She stood still for a moment--she was very anxious to prowl around the place and examine the ground while the gypsies still slept, but the watchful dogs deterred her. She stood perfectly quiet behind the hedgerow, thinking hard. Should she trust to a charm she knew she possessed, and venture into the encampment? Annie had almost as great a fascination over dogs and cats as she had over children. As a little child going to visit with her mother at strange houses, the watch-dogs never barked at her; on the contrary, they yielded to the charm which seemed to come from her little fingers as she patted their great heads. Slowly their tails would move backward and forward as she patted them, and even the most ferocious would look at her with affection.