VISITORS—AND A BOAT RIDE
One day, not so very long after the trip through the parks, the bell at the Merrills’ front door pealed long and hard. Mary Jane, whose job was answering the door, ran to the little house ’phone, and heard a loud voice shout, “Special for Merrill!”
“What’s he mean, mother?” she asked, in a puzzled voice.
“Better press the buzzer and let him in, dear,” replied Mrs. Merrill, “if he has the name right he must have something for us.”
So Mary Jane pressed the downstairs buzzer and then opened the front door. Yes, it was for them—a special delivery letter for Mrs. Merrill. Mary Jane and Alice were much excited and could hardly wait till the messenger’s book was signed and the letter was opened.
“It’s from grandma,” said Mrs. Merrill asshe glanced at the writing, “and listen! This is what she says:
“‘Grandpa finds quite unexpectedly that he must come to Chicago on business and he says that if it’s convenient to you folks I can come along and we’ll stay two or three days for a visit. Please wire reply because we must start Wednesday evening.’”
“And it’s ten o’clock Wednesday morning now!” exclaimed Mrs. Merrill. She hurried to the telephone, called Mr. Merrill so he could send a telegram at once, then she and the two girls went right to work making ready for the guests.
It was decided that Alice and Mary Jane should sleep on couches and give up their room to the visitors. “Now’s when I wish we had our nice guest room,” said Mrs. Merrill, “but then, grandma knows that folks who live in Chicago flats don’t keep guest rooms for infrequent visitors.” For her part, Mary Jane thought sleeping on a couch would be great fun—so grown up and different from every day. She was to have the dining-room couch and Alice was to sleep inthe living-room. When all plans were made, bedding sorted out and laid ready for making up the beds fresh first thing in the morning, Mrs. Merrill began planning the meals. If the visitors were to stay only a short time she wanted to have as much baking and marketing as possible done beforehand, so every minute could be spent in fun and visiting. Alice and Mary Jane, who had been marketing so much with their mother of late that they really could be trusted, took a long list up to the grocery and Mrs. Merrill set to work baking coffeecake and bread and cookies. Um-m! It wasn’t an hour till that tiny kitchen began to smell so good that the girls could hardly be coaxed away. Mrs. Merrill let them help in a good many ways. Mary Jane put the sugar and nuts on the tops of the cookies after her mother put them in the pan and Alice, who was getting to be a really good cook, tended to the baking. She put the big pans in, and watched the baking, and took them out when every cookie was evenly browned. Then, after she took a pan out of the oven, shegently lifted the hot cookies out from the baking pan onto a wire rack where they could cool without losing their pretty shapes. When the cookies were cool, it was Mary Jane’s turn again. She put them all in the tin cookie box, counting them and laying them neatly between layers of paraffin paper so they would keep fresh even in the hot weather.
It was a rule that only perfect cookies should be packed away—scraps never went into the tin box. But for some reason or other, the girls never seemed to mind the job of eating the broken ones! In fact Mary Jane often asked Alicenotto be so careful—to please break a few so there would be plenty to eat right then and there.
The day went by so quickly that it was bed time before the girls realized it and then, after about forty winks, it was morning—the morning when grandma and grandpa were coming.
Everybody was up early, Alice and Mary Jane made up the beds fresh and neat, mother cooked a good breakfast and Dadahwent to the train, at a near-by suburban station, to meet the travelers. It was a jolly party that sat around the breakfast table—you may be sure of that!
“Now then,” said Mr. Merrill, when the breakfast was eaten up and news of the farm had been told, “I’ll have to go to work and I suppose grandpa has to do his business to-day, so we’ll leave you folks to yourselves. Then to-morrow, if grandpa is through his business, we can plan some fun.”
So the two business folks went down town and grandma was left to enjoy life at home. The girls were glad she could stay.
“Let’s take grandma over to the lake,” suggested Alice, “I know you’d love riding in one of those little electric launches, grandmother.”
“Let’s take some lunch and not come home till she’s seen everything in Chicago,” said Mary Jane in a rush of hospitality.
“Dear me! Child!” exclaimed grandma in dismay, “don’t you know there’s another day coming!”
Mary Jane agreed to leave a few sightsfor the next day, but she didn’t want to lose any time getting off. Fortunately the morning work didn’t take but a tiny bit of time, and as grandma, who didn’t care much for “stuffy sleepers,” was very glad to get out into the fresh air, they very soon were on their way to the park.
The girls felt quite at home in the neighborhood and in the park by this time, and they thought it was great fun to show the sights to somebody else—somebody who didn’t know all about Chicago. Grandma loved the beautiful Midway, the charming lagoons and she enjoyed her ride on the little launch fully as much as the girls had thought she would.
“But don’t you have anybigboats?” she asked, “great big ones with two decks and lots of passengers and all that? I’d like to ride on a big boat too.”
“Then that’s exactly what we’ll do to-morrow, mother,” said Mrs. Merrill. “There is a big boat that runs from Jackson Park up to the municipal pier. We’ll go on it to-morrow and we’ll get our lunch uptown and then we’ll come back home on the boat.”
And that’s exactly what they did.
When Mr. Merrill heard that grandma wanted a ride on a big boat, the plans for the next day were as good as made. He thought the idea of going to town on the boat and then getting lunch and coming home was a fine one and he only made one change in the plan.
“Instead of going to a store, in the loop, let’s take one of the little launches that run from the Municipal pier to Lincoln Park and go up there for our lunch so grandma can see your favorite swans and perhaps, if we want to stay that long, see the seals get their four o’clock tea.” But dear me, he little guessed what would happen as his nice-sounding plan worked out!
So the next morning, the Merrills all had a nice, leisurely, visity breakfast, then a walk through the park, and never did the park look lovelier than on the sunny summer morning, and then, boarding the boat that rocked at the pier on the big lake, theyfound comfortable seats on the shady side and prepared for a pleasant ride.
Mary Jane chose to sit on the side nearest the pier because she loved to look down from the upper deck and watch the people boarding the boat. She had never ridden on boats very much, only when she went to Florida, and this boat they were now aboard seemed very different from the big, awkward, flat bottomed boat they took their river trip on through Florida jungles.
“You don’t need to sit by me if you want to talk to mother,” she said to her father.
“Humph!” said her father teasingly, “how do I know you’re not going to tumble overboard! You know you have a way of mixing up picnics and water, Mary Jane, so I don’t think I’ll take any chances.” But when Mary Jane promised that she would sit very still and not walk around a step and not lean over the edge, he went to speak to grandpa a few minutes. And while he was gone, Mary Jane leaned up against the side of the boat and watched the folks down on the pier.
She thought it must surely be about time for the boat to start because there was hurrying on the pier, and men were busy taking ropes off of the big wooden posts along the side nearest the water. While she was watching, a woman came along the dock toward the boat and with her were two little children, a girl about Mary Jane’s own age and a little boy some two years younger. Just as they reached the gang plank, ready to step onto the boat, the little boy began to cry.
“I left my boat! I left my boat! I left my boat!” he cried. Mary Jane could hear him very plainly even though she sat so far up above him.
She couldn’t hear what the mother said, but evidently she promised to get the missing boat for him, because she left both children by the side of the gang plank, and hurrying as fast as possible she ran back toward the shore. And right at that minute, the big bell overhead rang three times and the engine aboard the boat began to throb—it was time to go.
The men on the dock noticed the two children and one said to the little girl, “Were you going?” and she nodded yes. So he picked up the boy and hurried the two children aboard just as the gang plank was hauled in and the boat made away from the pier.
Mary Jane was so thrilled and excited she could hardly sit still. She tried to call her father but he was on the other side of the boat and she had promised to sit still—perfectly still—till he came back. What in the world was a little girl to do? And back on the shore that was so rapidly getting farther and farther way, Mary Jane could see the mother of the children, running frantically toward the dock which the boat had left. Surely the captain would see her, Mary Jane thought. But if he did, he likely thought she was merely somebody who had missed the boat and that he had no time for turning back. And so the boat continued out into the lake.
Finally after what seemed thelongesttime (though it really was hardly more thanfive minutes), Mr. Merrill came back and then, such a story as he heard!
“Are you sure, Mary Jane?” he asked, “certain sure? The men wouldn’t put children on a boat without grown folks along!”
“But they did, Dadah!” insisted Mary Jane, “I saw ’em!”
“Then you come with me,” said Mr. Merrill, “and we’ll see if we can find them.”
So Mr. Merrill and Mary Jane went down the stairs, and that took some time because folks were coming and going and getting settled for the trip, and there, huddled close together and crying as hard as they could cry, were the two little waifs!
Mary Jane with real motherliness began talking to the little girl; Mr. Merrill picked up the boy and together the whole party went in search of the captain. By the time he was found though, the boat was still farther on its journey toward the city and the dock they started from was farther and farther behind.
“Well, that is a time we were wrong,” admitted the captain when he had listened toall Mary Jane had to say and talked with the man who had put the children aboard. “But even though we were wrong, we can’t go back now. We’ll have to make the children comfortable and take them back to their mother on the return trip.”
So Mr. Merrill and Mary Jane went back to the deck, only this time they took with them the two little strangers. Mrs. Merrill was told the story and she and Alice and Mary Jane, with help from grandma, grandpa and Mr. Merrill, set themselves to the task of making the little children happy. At first it was hard work, because they cried all the time for their mother. But erelong they understood the friendliness around them and they stopped crying and began to have a good time. Grandpa discovered some crackerjack and everybody knows what a helpthatis; Mrs. Merrill told some funny stories and Mr. Merrill took them all over the boat—to see the great engine and everything. Then there were the sights to watch from the deck and the big buildings to count and the boats they passed to watch—oh,there surely was a lot to do that made that trip interesting and so very short.
As the boat pulled up near the down town pier, the Merrills saw a taxi dash up near where the boat was to land: saw a woman get out and, followed by a policeman, hurry up to the side where the boat would pull in.
“Look!” exclaimed Mary Jane excitedly. “Look!”
The little girl, whose name was Ann, looked along with the others, and then she gave a happy cry.
“Mother!” she shouted, so loudly that her mother, waiting on the pier could hear and was so very relieved!
When the boat pulled into the dock, the captain was the first one to step off; he met the mother and the officer and brought them aboard at once. Mary Jane was called upon to explain all that she had seen and the officer, as well as the mother, was satisfied that the whole thing was an accident and not an attempt to steal the children.
“But how did you get up here so quickly?”asked Mary Jane, when the first excitement was over.
“My dear child!” laughed Ann’s mother, “a person can do a lot when she thinks something is happening to her children! I took a passing taxi, dashed to a police station and then on up here. And nothing has happened at all—except you nice people have given my little folks a very pleasant trip. Next time, Bobby,” she added, “we’ll leave your toy boat or we’ll all go together to find it. We won’t take any chances of losing each other!”
“Well,” laughed Mr. Merrill when the mother and children and officer and captain had all gone on about their own business, “what was it we were going to do to-day?”
Everybody laughed at that! They had been so excited that they had forgotten, yes, actually forgotten, that this was a sight-seeing trip for grandma and grandpa. But once they remembered, they knew just what to do. They climbed aboard a waiting launch, rode up to Lincoln Park, had a wonderful dinner and fun all the rest of the day.
“I don’t see,” remarked grandma, as they neared home, late that evening, “how you girls are ever going to settle down to school again! Did you know that school was only a few weeks away? Vacation will be over before you know it!”
SCHOOL BEGINS
When grandma suggested that it was nearly time for school to begin, on that day of the boat ride, she guessed better than the girls suspected. At the time they laughed and thought she was joking, but, after she and grandpa had gone home, they got out a calendar and counted up and there, to be sure, only one and one-half weeks of vacation were left.
“I didn’t realize school began so early,” exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in dismay.
“I thought summer was a long time!” cried Alice, “but it isn’t any time at all!”
“Goody! Goody! Goody!” Mary Jane said happily, “then I get to start to school like a big girl.”
It was no wonder Mary Jane was happy, for she remembered that the plan was for her to start in the really truly school, not the kindergarten where she had gone in her otherhome, and any little girl likes to start to school like her big sister.
When the day finally came, Alice was as much excited as Mary Jane herself. For although the summer had been so pleasant she almost hated to see it end—the free days with plenty of time for visits with mother and picnics and marketing and all—still, school was pleasant too and any little girl who does nice work and tries to learn, will make good friends and have happy days, just as Alice always had had.
Mary Jane had a hard time deciding which dress to wear. She wanted to look very grown up, so that teacher would realize she was a big girl, so she finally decided upon a dark blue sailor suit. The one that had the red insignia on the sleeve and that looked just like a big girl’s dress. With a clean ’kerchief peeking out of her pocket and a smashing big red bow on the top of her brown head, she looked very nice.
Alice and Mary Jane waked up that morning the very minute they were called for they wanted to help mother so she couldgo over to school with them. And with all that good help of course they were off on time. Alice was glad to have company going to school for Frances wasn’t home yet and wouldn’t be there for a couple of weeks.
Mary Jane’s heart went thump, thump as she and her mother went in at the teachers’ gate, and up the stairs and into the principal’s office. And thump, thump some more when she saw the whole roomful of strange boys and girls and thump, thump some more when her turn came and she was sent (fortunately with her mother along) to the first grade room—number 104. The room was full of children, hundreds, Mary Jane thought there must be, though the teacher told Mrs. Merrill there were about forty-five. And if her heart went thump, thump before, it certainly went thump, thump,thumpwhen the teacher, smiling at her so kindly, gave her a seat in the—front-row—such a nice seat for her very own! and she sat down and tried to look as though she had been used to going to school all her whole life.
For a minute she couldn’t look around or anything, she felt so queer. Then she glanced at the next seat and there, sitting right beside her, was—whom do you suppose? Ann! The same pretty little Ann who had been lost on the boat. Immediately Mary Jane forgot all about being afraid and thumping hearts and strangeness and everything and began to like school. The two little girls had much to say about what they would do at recess and where did they live and everything, so the time before school began passed very quickly.
Suddenly, in the midst of their talk, a bell rang, “GONG-GONG!” Two loud tones close together that way, and school began. Mary Jane Merrill was in a really truly school like the big girl she was getting to be.
Ann came home with Mary Jane that first afternoon and Mrs. Merrill discovered that her name was Ann Ellis and that she lived two blocks from their own home and that the two little girls would no doubt find it very easy to be friends. They began havinga good time that very afternoon and they planned still better times when Betty would be back and they could all play together. Now wasn’t that fine!
Mary Jane found that she liked school every bit as much as she had thought she would. She liked her teacher, a charming Miss Treavor, and she liked her studies. But most of all she liked the fun she had on the playground. In the big cities, like Chicago, where lots of girls and boys have no yards, the school yards are the only places were children can play. So, to make everything safe and orderly, the school folks have a playground teacher stay at school all the day, to help in the games and to see that every one has a happy time. The playground teacher at Mary Jane’s school liked little girls very much and she knew many good games for them to play. So in addition to “London Bridge” and “Drop the Handkerchief” and “Tag” that all children play, Mary Jane learned “Roman Soldiers” and “Ghost Walk” and “Three times Three.”
Of the new ones, Mary Jane liked “Ghost Walk” the best. To play it, the girls and boys made a big circle, then they selected some one to be “Ghost.” This person stood in the middle of the circle and everybody shut eyes tight, very tight. Then the Ghost, while every one kept very quiet, tried to tip-toe to the edge of the circle, slip out between two folks and get away without being caught. That may sound easy, but played in a yard full of romping boys and girls, it is not really as easy as it might seem and it was lots of fun, because often folks would think the “Ghost” was near them and would try to grab—and the joke was on them because all the while, maybe, the “ghost” was in another part of the ring. And whenever folks thought they caught the “Ghost” anddidn’t, then every one opened their eyes, the person who had made the mistake had to get out of the circle and the game began again. But if the “Ghost” really did get out of the circle without being caught, then the “Ghost” could hide anywhere in the yard and the game becamean old-fashioned hide-and-seek with everybody hunting one lucky person.
One day, when Mary Jane was “Ghost,” she was determined she would get out of that circle without getting caught. She had tried it many a time before and failed; this time she was going to do it. She tiptoed, oh, so softly over the loose gravel to the edge of the circle. Then noiselessly she dropped down on hands and knees and, without a thought for her dress, crawled slowly between Ann and the girl next to her. She could hardly keep from giggling, it was so funny to be so close she almost bumped them and yet not to be discovered. Now she was right between them, now she was almost outside—now she was free and away she dashed to the spot she had long ago picked out as a hiding place for just such a time as this.
The folks in the circle waited—but nobody was caught, so they shouted, “Ghost Walk?” and when the “ghost” didn’t answer they opened their eyes and—no Mary Jane was there!
“I’ll get her,” shouted Ann, “I’ll find her! I’ll bet she got out on your side of the circle, Janny, she never could have passedme!”
“I’ll find her myself,” answered Janny, “but she never passed by me, she didn’t!”
So they hunted, up and down the yard, around the bushes, by the doorway, everywhere they could think of. But no sign of Mary Jane did they discover. They hunted and they hunted till the gong sounded and they had to go into school again. But not a sign of any Mary Jane did they find. Was Mary Jane lost? Miss Treavor must be told so everybody could hunt, for something surely must have happened to a little girl who didn’t answer the recess bell when it rang for school to begin.
Now it happened that some days before, when Mary Jane had first learned to play “Ghost walk” she hunted around the yard for a good place to hide—in case she ever succeeded in getting out of the circle so shecouldhide. She didn’t want to hide among the bushes because that was the first placethe children looked; she didn’t want to hide in the doorway because that was against rules and if a child was discovered there by a teacher, the child had to go straight upstairs and stay the rest of recess. And there didn’t seem to be any other place. But there was another hiding place—and Mary Jane found it. Around the corner of the building, on the side nearest the furnace entrance, there was a jog in the brick wall. And in front of the little niche made by this jog, boards left by some carpenters had been carelessly tossed.
“I could climb over the boards,” Mary Jane had thought, “and hide down behind and nobody’d ever find me—ever.”
So when her time came, and she really did get out of the circle without being caught, she didn’t have to stop and hunt a hiding place; she knew exactly where she wanted to go.
But there was one thing Mary Jane hadn’t figured on; one thing she didn’t even think of as she crouched down behind her boards while the children hunted for her, hither andyon over the school yard. She hadn’t thought that way off, ’round the corner and behind boards that way, she couldn’t—hear. The sounds of playing and romping seemed so quiet, so quiet that they were hardly noticeable. She didn’t hear the bell and she didn’t even notice the sudden quiet when the children fell in line to march upstairs. She sat there, huddled in a snug little heap, and she laughed to herself about the joke she was playing on her mates.
To be sure the timedidseem pretty long and she thought they were very stupid—but then—she never suspected that recess was over and—
Till suddenly there descended upon her a cloud of chalk dust! It powdered her face and dress and shoes and made her forget all about being quiet and jump up with a lively scream of fright.
Overhead she heard Miss Treavor’s voice, exclaiming, “Whatever in the world!” And then, before she could quite get the dust out of her eyes and understand what hadhappened, Miss Treavor and two other teachers who had heard the scream, stood before her and the whole story came out. Miss Treavor tried not to laugh when Mary Jane told her she was hiding but she couldn’t help it. Mary Jane looked so be-powdered and forlorn. But Mary Jane didn’t mind the laughing because at the same time, Miss Treavor lifted her out from behind the boards and set her down in the cheerful sunlight.
“Thatwasa good place to hide,” the teacher admitted, “and you were a clever little girl to think of it. But I believe, dear,” she added kindly, “that next time you’d better hide some place where you can hear the bell, even though youaremore likely to get caught.”
And Mary Jane promised that she would never, never hide in such a very good place again.
Mary Jane hated to go back into the school room all mussed and tumbled as she was, so Miss Treavor sent for Alice and thetwo little girls skipped home for a fresh dress and clean ribbons so Mary Jane could enjoy the classes.
When, a half an hour later, she came back, with the dark blue dress changed to a plaid gingham and the red bow changed to green, the children wanted to know where she had been and what had happened. But Miss Treavor wouldn’t tell. And she had made Mary Jane promise not to tell, because that place wassucha good hiding place that the teachers didn’t want other folks finding it and hiding there to make trouble too.
But all of Mary Jane’s school fun wasn’t from trouble. That was just one day. Most of the time, she played without anything happening just as the other folks did. And all the time she made more friends and had a better time, till, when Betty came back from the country, she knew most everybody in her room.
She liked school so very much that the days slipped by one after another so fast a person could hardly count them—one day and another day and another day—just thatway. Till one Monday morning when they went to school, Miss Treavor announced, “Do you boys and girls know what we are going to do to-day? We’re going to start making Christmas presents. Because Christmas is onlythree weeks away!”
“Christmas!” thought Mary Jane, with a thrill of joy, “Christmas! Why, theydohave Christmas in Chicago! I wonder what I’ll get and what I’ll do!”
CHRISTMAS IN CHICAGO
Christmas in Chicago! When Mary Jane heard those words she had her first real pang of homesickness for the home she had left when they moved to Chicago. Would any Christmas anywhere ever be so beautiful as the Christmas in that dear home? She remembered the pine trees in the yard, loaded down with their wealth of snow: the glowing fire on the hearth with its Christmas-y smell from the pine cones that were saved through the year for the Christmas Day fire; the tree in the angle near the fireplace where the afternoon sun touched it into a blaze of glory; the party for the poor children that had been such fun to plan for—would anything in Chicago ever be half the fun of Christmas in the old home? But Mary Jane was soon to discover that Christmas doesn’t need certain houses or fires or trees to make it perfect; thatChristmas is made in folks’ hearts and that wherever there is a Christmas heart, there will be a happy day—in village or city, the place makes no difference.
When she went home from school that afternoon and announced that Miss Treavor said Christmas was so very near, she found that mother wasn’t even a little surprised.
“Why to be sure Christmas is coming,” laughed Mrs. Merrill, “and here I’ve been waiting and waiting andwaitingfor you to talk about it till, actually, I thought I’d had to begin myself, if you didn’t wake up pretty soon.” And then everybody began to talk at once.
“Do they have trees in Chicago?” asked Alice.
“Are there any poor folks who would like parties?” asked Mary Jane.
“Is anybody coming to see us?” demanded Mary Jane.
“Here! Here! Here!” exclaimed Mr. Merrill, “one at a time, ladies, one at a time! If you doubt that there will be trees in Chicago, you should see what I saw thismorning as I went down to work. A train load of Christmas trees—yes, sir!” (for he noticed the girls could hardly believe him) “a whole train load of trees. And I see by the paper this evening that a boat load has arrived, too, so there will be no shortage of trees.”
“Then we can have one,” said Mary Jane, with a satisfied sigh.
“And let’s put it in front of this foolish little gas log,” suggested Alice, “then we won’t think about a real fireplace.”
“And there are plenty of poor folks,” said Mrs. Merrill, going back to Mary Jane’s question, “only they will not be so easy to get together, as back at home. How would you like to take a Christmas party to some family instead of having a party at home as we did last year?”
The girls hardly knew what to say about that new idea so Mrs. Merrill explained further. “I telephoned to the Associated Charities this very day,” she said, “and they gave me the names of a fatherless family in which there are two girls about your ages,and one boy. I thought we could plan a fine Christmas for them and then, on Christmas morning, take it over and surprise them.”
“Oh, let’s do that, mother,” said Mary Jane happily, “then we’d be like a real Santa Claus only we’d be a morning Santa. May we do it, surely?”
“I thought you’d like the idea,” said Mrs. Merrill, “so I got lists from the association as to just what was most needed. Alice, if you’ll get a pencil and paper, we’ll figure it all out.”
Making plans was the girls’ favorite way of spending an evening so they whisked the cover off the dining table, pulled up chairs for four and went to work list-making.
“Tom,” began Mrs. Merrill, consulting her list, “hasn’t a bit of warm clothing.”
“Why couldn’t I knit him a muffler and some mittens?” asked Mary Jane. “I remember how and I haven’t knitted anything since the war stopped.”
“Fine!” approved Mrs. Merrill, “I think I have enough yarn for the mittens and ifyou’ll get it out of the drawer there we can wind it while we talk and it will be all ready for you to set up at once. You’ll have to work hard and fast if you want to make a muffler and a pair of mittens before Christmas.”
“Now then,” she continued, looking at the list, “they have very few bed covers and the children get so cold at night.”
“Why couldn’t you make some covers, mother?” suggested Alice, “and let me make them each some flannelette pajamas like we wear—you know how toasting warm they are. And I have the pattern and I know I could make them all myself.”
“That’s a beautiful idea,” approved Mrs. Merrill, “and I hadn’t even thought of such a thing. When we get through planning, dear, you can get out your pattern and see how much material you’ll need. Then, when I go up town to-morrow, I’ll get it for you.”
“And they need stockings,” she continued, “and shoes—”
“Could any of ’em wear my good shoesthat are too little?” asked Mary Jane eagerly. She had been greatly distressed about those “best” shoes that were so good, and yet were hopelessly outgrown.
“I think they’ll be exactly right,” said Mrs. Merrill. “In fact I picked out this particular family because I was sure we could find nice things for them among you girls’ outgrown things and that, put with what we buy new, would make all the bigger Christmas for them.
“And about toys,” she continued with the list, “the girls have never had a doll—”
“Never had—” began Mary Jane but she couldn’t quite get the words out. Never had a doll. Never had a Marie Georgiannamore to love and care for and take riding in a beautiful cart. Never had—no, she couldn’t quite imagine it.
After that there was no more reading off a list. Mary Jane and Alice began making a list of their own, of what those children were to have for Christmas.
“But,” objected Mrs. Merrill, “you girls forget that things cost money—a lot ofmoney these days. And you can’t possibly buy all those things and get any Christmas of your own too.”
“Humph!” grunted Mary Jane as she squeezed her face up tight in an effort to write, “then we won’t have one of our own! Haven’t we got Marie Georgiannamore and a cart and a nice house and warm clothes—and—everything?”
That settled it. There would be a tree and dinner and a lot of fun in the Merrill house on Christmas Day, but the presents were to go to their adopted family to maketheirChristmas one never to be forgotten.
If you have ever planned a Christmas for somebody who never, in all their lives had one, you will know something about the fun that Mary Jane and Alice had in the time that was left before Christmas. They were about the busiest girls in all Chicago! They hurried home from school and they worked Saturdays but, actually, as soon as they got one thing done they thought of something else they wanted to make or buy and they had to begin all over again. They madecookies and candies and dressed dolls, one for each girl, and made a complete set of covers and pillows and “fixings” for an adorable doll bed that Mr. Merrill made in the evenings. Alice had to work pretty hard to get the pajamas all finished in time for there was considerable work on each pair; but she got them finished and she could hardly wait till Christmas to take them over to their family.
Mary Jane finished the muffler and mittens though shealmosthad to knit while she ate—towards the last—it takes a good many stitches to make a muffler big enough for an eight year old boy. The muffler was a deep crimson and the mittens a warm shade of gray with three rows of crimson in the wrist end; Mary Jane had picked colors she was sure Tom would like.
At last the twenty-fourth of December came around—cold and snowy and just the kind of a day for making a Christmas. The trees were bought and set on the balcony, the turkeys, two of them, were in the pantry ready to dress and three big baskets were seton the dining-room table ready for packing.
“Now, then,” said Mrs. Merrill, “if you have everything ready, I think we’d better pack all the things we can now, because when Dadah comes home there’ll be plenty to do.”
Mary Jane thought the packing was the most fun of anything she had ever done. They packed all the doll things in one basket, doll things and toys and three nice books. Of course the doll bed wouldn’t go in the basket; it had to have a package all by itself. A second basket was for clothing, the pajamas—and no one would ever guess that a girl as young as Alice had made those charming garments—the muffler, the mittens, one pair for each child, warm underwear and a dress for each girl (one of the nicest of Alice and Mary Jane’s outgrown frocks). Mr. Merrill had added a nice flannel shirt for Tom and Mrs. Merrill put in a warm sweater for the good mother.
“That’s a basket they’ll like to open,” said Alice, proudly, as she tucked the brand new comforter Mrs. Merrill had made,around the top, “they’ll be so happy they won’t hardly be able to wait till they can put ’em on!”
The third basket was fully as interesting as the others. It was a big, big one and in it the girls packed groceries, cans of vegetables and soup and sugar—a very little bit to be sure for there wasn’t much to be had, but the Merrills had decided to send exactly half of what they had—and oranges for breakfast and cereals and bread. Then on top, they were to put cookies and candy and the turkey. But of course those last things would go in in the morning, just before the baskets were taken away.
By the time Mr. Merrill came home, the three baskets were packed, covered up and set in the corner of the dining-room ready for morning.
“Now for the tree!” said Mr. Merrill as he took off his coat ready for work. He set their tree in the dining-room and with Alice’s good help fixed a solid bottom standard and set it up in the living-room right in front of the foolish little fireplace. They wired itfirmly and then Mrs. Merrill brought in the boxes of Christmas trimmings and everybody set to work.
Such fun as it was! Mary Jane kept saying, “Remember this!” And Alice added, “Remember that!” till it seemed as though itcouldn’tbe more than a week since last Christmas when they had put the same things on a tree that looked exactly like the one they were now trimming. This year, seeing Mary Jane was such averyold person, she was allowed to put the gold star on the top of the tree; she climbed the ladder, with father holding one hand and wired it on all by herself; and Alice, as a special privilege, was allowed to hang the crystal icicles on every tip.
Nobody put any tinsel on the tree—that was left for the middle of the night like the story of the old time legend. Whether the spiders and the Christmas fairies, working together, really covered the tree with silver, Mary Jane never stopped to figure out. But at any rate the tree was covered with strings of gold the next morning and Mary Jane thought it the prettiest Christmas tree she had ever seen!
This year, seeing Mary Jane was such averyold person,she was allowed to put the gold star on the top of the treePage 195
This year, seeing Mary Jane was such averyold person,she was allowed to put the gold star on the top of the treePage 195
The very last thing before she went to bed, Mary Jane hung up her stocking. And Alice, looking a bit foolish, hung hers close by.
“I thought you two folks weren’t going to have any Christmas,” said Mr. Merrill teasingly.
“Of course we’re not,” said Mary Jane bravely, “but we want to hang our stockings just the same as if—you know.” And Dadah must have understood for he nodded his head and didn’t tease any more.
Nobody would say how it ever happened. Certainly it was well understood that there were to be no presents. But, anyway, when Mary Jane and Alice looked at those stockings Christmas morning they were fat, as fat could be! Just bulging over with queer shaped parcels!
Mary Jane couldn’t even wait to put her slippers on! She bundled a kimono around her, grabbed up her stocking and ran into her mother’s room to open it. Alice wasn’t farbehind and certainly for girls who were to havenopresents, they fared very well indeed! Santa Claus must have got his signals mixed some way! There were doll things for Marie Georgiannamore, and a ring for Mary Jane; hair ribbons, handkerchiefs, skates for Alice (think of that in a stocking!) and slippers for the little girl who forgot to put on her old pair and, oh, many lovely little things that could be tucked into a stocking.
The girls spread the things out on mother’s bed and had a happy time till suddenly Mr. Merrill exclaimed, “Girls! It’s eight o’clock and I ordered that taxi for nine!”
Then therewasa scramble! Gifts were hustled away, clothes were put on, breakfast was eaten and a few last things packed in the baskets, just as the taxi arrived.
It was fortunate Mr. Merrill had ordered a big car for with three baskets, a bundle containing the doll bed and another the turkey, to say nothing of the tree roped on the side of the car and the box of trimmings on Mrs. Merrill’s lap even a big car was pretty full.
Mary Jane felt like a real Santa Claus for sure!
The family they were going to see didn’t know they were coming, so when the car stopped in front of a shabby little house, three puzzled and very sober faces pressed against the window and looked out. But the sober faces soon changed. In a few minutes the mother was helping Mrs. Merrill put the turkey in to roast, the older girl was helping Mr. Merrill set the Christmas tree in place and Tom and Ellen, the little girl, were helping the Merrill girls trim the tree.
When the Merrills left the house some two hours later the turkey was almost cooked, the tree was trimmed, presents unpacked and happiness and good cheer had settled down in the little house for many a day.
It was a good thing they came away when they did, though, for exactly as they drove up to their own home, they met an express wagon. And in their own vestibule they found the driver. “Family of Merrill here?” he asked them.
“They’re us,” said Mary Jane eagerly. And whereupon the driver carried upstairs the biggest, fattest Christmas box Mary Jane had ever seen.
Of course it was from grandma and in it were so many lovely things from uncles and grandparents and cousins that Mary Jane thought she never would get everything unpacked!
“Well,” said the little girl as some time later the family sat down to their own belated dinner, “I think for not having any presents, we got a lot! And I think I like Christmas in Chicago just as much as anywhere, I do.”