"Well, what are we doing to-day?" asked Mr. Merrill as he finished his breakfast. "This is a fine enough day to be doing something big and important."
"I'm just going to play around," said Mary Jane, "I'd like to do something big if you have it, Daddah," she added, encouragingly. "Could we go on a picnic?"
"No more picnic for you this week, young lady!" answered Mr. Merrill. "I should think you were wet enough last Saturday to last a while!"
"But that wasn't the picnic's fault," explained Mary Jane, in distress, "that just happened, and I want to go on another picnic right away." To tell the truth, she had been a bit worried for fear her accident of the picnic would keep her father and mother from letting her go next time somebody gave a picnic party and she did so hope it wouldn't make any difference.
"I expect you do," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "and I'm certain your wetting didn't hurt you any. Don't you worry, dear, you shall go next time there is any picnic to go to. In fact, you and Alice and I may go on a picnic to-morrow—but it will be a picnic of quite a different kind, I'll assure you."
"Oh, mother! Do tell us what it will be!" exclaimed both girls.
"I was talking with Doris's mother last evening," began Mrs. Merrill, "and she tells me that it's very satisfactory to go to the city to buy hats and shoes. What would you think" (she asked Mr. Merrill) "if the girls and I took the trolley to the city to-morrow and bought our summer outfits?'
"I'd think that was a fine plan," said Mr. Merrill, "and I'd say that perhaps I'd go along if I was asked."
"Oh, would you, Daddah?" cried Alice. "That would be jolly. Then it's all settled—we're going!"
"Talk about deciding in a hurry," teased Mrs. Merrill; "when do we start?"
"I have some business that I've needed to do for a week. Suppose we all take the early limited that leaves at eight? Then we can have a good long day and time for a fine lunch together."
That plan suited Mrs. Merrill and was agreed upon at once. "Only remember," she reminded them, "eight o'clock on the car, means everybody up early."
"I'll set the alarm for six," promised Mr. Merrill.
"And I'll do my two days' practicing today," said Alice.
"And I'll help, mother, truly I will," said Mary Jane.
"We ought to have no trouble getting off then," said Mrs. Merrill, "and I, for one, think we'll have lots of fun."
That evening, every one laid out their clothes ready for morning; lists were made out and then the girls were sent to bed a whole hour earlier than usual so they would feel ready for the day's fun.
It was a good thing everything was planned before hand, for eight o'clock cameveryearly the next morning—or so it seemed; and there was considerable scrambling to get hair ribbons on and gloves buttoned and the house all locked up in time for the car.
Alice had been to the city with her mother several times before; but this was Mary Jane's first trip and she watched out of the car window with great interest and was almost sorry when the car pulled into a big train shed—the interurban station.
"You lady folks shop till one," said father as they parted, "and then we'll meet for lunch."
Mary Jane thought she had never seen such big stores in all her life. Fortunately mother decided to do some of her own and Alice's shopping first and that gave Mary Jane a chance to look around and get used to things. But finally Mrs. Merrill said, "Now it's your turn, Mary Jane. Let's look at spring coats and then at play suits."
They got into the elevator again (and Mary Jane's heart took a funny "flip-flop" every time it started or stopped) and went to a floor where everything was for little girls. There seemed to be enough suits and dresses for all the little girls in the world and Mary Jane was certain sure that she couldnevertell which she liked best. But mother and Alice helped her and before very long they had bought a pretty little gray coat and one pink afternoon dress and two pink and two blue rompers for playtimes.
"There, now," said Mrs. Merrill as she looked at her watch, "that's all we can do before lunch. It's time to meet father this very minute." So they got into the elevator again and went to the top floor.
"This is the funniest store," Mary Jane told her father, who was waiting for them as they stepped off the car; "they sell dresses and coats and things to eat and everything right off of one elevator!"
"Think of that!" exclaimed her father as he piloted them to a table. "Well,I believe I like the things to eat best—at least right now."
"What are you going to have?" he asked Mary Jane as they sat down and made themselves comfortable.
"May I have anything I want?" she asked, "anything?"
"Anything at all," her father assured her.
"Then I know what I want," said she promptly, "I want chicken broth and mashed potatoes and pink ice cream."
"That's what you're going to have," Mr. Merrill told the waiter. "I wish Alice could make up her mind as quickly," he added teasingly, for Alice was reading the whole menu from cover to cover before she made up her mind what to order.
Mary Jane had her chicken broth while the others were deciding and then she had a bit of mother's good fish to eat with the mashed potatoes which came later. And of course the pink ice cream, a big dish of it, all for herself.
"Now," said Mr. Merrill, when they were all through, "I'm going to buy Mary Jane a pair of white shoes and a pink parasol while you two finish what you have on your list and then maybe we'll have time to ride out to the park before we start for home."
"Oh!" cried Mary Jane, but that was all she could think of to say. Dresses and a coat and lunch and a ride and shoes and a parasol—all in one day! And it wasn't a birthday either, just a regular, every day sort of a day!
"Don't worry," laughed her father for he guessed what she was thinking, "this is just once a year! Come on, now, and we'll get the shoes."
They went back to the children's floor and bought the shoes and the prettiest pink parasol Mary Jane had ever seen and then, just as they were ready to go and meet mother and Alice, a friend of father's passed by.
"Well, Tom!" cried Mr. Merrill, and he jumped up to speak to him. Mary Jane couldn't hear all they said but from what she did hear, she guessed that the man lived a long way off and that he was buying clothes to take home to his little girl. "Sit right there, Mary Jane," Mr. Merrill called to her as he walked off in the direction of the elevator, "and I'll be back in five minutes."
Mary Jane looked around and up and down. She saw the wrapper girl high up in her box between the counters. She saw the busy clerks and floorman come and go. She saw the many shoppers—grown folks and children that passed by her seat. And the more folks she saw, the lonesomer she became; sitting there all by herself among so many folks.
"I don't think it's nice for a little girl to sit here in a big seat," she decided, "I think I'll sit somewhere that I won'tshowso much." And she looked around for a quiet corner. Between the big cases that formed the counters she spied just the place she wanted. A shelf down close enough to the floor for her to sit on and quite out of the way of the busy crowd.
"That's where I'll wait," she said softly, "then I won't show while I'm waiting for father." And she slipped back of the big cases while no one was looking and sat down on the shelf. But the minute she got away from the confusing noises and sights, she felt very sleepy, so sleepy that she could hardly keep awake; so very sleepy, so very—
Father's five minutes lengthened out to ten and then his friend stepped into the elevator and Mr. Merrill hurried back to his little girl.
"You must excuse me, dear," he said as he approached where he had left her, "but I hadn't seen Tom in ten years and—" But there was no little girl there!
Mr. Merrill called the floorman and asked about her. "I left her only ten minutes ago," he said as he looked at his watch, "and she wouldn't run off—IknowMary Jane wouldn't run off. She must be here."
"We'll find her," said the floorman, easily, "she must be in some other aisle."
They hunted up and down and up and down the aisles and they looked at many little girls—the store was full of them. But not a sign of Mary Jane did they see. Finally it came time to meet Mrs. Merrill and Alice so Mr. Merrill, knowing that they would be uneasy if he was late, hurried down to meet them and all three came back to resume the search that by now was getting pretty anxious.
"There's no need of your hunting on any other floor," said Mrs. Merrill as the floorman suggested that maybe Mary Jane had gone to hunt her father and had lost her way. "I know my little girl and she's not far from where her father left her. Show me where she was sitting when you left and I'll find her—I'm sure."
Mr. Merrill led her to the very seat where he had left Mary Jane and then, to the surprise of all the clerks and curious shoppers who had become interested in the search, Mrs. Merrill didn't rush around and hunt as the others had. Instead, she sat down in the seat as though she had all afternoon and not a worry in the world. And then, sitting down as Mary Jane had been, she began to look around. And the very first thing she saw was the shelf, way back out of the way; and on the shelf, huddled down in a sleepy heap, her own little girl!
How the people did stare as she jumped up quickly and hurried over to the between aisle where no one had thought of looking. And how every one did smile as she reached down and picked up Mary Jane—Mary Jane all sound asleep!
The little girl opened her eyes and slipped her arm around her mother's neck and then, as she noticed so many folks looking at her, she hid her sleepy eyes in her mother's shoulder.
"Don't you be afraid, little girl," said the floorman, in great relief, "we like little girls who know enough not to get lost. It was better to stay right there and go to sleep than to run around and hunt your father. You and your sister take this slip," and he wrote hastily on a scrap of paper, "and go upstairs to the lunch room. Maybe a dish of ice cream will help you to wake up."
So that was how it happened that Mary Jane had a trip and an adventure and some new clothes andtwodishes of pink ice cream all in one day.
Bright and early the next Monday morning Mary Jane went over to Doris's house to ask if she could come and play. Fortunately the chicken pox was all over and Doris was well and was allowed to play again. Mary Jane had had so many things to do during the time that Doris had been sick and she was anxious to tell about them. And she was oh, so very glad to have her little friend to play with again.
"Come on over to my house," she urged Doris, "I can play all morning."
"Are you sure Doris won't be in your mother's way?" asked Doris' mother.
"Monday morning is a busy time, I know."
"It isn't at our house," said Mary Jane positively, "becausethisday isn't wash day to-day—it's just getting ready for my sister Alice's party this afternoon and mother said we wouldn't bother if we played in the nursery, so please do let her come."
"Very well," laughed Doris's mother, "if you're as sure as all that I guess I'll let her go, but I should think getting ready for a party would bealmostas much work as wash day! What are you going to play?"
"Paper dolls," said Mary Jane. "I have two, five new sheets and two scissors that don't prick that my Aunt Effie sent to me and she said that Doris could play with them too."
"That's fine," said Doris's mother much relieved. "I should think you little girls would have a very happy time because you haven't seen each other for so long. Run along now, Doris, and be sure to come home when the big whistle blows for noon."
The two little girls skipped gayly across the yard, through the gap in the hedge between the houses and onto Mary Jane's porch.
"Let's play here," suggested Doris.
"We can't," said Mary Jane, "'cause mother says if we play out doors she don't know where we are so we must play in the nursery with all the windows open and have a good time and not bother. So let's do that.
"And anyway," she added as they climbed up the stairs, "out doors is bad for paper dolls so I'm not sorry."
They got out the five new sheets of paper dolls and the scissors and set to work cutting. Now everybody who has ever played cutout-paper dolls knows that the cutting out is the most fun. As long as there was a doll or a hat or a parasol uncut those two little girls had a beautiful time. They figured out which hats belonged to which dresses and they counted the children on the five pages so they could be divided equally. But as soon as the cutting was done, the fun was over and the girls didn't know what to do with themselves.
"I'll tell you what let's do," suggested Mary Jane suddenly, "some of these dolls have dress-up clothes like a show. Let's make a show in a box like Alice does."
What Mary Jane meant was this. Some of Alice's friends liked to plan rooms, and furnish them. And to do that they took a neat pasteboard box and stood it on its side; then they lined it with crepe paper for wall paper. Then they made furniture to match the color scheme (they were very particular about color schemes, Mary Jane remembered that) and they dressed dolls in crepe paper to match and put them in the furnished room. And, Mary Jane thought this part was the best of all, when they were tired of one room, they gave it to Mary Jane and made a new one for themselves.
It happened that only the week before, Alice and her best friend Frances had made a beautiful little room, in a box of course, all done in green and pale yellow. Later they had planned one in rose and had told Mary Jane she might have the green and yellow one. It was this box Mary Jane meant to use for the show.
"You just wait till you see," she said to Doris, "you wait till—" and she dived into her closet, climbed up on the play box inside the door and reached up to the shelf where she had put the box the girls had given her.
"What is it? Where'd you get it?" demanded Doris as the treasure was pulled out.
"It's mine!" said Mary Jane proudly, "and we'll give a paper doll show likeAlice does—you just see!"
Doris had no older brother or sister to give her ideas so she had to wait till Mary Jane explained her plan.
"First, we'll fix this up some way, they always do," began Mary Jane.
"But it's pretty now," objected Doris.
"Oh, yes, but we have tofixit," said Mary Jane scornfully, "they always do, they never use a box just as it is—never! Now what could we do, what could go on top of a house? A roof, but what could we make a roof of? Or, oh, I think we'll put on some clouds maybe, clouds ought to be easy, would you like clouds, Doris?"
"On the top?"
"Yes, on top of the house where clouds belong."
"All right," said the obliging Doris, "I don't care which you make. But where do we get clouds?"
"Let's ask 'Manda," said Mary Jane, "she's here to help make the party. She likes me, maybe she knows where we can get some clouds." The two little girls hurried down the back stairs to the kitchen, but Amanda wasn't there. They were just about to go sorrowfully back to the nursery when Mary Jane noticed something white on the table.
"Why, here are some clouds all ready for us!" she exclaimed. "I guess 'Manda must have known we were coming! You take all you can carry, Doris, and I'll take the rest."
Doris plunged her hand bravely into the mass of beaten white of egg that filled the great platter and Mary Jane tumbled all that was left into her apron and they gleefully hurried back upstairs.
"There, now," said Mary Jane, "we'll make clouds all over our house and then we'll have the show." But that show never was held.
For just as they left the kitchen, Amanda came back into it to finish the cake she was making for the party and found that her eggs, the beautiful whites that she had beaten with such pains, were gone!
"It sooly do seem queer, Mis' Merrill," she said to her mistress, "them eggs was right here and then they wasn't here and eggs can't walk, kin they—leastwise not when they's beat up?"
"No, eggs can't walk but little girls can," said Mrs. Merrill for she suddenly recalled hearing mysterious sounds and giggles on the back stairs a moment or two before. "I think I know where your eggs are butwhythey are gone, I can't imagine!" And she hurried up to the nursery. And there, sure enough, were the eggs!
"What in the world are you girls doing with those eggs?" she demanded.
"Those aren't eggs," said Mary Jane scornfully, "those are clouds and this is going to be a paper doll show."
"I don't know about a paper doll show, daughter," said Mrs. Merrill seriously, "but I do know that those are the eggs which were to have gone into the cake for Alice's party."
"Oh, mother, not really?" exclaimed Mary Jane, and the tears came into her big eyes. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to spoil the party, truly I didn't, mother! We just wanted some clouds—anyway I did," she added honestly, "and we went down to 'Manda and she wasn't there but the clouds were so we took them. That's all.Willit spoil the party?"
"I don't know what to think," said Mrs. Merrill, as she sat down between the two little girls to think and plan. "Alice wanted that especial kind of cake for her party but eggs cost so much these days—there were eight whites on that platter, Mary Jane; I don't believe I can afford eight more, really I don't."
"Oh, I can, Ican, mother dear!" cried Mary Jane and quick as a flash she ran to her little white dresser. "I can afford it with this and I want to!" She pulled out her precious letter with a dollar bill tucked in its folds—the dollar bill that her great-grandmother had sent her and with which she was to buy something very special for herself—and handed it to her mother. "Please, mother, let her have it with this!"
"Do you realize that this is your very own dollar that you are giving me?" asked Mrs. Merrill, and Doris eyed Mary Jane's wealth with surprised eyes.
"Yes, mother, I know it is mine, mine that I was saving for a big doll, but I don't want to spoil Alice's party, truly I don't! Please let me go buy some more eggs for her cake!"
"I believe you really want to," said Mrs. Merrill, as she slipped her arm around the eager little girl, "and I believe it's the best thing to do. You didn't realize that you were taking something that you had no right to when you took those 'clouds' for the doll house, did you, Mary Jane?"
"'Deed I didn't, mother, and please may we get the eggs now?"
Mrs. Merrill looked at her watch. "There will be just time if you go right away, dear," she said; "come the back way and I'll give you a basket to carry them in so none will be broken. And get eight, that's all you took—I'll buy the yellows from you so you will still have a good deal left from your dollar."
The two little girls skipped down to the grocery in a hurry but they didn't hurry home—no, sir! They walked slowly and carefully so that not an egg was even cracked.
And by the time they got home and gave Amanda the eggs and saw them all opened and divided, the whites on a platter and the yellows in a bowl, the big whistles blew for noon and Doris had to go home.
Mary Jane went with her as far as the gate and then waited under the little mulberry tree till her father came home for his lunch.
"Well, this is fine," said Mr. Merrill as he tossed her up onto his shoulder. "I like to see my little girl waiting for me. And what have you learned this morning, pussy?"
"I learned that eggs aren't clouds and that they cost money," said MaryJane, "and I didn't spoil the party!"
"Pretty good for one morning, say I," laughed father, and he carried her on into the house.
The evening after Alice's party, Mr. and Mrs. Merrill held a long conference and as a result a surprise awaited Mary Jane when she came to the breakfast table the next morning.
"Do you know of anybody who has a birthday next week?" asked Mr. Merrill as he kissed her good morning.
"I do, and I'm five years old," replied Mary Jane, "and that's pretty old!"
"Goodness! I should say it was!" exclaimed Mr. Merrill. "It's so old I can hardly imagine it. And I think, Mrs. Merrill, something ought to be done about it." As he looked solemnly across the table at his wife, his eyes twinkled merrily and Mary Jane knew by their look that something nice was coming.
"I'm sure I don't know anything to do about it," began Mrs. Merrill (and Mary Jane noticed that her eyes twinkled too) "unless, perhaps, we might have a party?"
"A party?" exclaimed Mary Jane, "a PARTY? A really for sure enough party all just for me?"
"That is, of course, if you want one," added mother doubtfully.
"Oh, mother," cried Mary Jane and slipping down from her chair she gave first her mother and then her father a big "bear" hug, "ofcourseI want one! May I have it on my birthday?"
"To be sure," laughed Mrs. Merrill. "When else would a body have a birthday party? Now you eat all your oatmeal like a good little girl and then you help all you know how with the morning work and then we'll go down town and buy some pretty invitations and favors."
Never did oatmeal vanish as quickly as did Mary Jane's bowlful on that morning! And never did a little girl help so well with beds and bathroom—really Mrs. Merrill hadn't guessed that a nearly-five-year-old could do so much. So it wasn't quite ten o'clock yet when they made ready to go down town.
"I'll be down in just a minute, dear," said Mrs. Merrill when Mary Jane was all ready. "You run along and wait for me at the front porch."
Mary Jane walked down the stairs very slowly, and out onto the porch, and out onto the steps, but still mother hadn't come. So, as she didn't want to sit down and muss up her dress, she decided to walk once around the house rather than wait on the porch. She walked past the hydrangea bed, past the blooming bridal wreath and as far as the rose bed. And there she stopped in amazement. For right there on the first bush, where it might easily have been seen these many days by ice man, grocery man or any one who passed, hung mother's handsome butterfly pin! Mary Jane was so surprised she didn't even touch the pin, she stood there and screamed.
Mrs. Merrill looked out of the window overhead and asked what the matter was.
"Come quick!" called Mary Jane. "Do come quick!"
Mrs. Merrill, too frightened to ask questions, hurried down the stairs and out into the yard and—well, she was as much surprised as Mary Jane was when she saw her pin hanging there on the bush. She grabbed it quickly as though she was afraid it would vanish before her eyes and then she threw her arms around Mary Jane.
"You dear child!" she exclaimed in a shaky voice. "I never thought of looking there! The pin must have still been on the dresser cover when I shook it out of the window and I was in such a hurry I didn't notice. I'm glad you have such bright eyes. Now you wait one minute more and I'll put this safely away and then we'll go down town."
Such fun as they did have down town! They bought pretty little invitations with a picture of a little girl with a pink parasol in one corner; they bought cracker bonbons with pink frills outside and folded up paper baskets inside and they bought gorgeous big paper hats in all the gay colors.
And then, when they got home, they wrote invitations to five little boys and to four little girls, Mary Jane was the fifth little girl, you see. And then they began making things for the party. Alice made a game to be played with paper balls; father drew a big teddy bear on a sheet and mother made a big black nose for him, a nose that little folks, with their eyes blindfolded, were to try to pin on in the right place. And Amanda planned cookies and cake and candy. Never was there such a party for it was Mary Jane's first, you see.
At last the birthday came (Mary Jane had begun to fear it never would for the days seemed three weeks long, every one) and the house was set in order and the time came to dress. Mary Jane was to wear her brand new dress with the pink sash, a new one that her grandmother had sent on purpose for the party; and her new white shoes that father had given her and her new silk stockings that her great-grandmother had sent. She felt very old, and grand, and grown-up when she walked dignifiedly down the stairs and into the living room. She had looked in the glass most carefully and the glass had told her that she looked just as nice as any little girl could and quite grown-up too.
She stood just inside the living room door and her heart beat quickly when Amanda went to answer the first ring at the front door—just think the wonderful party was beginning!
Junior came first, naturally, because he lived nearest and Mary Jane noticed that his pocket bulged in a most curious fashion.
"Of course you didn't have to bring me a present," she said calmly, "but if you did, why don't you give it to me right away now, so it don't muss up your pocket?"
Junior, who had been puzzling all the way across the street about how he was to give Mary Jane that present, was greatly relieved to have the matter so easily settled. He pulled out the be-ribboned package and eyed it carefully while Mary Jane undid it and exclaimed over the beautiful new party coat for Marie Georgiannamore. Mary Jane scampered back upstairs to get the forgotten doll and the two children, and the others who began dropping in were so busy dressing the dolls that they quite forgot "company" manners and had a good time from the start.
[Illustration: There's no need to tell of all the good times at that party.]
There's no need to tell of all the good times at that party; of all the games and the fun; the scramble into the ten chairs at the candle lighted table in the dining room; of the sandwiches which disappeared so quickly; the ice cream in the shape of circus men; the big white cake with its five pink candles and one white one in the middle to grow on—you know all about that yourself because you've been to parties and know what fun they are.
When all the goodies were eaten up; when not a child could have eaten another bite had the table been full again, Mrs. Merrill passed around the paper bag favors and each guest put the candy he couldn't eat and the nuts and the paper caps and the flower favors and a piece of the birthday cake into his or her bag and then each bag was laid carefully by each little guest's hat and coat ready to take home. And then the five little girls and the five little boys slipped down from their chairs and ran out of doors for a final romp.
It was a tired little girl that Mrs. Merrill tucked into bed that night—but a very happy one. "I do think parties is the nicest things," she said with a satisfied sigh; "they's the nicest things I know!"
Mrs. Merrill smiled and kissed Mary Jane good night. Mary Jane had had quite enough excitement for one day so she said not a word about another surprise that she knew was coming—a surprise thatmightprove to be even more fun than a party!
Mary Jane slept late on the morning after the party. By the time she was awake enough to realize that another day had come, she discovered that she was alone upstairs. She ran to the top of the stairs and looked over the railing. No one was in the hall and sounds from the dining room told her that the family was at breakfast.
"I'll just surprise them," she said to herself, "and show them how much a big girl like me can do." She ran back into her room and put on her slippers and her kimono; she went into the bathroom and washed her hands and face and brushed her teeth and then she slipped soundlessly down the stairs. At the door of the dining room she stopped to get a good breath with which to say "Boo-o-o-o!" and as she took her breath she heard her father say, "Well, if you really think it's all right for her to go—five years old seems pretty young to me for such a trip."
"Of course it would be if she went alone—I wouldn't even think of that!" answered Mrs. Merrill's voice, "but with Dr. Smith to look after her and Alice coming as soon as school is out—I believe it will do the child good."
"So do I," exclaimed Mary Jane, darting into the room, the "booo" quite forgotten.
"Now, you'll have to tell her," laughed father, "and of course she won't want to go.
"Of course I will," laughed Mary Jane gayly. "Where am I going, mother?"
"Do you think you are old enough to go visit your great-grandmother Hodges all by yourself?" asked mother.
"With my own trunk and my own ticket, and my own pocket book and my own conductor?" demanded Mary Jane, who could hardly believe what she heard.
"With your own trunk and pocket book," said Mrs. Merrill, "but I don't know about the ticket and the conductor because Dr. Smith is coming again and he will take you back with him if we will let you go and trust him to look after you on the journey. Do you think you'd like to go?"
"I don't think it, I know it!" cried Mary Jane, and she danced around the table with her kimono flying out behind her. "Can I go to-day?"
"Hardly!" laughed Mrs. Merrill. "We have to buy you some strong shoes for the country and make you some rompers to play with the chickens in and pack your trunk and, oh, a lot of things before you can go."
"Well, a lot of things won't take very long because I'll help," said Mary Jane eagerly, "see? I'll climb right up and eat my oatmeal without you telling me to—that's how I'll help."
Mr. and Mrs. Merrill both laughed and Mr. Merrill, as he rose from the table, said, "If you will eat your breakfast, just as you know you should, every morning while you are gone, I really think I'll let you go." (For, you see, Mary Jane hadn't ever liked her oatmeal.) And when Mary Jane promised solemnly that she would, he said it was all settled.
Such fun as there was after that! Alice and Mrs. Merrill sat at the table long after father left for work and they planned out just how many weeks it was till Alice could go to the country too, and how many weeks there were after that till Mr. and Mrs. Merrill could come for his vacation and how many rompers Mary Jane ought to have and how many pairs of shoes and rubbers and how big a sun hat Mary Jane needed. And then, after Alice had gone to school, Mary Jane helped her mother with the morning work so they got off very early for down town and the shopping.
And that evening, when father got home, he carried the steamer trunk down from the attic and Mary Jane began packing.
By noon of the next day, she had the trunk so full of dolls and doll clothes and teddy bears and books that it couldn't possibly shut and she hadn't put in it one single thing to wear—not a single thing!
"You seem to think that there isn't going to be anything to play with in the country," said Mr. Merrill when Mary Jane showed him her morning's work. "Must you take all your city things? I should think you would leave those here and play with grandmother's things while you are at her house."
"Will she have anything for a little girl?" asked Mary Jane in surprise.
"If she hasn't, you come right back home," laughed father, "but I don't worry about that. I think she has more than you'll need."
So after lunch Mary Jane took all the playthings and the dolls out of the trunk and put them neatly into the closet and that was much better for then there was plenty of room in the trunk for clothes and for two mysterious packages which Mary Jane saw her mother put in the very bottom. And it was a good thing that she put everything away so nicely for at three o'clock Dr. Smith telephoned that he was unexpectedly called home and could Mary Jane go home with him that very night?
Mr. Merrill was phoned to and he said he would tend to the ticket and the trunk check. Mrs. Merrill packed the trunk and Alice, who happened home from school in just the nick of time, bathed and dressed Mary Jane for the train. So that by the time Dr. Smith came out to dine with them the trunk was packed and gone, the little traveler was dressed and everything about the house was back in apple pie order.
Mary Jane was so excited she could hardly eat a bit of dinner but Dr. Smith said it wouldn't matter so much because she could have some good fresh eggs and two glasses of milk and some of Grandmother Hodges' corn bread for breakfast.
It's pretty exciting to go off on the train at night and leave your father and mother and sister. Mary Jane found that out; and she got a queer lump in her throat on the way to the station. A lump that for some reason or other grew bigger and bigger when father held her snugly as he lifted her out of the car and that nearly made her cry when mother held tight onto her hand as they went through the station.
But fortunately the train came in just then and with the seeing that the trunk was really put on and kissing folks good-by and sending a message to Doris and meeting the big jolly conductor and giving her hand bag to the porter and laughing at Dr. Smith's funny jokes and all that—the lump didn't get as troublesome as Mary Jane had feared it would. She got into her section in time to wave good-by to the three on the platform as the train pulled out and then, before she had a chance to feel lonesome, Dr. Smith said, "Did you ever see them work a bed on a train?"
"Work a bed?" asked Mary Jane. "What's that?"
"Make up a bed, I mean," laughed Dr. Smith. "Did you ever see how the bed works when it is made up? Here, Sambo," and the doctor held his hand high and motioned to the porter, "this little girl wants to know how she's going to sleep, she doesn't see any bed."
"She'll see in a minute, sir, jest a littl' minute," said the good natured porter and he slipped off his blue coat; put on a white one; took down part of the ceiling and, right before Mary Jane's astonished eyes, made up a bed. Mary Jane thought it was most amazing. She watched every move he made and decided that when she grew up she was going to be a bed maker on a train because it was so much more fun than making beds at home.
When the bed was all ready, Dr. Smith helped her take off her shoes and tuck them into a little hammock that hung over the window; then he unbuttoned her dress and helped her climb into her berth bed. Mary Jane took off her dress, hung it on the rack just as her mother had told her to do and settled herself comfy for the night. But suddenly she remembered that she hadn't told the kind Dr. Smith "good night." She fumbled with the curtains till she got a crack open and through that she stuck her curly head.
"Good night, Dr. Smith," she said when she spied him sitting close by, across the aisle, "I'm glad I'm going with you and I like sleeping on a train and I'mveryglad that you live next door to my dear great-grandmother."
"I'm glad too," replied the doctor. "Now you go straight to sleep, little lady, so you will have roses in your cheeks when you get to grandmother's in the morning."
And if you want to know of all the fun and good times that Mary Jane had with the pigs and horses and chickens and strawberries she found at her great-grandmother's house, you'll have to read—
End of Project Gutenberg's Mary Jane: Her Book, by Clara Ingram Judson