"I Guess I'm lost! I'm lost in school!"
Mary Jane's frightened little whisper sounded like a shout and the doors
and walls and hallways seemed to echo back, "Lost! Little girl lost!" in a
most desolate fashion. Mary Jane was so frightened that she stood
perfectly still--just as still as though her shoes were fastened to the
floor. And she looked straight ahead as though she was trying to see
through the wall at which she was staring. To tell the truth, Mary Jane
wasn't trying to see through the wall. She didn't even know a wall was in
front of her. She couldn't see a single thing, not even a big wall,
because a mist of tears was in her eyes and a great lump was growing in
her throat.
Now Mary Jane wasn't a baby. And she never cried--or any way, she _hardly_
ever cried because she was going on six and girls who are going on six
don't cry. But to be lost in a strange school and in a strange city
and--everything; well, it's not much wonder that Mary Jane felt pretty
queer.
But before the tears had time to fall, there was a heavy footstep behind
her and Mary Jane whirled around to see--the kindly face of Tom the
janitor smiling at her.
"Aren't you pretty late getting to your room?" he asked.
Mary Jane couldn't answer. She was so relieved to have someone around that
for a minute she just couldn't get the lump out of her throat enough to
talk.
Tom must have been used to little girls--maybe he had one of his
own--because he didn't pay any attention to Mary Jane's silence. He took
hold of her hand and said pleasantly, "Now don't you worry a minute. You
just show me which your room is and I'll go with you."
"I'm looking for it too," said Mary Jane, finding her voice again, "but I
don't know where it is."
"Don't know where your room is?" asked Tom in surprise.
"No," replied Mary Jane with a decided shake of her head, "I don't." And
then, for talking was now getting comfortable and easy, she added, "you
see, it isn't really my room. It's Betty's. And I'm just a-visiting her.
I'm just moved to Chicago and they haven't any chair for me only just to
visit in when somebody's absent."
"That sounds like the kindergarten," said Tom.
"It is," agreed Mary Jane with a laugh of relief, "I'm kindergarten, I
am."
"Then here we go, right down this way," said Tom, and off they started in
just the opposite direction.
Before they got clear up to the kindergarten, though, they met Miss
Gilbert, who was coming in search of the little visitor. "Betty missed
her," she explained, "but I thought you'd find her, Tom." With a thank you
to her janitor friend, Mary Jane took tight hold of the teacher's hand and
they went into the kindergarten room together.
After that, the morning went very quickly and happily and Mary Jane could
hardly believe her ears when the big whistles began to blow for twelve
o'clock and Miss Gilbert told them to put away their scissors and cut-out
papers and get ready to go home. Mary Jane had cut out two beautiful
tulips and she was very happy when she was told they might be taken home
as a souvenir of her visit.
On the way home they met Frances and Alice and Ed so they had plenty of
company.
"What you doing Saturday?" asked Ed as they neared their own corner.
"I don't know," replied Alice, "is there anything nice to do--special?"
"Well," answered Frances, "we were afraid you might all be busy--but--well
you see, we were going to have a beach party and we thought maybe you
folks would like to go along. All of you."
Now Alice and Mary hadn't the slightest idea what a beach party was, only
of course they knew it must be something about the lake. But there wasn't
time for questions and talk just then for Frances discovered that they had
walked so slowly that they must rush on home to lunch.
"We'll get mother to tell you," she promised, "and do say you'll come
'cause it's a fire and cooking and marshmallows and piles of fun."
"And we've plenty of wires," added Betty, "and they're plenty long so you
won't burn your fingers."
It sounded amazingly puzzling to Alice and Mary Jane, who couldn't in the
least understand what a fire and wires and all that had to do with a
beach. But they were to find out before so very long. For that same
afternoon, while Alice was still in school, Mrs. Holden and Betty came
over to call on Mrs. Merrill and Mary Jane and then the beach party was
all explained.
"We go over to the lake very often," said Mrs. Holden. "And on the sandy
beach, close by the water, the children build a big fire. Then, when the
coals are good, we toast sandwiches and roast 'weenies' and toast
marshmallows. The children are so anxious to show your girls just how it
is done," she added, "and as the weather promises to be warm and sunny I
think we should have an extra fine time."
So it was settled. And a person would have thought from the excitement and
fun of preparation that the party was to be that same day instead of
twenty-four hours away. For as soon as Alice and the older Holden children
came home from school, they all set to work planning the menu and getting
out baskets and cleaning the wires on which, so the Merrill girls learned,
marshmallows were held over the coals to be toasted.
But when everything that could be done the day before, was finished, there
was still some time for play, so the children went down into the Holden
yard and the boys, Ed and John, showed the girls how to run a track
meet--how to jump and vault and race in proper track style. Alice and Mary
Jane thought the boys wonderfully skilled and the boys, thrilled by such
warm admiration, broke all their previous records and had a beautiful
time.
At four o'clock the next afternoon the two families set out for the beach
party. And it surely was quite a procession that made its way the four or
five blocks to the park. First there was John with the wagon which held
all the heavy things--baskets of food and such. Next came Ed, who started
out walking behind the wagon to see that nothing dropped off. He and John
were to take turns pulling the load. Then the others carried bundles of
kindling and the wires for marshmallows and toasting racks for meat. They
had such a jolly time getting off that everybody felt sure the party was
to be a success.
Mary Jane had been so busy helping get settled and all that, that she
hadn't had time for a real visit on the beach. To be sure she had had
glimpses of the big blue they could see down their own street, but to
really come over and see the lake and play in the sand--this was her first
trip. So she skipped along very happily and thought she could hardly wait
till they got there.
Fortunately they hadn't far to go. Three blocks down and two blocks over
and there was the park--such a beautiful park with tiny lakes and bridges
and great trees whose buds were swelling in the warm afternoon spring
sunshine. Mary Jane thought she must be in fairyland come to life, it was
all so beautiful. They crossed an arched bridge; saw a lovely view off
toward the south where other bridges and lagoons and trees made such a
pretty picture they were tempted to stay and look longer; walked around a
big circle where, so John told them, the band gave concerts in the summer
time; circled a tiny little inlet lake and came out, quite suddenly, right
close to the big lake--Lake Michigan. It almost took Mary Jane's breath
way, coming suddenly that way, upon the sight of so much water. It was all
so blue and clear, she thought, for the minute, that surely it must be the
very same ocean she had seen in Florida only a few weeks before.
But the boys didn't give much time for sight-seeing of lakes--they had
seen the good old lake many a time and they were thinking more about
supper than any view, however pretty.
So they hurried their wagon across the boulevard driveway, and of course
all the folks had to follow close behind, and down the beach walk a couple
of hundred yards and there they settled themselves on a stretch of clean
white sand.
"Now," said big brother Linn, whom the girls hadn't seen much of as yet,
but who seemed to be master of ceremonies, "you boys gather those big logs
down there, you girls fix the kindling and I'll set these stones up so we
get a good draft when we light our fire."
Everybody set to work. The logs proved to be so big and heavy that Ed and
John were very glad to have the help of their father and Mr. Merrill to
roll them into place. The four girls sorted out the kindling in their
basket and added to it by picking up drift wood on the beach. Frances
explained that they always brought some along to be sure they had some
real dry wood for a start.
With such good help and so much of it, of course it wasn't long till a
fine blaze was going and the beach party was actually begun.
"Go ahead and play now," said Linn, when he saw the fire was started and
that there was a big pile of reserve wood close by. "You know we can't
cook till we get some coals."
"But I'm starved," hinted Ed, with a hungry look toward the baskets his
mother and Mrs. Merrill were guarding.
"Then you'll have to stay starved, young man," said his mother, laughing,
"because not a basket is to be opened till the coals are ready for
cooking."
"Then let's make a sand castle," suggested Betty and she ran down to a
smooth place on the beach, away from possible smoke, and began molding the
white sand.
That pleased Mary Jane. She hadn't forgotten the fun she had playing on
the beach in Florida, and while this beach was different--it didn't have
any of the pretty shells or funny little crawdads she had found on the
Florida beach--still it had lovely white sand and dainty little waves and
was quite the nicest place for play that Mary Jane had seen.
"I'll tell you what let's do," suggested Alice, as she saw that all the
children were going to play in the sand, "let's each build a castle and
make it any way we like best and then when they're all finished, have an
exhibition and everybody look and see which is the best."
"All right, let's," agreed the children and they set to work.
Mary Jane chose for her castle a place down close by the water. She loved
the nearness of the waves and the thrill of knowing that maybe, if she
didn't watch out, a wave would come up really close and get her wet. Betty
picked out a spot nearer the fire on the side away from the smoke and
Alice chose a place where a few pretty pebbles would give her material
with which to pave a "moat" she intended to make.
And then everybody set to work. So busy were they that Linn had to tend
the fire all by himself and Ed forgot he was hungry.
Before very long that beach looked like a picture book. Towers and ditches
and castles and bridges were where flat sand had been a few minutes
before. The Holden children had made many a sand house and they knew just
how to pack the damp sand so it would stay in place and just how to put a
small board here and there to hold a second story or a tower straight and
tall.
But with all their experience, Alice's castle was as pretty as theirs, or
at any rate she thought it was, and Mary Jane's was quite wonderful. She
smoothed off the "garden" in front of her palace, stuck in a few sticks
for flowers, made a pebbly path down to the tiny lake she had scooped out
at one side and then shouted, "Mine's done! Look at mine!" and stepped
aside so all could see her handiwork.
[Illustration: And then, sliding in the wet sand, she sat right down in
the lake and sent a wave of ripples right over her castle _Page 61_]
But Mary Jane wasn't used to working so close to the water and she forgot
entirely where she was! Instead of stepping to one side, as she should
have done, she stepped backwards--straight into the big lake! And then,
sliding in the wet sand, she sat right down in the lake and sent a big
wave of ripples--right over her castle and garden and lake and everything
and washed it all away, every bit!