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diff --git a/26517.txt b/26517.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58d3961 --- /dev/null +++ b/26517.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4260 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary Jane's City Home, by Clara Ingram Judson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mary Jane's City Home + +Author: Clara Ingram Judson + +Illustrator: Thelma Gooch + +Release Date: September 3, 2008 [EBook #26517] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY JANE'S CITY HOME *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: And she pointed out the little seal who was a bit too slow. +Frontispiece] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +MARY JANE'S CITY HOME + +BY +CLARA INGRAM JUDSON + +Author of +"Flower Fairies," "Good-Night Stories," +"Billy Robin and His Neighbors," "Bed Time Tales," +"The Junior Cook Book," and Other Works + +ILLUSTRATED BY +THELMA GOOCH + +NEW YORK +BARSE & HOPKINS +PUBLISHERS + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Copyright, 1920, +by +Barse & Hopkins + +PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +TO +MY MOTHER and FATHER + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +Finding the New Home 11 +The Folks Around The Corner 22 +Visiting with Betty 35 +Sand Castles 49 +The Beach Supper 64 +Mary Jane Goes Shopping 76 +The Bus Ride 88 +The Birthday Luncheon 100 +Lost--One Doll Cart 115 +A Trip to the Zoo 128 +A Day in the Parks 143 +Visitors--and a Boat Ride 156 +School Begins 171 +Christmas in Chicago 184 +A Summer Home--and a Telegram 201 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE + +And she pointed out the little seal who was a bit +too slow. Frontispiece + +And then, sliding in the wet sand, she sat right +down in the lake and sent a wave of ripples right +over her castle 60 + +"But it's all down my dress," said Mary Jane, trying +her very best not to cry 107 + +This year, seeing Mary Jane was such a _very_ old +person, she was allowed to put the gold star on the +top of the tree 188 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +MARY JANE'S CITY HOME + +FINDING THE NEW HOME + + +The late afternoon sunshine sent its slanting, golden rays through the car +windows on to the map that Mary Jane and her sister Alice had spread out +on the table between the seats of the Pullman in which they were riding. + +"And all that wiggly line is water?" Mary Jane was asking. + +"Every bit water," replied their father, who bent over their heads to +explain what they were looking at; "a lot of water, you see. You remember +I told you that Chicago is right on the edge of Lake Michigan. And Lake +Michigan, so far as looks are concerned, might just as well be the ocean +you saw down in Florida--it's so big you can't see the other side." + +"And does it have big waves?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Just you wait and see," promised Mr. Merrill. "Big waves! I should say it +has!" + +"And all the green part of the map is parks," said Alice, quoting what her +father had told them when he first showed them the map. + +"Then there must be a lot of parks," suggested Mary Jane with interest. "I +think I'd like to live by a park," she added thoughtfully. + +"I think I should too," agreed Mr. Merrill, "and it's near a park we will +make the first hunt for a home." + +"Oh, look!" cried Mary Jane suddenly as she glanced up from the spread-out +map; "what's that, Dadah?" + +"That's the beginning of Chicago," said Mr. Merrill. "Let's fold up the +map now and see what we can of the city. This is South Chicago; and those +great stacks and flaming chimneys are steel mills and foundries and +factories--watch now! There are more!" + +The train on which the Merrill family were traveling went dashing past +factory after factory--past an occasional open space where they could see +in the distance the blue gleam of Lake Michigan and past great wide +stretches where tracks and more tracks on which freight cars and engines +sped up and down showed them something of the whirling industry that has +made South Chicago famous. No wonder it was a strange sight to the two +girls--they had never before seen anything that made them even guess the +big business that they now saw spread out before them. + +They had spent all their lives thus far--Alice was twelve and Mary Jane +going on six--in a small city of the Middle West and though they had had a +fine summer in the country visiting grandma and grandpa and had only the +winter before taken a beautiful trip through Florida, they had never been +to a great city. And now they were not going to visit or to take a trip. +They were going to live there. The great big city of Chicago was to be +their home. + +The pretty little house they had loved so well was sold. The furniture and +books and dolls and clothes were all packed and loaded on a freight car to +follow them to the city and all the dear friends had been given a +farewell. Mary Jane had loved the excitement and muss of packing; the +great boxes and the masses of crinkly excelsior and the workmen around who +always had time for a pleasant joke with an interested little girl. But +when it came time to say good-by to Doris and to her much loved +kindergarten and to all the boys and girls in school and "on her block," +going away wasn't so funny. In fact, Mary Jane felt a queer and +troublesome lump in her throat most of the morning when the good-bys were +said. + +But the ride on the train (and how Mary Jane did love to ride on the +train); and the nice luncheon on the diner (and how Mary Jane did _adore_ +eating on a diner--hashed brown potatoes, a whole order by herself and ice +cream and everything!); and then father's nice talk about all the fun they +were going to have, made the lump vanish and in its place there developed +an eager desire to see the new city and to begin all the promised fun. It +was then that Mr. Merrill showed them the big map of the city and pointed +out the part of the city where they would likely live. + +As the girls watched, the great factories and foundries slipped away into +the distance, and in their place the girls could see houses and occasional +stores and here and there a station, past which their train dashed as +though it wasn't looking for stations to-day, thank you. + +"Don't we stop anywhere?" asked Mary Jane after she had counted three of +these little stations. + +"Those are suburban stations," explained Mr. Merrill, "and a big through +train like ours hasn't time to stop at every one. Pretty soon another +train will come along and stop at each one of those we are now passing so +don't you worry about folks getting left. _This_ train we are on has got +to get us into Chicago in time for dinner." + +And just at that minute, when the big three story apartment buildings that +looked so very queer and strange to Mary Jane, began to fill every block, +the porter came to brush her off and to help her on with her coat. + +"I'm going to live here in Chicago," she said to him as he held the coat +for her, "and it's a big place with lots of lake and parks and--houses, I +guess, and most everything." + +"'Deed it is big, missy," replied the porter, "and I hope you's going to +like it a lot, I do." + +"I'm a-going to," answered Mary Jane confidently, as she picked up +Georgiannamore and Georgiannamore's suit case which at the last moment +couldn't possibly be packed in the trunk, and followed her father and +mother down the aisle, "'cause mother and Dadah and Alice are going to +live here too and we always have fun." + +Mr. and Mrs. Merrill had decided to get off at one of the larger suburban +stations and spend a few days in a near-by hotel; they thought the +comparative quiet of a residence hotel would be better for their girls +than the flurry and hurry of a big down town hotel. But to Mary Jane, +accustomed to the sights and sounds of a small city where street cars went +dignifiedly past every fifteen minutes and where traffic "cops" would have +very few duties, the confusion she found herself in was quite enough to be +very interesting. + +They stepped off the train, walked down some stairs and found themselves +on the sidewalk of a very busy street. Overhead the noise of their own +train rumbling cityward made a terrific din; and as though that were not +enough, still higher up the great elevated car line made a rumble and +roar. Mary Jane craned her neck as they walked from under the trains and +there high in the air, she saw street cars running along as though street +cars always had and always would, run on tracks high up in the air! + +"Can we ride on it, Dadah?" she shouted to her father, "are we going to +ride on that train up on stilts?" + +Mr. Merrill shook his head laughingly and hurried them into a waiting +taxi. + +"We're not going to ride there to-day," he explained when the door of the +car shut out some of the noise, "but some day soon we'll take a long ride +on the elevated and then you can see all the back yards and back porches +and parks and streets and everything about the city, just as plain as +plain can be." + +While he was talking, the Merrills drove through streets lined on both +sides with three-story apartment buildings. But before Mary Jane had time +to ask a question or even think what she would like to say, they whisked +around a corner and out into the beautiful wide driveway on the +Midway--the long, green parkway that stretched, or so it seemed to Mary +Jane, for miles in both directions. The taxi pulled up in front of a +comfortable looking hotel right on the side of the park and Mary Jane +wasn't a bit sorry to get out and take a breath of fresh air and look at +the lovely view before her. + +"Now just as soon as you are washed up," said Mrs. Merrill, briskly, as +they went into the hotel, "you and Alice may come out onto this nice porch +and watch the children play on the Midway and get a little run before +dinner." + +You may be sure that with that promise before her, Mary Jane didn't take +very long to primp. She had spied a group of children about her age, who +seemed to be having a beautiful time playing ball out there on the grass +and she couldn't help noticing that they played just as she and Doris did +and she couldn't help wishing that she too, even though she was a new +little girl just come to town, could play with them. So she stood very +still while Mrs. Merrill tied the fresh hair bow and slipped on a clean +frock and then, holding tight to big sister Alice's friendly hand she went +down the one flight of stairs--she was in far too big a hurry to wait for +the elevator--and out onto the long roomy porch. + +Just across the narrow street in front of the hotel and on the nearest bit +of parkway, three little girls about Mary Jane's age were still playing +ball. One was dainty and small and had yellow curls; one was rather tall +and had long straight dark hair and the third had dark, straight hair +bobbed short, and snapping black eyes. + +"Wouldn't it be funny," said Mary Jane as she looked at them wistfully, +"if I'd get to know those girls and they'd be friends. If I _did_," she +added, "I think she'd be my mostest friend," and Mary Jane pointed to the +little girl with the dark, bobbed hair. + +While they watched and were trying to get up courage to go over and play +too, a pretty girl about Alice's age came along the street. Her hair was +copper colored and curly and very, very pretty. And her smile when she saw +the little girls who were playing, made her seem so friendly and "homey." + +"I've been hunting you, Betty," she said to the little girl Mary Jane +liked best. "It's time to come home for dinner." + +So the four girls, three little folks and one bigger one, went around the +corner toward home, and two strangers, standing on the porch, watched them +till they were quite out of sight. + +"It would be funny," said Alice, "if we'd ever get to know them. I'm sure +I'd like to." + +"Wouldn't it though!" exclaimed Mary Jane. "I hope we do!" + +And all the time they were eating their first dinner in Chicago, and +telling mother and father about the children they had seen and making +plans about what to do to-morrow, they were thinking about those two girls +and wishing to know them better. + +Little did they guess what would really truly happen before the week was +over! + + + + +THE FOLKS AROUND THE CORNER + + +Three whole days of flat hunting! And of all the fun she had ever had in +her more than five years of life, Mary Jane thought flat hunting in +Chicago was the most fun of all! She loved the mystery of each new +apartment; the guessing which room might be hers and which mother's; the +hunting up the door bell and hearing its sound (for as you very well know +each door bell has a sound of its own); the poking into closets and +pantries and porches. It was the most delightful sort of exploring she had +ever come across and she couldn't at all understand why mother and father +got tired and somewhat discouraged. For _her_ part Mary Jane was tempted +to wish that they would never find a flat, well hardly that; but that +finding the right one would take a long, oh, a very long time! + +But by the afternoon of the third day, her legs began to get a little +tired too, and her eyes looked more often to the green of the Midway they +occasionally saw and she thought that flats, even empty flats, really +should have chairs for folks to sit on. So, as a matter of fact, she +wasn't half as sorry as she had thought she would be, when, on the +afternoon of the third day of hunting the Merrill family came across a +charming little apartment. + +It was on the second floor of a very attractive red brick building; it had +five rooms, quite too small, father thought, but then one can't have +everything, they had found, and every room was light and sunny and +cheerful. But the part about it that Mary Jane and Alice liked the best +was the back porch. To be sure there was a front porch, a pretty, little +porch with a stone railing and a view way down the street toward the park +and lake. But off the dining room the girls discovered a small balcony +that overlooked the back yard next door, a back yard that had a garden +laid out and a chicken house and everything so homey and comfortable +looking that the girls immediately wanted to sit out and watch. + +"I think if we'd stay here maybe some children would come out to play," +suggested Mary Jane in a whisper. + +"I think they would, too," agreed Alice. "And I think if we lived here +maybe we could get acquainted and play with them." + +"Let's live here!" exclaimed Mary Jane and she ran back into the house +just at the very minute Mr. and Mrs. Merrill decided to rent the +apartment. + +"So you think you'll like it, do you?" said Mrs. Merrill, smiling; "the +rooms are pretty small." + +"I know we'll love it," said Alice eagerly, "and you should see the back +porch." + +But Mr. Merrill laughed when they showed him the porch. + +"Do you call this a porch," he exclaimed, "why it's not half big enough +for a porch! I'd call it a balcony." + +"Yes," agreed Mrs. Merrill, "and then when you watch folks in the yard +down there,--for you _are_ planning to watch and get acquainted, aren't +you?--then you can pretend that this is your balcony seat and that the +folks down there are in a play for you--wouldn't that be fun?" + +The girls thought it would, but there was so much to plan and think about +that they didn't stay on their little balcony any longer just then, which +was something of a pity, for right after they went indoors, somebody came +out into the yard-- But then, there's no use telling about _her_ for Mary +Jane didn't see her. + +So Mary Jane and Alice went with their father and mother into the room +that was to be theirs and they planned just where each bed should be and +where was the best place for the desk and dressing table and who should +have which side of the closet. And by that time, it was nearly six +o'clock--time to go back to the hotel for dinner. + +Mr. Merrill stopped at the desk for mail as they went up to their room and +there he found a message telling him that their furniture had arrived in +Chicago and that it must be taken out of the freight house the next +morning. + +"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill with a gasp of dismay, "I think it's a +good thing we found that flat! What ever would we have done if we hadn't! +Well, girls, I think we'd better eat a good dinner and then go to bed +early for we'll have to get down there and clean up the flat while father +tends to getting our things delivered." + +So bright and early the next morning everybody started to work. Mr. +Merrill went down town to meet the moving men he had engaged by 'phone and +Mrs. Merrill and the two girls put aprons and cleaning rags and soap, all +of which they had brought in their small trunk, into a little grip and +went down to the new home. + +Mary Jane had lots of fun that morning. First she went down to the +basement and borrowed a broom from the janitor. Then she went back for +clean papers which she folded neatly and spread on the pantry shelves +which Mrs. Merrill with the good help of the janitor's wife had cleaned +and ready. Then she put papers on the shelf of the closet she and Alice +were to share and papers in the drawers near the floor of that same +closet. By that time--it takes pretty long to fold papers neatly and get +every bit of the shelf covered, you know--the door bell rang--a great, +long, hard ring. + +"Oh, dear! Can you go, Mary Jane?" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, "Alice and I +both have wet hands!" You see, Alice had been washing mirrors that were on +the closet doors while her mother and the janitor's wife did windows and +wood work. + +"Yes, I'm dry," said Mary Jane, "and my papers are done and I'd like to +go." + +To tell the honest truth, Mary Jane had just that very minute been wishing +the door bell would ring. For the janitor's wife had showed her how to +press the buzzer that would release the lock of the front door and let a +person come up the stairs. And of course Mary Jane wanted to try it. So +she hurried over to the house 'phone, took down the receiver and said, +"Who is it?" just as any grown-up person would. + +"Here's your things!" said a gruff voice, "we'll bring 'em up the back!" + +Mary Jane didn't stop to press any buzzer. She dashed over to the window +nearest the alley and there, sure enough, was a great big moving van and +it was piled up full of boxes and barrels and crates--all the things that +Mary Jane had watched the packing of only such a few days before. Talk +about fun! Moving was surely the best sport ever! + +Mary Jane stayed at the window watching till the men brought the first +load up. Then they announced that they were going for lunch and Mrs. +Merrill said she and the girls had better eat while the men were away. So +hastily putting on wraps, they went over to a small tea room only a few +doors away, where they had a tasty little luncheon so quickly served that +they easily got back to their flat before the moving men arrived again. + +How that afternoon went, Mary Jane never quite remembered. It was one long +succession of excitement and fun. The unpacking of boxes and crates, the +piling up of rubbish, the finding of cherished belongings and putting them +where they belonged in the new home, and the gradual change of the living +room from a mess of boxes to a place that might some day really look like +home, all seemed thrillingly interesting to a little girl who had never +moved before. + +But by half past four or thereabouts, even Mary Jane began to get a little +tired. + +"I'll tell you something to do," suggested Mrs. Merrill, when a pause in +her own work gave her a chance to notice that Mary Jane was getting +flushed and tired. "Here is a box of doll things I have just come across. +Suppose you take them out into your own little balcony and sort them over. +Put in this box (and she handed her a little box) all the things you must +surely have upstairs; and leave in the big box all the things you will be +willing to put in the store room. Now take your time, dear, and sit down +while you work." + +Mary Jane was very glad for that advice. For even though moving men are +wonderful to watch, and even though rubbish and boxes and barrels are all +very fascinating, a person _does_ get tired and sitting down isn't at all +a bad idea. + +One of the men who was unpacking gave her her own little chair that he had +just uncrated and so she sat down in state, in her own chair, on her own +balcony and opened the box of doll things. But that's every bit that got +done to those doll things that day, every bit. + +For at that very minute, who should come out of the house around the +corner, the house with the back yard and garden and chickens and +everything, but--yes, you must have guessed it--the same two girls that +Alice and Mary Jane had seen on the Midway the day they arrived in +Chicago. Think of that! Right under Mary Jane's own balcony and, moreover, +it was plain to see that they lived there. + +"Now I guess we'll get to know them," whispered Mary Jane to herself +happily. But of course, she didn't say a thing out loud. She only sat very +still and watched. + +And as she watched, two boys came out on the back porch of the house +around the corner and one of the boys called, "Say, Fran, did you feed the +chickens?" + +The girl who was about Alice's age answered back, "No I didn't, Ed, I +thought it was Betty's turn to-day." + +"Now I know a lot," Mary Jane whispered to herself. "She's Frances, I'm +sure, and he's Ed; and Betty must be the little girl that's 'bout as big +as me." + +Just then, when Mary Jane was wishing and wishing and wishing that she +would come, Alice came to the door of the balcony and looked out. + +"Sh-h-h!" whispered Mary Jane, tensely, "they're here, both of 'em, and +there's more of 'em, too!" + +Alice seemed to understand exactly what Mary Jane meant, even though her +sentence was decidedly mixed up, and she stepped out onto the balcony. + +Frances heard the door shut and looked up. For a long minute the two girls +looked at each other, then Frances, the girl with the auburn hair and the +friendly smile, nodded shyly. + +Little Betty didn't take long deciding what she would do. She called +eagerly, "Moving in?" + +"Yes, we are," laughed Alice, waving her hand toward the piles of boxes +and rubbish stacked up on the back stairs of the building. + +Ed, who had started back into the house, looked around and, seeing his +sisters had made a small start toward conversation, called a question on +his own responsibility. + +"Going to use 'em all?" he asked, pointing to the boxes. + +"Dear me, I guess not," said Alice. "I don't see how we could!" + +"Then will you give me a box?" he asked, running back in the yard till he +stood right under the balcony. "We're going to get some rabbits, John and +I are, and we want a box for their home." + +"Come on over and see which one you want," suggested Alice, "and I'll ask +father." + +Ed and his brother John lost no time climbing over the fence and +inspecting the boxes. By the time Alice brought Mr. Merrill, he had picked +out just the one he wanted and was very grateful when it was given him for +his own. + +"Don't you want to come over and see 'em make the rabbit house?" suggested +Frances shyly. "Oh, maybe you're busy." + +"I'm sure we can come," replied Alice, "because mother just told me she +wished we'd get some fresh air." So Alice and Mary Jane followed the +others to the back yard and helped hold nails and boards and make the +rabbit house. When it was nearly finished the children's mother, who +proved to be very charming Mrs. Holden, came out with a plate of cookies +and a welcome for the two little strangers. + +"Thank you for the cookies," said Mary Jane politely, "but we're not +strange--that is, not any more, we aren't, we know each other--all of us +do!" + +And so it really seemed to all the children. They were friends from the +first day and making the rabbit house was just the beginning of many nice +times in that friendly back yard. + + + + +VISITING WITH BETTY + + +Three days of hard work for everybody and then the little flat into which +the Merrills had moved began to look like a real home. The unpacking was +all done and the rubbish cleared away; the furniture was polished and set +in place; the closets were in order and every cupboard and shelf held just +the right things for comfort. It wasn't such an easy matter to stow away +all the things the Merrills had used in their pretty house--the five room +apartment was much smaller than the house of course--but with everybody's +help the job was done. + +"Now then," said Mrs. Merrill, happily, in the late afternoon of the third +day, "if you'll run the rods in these curtains, Mary Jane, I'll hang them +up where they belong and then we'll all three go to market and then--guess +what? We'll have dinner in our own new home!" + +Mary Jane thought that would be fun, for, much as she loved eating in the +hotel where they had been living while getting the new home fixed, she +liked better to eat her mother's cooking. So it was a very happy little +girl who slipped the rods into the living room curtains and then put on +her hat and hunted up the market basket from the pantry. + +Now many times before this, Mary Jane had been marketing with her mother. +But never had she been to such a market! Before, marketing meant going to +the grocery store about three blocks from their home; it meant talking to +the very interested and friendly grocer who had known Mary Jane ever since +she first appeared at the grocery in her big, well-covered cab--she was +then about two months old; it meant telling Mr. Shover, the grocer, just +what they wanted and picking out the sorts of things they liked best. But +marketing in Chicago was very different. In the first place there wasn't a +person around they had ever seen before; and then everything was so big +and there was so much food. Mary Jane thought there couldn't possibly be +enough folks in Chicago to eat all those good things! But when she and her +mother actually got into the store and began to buy, Mary Jane forgot all +about the strangeness and remembered only the fun. For they didn't get +somebody to wait on them as they used to at Mr. Shover's--not at all! They +waited on themselves! They went through a little turnstile and then +wandered around among the good things all by themselves and they took down +from the well-stocked shelves anything they wanted. It certainly was +queer. + +"Can we just take _anything_?" exclaimed Mary Jane in amazement as her +mother explained what they were to do. + +"Well," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "you must remember we have to pay for things +just the same as we used to at Mr. Shover's. But we can take anything we +want--if we pay for it." + +"Then I'll pick you out some good things to eat, mother!" cried Mary Jane +happily, "don't you worry about thinking what we're going to have!" + +Now Mary Jane really did know how to read, at least a little, but she +didn't stop to read on this important occasion. She looked at the pictures +on the cans of goodies and she picked out a can of all her favorites and +set them in the basket Mrs. Merrill carried on her arm. But that didn't +work, for Mrs. Merrill had a long list and the basket wouldn't hold only +so much. So they decided to let Mrs. Merrill pick out three things from +her list and then Mary Jane could buy one favorite; then three more things +from the list and then another favorite. That proved to be great fun and +it certainly did fill the basket in a hurry! Mary Jane was just trying to +decide between a box of marshmallows and a pan of nice, gooey, sugary +sweet rolls when Mrs. Merrill said, "whichever you decide, Mary Jane, +you'll have to carry the bundle yourself, because this basket won't hold +another parcel--not even a little one." + +Mary Jane decided on the rolls and she took them over to the counter to +have them wrapped up and there she almost bumped into--Betty Holden, no +less! Betty and her mother were shopping too, and their basket was almost +as full as Mrs. Merrill's. + +"We market after school," said Mrs. Holden, "and then Ed brings his wagon +to meet us and hauls the stuff home. We'll get him to give you a lift +too." + +"And then can Mary Jane come over to our house to play?" asked Betty. + +"For a little while," agreed Mrs. Merrill, smilingly, "but she won't want +to stay very long to-day because we're going to have our first dinner in +our new home and she's promised to help me lots--and I need it." + +Just then they spied Ed's face at the door so they hurried through the +second turnstile, paid for their groceries and left the store. Ed's wagon +proved to be very big and he was glad to give them plenty of room for the +Merrill basket. + +"Are you going to start in school to-morrow?" asked Betty as they walked +off toward home. + +"I'm going over to see about that to-morrow morning," said Mrs. Merrill. +"We've been so busy unpacking and settling that we haven't even thought +about it till now. Do you like your school, Betty?" + +"Yes, I do, lots!" exclaimed Betty heartily. "I'm just through +kindergarten this spring, I am, and next fall I'm first year." + +"Then I think you must be just about where Mary Jane will be," said Mrs. +Merrill. + +The two little girls ran skipping ahead, talking about what they would do +and where they would sit and all the things that girls plan for school. + +But when Mrs. Merrill took Alice and Mary Jane over the next morning, it +didn't work out as planned. Alice was entered and found herself in the +very same room and only two seats away from Frances, which seemed perfect. +But there wasn't room for Mary Jane! The kindergarten was crowded, very, +very crowded, and new little folks weren't allowed to come in. Miss +Gilbert, the teacher, talked with Mary Jane a while and Mary Jane told her +all the work she had done and all the things she had learned about. + +"I really think, Mrs. Merrill," said the teacher finally, "that your +little girl is ready for the first grade. She seems very well prepared. +But they don't take new first graders so late in the year. Why don't you +keep her out of school the rest of this term and then next year, enter her +in the first grade?" + +Mrs. Merrill thought that was a fine plan. There would be so many new +sights to see and things to learn in the city that Mary Jane would find +plenty to do. + +But Mary Jane was keenly disappointed. "I wanted to stay in Betty's room," +she explained to the teacher. "She asked me to sit by her this morning, +she did, and I promised yes I would." + +"Then I'll tell you what you may do," suggested the teacher kindly. "Two +of our folks are absent this morning so we have enough chairs to go +around. Wouldn't you like to stay with Betty and visit? And then just a +little before time for school to be out, Betty can take you up to your +sister's room and she can bring you home." + +Mrs. Merrill agreed that that was a fine plan, so Mary Jane went to the +cloak room to hang up her hat and her mother hurried back home. + +At first Mary Jane felt very strange in the new school room. There were so +many children there and the songs were new and the games were new and +everything seemed different. She almost--not really, but _almost_--wished +she had gone home with her mother. And then, after singing three songs +Mary Jane didn't know, the children made a big circle and let Mary Jane +stand in the middle and they sang the song Mary Jane knew so very well, + +"I went to visit a friend to-day, She only lives across the way, She said +she couldn't come out to play Because it was her ----" + +Quick as a flash Mary Jane dropped onto her knees and began to act out +packing things into a box. + +For a minute the children hesitated. That was a strange thing to be +acting; Mary Jane was not washing or ironing or churning or sweeping or +any of the things the children usually acted and they were all puzzled. +Then suddenly Betty remembered the back stairway and all the piles of +boxes and excelsior on Mary Jane's back stairway and she called out the +end of the song--"because it was her moving day!" And everybody finished +the verse with a flourish. + +After that Mary Jane felt more at home and the morning went oh, so very +quickly, till recess time, when they all went out into the big yard to +play in the sunshine. + +Betty and her particular friends were gathering together for a circle game +in the corner of the yard when Mary Jane heard a soft, helpless little +sound close at hand. Without stopping to say anything to any one, she ran +over to the fence and there, caught in between the tall iron bars, was the +tiniest, blackest little dog she had ever seen. He evidently had seen the +children coming out to play, had wanted to play with them and had supposed +he could slip right through between the bars of the fence. + +Mary Jane tried to pull him out but he was stuck fast. So she called +Betty. + +"Here!" shouted one of the boys, "I'll pull him out!" + +"No you don't," cried Betty imperatively, "you let him alone! We'll do +it!" And her snapping black eyes flashed so positively that the boy +obeyed. But Betty couldn't pull the dog through either, the bars were too +close, she couldn't move him either way. + +"I'll tell you what let's do," she said. "Mary Jane, you stay here and +guard him so nobody tries to pull him out and I'll go and get Tom and +he'll know what to do." Tom was the janitor. + +Mary Jane stood close by the dog and patted his head and talked kindly to +him so he would know somebody was trying to help him. And all the girls +and boys who had started to play together gathered around and watched Mary +Jane while Betty ran back to the school building and down into the +basement to fetch the janitor. + +Fortunately, Tom was in his office and came quickly in response to Betty's +call. He saw at once what the trouble was and discovered a way to remedy +it. It seems that the big iron bars that made the fence were heavier at +the bottom than nearer the top, so the space between the bars got wider +higher up. Tom took firm hold of the wiggling little creature and gently +but very firmly pushed him straight up between the bars. That didn't hurt +like trying to pull him out, so the dog stopped barking and whining. And +in a second Tom had him out--half way up the fence there was plenty of +room to lift him right through. + +Poor little doggie! He was so glad to be out and so frightened by his +experience that when Tom laid him down on the grass he looked quite +forlorn. Mary Jane sat down beside him and gathered him up into her arms. + +"Don't you be afraid, doggie," she said softly, "we'll take care of you, +don't you be afraid a bit!" + +"What you going to do with him?" asked one of the girls. + +But Mary Jane didn't have to answer that question. Before she could speak, +a small boy came running along the street, crying as hard as he could cry +and shouting between sobs, "I've lost my dog! I've lost my dog! Somebody's +stole my dog!" + +"No they haven't," called Betty, "maybe this is yours!" + +The little boy rubbed his eyes, looked through the fence--and a look of +happiness spread over his small face. + +"It's him! It's him! It's him!" he shouted happily, "then he isn't +stole!" + +It took only a minute to run around the gate, dash across the school yard +and grab the tiny little dog into his arms. And the children could tell by +the way the little creature snuggled down that the love wasn't all on one +side--evidently the little boy was a good master. + +Right at that minute, before there was a chance to start a game or any +play, a great bell in the school doorway began to ring. Mary Jane was used +to a small school of course--a school so small that the teacher came to +the window and simply called when recess was over. So she stared in +amazement when the great bell rang out so noisily. + +"Come on!" shouted Betty, "recess is over!" + +"Soon as I tell this doggie good-by!" replied Mary Jane. + +Betty didn't hear and, supposing Mary Jane was right behind her, she went +on into her place in line. And Mary Jane, remembering how leisurely folks +went up after recess at her old school, didn't pay any attention to the +rapidly forming lines. She turned around and patted the tiny dog and +nodded and smiled and whispered her good-by. + +When she did turn to go in with Betty, she was amazed to see all the +children had disappeared into the building. She scampered over to the door +as fast as ever she could. And up the stairs--but not a soul did she see! +Only the click of a closing door could be heard--a click that made Mary +Jane feel really shut out and lonely. + +"Now let's see," said Mary Jane to herself, "Betty's room was right around +a corner--" But there wasn't any room around that first corner--only a +long hall. A lump came into Mary Jane's throat. The building was so big, +so very, very big. And she felt so little, so very, very little. She +swallowed twice, determined not to cry and then she said out loud in a +queer frightened little voice, "I guess I'm lost. I'm lost in school!" + + + + +SAND CASTLES + + +"I Guess I'm lost! I'm lost in school!" + +Mary Jane's frightened little whisper sounded like a shout and the doors +and walls and hallways seemed to echo back, "Lost! Little girl lost!" in a +most desolate fashion. Mary Jane was so frightened that she stood +perfectly still--just as still as though her shoes were fastened to the +floor. And she looked straight ahead as though she was trying to see +through the wall at which she was staring. To tell the truth, Mary Jane +wasn't trying to see through the wall. She didn't even know a wall was in +front of her. She couldn't see a single thing, not even a big wall, +because a mist of tears was in her eyes and a great lump was growing in +her throat. + +Now Mary Jane wasn't a baby. And she never cried--or any way, she _hardly_ +ever cried because she was going on six and girls who are going on six +don't cry. But to be lost in a strange school and in a strange city +and--everything; well, it's not much wonder that Mary Jane felt pretty +queer. + +But before the tears had time to fall, there was a heavy footstep behind +her and Mary Jane whirled around to see--the kindly face of Tom the +janitor smiling at her. + +"Aren't you pretty late getting to your room?" he asked. + +Mary Jane couldn't answer. She was so relieved to have someone around that +for a minute she just couldn't get the lump out of her throat enough to +talk. + +Tom must have been used to little girls--maybe he had one of his +own--because he didn't pay any attention to Mary Jane's silence. He took +hold of her hand and said pleasantly, "Now don't you worry a minute. You +just show me which your room is and I'll go with you." + +"I'm looking for it too," said Mary Jane, finding her voice again, "but I +don't know where it is." + +"Don't know where your room is?" asked Tom in surprise. + +"No," replied Mary Jane with a decided shake of her head, "I don't." And +then, for talking was now getting comfortable and easy, she added, "you +see, it isn't really my room. It's Betty's. And I'm just a-visiting her. +I'm just moved to Chicago and they haven't any chair for me only just to +visit in when somebody's absent." + +"That sounds like the kindergarten," said Tom. + +"It is," agreed Mary Jane with a laugh of relief, "I'm kindergarten, I +am." + +"Then here we go, right down this way," said Tom, and off they started in +just the opposite direction. + +Before they got clear up to the kindergarten, though, they met Miss +Gilbert, who was coming in search of the little visitor. "Betty missed +her," she explained, "but I thought you'd find her, Tom." With a thank you +to her janitor friend, Mary Jane took tight hold of the teacher's hand and +they went into the kindergarten room together. + +After that, the morning went very quickly and happily and Mary Jane could +hardly believe her ears when the big whistles began to blow for twelve +o'clock and Miss Gilbert told them to put away their scissors and cut-out +papers and get ready to go home. Mary Jane had cut out two beautiful +tulips and she was very happy when she was told they might be taken home +as a souvenir of her visit. + +On the way home they met Frances and Alice and Ed so they had plenty of +company. + +"What you doing Saturday?" asked Ed as they neared their own corner. + +"I don't know," replied Alice, "is there anything nice to do--special?" + +"Well," answered Frances, "we were afraid you might all be busy--but--well +you see, we were going to have a beach party and we thought maybe you +folks would like to go along. All of you." + +Now Alice and Mary hadn't the slightest idea what a beach party was, only +of course they knew it must be something about the lake. But there wasn't +time for questions and talk just then for Frances discovered that they had +walked so slowly that they must rush on home to lunch. + +"We'll get mother to tell you," she promised, "and do say you'll come +'cause it's a fire and cooking and marshmallows and piles of fun." + +"And we've plenty of wires," added Betty, "and they're plenty long so you +won't burn your fingers." + +It sounded amazingly puzzling to Alice and Mary Jane, who couldn't in the +least understand what a fire and wires and all that had to do with a +beach. But they were to find out before so very long. For that same +afternoon, while Alice was still in school, Mrs. Holden and Betty came +over to call on Mrs. Merrill and Mary Jane and then the beach party was +all explained. + +"We go over to the lake very often," said Mrs. Holden. "And on the sandy +beach, close by the water, the children build a big fire. Then, when the +coals are good, we toast sandwiches and roast 'weenies' and toast +marshmallows. The children are so anxious to show your girls just how it +is done," she added, "and as the weather promises to be warm and sunny I +think we should have an extra fine time." + +So it was settled. And a person would have thought from the excitement and +fun of preparation that the party was to be that same day instead of +twenty-four hours away. For as soon as Alice and the older Holden children +came home from school, they all set to work planning the menu and getting +out baskets and cleaning the wires on which, so the Merrill girls learned, +marshmallows were held over the coals to be toasted. + +But when everything that could be done the day before, was finished, there +was still some time for play, so the children went down into the Holden +yard and the boys, Ed and John, showed the girls how to run a track +meet--how to jump and vault and race in proper track style. Alice and Mary +Jane thought the boys wonderfully skilled and the boys, thrilled by such +warm admiration, broke all their previous records and had a beautiful +time. + +At four o'clock the next afternoon the two families set out for the beach +party. And it surely was quite a procession that made its way the four or +five blocks to the park. First there was John with the wagon which held +all the heavy things--baskets of food and such. Next came Ed, who started +out walking behind the wagon to see that nothing dropped off. He and John +were to take turns pulling the load. Then the others carried bundles of +kindling and the wires for marshmallows and toasting racks for meat. They +had such a jolly time getting off that everybody felt sure the party was +to be a success. + +Mary Jane had been so busy helping get settled and all that, that she +hadn't had time for a real visit on the beach. To be sure she had had +glimpses of the big blue they could see down their own street, but to +really come over and see the lake and play in the sand--this was her first +trip. So she skipped along very happily and thought she could hardly wait +till they got there. + +Fortunately they hadn't far to go. Three blocks down and two blocks over +and there was the park--such a beautiful park with tiny lakes and bridges +and great trees whose buds were swelling in the warm afternoon spring +sunshine. Mary Jane thought she must be in fairyland come to life, it was +all so beautiful. They crossed an arched bridge; saw a lovely view off +toward the south where other bridges and lagoons and trees made such a +pretty picture they were tempted to stay and look longer; walked around a +big circle where, so John told them, the band gave concerts in the summer +time; circled a tiny little inlet lake and came out, quite suddenly, right +close to the big lake--Lake Michigan. It almost took Mary Jane's breath +way, coming suddenly that way, upon the sight of so much water. It was all +so blue and clear, she thought, for the minute, that surely it must be the +very same ocean she had seen in Florida only a few weeks before. + +But the boys didn't give much time for sight-seeing of lakes--they had +seen the good old lake many a time and they were thinking more about +supper than any view, however pretty. + +So they hurried their wagon across the boulevard driveway, and of course +all the folks had to follow close behind, and down the beach walk a couple +of hundred yards and there they settled themselves on a stretch of clean +white sand. + +"Now," said big brother Linn, whom the girls hadn't seen much of as yet, +but who seemed to be master of ceremonies, "you boys gather those big logs +down there, you girls fix the kindling and I'll set these stones up so we +get a good draft when we light our fire." + +Everybody set to work. The logs proved to be so big and heavy that Ed and +John were very glad to have the help of their father and Mr. Merrill to +roll them into place. The four girls sorted out the kindling in their +basket and added to it by picking up drift wood on the beach. Frances +explained that they always brought some along to be sure they had some +real dry wood for a start. + +With such good help and so much of it, of course it wasn't long till a +fine blaze was going and the beach party was actually begun. + +"Go ahead and play now," said Linn, when he saw the fire was started and +that there was a big pile of reserve wood close by. "You know we can't +cook till we get some coals." + +"But I'm starved," hinted Ed, with a hungry look toward the baskets his +mother and Mrs. Merrill were guarding. + +"Then you'll have to stay starved, young man," said his mother, laughing, +"because not a basket is to be opened till the coals are ready for +cooking." + +"Then let's make a sand castle," suggested Betty and she ran down to a +smooth place on the beach, away from possible smoke, and began molding the +white sand. + +That pleased Mary Jane. She hadn't forgotten the fun she had playing on +the beach in Florida, and while this beach was different--it didn't have +any of the pretty shells or funny little crawdads she had found on the +Florida beach--still it had lovely white sand and dainty little waves and +was quite the nicest place for play that Mary Jane had seen. + +"I'll tell you what let's do," suggested Alice, as she saw that all the +children were going to play in the sand, "let's each build a castle and +make it any way we like best and then when they're all finished, have an +exhibition and everybody look and see which is the best." + +"All right, let's," agreed the children and they set to work. + +Mary Jane chose for her castle a place down close by the water. She loved +the nearness of the waves and the thrill of knowing that maybe, if she +didn't watch out, a wave would come up really close and get her wet. Betty +picked out a spot nearer the fire on the side away from the smoke and +Alice chose a place where a few pretty pebbles would give her material +with which to pave a "moat" she intended to make. + +And then everybody set to work. So busy were they that Linn had to tend +the fire all by himself and Ed forgot he was hungry. + +Before very long that beach looked like a picture book. Towers and ditches +and castles and bridges were where flat sand had been a few minutes +before. The Holden children had made many a sand house and they knew just +how to pack the damp sand so it would stay in place and just how to put a +small board here and there to hold a second story or a tower straight and +tall. + +But with all their experience, Alice's castle was as pretty as theirs, or +at any rate she thought it was, and Mary Jane's was quite wonderful. She +smoothed off the "garden" in front of her palace, stuck in a few sticks +for flowers, made a pebbly path down to the tiny lake she had scooped out +at one side and then shouted, "Mine's done! Look at mine!" and stepped +aside so all could see her handiwork. + +[Illustration: And then, sliding in the wet sand, she sat right down in +the lake and sent a wave of ripples right over her castle _Page 61_] + +But Mary Jane wasn't used to working so close to the water and she forgot +entirely where she was! Instead of stepping to one side, as she should +have done, she stepped backwards--straight into the big lake! And then, +sliding in the wet sand, she sat right down in the lake and sent a big +wave of ripples--right over her castle and garden and lake and everything +and washed it all away, every bit! + + + + +THE BEACH SUPPER + + +A minute before Mary Jane slid into the lake, the beach was a scene of +busy building and fun. Linn tended the fire, the grown folks gathered wood +and visited and guarded baskets and the children all were intent on their +sand castles. But with Mary Jane's tumble everything changed. + +Sand flew helter skelter as the children jumped hastily and ran to Mary +Jane's assistance; castles were trampled on as though they didn't exist +and fire wood and baskets were all forgotten. + +"Don't be afraid, you're all right!" called Mrs. Merrill as she ran toward +her little girl. + +"Coming! Coming! Here!" shouted Mr. Merrill reassuringly as he dashed over +to his little daughter, picked her up by the shoulders and set her, safe +and sound, on dry sand just in time to miss a fair sized wave. + +"I guess I'm wet!" said Mary Jane. + +"I guess you are," laughed Mr. Merrill, "but I guess things will dry and +you're not so very awfully too wet--not enough to spoil the party, is she, +mother?" + +Mrs. Merrill looked thoughtful and all the children waited anxiously for +her answer. Would Mary Jane have to go clear off home and miss the party +and everything! But it wasn't to be as bad as all that. Mrs. Merrill +remembered the warm day, the glowing sun that was still bright and warm +and she also remembered the hot fire Linn had underway and the warm sand +all around the fire. + +"Of course she isn't wet enough to spoil the party," said Mrs. Merrill, +much to every one's relief. "Only she'll have to stay close by the fire +till she gets warm and dry. Suppose we appoint her head cook and make her +stay right there where it's hot?" + +"She'll get dry then!" exclaimed Ed, so fervently that they all knew he +had had many a hot face from working by the fire at previous picnics. + +"But how about your castles?" asked Mr. Holden, "weren't we to have an +exhibit?" + +But the castles! Dear me! In the excitement of Mary Jane's tumble, no one +had given a thought to the castles. They were stepped on, and trampled +down and all matted down into the sand. + +"That's just too bad!" said Mrs. Merrill. + +"Pooh!" exclaimed John, dismissing the whole question of castles with one +wave of the hand, "who cares about castles! _We're_ going to have supper." +And every one set to work. + +Mary Jane was supposed to be head cook, but as she had never before been +to a beach party, she really didn't know what to do. So she simply stayed +close by the hot fire while the boys brought three benches and made them +in a triangle around the fire--a little way back of course. Then Mrs. +Holden and Mrs. Merrill unpacked the baskets and fixed a place on the +bench for each person. To be sure nobody was expected to sit on the +bench--that would be quite too proper for a beach party meal. But the +mothers put a paper plate and a cup for each person on the benches and +then they put on the plate as many sandwiches and pickles and cookies and +everything as each person was entitled to. + +While they were doing this, Linn raked down the hot coals, set in place a +light wire rack he had made and spread a couple of dozen weenies out to +roast. + +"Now then, Mary Jane," he said to the head cook, "you take this long fork. +And as soon as a weenie begins to sputter and brown, turn it over so it +browns on the other side too." + +That was a very important job, Mary Jane could easily see, and she +determined that every weenie _she_ cooked would be done just to a turn. +She bent over the fire till her back got a crook in it; then she sat down +on the hot sand close to the coals and by the time the weenies were done +ready to eat she was so dry and hot that she felt sure she had never +slipped into the lake--never! + +And all the time Mary Jane was cook, Linn and Mr. Merrill stayed close to +see that the coals kept evenly hot and that no bit of flame started up to +burn the head cook. + +At last the weenies were ready. Each one was beautifully brown and was +sizzling and sputtering and sending a most tempting odor to hungry folks. + +"Form a line, folks," said Mrs. Holden, "ladies first!" + +With much laughter, each person got their own roll, which had been split +and buttered, and filed passed Mary Jane. And Mary Jane, instructed by +Linn just how to do her job, picked up one weenie after another on the +long fork and dropped each one in an open roll held out before her. It was +a scary job, for the sand was close below and Mary Jane knew that weenies +dropped into the sand wouldn't taste very good. But she took her time--too +much time, John thought. + +"Don't be 'fraid of any old sand," he assured her when she put his weenie +in his roll so very carefully, "I eat 'em any way--sand or not." + +Betty eyed Mary Jane a bit enviously. This being chief cook and having a +chance to fill the rolls of each person must surely be fun. + +"Next time we have a beach party," she announced between bites, "_I'm_ +going to fall into the lake too!" + +"I'll save you the trouble," replied Mr. Holden understandingly, "I'll let +you be chief cook without getting wet." + +Betty needn't have worried about Mary Jane's being willing to give up her +job. For there was one disadvantage in that position Miss Betty hadn't +thought of and Mary Jane had just discovered--the head cook had no time to +eat. And Mary Jane was getting fearfully hungry. She was more than willing +to give up the big fork, let Betty fill her roll for her and stand up with +the others to eat the good hot morsel. + +Did anything ever taste as good as those hot weenie sandwiches, eaten +there on the edge of Lake Michigan, with the fine lake air blowing in +their faces and the sunshine warming them and making them forget the chill +of the long winter? The Merrills thought they had never had so much fun +and tasted such good things. Every weenie (and there had seemed to be far +too many) was eaten up; every roll disappeared and cookies and pickles and +sandwiches just vanished as though a warm breeze had melted them away. + +Supper over, the sun going down reminded the children that they must get +the fire ready for dark. They scampered up and down the broad beach, +gathering together all the pieces of drift wood they could find. Later in +the year wood along that beach would be hard to find. But in the early +spring, before the driftings of the winter's storms had been burned up by +picnickers like themselves, there was plenty to be had. + +Linn and Ed put away the cooking rack in the case they had made for it, +the two mothers packed up debris and burned it so the beach would be left +clean and tidy, and all the others gathered wood. Such a lot as they did +find! Linn piled it on high and by the time the sun went to sleep in the +west, the fire was so bright that nobody noticed the growing darkness. +They all sat around on the warm sand and sang--college songs that the +children had learned from the fathers, school songs and popular songs that +they all knew. It was fun to sit there close by the big lake, to watch the +sparks fly upward, to hear the waves swish against the sand and to sing +and sing as loud as they liked. + +But when the darkness settled down enough so that mysterious shadows +lurked over every shoulder and the stars helped the fire make a light, Ed +announced, "Now let's play Indian." + +So they did. Playing Indian, the Merrill girls found, meant a queer +follow-the-leader game. Ed led off first and everybody had to follow. He +ran round and round the fire, prancing and yelling like a wild man. And +the point of the game was for everybody to do exactly as he did. They ran +and jumped and yelled till everybody was breathless with exercise and +laughter and was glad to sit down again and do nothing. + +By this time the fire had again died down to a bed of coals. + +"_Now_ it's time for the marshmallows, isn't it?" asked Betty. She was +right, it was. + +The boxes of marshmallows were opened, wires pulled out of the baskets and +all the children sat around the fire a-toasting. 'Twas just as Betty had +promised. The wires were plenty long enough so that no fingers needed to +be burned or dresses scorched and the bed of coals was big enough to make +room for all. + +Betty and Mary Jane thought they would keep count and see who could eat +the most, but after six they lost count, and they ate and ate till they +simply couldn't eat any more. + +"Let's play still pond," suggested Frances. + +She stood up near the fire and announced, "Twenty steps, two jumps, three +hops and a roll. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, +ten--STILL POND." + +As she said the numbers off, the children began scampering to a place to +safety. All but Mary Jane. She wasn't used to playing on the slippery, +slidy sand. And though she started off just as big as anybody, she slipped +and stumbled and hadn't more than got to her feet when the words, "Still +pond!" were called. And after that she couldn't move but just to use the +steps, jumps, hops and roll Frances had given them. + +To make matters even more exciting, Frances started off exactly in her +direction. + +But Mary Jane hadn't played "Still Pond" in her own yard for nothing. +Perhaps she hadn't learned to run on slippery sand as yet, but she did +know how to play that game. Instead of trying to quietly take her twenty +steps in an effort to get out of Frances' way, she took two quick steps, +dropped down on the sand, gave one little roll, and--was safely hidden +under one of the picnic benches they had used for supper! + +Frances passed so close Mary Jane could have touched her. Other folks were +chased and found, but Mary Jane's hiding place was undiscovered. Of course +when she rolled in under the bench, Mary Jane had expected to roll right +out again when somebody else was caught. But when she found that they +couldn't see her; that they went right around close at hand, talking about +her and wondering where she was and all that, she thought it was such a +good joke that she lay very still and watched. + +She heard them asking each other where she was seen last; she heard her +father say she couldn't be so very far away; and she saw them all start +off in search of herself. Then, just the minute their backs were turned +but before they had had time to be really frightened, she slipped out from +under her seat, stood up close by the dying fire and shouted, "Here I am, +can't you see me?" + +They thought it a very good joke she had played and Mary Jane was sure she +would always remember that the best hiding place is often the nearest +one. + +"Time to go home," said Mr. Holden, looking at his watch, "the fire's most +out and the party's over." + +"But there'll be another one, won't there?" begged Mary Jane. + +"Let's have it next week," said Betty. + +The boys loaded up the empty baskets on their wagon--not much of a load +going home! Mr. Merrill raked out the fire so no harm would come to +anything; Mr. Holden gathered the children together and started the line +of march. It was a happy little crowd that wandered homeward and they all +agreed with Mary Jane when she said, "Well, anyway, I think a beach +party's the mostest fun I know. It's more fun than moving!" + + + + +MARY JANE GOES SHOPPING + + +The days after the beach party seemed to fly past on wings. First it was a +Monday and then, before a person could do half the nice things planned, +Saturday was coming 'round again and Alice was home all day from school +and fun for the four Merrills could be planned. Mrs. Merrill and Mary Jane +took to doing all their "Saturday marketing" on Friday afternoon so they +could have more time on Saturday for trips and sight-seeing and all the +lovely things folks like to do when they've just moved to a big city. + +One Saturday morning, not so very long after the beach party, dawned--not +bright and warm and sunny as Mary Jane had hoped it surely would--but +rainy and cold and windy as some May mornings are sure to be in Chicago. A +cold northeast wind raced across the city and folks had blue noses and +shivery finger tips and not a single thing to be seen looked like spring. + +"Now just look at it!" exclaimed Mary Jane as she stared out of the +living-room window, "and we were going to take a trip through the parks +and I was going to wear my new hat and everything. And look!" + +"And we can't go to the parks again for another whole week!" bemoaned +Alice, "'cause there's school!" + +"Just look!" exclaimed Mary Jane again as a hard gust of wind tossed the +rain against the winds exactly as though Mr. Rain was saying to Mary Jane, +"Thought you'd go out, did you? Well, look what I'm doing!" + +"You girls talk as though parks were the only things to see in Chicago," +said Mrs. Merrill as pleasantly and comfortably as though there was no +such thing as a disappointment in the world. + +Alice and Mary Jane turned away from the window quickly. Something in +their mother's tone of voice made them suspect that the day wasn't to be a +disappointment after all. + +"It's funny to me," continued Mrs. Merrill in a matter of fact voice, +"that you folks haven't asked to go to the big stores--wouldn't you like +to?" + +"Like to!" exclaimed Alice. + +"Would we?" cried Mary Jane. "But we didn't think about it!" + +"Then we'll think about it now," replied Mrs. Merrill. "If you can hold an +umbrella down tight over your head so as not to get your hat wet, I think +we could manage to get to the train without getting soaked. And once down +at the store, we could check our wet umbrellas and shop and sight-see +through the stores all we wished to without a bit of hurry." + +"Oh, may we really go?" asked Alice. + +"Well," answered Mrs. Merrill, pretending to hesitate, "if you _really_ +care to--" + +That settled it and there was no more time wasted talking about weather +_that_ morning. Dishes were washed and beds were made and dusting was done +so quickly that the little flat must have been quite surprised and pleased +with itself--it got put into rights so very quickly. Then Mary Jane got +her hair fixed nicely and a pretty hair bow put on--the bow wouldn't show +very much under the new hat, but even that little had to be just +right--and then, while mother fixed her own and Alice's hair, she put on a +pretty dress--not a party dress, of course, but a nice, pretty, dark +dress. Then they all put on rubbers and raincoats and locked up the doors +and took their umbrellas and started for the train. + +Going down town on the train was fun. In the city where Mary Jane lived +before, one could walk down town. Or if one really wanted to ride, a +street car hustled one to the stores in about five minutes. But in +Chicago, so she discovered, she had to have a ticket and go through a +gate, and up stairs and onto a platform and aboard a train and everything +just as though one intended to go away, far off. The girls both liked to +ride down town. To be sure they couldn't see much of the lake, even though +they did ride right along beside it, because the rain made it all look dim +and gray and foggy. But they knew the lake was there; they could see the +spray the waves made and once in a while they could hear the noise of +splashing water above the roar of the train. All too soon, for there was +so much to see, the train pulled into their station and the conductor +shouted, "Randolph Street! Everybody out! Far's we go!" And all the folks +aboard got their umbrellas ready and went out into the rain. + +Fortunately it was only a very little way from the station to the big +store where Mrs. Merrill took the girls, so they didn't have a chance to +get tired or very wet. And as soon as they got indoors, Mrs. Merrill found +a checking place and they left wet umbrellas and wet raincoats and wet +rubbers and started out for fun. + +"I think that's awfully convenient--just to leave things that way," said +Alice as she settled her collars and cuffs and made sure she was tidy, +"and of course we'll get them back safely?" This checking system was new +to her and she wanted to be assured it was all right. + +"To be sure we will," said Mrs. Merrill. "See? I have the checks for +them." + +"Well, then," said Mary Jane, "let's begin." + +"Yes," said Alice, "let's. And let's see _everything_!" + +"All right," laughed Mrs. Merrill; "shall we take an elevator first?" + +"Oh, no," answered Alice, "'cause then we'd miss the first floor." + +So they "did" the first floor, seeing all the handkerchiefs and jewelry +and bags and fans and pretty decorations and ribbons--Alice could hardly +leave those lovely ribbons--and neckwear--Mary Jane saw five different +neckties she needed--and so many things. + +"Do they have anything left for the second floor?" asked Mary Jane when +they finally got around to where they had started. + +"You just see," said Mrs. Merrill. + +And sure enough there were plenty of things on the second floor, pretty +dishes and lamps and so many things that, really, Mary Jane almost got +tired looking at them all. + +By the time they got ready for the third floor, Mary Jane was wondering if +there were any seats in that store. Not seats where you sit down to buy +things, but really seats where you just sit down whether you buy anything +or not. And sure enough there were just those seats. Nice, big comfy ones, +that appeared to be made for Mary Janes who went a-shopping and wanted to +sit down. The Merrills sat down on a big couch and Mary Jane leaned back +ready to rest when--who should she see right in front of her but Frances +Westland! The girl she met at grandmother's house nearly a year ago. + +In a jiffy Mary Jane forgot all about wanting to sit down. She slid down +from the comfortable couch, dashed after Frances, who, not guessing that a +friend was so near, was hurrying by, and brought her back to meet mother +and Alice. + +Then they all sat down for a visit. + +"No, I'm not living here," said Frances in answer to Mrs. Merrill's +question, "I've been spending the spring with my auntie and going to +school here. But just as soon as school is out I'm going back home. Mother +needs me." + +"I don't doubt it," replied Mrs. Merrill, who was much pleased with the +little girl, "I'm sure your mother misses you greatly. But where are you +living and can't we see you before you go and can't you take lunch with us +to-day?" + +It seemed that Frances's auntie lived in the same part of the city the +Merrills lived in and there was every reason to believe that the girls +might see each other at least once or twice in the little time left of the +school year. + +"But I don't believe I can eat lunch with you," added Frances, "'cause +auntie and I have to hurry home." So with a promise to come to see them +soon at the address Mrs. Merrill wrote out on her card for Frances, the +friends said good-by. + +"I'll declare!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, looking at her watch after Frances +left them. "It's almost twelve o'clock already! And we were to meet father +at one. If you girls want to see anything of the toys and dolls and +playrooms, we'd better not be sitting around here any longer." + +Of course the girls did want to see the toys and dolls and everything. +When they got to the fourth floor where all the children's things were +kept, they were sorry they had spent even a minute any place else. For all +the lovely dolls and marvelous toys and enticing games and beautiful +pictures and fascinating puzzles made a person think that Santa Claus's +shop and fairyland and magic were all mixed up together and set down in +one place. The girls looked and looked and looked. They "oh-ed" and +"ah-ed" and exclaimed till they couldn't think of anything more to +say--and then they kept right on looking just the same. + +Mary Jane picked out the doll coat she wanted Georgiannamore to have and +Alice selected a lovely desk. They agreed upon a set of dishes and upon +charming furniture for their balcony--just the right size too. + +"And we'll pretend we'll buy it all, mother," said Mary Jane, who knew +perfectly well she couldn't buy all the things she talked about getting, +"and we'll pretend we'll have it all sent up, that'll be such fun." + +So they pretended and looked and looked and pretended till they had been +over most all that part of the store. + +"Now then," said Mrs. Merrill, "if we're to meet Dadah for lunch--" + +"Oh, goody!" cried Alice, "are we to meet him here?" + +"Not here," said Mrs. Merrill, "but in this store in the lunch room and in +ten minutes. So we'd better wash our hands and go to the lunch room +floor." + +Mr. Merrill was waiting for them and had a table engaged close by a +charming fountain ("Just think of a fountain in a house!" exclaimed Mary +Jane when she spied it) and all the time Mary Jane sat there eating, she +could look right over and watch the fishes and she could hear the splash +of the water. + +But Mary Jane wasn't thinking of fishes or water just then. She was +hungry. And the things her father read to her sounded so good--oh, dear, +but they did sound good! She and Alice had a dreadfully hard time deciding +just what did sound the best. But Alice finally decided on stuffed chicken +legs (she hadn't an idea what they were but they sounded good) and potato +salad and strawberry parfait. And Mary Jane chose chicken pie--a whole one +all her own--and hashed brown potatoes and orange sherbet. + +While the lunch was being fixed, Mr. Merrill took Mary Jane over to the +window so she could look down, down, way down, to the street below, where +the folks appeared so little and upside down and where the automobiles +looked like the ones they had just seen in the toy department. + +When the lunch came, it proved to be just as good as the menu promised it +would be and the girls enjoyed every bite. Mary Jane was afraid for a +minute that she had made a mistake. For Alice's parfait came in a tall +glass, with a long spoon that made the girls think of the story of the fox +and the goose and the banquet, and Mary Jane was sure nothing she had +ordered could be as nice as parfait. But when the maid set the orange +sherbet at her place, Mary Jane was quite satisfied, for the ice was set +in a real orange, all cut out in dainty scallops and trimmed with green. + +"Yummy-um!" she whispered, happily. "I'm so glad you had this party, +Dadah!" + +Dadah seemed to want everything to be all right, for he had added to their +order some little cakes, done up in frilly papers and unlike anything the +girls had ever seen. They almost hated to eat them, they were so pretty, +but cakes one cannot eat are not good for much, Mr. Merrill reminded them, +and so the cakes were eaten up. + +"Now then," said Mary Jane, as she dabbled her fingers in the finger bowl +and ate up the candy she found at the side of the tiny tray, "what do we +do next?" + + + + +THE BUS RIDE + + +"What do we do next?" asked Mr. Merrill, repeating Mary Jane's question. +"I'm sure of this much--we must do something _very_ nice because it's such +a nice day." + +"_Nice day_!" exclaimed Alice. "What in the world are you talking about, +Dadah? This is the worst weather we've had since we came to Chicago--but +we don't care 'cause we're having such a good time anyway." + +Mr. Merrill laughed and replied, "Suppose you look out of the window." + +So they left their cozy table, where nothing but empty dishes told the +story of their delightful lunch party, and wandered over to the window +where Mary Jane had looked down at the street not much over an hour +before. But what a difference! With a sudden, unexpected shift of wind +that only the Chicago weather man knows how to bring about, the stiff, +cold northeaster that had brought the cold rain of the morning had been +sent off and in its place a warm breeze from the south blew softly across +the city, bringing with it sunshine and warmth and pleasantness for all. + +"Why--" exclaimed Mary Jane, much puzzled, "where's the rain?" + +"Did you want it back?" laughed Mrs. Merrill, and then she explained to +the girls something about the effect the big lake might have on weather +and told them that one of the queer things about Chicago was its sudden +changes to good, or sometimes bad, weather. + +"So I was wondering," said Mr. Merrill, "if you folks wouldn't like an +hour of fresh air and then, if you're not through shopping we can come +back to the stores." + +The girls hadn't an idea what he might want to do, but they were pretty +sure it would be fun. So they agreed that an hour out of doors was just +what they most wanted and they went down to get wraps from the check room. +They left the umbrellas till later, put on their wraps and left the +store. + +"Now then," said Mr. Merrill, "see that big bus down there--we're going +for a ride on the top." + +"What's a bus?" asked Mary Jane, who had never heard the word before. But +before her father could answer they were pushed into the crowd at the +crossing, hurried across and the next second Mr. Merrill had hailed a +great, lumbering, top-heavy automobile and was helping the girls to step +aboard. + +The "bus" proved to be a large-sized passenger automobile, with a deck on +top for passengers who wished to ride in the open air. Mary Jane and Alice +were thrilled with the fun of getting on it. It seemed exactly like going +aboard a house-boat on wheels. They stepped into a little hallway and +then--and this wasn't so easy because the bus immediately began to +move--they climbed up a curving flight of stairs and walked down an +aisle--an awfully wiggly aisle it was too!--to seats on the very front +row. + +Then, before they had had a chance to look around or feel at home, the +conductor, who stood at the back, shouted, "Low bridge!" and everybody +ducked their heads while the great bus went under the elevated railroad. +Mary Jane felt, truly, as though she must be a person in a story +book--Arabian Nights or something marvelous--because surely the things +that were happening to her weren't _really_ happening. + +But after the elevated was passed, the bus rolled out onto Michigan +Boulevard and Mary Jane settled herself comfortably in her front seat with +her mother, smiled across the aisle to Alice and her father and began to +feel really at home in her high perch. By the time the bus had turned +northward and crossed the river, she began to feel that riding on the top +of a bus was the thing she'd been wanting to do all her life. It was such +fun to sit up high and watch the lake, so blue and beautiful in the +sunshine, the trees just getting a tinge of green at the tips, the pretty +houses that lined the parkway, the people--it seemed as everybody in +Chicago must be out in their 'tother best clothes--and most of all, it was +fun to watch the automobiles dart in and out of the crowd, around the bus +and beside it, till Mary Jane was sure their driver must be some wonderful +being to be able to manage so that everybody stayed alive! + +"Here, Mary Jane," said Mr. Merrill, interrupting Mary Jane's +sight-seeing, "don't you want to pay your fare--Alice is paying ours." He +slipped two dimes into her hand just as the conductor stepped to the front +of the bus. Mary Jane wasn't quite sure what she was to do with the dimes +till she noticed that the conductor had in his hand a queer-looking thing +like a clock, only it had a hole in the top just the right size for a +dime. Into that hole Mary Jane dropped a dime. And--"ding_ding_!" went a +musical little bell somewhere in the "clock." Then she dropped the other +dime. And again the bell sounded, "ding_ding_!" just as though it tried to +say "Thank _you_!" that way. Alice then dropped her two dimes and Mary +Jane had the fun of hearing the bell again. She thought she wouldn't do a +thing but watch the conductor and listen to his bell all the time he +collected fares, but just as he stepped back to get the next folks' money +the bus passed in front of the queer old stone building with great tower +that Mr. Merrill said was the city water works building, and of course +that meant the girls wanted to hear about when it was built and hear again +the story Mr. Merrill had started to tell them several evenings before +about how the great Chicago fire started and how it burned up to this very +spot they were now passing. Somehow, being at that place and seeing the +one building that stood through the fire made the history stories seem +very plain and there were a lot of questions to be asked and answered. + +But buses don't wait for questions--the girls soon discovered that! Long +before the fire story was told they had raced up Lake Shore Drive, passed +its beautiful old homes, and were turning into Lincoln Park. Here it +seemed to the girls that the city ended and fairyland began. The grass +seemed greener, the lake bluer and the trees greener than any place they +had seen; and hundreds of tulips peeping up through the ground here, there +and everywhere, made spots of bright vivid color and beauty. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Mary Jane happily, "I hope the bus goes on and on forever! +I'd like to keep on riding all the time!" + +But when, a minute or two later, they passed near the buildings of the +Zoo, Mary Jane forgot all about wanting to ride forever and wanted to get +out, right away quick and see all the animals she had heard lived there. + +"Not to-day," said Mr. Merrill, looking at his watch. "You remember we are +to go back to the stores--we're just out for a bit of fresh air this time. +Some other day when it's still warmer so we can get our dinner here, then +we'll come and visit the Zoo. But to-day I want to get back to the stores +before they close." + +"Of course," added Alice, "for our umbrellas." + +"Of course for something else too," laughed her father, and though both +girls were very curious, not another word would he say. + +So they stayed on the bus and rode clear through the park, and up Sheridan +Road a long way till the bus turned around at a corner and the conductor +shouted, "Far's we go!" + +But the Merrills didn't get off. They wanted to keep those good front +seats so they sat still and in about two minutes the bus started south and +whirled them through the park and past all the same interesting sights on +the way cityward. This time, Mary Jane felt very much at home in her +high-up perch. She dropped in the dimes her father gave her, eyed the +passing autos without a bit of fear and looked down on all the children +she saw walking and playing quite as though she had lived in a city and +ridden in busses all her young life. + +It was a very reluctant pair of young ladies that Mr. Merrill assisted to +the sidewalk when the big stores and "time to get off" were reached. + +"But what was it besides umbrellas you wanted to get?" asked Mary Jane, +suddenly remembering. + +"Well," said Mr. Merrill, "I haven't been through the toy department with +anybody. And I have a calendar." + +The girls looked puzzled. What had the toy department to do with a +calendar? They couldn't guess. Even Mrs. Merrill looked puzzled. + +"Of course if you don't intend to have birthdays since we've moved--" said +Mr. Merrill teasingly. And then everybody knew! To be sure! It was almost +time for Mary Jane's birthday--almost a year, it was, since the lovely +birthday party when the little girl was five years old--and in the +excitement of moving and getting settled and seeing new sights, even the +little lady herself had forgotten how near the day was at hand. + +"It's mine!" exclaimed Mary Jane happily, "and I'll be six! Come on, +quick, Dadah! and I'll show you perzactly what I want." When Mary Jane got +excited she sometimes got words a little mixed, but her father knew well +enough just what she meant. She grabbed hold of his hand, called to her +mother and Alice to come on with them and away they went toward the +elevator that quickly took them to the toy section. + +Going through that department the second time was even more fun than the +first trip, because now father was along to see things and to explain +mechanical toys. And also because there was the fun of picking out the +thing she wanted to wish for, for her birthday. That last was a very +serious matter, as every little girl knows. + +They looked at dolls--but not a doll was as lovely as Georgiannamore, at +least that was Mary Jane's opinion--and then they looked at furniture and +at dishes and toys and games and clothes for dolls and, well, at every +single thing in that whole big department. After everything had been +considered and looked at and thought about, and it was about time for the +big warning bell to ring and tell folks that in ten minutes the store +would close and everybody'd have to get out, then and not until then, Mary +Jane decided that the thing she wanted most of all was a doll cart. A +beautiful little ivory enameled doll cart made just exactly like the one +that Junior's little brother had back at their old home. A cart with a top +that moved back and forth just like a real baby cart and that had cushions +and tires and everything that a really truly mother is particular to want +for her baby. + +"Yes," said Mary Jane, as she looked around the store with a rather tired +sigh, "I think that's the thing I want the most and I'm going to wish for +it, Dadah." + +"Sounds easily settled," laughed her father, "but do you know what time it +is?" + +Before she could answer, the warning bell rang and clerks began to cover +up counters and to straighten up the store for its Sunday rest. So the +Merrills four hurried down to get umbrellas and to go home. + +On the train going home Mary Jane was so tired looking at things that she +didn't care a bit about looking any more. She watched the lake some, but +mostly she simply settled back in her little corner behind the door and +just sat. Thoughts of all the wonderful things she had seen that day raced +through her mind--the lunch, the ride, the lake, the park--but most of +all, that wonderful doll cart, and she couldn't help wondering (and of +course hoping) if she really truly would, _possibly_, get that lovely gift +for her birthday. + + + + +THE BIRTHDAY LUNCHEON + + +As soon as they got home that evening, and had dinner and rested up a bit, +Mary Jane hunted up a calendar so she could find out about her birthday. +And she discovered that two weeks from that same day was "her" day. + +"It's Saturday, so you can do something too!" she said to Alice. "Now, +Mother, let's plan." + +So they talked over all the nice things a person _might_ do for a +birthday, but long before they could decide which was the very nicest of +all the plans, bedtime came. Then the next morning there were interesting +things to do, and nobody thought about plans for a day that was two weeks +away. That is, nobody but Mary Jane thought about it, and, if the truth +must be told, she thought more about the doll cart she had wished for than +she did about what she might do to celebrate. + +Monday noon, when Alice came home for her luncheon, she was much excited. + +"Who do you s'pose I saw at recess this morning?" she demanded. "Guess!" + +But Mrs. Merrill and Mary Jane couldn't guess--they didn't know anybody in +Chicago to guess! Or at least they thought they didn't. + +"I saw--" began Alice slowly, for she wanted the fun of keeping them +waiting to last as long as possible, "I saw--Frances Westland! And she +goes to my school!" + +"Why in the world didn't we know that?" said Mrs. Merrill. "We should have +guessed! Of course she goes to your school. I remember of thinking she +wasn't very far from us." + +"Can't we have her come to see us?" asked Mary Jane eagerly. + +"I already asked her if she couldn't come," explained Alice, "because I +knew you'd want me to, and she says she's sure she can. But she can't come +next Saturday because she and her auntie are going to Milwaukee to spend +the week-end. But she thought she could come the next Saturday." + +"And that's my birthday," Mary Jane reminded her. + +"I know it," agreed Alice, "but I didn't tell her. I just said I'd find +out what we were doing that day and let her know this afternoon--was that +all right, Mother?" + +"You did exactly right, dear," said Mrs. Merrill reassuringly. "Come right +out to the dining-room now, because your soup is ready and you mustn't +hurry yourself too much with your lunch. While we eat, we'll plan for the +birthday." + +Of course there were many plans to be talked of, because in a big city +there are so many kinds of things one may do. And it was awfully hard to +decide which plan was the very most fun--you know how that is yourself. +But after every plan that any of the three could think of had been +discussed carefully, Mary Jane decided that there were two things she +wanted the most to do. First, she wanted to stay home to celebrate and +have a party and all that; and, second, she wanted to go down town and go +to a big grown-up theater where there was music and lights and pretty +things just like grown folks see up town. And for her part she admitted +that she didn't see how a person possibly, even on a birthday, could do +those two conflicting things. + +"Pooh!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, "that's easy! I was telling Dad the other +night that inasmuch as this was the first birthday in the city and on +Saturday and everything--so convenient for us all--we'd better do those +very two things." + +"But how'll we do it, Mother?" asked Alice. "We can't stay home for a +party while we're down town at the theater!" + +"To be sure, we can't," agreed Mrs. Merrill. "But we can stay home for a +party _before_ we go down town for a show. And that's just what we're +going to do. You hurry off to school now, dear, because it's ten of one. +And next time you see Frances Westland, you invite her to come here for +twelve o'clock luncheon a week from next Saturday. Be sure to tell her +it's an all-afternoon party, so she can stay long enough to go down town +with us." + +"And who else'll we have?" asked Mary Jane, when Alice had gone. "It +wouldn't be a party with one person." + +"Of course not," said her mother. "There are going to be three folks. +After school this very day you are going to invite Frances and Betty +Holden--that'll make it almost a 'Frances' party, won't it? We'll ask them +right away, even though a week from Saturday is a long time off, because +Dadah will want to get the tickets and we will all want to make our +plans." + +A week and five days seem a very long time, when you have to wait for +them. But Mary Jane found that, after all, they went quicker than she had +thought they could, because there was so much to do. First she had to +decide what she wanted to have to eat at the luncheon. After much thought +and consultation the menu was made out and tacked up on the kitchen +cabinet for future reference. Mary Jane printed it out all by herself and +the letters were big and plain and could be easily read by any +cook--especially Mother. It said: + + CHICKEN BALLS + HOT ROLLS + FRUIT SALAD WITH WHIPPED CREAM + ICE CREAM CAKE + HASHED BROWN POTATOES + JELLY + +Chicken balls really meant chicken croquettes, but croquettes proved to be +such a big and puzzling word that Mary Jane decided she would say balls +and Mrs. Merrill agreed to take a verbal order for the croquette part of +the luncheon. + +When the food was planned for, Mary Jane began to talk about the +decorations. It was soon found that to be really pretty, the table +trimmings would have to be made by the hostess herself, so Mary Jane set +to work. From the advertising sections of magazines she cut letters about +an inch high. Letters enough to spell everybody's first name and last +initial. She had to have the last initial because two of her guests had +the same first name. These she sorted very carefully and put in envelopes; +one envelope for each person and just the right letters in that envelope +for the person's name. Then, she planned, when the luncheon was all ready, +she would put the letters in little piles in front of each person's place +and let them puzzle out the names before they sat down. + +Mrs. Merrill promised to have a basket of flowers, spring flowers that +Mary Jane loved so very much, in the center of the table. And Mary Jane +planned to make a procession of girls and boys all around the basket. +These she cut out of magazines too and she chose girls and boys who were +doing all the things that she herself liked to do. + +With all these things, besides regular duties and fun, to keep her busy, +Mary Jane didn't really have a chance to think her birthday was a long +time coming. First thing _she_ knew it was Friday night and the birthday +was the very next morning! + +On Saturday morning, she waked up knowing something nice was going to +happen. Then, before her eyes were really open, she felt herself getting +mother's birthday kisses and, before those were all delivered, Alice's +birthday spats--six good big lively ones! + +"Never you mind, Alice," she promised, "just wait till it's _your_ +birthday and you'll get some of the hardest--" + +"Don't stop for promises," said Mr. Merrill, coming in to deliver his +spats too, "what I want is breakfast and for the life of me, _I_ can't get +into that dining-room." + +"_Oh!_" cried Mary Jane rapturously, "I'll be right out!" + +"Not till you get dressed, you know," Alice reminded her, "so do hurry!" +For it was one of the rules of the Merrill household that birthdays and +Christmases didn't really begin till folks were dressed. So Mary Jane +scrabbled into her clothes and gave her face and hands about the most +hurry-up washing they had ever had and then rushed out to the +dining-room. + +And there, standing right by her chair, was the--yes, really--the very +doll cart she had picked out! She was so happy that for a minute she +couldn't speak, she just stared. The next minute she was down on her knees +with her arms around the whole cart--or at least as much of the cart as +two six-year-old arms could get around--and she was counting over all the +wonderful virtues of her gift. It surely was a cart to make any little +girl proud and when Mary Jane saw her own Georgiannamore, wearing a lovely +new coat (Mrs. Merrill's gift), and a pair of really truly gloves (from +Alice), and sitting up as big as life in the cart, she thought the +happiest day of her life had come. + +After breakfast the morning raced by on wings. Of course Mary Jane had to +show the cart and doll's clothes to Betty and they had to walk around the +block to give the doll an airing. Then, just as they got back to Mary +Jane's apartment, the postman came with a box from grandpa and grandma. +Betty was invited up for the fun of opening it and she was glad to come +both for the fun and for the big pieces of grandmother's candy that she +got when the box was opened. Then there was the table to set and the +puzzle letters to put around and everybody to dress in their best--that's +a good deal for one morning. No wonder it seemed to be an unusually short +one. + +At the very last minute, Mary Jane with her new white dress and pink +ribbons all just as they should be, went in to the kitchen to see if she +could help. And at that very minute a neighbor came in to get Mrs. +Merrill's advice about an important matter. + +"Everything's ready now," said Mrs. Merrill, as she left the kitchen. +"Only, I believe, Mary Jane, it would be a good idea for you to put that +whipped cream into the ice box. We won't make the salad till they get here +and I want to keep it stiff and cold." + +Now, Mary Jane had put things in the ice box many a time. Big things and +little things and spilly things and all, and there was no reason in the +world why she couldn't do it all right. No reason, except-- Just as she +picked up the bowl of cream, the door bell rang a long, loud peal that she +was sure must be her three guests coming all at once, so she hurried and +the cream jiggled in the bowl, and slid over the edge--and all down the +front of her best new dress! + +Fortunately Alice came into the kitchen just then, in time to see the +accident, and to notice two big tears which popped into Mary Jane's eyes +and threatened to spill down her cheeks. + +"Pooh!" she exclaimed comfortably, "don't you worry about a little thing +like that, Mary Jane," and she made a grab for the bowl, rescued some of +the cream and set it in the ice box. "I'll have you fixed up so soon that +you won't know anything happened." + +"But it's all down my dress," said Mary Jane, trying her very best not to +cry. + +[Illustration: "But it's all down my dress," said Mary Jane, trying her +very best not to cry _Page 111_] + +"Oh, well," replied Alice, nothing daunted, "it's not going to stay there +long." She took a clean cloth, dampened it with cold water and, with quick +little dabs, scrubbed the cream all off the front of the birthday dress. +Then she took a fresh cloth, and more cold water and, putting a big, clean +towel under the front of the dress, scrubbed again till every trace of the +cream was gone. Then she opened the oven door so the heat would help dry +the wetness and with a fresh cloth rubbed and rubbed the wet place till it +was entirely dry. + +"There now," she said, as she shook the dress into place, "I think the +girls are here; let's go see." And immediately the accident that +threatened to spoil Mary Jane's fun was forgotten. + +Sure enough, the girls had come and the party began at once. + +The letter puzzles for place cards proved to be lots of fun and filled in +the time while Mrs. Merrill brought in the plates of good things to eat. +Judging by the appetites Mary Jane's menu must have been a favorite with +everybody, for the goodies disappeared by magic and Mrs. Merrill filled up +plates and passed rolls and brought in salad and everything till she +hardly had time to eat her own luncheon. + +The ice cream was a surprise even to Mary Jane. On the plate was, first, a +big, round piece of cake; then, on top of that, was a slice of ice cream, +white, and on top of _that_ a ball of pink ice cream with a pink candle, +lighted, stuck in the top. They looked so pretty and bright that the girls +hated to blow them out, but Mrs. Merrill said every one was to make a wish +and then blow and if the candle went out on the first blow the wish would +come true. + +Alice suddenly remembered that they were to take a train at one-thirty and +that it was nearing one now, so the dessert was finished in a hurry, wraps +were hastily put on and the whole party started for the train to meet Mr. +Merrill and have the rest of the fun. + + + + +LOST--ONE DOLL CART + + +There was only one thing wrong about the birthday celebration and that was +that the day was such a very busy, happy one that there was very little +time for playing with the new doll cart. Of course Mary Jane and Betty +took their dolls out for one airing in the morning soon after breakfast. +But what is one little airing when one has a new cart? Nothing at all, +Mary Jane thought. All through the luncheon and the ride down town and the +play father took them to, which proved to be just the very most +interesting kind of a play for little girls to see, Mary Jane kept +thinking of her new cart and of the fun she would have on Monday when +there was a whole day for Georgiannamore and the doll cart. + +So when Monday morning actually came Mary Jane lost no time getting up and +doing her share of the morning work. Mary Jane was very particular about +her morning work. She didn't want her mother to have to do the things a +six-year-old girl was plenty big enough to do; and then, anyway, she knew +it was lots more fun to work when two did the job than for one person to +work alone. She picked up all the papers, and emptied the waste baskets, +and cleaned the bathroom washstand and the kitchen sink--she liked those +jobs the best because they were so scrubby and grown-up and +interesting--and put out clean towels and dusted the living-room. Of +course this was after the dishes were washed and put away; that was a job +with which Alice helped too, before she started for school. So by the time +Mary Jane was ready to play Mrs. Merrill was about through too, ready for +sewing or baking or whatever she had to do that day. + +"I think I'd better help you take down your cart," suggested Mrs. Merrill, +when the last job was finished. "It's not so easy for one person to take +that cart down from the second floor. But it will be no trouble at all for +you to take one end and me to take the other and carry it down together. +Then you can put Georgiannamore in it before you start down and there'll +be no danger of bouncing her out." + +"But how'll I get back up, Mother?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Ring the bell three short taps and I'll come down to meet you," answered +Mrs. Merrill. "Don't try to bring it up alone; it's far too heavy." + +Mary Jane dressed Georgiannamore in her very best dress, put on the new +coat and gloves, tucked her carefully into the cart so she wouldn't catch +cold by being out for a long walk, and then she and Mrs. Merrill carried +the cart, oh, so very carefully, down stairs and out to the sidewalk. + +Fortunately, that May morning was bright and sunny; the breeze blew warm +from the southland instead of cold and blustery from the lake, and it was +the very best kind of a morning possible for being out of doors. Mary Jane +walked around the block, starting toward the lake, then she went around +the block the other way, and of course she went rather slowly because +there was so much to see and to show Georgiannamore. Bright colored +crocuses were blooming in all the yards where there were houses--and in +that particular neighborhood there were many houses as well as +apartments--tulips were bursting up through the ground and the lilac buds +were swelling their plump green sides nearly to the bursting point. + +On the third time around, Mary Jane thought of school--to be sure, it +couldn't be anywhere near time for school to be out, because the morning +hadn't much more than begun, but then it would be fun to go around to the +corner where the children crossed the street to go to school. There were +so many automobiles whizzing around the streets that a little girl even as +old as six couldn't be allowed to cross streets without a grown person or +an older sister along. + +She went around the block to the corner where the children would come, +after a while, and there, just as she turned to start back home, thinking +she'd come here again nearer noon, she heard a commotion. Looking down the +half block to the yard around the school house she heard a bell peal out +and saw, yes, truly, crowds of children coming out of school! And just as +she was about to look around to see if there was a fire or a parade or +anything special to cause school to be dismissed early, she heard the +whistles blow for noon--the morning was gone! That's how time flies when a +person has a new doll cart! + +Mary Jane waited at the corner till Alice and Frances and Betty came along +together and they all four walked home. + +"You shouldn't bother to carry your cart clear upstairs every time," +suggested Frances, "when our front porch is so handy. Just run the cart up +on the porch, lock the brake and it will be safe as can be till you eat +your lunch." + +Alice thought that was a good idea too, so the cart was left there, locked +with the brake, and with the understanding that if Mrs. Merrill didn't +approve, the girls would come down and get it at once. + +Lunch was ready and waiting, so the cart stayed on the porch while the +girls ate and then Mary Jane walked back toward school as far as she was +allowed to go. + +By the time Mary Jane got back in front of her own apartment, Mrs. Merrill +was ready to go and do her marketing and errands and of course Mary Jane +and Georgiannamore went along and had a beautiful time--especially when +they looked in the windows and saw all the good things to eat. Mary Jane +had thought that she knew every sort of good thing a person could possibly +want to eat, but she soon found out that she didn't. For in one of the +windows they passed she saw a tray of apples, covered with something slick +and brown and carrying in their stem ends a small smooth stick like a +butcher's skewer. + +"What are they, Mother?" she exclaimed. "Don't they look _good_! And may +we buy some?" + +Mrs. Merrill went inside the store and Mary Jane, anxiously watching her +mother through the window, waited outside with the doll and cart. She saw +her mother speak to the salesman, look at the apples and then, oh, joy! +saw him pick out four fine ones under Mrs. Merrill's direction and put +them in a paper bag. + +"He says they are called Taffy Apples," explained Mrs. Merrill when she +came out, "and that all the girls and boys like them very much. So I +didn't bother to consult you," she added with a twinkle in her eye. "I +bought some for you four girls to eat after school--just on a chance that +you might like them." + +The bag was carefully tucked in under the folds of Georgiannamore's robe +and the walking and shopping were resumed, but all the time, Mary Jane +kept her eye on the hump made by the bag of apples and kept wishing that +time for school to be out would hurry up and come. Some good fairy must +have heard the wishes too, for the afternoon hurried by almost as fast as +the morning and first thing Mary Jane knew they were all through the +errands and were going down the street toward the school, ready to meet +Alice. + +"Do you like 'Taffy Apples'?" Mary Jane asked Betty as soon as she came +out of the school yard. + +"Like 'em--u-um!" replied Betty expressively. + +"Well," continued Mary Jane slowly, so the surprise wouldn't be over too +soon, "I've got one in there," pointing to the cart. + +Betty eyed the hump Mary Jane pointed out and smiled knowingly. + +"It looks like more than one," she suggested hopefully. + +"It is more than one," answered Mary Jane delightedly; "it's four--all for +us." + +"Can we eat 'em now?" demanded Betty. + +"Better wait till we get home," suggested Mrs. Merrill; "that won't be +more than five minutes and then there won't be any danger of stumbling and +running a stick into your throats." + +The two little girls didn't loiter much after that. They skipped along +briskly and soon were ahead of Mrs. Merrill and Alice and Frances. + +"I'll tell you what," said Betty, as they turned into her own yard, "let's +put the cart up on the porch while I get my doll and then when we get +through eating our apples we'll be all ready to go walking." + +She picked up the front end and Mary Jane took the handle end and they set +the cart up at the end of the porch and went into the house. Fortunately +Mary Jane took Georgiannamore along with her into the house; if she +hadn't--but then, that's getting ahead of the story. + +The little girls had no more than gone inside before Mrs. Merrill, Alice +and Frances turned the corner and strolled along toward the Holden house. + +"Funny where those girls have gone," said Frances, looking at the empty +porch. + +"They've hid our Taffy Apples somewhere, I just know they have!" said +Alice. "Frances, we ought to be smart enough to find them so quickly they +won't try teasing again." + +"I don't believe they've hidden the apples," said Frances thoughtfully, +"because Betty would be so hungry she wouldn't bother with teasing till +after she was through eating. Maybe they've gone into the house to get +Betty's doll and cart." + +"But why would they bother to take Mary Jane's cart indoors if Betty was +just going in for her doll?" asked Alice. + +Before Frances or Mrs. Merrill could suggest an answer, the two little +girls themselves came out of the front door, turned to look at the porch +and then stood there, as though fastened to the floor--they were that +surprised. + +"Why--why--" said Mary Jane, "I left it right here!" + +"Well, nobody ever stole anything before," said Betty. "Maybe the boys +just hid it!" + +"No, they didn't," replied Frances, "because they haven't come home from +school yet. They stopped to see Jimmie's new chicken house and they won't +be home for an hour." + +"What's the trouble?" asked Mrs. Holden, who, hearing voices, came to the +front door to invite folks in for a visit. + +"Trouble enough, Mother," said Frances, worriedly. "Mary Jane left her +brand new doll cart on our porch and it's gone!" + +"And we just went in to get my doll," explained Betty, getting very +excited. "We just went in a little minute and then we were going to eat +the taffy apples and now they're gone too--oh, dear!" + +At that minute, yes, things really do happen this way sometimes, who +should go by the house but the big friendly policeman who always stood at +the street corner nearest the school to guard the children from swiftly +moving autos. Betty spied him and ran down the walk to speak to him. + +"So the cart's gone, is it?" he said as he and Betty came up toward the +house. "Well, if you'll let me use your 'phone, I'll tell them down at the +station just what kind of a cart it is and maybe we can get a trace of +it--anyway, we can try." + +Mrs. Holden went indoors with him and the others stood around on the porch +hardly knowing what to do. Losing her cart was a real calamity to poor +Mary Jane--she very well knew that her father couldn't afford to get her +another one and she had hard work, awfully hard work, to keep back the +tears that came to her eyes and to swallow the lump that filled her +throat. She didn't want to be a crybaby, but--and the lump got bigger and +bigger-- + +Mrs. Merrill noticed that Mary Jane was trying so very hard to be brave so +she did her best to help. + +"Wasn't it lucky that officer came by just then!" she said cheerfully. "I +can't for the life of me see why anybody would be mean enough to steal a +little girl's doll cart and I keep thinking we'll find it somewhere. Come +on, Mary Jane, let's sit down on this settee here till Mrs. Holden comes +out. Then perhaps some of you girls will be good enough to go up to the +candy shop with me and get some more taffy apples--I suppose those went +with the cart!" + +Mary Jane stepped over toward her mother, who had already seated herself +on the settee at the end of the porch. But before she sat down she just +happened to look down toward the ground. The Holden porch had no railing +around the side and as Mary Jane was always a little timid about falling +she kept a close watch on the end of the porch every time she went near +it. She glanced down at the ground and then--her face changed! The +sorrowful look vanished and smiles spread like sunshine over her face. + +"Look!" she exclaimed, as she pointed to the ground. "Look there!" + + + + +A TRIP TO THE ZOO + + +It wasn't hard to guess what Mary Jane had found; nothing but her precious +doll cart could have made her feel and look so happy. They all ran to the +end of the porch, looked over the edge, and there, sure enough, was the +birthday cart all tumbled down in a heap. Alice and Frances jumped down, +set it up straight and then, with Mrs. Merrill's help from above, lifted +it up to the porch just as the policeman and Mrs. Holden came out of the +house. + +"Bless my soul!" exclaimed the officer. "Another cart?" + +"No, it's mine!" cried Mary Jane happily. She ran her hands over the hood, +the body part and then the wheels to make sure nothing was broken. +Everything seemed all right, even the bag of taffy apples was still tucked +under the carriage robe that had come loose but had not fallen clear out. + +"Yours?" asked the officer. "But I thought yours was lost!" + +"It was," admitted Mary Jane, "but it isn't any more." + +Mrs. Merrill hastened to explain that the cart had just then been +discovered on the ground at the end of the porch. + +"I know what was the trouble," said Frances, "she didn't fasten the +brake--did you, Mary Jane?" + +Mary Jane and the policeman bent down to inspect the brake. No, it wasn't +fastened. + +"It wouldn't take much of a breeze to blow that cart off the porch, young +lady," said the officer, laughingly, "and so I suggest that if you ever +want to leave your doll in the cart, you'd better be sure the brake is +locked. You might have a smashed doll instead of a lost cart to report and +then things wouldn't be so easy to straighten out!" And with a pleasant +good-by he went on about his business. + +Left alone the two mothers looked at each other and laughed--such an easy +ending to disappointment didn't often come! The four girls made a dive for +the bag of apples and settled themselves on the broad front steps for a +few minutes of real enjoyment. Mary Jane found that taffy apples were a +lot of fun to eat. The hard, slick surface was delicious to "lick" and +then, when a small part was licked thin, it was fun to bite right straight +through to the apple. + +"If you think they're good now," said Frances, "you should taste them in +the fall when the fresh apples are in--yummy-um!" + +"These are good enough for me," said Betty contentedly and she bit off a +big chunk of apple. + +"Betty Holden!" exclaimed Frances with big sisterly chagrin, "you look +like a monkey with that apple all over your face!" + +"Oh, fiddle!" replied Betty indifferently, "I like monkeys." + +"Did you ever see one?" asked Mary Jane, "a really truly live one?" + +Betty stared. "Why of course!" she answered, "haven't you?" + +Mary Jane shook her head. + +"Well then you ought to go up to the Zoo," she said positively, "let's all +go." She jumped up and ran over to her mother. "Mother!" she announced, +"Mary Jane's never seen a monkey--never! Can't we take her up to the Zoo +and show 'em to her?" + +"Never seen a monkey!" exclaimed Mrs. Holden and she was as surprised as +Betty had been, "are you sure?" + +"Yes, Betty's right," said Mrs. Merrill. "Mary Jane has seen a great many +things for a little girl who has just had her sixth birthday. But she +hasn't seen a monkey. Her father and I were saying only last night that we +must take the girls up to the Zoo as soon as possible." + +"Let's all go next Saturday," suggested Mrs. Holden, "no, we can't go next +Saturday because the girls and I have some shopping to do. Let's go a week +from Saturday. By that time the restaurant in Lincoln Park will be open. +The way we do," she explained to the Merrills, "is to take our lunch, a +picnic lunch, with us. We start up about eleven, eat over by the lake and +then have the whole afternoon for watching the animals; we eat dinner in +that nice restaurant, before dark, and then come home in the early +evening. Can you all go on that day?" + +Mrs. Merrill said she was sure they could, so plans were made right then +and there. + +Mary Jane and Alice thought those two weeks, or nearly two weeks, never +would pass. Of course there was the doll cart to play with and Mary Jane +loved it exactly as much as ever. But she did want to see the monkeys, and +the foxes (Betty told her she would love the foxes!) and all the creatures +that Betty seemed to know so much about and which she had never even +seen. + +But at last the morning came, warm and sunny and clear and the lunch boxes +were packed, the apartment locked up and everybody started toward Lincoln +Park feeling happy and ready for fun. The fathers couldn't come for lunch, +but really when all the Holden girls and boys were added to the three +Merrills, there was such a crowd that, for the time at least, fathers +weren't so very much missed. + +When they reached the park Mary Jane realized, for the first time, how +close it was getting to really truly summer. The sun shone with real +summer warmth, the lake was blue and beautiful and flowers bloomed on +every corner. + +"Oh, I'd just like to live in a park all the time," she exclaimed as she +looked around her, "it seems just like home!" + +"Yes, it does," said Mrs. Merrill, with a wee bit of a sigh, "I'm afraid I +know some folks who are going to miss their gardens and flower bed this +summer." + +"How stupid of me not to have thought of that!" exclaimed Mrs. Holden. +"You know it will be just two weeks now till we go up to the lake for all +the summer. Why didn't I think to have you plant stuff in our back garden? +Then you could have all the garden you liked right there handy--we always +do hate to leave the ground idle." + +"Perhaps we might plant something even yet," suggested Mrs. Merrill, much +delighted with the idea, "we'd love to try." + +But there was no time for further planning just then--John Holden demanded +his lunch; Betty made a lively second and in a minute or two a clean +grassy place was picked out, the individual lunch boxes were passed out +and then, for a few minutes, everybody was quiet. + +"I'm going to feed the black bear," announced Betty, as she paused to pick +out another sandwich, "I'm going to feed him peanuts--I saved up enough +money for two bagsful." + +"But aren't you afraid of him?" asked Mary Jane breathlessly. + +"Afraid? Pooh!" grunted Betty. + +"Never you mind, Mary Jane," said Linn comfortingly, "she was afraid the +first time she saw him and I remember all about it. But now she's learned +that he can't get out the cage." + +"Now, Linn, I never--" began Betty. + +But John interrupted. "There!" he said, "I'm through. Come on, let's +gather up the boxes and papers and stick 'em in the trash box on the way +to get the peanuts." So the children all helped and in a jiffy the pretty, +grassy spot where they had eaten lunch was as clean and tidy as when they +came. And then away they scampered after the peanuts. + +Such an afternoon as it was! Mary Jane tried to remember each thing they +did so she could tell her father when he met them after three o'clock. But +she couldn't remember half what they had done. She knew they saw the +little foxes--such pretty, dainty white and tan colored foxes that played +together like little pet kittens and made her want to hold them in her lap +and pet them. She knew they saw the bears--great big bears and middle +sized bears and little bit o' bears just like in the story book, and she +fed them peanuts which they caught very deftly in their soft cushioned +paws. But all the rest, she really couldn't remember in the right +order--there were kangaroos and buffaloes and a giraffe who stuck his long +neck over the top of a great high fence and made Mary Jane think of +nothing so much as a funny paper picture. And then of course the +monkeys--dozens of them and queer birds with curious colored feathers and +funny bills and feet. Really, she had seen in that one afternoon, more +animals than she had guessed lived in the whole world, oh, many more! + +"But have you seen the seals?" asked Mr. Merrill who met them at the bird +house. + +No, they hadn't. + +"It's almost four o'clock," said Mr. Merrill, looking at his watch, "and +Mr. Holden said they ate at four and we should meet him there, so let's +hurry." + +It was a good thing they did hurry for other folks seemed to know, too, +that the seals were fed at four. From all directions, folks could be seen +walking toward the big enclosed pond where the seals were kept. But, by +hurrying, they got there in time to stand close to the iron fence where +they could see the antics of those queerest of animals, the seals. + +One would suppose that even the seals knew it was nearly four o'clock, +dinner time, for they were so excited and eager. They barked and swam and +flung themselves around vigorously as though they could hardly stand +waiting for anything. Then, just at four, a man came out of a near-by +building. In his hand he carried a basket of fish--a great, well-filled +basket. He came over to a little platform close by where the Merrill and +Holden children were standing; so they could see everything. + +He picked up a big fish, tossed it over into the rocky island in the +middle of the seals' pond and then! such a scrambling as there was till +the middle-sized seal with a few ungainly flops, grabbed the fish and +gulped it down in one bite. + +Then he threw another fish and another and another--one after the other so +fast that Mary Jane felt sure the seals must get all mixed up about +catching them. But they didn't. Those seals must have been smarter than +folks had thought for they seemed to know, every time, just about where +the fish was to hit on the rocks and to know, too, just how to get to that +particular spot the quickest. Mary Jane thought it very wonderful. + +But one thing worried her. There was one small seal, who for some reason +or other, seemed to be always just a second too late to get a fish. Mary +Jane was sure he had had but one and all the others had had, oh, a lot. +And she couldn't help wishing all the others wouldn't be quite so grabby. + +When the man who was feeding the seals got almost to the bottom of his big +basket, he stopped and looked at the crowd of children assembled for the +feeding. And as he looked, he spied Mary Jane's sober little face. + +"Don't you like to watch them?" he asked her in surprise. + +"Yes, I like to only they're so grabby," she replied promptly, "and he +hasn't had but one." She pointed out the little seal who was a bit too +slow. + +"We'll fix that," said the keeper, kindly, "you just watch." + +He tossed a great big fish close to the crowd of waiting seals, then, +quick as a flash and before they had had time to get that one, he tossed +another, straight at the little seal who was on the edge of the crowd. + +"He got it! He got it!" cried Mary Jane happily, "he got it before they +had a chance!" + +"And he's going to get another," said the keeper as he threw another and +still another, straight at the hungry little seal. "There!" he added as he +looked at the now empty basket, "that ought to do him till to-morrow." +Mary Jane thought he looked so comfortable now that surely he had had as +much as he needed for the day. + +"Better hurry if we're to see the lions eat," said Mr. Holden, who during +the seals' dining hour had come up behind his little party. + +"Lions!" exclaimed Mary Jane. + +"Yes, hurry up!" called Betty and she and her brother who were quite +familiar with the park because of many previous visits, ran on toward a +big brick house near by. + +Mary Jane wasn't afraid, but all the same she thought it would be more fun +to hold her father's hand and even though they were a bit behind, they got +into the lions' house in time. + +Here the dinner was of meat, great big chunks of raw, red meat that the +keepers tossed into the cages. And it was so funny to watch! Just before +the keeper appeared, the lions and tigers and jackals and leopards were +pacing up and down their cages with such weird roars and grunts and growls +that Mary Jane held tightly to her father's hand and didn't go very close +to the iron bars. But when the keepers appeared with the meat there was a +wild scramble, and then silence except for the crunching and smacking of +eating. It certainly was different, oh, very, very different from anything +Mary Jane had ever seen before! + +"Let's not wait here any more," suggested Alice, "let's show Dadah the +monkeys." + +"Yes, and the foxes--the white ones," said Mary Jane, "they're my +favorites of all." + +But before they had had time to show Mr. Merrill every single creature +they had seen, the Holden boys announced that they were hungry and that it +was long past dinner time. And sure enough! Even though it wasn't really +long _past_ dinner time, it _was_ half past five--the time they had agreed +upon for dinner. So a very jolly party seated themselves at a big round +table on a second story porch of the Park restaurant. That was the nicest +place to eat Mary Jane had ever seen--unless perhaps a diner on a train. +For after they gave their order, she discovered that they could look right +down on a small lake where ducks and geese and swans lived. The children +got so interested watching the pretty creatures that for once they didn't +have time to think the waiter was slow! + +They stayed there eating and watching the birds, till the sun set back of +the trees. Then, when there wasn't another scrap of cake or teaspoonful of +ice cream left, they gathered up wraps and hats and started for home. + +"I know one thing," said sleepy Mary Jane as they waited for the bus that +was to take them to their train. "I know there're a lot more animal folks +in the world than I thought for--oh, a lot more! And I think I'd better +come again to see them all." + + + + +A DAY IN THE PARKS + + +A whole long vacation begun! Alice home all day and plenty of time for +walks and playing together! It seemed almost too good to be true. For +although Alice was several years older than her sister Mary Jane, the two +girls had always had very happy times playing together and they had missed +each other very much during school days. Now that the Holden family was +away, for they went off, bag and baggage, to their country home up in +Wisconsin the very day school closed, the two girls had no one near by to +play with, so more than ever before they needed and enjoyed each other's +company. Frances Westland had gone back to the country and the Merrill +girls had not made friends with anyone who lived near enough to make a +convenient playmate. + +They didn't do as some girls and boys do in vacation, get up late in the +morning. No, they thought it was more fun to get up promptly and have +breakfast with Dadah and then, when the afternoon got hot, as often +happened, they took a nice long rest and dressed fresh and clean for +dinner. On many a day Mrs. Merrill packed a basket of dinner and they met +Mr. Merrill over by the park, had their dinner near one of the small +lagoons or close to the big lake. After dinner they played ball or +tennis--Alice was learning to be very good at tennis. + +"I wish there were swans in our park," said Mary Jane as she sat on the +edge of the lagoon and watched the row boats and the electric launches +gliding about on the water. "I liked those swans at Lincoln Park." + +"I was just thinking to-day," said Mr. Merrill, "we haven't seen all the +parks and I promised you, that you should see them--all the big ones +anyway. I wonder when we could go, mother?" + +"I wonder _how_ we could go," said Mrs. Merrill, "the parks are so far +apart that a journey through them all would be a hopeless task, seems to +me." + +"Depends on how you do it," laughed Mr. Merrill. "I'll tell you what I +thought. I'll take the whole day away from the office so as to go along. +We'll start fairly early and take the elevated out to Garfield Park--you +know we promised the girls a trip on the elevated and we've always taken +the train! We'll see that park well, you know it has gardens and +greenhouses and lakes, and then we'll get a taxi and go to two or three +other parks and ride home." + +The girls thought that was a wonderful plan and they wanted to set the day +for that very same week. So Thursday was decided upon. + +"Now there's one thing besides getting a good lunch ready that I want you +folks to do," said Mr. Merrill as they picked up their baskets and balls +ready to go home, "I want you to get out that map of Chicago we had on the +train the day we came up here and find just where Garfield Park is and how +we get there and how many interesting sights like rivers and parks and +boulevards we pass on the way." And of course the girls promised that they +would find the map and get all that information first thing in the +morning. + +Riding on the elevated proved to be great fun. Mary Jane was afraid for a +few minutes she wasn't going to like it--the stairs were so very high up +with holes in each step to see down to the ground; and the train dashed to +the platform with such a roar and bustle and people crowded on and jerk! +the train rushed off. But when she settled down in the seat, comfortingly +near her mother, and looked out over the roofs of houses and stores, and +down long streets, one after another, she found she wasn't a bit afraid +and that she liked it very much. She liked watching for children on folks' +back porches. Some played on the porch and some played in the dining-room +windows--it was easy to tell which were the dining-room windows because +always there were three big windows and always she could look right +through the curtains and see the big table in the middle of the room. The +only trouble with watching folks from an elevated was that the train +dashed by so quickly she couldn't any more than see, till--flash, flash, +and they were gone and there was another street and another set of back +stairs and some different children playing. It really was awfully queer. + +Pretty soon they reached the big down town and there they got off their +train, climbed over a big bridge to another elevated train and away they +went whizzing again. It certainly was a queer way to travel, Mary Jane +thought. + +But finally father announced that they had come to Garfield Park, so they +got off, walked down the stairs to a park that looked so much like their +own park that Mary Jane had to rub her eyes and look twice to make sure +she wasn't dreaming. Here were the same winding driveways, beautiful trees +and small lakes. + +"Did we come back to our Park?" she asked in surprise. + +"Oh, no," answered Alice who had run on a little ahead, "look at the big +greenhouse and look back there! Now don't you see the swans?" + +No, it wasn't their own neighborhood park, Mary Jane soon realized that, +because there were many new things to be seen. The wonderful tropical +greenhouse where palms and bananas and wonderful ferns such as the girls +had seen in Florida were growing. And then there were beautiful out of +door gardens--Mary Jane liked those even better than the greenhouse +gardens, wonderful as those were. She seemed to feel, someway, as though +the flowers must like the out of doors better. + +Right in the middle of the many lovely flower beds in the out of doors +gardens, there was a lily pool in which grew water lilies of all colors +and sorts. Mary Jane had never seen water lilies before and she thought +them very lovely--and rather queer too, if the truth must be told. She +decided she would stay right there a while and let Alice and her father +explore the rest of the gardens--they wanted to know names of flowers and +names didn't seem a bit interesting to the little girl. + +Just after she had decided to stay there and play, she spied a boy of +about her age who was watching the lilies too. + +"Can you walk all the way around the edge?" he asked her. + +"Edge of what?" asked Mary Jane. + +"The edge of the pool," he replied, "see," and he put his foot up on the +stone rim of the pool, "all the way around on this." + +"Can you?" asked Mary Jane. She wanted to see what he would say before she +answered his question. + +"Sure!" he replied, "it's just as easy! Only girls are 'fraidies." + +"I guess I'm not," declared Mary Jane firmly, "watch!" She stepped up on +the stone rim--it was about eight inches wide--and walked boldly along +toward the middle of the long side of the pool. + +"You can, can't you," said the boy admiringly. + +"Just as easy," replied Mary Jane, for when she found she could do what he +had asked she was anxious to have it appear to be as easy for her as for +him. + +"Come on," the boy suggested, "let's race!" + +"Race?" asked Mary Jane, "how?" + +"'Round the pool. You start this way, and I'll start that way and the one +that gets around home first beats." + +"All right," agreed Mary Jane, "let's." + +Now before Mary Jane saw the boy by the pool, Mrs. Merrill spied some very +beautiful grasses over at one side of the gardens; the very sort of +grasses, she decided, that Mary Jane's grandmother would like to use in +her flower beds by the driveways. And of course she wanted to find out the +names of the grasses so she could write to grandmother about them. Seeing +that Mary Jane was so absorbed in the pool and the lilies, she slipped +over to look at the name sign which she knew would be stuck right by the +roots. She jotted the name down in her note book, looked along at a few +others and--turned back to the pool just in time to see her small daughter +and a strange boy run racingly along the rim of the pool straight at each +other. + +"Mary Jane! Mary Jane!" she called, "jump down onto the ground! Jump +down!" + +Whether Mary Jane heard her and became confused, or whether the boy's +bumping into her made her lose her balance, nobody ever quite found out. +But anyway, right before Mrs. Merrill's astonished eyes, Mary Jane Merrill +tumbled 'kplump--into the lily pool! + +Fortunately the lily pool wasn't very deep so Mary Jane didn't fall far. +But she did hit the bottom pretty hard; so hard that when she bobbed up, +her head out of water and her feet on the bottom, she hardly knew what had +happened to her. + +Mrs. Merrill screamed and Mr. Merrill, Alice, three policemen and about +twenty other people came running to see what had happened. It wasn't +necessary for anybody to jump in and make a triumphant rescue for Mary +Jane was so close to shore that Mrs. Merrill had taken firm hold of her +hand and pulled her out just as all the folks got there. So there was +nothing for them to do but to stare and to ask questions. + +"How did she do it?" asked the first policeman. + +"Hurt you any?" asked the second. + +"You and your mother come with me," said the third (and Mary Jane guessed +right away from his voice that he must have some little girls of his own), +"and I'll show you where you can dry your clothes." + +The procession of policemen and onlookers, led by a very wet and greatly +embarrassed little girl, crossed the gardens, crossed the street and went +into a comfortable big building. There a kindly matron produced a big +bathrobe in which Mary Jane sat while her dress was wrung out and dried. +And wasn't she glad there was a good hot sun so things could dry quickly! + +Finally, when Mary Jane was beginning to get awfully hungry, mother +announced that the clothes were dry and that she had pulled and stretched +them the best she could in the place of ironing. So Mary Jane dressed and +they went in search of Alice and her father. + +"Well, you certainly do mix up baths with your picnics," laughed Mr. +Merrill when he saw them coming. "Remember the time you fell into +Clearwater, Pussy?" + +"But it isn't so bad, really, Dadah," said Mary Jane, "and I'm not wet +now." + +"So you're not," said Mr. Merrill, "but _I_ am hungry--anybody agree with +me?" + +They all admitted to being nearly starved, so they found a pretty, grassy +spot close by the lake on which several beautiful swans were sunning +themselves, and there they spread out the luncheon they had brought. At +first the girls were so hungry they didn't want to do anything but eat. +But by the time they had eaten a plateful of potato salad and three or +four sandwiches, the swans discovered their lunching place and came to +call. Evidently swans were used to being treated very nicely by folks who +came to the park for they didn't seem to have a trace of fear of +strangers. + +The girls tossed the crusts of the sandwiches to the edge of the water and +the swans bent their long necks and picked them up and ate them, every +crust, so daintily just as though crusts were a diet fit for kings--and +swans. The swans didn't actually come out of the water, but they came so +close to the shore that the girls could almost touch them and they soon +got to feeling very well acquainted. + +So it was with some regret that they heard Mr. Merrill say, "Well, girls, +weren't we to see some of the other parks too?" And here it was four +o'clock! + +The basket was packed--and there wasn't a scrap of anything a swan could +eat, you may be sure of that--and they strolled down to the roadway. In a +minute or two Mr. Merrill hailed a passing taxi and they settled +themselves for a nice long ride. + +They didn't stop at any other park; Mary Jane was sure no other could be +as interesting as the one where she had had such exciting experiences and +Alice was quite as content as her father and mother to sit back, cool and +comfortable, and see the beautiful flowers and shrubbery slip past them. +So they rode and rode through one park after another, it seemed, till +suddenly Mary Jane spied something that looked familiar. + +"That's my Midway!" she announced, as the car turned into the long, broad +stretch of parkway near their own home. + +"Sure enough it is!" exclaimed Mr. Merrill in pretended amazement, "we'll +have to turn around and go back!" + +"No we won't," said Mary Jane, "we'll go home." + +So they went on home, just in time to cook a good warm dinner and to talk +over and over again the many things they had seen in the parks. + + + + +VISITORS--AND A BOAT RIDE + + +One day, not so very long after the trip through the parks, the bell at +the Merrills' front door pealed long and hard. Mary Jane, whose job was +answering the door, ran to the little house 'phone, and heard a loud voice +shout, "Special for Merrill!" + +"What's he mean, mother?" she asked, in a puzzled voice. + +"Better press the buzzer and let him in, dear," replied Mrs. Merrill, "if +he has the name right he must have something for us." + +So Mary Jane pressed the downstairs buzzer and then opened the front door. +Yes, it was for them--a special delivery letter for Mrs. Merrill. Mary +Jane and Alice were much excited and could hardly wait till the +messenger's book was signed and the letter was opened. + +"It's from grandma," said Mrs. Merrill as she glanced at the writing, "and +listen! This is what she says: + +"'Grandpa finds quite unexpectedly that he must come to Chicago on +business and he says that if it's convenient to you folks I can come along +and we'll stay two or three days for a visit. Please wire reply because we +must start Wednesday evening.'" + +"And it's ten o'clock Wednesday morning now!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill. She +hurried to the telephone, called Mr. Merrill so he could send a telegram +at once, then she and the two girls went right to work making ready for +the guests. + +It was decided that Alice and Mary Jane should sleep on couches and give +up their room to the visitors. "Now's when I wish we had our nice guest +room," said Mrs. Merrill, "but then, grandma knows that folks who live in +Chicago flats don't keep guest rooms for infrequent visitors." For her +part, Mary Jane thought sleeping on a couch would be great fun--so grown +up and different from every day. She was to have the dining-room couch and +Alice was to sleep in the living-room. When all plans were made, bedding +sorted out and laid ready for making up the beds fresh first thing in the +morning, Mrs. Merrill began planning the meals. If the visitors were to +stay only a short time she wanted to have as much baking and marketing as +possible done beforehand, so every minute could be spent in fun and +visiting. Alice and Mary Jane, who had been marketing so much with their +mother of late that they really could be trusted, took a long list up to +the grocery and Mrs. Merrill set to work baking coffeecake and bread and +cookies. Um-m! It wasn't an hour till that tiny kitchen began to smell so +good that the girls could hardly be coaxed away. Mrs. Merrill let them +help in a good many ways. Mary Jane put the sugar and nuts on the tops of +the cookies after her mother put them in the pan and Alice, who was +getting to be a really good cook, tended to the baking. She put the big +pans in, and watched the baking, and took them out when every cookie was +evenly browned. Then, after she took a pan out of the oven, she gently +lifted the hot cookies out from the baking pan onto a wire rack where they +could cool without losing their pretty shapes. When the cookies were cool, +it was Mary Jane's turn again. She put them all in the tin cookie box, +counting them and laying them neatly between layers of paraffin paper so +they would keep fresh even in the hot weather. + +It was a rule that only perfect cookies should be packed away--scraps +never went into the tin box. But for some reason or other, the girls never +seemed to mind the job of eating the broken ones! In fact Mary Jane often +asked Alice _not_ to be so careful--to please break a few so there would +be plenty to eat right then and there. + +The day went by so quickly that it was bed time before the girls realized +it and then, after about forty winks, it was morning--the morning when +grandma and grandpa were coming. + +Everybody was up early, Alice and Mary Jane made up the beds fresh and +neat, mother cooked a good breakfast and Dadah went to the train, at a +near-by suburban station, to meet the travelers. It was a jolly party that +sat around the breakfast table--you may be sure of that! + +"Now then," said Mr. Merrill, when the breakfast was eaten up and news of +the farm had been told, "I'll have to go to work and I suppose grandpa has +to do his business to-day, so we'll leave you folks to yourselves. Then +to-morrow, if grandpa is through his business, we can plan some fun." + +So the two business folks went down town and grandma was left to enjoy +life at home. The girls were glad she could stay. + +"Let's take grandma over to the lake," suggested Alice, "I know you'd love +riding in one of those little electric launches, grandmother." + +"Let's take some lunch and not come home till she's seen everything in +Chicago," said Mary Jane in a rush of hospitality. + +"Dear me! Child!" exclaimed grandma in dismay, "don't you know there's +another day coming!" + +Mary Jane agreed to leave a few sights for the next day, but she didn't +want to lose any time getting off. Fortunately the morning work didn't +take but a tiny bit of time, and as grandma, who didn't care much for +"stuffy sleepers," was very glad to get out into the fresh air, they very +soon were on their way to the park. + +The girls felt quite at home in the neighborhood and in the park by this +time, and they thought it was great fun to show the sights to somebody +else--somebody who didn't know all about Chicago. Grandma loved the +beautiful Midway, the charming lagoons and she enjoyed her ride on the +little launch fully as much as the girls had thought she would. + +"But don't you have any _big_ boats?" she asked, "great big ones with two +decks and lots of passengers and all that? I'd like to ride on a big boat +too." + +"Then that's exactly what we'll do to-morrow, mother," said Mrs. Merrill. +"There is a big boat that runs from Jackson Park up to the municipal pier. +We'll go on it to-morrow and we'll get our lunch up town and then we'll +come back home on the boat." + +And that's exactly what they did. + +When Mr. Merrill heard that grandma wanted a ride on a big boat, the plans +for the next day were as good as made. He thought the idea of going to +town on the boat and then getting lunch and coming home was a fine one and +he only made one change in the plan. + +"Instead of going to a store, in the loop, let's take one of the little +launches that run from the Municipal pier to Lincoln Park and go up there +for our lunch so grandma can see your favorite swans and perhaps, if we +want to stay that long, see the seals get their four o'clock tea." But +dear me, he little guessed what would happen as his nice-sounding plan +worked out! + +So the next morning, the Merrills all had a nice, leisurely, visity +breakfast, then a walk through the park, and never did the park look +lovelier than on the sunny summer morning, and then, boarding the boat +that rocked at the pier on the big lake, they found comfortable seats on +the shady side and prepared for a pleasant ride. + +Mary Jane chose to sit on the side nearest the pier because she loved to +look down from the upper deck and watch the people boarding the boat. She +had never ridden on boats very much, only when she went to Florida, and +this boat they were now aboard seemed very different from the big, +awkward, flat bottomed boat they took their river trip on through Florida +jungles. + +"You don't need to sit by me if you want to talk to mother," she said to +her father. + +"Humph!" said her father teasingly, "how do I know you're not going to +tumble overboard! You know you have a way of mixing up picnics and water, +Mary Jane, so I don't think I'll take any chances." But when Mary Jane +promised that she would sit very still and not walk around a step and not +lean over the edge, he went to speak to grandpa a few minutes. And while +he was gone, Mary Jane leaned up against the side of the boat and watched +the folks down on the pier. + +She thought it must surely be about time for the boat to start because +there was hurrying on the pier, and men were busy taking ropes off of the +big wooden posts along the side nearest the water. While she was watching, +a woman came along the dock toward the boat and with her were two little +children, a girl about Mary Jane's own age and a little boy some two years +younger. Just as they reached the gang plank, ready to step onto the boat, +the little boy began to cry. + +"I left my boat! I left my boat! I left my boat!" he cried. Mary Jane +could hear him very plainly even though she sat so far up above him. + +She couldn't hear what the mother said, but evidently she promised to get +the missing boat for him, because she left both children by the side of +the gang plank, and hurrying as fast as possible she ran back toward the +shore. And right at that minute, the big bell overhead rang three times +and the engine aboard the boat began to throb--it was time to go. + +The men on the dock noticed the two children and one said to the little +girl, "Were you going?" and she nodded yes. So he picked up the boy and +hurried the two children aboard just as the gang plank was hauled in and +the boat made away from the pier. + +Mary Jane was so thrilled and excited she could hardly sit still. She +tried to call her father but he was on the other side of the boat and she +had promised to sit still--perfectly still--till he came back. What in the +world was a little girl to do? And back on the shore that was so rapidly +getting farther and farther way, Mary Jane could see the mother of the +children, running frantically toward the dock which the boat had left. +Surely the captain would see her, Mary Jane thought. But if he did, he +likely thought she was merely somebody who had missed the boat and that he +had no time for turning back. And so the boat continued out into the +lake. + +Finally after what seemed the _longest_ time (though it really was hardly +more than five minutes), Mr. Merrill came back and then, such a story as +he heard! + +"Are you sure, Mary Jane?" he asked, "certain sure? The men wouldn't put +children on a boat without grown folks along!" + +"But they did, Dadah!" insisted Mary Jane, "I saw 'em!" + +"Then you come with me," said Mr. Merrill, "and we'll see if we can find +them." + +So Mr. Merrill and Mary Jane went down the stairs, and that took some time +because folks were coming and going and getting settled for the trip, and +there, huddled close together and crying as hard as they could cry, were +the two little waifs! + +Mary Jane with real motherliness began talking to the little girl; Mr. +Merrill picked up the boy and together the whole party went in search of +the captain. By the time he was found though, the boat was still farther +on its journey toward the city and the dock they started from was farther +and farther behind. + +"Well, that is a time we were wrong," admitted the captain when he had +listened to all Mary Jane had to say and talked with the man who had put +the children aboard. "But even though we were wrong, we can't go back now. +We'll have to make the children comfortable and take them back to their +mother on the return trip." + +So Mr. Merrill and Mary Jane went back to the deck, only this time they +took with them the two little strangers. Mrs. Merrill was told the story +and she and Alice and Mary Jane, with help from grandma, grandpa and Mr. +Merrill, set themselves to the task of making the little children happy. +At first it was hard work, because they cried all the time for their +mother. But erelong they understood the friendliness around them and they +stopped crying and began to have a good time. Grandpa discovered some +crackerjack and everybody knows what a help _that_ is; Mrs. Merrill told +some funny stories and Mr. Merrill took them all over the boat--to see the +great engine and everything. Then there were the sights to watch from the +deck and the big buildings to count and the boats they passed to +watch--oh, there surely was a lot to do that made that trip interesting +and so very short. + +As the boat pulled up near the down town pier, the Merrills saw a taxi +dash up near where the boat was to land: saw a woman get out and, followed +by a policeman, hurry up to the side where the boat would pull in. + +"Look!" exclaimed Mary Jane excitedly. "Look!" + +The little girl, whose name was Ann, looked along with the others, and +then she gave a happy cry. + +"Mother!" she shouted, so loudly that her mother, waiting on the pier +could hear and was so very relieved! + +When the boat pulled into the dock, the captain was the first one to step +off; he met the mother and the officer and brought them aboard at once. +Mary Jane was called upon to explain all that she had seen and the +officer, as well as the mother, was satisfied that the whole thing was an +accident and not an attempt to steal the children. + +"But how did you get up here so quickly?" asked Mary Jane, when the first +excitement was over. + +"My dear child!" laughed Ann's mother, "a person can do a lot when she +thinks something is happening to her children! I took a passing taxi, +dashed to a police station and then on up here. And nothing has happened +at all--except you nice people have given my little folks a very pleasant +trip. Next time, Bobby," she added, "we'll leave your toy boat or we'll +all go together to find it. We won't take any chances of losing each +other!" + +"Well," laughed Mr. Merrill when the mother and children and officer and +captain had all gone on about their own business, "what was it we were +going to do to-day?" + +Everybody laughed at that! They had been so excited that they had +forgotten, yes, actually forgotten, that this was a sight-seeing trip for +grandma and grandpa. But once they remembered, they knew just what to do. +They climbed aboard a waiting launch, rode up to Lincoln Park, had a +wonderful dinner and fun all the rest of the day. + +"I don't see," remarked grandma, as they neared home, late that evening, +"how you girls are ever going to settle down to school again! Did you know +that school was only a few weeks away? Vacation will be over before you +know it!" + + + + +SCHOOL BEGINS + + +When grandma suggested that it was nearly time for school to begin, on +that day of the boat ride, she guessed better than the girls suspected. At +the time they laughed and thought she was joking, but, after she and +grandpa had gone home, they got out a calendar and counted up and there, +to be sure, only one and one-half weeks of vacation were left. + +"I didn't realize school began so early," exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in +dismay. + +"I thought summer was a long time!" cried Alice, "but it isn't any time at +all!" + +"Goody! Goody! Goody!" Mary Jane said happily, "then I get to start to +school like a big girl." + +It was no wonder Mary Jane was happy, for she remembered that the plan was +for her to start in the really truly school, not the kindergarten where +she had gone in her other home, and any little girl likes to start to +school like her big sister. + +When the day finally came, Alice was as much excited as Mary Jane herself. +For although the summer had been so pleasant she almost hated to see it +end--the free days with plenty of time for visits with mother and picnics +and marketing and all--still, school was pleasant too and any little girl +who does nice work and tries to learn, will make good friends and have +happy days, just as Alice always had had. + +Mary Jane had a hard time deciding which dress to wear. She wanted to look +very grown up, so that teacher would realize she was a big girl, so she +finally decided upon a dark blue sailor suit. The one that had the red +insignia on the sleeve and that looked just like a big girl's dress. With +a clean 'kerchief peeking out of her pocket and a smashing big red bow on +the top of her brown head, she looked very nice. + +Alice and Mary Jane waked up that morning the very minute they were called +for they wanted to help mother so she could go over to school with them. +And with all that good help of course they were off on time. Alice was +glad to have company going to school for Frances wasn't home yet and +wouldn't be there for a couple of weeks. + +Mary Jane's heart went thump, thump as she and her mother went in at the +teachers' gate, and up the stairs and into the principal's office. And +thump, thump some more when she saw the whole roomful of strange boys and +girls and thump, thump some more when her turn came and she was sent +(fortunately with her mother along) to the first grade room--number 104. +The room was full of children, hundreds, Mary Jane thought there must be, +though the teacher told Mrs. Merrill there were about forty-five. And if +her heart went thump, thump before, it certainly went thump, thump, +_thump_ when the teacher, smiling at her so kindly, gave her a seat in +the--front-row--such a nice seat for her very own! and she sat down and +tried to look as though she had been used to going to school all her whole +life. + +For a minute she couldn't look around or anything, she felt so queer. Then +she glanced at the next seat and there, sitting right beside her, +was--whom do you suppose? Ann! The same pretty little Ann who had been +lost on the boat. Immediately Mary Jane forgot all about being afraid and +thumping hearts and strangeness and everything and began to like school. +The two little girls had much to say about what they would do at recess +and where did they live and everything, so the time before school began +passed very quickly. + +Suddenly, in the midst of their talk, a bell rang, "GONG-GONG!" Two loud +tones close together that way, and school began. Mary Jane Merrill was in +a really truly school like the big girl she was getting to be. + +Ann came home with Mary Jane that first afternoon and Mrs. Merrill +discovered that her name was Ann Ellis and that she lived two blocks from +their own home and that the two little girls would no doubt find it very +easy to be friends. They began having a good time that very afternoon and +they planned still better times when Betty would be back and they could +all play together. Now wasn't that fine! + +Mary Jane found that she liked school every bit as much as she had thought +she would. She liked her teacher, a charming Miss Treavor, and she liked +her studies. But most of all she liked the fun she had on the playground. +In the big cities, like Chicago, where lots of girls and boys have no +yards, the school yards are the only places were children can play. So, to +make everything safe and orderly, the school folks have a playground +teacher stay at school all the day, to help in the games and to see that +every one has a happy time. The playground teacher at Mary Jane's school +liked little girls very much and she knew many good games for them to +play. So in addition to "London Bridge" and "Drop the Handkerchief" and +"Tag" that all children play, Mary Jane learned "Roman Soldiers" and +"Ghost Walk" and "Three times Three." + +Of the new ones, Mary Jane liked "Ghost Walk" the best. To play it, the +girls and boys made a big circle, then they selected some one to be +"Ghost." This person stood in the middle of the circle and everybody shut +eyes tight, very tight. Then the Ghost, while every one kept very quiet, +tried to tip-toe to the edge of the circle, slip out between two folks and +get away without being caught. That may sound easy, but played in a yard +full of romping boys and girls, it is not really as easy as it might seem +and it was lots of fun, because often folks would think the "Ghost" was +near them and would try to grab--and the joke was on them because all the +while, maybe, the "ghost" was in another part of the ring. And whenever +folks thought they caught the "Ghost" and _didn't_, then every one opened +their eyes, the person who had made the mistake had to get out of the +circle and the game began again. But if the "Ghost" really did get out of +the circle without being caught, then the "Ghost" could hide anywhere in +the yard and the game became an old-fashioned hide-and-seek with everybody +hunting one lucky person. + +One day, when Mary Jane was "Ghost," she was determined she would get out +of that circle without getting caught. She had tried it many a time before +and failed; this time she was going to do it. She tiptoed, oh, so softly +over the loose gravel to the edge of the circle. Then noiselessly she +dropped down on hands and knees and, without a thought for her dress, +crawled slowly between Ann and the girl next to her. She could hardly keep +from giggling, it was so funny to be so close she almost bumped them and +yet not to be discovered. Now she was right between them, now she was +almost outside--now she was free and away she dashed to the spot she had +long ago picked out as a hiding place for just such a time as this. + +The folks in the circle waited--but nobody was caught, so they shouted, +"Ghost Walk?" and when the "ghost" didn't answer they opened their eyes +and--no Mary Jane was there! + +"I'll get her," shouted Ann, "I'll find her! I'll bet she got out on your +side of the circle, Janny, she never could have passed _me_!" + +"I'll find her myself," answered Janny, "but she never passed by me, she +didn't!" + +So they hunted, up and down the yard, around the bushes, by the doorway, +everywhere they could think of. But no sign of Mary Jane did they +discover. They hunted and they hunted till the gong sounded and they had +to go into school again. But not a sign of any Mary Jane did they find. +Was Mary Jane lost? Miss Treavor must be told so everybody could hunt, for +something surely must have happened to a little girl who didn't answer the +recess bell when it rang for school to begin. + +Now it happened that some days before, when Mary Jane had first learned to +play "Ghost walk" she hunted around the yard for a good place to hide--in +case she ever succeeded in getting out of the circle so she _could_ hide. +She didn't want to hide among the bushes because that was the first place +the children looked; she didn't want to hide in the doorway because that +was against rules and if a child was discovered there by a teacher, the +child had to go straight upstairs and stay the rest of recess. And there +didn't seem to be any other place. But there was another hiding place--and +Mary Jane found it. Around the corner of the building, on the side nearest +the furnace entrance, there was a jog in the brick wall. And in front of +the little niche made by this jog, boards left by some carpenters had been +carelessly tossed. + +"I could climb over the boards," Mary Jane had thought, "and hide down +behind and nobody'd ever find me--ever." + +So when her time came, and she really did get out of the circle without +being caught, she didn't have to stop and hunt a hiding place; she knew +exactly where she wanted to go. + +But there was one thing Mary Jane hadn't figured on; one thing she didn't +even think of as she crouched down behind her boards while the children +hunted for her, hither and yon over the school yard. She hadn't thought +that way off, 'round the corner and behind boards that way, she +couldn't--_hear_. The sounds of playing and romping seemed so quiet, so +quiet that they were hardly noticeable. She didn't hear the bell and she +didn't even notice the sudden quiet when the children fell in line to +march upstairs. She sat there, huddled in a snug little heap, and she +laughed to herself about the joke she was playing on her mates. + +To be sure the time _did_ seem pretty long and she thought they were very +stupid--but then--she never suspected that recess was over and-- + +Till suddenly there descended upon her a cloud of chalk dust! It powdered +her face and dress and shoes and made her forget all about being quiet and +jump up with a lively scream of fright. + +Overhead she heard Miss Treavor's voice, exclaiming, "Whatever in the +world!" And then, before she could quite get the dust out of her eyes and +understand what had happened, Miss Treavor and two other teachers who had +heard the scream, stood before her and the whole story came out. Miss +Treavor tried not to laugh when Mary Jane told her she was hiding but she +couldn't help it. Mary Jane looked so be-powdered and forlorn. But Mary +Jane didn't mind the laughing because at the same time, Miss Treavor +lifted her out from behind the boards and set her down in the cheerful +sunlight. + +"That _was_ a good place to hide," the teacher admitted, "and you were a +clever little girl to think of it. But I believe, dear," she added kindly, +"that next time you'd better hide some place where you can hear the bell, +even though you _are_ more likely to get caught." + +And Mary Jane promised that she would never, never hide in such a very +good place again. + +Mary Jane hated to go back into the school room all mussed and tumbled as +she was, so Miss Treavor sent for Alice and the two little girls skipped +home for a fresh dress and clean ribbons so Mary Jane could enjoy the +classes. + +When, a half an hour later, she came back, with the dark blue dress +changed to a plaid gingham and the red bow changed to green, the children +wanted to know where she had been and what had happened. But Miss Treavor +wouldn't tell. And she had made Mary Jane promise not to tell, because +that place was _such_ a good hiding place that the teachers didn't want +other folks finding it and hiding there to make trouble too. + +But all of Mary Jane's school fun wasn't from trouble. That was just one +day. Most of the time, she played without anything happening just as the +other folks did. And all the time she made more friends and had a better +time, till, when Betty came back from the country, she knew most everybody +in her room. + +She liked school so very much that the days slipped by one after another +so fast a person could hardly count them--one day and another day and +another day--just that way. Till one Monday morning when they went to +school, Miss Treavor announced, "Do you boys and girls know what we are +going to do to-day? We're going to start making Christmas presents. +Because Christmas is only _three weeks away_!" + +"Christmas!" thought Mary Jane, with a thrill of joy, "Christmas! Why, +they _do_ have Christmas in Chicago! I wonder what I'll get and what I'll +do!" + + + + +CHRISTMAS IN CHICAGO + + +Christmas in Chicago! When Mary Jane heard those words she had her first +real pang of homesickness for the home she had left when they moved to +Chicago. Would any Christmas anywhere ever be so beautiful as the +Christmas in that dear home? She remembered the pine trees in the yard, +loaded down with their wealth of snow: the glowing fire on the hearth with +its Christmas-y smell from the pine cones that were saved through the year +for the Christmas Day fire; the tree in the angle near the fireplace where +the afternoon sun touched it into a blaze of glory; the party for the poor +children that had been such fun to plan for--would anything in Chicago +ever be half the fun of Christmas in the old home? But Mary Jane was soon +to discover that Christmas doesn't need certain houses or fires or trees +to make it perfect; that Christmas is made in folks' hearts and that +wherever there is a Christmas heart, there will be a happy day--in village +or city, the place makes no difference. + +When she went home from school that afternoon and announced that Miss +Treavor said Christmas was so very near, she found that mother wasn't even +a little surprised. + +"Why to be sure Christmas is coming," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "and here I've +been waiting and waiting and _waiting_ for you to talk about it till, +actually, I thought I'd had to begin myself, if you didn't wake up pretty +soon." And then everybody began to talk at once. + +"Do they have trees in Chicago?" asked Alice. + +"Are there any poor folks who would like parties?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Is anybody coming to see us?" demanded Mary Jane. + +"Here! Here! Here!" exclaimed Mr. Merrill, "one at a time, ladies, one at +a time! If you doubt that there will be trees in Chicago, you should see +what I saw this morning as I went down to work. A train load of Christmas +trees--yes, sir!" (for he noticed the girls could hardly believe him) "a +whole train load of trees. And I see by the paper this evening that a boat +load has arrived, too, so there will be no shortage of trees." + +"Then we can have one," said Mary Jane, with a satisfied sigh. + +"And let's put it in front of this foolish little gas log," suggested +Alice, "then we won't think about a real fireplace." + +"And there are plenty of poor folks," said Mrs. Merrill, going back to +Mary Jane's question, "only they will not be so easy to get together, as +back at home. How would you like to take a Christmas party to some family +instead of having a party at home as we did last year?" + +The girls hardly knew what to say about that new idea so Mrs. Merrill +explained further. "I telephoned to the Associated Charities this very +day," she said, "and they gave me the names of a fatherless family in +which there are two girls about your ages, and one boy. I thought we could +plan a fine Christmas for them and then, on Christmas morning, take it +over and surprise them." + +"Oh, let's do that, mother," said Mary Jane happily, "then we'd be like a +real Santa Claus only we'd be a morning Santa. May we do it, surely?" + +"I thought you'd like the idea," said Mrs. Merrill, "so I got lists from +the association as to just what was most needed. Alice, if you'll get a +pencil and paper, we'll figure it all out." + +Making plans was the girls' favorite way of spending an evening so they +whisked the cover off the dining table, pulled up chairs for four and went +to work list-making. + +"Tom," began Mrs. Merrill, consulting her list, "hasn't a bit of warm +clothing." + +"Why couldn't I knit him a muffler and some mittens?" asked Mary Jane. "I +remember how and I haven't knitted anything since the war stopped." + +"Fine!" approved Mrs. Merrill, "I think I have enough yarn for the mittens +and if you'll get it out of the drawer there we can wind it while we talk +and it will be all ready for you to set up at once. You'll have to work +hard and fast if you want to make a muffler and a pair of mittens before +Christmas." + +"Now then," she continued, looking at the list, "they have very few bed +covers and the children get so cold at night." + +"Why couldn't you make some covers, mother?" suggested Alice, "and let me +make them each some flannelette pajamas like we wear--you know how +toasting warm they are. And I have the pattern and I know I could make +them all myself." + +"That's a beautiful idea," approved Mrs. Merrill, "and I hadn't even +thought of such a thing. When we get through planning, dear, you can get +out your pattern and see how much material you'll need. Then, when I go up +town to-morrow, I'll get it for you." + +"And they need stockings," she continued, "and shoes--" + +"Could any of 'em wear my good shoes that are too little?" asked Mary Jane +eagerly. She had been greatly distressed about those "best" shoes that +were so good, and yet were hopelessly outgrown. + +"I think they'll be exactly right," said Mrs. Merrill. "In fact I picked +out this particular family because I was sure we could find nice things +for them among you girls' outgrown things and that, put with what we buy +new, would make all the bigger Christmas for them. + +"And about toys," she continued with the list, "the girls have never had a +doll--" + +"Never had--" began Mary Jane but she couldn't quite get the words out. +Never had a doll. Never had a Marie Georgiannamore to love and care for +and take riding in a beautiful cart. Never had--no, she couldn't quite +imagine it. + +After that there was no more reading off a list. Mary Jane and Alice began +making a list of their own, of what those children were to have for +Christmas. + +"But," objected Mrs. Merrill, "you girls forget that things cost money--a +lot of money these days. And you can't possibly buy all those things and +get any Christmas of your own too." + +"Humph!" grunted Mary Jane as she squeezed her face up tight in an +effort to write, "then we won't have one of our own! Haven't we got Marie +Georgiannamore and a cart and a nice house and warm +clothes--and--everything?" + +That settled it. There would be a tree and dinner and a lot of fun in the +Merrill house on Christmas Day, but the presents were to go to their +adopted family to make _their_ Christmas one never to be forgotten. + +If you have ever planned a Christmas for somebody who never, in all their +lives had one, you will know something about the fun that Mary Jane and +Alice had in the time that was left before Christmas. They were about the +busiest girls in all Chicago! They hurried home from school and they +worked Saturdays but, actually, as soon as they got one thing done they +thought of something else they wanted to make or buy and they had to begin +all over again. They made cookies and candies and dressed dolls, one for +each girl, and made a complete set of covers and pillows and "fixings" for +an adorable doll bed that Mr. Merrill made in the evenings. Alice had to +work pretty hard to get the pajamas all finished in time for there was +considerable work on each pair; but she got them finished and she could +hardly wait till Christmas to take them over to their family. + +Mary Jane finished the muffler and mittens though she _almost_ had to knit +while she ate--towards the last--it takes a good many stitches to make a +muffler big enough for an eight year old boy. The muffler was a deep +crimson and the mittens a warm shade of gray with three rows of crimson in +the wrist end; Mary Jane had picked colors she was sure Tom would like. + +At last the twenty-fourth of December came around--cold and snowy and just +the kind of a day for making a Christmas. The trees were bought and set on +the balcony, the turkeys, two of them, were in the pantry ready to dress +and three big baskets were set on the dining-room table ready for +packing. + +"Now, then," said Mrs. Merrill, "if you have everything ready, I think +we'd better pack all the things we can now, because when Dadah comes home +there'll be plenty to do." + +Mary Jane thought the packing was the most fun of anything she had ever +done. They packed all the doll things in one basket, doll things and toys +and three nice books. Of course the doll bed wouldn't go in the basket; it +had to have a package all by itself. A second basket was for clothing, the +pajamas--and no one would ever guess that a girl as young as Alice had +made those charming garments--the muffler, the mittens, one pair for each +child, warm underwear and a dress for each girl (one of the nicest of +Alice and Mary Jane's outgrown frocks). Mr. Merrill had added a nice +flannel shirt for Tom and Mrs. Merrill put in a warm sweater for the good +mother. + +"That's a basket they'll like to open," said Alice, proudly, as she tucked +the brand new comforter Mrs. Merrill had made, around the top, "they'll be +so happy they won't hardly be able to wait till they can put 'em on!" + +The third basket was fully as interesting as the others. It was a big, big +one and in it the girls packed groceries, cans of vegetables and soup and +sugar--a very little bit to be sure for there wasn't much to be had, but +the Merrills had decided to send exactly half of what they had--and +oranges for breakfast and cereals and bread. Then on top, they were to put +cookies and candy and the turkey. But of course those last things would go +in in the morning, just before the baskets were taken away. + +By the time Mr. Merrill came home, the three baskets were packed, covered +up and set in the corner of the dining-room ready for morning. + +"Now for the tree!" said Mr. Merrill as he took off his coat ready for +work. He set their tree in the dining-room and with Alice's good help +fixed a solid bottom standard and set it up in the living-room right in +front of the foolish little fireplace. They wired it firmly and then Mrs. +Merrill brought in the boxes of Christmas trimmings and everybody set to +work. + +Such fun as it was! Mary Jane kept saying, "Remember this!" And Alice +added, "Remember that!" till it seemed as though it _couldn't_ be more +than a week since last Christmas when they had put the same things on a +tree that looked exactly like the one they were now trimming. This year, +seeing Mary Jane was such a _very_ old person, she was allowed to put the +gold star on the top of the tree; she climbed the ladder, with father +holding one hand and wired it on all by herself; and Alice, as a special +privilege, was allowed to hang the crystal icicles on every tip. + +Nobody put any tinsel on the tree--that was left for the middle of the +night like the story of the old time legend. Whether the spiders and the +Christmas fairies, working together, really covered the tree with silver, +Mary Jane never stopped to figure out. But at any rate the tree was +covered with strings of gold the next morning and Mary Jane thought it the +prettiest Christmas tree she had ever seen! + +[Illustration: This year, seeing Mary Jane was such a _very_ old person, +she was allowed to put the gold star on the top of the tree +_Page 195_] + +The very last thing before she went to bed, Mary Jane hung up her +stocking. And Alice, looking a bit foolish, hung hers close by. + +"I thought you two folks weren't going to have any Christmas," said Mr. +Merrill teasingly. + +"Of course we're not," said Mary Jane bravely, "but we want to hang our +stockings just the same as if--you know." And Dadah must have understood +for he nodded his head and didn't tease any more. + +Nobody would say how it ever happened. Certainly it was well understood +that there were to be no presents. But, anyway, when Mary Jane and Alice +looked at those stockings Christmas morning they were fat, as fat could +be! Just bulging over with queer shaped parcels! + +Mary Jane couldn't even wait to put her slippers on! She bundled a kimono +around her, grabbed up her stocking and ran into her mother's room to open +it. Alice wasn't far behind and certainly for girls who were to have _no_ +presents, they fared very well indeed! Santa Claus must have got his +signals mixed some way! There were doll things for Marie Georgiannamore, +and a ring for Mary Jane; hair ribbons, handkerchiefs, skates for Alice +(think of that in a stocking!) and slippers for the little girl who forgot +to put on her old pair and, oh, many lovely little things that could be +tucked into a stocking. + +The girls spread the things out on mother's bed and had a happy time till +suddenly Mr. Merrill exclaimed, "Girls! It's eight o'clock and I ordered +that taxi for nine!" + +Then there _was_ a scramble! Gifts were hustled away, clothes were put on, +breakfast was eaten and a few last things packed in the baskets, just as +the taxi arrived. + +It was fortunate Mr. Merrill had ordered a big car for with three baskets, +a bundle containing the doll bed and another the turkey, to say nothing of +the tree roped on the side of the car and the box of trimmings on Mrs. +Merrill's lap even a big car was pretty full. + +Mary Jane felt like a real Santa Claus for sure! + +The family they were going to see didn't know they were coming, so when +the car stopped in front of a shabby little house, three puzzled and very +sober faces pressed against the window and looked out. But the sober faces +soon changed. In a few minutes the mother was helping Mrs. Merrill put the +turkey in to roast, the older girl was helping Mr. Merrill set the +Christmas tree in place and Tom and Ellen, the little girl, were helping +the Merrill girls trim the tree. + +When the Merrills left the house some two hours later the turkey was +almost cooked, the tree was trimmed, presents unpacked and happiness and +good cheer had settled down in the little house for many a day. + +It was a good thing they came away when they did, though, for exactly as +they drove up to their own home, they met an express wagon. And in their +own vestibule they found the driver. "Family of Merrill here?" he asked +them. + +"They're us," said Mary Jane eagerly. And whereupon the driver carried +upstairs the biggest, fattest Christmas box Mary Jane had ever seen. + +Of course it was from grandma and in it were so many lovely things from +uncles and grandparents and cousins that Mary Jane thought she never would +get everything unpacked! + +"Well," said the little girl as some time later the family sat down to +their own belated dinner, "I think for not having any presents, we got a +lot! And I think I like Christmas in Chicago just as much as anywhere, I +do." + + + + +A SUMMER HOME--AND A TELEGRAM + + +"Let's go skating!" called Frances one cold morning as she saw Alice shake +the bath room rug from the balcony. + +"Skating?" answered Alice, "where?" + +"Down on the Midway," said Frances. "As soon as you get your work done, +you and Mary Jane come around to our front door and Betty and I will be +ready." + +"But Mary Jane doesn't know how to skate," said Alice. + +"Betty doesn't either," answered Frances, "but they can take their sleds +and coast down the sides of the bank while you and I skate." + +Alice promised and then she hurried inside to finish her work. She had +heard about the fine skating on the Midway where the park board flooded +the sunken greens for the benefit of neighborhood children, but thus far +the weather had been too mild for any skating, so she hadn't had a chance +to try it. But a sudden cold snap, with snow enough to cover the sloping +banks, had provided both skating and coasting. + +Well protected with warm mittens and leggings the girls set out and had +the jolliest kind of a morning. At one end of the ice, the younger folks +did their coasting, the sloping sides giving a flying start and the smooth +ice a glorious finish. At the other end the older boys and girls did their +skating, so there was no mix up or interference. + +That morning was the first of many happy Saturday mornings spent on the +ice. Even Mary Jane got some skates and, with the help of Dadah when he +could get away from the office, she learned to be a fine skater. + +But winter fun never lasts very long. Just about the time Mary Jane +learned to skate well enough to challenge Alice to a race, the spring sun +sent the ice to nowhere land and the while-ago ice pond turned to green +grass! Spring had come. + +With the coming of spring, Mary Jane grew very restless. She wasn't sick, +but something was wrong. Something was making her very solemn and +sober--quite unlike her usual lively self. + +"I know what's the matter with me," she announced one warm sunny morning, +"I want to dig." + +"You want to dig?" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in amazement, "well, why don't +you go down and dig in the Holdens' yard? You know Mrs. Holden said you +might." + +"But I don't want to dig in somebody's yard," answered Mary Jane, without +a spark of interest, "I want to dig in my _own_ yard and have flowers and +a sand pile and everything right in my own yard, I do." + +Mrs. Merrill didn't reply but she did do a lot of thinking and that +evening she and Mr. Merrill had a long conference. + +As a result, at breakfast table the next morning Mr. Merrill said, "How +would you girls like to have a summer home of your own? A place in the +woods where we could go as soon as school closes and where you could wear +bloomers and play in the sand and gather flowers and make garden and all +the things you love to do but can't do in the city. How would you like +that?" + +Mary Jane and Alice stared at him. Would they _like_ it? anybody could see +by their faces that they would _love_ it! + +"But we wouldn't want to leave you here in Chicago, all summer," objected +Alice. + +"And I wouldn't want to be left," Mr. Merrill assured them. "But I am +sure, somewhere in the suburbs around Chicago there must be _some place_ +we could get a summer home. And we'll make it our business to find that +place." + +"I thought," began Mrs. Merrill, and then she hesitated. + +"Something nice?" asked Alice, encouragingly. + +"It would have been nice," admitted Mrs. Merrill, "but likely we couldn't +do it. I'd been thinking how pleasant it would be to take another trip +this summer. You know how you girls enjoyed going to Florida. And you +remember Uncle Hal graduates from Harvard this June. I had been wondering +if we could go east in time to be there when the festivities are going +on." + +"Oh, mother!" cried Mary Jane, "what fun! I do want to ride on a train, a +big train with a sleeper and a diner! But then I want to dig, too," she +added, insistently. + +"Then we'll take one thing at a time," suggested Mr. Merrill. "We'll look +into the question of a summer home--we know we'd all like that. And you +folks don't know that a very popular uncle would _want_ a grown up sister +and two small nieces hanging around at commencement time," he added +teasingly. + +"How do you find a summer home?" asked Alice thoughtfully. + +"That's what we'll have to discover," laughed Mr. Merrill. "And we'll +begin this very Saturday afternoon if the weather is fine. We'll take a +suburban train and ride till we see a place that looks homey and there +we'll get off and hunt." + +The next Saturday was warm and sunny, the kind of a day for bringing +flowers into bloom and for making little girls want to play out of doors. +Mrs. Merrill and the girls met Mr. Merrill at his office so as not to lose +a minute's time, and they hurried right over to the station, and got +aboard the first suburban train they could find. + +"I think this is lots of fun," said Mary Jane as they found their seats, +"we don't know where we're going--we're just going!" And the train was +off. + +For some time the girls were really discouraged. They passed factories, +and tenements, and more factories till Mary Jane was sure they were never +coming to country--real country. But suddenly, when she was about to give +up, the factories were gone and from the window the girls could see wide +fields and strips of woods and an occasional brook. Two or three little +stations were passed and then the train ran through a beautiful stretch of +woods--rolling woods all leafy and budding and flower decked. The ground +was fairly covered with early blossoms and trees of wild crab were just +bursting into pink bloom. + +Mary Jane grabbed her coat and started down the aisle. + +"Make 'em stop the train, Dadah," she said, "this is where we want to +live!" + +Fortunately at that minute the train really did stop at a small station +and the Merrills got off and looked around. It didn't take long to explore +into the woods far enough to find that they had come to the very place +they were looking for--a spot not too far from the city for Mr. Merrill's +daily trip and yet wild enough to give the girls some real woods. The +girls picked flowers as they explored and had such a happy time that it +was hard work to persuade them to go back to the city when the twilight +came. But they had found the very place! + +Three weeks later Mr. Merrill bought a lot in the heart of the woods, and +the summer home was no longer a mere dream--it was to be really truly. + +"Now," announced Alice, "we'll draw the kind of a house we want. I love to +draw plans of a house!" She cleared off the dining table, sharpened +pencils, brought two tablets and insisted that everybody come out and +help. + +And just then the door bell rang. + +"Telegram for Merrill!" shouted a voice through the tube and Mary Jane +pressed the buzzer in a hurry--a telegram usually meant something +exciting. + +It was addressed to Mrs. Merrill and said, "Have all tickets and hotel +reservations. You and the girls must come." And it was signed by Mrs. +Merrill's brother. + +"If that isn't just like a college boy!" laughed Mrs. Merrill. "For weeks +he doesn't answer a letter and then he telegraphs! Girls," she added, +"let's go! Wouldn't you like to go to Boston and see the college and the +ocean and the White Mountains--and--everything?" + +"Oh, mother, _really_?" exclaimed Mary Jane. (She felt as though she must +be dreaming, things were happening so fast!) + +"But what about the summer home?" asked Alice. + +"Don't you worry about the summer home," Mr. Merrill assured her, "we'll +have that summer home just the same. You girls take your trip east. You +won't be gone more than a couple of weeks--and what are two weeks out of a +whole summer? And before you go, we'll get the shack all planned and when +you come back we'll move out." + +"Goody! Goody! Goody!" cried Mary Jane happily, "then I can see Uncle Hal +and ride on the train and dig a garden and _everything_!" + +And if you want to hear all about Mary Jane's beautiful trip to Boston and +the White Mountains, the fun she had sight-seeing and the jolly party on +"Class Day," you must read-- + + "MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE MARY JANE SERIES +BY CLARA INGRAM JUDSON +Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated. +With picture inlay and wrapper. + +[Illustration] +Mary Jane is the typical American little girl who bubbles over with fun +and the good things in life. We meet her here on a visit to her +grandfather's farm where she becomes acquainted with farm life and farm +animals and thoroughly enjoys the experience. We next see her going to +kindergarten and then on a visit to Florida, and then--but read the +stories for yourselves. + +Exquisitely and charmingly written are these books which every little girl +from five to nine years old will want from the first book to the last. + + 1 MARY JANE--HER BOOK + 2 MARY JANE--HER VISIT + 3 MARY JANE'S KINDERGARTEN + 4 MARY JANE DOWN SOUTH + 5 MARY JANE'S CITY HOME + 6 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND + 7 MARY JANE'S COUNTY HOME + +BARSE & HOPKINS +PUBLISHERS +NEWARK, N. J. NEW YORK, N. Y. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +CHICKEN LITTLE JANE SERIES +_By_ LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE + +[Illustration] +Chicken Little Jane is a Western prairie girl who lives a happy, outdoor +life in a country where there is plenty of room to turn around. She is a +wide-awake, resourceful girl who will instantly win her way into the +hearts of other girls. And what good times she has!--with her pets, her +friends, and her many interests. "Chicken Little" is the affectionate +nickname given to her when she is very, very good, but when she misbehaves +it is "Jane"--just Jane! + + Adventures of Chicken Little Jane + Chicken Little Jane on the "Big John" + Chicken Little Jane Comes to Town + +With numerous illustrations in pen and ink +By CHARLES D. HUBBARD +BARSE & HOPKINS +NEWARK NEW YORK + N. J. N. Y. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Dorothy Whitehill Series +For Girls + +[Illustration] +Here is a sparkling new series of stories for girls--just what they will +like, and ask for more of the same kind. It is all about twin sisters, who +for the first few years in their lives grow up in ignorance of each +other's existence. Then they are at last brought together and things begin +to happen. Janet is an independent go-ahead sort of girl; while her sister +Phyllis is--but meet the twins for yourself and be entertained. + +5 Titles, Cloth, large 12mo., +Covers in color. + + 1. JANET, A TWIN + 2. PHYLLIS, A TWIN + 3. THE TWINS IN THE WEST + 4. THE TWINS IN THE SOUTH + 5. THE TWINS' SUMMER VACATION + 6. THE TWINS AND TOMMY JR. + +BARSE & HOPKINS +PUBLISHERS +NEWARK, N. J. NEW YORK, N. Y. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE POLLY PENDLETON SERIES +BY DOROTHY WHITEHILL + +[Illustration] +Polly Pendleton is a resourceful, wide-awake American girl who goes to a +boarding school on the Hudson River some miles above New York. By her +pluck and resourcefulness, she soon makes a place for herself and this she +holds right through the course. The account of boarding school life is +faithful and pleasing and will attract every girl in her teens. + + 1 POLLY'S FIRST YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL + 2 POLLY'S SUMMER VACATION + 3 POLLY'S SENIOR YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL + 4 POLLY SEES THE WORLD AT WAR + 5 POLLY AND LOIS + 6 POLLY AND BOB + +Cloth, Large 12mo., Illustrated. + +BARSE & HOPKINS +PUBLISHERS +Newark, N. J. New York, N. Y. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The Sunny Boy Series +By RAMY ALLISON WHITE + +[Illustration] +Children, meet Sunny Boy, a little fellow with big eyes and an inquiring +disposition, who finds the world a large and wonderful thing indeed. And +somehow there is lots going on, when Sunny Boy is around. Perhaps he helps +push! In the first book of this new series he has the finest time ever, +with his Grandpa out in the country. He learns a lot and he helps a lot, +in his small way. Then he has a glorious visit to the seashore, but this +is in the next story. And there are still more adventures in the third +book and fourth book. You will like Sunny Boy. + +4 Titles, Cloth, illustrated, 12mo., +with colored covers. + + 1. SUNNY BOY IN THE COUNTRY + 2. SUNNY BOY AT THE SEASHORE + 3. SUNNY BOY IN THE BIG CITY + 4. SUNNY BOY IN SCHOOL AND OUT + 5. SUNNY BOY AND HIS PLAYMATES + +BARSE & HOPKINS +PUBLISHERS +NEWARK, N. J. NEW YORK, N. Y. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +GOOD STORIES FOR CHILDREN +(From four to nine years old) +THE KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES +By RICHARD BARNUM + +[Illustration] +In all nursery literature animals have played a conspicuous part; and the +reason is obvious, for nothing entertains a child more than the antics of +an animal. These stories abound in amusing incidents such as children +adore, and the characters are so full of life, so appealing to a child's +imagination, that none will be satisfied until they have met all of their +favorites--Squinty, Slicko, Mappo, and the rest. + + 1 Squinty, the Comical Pig. + 2 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel. + 3 Mappo, the Merry Monkey. + 4 Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant. + 5 Don, a Runaway Dog. + 6 Dido, the Dancing Bear. + 7 Blackie, a Lost Cat. + 8 Flop Ear, the Funny Rabbit. + 9 Tinkle, the Trick Pony. + 10 Lightfoot, the Leaping Goat. + 11 Chunky, the Happy Hippo. + 12 Sharp Eyes, the Silver Fox. + 13 Nero, the Circus Lion. + 14 Tamba, the Tame Tiger. + 15 Toto, the Rustling Beaver. + 16 Shaggo, the Mighty Buffalo. + 17 Winky, the Wily Woodchuck. + +Cloth, Large 12mo., Illustrated. + +BARSE & HOPKINS +Publishers +Newark, N. J. New York, N. Y. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The Yank Brown Series +By DAVID STONE +Cloth, large 12 mo. Illustrated. + +[Illustration] +When Yank Brown comes to Belmont College as a callow Freshman, there is a +whole lot that he doesn't know about college life, such as class rushes, +rivalries, fraternities, and what a lowly Freshman must not do. But he +does know something about how to play football, and he is a big, likeable +chap who speedily makes friends. + +In the first story of this series we watch Yank buck the line as a +Halfback. In the second story he goes in for basketball, among many other +activities of a busy college year. Then there are other stories to +follow--each brimful of action and interest. This is one of the best +college series we have seen in a long while. + + YANK BROWN, HALFBACK + YANK BROWN, FORWARD + YANK BROWN, CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNER + +BARSE & HOPKINS +NEWARK NEW YORK +N. J. N. Y. + +(Other volumes in preparation.) + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mary Jane's City Home, by Clara Ingram Judson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY JANE'S CITY HOME *** + +***** This file should be named 26517.txt or 26517.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/5/1/26517/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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