Aor^ 
 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
3 1924 050 610 744 
 
M^ Cornell University 
 
 ^'' J Library 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924050610744 
 
" Can we ride on them ? " asked Alary Jane, breath- 
 less with excitement. (Frontispiece, Paf.e 42) 
 
MARY JANE IN 
 NEW ENGLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 CLARA INGRAM JUDSON 
 
 author of 
 
 "Mary Jane— Her Book," "Mary Jane— Her Visit," "Mary 
 
 Jane's Kindergarten," "Mary Jane Down South," 
 
 "Mary Jane's City Home," "The Junior 
 
 Cook Book," etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 THELMA GOOCH 
 
 BARSE & HOPKINS 
 
 NEWARK, N. J. NEW YORK, N. Y. 
 
THE MARY JANE SERIES 
 
 By Clara Ingram Judson 
 
 i2mo. Cloth. Illustrated. 
 
 MARY JANE— HER BOOK 
 MARY JANE— HER VISIT 
 MARY JANE'S KINDERGARTEN 
 MARY JANE DOWN SOUTH 
 MARY JANE'S CITY HOME 
 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 BARSE & HOPKINS 
 
 Newark, N. J. New Yobe, N. Y. 
 
To my brother, 
 
 DWIGHT HAROLD INGRAM, 
 
 with happy memories of his 
 
 commencement week 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Plans for the Journey . . >■ 
 
 A Day of Wetness . ... 
 
 First Glimpses of Boston . 
 
 An Unexpected Visit at Wellesley 
 
 Class Day Fun — ^and Troubles 
 
 Winning the Game .... 
 
 The Adventure by the Lagoon . 
 
 Commencement in the Stadium . 
 
 Fun on the Beach . 
 
 A Day in Plymouth . 
 
 Visiting Cousin Louise . 
 
 The Willow Tree Cottage 
 
 Lost ! One Mary Jane . 
 
 Tea on the Terrace . 
 
 The Last Day in Boston — ^and Home 
 
 [•1 
 
 TASK 
 
 9 
 
 23 
 
 35 
 
 49 
 
 61 
 
 76 
 
 89 
 
 105 
 
 115 
 
 128 
 
 141 
 
 156 
 
 169 
 
 184 
 
 198 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 " Can we ride on them? " asked Mary Jane breath- 
 less with excitement .... Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 She sighed with relief as the offending shoe came 
 
 off 71 
 
 " You almost touched ii ! " exclaimed Mary Jane . 97 
 
 " My dear child ! Where were you ? We've hunted 
 
 and hunted ! " i.i a isi bi &; > • 185 
 
MARY JANE IN NEW 
 ENGLAND 
 
 T 
 
 RLANS FOR THE JOURNEY 
 
 HEN are we really going?" asked Mary 
 
 Jane eagerly. 
 
 "To Boston and Harvard and Uncle Hal's 
 Class Day and everything?" added Alice. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Merrill looked at each other 
 and then at the long letter in Mrs. Merrill's 
 hand. 
 
 "I do believe we are," said Mrs. Merrill 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 "That's rightl" approved Mr. Merrill 
 heartily. "You'll never regrfct it. I am sure 
 the girls are old enough to remember the inter- 
 esting sights they will see and they may never 
 have another chance to go to Harvard Class 
 Day and all the 'doings' Hal writes about." 
 
no MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "And then," added Mrs. Merrill, "I always 
 promised brother Hal I'd come when he 
 graduated. One doesn't have a 'baby brother' 
 graduate from Harvard every summer. Though 
 I would like it better if you could go too." ^ 
 
 "Sure you can't. Dad"? asked Alice, wist- 
 fully. 
 
 "Certain sure," replied her father. "With" 
 all the changes in the office just now I wouldn't 
 think it wise to leave my work for men who are 
 already loaded up. And then, too," he added 
 when he noticed how disappointed the two girls 
 looked, "remember we'll need somebody here 
 to see about the new house — don't you forget 
 thatl" 
 
 "Of course we travel easily," said Mrs. 
 Merrill, "and Hal promises to look after us so 
 well." 
 
 "And makes good by sending that list," said 
 Mr. Merrill. "I never saw the like of the way 
 he has everything lined up for you — you couldn't 
 get lost if you wanted to!" 
 
PLANS FOR THE JOURNEY M 
 
 Alice and Mary Jane Merrill, who with 
 their father and mother had moved from the 
 small town where they had always lived, to the 
 big city of Chicago only a few months before, 
 were having a most interesting time. Not only 
 had they seen city sights, played in the parks 
 and done good work in school ; in addition they 
 had made a number of fine friends and, partly 
 through some of these friends, had discovered 
 that they could have an even happier time if 
 Mary Jane had some place to dig, and garden 
 and play out of doors. Girls who live in flats 
 can't very well have gardens — at least at Mary 
 Jane's flat one couldn't. So the Merrills had 
 started exploring and had quite suddenly bought 
 a small piece of land on the edge of one of the 
 outlying suburbs and there they planned to 
 build a little "shack" where they could go every 
 summer and play at being farmers. Such draw- 
 ing of plans and studying of seed catalogues 
 there never was — the girls found it wonderful 
 fun. 
 
12 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 Then, as though going to the country and 
 making a garden was not enough to keep one 
 little girl's head busy, there had come a letter 
 from Mrs. Merrill's brother reminding her of 
 a promise made long ago that she would come 
 to his graduation from Harvard. At first it 
 seemed as though such a trip wouldn't be pos- 
 sible. There was the house in the country to 
 see to — and though it was to be only an un- 
 finished cottage there were a thousand and one 
 details about its building and furnishing that 
 needed attention — the girls were in school and 
 they had planned no summer dresses suitable 
 to the gaieties of commencement week at Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 But a day or two of careful thinking and 
 planning made Mrs. Merrill decide that they 
 would go. Last year's "best" dresses had been 
 let down and were very pretty; new ginghams 
 for traveling surely would not be har,d to make 
 or buy and she loved making the dainty organdy 
 dresses each girl would need for Class Day. 
 
PLANS FOR THE JOURNEY 13 
 
 The trip wouldn't take long and soon they 
 would be back to attend to the new country 
 home which would hardly have time to miss 
 them. 
 
 Alice reached for the list Mr. Merrill had re- 
 ferred to and read what Uncle Hal had written 
 out for them. 
 
 "Arrive in Boston Monday morning; Class 
 Day, Tuesday; Baseball, Wednesday (tickets 
 for you all) Commencement, Thursday and if 
 the weather is fine you can all go, for it will be 
 in the Stadium; Friday, sightseeing and any- 
 thing you want to do." And below was a nota- 
 tion telling them he had had rooms engaged for 
 weeks ahead at the Westminister Hotel, which 
 was a very wise and thoughtful provision for 
 their comfort, as Boston hotels are always more 
 than crowded commencement week. 
 
 "It sounds like a lot of fun. Mother," she said 
 happily. 
 
 "And are we going to sleep on the train and 
 have hashed brown potatoes in the diner and 
 
14 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 live at a place by the ocean just like when we 
 went to Florida?" asked Mary Jane, 
 
 "It won't be just like in Florida," explained 
 Mr. Merrill, "because Boston is a big city like 
 Chicago, and big cities have different sorts of 
 hotels from any you have been in. But I'll ven- 
 ture to say you will have a good time. And if 
 you stick to Uncle Hal's program you won't 
 have much time for either napping or being 
 homesick!" 
 
 "Dear me!" cried Mrs. Merrill suddenly 
 glancing at the clock, "I don't know why we 
 are sitting here all day dreaming! We ought 
 to be making out lists and deciding what to take 
 and do and everything. We're going to be busy 
 people these next two weeks, let me tell you 
 that." 
 
 Alice dashed to the desk for pencils and pads. 
 
 "Let's make out a list of what we have to 
 do for the new house," said Mrs. Merrill, "and 
 what we have to take and what I have to make 
 
PLANS FOR THE JOURNEY 15 
 or buy. And I can tell you this much," she 
 added a few minutes later when the lists were 
 well under way, "if I'm to do all those things 
 before we go, you two people will have to do 
 a lot of helping." 
 
 "Oh, we'd love that!" exclaimed Mary Jane 
 eagerly, "I'd get breakfasts and Alice can wash 
 all the dishes and — " 
 
 "What's all this?" demanded Alice as she 
 looked up from the list she was finishing, 
 "/'ll get breakfasts,*^ and you can wash dishes 
 and—" 
 
 "Let's both do 'em both," corrected Mary 
 Jane, "but I can make toast and cook eggs; I 
 just know I can, mother dear, and I want to 
 help a lot." 
 
 "I know you do, dear," said Mrs. Merrill, as 
 she drew the little girl toward her, "and you're 
 going to in just every way you can and will." 
 
 So it was decided that the two girls should do 
 every bit of the housework they possibly could 
 
1 6 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 and let Mrs. Merrill have lots of time free for 
 sewing and shopping and tending to the new 
 house. 
 
 How those two weeks did fly! It really 
 seemed no time at all since the four Merrills 
 were sitting there deciding that they could go 
 to Boston, till the last day had arrived and Mary 
 Jane was having a dress up "try on" of her new 
 organdy dress to be sure it was exactly right 
 before it was packed. How they had all 
 worked! Mary Jane had cooked — toast on the 
 electric toaster and coffee in the kitchen and 
 eggs boiled just as father liked them. And she 
 had taken her turn with Alice at washing dishes 
 and drying dishes and making beds and clean- 
 ing the bathroom (Mary Jane liked that the 
 best of anything except cooking eggs with her 
 own three-minute-glass to tell when they were 
 done) and dusting and marketing and pulling 
 out bastings — they had done all those things and 
 more and Mrs. Merrill declared that never, 
 never in the world, could she have finished so 
 
PLANS FOR THE JOURNEY 17 
 much work in two weeks' time if she hadn't had 
 two fine assistants. 
 
 "Come here, dear," said Mrs. Merrill as 
 Mary Jane danced off to look in the mirror, 
 "I'll have to tack that bolero — there. Now 
 let's tie the sash and try on the new shoes and 
 be sure everything is just right." 
 
 But Mary Jane could hardly stand still. It 
 was so thrilling to try on her first organdy dress 
 — long pink ribbons, a white hat with pink 
 streamers just like Alice's yellow ones and white 
 stockings and brand new pumps, yes, truly, 
 pumps like big folks. She could hardly wait to 
 get everything on, she was so anxious to see 
 herself. 
 
 Just as the last bow was adjusted, the bell rang 
 three short taps, father's ring, and Mary Jane, 
 looking all the world like a fairy dropped onto 
 the stairs by some magic mistake, dashed down 
 to greet him. 
 
 "Everything fits and it's all just right and 
 don't I look nice and we're waiting for you to 
 
1 8 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 bring the trunk up from the basement and Alice 
 has made apple dumplings — green apple dump- 
 lings for dinner so you'd better hurry," she 
 finished, breathlessly. 
 
 "For that I will," laughed Mr. Merrill, "my! 
 but you do look grown up, pussy!" he added as 
 he looked her over carefully. "Shoes fit all 
 right? Everything has to be just so for Class 
 Day you know, young lady, for folks want to be 
 comfortable as well as beautiful when they go 
 to all day 'doings.' " 
 
 "She thinks everything is all right," explained 
 Mrs. Merrill. "You look pleased about some- 
 thing. Is there anything new?" 
 
 "Maybe so," said Mr. Merrill so mysteri- 
 ously that Mary Jane stopped in the hall to 
 listen. "Think you could get off Saturday 
 evening instead of Sunday morning as you had 
 planned?" 
 
 Mrs. Merrill thought a second. "Yes, I guess 
 we could," she decided, "it wouldn't make a 
 
PLANS FOR THE JOURNEY 19 
 
 lot of difference either way. But I thought you 
 had our reservations?" 
 
 "Changed them," said Mr. Merrill. "How 
 would you like me to go along as far as Niagara 
 and spend Sunday with you there and then you 
 folks go on east Sunday night?" 
 
 "Really, Daddah?" called Mary Jane happily, 
 "then you could eat in the diner with us and 
 sleep and everything!" 
 
 "Wouldn't Uncle Hal be flattered," teased 
 Mr. Merrill, "if he knew that you talked more 
 about the diner than you do about Class Dayl" 
 
 "Oh, I like Class Day too," declared Mary 
 Jane fingering her new sash, "but I'm glad we 
 have to eat on the train to get there." 
 
 "For my part I'm glad to eat now," said Mr. 
 Merrill as he sniffed the aroma of Alice's dump- 
 lings, "I know I could eat three, so you'd better 
 hurry off with that finery, Mary Jane, if you 
 want your share." 
 
 Just twenty-four hours later, the four Mer- 
 
20 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 rills boarded the train for Boston. Much to 
 Mary Jane's interest, the conductor didn't call 
 "all aboard!" and there wasn't a bit of excite- 
 ment at the station. The great train dashed into 
 the residence station where they had decided to 
 board it, hesitated only long enough for the 
 porter to assist the Merrills and their bags onto 
 car 2or and off they went — through the fac- 
 tories and suburbs the girls had seen when they 
 came to Chicago for the first time. 
 
 Mary Jane pressed close to the window and 
 was eagerly watching the sight of busy city life 
 she could see on the streets as they flashed by, 
 when a white-coated man walked through the 
 car calling, "Second call for dinner! Second 
 call for dinner!" 
 
 "Why we missed the first call!" exclaimed 
 Mary Jane in distress. 
 
 "Cheer up, pussy," said her father, "that 
 'doesn't happen often." 
 
 "Well, we won't miss anything more," an- 
 nounced Mary Jane positively, " 'cause I washed 
 
PLANS FOR THE JOURNEY 21 
 
 my hands the last thing and my gloves kept 'em 
 clean." 
 
 It didn't take long to tuck gloves into coat 
 pockets, put hats in a safe place and walk to th» 
 diner. And here Mary Jane had a dinner such 
 ' as she loved, with hashed brown potatoes, and 
 salad and ice cream — to say nothing of meat and 
 bread and butter and a big glass of milk in a 
 creamy white tumbler. 
 
 "Now tell us what Niagara Falls is going to 
 look like," suggested Alice when they were back 
 in their own car. 
 
 "Oh, I couldn't do that," said Mrs. Merrill, 
 "you'll have to wait till morning. As soon as 
 the porter makes up your berth, you can go to 
 sleep and then, when you wake up, you can see 
 it all for yourself — water — rivers of water I 
 The most water you ever saw! That's what 
 
 it is." 
 
 • Mary Jane thought of that sentence the next 
 morning when she wakened. She was alone in 
 the lower berth — evidently mother was out and 
 
22 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 dresied — and she couldn't hear a thing but 
 water. Water dashing against the window, 
 water dripping in through the tiny screen at her 
 feet, water sounding on the roof of the car till 
 she couldn't hear another thing. 
 
 "Why, we've stopped right in the Falls," she 
 cried to herself, as she whirled around to look 
 out of the window, "and it's like she said, water, 
 water — everything's water I" 
 
A DAY OF WETNESS 
 
 "A LICE 1 Alice 1 Wake up!" 
 x\, Mary Jane reached her hand behind 
 the curtain into Alice's berth just ahead and 
 pounded briskly on the cushioned sides. 
 
 "Alice! Hurry and wake up 'cause we're 
 stopped and we're right in the middle o^ 
 Niagara Falls and it's a-f ailing down!" 
 
 Alice stirred drowsily and then, as she re- 
 alized what her sister was saying, she sat up 
 straight with a start of amazement. 
 
 "Why, Mary Jane Merrill, what are you say- 
 ing?" she asked. "The train doesn't stop at the 
 Falls — it doesn't even go close enough for us to 
 see them from the train. I asked Daddah last 
 evening before I went to sleep." 
 
 "Well," said Mary Jane, not in the least dis- 
 turbed by her sister's doubt, "you just raise your 
 window curtain and look out." 
 
 Alice did as she was told and for a minute 
 
 23 
 
24 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 she was inclined to believe Mary Jane must be 
 right. Water, water, water was all she could 
 see. Water in the air; water dashing against 
 the window; water running oflf the roof of the 
 car in great streams ; grayness and wetness every- 
 where. 
 
 "Looking at the landscape, ladies?" asked Mr. 
 Merrill as he poked his head through the cur- 
 tains and saw Alice's amazement. 
 
 "Morning, Daddahl" whispered Mary Jane 
 as she clambered over from her own berth, "it 
 is the Falls, isn't it? I told Alice we were right 
 
 in 'em.'* 
 
 "You've reason enough to think so," laughed 
 Mr. Merrill, "but as a matter of fact, you're not 
 quite right. The 'Falls' which you see is rain — 
 common everyday rain." 
 
 "I'd never call that common everyday rain," 
 said Alice as an extra hard beating of rain 
 actually made her afraid the window pane 
 wouldn't be enough to keep t^e water out of the 
 car, "we never have rain like that at home." 
 
A DAY OF WETNESS 25 
 
 "They don't have it like that often, any- 
 where," said Mrs. Merrill arriving from the 
 dressing room, "and I hate to invite more gloom, 
 but do you happen to recall that this party de- 
 cided they wouldn't 'bother' with umbrellas?" 
 
 "What ever'U we do?" exclaimed Mary Jane 
 with a gasp of horror. 
 
 "Swim, like as not," said Mr. Merrill com- 
 fortingly. "We might as well, because it's 
 Sunday you know and no store open to buy 
 umbrellas." 
 
 "Isn't it lovely!" sighed Mary Jane in a voice 
 of perfect content. 
 
 "Lovely!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill. 
 
 "How lovely?" asked Alice. 
 
 "And she thinks it's 'lovely'!" mimicked Mr. 
 Merrill. 
 
 "Well, it is," insisted Mary Jane. "When 
 things look perfectly awful and you're sure 
 they're all wrong, then we always think of some- 
 thing to do different and we have a beautiful 
 time — ^we always do." 
 
26 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 As though to prove her right, at that very 
 minute the porter came along the aisle to Mr. 
 Merrill and said, "There's a taxi man outside 
 at the steps, sir, and he says if you want a cab 
 sir, he can back right up to the steps and the 
 ladies won't even get damp." 
 
 "Well, if there is any man living who thinks 
 people won't get 'damp' this morning," said Mr. 
 Merrill laughingly, "I'll engage him on the 
 spot. As a matter of fact though, porter," he 
 added, "the ladies aren't ready yet. Could your 
 man come back in half an hour?" 
 
 "He means us when he says 'the ladies,' '* 
 whispered Mary Jane joyfully, " 'cause mother's 
 all dressed and ready to go." 
 
 "Don't you feel sort of grand?" Alice whis- 
 pered back. 
 
 The porter, who of course hadn't heard these 
 asides, promised to have the driver there in 
 thirty minutes, and Alice and Mary began to 
 dress in a rush. You see, the car of folks who 
 were going to get oflP at Niagara had been 
 
A DAY OF WETNESS 27 
 
 dropped from the eastern train and put on a 
 siding so there was no hurry about getting off. 
 That was nice too, for it was much easier to 
 dress when the train was standing still than when 
 it was dashing along through the country. 
 
 In less than twenty-five minutes, all the 
 "ladies" of Mr. Merrill's party were dressed and 
 combed and ready to go and, promptly on time, 
 the porter announced the waiting taxi. By that 
 time the rain had abated a trifle though it was 
 still coming down very hard. 
 
 "He has backed his car close up to the steps," 
 said the porter, "so the ladies needn't get a bit 
 of wet. Can't I lift the little girl out, sir? And 
 here's an umbrella, sir," he added as he un- 
 furled a huge cotton umbrella at the vestibule 
 door. 
 
 Seeing them coming, the driver opened the 
 taxi door and Mrs. Merrill slipped in safe and 
 dry. Then Mr. Merrill helped Alice the same 
 way and the porter set Mary Jane beside them. 
 
 "Well, so far so well," said Mr. Merrill as 
 
28 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 he stepped in after them and the car started off. 
 "That was a clever plan. Now if we only don't 
 get drenched getting into the hotel, we can at 
 least get breakfast, no matter what the weather." 
 
 At the hotel they found a wide porte cocher^ 
 so they were safe and dry there. 
 
 "You're going to like this," said Mrs. Merrill, 
 as she looked around the lobby. "There are lots 
 of little shops over there and you girls can look 
 at the souvenir things even if it rains too much 
 for you to see the Falls!" 
 
 "But breakfast first, please," suggested Mr. 
 Merrill, "and you can eat all you like for we 
 don't have to hurry to go anywhere." 
 
 Breakfast was served in a charming "sun 
 parlor" — ^which of course was gray and dark 
 because of the rain and mist but was beautiful 
 anyway with the dainty furnishings and gay 
 cretons. The windows that in clear weather 
 looked out on the rushing river a bit above the 
 Falls, showed nothing interesting now. But per- 
 haps that was just as well, for folks don't care 
 
A DAY OF WETNESS 29 
 
 much about sightseeing before eating — at least 
 Mary Jane didn't. 
 
 A delicious breakfast of fruit and chops and 
 French fried potatoes kept the party so busy 
 that it was with surprise they noticed, three- 
 quarters of an hour later, that the rain had 
 cleared away and that rifts of sunshine were 
 coming through the clouds. 
 
 "Why it isn't raining!" exclaimed Mary Jane, 
 "come on, let's hurry up and see everything." 
 
 A walk of five minutes and they found them- 
 selves standing on a great rock at the edge of 
 the Falls. It was a good thing that Mrs. Merrill 
 was close by Mary Jane, for there was some- 
 thing so vast and powerful and terrifying ahout 
 the mad rush of those roaring, tumbling waters 
 that even the iron bars around the edge of the 
 rock couldn't quite make a little girl feel safe — it 
 needed the hold of a person's warm hand to 
 make one feel comfortable enough to stand there 
 and watch. 
 
 For five minutes or more the four Merrills 
 
30 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 stood there looking. There wasn't any use try- 
 ing to talk — the roar of the falling water make 
 words seem fairy whispers that could not be 
 heard by human beings. Mary Jane thought of 
 a number of things she wanted to ask about — the 
 boat, riding so close up to the foot of the Falls ; 
 the great bridge over the river so near by, how 
 had men built it there? And the hotel across 
 the Falls, could they go there? But it was not 
 till they had turned away from the rocky obser- 
 vation point and were walking through the park 
 again that she tried to talk. 
 
 "That boat down there," replied Mr. Merrill, 
 "is called The Maid of the Mist' Folks who 
 like to do queer things think it's great fun to 
 ride up close to the foot of the Falls, but we had 
 enough water this morning to last us a while, 
 didn't we? We'll take the Falls from the top 
 this trip!" 
 
 As though to play a joke on him, at that 
 very minute there was a patter on the trees 
 overhead and pell-mell — down dashed a thou- 
 
A DAY OF WETNESS 31 
 
 sand raindrops. Great, round drops that 
 pounded right through the trees and seemed 
 to shout, "there's more to come, more to come, 
 more to comel" 
 
 There was no use staying under a tree and 
 there's no telling what would have ''happened to 
 hats bought for Boston if Alice hadn't hap- 
 pened to spy a bandstand close by. A hasty 
 dash for its shelter and they were safe — at least, 
 for a while. 
 
 "If it ever stops again," suggested Mrs. 
 Merrill, "let's go over there and take the trolley 
 that runs across the bridge Mary Jane was ask- 
 ing about, and ride down the gorge." 
 
 And of course it did stop in a few minutes 
 and they hurried over and boarded a car. That 
 was the most interesting trolley ride Mary Jane 
 had ever taken or even dreamed of taking. 
 Across the wonderful suspension bridge, along 
 the very tip edge of the high bluff on the 
 Canadian side of the river the car made its way 
 — so close sometimes that Mary Jane held her 
 
32 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 breath lest it tumble over. Then, several miles 
 down the river, they crossed another bridge and 
 came up the American side. This wasn't so 
 exciting as the banks were not nearly as high, 
 but it was even more interesting, for from her 
 seat in the car Mary Jane could see the rapids 
 where the water dashed over the great jutting 
 rocks and the whirlpool that was so fascinating 
 to watch. 
 
 "Oh, let's get out here and wait a while," she 
 cried as the car stopped at a tiny station. "I 
 iwant to watch that water a-whirling around." 
 
 "Good idea, dear," said Mrs. Merrill, and she 
 signaled the conductor that they wished to get 
 off. But as though to make sport of them, the 
 rain clouds which had appeared to be blowing 
 away, opened up again and a shower of rain 
 fell on the car roof. 
 
 "No sightseeing for us to-day," laughed Mr. 
 Merrill, "except under cover. I think we'll 
 keep under a roof while we have one handy!" 
 
 So they stayed on the car and rode on into the 
 (pity. But there was a lot to see even from a 
 
A DAY OF WETNESS 33 
 
 trolley car and Mary Jane thought she never 
 could forget all the wonderful and curious 
 sights of that trip. 
 
 They got off at their hotel and the girls spent 
 a happy two hours looking at the curios in the 
 shop windows and then they had luncheon. 
 
 Again the sun tried to come out and the party 
 took a carriage to drive to Goat Island. But 
 just as sure as they attempted to get out of the 
 carriage to have a close view of some sight the 
 driver pointed out to them — ^just that surely 
 would the pattering drops descend and drive 
 them scurrying to shelter. 
 
 At five o'clock they drove to the train that 
 was to take them to Buffalo where father was 
 to put them on the train for Boston. 
 
 "I know one thing I'll never forget about 
 Niagara," said Mary Jane as the train pulled 
 out of the station, "and that is that Niagara ' 
 Falls is awfully wet!" 
 
 "And next time we start^on a trip," added 
 Mrs. Merrill, "we'll carry umbrellas instead of 
 packing them." 
 
34 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 Mr. Merrill waited and had dinner in the 
 Buffalo station with them and then saw them 
 off for Boston before his train for Chicago 
 pulled in. 
 
 "Have a good time," he called as their train 
 pulled away, "and remember, I shall want to 
 hear everything about Harvard and Class Day 
 and Boston." 
 
 Mary Jane promised to see and remember 
 every single thing, then she turned back to their 
 section which the porter was already making 
 up for the night. 
 
 "You don't have to do a thing for me 
 Mother," she said happily. " 'Cause I know 
 how to put my shoes in the hammock and take 
 off my hair ribbon and roll it up and every- 
 thing. And I'm going right straight to sleep 
 90 I can wake up early, early in the morning." 
 
 "That's a good idea," agreed Mrs. Merrill, 
 "for early, early in the morning we shall be get- 
 ting into Boston and Uncle Hal will be there 
 to meet us." 
 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF BOSTON 
 
 LIKE to be brushed?" 
 J Mary Jane turned from the window to 
 see the porter standing by her, brush in hand 
 ready to make her tidy for getting ofif the train. 
 She looked questioningly at her mother and 
 Mrs. Merrill replied, "Yes, dear, let him brush 
 you oflf so you will be spick and span when we 
 meet Hal." 
 
 So Mary Jane followed the porter down to 
 the end of the aisle where he brushed and 
 brushed till there wasn't a speck of dust on that 
 pretty Peter Thompson suit. Alice and Mrs. 
 Merrill had their turns next, then the porter 
 took their hand baggage down toward the door. 
 
 "Do we get there now, Mother?" asked Mary 
 Jane, "right away quick now?" 
 
 "We certainly do," answered Mrs. M^^^ri^l, 
 "we're there this minute. Come girlies." 
 
 35 
 
36 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 As the train came to a stop, Mary Jane looked 
 out of the window in the narrow hallway by the 
 dressing room — she wanted^ to be sure to get a 
 glimpse of the wonderful Boston she had heard 
 so much about. And at the very first glance, she 
 spied Uncle Hal's smiling face close up outside 
 of her very window. Alice saw him too and 
 they waved and tried to speak and he grinned 
 and motioned to the car door. In a twinkle they 
 were off the train, Uncle Hal had picked up 
 their bags, and they were walking up the stairs 
 to the street. 
 
 Of course everybody talked at once, folks 
 always do when they are met at the train, but 
 through it all Mary Jane got the idea that they 
 were walking to the hotel because it was so very, 
 very near, and that Uncle Hal had time to visit 
 with them a while before he went back to col- 
 lege for some last duties before Class Day. 
 
 Alice and Uncle Hal walked on ahead talking 
 a blue streak about teams and baseball and all 
 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF BOSTON 37 
 
 sorts of things that Mary Jane, for her part, 
 didn't find particularly interesting. She was 
 glad to be walking with her mother so she could 
 look and ask all she liked. Five minutes walk 
 and they were in a broad "square" framed on 
 every side by fine looking buildings. 
 
 "That's the library I've told you so much 
 about," said Mrs. Merrill nodding her head 
 toward the left, "and this, I think," looking 
 ahead to the right, "is our hotel." 
 
 She was right for just then Alice and Uncle 
 Hal turned into the hotel and in a very few 
 minutes they were all seated in the room Hal 
 had engaged for them so many weeks before. 
 
 "There now, he's gone and I can look 
 around," said Mary Jane as the door closed 
 behind the boy who had carried up their bags. 
 She slipped down from the big chair where she 
 had primly settled herself and began exploring. 
 One big bed, one little bed, lots of drawers in 
 dressers and cupboards, a lovely white bath- 
 
38 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 room and, over in the corner of the room over- 
 looking the Square, a desk and several easy 
 chairs pulled together just right for visiting. 
 
 "How in the world did you know just exactly 
 the kind of a room I'd like?" asked Mary Jane 
 when she had finished her first tour of exploring. 
 
 "Well," said Uncle Hal, much pleased to 
 think she liked it all, "I can't say that I really 
 knew, but I did try pretty hard to guess." 
 
 "Now>as soon as the trunk comes," continued 
 Mary Jane, "let's unpack it and show him our 
 new dresses. We've new shoes too," she added 
 proudly, "for Class Day you know." 
 
 "Fine!" replied her uncle, "I know I'm going 
 to be proud as a peacock of my family when I 
 introduce them around to-morrow. But I'll tell 
 you, Mary Jane," he added persuasively, "I 
 know how slow those expressmen are commence- 
 ment week and you don't. Suppose we keep the 
 dress for a surprise to me to-morrow and go for 
 a walk now while I have some time." 
 
 "I'd like that," agreed Mary Jane, "only 
 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF BOSTON 39 
 what'll they do if the trunk comes while we are 
 walking?" 
 
 "They put it in your room all ready for you," 
 said Uncle Hal. 
 
 "Then I'm going walking with you," an- 
 nounced Mary Jane. 
 
 "And I'm going too," said Alice, "I just can't 
 hardly wait till I see everything." 
 
 "And I'm going too," laughed Mrs. Merrill, 
 as she put her hat back on, "because I don't 
 want to miss anything either." 
 
 "Aren't we missing something anyway?" 
 dsked Alice as they walked from the room. 
 
 Mrs. Merrill and Hal looked back into the 
 room. 
 
 "No-o," she answered, "I guess not. What 
 did you think we were leaving?" 
 
 "I didn't think we were leaving anything," 
 said Alice half laughing, half embarrassed, 
 "but—" 
 
 "Oh, I know," announced Mary Jane laugh- 
 ingly, "I'm missing it too. It's breakfast." 
 
40 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "You don't mean to say — " exclaimed Uncle 
 Hal. "That's certainly one on me! You see, 
 I'm so little used to having my family come 
 to see me, and so very glad to see them when 
 they get here, that I actually forgot breakfast. 
 We'll have to get an extra good one to make up 
 for it." 
 
 And an extra good one it certainly was; for 
 Mary Jane had strawberries and cream and 
 toast and fish and hashed brown potatoes and a 
 cup of delicious hot cocoa with whipped cream. 
 While they ate, Mary Jane told Uncle Hal 
 more about her Class Day frock. 
 
 "It's white, and pink ribbons — lovely long 
 crispy ribbons," she told him, "and new shoes, 
 pumps just like grown-up ladies." Of course 
 Uncle Hal was much impressed as Mary Jane 
 had hoped he would be, but neither he nor 
 Mary Jane herself would ever in the world 
 have guessed the trouble those pretty new pumps 
 were going to make before another day was 
 over! 
 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF BOSTON 411 
 
 Breakfast finished, they went tor their walk, 
 going through the Square and down as far as 
 the Commons. The city looked fresh and clean, 
 after a rain the night before and the flowers in 
 the Commons nodded their fresh blooms and 
 looked as though they had grown on purpose to 
 make Mary Jane think Boston was beautiful. 
 
 "Now then," said Uncle Hal, looking at his 
 watch, "I've just time for a surprise and then 
 I'll have to leave you." 
 
 "Couldn't we go along to Harvard with you?" 
 asked Alice. 
 
 "Yes, you could," replied Uncle Hal, "want 
 to?" 
 
 " 'Deed I do," answered Alice heartily, "I 
 don't want to miss anything." 
 
 "Then with me you go, for even if I can't 
 stay with you long, you can have the ride out 
 and back. But now for the surprise." 
 
 He guided them across a bridge and down a 
 sheltered path to a tiny lake and there riding 
 on the water were several great white swans. 
 
42 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 No, they weren't swans either. They were much 
 too big for real swans and there were seats on 
 a platform right behind. Boats — that's what 
 they were of course. Boats in the shape of 
 swans! 
 
 "Can we ride on them?" asked Mary Jane 
 breathless with excitement, "really ride on them 
 — people can?" 
 
 "To be sure people can," laughed Uncle Hal, 
 "and we're going to this very minute." 
 
 He bought four tickets while Mary Jane and 
 Alice climbed into the nearest seats and then he 
 and Mrs. Merrill sat just behind them. 
 
 "Where's the engineer?" asked Mary Jane. 
 
 "Coming," replied Uncle with a chuckle, 
 "there he is, now." 
 
 Mary Jane watched an elderly man step 
 aboard the boat and take his place on a queer- 
 looking seat between the wings of the "swan" and 
 much to her surprise he didn't start any engine: 
 instead he began pedaling as if he was riding 
 a bicycle. The swan boat moved away from 
 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF BOSTON 43 
 the pier and, as the man pedaled, they rode 
 with a slow and stately motion out into the 
 little lake. 
 
 It was a queer way to ride, being bicycled, 
 around a lake in a boat built to look like a swan 
 but Mary Jane loved it. They moved slowly — 
 just like a swan in a fairy tale — and it didn't take 
 Mary Jane a minute to forget all about Boston 
 and the Commons and to fancy that she was a 
 princess in a fairy tale and that the kind swan 
 was drawing her in a magic boat through her 
 country to visit her subjects. She didn't see the 
 flower beds by the side of the tiny lagoon; she 
 didn't see the children playing on the beach ; she 
 didn't hear the talk Mrs. Merrill and Uncle 
 Hal were enjoying; she didn't even talk to Alice 
 sitting right by her side. Mary Jane saw only 
 the magic of the fairy tale that was in her mind 
 and enjoyed the thrill of being a princess. 
 
 With a slight bump the swan boat touched 
 the dock and Uncle Hal took her hand to help 
 her oflF. 
 
44 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "Oh, do we have to get off?" she exclaimed in 
 dismay, "we've only just begun to ridel" 
 
 "Like it so well?" asked Uncle Hal, "then 
 you shall have a ride every day while you are 
 here. I remember when I was a little kid and 
 came to visit Boston, I liked them a lot. That's 
 why I brought you here first thing this morn- 
 ing. But I guess we'll have to go now if you're 
 going out to Cambridge with me." 
 
 Very reluctantly Mary Jane stepped off the 
 boat and with a promise to herself that she 
 would ride again every single time she possibly 
 could, she trudged along behind the others. 
 
 A short walk brought them to the entrance of 
 the subway. Of course Mary Jane hadn't an 
 idea what a subway was, for there wasn't any 
 such thing in any city she had ever lived in or 
 visited, but she gathered from what Uncle Hal 
 said that it must be something that took them 
 out to Cambridge. But such a funny something 
 as it was she never would have imagined ! 
 
 They went down some stairs, through a turn- 
 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF BOSTON 45 
 stile and onto a platform. Before Mary Jane's 
 eyes were used to the queer, half-darkness of 
 the platform, and her nose to the funny, dank' 
 smell, there was a rumble and a roar and along 
 came a car. They were crowded aboard and 
 again there was a rumble and roar and away 
 they dashed — past red lights and green lights, 
 past platforms and more platforms till in no 
 time at all (or so it seemed to Mary Jane) they 
 were up on a street, dashing across a long 
 bridge, down again in the ground and Uncle 
 Hal saying, "Time to get off I We're at Cam- 
 bridge!" 
 
 T^ey hurried off and up the stairs to the 
 fresh air. 
 
 "That's better than the old, slow, surface car," 
 said Uncle Hal as they crossed the street. 
 
 "Then the surface car must have been prettv 
 bad," said Mary Jane positively, " 'cause this 
 one smells awful and hurries so fast you can't 
 see anything 1" 
 
 "You're right about those two things," 
 
46 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 laughed Uncle Hal, "and I suggest that you 
 take a surface car to go back because then you 
 can see all the sights you want to on the way. 
 But of course, Mary Jane, you wanted to ride 
 in a subway once." 
 
 "Maybe I did," said Mary Jane, "but I think 
 the swan boats are lots the nicest." 
 
 Mrs. Merrill decided that they wouldn't go 
 into the Yard at this time; Hal would be busy 
 and couldn't show them around, and she much 
 preferred that Alice and Mary Jane should get 
 their first impressions of the wonderful univer- 
 sity when they could see it right. So Uncle Hal 
 put them on a surface car for Boston and with 
 a promise to dine with them in their hotel, bade 
 them good-by. 
 
 "I just don't see why anybody would ever ride 
 in a cellar when they might be riding on a 
 bridge over a lovely river," said Mary Jane as 
 she looked at the Charles gleaming in the warm 
 June sunshine. 
 
 "They must be in an awful hurry to get some- 
 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF BOSTON 47 
 where or those things would never be built," 
 added Alice. 
 
 'Well, you know," laughed Mrs. Merrill, 
 "wq're in a hurry sometimes ourselves! We're 
 not always ladies of leisure as we are to-day. 
 And you see, it's a long ride back to Boston. 
 What shall we do when we get there, girls?" she 
 added. 
 
 "Get lunch," answered Alice promptly. 
 
 "Lunch!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, teasingly, 
 "after all that breakfast?" 
 
 "Breakfast!" said Mary Jane, teasing back, 
 "did we have breakfast?" 
 
 "All right then, ladies," said Mrs. Merrill, 
 "we'll have lunch. And then how would you 
 like to take an automobile ride that Hal told 
 me about? It doesn't last much over an hour 
 and we can see the old part of Boston, the his- 
 toric part and also the foreign district your 
 father was telling you about the other day." 
 
 "That would be fine. Mother," said Alice 
 eagerly, "don't let's stop long for lunch. Let's 
 
48 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 just eat something and go — I love to see old 
 places. Remember St. Augustine, Mother?" 
 
 "Indeed I do, dear," answered Mrs. Merrill. 
 "Here we are at Copley Square. I have a feel- 
 ing we had better go to our room first — there 
 might be a message or something. Then we'll 
 get lunch and take the ride." 
 
 It was a good thing Mrs. Merrill thought to 
 go to the hotel and inquire for a message, for 
 there was one for them — one that changed all 
 their plans for the afternoon. 
 
AN UNEXPECTED VISIT AT 
 WELLESLEY 
 
 MRS. MERRILL turned from the hotel 
 desk and looked in a puzzled way at the 
 slip of yellow paper she held in her hand, 
 
 "What do you suppose this means?" she said 
 as she came up to where the two girls were sit- 
 ting in big chairs waiting for her. "It says, 
 'Phone Cambridge 281 1 at once.' Somebody 
 telephoned five minutes ago, the clerk said, and 
 was very anxious to reach me. Now whatever 
 can have happened? Hal didn't know we were 
 coming back here, so it couldn't be he and we 
 don't know another soul. However," she added 
 briskly, "I needn't be so silly as to stand here 
 wondering when I might go to the 'phone and 
 find out all about it. You stay right here, 
 girlies, and I'll 'phone from the booth over there 
 and we'll solve the mystery." 
 
 49 
 
50 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 Mary Jane and Alice could hardly wait, they 
 were so curious and impatient to find out what 
 had happened. They could see Mrs. Merrill 
 talking but she was too far away for them to 
 make out whether she was pleased or distressed 
 by the conversation. In two or three minutes 
 though, she left the booth and came towards 
 them and the girls could tell by the way she was 
 smiling that something very nice and agreeable 
 had happened. 
 
 "We're to be up at the station in thirty 
 minutes," she announced, "the station where we 
 came in this morning, and Uncle Hal will meet 
 us and take us out to see Wellesley — ^what do, 
 you think of that?" 
 
 "But, Mother," exclaimed Alice, "I thought 
 he had a lot of work to do?" 
 
 "He still has," said Mrs. Merrill, "but just 
 after we left him he got a message from one of 
 his friends at Wellesley telling him that the 
 Tree Day dance was to be given this afternoon 
 at the Garden Party, and that when it was first 
 
AN UNEXPECTED VISIT 51 
 
 shown it was so very wonderful, we surely 
 must see it." 
 
 "And so he told her we were here?" said 
 Alice. 
 
 "He didn't have to, she already knew that,'^ 
 said Mrs. Merrill, "and her invitation included 
 us. So just on a chance that we might come to 
 the hotel, he called up and left the message for 
 us. We won't have time to change or anything, 
 but I guess we look all right in traveling clothes. 
 Let's hurry now, so's not to miss the train." 
 
 "But where's lunch?" asked Mary Jane in 
 'dismay, "I am hungry, truly I am." 
 
 "Of course you are, dear," said Mrs. Merrill 
 reassuringly, "and we'll get a bite. Hal said 
 there was a nice little place right on the way to 
 the station and if we go quickly, we'll have time 
 for a sandwich and a glass of milk. Then if 
 that isn't enough, perhaps we can get something 
 later. In fact," and she smiled mysteriously, 
 "I think I wouldn't worry a bit about starving 
 if I were you." 
 
52 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 After that Mary Jane didn't bother about 
 being hungry — she was too busy wondering 
 what was going to happen. They got a sand- 
 wich, a luscious big chicken sandwich with 
 white meat sticking out all around the edges, 
 and a glass of milk, a great big glass of milk, and 
 that was all there was time for. Even so they 
 barely got down the stairs in time for their 
 train. 
 
 The ride out to Wellesley was great fun, for 
 Uncle Hal told them stories all the way — stories 
 of jolly times he had had going over this same 
 route and of fun at Wellesley. 
 
 "When I grow up," announced Alice as they 
 got off at the station, "I'm coming to Wellesley 
 and I'm going to know some folks at Harvard 
 and everything just like you've been telling us 
 about." 
 
 "And I'm coming here too," said Mary Jane, 
 "I wouldn't go to any place but Wellesley 'cause 
 it's the very nicest." 
 
AN UNEXPECTED VISIT 53 
 
 "A lot you know about it," teased Uncle Hal, 
 "now why is Wellesley the nicest — can you tell 
 that?" 
 
 " 'Cause it's near to Harvard," said Mary 
 Jane, and of course if she had thought all day, 
 she couldn't have thought up an answer that 
 would better please her Harvard uncle. 
 
 "We'll hop onto this trolley and ride to the 
 entrance to save time," said Uncle Hal as he 
 hailed a passing car. They rode a very little 
 way, really not a nickel's worth Mary Jane said, 
 and found themselves at the college entrance. 
 
 Of the next hour and a half Mary Jane didn't 
 have a very clear understanding. There was so 
 much to see that a person just couldn't see and 
 remember it all ; and so many folks talking that 
 one couldn't hear everything. But she remem- 
 bered what she could and saved it up to ask her 
 mother about afterward. There were the old- 
 fashioned red brick buildings on the quadrangle 
 and the stately Tower Court where Hal's friend, 
 
(54 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 Miss Elliott, lived, and the beautiful campus 
 with its lovely old trees that cast an inviting 
 shade over the lawns. 
 
 "I'm going to study hard and come here to 
 college," said Alice, after they had completed 
 their trip around the grounds, "I think it would 
 be just wonderful to live here for four years! 
 And just think, Mother," she added, "in five 
 years I'll be coming herel" She looked dreamily 
 over the beautiful place and tried to imagine 
 herself one of the girls in gay sport clothes 
 walking under those very trees. 
 
 "I'm coming here too," said Mary Jane, "and 
 I'll be here before so very long, won't I, Mother 
 dear?" 
 
 "Before we know it,' at the rate you girls are 
 now growing," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "and 
 just think of the fun I'm going to have coming 
 here to 'settle my daughters' when they begin 
 college." 
 
 Miss Elliott found them excellent seats where 
 they could watch the dancing, and Mary Jane 
 
AN UNEXPECTED VISIT 55 
 
 enjoyed sitting and looking at everything quite 
 as much as being shown around. She thought 
 the dancing wonderful and held her breath with 
 the joy of it as the dancers came gayly down the 
 shaded hill, across the open green and back up 
 the hill again when the dance was over. 
 
 "I'll have to learn a lot if I'm going to come 
 here and do all that," she whispered to her 
 mother when the dancers were out of sight be- 
 hind the greenery that made the background. 
 
 "No doubt about that, dear," said Mrs. Mer- 
 rill, "but just think how much you are learning 
 all the time ! By the time you are grown-up as 
 those girls are, you'll be sure to know a lot." 
 
 "Has Uncle Hal said anything about tea or 
 anything?" whispered Alice as the groups of 
 people broke up and she guessed that the pro- 
 gram was over. 
 
 As though they suspected what the girls might 
 be thinking of. Miss Elliott and Hal came up 
 at that minute and Uncle Hal said, "I've just 
 been telling Dorothy that we'll take our quarter 
 
S6 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 of a cup of tea and half a wafer that we could 
 get over there, some other time, and she's agreed 
 to let me take you all to the Inn for real tea. 
 Want to go or doesn't food appeal to you?" 
 
 "Um-m," said Alice, trying hard to be really 
 grown-up like Miss Elliott, "I think I could eat 
 a little if you insist." 
 
 "Here's the insisting then," laughed Uncle 
 Hal, and tucking her arm into his, he started 
 off, passed the administration building and 
 down Freshman Row. 
 
 Miss Elliott walked with Mrs. Merrill and 
 Mary Jane and pointed out the various houses 
 as they passed them. 
 
 "This is where you want to stay your fresh- 
 man year," she said as they passed a three-story 
 frame building on their left, "lots of nice girls 
 go there and you'll have great larks. But you'll 
 have to put her application in early if you want 
 her to get in there, Mrs. Merrill," she advised, 
 "because it's one of the most popular houses." 
 
 "I think I'll put in application for both girls 
 
AN UNEXPECTED VISIT 57 
 
 as soon as I can attend to it," said Mrs. Merrill, 
 "for what I have seen of the college in even this 
 one little glimpse, has made me feel that Alice 
 and Mary Jane must go here. I can't imagine 
 a more charming place to spend four years than 
 right here." 
 
 Hal and Alice had turned in to a building on 
 the other side of the street so Mary Jane hurried 
 her mother and Miss Elliott that they might 
 catch up. 
 
 "He engaged a table by 'phone before he came 
 out," said Miss Elliott, "so we know they'll be 
 looking for us." 
 
 "And then they'll have plenty to eat even 
 though there are lots of folks, won't they?" said 
 Mary Jane, much comforted. 
 
 Uncle Hal showed them to the table by the 
 window where they could eat and at the same 
 time see everything that might be going on 
 either inside or out. 
 
 Mary Jane was a bit curious as to what Uncle 
 Hal might offer her to eat — especially as he 
 
58 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 didn't ask her what she wanted. But evidently 
 he knew what was good, for when the tray ar- 
 rived a few minutes later it was piled up with 
 good things. 
 
 "I thought you didn't have time to overeat 
 this noon so you might like a hearty tea," he 
 explained as Mrs. Merrill looked with a bit of 
 dismay at the loaded tray. "If you don't want 
 any, sister," he added, "I know some people 
 who can eat more than their share — and I didn't 
 have any lunch myself!" 
 
 There were sandwiches — olive sandwiches 
 and lettuce and chicken, all so dainty and pretty 
 that Mary Jane thought she could eat twenty 
 by herself she was that hungry! And tea in 
 dainty gold-rimmed cups, and fudge cake with 
 icing as thick as the cake — almost — and cunning 
 little cakes and candies in paper cases. 
 
 Mary Jane watched to see how Miss Elliot 
 fixed her tea and then she took cloves too, just 
 as Miss Elliott did — though it did make a funny 
 taste. Still when one is visiting college one does 
 
AN UNEXPECTED VISIT 59 
 
 as college folks do — cream and sugar is all right 
 for home use, but isn't grown-up enough when 
 one is "at college." 
 
 After tea, Miss Elliott walked down to the 
 station with them and told them good-by. Mary 
 Jane was sorry that they weren't to see her again 
 but Miss Elliott explained that she would be far 
 too busy with her own college affairs to come to 
 the parties at Harvard. 
 
 "What are you thinking about so solemnly?" 
 asked Uncle Hal as they were riding back to 
 Boston, "you haven't said a word for five 
 minutes !" 
 
 "I'm thinking 'bout my new shoes," said 
 Mary Jane. "All the girls at Wellesley had 
 white shoes and I've got white shoes — in the 
 trunk. I'm going to wear them to-morrow and 
 you're going to be surprised, you are. Uncle 
 Hal." 
 
 "I believe it," laughed Uncle Hal, "I'll wager 
 I'll be proud of my family." 
 
 **You won't be, if your family doesn't get back 
 
6o MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 to its room and unpack its trunk pretty soon," 
 said Mrs. Merrill. 
 
 "No," she added later, when they got off the 
 train and he started toward their hotel, "you 
 aren't to go a step of the way with us. It's right 
 there in plain sight and we couldn't get lost if 
 we tried. Now hurry back to Cambridge and do 
 your work and don't you dare come to the hotel 
 before seven." 
 
 "And we'll unpack and press our dresses and 
 get everything ready for Class Day, won't we 
 Mother?" said Mary Jane, "I think that'll be as 
 much fun as seeing things." 
 
CLASS DAY FUN— AND TROUBLES 
 
 "r I ^HEY must be all right," said Alice, as 
 
 A the girls were about through dressing for 
 Class Day the next morning. "You know you 
 tried them on three or four times, the day we 
 bought them, and shoes don't change." 
 
 Mary Jane walked up and down the room 
 twice, looking all the while at her left shoe. 
 "Well," very doubtfully, "maybe they are all 
 right now, only they don't feel all right — they 
 don't a bit." 
 
 Mrs. Merrill sat down in the nearest chair 
 and looked at Mary Jane in consternation. 
 
 "You don't mean to say that now when we 
 are every bit ready to go to Class Day, and there 
 isn't time to hunt up a store, that you think your [ 
 shoes are wrong! Why, Mary Jane, you know, 
 you tried them on and tried them on and were; 
 sure they were a perfect fit" 
 
 6i 
 
62 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "I know it," said Mary Jane, "and they mere 
 all right, only now there's something sticks into 
 my heel every time I take a step." 
 
 "Give it to me dear," replied Mrs. Merrill, 
 "and I'll press open the heels more. Maybe 
 they are just a bit stiff. And then I'll put your 
 black pumps in my bag so if these hurt you, you 
 can change." 
 
 "But, Mother!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "folks 
 don't wear black shoes to Class Day, not with 
 new organdy dresses and a pink sash I" 
 
 "To be sure they don't," agreed Mrs. Merrill, 
 "but black pumps would be vastly better than 
 blistered heels, so we'll take them along to be 
 sure. Are we ready now?" she added and as 
 nobody objected she locked the door and they 
 set out for Cambridge and Class Day. 
 
 The first thing on their arrival at Harvard 
 was to see Uncle Hal's room. It was on the 
 first floor in Matthews and was so attractive 
 that Mary Jane thought she would like to stay 
 here all day and just look at things. Off the 
 
CLASS DAY FUN 63 
 
 main room, which was both a living room and 
 study, were two tiny bedrooms, one Uncle Hal's 
 and the other his roommate's. Mary Jane was 
 fascinated by those tiny rooms. 
 
 "It's just as I'd like a house," she said to 
 her uncle, "a great big room with banners and 
 pictures and lots of things to look at and a tiny 
 little room all my own to keep house in." 
 
 "Do you cook your breakfast there?" asked 
 Alice as she spied a chafing dish in a corner. 
 
 "Heavens! No!" laughed Hal, "what do you 
 think we come to Harvard for? To practice 
 cooking? No, that's only for fudge or some- 
 thing — just on state occasions." 
 
 "Well, isn't this a state occasion?" asked 
 Alice. 
 
 "Um-m, well, yes it is," admitted Hal, as he 
 saw he had cornered himself, "but I'm afraid 
 there isn't time for fudge-making. See, there is 
 the band already and it's almost time to go over 
 to the hall for the exercises." 
 
 Mary Jane was quite willing to give up fudge 
 
64 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 for a band and she stood at the window watch- 
 ing the yard. It was a picture to make any 
 little girl — or big girl either — look long. The 
 yard was gayly decorated with lanterns and 
 streamers, and chairs set about invited folks to 
 be comfortable while they visited or listened to 
 the band. The walks and open spaces were 
 thronged with well-dressed people all eager and 
 happy and having a beautiful time. The fre- 
 quent sight of a student in cap and gown, or, less 
 often, in the red garb of marshal, made Mary 
 Jane feel as though it was all a great play, and 
 she was thrilled to think that she — Mary Jane — 
 only six years old and living way off in Chicago 
 — was there seeing it all. There were lots of 
 men and lots of women but she hadn't yet seen 
 a single girl as young as herself. 
 
 "I must remember every bit of it so's to tell 
 it to Daddah," she said to herself, as a group 
 of students and alumni went by singing, "I must 
 remember it all." 
 
 But of course a person couldn't remember it 
 
CLASS DAY FUN 65 
 
 all — for something was happening every minute! 
 The exercises in Sander's Theatre for which, 
 thanks to Uncle Hal's many friends, they all had 
 seats; lunch at the "Dickey," one of Uncle Hal's 
 clubs, and the procession to the Stadium. Much 
 to Mary Jane's amazement, this procession was 
 led by old men — men as old as her grandfather. 
 
 "Why, do they go to Harvard, Mother?" she 
 asked as the old men marched by. 
 
 "Not now, dear, answered Mrs. Merrill, 
 "they went there years ago — oh, long ago." 
 
 "Then what are they in Uncle Hal's Class 
 Day for?" asked Mary Jane. 
 
 "They've come back for their re-union," ex- 
 plained Mrs. Merrill. "They come back in 
 three years and ten years and twenty-five years 
 I think it is — ^you must ask Uncle Hal to be 
 sure, and their class has a regular get-together 
 party. Then of course tiiey come othejr times, 
 whenever they can." 
 
 "They look as though they likeH to come 
 back," observed Mary Jane. 
 
66 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "They surely do," agreed Mrs. Merrill. 
 
 "I think that's fine," decided Mary Jane, "I 
 should think it would be fun to march and 
 shout and everything like that, after you'd been 
 a grown-up man and had to behave so much." 
 
 At the tag-end of the procession, the on- 
 lookers fell in line and hurried over to the 
 Stadium where the exercises were held. Mary 
 Jane was thrilled by the sight of the great 
 cement building, open to the blue sky and 
 thronged with happy-looking people. 
 
 "I like it, Mother," she whispered as they 
 found their seats, "I like it a lot, 'cause every- 
 thing's so pretty and it makes you feel so 
 good." 
 
 After the exercises were over the crowd scat- 
 tered to the various club houses for tea. Uncle 
 Hal took his party first to the D. U. house where 
 they met some of his friends, and had lobster 
 salad and sandwiches and cake and ice cream 
 and tea. 
 
CLASS DAY FUN 67 
 
 "Better not eat too much," he advised as he 
 saw Mary Jane reach for a third sandwich. 
 
 "Haven't they made enough?" asked Mary 
 Jane. 
 
 "Look at the piles on the tabic," laughed 
 Uncle Hal, "no, I guess they have enough, but 
 you've just begun. You see, we have to make 
 the rounds of several houses and you have to eat 
 something at every place." 
 
 "Don't you worry about us," observed Alice,, 
 consolingly, "we can always eat at every place, 
 and every time." 
 
 "All right then, go ahead, ladies," laughed 
 Uncle Hal. "Bill, pass the food to my starving 
 family!" And Alice and Mary Jane, both had 
 second helpings all around. 
 
 But by the time they had eaten lobster salad 
 and tea and sandwiches and ice cream and cakes 
 at D. U., and tea and lobster salad and sand- 
 wiches and ice cream and cakes at the "Dickey," 
 and lobster salad and sandwiches and tea and 
 
68 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 ice cream and cakes at the "Crimson" house, 
 Mary Jane began to suspect that Uncle Hal's 
 advice about going light at first wasn't so bad 
 after all. -■-"'" 
 
 ,,- I'lM they have the same things because that's 
 all they know how to cook or because they think 
 that's all we like to eat?" asked Mary Jane 
 M[^n she saw her plate filled with the fifth — 
 or was it the sixth, she had lost count — helping 
 of sai^f * 
 
 ^'You^can't prove it by me," laughed Uncle 
 Hal, "I guess it's all just the proper thing to 
 have on Class Day. Don't you like it?" 
 
 "Oh, yes," replied Mary Jane, politely, "and 
 I used to like it a lot." 
 
 "Maybe you're not really hungry any more," 
 said Uncle Hal with a teasing twinkle in his 
 eye, "if you can stand it not to eat for a while 
 suppose we dance." 
 
 He brought up one of his friends, Lawrence 
 Echart, to talk to Mary Jane and danced oflf 
 with Alice. 
 
CLASS DAY FUN 69 
 
 "Have you a little sister about my size?" 
 asked Mary of the college man she was left 
 with. 
 
 "No, I haven't," he replied. 
 
 "I thought not," said Mary Jane. 
 
 "Now what made you think that?" asked 
 Hal's friend with real curiosity. 
 
 " 'Cause you talk to me like I was a real 
 grown-up lady," explained Mary Jane. "When 
 they've got a little sister like me they just bow 
 when Uncle Hal brings 'em up and they say 
 'what grade are you in in school?' and then be- 
 fore I can answer they start talking to somebody 
 else. But when they haven't any little sister, 
 they talk to me like I was a real grown-up lady 
 — ^well, anyway, as though I was as big as 
 Alice." 
 * "That's funny," laughed Mr. Echart, "what 
 would you say if I asked you to 'dance with me 
 — like a real lady?" 
 
 "I'd say thank you, yes I will," replied Mary 
 Jane demurely, and mucK to her partner's sur- 
 
70 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 prise she danced oflf every bit as well as he 
 could. 
 
 Now usually Mary Jane loved to dance ; she 
 and Alice often danced together and both en- 
 joyed it and did it well. And to-day should have 
 been perfect for the music was good and the 
 floors excellent. But they hadn't taken a dozen 
 steps before sharp twinges of pain shot through 
 her left heel and she felt as though she couldn't 
 stand it another minute. 
 
 "Tired?" asked Mr. Echart, as he noticed 
 that something was wrong. "Anything you'd 
 rather do than dance?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Mary Jane with a sudden burst 
 of feeling, "I'd rather take of? my shoe! Do 
 they have any place where folks take off their 
 shoes on Class Day?" 
 
 "Well," said her partner, "I can't say that 
 they prepare for it as a regular part of the pro- 
 gram, but it might be done." 
 
 "Then let's 'do it right away," said Mary Jane 
 miserably. 
 
She sighed with relief as the offending shoe came off. 
 
 (Page 73) 
 
CLASS DAY FUN 73 
 
 She hobbled down the stairs after her partner 
 and into a small office on the left. There was 
 a great table in the center of the room, and 
 pulled up to it was a huge, comfortable chair. 
 
 "How will that do?" asked Mr. Echart. 
 
 "Any chair would do" answered Mary Jane, 
 "but that one is lovely!" 
 
 "Well, you sit down there, young lady," Ke 
 added, "and I'll take off that shoe." 
 
 "Oh, that feels good," she sighed with relief 
 as the offending shoe came off and she settled 
 back in comfort in the great chair. 
 
 "Where did it hurt?" asked Mr. Echart. 
 
 "Right there," said Mary Jane, pointing to the 
 back of the heel. 
 
 "That's easy," said Mr. Echart, "it's just too 
 stiff and likely as not has made a blister. You 
 just wait till I put in a pad of soft tissue paper 
 and you'll see how much better it will feel." 
 
 At that minute the music stopped and Alice 
 and Uncle Hal appeared at the door of the 
 room. 
 
74 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "You don't mean to say," demanded Hal, 
 "that you are letting my niece sit in the presi- 
 dent's chair — the sacred chair of the president 
 of the Crimson?" 
 
 "You didn't think you were going to keep it 
 yourself, did you?" laughed Lawrence, "I must 
 say Mary Jane looks every bit as well in it as 
 you did!" 
 
 "But what are you doing?" asked Hal. 
 
 "Going into the boot and shoe business — f 
 repairing department," announced Lawrence. 
 "And if I don't get the job I want on the 
 Boston Transcript, I'm going to open a shop 
 of my own. How's that feel, now?" he added 
 as he slipped the shoe back on. 
 
 Mary Jane set her foot gingerly onto the 
 floor. Then, as it didn't hurt, she pressed, 
 harder and harder. 
 
 "It's all right," she said with great relief, 
 "my, but you know a lot and I'm so much 
 obliged!" 
 
 "You're entirely welcome," said Mr. Echart 
 
CLASS DAY FUN 75 
 
 smilingly, "we do find a college education use- 
 ful sometimes," he added teasingly, "even if it's 
 only for stuffing copy paper into young ladies' 
 shoes. Now where do we go from here?" 
 
 "Back to the yard for the music and lights," 
 said Hal, and back to the yard they all went and 
 found themselves chairs where they could hear 
 the singing and watch the beautiful picture 
 made by the throngs of people, the gay lights 
 and the gleaming fountain. 
 
WINNING THE GAME 
 
 HOW Class Day ended and how she got 
 into her own room in the hotel, Mary 
 Jane never in the world could have told 
 you. She had a hazy recollection of singing, 
 and lights, and crowds of people passing and 
 re-passing; of more singing, and more lights, 
 flashing through water and of people stopping 
 to talk to her mother and Uncle Hal and their 
 friends; of Mr. Echart inquiring about her 
 shoe, and of Uncle Hal slipping on the black 
 pumps that he must have gone to his room to 
 get, and putting the white ones in his pocket. 
 And then, later, of being picked up and carried 
 to a taxi and of dozing comfortably against her 
 mother during a long ride. But more than that 
 she didn't know. 
 And now the sun was shining and her mother 
 
 was standing at the side of the bed, dressed and 
 
 76 
 
WINNING THE GAME 77 
 
 ready to go and asking if Mary Jane was ever 
 going to wake up, 
 
 "Is it all over?" asked Mary Jane sleepily, 
 "Class Day and everything all over?" 
 
 "Class Day is over," replied Mrs. Merrill, 
 "but everything isn't. Don't you remember that 
 to-day is the game, the baseball game between 
 Harvard and Yale?" 
 
 "Oh, yes," said Mary Jane sitting up in bed 
 and wide awake at once, "it's the game Harvard 
 wins and we see 'em do it." 
 
 "You certainly are loyal enough to suit even 
 your Uncle Hal!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill 
 laughingly. "He never will forget how you 
 told everyone within hearing that you were 
 going to Harvard when you grew up." 
 
 "Did I really. Mother?" cried Mary Jane in 
 dismay, "when?" She forgot all about being 
 sleepy and sat straight up in bed. 
 
 "Yes, my dear, you did," replied Mrs. Mer- 
 rill. "When Hal was trying to wake you up 
 enough to get you into the taxi you eaid you 
 
78 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND ^ 
 didn't want to leave Harvard and that you were 
 going to be president of the Crimson like Uncle 
 Hal. And then, when he told you that you 
 were too young, you announced that you were 
 coming when you grew up." 
 
 "Well, anyway. Mother," interrupted Alice 
 anxious to comfort her sister, "we are coming 
 to Wellesley, you know, that's all settled and 
 Wellesley is almost Harvard." 
 
 "Don't you worry 1" laughed Mrs. Merrill, 
 "Uncle Hal wasn't bothered. He was so proud 
 to have you like it all and so pleased the way 
 you met all his friends, that he liked to have you 
 want to come — ^you just ask him to-day and 
 you'll see. 
 
 "Now," she continued briskly, "I know 
 you're sleepy, but you hurry up and jump into 
 the tub. I have the water ready, and then when 
 you're through, you'll find a lovely surprise." 
 
 "Do I know. Mother?" asked Alice. 
 
 "No," replied Mrs. Merrill, "and you never 
 in the world could guess, so don't try. While 
 
WINNING THE GAME 79 
 
 Mary Jane tubs, I'll brush and braid your hair 
 and by that time the surprise will be coming and 
 you'll be ready for it. And don't hurry too 
 fast, Mary Jane," she added, "you want to scrub 
 as well as tub, you know." 
 
 It was a good thing she gave that warning, for 
 even with a warning Mary Jane hurried so 
 furiously fast that there was no time wasted over 
 details. But she felt fresh and clean anyway 
 and was wide awake and glowing from her rub. 
 
 "Now where's the surprise?". she asked. 
 
 "Slip into the bathroom again both of you — 
 scoot!" and at that minute there was a loud 
 knock on the door. 
 
 "Now whatever do you suppose — " won- 
 dered Alice as she heard her mother open the 
 door of the room and talk to someone. 
 
 They had not long to wait — fortunately. A 
 couple of minutes and Mrs. Merrill opened the 
 bathroom door and — ^what do you suppose they 
 saw? 
 
 Drawn up near the windows that overlooked 
 
8o MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 Copley Square was a cunning little table and on 
 the table was — you never would guess — break- 
 fast for three! Strawberries and cream and 
 cereal and milk and eggs and toast and hashed 
 brown potatoes — the hot things all on silver 
 dishes and covered with big silver covers to 
 keep them nice and hot while the fruit and 
 cereal were being eaten. 
 
 "Mother 1" exclaimed Mary Jane, and then 
 she stopped for she couldn't think of anything 
 to say. 
 
 "How'd you ever think of it?" asked Alice. 
 
 "I didn't," answered Mrs. Merrill, and the 
 girls saw that she was as pleased as they were 
 with the idea. "Hal thought of it. When he 
 brought us up last night he suggested that 
 maybe we'd be tired this morning and that we 
 shouldn't hurry. He said he'd order it as he 
 went away and that I should ring when we were 
 ready and they'd bring it up." 
 
 "And you did, and they did," added Mary 
 
WINNING THE GAME 8i 
 
 Jane, not vfcry intelligently to be sure, but they 
 all knew what she meant. 
 
 "How did he know what to order?" asked 
 Alice as she took the first luscious bit of straw- 
 berry. 
 
 "I guess he just ordered what he saw you 
 liked yesterday, which was a very good way to 
 do," said Mrs. Merrill. "Now while we eat, 
 let's plan what to do to-day." 
 
 "When is the game?" asked Alice. 
 
 "Not till afternoon," replied Mrs. Merrill. 
 "I thought maybe this morning would be a 
 good time to take that ride through Boston that 
 we didn't get on Monday — that won't tire us, 
 and anyway, we'll just be sitting at the game, it 
 won't be a lot of walking like yesterday." 
 
 "And I won't wear white shoes, will I?" asked 
 Mary Jane with a pang of recollection. 
 
 "You poor child!" cried Mrs. Merrill, "as 
 soon as we get through breakfast I must see 
 about those shoes and your foot! I can't see 
 
82 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 why they should have given so much trouble 
 iwhen they seemed all right." 
 
 "I guess they're all right now," said Mary 
 Jane, "but when are we going to ride on the 
 swan boats? Uncle Hal said I could ride every 
 day and we didn't even go there yesterday 1" 
 
 "I thought we had enough to do yesterday as 
 it was," laughed Mrs. Merrill. "Let's see, we 
 might go there at the end of our ride. We are 
 having such a late breakfast too that we won't 
 want much lunch — ^would that be all right?" 
 
 Breakfast over, Alice finished dressing while 
 Mary Jane had her hair brushed and the big 
 ribbon tied on; then she finished dressing while 
 her mother and Alice got out hats and tidied 
 the room ready to go. Mary Jane would have 
 loved to linger all morning at the window, for 
 the comfy chairs felt so good and there was 
 always something interesting to watch in the 
 Square below. But when one goes to Boston, 
 they don't seem to expect to sit in chairs at win- 
 dows ; they seem to hurry around and see some- 
 
WINNING THE GAME 83 
 
 thing every minute — Mary Jane had discovered 
 that. 
 
 They went nearly halfway around the Square, 
 leaving Mary Jane's shoes at a little basement 
 shop they were referred to on the way, and then 
 they got into a great blue automobile that took 
 folks around the city. Mary Jane tried to re- 
 member everything they saw, for she could tell 
 that when she grew up big like Alice and was 
 in eighth grade as Alice was, she too would 
 want to know all about the historical sights they 
 were seeing. Alice seemed to know all about 
 the Old South Church, the Boston Navy Yard, 
 the first court house and the funny, narrow 
 winding streets. For her part, Mary Jane liked 
 the Navy Yard best, for there they got out of 
 the car and saw many sorts of government boats. 
 Also they had the fun of going all over the old 
 ship Constitution — a famous boat of long ago. 
 Mary Jane thought the funny little cannon they 
 used in those days looked very queer compared 
 with the great big guns they could see on the 
 
84 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 boats in use now — they looked like toy cannon 
 ready for a boy's Fourth of July! 
 
 Back in the big auto again they drove through 
 the tenement district, and there Mary Jane held 
 her breath many a time for the streets were so 
 very narrow, the buildings so high and close, and 
 the ragged, hungry looking children ran across 
 the streets in a reckless way that frightened 
 Mary Jane nearly to death. She was glad when 
 they left that part of the city and drove to see 
 Bunker Hill Monument. 
 
 It seemed a very small monument to make 
 such a fuss about, but Mrs. Merrill explained 
 that monuments are important not for their size 
 but for what they celebrate. 
 
 "It does seem too bad, though," said Mary 
 Jane thoughtfully as they turned away to go 
 back to the car, "that the battle of Bunker Hill 
 couldn't have been where those poor children 
 want to play! Here's a lovely park and there, 
 why, there isn't anything but a narrow street 1 
 
WINNING THE GAME 85 
 
 When I grow up, I'm going to have a park for 
 everybody — that's the way things ought to be." 
 
 Mrs. Merrill had the driver let them out at 
 the entrance to the Commons instead of Copley 
 Square, and they walked over to the lagoon to 
 take the ride in the swan boats. 
 
 "I think this is the nicest thing to do!" ex- 
 claimed Mary Jane happily as the boat slowly 
 paddled away from the tiny dock. "I feel so 
 grand and story-book-y!" 
 
 "Do you suppose we could ever come here 
 and just ride and ride and ride?" she added, 
 "I'd just love to ride all dayl" 
 
 "Let me see," said Mrs. Merrill thoughtfully, 
 "I'm afraid we couldn't ride all day, dear, but 
 we might come again after the game this after- 
 noon and get two or three rides. You know a 
 friend of Uncle Hal's is going to take us on a 
 drive to-morrow and there's something planned 
 for every single day." 
 
 "Well, then," said Mary Jane, "let's come 
 
86 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 whenever we can — and oh, I do just love it, 
 I do I" 
 
 After a hurried bit of primping at their room 
 the Merrills took the subway to Cambridge 
 where they met Uncle Hal and went to the 
 game. Crowds of gayly-dressed people were 
 all hurrying the same way, bands were playing 
 and colors flying, and Mary Jane got so thrilled 
 that for a while she forgot all about the swan 
 boats. Hal had not been able to get seats all 
 together — one rarely could, he explained; so it 
 was decided that Alice, who was looking (and 
 feeling) very grown-up with her striped sport 
 skirt, blue smock and white sport hat, should sit 
 a few rows away with Lawrence Echart, while 
 Hal and Mrs. Merrill and Mary Jane should 
 sit together. 
 
 Alice's seat was halfway down in the middle 
 of the stand and the others were up on the very 
 top row. At first Mary Jane was very fright- 
 ened; she couldn't stand up, she couldn't look 
 around, for right there behind her was the end 
 
WINNING THE GAME 87 
 
 of the grandstand and the long, long way down 
 to the ground — straight down. But gradually 
 she got more used to it and she peeked around 
 just a wee, tiny bit. 
 
 And there, right in the next row, was a boy 
 about her own age shouting for — Yale! 
 
 "Whyl" exclaimed Mary Jane in amazement, 
 "he wants Yale to beat!" 
 
 "Some people do!" laughed Hal, much 
 amused. 
 
 "But Yale!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "why — 
 why — I thought everybody went to Harvard!" 
 
 The folks around her couldn't help but hear 
 and they couldn't help being amused at her 
 frankness. One kindly-looking gentleman just 
 in front turned around and said, "Yes, my dear, 
 folks do go to Yale — I did it myself." And 
 everyone laughed. 
 
 Usually Mary Jane was very quiet, but the 
 bands and flying colors and crowds of people 
 must have excited her, for she suddenly forgot 
 all about the long distance to the ground — ^just 
 
88 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 behind; she grabbed her mother's hand and 
 climbed up on the bench; she waved her crim- 
 son banner high over her head and shouted at 
 the top of her small voice, "I'm for Harvard I 
 I v^^ant Harvard to winl" 
 And sure enough, Harvard did. 
 
THE ADVENTURE BY THE LAGOON 
 
 **T~\0 you think you two girls will be all 
 
 I J right here while Hal and I sit over 
 
 there and visit awhile?" asked Mrs. Merrill. 
 
 It was the late afternoon of the game and the 
 
 Merrills, with Hal, had driven in to Boston 
 
 with some friends of Hal's and now were sitting 
 
 in the Commons trying to keep the promise to 
 
 Mary Jane to let her ride all she wished in the 
 
 swan boats. 
 
 It seemed a hopeless promise to keep though, 
 
 for no sooner had they taken one ride than Mary 
 
 Jane was ready for another, and another and 
 
 another. Finally Mrs. Merrill suggested that 
 
 as she and Hal had many things to talk about, 
 
 they might sit at the side of the lagoon and let 
 
 the two girls ride by themselves ; Alice was old 
 
 enough to make such a plan perfectly safe and 
 
 anyway there was no danger, for Mary Jane was 
 
 big enough to look after herself on the boat. 
 
 "Surely!" said Alice replying to her mother's 
 
 89 
 
90 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 question, "you sit right over there and we'll be 
 safe as safe can be." 
 
 "And if we run out of money for rides," added 
 practical Mary Jane, "we'll come and tell you." 
 
 "I'll save you the trouble," said Uncle Hal, 
 "I'll buy a bunch of tickets that you never can 
 use upl" And much to Mary Jane's delight, he 
 went over to the window where the tickets were 
 sold and bought fifty cents' worth — ten whole 
 rides — five for each girl. 
 
 "Thank you ever so much, Uncle Hal," said 
 Mary Jane gratefully, "and if you change your 
 mind and want to ride, I'll let you have one of 
 my tickets," she promised as he handed her five 
 all for herself. 
 
 "Yes," added Alice, "and if mother wants to 
 ride again, I'll let her have one of mine." 
 
 "Thanks awfully, ladies," said Hal laughing, 
 "but I think sister and I will enjoy the talking 
 every bit as much as you enjoy the riding, so 
 everybody will be happy." 
 
 Mary Jane thought she never, never, never 
 
ADVENTURE BY THE LAGOON 91 
 had had such a blissful time! The sun, halfway 
 down in the west, was just warm enough ; a soft 
 June breeze blew the lagoon into tiny ripples 
 and made the air cool and comfortable after the 
 warm day; flowers blooming on the bank filled 
 the air with dainty fragrance and, best of all, 
 there were those magic boats — and five tickets 
 all her own. She and Alice picked out the front 
 seat in the boat they thought the prettiest and 
 there they sat. They didn't even trouble to get 
 off when one ride was over; they simply sat still 
 while the two or three other passengers stepped 
 off at the dock and two or three other passengers 
 stepped on, and then off the boat went again on 
 its slow, stately journey around the little lake. 
 
 But at the end of the third ride they noticed 
 some talking at the side of the dock furtherest 
 away from where Mrs. Merrill and Hal were 
 sitting, and Alice stood up to see what was the 
 matter. 
 
 "Look at that child!" exclaimed Alice. 
 "Look, Mary Jane, at what she's doing! She's 
 
92 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 trying to make her doll sit on the edge of the 
 dock, and anybody would know a doll couldn't 
 do thatl" 
 
 Evidently everyone around there except the 
 little lady herself was of the same opinion as 
 Alice, for the other children were trying to tell 
 her that the doll couldn't sit there; that she 
 would fall in surely, surely, if such a thing was 
 attempted. 
 
 "And it's such a pretty doll too," worried 
 Mary Jane. "Come on, Alice, let's get off and 
 tell her not to do it. Maybe she'll mind us 
 'cause she doesn't know us." 
 
 But they were too late. Just as they stepped 
 off the swan boat ready to hurry over to the end 
 of the dock where the children were, the little 
 lady succeeded in getting the doll set stiff and 
 straight at the very edge of the dock. For a 
 breathless instant the doll sat there. Then, so 
 quickly nobody could reach out a hand or do a 
 thing, the prettily-dressed doll tumbled over on 
 its Face — splash ! — into the lagoon. 
 
ADVENTURE BY THE LAGOON 93 
 
 For an instant the children all stood motion- 
 less in amazement. Then the little mother 
 began to cry, "My dolly's drowned! My dolly's 
 drowned! I didn't want my dolly to drown!" 
 
 "Then what did you sit her on the edge of 
 the dock for?" demanded an older boy who had 
 tried with the others to tell her that the doll 
 might fall in. 
 
 " 'Cause I wanted her to sit there !" retorted 
 the girl, "that's why!" Then with a sudden 
 recollection of her loss, the impudence left her 
 and she sat down on the dock and began to cry. 
 
 "Let's call for help," suggested Mary Jane, 
 and she looked around to see just where her 
 mother and uncle were sitting. 
 
 "Call nothing!" exclaimed the big boy, "do 
 you want to get us all run in? Ain't you got 
 no sense?" 
 
 Mary Jane looked at him in amazement. 
 What was "run in" and why not call for help 
 when a beautiful doll was drowned? 
 
 Alice, too, was surprised at the boy's attitude 
 
94 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 but being his own age she wasn't backward 
 about asking for an explanation. 
 
 "Why not call for help?" she demanded. 
 "How are you going to get the doll out?" 
 
 "Don't you worry about that," he said tartly, 
 and then, more politely, he explained, "the park 
 cop told us not to stay close by the water, and 
 here she went and let her doll fall in and if we 
 holler he'll hear sure as shooting and come and 
 order us on. You just stop crying now," he said 
 to the little mother who, frightened by his order 
 to keep still was crying softly to herself, "we'll 
 get her out for you — you just wait!" 
 
 "Is she your sister?" asked Alice. 
 
 "Sister — nothing!" replied the boy, "think 
 my sister would have such a fine doll? That's 
 my sister," he added, jerking his thumb toward 
 a ragged little girl on the edge of the group, 
 "my sister ain't got no doll — but she ain't a cry 
 baby either!" he added. 
 
 Alice looked interestedly at the child thus 
 
ADVENTURE BY THE LAGOON 95 
 
 pointed out. She was a bright, pretty looking 
 little girl with oh, such a poor dress — and no 
 doll? Why she was just Mary Jane's age — « 
 but this was no time to stand looking at other 
 folks, and she turned to the water to see what 
 could be done. 
 
 Mary Jane, in the meantime, had crept up to 
 the edge of the dock and was peering down into 
 the clear water. 
 
 "There it is," she said, pointing, "see? It's 
 right down there! Now, don't you cry, we're 
 going to get it out in a jiflfy. I wish I had a 
 long stick to poke with." 
 
 "You don't need a stick," said the big boy, 
 peering over beside her. "See how shallow it 
 is? And a stick would just stir up mud and get 
 its clothes all dirty." 
 
 "I could pretty nearly reach it without a 
 stick," suggested Mary Jane as she sat on the 
 pier and reached down into the water. 
 
 "That's an idea," exclaimed the boy, "that's 
 
96 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 just what I'm going to do," He proceeded to 
 lie down flat on the narrow dock and stretch 
 his hands down into the water, 
 
 "You almost touched itl" exclaimed Mary 
 Jane excitedly, "just reach a little more — " 
 
 "But I can't reach any more!" said the boy, 
 "see?" And he looked up for a suggestion, 
 "Oh, I'll tell you what I" he added, "I'll reach 
 over farther and you hold my feet so I won't 
 fall in. Then I'll reach down with one hand 
 and I'll bet I get it," 
 
 He wormed himself closer to the edge of the 
 dock and while Alice held tightly to his shoes, 
 he reached down, down, down into the water, 
 
 "He's got it," reported Mary Jane, who was 
 watching, "he's touched it and he's got it — 
 look!" 
 
 Sure enough. The boy wiggled back a bit 
 from the very edge and lifted the dripping doll 
 out of the water. 
 
 "Oh, my dolly! My dolly!" cried the little 
 mother, "but she's all wet!" 
 
' You almost touched it ! " exclaimed Mary Jane. 
 
 (Page 96) 
 
ADVENTURE BY THE LAGOON 99 
 
 "What did you expect after such a soaking?'^ 
 chuckled the boy, "but water'll dry. My coat's 
 wet but it'll dry in this warm air." He took off 
 his coat and spread it out in the sun on the dock. 
 
 "And that's what you must do to your doll," 
 said Mary Jane. She loved nothing so much as 
 mothering folks — children, dolls — it didn't mat- 
 ter which just so they needed something done 
 for them. "Here, let me help you and we'll 
 have her fixed in a jiffy." 
 
 She sat down on the dock, with the little 
 mother beside her, and began to undress the 
 soaked dolly. "Now we'll take off her dress — 
 so. And then her petticoat — so. And we'll 
 spread 'em all out in the sun — so." 
 
 "Why don't you spread 'em on a bush?" asked 
 the boy practically, "that's what I do when I 
 go swimming." 
 
 "Here, I'll do it," said his sister, and the shy 
 little brown-eyed girl forgot all about herself 
 and being afraid of strangers in her eagerness 
 to touch the doll's pretty wet clothes. 
 
loo MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "Then you do it," agreed Mary Jane. Very 
 carefully she took off stockings, shoes, under- 
 clothes, every stitch the doll had on and the little 
 Italian girl spread the things on the bushes in 
 the sunshine. 
 
 "You ought to spread the doll too," said Alice, 
 "she's so wet the clothes get wet as soon as you 
 put them back on." 
 
 "I'll tell you," suggested Mary Jane jumping 
 up hurriedly, "let's get mother and Uncle Hal 
 to hold it in the sun while we take a ride on 
 the swan boat." 
 
 "Y'haf ta have money to ride those boats," 
 replied the boy, "and we ain't got none." 
 
 "You don't have to have money if you have 
 tickets," answered Mary Jane, "and I've got 
 plenty of those — see?" And proudly she dis- 
 played the tickets she had put in her pocket 
 when she began undressing the doll. "Come 
 on, letsl" 
 
 Holding the undressed doll in her hands, she 
 
ADVENTURE BY THE LAGOON loi 
 
 ran around the lagoon to where her mother was 
 sitting. "Mother!" she exclaimed suddenly, 
 "will you please hold this doll in the sun so it'll 
 dry while I take these folks for a ride?" 
 
 "What in the world?" exclaimed Mrs. Mer- 
 rill in amazement as she saw the strange chil- 
 dren, the dripping doll and her own excited 
 little girl. 
 
 "She drowned," explained Mary Jane, point- 
 ing to the doll, "and he rescued her," pointing 
 to the boy, "and we're all going to take a ride." 
 
 Hal looked at the children and suspected that 
 they were to be Mary Jane's guests — ^with the 
 exception of the little girl who owned the doll 
 they were ragged and poor looking, so he 
 asked, "Have enough tickets, Mary Jane?" 
 
 "Just enough," replied Mary Jane, "with 
 Alice's and mine together." 
 
 "Then we'll hold the doll and watch you 
 ride," said Mrs. Merrill. 
 
 The children scampered over to the dock and 
 
102 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 got aboard a boat. The little Italian girl sat 
 with Alice and Mary Jane and the others took 
 the back seat. 
 
 "Oh !" exclaimed the child rapturously, as the 
 boat slowly moved away from the shore, "ain't 
 it just like a fairy story?" 
 
 "You like stories tool" cried Mary Jane de- 
 lightedly, "so do I and I feel just like a prin- 
 cess. I do every time I ride on 'em." 
 
 "I never rode on one before," said tKe 
 stranger, "but I feel like a princess now, I do." 
 
 "Never rode on a swan boat, never had a 
 doll," the thought kept running through Mary 
 Jane's head during the rest of the ride and while 
 they were getting off and going back to her 
 mother, "never had a doll — " How funny that 
 would seeml 
 
 The rescued doll was not 'dry yet, of course, 
 but Uncle Hal had procured a paper to wrap it 
 in, so that it could be carried home safely. 
 
 "We'll get the clothes and wrap them up too,'* 
 said Alice, and Mary Jane, and the mother of 
 
ADVENTURE BY THE LAGOON 103 
 the doll ran and brought the clothes from the 
 bush at the other side of the lagoon, and Alice 
 wrapped them carefully so nothing could be lost 
 out on the way home. 
 
 While she was doing that, Mary Jane whis- 
 pered to her mother, "Won't you please find 
 out the name of that little girl with the brown 
 eyes, and the boy. Mother dear, and where they 
 live, and I'll tell you why when we get home to 
 the hotel?" 
 
 Mrs. Merrill pulled out her tiny notebook 
 and tactfully asking the boy for his name and 
 address, wrote them down in the book. Then 
 they all said a good-by to their new friends, for 
 it was now high time they were getting back to 
 dress for dinner. 
 
 "Mother dear," said Mary Jane as she 
 skipped along beside her mother five minutes 
 later, "that little girl never had a doll and she 
 never went on the boats before though she lives 
 right here in Boston. And as soon as we get 
 home I want to send her a doll, all dressed in 
 
I04 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 pretty clothes and everything — ^may I please?" 
 
 "Indeed yes, dear," answered Mrs. Merrill, 
 much pleased with the idea. "We'll do it just 
 as soon as we get home, and you and Alice may 
 make the clothes and have it a really gift of 
 your own." 
 
 When, an hour or more after dinner that eve- 
 ning, Mary Jane snuggled down in her bed for 
 a long night's sleep, she said to Alice, "Didn't 
 we have fun to-day? Winning the game and 
 going boat riding and rescuing the doll and 
 everything? Now I wonder v^hat'U happen 
 to-morrow?" 
 
COMMENCEMENT IN THE STADIUM 
 
 THE first thing Mary Jane did when she 
 wakened the next morning was to run 
 and look out of the window. All their plans 
 for the day depended upon the weather. Year 
 after year the Harvard commencement had been 
 held in Sanders Theatre, one of the rooms in 
 Memorial Hall, and as the graduating class was 
 always so large and the theatre so small in com- 
 parison, it was impossible for each student to 
 have more than one ticket — and of course that 
 meant that Mary Jane was not to go. But this 
 year, partly through the influence of her own 
 Uncle Hal, it had been decided to hold the exer- 
 cises in the Stadium — if the weather permitteH. 
 And that meant that Mary Jane could go; in 
 fact, she had the ticket all ready, the ticket 
 marked so plainly "not good in case of rain." 
 A glance at the sky showed her she was not to 
 be disappointed. It was clear and blue and the 
 
 los 
 
io6 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 few dainty white clouds scattered about looked 
 as unlike rain clouds as could be. It was a per- 
 fect June day. 
 
 "Goody 1" she exclaimed, as she ran back to 
 take a peep at the precious ticket. Not many 
 little girls of six ever went to a Harvard com- 
 mencement, and Mary Jane guessed that she was 
 very fortunate. 
 
 Mrs. Merrill suggested that as both girls had 
 had a good night's sleep, they dress and take a 
 bit of a walk before breakfast, stopping on the 
 way for Mary Jane's shoes which were to be 
 ready. So Mary Jane slipped on a dark ging- 
 ham dress after her bath, and they started out. 
 There was only time for a short walk as they 
 were tempted into the library and lingered to 
 enjoy the pictures. Mary Jane knew the story 
 of the Holy Grail, as every girl should, and she 
 and Alice both enjoyed looking at the lovely 
 paintings. 
 
 "Let's come again!" exclaimed Alice as her 
 mother reminded them that they simply must 
 
COMMENCEMENT 107 
 
 not stay any longer now, as Uncle Hal would be 
 waiting. 
 
 "Oh, I just love it here!" whispered Mary 
 Jane as they walked down the broad marble 
 staircase. "Doesn't it make you feel like a prin- 
 cess in your own castle? I can just see my sub- 
 jects walking behind holding up my train and 
 thinking how grand and lovely I look," 
 
 "Seems to me a good many things make you 
 feel 'like a princess,' " said Mrs. Merrill smil- 
 ingly, "the swan boats and now the marble stairs 
 of the library." 
 
 "Well, I guess Boston must be a princess-y 
 sort of a place," replied Mary Jane, " 'cause I 
 never felt that way in Chicago. I like Boston. 
 I like Chicago too," she added loyally, "but 
 Boston is more princess-y feeling." 
 
 They crossed the Square and hurried up to 
 their room to dress. The girls were to wear the 
 "dainty little organdies they had worn on Class 
 Day. Mrs. Merrill had had them pressed and 
 when the girls stepped into the room there they 
 
io8 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 were on the beds — as fresh and crisp as new. 
 And now that the new shoes were fixed with a 
 soft pad of leather at the heel to keep them 
 from slipping up and down and making a 
 blister, there was nothing likely to mar the day. 
 
 It didn't take long to dress as everything was 
 laid out ready, and soon the three Merrills were 
 in the subway, dashing out to meet Uncle Hal 
 at Harvard Square. There wasn't much time 
 for visiting; and anyway, Mary Jane didn't feel 
 much like visiting just "common-like" with a 
 queer-looking uncle who wore a long black 
 dress and had a funny pointed cap on his head. 
 Her mother explained that it was a "gown" not 
 a dress, and that all the students who graduated 
 that day and all the men of the university wore 
 them. Mary Jane had, of course, seen a good 
 many of them on Class Day but she couldn't get 
 used to her own Uncle Hal having such a funny 
 gown. 
 
 They all went over toward the Stadium to- 
 gether, and as they stepped upon the bridge 
 
COMMENCEMENT 109 
 
 across the Charles River, Uncle Hal picked her 
 up and set her on his shoulder while Mrs. Mer- 
 rill took a picture of them. 
 
 "There now," said Hal as he set her down 
 again, "if anybody ever doubts that you came to 
 my commencement they can just look at that! 
 There's the Charles River in it and the Stadium 
 in the background and you and I in front — if 
 we didn't break. the camera." 
 
 In the row in front of them, in the Stadium, 
 sat Hal's friends, Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey. 
 Alice and Mary Jane had never met them be- 
 fore, though Mrs. Merrill had known them some 
 time. 
 
 "I'm so sorry you've been here all these days 
 and we've been away," exclaimed Mrs. Hum- 
 phrey, as the Merrils were seated. "We just 
 got in this morning. I'm wondering if you and 
 these nice girls wouldn't like to go for a drive 
 this afternoon? Have you been down on the 
 south shore? Toward Nantasket?" 
 
 "We haven't done a thing but Harvard!" 
 
1 10 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 laughed Mrs. Merrill, "because Hal wanted us 
 
 to go to all the exercises and parties. We've 
 
 had a marvelous time, but aside from one short 
 
 ride, we haven't tried to see anything of Boston 
 
 — I thought that would keep till the job of 
 
 graduating my brother was over," she added. 
 
 "That's just the way I knew you would feel," 
 
 answered Mrs. Humphrey, "because I know 
 
 how Hal's been counting all winter on your 
 
 seeing everything. But now that it's so soon 
 
 f 
 over you'll have time for a ride with us. You're 
 
 not going to the boat races are you?" 
 
 "No," said Mrs. Merrill, "I thought that 
 would be almost too much of a crowd for the 
 girls, so we've planned to go to Plymouth to- 
 morrow while Hal and some friends go to the 
 boat race, and then I want to stop over night 
 with a dear cousin in Marshfield." 
 
 The talk was interrupted just then by the ar- 
 rival of the first of the long procession of men 
 entering the Stadium. Mary Jane could hardly 
 sit still she was so thrilled by the sight of the; 
 
COMMENCEMENT in 
 
 long line of marching men — all in black gowns 
 relieved here and there by the capes of scarlet 
 or blue or purple some wore. And the bands 
 playing and the crowds or people all interest- 
 edly watching — of course she couldn't under- 
 stand it all, but she loved seeing it — it seemed 
 like a scene from an old time pageant. 
 
 But by the time the exercises were over Mary 
 Jane was tired enough from sitting on the hard 
 stone seat and from watching and trying to 
 understand. So the idea of lunch at some place 
 in Cambridge without waiting to go back to 
 Boston, sounded very welcome. 
 
 "We'll go where Uncle Hal goes sometimes," 
 suggested Mrs. Merrill. "I know the very 
 place on the way back to the Square. You may 
 have a sandwich and some ice 'cream and any- 
 thing else they have, that you'd like." 
 
 "And is it all over?" asked Mary Jane as 
 she ran along beside ^Jier mother, glad of the 
 chance to hurry a bit and limber up the muscles 
 stiflfened by long sitting. 
 
;ii2 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 "All over, I think, honey," replied Mrs. Mer- 
 rill. "All over for us anjrway, as we're not going 
 to the races. And won't we love that ride this 
 afternoon? Hal will be busy packing up, and 
 we'll get just that extra bit of fun thrown in." 
 Mary Jane found just what she wanted for 
 lunch and was much refreshed, so, leaving a 
 note in Hal's room in order that he would know 
 their plans, they took the subway back to their 
 hotel to change and make ready for the drive. 
 White organdy dresses were not the most suit- 
 able frocks for an all-afternoon motor trip. 
 
 Promptly at two o'clock Mrs. Humphrey 
 arrived in a beautiful limousine. Mary Jane, 
 who wasn't used to a car of her own, had puz- 
 zled considerably as to what sort of a car Mrs. 
 Humphrey might have, and had insisted that she 
 wanted to wear a grown-up-lady veil so as not 
 to muss her hair. 
 
 "You won't need a veil, dear," Mrs. Merrill 
 had said, positively, "little girls don't need veils 
 
COMMENCEMENT 113 
 
 when their hair is short, no matter what kind 
 of a car they ride in." 
 
 "But I saw a picture that had a little girl with 
 a veil and a lady with a veil," said Mary Jane, 
 "and I want to wear the big pink one, I do." 
 
 "Suppose you take it instead of wearing it," 
 suggested Mrs. Merrill. "Then you'll have it 
 if you need it, and you won't be bothered taking 
 it off if you don't need it." 
 
 So Mary Jane went out to the car carrying a 
 long floating veil of pink chiffon, and from her 
 grand manner it was plain to see that again she 
 felt "just like a princess." 
 
 Mrs. Merrill sat with Mrs. Humphrey in the 
 big back seat and Alice and Mary Jane sat on 
 the chairs just in front of them. 
 
 Mary Jane was much thrilled by the dignified 
 looks of the middle-aged chauffeur and when 
 Mrs. Humphrey said, "We're ready now, Hig- 
 gins, drive down the south shore the way we 
 like best, you know the route?" she couldn't 
 keep her enthusiasm to herself. 
 
n4 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "I think Higgins is an awfully nice name," 
 she confided to Mrs, Humphrey. "I read a 
 book, that is, mother read it to me, and it had 
 a Higgins in it and I liked him a lot. I always 
 thought I'd like to talk to a Higgins. 
 
 "Does yours talk again?" she added as she 
 saw no sign of conversation in the straight 
 shoulder before her. 
 
 Mrs. Humphrey's lip twitched. How ex- 
 plain to eager little Mary Jane that Higgins was 
 so dignified everyone had to be careful of his 
 feelings? Higgins was the most dignified of all 
 the story-book Higginses ever invented! So she 
 merely said, "I think he's rather busy driving 
 just now, and we want to have a careful driver, 
 don't we dear?" And then, in an effort to 
 change the subject she added, "Isn't that a lovely 
 garden?" 
 
 But Mary Jane wasn't that easily diverted 
 and Higgins was very much on her mind — as 
 Mrs. Humphrey was to discover later. 
 
FUN ON THE BEACH 
 
 THE drive down the south shore was very 
 beautiful; the girls both enjoyed the 
 glimpses they saw of Quincy, Hingham and 
 Nepohset — the quaint old-fashioned houses, so 
 different from anything they had ever seen be- 
 fore, the lovely gardens and the view of the 
 bay and various inlets that they caught from 
 time to time. The road was good and the 
 powerful car dashed along under the wide 
 spreading trees that edged the roads. The girls 
 were much refreshed by this sort of entertain- 
 ment. 
 
 But Mary Jane was disappointed by one thing 
 — it wasn't really windy enough to need a veil. 
 And she Hid want to wear one. As they neared 
 the ocean tHougH, they felt a stronger breeze, 
 a breeze that came gustily through the open 
 winHows of the limousine, and she felt justified 
 in using the veil she Had carried over her arm. 
 
 ns 
 
ii6 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 It wasn't particularly easy to adjust a veil two 
 yards long while they were driving so rapidly, 
 and Alice had to help her sister, for Mary Jane 
 insisted in putting it entirely over her hat and ' 
 tying it under her chin. 
 
 Mrs. Merrill and Mrs. Humphrey were busy . 
 talking and didn't notice what Mary Jane was ■ 
 doing till the veil was almost fixed. Then Mrs. 
 Humphrey noticed it, and was all regret for 
 coming this route. 
 
 "My dear!" she exclaimed to Mrs. Merrill, 
 "I didn't know your little girl was so delicate 1 
 We should never have come this way ! We could 
 just as well have driven west and then she 
 wouldn't have felt this awful wind from the 
 ocean! Why, it's just too bad! We'll have 
 Higgins turn around at once! I should have 
 asked you, only your little girl looked so strong 
 and I thought she and her sister might like to 
 go in bathing at the beach. Such a dear little 
 thing to watch and put the veil on herself at the 
 
FUN ON THE BEACH 117 
 
 first breath 1 My nephew's children are so care- 
 less — they never will wrap up as — " 
 
 There seemed no hope of the good lady ever 
 stopping, so Mrs. Merrill interrupted to say, 
 "Don't be a bit concerned, Mrs. Humphrey, 
 Mary Jane is not delicate — in fact she is very 
 strong and vigorous. But she did want to wear 
 a veil and pretend to be grown-up, and she has 
 taken advantage of the first breeze to think she 
 must put it on." 
 
 Mary Jane was panic-stricken. She wasn't 
 sick; she'd love to go swimming in the ocean, 
 and the very thought of leaving that pretty 
 beach they were just approaching -and turning 
 west made her sorry. What had she done by 
 putting on her veil? 
 
 "Don't you worry 'bout me," she said to Mrs. 
 Humphrey, "I'm never sick. But I like to wear 
 a veil — a big lady veil. Don't you like to, too? 
 But I like to go swimming too, I do." 
 
 "Very well then," said Mrs. Humphrey, smil- 
 
ii8 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 ingly, "you shall go swimming. I guess I don't 
 understand little girls very well. But I know 
 they always like to come to the beach and they 
 like to eat — oh, 'most anything." 
 
 "Then you know them pretty well after all," 
 said Alice laughing. 
 
 "But they can't eat before they swim," said 
 Mary Jane, "little girls can't." 
 
 "To be sure," agreed Mrs. Humphrey as the 
 car came to a stop on the shining sand, "but if 
 they go in the water at once — they won't have 
 to wait long to eat, will they?" 
 
 As the girls climbed out of the car they de- 
 cided that Mrs. Humphrey knew considerable 
 about girls even if she didn't happen to under- 
 stand Mary Jane's notions about wanting to 
 dress up like grown folks. 
 
 At the right hand end of the long beach was 
 a private clubhouse where Mr. Humphrey had 
 a membership, and there Mrs. Humphrey took 
 Alice and Mary Jane to fit them out with bath- 
 ing suits. 
 
FUN ON THE BEACH 119 
 
 "I wish someone we knew was here to go in 
 with you," said she worriedly, as they walked 
 toward the beach after the girls -had dressed. 
 "Of course Higgins is bringing lap rugs down 
 close to the water and your mother and I will 
 sit right there near. But you could have more 
 fun with the big waves, if someone could take 
 you out." 
 
 They threaded their way through the crowds 
 of folks on the sand to the spot where Mrs. 
 Humphrey thought the cleanest, nicest sand was 
 found, and there — just as though he had been 
 there all afternoon — ^was Uncle Hal and three 
 of his friends! 
 
 "I thought you were going to pack!" ex- 
 claimed Mrs. Merrill in amazement. 
 
 "So I was," laughed Hal, "but why pack 
 when I could go in swimming?" 
 
 "But how did you happen to come here?" 
 asked Alice. 
 
 "I didn't 'happen,' " Hal assured her. "Art 
 came over and said you were coming down here, 
 
120 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 and as it turned ofif so hot, wouldn't I like a 
 swim, and I would — so here we are. Want some 
 good company?" 
 
 " 'Deed we do!" Mary Jane assured him, and 
 much relieved, Mrs. Merrill and Mrs. Hum- 
 phrey sat down on the rugs to continue their 
 visit while the two girls, with the four college 
 men for escorts, raced down into the water. 
 
 Mary Jane supposed she would have had fun 
 on the beach, wading by the edge of the big 
 waves even if Uncle Hal had not come. But it 
 wouldn't have been fun such as she and Alice 
 had with him there. The great waves rolled in 
 and broke in a crest of foam near the shore and 
 then spread in a frill of bubbles over the golden 
 sand. Uncle Hal picked her up in his arms and 
 walked with her way out into the water; then, 
 holding her high, let her feel the "break" of the 
 waves close to her face. She shouted with glee 
 and splashed her hands in the crest of foam — 
 never had she had such fun 1 
 
 Then, taking her out deeper, where the waves 
 
FUN ON THE BEACH 121 
 
 did not break but rolled along in a great swell, 
 he held her tightly by her bathing suit and 
 under her chin and let her swim. It was fun 
 to feel the water rolling, to let herself go as 
 Uncle Hal told her to, and to breathe slowly 
 and comfortably and work her hands and feet, 
 feeling all the while the security of her uncle's 
 strong arm. 
 
 "Let's do it some more!" she cried, as he took 
 her in to shore. 
 
 "Pretty soon," he replied, "but you stay on the 
 sand awhile now with Alice while I swim out 
 to the raft to warm up. Then you shall have 
 another swim — two, if you want them." 
 
 Back on the sand with Alice, Mary Jane 
 found it nearly as much fun to dig and hunt 
 shells as it was to swim. There seemed to be 
 no pretty shells as there were on the beaches in 
 Florida; perhaps because the crowds of people 
 kept them picked over; perhaps because up 
 further north there were not such pretty shells 
 to be washed up. But there were plenty to build 
 
122 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 a wall with even if all were not beautiful and 
 perfect. She and Alice collected several hand- 
 fuls and then set about building a city with a 
 wall around it. Other children playing near 
 saw the plan and helped too, and in a few 
 minutes a dozen little folks were working under 
 Alice's direction, building streets, parks, houses, 
 churches and the outer wall. It was great fun 
 and as they worked the time sped by, one hour, 
 two, and the girls would have guessed it wasn't 
 more than ten minutes. 
 
 They were used to playing on the sandy beach 
 of Lake Michigan and even Alice, who knew 
 all about it, didn't think about the ocean's tides. 
 And as all the children were in their bathing 
 suits they didn't notice an occasional bit of wet- 
 ness. So it was with amazement they saw a 
 great wave roll up near and actually into their 
 precious city! 
 
 "Why, what's the matter with the ocean?" 
 exclaimed Mary Jane in dismay, "it's coming 
 into our city, and it mustn't!" 
 
FUN ON THE BEACH 123 
 
 "Matter with the ocean!" cried Alice, much 
 disgusted with her thoughtlessness. "It's the 
 tide. Don't you remember in Florida how it 
 went up and down the beach each day, Mary 
 Jane? We should have remembered and set our 
 city further from the edge of the water." 
 
 As they talked, a second great wave broke in 
 a frill of bubbles and down went the two nearest 
 churches, three parks and a dozen houses. 
 
 "Regular earthquake-tidal wave effect," said 
 one of Uncle Hal's friends who came up to the 
 group just then. "Well, we were just going to 
 take you into the water again anyway, so why 
 worry?" 
 
 "Oh, goody!" cried Mary Jane happily, "we 
 can build another city sometime, but we can't go 
 in swimming with you and Uncle Hal — not very 
 often we can't." 
 
 By the time the girls had had another good 
 swim and had enjoyed the breakers till the boys 
 were tired, Mrs. Merrill decided that it was 
 time to come in. The sun was getting lower 
 
124 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 and lower, and already the breeze was blowing 
 cooler. 
 
 "Dash up to the clubhouse quickly, girlies," 
 said Mrs. Humphrey, "you know where I 
 showed you to go. And then when you come 
 back dressed we'll find something to eat" 
 
 But the girls took longer dressing than might 
 have been expected — ^maybe they talked too 
 much about the good time they were having — 
 and when they reached the beach it was time 
 the party was starting back for Boston, past 
 time in fact, if Mrs. Humphrey was to keep an 
 important dinner engagement. So there was no 
 time for regular tea as Mrs. Humphrey had 
 planned. 
 
 "But we can stop and get ice cream cones and 
 crackerjack to eat on the way," she said. 
 "Don't little girls like cones and crackerjack?" 
 
 "They certainly do," laughed Alice, "at least 
 these little girls do." 
 
 "Then take this," said Mrs. Humphrey, hand- 
 ing her a five-dollar bill, "and get all you want, 
 
FUN ON THE BEACH 125 
 
 dear. This looks like a good place." They 
 were back in the car of course, and Higgins had 
 driven along the thoroughfare by the ocean — ^ 
 a street lined with shops. 
 
 Alice looked at the money with a feeling of 
 dismay. How many should she get? One cone 
 apiece and one box of crackerjack or maybe 
 two? And how about the change? Five dol- 
 lars seemed like a lot of money to carry into a 
 crowd such as thronged the boardwalk by which 
 the car had stopped. 
 
 Seeing her hesitation, Mrs, Humphrey said, 
 "Would you rather I got it, dear?" and Alice 
 replied so promptly, "oh, will you, Mrs. Hum- 
 phrey?" that the lady had no doubt, but Alice 
 would enjoy herself more if she didn't have to 
 make the purchase. 
 
 So Mrs. Humphrey got out of the car and 
 hurried to the shop. It is hardly likely that she 
 had made such a purchase before — certainly not 
 often, for when she got in^p the shop she scarcely 
 knew what to buy, or how much the girls could 
 
ii26 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 eat. Of course they would be hungry — she 
 bought four boxes of crackerjack and five 
 cones ; that amount simply because that seemed 
 to be all she could carry, and went back to the 
 car. 
 
 "Can you help me?" she asked as she found 
 herself too loaded down to step comfortably 
 into her car. Mary Jane was on that side and 
 she reached out and took the boxes of cracker- 
 jack while Mrs. Merrill took the cones. 
 
 "Where's Higgins's crackerjack?" asked 
 Mary Jane making a hasty count. 
 
 "What did you say, dear?" asked Mrs. Hum- 
 phrey who thought her ears must have deceived 
 her, 'Higgins' what?" 
 
 "Higgins's crackerjack," repeated Mary Jane, 
 "you've got a cone for everybody and only four 
 boxes of crackerjack. Doesn't Higgins like 
 crackerjack?" 
 
 "I really — ^why — " Mrs. Humphrey was so 
 amazed that for the minute she couldn't think 
 of anything to say. Higgins and crackerjack! 
 
FUN ON THE BEACH 127 
 
 "Never mind," said Mary Jane, thinking to 
 
 comfort her hostess, "there's plenty of ice cream 
 
 and he can have half of my crackerjack — I'd 
 
 be glad to divide it." 
 
 Before either Mrs. Merrill or Mrs. Hum- 
 phrey could interfere, Mary Jane had slipped 
 from her chair and was hospitably passing the 
 cones to the dignified chauffeur. Never did a 
 man look more insulted! He, Higgins, to eat 
 an ice cream cone while on duty and in his best 
 uniform! Perish the thought! But a glance at 
 Mary Jane's kindly smile changed his answer 
 and instead of frowning no without a word as 
 he meant to, he smiled and said, "Thank you 
 kindly, miss, but I must give all my attention 
 to the wheel." 
 
 "Well, don't worry," said Mary Jane, "I'll 
 eat it then." And she did. 
 
A DAY IN PLYMOUTH 
 
 WHEN Mary Jane stepped off the train 
 in the little town of Plymouth the 
 next morning, she expected to see the famous 
 Plymouth Rock the very first thing. Instead, 
 she saw a modern station with its line of autos, 
 surreys and wagons drawn up along the side 
 and a parkway stretching away toward the hill. 
 
 "Where do they keep the rock?" she asked 
 her mother. 
 
 "Goodness only knows!" laughed Mrs. Mer- 
 rill. "Don't expect me to know everything, 
 honey. But I do know they have it around here 
 somewhere." 
 
 "Oh, Mother," cried Alice, "look at that 
 
 darling ponyl Couldn't we get that man to 
 
 drive us around some place? I'd adore to have 
 
 that pony pull mel" 
 
 Mrs. Merrill and Mary Jane liked the idea 
 128 
 
A DAY IN PLYMOUTH 129 
 
 too, so they engaged the driver of a quaint little 
 pony cart to take them around the village. 
 
 But before five minutes had passed, they 
 almost repented of their bargain. For, turning 
 away from the station to the right, they began 
 ascending a hill that taxed the strength of the 
 pony to the utmost. Up they went and up and 
 up, and the little pony pulled and pulled and 
 pulled his best, but with such a load he couldn't 
 go faster than a very, very slow walk. 
 
 At last they reached the top of the hill and 
 there on an open plain they saw a handsome 
 monument — the driver told them it was Fore- 
 fathers' Monument. 
 
 "Whatever did they put it here for?" asked 
 Mary Jane. "There's nothing here but a field." 
 
 "You should get out and look," said the 
 driver proudly. "Just look — and you'll see." 
 
 They left the pony cart (they were glad to 
 give the little fellow a chance to rest you may 
 be sure) and walked close up to the monument 
 before they turned around to look; and then 
 
I30 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAN0 
 they saw why the monument was set just there. 
 Before them lay the bay, the blue waters' 
 sparkling in the bright sunshine; and to the left 
 and to the right for miles and miles they could 
 see the coast line gleaming gold with the shin- 
 ing sand, and back from the ocean to the north 
 were the green marshes and fertile fields. It 
 was a view long to be remembered. 
 
 "I expect the Pilgrims stood right here — 
 didn't they, Mother?" asked Alice. 
 
 "Without a doubt they did," replied Mrs. 
 Merrill, "and think how it must have looked to 
 them ! There were no fields then ; only marshes 
 and woods ; no friendly city off in the distance ; 
 only strange Indians. I can imagine that many 
 a time a lonely Pilgrim must have sat in this 
 very spot and looked longingly out over the 
 ocean toward the home they had left." 
 
 "They ivere brave folks, weren't they, 
 Mother?" said Mary Jane, much impressed with 
 the beautiful view and the thought of the long- 
 ago Pilgrims. "But where's Plymouth Rock?" 
 
A DAY IN PLYMOUTH 131 
 
 "We'll have to find that rock for you in a 
 hurry," laughed Mrs. Merrill. "Well, at least 
 we know it isn't on a hill, so we can go on from 
 here if you are ready." 
 
 The pony cart next pulled them down the hill 
 and that was nearly as exciting as going up, for 
 it surely seemed as though the cart with its four 
 folks would fall over on top of the little pony. 
 
 "I really believe," suggested Mrs. Merrill, 
 "that we could get around faster if we'd walk, 
 girlies," as they turned back into the station 
 parkway. "Suppose we walk for a way and 
 explore as we go?" The girls were willing, so 
 the pony cart was dismissed, and the Merrills set 
 out to explore. 
 
 They went south along the main street of the 
 village, passed the museum where relics of the 
 Pilgrims were kept and which they meant to 
 visit later in the day; passed several big hotels 
 and many stores till they came to the end of 
 the village where the fishermen had head- 
 quarters. And there, at the shore end of a small 
 
132 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 wharf, they saw a stone monument. Not a big 
 handsome one such as they had seen on the hill 
 a few minutes before; a small stone monument 
 with an open space in the center and an iron 
 grating sort of a door shutting up the open 
 space. 
 
 Alice and Mary Jane ran ahead to see what 
 it was, and there Alice read the words, 
 "Plymouth Rock." There under the monu- 
 ment, set in the arch made by the stone corners 
 and protected from injury by the heavy iron 
 grating, was the famous stone. It wasn't big as 
 Mary Jane had expected it to be — it was just 
 a common-looking boulder, and nobody would 
 have thought of it twice if it hadn't been in a 
 monument so folks would know it wa's some- 
 thing to look at. 
 
 "Well," said Mary Jane practically, after she 
 had looked at it carefully for a minute or two, 
 "I don't see how in the world they stepped clear 
 from the ocean there at the end of the pier to 
 here — I don't see 1" 
 
A DAY IN PLYMOUTH 133 
 
 "But you must remember, dear," replied 
 Mrs. Merrill, "there wasn't any pier then — just 
 the ocean and the shore. No doubt the ocean 
 was close to the rock then, for sometimes sand 
 and rocks are washed around and the shore line 
 changed in so many years as have passed since 
 that day. Or, possibly, folks have moved the 
 rock up here so it wouldn't get weatherbeaten 
 by the winter's storms. I think that is most 
 likely the reason why it is here." 
 
 As she was speaking, two men came up to the 
 monument to make some repairs on the lock of 
 one of the iron gates. As the gate swung open 
 after they unlocked it, Mary Jane looked long- 
 ingly in at the rock— if she could only touch it! 
 What fun it would be to tell Betty and Frances 
 that she, Mary Jane Merrill, had really touched 
 Plymouth Rockl 
 
 One of the workmen seemed to guess what she 
 wanted for he said to her, "Hello there, little 
 girl! Did you come a long way to look at that 
 rock?" 
 
134 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "All the way from Chicago," answered Mary 
 Jane. 
 
 "Then I think you'd like to touch it, wouldn't 
 you ?"^ he said. Mary Jane nodded happily. 
 
 "Here goes then," he replied, and he stepped 
 aside so she and Alice could stand inside the 
 ■gate and actually lay their hands on the rock. 
 
 "I know something better than that," said the 
 other workmen, much pleased with the girls' 
 interest and joy. "We'll open the gate on the 
 other side where the sun is shining and your 
 mother can take your picture standing on the 
 rock, just as the Pilgrims did." 
 
 Mary Jane was so excited by that fine idea 
 that she could hardly stand still, but with the 
 help of mother and the men the gates were at 
 last open, and she and Alice took their places 
 on the rock — and the picture was taken. 
 
 "Thank jpou so •oery much," said Alice grate- 
 fully as the gates were again locked up, "that 
 picture will be fine to take to school 'cause I'm 
 studying American history." 
 
A DAY IN PLYMOUTH 135 
 
 "Then you want to notice that hill," said one 
 workman, pointing to a hill close by. It wasn't 
 such a very high hill but the sides were steep 
 and grass covered and it was close to the shore. 
 "That is the hill you will read about," continued 
 the man. "After that hard winter when so 
 many of the Pilgrims died, the bodies of the 
 dead were buried there and the Pilgrims planted 
 corn over the top, so the Indians would not guess 
 it was a cemetery and find out how very many 
 had died. You must walk up that hill," he 
 advised Alice, "so you can tell your class about 
 it when you get back." 
 
 "We certainly will," replied Alice gratefully, 
 "and thank you for telling us about it." 
 
 They crossed the street and climbed the wooden 
 stairway up the hill. On the top was an inn 
 where a sign announced that luncheon was 
 served, but the girls didn't care for anything 
 so modern. Fortunately Mrs. Merrill had had 
 the hotel put up a fine luncheon for them, so they 
 wouldn't have to waste time eating indoors. 
 
136 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 As it was now nearly noon and the girls were 
 very hungry, she suggested that they sit on some 
 benches halfway up the hill and eat now, where 
 they could enjoy seeing Plymouth, the ocean 
 and the historic hill. 
 
 That seemed a splendid idea, and the girls 
 agreed that never had fried chicken and sand- 
 wiches tasted as good as on Plymouth Hill. 
 
 "I do feel awfully selfish though," Mary Jane 
 said as she polished ofif a drumstick, "to have 
 such a good lunch at the very same place where 
 folks died 'cause they didn't have enough to 
 eat." 
 
 "I don't feel so selfish as I do thirsty," said 
 Alice. "Now if I only had a drink — " 
 
 "No doubt we can find one," replied Mrs. 
 Merrill. "If you've eaten all you wish, we can 
 put the papers and scraps in that trash basket 
 over there and walk on. Surely we'll find a 
 drink soon." 
 
 They walked along the street, passing many 
 ■ an old curiosity shop where Alice would have 
 
A DAY IN PLYMOUTH 137 
 
 loved to linger and price old candlesticks and 
 bellows and chairs and all the curious wares 
 she could see through the window ; only she was 
 so thirsty that a drink seemed more interesting 
 than curiosities just then. 
 
 Turning to the left they went up a steep grade 
 to another street and there, right in plain sight, 
 was a beautiful drinking fountain. Without 
 stopping to read the inscription she and Mary 
 Jane had a good drink. Then Alice read aloud 
 the tablet that said this water was piped up the 
 hill from the very spring where the Pilgrim 
 fathers first got their water. 
 
 "I think we're doing a lot of interesting things 
 to-day," said Mary Jane happily. "We stood 
 on Plymouth Rock and we ate lunch where the 
 Pilgrims didn't have anything to eat, and now 
 we're drinking out of their own spring! Now 
 what do we do next?" 
 
 "I think we'd better walk up these steps to 
 the old cemetery," said Mrs. Merrill. 
 
 Mary Jane thought it was awfully funny to 
 
138 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 walk up stairs on a street, but it was the only 
 way to get up so steep a hill. Mrs. Merrill and 
 Alice were much interested in the quaint, old 
 inscriptions on the queer, flat tombstones, but 
 Mary Jane was much more thrilled by the sight 
 of the old funeral carriage which she saw in an^ 
 old barn as they came down from the other 
 entrance. It didn't seem possible that real folks 
 had ever made such a funny, fancy carriage — 
 it seemed more as though it was "made up" for 
 a show! 
 
 The afternoon was flying along and they had 
 to hurry if there was to be time to stop and see 
 the wonders of the historic museum they had 
 passed before. And, indeed, that was the 
 hardest place of all to leave, for there the girls 
 saw old spinning-wheels and looms, old-fash- 
 ioned chairs, dishes and toys such as little 
 folks used to play with — though goodness 
 knows, children in those old days had very few 
 toys of even home-made sorts! — and boats, 
 models of real boats of those early days and 
 
A DAY IN PLYMOUTH 139 
 
 oh, so many things, Mary Jane thought they 
 would have to stay there a week to see all she 
 wanted to see. . 
 
 But they wouldn't stay a week, nor even an 
 hour more, for at four they must take a train to 
 Marshfield Hills where they were to visit 
 Cousin Louise. If Mary Jane hadn't wanted to 
 visit there very much she might have suggested 
 to wait till another train; but she had so often 
 heard her mother tell about this dear cousin and 
 her little boy, that not even the curious boats and 
 wonders of the museum could make her want to 
 miss that train. 
 
 "Now you tell us all about 'em," she said to 
 her mother, when, a little after four, they were 
 seated in the train and speeding toward Marsh- 
 field Hills. "Is he big as me or is he a baby? 
 And how do I talk to him?" 
 
 "Oh, you must play with him very nicely," 
 said Mrs. Merrill, "for he's only a little bit of 
 a boy — oh, lots younger than you are." 
 
 But when Mary Jane stepped off the train at 
 
140 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 Marshfield Hills she certainly was surprised, 
 for the little fellow who sat in the front seat of 
 the waiting auto didn't look as though he needed 
 taking care of a bitl 
 
VISITING COUSIN LOUISE 
 
 COUSIN LOUISE was close to the train 
 as it stopped, and she helped Mary Jane 
 off and gave her a good welcoming hug as they 
 hurried over to the auto. 
 
 "And this is John, my boy," she said proudly. 
 "John, this is your cousin Mary Jane and this is 
 Alice." 
 
 "You may sit up here with Dad and me," he 
 said to Mary Jane, "and the others can sit in 
 the back." Mary Jane saw in a minute that she 
 was going to like John. He might be young 
 but he wasn't a baby; it was plain that he ex- 
 pected to look after all the lady folks of the 
 party just as he plainly was used to looking 
 after his dainty little mother. 
 
 Mary Jane dutifully climbed into the front 
 seat, with a little help from Cousin Louise, and 
 
 141 
 
142 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 then John played host by explaining to her all 
 about their automobile. Mary Jane didn't know 
 one thing about an automobile and she was 
 much impressed by the fact that this little 
 cousin whom she had expected to take care of 
 and mother around, knew so very much more 
 than she did. But she liked it; she liked his 
 sturdy, frank way and she wished that they 
 could stay longer and get acquainted, really 
 acquainted, with so desirable a cousin. 
 
 Shortly, John's father who had been doing 
 an errand, came back, and after greeting the 
 travelers, started up the car and away they 
 dashed, over the hills and bridges to the little 
 white farmhouse by the mill where John lived. 
 
 Mary Jane loved the house from the minute 
 she saw it. It had green blinds and a long front 
 porch ; a flower-covered front yard, an interest- 
 ing looking barn at the side and a rambling 
 kitchen at the back. 
 
 "Oh, Mother," she cried as the car turned in, 
 "do let's stay a long time 1 Let's not go to-night." 
 
VISITING COUSIN LOUISE 143 
 
 "To-night!" exclaimed Cousin Louise, "surely 
 you didn't think of going to-night?" 
 
 "That's what I had planned," said Mrs. 
 Merrill. "You know there is a nine o'clock 
 train to Boston, and I thought that would give 
 us time for a nice visit-y dinner and we have so 
 many plans for to-morrow." 
 
 "Then you'll just have to change your plans," 
 said Cousin Louise briskly as she welcomed 
 them into the comfortable old house. "We've 
 lots of room and we'll loan you night things, and 
 you can see what good times my sonny and your 
 girls are going to have." 
 
 "Well, then—" said Mrs. Merrill. 
 
 "She's going to let you stay," said John. 
 "Come on, let's go see my lamb." 
 
 He was a bit shy with his new grown-up 
 cousin, Mrs. Merrill, but very comfortable and 
 easy with the two girls. 
 
 "Coming along, Dad?" he called to his father 
 as the three children slammed out of the kitchen 
 door. 
 
144 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "Not for a while — got to see what's the mat- 
 ter with this," answered his father, who was 
 tinkering with the automobile. "You take the 
 girls through the barn and show them your pets. 
 I'll join you in the pasture lot after a bit." 
 
 John needed no urging. He ran ahead to 
 open the barn door and let his cousins in on the 
 lower floor where his pet calf — a tiny little 
 brown creature who looked wonderingly at her 
 visitors — stood by her mother in a large roomy 
 stall. 
 
 "This barn's mostiike grandpa's," exclaimed 
 Mary Jane, as the sight and smell of barn things 
 brought back to her mind the joys of the sum- 
 mer she spent visiting her grandparents in the 
 country. "He had an underpart, too, where 
 cows lived sometimes. And a stairs — have you 
 a stairs that's most like a ladder?" 
 
 John had stairs just such -as Mary Jane ex- 
 pected and, to tell the truth, he was a bit sur- 
 prised to find that Mary Jane could run up the 
 
.VISITING COUSIN LOUISE 145 
 steep stairs as fast and as fearlessly as he could. 
 He couldn't see how a girl who knew nothing 
 about automobiles (when he was so used to 
 them!) could know about anything at all. 
 
 On the main floor of the barn the children 
 inspected all the nooks and corners, John ex- 
 plaining and playing host manfully. 
 
 "Now let's go to the pasture lot," he sug- 
 gested. "I want to show you sumping there." 
 
 So out to the pasture lot they went, running 
 gayly along the narrow roadway past the 
 garden. 
 
 John led them up the hill, over stones and 
 through briars and he wouldn't stop for any- 
 thing till the very top by the fence was reached. 
 Once there he looked around as though hunting 
 for something. 
 
 "Why — ^where — ?" he said in a puzzled way. 
 
 In the meantime Mary Jane stepped up close 
 to the rocky wall bordering the pasture to pick 
 some wild flowers she saw in bloom there. And 
 
146 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 as she reached into the bushes to pick the 
 flowers, her hand brushed against something 
 furred — and soft — and warm. 
 
 "Ohl" she cried drawing her hand back in a 
 jiffy, "it's alive!" 
 
 John pushed into the bushes and there dis- 
 covered what he was looking for — his best pet 
 of all, his wee lamb. He caught firm hold of 
 the soft wool at the back of the lamb's neck and 
 pulling hard dragged the shy little creature out 
 for inspection. 
 
 "Oh, I didn't know it was a lamb!" exclaimed 
 Mary Jane happily. "I'm not afraid of a lamb, 
 I'm not. I had a pet lamb too at grandpa's 
 farm." 
 
 John and Mary Jane sat down on the nearest 
 rock and fell to comparing notes about the 
 lamb she had had and the lamb before them, 
 and so busy were they that they failed to notice 
 the approach of John's father with a wheel- 
 barrow. 
 
 "Anybody want a ride?" he asked. "And 
 
VISITING COUSIN LOUISE 147 
 
 Alice, if any big girl like you says sKe wants 
 one, she's going to be fooled. But if any people 
 the size of John and Mary Jane want one they'd 
 better get in quick, because mother has just given 
 the signal for dinner and that means come and 
 wash your hands this minute." 
 
 John settled himself in the front of the bar- 
 row with his toes hanging over the wheel while 
 his father lifted Mary Jane on just behind. And 
 with Alice for an escort the party went back to 
 the house. 
 
 "I love to wash hands at a back door," said 
 Mary Jane enviously as she saw John's father 
 splashing at a pan near the door. "It's so com- 
 mon to wash in a bathroom!" 
 
 "Well," laughed Cousin Louise, "I can't say 
 that everybody agrees with you! I know I felt 
 very grand when we had our nice bathroom 
 installed upstairs. But if you'd really rather 
 wash down here, I think John can find you a 
 pan and a towel." Alice went upstairs with 
 her mother and washed in a nice, lady-like 
 
148 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 fashion, but John and Mary Jane had a beau- 
 tiful splash-y time at the back doorstep and to 
 judge from their red noses — and the towel — 
 they must have come to the table every bit as 
 clean. 
 
 "I could eat just everything," said Mary Jane 
 ravenously, as they sat down to an appetizing- 
 looking dinner. 
 
 "Well, you won't get everythin'," giggled 
 John, "but Mother won't let you be hungry, 
 will you. Mother?" he added hospitably. 
 
 And with all the good things before her, 
 Mary Jane was sure she wouldn't be hungry — 
 lovely fresh peas, browned potatoes, salad in 
 such a pretty bowl. For the next few minutes 
 the children were too busy to talk, but by 
 dessert time, John was again telling the girls 
 some of the funny things his chickens and lamb 
 could do. 
 
 "There now, John," said his mother inter- 
 rupting, " I forgot the cream for the berries. 
 
VISITING COUSIN LOUISE 149 
 
 Can you get it for me from the kitchen table? 
 It's in the blue bowl." 
 
 John thought he could and he slipped down 
 from his chair and hurried out to the kitchen. 
 Coming back he didn't hurry for in his hands, 
 held tightly, he carried a large blue bowl filled 
 nearly full with rich looking cream. 
 
 "We always have our cream in a pitcher," 
 remarked Mary Jane. 
 
 "You couldn't pour this cream out of a 
 pitcher," explained Cousin Louise. "See?" 
 She lifted a spoonful of the cream with a silver 
 ladle and Mary Jane thought she had never 
 seen anything so good looking. It was rich and 
 creamy colored and almost as thick as soft gela- 
 tine. Alice was a bit worried lest it be sour, 
 and she hated milk or cream that wasn't every 
 bit sweet. But when the girls tasted it they 
 found it sweet as could be and oh, so good. 
 
 "There are the queerest things around Bos- 
 ton," exclaimed Mary Jane as she smeared the 
 thick cream over her berries ready to eat, "there 
 
150 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 are boats made like swans, and tides like in 
 Florida, and a spring coming out of a pipe — 
 that was in Plymouth— and cream that looks 
 like pudding. Have you got plenty of it. Cousin 
 Louise?" she added as she eyed the blue bowl. 
 
 Cousin Louise assured her that there was still 
 plenty in the bowl and a great plenty more in 
 the milk cellar outside so she could eat all she 
 wanted. But to tell the truth, Mary Jane found 
 that one big bowlful of strawberries and such 
 cream was all she could eat, and she was soon 
 ready for the drive that Cousin Louise proposed. 
 
 They drove through the marshes that much 
 to the girls' interest proved to be the place where 
 cranberries are grown. 
 
 "See?" said John's father as he slowed up the 
 car so they could see the bushes and could, per- 
 haps, imagine the red cranberries with which 
 the low bushes would be loaded after frost. 
 "Next time you eat your Thanksgiving dinner, 
 you just look hard at the cranberry sauce and see 
 if it didn't come from Marshfield," 
 
VISITING COUSIN LOUISE 1151 
 
 Mary Jane giggled at his funmaking and 
 promised to ask each cranberry she met during 
 the coming fall. 
 
 Turning from the main road, they drove into 
 the heart of a charming wood where Cousin 
 Louise had them get out to see the wild flowers. 
 There the girls saw, for the first time, the beau- 
 tiful and very rare wild lady slipper which 
 Alice thought was the loveliest wild flower she 
 had ever seen. They didn't pick a single blos- 
 som as the flower is so rare that flower lovers 
 will not take a single bloom from its home in 
 the woods; but they looked at it so admiringly 
 and so carefully that the girls were sure they 
 never, never would forget its beauty. 
 
 Back into the car and around a couple of low 
 hills they saw before them — the ocean — golden 
 and blue and rosy as the varying lights of sunset 
 were reflected in it. 
 
 "Oh," cried Mary Jane, "are we going swim- 
 ming?" 
 
 "Not this late in the evening, I'm afraid my 
 
152 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 dear," said Cousin Louise. "But perhaps 
 mother will let you go in wading. We always 
 carry towels in the back of the car for a good 
 foot rub afterward." Mrs. Merrill approved, 
 so the three children pulled off shoes and 
 stockings and a minute later were dashing down 
 toward the water leaving the grown-ups for a 
 quiet visit near the car. 
 
 "Oh, look at the white stones!" exclaimed 
 Mary Jane, as they wandered around on the 
 beach after the first hilarious fun of wading. 
 "I'm going to put some in my pocket. There's 
 one. There's another. See, John, aren't they 
 pretty?" 
 
 John agreed and was so diligent in helping to 
 pick them up and so generous in handing over 
 all he could find to Mary Jane, that by the time 
 the children were called to come and dry their 
 feet, Mary Jane's pockets were loaded down 
 and Alice's were full of the overflow. 
 
 "I think they'll charge excess baggage for 
 you, young lady," laughed John's father as he 
 
VISITING COUSIN LOUISE 153 
 lifted Mary Jane into her place by John. 
 "You're not going to take all those stones back 
 to Chicago, are you?" 
 
 "Well," began Mary Jane, and then she saw 
 how impossible it would be to carry so many so 
 she decided, "I'm going to take two, the 
 roundest, whitest two, and I'm going to leave 
 the others for John. You'll like 'em, won't you, 
 John?" 
 
 John hadn't an idea what he would do with 
 stones but he was always glad to acquire 
 valuable possessions, so he answered, "You bet!" 
 most vigorously, and Mary Jane was happy. 
 
 Back at the house, John rushed upstairs ahead 
 of the girls and they couldn't imagine the reason 
 for his hurry — children don't usually like to go 
 to bed in a rush like that, at least the Merrill 
 girls didn't. 
 
 But when, a few minutes later, they leisurely 
 went up, they found the reason for his hurry. 
 He met them at the top of the stairs and offered 
 to each girl a pair of his own pajamas I He re- 
 
154 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 membered that his mother had promised night 
 things and he wanted to be a good host The 
 girls looked with dismay at the cunning little 
 blue pajamas offered them, but their mother 
 came to their rescue. 
 
 "Thank you so much, John," she said to the 
 little boy, "you certainly were nice to plan for 
 the girls. Now, don't you want to show us your 
 room? You know you promised you would." 
 And John, carelessly handing over the pajamas, 
 hurried off to display the room of which he was 
 so proud. 
 
 A few minutes later the tired little fellow was 
 sound asleep, and then Cousin Louise brought 
 her guests a supply of night things that made 
 them very comfortable. 
 
 "I wish I didn't have to go to bed," sighed 
 Mary Jane as she trailed the length of her 
 cousin's pretty gown over the floor. "I think 
 it's horrid when you have a big lady's nighty and 
 it's so long and pretty and like a court dress 
 that then you just have to go to bed and sleep!" 
 
VISITING COUSIN LOUISE 155 
 
 "Well, if you don't go to bed pretty soon," 
 
 laughed Cousin Louise, "you'll hear my alarm 
 
 clock and John's roosters before you get to 
 
 sleep." 
 
 But there was no real danger of that because 
 Mary Jane was so tired that the minute her head 
 touched the pillow she was sound asleep and 
 dreaming of white stones that perched up on 
 top of Plymouth Rock and of a dear woolly 
 lamb that came over in the Mayflower. 
 
THE WILLOW TREE COTTAGE 
 
 MARY JANE thought she never could 
 wake up the next morning. She heard 
 her mother and Cousin Louise talking in the 
 next room, she heard John calling, "Mary Jane! 
 Mary Janel When you coming to breakfast?" 
 But she simply couldn't make herself wake up 
 and answer. She dozed ofif again and again, 
 she was so very sleepy. 
 
 Finally she heard Cousin Louise say, "Your 
 mother says you must get up, dear, so if you'll 
 jump into the bath that is all ready for you, I'll 
 have breakfast waiting when you come back," 
 Mary Jane heard John and Alice laughing and 
 playing under her window, so she hopped out 
 of bed in a hurry and ran in to take her bath. 
 
 When she came back, she found that Cousin 
 Louise had pulled a little table up to the win- 
 dow overlooking the garden and barnyard, and 
 
 is6 
 
THE WILLOW TREE COTTAGE 157 
 that on the table was spread out the nicest break- 
 fast any girl could ask for. 
 
 "There now," said Cousin Louise as she laid 
 a bathrobe around her little guest, "while you 
 eat we're going to visit, because when there are 
 so many other folks around, we don't get a 
 chance to say a word." Mary Jane liked that 
 breakfast ever so much. She told Cousin Louise 
 all about Class Day and the game and the lobster 
 salad and commencement and dancing with one 
 of Uncle Hal's grown-up friends and the shoes 
 that slipped up and down and made a blister — 
 and everything. And as she talked she ate and 
 ate — till all the fresh strawberries and all the 
 egg and potatoes and coffee cake and milk and 
 cereal that Cousin Louise had carried upstairs 
 on the tray had vanished. 
 
 "Well," laughed Cousin Louise, "see how 
 stupid I sit here without getting you one single 
 bit of breakfast!" And she laughed at the tray 
 of empty dishes. 
 
 "Never mind about any breakfast," replied 
 
158 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 Mary Jane continuing the joke, "I don't some- 
 how seem hungry for anything this morning. 
 Anything more you might sayl" 
 
 "Then you slip into your clothes as fast as 
 ever you can," said Cousin Louise, "and run 
 out to the barn. John's been watching his fa- 
 vorite hens since he first got up in hopes there 
 would be eggs for you to gather before train 
 time." 
 
 It didn't take Mary Jane long to dress and as 
 Mrs. Merrill came in just at the right time to 
 brush her hair and put on her hair bow, she 
 was soon out in the barn lot with Alice and 
 John. 
 
 With diligent hunting the three children dis- 
 covered four eggs by the time that John's father 
 called to them that it was time to go to the 
 train. 
 
 "You take 'em with you in your pocket," said 
 John hospitably giving his little cousin all four 
 eggs. "You take 'em 'cause they're good and 
 I'll let you have 'em." 
 
THE WILLOW TREE COTTAGE 1159 
 
 Mary Jane took them grateifully. She had 
 never been particularly fond of eggs but John's 
 eggs, like grandpa's eggs, tasted awfully good 
 and she was quite willing to carry four home. 
 She promised faithfully to carry them all the 
 way to Chicago so her father could taste one. 
 "That'll make one for each of us, 'cause there's 
 four of us," she told John as she put the fourth 
 one in her second pocket. 
 
 But when the children got back to the house 
 Mrs. Merrill inquired into the cause of the 
 bulging pockets and out came the eggs — to stay 
 in Marshfield. 
 
 "Why Mary Jane," said her mother, "you've 
 stones, all those white stones you gathered on 
 the beach last night, you know, and stones and 
 eggs don't mix very well, you'd find. Then 
 we're going 'way up to Rye Beach for Sunday, 
 and you'll have lots to carry as it is. And 
 there's no use taking the eggs away from John 
 just to run the risk of breaking them, is there?" 
 
 Mary Jane agreed that there was no use of 
 
i6o MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 that. And with John's promise that next time 
 she came she could have four eggs — not neces- 
 sarily these same eggs however — for her very 
 own, she was satisfied to put the eggs in the ice- 
 box and wash her hands ready to go to the 
 train. 
 
 The little cousins hated to leave each other; 
 they were just getting well acquainted and were 
 planning all sorts of fun they could do together. 
 But Mrs. Merrill thought that Mary Jane, and 
 Alice too, had had such a very busy week that 
 they had better have a very quiet week-end. So 
 as Uncle Hal had friends outside of Boston he 
 wanted to see before leaving for his home in 
 the middle west, it was decided that Mrs. Mer- 
 rill and the girls go up to a quiet little hotel 
 at Rye Beach and spend Sunday resting and 
 loafing, and that they meet in Boston again on 
 Monday to finish up the sightseeing and visiting. 
 
 "You come and see me again," shouted John, 
 as the girls climbed aboard their train half an 
 
THE WILLOW TREE COTTAGE i6il 
 hour later. "Don't you forget to come to see me 
 and get your eggsl" 
 
 "I won't forget," called back Mary Jane, and 
 then, much to the surprise of the brakeman who 
 was giving the signal to go ahead, she stepped 
 half down the steps of her car and shouted back 
 to John, "Next time I come I'm going to stay 
 all day and get a lot of eggs — all the eggs you've 
 got!" Then she hurried into the car to wave to 
 John out of the window as the train moved 
 away. 
 
 It was a very dusty morning, as there hadn't 
 been rain for more than two weeks; so Mrs. 
 Merrill shut the window by which they sat 
 Mary Jane liked that, for then she had a 
 window sill where she could spread out her 
 precious stones without danger of losing any 
 out of the window. 
 
 "Now that's the father stone," she whispered 
 to herself, as she hunted out the biggest stone 
 and put it in the left hand corner of the sill, 
 
1 62 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 "and that's the mother stone," she added as she 
 chose the next biggest, a round white stone that 
 was her favorite, "and this is the big sister stone 
 and this the big brother stone and here's all the 
 little stones." She pulled them out of her pocket, 
 every one and made a long row of stone children 
 that filled the whole window sill. 
 
 "I guess I'll call them Mr. and Mrs. Stone," 
 she laughed softly to herself, and then I'll name 
 the Stone children. You're Patricia," she an- 
 nounced to the biggest stone sister, "and you're 
 William Stone and you're Edward and you're 
 Margaret and you're Ellen and you're — ^you're 
 • — dear me I How in the world do people name 
 their families? I should think it would be hard 
 work! I should think it would be as hard as 
 naming rivers." 
 
 The thought of rivers made Mary Jane re- 
 member that she was thirsty, so, with her moth- 
 er's permission, she went up to the front end of 
 the car where the case of paper drinking cups 
 and the water fountain was. The drinking cup 
 
THE WILLOW TREE COTTAGE 163 
 case didn't work very well, and Alice had to 
 come and give her assistance before two cups 
 were dropped out of the slot so that the little 
 girls could get a cool drink. Then Boston was so 
 near that Mary Jane had time only to pick up 
 her Stone family and stow them safely in her 
 pocket — and it was time to get off. There 
 hadn't been a minute to wonder what she would 
 do — the time just went that quickly. 
 
 They took a taxi up to their hotel, packed 
 bags with things they would need for over Sun- 
 day, ate a bit of lunch and hurried back to the 
 station to catch the train for Rye Beach. 
 
 "Did you ever see so many pretty flowers!" 
 exclaimed Alice as their train went past station 
 after station made beautiful with flowers — • 
 late irises, early roses, bridal wreath and snow- 
 balls, to say nothing of the gay geraniums in 
 formal beds along by the tracks. "Wouldn't you 
 love to have somebody say, 'just pick all you 
 want to, Alice Merrill?' " 
 
 "We wouldn't have time to pick 'em, 'cause 
 
1 64 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 the train doesn't stop ; it's taking us to Rye Beach 
 where Mother went a long time ago. Tell us 
 about it, Mother dear," Mary Jane added. So 
 Mrs. Merrill snuggled the tired little girl close 
 up and told her about the time she and her broth- 
 ers went to Rye Beach so long ago and how they 
 all went in bathing in the surf when the whistle 
 blew the temperature of the water; and what 
 good things they had to eat at the Willow Tree 
 Cottage and how — but there wasn't any use talk- 
 ing any more, for Mary Jane was fast asleep. 
 
 Mrs. Merrill glanced over at Alice who was 
 reading a favorite book Cousin Louise had 
 given her, then she too picked up a magazine 
 and read as the train sped northward toward 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 It was a good thing Mary Jane had a long 
 nap that afternoon, for when they got off at their 
 station they found they were still a long way 
 from Willow Tree Cottage and that there was a 
 lot to see on the way. Several passengers got oflF, 
 
THE WILLOW TREE COTTAGE 165 
 and the bus which met the train was filled to 
 the last seat. 
 
 First they drove along by some pretty golf 
 links where many folks were enjoying an after- 
 noon game; then they turned into a handsome 
 big hotel. Mary Jane saw children running up 
 and down the broad verandas and caught a 
 glimpse of the ocean through the trees. 
 
 "I'd like that place to live," she said to her- 
 self, "I wonder if that's where we're going?" 
 But it wasn't. 
 
 Next they drove down a street where there 
 were many private houses, in front of some of 
 which the bus stopped to drop passengers. 
 Mary Jane saw children playing in the grassy 
 yards and everything looking so homelike and 
 restful that she couldn't help but think, "I won- 
 der if that's where we're going. I'd like to have 
 that our place." But it wasn't. 
 
 Then they drove around a corner with a 
 'flourish that almost sent Mary Jane from her 
 
1 66 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 seat and out through the opposite window, and 
 drove up in front of a grand-looking hotel right 
 close to the ocean. Folks in pretty light dresses 
 were walking on the broad porches. Children 
 were playing in the great sand-pile out under 
 the trees, and young folks were having a croquet 
 match over near the beach. 
 
 "Now that must be where we're going," 
 thought Mary Jane. But it wasn't. 
 
 At last, when everyone but Mary Jane and 
 her mother and sister were out of the bus, the 
 driver whipped up his horses and drove away 
 down the beach and then turned down a short 
 road and stopped in front of a rambling, old 
 New England farmhouse. It was painted white, 
 with green shutters; the porch had comfortable 
 chairs enough for a big, big family and rambled 
 around the front and sides of the house as though 
 it was in search of the kitchen door. But out in 
 front, close by where the bus stopped, was the 
 most interesting sight of all — a great willow 
 tree. It had half a dozen trunks all grown 
 
THE WILLOW TREE COTTAGE 167 
 partly together and each big enough to make a 
 tree of itself; it had wide spreading branches 
 that arched over the roadway, over the house 
 and over a wide, grassy yard. And under the 
 tree, just past the porch steps was a swing, a big 
 sand pile and a small merry-go-round and a 
 slide place so that little folks who slid down it 
 would tumble gently into the clean white sand. 
 
 Was Mary Jane glad that they hadn't stopped 
 at the other places? You should have seen her 
 happy face I 
 
 "Oh, Mother," she cried, "let's not just stay 
 here over Sunday! Let's send for Daddah and 
 stay and stay and stay 'cause I know I'm going 
 to have a good time here." 
 
 But before Mrs. Merrill had time to answer, 
 Mrs. Bryan, the hospitable lady who owned the 
 cottage, came out to greet them- and to say to 
 Mary Jane, "Oh, my dear! I'm so glad you're 
 here! Because I have the nicest surprise for 
 you! Come right into the house and see. I 
 Know you'll like it because it's just what your 
 
i68 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 mother and your Uncle Hal always liked to see." 
 And Mary Jane, followed by Alice, both won- 
 dering what in the world the surprise might be, 
 hurried out of the bus and into the house. 
 
LOSTl ONE MARY JANE 
 
 " y^ AN we see it right away?" asked Mary 
 
 V^ Jane as she hesitated by the newel post 
 
 at the front stairs. (It was a Jovely long, 
 
 straight stairway with a white banister made of 
 
 dainty white spindles and a mahogany railing 
 
 wide and shining on top — just exactly the right 
 
 sort of a banister for sliding down, and Mary 
 
 Jane resolved to take a trial slide the first time 
 
 she could get the hallway to herself 1) 
 
 "If it's what I think it is," said Mrs. Merrill, 
 
 looking laughingly at Mrs. Bryan, "you'd better 
 
 run upstairs and wash off the stains of your 
 
 journey before you go to see it, because once you 
 
 get out in the kitchen with Mrs. Bryan you 
 
 won't want to bother with washing and combing. 
 
 Is it what I think?" she added. 
 
 "Pretty likely!" laughed Mrs. Bryan, "you're 
 
 not forgetting so easily what you always liked 
 
 169 
 
I70 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 to see. So do as your mother says, Mary Jane," 
 she added kindly to the little girl, "and as soon 
 as she says you may, come out through that door 
 over there and you'll find me." 
 
 Alice dashed up the stairs, with Mary Jane 
 close at her heels, and in a very short time they 
 were down again with clean hands and faces 
 and fresh frocks and hair ribbons. Out 
 through the door they went, through the dining- 
 room and into a great, roomy kitchen about as 
 different from their own little apartment 
 kitchen as one could imagine. It had a big 
 pastry table in the middle; two huge stoves at 
 one side and a long sink and several tables on 
 another side. Big windows looked out on a 
 grassy yard. 
 
 "Ohl" exclaimed Mary Jane rapturously, "I'd 
 just love to live at your house, Mrs. Bryan. 
 Would you let me beat eggs and fix the edges 
 of pies and wipe dishes?" 
 
 "And the cupboards I" exclaimed Alice no 
 less pleased, "would you look at these cup- 
 
LOST! ONE MARY JANE 171 
 
 boards, Mary Janel Wouldn't you just adore 
 getting out sugar and spice and putting dishes 
 away?" 
 
 "Well," replied Mrs. Bryan, half puzzled 
 but very much pleased with their enthusiasm, 
 "you're not much like most of the children who 
 come here. Mostly they don't know or care 
 what a kitchen looks like or where it is! I can't 
 think what their mothers mean either, because 
 a house without a kitchen is just nothing. And 
 as for offering to help with dishes — " The good 
 lady broke off in amazement at the unusual 
 occurrence of two boarders offering assistance 
 because they wanted to. 
 
 "Was this the surprise and may I look in that 
 cupboard?" asked Alice as she spied a stack of 
 pretty blue and white dishes — just the kind she 
 had always wanted for her own — ^behind a half 
 open cupboard door. 
 
 "Mercy no!" laughed Mrs. Bryan, "this isn't 
 the surprise. But goodness knows you may 
 look in any cupboard you like, dearie; I know 
 
172 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND! 
 
 you won't do any harm because you like things 
 too well. The surprise is out here." 
 
 The girls followed her through a long pantry, 
 the walls of which were covered with cupboards 
 and shelves clear up to the high ceiling, through 
 a summer kitchen where maids were working 
 at preparations for supper, and out into a half 
 dim shed, the floor of which felt soft under theii; 
 feet because it was covered with thousands of 
 tiny chips of wood, left from the chopping of 
 wood for the big kitchen range. 
 
 "There," she said, pointing to two great tubs 
 near the outside door, "that's what your mother 
 and your uncles used to like to see when they 
 used to come here. Have 'em every Saturday 
 evening — just that many," she added as she 
 pointed to the baskets, "and it's time they went 
 into the pot this very minute." 
 
 "But what are they?" asked Alice while 
 Mary Jane just stared at the queer sight. 
 
 Two heavily woven split baskets, bigger than 
 bushel baskets, considerably, were filled with 
 
LOST! ONE MARY JANE 173 
 
 brownish, greenish things that seemed to move — 
 but of course they couldn't — but they did, they 
 surely did. Moved slowly but crawlingly like 
 great spiders — 
 
 "Ugh!" shivered Mary Jane, "whatever are 
 they?" 
 
 "You've a good catch this time, haven't you?" 
 Mrs. Merrill's voice behind her reassured Mary 
 Jane. Her mother had followed them out and 
 surely if her mother didn't mind those queer 
 things, they must be all right for she well knew 
 her mother didn't like spiders any better than 
 she did! 
 
 "But what are they?" insisted Alice wonder- 
 ingly. 
 
 "Don't you know," laughed Mrs. Bryan, 
 "they're lobsters. Sam caught 'em just to-dav 
 and a fine lot they are too. Do you like 
 lobsters?" 
 
 "Um-m," replied Alice, "do I? You just try 
 mc! But all the lobsters I ever ate were red, 
 bright red." 
 
174 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "Sure enough," laughed Mrs. Bryan as she 
 bustled about a great iron pot in a corner, "and 
 all you ever will eat will be, I hope, because 
 they'll be cooked. The cooking makes 'em 
 red. These are alive." 
 
 "But if they're alive you can't cook 'em!" 
 exclaimed Mary Jane in great excitement. 
 
 "Oh, yes we can," replied Mrs. Bryan com- 
 fortably, "just that easily. We have the water 
 boiling hot and dump 'em in — ^just that quick 
 — and they never know what happens to 'em. 
 Now you can go out this door," she added, 
 "because we've got to hurry now with supper. 
 But don't you go far, for pretty soon you'll hear 
 a gong and that means 'come to supper 1' and 
 you come first thing because I know you must 
 be hungry." 
 
 Mary Jane and Alice needed no urging — they 
 were hungry, for it had been a long time since 
 breakfast at Cousin Louise's, and their hurried 
 luncheon in Boston wasn't much to remember. 
 They ran out to the sand-pile, looked at th^ 
 
LOSTl ONE MARY JANE ;i75 
 pretty shells, took a slide or two and a few 
 swings in the big swing and made friends with 
 the two children, a boy and a girl from Spring- 
 field, Massachusetts, who were playing there, 
 and, in a very short while it seemed, the gong 
 sounded and they went in to supper. 
 
 It was a different sort of a supper from any 
 Mary Jane had ever eaten away at a hotel — 
 though as a matter of fact the Willow Tree 
 Cottage wasn't really a hotel at all; it was an 
 old New England farmhouse enlarged a bit and 
 opened to some twenty-five selected boarders 
 through the summer season. And this meal 
 truly was not a dinner such as Mary Jane was 
 used to eating in the evening; it was a real 
 supper, delicious and old fashioned as one could 
 hope to find. There was coffee cake, fresh 
 baked and luscious with great "wells" of sugar 
 and butter running through in streaks of sweet- 
 ness; baked beans in brown pots; cold ham, 
 coldslaw with a sour cream sauce, and hot po- 
 tatoes with cream gravy. And then, after each 
 
176 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 table full of guests were seated and the meal 
 began, Mrs. Bryan herself (she would trust this 
 task to no one else) appeared with a great platter 
 of lobsters, red and shining and smelling oh, 
 so goodl 
 
 Mary Jane helped herself very daintily but 
 Mrs. Bryan said, "Here, honey, that's no way to 
 eat at my house I You take a big helping and 
 then pass up I There's three more platterfuls 
 like this out on the kitchen table!" The girls 
 needed no second urging; they liked lobster, but 
 as they polished ofif claw after claw, they agreed 
 that never never had they eaten lobster before — 
 not really truly lobster as this luscious food 
 proved to be. 
 
 As the maid appeared to ask what dessert they 
 wanted, Mrs. Merrill said, "Do you want any 
 dessert, girls? You've had such a good supper 
 already." 
 
 "Why mother!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "we 
 were hungry/" And then as the maid said, 
 "Huckleberry shortcake and apple pie" (mean- 
 
LOSTl ONE MARY JANE 177 
 ing of course that Mary Jane should take her 
 choice), Mary Jane, not understanding, replied 
 blissfully, "I like 'em both, thank you!" 
 
 "Bless her heart I" laughed Mrs. Bryan, "she 
 shall have 'em both, Ann. You bring the girls 
 each a helping of pie and shortcake^it's not too 
 rich, it won't hurt 'em for once," she added as 
 she saw Mrs. Merrill starting to object, "re- 
 member how you used to eat two helpings of 
 dessert and how you made your dear father so 
 ashamed!" Mrs. Merrill and the good lady 
 laughed in recollection — and the girls had their 
 double dessert. 
 
 In the long twilight the Merrills took a 
 leisurely walk through the pine tree grove off 
 toward the south of the cottage and home along 
 the rocks by the ocean. By the time they turned 
 toward home the sun had set in rosy glory and 
 through the gathering shadows could be seen the 
 gleam of lights in lighthouses near and far. 
 'Way down the coast on some jutting rocks, still 
 farther down on an out-reaching promontory, 
 
178 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 straight off to the northeast on the Isle of Shoals 
 and away toward the north was the Portsmouth 
 Light. Some lights burned steadily, red or 
 white; some flashed on and off as though mak- 
 ing a signal. Mrs. Merrill explained that each 
 different location had its own light and method 
 of burning it, so that a pilot, out in the ocean^ 
 iwhen he saw a light burning red, white, red, 
 white, could look on the chart and see just where 
 that light belonged ; and then, when he saw one 
 burning white, white, red, he could look again 
 and see where that one was. 
 
 The girls loved to watch the lights and to 
 listen to the pound of the waves on the rocks 
 near by. They would have liked to stay and 
 watch a long time, but Mrs. Merrill led them 
 back toward the cottage by dark and, to tell the 
 truth, beds didn't feel so very bad after such a 
 big day and, soon after the stars peeped out, two 
 tired travelers were sound asleep. 
 
 Sunday morning the girls slept late and 
 almost missed breakfast; then after a short walk 
 
LOST! ONE MARY JANE 179 
 to the beach they slipped on fresh frocks and 
 went with Mrs. Merrill to a quaint little church 
 about a mile away. The walk there was charm- 
 ing, past the biggest hotel they had seen the 
 night before, along the beach, through a wood 
 and to the edge of a meadow where the little 
 church, all vine-covered and rose-laden, came 
 to view. 
 
 After dinner at noon, the girls sat on the 
 beach a long time, watching the tide and talking 
 over the good times they had had and were 
 going to have. They persuaded their mother 
 that because the water was too cold for bathing 
 that day, they ought to stay over till afternoon 
 of Monday so that they might have a chance to 
 bathe in the ocean. 
 
 "We'll do better than that," decided Mrs. 
 Merrill, when she saw how the girls were en- 
 joying the sea air and the quiet, "I'll wire Hal 
 and we'll stay till afternoon Tuesday. That will 
 give him time to finish his visit leisurely and we 
 will still have all of Wednesday in Boston and 
 
i8o MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 you may go in bathing twice — if the water isn't 
 too terribly cold." 
 
 "I'm a-going in to-morrow even if it's freez- 
 ing!" said Mary Jane, 
 
 "So'm I," agreed Alice, "we're not afraid of 
 cold and it's such fun to jump in those big 
 waves 1" But they little guessed what was really 
 going to happen when they went in bathing in 
 that heavy surf 1 
 
 The next morning, promptly at eleven, the 
 whistle on the bathhouse blew 5-8. 
 
 "Fifty-eight," said Mrs. Merrill thought- 
 fully, "that's pretty cold, girlies." 
 
 "Oh, we don't mind," Alice assured her. 
 "The sun's good and hot and if the water seems 
 cold we don't need to stay in long — ^we can come 
 out and sit in the hot sand." 
 
 So they took their suits and walked down to 
 the bathhouse. 
 
 The tide was high that morning and the beach 
 was narrow because the great waves washed up, 
 higher and higher. Heavy posts driven into the 
 
LOST I ONE MARY JANE i8i 
 
 bed of the ocean supported great ropes stretched 
 where folks would want to stand in the waves, 
 and if one watched and went out between waves 
 and then held tightly to the rope while a wave 
 broke over, there wasn't a fraction as much real 
 danger as there appeared to be from the noise 
 and foam. Mrs. Merrill, grasping a hand of 
 each girl, made a quick dash for the nearest 
 rope and warned them to hold fast when the 
 big wave came. Alice could manage herself 
 very well, as she had a good strong grip and 
 people were round about near to lend a hand 
 if a wave should make her lose her footing for 
 a second, but Mrs. Merrill held tightly to Mary 
 Jane and together they jumped through the 
 waves as the foamy crests of cold water broke 
 just over them. 
 
 "Burr, it is cold, isn't it!" said Mary Jane 
 gayly as she shook the salt water out of her eyes. 
 
 "Plenty cold and you're getting blue," replied 
 Mrs. Merrill with a keen look at her little girl. 
 "Let's go up and sit in the warm sand for a 
 
1 82 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 while. Alice, you come up the line, here, nearer 
 to shore, and then as soon as I get Mary Jane 
 settled in the sand snug and warm, I'll come 
 back and take you out farther." 
 
 Left by herself a few minutes later, Mary 
 Jane dug herself into the sand and buried her 
 feet, her legs, and tossed the sand over her chest. 
 Then, tiring of that amusement, she shook her- 
 self free of the sand, stood up and looked around 
 and — but — after that nobody seemed to know, 
 just what Mary Jane did do. 
 
 Ten minutes after she left her so comfortably 
 settled with her play, Mrs. Merrill and Alice, 
 flushed and laughing with their fun in the 
 waves, ran up the beach to where Mary Jane 
 had been playing. But no Mary Jane was there 
 to greet them I 
 
 Quickly Mrs. Merrill looked over the many, 
 bathers along the edge of the waves — there was 
 no little girl with bobbed brown hair. Hur- 
 riedly she ran and questioned the life-guardj 
 
LOSTl ONE MARY JANE 183 
 no, he hadn't seen any little girl in a blue and 
 white suit. 
 
 The word passed along from one person to 
 another but not a soul could tell where the little 
 girl was. Several had seen her playing and 
 watching her mother and sister but no one had 
 seen her get up and go away. 
 
 There was lost, one Mary Jane; and a dis- 
 tracted mother and sister together with a beach 
 full of interested people started on a hunt for 
 the missing child. 
 
TEA ON THE TJIRRACE 
 
 QUESTIONS and answers flew thick and 
 fast as, one after another, the many 
 bathers at Rye Beach learned that a little girl 
 was lost. 
 
 "Are you sure she didn't follow you and go 
 into the water?" asked one. 
 
 "Awful undertow," whispered another, "if 
 she lost her footing even near the shore — " but 
 Mrs. Merrill turned away so as not to hear any 
 more. 
 
 "Maybe she went up the beach a way," sug- 
 gested another. 
 
 "We looked up there first thing," was the 
 reply. 
 
 "I don't know what to think," cried Mrs. 
 Merrill in distraction as the police officer ques- 
 tioned her. "Mary Jane never ran away and I 
 
 feel sure she wouldn't now. I don't think she 
 
 184 
 
" My dear child ! Where were you ? We've hunted 
 and hunted ! " (Page 187) 
 
TEA ON THE TERRACE 187 
 would disobey me and go into the water — and 
 yet, where is she?" 
 
 Alice, poor child, forgot about being wet, and 
 ran up and down the beach, hunting and calling 
 her sister. 
 
 At last, when there seemed nothing else to do, 
 the officer said, "I am sorry to say, madam, that 
 it looks very much as though — " but he never 
 finished his sentence. For at that minute Mary 
 Jane's voice close by her mother said, "Look, 
 Mother, what I got for you I And there are a 
 lot more too so Alice can pick some." 
 
 There stood Mary Jane, rosy and dry from 
 the warm sun, her hand full of wild flowers 
 she had picked — somewhere. 
 
 Mrs. Merrill gathered her up in her arms and 
 hugged her so tight Mary Jane thought she 
 never would get her breath again, then, when 
 she could talk, she asked, "My dear child! 
 Where were you? We've hunted and hunted!" 
 
 "Why I was right there," answered Mary 
 Jane, much surprised that they should have been 
 
i88 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 anxious. "I stood up to shake off the sand and 
 I saw some wild flowers back there — see 'em?" 
 she added, pointing to the end of the bath- 
 houses where some sand flowers bloomed on a 
 low lying sand hill back of the beach. "And I 
 thought, 'now PU just get some of those and see 
 if Alice wants 'em for her collection.' So I ran 
 up there and there were so many — see how many 
 kinds? And — that's alll I just picked 'em and 
 then here I am!" 
 
 Mrs. Merrill thanked all the kind people who 
 had helped hunt for Mary Jane and made a firm 
 resolve (which she likely as not wouldn't keep) 
 that next time Mary Jane was "lost" she would 
 sit still and wait for the child to come back by 
 herself. ^- — 
 
 For an hour Mary Jane played on the sand. 
 They dug ditches, they "buried" each other and 
 their mother, and finally they shook off the sand 
 and ran to the beach for a final plunge before 
 leaving. After they were dressed, Mary Jane 
 led them up to the sand hill where she had 
 
TEA ON THE TERRACE 1189 
 found the flowers, and Alice picked a bloom or 
 two of each kind to press and add to her col- 
 lection. 
 
 Dinner never did taste so good as it did that 
 day — surf bathing certainly makes girls hungry 
 and they both enjoyed every bite of the good 
 food Mrs. Bryan set before them. 
 
 "Now I think we'll all take a rest for an 
 hour," suggested Mrs. Merrill, "and then, with 
 some folks I met before you girlies woke up this 
 morning, we'll drive to Portsmouth 90 you can 
 see the harbor and the beautiful drive along 
 the shore." 
 
 Promptly at three o'clock they set out, and' 
 Mary Jane thought it would take a whole book 
 to tell all the beautiful and wonderful things 
 they saw on that drive. The pine woods that 
 smelled so sweet and good, the rolling golf 
 links here and there, the glimpses of the Isle of 
 Shoals that seemed no distance away, so clear 
 was the air in the afternoon sunshine. 
 
 *1 'most could reach out and touch 'em I" ex- 
 
190 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 claimed Mary Jane once, and it was hard to 
 believe that the picturesque group of islands 
 were miles away, out in the ocean. 
 
 The river at Portsmouth, dotted with boats, 
 big and little, the view across into the state of 
 Maine, and the beautiful grounds of a great 
 hotel set high on the bluff overlooking the ocean, 
 all seemed very wonderful. Everywhere were 
 lovely gardens brilliant with bloom and grass 
 so green and fresh, Mary Jane declared it made 
 her want to get out and feel it, for it looked like 
 soft velvet. 
 
 At Portsmouth they stopped at an old 
 curiosity shop and bought an old-fashioned 
 "knocker" for a souvenir of the drive. 
 
 "We'll put it on the door to your room," said 
 Mrs. Merrill, "and then, when you shut the 
 door, folks can knock before they come in. And 
 every time you look at it, you will think of your 
 trip to Rye Beach and to Portsmouth." 
 
 The next morning the Merrills took their 
 ipcean dip early, as they had decided to get to 
 
TEA ON THE TERRACE 191 
 
 Boston in the afternoon instead of evening. 
 The water was "freezing" cold, but the sun was 
 good and warm and the dip was most refresh- 
 ing as well as lots of fun. 
 
 It wasn't easy to leave Rye Beach. There 
 was so much to do that would be fun, and so 
 many nice people to meet and such good things 
 to eat, that Mary Jane had to think hard about 
 her father off home alone to make herself will- 
 ing to leave so soon. But once away, she was 
 quite happy, especially when she found that 
 they could have thei/ luncheon in a diner — 
 Mary Jane would go anywhere — almost — to eat 
 on a train! 
 
 Uncle Hal met them at the station in Boston 
 and his smiling face assured them a surprise 
 was in store. 
 
 "Too tired riding to do a little more?" he 
 asked, as they walked out of the great station. 
 
 "Well," asked Mary Jane determined not to 
 be tricked into anything, "is it a nice thing we 
 would do, if we weren't too tired to do it?" 
 
192 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 "Very nice, I'd say, my young lady," replied 
 Uncle Hal. 
 
 "Then I'm not a bit tired," Mary Jane assured 
 him. 
 
 It was a good thing that was her answer, for 
 the surprise was ready and waiting at the sta- 
 tion door. 
 
 "This is my sister and her two daughters. Miss 
 Burn,", said Hal as he stepped up to a waiting 
 car, "and they say they will enjoy the ride you 
 so kindly planned for them." Miss Burn was 
 a charming young lady with whom Mary Jane 
 and Alice promptly made friends, and her car 
 was a beautiful big touring car in which the 
 Merrills were whisked away before they quite 
 realized what had happened to them. 
 
 Through the parks of Boston they went, out 
 the boulevards along the north shore where the 
 roadway borders the ocean for miles and miles. 
 Beautiful homes flashed passed them, parks, 
 suburbs, playgrounds, amusement places — all 
 
TEA ON THE TERRACE 193 
 like a wonderful living moving picture show. 
 Mary Jane was interested in the great shoe fac- 
 tories they passed in Lynn and she tried to peek 
 into the windows and see which factory made 
 shoes for little girls her age. Rows and rows 
 of red brick buildings — all shoe factories Uncle 
 Hal told her — seemed enough to make shoes for 
 everybody in the whole country! 
 
 On they went till they could see the houses on 
 Marblehead and the famous Marblehead light- 
 house that can be seen from such a distance at 
 night, then, back they went, mostly over a dif- 
 ferent route, toward Boston. 
 
 "Couldn't you stop at our house for a cup of 
 tea?" invited Miss Bum, "mother would love to 
 meet you but she didn't feel up to a ride to-day." 
 
 Mrs. Merrill said they had nothing to hurry 
 them, so Miss Burn drove them to her pretty 
 home on one of the tree-covered streets in Win- 
 chester. 
 
 "We'll go through the house," said Miss Burn 
 
J94 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 as they left the car, "but I want you two girls 
 to go to the garden. You'll like to see my pet 
 goldfishes." 
 
 "Pet goldfishes!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "do 
 you keep 'em in a bowl?" 
 
 "Wait a minute, and I'll show you where I 
 keep them," replied Miss Burn, and she led 
 them through the hallway of her beautiful 
 home and out, through French doors, into the 
 loveliest garden the girls had ever seen. It was 
 in the middle of the house — almost — for the 
 house went around three sides. French doors 
 opened from the hallway, on the north, from the 
 dining-room on the east, and from a long, low 
 library living-room on the west, while on the 
 south side a rose covered pergola connected the 
 ends of the house making the garden appear to 
 be surrounded with the house. The edge of the 
 garden, near the house, was filled with bay trees, 
 privet and vining roses, next, on a lower terrace, 
 *^^ere flowers with brilliant bloom, hollyhocks, 
 Jdelphiniums and marigolds, while around the 
 
TEA ON THE TERRACE 195 
 
 fountain in the center was a great bed of 
 gorgeous roses making a mass of fragrant bloom« 
 
 "Ohl" cried Alice, "think of living here!" 
 
 "It's like a palace!" echoed Mary Jane. 
 
 "I thought you'd like it," said Miss Burn, 
 much pleased with their frank enjoyment, "we 
 love it. I do a lot of the work in the garden 
 myself. I love the flowers so, and mother and 
 I would rather be out here than anywhere else 
 in the world." 
 
 She led them over dainty gravel paths to the 
 center of the garden where, peering into the 
 white fountain, the girls saw dozens of goldfish 
 swimming about in the sunshine. 
 
 "See?" said Miss Burn, pointing into the 
 water, "I have one silver fish — that's for luck 
 they say," she added laughingly. "Don't you 
 think it's better to have fish here than in a bowl 
 on a table?" 
 
 "I think everything's better here — if you have 
 a 'here' like this," agreed Alice. "I suppose 
 Mary Jane feels like a princess again, now. 
 
[196 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 She always feels that way when she sees some- 
 thing wonderful." 
 
 " 'Deed I do," admitted Mary Jane who had 
 been too busy looking around and pretending 
 that all this was her own private palace, to talk 
 with mere folks! "I love it here!" 
 
 "Let's go over and meet mother," suggested 
 Miss Burn, "and see if tea is ready. Then you 
 may walk around the garden all you like and 
 pick as many flowers as you want to." 
 
 They found Mrs. Burn waiting for them 
 under the rose-covered terrace, and tea was all 
 ready but the hot water which came in a few 
 minutes. Mary Jane was very glad that the 
 grown folks were too busy talking to count the 
 number of lobster salad sandwiches she ate — 
 they were so good — even better than the nut 
 sandwiches which were usually her favorites. 
 After tea, the girls wandered up and down the 
 little paths in the garden and picked a few 
 flowers; not many, for the flowers looked so 
 lovely there that it seemed a shame to take them 
 away. 
 
TEA ON THE TERRACE 1197 
 
 ^'Oh, dearl" exclaimed Mary Jane later as 
 she saw her mother rise to go, "now it's going 
 to be late and we'll have to go and — and I'd 
 just love to stay in this garden forever and ever! 
 I would 1" 
 
 "I wish you could, dear," said Mrs. Burn, 
 "because I like to have little girls around me — 
 especially little girls who love flowers as you 
 two do. But I'll tell you," she added com- 
 fortingly, "you've found the way out here now 
 and the next time you come to Boston, which 
 will be some time soon, let's hope, you come and 
 see me the very first day and stay as long as 
 ever you can." 
 
 Mary Jane promised and then she took a last 
 glimpse at the fountain of goldfish before Miss 
 Burn took them back to Boston and their hotel. 
 
 "When I have a house," she said as she 
 dropped off to sleep that evening, "I'm going to 
 have a garden just like Miss Burn's with gold- 
 fish and one silver fish and tea and lobster salad 
 sandwiches and everything r* 
 
THE LAST DAY IN BOSTON-^ 
 AND HOME 
 
 THE last morning in Boston 1 Mary Jane 
 blinked at the bright sunshine that 
 streamed in at the window and asked sleepily, 
 "What are we going to do to-day, Mother?" 
 
 "Mother/" exclaimed Alice, suddenly wide 
 awake, "we forgot to go to Concord! And my 
 teacher told me surely, surely we must take that 
 ride up through Sleepy Hollow and Concord." 
 
 "Don't you worry a minute, dear," said Mrs. 
 Merrill, "I'm as anxious to take that ride as you 
 are. In fact I had Hal get the seats in the auto- 
 mobile yesterday evening, so there would be no 
 doubt about our being able to go this morning. 
 I've never taken it either, you know, so we'll 
 be seeing things together. Now everybody up 
 and see who can beat getting dressed and ready 
 for breakfast." 
 
 198 
 
THE LAST DAY IN BOSTON 199 
 
 When they stepped up to the big sightseeing 
 car, an hour and a half later, they found that 
 Uncle Hal had bought their seats for the front 
 row which pleased them very much. Mary 
 Jane liked to see things without dodging the 
 head of somebody in front, and Alice and Mrs. 
 Merrill liked to be close to the man who tells 
 about the historic scenes on the way, so they 
 could ask questions and could hear everything 
 that was said. 
 
 The car soon filled up with interested sight- 
 seers and the journey was begun. 
 
 Alice eagerly listened to all that was told and 
 fitted it into what she knew of early American 
 history. The old church where the lights were 
 hung to give the signal to Paul Revere; the 
 road he dashed across on his long journey — 
 marked now, by a big bronze tablet which the 
 girls got out of the car to read; the "green" 
 where one of the early battles was fought— Alice 
 had read all the stories and seemed to live over 
 the scenes as she saw the famous sites. 
 
200 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 Of course Mary Jane didn't know as much 
 history as her sister did, but she knew something 
 of the historical stories, as all American girls 
 should even if they are only in first grade, and 
 she learned more history in that two hours of 
 riding than she would have learned in a month 
 of reading. It didn't seem like history out of 
 a book, it seemed like really truly — as it was. 
 
 The car turned down a long, shady road and 
 came to a stop by a tiny wooden bridge. 
 
 "There," said the driver, "is the Concord 
 bridge and you may get out and walk across if 
 you like. There's no hurry." 
 
 "The Concord bridge?" exclaimed Alice, 
 "why I thought it was a big bridge — I've heard 
 so much about it." 
 
 "Size doesn't count for everything," laughed 
 the driver; "it's what happens that counts." 
 
 They climbed out of the automobile and 
 walked across the tiny bridge. It was a low, 
 wooden foot bridge, so narrow that one had to 
 walk carefully to pass anybody coming from the 
 
THE LAST DAY IN BOSTON 201 
 other direction. On one side was a hand rail, 
 on the other nothing but the clear water of the 
 little creek so close below. 
 
 The girls stood in the center of the bridge 
 and Mrs. Merrill took their picture so Alice 
 could show it to her teacher at school, then they 
 sat down in the shade close by and Mrs. Merrill 
 told Mary Jane the story that made that little 
 bridge so famous; how the brave farmers stood 
 there waiting — right there on the spot Mary 
 Jane could see; how the Redcoats crept up 
 through the darkness to the very tree (no doub^ 
 it was the very tree for its wide spreading 
 branches and great trunk told of its old age), 
 the very tree under which they were sitting, and 
 then there was fired the shot "for freedom," the 
 shot which the poet said was "heard 'round the 
 world." 
 
 Reluctantly leaving the interesting spot that 
 charmed them so, the Merrills climbed back 
 into the big auto and drove away; through 
 Concord, through Sleepy Hollow and to the 
 
202 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 house where Louisa M. Alcott had lived. There 
 Mary Jane felt at home immediately. She saw 
 the lilac bushes, the old trees and the quaint 
 old house she had heard about. They went 
 through the rooms, upstairs and down, and saw 
 the very books and dishes and kettles and clothes 
 that the girls in Miss Alcott's story had used 
 and worn. 
 
 "Why they were just regular girls like we 
 are, weren't they, Mother?" she exclaimed in 
 surprise. "And they didn't know they were 
 going to be in a story and everybody read about 
 them, did they?" 
 
 "To be sure," said Mrs. Merrill, "and that's 
 what makes them so interesting. They did all 
 the things that real folks do, and we like to hear 
 about such things in books." 
 
 "Wouldn't it be funny if we'd get into a story 
 book," said Mary Jane, laughing at the ridicu- 
 lous idea, "and somebody'd read about how we 
 came to see Miss Alcott's house? I'd laugh if 
 we did!" 
 
THE LAST DAY IN BOSTON 203 
 
 "Well, you never can tell what'll happen," 
 said Alice as they wandered out through the 
 yard. "I expect Meg and Beth never thought 
 of being in a book either. I wonder if they 
 picked roses from this same old bush?" she 
 added as she looked at a rose-bush that rambled 
 high overhead, "it looks old enough to have 
 been here then." 
 
 It was hard to leave the quaint old house with 
 its interesting associations, but the honking of 
 a horn out in front warned them that they had 
 lingered long enough, so they hurried out to 
 finish the drive. 
 
 "When I get back home," said Mary Jane as 
 she snuggled down in her front seat again, "I'm 
 going to read all about Concord and all about 
 everything — if you'll read it to me, Mother, I 
 am." Mrs. Merrill promised, so Mary Jane 
 tried to look very hard at everything they saw 
 so she could remember it a long, long time. 
 
 "Now then," said Mrs. Merrill briskly, as 
 they got out of the auto at Copley Square, 
 
204 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 "we'll just have time to hurry up and pack our 
 things and get our lunch before the train 
 leaves. And we won't have a bit of time to 
 spare, so it's a mighty good thing we haven't 
 left anything else to do. That Wolverine leaves 
 on time whether we are on it or not," 
 
 "Won't we have time but just only to pack 
 and to get lunch?" asked Mary Jane disap- 
 pointedly. 
 
 "Why Mary Jane!" exclaimed Mrs, Merrill, 
 "haven't you seen enough of Boston?" 
 
 "Oh, yes," replied Mary Jane, "I've seen 
 enough but I haven't done enough." 
 
 "What more is there to do, child?" asked Mrs. 
 Merrill. "Seems to me you've done about 
 everything a person could think of already," 
 
 "Yes, I guess I have," admitted Mary Jane, 
 "but I wanted to do some of it over again. I 
 wanted to take another ride in my swan boat, 
 I did," 
 
 "My dear child!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill 
 sympathetically, "and you shall if I can get you 
 
THE LAST DAY IN BOSTON 205 
 down there. Hurry now and we'll get our pack- 
 ing done in a jiflfy and then before we eat we'll 
 go to the Commons and let you take a ride." 
 
 Up in their room Mary Jane helped all she 
 could with the packing. She stuffed the tips of 
 all the shoes, she folded hair ribbons that had 
 been mussed and put clothes in neat piles on the 
 bed. Alice took everything from the drawers, 
 picked up personal belongings from the bath- 
 room, and brought the clothes that had been 
 hanging in the closet. With such good help 
 Mrs. Merrill packed in a very short time, and 
 sooner than she had supposed possible the trunk 
 was ready to go, and they were dressed in travel- 
 ing frocks ready for the journey home. 
 
 "Now a wire to Dad," she said as she took a 
 careful look over the room to be certain that 
 they were leaving nothing behind, "and I be- 
 lieve we are ready to go." 
 
 "Let's not stop for a big lunch," suggested 
 Alice, "because we can have early dinner on 
 the diner. Let's get sandwiches and milk some 
 
2o6 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 place and then let Mary Jane have two rides 
 on the swan boats." 
 
 Mrs. Merrill telephoned Hal and he prom- 
 ised to call for their bags at the hotel and then 
 to come for them at the entrance of the Com- 
 mons nearest the lagoon. 
 
 A very happy little girl bought tickets for six 
 rides and, with Alice and her mother, Mary 
 Jane took two last blissful rides on her favorite 
 boat 
 
 **When I grow up to be a big lady and have 
 a little girl of my own," she observed between 
 Tides, "I'm going to bring her to Boston and let 
 her ride 'n ride 'n ride." 
 
 "Seems to me that's about what I am doing 
 -with my little girl," laughed Mrs. Merrill. "I 
 believe you like the swan boats better than any- 
 thing you have seen or done on the trip." 
 
 "I do," agreed Mary Jane, "unless," she 
 added, thoughtfully, "unless eating in the 
 jarden or seeing the goldfishes or swimming or 
 
THE LAST DAY IN BOSTON 207 
 
 playing with John or — ^well, we've done a lot of 
 nice things, Mother, but swan boats are my 
 favorite, I guess." 
 
 Hal's taxi was chugging briskly when they 
 reached the street and they dashed off to take 
 their train for home. 
 
 "Now there's a whole day to ride without get- 
 ting off or hurrying or anything," said Mary 
 Jane luxuriously, as she settled herself in the 
 comfortable sleeper and leaned back against the 
 cushions with a deep sigh of satisfaction. "I 
 just love riding on a train, I do, Mother." 
 
 It was fun to sit quietly and watch the towns 
 dash by. For ten busy days Mary Jane had been 
 the one to do the going, hurrying from one good 
 time to another and now it seemed the best fun 
 of all to sit still and think about all the fun she 
 had had. 
 
 In an hour though, she began to want some- 
 thing to do. Alice, deep in a book, was close 
 by, while her mother and Uncle Hal, who 
 
2o8 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 seemed to have an endless amount to say to each 
 other, were just across the aisle. Should she 
 bother them — or what should she do? 
 
 Suddenly she remembered 1 She had brought 
 something for just such a time, and so busy had 
 she been all the days in New England that she 
 hadn't once thought of what she had carried 
 around. She slipped her hand back of her till 
 she touched her own little handbag that was 
 on the seat between herself and Alice, opened 
 it and spread out on her lap her precious paper 
 dolls. 
 
 Mrs. Merrill, glancing across to see that her 
 little girl was all right, saw what she was doing 
 and said, "Press the button there between the 
 windows, dear, and the porter will bring you a 
 table to spread the dolls out on." 
 
 Five minutes later Mary Jane had a table all 
 to herself and on it spread her whole paper 
 doll family. All the time the great train sped 
 through Massachusetts, she played with them, 
 acting over again the Harvard Class Day 
 
THE LAST DAY IN BOSTON 209 
 
 parties, the tea party in Mrs. Burn's pretty 
 garden and many other things that she herself 
 had done on her trip. 
 
 At five-thirty they went to the diner for 
 dinner, and Mary Jane had some good chicken 
 and hashed-brown potatoes and apple dump- 
 lings with ice cream, before she went back to 
 finish playing with her dolls. 
 
 "I think paper dolls are the nicest dolls for 
 on a train, I do," she told her mother, as together 
 they neatly tucked the dolls away for a night's 
 rest in the handbag, " 'cause they don't break 
 and they don't take up a lot of room, and I can 
 have them all along — every one of them. 
 
 Mr. Merrill met his family at the station the 
 next day, and there was a happy reunion and a 
 lot of talk about the fun they had had since they 
 last saw him. 
 
 "But nobody asks me what I've been doing?" 
 he exclaimed with mock grief at the first pause 
 in the conversation. 
 
 "Oh, Daddah," cried Mary Jane, "I'm so 
 
2IO MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 sorry I But you see we had so much to do — 
 graduating Uncle Hal and seeing everything, 
 we did. Now you talk — it's your turn." 
 
 Then Mr. Merrill told his surprise. The 
 builder who was to do their house in the woods 
 had been able to get to work sooner than he had 
 promised, and the house, while it wouldn't be 
 finished for some little time yet, was well on the 
 way. 
 
 "The roof's on," he told them, "and that's a 
 lot, for it means we can go out there and picnic 
 and not worry about rain. And if all goes well, 
 we can pack our trunks and move into the shack 
 in a very few days." 
 
 "Oh, goody!" cried Mary Jane clapping her 
 hands gleefully, "and I'm going to make garden 
 and keep house and hunt flowers and every- 
 thing!" 
 
 And if you want to hear all about the fun 
 Mary Jane had in her tiny home in the woods, 
 you may read about it in 
 
 MARY jane's country HOME. 
 
THE MARY JANE SERIES 
 
 BY CLARA INGRAM JUDSON 
 
 Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated. 
 With picture inlay and wrapper. 
 
 Mary Jane is the typical American little 
 girl who bubbles over with fun and the 
 good things in life. We meet her here on 
 a visit to her grandfather's farm where she 
 becomes acquainted with farm life and farm 
 animals and thoroughly enjoys the ex- 
 perience. We next see her going to 
 
 kindergarten and then on a visit to Florida, and then — but 
 
 read the stories 'for yourselves. 
 
 Exquisitely and charmingly written are these books which 
 every little girl from five to nine years old will want from the 
 first book to the last. 
 
 1 MARY JANE— HER BOOK 
 
 2 MARY JANE— HER VISIT 
 
 3 MARY JANE'S KINDERGARTEN 
 
 4 MARY JANE DOWN SOUTH 
 
 5 MARY JANE'S CITY HOME 
 
 6 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND 
 7 MARY JANE'S COUNTY HOME 
 
 BARSE & HOPKINS 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 NEWARK. N. J. NEW YORK, N. Y. 
 
CHICKEN LITTLE JANE SERIES 
 
 By LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE 
 
 Chicken Little Jane is a 
 Western prairie girl who 
 lives a happy, outdoor life 
 in a country where there 
 is plenty of room to turn 
 around. She is a wide- 
 awake, resourceful girl 
 who will instantly win her 
 way into the hearts of 
 other girls. And what 
 good times she has ! — with 
 her pets, her friends, and 
 her many interests. 
 "Chicken Little" is the af- 
 fectionate nickname given to her when she is 
 very, very good, but when she misbehaves it is 
 "Jane" — ^just Jane! 
 
 Adventures of Chicken Little Jane 
 Chicken Little Jane on the "Big John" 
 Chicken Little Jane Comes to Town 
 
 With numerous illustrations in pen and ink 
 By CHARLES D. HUBBARD 
 
 BARSE & HOPKINS 
 
 NEWARK NEW YORK 
 
 N. J. N. Y. 
 
THE POLLY PENDLETON SERIES 
 
 BY DOROTHY WHITEHILL 
 
 Polly Pendleton is a resourceful, wide- 
 awake American girl who goes to a board- 
 ing school on the Hudson River some miles 
 above New York. By her pluck and re- 
 sourcefulness, she soon makes a place for 
 herself and this she holds right through the 
 course. The account of boarding school 
 life is faithful and pleasing and will attract 
 every girl in her teens. 
 
 I POLLY'S FIRST YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL 
 3 POLLY'S SUMMER VACATION 
 
 3 POLLY'S SENIOR YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL 
 
 4 POLLY SEES THE WORLD AT WAR 
 
 5 POLLY AND LOIS 
 
 6 POLLY AND BOB 
 
 Cloth. Large 12mo., IttustraM. 
 
 N«wark,N.Js 
 
 BARSE &• HOPKINS 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 New York, N.1. 
 
The Sunny Boy Series 
 
 By RAMT ALLISON WHITE 
 
 Children, meet Sunny 
 Boy, a little fellow with 
 big eyes and an inquiring 
 disposition, who finds the 
 world a large and won- 
 derful thing indeed. And 
 somehow there is lots go- 
 ing on, when Sunny Boy 
 is around. Perhaps he 
 helps push! In the first 
 book of this new series he 
 has the finest time ever, 
 with his Grandpa out in 
 the country. He learns a 
 lot and he helps a lot, in his small way. Then 
 he has a glorious visit to the seashore, but this is 
 in the next story. And there are still more adven- 
 tures in the third book and fourth book. You 
 will like Sunny Boy. 
 
 4 Titles, Cloth, illustrated, IZmo., 
 with colored covers. 
 
 1. SUNNY BOY IN THE COUNTRY 
 
 2. SUNNY BOY AT THE SEASHORE 
 
 3. SUNNY BOY IN THE BIG CITY 
 
 4. SUNNY BOY IN SCHOOL AND OUT 
 
 5. SUNNY BOY AND HIS PLAYMATES 
 
 BARSE & HOPKINS 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 NEWARK, N. J. NEW YORK, N. Y. 
 
GOOD STORIES FOR CHILDREN 
 
 (From four to nine years old) 
 
 THE KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES 
 
 By RICHARD BARNUM 
 
 fNOnMEAHMALSIlM 
 ■ It W> ^fc % 
 
 nCHARO BARNUM 
 
 In all nursery literature animals have 
 played a conspicuous part; and the reason 
 is obvious, for nothing entertains a child 
 more than the antics of an animal. These 
 stories abound in amusing incidents such 
 as children adore, and the characters are 
 so full of life, so appealing to a child's 
 imagination, that none will be satisfied until 
 they have met all of their favorites— s 
 Squinty, Slicko, Mappo, and the rest. 
 
 1 Squinty, the Comical Pig. 
 
 2 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel. 
 
 3 Mappo, the Merry Monkey. 
 
 4 Turn Tum, the Jolly Elephant. 
 
 5 Don, a Runaway Dog. 
 
 6 Dido, the Dancing Bear. 
 
 7 Blackie, a Lost Cat. 
 
 8 Flop Ear, the Funny Rabbiti 
 
 9 Tinkle, the Trick Pony. 
 
 10 Lightfoot, the Leaping Goat« 
 
 1 1 Chunky, the Happy Hippo.: 
 
 12 Sharp Eyes, the Silver Fox.. 
 
 13 Nero, the Circus Lion. 
 
 14 Tamba, the Tame Tiger. 
 
 15 Toto, the Rustling Beaver. 
 
 16 Shaggo, the Mighty Bu£Falo. 
 
 17 Winky, the WUy Woodchuck. 
 
 Cloth, Large \2mo.. Illustrated. 
 
 BARSE & HOPKINS 
 
 Publishers 
 Newark, N^ J^ New Yoik, NL, ^a 
 
Stories of Adventure 
 
 (For children from 5 to 9 years old) 
 
 The Traveling Bears Series 
 
 By SEYMOUR EATON 
 
 tStTK/IVEUNG BEAKS 
 NEffYDRK 
 
 sermiionm. 
 
 Teddy B and Teddy G are as nearly hu- 
 man as it is possible for bears to be. They 
 love children and make playmates of them 
 wherever they go. They never have an idle 
 moment, and their traveling adventures are 
 amusing as well as instructive. 
 
 Snappy, exciting tales, with plenty of ac- 
 tion in every chapter and a laugh on every 
 page. Books which will be read as long as 
 there are children to read them. 
 
 X THE ADVENTURES OF THE TRAVELING BEARS. 
 
 2 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN THE EAST ANQ 
 
 WEST. 
 
 3 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN NEW YORK. 
 
 4 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN OUT-DOOR SPORTS. 
 
 5 THE TRAVELING BEARS AT PLAY. 
 
 6 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 7 THE TRAVELING BEARS ACROSS THE SEA. 
 
 8 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN FAIRYLAND. 
 
 9 THE TRAVELING BEAR DETECTIVES 
 10 THE TRAVELING BEAR'S BIRTHDAY 
 
 Boards, Quarto, Illustrated. 
 
 BARSE & HOPKINS 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 NEWARK. N. J. NEW YORK, N. Y.