All this was not said as a complaint, but just because she was looking at him, and really wished to know. He could not speak of last night's bitter disappointment, for that secret was not wholly his own. "Good-bye, Annie!" he said at last. "The morning is going fast, and I must haste to Amsterdam and sell these skates. Mother must have money at once. Before nightfall I shall certainly find a job somewhere." "Sell your new skates, Hans!" cried Annie; "you, the best skater around Broek! Why, the race is coming off in five days!" "I know it," he answered resolutely. "Good-bye! I shall skate home again on the old wooden ones." Such a bright glance! So different from Janzoon's ugly grin--and Hans was off like an arrow. "Hans! come back," she called. Her voice changed the arrow into a top. Spinning around, he darted, in one long, leaning sweep, toward her. "Then you really are going to sell your new skates if you can find a customer." "Of course I am," he replied looking up with a surprised smile. "Well, Hans, if you _are_ going to sell your skates," said Annie, somewhat confused, "I mean if you----Well, I know somebody who would like to buy them--that's all." "Not Janzoon Kolp?" asked Hans, flushing. "Oh, no," she pouted, "he is not one of my friends." "But you _know_ him," persisted Hans. Annie laughed. "Yes, I know him, and it's all the worse for him that I do. Now please, Hans, don't ever talk any more to me about Janzoon. I hate him!" "Hate him! _you_ hate any one, Annie?" She shook her head saucily. "Yes; and I'll hate you too, if you persist in calling him one of my friends. You boys may like him because he caught the greased goose at the Kermis last summer, and climbed the pole with his great, ugly body tied up in a sack, but I don't care for such things. I've disliked him ever since I saw him try to push his little sister out of the merry-go-round at Amsterdam; and it's no secret up _our_ way who killed the stork on your mother's roof. But we mustn't talk about such a bad, wicked fellow. Really, Hans, I know somebody who would be glad to buy your skates. You won't get half a price for them in Amsterdam. _Please_ give them to me. I'll take you the money this very afternoon." If Annie was charming even when she said "hate," there was no withstanding her when she said "please"; at least Hans found it to be so. "Annie," he said, taking off the skates, and rubbing them carefully with a snarl of twine before handing them to her, "I am sorry to be so particular; but if your friend should not want them, will you bring them back to me to-day? I must buy peat and meal for the mother early to-morrow morning." "My friend _will_ want them," laughed Annie, nodding gaily, and skating off at the top of her speed.