mr. major spencer sent them word that he would clean out all the stumps along the road front of his farm and seed it down with grass at his own expense; and mrs. hiram sloane called at the school one day and beckoned anne mysteriously out into the porch to tell her that if the " sassiety " wanted to make a geranium bed at the crossroads in the spring they need n't be afraid of her cow, for she would see that the marauding animal was kept within safe bounds.