Merrill, “and I must ask your pardon for the fright we seem to have
caused you. But I do beg of you to let us borrow your daughter for
about five minutes more--we have such need of her.”
Mrs. Merrill looked around the yard and saw what she had been too
excited before to notice. In the front of the yard, close by the hedge,
was a moving picture camera, and by it two men working under the
director who was speaking to her.
“Let me explain,” continued the man. “We are making a picture
supposably taken in Spain--not a hard thing to imagine with all these
Spanish houses and gardens around here,--and this lady is supposed to
be a queen. But at the last minute, just as we were ready to run the
picture through, the lady” (and he pointed to the courtly dressed woman
by the steps) “wanted some ladies or children-in-waiting to carry her
train. We have the robes but not the people here and I have to get the
picture done to-day. That explains why, when I looked out of the garden
and saw your daughter I ventured to borrow her a minute. If we may use
her long enough to throw a robe over her and get the picture of the
queen so attended walking down the walk, I’ll be very glad.”
Mrs. Merrill was just about to refuse for she had no desire to have
Mary Jane in a movie, when Alice nudged her and whispered, “Mother!
Couldn’t I be in it too?”
The director noticed the whisper and guessed what she was saying.
“We’d like to have this little girl too,” he said; “we have plenty of
clothes for two and I’m sure if one train bearer is good, two will be
better--isn’t that so, Miss Arlson?”
The pretty lady in the queen’s robe nodded and smiled and said she must
have two maids, so the director hurried away to get the costumes. In a
jiffy he was back and with two or three deft touches he tossed a robe
over each girl, covered Mary Jane’s bobbed hair and Alice’s braids with
lace head-dresses and showed them where to stand behind the queen.
Then with a hurried “click, click, click, click, click, click!” the
picture was taken and every one began to move about and talk. The girls
almost hated to give up their pretty costumes and Mary Jane remarked as
the director took hers off, “Those would make awfully nice ‘dress-up
clothes’ I think!”
“Do you like to play dress-up?” asked the man.
“’Deed we do!” exclaimed Mary Jane heartily; “we like it most the best
of anything!”
“Then you take these head-dresses you wore and keep them with my
compliments,” he said, and that is how it happened that two fine and
interesting bits of Spanish lace were taken home from the southern
trip.
“Mother!” exclaimed Alice when they were out on the street again, “did
you ever hear of such fun? And to think it happened to _us_!”
“Being in a movie!” cried Mary Jane, “and riding a pony and swimming in
a house--why just everything’s happening to us! If Dadah doesn’t come
with us pretty soon there won’t be anything left in the world to do.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” laughed Mrs. Merrill; “I know two or
three things left in the world to do. And it wouldn’t surprise me a
bit if you’d do them some day. But the thing we’re doing right now, is
seeing the oldest house in the United States. Alice, will you pound the
knocker?”
They stopped short and there, sure enough, they had come to the queer,
old house they had set out to see. Alice stepped up on the doorsill
and awesomely pounded at the brass knocker. A pleasant faced old lady
opened the door and peered out at them.
“Why, don’t I know you?” she asked as she spied Mrs. Merrill.
“I hoped you’d remember,” replied Mrs. Merrill, “though I don’t see how
you do when you see so many folks every year. And I hoped you’d let my
girls and me eat lunch by the old well as I did years ago.”
“Indeed I will that,” said the old lady cordially, “and they may pick
flowers in my garden, too, though that’s something very few folks are
allowed to do. But first they want to see the house.”
She took them all over the house, up stairs and down, and such a lot
of quaint, queer old things the girls had never seen. Candle sticks
hundreds of years old, cradles, dishes, andirons, pitchers, dresses,
chairs, sewing baskets, spinning wheels, looms, knitting racks, tables,
rugs--everything that one could think of as interesting and old seemed
to be crowded into that one small house. Mary Jane looked and looked
and looked till everything she saw seemed a confusion of queer old
things.
“I think I’d better stop looking, Mother,” she said finally, “’cause
the looks get all mixed up in my head.”
“You’re right, Mary Jane,” said Mrs. Merrill sympathetically, “I’m
getting tired looking myself. Let’s go out into the garden and eat our
luncheon.”
Nobody, looking at the outside of the house, would have even guessed
of the lovely garden behind the wall. There was an old well with its
windlass and sweep, several gnarled old trees and shrubs and bushes and
flowers in every corner. The little old lady was persuaded to come out
into the sunshine and share the luncheon with them and she told them,
while they ate, tales of the many famous folks who had visited this
very same garden and picnicked by this very same well.
Then, after they had finished eating, she showed Mary Jane how folks,
years ago, used to draw water from that same old well.
“I think it’s lots more fun to get water out of a well this way than to
turn on a faucet,” said Mary Jane as she tried the windlass herself and
drew up a brimming bucket.
“But what would you think,” asked Mrs. Merrill, “of getting up early in
the morning and coming out to draw the water for your bath?”
“Well,” said Mary Jane doubtfully, “I’d think that would be different.”
“I guess it would be,” laughed Alice, “I know I’d think so!”
“Now I must get back to my work,” said the little lady. “But make
yourselves at home here. And remember, the girls may pick flowers if
they wish.” And she went back into the house.
Alice was happy at the chance to pick a few flowers as she had wanted
to make a collection of pressed flowers that would include every
variety they saw on their trip. And in this one garden she found a
sample of every single sort she had seen thus far and two or three new
kinds besides. She took pictures of the garden and of Mary Jane at the
well and then it was time to go.
As they walked back under the palm trees to the hotel Mary Jane said,
“I think I’d like to live in this place all winter.”
“I’d like that myself,” said Mrs. Merrill, “but we can’t. To-morrow
morning, bright and early, we’ll be going on. And if you ask me, I’ll
tell you that there’s even more fun at the next place we go to--think
of that!”
A DAY ON THE BEACH
It was with great reluctance that Alice and Mary Jane accompanied their
mother into the bus that was to drive them to the station the next
morning. They had had so much fun in the three full days they had spent
at dear old St. Augustine that it simply didn’t seem possible there
_could_ be as good a time waiting any place else. It was a comfort
though, to know that they might stop a day or two more at the old
Spanish city on their way home. Mrs. Merrill was trying to plan it that
way in the hope that Mr. Merrill could meet them there and have some of
the fun with them. And that was the reason why they had saved the old
fort till the next visit; Mrs. Merrill felt sure that Mr. Merrill could
show the girls the wonders and traditions of the old place better than
she could.
As the train sped southward through forests and fields Mary Jane forgot
all about being sorry to leave St. Augustine and began to make plans
for the new visit.
“What’s the name of the place we’re going to next, Mother,” she asked
as they settled themselves cosily on the big observation platform, “and
what we going to do when we get there?”
“We’re going to Daytona now, dear,” replied Mrs. Merrill, “and if this
fine weather keeps up you’ll have a chance to swim in the really truly
ocean to-morrow.”
“Couldn’t we do it to-day?” asked Alice who loved swimming.
“Not very well,” answered her mother. “You see, Daytona isn’t on the
ocean. It’s on a river that runs in from the ocean--I call it a river
though it really is more of a long, slim bay. The beach where you’ll go
swimming is a long way from the hotel where we will stop and to-day I
think we’d better get a bit acquainted with Daytona. You’ll like it I
know.”
And Mary Jane did like it very much. She liked it from the first minute
she stepped from the train into the bus that was waiting to take them
to the small hotel where rooms were reserved for them. She loved the
broad, modern streets--so different from the narrow foreign looking
ones that had charmed them at St. Augustine, she loved the many, many
beautiful flower beds and the great trees that made the streets look
like huge caves of green.
The bus was a bit crowded so the girls sat up on the driver’s seat
which they thought was a real lark. This driver was a nice northern boy
of eighteen who by some chance had obtained the job of driving the bus
for the winter. He told the girls that he had two sisters at home just
their ages and that he wished they would ride on the bus with him that
afternoon because he got so homesick for his sisters.
After they had their luncheon Alice asked her mother if they could
ride. She explained all about what the boy had told them, of
course, and said that he had promised they could see the whole of
Daytona--every bit--if they went with him that afternoon, because his
errands were so scattered. Mrs. Merrill talked with friends who had
been some days at the hotel and all spoke so well of the driver that
Mrs. Merrill gave her consent. And a very proud and gay pair of little
girls perched up on the front seat and drove away about two o’clock.
“Be very careful, girlies,” said Mrs. Merrill, as the engine began to
hum; “you know I’ll be right here if you want anything. And Mary Jane,
you must do what Alice says for she’s always so good to you. Have a
fine time!”
Tom surely did take them all over the town. They went down south first,
out into the edge of the country, where they got a man who was to take
a two-thirty train. Then they went north to take some folks who came
on the same train that took the man away. Then they went east across
one of the long bridges and then north and home over another one. Mary
Jane liked those bridges. They were so nice and low and long. But that
wasn’t all. They were toll bridges and each time an auto went across
the driver had to stop at the toll office and pay for the privilege of
driving across. Mary Jane had never heard of such a thing before and
she thought it awfully funny to pay to ride across a bridge.
By half past four, when Tom brought the girls back, they were old
friends; they’d told him all about their trip so far and about their
plans for swimming to-morrow. And they really felt very well acquainted
with Daytona they had ridden around so much of it.
Bright and early the next morning the Merrills three were up and
making ready for the trip to the beach. Mrs. Merrill planned to get
their luncheon at the Casino by the bathing beach so there was little
to attend to after breakfast. Bathing suits were tucked into a rubber
bag and then, as soon as the postman had come with the morning mail,
they set out for the beach. The girls were sure they could walk to the
beach; it was only about two miles and they wanted to show their mother
some of the sights they had seen the day before. And really, with
seeing the great palm trees along the river and looking in the shop
windows along Main Street and counting the planks on the bridge--Mary
Jane was determined to count every board--the walk seemed no distance
at all.
It was just about eleven when they reached the bath house and the crowd
was already assembling. Such a jolly crowd it was too, very happy, and
gay, and full of fun. There were no high waves that day; just nice low
ones, actually made for girls who were not used to the big ocean, and
Mary Jane and Alice could hardly wait till they got into the water. It
wasn’t cold at all--of course it wouldn’t be in that fine, warm sun,
and they could safely wade and swim and play on the sand for an hour or
more.
After the girls and Mrs. Merrill had been in the water till they were a
bit tired, they sat down on the beach, near the water’s edge, to rest
awhile. Suddenly Mary Jane screamed. “Ugh! Mother! Look! See that funny
bug!”
“Pooh!” exclaimed Alice laughingly, “it isn’t a bug! It’s a crawdad!”
“But look,” cried Mary Jane; “he’s gone!”
To be sure! Even as Mary Jane was watching him, the queer little
crawdad had quickly dug himself a hole in the ground and hidden down
in it.
[Illustration: “They went in wading after crawdads” _Page 114_]
“It’s like magic!” cried Mary Jane; “look! There goes another one!”
“Mary Jane, I’ll tell you what let’s us do!” exclaimed Alice, “let’s
find crawdads on the beach and then watch ’em dig in.”
“What’ll we put ’em in when we find ’em?” asked Mary Jane excitedly.
“Oh,” Alice hesitated and looked around, “I know. Put them in here.”
She whisked off her rubber bathing cap and made it into a bag shape and
ran down nearer the water to find the tiny crabs.
It wasn’t hard to do. Each wave that rolled upon the beach left two or
three of the queer little creatures, but one had to grab very quickly
for the instant the water receded and left them stranded on the sand,
they began to dig themselves in. Mary Jane grabbed at the sand and as
fast as she caught a crab she dropped it into Alice’s cap.
“Don’t they make your hands feel funny?” she asked as she held one a
second more than she needed to. “I don’t know if I like them and I
don’t know if I don’t.”
“Ugh!” exclaimed Alice. “I know I don’t like to hold them but I do like
to watch them dig. Come on, sis, we’ve a lot. Let’s go back to mother
and let ’em hide.”
They raced back to where Mrs. Merrill had been sitting and dumped
their trophies on the sand one at a time. And it really was funny to
see those wiggling little crawdads squirm themselves out of sight in
the sand in such a jiffy! Just a wiggle, wiggle, wiggle and they were
gone--the sand closed up over them as though they had never been there.
Mary Jane tried to poke her finger down into the sand and dig them up;
but the crawdads were too smart for her and not a one did she find!
“Why don’t you collect some shells to take home,” suggested Mrs.
Merrill after awhile; “there are many pretty kinds here.”
“I know it, Mother,” answered Alice, “and I was just going to ask you
if we could take any home when Mary Jane found these crawdads. Let’s
start now.”
But just at that minute the whistle on the bath house blew for one
o’clock--the girls hadn’t guessed it was nearly that late and of course
the minute they knew the time they were starving hungry.
“Then let’s take one more dip to get the sand off,” suggested Mrs.
Merrill, “before we dress and have lunch. And while our suits dry, you
may collect all the shells you are willing to carry.”
Down into the water they ran and just in time too for when they heard
a noise they looked up from the water and there, coming quickly to the
earth, was a great aeroplane that landed right at the very spot where
they had been sitting.
“I do think this is the excitingest beach,” said Mary Jane in an
awestruck voice; “first there’s the ocean and then there’s crawdads and
then an airship. What do you suppose they’ll have next?”
“Lunch, I hope,” said Alice laughingly, “and I’ll beat you to the bath
house to dress for it.”
Later when they had had their good luncheon and were sitting on the
veranda of the Casino where they could watch the airship take on a
passenger and sail away toward the north for a long flight, Mary Jane
remembered about the shells.
“Of course we want to get some,” said Alice; “let’s go now.”
“You girls start while I see about the bath locker,” suggested Mrs.
Merrill. “Maybe we can arrange to leave our things here till we come
again; then we could carry more shells.”
When she got down to the beach a little later she found that the girls
had already collected a great pile of shells from the many there were
to be found on the beach.
“You wouldn’t want to take any but perfect ones home, I’m sure,” said
Mrs. Merrill; “suppose we spread every shell out where it can be seen.
Then we’ll throw all the ones that are not perfect back into the ocean.
The others we’ll take home.”
Alice and Mary Jane set to work examining the shells and they found
that in their eagerness for collecting they had picked up a good many
that were not worth carrying home. So it was quite a respectable sized
pile they finally decided they wanted to take.
“There,” said Mary Jane with a sigh of content, when the sorting was
finished, “there they are and if it wasn’t ten miles home, I’d be glad
we had them.”
“You’ll be glad anyway, dear,” said Mrs. Merrill, “because we’re going
to ride home. I ordered a taxi when I was up at the bath house. Here
it comes now.”
And sure enough! There it was coming right down by the water to meet
them. Mary Jane was sure the wheels would get stuck in the sand; but
they didn’t; they didn’t even sink in. They just acted as though that
beach was a regular road--which it wasn’t.
It seemed fine to spin home over the beach, across the bridge and down
the river street, and by the time home was reached Mary Jane was rested
enough to play again. That was a good thing for who should she see on
the hotel porch but Ellen, her little friend from St. Augustine.
“Why, Ellen!” she exclaimed as she ran from the taxi to greet her; “how
did you get here?”
“On the train and the bus,” said Ellen happily. “And mother’s here too.”
“We came down unexpectedly for two days,” explained Mrs. Berry,
“because I found that a dear old friend of mine was here. Can’t we all
plan a picnic for to-morrow?” she added. “The girls will like it and
I know a beautiful place to go--way down the beach and back into the
woods.”
“Oh, goody! Let’s!” exclaimed Mary Jane, dancing happily; “let’s have a
picnic or something every day.”
“Seems to me that’s about what you are doing,” laughed Mrs. Merrill,
“but I’m ready for more fun.” While the mothers planned the party, the
three girls went off to find some fun of their own and to talk of what
they would do at the picnic.
AT SEA IN A STORM
There seemed to be a great mystery about that picnic. Mrs. Merrill and
Mrs. Berry wouldn’t let the girls help with the baskets and even kind
Mrs. Trudy, the hostess at the hotel, merely smiled and put her finger
to her lips when the girls asked her what was going on.
“I think we ought to see what they’re taking to eat,” said Ellen as she
hung on to the porch railing out in front; “maybe we won’t like it.”
“No danger,” said Alice positively; “mother’s there and she always
makes nice lunches.”
“But we ought to see it,” insisted Ellen. “I tell you what let’s do.
There’s a window in Aunt Sue’s room” (Aunt Sue was Mrs. Berry’s friend)
“that opens onto a roof, a low roof just by the kitchen. I know ’cause
we had that room ourselves last year. Let’s climb out the window and
peep down into the kitchen.”
“I don’t know if mother’d like us to peek,” replied Mary Jane
doubtfully, “but we might climb out on the roof and see if we _could_
peek. And then when we saw if we could we could decide about doing it.”
“Anyway let’s go,” said Ellen, who had no particular scruples about
peeking. So they ran up stairs and climbed out of Aunt Sue’s window
and sure enough, they could look right down into the kitchen without
half trying. They saw Mrs. Merrill standing by a table and Mrs. Berry
bending over a basket on a chair, but before they really had time to
see what each was doing, Tom came out the kitchen door.
“Say, girls,” he called, “want a ride? I have to go up to the store for
paper napkins and your mothers say you may go along.”
“Oh, dear,” said Alice who, being the oldest felt responsible for
letting the girls come out on the roof, “but we’re not down ready to
go.”
“You will be in a minute,” said Tom laughingly; “watch me.” He went
over to the orange tree near by, picked up the ladder that leaned
against it and set the ladder up to the side of the house. “There you
are, young ladies,” he said proudly; “walk right down!”
“Ugh!” cried Ellen, “I’m scared to.”
“No you’re not,” answered Alice; “it’s fun to climb ladders. Here, let
me go first and then I turn around and hold your hand and you won’t be
scared a bit.”
Nor was she, for Alice showed her how to go down backwards so she could
look up all the time and Ellen thought it so much fun that she wanted
to climb up again just for the fun of coming down.
“Not to-day,” said Tom, “for we have to be off. You help Mary Jane,
Alice, while I get out the bus. They wanted us to hurry back with the
napkins, you know, because they’re almost through packing the picnic
basket.”
By the time they came back with the napkins the luncheon was all packed
and the three ladies, hatted and ready to go, were sitting on the
front porch waiting, so there was no more temptation to peek into the
kitchen. In about five minutes the big seven-passenger car that was to
take them on the trip, drove up and they all piled in.
“Should we take wraps?” asked Mrs. Merrill at the last minute.
“Wraps!” laughed Mrs. Berry; “look at the sun! We’ll have sunshine all
day if I’m any weather guesser.”
Alice, being the oldest girl, sat on the front seat with the driver;
Mary Jane and Ellen had the two folding seats in the back and the
three ladies had the long back seat to themselves.
“And don’t put your feet into the lunch,” warned Alice, as she leaned
back and saw that the precious basket was right between the two little
girls.
“Hump!” grunted Mary Jane, “think we want stepped-on lunch? We’re just
as particular about the basket as any older body, we are!”
First they drove across the bridge toward the ocean; then they turned
and started down the long wide beach.
“We’ll go along here this way for miles and miles,” said the driver to
Alice, “and if you watch you’ll see queer things on the beach.”
“Queer things?” questioned Alice; “what kind of things?”
Before the driver had a chance to answer he spied something he wanted
the girls to see and with a skid and a whirl he brought the car to a
sudden stop right down by the edge of the waves.
“There,” he said, pointing to a lump of something that lay on the sand,
“that’s what I mean. I’ll get it for you.” He jumped out of the car,
picked up the messy looking thing and handed it to Alice. “It’s a jelly
fish,” he explained; “there are lots of them washed up on the beach
here. See, this is the way it sails on the water.”
The girls looked at the thing in open eyed amazement. They couldn’t
realize that that queer looking mess that looked all the world like
spoiled gelatine, could have been a creature sailing on the water.
“You just wait,” laughed the driver; “I’ll show you some out in the
water before we turn off this beach.” He kept his word, too. About a
half mile farther down the beach he spied a live jelly fish riding the
waves. When the girls saw _that_ they thought first he must be joking
them for it looked quite a bit like a sail boat some child had made and
which had tipped over and blown out to sea. But when he stopped the car
they could see plainly that it was just such a creature as he had shown
them before.
“They certainly do have queer folks down at this place,” said Mary
Jane, “queerer folks than live up at my home, I’m sure of that!”
Soon they turned off of the beach and went back across a bridge to
a great orange orchard Aunt Sue wanted Ellen to see. The owner of
the orchard was expecting them and he himself took them out to where
oranges were being picked and then to the packing room where the golden
fruit was scrubbed and sorted and packed. Mary Jane like the sorting
the best of all.
“It’s just like a marble game,” she exclaimed excitedly as she watched
the fruit come rolling down the trough. “See! That little one goes in
there and the middle sized one goes in _there_ and the great big orange
goes way down to the end. Let’s stay and watch some more.”
“Not this time,” replied Mrs. Merrill regretfully; “if we are to have a
picnic we must be on our way because it’s nearly noon now.”
The orchard man loaded the girls with oranges and tangerines for their
lunch and urged them to come again some time. They sped along the hard
shell road, passed inlet after inlet where the water from the ocean,
rising now with the turn of the tide, came close up to the road; and
finally they turned in at a clean, pretty woods and the car came to a
standstill.