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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8890.txt b/8890.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d71131 --- /dev/null +++ b/8890.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3530 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary Jane: Her Book, by Clara Ingram Judson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Mary Jane: Her Book + +Author: Clara Ingram Judson + +Illustrator: Frances White + +Posting Date: August 24, 2014 [EBook #8890] +Release Date: September, 2005 +First Posted: August 21, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY JANE: HER BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + +MARY JANE + +HER BOOK + + + +BY Clara Ingram Judson + + +ILLUSTRATED BY Frances White + + + + + +=CONTENTS= + + +THE BROKEN DOLL + +DON'T CRY OVER SPILLED SUGAR + +HELPING THE ROBINS + +FATHER'S SECRET + +MARY JANE PLAYS SCHOOL + +AUNT EFFIE COMES TO VISIT + +KEWPIE AND THE WASHING + +JUNIOR'S SHOWER BATH + +PLAYMATE DOROTHY + +LEARNING TO SEW + +MAKING READY FOR THE PICNIC + +THE PICNIC UP CLEARWATER + +GOING SHOPPING + +THE PAPER DOLL SHOW + +THE BIRTHDAY PARTY + +A LETTER AND A TRIP + + + + + +=ILLUSTRATIONS= + + +Her little fists were clinched and even her perky plaid hair ribbon seemed +to show amazement + +"Here's one that's me!" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly + +She sat down on the biggest rock close by the edge of the creek + +There's no need to tell of all the good times at that party + + + + +THE BROKEN DOLL + + +Mary Jane stood on the curbstone and stared into the middle of the street. +Her face was white with fright and the tears which had not as yet come were +close to her big blue eyes. Her little fists were clinched and even her +perky plaid hair ribbon seemed to show amazement. + +And wasn't it enough to make any little girl stare? Her big, beautiful +doll, the one that came at Christmas time, lay crushed and broken in the +middle of the street! Its glossy brown hair matted in the dust; its dainty +pink dress torn and dirty and its great brown eyes crushed to powder! + +For a full minute Mary Jane stared at the wreck that had been her doll. +Then she turned and ran screaming toward the house. + +Mrs. Merrill heard her and met her at the front steps. + +"Mary Jane! Dear child!" she cried, "what _is_ the matter? Tell mother what +has happened!" + +"My doll! My beautifulest doll!" sobbed Mary Jane, "my Marie Georgianna is +all run over!" + +"Surely not, surely not, Mary Jane," said her mother as she picked up the +little girl and sat down, with her on her lap, on the porch steps, "dolls +don't get run over." + +"My doll did," said Mary Jane positively, "see?" + +Mrs. Merrill looked out into the street and there, sure enough, was the +wreck of the doll. + +"Tell me how it happened, dear," said Mrs. Merrill and she gathered her +little girl tighter in her arms as she spoke for she knew that if a doll +had been run over, Mary Jane herself had not missed an accident by so very +much for the doll and the little girl were always close together. + +Mary Jane wiped her eyes on her mother's handkerchief, snugged cozily in +the comfortable arms and told her story. + +"I was going over to play with Junior like you said I could," she began +(Junior was the little neighbor boy who lived across the street in the big +white house), "and just as I got into the middle of the street I heard a +big, _big_ noisy 'toot-t-t-t-t' way down by Fifth Street--and you _know_, +mother" (and here Mary Jane sat up straight) "that you always told me if an +automobile was as far away as Fifth Street it was all right--so I went on +across. But this automobile didn't just come; it hurried fast, oh, so very +fast and by the time I was half way across the road it was so close I just +turned around and ran back to the curbstone and I was in such a hurry I +guess I must have dropped my Marie Georgianna!" + +"And the automobile ran over her, poor dolly," finished mother, with a +thrill of fear as she realized Mary Jane's narrow escape. Then she wiped +off the teary blue eyes and smilingly said, "Listen, Mary Jane, and I'll +tell you a secret." + +"A secret about a doll?" asked Mary Jane eagerly. + +"A secret about a doll," replied mother. "Marie Georgianna has a twin." + +"Not a really truly twin?" demanded Mary Jane and she sat up straight and +opened her eyes wide. "A really, truly, for surely enough twin?" + +"Yes, she has," said mother nodding her head emphatically, "a really, +truly, for surely enough twin--I saw her down at the store only yesterday +and I think we'll have to go down town and bring her home, don't you think +so?" + +"But how'll we go so early?" asked Mary Jane, for she knew that mother +always liked to do her morning work before they went on errands. + +"I think father is still here," replied mother; "you smile up your face and +run around to the garage. I think you'll find him there working on his car. +If you do, tell him all about what happened and tell him he's going to mend +your doll by finding her twin!" + +Mary Jane slipped down from her mother's lap and hurried around the house +toward the garage. As soon as she was out of sight, Mrs. Merrill went out +to the street and rescued the wreck of the doll from the dusty road. Yes, +Mary Jane was right when she said that the doll was all gone--it would take +considerable work to put even the dress in order and the doll itself was +broken beyond all mending. Hastily Mrs. Merrill pulled off the dirty dress +and dropped the doll into the covered trash basket where Mary Jane would +not see it again and be reminded of the accident. + +"What are we going to do about that speeding on our road?" demanded father +as he hurried up to the back porch just as the lid was back on the trash +basket. "Did you hear about Mary Jane's narrow escape?" + +"We're going to do this about it," said mother positively, "Mary Jane isn't +to go over to Junior's again by herself. If she has to go over, one of us +will take her. And now the important thing is to find Marie Georgianna's +twin. And Mary Jane," she added as the little girl came running toward the +steps, "this twin of Marie Georgianna's is afraid of automobiles, very +afraid of them, and she doesn't like to cross the street unless some grown +up person is with her." + +"That's a good thing," said Mary Jane with a big sigh, "because I don't +like to either. Next time I go over to Junior's I'm not going over. And +what shall I name Marie Georgianna's twin, mother?" + +"We'll decide that later," laughed mother; "you must hurry quick and wash +your hands and face and slip on a clean frock so you can go to the store +with father." + +It doesn't take long to tidy a little girl who wants to help so it wasn't +five minutes before Mary Jane was sitting, clean and tidy and straight, +beside her father in the front seat of his automobile. She loved to get in +while the car was still in the garage and then, when he backed it out, to +hold the wheel while he locked the doors and climbed back into the driver's +seat. + +The Merrills lived in a charming home on the edge of a small city; a home +surrounded by trees and garden and plenty of space for playing; and at the +same time, only about ten minutes' ride from the stores in the center of +the city. So a very short ride brought Mr. Merrill and Mary Jane to the +store where Marie Georgianna's twin was to be found. In the meantime, Mrs. +Merrill had telephoned to the store and had told the saleswoman in the doll +department just which doll to have ready for Mary Jane. + +When Mr. Merrill and his little girl walked into the toy department, there, +with her arms outstretched in greeting, was a beautiful big doll. For +a moment Mary Jane said nothing--the doll was so like her dear, +broken-to-pieces Marie Georgianna that she could hardly believe her eyes! +She walked up close to the counter; looked hard at the doll and then +exclaimed, "It is! It is, Daddah! It _is_ a twin just as mother said it +was! And is it for me to take home?" + +Mr. Merrill assured her that the doll was to go home with them and then +he asked about clothes. "Are you sure you have enough at home? Were the +clothes spoiled too?" + +"While mother was washing me ready to come down town, she told me she could +fix the dress and Marie Georgianna didn't wear her hat when she was run +over," said Mary Jane, "so I guess her twin doesn't need anything new." But +she looked so regretfully at the cases of pretty clothes that father bought +a pink parasol--"just for fun" he said. + +"She doesn't want to wear _just_ hand-me-down clothes of her sister's even +if she _is_ a twin," he explained, "and I always like to buy doll clothes +for little girls who don't tease for new things. But there's one thing sure +about this parasol," he added, "it's not to go over to Junior's!" + +"It won't!" laughed Mary Jane happily, "because I won't and parasols can't +go places by themselves!" + +All the way back home Mary Jane sat very still and held the new doll close +up to her. Mr. Merrill thought perhaps she was thinking about the accident +and tried to get her to talking--that shows how little even good fathers +understand! Mary Jane wasn't thinking about any accident, dear me no! She +was naming her doll. + +Just as they got out of the car at their own front walk, she announced +solemnly, "I've named her Marie Georgiannamore because a twin is more than +one." + + + + +DON'T CRY OVER SPILLED SUGAR + + +All the rest of the day after Marie Georgiannamore came into the family, +Mary Jane played dolls. Mother helped her fix a play house out on the front +porch in the warm sunshine and there Mary Jane and her family had a very +happy time. Evidently Marie Georgiannamore liked her new home for she +seemed very content with the other members of Mary Jane's numerous family. +There was the sailor doll and the rag doll, Mary Jane, Jr., and small bears +and dolls and kewpies too many to count. And of course each doll had its +own chair and bed so there was quite a household out on that sunny front +porch. + +When father came home in the evening he helped carry in all the furniture +and in the morning he helped move it back again. + +"I tell you, Mary Jane, these moving days keep us husky and strong, don't +they?" he said as he picked up three chairs and two beds at one time. + +Mary Jane laughed and, just to show that she was strong too, carried +out _three_ doll beds (to be sure they were for the very littlest, +two-for-a-nickel dolls but then they were three beds just the same) and a +washing machine at one time! Then she thanked her father for his good help +and he went to work and she settled down for a morning's house keeping. + +About ten o'clock Mrs. Merrill came to the front door. + +"Do you know any little girl who is big enough to run down to the grocery +and get me some sugar?" she asked. + +"'Deed, yes, mother!" answered Mary Jane promptly, "I can bring you +ten-fifty pounds! See how strong I am?" And she doubled up her arm as she +had seen her big, basketball-playing sister do to show her muscle. "See? +And I could move more beds at one time than Daddah could this morning." + +"Well, you are strong!" exclaimed mother admiringly; "you have more muscle +than you need for sugar getting because I want only three pounds this time. +I'm making cake and pies and cookies and I've run out of sugar and don't +want to leave my work to get more. Can you leave your family now?" she +added, for she was always particular to treat Mary Jane's duties or play as +politely as she expected Mary Jane to treat hers. + +"Yes," replied Mary Jane, "I can go this very minute, mother, because all +my children are taking their morning nap. Do I have to dress up?" + +"Not a bit!" laughed mother; "just go down to Shaffer's at the corner then +you won't have to cross any street. Here is the money and here is the paper +that tells what you want--three pounds of granulated sugar. Thank you for +going, dear." + +Mary Jane tucked the slip of paper and the money into her pocket under her +handkerchief, kissed her mother good-by and ran down the walk. + +It didn't take long to do the errand because she ran right by her friend +Doris's house without even stopping to call "Hu-uu-oo!" as she usually did; +and because Mr. Shaffer seemed to have been expecting a call for three +pounds of sugar--he had the parcel all ready. + +On the way back Mary Jane looked longingly into Doris's house and there, +sure enough, her little playmate was standing on the front porch. + +"Come on in!" called Doris. + +"Can't now," answered Mary Jane; "I'm doing an errand for mother, a real +important errand," and she held the package of sugar tightly in her arms +and walked straight along. + +Now whether the paper in the bag was not very good to begin with; or +whether Mary Jane held the parcel too tightly or what--it would be hard to +say--but--Mary Jane had not gone five steps past Doris's house before she +felt a funny little movement in the bag under her arm. She looked and what +do you suppose she found had happened? That sugar bag had sprung a leak. +Yes, a really for sure leak and the sugar was dribbling, dribbling down to +the sidewalk! Quick as a flash Mary Jane turned the bag other side up and +stopped the leak but, even so, there was a little white mound of sugar +there on the sidewalk. + +"I wonder what I ought to do now?" she said thoughtfully. "Should I pick up +the sugar and put it back into the bag?" She tried that, but she soon found +that sugar is very slippery. She could pick only a few grains at a time and +even some of those few slid out of her hand before she could tuck them into +the leak in the bag. It was very puzzling. She bent low over the pile of +sugar and in that way she was hidden from the houses by the high hedge that +grew along the walk. + +"I wonder, I wonder--" she said, and then she noticed that she had company. +Two busy ants had found that pile of sugar and were moving it away as fast +as ever they could. "This must be moving day for them too," said Mary Jane +laughingly. "I wonder where they are going? I guess I'd better see." + +She sat down beside the pile, being very careful to hold her bag of sugar +leaky-side up, and watched and watched. If you have ever seen ants moving +grains of sugar you know how very interesting it is and you won't wonder +that she forgot all about taking the parcel home to her mother. And there +is no telling when she _would_ have remembered if she hadn't, just then, +heard her mother's voice. + +"Mary Jane! Mary Jane! Mary Jane!" called Mrs. Merrill. + +"Coming, mother," answered Mary Jane and she scrambled to her feet and +hurried home. "'Cuse me, mother, for being so long," she said breathlessly, +"but it leaks and please may I go back by Doris's and see the ants?" + +Mrs. Merrill took the bursting bag and thanked Mary Jane for the errand. +Her mind was on her delayed baking and she thought Mary Jane meant to go to +see Doris's aunt. So, without a question, she replied, "Yes, you may, dear, +but don't stay too long." And so Mary Jane ran back to her ants. + +By careful watching she found where they were going. They had a whole +colony of tiny holes out in the grass plot between the sidewalk and the +curbing and they seemed to be moving the sugar into these holes. + +"I think I ought to help them, they're such little things," said Mary Jane +to herself, "and I think Doris would want to help them too." She went to +Doris's gate and called and her little friend came out to watch ants too. + +"See what they are doing?" explained Mary Jane. "They're moving the sugar +into their pantry and we ought to help them like my father helps me when I +move my doll house things." + +But somehow the plan which sounded so well, didn't work. Maybe the ants +didn't understand that help was being given them; for really, the more the +little girls "helped" the more scurrying and confusion there was in that +company of ants. And even when Mary Jane picked up a grain of sugar and +actually dropped it into a hole ready for them to put away, that didn't +seem to be the right thing either! + +Just then, when the little girls were getting tired of bending over so long +and trying to do something that didn't work, the noon whistles began to +blow, and, a minute later, Mr. Merrill came riding by in his car. + +"Do you know where I could find two little girls to ride around to the +garage with me?" he asked as he pulled up by the curbing. + +"Right here they are," cried Mary Jane and she and Doris climbed into the +car in a jiffy. + +"What were you people doing there on the sidewalk?" asked father as they +drove around the corner. + +"Helping ants store sugar in their holes but they didn't like it," said +Mary Jane disgustedly. + +"I don't blame them," laughed Mr. Merrill. "When we get into the house I'll +show you how those holes are made and then you'll understand why the ants +didn't want help." So Doris came into the house too and Mr. Merrill got +down a big book and showed the two girls pictures of ant houses and told +them all about how ants make their homes and store their food. + +"My, but I'm glad that sugar bag leaked!" sighed Mary Jane when the big +book was finally shut up and put away, "because I had fun watching the +ants; and I was out front ready for a ride; and now I've had a story--all +because sugar spilled! Mother, is lunch ready? May Doris stay? We're +hungry!" + + + + +HELPING THE ROBINS + + +All the afternoon after she learned about ants and their ways, Mary Jane +was very quiet. Mrs. Merrill thought perhaps she was disappointed because +Doris had had to go home right after lunch so she tried to be very sociable +and kind to make up for the absent playmate. + +"How would you like to make a new dress for Marie Georgiannamore?" she +asked. + +"Make it now, instead of taking my nap?" asked Mary Jane who sometimes +disliked the hour of quiet that her mother had her take every afternoon. Of +course she didn't really nap, that is, sleep; girls as big as she didn't +need to Mrs. Merrill thought. But she did have to stay quietly in her own +room and look at pictures or rest which ever she wished to do. Usually Mary +Jane enjoyed the hour but sometimes she wished she could play straight +through the day. + +"Oh, no," replied Mrs. Merrill smiling, "you will want to take your rest +the same as you always do. But when you get up, then we'll make Marie +Georgiannamore a new dress." + +"And while we're making it," asked Mary Jane, "will I have to stay in the +house?" + +"Why, of course, Mary Jane," replied Mrs. Merrill, "how funny you are! You +wouldn't enjoy my making a doll dress while you were out doors, would you?" + +"No-o-o," said Mary Jane doubtfully, "maybe I wouldn't. Only I 'pect I'd +like it after it was done." + +"Well," said Mrs. Merrill laughingly, "if you don't want a doll dress any +more than _that_, you don't want one very badly--that's certain! You run +along up to your room now and then, after you're dressed, I'll take my +bag of darning out on the front porch--I think it's plenty warm enough +to-day--and you may play in the yard. Would you like that, dear?" + +"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "that's just what I want to do. And may I +take the ant book upstairs?" + +Mrs. Merrill said she could and helped her pull the big book out from the +shelves. + +"If this is what you are going to look at," she said as she handed the book +to Mary Jane at the foot of the stairs, "better fix some pillows real comfy +fashion in the window seat where the light is good." And Mary Jane promised +she would. + +The book proved more than usually interesting and Mrs. Merrill had to call +the third time before Mary Jane heard her and realized that her hour was +up. + +"Wash your face and put on your pink smock, dear," called Mrs. Merrill, +"and then come out to the porch. There's a robin in the front yard and +you'll like to watch him." + +Mary Jane scrambled her very fastest, which was pretty fast as you can +guess, and in about three minutes was out on the porch inquiring for the +robin. + +There he was, big as life and busy as could be hunting his afternoon tea. + +"Doesn't he know it isn't time for dinner till Daddah comes home?" asked +Mary Jane. + +"He doesn't pay much attention to time," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "he likes to +eat all the day long. It makes no difference to him whether he eats in the +morning or afternoon." + +Mary Jane watched him curiously as he pecked and dug and then she suddenly +exclaimed, "But he didn't eat it, mother! I know he didn't eat it! I saw +him fly away with it!" + +"Then I expect he's carrying it to his babies," said Mrs. Merrill. + +"Where are his babies?" demanded Mary Jane as she sat down on the porch +step to hear more. + +"I'm sure I don't know, dear," said her mother. "I didn't notice which +direction he went, did you?" + +"Yes, he flew around toward the back yard," answered Mary Jane quickly, "I +saw him. Does his whole family live in a nest like you've told me about or +does he have a hole and a city and everything like the ants in the book?' + +"His whole family live in one nest," replied Mrs. Merrill, "the father +robin and the another robin and all the little robins--sometimes several of +them. It's pretty crowded perhaps, while the robin babies are growing, but +they like it. I expect if you go around to the back yard and watch, you may +see what tree Mr. Robin goes to with his worms. That will tell you what +tree his nest is in." + +Mary Jane ran around to the back yard and that was the last Mrs. Merrill +saw of her till she called her to get ready for dinner some time later. + +Mr. Merrill was late to dinner, but when he came Mary Jane asked him all +the questions that her mother had been unable to answer. + +"Wait a minute!" exclaimed he. "Where did you see this robin that you're +talking about?" + +"In the front yard and in the back yard," said Mary Jane, "both of them." + +"Then I'll venture to guess that it's the very same robin whose nest I +discovered this morning," said Mr. Merrill. "I meant to tell you about it +but was in such a hurry to get away I forgot." + +"Oh, did you see his nest?" exclaimed Mary Jane excitedly; "his really +truly for sure nest, Daddah?" + +"That I did," replied her father, "and I'll show it to you." + +"Let's go now," cried Mary Jane. "Won't you please excuse us, mother?" And +she slipped down from her chair. + +"Too late now," said her father, "might as well climb back and finish your +dinner. You can't find a bird's nest after dark--and you can see that it's +almost dark now. You wait till morning and I'll show you that nest first +thing." + +"As soon as I'm dressed, Daddah?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Before you're dressed," promised her father, with a twinkle in his eye, +"you just see!" + +Mary Jane was so excited she could hardly go to sleep that night and Mrs. +Merrill laughingly said that her dreams would likely be a circus of ants +and robins. But she must have been mistaken, because little girls who wake +up as bright and early as Mary Jane did that next day, don't waste their +nights a-dreaming. + +"Daddah!" she called to her father in a loud whisper, "are you waked up? +Daddah!" + +"Um-m," said her father sleepily, "what is it?" + +"Did you forget the nest," asked the little girl, "it's light now." + +"To be sure," replied her father, who by now was wide awake; "put on your +slippers and come over by my bed and look." + +Mary Jane reached down from her bed, picked up her dainty slippers and put +them on; then she threw back the covers and hurried over to her father's +bed. + +At the back of the Merrill home, upstairs, was a broad sleeping porch, +sheltered by wide eaves and completely screened. There, each in his or +her own little bed, father and mother and Alice and Mary Jane slept every +night. Of course each had their own room in the house, with a comfortable +bed for daytime rests, and stormy nights and the like; but almost every +night in the year all four of them slept out of doors. Just behind the +sleeping porch was an old apple tree and it was to this tree that Mr. +Merrill now pointed. + +Mary Jane looked and looked and then, suddenly, she saw the nest! Set way +back among the leaves it was and on it was sitting the mother bird. + +"I expect the father bird is getting breakfast for the family," said +Mr. Merrill, "and the mother is keeping the babies warm till they have +something to eat. You better get dressed now, little girl," he added, +"but you may come up here after breakfast and I guess that, if you watch +quietly, you can get a glimpse of the babies." + +As quickly as breakfast was over, Mary Jane hurried back up the stairs to +the sleeping porch and, sure enough, the mother bird and the father bird +were both gone and those cunning baby robins--four of them--were stretching +way out of the nest! Mary Jane almost gasped at first she was that +surprised; but she didn't call out, no, indeed! She kept very still and +watched--and watched. And the longer she looked the more certain she became +that something was wrong. + +"They do open their mouths so funny," she thought to herself. "I know, I +just _know_ they wouldn't open their mouths so wide if something wasn't +wrong." + +She thought a few minutes and then an idea occurred to her. The robin +babies were thirsty--of course! + +"I know how I felt that time we took too long a ride and I got thirsty," +she thought, "and their mother don't know and their father isn't here +either. I'll just _have_ to get them a drink!" + +But how to get a drink to four baby robins in the old apple tree--that was +a problem that Mary Jane couldn't figure out all at once. But she didn't +give up, no, sir! She thought and thought, and then she spied the hose +lying in the back yard. + +The very thing! + +Quick as a minute, she ran down the stairs, out the kitchen door and over +to the hose. Yes, just as she had hoped, it was attached and ready for +use. She ran up to the house wall, turned on the water (it took all her +strength, but she didn't mind that), took one good look up at the apple +tree to see just where the nest was, and then turned the hose that way. + +But something didn't seem just right. Instead of liking it, and being very +still because they were getting a good cold drink, those stupid robin +babies chirped and cried and acted far from pleased. + +"I know," thought Mary Jane, "they want it like rain," and she turned the +hose nozzle high and straight so that the water would come down on the top +of the nest. + +But that wasn't any better or even as good as the first try; for the water, +instead of coming down on the apple tree, came straight and wet onto Mary +Jane herself! She was so startled that she screamed and dropped the hose +without a thought of the robins she had meant to help. + +And then there _was_ a commotion! Mr. Merrill, who had come home for some +papers he had forgotten, came running around the house; Father Robin darted +out from the hedge and made straight for his nest; Mother Robin hurried up +from the pine tree in Doris's yard and Mrs. Merrill, tea towel still in +hand, ran out from the back porch. + +"What ever is the matter?" she cried. + +"I was just giving the baby robins a drink," sputtered Mary Jane, "and they +didn't seem to like it!" + +Mrs. Merrill gathered her into her arms, wetness and all, and held her +close. "I thought something had happened to my little girl," she said. "You +must come in and get dry clothes on, dear; then I'll tell you more about +the babies and you'll understand why they don't like too much water." + +"And _I'll_ tell you something," said father. "If you like to learn about +creatures and everything that grows, you meet me here at the back door step +at five o'clock this afternoon and I'll tell you a secret." + +"Oh, goody!" cried Mary Jane, as she clapped her wet hands. "Can't you tell +it to me now?" + +"I should say not!" said father importantly, "it's a secret! You'll have to +wait till five o'clock!" And he hurried off to his work leaving Mary Jane +to a day of wondering what might be coming--a pleasant sort of wondering, +for father's secrets were always jolly ones. + + + + +FATHER'S SECRET + + +Mary Jane thought that five o'clock would never come--never! She looked at +the clock and _looked_ at the clock and she asked mother and Alice to tell +her the time so as to be sure she herself wasn't mistaken in what the clock +said. But finally lunch time was passed, and rest time, and then Mary Jane +knew it wouldn't be very long till five o'clock. + +"Now, I'm going to dress for my secret," she said when her rest was +finished. + +"That's just what I came to see you about," said Mrs. Merrill, who came +into Mary Jane's room at that minute, "you'd better put on this little +dress." And she held up a little, old, dark blue morning dress--not at all +the sort of dress that a little girl would wear to an afternoon secret, +Mary Jane was sure of that. + +"Why, mother!" exclaimed the little girl, "you don't mean me to wear +_that_!" + +"I surely do," said Mrs. Merrill, pleasantly; "it's just the right kind of +a dress for this secret." + +"But Daddah's secret is a _nice_ secret," said Mary Jane positively. + +"His secrets always are," agreed her mother. + +"And nice secrets ought to have nice dresses," said Mary Jane. + +"Nice secrets ought to have dresses that belong to them," corrected Mrs. +Merrill. "We don't talk about things that are decided," reminded Mrs. +Merrill. "Put on the blue dress and come downstairs, Mary Jane. I'm sure +you will be glad--when father comes home." + +So Mary Jane put on the blue dress, but she wasn't very happy about it; she +felt sure, certain all the time that she was dressing, that Daddah would be +disappointed when he saw her. And she began to wonder if the secret _was_ +so very wonderful after all; it didn't sound so wonderful if an old dress +went with it--in the afternoon! + +But even though she was disappointed and a bit doubtful, she went down to +the front porch and sat on the step where she could see father the minute +he turned the corner of Fifth Street. + +"Isn't this a fine day to be out of doors!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, +contentedly. "See Mr. Robin out there, digging away for his family? He has +a hard time hunting worms in the grass. I expect he wishes we had a newly +dug garden around this place." Mary Jane looked up indifferently, just in +time to see a twinkle in her mother's eye. Did the twinkle have anything to +do with the secret? Mary Jane wondered. + +"What would he do with a garden?" she asked. + +"Get worms out of it," answered Mrs. Merrill. + +"But isn't he getting worms out of the yard?" asked Mary Jane, looking out +to where the robin was industriously pecking at the ground. + +"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Merrill, "of course he is; but see how he has to work! +Now if that yard was all dug up nicely for a garden, the worms would be +plain to see and all he would have to do would be to pick them out. Think +how much easier that would be." + +Mary Jane didn't answer. She looked out at the robin, but someway, she +couldn't quite take an interest in his affairs; she was too busy thinking +about her own secret and how disappointed Daddah would be when he saw that +old dress. + +And then, just as she was going to ask the time, she spied him coming +around the corner. And she forgot all about dresses and remembered only +the secret. Down the steps, along the walk and out to the street she ran, +reaching the curbstone just as he pulled the car alongside. + +"Hop in and ride around," he said, gayly. And then, as she climbed in he +added, "Lucky you put that dress on. I forgot to tell you to be ready with +something old. Now that you are we won't have to waste time changing." + +Mary Jane stared. But seeing he seemed pleased, she said nothing about all +her worries over the old dress. + +"Do we have the secret in the car?" she asked. + +"Dear me, no!" laughed father, "it's plain to see that you haven't guessed +what it is. We'll put the car in the garage and then, while I slip on some +old clothes to match yours, you may open that bundle in the back, there. +It's part of the secret." + +Mary Jane peered over the back of her seat at the queer looking bundle in +the car. It was about as tall as she was, she decided, and bigger around +than her two hands could reach and wrapped in brown paper and tied three +times with very heavy twine. Now what could that be? + +Father set her down in the garage and handed her the package and then +hurried off into the house. + +She tried to pull the strings off but they wouldn't pull; there seemed to +be a bunch of the wrapping paper at one end and a hump inside the parcel at +the other. So she decided to run in for mother's scissors. + +But just as she got to the back steps, she met father coming out--it hadn't +taken him long to get into old clothes, that was certain. + +"Never mind about the scissors, Blunderbuss," said he laughingly, using a +name he sometimes called her, "I'll take my knife." + +Just three slashes of the sharp knife and the strings were off. Mary Jane +opened the paper with shaking fingers, she was that excited. And what do +you suppose she found? + +A garden set--a spade and a hoe and a rake all just the right size for a +little girl to work with and so pretty and clean and new that Mary Jane +knew that they had been purchased on purpose for her. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands and dancing around, "it's a garden! +I know the secret now! It's a garden! That's what mother was trying to make +me guess and I never thought! May I have one all my very ownest own?" + +"That's the secret," admitted Mr. Merrill, "and the garden is for you +only--just as long as you take care of it. Now you take your tools and I'll +take mine and we'll see where this garden is to be." + +They paraded out of the garage and over to where the last summer's garden +had been. "I've been meaning to get at this for a week," said Mr. Merrill, +"but I hate to work alone. If you'll help me, we can have the finest garden +ever. Now where do you want yours to be?" + +Mary Jane looked around thoughtfully. There was the rose bed--she surely +couldn't have that, it belonged to mother. And the asparagus bed, it was +already showing shoots of green. "I guess I'll take next door to the +rose bed," she decided promptly, "because I like roses. Can I dig it all +myself?" + +"Pretty soon," said father. "I dig first with the big spade. Then you dig +with yours. Then I hoe it--I'll show you how when we're ready; and you hoe +with your hoe." And he set to work. + +"Then do the things just grow?" asked Mary Jane as she watched him. + +"Not till we plant them," answered her father. "What are you going to +have?" + +"Worms for the robin so he won't have to work so hard," said Mary Jane +promptly, "and a lot of flowers." + +"I guess you won't have to worry about the worms," laughed Mr. Merrill as +he turned over a big spadeful of earth, "Mr. Robin will find plenty--see? +I'll make a guess that he's watching us from the apple tree this very +minute! Suppose you run into the garage and look on the table there. You'll +find packages of seeds. Bring them out here and we'll see which you want in +your bed." + +While Mr. Merrill gave the earth its heavy spading, Mary Jane got the +bright colored seed packages and spread them out on the sidewalk. Then +as she spelled out the letters, her father told her what each package +contained. Lettuce and radishes and nasturtiums and carrots and candy-tuft +and-- + +"Here's one that's me!" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly. She knew a very few +words and her own name was one of them. + +"I thought you would find that," said Mr. Merrill, "so I bought that on +purpose for you. It's Marygold and you may have it in your bed, if you +like." + +By that time the earth in her garden was turned and Mary Jane set to work +spading and hoeing just as hard as ever she could. She worked on one side +and her father worked on the other and very soon the earth was ready for +planting. + +"Now," said Mr. Merrill, "while I loosen the earth around mother's rose +bushes, you make your trenches for the seeds." And he showed her just how +it was to be done. + +[Illustration: "Here's one that's me!" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly.] + +Mary Jane never felt so big, and grown-up and important in her life as when +she made those trenches with her bright new hoe. She worked and worked till +they were neat and even and exactly right. Then her father stopped his +digging and together they opened three packages and planted the seeds. The +nasturtiums went in front, because they were the smallest plants, father +said; then the Marygolds that grow so straight and tall; and then, because +father said every garden should have something useful as well as something +beautiful, back of the Marygolds, a row of early lettuce. + +Just as the last bit of earth was patted down over the last row of seeds, +Mrs. Merrill called from the back door that dinner was about ready. + +"And we're hungry enough to eat it, aren't we, Mary Jane?" asked Mr. +Merrill. "You put away your tools and run in and wash while I tend to my +big ones and get myself ready. Let's see who's the quickest!" + +How Mary Jane did hustle! She set her new tools in the far corner of the +garage and then ran skipping into the house. + +"Scrub your hands good, dear," said her mother as she hurried through the +kitchen. "Wash your face and then run upstairs and get your blue smock and +plaid ribbon. Dark blue dresses are the thing for gardening, but we like +gay frocks for dinner, don't we, sweetheart?" + +And yet, with all that washing and dressing, Mary Jane reached the table +first--that just shows how fast she could hurry when she was racing with +father. Or maybe it was because she was so hungry. For she had three big +helpings of her favorite mashed potatoes--think of that! + +"First thing in the morning, know what I'm going to do?" she announced as +she ate the last bite, "I'm going to get Doris to see my garden, she'll +like my flowers, I know." + +"You can get Doris," laughed her father, "but don't expect flowers in the +morning. It will take them ten days to peep out of the ground. But don't +you worry, you'll like to show Doris the garden before it grows." + +"I will," replied Mary Jane, "I'll do it tomorrow." + + + + +MARY JANE PLAYS SCHOOL + + +"Mother, may I go over and get Doris this morning?" asked Mary Jane as she +finished her breakfast. "I want her to come see my garden right away!" + +"Not to-day," answered Mrs. Merrill. "Doris has the chicken pox so you will +have to stay home for a while," And then she was called to the telephone so +she didn't notice that Mary Jane ran straight for the window that looked +out over Doris's yard. + +"I think that's funny that I can't go over and see Doris's chickens," she +said to herself rebelliously as she peered through the window. "I'm going +to look, and look and _look_ till I see them anyway, so there! And then +I'll telephone to Doris." She curled up on the window seat and watched and +watched her neighbor's yard but not a sign of a chicken did she see. "I +should think she would have to feed them now," she said to her big sister +who was hurrying off to school. + +Sister Alice didn't quite understand what Mary Jane said and was in too big +a hurry to stop and inquire so she merely replied hastily, "Maybe you're +too late for breakfast," and ran on to school. So Mary Jane still sat at +that window and still watched for chickens. Finally when her legs were +beginning to get pricky and she was about ready to give up, her mother came +into the room. + +"Where does she keep it?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Where does who keep what?" replied Mrs. Merrill, "and what is my little +girl doing all this time?" + +"I'm watching to see Doris's box of chickens," said Mary Jane, "do you know +where it is?" + +"Box of chickens!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in amazement, and then she +suddenly realized how Mary Jane had misunderstood her. "Doris has no box of +chickens, dear, she has chicken POX--it's a sickness and Doris will have to +stay in the house for a few days." + +"Oh-h-h," said Mary Jane slowly, "so that's why I can't play with her." + +"That's why," agreed Mrs. Merrill, "and now what are you going to do?" + +"I guess I'll play on the porch." + +"I guess _not_" laughed mother, "because it's beginning to rain. I'm afraid +you'll have to play in the nursery. Why not play school?" + +"I'm going to," replied Mary Jane, who always made up her mind very +quickly. "I'm going to right now because Alice showed me how." And she +skipped off gayly to the nursery. + +There she pulled out every doll she had and set them in a long row on the +floor. + +"Marie Georgiannamore, you shall be lady-come-to-visit because you're the +biggest and you are clean and new. I'll be teacher because I know the most. +My sailor boy and Mary Jane, Jr., shall be the graduating class like Alice +is and all the rest shall be the baby room." + +Such a bustle and a hurry as there was after that! Mary Jane got out +all her doll chairs, every one, and set them in two rows--one for the +graduating class (a very short row of two chairs) and one for the baby room +(a very long row of many chairs). She dragged out her little piano to play +the songs on and got out fresh chalk for the blackboard. + +"There, now, I guess we're ready to begin!" she said and she sat down in +the teacher's chair up front. + +For a while everything went splendidly. The sailor boy must have known his +lessons well for he received very good marks--right up on the blackboard +where everybody could see they were, too--and the teddy bears sat up +straight and minded the rule about no whispering. But the straighter the +teddy bears sat, the more particular their teacher became about the others. + +"Tommy!" she announced suddenly (Tommy was the sailor doll), "I should +think you would be ashamed to sit so slouchy when this good little bear +sits so straight--sit up nice now!" She picked up Tommy and sat him +straight in his chair, oh, so very straight--that he couldn't sit still +that way, he just tumbled off onto the floor! + +"Tommy! I'm ashamed of you!" she said firmly. "Sit up!" And again Tommy was +pulled up straight. But evidently Tommy didn't have as much back bone as a +sailor boy should have, for he tumbled right down again. + +"Tommy Merrill!" cried Mary Jane, now all out of patience, "I should think +you'd be ashamed to have a teddy bear sit straighter than you do! I think +I'll sit you up on" (Mary Jane looked around the room to see where he had +better be put) "on this radiator till you learn to behave." So, without +giving Tommy a chance to explain that his back was made differently from +the teddy bear's back and that he was sitting just as straight as ever he +could, Mary Jane put him up on the radiator. + +"There, now, you sit there for a while, Tommy, and if you're good I'll let +you come down at recess time." + +But as it turned out, there wasn't any recess in school that morning. Tommy +had no more than been set up on the radiator before Mrs. Merrill called up +the stairs to Mary Jane, who quickly dropped her piece of chalk and ran to +the top of the stairs. + +"Did you call, mother dear?" she asked. + +"Yes, Mary Jane," replied Mrs. Merrill, "come downstairs at once. Somebody +is here to see you." + +Mary Jane dropped the book and chalk at the top of the stairs and ran down +as fast as ever she could--somebody to see her often meant a very good time +and she didn't want to miss a minute. + +"Dr. Smith," said Mrs. Merrill as Mary Jane stepped into the room, "this is +my little girl, Mary Jane." + +"I'm glad to know you, Mary Jane," said Dr. Smith. + +Mary Jane made her very best courtesy; held out her hand and then looked up +into the stranger's face and asked, "Why does she call you a doctor?" + +"Why shouldn't she?" asked the visitor curiously. + +"Because you're not a doctor," answered Mary Jane positively. "Doctors wear +funny white coats and rub their hands together and say, 'Well, little girl, +what can I do for you to-day?' doctors do." + +Dr. Smith and Mrs. Merrill laughed and the doctor sat down in the big +Morris chair and took Mary Jane in his lap. + +"I'm sorry to disappoint any little girl," he said pleasantly, "but, +you see, I'm on a vacation so I don't have to wear a white coat and ask +questions. I can sit down in this comfortable chair and have a good time." + +"Can you make Tommy behave while you are having a good time?" asked Mary +Jane. + +"Who is Tommy?" inquired the doctor. + +Mary Jane told him all about the school and Tommy who had trouble sitting +up as straight as the teddy bears did. + +"I'm afraid I can't do much for Tommy this morning," said the doctor when +she had finished, "for I'm only here between trains. But I'll tell you what +you might do. You might pack Tommy and all the bears into a trunk and visit +your great-grandmother. Then I could help you." + +"My great-grandmother!" exclaimed Mary Jane; "she lives way off in the +country!" + +"To be sure!" nodded Dr. Smith, "and so do I--I live next door to her. +That's the reason I came to see you. Now ask your mother to let you go home +with me and then we'll have plenty of time to attend to Tommy." + +"Oh, no, we couldn't think of that!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, before Mary +Jane had a chance to say a word. "Mary Jane is much too young to go so far +from home without me and I can not possibly leave home just now." + +Mary Jane looked from one to the other. A new idea, a brand new idea, was +growing in her mind; the idea of making a visit--it had never occurred to +her before. + +"Does my grandmother live in a big house?" she asked. + +"In a great, big, white farm house," replied Dr. Smith, "and she has lots +of chickens and pigs and cows and strawberry patches and milk and--well, +about everything a little girl could possibly want. And now she wishes a +little girl named Mary Jane Merrill to come and visit her." + +"And could I have really truly chickens of my own--not Doris's kind of +chickens?" asked Mary Jane. + +Mrs. Merrill laughed. "I guess you could, dear, but you mustn't think about +it because you are not going. I'm afraid you have made trouble," she added +laughingly to Dr. Smith, "because when Mary Jane starts thinking about +something, she doesn't easily forget." + +"Never you mind, Mary Jane," said Dr. Smith confidently, as he set her down +and prepared to go, "you talk about visiting your great-grandmother all you +want to, and some day you'll get there--you just see!" + +"Will I really?" asked Mary Jane after the guest had gone. + +"Really what?" said Mrs. Merrill. + +"Really go to my great-grandmother's where the chickens and strawberries +are?" + +"Dear me, I don't know," replied Mrs. Merrill. "I know you'll not go till +you are way, ever so much bigger girl than you are now--that's settled. Now +run along with your school. I think Tommy needs you." + +So Mary Jane went back to the nursery and played school. And being the kind +of a little girl who knew it was not polite to tease, she didn't talk about +the country--much. But she didn't forget--indeed, no! Not even when she was +having a good time with the surprise that came a few days later. + + + + +AUNT EFFIE COMES TO VISIT + + +Great Aunt Effie lived way off in New York City, so far away that she had +never before come to visit at Mary Jane's house. So, when one fine morning +the postman brought a letter saying that in five days Aunt Effie would be +at the Merrills, Mary Jane was quite excited. + +"What does she look like and how long is she going to stay?" asked Mary +Jane and then, before Mrs. Merrill could answer she added, "Will she like +to play with me?" + +"Don't ask me!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, "I have never seen her either. She's +your Daddah's auntie, you know, ask him." + +"That's funny," said Mary Jane, "How can she be just my Daddah's auntie? +Isn't she yours and mine too?" + +"To be sure she is," replied Mrs. Merrill; "she's our auntie now but she +was his auntie first and we haven't had a chance to see her since she +belonged to you and me. When father comes home this noon you must get him +to tell you all about the good times he and his brother used to have at her +house when they were little boys. Then you will know that you will surely +love her very much and that you'll want her to stay at our house a good +long time." + +When Mr. Merrill came home for lunch he gladly told her about many of the +good times this same auntie had given him when he was about as old as Mary +Jane. + +So no wonder Mary Jane was interested in the coming of their guest. She +helped clean the guest room and all by herself fixed the vase of violets +for the dresser. And then she put on her second best dress and drove with +her father to the station to meet the unknown auntie. + +Mr. Merrill locked the car and then he and Mary Jane went through the +station and clear out to the tracks so they might see Aunt Effie the minute +she got off the train. Pretty soon the great engine with its long trail +of big Pullmans came snorting and puffing into the station; the porters +stepped off the cars but not a single passenger appeared--except one small, +lonely-looking little woman in black who climbed out of the last car. + +"She didn't come!" exclaimed Mary Jane in dismay. + +"Yes, she did, and here she is!" laughed father as he stepped up to greet +the little lady. "Welcome, Aunt Effie! This is Mary Jane come to meet you!" + +Now Mary Jane had never seen her grandmother or any older auntie, at least +she hadn't seen them recently enough to remember them because the Merrills +lived many miles from all their kith and kin. So she was much puzzled at +the little old lady and far too shy to do more than to drop a nice little +courtesy as her mother had taught her to do. Then they all climbed into the +car and drove home. + +Aunt Effie was tired from her long journey so she didn't talk much that +evening and Mary Jane went off to bed feeling not one bit acquainted with +the auntie she had thought and talked so much about. + +"I don't believe she likes little girls," she thought sadly. "I don't +believe she even _saw_ me because when grown folks see little girls they +always say, 'How old are you, little girl?' and then they say, 'My! my! +you're almost big enough to go to school!' and she didn't say a thing to +me!" And she went to sleep thinking about how fine it would be to have a +really truly "play-with" auntie come to visit. + +Aunt Effie hadn't come down to breakfast yet when Mary Jane had finished +hers so she started playing all by herself. "I think I'll play dress up +to-day," she said to her mother as she slipped down from the table. + +"That will be fine," said Mrs. Merrill; "the attic is plenty warm and you +can play up there all you like to, only you must remember to put everything +away neatly when you have finished playing." + +"I will, mother dear," answered Mary Jane and she kissed her mother and +started up the stairs. + +Now up in the Merrill attic, off in a nice comfortable corner where it +wouldn't be in any one's way, was the girls' "dress-up box." In it were +kept all the clothes that Alice and Mary Jane were allowed to play with. +There were old coats and wonderful old hats that were so queer one would +never guess real ladies had worn them! And slippers and hair ribbons and +petticoats and shawls and silk dresses and morning dresses and parasols +and--oh, the most things you ever saw! Whenever Mrs. Merrill had something +that she couldn't use any more and that wasn't worth giving away to some +needy person, she put it in the girls' box. And whenever the girls, either +Alice with her big girl friends or Mary Jane with her little playmates +wanted to dress up or have a show they helped themselves out of the box--it +was great fun as you can see. Many a morning when Mary Jane was tired of +being Mary Jane, she slipped off to the attic and dressed up to be somebody +else. + +This particular morning she hardly knew what she was going to be. She +pulled out a couple of gay hair ribbons, a pair of dark gloves and a +shopping bag. And the bag decided the play for her. + +"I'm going to be Aunt Effie-like-I-thought-she-was," she said gayly, "and +I'm going to come and visit!" And then she set to work pulling stuff out of +the box and hunting just the right thing to dress in. She finally put on a +gay plaid skirt, a big black hat trimmed with a great pink rose, a yellow +waist and a red scarf. Then she pulled on the pair of gloves, picked up the +shopping bag and started for the stairs. + +And who do you suppose she met coming up? Aunt Effie! The real Aunt Effie! + +"Well, good morning!" said the real Aunt Effie smilingly, "who have we +here?" + +Mary Jane looked long and carefully. She hated to take other people into +her games and then find out that they laughed at her. And she had learned +by experience that some grown folks never learn the game of "dress-up." +But Aunt Effie, the this-morning Aunt Effie, whose eyes looked rested and +smiling, seemed very much as though she might understand dress-up, very +much. Mary Jane decided to try her. + +"I'm Aunt Effie come to visit," she said solemnly. + +"Now, isn't that nice," answered Aunt Effie and she didn't seem one bit +surprised or amused or anything that grown folks sometimes are, "and who am +I?" + +"Oh, will you play too?" cried Mary Jane clapping her hands happily. + +"To be sure I will," laughed the real Aunt Effie, "that's what I came +upstairs for." + +"Then you come over here by the box and I'll dress you up in some little +girl things and you can be Mary Jane," said the happy little girl. "Do you +like pink or blue sashes?" + +Aunt Effie decided for blue and fortunately they found a nice, long blue +ribbon and a white dress of Alice's that was just the thing. Such fitting +and pinning and dressing and tying you never saw. And when it was all done, +Aunt Effie looked so much like a little girl that she couldn't help but act +like one and she and the "dress-up" auntie played together all the morning +long. + +So much fun did they have that mother had to call twice to make them +understand that lunch was ready! + +"Here, you show me how you want things put away, Mary Jane," said Aunt +Effie hastily when they finally heard. "Let's scramble them away so as not +to keep mother waiting." + +"We'll put them right on the top in the box," said Mary Jane, "'cause we'll +want to play some more--lots!" + +And they did, many times. + + + + +KEWPIE AND THE WASHING + + +One morning a few days after the dress-up fun Aunt Effie had to go down +town on some errands and Mary Jane was left to play by herself. She and +her auntie had grown to be such good play fellows that it was hard to find +something interesting to do without Aunt Effie to join in the fun. + +"Why _don't_ you find something to do and then do it?" said Mrs. Merrill +after Mary Jane had made pictures on the window pane and rummaged through +the mending basket and poked her finger into the canary's cage and fingered +the forbidden little green balls on the ends of the fern leaves. "Little +girls can't expect to have a good time when they do all the things they +are not allowed to do. Go and play with Marie Georgiannamore, you haven't +played with her since Aunt Effie came." + +"Will you play too?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Not for a while yet, dear," replied mother, "because this is wash morning +and I have a new laundress to look after. Didn't you see her come around +the house when we were at breakfast? I have to go downstairs and show her +how we like our clothes washed and starched. Don't you want to go along?" + +"Oh, yes, mother, I do!" cried Mary Jane happily. "I want to learn to wash, +too." Then she thought a minute. "But I believe I'd better take Marie +Georgiannamore along too--she's lonesome." + +"I'm sure she is," answered Mrs. Merrill. "You run along and get her and +then we'll go to the laundry." + +Mary Jane hurried upstairs for her big doll, but, though she searched every +place that a big doll ought to be, not a sign of Marie Georgiannamore could +she see. + +"Mother!" called Mary Jane over the front stair railing, "Marie +Georgiannamore's lost!" + +"Lost--no, surely not," said Mrs. Merrill and she started up the stairs to +hunt for the misplaced dolly. "Oh, I remember now, dear," she added when +she was half way up, "Aunt Effie took her clothes off to wash them and I +expect the dolly is some place in her room. Get your biggest kewpie and +come on, I can't wait too long." + +Now Kewpie, the biggest kewpie, was the doll with the broad smile who slept +with Mary Jane every night. Other dolls got their hair mussed or their +clothes untidied or something; but Kewpie could always be depended on to be +neat and smiling no matter where he slept or what happened to him--a most +satisfactory doll to take to bed as you can see. Mary Jane ran into her +room to get him but her bed was all neatly made and Kewpie was nowhere to +be seen. + +"Kewpie's lost too," called Mary Jane. + +"No, he isn't," laughed mother, who by that time was at the bottom of the +stairs, "he must be right there, you had him in bed last night, you know." + +Mary Jane ran back and poked her hand under the pillow; looked under the +bed; on the dresser and on the window seat. No Kewpie was to be found. + +"You'll find him in a minute," Mrs. Merrill called up the stairs, "and then +you come down and meet me--I'll be looking for you, dear." And then she +hurried on to her waiting duties. + +Mary Jane hunted and hunted but she didn't find Kewpie. She did find her +rag doll tucked back in the far corner of the closet and she began playing +with her and forgot all about Kewpie and the new laundress and even about +her own lonesomeness with Aunt Effie away. She had such a good time +dressing the rag doll in new clothes and going visiting with her and all +that, that she didn't notice mother when she twice peeped into the door to +see if her little girl was safe and happy. First thing Mary Jane knew, it +was lunch time--you know how quickly the clock does run round and round +when you are having a good time. + +Now on wash day the Merrills didn't have their lunch on the dining table as +they did on other days; no, because they liked to do different things and +wash day is a very good day to be different. On that day Mrs. Merrill +fixed a tempting little tray for each person and left all the trays on the +kitchen table. Then each person as he or she came home, father and Alice +and Aunt Effie (and of course mother and Mary Jane who were already +at home, had trays too), went into the kitchen and got his or her own +tray--the trays could be told apart by the napkin rings marked with +initials--and carried it into the living room and sat down in a comfortable +chair and ate lunch. And afterwards, each person carried his or her own +tray back to the kitchen table. They thought that way of eating lunch was +lots of fun and Mary Jane well remembered how big and important she felt +the first day mother allowed her to carry her own tray (with the glass of +milk on mother's tray for safe keeping, of course) and to hold it on her +own lap like big folks instead of sitting up to the piano bench like a +baby! Mary Jane felt bigger that day than she ever had in all her life. + +Just as she had picked up her tray and was going out of the kitchen on this +particular noon, the new laundress came up from the laundry. Of course that +wasn't so very unusual for Mary Jane often met the laundress in the kitchen +at noon time, but it was unusual to have the laundress step up and lay +something on her tray. Mary Jane had to hold tight to keep from spilling +something she was so surprised! + +"I guess this must be yours, little girl," the laundress said, "I found it +in one of the sheets." And Mary Jane looked and saw her Kewpie that she had +hunted so hard to find. + +"Oh, that must be my fault!" exclaimed mother. "I gathered the sheets up +in such a hurry this morning that I quite forgot to look for Kewpie--I'm +sorry!" + +Mary Jane looked up at the kindly face of the new laundress, "Thank you +so much," she said, "and I'm coming down to see you after I have eaten my +lunch." + +So as soon as she had lunched and had carried her tray back to the kitchen +table, she hurried downstairs to the laundry. That new laundress seemed to +know a great deal about little girls and to like them for she answered all +Mary Jane's questions and told stories and didn't seem to be bothered a bit +by having a little guest. + +"There!" she said finally, "I'm ready to hang out. Do you want to come +along to the yard and hold the clothes pins?" + +"I'll come pretty soon," said Mary Jane, and then she added importantly, "I +have something I want to do first." + +"Come along then, when you're through," answered the laundress +unsuspiciously, and she picked up the heavy basket and went out of doors. + +Left alone, Mary Jane slipped over to the wringer--that was the one thing +above all others in the laundry that interested her and she did want to see +how it worked. She turned the handle slowly three or four times, watching +the cogs as she did so to see how they fit into each other so neatly and +then so quickly slipped out again. + +"I do think that's funny," she said thoughtfully; "there must be something +in there that makes them act so, I guess I'd better see what it is." And +slowly turning the handle with one hand, she stuck an inquiring finger in +between the cogs. + +Of the few minutes that followed, Mary Jane never had a very good idea. +She knew she must have screamed with the pain of a hurt finger because the +laundress rushed in from the yard, mother came from upstairs and in a few +minutes Aunt Effie hurried breathlessly down the stairs. Then, before long, +the doctor was there too, and her finger was all tied up with sticks on +each side and father hurried in the front door and asked her how she'd like +a nice, long, Christmasy stick of candy. It all happened just that quick. + +"I think things is so funny," said Mary Jane later as she luxuriously +licked her candy. "If Marie Georgiannamore hadn't hid and if Kewpie hadn't +gone to the washing and if I hadn't wondered about that wringer thing, I +wouldn't have had this candy that I've wanted for--for ninety-seven days." + +"Yes," agreed the doctor as he went out of the door, "things is funny. And +my advice to you, young lady, is this; next time you want to see how a +wringer works, ask before you investigate. Another time you might lose, +instead of bruise, your finger." + +"I will," nodded Mary Jane, "only I don't want to know how it works any +more--I know enough now, I do." + + + + +JUNIOR'S SHOWER BATH + + +It's very funny to go around the house with your finger tied up in a +bandage and two strips of wood--that is, it's funny the first day. By the +second day it's queer and after that it's no fun at all; it's a bother. + +Long before Mary Jane was allowed to use her hand again she had decided +that never, _never_, NEVER would she poke her finger into anything. It +takes only a second to poke a finger in but it takes a good long time to +get a badly hurt finger well, she had learned that. + +For the first three days Aunt Effie played with her all the day long and +that wasn't so bad. They played dress up and school and Aunt Effie showed +her how she had school when she was a little girl. And they made new +dresses for all the dolls; and straightened the drawers of all the doll +dressers and--well, they did every single thing that Mary Jane could +think of or Aunt Effie could plan. And then, without a minute's warning a +telegram came; a telegram which said that Aunt Effie must come home at once +because her sister was sick. + +And after that Mary Jane was lonesome, oh, so very lonesome and she +couldn't think of half enough things to do to fill the days. For, you see, +Mrs. Merrill had her duties and father had to go to his work and Alice had +her school and Doris had the chicken pox so no one, much as they might have +wished to, could spend every minute of the day with a little girl who was +perfectly well except for a hurt finger. That little girl had to play by +herself a part of the time. + +Mary Jane was standing by her mother's dresser, a couple of mornings after +Aunt Effie left, when the cleaning woman came into the room to give it its +weekly cleaning. + +"Why don't you help here, Mary Jane?" suggested Mrs. Merrill; "you could +dust my dresser things with your well hand and lay each thing, as you dust +it, on the bed. Then I'll shake the dresser cover and Amanda will put +the dust sheet on the bed and everything will be ready for cleaning in a +jiffy." + +If there was one thing above another that Mary Jane loved to do, it was to +handle the pretty things on her mother's dresser. Ordinarily she wasn't +allowed to touch a thing there, so she quickly replied, "Yes, mother, I'd +love to help," and then took the dusting cloth Mrs. Merrill handed her and +set to work. + +She dusted off the pin tray and the toilet water bottle and brushed the +fringe of the lamp shade--she knew exactly what to do because she had +watched her mother many times. + +"There, now!" she said in a satisfied voice, "it's all ready for the cover +cloth. Can you put it on, 'Manda?" Amanda Rice was the good cleaning woman +who came every week to set the Merrill house in apple pie order; she and +Mary Jane were fast friends. + +"Jest a little minite, honey," replied Amanda, "soon as ever I gets this +rain room clean." + +Just off Mrs. Merrill's room was a tiny room which opened also into the +bathroom and in this tiny room was a shower bath. Amanda insisted on +calling it the rain room because the water came down from the ceiling like +rain; and she always seemed to have a fear that something about that room +would hurt her. She was most particular to clean that room before she did +either the bathroom or Mrs. Merrill's room--she seemed to want the bad job +out of the way. + +Perhaps when Mary Jane asked her to hurry with the cover cloth, Amanda +hurried a little too fast with her scouring of faucets or perhaps she was +just careless. However it happened, she turned on the cold water and it +poured over her from the ceiling in an ice cold shower. + +"Heavens! Honey! Lor' a mercy! De water hit me!" she shouted and she ran, +dripping and screaming out of the shower room, out of the bedroom and down +the hall. + +Mrs. Merrill came hurrying to see what the matter might be and Mary Jane +jumped to turn off the water before it should splatter out on the bedroom +floor. And then, while Mrs. Merrill was busy comforting Amanda and hunting +some dry clothes for her, Mary Jane sat down on the bed room floor to +think. How funny Amanda had looked with the water running all over her +clothes! Mary Jane, who had been used to a shower bath from the time she +was a tiny little girl, had never before realized how funny it seemed to +other folks. "I expect Doris would think it was funny," she thought. "I +wonder if she knows about it. And wouldn't Junior look--" but Mrs. Merrill +bustled into the room just then and Mary Jane had no more time for +thoughts. + +Mrs. Merrill worked rapidly to make up for lost time. She shook the dresser +scarf out of the window, brushed off the window-seat pillows and finished +making the room ready for Amanda. "Now, dear," she said to Mary Jane when +everything was finished, "Amanda is coming in here to sweep, why don't you +go out and play a while with Junior? See? He's out in the yard. If you play +nicely, you won't hurt your finger, I'm sure." + +Mary Jane didn't care much about playing with Junior just then; she would +far rather have stayed and help Amanda sweep. So she walked very slowly +down the stairs and out of doors and was none too cordial in her greeting +to Junior. But he didn't seem to mind and as it's very hard to keep on +snubbing a person who doesn't notice he is being snubbed, Mary Jane soon +gave it up and they began making mud pies. Nice goo-y mud pies out of the +black mud in the to-be-geranium bed near the house. + +But hardly had they finished their pies and arranged them on the edge of +the porch to bake, before Junior's mother called him to come home. + +"She's always calling you home," protested Mary Jane, "but I 'pose you'll +have to go or you can't ever come over here again!" + +"Yes," agreed Junior, "I'd better go home. But I'll come back again." And +he started to wipe his muddy hands on his trousers. + +"Oh, don't, Junior!" cried Mary Jane. "You know what your mother'll say! +She don't like mud pies anyway. Come into the house and wash 'em before you +go." + +The two children skipped into the house and upstairs to the bathroom where +Mary Jane filled the bowl with warm water--then she thought of something. + +"Do you like to walk out of doors in the rain?" she asked craftily. + +"Yes," replied Junior in surprise, "only my mother won't let me." + +"Don't you think she'd let you if it rained indoors?" + +"I don't know, 'cause it don't," replied Junior decidedly. + +"Yes, it does, it does at our house," said Mary Jane. "You stand inside +this door, and I'll show you." + +Junior seemed to have some objection to closets so it took coaxing to get +him where Mary Jane wanted him. But when, on careful inspection, he +found that this closet had two doors, quite unlike other closets he was +acquainted with, and also that it looked very harmless, he stepped over the +high sill and onto the tile floor. Quick as a flash Mary Jane reached up +and turned on the water--and down came the deluge! + +Water so cold that it took his breath away so he couldn't scream and then, +in a minute, so hot that it burned him, descended from the spray in the +ceiling and soaked him to the skin. Mary Jane sat on the door sill, in all +the splatter, and laughed and laughed. Junior grabbed for the door and +shook it trying to get out--just as Mrs. Merrill opened the door from her +bedroom onto the sight. Junior darted passed her and ran down the stairs, +dripping water and mud from his dirty hands on every step and screaming at +the top of his voice all the way. + +"What in the world--" began Mrs. Merrill. + +"We was just talking about water from the sky in the house," explained +Mary Jane innocently, "and Junior was surprised to see it come. I guess he +thought water from the sky in the house would be dry," she added. + +"And I," said Mrs. Merrill as she took off her dusting cap and reaching +into the clothes closet for her coat, "will have to leave my work and go +over and explain and apologize. Mary Jane, you sit right there on that +chair till I come back and you can't have another little playmate over this +week--not one!" + +Mary Jane sat down on the big chair and started counting the boards in +the floor. "One, two, three, six nine seven, ten," she said to herself +patiently. "Then if nobody can come to see me, I guess I'll have to find +somebody right in this house. I wonder--" + +What did she wonder?--wait and see. + + + + +PLAYMATE DOROTHY + + +"You sit right there, Dorothy, and make yourself at home," said Mary Jane, +"and I'll get Marie Georgiannamore for you to play with." + +"What in the world!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill to herself as she passed Mary +Jane's door on the morning after Junior had had his shower bath. "Who can +be there now? I particularly told Mary Jane not to invite any children in, +this week." She opened the door and was already to say, "Whose little girl +are you?" as she usually did to new friends that Mary Jane brought home. +But this time there wasn't any little girl there! Only Mary Jane and her +dolls and her teddy bears playing as contentedly as you please. + +"Oh!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, much relieved, "that's a joke on me, Mary Jane; +I thought you were talking to some new little girl. I didn't know that you +had named one of your dolls Dorothy." + +"I was talking to a little girl," answered Mary Jane solemnly, "and I +haven't changed the name of one of my dolls--not one." + +"Well, that's nice," said Mrs. Merrill, but she didn't pay more than half +attention to what Mary Jane said because she just happened to think of +something that she surely must order from the grocery as soon as she could +get downstairs. "I'm glad you are having such a good time." And she kissed +her little daughter lightly and went away. + +"You'll have to excuse her, Dorothy," apologized Mary Jane, "grown folks +don't know much sometimes and I'm sure she didn't see you or she'd have +asked you to stay for lunch." She pulled two chairs over to the window +seat, got out paper and colored pencils and then sat down in one chair. +"Now you make snow on your paper and I'll make a picture." + +For some minutes there was quiet in the nursery except for the sound of +Mary Jane's pencil rubbing, rubbing on the paper. + +"There!" she said at last, "there's a cow and two chickens and a strawberry +like they have at my great-grandmother's that Dr. Smith told me about. +Let's see your snow," she added politely. She picked up the blank piece +of white paper that lay in front of the other chair and looked at it +thoughtfully. "You do make nice snow, Dorothy," she said, "it's so clean +and white. Now let's go down and see if lunch is ready." + +When she reached the door of the nursery, she stepped back to let some one +pass out in front of her and as she went downstairs she was careful to keep +well to one side so that there was plenty of room for some one to walk +beside her. She went through the empty living room, through the dining room +and out into the kitchen where her mother was working. + +"May Dorothy and I have our lunch?" she asked. + +"Lunch?" asked Mrs. Merrill, and in her hurry she only noticed half what +Mary Jane said, "yes, in just a minute. It's almost time for father and I'm +so late. Will you run into the dining room, dear, and see that the chairs +are all set up to the table as they should be? That's a good little +helper." + +Mary Jane hurried back to the dining room and set five chairs up to the +table--to be sure they were a bit crowded and so was the extra place +Mary Jane set with napkin, plate, glass and silver that she got from the +sideboard, but Mary Jane didn't seem to notice that, she was quite pleased +and satisfied with her work. + +"Now you sit right here, Dorothy," she said, "and I'll sit beside you so +you won't be lonesome." She pushed her chair beside the vacant one and +climbed into it. + +Father and mother and Alice came into the room one after another and each +exclaimed over the vacant chair. + +"Who's the company?" asked father. + +"Why the chair?" demanded Alice. + +"I thought you knew how to count, Mary Jane," added mother. "Didn't you +know there were only four of us? You're a funny little girl!" + +"I can count," said Mary Jane with great dignity, "and I know there are +four of us when five of us isn't here. But I had to have a chair for +Dorothy." + +And then, for the first time, Mrs. Merrill realized that something was +going on in Mary Jane's mind--something new. + +"Dorothy?" she asked kindly; "who is this Dorothy you have been telling me +about?" + +"She's the little girl who comes to see me when you won't let me play with +anybody come to see me," explained Mary Jane patiently, "and I'm glad she's +here because I'm lonesome and I want her to stay for lunch because she's a +nice little girl and I don't like people to laugh." + +Mrs. Merrill frowned at Mr. Merrill and Alice who showed signs of laughing +and then gathered her little girl into her arms. "Have you been as lonesome +as that?" she asked. + +"Just as lonesome as lonesome," answered Mary Jane. "I'm lonesomer than +when nobody comes to see me because this time I know nobody's coming to see +me even if they wouldn't anyway." + +"Why is she so lonesome?" asked Mr. Merrill who seemed to understand just +what his little girl meant even though what she said was a little mixed. +"Can't anybody play with her?" + +Mrs. Merrill reminded him of Junior's shower bath and of her command that +Mary Jane should have no more guests till she had learned how to treat +them. "I've been too busy this morning to give any lessons in treating +guests," she added, "but I had planned to have a first rate lesson this +afternoon. I had planned to take Mary Jane calling with me; then she could +see just what good times folks can have and still be kind and polite. How +would you like to go calling with me, Mary Jane?" + +"Really?" exclaimed Mary Jane who could hardly believe her good luck; +"really truly, grown-up-lady calling, mother?" + +"Really truly," said mother, "but wait a minute. Do you think you could +leave Dorothy at home? I wouldn't care to take two little girls at once." + +"Oh, yes," replied Mary Jane who was suddenly anxious to oblige, "I could +leave her home and I think maybe, while I was gone she might go away on the +train to--to--see her Aunt Effie, don't you think she might?" + +"Indeed I do," said Mrs. Merrill. "It wouldn't surprise me a bit to find +her gone when we came back. Now eat your lunch, Mary Jane, and then we'll +go upstairs and rest a bit before we dress to make our calls. We'll have a +beautiful afternoon and you'll see just how nicely folks treat other folks +when they come to visit. And remember, dear, if you had treated Junior as +kindly as you treat Dorothy, you could have had all the company that came." + +"I am remembering it," said Mary Jane meekly, "and, mother, may I wear my +pink dress with the smocking and the pink ribbons?" + +Mrs. Merrill said that she might, so a very happy Mary Jane finished her +lunch and hurried upstairs to lie down for fifteen minutes in a dark room. + +When the time was up Mrs. Merrill came to her door and asked, "Did you see +anything of my butterfly pin when you cleared off my dresser yesterday +morning, Mary Jane?" + +"No-o-o, I didn't," said Mary Jane thoughtfully. + +"That's funny," replied Mrs. Merrill, "I was sure it was there! Of course +I should have put it where it belongs but I can't see where it could get +to--I know Amanda wouldn't take it and you would have remembered, wouldn't +you, if you had put it anywhere?" + +"Yes, mother, I'm sure I would," said Mary Jane positively. "I know I +didn't touch it, I didn't even see it once!" + +"Well, I've hunted everywhere I can think of so I guess it's gone and I +would rather lose anything I have than lose that pin! Just see how big +ladies get punished when they are careless! I didn't put my pin away where +it belonged and now it is gone. But don't you feel too badly, dear," she +added when she saw how sorry Mary Jane felt for her; "it's time for us to +dress for our calls." + +So Mary Jane quickly forgot about her mother's loss. She scrubbed her hands +and put on her own shoes and made herself all ready for her mother to brush +her hair and slip on the new pink dress. Then the very last thing, the hat +with the pink rosebuds was put on and they started out. + +Such a good time as they did have! Two ladies they called on, and one must +surely have expected a little girl would come to visit because she had tea +served with sandwiches (Mary Jane ate three, two made with marmalade and +one with lettuce--think of that!) and pink candles which twinkled and +looked _almost_ as nice as the sandwiches. Such a _very_ good time did they +have that they barely got home in time to meet Alice as she came in from +school. + +And playmate Dorothy must surely have gone away while they were calling +because she was never heard of again. + + + + +LEARNING TO SEW + + +"I like to do lady things," said Mary Jane the next morning. "Isn't there +something we can do to-day?" + +"Something that's a 'lady' thing?" asked Mrs. Merrill. + +"Yes, a really truly lady thing," explained Mary Jane; "something that I +don't know how to do 'cause I like to learn things." + +"Yes, there are lots of things we might do, but I haven't much time I +fear," replied her mother, "because I promised Alice I would finish her +dress." + +"Then you'll have to sew," said Mary Jane and though she tried not to mind, +she couldn't help being disappointed. + +"Yes," agreed Mrs. Merrill, "I'll have to sew. But I'll tell you, Mary +Jane, what you might do" (and Mary Jane's disappointment vanished as soon +as she saw her mother had a plan) "you might sew too." + +"Oh, goody, goody, goody!" exclaimed Mary Jane and she clapped her hands +gayly, "and that's a grown-up lady thing for true!" + +"I should say it was," said Mrs. Merrill. + +"Shall I make me a dress?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Well, not just the first thing," laughed Mrs. Merrill; "folks don't learn +to sew on dresses--not even big ladies do that. Now what had you better +begin on?" And she thought a minute while Mary Jane watched her anxiously. +"Oh, I know! You can make a picture card." + +"Sew a card?" asked Mary Jane doubtfully. + +"Yes, it's lots of fun," said her mother. + +"But Alice don't do that," objected Mary Jane, "she sews goods." + +"I know she does now," replied Mrs. Merrill, "but she used to sew cards and +she loved doing it too. Only that was so long ago you know nothing about +it. I remember that just the other day I saw some pretty picture sewing +cards at the store; I'll go right to the phone and order some for you." And +she hurried off to get the order in before the first delivery started. + +As she came back into the room Mary Jane asked, "Do I have to wait all the +time till the picture card comes before I begin my lady work?" + +"It won't be long till that gets here," said Mrs. Merrill; "maybe it will +be here before we are ready because we haven't done our breakfast dishes +yet--that's a joke on us, isn't it?" + +Mary Jane agreed that it was and in gay spirits they set to work. + +Some folks might have said that a little girl Mary Jane's age was far too +young to dry dishes--that she might break them. But Mary Jane's mother was +not one of those "some folks." She believed that little girls not only +could help well, but that they liked helping. So Mary Jane had learned to +dry dishes some time ago and could polish the silver and shine the glasses +just as well as any one. Of course it might take a little longer than when +mother or 'Manda or Alice did it, but who cares about time when a job is +well done? And there was one thing about working with her mother that Mary +Jane especially liked; while they worked, they always talked--such fine +talks, Mary Jane thought, about everything that Mary Jane liked to talk +about. + +This morning it was sewing, of course. + +"How old were you when you learned to sew, mother?" asked Mary Jane as she +picked up a glass and began to shine it. + +"Let me see," said Mrs. Merrill thoughtfully. "I was younger than you are, +I know, I wasn't more than three and a half or four years old." + +"And did you sew on a card?" asked Mary Jane. + +"No, because sewing cards for little girls to learn on were not made then. +Or if they were, my mother didn't know about them. I learned by making a +quilt for my doll bed." + +"What's a quilt?" asked Mary Jane as she set her first glass down and +picked up another. + +"A quilt is something like a comforter," explained Mrs. Merrill, "only it +isn't made so thick and heavy and the outside is made up of lots of little +pieces of cloth sewed together in a pattern. I remember my grandmother +Camfield came to visit us and she thought it was so dreadful that I--a +great big girl nearly four years old--hadn't learned to sew or knit. So she +hunted up my mother's piece bag the very first day she came and cut out +some blocks for me to piece. Funny pieces they were, too, Mary Jane, you'll +laugh when I show it to you sometime! Because the goods look very different +from the kinds of goods we see now, very different. I know one piece had +big red horse shoes all over it and another had horses' heads. Those pieces +were from my little brother's waists and were thought just exactly right +for boys in those days." + +"Can't I make a quilt for my dollies?" asked Mary Jane eagerly. + +"To be sure you can, dear," answered Mrs. Merrill, "only I think you will +find it more fun to learn to sew on those pretty cards I've ordered. Then +when you can handle your needle well, you can make a quilt just as I did. +There, now, we're through here," she added, "and if you'll clean the +bathroom washstand while I tidy the bedrooms, we can sit right down to +sew." + +If there was one bit of housework above another that Mary Jane loved to do, +it was to clean the bathroom washstand; and she could do it beautifully, +too. Mrs. Merrill gave her a soft cloth and the box of cleaning powder and +she went to work. First she cleaned the soap dish; then she sprinkled a +little powder on her cloth (just as she had seen 'Manda do many a time) and +then she rubbed and rubbed the faucets till they shone so bright and clear +that she could see her hair ribbon in them. Next she sprinkled powder on +the stand and cleaned that; and last of all, she scoured the bowl. Then +she called to her mother (and this part was the most fun of all Mary Jane +thought) and watched while Mrs. Merrill inspected the work and said (as she +always did), "that's _beautiful_, Mary Jane! What a fine worker you are!" +Then she ran and put away the can of powder and the cloth and the job was +done. + +This morning, just as the can was set in the closet where it belonged, the +door bell rang. + +"Can you go, dear?" asked Mrs. Merrill. "I expect that's the delivery man +with your sewing." + +Could Mary Jane go? Well, indeed she could! She rushed down the stairs as +fast as she could go and opened the front door in such a jiffy that the +delivery man jumped with surprise as she said, "Is it my sewing?" + +"Search me," he answered, "it's a box." And he handed her the parcel. + +"Oh, dear, then it isn't," said Mary Jane much disappointed; and she +turned and went slowly up the stairs--so slowly, that you would never have +guessed, from the time it took her to go up, that they were the same stairs +she had so quickly hurried down not two minutes before. + +"It isn't it," she announced sadly at the door of her mother's room. + +"Oh, yes, I guess it is," said Mrs. Merrill, and Mary Jane noticed that she +didn't seem a bit worried. "It must be, because I haven't bought anything +else. Come over here and let's see." + +She pulled her chair up to the window and turned Mary Jane's little rocker +facing it. "Now, let's see what it is," she said; "maybe you'd like to open +it." + +Mary Jane would. She pulled off the string, unfolded the paper--and what do +you suppose she found inside? The prettiest box you ever saw! On it was a +picture of a little girl, about as old as Mary Jane maybe, and some queer +looking cards, pictures of the cards, that is, and some gay looking colors +that appeared to be pictures of colored thread. + +"Why, it _is_ my sewing, isn't it, mother?" exclaimed Mary Jane in happy +surprise. + +"Looks like it, doesn't it, dear?" agreed Mrs. Merrill. "Suppose you open +it to be sure." + +Mary Jane opened the box as it lay on her lap and the inside was even more +interesting looking, she found, than the outside had been. The box was +divided into three parts by tiny little partitions. In the biggest part was +a pile of cards with funny marks and holes that looked as though they were +meant to make a picture; and in the middle sized part was a pile of gay +colored skeins of thread; and in the littlest part was a paper of needles +with nice big eyes. + +"Oh, mother!" exclaimed Mary Jane. That was all she could say, she was so +surprised and pleased. + +"I thought you'd like that," said her mother. "Now, while I get out my +sewing, you look over the pictures and see which one you'd rather make +first. Then pick out the color thread you want to sew with and I'll show +you how to cut the skein and thread your needle." + +Mary Jane looked once through the pile of cards and then again before she +could make a choice. She finally laid out one that had a picture of a +little girl in a big sunbonnet and another of a sunflower growing in a +garden. "There, now!" she asked her mother, "which shall I make? I want to +do both right away quick and see what they look like when they are sewed." + +"Let's make the little girl first," suggested mother, "and make her wear a +pink sunbonnet just like yours. Then you can make the sunflower next and +the two together will be Mary Jane working in a garden." + +That suited Mary Jane exactly; so the thread was cut, the needle threaded +(and that wasn't nearly as hard work as Mary Jane had feared it would be, +thanks to the needle's big eye) and she set to work. + +Such a busy morning as they did have--Mary Jane and her mother! Mary Jane +liked sewing even better than she had thought she would and she worked +faithfully. So faithfully that by the time the clock said, "time to get +lunch"! the little girl with the pink sunbonnet was all finished and the +thread was ready to begin the sunflower. + +"Ugh!" exclaimed Mary Jane with a big stretch, "we worked hard, didn't we, +mother?" + +"Indeed we did," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "and now we'd better hurry down and +start lunch. I see Alice way down at the corner there and by the way the +girls are all talking together--see them, Mary Jane" (and she pointed down +the street where a parting between the trees allowed them to see a long +way)--"I guess Alice has some plan to talk about. Luckily we'll be ready +for her in a jiffy!" And together the sewing ladies hurried down to the +kitchen. + + + + +MAKING READY FOR THE PICNIC + + +Alice dashed into the house with a flurry of good spirits. + +"Oh, mother," she exclaimed, "the girls say that the violets are out and we +do want to have a wild flower hunting picnic up Clearwater! May we? And may +I go?" + +Mrs. Merrill dropped her work and looked up at her big girl in surprise. + +"A picnic up Clearwater!" she said. "Is it warm enough for picnics? Oh" (as +Alice started to exclaim), "I know it is warm enough if a little girl has +been running home from school--I don't doubt that it is! But you must +remember that the ground stays damp a long time in the spring and that a +picnic usually means sitting around on the ground." + +"Well, this wouldn't be a sitting around picnic, mother," said Alice +eagerly, "because we're going to hunt violets and you can't sit around much +if you do that." + +"No, that's true," laughed Mrs. Merrill, who very well knew how Alice loved +to flower hunt through the woods. "Who are 'we' that you speak of?" + +"Oh, Ruth and Marcia and Frances, of course, and maybe Virginia and Jane," +replied Alice. + +"And whose mother is going along?" questioned Mrs. Merrill, who always +liked to get all the information she could before making a decision. + +"The girls all _hoped_ you'd go, mother," said Alice, proudly, "because +you're such good fun at a picnic." + +"Jollier!" teased Mrs. Merrill. "What would I do with Mary Jane?" + +"Why not take her along?" asked Alice. "She's getting big now." + +At that, Mary Jane who had been watching and listening all this time, +dropped the napkins she had just taken out of the drawer and clapped her +hands happily. + +"Oh, goody, goody, will you really, mother?" she cried. "I've always wanted +to go to one of Alice's picnics!" Which was perfectly true. You see, the +little group of girls of which Alice was a member, often had gay picnic +parties and always and always Mary Jane had wanted to go along. But always +and always she had been told she was too little to walk so far, or too +little, to carry her share of baskets or too little to--something; so she +had had to stay home. + +"Take Mary Jane too?" asked Mrs. Merrill thoughtfully. "Why, yes, I guess +we could. I'll tell you what we will do, girls. We'll watch and wait and +see what the weather is by Friday noon. If it continues fine and warm for +two days, as it is to-day, I really believe we could have a picnic. Of +course the girls understand that it would be a 'start in the morning' +picnic? It's too early in the season for late afternoon picnics." + +Alice assured her that a morning picnic was just what they all wanted. "You +see, mother," she added, "Sunday is Miss Heath's birthday" (Miss Heath was +the girls' teacher) "and we want to fix a big basket of flowers to give +her." + +Never was the weather watched more closely than it was those two days. The +girls at school talked of nothing but the hoped-for picnic and the minute +Alice came into the house she had something to say about it. Mary Jane, for +her part, thought she simply _could_ not wait till the promised day came. +She sewed on her cards, she watered her garden and watched for the first +bits of green, and she played with her dolls, but with all those nice +things to do, the days seemed to drag by so slowly. + +But at last Friday noon came. Alice rushed home from school to announce +what every one knew already--that the sky was clear, the air warm, and they +could surely have the picnic. + +Mother met her at the door as she hurried up the walk. + +"I did hope you'd come promptly," she said. "Mary Jane and I have lunch on +the table ready to eat and we want you to hurry and help us plan the picnic +eats." + +"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Alice and she threw down her hat and sweater and +slipped into her seat at the table. + +With the help of father and Mary Jane, the picnic dinner was planned. Each +girl was to take a basket containing her own sandwiches, a paper plate, a +knife, fork and spoon and cup; and then one more thing to eat--and enough +of that one thing for everybody. There was to be cake, and cheese and +pickles and fruit and eggs and many good things. + +"And will Mary Jane take a basket?" asked Alice. + +"Indeed she will," replied Mrs. Merrill, "and it will have something good +in it, you can count on that." + +"Oh, what will it be?" asked Alice eagerly. + +"It will be a surprise," said Mrs. Merrill, laughing. "No, there's no use +asking, it's a surprise! Now you run along so as to give these slips of +instructions to each girl before school begins." And not another word would +she say. + +After Alice was safely out of the house, Mary Jane and her mother had a +good laugh over their surprise. + +"Won't she be pleased?" said Mary Jane happily. + +"And won't she be surprised!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill. "I thought surely she +would ask to take some and then she might have guessed! Now, dear, you help +me clear up this lunch table, then you run upstairs and take your rest +while I bake the cake. After you are dressed, you'd better run down to the +grocery and order your surprise so they surely have enough on hand in the +morning. I'll write what you want on this slip of paper." + +So Mary Jane, who always loved to help in big folks fashion, tidied up +the table. First she put away all the clean silver and napkins. Then she +propped open the swinging doors that led through the butler's pantry. Then, +with the way clear to the kitchen, she carried out all the plates and +glasses and cups that were to be washed. After the dishes were all out, she +shook the crumbs off the little blue doilies mother used for lunches and +put them away neatly in the drawer. Mrs. Merrill thought that was a great +deal of help for a little girl her age to give. + +At three o'clock she skipped down to the grocery at the corner and showed +him the paper on which Mrs. Merrill had written the order for the morning. + +"You tell her that'll be all right," said the grocery clerk as he looked +at the slip. "You can come down any time after nine and I'll have them all +done up ready for you, young lady." + +Mary Jane walked primly out of the store; it always made her feel funny to +be called young lady. But the minute she was out of the clerk's sight she +ran as fast as ever she could, toward home. + +"He says it's all right, he has plenty," she reported to her mother. + +"That's good," answered Mrs. Merrill comfortably; "there's nothing like +being sure. You run to the kitchen now, Mary Jane. I left the frosting bowl +on the chair. You'll find a teaspoon in it and you can have any frosting +you can scrape out--it's white butter frosting, the very kind you like +best." + +Mary Jane hurried off to the kitchen and found that mother had kindly left +nice little streaks of frosting all around the side of the bowl and oh, +dear, but it was good! + +Alice came in soon and a pleasant bustling around there was then. You see, +it was the first picnic of the year and baskets had to be brought down +from the attic and dusted out; picnic plates and cups hunted up from their +winter storage places and everything made ready for the morning. Mary Jane +went here and there helping all that she could and having the happiest kind +of a time--for wasn't this _her_ picnic too? The very first picnic she had +ever had with the "big" girls! + +By dinner time that evening, everything was ready as ready could be the day +before. Alice had her practicing done, mother had the grocery order for +Sunday made out and the baskets with their napkins, plates, knives, forks, +spoons and cups were set in a row on the dining room window seat. + +Bright and early the next morning the two girls were up and ready to help. +Mary Jane tidied up the breakfast table and helped mother wash the dishes +while Alice did her practicing. Then the two girls made the beds and Alice +set the bathroom in order. + +"Now, we're ready to make sandwiches," Alice announced. + +"That's good," said Mrs. Merrill. "I think you can make those all by +yourself, Alice. Mary Jane will help you if you need any waiting on, and +perhaps she can wrap the sandwiches in oiled paper as fast as you make +them." + +"Yes, I can, mother," cried Mary Jane happily. "I'll get the old scissors +to cut out the papers while Alice begins." + +"Will you cut the bread for me, mother?" asked Alice. "You cut it evener +than I can." + +"Gladly," replied Mrs. Merrill. "Then I'll skip up to the grocery with +my order so that things can be delivered in time, before we lock up the +house." + +She cut the bread and set it in neat piles ready for the sandwich making; +then she hurried off on her errand and the girls set to their work. + +Mary Jane cut the papers and chopped nuts in a chopping bowl and got the +lettuce from the ice box and wrapped up the sandwiches Alice made. She +could do that nicely--wrap them just as nice and neat as though they were +packages from a store. She set them at the back of the table ready for +the baskets; three nut sandwiches, three celery sandwiches, three lettuce +sandwiches and three jelly sandwiches all ready to be put into Alice's and +mother's and her own baskets. + +"There, now," said Alice, as she made the last one, "that's four for each +of us and mother said that would be plenty with all the other good things +we'd have to eat. But, Mary Jane!" she added in dismay, "we haven't a +single meat sandwich! And I do love meat sandwiches! How could mother have +forgotten that?" + +"She didn't forget it," said Mary Jane, "she--" And then she clapped her +hand over her mouth and ran out of the room for fear she'd tell the secret. + +But Alice was so interested in her sandwiches that she didn't notice, which +was a very good thing as Mary Jane wouldn't have wanted her secret guessed, +indeed, no! + +Mrs. Merrill came back from her errand just then and, meeting Mary Jane in +the hall she whispered, "I brought your package from the grocery, dear. +It's all wrapped up and hidden in the bottom of your basket." Then aloud +she added, "Now run along and get your wraps, Mary Jane, I saw Frances and +Jane coming as I turned the corner." + +She helped Alice tuck the sandwiches in the baskets, one of each kind in +each basket; she put the big, beautiful cake in her own and the plate of +deviled eggs in Alice's and covered the napkins over the tops. + +"Mary Jane hasn't anything to take in her basket but just her own things," +said Alice suddenly; "she ought to have something." + +"So she ought!" said Mrs. Merrill, her eyes twinkling, "but it's too late +now to get anything more; the girls are out front this very minute. I guess +we'll have enough to eat so don't you worry about Mary Jane's basket. You +start along out to the street and I'll lock the back door and join you in a +jiffy." + +A jolly party it was that strolled out of the front yard! Each girl had her +basket covered most mysteriously with a fresh white napkin--it was enough +to make a person hungry just to look at them! Mary Jane, who felt a little +queer and important on being with the big girls for her first outing, +waited at the end of the walk for her mother and then they ran a few steps +till they joined the big girls. + +"They don't know what they're going to do!" said Mary Jane gayly. + +But, dear me, Mary Jane didn't know what _she_ was going to do! If she had +even guessed what was to happen to her before she came back home--but she +didn't and perhaps it was just as well she didn't; knowing might have +spoiled the fun! + + + + +THE PICNIC UP CLEARWATER + + +Clearwater was a pretty little stream that ran through the woods just west +of the city where the Merrills lived. And as the Merrill home was on the +west side of the city, the woods and the creek were not far from their +home. To reach Clearwater they only had to walk through the Campus just +west of their yard, cut through the fields back beyond and after a walk of +less than a mile they would find themselves by the bank of a swift running +creek of clear fresh water. And along the banks of this little creek grew +the loveliest violets and buttercups and Sweet Williams that could be found +anywhere. + +Mary Jane held her precious basket firmly and walked along beside her +mother while the big girls skipped on ahead. + +But when the girls reached the banks of Clearwater they waited till Mrs. +Merrill and Mary Jane caught up with them. + +"Now keep your eyes open for flowers," called Alice as they started on +again, all together this time, "we don't want to miss any." + +"What are we to do with them when we've picked them?" asked Frances as they +walked along. + +"You won't get more than a bunch before lunch, I fancy," said Mrs. Merrill, +"so you can hold them in your hand till we find where we will eat. Then, +after lunch, you can dampen your napkin and wrap up the stems and put your +posies in the bottom of your basket. That is," she added slyly, "unless you +have a lot of food to take back home." + +"Not much danger of that!" laughed Frances. "I could eat more than I have +in there right this very minute!" + +So, laughing and joking and picking the blossoms they found as they walked, +the little party walked along the creek till they came to a bend where the +creek widened a bit and where some big bowlders made an interest looking +spot. + +"This is the very place I was looking for!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill. "I +couldn't recall just how far down the creek it was! Suppose we make this +our headquarters. Set your baskets on that biggest rock over there--that +will keep your food high and dry. That flat rock will be our table and +these two rocks here," pointing to two angle-shaped rocks that formed a big +V, "will be just right for making a fire." + +"A fire!" exclaimed Alice. "What do we want with a fire?" + +"Oh, I thought it might be fun to make one," said Mrs. Merrill +indifferently, "but of course if you don't care to--" + +"But we do, Mrs. Merrill," interrupted Ruth, "I think it would be jolly." + +"So do I," said Alice hastily, "only I was wishing we had thought of it +before and had brought along something to cook." + +"But we can have the fun of making it anyway," said Frances and she started +off in search of kindling. + +In a few minutes a brisk little fire was burning between the stones and +Mrs. Merrill added the sticks the girls brought her till she had a nice bed +of coals. + +"Do let's eat now," said Marcia, "I'm starved! Then we can finish our +picking afterwards." + +"It's only half past eleven," said Mrs. Merrill, laughingly. + +"Who cares?" asked Ruth. "That's the fun of a picnic--doing something +different." + +"Yes, let's," said Frances and Virginia together. So, as every one seemed +willing, the baskets were opened and the goodies spread out on a tablecloth +laid over the biggest rock. + +"I love a picnic that happens before fly time," said Virginia as she spread +a tempting pile of cookies out where every one could see. + +"We all do," agreed Mrs. Merrill, "and as there doesn't seem to be one +single prowler around, I guess I'll set out my cake." And of course the +girls "oh"-ed and exclaimed over its tempting whiteness as she set it on +the rock table. + +"What have you in your basket, Mary Jane?" asked Frances. + +Mary Jane looked at her mother and, as Mrs. Merrill nodded approvingly, she +laid back the napkin and gave each girl a long wire toasting fork. + +"Well, what in the world, mother!" exclaimed Alice. "Did you bring +marshmallows?" + +Mrs. Merrill shook her head and Mary Jane, without a word (though she was +trembling inside, she was that excited over her secret) picked up a big, +funny looking package and unrolled it slowly. The girls scented a secret +and watched eagerly. Slowly the paper unrolled--and then the white paper +inside and--there was the secret in plain sight! + +"Sausages!" exclaimed all the girls in one breath, "sausages we can cook!" + +"How jolly!" cried Alice. "You certainly did keep that secret well, Mary +Jane--I never even suspected." + +"May we cook them right away?" asked Ruth. "I could eat a million!" + +"Pass them around, Mary Jane," said Mrs. Merrill. "I expect you could eat +a good many, dear, but be sure to cook each one well before eating it--you +don't need to hurry, I think there are plenty!" she added teasingly. + +The girls, each armed with a long fork on the end of which was speared a +sausage, gathered round the fire. Mary Jane had her own fork and her own +sausage, just like the big girls and cooked her sausage without burning her +fingers, which was lucky, as burns are no fun. + +How good those warm sausages did taste with the fine sandwiches and pickles +and other goodies from home. But Ruth didn't eat a million after all--she +found three quite a-plenty; if she'd had more she couldn't have eaten any +cake and that _would_ have been too bad! + +By half past twelve, there wasn't a scrap of anything left and every one +was saying that they had had just exactly enough to eat. + +"Then I suggest we shake our crumbs into the creek," said Mrs. Merrill, "I +know the minnows will enjoy them. Then you can fix the baskets ready for +your posies and still have a good two hours left for picking." + +So the napkins were shaken out and the baskets arranged in neat order on +the biggest rock and then every one ran in search of flowers. + +"My, what a lovely bunch you have!" exclaimed Alice a little later as she +saw how diligently Mary Jane had been picking. "Miss Heath will like that, +I know." + +"But Miss Heath isn't the one this is for," said Mary Jane quickly, "not +unless mother says so." + +"Who do you want to give it to, pet?" asked Mrs. Merrill who happened to be +near enough to hear what was said, "your father?" + +"No," said Mary Jane, decidedly, "Daddah will come out and get some +to-morrow, maybe. I want to send mine on the train--will they take flowers +on the train?" + +"On the train!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill. "Yes, they take flowers, but who do +you want to send them to?" + +"My Aunt Effie," said Mary Jane. "I want to send my flowers to her." + +"My thoughtful little girl!" said Mrs. Merrill and she put her arms +tenderly around her daughter. "I think that is a fine plan and she'll be +so glad to get them. You pick all you can and then after we get home, I'll +pack them in a box and Daddah will take them down to the station this +evening and put them on the New York train." + +So of course, after that promise, Mary Jane picked more and more till she +had a fine big bunch of violets and buttercups. + +But picking violets is tiresome work--that is, it is tiresome if you do +it for long. And it's not much wonder that after she had picked three +handfuls, Mary Jane decided that she had enough. She wandered back to the +rocks where the baskets were set and looked around for the others. All were +in plain sight, but they were scattered about, each one picking where she +thought the picking was best. + +"I think I'll sit down here," said the little girl, "and fix mine so their +stems are all straight." And she sat down on the biggest rock close by the +edge of the creek--right at the bend where the water was deepest. + +She spread her posies out on the rock and rearranged them so that the stems +were all tidy and straight. Then she happened to think of the crumbs that +were fed to the minnows. "I guess they's all eaten up now," she thought, +"but I guess I'd better see." + +So she leaned out over the water to look. No one ever knew quite how it +happened--Mary Jane was sure she didn't lean too far, and mother and the +big girls, busy with their picking, didn't notice a thing till they heard a +scream. Then they looked up and no Mary Jane was to be seen! + +From all directions they came a-running, Mary Jane's screams guiding them +straight to the big rock. + +Alice and Ruth reached there first and without a word to each other or a +thought of their clothes or shoes, they slid down the bank and waded out +into the water. + +"Don't be frightened, sweetheart," called Alice comfortingly, "we're +getting you!" + +Alice grabbed her shoulders and Ruth took her feet and together they +scrambled up the bank and handed her into mother's out-reaching arms. + +[Illustration: She sat down on the biggest rock close by the edge of the +creek.] + +Then there was a hurrying for surely! Virginia and Ruth and Jane rushed +around for more sticks to build up the almost burned out fire. Frances and +Alice made a curtain of sweaters to keep off the winds while Mrs. Merrill +pulled off Mary Jane's wet clothes and rubbed her briskly with the old +tablecloth. Then Mary Jane sat in state, wrapped up in four sweaters, while +the "rescue girls," as Alice and Ruth were called, dried their shoes and +wet skirts. + +"You brave girls!" said Mrs. Merrill as soon as she had time for a word. "I +am _so_ proud of you!" + +"Pooh!" exclaimed Alice, "it wasn't deep a bit! See, mother, I'm not wet +above my knees!" + +"All the same," said Mary Jane firmly, and it was the first word she had +said since they pulled her out, "water's wet! And it's lots colder than I +thought it would be and the bottom of the water's hard--so there!" + +Everybody laughed at that, and then they all felt better--the scare was +over. + +By the time Mary Jane's clothes were dry, everybody had a basketful of +flowers. Alice and Ruth straightened them all out neatly and tied them into +bunches while their shoes and stockings were drying. As the girls all lived +in the neighborhood, they decided to put the bunches in a tub in Alice's +basement. + +"Then we can come over at eight o'clock in the morning and put them in the +gift basket and take them to Miss Heath's before breakfast," said Frances. +And so it was planned. + +Alice and Ruth put on their shoes and stockings and Mrs. Merrill dressed +Mary Jane in her dried out clothes--and how funny they did look too--and +then the picnic started for home. + +Mr. Merrill was just driving up to the house when they got back home and he +stared in amazement when he saw Mary Jane. + +"What have they done to your dress and your hair ribbon?" he asked. + +"_They_ didn't do anything but just dry it," explained Mary Jane. "I doned +it myself. I bent over to look at the fishies and the water hit me and +the bottom was hard and I got wet and Alice and Ruth pulled me out and +everybody dried me and will you please put my flowers on the train for Aunt +Effie?" + +"Well, I'd call all that enough for one day," replied father. "It's lucky +the water wasn't deep--it's better to feel a hard bottom than none at all, +little girl." + +"And will you mail my flowers?" asked Mary Jane. + +"As soon as they're ready," promised father. And so the picnic ended. + + + + +GOING SHOPPING + + +"Well, what are we doing to-day?" asked Mr. Merrill as he finished his +breakfast. "This is a fine enough day to be doing something big and +important." + +"I'm just going to play around," said Mary Jane, "I'd like to do something +big if you have it, Daddah," she added, encouragingly. "Could we go on a +picnic?" + +"No more picnic for you this week, young lady!" answered Mr. Merrill. "I +should think you were wet enough last Saturday to last a while!" + +"But that wasn't the picnic's fault," explained Mary Jane, in distress, +"that just happened, and I want to go on another picnic right away." To +tell the truth, she had been a bit worried for fear her accident of the +picnic would keep her father and mother from letting her go next time +somebody gave a picnic party and she did so hope it wouldn't make any +difference. + +"I expect you do," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "and I'm certain your wetting +didn't hurt you any. Don't you worry, dear, you shall go next time there +is any picnic to go to. In fact, you and Alice and I may go on a picnic +to-morrow--but it will be a picnic of quite a different kind, I'll assure +you." + +"Oh, mother! Do tell us what it will be!" exclaimed both girls. + +"I was talking with Doris's mother last evening," began Mrs. Merrill, "and +she tells me that it's very satisfactory to go to the city to buy hats and +shoes. What would you think" (she asked Mr. Merrill) "if the girls and I +took the trolley to the city to-morrow and bought our summer outfits?' + +"I'd think that was a fine plan," said Mr. Merrill, "and I'd say that +perhaps I'd go along if I was asked." + +"Oh, would you, Daddah?" cried Alice. "That would be jolly. Then it's all +settled--we're going!" + +"Talk about deciding in a hurry," teased Mrs. Merrill; "when do we start?" + +"I have some business that I've needed to do for a week. Suppose we all +take the early limited that leaves at eight? Then we can have a good long +day and time for a fine lunch together." + +That plan suited Mrs. Merrill and was agreed upon at once. "Only remember," +she reminded them, "eight o'clock on the car, means everybody up early." + +"I'll set the alarm for six," promised Mr. Merrill. + +"And I'll do my two days' practicing today," said Alice. + +"And I'll help, mother, truly I will," said Mary Jane. + +"We ought to have no trouble getting off then," said Mrs. Merrill, "and I, +for one, think we'll have lots of fun." + +That evening, every one laid out their clothes ready for morning; lists +were made out and then the girls were sent to bed a whole hour earlier than +usual so they would feel ready for the day's fun. + +It was a good thing everything was planned before hand, for eight o'clock +came _very_ early the next morning--or so it seemed; and there was +considerable scrambling to get hair ribbons on and gloves buttoned and the +house all locked up in time for the car. + +Alice had been to the city with her mother several times before; but this +was Mary Jane's first trip and she watched out of the car window with +great interest and was almost sorry when the car pulled into a big train +shed--the interurban station. + +"You lady folks shop till one," said father as they parted, "and then we'll +meet for lunch." + +Mary Jane thought she had never seen such big stores in all her life. +Fortunately mother decided to do some of her own and Alice's shopping first +and that gave Mary Jane a chance to look around and get used to things. But +finally Mrs. Merrill said, "Now it's your turn, Mary Jane. Let's look at +spring coats and then at play suits." + +They got into the elevator again (and Mary Jane's heart took a funny +"flip-flop" every time it started or stopped) and went to a floor where +everything was for little girls. There seemed to be enough suits and +dresses for all the little girls in the world and Mary Jane was certain +sure that she could _never_ tell which she liked best. But mother and Alice +helped her and before very long they had bought a pretty little gray +coat and one pink afternoon dress and two pink and two blue rompers for +playtimes. + +"There, now," said Mrs. Merrill as she looked at her watch, "that's all we +can do before lunch. It's time to meet father this very minute." So they +got into the elevator again and went to the top floor. + +"This is the funniest store," Mary Jane told her father, who was waiting +for them as they stepped off the car; "they sell dresses and coats and +things to eat and everything right off of one elevator!" + +"Think of that!" exclaimed her father as he piloted them to a table. "Well, +I believe I like the things to eat best--at least right now." + +"What are you going to have?" he asked Mary Jane as they sat down and made +themselves comfortable. + +"May I have anything I want?" she asked, "_anything_?" + +"Anything at all," her father assured her. + +"Then I know what I want," said she promptly, "I want chicken broth and +mashed potatoes and pink ice cream." + +"That's what you're going to have," Mr. Merrill told the waiter. "I wish +Alice could make up her mind as quickly," he added teasingly, for Alice was +reading the whole menu from cover to cover before she made up her mind what +to order. + +Mary Jane had her chicken broth while the others were deciding and then she +had a bit of mother's good fish to eat with the mashed potatoes which came +later. And of course the pink ice cream, a big dish of it, all for herself. + +"Now," said Mr. Merrill, when they were all through, "I'm going to buy Mary +Jane a pair of white shoes and a pink parasol while you two finish what you +have on your list and then maybe we'll have time to ride out to the park +before we start for home." + +"Oh!" cried Mary Jane, but that was all she could think of to say. Dresses +and a coat and lunch and a ride and shoes and a parasol--all in one day! +And it wasn't a birthday either, just a regular, every day sort of a day! + +"Don't worry," laughed her father for he guessed what she was thinking, +"this is just once a year! Come on, now, and we'll get the shoes." + +They went back to the children's floor and bought the shoes and the +prettiest pink parasol Mary Jane had ever seen and then, just as they were +ready to go and meet mother and Alice, a friend of father's passed by. + +"Well, Tom!" cried Mr. Merrill, and he jumped up to speak to him. Mary Jane +couldn't hear all they said but from what she did hear, she guessed that +the man lived a long way off and that he was buying clothes to take home to +his little girl. "Sit right there, Mary Jane," Mr. Merrill called to her as +he walked off in the direction of the elevator, "and I'll be back in five +minutes." + +Mary Jane looked around and up and down. She saw the wrapper girl high up +in her box between the counters. She saw the busy clerks and floorman come +and go. She saw the many shoppers--grown folks and children that passed by +her seat. And the more folks she saw, the lonesomer she became; sitting +there all by herself among so many folks. + +"I don't think it's nice for a little girl to sit here in a big seat," she +decided, "I think I'll sit somewhere that I won't _show_ so much." And she +looked around for a quiet corner. Between the big cases that formed the +counters she spied just the place she wanted. A shelf down close enough to +the floor for her to sit on and quite out of the way of the busy crowd. + +"That's where I'll wait," she said softly, "then I won't show while I'm +waiting for father." And she slipped back of the big cases while no one was +looking and sat down on the shelf. But the minute she got away from the +confusing noises and sights, she felt very sleepy, so sleepy that she could +hardly keep awake; so very sleepy, so very-- + +Father's five minutes lengthened out to ten and then his friend stepped +into the elevator and Mr. Merrill hurried back to his little girl. + +"You must excuse me, dear," he said as he approached where he had left her, +"but I hadn't seen Tom in ten years and--" But there was no little girl +there! + +Mr. Merrill called the floorman and asked about her. "I left her only ten +minutes ago," he said as he looked at his watch, "and she wouldn't run +off--I _know_ Mary Jane wouldn't run off. She must be here." + +"We'll find her," said the floorman, easily, "she must be in some other +aisle." + +They hunted up and down and up and down the aisles and they looked at many +little girls--the store was full of them. But not a sign of Mary Jane +did they see. Finally it came time to meet Mrs. Merrill and Alice so Mr. +Merrill, knowing that they would be uneasy if he was late, hurried down +to meet them and all three came back to resume the search that by now was +getting pretty anxious. + +"There's no need of your hunting on any other floor," said Mrs. Merrill as +the floorman suggested that maybe Mary Jane had gone to hunt her father and +had lost her way. "I know my little girl and she's not far from where her +father left her. Show me where she was sitting when you left and I'll find +her--I'm sure." + +Mr. Merrill led her to the very seat where he had left Mary Jane and then, +to the surprise of all the clerks and curious shoppers who had become +interested in the search, Mrs. Merrill didn't rush around and hunt as +the others had. Instead, she sat down in the seat as though she had all +afternoon and not a worry in the world. And then, sitting down as Mary Jane +had been, she began to look around. And the very first thing she saw was +the shelf, way back out of the way; and on the shelf, huddled down in a +sleepy heap, her own little girl! + +How the people did stare as she jumped up quickly and hurried over to the +between aisle where no one had thought of looking. And how every one did +smile as she reached down and picked up Mary Jane--Mary Jane all sound +asleep! + +The little girl opened her eyes and slipped her arm around her mother's +neck and then, as she noticed so many folks looking at her, she hid her +sleepy eyes in her mother's shoulder. + +"Don't you be afraid, little girl," said the floorman, in great relief, "we +like little girls who know enough not to get lost. It was better to stay +right there and go to sleep than to run around and hunt your father. You +and your sister take this slip," and he wrote hastily on a scrap of paper, +"and go upstairs to the lunch room. Maybe a dish of ice cream will help you +to wake up." + +So that was how it happened that Mary Jane had a trip and an adventure and +some new clothes and _two_ dishes of pink ice cream all in one day. + + + + +THE PAPER DOLL SHOW + + +Bright and early the next Monday morning Mary Jane went over to Doris's +house to ask if she could come and play. Fortunately the chicken pox was +all over and Doris was well and was allowed to play again. Mary Jane had +had so many things to do during the time that Doris had been sick and she +was anxious to tell about them. And she was oh, so very glad to have her +little friend to play with again. + +"Come on over to my house," she urged Doris, "I can play all morning." + +"Are you sure Doris won't be in your mother's way?" asked Doris' mother. + +"Monday morning is a busy time, I know." + +"It isn't at our house," said Mary Jane positively, "because _this_ day +isn't wash day to-day--it's just getting ready for my sister Alice's party +this afternoon and mother said we wouldn't bother if we played in the +nursery, so please do let her come." + +"Very well," laughed Doris's mother, "if you're as sure as all that I guess +I'll let her go, but I should think getting ready for a party would be +_almost_ as much work as wash day! What are you going to play?" + +"Paper dolls," said Mary Jane. "I have two, five new sheets and two +scissors that don't prick that my Aunt Effie sent to me and she said that +Doris could play with them too." + +"That's fine," said Doris's mother much relieved. "I should think you +little girls would have a very happy time because you haven't seen each +other for so long. Run along now, Doris, and be sure to come home when the +big whistle blows for noon." + +The two little girls skipped gayly across the yard, through the gap in the +hedge between the houses and onto Mary Jane's porch. + +"Let's play here," suggested Doris. + +"We can't," said Mary Jane, "'cause mother says if we play out doors she +don't know where we are so we must play in the nursery with all the windows +open and have a good time and not bother. So let's do that. + +"And anyway," she added as they climbed up the stairs, "out doors is bad +for paper dolls so I'm not sorry." + +They got out the five new sheets of paper dolls and the scissors and set to +work cutting. Now everybody who has ever played cutout-paper dolls knows +that the cutting out is the most fun. As long as there was a doll or a +hat or a parasol uncut those two little girls had a beautiful time. They +figured out which hats belonged to which dresses and they counted the +children on the five pages so they could be divided equally. But as soon as +the cutting was done, the fun was over and the girls didn't know what to do +with themselves. + +"I'll tell you what let's do," suggested Mary Jane suddenly, "some of these +dolls have dress-up clothes like a show. Let's make a show in a box like +Alice does." + +What Mary Jane meant was this. Some of Alice's friends liked to plan rooms, +and furnish them. And to do that they took a neat pasteboard box and stood +it on its side; then they lined it with crepe paper for wall paper. Then +they made furniture to match the color scheme (they were very particular +about color schemes, Mary Jane remembered that) and they dressed dolls in +crepe paper to match and put them in the furnished room. And, Mary Jane +thought this part was the best of all, when they were tired of one room, +they gave it to Mary Jane and made a new one for themselves. + +It happened that only the week before, Alice and her best friend Frances +had made a beautiful little room, in a box of course, all done in green and +pale yellow. Later they had planned one in rose and had told Mary Jane she +might have the green and yellow one. It was this box Mary Jane meant to use +for the show. + +"You just wait till you see," she said to Doris, "you wait till--" and +she dived into her closet, climbed up on the play box inside the door and +reached up to the shelf where she had put the box the girls had given her. + +"What is it? Where'd you get it?" demanded Doris as the treasure was pulled +out. + +"It's mine!" said Mary Jane proudly, "and we'll give a paper doll show like +Alice does--you just see!" + +Doris had no older brother or sister to give her ideas so she had to wait +till Mary Jane explained her plan. + +"First, we'll fix this up some way, they always do," began Mary Jane. + +"But it's pretty now," objected Doris. + +"Oh, yes, but we have to _fix_ it," said Mary Jane scornfully, "they always +do, they never use a box just as it is--never! Now what could we do, what +could go on top of a house? A roof, but what could we make a roof of? Or, +oh, I think we'll put on some clouds maybe, clouds ought to be easy, would +you like clouds, Doris?" + +"On the top?" + +"Yes, on top of the house where clouds belong." + +"All right," said the obliging Doris, "I don't care which you make. But +where do we get clouds?" + +"Let's ask 'Manda," said Mary Jane, "she's here to help make the party. She +likes me, maybe she knows where we can get some clouds." The two little +girls hurried down the back stairs to the kitchen, but Amanda wasn't there. +They were just about to go sorrowfully back to the nursery when Mary Jane +noticed something white on the table. + +"Why, here are some clouds all ready for us!" she exclaimed. "I guess +'Manda must have known we were coming! You take all you can carry, Doris, +and I'll take the rest." + +Doris plunged her hand bravely into the mass of beaten white of egg that +filled the great platter and Mary Jane tumbled all that was left into her +apron and they gleefully hurried back upstairs. + +"There, now," said Mary Jane, "we'll make clouds all over our house and +then we'll have the show." But that show never was held. + +For just as they left the kitchen, Amanda came back into it to finish the +cake she was making for the party and found that her eggs, the beautiful +whites that she had beaten with such pains, were gone! + +"It sooly do seem queer, Mis' Merrill," she said to her mistress, "them +eggs was right here and then they wasn't here and eggs can't walk, kin +they--leastwise not when they's beat up?" + +"No, eggs can't walk but little girls can," said Mrs. Merrill for she +suddenly recalled hearing mysterious sounds and giggles on the back stairs +a moment or two before. "I think I know where your eggs are but _why_ they +are gone, I can't imagine!" And she hurried up to the nursery. And there, +sure enough, were the eggs! + +"What in the world are you girls doing with those eggs?" she demanded. + +"Those aren't eggs," said Mary Jane scornfully, "those are clouds and this +is going to be a paper doll show." + +"I don't know about a paper doll show, daughter," said Mrs. Merrill +seriously, "but I do know that those are the eggs which were to have gone +into the cake for Alice's party." + +"Oh, mother, not really?" exclaimed Mary Jane, and the tears came into her +big eyes. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to spoil the party, truly I didn't, +mother! We just wanted some clouds--anyway I did," she added honestly, "and +we went down to 'Manda and she wasn't there but the clouds were so we took +them. That's all. _Will_ it spoil the party?" + +"I don't know what to think," said Mrs. Merrill, as she sat down between +the two little girls to think and plan. "Alice wanted that especial kind +of cake for her party but eggs cost so much these days--there were eight +whites on that platter, Mary Jane; I don't believe I can afford eight more, +really I don't." + +"Oh, I can, I _can_, mother dear!" cried Mary Jane and quick as a flash she +ran to her little white dresser. "I can afford it with this and I want +to!" She pulled out her precious letter with a dollar bill tucked in its +folds--the dollar bill that her great-grandmother had sent her and with +which she was to buy something very special for herself--and handed it to +her mother. "Please, mother, let her have it with this!" + +"Do you realize that this is your very own dollar that you are giving me?" +asked Mrs. Merrill, and Doris eyed Mary Jane's wealth with surprised eyes. + +"Yes, mother, I know it is mine, mine that I was saving for a big doll, but +I don't want to spoil Alice's party, truly I don't! Please let me go buy +some more eggs for her cake!" + +"I believe you really want to," said Mrs. Merrill, as she slipped her arm +around the eager little girl, "and I believe it's the best thing to do. You +didn't realize that you were taking something that you had no right to when +you took those 'clouds' for the doll house, did you, Mary Jane?" + +"'Deed I didn't, mother, and please may we get the eggs now?" + +Mrs. Merrill looked at her watch. "There will be just time if you go right +away, dear," she said; "come the back way and I'll give you a basket +to carry them in so none will be broken. And get eight, that's all you +took--I'll buy the yellows from you so you will still have a good deal left +from your dollar." + +The two little girls skipped down to the grocery in a hurry but they didn't +hurry home--no, sir! They walked slowly and carefully so that not an egg +was even cracked. + +And by the time they got home and gave Amanda the eggs and saw them all +opened and divided, the whites on a platter and the yellows in a bowl, the +big whistles blew for noon and Doris had to go home. + +Mary Jane went with her as far as the gate and then waited under the little +mulberry tree till her father came home for his lunch. + +"Well, this is fine," said Mr. Merrill as he tossed her up onto his +shoulder. "I like to see my little girl waiting for me. And what have you +learned this morning, pussy?" + +"I learned that eggs aren't clouds and that they cost money," said Mary +Jane, "and I didn't spoil the party!" + +"Pretty good for one morning, say I," laughed father, and he carried her on +into the house. + + + + +THE BIRTHDAY PARTY + + +The evening after Alice's party, Mr. and Mrs. Merrill held a long +conference and as a result a surprise awaited Mary Jane when she came to +the breakfast table the next morning. + +"Do you know of anybody who has a birthday next week?" asked Mr. Merrill as +he kissed her good morning. + +"I do, and I'm five years old," replied Mary Jane, "and that's pretty old!" + +"Goodness! I should say it was!" exclaimed Mr. Merrill. "It's so old I can +hardly imagine it. And I think, Mrs. Merrill, something ought to be done +about it." As he looked solemnly across the table at his wife, his eyes +twinkled merrily and Mary Jane knew by their look that something nice was +coming. + +"I'm sure I don't know anything to do about it," began Mrs. Merrill (and +Mary Jane noticed that her eyes twinkled too) "unless, perhaps, we might +have a party?" + +"A party?" exclaimed Mary Jane, "a PARTY? A really for sure enough party +all just for me?" + +"That is, of course, if you want one," added mother doubtfully. + +"Oh, mother," cried Mary Jane and slipping down from her chair she gave +first her mother and then her father a big "bear" hug, "of _course_ I want +one! May I have it on my birthday?" + +"To be sure," laughed Mrs. Merrill. "When else would a body have a birthday +party? Now you eat all your oatmeal like a good little girl and then you +help all you know how with the morning work and then we'll go down town and +buy some pretty invitations and favors." + +Never did oatmeal vanish as quickly as did Mary Jane's bowlful on +that morning! And never did a little girl help so well with beds and +bathroom--really Mrs. Merrill hadn't guessed that a nearly-five-year-old +could do so much. So it wasn't quite ten o'clock yet when they made ready +to go down town. + +"I'll be down in just a minute, dear," said Mrs. Merrill when Mary Jane was +all ready. "You run along and wait for me at the front porch." + +Mary Jane walked down the stairs very slowly, and out onto the porch, and +out onto the steps, but still mother hadn't come. So, as she didn't want to +sit down and muss up her dress, she decided to walk once around the house +rather than wait on the porch. She walked past the hydrangea bed, past the +blooming bridal wreath and as far as the rose bed. And there she stopped in +amazement. For right there on the first bush, where it might easily have +been seen these many days by ice man, grocery man or any one who passed, +hung mother's handsome butterfly pin! Mary Jane was so surprised she didn't +even touch the pin, she stood there and screamed. + +Mrs. Merrill looked out of the window overhead and asked what the matter +was. + +"Come quick!" called Mary Jane. "Do come quick!" + +Mrs. Merrill, too frightened to ask questions, hurried down the stairs and +out into the yard and--well, she was as much surprised as Mary Jane was +when she saw her pin hanging there on the bush. She grabbed it quickly as +though she was afraid it would vanish before her eyes and then she threw +her arms around Mary Jane. + +"You dear child!" she exclaimed in a shaky voice. "I never thought of +looking there! The pin must have still been on the dresser cover when I +shook it out of the window and I was in such a hurry I didn't notice. I'm +glad you have such bright eyes. Now you wait one minute more and I'll put +this safely away and then we'll go down town." + +Such fun as they did have down town! They bought pretty little invitations +with a picture of a little girl with a pink parasol in one corner; they +bought cracker bonbons with pink frills outside and folded up paper baskets +inside and they bought gorgeous big paper hats in all the gay colors. + +And then, when they got home, they wrote invitations to five little boys +and to four little girls, Mary Jane was the fifth little girl, you see. And +then they began making things for the party. Alice made a game to be played +with paper balls; father drew a big teddy bear on a sheet and mother made +a big black nose for him, a nose that little folks, with their eyes +blindfolded, were to try to pin on in the right place. And Amanda planned +cookies and cake and candy. Never was there such a party for it was Mary +Jane's first, you see. + +At last the birthday came (Mary Jane had begun to fear it never would for +the days seemed three weeks long, every one) and the house was set in order +and the time came to dress. Mary Jane was to wear her brand new dress with +the pink sash, a new one that her grandmother had sent on purpose for the +party; and her new white shoes that father had given her and her new silk +stockings that her great-grandmother had sent. She felt very old, and +grand, and grown-up when she walked dignifiedly down the stairs and into +the living room. She had looked in the glass most carefully and the glass +had told her that she looked just as nice as any little girl could and +quite grown-up too. + +She stood just inside the living room door and her heart beat quickly when +Amanda went to answer the first ring at the front door--just think the +wonderful party was beginning! + +Junior came first, naturally, because he lived nearest and Mary Jane +noticed that his pocket bulged in a most curious fashion. + +"Of course you didn't have to bring me a present," she said calmly, "but if +you did, why don't you give it to me right away now, so it don't muss up +your pocket?" + +Junior, who had been puzzling all the way across the street about how he +was to give Mary Jane that present, was greatly relieved to have the matter +so easily settled. He pulled out the be-ribboned package and eyed it +carefully while Mary Jane undid it and exclaimed over the beautiful new +party coat for Marie Georgiannamore. Mary Jane scampered back upstairs +to get the forgotten doll and the two children, and the others who began +dropping in were so busy dressing the dolls that they quite forgot +"company" manners and had a good time from the start. + +[Illustration: There's no need to tell of all the good times at that +party.] + +There's no need to tell of all the good times at that party; of all the +games and the fun; the scramble into the ten chairs at the candle lighted +table in the dining room; of the sandwiches which disappeared so quickly; +the ice cream in the shape of circus men; the big white cake with its five +pink candles and one white one in the middle to grow on--you know all about +that yourself because you've been to parties and know what fun they are. + +When all the goodies were eaten up; when not a child could have eaten +another bite had the table been full again, Mrs. Merrill passed around the +paper bag favors and each guest put the candy he couldn't eat and the nuts +and the paper caps and the flower favors and a piece of the birthday cake +into his or her bag and then each bag was laid carefully by each little +guest's hat and coat ready to take home. And then the five little girls and +the five little boys slipped down from their chairs and ran out of doors +for a final romp. + +It was a tired little girl that Mrs. Merrill tucked into bed that +night--but a very happy one. "I do think parties is the nicest things," she +said with a satisfied sigh; "they's the nicest things I know!" + +Mrs. Merrill smiled and kissed Mary Jane good night. Mary Jane had had +quite enough excitement for one day so she said not a word about another +surprise that she knew was coming--a surprise that _might_ prove to be even +more fun than a party! + + + + +A LETTER AND A TRIP + + +Mary Jane slept late on the morning after the party. By the time she was +awake enough to realize that another day had come, she discovered that she +was alone upstairs. She ran to the top of the stairs and looked over the +railing. No one was in the hall and sounds from the dining room told her +that the family was at breakfast. + +"I'll just surprise them," she said to herself, "and show them how much +a big girl like me can do." She ran back into her room and put on her +slippers and her kimono; she went into the bathroom and washed her hands +and face and brushed her teeth and then she slipped soundlessly down the +stairs. At the door of the dining room she stopped to get a good breath +with which to say "Boo-o-o-o!" and as she took her breath she heard her +father say, "Well, if you really think it's all right for her to go--five +years old seems pretty young to me for such a trip." + +"Of course it would be if she went alone--I wouldn't even think of that!" +answered Mrs. Merrill's voice, "but with Dr. Smith to look after her and +Alice coming as soon as school is out--I believe it will do the child +good." + +"So do I," exclaimed Mary Jane, darting into the room, the "booo" quite +forgotten. + +"Now, you'll have to tell her," laughed father, "and of course she won't +want to go. + +"Of course I will," laughed Mary Jane gayly. "Where am I going, mother?" + +"Do you think you are old enough to go visit your great-grandmother Hodges +all by yourself?" asked mother. + +"With my own trunk and my own ticket, and my own pocket book and my own +conductor?" demanded Mary Jane, who could hardly believe what she heard. + +"With your own trunk and pocket book," said Mrs. Merrill, "but I don't know +about the ticket and the conductor because Dr. Smith is coming again and +he will take you back with him if we will let you go and trust him to look +after you on the journey. Do you think you'd like to go?" + +"I don't think it, I know it!" cried Mary Jane, and she danced around the +table with her kimono flying out behind her. "Can I go to-day?" + +"Hardly!" laughed Mrs. Merrill. "We have to buy you some strong shoes for +the country and make you some rompers to play with the chickens in and pack +your trunk and, oh, a lot of things before you can go." + +"Well, a lot of things won't take very long because I'll help," said Mary +Jane eagerly, "see? I'll climb right up and eat my oatmeal without you +telling me to--that's how I'll help." + +Mr. and Mrs. Merrill both laughed and Mr. Merrill, as he rose from the +table, said, "If you will eat your breakfast, just as you know you should, +every morning while you are gone, I really think I'll let you go." (For, +you see, Mary Jane hadn't ever liked her oatmeal.) And when Mary Jane +promised solemnly that she would, he said it was all settled. + +Such fun as there was after that! Alice and Mrs. Merrill sat at the table +long after father left for work and they planned out just how many weeks it +was till Alice could go to the country too, and how many weeks there were +after that till Mr. and Mrs. Merrill could come for his vacation and how +many rompers Mary Jane ought to have and how many pairs of shoes and +rubbers and how big a sun hat Mary Jane needed. And then, after Alice had +gone to school, Mary Jane helped her mother with the morning work so they +got off very early for down town and the shopping. + +And that evening, when father got home, he carried the steamer trunk down +from the attic and Mary Jane began packing. + +By noon of the next day, she had the trunk so full of dolls and doll +clothes and teddy bears and books that it couldn't possibly shut and she +hadn't put in it one single thing to wear--not a single thing! + +"You seem to think that there isn't going to be anything to play with in +the country," said Mr. Merrill when Mary Jane showed him her morning's +work. "Must you take all your city things? I should think you would leave +those here and play with grandmother's things while you are at her house." + +"Will she have anything for a little girl?" asked Mary Jane in surprise. + +"If she hasn't, you come right back home," laughed father, "but I don't +worry about that. I think she has more than you'll need." + +So after lunch Mary Jane took all the playthings and the dolls out of the +trunk and put them neatly into the closet and that was much better for then +there was plenty of room in the trunk for clothes and for two mysterious +packages which Mary Jane saw her mother put in the very bottom. And it was +a good thing that she put everything away so nicely for at three o'clock +Dr. Smith telephoned that he was unexpectedly called home and could Mary +Jane go home with him that very night? + +Mr. Merrill was phoned to and he said he would tend to the ticket and the +trunk check. Mrs. Merrill packed the trunk and Alice, who happened home +from school in just the nick of time, bathed and dressed Mary Jane for the +train. So that by the time Dr. Smith came out to dine with them the trunk +was packed and gone, the little traveler was dressed and everything about +the house was back in apple pie order. + +Mary Jane was so excited she could hardly eat a bit of dinner but Dr. Smith +said it wouldn't matter so much because she could have some good fresh eggs +and two glasses of milk and some of Grandmother Hodges' corn bread for +breakfast. + +It's pretty exciting to go off on the train at night and leave your father +and mother and sister. Mary Jane found that out; and she got a queer lump +in her throat on the way to the station. A lump that for some reason or +other grew bigger and bigger when father held her snugly as he lifted her +out of the car and that nearly made her cry when mother held tight onto her +hand as they went through the station. + +But fortunately the train came in just then and with the seeing that the +trunk was really put on and kissing folks good-by and sending a message to +Doris and meeting the big jolly conductor and giving her hand bag to the +porter and laughing at Dr. Smith's funny jokes and all that--the lump +didn't get as troublesome as Mary Jane had feared it would. She got into +her section in time to wave good-by to the three on the platform as the +train pulled out and then, before she had a chance to feel lonesome, Dr. +Smith said, "Did you ever see them work a bed on a train?" + +"Work a bed?" asked Mary Jane. "What's that?" + +"Make up a bed, I mean," laughed Dr. Smith. "Did you ever see how the bed +works when it is made up? Here, Sambo," and the doctor held his hand high +and motioned to the porter, "this little girl wants to know how she's going +to sleep, she doesn't see any bed." + +"She'll see in a minute, sir, jest a littl' minute," said the good natured +porter and he slipped off his blue coat; put on a white one; took down part +of the ceiling and, right before Mary Jane's astonished eyes, made up a +bed. Mary Jane thought it was most amazing. She watched every move he made +and decided that when she grew up she was going to be a bed maker on a +train because it was so much more fun than making beds at home. + +When the bed was all ready, Dr. Smith helped her take off her shoes +and tuck them into a little hammock that hung over the window; then he +unbuttoned her dress and helped her climb into her berth bed. Mary Jane +took off her dress, hung it on the rack just as her mother had told her to +do and settled herself comfy for the night. But suddenly she remembered +that she hadn't told the kind Dr. Smith "good night." She fumbled with the +curtains till she got a crack open and through that she stuck her curly +head. + +"Good night, Dr. Smith," she said when she spied him sitting close by, +across the aisle, "I'm glad I'm going with you and I like sleeping on +a train and I'm _very_ glad that you live next door to my dear +great-grandmother." + +"I'm glad too," replied the doctor. "Now you go straight to sleep, little +lady, so you will have roses in your cheeks when you get to grandmother's +in the morning." + +And if you want to know of all the fun and good times that Mary Jane had +with the pigs and horses and chickens and strawberries she found at her +great-grandmother's house, you'll have to read-- + +"MARY JANE--HER VISIT." + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mary Jane: Her Book, by Clara Ingram Judson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY JANE: HER BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 8890.txt or 8890.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/8/9/8890/ + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Mary Jane: Her Book + +Author: Clara Ingram Judson + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8890] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 21, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY JANE: HER BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +MARY JANE + +HER BOOK + + + +BY Clara Ingram Judson + + +ILLUSTRATED BY Frances White + + + + + +=CONTENTS= + + +THE BROKEN DOLL + +DON'T CRY OVER SPILLED SUGAR + +HELPING THE ROBINS + +FATHER'S SECRET + +MARY JANE PLAYS SCHOOL + +AUNT EFFIE COMES TO VISIT + +KEWPIE AND THE WASHING + +JUNIOR'S SHOWER BATH + +PLAYMATE DOROTHY + +LEARNING TO SEW + +MAKING READY FOR THE PICNIC + +THE PICNIC UP CLEARWATER + +GOING SHOPPING + +THE PAPER DOLL SHOW + +THE BIRTHDAY PARTY + +A LETTER AND A TRIP + + + + + +=ILLUSTRATIONS= + + +Her little fists were clinched and even her perky plaid hair ribbon seemed +to show amazement + +"Here's one that's me!" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly + +She sat down on the biggest rock close by the edge of the creek + +There's no need to tell of all the good times at that party + + + + +THE BROKEN DOLL + + +Mary Jane stood on the curbstone and stared into the middle of the street. +Her face was white with fright and the tears which had not as yet come were +close to her big blue eyes. Her little fists were clinched and even her +perky plaid hair ribbon seemed to show amazement. + +And wasn't it enough to make any little girl stare? Her big, beautiful +doll, the one that came at Christmas time, lay crushed and broken in the +middle of the street! Its glossy brown hair matted in the dust; its dainty +pink dress torn and dirty and its great brown eyes crushed to powder! + +For a full minute Mary Jane stared at the wreck that had been her doll. +Then she turned and ran screaming toward the house. + +Mrs. Merrill heard her and met her at the front steps. + +"Mary Jane! Dear child!" she cried, "what _is_ the matter? Tell mother what +has happened!" + +"My doll! My beautifulest doll!" sobbed Mary Jane, "my Marie Georgianna is +all run over!" + +"Surely not, surely not, Mary Jane," said her mother as she picked up the +little girl and sat down, with her on her lap, on the porch steps, "dolls +don't get run over." + +"My doll did," said Mary Jane positively, "see?" + +Mrs. Merrill looked out into the street and there, sure enough, was the +wreck of the doll. + +"Tell me how it happened, dear," said Mrs. Merrill and she gathered her +little girl tighter in her arms as she spoke for she knew that if a doll +had been run over, Mary Jane herself had not missed an accident by so very +much for the doll and the little girl were always close together. + +Mary Jane wiped her eyes on her mother's handkerchief, snugged cozily in +the comfortable arms and told her story. + +"I was going over to play with Junior like you said I could," she began +(Junior was the little neighbor boy who lived across the street in the big +white house), "and just as I got into the middle of the street I heard a +big, _big_ noisy 'toot-t-t-t-t' way down by Fifth Street--and you _know_, +mother" (and here Mary Jane sat up straight) "that you always told me if an +automobile was as far away as Fifth Street it was all right--so I went on +across. But this automobile didn't just come; it hurried fast, oh, so very +fast and by the time I was half way across the road it was so close I just +turned around and ran back to the curbstone and I was in such a hurry I +guess I must have dropped my Marie Georgianna!" + +"And the automobile ran over her, poor dolly," finished mother, with a +thrill of fear as she realized Mary Jane's narrow escape. Then she wiped +off the teary blue eyes and smilingly said, "Listen, Mary Jane, and I'll +tell you a secret." + +"A secret about a doll?" asked Mary Jane eagerly. + +"A secret about a doll," replied mother. "Marie Georgianna has a twin." + +"Not a really truly twin?" demanded Mary Jane and she sat up straight and +opened her eyes wide. "A really, truly, for surely enough twin?" + +"Yes, she has," said mother nodding her head emphatically, "a really, +truly, for surely enough twin--I saw her down at the store only yesterday +and I think we'll have to go down town and bring her home, don't you think +so?" + +"But how'll we go so early?" asked Mary Jane, for she knew that mother +always liked to do her morning work before they went on errands. + +"I think father is still here," replied mother; "you smile up your face and +run around to the garage. I think you'll find him there working on his car. +If you do, tell him all about what happened and tell him he's going to mend +your doll by finding her twin!" + +Mary Jane slipped down from her mother's lap and hurried around the house +toward the garage. As soon as she was out of sight, Mrs. Merrill went out +to the street and rescued the wreck of the doll from the dusty road. Yes, +Mary Jane was right when she said that the doll was all gone--it would take +considerable work to put even the dress in order and the doll itself was +broken beyond all mending. Hastily Mrs. Merrill pulled off the dirty dress +and dropped the doll into the covered trash basket where Mary Jane would +not see it again and be reminded of the accident. + +"What are we going to do about that speeding on our road?" demanded father +as he hurried up to the back porch just as the lid was back on the trash +basket. "Did you hear about Mary Jane's narrow escape?" + +"We're going to do this about it," said mother positively, "Mary Jane isn't +to go over to Junior's again by herself. If she has to go over, one of us +will take her. And now the important thing is to find Marie Georgianna's +twin. And Mary Jane," she added as the little girl came running toward the +steps, "this twin of Marie Georgianna's is afraid of automobiles, very +afraid of them, and she doesn't like to cross the street unless some grown +up person is with her." + +"That's a good thing," said Mary Jane with a big sigh, "because I don't +like to either. Next time I go over to Junior's I'm not going over. And +what shall I name Marie Georgianna's twin, mother?" + +"We'll decide that later," laughed mother; "you must hurry quick and wash +your hands and face and slip on a clean frock so you can go to the store +with father." + +It doesn't take long to tidy a little girl who wants to help so it wasn't +five minutes before Mary Jane was sitting, clean and tidy and straight, +beside her father in the front seat of his automobile. She loved to get in +while the car was still in the garage and then, when he backed it out, to +hold the wheel while he locked the doors and climbed back into the driver's +seat. + +The Merrills lived in a charming home on the edge of a small city; a home +surrounded by trees and garden and plenty of space for playing; and at the +same time, only about ten minutes' ride from the stores in the center of +the city. So a very short ride brought Mr. Merrill and Mary Jane to the +store where Marie Georgianna's twin was to be found. In the meantime, Mrs. +Merrill had telephoned to the store and had told the saleswoman in the doll +department just which doll to have ready for Mary Jane. + +When Mr. Merrill and his little girl walked into the toy department, there, +with her arms outstretched in greeting, was a beautiful big doll. For +a moment Mary Jane said nothing--the doll was so like her dear, +broken-to-pieces Marie Georgianna that she could hardly believe her eyes! +She walked up close to the counter; looked hard at the doll and then +exclaimed, "It is! It is, Daddah! It _is_ a twin just as mother said it +was! And is it for me to take home?" + +Mr. Merrill assured her that the doll was to go home with them and then +he asked about clothes. "Are you sure you have enough at home? Were the +clothes spoiled too?" + +"While mother was washing me ready to come down town, she told me she could +fix the dress and Marie Georgianna didn't wear her hat when she was run +over," said Mary Jane, "so I guess her twin doesn't need anything new." But +she looked so regretfully at the cases of pretty clothes that father bought +a pink parasol--"just for fun" he said. + +"She doesn't want to wear _just_ hand-me-down clothes of her sister's even +if she _is_ a twin," he explained, "and I always like to buy doll clothes +for little girls who don't tease for new things. But there's one thing sure +about this parasol," he added, "it's not to go over to Junior's!" + +"It won't!" laughed Mary Jane happily, "because I won't and parasols can't +go places by themselves!" + +All the way back home Mary Jane sat very still and held the new doll close +up to her. Mr. Merrill thought perhaps she was thinking about the accident +and tried to get her to talking--that shows how little even good fathers +understand! Mary Jane wasn't thinking about any accident, dear me no! She +was naming her doll. + +Just as they got out of the car at their own front walk, she announced +solemnly, "I've named her Marie Georgiannamore because a twin is more than +one." + + + + +DON'T CRY OVER SPILLED SUGAR + + +All the rest of the day after Marie Georgiannamore came into the family, +Mary Jane played dolls. Mother helped her fix a play house out on the front +porch in the warm sunshine and there Mary Jane and her family had a very +happy time. Evidently Marie Georgiannamore liked her new home for she +seemed very content with the other members of Mary Jane's numerous family. +There was the sailor doll and the rag doll, Mary Jane, Jr., and small bears +and dolls and kewpies too many to count. And of course each doll had its +own chair and bed so there was quite a household out on that sunny front +porch. + +When father came home in the evening he helped carry in all the furniture +and in the morning he helped move it back again. + +"I tell you, Mary Jane, these moving days keep us husky and strong, don't +they?" he said as he picked up three chairs and two beds at one time. + +Mary Jane laughed and, just to show that she was strong too, carried +out _three_ doll beds (to be sure they were for the very littlest, +two-for-a-nickel dolls but then they were three beds just the same) and a +washing machine at one time! Then she thanked her father for his good help +and he went to work and she settled down for a morning's house keeping. + +About ten o'clock Mrs. Merrill came to the front door. + +"Do you know any little girl who is big enough to run down to the grocery +and get me some sugar?" she asked. + +"'Deed, yes, mother!" answered Mary Jane promptly, "I can bring you +ten-fifty pounds! See how strong I am?" And she doubled up her arm as she +had seen her big, basketball-playing sister do to show her muscle. "See? +And I could move more beds at one time than Daddah could this morning." + +"Well, you are strong!" exclaimed mother admiringly; "you have more muscle +than you need for sugar getting because I want only three pounds this time. +I'm making cake and pies and cookies and I've run out of sugar and don't +want to leave my work to get more. Can you leave your family now?" she +added, for she was always particular to treat Mary Jane's duties or play as +politely as she expected Mary Jane to treat hers. + +"Yes," replied Mary Jane, "I can go this very minute, mother, because all +my children are taking their morning nap. Do I have to dress up?" + +"Not a bit!" laughed mother; "just go down to Shaffer's at the corner then +you won't have to cross any street. Here is the money and here is the paper +that tells what you want--three pounds of granulated sugar. Thank you for +going, dear." + +Mary Jane tucked the slip of paper and the money into her pocket under her +handkerchief, kissed her mother good-by and ran down the walk. + +It didn't take long to do the errand because she ran right by her friend +Doris's house without even stopping to call "Hu-uu-oo!" as she usually did; +and because Mr. Shaffer seemed to have been expecting a call for three +pounds of sugar--he had the parcel all ready. + +On the way back Mary Jane looked longingly into Doris's house and there, +sure enough, her little playmate was standing on the front porch. + +"Come on in!" called Doris. + +"Can't now," answered Mary Jane; "I'm doing an errand for mother, a real +important errand," and she held the package of sugar tightly in her arms +and walked straight along. + +Now whether the paper in the bag was not very good to begin with; or +whether Mary Jane held the parcel too tightly or what--it would be hard to +say--but--Mary Jane had not gone five steps past Doris's house before she +felt a funny little movement in the bag under her arm. She looked and what +do you suppose she found had happened? That sugar bag had sprung a leak. +Yes, a really for sure leak and the sugar was dribbling, dribbling down to +the sidewalk! Quick as a flash Mary Jane turned the bag other side up and +stopped the leak but, even so, there was a little white mound of sugar +there on the sidewalk. + +"I wonder what I ought to do now?" she said thoughtfully. "Should I pick up +the sugar and put it back into the bag?" She tried that, but she soon found +that sugar is very slippery. She could pick only a few grains at a time and +even some of those few slid out of her hand before she could tuck them into +the leak in the bag. It was very puzzling. She bent low over the pile of +sugar and in that way she was hidden from the houses by the high hedge that +grew along the walk. + +"I wonder, I wonder--" she said, and then she noticed that she had company. +Two busy ants had found that pile of sugar and were moving it away as fast +as ever they could. "This must be moving day for them too," said Mary Jane +laughingly. "I wonder where they are going? I guess I'd better see." + +She sat down beside the pile, being very careful to hold her bag of sugar +leaky-side up, and watched and watched. If you have ever seen ants moving +grains of sugar you know how very interesting it is and you won't wonder +that she forgot all about taking the parcel home to her mother. And there +is no telling when she _would_ have remembered if she hadn't, just then, +heard her mother's voice. + +"Mary Jane! Mary Jane! Mary Jane!" called Mrs. Merrill. + +"Coming, mother," answered Mary Jane and she scrambled to her feet and +hurried home. "'Cuse me, mother, for being so long," she said breathlessly, +"but it leaks and please may I go back by Doris's and see the ants?" + +Mrs. Merrill took the bursting bag and thanked Mary Jane for the errand. +Her mind was on her delayed baking and she thought Mary Jane meant to go to +see Doris's aunt. So, without a question, she replied, "Yes, you may, dear, +but don't stay too long." And so Mary Jane ran back to her ants. + +By careful watching she found where they were going. They had a whole +colony of tiny holes out in the grass plot between the sidewalk and the +curbing and they seemed to be moving the sugar into these holes. + +"I think I ought to help them, they're such little things," said Mary Jane +to herself, "and I think Doris would want to help them too." She went to +Doris's gate and called and her little friend came out to watch ants too. + +"See what they are doing?" explained Mary Jane. "They're moving the sugar +into their pantry and we ought to help them like my father helps me when I +move my doll house things." + +But somehow the plan which sounded so well, didn't work. Maybe the ants +didn't understand that help was being given them; for really, the more the +little girls "helped" the more scurrying and confusion there was in that +company of ants. And even when Mary Jane picked up a grain of sugar and +actually dropped it into a hole ready for them to put away, that didn't +seem to be the right thing either! + +Just then, when the little girls were getting tired of bending over so long +and trying to do something that didn't work, the noon whistles began to +blow, and, a minute later, Mr. Merrill came riding by in his car. + +"Do you know where I could find two little girls to ride around to the +garage with me?" he asked as he pulled up by the curbing. + +"Right here they are," cried Mary Jane and she and Doris climbed into the +car in a jiffy. + +"What were you people doing there on the sidewalk?" asked father as they +drove around the corner. + +"Helping ants store sugar in their holes but they didn't like it," said +Mary Jane disgustedly. + +"I don't blame them," laughed Mr. Merrill. "When we get into the house I'll +show you how those holes are made and then you'll understand why the ants +didn't want help." So Doris came into the house too and Mr. Merrill got +down a big book and showed the two girls pictures of ant houses and told +them all about how ants make their homes and store their food. + +"My, but I'm glad that sugar bag leaked!" sighed Mary Jane when the big +book was finally shut up and put away, "because I had fun watching the +ants; and I was out front ready for a ride; and now I've had a story--all +because sugar spilled! Mother, is lunch ready? May Doris stay? We're +hungry!" + + + + +HELPING THE ROBINS + + +All the afternoon after she learned about ants and their ways, Mary Jane +was very quiet. Mrs. Merrill thought perhaps she was disappointed because +Doris had had to go home right after lunch so she tried to be very sociable +and kind to make up for the absent playmate. + +"How would you like to make a new dress for Marie Georgiannamore?" she +asked. + +"Make it now, instead of taking my nap?" asked Mary Jane who sometimes +disliked the hour of quiet that her mother had her take every afternoon. Of +course she didn't really nap, that is, sleep; girls as big as she didn't +need to Mrs. Merrill thought. But she did have to stay quietly in her own +room and look at pictures or rest which ever she wished to do. Usually Mary +Jane enjoyed the hour but sometimes she wished she could play straight +through the day. + +"Oh, no," replied Mrs. Merrill smiling, "you will want to take your rest +the same as you always do. But when you get up, then we'll make Marie +Georgiannamore a new dress." + +"And while we're making it," asked Mary Jane, "will I have to stay in the +house?" + +"Why, of course, Mary Jane," replied Mrs. Merrill, "how funny you are! You +wouldn't enjoy my making a doll dress while you were out doors, would you?" + +"No-o-o," said Mary Jane doubtfully, "maybe I wouldn't. Only I 'pect I'd +like it after it was done." + +"Well," said Mrs. Merrill laughingly, "if you don't want a doll dress any +more than _that_, you don't want one very badly--that's certain! You run +along up to your room now and then, after you're dressed, I'll take my +bag of darning out on the front porch--I think it's plenty warm enough +to-day--and you may play in the yard. Would you like that, dear?" + +"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "that's just what I want to do. And may I +take the ant book upstairs?" + +Mrs. Merrill said she could and helped her pull the big book out from the +shelves. + +"If this is what you are going to look at," she said as she handed the book +to Mary Jane at the foot of the stairs, "better fix some pillows real comfy +fashion in the window seat where the light is good." And Mary Jane promised +she would. + +The book proved more than usually interesting and Mrs. Merrill had to call +the third time before Mary Jane heard her and realized that her hour was +up. + +"Wash your face and put on your pink smock, dear," called Mrs. Merrill, +"and then come out to the porch. There's a robin in the front yard and +you'll like to watch him." + +Mary Jane scrambled her very fastest, which was pretty fast as you can +guess, and in about three minutes was out on the porch inquiring for the +robin. + +There he was, big as life and busy as could be hunting his afternoon tea. + +"Doesn't he know it isn't time for dinner till Daddah comes home?" asked +Mary Jane. + +"He doesn't pay much attention to time," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "he likes to +eat all the day long. It makes no difference to him whether he eats in the +morning or afternoon." + +Mary Jane watched him curiously as he pecked and dug and then she suddenly +exclaimed, "But he didn't eat it, mother! I know he didn't eat it! I saw +him fly away with it!" + +"Then I expect he's carrying it to his babies," said Mrs. Merrill. + +"Where are his babies?" demanded Mary Jane as she sat down on the porch +step to hear more. + +"I'm sure I don't know, dear," said her mother. "I didn't notice which +direction he went, did you?" + +"Yes, he flew around toward the back yard," answered Mary Jane quickly, "I +saw him. Does his whole family live in a nest like you've told me about or +does he have a hole and a city and everything like the ants in the book?' + +"His whole family live in one nest," replied Mrs. Merrill, "the father +robin and the another robin and all the little robins--sometimes several of +them. It's pretty crowded perhaps, while the robin babies are growing, but +they like it. I expect if you go around to the back yard and watch, you may +see what tree Mr. Robin goes to with his worms. That will tell you what +tree his nest is in." + +Mary Jane ran around to the back yard and that was the last Mrs. Merrill +saw of her till she called her to get ready for dinner some time later. + +Mr. Merrill was late to dinner, but when he came Mary Jane asked him all +the questions that her mother had been unable to answer. + +"Wait a minute!" exclaimed he. "Where did you see this robin that you're +talking about?" + +"In the front yard and in the back yard," said Mary Jane, "both of them." + +"Then I'll venture to guess that it's the very same robin whose nest I +discovered this morning," said Mr. Merrill. "I meant to tell you about it +but was in such a hurry to get away I forgot." + +"Oh, did you see his nest?" exclaimed Mary Jane excitedly; "his really +truly for sure nest, Daddah?" + +"That I did," replied her father, "and I'll show it to you." + +"Let's go now," cried Mary Jane. "Won't you please excuse us, mother?" And +she slipped down from her chair. + +"Too late now," said her father, "might as well climb back and finish your +dinner. You can't find a bird's nest after dark--and you can see that it's +almost dark now. You wait till morning and I'll show you that nest first +thing." + +"As soon as I'm dressed, Daddah?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Before you're dressed," promised her father, with a twinkle in his eye, +"you just see!" + +Mary Jane was so excited she could hardly go to sleep that night and Mrs. +Merrill laughingly said that her dreams would likely be a circus of ants +and robins. But she must have been mistaken, because little girls who wake +up as bright and early as Mary Jane did that next day, don't waste their +nights a-dreaming. + +"Daddah!" she called to her father in a loud whisper, "are you waked up? +Daddah!" + +"Um-m," said her father sleepily, "what is it?' + +"Did you forget the nest," asked the little girl, "it's light now." + +"To be sure," replied her father, who by now was wide awake; "put on your +slippers and come over by my bed and look." + +Mary Jane reached down from her bed, picked up her dainty slippers and put +them on; then she threw back the covers and hurried over to her father's +bed. + +At the back of the Merrill home, upstairs, was a broad sleeping porch, +sheltered by wide eaves and completely screened. There, each in his or +her own little bed, father and mother and Alice and Mary Jane slept every +night. Of course each had their own room in the house, with a comfortable +bed for daytime rests, and stormy nights and the like; but almost every +night in the year all four of them slept out of doors. Just behind the +sleeping porch was an old apple tree and it was to this tree that Mr. +Merrill now pointed. + +Mary Jane looked and looked and then, suddenly, she saw the nest! Set way +back among the leaves it was and on it was sitting the mother bird. + +"I expect the father bird is getting breakfast for the family," said +Mr. Merrill, "and the mother is keeping the babies warm till they have +something to eat. You better get dressed now, little girl," he added, +"but you may come up here after breakfast and I guess that, if you watch +quietly, you can get a glimpse of the babies." + +As quickly as breakfast was over, Mary Jane hurried back up the stairs to +the sleeping porch and, sure enough, the mother bird and the father bird +were both gone and those cunning baby robins--four of them--were stretching +way out of the nest! Mary Jane almost gasped at first she was that +surprised; but she didn't call out, no, indeed! She kept very still and +watched--and watched. And the longer she looked the more certain she became +that something was wrong. + +"They do open their mouths so funny," she thought to herself. "I know, I +just _know_ they wouldn't open their mouths so wide if something wasn't +wrong." + +She thought a few minutes and then an idea occurred to her. The robin +babies were thirsty--of course! + +"I know how I felt that time we took too long a ride and I got thirsty," +she thought, "and their mother don't know and their father isn't here +either. I'll just _have_ to get them a drink!" + +But how to get a drink to four baby robins in the old apple tree--that was +a problem that Mary Jane couldn't figure out all at once. But she didn't +give up, no, sir! She thought and thought, and then she spied the hose +lying in the back yard. + +The very thing! + +Quick as a minute, she ran down the stairs, out the kitchen door and over +to the hose. Yes, just as she had hoped, it was attached and ready for +use. She ran up to the house wall, turned on the water (it took all her +strength, but she didn't mind that), took one good look up at the apple +tree to see just where the nest was, and then turned the hose that way. + +But something didn't seem just right. Instead of liking it, and being very +still because they were getting a good cold drink, those stupid robin +babies chirped and cried and acted far from pleased. + +"I know," thought Mary Jane, "they want it like rain," and she turned the +hose nozzle high and straight so that the water would come down on the top +of the nest. + +But that wasn't any better or even as good as the first try; for the water, +instead of coming down on the apple tree, came straight and wet onto Mary +Jane herself! She was so startled that she screamed and dropped the hose +without a thought of the robins she had meant to help. + +And then there _was_ a commotion! Mr. Merrill, who had come home for some +papers he had forgotten, came running around the house; Father Robin darted +out from the hedge and made straight for his nest; Mother Robin hurried up +from the pine tree in Doris's yard and Mrs. Merrill, tea towel still in +hand, ran out from the back porch. + +"What ever is the matter?" she cried. + +"I was just giving the baby robins a drink," sputtered Mary Jane, "and they +didn't seem to like it!" + +Mrs. Merrill gathered her into her arms, wetness and all, and held her +close. "I thought something had happened to my little girl," she said. "You +must come in and get dry clothes on, dear; then I'll tell you more about +the babies and you'll understand why they don't like too much water." + +"And _I'll_ tell you something," said father. "If you like to learn about +creatures and everything that grows, you meet me here at the back door step +at five o'clock this afternoon and I'll tell you a secret." + +"Oh, goody!" cried Mary Jane, as she clapped her wet hands. "Can't you tell +it to me now?" + +"I should say not!" said father importantly, "it's a secret! You'll have to +wait till five o'clock!" And he hurried off to his work leaving Mary Jane +to a day of wondering what might be coming--a pleasant sort of wondering, +for father's secrets were always jolly ones. + + + + +FATHER'S SECRET + + +Mary Jane thought that five o'clock would never come--never! She looked at +the clock and _looked_ at the clock and she asked mother and Alice to tell +her the time so as to be sure she herself wasn't mistaken in what the clock +said. But finally lunch time was passed, and rest time, and then Mary Jane +knew it wouldn't be very long till five o'clock. + +"Now, I'm going to dress for my secret," she said when her rest was +finished. + +"That's just what I came to see you about," said Mrs. Merrill, who came +into Mary Jane's room at that minute, "you'd better put on this little +dress." And she held up a little, old, dark blue morning dress--not at all +the sort of dress that a little girl would wear to an afternoon secret, +Mary Jane was sure of that. + +"Why, mother!" exclaimed the little girl, "you don't mean me to wear +_that_!" + +"I surely do," said Mrs. Merrill, pleasantly; "it's just the right kind of +a dress for this secret." + +"But Daddah's secret is a _nice_ secret," said Mary Jane positively. + +"His secrets always are," agreed her mother. + +"And nice secrets ought to have nice dresses," said Mary Jane. + +"Nice secrets ought to have dresses that belong to them," corrected Mrs. +Merrill. "We don't talk about things that are decided," reminded Mrs. +Merrill. "Put on the blue dress and come downstairs, Mary Jane. I'm sure +you will be glad--when father comes home." + +So Mary Jane put on the blue dress, but she wasn't very happy about it; she +felt sure, certain all the time that she was dressing, that Daddah would be +disappointed when he saw her. And she began to wonder if the secret _was_ +so very wonderful after all; it didn't sound so wonderful if an old dress +went with it--in the afternoon! + +But even though she was disappointed and a bit doubtful, she went down to +the front porch and sat on the step where she could see father the minute +he turned the corner of Fifth Street. + +"Isn't this a fine day to be out of doors!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, +contentedly. "See Mr. Robin out there, digging away for his family? He has +a hard time hunting worms in the grass. I expect he wishes we had a newly +dug garden around this place." Mary Jane looked up indifferently, just in +time to see a twinkle in her mother's eye. Did the twinkle have anything to +do with the secret? Mary Jane wondered. + +"What would he do with a garden?" she asked. + +"Get worms out of it," answered Mrs. Merrill. + +"But isn't he getting worms out of the yard?" asked Mary Jane, looking out +to where the robin was industriously pecking at the ground. + +"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Merrill, "of course he is; but see how he has to work! +Now if that yard was all dug up nicely for a garden, the worms would be +plain to see and all he would have to do would be to pick them out. Think +how much easier that would be." + +Mary Jane didn't answer. She looked out at the robin, but someway, she +couldn't quite take an interest in his affairs; she was too busy thinking +about her own secret and how disappointed Daddah would be when he saw that +old dress. + +And then, just as she was going to ask the time, she spied him coming +around the corner. And she forgot all about dresses and remembered only +the secret. Down the steps, along the walk and out to the street she ran, +reaching the curbstone just as he pulled the car alongside. + +"Hop in and ride around," he said, gayly. And then, as she climbed in he +added, "Lucky you put that dress on. I forgot to tell you to be ready with +something old. Now that you are we won't have to waste time changing." + +Mary Jane stared. But seeing he seemed pleased, she said nothing about all +her worries over the old dress. + +"Do we have the secret in the car?" she asked. + +"Dear me, no!" laughed father, "it's plain to see that you haven't guessed +what it is. We'll put the car in the garage and then, while I slip on some +old clothes to match yours, you may open that bundle in the back, there. +It's part of the secret." + +Mary Jane peered over the back of her seat at the queer looking bundle in +the car. It was about as tall as she was, she decided, and bigger around +than her two hands could reach and wrapped in brown paper and tied three +times with very heavy twine. Now what could that be? + +Father set her down in the garage and handed her the package and then +hurried off into the house. + +She tried to pull the strings off but they wouldn't pull; there seemed to +be a bunch of the wrapping paper at one end and a hump inside the parcel at +the other. So she decided to run in for mother's scissors. + +But just as she got to the back steps, she met father coming out--it hadn't +taken him long to get into old clothes, that was certain. + +"Never mind about the scissors, Blunderbuss," said he laughingly, using a +name he sometimes called her, "I'll take my knife." + +Just three slashes of the sharp knife and the strings were off. Mary Jane +opened the paper with shaking fingers, she was that excited. And what do +you suppose she found? + +A garden set--a spade and a hoe and a rake all just the right size for a +little girl to work with and so pretty and clean and new that Mary Jane +knew that they had been purchased on purpose for her. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands and dancing around, "it's a garden! +I know the secret now! It's a garden! That's what mother was trying to make +me guess and I never thought! May I have one all my very ownest own?" + +"That's the secret," admitted Mr. Merrill, "and the garden is for you +only--just as long as you take care of it. Now you take your tools and I'll +take mine and we'll see where this garden is to be." + +They paraded out of the garage and over to where the last summer's garden +had been. "I've been meaning to get at this for a week," said Mr. Merrill, +"but I hate to work alone. If you'll help me, we can have the finest garden +ever. Now where do you want yours to be?" + +Mary Jane looked around thoughtfully. There was the rose bed--she surely +couldn't have that, it belonged to mother. And the asparagus bed, it was +already showing shoots of green. "I guess I'll take next door to the +rose bed," she decided promptly, "because I like roses. Can I dig it all +myself?" + +"Pretty soon," said father. "I dig first with the big spade. Then you dig +with yours. Then I hoe it--I'll show you how when we're ready; and you hoe +with your hoe." And he set to work. + +"Then do the things just grow?" asked Mary Jane as she watched him. + +"Not till we plant them," answered her father. "What are you going to +have?" + +"Worms for the robin so he won't have to work so hard," said Mary Jane +promptly, "and a lot of flowers." + +"I guess you won't have to worry about the worms," laughed Mr. Merrill as +he turned over a big spadeful of earth, "Mr. Robin will find plenty--see? +I'll make a guess that he's watching us from the apple tree this very +minute! Suppose you run into the garage and look on the table there. You'll +find packages of seeds. Bring them out here and we'll see which you want in +your bed." + +While Mr. Merrill gave the earth its heavy spading, Mary Jane got the +bright colored seed packages and spread them out on the sidewalk. Then +as she spelled out the letters, her father told her what each package +contained. Lettuce and radishes and nasturtiums and carrots and candy-tuft +and-- + +"Here's one that's me!" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly. She knew a very few +words and her own name was one of them. + +"I thought you would find that," said Mr. Merrill, "so I bought that on +purpose for you. It's Marygold and you may have it in your bed, if you +like." + +By that time the earth in her garden was turned and Mary Jane set to work +spading and hoeing just as hard as ever she could. She worked on one side +and her father worked on the other and very soon the earth was ready for +planting. + +"Now," said Mr. Merrill, "while I loosen the earth around mother's rose +bushes, you make your trenches for the seeds." And he showed her just how +it was to be done. + +[Illustration: "Here's one that's me!" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly.] + +Mary Jane never felt so big, and grown-up and important in her life as when +she made those trenches with her bright new hoe. She worked and worked till +they were neat and even and exactly right. Then her father stopped his +digging and together they opened three packages and planted the seeds. The +nasturtiums went in front, because they were the smallest plants, father +said; then the Marygolds that grow so straight and tall; and then, because +father said every garden should have something useful as well as something +beautiful, back of the Marygolds, a row of early lettuce. + +Just as the last bit of earth was patted down over the last row of seeds, +Mrs. Merrill called from the back door that dinner was about ready. + +"And we're hungry enough to eat it, aren't we, Mary Jane?" asked Mr. +Merrill. "You put away your tools and run in and wash while I tend to my +big ones and get myself ready. Let's see who's the quickest!" + +How Mary Jane did hustle! She set her new tools in the far corner of the +garage and then ran skipping into the house. + +"Scrub your hands good, dear," said her mother as she hurried through the +kitchen. "Wash your face and then run upstairs and get your blue smock and +plaid ribbon. Dark blue dresses are the thing for gardening, but we like +gay frocks for dinner, don't we, sweetheart?" + +And yet, with all that washing and dressing, Mary Jane reached the table +first--that just shows how fast she could hurry when she was racing with +father. Or maybe it was because she was so hungry. For she had three big +helpings of her favorite mashed potatoes--think of that! + +"First thing in the morning, know what I'm going to do?" she announced as +she ate the last bite, "I'm going to get Doris to see my garden, she'll +like my flowers, I know." + +"You can get Doris," laughed her father, "but don't expect flowers in the +morning. It will take them ten days to peep out of the ground. But don't +you worry, you'll like to show Doris the garden before it grows." + +"I will," replied Mary Jane, "I'll do it tomorrow." + + + + +MARY JANE PLAYS SCHOOL + + +"Mother, may I go over and get Doris this morning?" asked Mary Jane as she +finished her breakfast. "I want her to come see my garden right away!" + +"Not to-day," answered Mrs. Merrill. "Doris has the chicken pox so you will +have to stay home for a while," And then she was called to the telephone so +she didn't notice that Mary Jane ran straight for the window that looked +out over Doris's yard. + +"I think that's funny that I can't go over and see Doris's chickens," she +said to herself rebelliously as she peered through the window. "I'm going +to look, and look and _look_ till I see them anyway, so there! And then +I'll telephone to Doris." She curled up on the window seat and watched and +watched her neighbor's yard but not a sign of a chicken did she see. "I +should think she would have to feed them now," she said to her big sister +who was hurrying off to school. + +Sister Alice didn't quite understand what Mary Jane said and was in too big +a hurry to stop and inquire so she merely replied hastily, "Maybe you're +too late for breakfast," and ran on to school. So Mary Jane still sat at +that window and still watched for chickens. Finally when her legs were +beginning to get pricky and she was about ready to give up, her mother came +into the room. + +"Where does she keep it?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Where does who keep what?" replied Mrs. Merrill, "and what is my little +girl doing all this time?" + +"I'm watching to see Doris's box of chickens," said Mary Jane, "do you know +where it is?" + +"Box of chickens!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in amazement, and then she +suddenly realized how Mary Jane had misunderstood her. "Doris has no box of +chickens, dear, she has chicken POX--it's a sickness and Doris will have to +stay in the house for a few days." + +"Oh-h-h," said Mary Jane slowly, "so that's why I can't play with her." + +"That's why," agreed Mrs. Merrill, "and now what are you going to do?" + +"I guess I'll play on the porch." + +"I guess _not_" laughed mother, "because it's beginning to rain. I'm afraid +you'll have to play in the nursery. Why not play school?" + +"I'm going to," replied Mary Jane, who always made up her mind very +quickly. "I'm going to right now because Alice showed me how." And she +skipped off gayly to the nursery. + +There she pulled out every doll she had and set them in a long row on the +floor. + +"Marie Georgiannamore, you shall be lady-come-to-visit because you're the +biggest and you are clean and new. I'll be teacher because I know the most. +My sailor boy and Mary Jane, Jr., shall be the graduating class like Alice +is and all the rest shall be the baby room." + +Such a bustle and a hurry as there was after that! Mary Jane got out +all her doll chairs, every one, and set them in two rows--one for the +graduating class (a very short row of two chairs) and one for the baby room +(a very long row of many chairs). She dragged out her little piano to play +the songs on and got out fresh chalk for the blackboard. + +"There, now, I guess we're ready to begin!" she said and she sat down in +the teacher's chair up front. + +For a while everything went splendidly. The sailor boy must have known his +lessons well for he received very good marks--right up on the blackboard +where everybody could see they were, too--and the teddy bears sat up +straight and minded the rule about no whispering. But the straighter the +teddy bears sat, the more particular their teacher became about the others. + +"Tommy!" she announced suddenly (Tommy was the sailor doll), "I should +think you would be ashamed to sit so slouchy when this good little bear +sits so straight--sit up nice now!" She picked up Tommy and sat him +straight in his chair, oh, so very straight--that he couldn't sit still +that way, he just tumbled off onto the floor! + +"Tommy! I'm ashamed of you!" she said firmly. "Sit up!" And again Tommy was +pulled up straight. But evidently Tommy didn't have as much back bone as a +sailor boy should have, for he tumbled right down again. + +"Tommy Merrill!" cried Mary Jane, now all out of patience, "I should think +you'd be ashamed to have a teddy bear sit straighter than you do! I think +I'll sit you up on" (Mary Jane looked around the room to see where he had +better be put) "on this radiator till you learn to behave." So, without +giving Tommy a chance to explain that his back was made differently from +the teddy bear's back and that he was sitting just as straight as ever he +could, Mary Jane put him up on the radiator. + +"There, now, you sit there for a while, Tommy, and if you're good I'll let +you come down at recess time." + +But as it turned out, there wasn't any recess in school that morning. Tommy +had no more than been set up on the radiator before Mrs. Merrill called up +the stairs to Mary Jane, who quickly dropped her piece of chalk and ran to +the top of the stairs. + +"Did you call, mother dear?" she asked. + +"Yes, Mary Jane," replied Mrs. Merrill, "come downstairs at once. Somebody +is here to see you." + +Mary Jane dropped the book and chalk at the top of the stairs and ran down +as fast as ever she could--somebody to see her often meant a very good time +and she didn't want to miss a minute. + +"Dr. Smith," said Mrs. Merrill as Mary Jane stepped into the room, "this is +my little girl, Mary Jane." + +"I'm glad to know you, Mary Jane," said Dr. Smith. + +Mary Jane made her very best courtesy; held out her hand and then looked up +into the stranger's face and asked, "Why does she call you a doctor?" + +"Why shouldn't she?" asked the visitor curiously. + +"Because you're not a doctor," answered Mary Jane positively. "Doctors wear +funny white coats and rub their hands together and say, 'Well, little girl, +what can I do for you to-day?' doctors do." + +Dr. Smith and Mrs. Merrill laughed and the doctor sat down in the big +Morris chair and took Mary Jane in his lap. + +"I'm sorry to disappoint any little girl," he said pleasantly, "but, +you see, I'm on a vacation so I don't have to wear a white coat and ask +questions. I can sit down in this comfortable chair and have a good time." + +"Can you make Tommy behave while you are having a good time?" asked Mary +Jane. + +"Who is Tommy?" inquired the doctor. + +Mary Jane told him all about the school and Tommy who had trouble sitting +up as straight as the teddy bears did. + +"I'm afraid I can't do much for Tommy this morning," said the doctor when +she had finished, "for I'm only here between trains. But I'll tell you what +you might do. You might pack Tommy and all the bears into a trunk and visit +your great-grandmother. Then I could help you." + +"My great-grandmother!" exclaimed Mary Jane; "she lives way off in the +country!" + +"To be sure!" nodded Dr. Smith, "and so do I--I live next door to her. +That's the reason I came to see you. Now ask your mother to let you go home +with me and then we'll have plenty of time to attend to Tommy." + +"Oh, no, we couldn't think of that!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, before Mary +Jane had a chance to say a word. "Mary Jane is much too young to go so far +from home without me and I can not possibly leave home just now." + +Mary Jane looked from one to the other. A new idea, a brand new idea, was +growing in her mind; the idea of making a visit--it had never occurred to +her before. + +"Does my grandmother live in a big house?" she asked. + +"In a great, big, white farm house," replied Dr. Smith, "and she has lots +of chickens and pigs and cows and strawberry patches and milk and--well, +about everything a little girl could possibly want. And now she wishes a +little girl named Mary Jane Merrill to come and visit her." + +"And could I have really truly chickens of my own--not Doris's kind of +chickens?" asked Mary Jane. + +Mrs. Merrill laughed. "I guess you could, dear, but you mustn't think about +it because you are not going. I'm afraid you have made trouble," she added +laughingly to Dr. Smith, "because when Mary Jane starts thinking about +something, she doesn't easily forget." + +"Never you mind, Mary Jane," said Dr. Smith confidently, as he set her down +and prepared to go, "you talk about visiting your great-grandmother all you +want to, and some day you'll get there--you just see!" + +"Will I really?" asked Mary Jane after the guest had gone. + +"Really what?" said Mrs. Merrill. + +"Really go to my great-grandmother's where the chickens and strawberries +are?" + +"Dear me, I don't know," replied Mrs. Merrill. "I know you'll not go till +you are way, ever so much bigger girl than you are now--that's settled. Now +run along with your school. I think Tommy needs you." + +So Mary Jane went back to the nursery and played school. And being the kind +of a little girl who knew it was not polite to tease, she didn't talk about +the country--much. But she didn't forget--indeed, no! Not even when she was +having a good time with the surprise that came a few days later. + + + + +AUNT EFFIE COMES TO VISIT + + +Great Aunt Effie lived way off in New York City, so far away that she had +never before come to visit at Mary Jane's house. So, when one fine morning +the postman brought a letter saying that in five days Aunt Effie would be +at the Merrills, Mary Jane was quite excited. + +"What does she look like and how long is she going to stay?" asked Mary +Jane and then, before Mrs. Merrill could answer she added, "Will she like +to play with me?" + +"Don't ask me!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, "I have never seen her either. She's +your Daddah's auntie, you know, ask him." + +"That's funny," said Mary Jane, "How can she be just my Daddah's auntie? +Isn't she yours and mine too?" + +"To be sure she is," replied Mrs. Merrill; "she's our auntie now but she +was his auntie first and we haven't had a chance to see her since she +belonged to you and me. When father comes home this noon you must get him +to tell you all about the good times he and his brother used to have at her +house when they were little boys. Then you will know that you will surely +love her very much and that you'll want her to stay at our house a good +long time." + +When Mr. Merrill came home for lunch he gladly told her about many of the +good times this same auntie had given him when he was about as old as Mary +Jane. + +So no wonder Mary Jane was interested in the coming of their guest. She +helped clean the guest room and all by herself fixed the vase of violets +for the dresser. And then she put on her second best dress and drove with +her father to the station to meet the unknown auntie. + +Mr. Merrill locked the car and then he and Mary Jane went through the +station and clear out to the tracks so they might see Aunt Effie the minute +she got off the train. Pretty soon the great engine with its long trail +of big Pullmans came snorting and puffing into the station; the porters +stepped off the cars but not a single passenger appeared--except one small, +lonely-looking little woman in black who climbed out of the last car. + +"She didn't come!" exclaimed Mary Jane in dismay. + +"Yes, she did, and here she is!" laughed father as he stepped up to greet +the little lady. "Welcome, Aunt Effie! This is Mary Jane come to meet you!" + +Now Mary Jane had never seen her grandmother or any older auntie, at least +she hadn't seen them recently enough to remember them because the Merrills +lived many miles from all their kith and kin. So she was much puzzled at +the little old lady and far too shy to do more than to drop a nice little +courtesy as her mother had taught her to do. Then they all climbed into the +car and drove home. + +Aunt Effie was tired from her long journey so she didn't talk much that +evening and Mary Jane went off to bed feeling not one bit acquainted with +the auntie she had thought and talked so much about. + +"I don't believe she likes little girls," she thought sadly. "I don't +believe she even _saw_ me because when grown folks see little girls they +always say, 'How old are you, little girl?' and then they say, 'My! my! +you're almost big enough to go to school!' and she didn't say a thing to +me!" And she went to sleep thinking about how fine it would be to have a +really truly "play-with" auntie come to visit. + +Aunt Effie hadn't come down to breakfast yet when Mary Jane had finished +hers so she started playing all by herself. "I think I'll play dress up +to-day," she said to her mother as she slipped down from the table. + +"That will be fine," said Mrs. Merrill; "the attic is plenty warm and you +can play up there all you like to, only you must remember to put everything +away neatly when you have finished playing." + +"I will, mother dear," answered Mary Jane and she kissed her mother and +started up the stairs. + +Now up in the Merrill attic, off in a nice comfortable corner where it +wouldn't be in any one's way, was the girls' "dress-up box." In it were +kept all the clothes that Alice and Mary Jane were allowed to play with. +There were old coats and wonderful old hats that were so queer one would +never guess real ladies had worn them! And slippers and hair ribbons and +petticoats and shawls and silk dresses and morning dresses and parasols +and--oh, the most things you ever saw! Whenever Mrs. Merrill had something +that she couldn't use any more and that wasn't worth giving away to some +needy person, she put it in the girls' box. And whenever the girls, either +Alice with her big girl friends or Mary Jane with her little playmates +wanted to dress up or have a show they helped themselves out of the box--it +was great fun as you can see. Many a morning when Mary Jane was tired of +being Mary Jane, she slipped off to the attic and dressed up to be somebody +else. + +This particular morning she hardly knew what she was going to be. She +pulled out a couple of gay hair ribbons, a pair of dark gloves and a +shopping bag. And the bag decided the play for her. + +"I'm going to be Aunt Effie-like-I-thought-she-was," she said gayly, "and +I'm going to come and visit!" And then she set to work pulling stuff out of +the box and hunting just the right thing to dress in. She finally put on a +gay plaid skirt, a big black hat trimmed with a great pink rose, a yellow +waist and a red scarf. Then she pulled on the pair of gloves, picked up the +shopping bag and started for the stairs. + +And who do you suppose she met coming up? Aunt Effie! The real Aunt Effie! + +"Well, good morning!" said the real Aunt Effie smilingly, "who have we +here?" + +Mary Jane looked long and carefully. She hated to take other people into +her games and then find out that they laughed at her. And she had learned +by experience that some grown folks never learn the game of "dress-up." +But Aunt Effie, the this-morning Aunt Effie, whose eyes looked rested and +smiling, seemed very much as though she might understand dress-up, very +much. Mary Jane decided to try her. + +"I'm Aunt Effie come to visit," she said solemnly. + +"Now, isn't that nice," answered Aunt Effie and she didn't seem one bit +surprised or amused or anything that grown folks sometimes are, "and who am +I?" + +"Oh, will you play too?" cried Mary Jane clapping her hands happily. + +"To be sure I will," laughed the real Aunt Effie, "that's what I came +upstairs for." + +"Then you come over here by the box and I'll dress you up in some little +girl things and you can be Mary Jane," said the happy little girl. "Do you +like pink or blue sashes?" + +Aunt Effie decided for blue and fortunately they found a nice, long blue +ribbon and a white dress of Alice's that was just the thing. Such fitting +and pinning and dressing and tying you never saw. And when it was all done, +Aunt Effie looked so much like a little girl that she couldn't help but act +like one and she and the "dress-up" auntie played together all the morning +long. + +So much fun did they have that mother had to call twice to make them +understand that lunch was ready! + +"Here, you show me how you want things put away, Mary Jane," said Aunt +Effie hastily when they finally heard. "Let's scramble them away so as not +to keep mother waiting." + +"We'll put them right on the top in the box," said Mary Jane, "'cause we'll +want to play some more--lots!" + +And they did, many times. + + + + +KEWPIE AND THE WASHING + + +One morning a few days after the dress-up fun Aunt Effie had to go down +town on some errands and Mary Jane was left to play by herself. She and +her auntie had grown to be such good play fellows that it was hard to find +something interesting to do without Aunt Effie to join in the fun. + +"Why _don't_ you find something to do and then do it?" said Mrs. Merrill +after Mary Jane had made pictures on the window pane and rummaged through +the mending basket and poked her finger into the canary's cage and fingered +the forbidden little green balls on the ends of the fern leaves. "Little +girls can't expect to have a good time when they do all the things they +are not allowed to do. Go and play with Marie Georgiannamore, you haven't +played with her since Aunt Effie came." + +"Will you play too?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Not for a while yet, dear," replied mother, "because this is wash morning +and I have a new laundress to look after. Didn't you see her come around +the house when we were at breakfast? I have to go downstairs and show her +how we like our clothes washed and starched. Don't you want to go along?" + +"Oh, yes, mother, I do!" cried Mary Jane happily. "I want to learn to wash, +too." Then she thought a minute. "But I believe I'd better take Marie +Georgiannamore along too--she's lonesome." + +"I'm sure she is," answered Mrs. Merrill. "You run along and get her and +then we'll go to the laundry." + +Mary Jane hurried upstairs for her big doll, but, though she searched every +place that a big doll ought to be, not a sign of Marie Georgiannamore could +she see. + +"Mother!" called Mary Jane over the front stair railing, "Marie +Georgiannamore's lost!" + +"Lost--no, surely not," said Mrs. Merrill and she started up the stairs to +hunt for the misplaced dolly. "Oh, I remember now, dear," she added when +she was half way up, "Aunt Effie took her clothes off to wash them and I +expect the dolly is some place in her room. Get your biggest kewpie and +come on, I can't wait too long." + +Now Kewpie, the biggest kewpie, was the doll with the broad smile who slept +with Mary Jane every night. Other dolls got their hair mussed or their +clothes untidied or something; but Kewpie could always be depended on to be +neat and smiling no matter where he slept or what happened to him--a most +satisfactory doll to take to bed as you can see. Mary Jane ran into her +room to get him but her bed was all neatly made and Kewpie was nowhere to +be seen. + +"Kewpie's lost too," called Mary Jane. + +"No, he isn't," laughed mother, who by that time was at the bottom of the +stairs, "he must be right there, you had him in bed last night, you know." + +Mary Jane ran back and poked her hand under the pillow; looked under the +bed; on the dresser and on the window seat. No Kewpie was to be found. + +"You'll find him in a minute," Mrs. Merrill called up the stairs, "and then +you come down and meet me--I'll be looking for you, dear." And then she +hurried on to her waiting duties. + +Mary Jane hunted and hunted but she didn't find Kewpie. She did find her +rag doll tucked back in the far corner of the closet and she began playing +with her and forgot all about Kewpie and the new laundress and even about +her own lonesomeness with Aunt Effie away. She had such a good time +dressing the rag doll in new clothes and going visiting with her and all +that, that she didn't notice mother when she twice peeped into the door to +see if her little girl was safe and happy. First thing Mary Jane knew, it +was lunch time--you know how quickly the clock does run round and round +when you are having a good time. + +Now on wash day the Merrills didn't have their lunch on the dining table as +they did on other days; no, because they liked to do different things and +wash day is a very good day to be different. On that day Mrs. Merrill +fixed a tempting little tray for each person and left all the trays on the +kitchen table. Then each person as he or she came home, father and Alice +and Aunt Effie (and of course mother and Mary Jane who were already +at home, had trays too), went into the kitchen and got his or her own +tray--the trays could be told apart by the napkin rings marked with +initials--and carried it into the living room and sat down in a comfortable +chair and ate lunch. And afterwards, each person carried his or her own +tray back to the kitchen table. They thought that way of eating lunch was +lots of fun and Mary Jane well remembered how big and important she felt +the first day mother allowed her to carry her own tray (with the glass of +milk on mother's tray for safe keeping, of course) and to hold it on her +own lap like big folks instead of sitting up to the piano bench like a +baby! Mary Jane felt bigger that day than she ever had in all her life. + +Just as she had picked up her tray and was going out of the kitchen on this +particular noon, the new laundress came up from the laundry. Of course that +wasn't so very unusual for Mary Jane often met the laundress in the kitchen +at noon time, but it was unusual to have the laundress step up and lay +something on her tray. Mary Jane had to hold tight to keep from spilling +something she was so surprised! + +"I guess this must be yours, little girl," the laundress said, "I found it +in one of the sheets." And Mary Jane looked and saw her Kewpie that she had +hunted so hard to find. + +"Oh, that must be my fault!" exclaimed mother. "I gathered the sheets up +in such a hurry this morning that I quite forgot to look for Kewpie--I'm +sorry!" + +Mary Jane looked up at the kindly face of the new laundress, "Thank you +so much," she said, "and I'm coming down to see you after I have eaten my +lunch." + +So as soon as she had lunched and had carried her tray back to the kitchen +table, she hurried downstairs to the laundry. That new laundress seemed to +know a great deal about little girls and to like them for she answered all +Mary Jane's questions and told stories and didn't seem to be bothered a bit +by having a little guest. + +"There!" she said finally, "I'm ready to hang out. Do you want to come +along to the yard and hold the clothes pins?" + +"I'll come pretty soon," said Mary Jane, and then she added importantly, "I +have something I want to do first." + +"Come along then, when you're through," answered the laundress +unsuspiciously, and she picked up the heavy basket and went out of doors. + +Left alone, Mary Jane slipped over to the wringer--that was the one thing +above all others in the laundry that interested her and she did want to see +how it worked. She turned the handle slowly three or four times, watching +the cogs as she did so to see how they fit into each other so neatly and +then so quickly slipped out again. + +"I do think that's funny," she said thoughtfully; "there must be something +in there that makes them act so, I guess I'd better see what it is." And +slowly turning the handle with one hand, she stuck an inquiring finger in +between the cogs. + +Of the few minutes that followed, Mary Jane never had a very good idea. +She knew she must have screamed with the pain of a hurt finger because the +laundress rushed in from the yard, mother came from upstairs and in a few +minutes Aunt Effie hurried breathlessly down the stairs. Then, before long, +the doctor was there too, and her finger was all tied up with sticks on +each side and father hurried in the front door and asked her how she'd like +a nice, long, Christmasy stick of candy. It all happened just that quick. + +"I think things is so funny," said Mary Jane later as she luxuriously +licked her candy. "If Marie Georgiannamore hadn't hid and if Kewpie hadn't +gone to the washing and if I hadn't wondered about that wringer thing, I +wouldn't have had this candy that I've wanted for--for ninety-seven days." + +"Yes," agreed the doctor as he went out of the door, "things is funny. And +my advice to you, young lady, is this; next time you want to see how a +wringer works, ask before you investigate. Another time you might lose, +instead of bruise, your finger." + +"I will," nodded Mary Jane, "only I don't want to know how it works any +more--I know enough now, I do." + + + + +JUNIOR'S SHOWER BATH + + +It's very funny to go around the house with your finger tied up in a +bandage and two strips of wood--that is, it's funny the first day. By the +second day it's queer and after that it's no fun at all; it's a bother. + +Long before Mary Jane was allowed to use her hand again she had decided +that never, _never_, NEVER would she poke her finger into anything. It +takes only a second to poke a finger in but it takes a good long time to +get a badly hurt finger well, she had learned that. + +For the first three days Aunt Effie played with her all the day long and +that wasn't so bad. They played dress up and school and Aunt Effie showed +her how she had school when she was a little girl. And they made new +dresses for all the dolls; and straightened the drawers of all the doll +dressers and--well, they did every single thing that Mary Jane could +think of or Aunt Effie could plan. And then, without a minute's warning a +telegram came; a telegram which said that Aunt Effie must come home at once +because her sister was sick. + +And after that Mary Jane was lonesome, oh, so very lonesome and she +couldn't think of half enough things to do to fill the days. For, you see, +Mrs. Merrill had her duties and father had to go to his work and Alice had +her school and Doris had the chicken pox so no one, much as they might have +wished to, could spend every minute of the day with a little girl who was +perfectly well except for a hurt finger. That little girl had to play by +herself a part of the time. + +Mary Jane was standing by her mother's dresser, a couple of mornings after +Aunt Effie left, when the cleaning woman came into the room to give it its +weekly cleaning. + +"Why don't you help here, Mary Jane?" suggested Mrs. Merrill; "you could +dust my dresser things with your well hand and lay each thing, as you dust +it, on the bed. Then I'll shake the dresser cover and Amanda will put +the dust sheet on the bed and everything will be ready for cleaning in a +jiffy." + +If there was one thing above another that Mary Jane loved to do, it was to +handle the pretty things on her mother's dresser. Ordinarily she wasn't +allowed to touch a thing there, so she quickly replied, "Yes, mother, I'd +love to help," and then took the dusting cloth Mrs. Merrill handed her and +set to work. + +She dusted off the pin tray and the toilet water bottle and brushed the +fringe of the lamp shade--she knew exactly what to do because she had +watched her mother many times. + +"There, now!" she said in a satisfied voice, "it's all ready for the cover +cloth. Can you put it on, 'Manda?" Amanda Rice was the good cleaning woman +who came every week to set the Merrill house in apple pie order; she and +Mary Jane were fast friends. + +"Jest a little minite, honey," replied Amanda, "soon as ever I gets this +rain room clean." + +Just off Mrs. Merrill's room was a tiny room which opened also into the +bathroom and in this tiny room was a shower bath. Amanda insisted on +calling it the rain room because the water came down from the ceiling like +rain; and she always seemed to have a fear that something about that room +would hurt her. She was most particular to clean that room before she did +either the bathroom or Mrs. Merrill's room--she seemed to want the bad job +out of the way. + +Perhaps when Mary Jane asked her to hurry with the cover cloth, Amanda +hurried a little too fast with her scouring of faucets or perhaps she was +just careless. However it happened, she turned on the cold water and it +poured over her from the ceiling in an ice cold shower. + +"Heavens! Honey! Lor' a mercy! De water hit me!" she shouted and she ran, +dripping and screaming out of the shower room, out of the bedroom and down +the hall. + +Mrs. Merrill came hurrying to see what the matter might be and Mary Jane +jumped to turn off the water before it should splatter out on the bedroom +floor. And then, while Mrs. Merrill was busy comforting Amanda and hunting +some dry clothes for her, Mary Jane sat down on the bed room floor to +think. How funny Amanda had looked with the water running all over her +clothes! Mary Jane, who had been used to a shower bath from the time she +was a tiny little girl, had never before realized how funny it seemed to +other folks. "I expect Doris would think it was funny," she thought. "I +wonder if she knows about it. And wouldn't Junior look--" but Mrs. Merrill +bustled into the room just then and Mary Jane had no more time for +thoughts. + +Mrs. Merrill worked rapidly to make up for lost time. She shook the dresser +scarf out of the window, brushed off the window-seat pillows and finished +making the room ready for Amanda. "Now, dear," she said to Mary Jane when +everything was finished, "Amanda is coming in here to sweep, why don't you +go out and play a while with Junior? See? He's out in the yard. If you play +nicely, you won't hurt your finger, I'm sure." + +Mary Jane didn't care much about playing with Junior just then; she would +far rather have stayed and help Amanda sweep. So she walked very slowly +down the stairs and out of doors and was none too cordial in her greeting +to Junior. But he didn't seem to mind and as it's very hard to keep on +snubbing a person who doesn't notice he is being snubbed, Mary Jane soon +gave it up and they began making mud pies. Nice goo-y mud pies out of the +black mud in the to-be-geranium bed near the house. + +But hardly had they finished their pies and arranged them on the edge of +the porch to bake, before Junior's mother called him to come home. + +"She's always calling you home," protested Mary Jane, "but I 'pose you'll +have to go or you can't ever come over here again!" + +"Yes," agreed Junior, "I'd better go home. But I'll come back again." And +he started to wipe his muddy hands on his trousers. + +"Oh, don't, Junior!" cried Mary Jane. "You know what your mother'll say! +She don't like mud pies anyway. Come into the house and wash 'em before you +go." + +The two children skipped into the house and upstairs to the bathroom where +Mary Jane filled the bowl with warm water--then she thought of something. + +"Do you like to walk out of doors in the rain?" she asked craftily. + +"Yes," replied Junior in surprise, "only my mother won't let me." + +"Don't you think she'd let you if it rained indoors?" + +"I don't know, 'cause it don't," replied Junior decidedly. + +"Yes, it does, it does at our house," said Mary Jane. "You stand inside +this door, and I'll show you." + +Junior seemed to have some objection to closets so it took coaxing to get +him where Mary Jane wanted him. But when, on careful inspection, he +found that this closet had two doors, quite unlike other closets he was +acquainted with, and also that it looked very harmless, he stepped over the +high sill and onto the tile floor. Quick as a flash Mary Jane reached up +and turned on the water--and down came the deluge! + +Water so cold that it took his breath away so he couldn't scream and then, +in a minute, so hot that it burned him, descended from the spray in the +ceiling and soaked him to the skin. Mary Jane sat on the door sill, in all +the splatter, and laughed and laughed. Junior grabbed for the door and +shook it trying to get out--just as Mrs. Merrill opened the door from her +bedroom onto the sight. Junior darted passed her and ran down the stairs, +dripping water and mud from his dirty hands on every step and screaming at +the top of his voice all the way. + +"What in the world--" began Mrs. Merrill. + +"We was just talking about water from the sky in the house," explained +Mary Jane innocently, "and Junior was surprised to see it come. I guess he +thought water from the sky in the house would be dry," she added. + +"And I," said Mrs. Merrill as she took off her dusting cap and reaching +into the clothes closet for her coat, "will have to leave my work and go +over and explain and apologize. Mary Jane, you sit right there on that +chair till I come back and you can't have another little playmate over this +week--not one!" + +Mary Jane sat down on the big chair and started counting the boards in +the floor. "One, two, three, six nine seven, ten," she said to herself +patiently. "Then if nobody can come to see me, I guess I'll have to find +somebody right in this house. I wonder--" + +What did she wonder?--wait and see. + + + + +PLAYMATE DOROTHY + + +"You sit right there, Dorothy, and make yourself at home," said Mary Jane, +"and I'll get Marie Georgiannamore for you to play with." + +"What in the world!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill to herself as she passed Mary +Jane's door on the morning after Junior had had his shower bath. "Who can +be there now? I particularly told Mary Jane not to invite any children in, +this week." She opened the door and was already to say, "Whose little girl +are you?" as she usually did to new friends that Mary Jane brought home. +But this time there wasn't any little girl there! Only Mary Jane and her +dolls and her teddy bears playing as contentedly as you please. + +"Oh!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, much relieved, "that's a joke on me, Mary Jane; +I thought you were talking to some new little girl. I didn't know that you +had named one of your dolls Dorothy." + +"I was talking to a little girl," answered Mary Jane solemnly, "and I +haven't changed the name of one of my dolls--not one." + +"Well, that's nice," said Mrs. Merrill, but she didn't pay more than half +attention to what Mary Jane said because she just happened to think of +something that she surely must order from the grocery as soon as she could +get downstairs. "I'm glad you are having such a good time." And she kissed +her little daughter lightly and went away. + +"You'll have to excuse her, Dorothy," apologized Mary Jane, "grown folks +don't know much sometimes and I'm sure she didn't see you or she'd have +asked you to stay for lunch." She pulled two chairs over to the window +seat, got out paper and colored pencils and then sat down in one chair. +"Now you make snow on your paper and I'll make a picture." + +For some minutes there was quiet in the nursery except for the sound of +Mary Jane's pencil rubbing, rubbing on the paper. + +"There!" she said at last, "there's a cow and two chickens and a strawberry +like they have at my great-grandmother's that Dr. Smith told me about. +Let's see your snow," she added politely. She picked up the blank piece +of white paper that lay in front of the other chair and looked at it +thoughtfully. "You do make nice snow, Dorothy," she said, "it's so clean +and white. Now let's go down and see if lunch is ready." + +When she reached the door of the nursery, she stepped back to let some one +pass out in front of her and as she went downstairs she was careful to keep +well to one side so that there was plenty of room for some one to walk +beside her. She went through the empty living room, through the dining room +and out into the kitchen where her mother was working. + +"May Dorothy and I have our lunch?" she asked. + +"Lunch?" asked Mrs. Merrill, and in her hurry she only noticed half what +Mary Jane said, "yes, in just a minute. It's almost time for father and I'm +so late. Will you run into the dining room, dear, and see that the chairs +are all set up to the table as they should be? That's a good little +helper." + +Mary Jane hurried back to the dining room and set five chairs up to the +table--to be sure they were a bit crowded and so was the extra place +Mary Jane set with napkin, plate, glass and silver that she got from the +sideboard, but Mary Jane didn't seem to notice that, she was quite pleased +and satisfied with her work. + +"Now you sit right here, Dorothy," she said, "and I'll sit beside you so +you won't be lonesome." She pushed her chair beside the vacant one and +climbed into it. + +Father and mother and Alice came into the room one after another and each +exclaimed over the vacant chair. + +"Who's the company?" asked father. + +"Why the chair?" demanded Alice. + +"I thought you knew how to count, Mary Jane," added mother. "Didn't you +know there were only four of us? You're a funny little girl!" + +"I can count," said Mary Jane with great dignity, "and I know there are +four of us when five of us isn't here. But I had to have a chair for +Dorothy." + +And then, for the first time, Mrs. Merrill realized that something was +going on in Mary Jane's mind--something new. + +"Dorothy?" she asked kindly; "who is this Dorothy you have been telling me +about?" + +"She's the little girl who comes to see me when you won't let me play with +anybody come to see me," explained Mary Jane patiently, "and I'm glad she's +here because I'm lonesome and I want her to stay for lunch because she's a +nice little girl and I don't like people to laugh." + +Mrs. Merrill frowned at Mr. Merrill and Alice who showed signs of laughing +and then gathered her little girl into her arms. "Have you been as lonesome +as that?" she asked. + +"Just as lonesome as lonesome," answered Mary Jane. "I'm lonesomer than +when nobody comes to see me because this time I know nobody's coming to see +me even if they wouldn't anyway." + +"Why is she so lonesome?" asked Mr. Merrill who seemed to understand just +what his little girl meant even though what she said was a little mixed. +"Can't anybody play with her?" + +Mrs. Merrill reminded him of Junior's shower bath and of her command that +Mary Jane should have no more guests till she had learned how to treat +them. "I've been too busy this morning to give any lessons in treating +guests," she added, "but I had planned to have a first rate lesson this +afternoon. I had planned to take Mary Jane calling with me; then she could +see just what good times folks can have and still be kind and polite. How +would you like to go calling with me, Mary Jane?" + +"Really?" exclaimed Mary Jane who could hardly believe her good luck; +"really truly, grown-up-lady calling, mother?" + +"Really truly," said mother, "but wait a minute. Do you think you could +leave Dorothy at home? I wouldn't care to take two little girls at once." + +"Oh, yes," replied Mary Jane who was suddenly anxious to oblige, "I could +leave her home and I think maybe, while I was gone she might go away on the +train to--to--see her Aunt Effie, don't you think she might?" + +"Indeed I do," said Mrs. Merrill. "It wouldn't surprise me a bit to find +her gone when we came back. Now eat your lunch, Mary Jane, and then we'll +go upstairs and rest a bit before we dress to make our calls. We'll have a +beautiful afternoon and you'll see just how nicely folks treat other folks +when they come to visit. And remember, dear, if you had treated Junior as +kindly as you treat Dorothy, you could have had all the company that came." + +"I am remembering it," said Mary Jane meekly, "and, mother, may I wear my +pink dress with the smocking and the pink ribbons?" + +Mrs. Merrill said that she might, so a very happy Mary Jane finished her +lunch and hurried upstairs to lie down for fifteen minutes in a dark room. + +When the time was up Mrs. Merrill came to her door and asked, "Did you see +anything of my butterfly pin when you cleared off my dresser yesterday +morning, Mary Jane?" + +"No-o-o, I didn't," said Mary Jane thoughtfully. + +"That's funny," replied Mrs. Merrill, "I was sure it was there! Of course +I should have put it where it belongs but I can't see where it could get +to--I know Amanda wouldn't take it and you would have remembered, wouldn't +you, if you had put it anywhere?" + +"Yes, mother, I'm sure I would," said Mary Jane positively. "I know I +didn't touch it, I didn't even see it once!" + +"Well, I've hunted everywhere I can think of so I guess it's gone and I +would rather lose anything I have than lose that pin! Just see how big +ladies get punished when they are careless! I didn't put my pin away where +it belonged and now it is gone. But don't you feel too badly, dear," she +added when she saw how sorry Mary Jane felt for her; "it's time for us to +dress for our calls." + +So Mary Jane quickly forgot about her mother's loss. She scrubbed her hands +and put on her own shoes and made herself all ready for her mother to brush +her hair and slip on the new pink dress. Then the very last thing, the hat +with the pink rosebuds was put on and they started out. + +Such a good time as they did have! Two ladies they called on, and one must +surely have expected a little girl would come to visit because she had tea +served with sandwiches (Mary Jane ate three, two made with marmalade and +one with lettuce--think of that!) and pink candles which twinkled and +looked _almost_ as nice as the sandwiches. Such a _very_ good time did they +have that they barely got home in time to meet Alice as she came in from +school. + +And playmate Dorothy must surely have gone away while they were calling +because she was never heard of again. + + + + +LEARNING TO SEW + + +"I like to do lady things," said Mary Jane the next morning. "Isn't there +something we can do to-day?" + +"Something that's a 'lady' thing?" asked Mrs. Merrill. + +"Yes, a really truly lady thing," explained Mary Jane; "something that I +don't know how to do 'cause I like to learn things." + +"Yes, there are lots of things we might do, but I haven't much time I +fear," replied her mother, "because I promised Alice I would finish her +dress." + +"Then you'll have to sew," said Mary Jane and though she tried not to mind, +she couldn't help being disappointed. + +"Yes," agreed Mrs. Merrill, "I'll have to sew. But I'll tell you, Mary +Jane, what you might do" (and Mary Jane's disappointment vanished as soon +as she saw her mother had a plan) "you might sew too." + +"Oh, goody, goody, goody!" exclaimed Mary Jane and she clapped her hands +gayly, "and that's a grown-up lady thing for true!" + +"I should say it was," said Mrs. Merrill. + +"Shall I make me a dress?" asked Mary Jane. + +"Well, not just the first thing," laughed Mrs. Merrill; "folks don't learn +to sew on dresses--not even big ladies do that. Now what had you better +begin on?" And she thought a minute while Mary Jane watched her anxiously. +"Oh, I know! You can make a picture card." + +"Sew a card?" asked Mary Jane doubtfully. + +"Yes, it's lots of fun," said her mother. + +"But Alice don't do that," objected Mary Jane, "she sews goods." + +"I know she does now," replied Mrs. Merrill, "but she used to sew cards and +she loved doing it too. Only that was so long ago you know nothing about +it. I remember that just the other day I saw some pretty picture sewing +cards at the store; I'll go right to the phone and order some for you." And +she hurried off to get the order in before the first delivery started. + +As she came back into the room Mary Jane asked, "Do I have to wait all the +time till the picture card comes before I begin my lady work?" + +"It won't be long till that gets here," said Mrs. Merrill; "maybe it will +be here before we are ready because we haven't done our breakfast dishes +yet--that's a joke on us, isn't it?" + +Mary Jane agreed that it was and in gay spirits they set to work. + +Some folks might have said that a little girl Mary Jane's age was far too +young to dry dishes--that she might break them. But Mary Jane's mother was +not one of those "some folks." She believed that little girls not only +could help well, but that they liked helping. So Mary Jane had learned to +dry dishes some time ago and could polish the silver and shine the glasses +just as well as any one. Of course it might take a little longer than when +mother or 'Manda or Alice did it, but who cares about time when a job is +well done? And there was one thing about working with her mother that Mary +Jane especially liked; while they worked, they always talked--such fine +talks, Mary Jane thought, about everything that Mary Jane liked to talk +about. + +This morning it was sewing, of course. + +"How old were you when you learned to sew, mother?" asked Mary Jane as she +picked up a glass and began to shine it. + +"Let me see," said Mrs. Merrill thoughtfully. "I was younger than you are, +I know, I wasn't more than three and a half or four years old." + +"And did you sew on a card?" asked Mary Jane. + +"No, because sewing cards for little girls to learn on were not made then. +Or if they were, my mother didn't know about them. I learned by making a +quilt for my doll bed." + +"What's a quilt?" asked Mary Jane as she set her first glass down and +picked up another. + +"A quilt is something like a comforter," explained Mrs. Merrill, "only it +isn't made so thick and heavy and the outside is made up of lots of little +pieces of cloth sewed together in a pattern. I remember my grandmother +Camfield came to visit us and she thought it was so dreadful that I--a +great big girl nearly four years old--hadn't learned to sew or knit. So she +hunted up my mother's piece bag the very first day she came and cut out +some blocks for me to piece. Funny pieces they were, too, Mary Jane, you'll +laugh when I show it to you sometime! Because the goods look very different +from the kinds of goods we see now, very different. I know one piece had +big red horse shoes all over it and another had horses' heads. Those pieces +were from my little brother's waists and were thought just exactly right +for boys in those days." + +"Can't I make a quilt for my dollies?" asked Mary Jane eagerly. + +"To be sure you can, dear," answered Mrs. Merrill, "only I think you will +find it more fun to learn to sew on those pretty cards I've ordered. Then +when you can handle your needle well, you can make a quilt just as I did. +There, now, we're through here," she added, "and if you'll clean the +bathroom washstand while I tidy the bedrooms, we can sit right down to +sew." + +If there was one bit of housework above another that Mary Jane loved to do, +it was to clean the bathroom washstand; and she could do it beautifully, +too. Mrs. Merrill gave her a soft cloth and the box of cleaning powder and +she went to work. First she cleaned the soap dish; then she sprinkled a +little powder on her cloth (just as she had seen 'Manda do many a time) and +then she rubbed and rubbed the faucets till they shone so bright and clear +that she could see her hair ribbon in them. Next she sprinkled powder on +the stand and cleaned that; and last of all, she scoured the bowl. Then +she called to her mother (and this part was the most fun of all Mary Jane +thought) and watched while Mrs. Merrill inspected the work and said (as she +always did), "that's _beautiful_, Mary Jane! What a fine worker you are!" +Then she ran and put away the can of powder and the cloth and the job was +done. + +This morning, just as the can was set in the closet where it belonged, the +door bell rang. + +"Can you go, dear?" asked Mrs. Merrill. "I expect that's the delivery man +with your sewing." + +Could Mary Jane go? Well, indeed she could! She rushed down the stairs as +fast as she could go and opened the front door in such a jiffy that the +delivery man jumped with surprise as she said, "Is it my sewing?" + +"Search me," he answered, "it's a box." And he handed her the parcel. + +"Oh, dear, then it isn't," said Mary Jane much disappointed; and she +turned and went slowly up the stairs--so slowly, that you would never have +guessed, from the time it took her to go up, that they were the same stairs +she had so quickly hurried down not two minutes before. + +"It isn't it," she announced sadly at the door of her mother's room. + +"Oh, yes, I guess it is," said Mrs. Merrill, and Mary Jane noticed that she +didn't seem a bit worried. "It must be, because I haven't bought anything +else. Come over here and let's see." + +She pulled her chair up to the window and turned Mary Jane's little rocker +facing it. "Now, let's see what it is," she said; "maybe you'd like to open +it." + +Mary Jane would. She pulled off the string, unfolded the paper--and what do +you suppose she found inside? The prettiest box you ever saw! On it was a +picture of a little girl, about as old as Mary Jane maybe, and some queer +looking cards, pictures of the cards, that is, and some gay looking colors +that appeared to be pictures of colored thread. + +"Why, it _is_ my sewing, isn't it, mother?" exclaimed Mary Jane in happy +surprise. + +"Looks like it, doesn't it, dear?" agreed Mrs. Merrill. "Suppose you open +it to be sure." + +Mary Jane opened the box as it lay on her lap and the inside was even more +interesting looking, she found, than the outside had been. The box was +divided into three parts by tiny little partitions. In the biggest part was +a pile of cards with funny marks and holes that looked as though they were +meant to make a picture; and in the middle sized part was a pile of gay +colored skeins of thread; and in the littlest part was a paper of needles +with nice big eyes. + +"Oh, mother!" exclaimed Mary Jane. That was all she could say, she was so +surprised and pleased. + +"I thought you'd like that," said her mother. "Now, while I get out my +sewing, you look over the pictures and see which one you'd rather make +first. Then pick out the color thread you want to sew with and I'll show +you how to cut the skein and thread your needle." + +Mary Jane looked once through the pile of cards and then again before she +could make a choice. She finally laid out one that had a picture of a +little girl in a big sunbonnet and another of a sunflower growing in a +garden. "There, now!" she asked her mother, "which shall I make? I want to +do both right away quick and see what they look like when they are sewed." + +"Let's make the little girl first," suggested mother, "and make her wear a +pink sunbonnet just like yours. Then you can make the sunflower next and +the two together will be Mary Jane working in a garden." + +That suited Mary Jane exactly; so the thread was cut, the needle threaded +(and that wasn't nearly as hard work as Mary Jane had feared it would be, +thanks to the needle's big eye) and she set to work. + +Such a busy morning as they did have--Mary Jane and her mother! Mary Jane +liked sewing even better than she had thought she would and she worked +faithfully. So faithfully that by the time the clock said, "time to get +lunch"! the little girl with the pink sunbonnet was all finished and the +thread was ready to begin the sunflower. + +"Ugh!" exclaimed Mary Jane with a big stretch, "we worked hard, didn't we, +mother?" + +"Indeed we did," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "and now we'd better hurry down and +start lunch. I see Alice way down at the corner there and by the way the +girls are all talking together--see them, Mary Jane" (and she pointed down +the street where a parting between the trees allowed them to see a long +way)--"I guess Alice has some plan to talk about. Luckily we'll be ready +for her in a jiffy!" And together the sewing ladies hurried down to the +kitchen. + + + + +MAKING READY FOR THE PICNIC + + +Alice dashed into the house with a flurry of good spirits. + +"Oh, mother," she exclaimed, "the girls say that the violets are out and we +do want to have a wild flower hunting picnic up Clearwater! May we? And may +I go?" + +Mrs. Merrill dropped her work and looked up at her big girl in surprise. + +"A picnic up Clearwater!" she said. "Is it warm enough for picnics? Oh" (as +Alice started to exclaim), "I know it is warm enough if a little girl has +been running home from school--I don't doubt that it is! But you must +remember that the ground stays damp a long time in the spring and that a +picnic usually means sitting around on the ground." + +"Well, this wouldn't be a sitting around picnic, mother," said Alice +eagerly, "because we're going to hunt violets and you can't sit around much +if you do that." + +"No, that's true," laughed Mrs. Merrill, who very well knew how Alice loved +to flower hunt through the woods. "Who are 'we' that you speak of?" + +"Oh, Ruth and Marcia and Frances, of course, and maybe Virginia and Jane," +replied Alice. + +"And whose mother is going along?" questioned Mrs. Merrill, who always +liked to get all the information she could before making a decision. + +"The girls all _hoped_ you'd go, mother," said Alice, proudly, "because +you're such good fun at a picnic." + +"Jollier!" teased Mrs. Merrill. "What would I do with Mary Jane?" + +"Why not take her along?" asked Alice. "She's getting big now." + +At that, Mary Jane who had been watching and listening all this time, +dropped the napkins she had just taken out of the drawer and clapped her +hands happily. + +"Oh, goody, goody, will you really, mother?" she cried. "I've always wanted +to go to one of Alice's picnics!" Which was perfectly true. You see, the +little group of girls of which Alice was a member, often had gay picnic +parties and always and always Mary Jane had wanted to go along. But always +and always she had been told she was too little to walk so far, or too +little, to carry her share of baskets or too little to--something; so she +had had to stay home. + +"Take Mary Jane too?" asked Mrs. Merrill thoughtfully. "Why, yes, I guess +we could. I'll tell you what we will do, girls. We'll watch and wait and +see what the weather is by Friday noon. If it continues fine and warm for +two days, as it is to-day, I really believe we could have a picnic. Of +course the girls understand that it would be a 'start in the morning' +picnic? It's too early in the season for late afternoon picnics." + +Alice assured her that a morning picnic was just what they all wanted. "You +see, mother," she added, "Sunday is Miss Heath's birthday" (Miss Heath was +the girls' teacher) "and we want to fix a big basket of flowers to give +her." + +Never was the weather watched more closely than it was those two days. The +girls at school talked of nothing but the hoped-for picnic and the minute +Alice came into the house she had something to say about it. Mary Jane, for +her part, thought she simply _could_ not wait till the promised day came. +She sewed on her cards, she watered her garden and watched for the first +bits of green, and she played with her dolls, but with all those nice +things to do, the days seemed to drag by so slowly. + +But at last Friday noon came. Alice rushed home from school to announce +what every one knew already--that the sky was clear, the air warm, and they +could surely have the picnic. + +Mother met her at the door as she hurried up the walk. + +"I did hope you'd come promptly," she said. "Mary Jane and I have lunch on +the table ready to eat and we want you to hurry and help us plan the picnic +eats." + +"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Alice and she threw down her hat and sweater and +slipped into her seat at the table. + +With the help of father and Mary Jane, the picnic dinner was planned. Each +girl was to take a basket containing her own sandwiches, a paper plate, a +knife, fork and spoon and cup; and then one more thing to eat--and enough +of that one thing for everybody. There was to be cake, and cheese and +pickles and fruit and eggs and many good things. + +"And will Mary Jane take a basket?" asked Alice. + +"Indeed she will," replied Mrs. Merrill, "and it will have something good +in it, you can count on that." + +"Oh, what will it be?" asked Alice eagerly. + +"It will be a surprise," said Mrs. Merrill, laughing. "No, there's no use +asking, it's a surprise! Now you run along so as to give these slips of +instructions to each girl before school begins." And not another word would +she say. + +After Alice was safely out of the house, Mary Jane and her mother had a +good laugh over their surprise. + +"Won't she be pleased?" said Mary Jane happily. + +"And won't she be surprised!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill. "I thought surely she +would ask to take some and then she might have guessed! Now, dear, you help +me clear up this lunch table, then you run upstairs and take your rest +while I bake the cake. After you are dressed, you'd better run down to the +grocery and order your surprise so they surely have enough on hand in the +morning. I'll write what you want on this slip of paper." + +So Mary Jane, who always loved to help in big folks fashion, tidied up +the table. First she put away all the clean silver and napkins. Then she +propped open the swinging doors that led through the butler's pantry. Then, +with the way clear to the kitchen, she carried out all the plates and +glasses and cups that were to be washed. After the dishes were all out, she +shook the crumbs off the little blue doilies mother used for lunches and +put them away neatly in the drawer. Mrs. Merrill thought that was a great +deal of help for a little girl her age to give. + +At three o'clock she skipped down to the grocery at the corner and showed +him the paper on which Mrs. Merrill had written the order for the morning. + +"You tell her that'll be all right," said the grocery clerk as he looked +at the slip. "You can come down any time after nine and I'll have them all +done up ready for you, young lady." + +Mary Jane walked primly out of the store; it always made her feel funny to +be called young lady. But the minute she was out of the clerk's sight she +ran as fast as ever she could, toward home. + +"He says it's all right, he has plenty," she reported to her mother. + +"That's good," answered Mrs. Merrill comfortably; "there's nothing like +being sure. You run to the kitchen now, Mary Jane. I left the frosting bowl +on the chair. You'll find a teaspoon in it and you can have any frosting +you can scrape out--it's white butter frosting, the very kind you like +best." + +Mary Jane hurried off to the kitchen and found that mother had kindly left +nice little streaks of frosting all around the side of the bowl and oh, +dear, but it was good! + +Alice came in soon and a pleasant bustling around there was then. You see, +it was the first picnic of the year and baskets had to be brought down +from the attic and dusted out; picnic plates and cups hunted up from their +winter storage places and everything made ready for the morning. Mary Jane +went here and there helping all that she could and having the happiest kind +of a time--for wasn't this _her_ picnic too? The very first picnic she had +ever had with the "big" girls! + +By dinner time that evening, everything was ready as ready could be the day +before. Alice had her practicing done, mother had the grocery order for +Sunday made out and the baskets with their napkins, plates, knives, forks, +spoons and cups were set in a row on the dining room window seat. + +Bright and early the next morning the two girls were up and ready to help. +Mary Jane tidied up the breakfast table and helped mother wash the dishes +while Alice did her practicing. Then the two girls made the beds and Alice +set the bathroom in order. + +"Now, we're ready to make sandwiches," Alice announced. + +"That's good," said Mrs. Merrill. "I think you can make those all by +yourself, Alice. Mary Jane will help you if you need any waiting on, and +perhaps she can wrap the sandwiches in oiled paper as fast as you make +them." + +"Yes, I can, mother," cried Mary Jane happily. "I'll get the old scissors +to cut out the papers while Alice begins." + +"Will you cut the bread for me, mother?" asked Alice. "You cut it evener +than I can." + +"Gladly," replied Mrs. Merrill. "Then I'll skip up to the grocery with +my order so that things can be delivered in time, before we lock up the +house." + +She cut the bread and set it in neat piles ready for the sandwich making; +then she hurried off on her errand and the girls set to their work. + +Mary Jane cut the papers and chopped nuts in a chopping bowl and got the +lettuce from the ice box and wrapped up the sandwiches Alice made. She +could do that nicely--wrap them just as nice and neat as though they were +packages from a store. She set them at the back of the table ready for +the baskets; three nut sandwiches, three celery sandwiches, three lettuce +sandwiches and three jelly sandwiches all ready to be put into Alice's and +mother's and her own baskets. + +"There, now," said Alice, as she made the last one, "that's four for each +of us and mother said that would be plenty with all the other good things +we'd have to eat. But, Mary Jane!" she added in dismay, "we haven't a +single meat sandwich! And I do love meat sandwiches! How could mother have +forgotten that?" + +"She didn't forget it," said Mary Jane, "she--" And then she clapped her +hand over her mouth and ran out of the room for fear she'd tell the secret. + +But Alice was so interested in her sandwiches that she didn't notice, which +was a very good thing as Mary Jane wouldn't have wanted her secret guessed, +indeed, no! + +Mrs. Merrill came back from her errand just then and, meeting Mary Jane in +the hall she whispered, "I brought your package from the grocery, dear. +It's all wrapped up and hidden in the bottom of your basket." Then aloud +she added, "Now run along and get your wraps, Mary Jane, I saw Frances and +Jane coming as I turned the corner." + +She helped Alice tuck the sandwiches in the baskets, one of each kind in +each basket; she put the big, beautiful cake in her own and the plate of +deviled eggs in Alice's and covered the napkins over the tops. + +"Mary Jane hasn't anything to take in her basket but just her own things," +said Alice suddenly; "she ought to have something." + +"So she ought!" said Mrs. Merrill, her eyes twinkling, "but it's too late +now to get anything more; the girls are out front this very minute. I guess +we'll have enough to eat so don't you worry about Mary Jane's basket. You +start along out to the street and I'll lock the back door and join you in a +jiffy." + +A jolly party it was that strolled out of the front yard! Each girl had her +basket covered most mysteriously with a fresh white napkin--it was enough +to make a person hungry just to look at them! Mary Jane, who felt a little +queer and important on being with the big girls for her first outing, +waited at the end of the walk for her mother and then they ran a few steps +till they joined the big girls. + +"They don't know what they're going to do!" said Mary Jane gayly. + +But, dear me, Mary Jane didn't know what _she_ was going to do! If she had +even guessed what was to happen to her before she came back home--but she +didn't and perhaps it was just as well she didn't; knowing might have +spoiled the fun! + + + + +THE PICNIC UP CLEARWATER + + +Clearwater was a pretty little stream that ran through the woods just west +of the city where the Merrills lived. And as the Merrill home was on the +west side of the city, the woods and the creek were not far from their +home. To reach Clearwater they only had to walk through the Campus just +west of their yard, cut through the fields back beyond and after a walk of +less than a mile they would find themselves by the bank of a swift running +creek of clear fresh water. And along the banks of this little creek grew +the loveliest violets and buttercups and Sweet Williams that could be found +anywhere. + +Mary Jane held her precious basket firmly and walked along beside her +mother while the big girls skipped on ahead. + +But when the girls reached the banks of Clearwater they waited till Mrs. +Merrill and Mary Jane caught up with them. + +"Now keep your eyes open for flowers," called Alice as they started on +again, all together this time, "we don't want to miss any." + +"What are we to do with them when we've picked them?" asked Frances as they +walked along. + +"You won't get more than a bunch before lunch, I fancy," said Mrs. Merrill, +"so you can hold them in your hand till we find where we will eat. Then, +after lunch, you can dampen your napkin and wrap up the stems and put your +posies in the bottom of your basket. That is," she added slyly, "unless you +have a lot of food to take back home." + +"Not much danger of that!" laughed Frances. "I could eat more than I have +in there right this very minute!" + +So, laughing and joking and picking the blossoms they found as they walked, +the little party walked along the creek till they came to a bend where the +creek widened a bit and where some big bowlders made an interest looking +spot. + +"This is the very place I was looking for!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill. "I +couldn't recall just how far down the creek it was! Suppose we make this +our headquarters. Set your baskets on that biggest rock over there--that +will keep your food high and dry. That flat rock will be our table and +these two rocks here," pointing to two angle-shaped rocks that formed a big +V, "will be just right for making a fire." + +"A fire!" exclaimed Alice. "What do we want with a fire?" + +"Oh, I thought it might be fun to make one," said Mrs. Merrill +indifferently, "but of course if you don't care to--" + +"But we do, Mrs. Merrill," interrupted Ruth, "I think it would be jolly." + +"So do I," said Alice hastily, "only I was wishing we had thought of it +before and had brought along something to cook." + +"But we can have the fun of making it anyway," said Frances and she started +off in search of kindling. + +In a few minutes a brisk little fire was burning between the stones and +Mrs. Merrill added the sticks the girls brought her till she had a nice bed +of coals. + +"Do let's eat now," said Marcia, "I'm starved! Then we can finish our +picking afterwards." + +"It's only half past eleven," said Mrs. Merrill, laughingly. + +"Who cares?" asked Ruth. "That's the fun of a picnic--doing something +different." + +"Yes, let's," said Frances and Virginia together. So, as every one seemed +willing, the baskets were opened and the goodies spread out on a tablecloth +laid over the biggest rock. + +"I love a picnic that happens before fly time," said Virginia as she spread +a tempting pile of cookies out where every one could see. + +"We all do," agreed Mrs. Merrill, "and as there doesn't seem to be one +single prowler around, I guess I'll set out my cake." And of course the +girls "oh"-ed and exclaimed over its tempting whiteness as she set it on +the rock table. + +"What have you in your basket, Mary Jane?" asked Frances. + +Mary Jane looked at her mother and, as Mrs. Merrill nodded approvingly, she +laid back the napkin and gave each girl a long wire toasting fork. + +"Well, what in the world, mother!" exclaimed Alice. "Did you bring +marshmallows?" + +Mrs. Merrill shook her head and Mary Jane, without a word (though she was +trembling inside, she was that excited over her secret) picked up a big, +funny looking package and unrolled it slowly. The girls scented a secret +and watched eagerly. Slowly the paper unrolled--and then the white paper +inside and--there was the secret in plain sight! + +"Sausages!" exclaimed all the girls in one breath, "sausages we can cook!" + +"How jolly!" cried Alice. "You certainly did keep that secret well, Mary +Jane--I never even suspected." + +"May we cook them right away?" asked Ruth. "I could eat a million!" + +"Pass them around, Mary Jane," said Mrs. Merrill. "I expect you could eat +a good many, dear, but be sure to cook each one well before eating it--you +don't need to hurry, I think there are plenty!" she added teasingly. + +The girls, each armed with a long fork on the end of which was speared a +sausage, gathered round the fire. Mary Jane had her own fork and her own +sausage, just like the big girls and cooked her sausage without burning her +fingers, which was lucky, as burns are no fun. + +How good those warm sausages did taste with the fine sandwiches and pickles +and other goodies from home. But Ruth didn't eat a million after all--she +found three quite a-plenty; if she'd had more she couldn't have eaten any +cake and that _would_ have been too bad! + +By half past twelve, there wasn't a scrap of anything left and every one +was saying that they had had just exactly enough to eat. + +"Then I suggest we shake our crumbs into the creek," said Mrs. Merrill, "I +know the minnows will enjoy them. Then you can fix the baskets ready for +your posies and still have a good two hours left for picking." + +So the napkins were shaken out and the baskets arranged in neat order on +the biggest rock and then every one ran in search of flowers. + +"My, what a lovely bunch you have!" exclaimed Alice a little later as she +saw how diligently Mary Jane had been picking. "Miss Heath will like that, +I know." + +"But Miss Heath isn't the one this is for," said Mary Jane quickly, "not +unless mother says so." + +"Who do you want to give it to, pet?" asked Mrs. Merrill who happened to be +near enough to hear what was said, "your father?" + +"No," said Mary Jane, decidedly, "Daddah will come out and get some +to-morrow, maybe. I want to send mine on the train--will they take flowers +on the train?" + +"On the train!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill. "Yes, they take flowers, but who do +you want to send them to?" + +"My Aunt Effie," said Mary Jane. "I want to send my flowers to her." + +"My thoughtful little girl!" said Mrs. Merrill and she put her arms +tenderly around her daughter. "I think that is a fine plan and she'll be +so glad to get them. You pick all you can and then after we get home, I'll +pack them in a box and Daddah will take them down to the station this +evening and put them on the New York train." + +So of course, after that promise, Mary Jane picked more and more till she +had a fine big bunch of violets and buttercups. + +But picking violets is tiresome work--that is, it is tiresome if you do +it for long. And it's not much wonder that after she had picked three +handfuls, Mary Jane decided that she had enough. She wandered back to the +rocks where the baskets were set and looked around for the others. All were +in plain sight, but they were scattered about, each one picking where she +thought the picking was best. + +"I think I'll sit down here," said the little girl, "and fix mine so their +stems are all straight." And she sat down on the biggest rock close by the +edge of the creek--right at the bend where the water was deepest. + +She spread her posies out on the rock and rearranged them so that the stems +were all tidy and straight. Then she happened to think of the crumbs that +were fed to the minnows. "I guess they's all eaten up now," she thought, +"but I guess I'd better see." + +So she leaned out over the water to look. No one ever knew quite how it +happened--Mary Jane was sure she didn't lean too far, and mother and the +big girls, busy with their picking, didn't notice a thing till they heard a +scream. Then they looked up and no Mary Jane was to be seen! + +From all directions they came a-running, Mary Jane's screams guiding them +straight to the big rock. + +Alice and Ruth reached there first and without a word to each other or a +thought of their clothes or shoes, they slid down the bank and waded out +into the water. + +"Don't be frightened, sweetheart," called Alice comfortingly, "we're +getting you!" + +Alice grabbed her shoulders and Ruth took her feet and together they +scrambled up the bank and handed her into mother's out-reaching arms. + +[Illustration: She sat down on the biggest rock close by the edge of the +creek.] + +Then there was a hurrying for surely! Virginia and Ruth and Jane rushed +around for more sticks to build up the almost burned out fire. Frances and +Alice made a curtain of sweaters to keep off the winds while Mrs. Merrill +pulled off Mary Jane's wet clothes and rubbed her briskly with the old +tablecloth. Then Mary Jane sat in state, wrapped up in four sweaters, while +the "rescue girls," as Alice and Ruth were called, dried their shoes and +wet skirts. + +"You brave girls!" said Mrs. Merrill as soon as she had time for a word. "I +am _so_ proud of you!" + +"Pooh!" exclaimed Alice, "it wasn't deep a bit! See, mother, I'm not wet +above my knees!" + +"All the same," said Mary Jane firmly, and it was the first word she had +said since they pulled her out, "water's wet! And it's lots colder than I +thought it would be and the bottom of the water's hard--so there!" + +Everybody laughed at that, and then they all felt better--the scare was +over. + +By the time Mary Jane's clothes were dry, everybody had a basketful of +flowers. Alice and Ruth straightened them all out neatly and tied them into +bunches while their shoes and stockings were drying. As the girls all lived +in the neighborhood, they decided to put the bunches in a tub in Alice's +basement. + +"Then we can come over at eight o'clock in the morning and put them in the +gift basket and take them to Miss Heath's before breakfast," said Frances. +And so it was planned. + +Alice and Ruth put on their shoes and stockings and Mrs. Merrill dressed +Mary Jane in her dried out clothes--and how funny they did look too--and +then the picnic started for home. + +Mr. Merrill was just driving up to the house when they got back home and he +stared in amazement when he saw Mary Jane. + +"What have they done to your dress and your hair ribbon?" he asked. + +"_They_ didn't do anything but just dry it," explained Mary Jane. "I doned +it myself. I bent over to look at the fishies and the water hit me and +the bottom was hard and I got wet and Alice and Ruth pulled me out and +everybody dried me and will you please put my flowers on the train for Aunt +Effie?" + +"Well, I'd call all that enough for one day," replied father. "It's lucky +the water wasn't deep--it's better to feel a hard bottom than none at all, +little girl." + +"And will you mail my flowers?" asked Mary Jane. + +"As soon as they're ready," promised father. And so the picnic ended. + + + + +GOING SHOPPING + + +"Well, what are we doing to-day?" asked Mr. Merrill as he finished his +breakfast. "This is a fine enough day to be doing something big and +important." + +"I'm just going to play around," said Mary Jane, "I'd like to do something +big if you have it, Daddah," she added, encouragingly. "Could we go on a +picnic?" + +"No more picnic for you this week, young lady!" answered Mr. Merrill. "I +should think you were wet enough last Saturday to last a while!" + +"But that wasn't the picnic's fault," explained Mary Jane, in distress, +"that just happened, and I want to go on another picnic right away." To +tell the truth, she had been a bit worried for fear her accident of the +picnic would keep her father and mother from letting her go next time +somebody gave a picnic party and she did so hope it wouldn't make any +difference. + +"I expect you do," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "and I'm certain your wetting +didn't hurt you any. Don't you worry, dear, you shall go next time there +is any picnic to go to. In fact, you and Alice and I may go on a picnic +to-morrow--but it will be a picnic of quite a different kind, I'll assure +you." + +"Oh, mother! Do tell us what it will be!" exclaimed both girls. + +"I was talking with Doris's mother last evening," began Mrs. Merrill, "and +she tells me that it's very satisfactory to go to the city to buy hats and +shoes. What would you think" (she asked Mr. Merrill) "if the girls and I +took the trolley to the city to-morrow and bought our summer outfits?' + +"I'd think that was a fine plan," said Mr. Merrill, "and I'd say that +perhaps I'd go along if I was asked." + +"Oh, would you, Daddah?" cried Alice. "That would be jolly. Then it's all +settled--we're going!" + +"Talk about deciding in a hurry," teased Mrs. Merrill; "when do we start?" + +"I have some business that I've needed to do for a week. Suppose we all +take the early limited that leaves at eight? Then we can have a good long +day and time for a fine lunch together." + +That plan suited Mrs. Merrill and was agreed upon at once. "Only remember," +she reminded them, "eight o'clock on the car, means everybody up early." + +"I'll set the alarm for six," promised Mr. Merrill. + +"And I'll do my two days' practicing today," said Alice. + +"And I'll help, mother, truly I will," said Mary Jane. + +"We ought to have no trouble getting off then," said Mrs. Merrill, "and I, +for one, think we'll have lots of fun." + +That evening, every one laid out their clothes ready for morning; lists +were made out and then the girls were sent to bed a whole hour earlier than +usual so they would feel ready for the day's fun. + +It was a good thing everything was planned before hand, for eight o'clock +came _very_ early the next morning--or so it seemed; and there was +considerable scrambling to get hair ribbons on and gloves buttoned and the +house all locked up in time for the car. + +Alice had been to the city with her mother several times before; but this +was Mary Jane's first trip and she watched out of the car window with +great interest and was almost sorry when the car pulled into a big train +shed--the interurban station. + +"You lady folks shop till one," said father as they parted, "and then we'll +meet for lunch." + +Mary Jane thought she had never seen such big stores in all her life. +Fortunately mother decided to do some of her own and Alice's shopping first +and that gave Mary Jane a chance to look around and get used to things. But +finally Mrs. Merrill said, "Now it's your turn, Mary Jane. Let's look at +spring coats and then at play suits." + +They got into the elevator again (and Mary Jane's heart took a funny +"flip-flop" every time it started or stopped) and went to a floor where +everything was for little girls. There seemed to be enough suits and +dresses for all the little girls in the world and Mary Jane was certain +sure that she could _never_ tell which she liked best. But mother and Alice +helped her and before very long they had bought a pretty little gray +coat and one pink afternoon dress and two pink and two blue rompers for +playtimes. + +"There, now," said Mrs. Merrill as she looked at her watch, "that's all we +can do before lunch. It's time to meet father this very minute." So they +got into the elevator again and went to the top floor. + +"This is the funniest store," Mary Jane told her father, who was waiting +for them as they stepped off the car; "they sell dresses and coats and +things to eat and everything right off of one elevator!" + +"Think of that!" exclaimed her father as he piloted them to a table. "Well, +I believe I like the things to eat best--at least right now." + +"What are you going to have?" he asked Mary Jane as they sat down and made +themselves comfortable. + +"May I have anything I want?" she asked, "_anything_?" + +"Anything at all," her father assured her. + +"Then I know what I want," said she promptly, "I want chicken broth and +mashed potatoes and pink ice cream." + +"That's what you're going to have," Mr. Merrill told the waiter. "I wish +Alice could make up her mind as quickly," he added teasingly, for Alice was +reading the whole menu from cover to cover before she made up her mind what +to order. + +Mary Jane had her chicken broth while the others were deciding and then she +had a bit of mother's good fish to eat with the mashed potatoes which came +later. And of course the pink ice cream, a big dish of it, all for herself. + +"Now," said Mr. Merrill, when they were all through, "I'm going to buy Mary +Jane a pair of white shoes and a pink parasol while you two finish what you +have on your list and then maybe we'll have time to ride out to the park +before we start for home." + +"Oh!" cried Mary Jane, but that was all she could think of to say. Dresses +and a coat and lunch and a ride and shoes and a parasol--all in one day! +And it wasn't a birthday either, just a regular, every day sort of a day! + +"Don't worry," laughed her father for he guessed what she was thinking, +"this is just once a year! Come on, now, and we'll get the shoes." + +They went back to the children's floor and bought the shoes and the +prettiest pink parasol Mary Jane had ever seen and then, just as they were +ready to go and meet mother and Alice, a friend of father's passed by. + +"Well, Tom!" cried Mr. Merrill, and he jumped up to speak to him. Mary Jane +couldn't hear all they said but from what she did hear, she guessed that +the man lived a long way off and that he was buying clothes to take home to +his little girl. "Sit right there, Mary Jane," Mr. Merrill called to her as +he walked off in the direction of the elevator, "and I'll be back in five +minutes." + +Mary Jane looked around and up and down. She saw the wrapper girl high up +in her box between the counters. She saw the busy clerks and floorman come +and go. She saw the many shoppers--grown folks and children that passed by +her seat. And the more folks she saw, the lonesomer she became; sitting +there all by herself among so many folks. + +"I don't think it's nice for a little girl to sit here in a big seat," she +decided, "I think I'll sit somewhere that I won't _show_ so much." And she +looked around for a quiet corner. Between the big cases that formed the +counters she spied just the place she wanted. A shelf down close enough to +the floor for her to sit on and quite out of the way of the busy crowd. + +"That's where I'll wait," she said softly, "then I won't show while I'm +waiting for father." And she slipped back of the big cases while no one was +looking and sat down on the shelf. But the minute she got away from the +confusing noises and sights, she felt very sleepy, so sleepy that she could +hardly keep awake; so very sleepy, so very-- + +Father's five minutes lengthened out to ten and then his friend stepped +into the elevator and Mr. Merrill hurried back to his little girl. + +"You must excuse me, dear," he said as he approached where he had left her, +"but I hadn't seen Tom in ten years and--" But there was no little girl +there! + +Mr. Merrill called the floorman and asked about her. "I left her only ten +minutes ago," he said as he looked at his watch, "and she wouldn't run +off--I _know_ Mary Jane wouldn't run off. She must be here." + +"We'll find her," said the floorman, easily, "she must be in some other +aisle." + +They hunted up and down and up and down the aisles and they looked at many +little girls--the store was full of them. But not a sign of Mary Jane +did they see. Finally it came time to meet Mrs. Merrill and Alice so Mr. +Merrill, knowing that they would be uneasy if he was late, hurried down +to meet them and all three came back to resume the search that by now was +getting pretty anxious. + +"There's no need of your hunting on any other floor," said Mrs. Merrill as +the floorman suggested that maybe Mary Jane had gone to hunt her father and +had lost her way. "I know my little girl and she's not far from where her +father left her. Show me where she was sitting when you left and I'll find +her--I'm sure." + +Mr. Merrill led her to the very seat where he had left Mary Jane and then, +to the surprise of all the clerks and curious shoppers who had become +interested in the search, Mrs. Merrill didn't rush around and hunt as +the others had. Instead, she sat down in the seat as though she had all +afternoon and not a worry in the world. And then, sitting down as Mary Jane +had been, she began to look around. And the very first thing she saw was +the shelf, way back out of the way; and on the shelf, huddled down in a +sleepy heap, her own little girl! + +How the people did stare as she jumped up quickly and hurried over to the +between aisle where no one had thought of looking. And how every one did +smile as she reached down and picked up Mary Jane--Mary Jane all sound +asleep! + +The little girl opened her eyes and slipped her arm around her mother's +neck and then, as she noticed so many folks looking at her, she hid her +sleepy eyes in her mother's shoulder. + +"Don't you be afraid, little girl," said the floorman, in great relief, "we +like little girls who know enough not to get lost. It was better to stay +right there and go to sleep than to run around and hunt your father. You +and your sister take this slip," and he wrote hastily on a scrap of paper, +"and go upstairs to the lunch room. Maybe a dish of ice cream will help you +to wake up." + +So that was how it happened that Mary Jane had a trip and an adventure and +some new clothes and _two_ dishes of pink ice cream all in one day. + + + + +THE PAPER DOLL SHOW + + +Bright and early the next Monday morning Mary Jane went over to Doris's +house to ask if she could come and play. Fortunately the chicken pox was +all over and Doris was well and was allowed to play again. Mary Jane had +had so many things to do during the time that Doris had been sick and she +was anxious to tell about them. And she was oh, so very glad to have her +little friend to play with again. + +"Come on over to my house," she urged Doris, "I can play all morning." + +"Are you sure Doris won't be in your mother's way?" asked Doris' mother. + +"Monday morning is a busy time, I know." + +"It isn't at our house," said Mary Jane positively, "because _this_ day +isn't wash day to-day--it's just getting ready for my sister Alice's party +this afternoon and mother said we wouldn't bother if we played in the +nursery, so please do let her come." + +"Very well," laughed Doris's mother, "if you're as sure as all that I guess +I'll let her go, but I should think getting ready for a party would be +_almost_ as much work as wash day! What are you going to play?" + +"Paper dolls," said Mary Jane. "I have two, five new sheets and two +scissors that don't prick that my Aunt Effie sent to me and she said that +Doris could play with them too." + +"That's fine," said Doris's mother much relieved. "I should think you +little girls would have a very happy time because you haven't seen each +other for so long. Run along now, Doris, and be sure to come home when the +big whistle blows for noon." + +The two little girls skipped gayly across the yard, through the gap in the +hedge between the houses and onto Mary Jane's porch. + +"Let's play here," suggested Doris. + +"We can't," said Mary Jane, "'cause mother says if we play out doors she +don't know where we are so we must play in the nursery with all the windows +open and have a good time and not bother. So let's do that. + +"And anyway," she added as they climbed up the stairs, "out doors is bad +for paper dolls so I'm not sorry." + +They got out the five new sheets of paper dolls and the scissors and set to +work cutting. Now everybody who has ever played cutout-paper dolls knows +that the cutting out is the most fun. As long as there was a doll or a +hat or a parasol uncut those two little girls had a beautiful time. They +figured out which hats belonged to which dresses and they counted the +children on the five pages so they could be divided equally. But as soon as +the cutting was done, the fun was over and the girls didn't know what to do +with themselves. + +"I'll tell you what let's do," suggested Mary Jane suddenly, "some of these +dolls have dress-up clothes like a show. Let's make a show in a box like +Alice does." + +What Mary Jane meant was this. Some of Alice's friends liked to plan rooms, +and furnish them. And to do that they took a neat pasteboard box and stood +it on its side; then they lined it with crepe paper for wall paper. Then +they made furniture to match the color scheme (they were very particular +about color schemes, Mary Jane remembered that) and they dressed dolls in +crepe paper to match and put them in the furnished room. And, Mary Jane +thought this part was the best of all, when they were tired of one room, +they gave it to Mary Jane and made a new one for themselves. + +It happened that only the week before, Alice and her best friend Frances +had made a beautiful little room, in a box of course, all done in green and +pale yellow. Later they had planned one in rose and had told Mary Jane she +might have the green and yellow one. It was this box Mary Jane meant to use +for the show. + +"You just wait till you see," she said to Doris, "you wait till--" and +she dived into her closet, climbed up on the play box inside the door and +reached up to the shelf where she had put the box the girls had given her. + +"What is it? Where'd you get it?" demanded Doris as the treasure was pulled +out. + +"It's mine!" said Mary Jane proudly, "and we'll give a paper doll show like +Alice does--you just see!" + +Doris had no older brother or sister to give her ideas so she had to wait +till Mary Jane explained her plan. + +"First, we'll fix this up some way, they always do," began Mary Jane. + +"But it's pretty now," objected Doris. + +"Oh, yes, but we have to _fix_ it," said Mary Jane scornfully, "they always +do, they never use a box just as it is--never! Now what could we do, what +could go on top of a house? A roof, but what could we make a roof of? Or, +oh, I think we'll put on some clouds maybe, clouds ought to be easy, would +you like clouds, Doris?" + +"On the top?" + +"Yes, on top of the house where clouds belong." + +"All right," said the obliging Doris, "I don't care which you make. But +where do we get clouds?" + +"Let's ask 'Manda," said Mary Jane, "she's here to help make the party. She +likes me, maybe she knows where we can get some clouds." The two little +girls hurried down the back stairs to the kitchen, but Amanda wasn't there. +They were just about to go sorrowfully back to the nursery when Mary Jane +noticed something white on the table. + +"Why, here are some clouds all ready for us!" she exclaimed. "I guess +'Manda must have known we were coming! You take all you can carry, Doris, +and I'll take the rest." + +Doris plunged her hand bravely into the mass of beaten white of egg that +filled the great platter and Mary Jane tumbled all that was left into her +apron and they gleefully hurried back upstairs. + +"There, now," said Mary Jane, "we'll make clouds all over our house and +then we'll have the show." But that show never was held. + +For just as they left the kitchen, Amanda came back into it to finish the +cake she was making for the party and found that her eggs, the beautiful +whites that she had beaten with such pains, were gone! + +"It sooly do seem queer, Mis' Merrill," she said to her mistress, "them +eggs was right here and then they wasn't here and eggs can't walk, kin +they--leastwise not when they's beat up?" + +"No, eggs can't walk but little girls can," said Mrs. Merrill for she +suddenly recalled hearing mysterious sounds and giggles on the back stairs +a moment or two before. "I think I know where your eggs are but _why_ they +are gone, I can't imagine!" And she hurried up to the nursery. And there, +sure enough, were the eggs! + +"What in the world are you girls doing with those eggs?" she demanded. + +"Those aren't eggs," said Mary Jane scornfully, "those are clouds and this +is going to be a paper doll show." + +"I don't know about a paper doll show, daughter," said Mrs. Merrill +seriously, "but I do know that those are the eggs which were to have gone +into the cake for Alice's party." + +"Oh, mother, not really?" exclaimed Mary Jane, and the tears came into her +big eyes. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to spoil the party, truly I didn't, +mother! We just wanted some clouds--anyway I did," she added honestly, "and +we went down to 'Manda and she wasn't there but the clouds were so we took +them. That's all. _Will_ it spoil the party?" + +"I don't know what to think," said Mrs. Merrill, as she sat down between +the two little girls to think and plan. "Alice wanted that especial kind +of cake for her party but eggs cost so much these days--there were eight +whites on that platter, Mary Jane; I don't believe I can afford eight more, +really I don't." + +"Oh, I can, I _can_, mother dear!" cried Mary Jane and quick as a flash she +ran to her little white dresser. "I can afford it with this and I want +to!" She pulled out her precious letter with a dollar bill tucked in its +folds--the dollar bill that her great-grandmother had sent her and with +which she was to buy something very special for herself--and handed it to +her mother. "Please, mother, let her have it with this!" + +"Do you realize that this is your very own dollar that you are giving me?" +asked Mrs. Merrill, and Doris eyed Mary Jane's wealth with surprised eyes. + +"Yes, mother, I know it is mine, mine that I was saving for a big doll, but +I don't want to spoil Alice's party, truly I don't! Please let me go buy +some more eggs for her cake!" + +"I believe you really want to," said Mrs. Merrill, as she slipped her arm +around the eager little girl, "and I believe it's the best thing to do. You +didn't realize that you were taking something that you had no right to when +you took those 'clouds' for the doll house, did you, Mary Jane?" + +"'Deed I didn't, mother, and please may we get the eggs now?" + +Mrs. Merrill looked at her watch. "There will be just time if you go right +away, dear," she said; "come the back way and I'll give you a basket +to carry them in so none will be broken. And get eight, that's all you +took--I'll buy the yellows from you so you will still have a good deal left +from your dollar." + +The two little girls skipped down to the grocery in a hurry but they didn't +hurry home--no, sir! They walked slowly and carefully so that not an egg +was even cracked. + +And by the time they got home and gave Amanda the eggs and saw them all +opened and divided, the whites on a platter and the yellows in a bowl, the +big whistles blew for noon and Doris had to go home. + +Mary Jane went with her as far as the gate and then waited under the little +mulberry tree till her father came home for his lunch. + +"Well, this is fine," said Mr. Merrill as he tossed her up onto his +shoulder. "I like to see my little girl waiting for me. And what have you +learned this morning, pussy?" + +"I learned that eggs aren't clouds and that they cost money," said Mary +Jane, "and I didn't spoil the party!" + +"Pretty good for one morning, say I," laughed father, and he carried her on +into the house. + + + + +THE BIRTHDAY PARTY + + +The evening after Alice's party, Mr. and Mrs. Merrill held a long +conference and as a result a surprise awaited Mary Jane when she came to +the breakfast table the next morning. + +"Do you know of anybody who has a birthday next week?" asked Mr. Merrill as +he kissed her good morning. + +"I do, and I'm five years old," replied Mary Jane, "and that's pretty old!" + +"Goodness! I should say it was!" exclaimed Mr. Merrill. "It's so old I can +hardly imagine it. And I think, Mrs. Merrill, something ought to be done +about it." As he looked solemnly across the table at his wife, his eyes +twinkled merrily and Mary Jane knew by their look that something nice was +coming. + +"I'm sure I don't know anything to do about it," began Mrs. Merrill (and +Mary Jane noticed that her eyes twinkled too) "unless, perhaps, we might +have a party?" + +"A party?" exclaimed Mary Jane, "a PARTY? A really for sure enough party +all just for me?" + +"That is, of course, if you want one," added mother doubtfully. + +"Oh, mother," cried Mary Jane and slipping down from her chair she gave +first her mother and then her father a big "bear" hug, "of _course_ I want +one! May I have it on my birthday?" + +"To be sure," laughed Mrs. Merrill. "When else would a body have a birthday +party? Now you eat all your oatmeal like a good little girl and then you +help all you know how with the morning work and then we'll go down town and +buy some pretty invitations and favors." + +Never did oatmeal vanish as quickly as did Mary Jane's bowlful on +that morning! And never did a little girl help so well with beds and +bathroom--really Mrs. Merrill hadn't guessed that a nearly-five-year-old +could do so much. So it wasn't quite ten o'clock yet when they made ready +to go down town. + +"I'll be down in just a minute, dear," said Mrs. Merrill when Mary Jane was +all ready. "You run along and wait for me at the front porch." + +Mary Jane walked down the stairs very slowly, and out onto the porch, and +out onto the steps, but still mother hadn't come. So, as she didn't want to +sit down and muss up her dress, she decided to walk once around the house +rather than wait on the porch. She walked past the hydrangea bed, past the +blooming bridal wreath and as far as the rose bed. And there she stopped in +amazement. For right there on the first bush, where it might easily have +been seen these many days by ice man, grocery man or any one who passed, +hung mother's handsome butterfly pin! Mary Jane was so surprised she didn't +even touch the pin, she stood there and screamed. + +Mrs. Merrill looked out of the window overhead and asked what the matter +was. + +"Come quick!" called Mary Jane. "Do come quick!" + +Mrs. Merrill, too frightened to ask questions, hurried down the stairs and +out into the yard and--well, she was as much surprised as Mary Jane was +when she saw her pin hanging there on the bush. She grabbed it quickly as +though she was afraid it would vanish before her eyes and then she threw +her arms around Mary Jane. + +"You dear child!" she exclaimed in a shaky voice. "I never thought of +looking there! The pin must have still been on the dresser cover when I +shook it out of the window and I was in such a hurry I didn't notice. I'm +glad you have such bright eyes. Now you wait one minute more and I'll put +this safely away and then we'll go down town." + +Such fun as they did have down town! They bought pretty little invitations +with a picture of a little girl with a pink parasol in one corner; they +bought cracker bonbons with pink frills outside and folded up paper baskets +inside and they bought gorgeous big paper hats in all the gay colors. + +And then, when they got home, they wrote invitations to five little boys +and to four little girls, Mary Jane was the fifth little girl, you see. And +then they began making things for the party. Alice made a game to be played +with paper balls; father drew a big teddy bear on a sheet and mother made +a big black nose for him, a nose that little folks, with their eyes +blindfolded, were to try to pin on in the right place. And Amanda planned +cookies and cake and candy. Never was there such a party for it was Mary +Jane's first, you see. + +At last the birthday came (Mary Jane had begun to fear it never would for +the days seemed three weeks long, every one) and the house was set in order +and the time came to dress. Mary Jane was to wear her brand new dress with +the pink sash, a new one that her grandmother had sent on purpose for the +party; and her new white shoes that father had given her and her new silk +stockings that her great-grandmother had sent. She felt very old, and +grand, and grown-up when she walked dignifiedly down the stairs and into +the living room. She had looked in the glass most carefully and the glass +had told her that she looked just as nice as any little girl could and +quite grown-up too. + +She stood just inside the living room door and her heart beat quickly when +Amanda went to answer the first ring at the front door--just think the +wonderful party was beginning! + +Junior came first, naturally, because he lived nearest and Mary Jane +noticed that his pocket bulged in a most curious fashion. + +"Of course you didn't have to bring me a present," she said calmly, "but if +you did, why don't you give it to me right away now, so it don't muss up +your pocket?" + +Junior, who had been puzzling all the way across the street about how he +was to give Mary Jane that present, was greatly relieved to have the matter +so easily settled. He pulled out the be-ribboned package and eyed it +carefully while Mary Jane undid it and exclaimed over the beautiful new +party coat for Marie Georgiannamore. Mary Jane scampered back upstairs +to get the forgotten doll and the two children, and the others who began +dropping in were so busy dressing the dolls that they quite forgot +"company" manners and had a good time from the start. + +[Illustration: There's no need to tell of all the good times at that +party.] + +There's no need to tell of all the good times at that party; of all the +games and the fun; the scramble into the ten chairs at the candle lighted +table in the dining room; of the sandwiches which disappeared so quickly; +the ice cream in the shape of circus men; the big white cake with its five +pink candles and one white one in the middle to grow on--you know all about +that yourself because you've been to parties and know what fun they are. + +When all the goodies were eaten up; when not a child could have eaten +another bite had the table been full again, Mrs. Merrill passed around the +paper bag favors and each guest put the candy he couldn't eat and the nuts +and the paper caps and the flower favors and a piece of the birthday cake +into his or her bag and then each bag was laid carefully by each little +guest's hat and coat ready to take home. And then the five little girls and +the five little boys slipped down from their chairs and ran out of doors +for a final romp. + +It was a tired little girl that Mrs. Merrill tucked into bed that +night--but a very happy one. "I do think parties is the nicest things," she +said with a satisfied sigh; "they's the nicest things I know!" + +Mrs. Merrill smiled and kissed Mary Jane good night. Mary Jane had had +quite enough excitement for one day so she said not a word about another +surprise that she knew was coming--a surprise that _might_ prove to be even +more fun than a party! + + + + +A LETTER AND A TRIP + + +Mary Jane slept late on the morning after the party. By the time she was +awake enough to realize that another day had come, she discovered that she +was alone upstairs. She ran to the top of the stairs and looked over the +railing. No one was in the hall and sounds from the dining room told her +that the family was at breakfast. + +"I'll just surprise them," she said to herself, "and show them how much +a big girl like me can do." She ran back into her room and put on her +slippers and her kimono; she went into the bathroom and washed her hands +and face and brushed her teeth and then she slipped soundlessly down the +stairs. At the door of the dining room she stopped to get a good breath +with which to say "Boo-o-o-o!" and as she took her breath she heard her +father say, "Well, if you really think it's all right for her to go--five +years old seems pretty young to me for such a trip." + +"Of course it would be if she went alone--I wouldn't even think of that!" +answered Mrs. Merrill's voice, "but with Dr. Smith to look after her and +Alice coming as soon as school is out--I believe it will do the child +good." + +"So do I," exclaimed Mary Jane, darting into the room, the "booo" quite +forgotten. + +"Now, you'll have to tell her," laughed father, "and of course she won't +want to go. + +"Of course I will," laughed Mary Jane gayly. "Where am I going, mother?" + +"Do you think you are old enough to go visit your great-grandmother Hodges +all by yourself?" asked mother. + +"With my own trunk and my own ticket, and my own pocket book and my own +conductor?" demanded Mary Jane, who could hardly believe what she heard. + +"With your own trunk and pocket book," said Mrs. Merrill, "but I don't know +about the ticket and the conductor because Dr. Smith is coming again and +he will take you back with him if we will let you go and trust him to look +after you on the journey. Do you think you'd like to go?" + +"I don't think it, I know it!" cried Mary Jane, and she danced around the +table with her kimono flying out behind her. "Can I go to-day?" + +"Hardly!" laughed Mrs. Merrill. "We have to buy you some strong shoes for +the country and make you some rompers to play with the chickens in and pack +your trunk and, oh, a lot of things before you can go." + +"Well, a lot of things won't take very long because I'll help," said Mary +Jane eagerly, "see? I'll climb right up and eat my oatmeal without you +telling me to--that's how I'll help." + +Mr. and Mrs. Merrill both laughed and Mr. Merrill, as he rose from the +table, said, "If you will eat your breakfast, just as you know you should, +every morning while you are gone, I really think I'll let you go." (For, +you see, Mary Jane hadn't ever liked her oatmeal.) And when Mary Jane +promised solemnly that she would, he said it was all settled. + +Such fun as there was after that! Alice and Mrs. Merrill sat at the table +long after father left for work and they planned out just how many weeks it +was till Alice could go to the country too, and how many weeks there were +after that till Mr. and Mrs. Merrill could come for his vacation and how +many rompers Mary Jane ought to have and how many pairs of shoes and +rubbers and how big a sun hat Mary Jane needed. And then, after Alice had +gone to school, Mary Jane helped her mother with the morning work so they +got off very early for down town and the shopping. + +And that evening, when father got home, he carried the steamer trunk down +from the attic and Mary Jane began packing. + +By noon of the next day, she had the trunk so full of dolls and doll +clothes and teddy bears and books that it couldn't possibly shut and she +hadn't put in it one single thing to wear--not a single thing! + +"You seem to think that there isn't going to be anything to play with in +the country," said Mr. Merrill when Mary Jane showed him her morning's +work. "Must you take all your city things? I should think you would leave +those here and play with grandmother's things while you are at her house." + +"Will she have anything for a little girl?" asked Mary Jane in surprise. + +"If she hasn't, you come right back home," laughed father, "but I don't +worry about that. I think she has more than you'll need." + +So after lunch Mary Jane took all the playthings and the dolls out of the +trunk and put them neatly into the closet and that was much better for then +there was plenty of room in the trunk for clothes and for two mysterious +packages which Mary Jane saw her mother put in the very bottom. And it was +a good thing that she put everything away so nicely for at three o'clock +Dr. Smith telephoned that he was unexpectedly called home and could Mary +Jane go home with him that very night? + +Mr. Merrill was phoned to and he said he would tend to the ticket and the +trunk check. Mrs. Merrill packed the trunk and Alice, who happened home +from school in just the nick of time, bathed and dressed Mary Jane for the +train. So that by the time Dr. Smith came out to dine with them the trunk +was packed and gone, the little traveler was dressed and everything about +the house was back in apple pie order. + +Mary Jane was so excited she could hardly eat a bit of dinner but Dr. Smith +said it wouldn't matter so much because she could have some good fresh eggs +and two glasses of milk and some of Grandmother Hodges' corn bread for +breakfast. + +It's pretty exciting to go off on the train at night and leave your father +and mother and sister. Mary Jane found that out; and she got a queer lump +in her throat on the way to the station. A lump that for some reason or +other grew bigger and bigger when father held her snugly as he lifted her +out of the car and that nearly made her cry when mother held tight onto her +hand as they went through the station. + +But fortunately the train came in just then and with the seeing that the +trunk was really put on and kissing folks good-by and sending a message to +Doris and meeting the big jolly conductor and giving her hand bag to the +porter and laughing at Dr. Smith's funny jokes and all that--the lump +didn't get as troublesome as Mary Jane had feared it would. She got into +her section in time to wave good-by to the three on the platform as the +train pulled out and then, before she had a chance to feel lonesome, Dr. +Smith said, "Did you ever see them work a bed on a train?" + +"Work a bed?" asked Mary Jane. "What's that?" + +"Make up a bed, I mean," laughed Dr. Smith. "Did you ever see how the bed +works when it is made up? Here, Sambo," and the doctor held his hand high +and motioned to the porter, "this little girl wants to know how she's going +to sleep, she doesn't see any bed." + +"She'll see in a minute, sir, jest a littl' minute," said the good natured +porter and he slipped off his blue coat; put on a white one; took down part +of the ceiling and, right before Mary Jane's astonished eyes, made up a +bed. Mary Jane thought it was most amazing. She watched every move he made +and decided that when she grew up she was going to be a bed maker on a +train because it was so much more fun than making beds at home. + +When the bed was all ready, Dr. Smith helped her take off her shoes +and tuck them into a little hammock that hung over the window; then he +unbuttoned her dress and helped her climb into her berth bed. Mary Jane +took off her dress, hung it on the rack just as her mother had told her to +do and settled herself comfy for the night. But suddenly she remembered +that she hadn't told the kind Dr. Smith "good night." She fumbled with the +curtains till she got a crack open and through that she stuck her curly +head. + +"Good night, Dr. Smith," she said when she spied him sitting close by, +across the aisle, "I'm glad I'm going with you and I like sleeping on +a train and I'm _very_ glad that you live next door to my dear +great-grandmother." + +"I'm glad too," replied the doctor. "Now you go straight to sleep, little +lady, so you will have roses in your cheeks when you get to grandmother's +in the morning." + +And if you want to know of all the fun and good times that Mary Jane had +with the pigs and horses and chickens and strawberries she found at her +great-grandmother's house, you'll have to read-- + +"MARY JANE--HER VISIT." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mary Jane: Her Book, by Clara Ingram Judson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY JANE: HER BOOK *** + +This file should be named mjane10.txt or mjane10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, mjane11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, mjane10a.txt + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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