"It is about this evening," said Mrs. Stoddard; "I am going to make a fine dish of mola.s.ses candy!"

"Oh, Aunt Martha!" "Oh, Mistress Stoddard!" exclaimed the little girls together.

"It has been years since I tasted any myself," went on Mrs. Stoddard, "but I remember well how it is made; and I do not believe one of you children has ever tasted it."

"My mother has told us about it," said Amanda, "and said that when times were better she would make us some."

"We all need cheering up," said Mrs. Stoddard, "and I am glad I can give you children a treat to remember. Now, Amanda, you see why it will be best not to eat your barley sugar until Sunday."

"I have good times every day since I gave you the white kitten," said Amanda, as she bade Anne good-bye, and started for home.

"We must bring all our chairs into the kitchen to-night, Anne," said Aunt Martha, as soon as supper was finished, "for even then I doubt if there be seats enough for our company."

"I had best bring in my long bench from the shed," said Captain Enos; "'twill be just the thing to put a row of Starkweather boys on."

"The youngest is but two years old," said Mrs. Stoddard; "'Tis like he will find our bed a good resting place."

Mr. and Mrs. Cary with Amos and Amanda were the first to arrive, and as they came in Captain Enos put two big pieces of pitch pine on the fire. In a moment it blazed up making the kitchen as light as day.

The Starkweathers, climbing up the sandy hill, saw the bright light shining through the windows of the little house, and Mrs. Starkweather exclaimed:

"Does it not look cheerful? To think of us all coming to a merrymaking! It was surely a kind thought of Mistress Stoddard's."

"Shall we play games?" asked Daniel, the boy next younger than Jimmie.

"It may be," answered his mother, "and you boys must be quiet and not rough in your play. Remember there is a little girl in the house."

The youngest Starkweather boy, carried carefully by his father, was sound asleep when they reached the Stoddards', and was put comfortably down on Mrs. Stoddard's big bed, while the others gathered around the fire.

"Sit you here, boys," directed Captain Enos, pointing to the long bench, "and you girls can bring your stools beside me. I have a fine game for you to play. Do you see this shining bra.s.s b.u.t.ton? 'twas given me in Boston, and came from the coat of a British soldier. Now we will play 'b.u.t.ton'

with it," and the captain, with a few whispered words to Jimmie Starkweather, slid the shining b.u.t.ton into his hand, and "b.u.t.ton, b.u.t.ton!

who's got the b.u.t.ton?" was soon being laughingly asked from one to another as the bra.s.s b.u.t.ton went from Jimmie to Amos, pa.s.sed into Anne's hand and swiftly on to Amanda, and back to Jimmie before Captain Enos could locate it.

"Look!" exclaimed one of the younger Starkweather boys. "Mistress Stoddard is pouring syrup into a kettle!"

"Yes, my boy," said Captain Enos laughingly, "and now you will all be glad that I had a good trip to Boston, for I brought home a keg of fine mola.s.ses, and now you will have some first-cla.s.s candy!"

There were many exclamations of surprise and pleasure, even the older members of the party declaring that it would indeed be a fine treat; and Mrs. Starkweather said that it reminded her of the times when she was a little girl like Anne, and her mother made candy for her.

The mola.s.ses boiled and bubbled in the big kettle hung over the fire, and Mrs. Stoddard and Mrs. Cary took turns in stirring it. The children brought dippers of cold water for spoonfuls of the hot mola.s.ses to be dropped in to see if it had begun to candy; and when Amanda lifted a stringy bit from her tin cup and held it up for Mrs. Stoddard to see, it was decided that it was cooked enough, and the kettle was lifted from the fire and the steaming, fragrant ma.s.s turned into carefully b.u.t.tered pans.

"We must set these out-of-doors to cool," said Mrs. Stoddard; so Jimmie, Amos and Daniel were each entrusted with a pan to carry out on the broad step.

"When it is cool we will all work it," said Mrs. Stoddard; "that means pull and twist it into sticks."

It did not take long for the candy to cool, and then under Mrs. Stoddard's directions each child was given a piece to work into shape. But the candy proved too tempting to work over, and in a few minutes the long bench was filled with a row of boys, each one happily chewing away upon a clumsy piece of mola.s.ses candy.

CHAPTER XV

A SPRING PICNIC

Before the six weeks of school came to an end Anne could read, and could write well enough to begin a letter to her father, although there seemed no chance of sending it. She thought often of her visit to Newburyport, and wondered if she would ever see Squire Coffin's little niece again. And she remembered William Trull, and his little daughters of whom he had told her. But no news had come to Province Town of how Boston was faring.

A few weeks after Captain Enos's trip to Boston another Province Town fisherman had started out with a cargo of fish, hoping for equal good fortune. But weeks pa.s.sed and he did not return, and no tidings were heard of him, and his family and neighbors now feared that the British had captured his boat and taken him prisoner.

No word came to Anne from her father, and as the ice formed along the sh.o.r.e and over the brooks, the cold winds came sweeping in from sea with now and then a fall of snow that whitened the marshes and the woods, the little settlement on the end of Cape Cod was entirely shut off from news from Boston, and they knew not what the British were doing.

Captain Enos and the men of the port went fishing in the harbor, and the women and children kept snug at home in the little houses.

Captain Enos had finished the cedar chair for Anne's doll, and Amos had made one as near like it as possible for Amanda's "Lovely Anne." Both the little girls could now knit nearly as smoothly as Mrs. Stoddard herself, and almost every day Amanda came up to Mrs. Stoddard's, for she and Anne were reading "Pilgrim's Progress" together. Now and then Mrs. Stoddard would read several pages aloud of the adventures of Christian, while the two little girls knit. Anne had a warm hood of gray and scarlet yarn which she had knit herself, and mittens to match, so that she could go to church on Sundays, and run down to Mrs. Starkweather's or to see Amanda without being chilled by the cold.

It was a mild day late in February when Jimmie Starkweather brought home a pink blossom from the woods.

"See, mother! The first Mayflower," he exclaimed. "I found it half under the snow. Does it not smell sweet?"

"It does indeed, son," replied Mrs. Starkweather; "bring me your grandmother's pink china cup from the cupboard, fill it with cool water, and we will put the blossom on the table for thy father to see. Spring is indeed close at hand."

On the same day that Jimmie found the arbutus bloom, Captain Enos came in from fishing with news to tell. A Boston schooner outward bound had come near to where he was fishing, and in response to his hail and call of "What news?" had answered that a battle was now expected at any day between the British and Americans.

"If it be so," said Captain Enos, "'twill not be long before the British ships will be homeward bound, and they'll not stop to trouble us much on their way."

"We must keep a lookout for them," said Captain Starkweather. "I wish we could get more news. 'Tis like enough all will be settled before we know aught of it."

All through March, with its high winds and heavy rains the people watched the harbor for a sight of the big white-winged ships, knowing that if the English ships were homeward bound it would mean that the Americans had won, and that the colonies would be free from paying the heavy taxes which England had fixed upon them, and that they could go about their work in peace and quiet.

April brought warm, sunny days, and Anne no longer wore the knit hood and mittens, and had once more set her playhouse under the pine trees in order, and now Amanda with her doll often came to play with her.

"'Tis nearly a year ago since my father was captured by the British," said Anne one day as she and Amanda, followed by the white kitten, went out under the pine trees.

"Anne!" exclaimed Amanda, "I did not know what 'spy' and 'traitor' meant when I called those words at you."

Anne looked at her playmate smilingly. "You would not say them now, Amanda, would you?" she answered.

"Say them now!" repeated Amanda. "Why, Anne, you are my best friend, and your father a soldier. 'twas but yesterday my father said that there was but one thing that Province Town had to be proud of in this war, and that was John Nelson, your father, because he is the only soldier from the settlement."

Anne's cheeks flushed happily. "'twas hard not to have my father," she said, "but he may come back any day now; Uncle Enos says so. And he is to live with us, and help Uncle Enos with the fishing. And then, Amanda, I shall be the happiest little girl in the settlement."

"To-morrow my mother is going to the marshes to gather young pine tips, and arrowroot, and young spruce tips and the roots of thoroughwort to brew beer with," said Amanda; "Amos and I are to go with her, and if your Aunt Martha be willing you can go with us. She plans to take something to eat and be away till past noon."

"I am sure I may go," replied Anne eagerly, "and we can bring home Mayflowers. There are many all along near the pine trees."

"Yes," said Amanda, "and will it not be fine to eat our dinner out-of-doors? Amos plans to start a fire and cook a fish for us, over it, this time, not under sand as he did when we were on the island."

Mrs. Stoddard gave her consent for Anne to go next day with the Carys. "I will bake you a mola.s.ses cake to carry," she said; "if it were a few weeks later you could call it a May party. In England, and I know it is now a custom in many of our towns, all the children gather and put flowers on their heads, and have a May-pole wreathed with flowers, and dance around it. And they choose a little girl for Queen of the May."