for shelter.
How much there was to tell! And how Aunt Martha exclaimed over the adventures of her little maid, and thanked heaven that she was safely back in Province Town.
Then when Uncle Enos and John Nelson came up the path, each wheeling a barrow filled with the fine gifts that Anne and her father had brought home, then indeed did Mistress Stoddard declare that it was enough to make one believe in good fairies. And that reminded Anne of Caroline’s story, which she had written down in the book.
Captain Enos put on his glasses and looked the book over admiringly.
“It should be in print,” he declared; “this book is the finest thing of all, Anne. ’Twould be an excellent idea, Martha, for us to ask the neighborhood in to hear it read.”
But Mrs. Stoddard shook her head, and said Anne must not think too well of what, after all, was Miss Rose Freeman’s book as much as it was Anne’s. “You must not overpraise our little maid,” she warned Captain Enos reprovingly. But the book was ever one of Mistress Stoddard’s most valued treasures, and was kept with “Pilgrim’s Progress” in the big chest.
It was late in the afternoon before all the dishes, pewter, the fine new table-cloths, and the pretty brown cloth for Mistress Stoddard’s new gown, were unpacked.
“This package is for Amanda,” Anne said, holding up a good-sized bundle.