Once in the corn-field the difference in age between Anne and Miss Letty melted as if by magic, and they chatted away as merrily as if they had been life-long friends. Anne, looking up to the older girl as a beautiful and superior being, was further enthralled by finding that she knew a great deal about the pictures that she herself loved, and had actually once seen Rosa Bonheur, who painted the wonderful “Horse Fair,” a coloured print of which was Anne’s chief treasure, and had really stood beside her once when she was painting a great white bull. To Miss Letty, on the other hand, who had never before thought that the country was anything more than a place full of trees and grass that was very dull to stay in for more than a week, and a dreadful place to spoil one’s complexion, Anne’s friendship with wild things seemed like a living fairy tale, and Anne herself a veritable brownie. * * * * * Waddles, Mr. Wolf, Quick, Colin, and Tip played hide-and-seek beautifully; but Miss Letty would not let Hamlet join in the game, because she said that his hair was too long and needed clipping, and might get full of straws; then his feet were delicate, and the stubble might cut them, or the briers tear his ears or pull off his bracelet. Then, too, his hair had been freshly oiled to keep it black, after the manner of poodles, and it would be fatal to its lustre if dirt got upon it. So poor Hamlet had to suffer the shame of being tied to a small tree, in full sight of the other dogs, by one of his mistress’s violet ribbons. He was at heart a manly, brave dog, and in no way responsible for the caprice that makes so many of his tribe play the fool. Also the other dogs seemed to have a contempt for his forlorn and ladylike state, and Anne distinctly saw Tip kick dirt at him in passing, and dignified Waddles nipped his hind leg. As it drew near noon the trio wandered toward the wooded edge of the field, where Anne said they would be sure to find yellow violets, wind flowers, and spring beauties, and Miss Letty filled her hat with them to take home to paint, and then sat down to rest with Tommy at her feet, while Anne went farther into the wood to look for wild sarsaparilla. “I’m going to have you for my sweetheart,” said Tommy, suddenly, as he stepped back with his hands behind him, contentedly surveying a rickety-looking wreath of dogwood blossoms that he had put upon Miss Letty’s golden hair, but which would slip down over her eyes. “I think that you are much nicer than Pinkie Scott and Bess and Grace.” “And who are they, pray?” said Miss Letty, peering through the wreath. “Oh, they are the others I play with, little girls--all alike, but you are several kinds.” “You mustn’t say, ‘I’m going to have you,’ in such a way,” said Miss Letty, struggling to be serious; “you must go down on your knees in the dirt and ask me very politely.”