At last, Anna sees someone coming, but it's not Mr. O'Reilly. It's a girl riding a horse. She's at least fifteen, much older than Anna, and very pretty. She wears jodhpurs and tall, shiny riding boots and a smart velvet jacket. Her long golden hair waves around her face and down over her shoulders. Her horse is slim legged and graceful. Its mane is braided, and so is its tail. Head up, it trots along, lifting its hooves high, as if it doesn't like the feel of the ground.
To Anna's delight, the girl slows to a stop and smiles at her.
"You must be Mrs. Armiger's niece Anna," the girl says. "All the way from Baltimore."
"How did you know?" Anna asks. "Has Mr. O'Reilly been to your house already?"
The girl laughs, showing the most perfect teeth Anna has ever seen. "My mother told me you were here. She and your aunt are friends."
Leaning closer, the girl says, "My name's Nell Webster. I live on the farm next to your aunt and uncle. Do you like horses?"
Anna nods. She loves horses. In fact, she's dying to pet Nell's horse, but Father has taught her never to touch the horses she sees in the city. They are work horses, he says. They aren't meant for petting.
"His name is Silver Heels." Nell reaches into her pocket, pulls out a slice of apple, and hands it to Anna. "Feed him that and he'll love you forever."
Silver Heels leans toward Anna. His warm breath tickles her hand as he gently takes the apple from her outstretched palm. Anna giggles. "Is it all right to pet him?" she asks.
"Of course." Nell smiles at Anna. "Silver Heels is very spoiled. He expects to be petted."
Anna gently strokes Silver Heels' long velvety face. He makes a whuffing sound and she feels his warm breath again. "He's the most beautiful horse I've ever seen," she whispers.
"Would you like to go for a ride?" Nell asks.
Anna is almost too amazed at her good luck to say yes. Before she can pinch herself to see if she's dreaming, she's perched on the horse, in front of Nell.
Nell nudges Silver Heels and says, "Let's go, fellow."
Anna sits tall and proud. She can see over the fields of corn, down the hill to the woods beyond. Far away Uncle George is working in the tomato patch. Theodore trudges along behind him. Anna feels sorry for him. She hopes Nell will take Theodore for a ride some other time.
"Let's go a little faster," Nell says.
Anna holds Silver Heels' mane. He picks up speed. The gentle rolling motion of his walk changes. He trots, bouncing Anna up and down. The summer air feels cooler as it rushes against her face. She wishes they could go even faster.
After a few minutes, they come to a low point in the road. On either side, the trees lean toward each other as if they're holding hands to make an arch. They cast deep green shadows on the road. Anna sees a bridge ahead.
"Silver Heels needs a drink," Nell says. She slides down from the horse, but she tells Anna to stay in the saddle. "I'll lead him to the creek."
Nell guides Silver Heels off the road and along a mossy path. Honeysuckle drapes a fence and wild grape hangs from the trees. Sunlight dapples the leaves with gold. It splashes down on Nell and Silver Heels, too, making patterns everywhere.
Anna hears the stream before she sees it. The water is shallow, but it races over stones, making a loud chatter. While Silver Heels drinks, Anna pretends she and Nell are princesses in a magic land. She can almost see fairies hiding in the leaves. She can almost hear them laughing.
Nell sits on the bank and pulls off her tall boots. "My feet are so hot," she says. "Let's wade in the stream."
Nell helps Anna down from Silver Heels' back, and the two girls splash into the cold water. The stones are slippery with moss. Suddenly, Anna's feet slide out from under her and she lands with a big splash in the middle of the creek. For a moment, Anna is too surprised to move. She just sits in the water, soaked from the waist down.
Nell leans over her. "Are you all right, Anna?"
Anna takes the hand Nell offers and tries to stand
up. Whoops. Her feet slip again. This time both Anna and Nell end up in the water. They look at each other. Anna worries Nell might be cross. After all, it's Anna's fault Nell slipped, but Nell begins to laugh. Anna laughs, too. The two of them sit in the creek and laugh and laugh and laugh.
"Oh, dear," Nell says at last. "What will your aunt say when you come home soaking wet?"
Anna grins. "She won't say anything. She'll be laughing too hard." Though she doesn't say it out loud, Anna is glad Mother is in Baltimore. She would not laugh at the sight of a dripping wet daughter wearing overalls.
"Your aunt is a peach." Nell takes Anna's hand and leads her to the bank. Silver Heels lifts his head from the water and blows a puff of air through his nose. Nell nuzzles his head and gives him a hug.
"Such a good boy," she whispers in his ear. Then she boosts Anna onto the horse's back and leads him to the road. Nell climbs into the saddle and heads back the way they came.
Anna wishes the day would never end. "Will you come see me again?" she asks Nell.
"Of course," Nell replies. "We'll go riding again, too. Would you like that?"
"Oh, yes," says Anna. "Yes, I'd like that very much."
"Maybe we'll even cool off in the creek again," Nell says with a laugh.
Anna would like that, too. Her wet overalls feel nice against her skin.
Near the lane leading to Uncle George's farm, Nell points ahead. "Look, Anna. Here comes Mr. O'Reilly with the mail."
Way down the hill, Anna sees a big cloud of dust billowing toward them. She hears a loud chug-chug-chug. Out of the cloud comes the dirtiest, noisiest car she's ever seen.
Silver Heels neighs and turns his head this way and that. Nell clucks and nudges his sides with her knees. "It's just Mr. O'Reilly, silly," she tells the horse. "You see him almost every day."
When Silver Heels finally stands still, Nell slides out of the saddle and helps Anna down from his back. "Sorry," she says, "but Mr. O'Reilly's car spooks him. I'll have to ride home across the field."
Anna watches Nell leap into the saddle. Silver Heels jumps the fence as if he has invisible wings. Nell turns and waves good-bye. Then she and the horse vanish into the woods like magic.
"Princess Nell," Anna thinks, "and her enchanted steed, Silver Heels."
Feeling a little lonesome, she trudges to the mailbox just in time to see Mr. O'Reilly trying to cram the catalog inside. "I'll take that," she says.
Mr. O'Reilly turns, surprised to see Anna standing there. "You must be Aggie's niece," he says. "Anna Sherwood, I believe."
Anna curtsies, showing off what she learned in Madame Tucker's dancing class. "And you are Mr. O'Reilly."
"Right you are!"
"The man who knows everything there is to know about everybody!"
Mr. O'Reilly raises his eyebrows, as white and bushy as Santa's. "Now, where did you ever hear such a thing?"
Anna giggles. "Theodore told me."
"Oh, he did, did he?" Mr. O'Reilly chuckles and fans himself with Aunt Aggie's Journal. "Well, well, I won't deny it. The only folks who might know more than me are the doctor, the minister, and the undertaker, but they don't talk as much as I do."
"Will you tell me some news?" she asks. "Aunt Aggie wants to hear everything you know."
"Well, now, let me see what's fit to pass on to a child such as yourself." Mr. O'Reilly thinks a moment. "Mrs. Baxter had her baby this morning," he says. "A fine healthy boy name of Daniel. He weighed almost ten pounds, and it took poor Mrs. Baxter twelve hours of hard work to bring him into this world. I sure hope the child's worth it."
Mr. O'Reilly pauses to swat a fly crawling on his nose. "Mr. Otis Crawford came home from his trip to Philadelphia with a bad cough," he tells Anna, "but Mrs. Crawford says he'll soon be on the mend if he just stops talking for a while. Mr. Joseph Benson fell off a ladder and broke his arm in two places."
Mr. O'Reilly swats at the fly again. "Pesky critter," he mutters.
"Anything else?" Anna asks.
"Oh, by golly, yes. The best news of all." Mr. O'Reilly tweaks one of Anna's braids. "Miss Eleanor Bartlett has finally gotten herself a beau, a weedy young chap by the name of Henry Colston from Baltimore. Her folks are praying nothing goes wrong between now and the wedding. They need her bedroom so they can take in lodgers. They thought she'd never clear out!"
Mr. O'Reilly puts his car in gear. "Now, I must be off to pass on the news about you. But before I go, would you mind telling me the true story of how you got yourself soaking wet on a sunny day?"
Anna laughs. "Nell Webster and I fell in the creek together," she says proudly.
"You and Nell Webster, eh?" Mr. O'Reilly grins. "Now, there's a girl who won't wait long to be married. Why, I hear she's got half the young men in Prince Georges County courting her. The other half are either married already or haven't seen her yet."
Mr. O'Reilly eases the car forward. "Now, you tell your aunt everything I told you, Miss Anna. She'll be anxious to hear the details!"
Anna stands in the road and watches Mr. O'Reilly's car disappear over the hill in a thick cloud of dust. Anna can hear it long after it's out of sight. She hopes she can remember everything he told her.
Aunt Aggie is so excited to see the catalog, she doesn't notice Anna's wet clothes. While her aunt thumbs through the pages looking for gas ranges, Anna tells her the news. Aunt Aggie is especially pleased to hear about the Baxters' baby.
"Mr. Baxter's been wanting a boy for a long time," she says. "Maybe now he'll quit pestering Mrs. Baxter. Six girls and one boy. Surely that's enough children for anybody."
Like Mr. O'Reilly, Aunt Aggie is happy to learn Eleanor Bartlett has finally acquired a beau. "Such a sweet girl," she says. "It's not her fault she's no beauty. We get what we get when we come into this world. And that's the truth."
"Nell Webster has oodles of beaus," Anna says.
"Indeed she does. More than you can shake a stick at." Aunt Aggie looks up from the catalog and stares at Anna. "Where did you see Nell? And how do you come to be so damp?"
"She came riding by while I was waiting for Mr. O'Reilly." Anna leans back in her chair and remembers exactly how Nell looked in her jodhpurs and jacket. "She gave me a ride on her horse. Then we waded in the creek and slipped on the stones. We both got wet. It was so much fun we laughed and laughed."
Aunt Aggie laughs, too. "What a pair of silly geese," she says.
"Nell's the prettiest girl I've ever seen," Anna says. "I wish I could be just like her."
Aunt Aggie smiles and strokes Anna's braids. "You're fine just the way you are," she says.
"I'll never be as pretty as she is," Anna says sadly. "And I'll never have a horse like Silver Heels."
"Pshaw, Anna," says Aunt Aggie. "There's nothing wrong with your face. And we can't all have horses."
Anna sighs. No matter what Aunt Aggie thinks, she would gladly trade her plain freckled face for Nell's rosy face.
Just then, Theodore and Uncle George come stumping up the porch steps.
"Time for lemonade," Aunt Aggie says, running to fetch the pitcher.
Soon all four are gathered around the table, drinking lemonade and looking at the gas ranges in the catalog.
"Well, what do you think, George?" Aunt Aggie peers at her husband, her small face tense with worry. "Can we afford a new stove?"
Uncle George leans back in his chair and lights his pipe. "The corn looks good this year. Prices are up, too. And the hay's doing well."
He pauses and Aunt Aggie leans toward him. She holds her breath.
"Yes," Uncle George says at last, "I think we can get the stove this fall."
Aunt Aggie claps her hands and runs around the table to give Uncle George a big kiss.
Anna cannot imagine being excited about something as boring as a stove. She hates to help Mother cook. When she grows up, she plans to eat all her meals in restaurants—no peeling or slicing for Anna, no stirring, no cleaning up, no dishes to wash or pots to scrub. But she's happy for her aunt.
And so is Theodore. "Hooray," he shouts. "No more wood to chop!"
TEN
Trouble in the Barn
ONE HOT AFTERNOON, ANNA AND THEODORE ARE sitting on the front porch, trying to stay cool in the shade of the wisteria vine. Anna is reading Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, but Theodore is bored. He says it over and over. "I am bored, I'm bored, I'm bored."
"Why don't you go inside and get a book to read?" Anna asks. She's bored of hearing Theodore say he's bored. Especially since she's perfectly happy herself. Or would be if Theodore would just keep quiet.
"Reading is something you do in school." Theodore scowls at Anna. "I hate school."
"Don't be silly," Anna says. "You can read anytime, not just in school." She shows Theodore her book. "This is a funny story about a girl who goes to live with her aunts on their farm. Want me to read it to you?"
Theodore stretches out on his back. "Go ahead," he says. "I ain't got anything better to do."
Anna loves to read out loud. Mrs. Levine told her last year she was very "expressive." Anna wasn't sure she meant it as a compliment, because she was frowning when she said it. In fact, Anna is almost sure Mrs. Levine meant she was showing off. But she decides to pretend it was a compliment, anyway.
Anna reads a funny scene to Theodore. Miss Dearborn is teaching Rebecca grammar, and Rebecca is having trouble understanding conjunctions, something Anna can understand very well. The scene makes her laugh so hard she has to stop reading till she recovers, but Theodore doesn't even smile. The expression on his face tells Anna he thinks the story is silly. Maybe he doesn't even know what conjunctions are.
"Do you want me to keep reading?" Anna asks crossly.
Instead of answering, Theodore jumps to his feet and waves at two boys walking up the lane. "Homer!" he shouts. "Henry!"
Anna looks at the boys. Homer is tall and skinny and Henry is short and skinny. Otherwise, they could be twins. Their straight brown hair hangs in their eyes. Their ears stick out. Their teeth are too big for their mouths. They stare at Anna as if they've never seen a girl before. Compared with them, Theodore is a perfect gentleman.
"Who's she?" Henry asks, pointing a dirty finger at Anna.
"Her name's Anna," Theodore says. "She's from Baltimore."
"What's she doing here?" Homer asks.
Anna opens her mouth to tell him, but Theodore beats her to it. "She's visiting," he says gruffly. "She'll be going home Sunday."
"How come she's wearing boys' clothes?" Homer asks.
"Ain't she got a dress?" Henry asks.
Before Theodore can answer for her again, Anna says, "I have dozens and dozens of dresses. But on the farm I wear overalls. They're better for playing."
Homer and Henry stare at each other as if they've never heard a girl speak for herself. "Ma would never let our Lizzie May go around in boys' clothes," Homer says.
Henry nods in agreement. "It ain't proper."
Anna sticks out her tongue at Homer and Henry, but they have lost interest in her already.
"Let's go play in the barn, Theodore," says Homer. "We can swing on that rope your uncle tied to the rafter."
Anna knows perfectly well she should stay on the porch and read in peace, but playing in the barn sounds like fun. "Can I come, too?"
All three boys stare at her. Theodore looks embarrassed.
"We don't play with girls," Homer says loudly. He glances at Theodore and adds, "At least me and Henry don't."
"Especially not girls who wear overalls!" Henry puts in, speaking even louder than Homer.
"Especially not girls from Baltimore!" Homer hollers.
Anna looks at Theodore, hoping he'll take up for her, but he just scowls. "Why don't you stick your nose back in that old dumb book?" he mutters.
Anna jumps to her feet, ready to tell him exactly how rude he is. But Aunt Aggie comes to the door and speaks to Theodore. "Anna is our guest," she says gently. "Let her play or come inside and sit for a spell."
<
br /> Theodore draws in his breath to argue, but the look on Aunt Aggie's face tells him he'd be smart to keep his mouth shut.
"If I hear anything about your teasing Anna or being mean to her," Aunt Aggie adds, "I'll see that your uncle gives you a paddling."
"Yes'm," Theodore mumbles.
"That goes for you, too, Henry and Homer," Aunt Aggie adds. "I know your pa believes in the power of a good whipping."
Anna is pleased to see the grins disappear from Henrys and Homer's faces.
"Now, run along," Aunt Aggie says, "and have fun."
The four of them set out for the barn. When they are out of sight of the house, Homer turns to Theodore. "Has Anna played with your pet goat yet?"
Theodore grins. "Anna hasn't been near the barnyard since she tangled with the rooster."
"You never told me you had a pet goat," Anna says to Theodore.
"I figured you'd be scared of him," Theodore says.
"Why would I be scared of a goat?" Anna asks. Ever since she read Heidi, she's wanted to be a goat herder like Peter and live in the Alps. She imagines herself leading her little flock across a peaceful meadow. She can practically hear the bells on their collars jingling. "I love goats," she adds.
"Come on, then," Theodore says. "Billy's pen is behind the barn."
"Billy is a boring name for a goat," Anna says. "If I had a pet goat, I'd call it Buttercup or Ivy or Morning Glory. Something pretty."
The boys nudge each other and giggle. Anna supposes they think her names for the goat are dumb. Let them think what they like. Why should she care?
As they walk around to the back of the barn, Anna smells a bad smell. She wrinkles her nose. "What's making that stink?"
The boys giggle again. Theodore points to a dilapidated pen. The ground is muddy inside. In one corner stands the most wretched goat Anna has ever seen. It doesn't look like the illustrations of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" or "The Seven Kids" in Anna's favorite fairy-tale book. It doesn't look like Peter's goats in Heidi, either. This goat is skinny. Its hair is dirty, and its beard, so snowy white in Anna's pictures, is stained yellow, rather like an old man's tobacco-stained whiskers. Worst of all are its eyes. They're yellow and small and mean. It has sharp horns, too.