The boys learned this, and half-chanted, half-sang it over and over while they all kept time to the rhythm. "There's Shottery, I guess!" Betty called, interrupting the singers, as she caught sight of a pretty little group of thatched-roofed cottages. "It seems a very short 'mile-a,' doesn't it!" Anne Hathaway's cottage is even more picturesque than its neighbors, or does this only seem so because of the associations which it has for all? Every one knows the picture of the cottage. One end stands close to the country road, and in front of it, behind a green hedge, is the garden. Growing on the cottage walls are at least half a dozen different kinds of roses, as well as honeysuckle and jasmine, which clamber way up and mingle with the heavy thatch. The old casement-windows with their thick panes of glass were swung open to let in the morning's fresh air. A young girl dressed in pink and carrying a broom, appeared on the doorstep as Philip opened the gate. She was evidently rather surprised to see such early visitors, but she said they might go in. While Mrs. Pitt paused to speak with her, Betty, who had already rushed inside, called out: "Here's the old settle! I know it from its pictures!" Sure enough, there it was, close beside the great fireplace,--we hope just where it has always been ever since Anne Hathaway and Shakespeare sat there together. "But, Mother, is that really the same bench, and did Anne truly live here?" questioned the all too matter-of-fact Barbara. "My dear daughter," began Mrs. Pitt, feigning great severity; "banish that thought immediately! Just for one little hour we are going to know that Anne did live here,--that Will said 'Will you?' and Anne said 'I will,' right on this very bench. I quite refuse to listen to any doubts on the subject for to-day! You write our names in the book, please, Philip. I'm going to rest myself here in Anne's rocking-chair!" The girl with the broom looked at her visitor in a puzzled way, and began,--"But, lady, I brought that chair here with me only----" But Mrs. Pitt quickly interrupted her, asking some trifling question. Her illusions were not to be disturbed, it seemed, and the girl beat a retreat. "Well, Mother," said Philip, "you aren't the only one who has ever believed in the house! Here in this old Visitors' Book are the names of Dickens, Longfellow, Holmes, General Grant, Edwin Booth, Mary Anderson, and----" [Illustration: "DID ANNE TRULY LIVE HERE?"--_Page 164._] "Never mind the rest, Phil; if General Grant said so, it's true! He knew what he was talking about!" And so John settled the question.