great waves washed up, higher and higher. Heavy posts driven into the
bed of the ocean supported great ropes stretched where folks would want
to stand in the waves, and if one watched and went out between waves and
then held tightly to the rope while a wave broke over, there wasn't a
fraction as much real danger as there appeared to be from the noise and
foam. Mrs. Merrill, grasping a hand of each girl, made a quick dash for
the nearest rope and warned them to hold fast when the big wave came.
Alice could manage herself very well, as she had a good strong grip and
people were round about near to lend a hand if a wave should make her
lose her footing for a second, but Mrs. Merrill held tightly to Mary
Jane and together they jumped through the waves as the foamy crests of
cold water broke just over them.
"Burr, it _is_ cold, isn't it!" said Mary Jane gayly as she shook the
salt water out of her eyes.
"Plenty cold and you're getting blue," replied Mrs. Merrill with a keen
look at her little girl. "Let's go up and sit in the warm sand for a
while. Alice, you come up the line, here, nearer to shore, and then as
soon as I get Mary Jane settled in the sand snug and warm, I'll come
back and take you out farther."
Left by herself a few minutes later, Mary Jane dug herself into the sand
and buried her feet, her legs, and tossed the sand over her chest. Then,
tiring of that amusement, she shook herself free of the sand, stood up
and looked around and--but--after that nobody seemed to know just what
Mary Jane did do.
Ten minutes after she left her so comfortably settled with her play,
Mrs. Merrill and Alice, flushed and laughing with their fun in the
waves, ran up the beach to where Mary Jane had been playing. But no
Mary Jane was there to greet them!
Quickly Mrs. Merrill looked over the many bathers along the edge of the
waves--there was no little girl with bobbed brown hair. Hurriedly she
ran and questioned the life-guard; no, he hadn't seen any little girl in
a blue and white suit.
The word passed along from one person to another but not a soul could
tell where the little girl was. Several had seen her playing and
watching her mother and sister but no one had seen her get up and go
away.
There was lost, one Mary Jane; and a distracted mother and sister
together with a beach full of interested people started on a hunt for
the missing child.
*TEA ON THE TERRACE*
Questions and answers flew thick and fast as, one after another, the
many bathers at Rye Beach learned that a little girl was lost.
"Are you sure she didn't follow you and go into the water?" asked one.
"Awful undertow," whispered another, "if she lost her footing even near
the shore--" but Mrs. Merrill turned away so as not to hear any more.
"Maybe she went up the beach a way," suggested another.
"We looked up there first thing," was the reply.
"I don't know what to think," cried Mrs. Merrill in distraction as the
police officer questioned her. "Mary Jane never ran away and I feel
sure she wouldn't now. I don't think she would disobey me and go into
the water--and yet, where is she?"
Alice, poor child, forgot about being wet, and ran up and down the
beach, hunting and calling her sister.
At last, when there seemed nothing else to do, the officer said, "I am
sorry to say, madam, that it looks very much as though--" but he never
finished his sentence. For at that minute Mary Jane's voice close by
her mother said, "Look, Mother, what I got for you! And there are a lot
more too so Alice can pick some."
There stood Mary Jane, rosy and dry from the warm sun, her hand full of
wild flowers she had picked--somewhere.
Mrs. Merrill gathered her up in her arms and hugged her so tight Mary
Jane thought she never would get her breath again, then, when she could
talk, she asked, "My dear child! Where _were_ you? We've hunted and
hunted!"
[Illustration: "My dear child! Where were you? We've hunted and
hunted!"]
"Why I was right there," answered Mary Jane, much surprised that they
should have been anxious. "I stood up to shake off the sand and I saw
some wild flowers back there--see 'em?" she added, pointing to the end
of the bath-houses where some sand flowers bloomed on a low lying sand
hill back of the beach. "And I thought, 'now I'll just get some of
those and see if Alice wants 'em for her collection.' So I ran up there
and there were so _many_--see how many kinds? And--that's all! I just
picked 'em and then here I am!"
Mrs. Merrill thanked all the kind people who had helped hunt for Mary
Jane and made a firm resolve (which she likely as not wouldn't keep)
that next time Mary Jane was "lost" she would sit still and wait for the
child to come back by herself.
For an hour Mary Jane played on the sand. They dug ditches, they
"buried" each other and their mother, and finally they shook off the
sand and ran to the beach for a final plunge before leaving. After they
were dressed, Mary Jane led them up to the sand hill where she had found
the flowers, and Alice picked a bloom or two of each kind to press and
add to her collection.
Dinner never did taste so good as it did that day--surf bathing
certainly makes girls hungry and they both enjoyed every bite of the
good food Mrs. Bryan set before them.
"Now I think we'll all take a rest for an hour," suggested Mrs. Merrill,
"and then, with some folks I met before you girlies woke up this
morning, we'll drive to Portsmouth so you can see the harbor and the
beautiful drive along the shore."
Promptly at three o'clock they set out, and Mary Jane thought it would
take a whole book to tell all the beautiful and wonderful things they
saw on that drive. The pine woods that smelled so sweet and good, the
rolling golf links here and there, the glimpses of the Isle of Shoals
that seemed no distance away, so clear was the air in the afternoon
sunshine.
"I 'most could reach out and touch 'em!" exclaimed Mary Jane once, and
it was hard to believe that the picturesque group of islands were miles
away, out in the ocean.
The river at Portsmouth, dotted with boats, big and little, the view
across into the state of Maine, and the beautiful grounds of a great
hotel set high on the bluff overlooking the ocean, all seemed very
wonderful. Everywhere were lovely gardens brilliant with bloom and
grass so green and fresh, Mary Jane declared it made her want to get out
and feel it, for it looked like soft velvet.
At Portsmouth they stopped at an old curiosity shop and bought an
old-fashioned "knocker" for a souvenir of the drive.
"We'll put it on the door to your room," said Mrs. Merrill, "and then,
when you shut the door, folks can knock before they come in. And every
time you look at it, you will think of your trip to Rye Beach and to
Portsmouth."
The next morning the Merrills took their ocean dip early, as they had
decided to get to Boston in the afternoon instead of evening. The water
was "freezing" cold, but the sun was good and warm and the dip was most
refreshing as well as lots of fun.
It wasn't easy to leave Rye Beach. There was so much to do that would
be fun, and so many nice people to meet and such good things to eat,
that Mary Jane had to think hard about her father off home alone to make
herself willing to leave so soon. But once away, she was quite happy,
especially when she found that they could have their luncheon in a
diner--Mary Jane would go anywhere--almost--to eat on a train!
Uncle Hal met them at the station in Boston and his smiling face assured
them a surprise was in store.
"Too tired riding to do a little more?" he asked, as they walked out of
the great station.
"Well," asked Mary Jane determined not to be tricked into anything, "is
it a nice thing we would do, if we weren't too tired to do it?"
"_Very_ nice, I'd say, my young lady," replied Uncle Hal.
"Then I'm not a bit tired," Mary Jane assured him.
It was a good thing that was her answer, for the surprise was ready and
waiting at the station door.
"This is my sister and her two daughters, Miss Burn," said Hal as he
stepped up to a waiting car, "and they say they will enjoy the ride you
so kindly planned for them." Miss Burn was a charming young lady with
whom Mary Jane and Alice promptly made friends, and her car was a
beautiful big touring car in which the Merrills were whisked away before
they quite realized what had happened to them.
Through the parks of Boston they went, out the boulevards along the
north shore where the roadway borders the ocean for miles and miles.
Beautiful homes flashed passed them, parks, suburbs, playgrounds,
amusement places--all like a wonderful living moving picture show. Mary
Jane was interested in the great shoe factories they passed in Lynn and
she tried to peek into the windows and see which factory made shoes for
little girls her age. Rows and rows of red brick buildings--all shoe
factories Uncle Hal told her--seemed enough to make shoes for everybody
in the whole country!
On they went till they could see the houses on Marblehead and the famous
Marblehead lighthouse that can be seen from such a distance at night,
then, back they went, mostly over a different route, toward Boston.
"Couldn't you stop at our house for a cup of tea?" invited Miss Burn,
"mother would love to meet you but she didn't feel up to a ride to-day."
Mrs. Merrill said they had nothing to hurry them, so Miss Burn drove
them to her pretty home on one of the tree-covered streets in
Winchester.
"We'll go through the house," said Miss Burn as they left the car, "but
I want you two girls to go to the garden. You'll like to see my pet
goldfishes."
"Pet goldfishes!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "do you keep 'em in a bowl?"
"Wait a minute, and I'll show you where I keep them," replied Miss Burn,
and she led them through the hallway of her beautiful home and out,
through French doors, into the loveliest garden the girls had ever seen.
It was in the middle of the house--almost--for the house went around
three sides. French doors opened from the hallway, on the north, from
the dining-room on the east, and from a long, low library living-room on
the west, while on the south side a rose covered pergola connected the
ends of the house making the garden appear to be surrounded with the
house. The edge of the garden, near the house, was filled with bay
trees, privet and vining roses, next, on a lower terrace, were flowers
with brilliant bloom, hollyhocks, delphiniums and marigolds, while
around the fountain in the center was a great bed of gorgeous roses
making a mass of fragrant bloom.
"Oh!" cried Alice, "think of living here!"
"It's like a palace!" echoed Mary Jane.
"I thought you'd like it," said Miss Burn, much pleased with their frank
enjoyment, "we love it. I do a lot of the work in the garden myself. I
love the flowers so, and mother and I would rather be out here than
anywhere else in the world."
She led them over dainty gravel paths to the center of the garden where,
peering into the white fountain, the girls saw dozens of goldfish
swimming about in the sunshine.
"See?" said Miss Burn, pointing into the water, "I have one silver
fish--that's for luck they say," she added laughingly. "Don't you think
it's better to have fish here than in a bowl on a table?"
"I think everything's better here--if you have a 'here' like this,"
agreed Alice. "I suppose Mary Jane feels like a princess again, now.
She always feels that way when she sees something wonderful."
"'Deed I do," admitted Mary Jane who had been too busy looking around
and pretending that all this was her own private palace, to talk with
mere folks! "I love it here!"
"Let's go over and meet mother," suggested Miss Burn, "and see if tea is
ready. Then you may walk around the garden all you like and pick as
many flowers as you want to."
They found Mrs. Burn waiting for them under the rose-covered terrace,
and tea was all ready but the hot water which came in a few minutes.
Mary Jane was very glad that the grown folks were too busy talking to
count the number of lobster salad sandwiches she ate--they were so
good--even better than the nut sandwiches which were usually her
favorites. After tea, the girls wandered up and down the little paths in
the garden and picked a few flowers; not many, for the flowers looked so
lovely there that it seemed a shame to take them away.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mary Jane later as she saw her mother rise to go,
"now it's going to be late and we'll have to go and--and I'd just love
to stay in this garden forever and ever! I would!"
"I wish you could, dear," said Mrs. Burn, "because I like to have little
girls around me--especially little girls who love flowers as you two do.
But I'll tell you," she added comfortingly, "you've found the way out
here now and the next time you come to Boston, which will be some time
soon, let's hope, you come and see me the very first day and stay as
long as ever you can."
Mary Jane promised and then she took a last glimpse at the fountain of
goldfish before Miss Burn took them back to Boston and their hotel.
"When I have a house," she said as she dropped off to sleep that
evening, "I'm going to have a garden just like Miss Burn's with goldfish
and one silver fish and tea and lobster salad sandwiches and
everything!"
*THE LAST DAY IN BOSTON--AND HOME*
The last morning in Boston! Mary Jane blinked at the bright sunshine
that streamed in at the window and asked sleepily, "What are we going to
do to-day, Mother?"
"_Mother!_" exclaimed Alice, suddenly wide awake, "we forgot to go to
Concord! And my teacher told me surely, surely we must take that ride
up through Sleepy Hollow and Concord."
"Don't you worry a minute, dear," said Mrs. Merrill, "I'm as anxious to
take that ride as you are. In fact I had Hal get the seats in the
automobile yesterday evening, so there would be no doubt about our being
able to go this morning. I've never taken it either, you know, so we'll
be seeing things together. Now everybody up and see who can beat
getting dressed and ready for breakfast."
When they stepped up to the big sightseeing car, an hour and a half
later, they found that Uncle Hal had bought their seats for the front
row which pleased them very much. Mary Jane liked to see things without
dodging the head of somebody in front, and Alice and Mrs. Merrill liked
to be close to the man who tells about the historic scenes on the way,
so they could ask questions and could hear everything that was said.
The car soon filled up with interested sightseers and the journey was
begun.
Alice eagerly listened to all that was told and fitted it into what she
knew of early American history. The old church where the lights were
hung to give the signal to Paul Revere; the road he dashed across on his
long journey--marked now, by a big bronze tablet which the girls got out
of the car to read; the "green" where one of the early battles was
fought--Alice had read all the stories and seemed to live over the
scenes as she saw the famous sites.
Of course Mary Jane didn't know as much history as her sister did, but
she knew something of the historical stories, as all American girls
should even if they are only in first grade, and she learned more
history in that two hours of riding than she would have learned in a
month of reading. It didn't seem like history out of a book, it seemed
like really truly--as it was.
The car turned down a long, shady road and came to a stop by a tiny
wooden bridge.
"There," said the driver, "is the Concord bridge and you may get out and
walk across if you like. There's no hurry."
"The Concord bridge?" exclaimed Alice, "why I thought it was a _big_
bridge--I've heard so much about it."
"Size doesn't count for everything," laughed the driver; "it's what
happens that counts."
They climbed out of the automobile and walked across the tiny bridge.
It was a low, wooden foot bridge, so narrow that one had to walk
carefully to pass anybody coming from the other direction. On one side
was a hand rail, on the other nothing but the clear water of the little
creek so close below.
The girls stood in the center of the bridge and Mrs. Merrill took their
picture so Alice could show it to her teacher at school, then they sat
down in the shade close by and Mrs. Merrill told Mary Jane the story
that made that little bridge so famous; how the brave farmers stood
there waiting--right there on the spot Mary Jane could see; how the
Redcoats crept up through the darkness to the very tree (no doubt it was
the very tree for its wide spreading branches and great trunk told of
its old age), the very tree under which they were sitting, and then
there was fired the shot "for freedom," the shot which the poet said was
"heard 'round the world."
Reluctantly leaving the interesting spot that charmed them so, the
Merrills climbed back into the big auto and drove away; through Concord,
through Sleepy Hollow and to the house where Louisa M. Alcott had lived.
There Mary Jane felt at home immediately. She saw the lilac bushes, the
old trees and the quaint old house she had heard about. They went
through the rooms, upstairs and down, and saw the very books and dishes
and kettles and clothes that the girls in Miss Alcott's story had used
and worn.
"Why they were just regular girls like we are, weren't they, Mother?"
she exclaimed in surprise. "And they didn't know they were going to be
in a story and everybody read about them, did they?"
"To be sure," said Mrs. Merrill, "and that's what makes them so
interesting. They did all the things that real folks do, and we like to
hear about such things in books."
"Wouldn't it be funny if we'd get into a story book," said Mary Jane,
laughing at the ridiculous idea, "and somebody'd read about how we came
to see Miss Alcott's house? I'd laugh if we did!"
"Well, you never can tell what'll happen," said Alice as they wandered
out through the yard. "I expect Meg and Beth never thought of being in
a book either. I wonder if they picked roses from this same old bush?"
she added as she looked at a rose-bush that rambled high overhead, "it
looks old enough to have been here then."
It was hard to leave the quaint old house with its interesting
associations, but the honking of a horn out in front warned them that
they had lingered long enough, so they hurried out to finish the drive.
"When I get back home," said Mary Jane as she snuggled down in her front
seat again, "I'm going to read all about Concord and all about
everything--if you'll read it to me, Mother, I am." Mrs. Merrill
promised, so Mary Jane tried to look very hard at everything they saw so
she could remember it a long, long time.
"Now then," said Mrs. Merrill briskly, as they got out of the auto at
Copley Square, "we'll just have time to hurry up and pack our things and
get our lunch before the train leaves. And we won't have a bit of time
to spare, so it's a mighty good thing we haven't left anything else to
do. That Wolverine leaves on time whether we are on it or not."
"Won't we have time but just only to pack and to get lunch?" asked Mary
Jane disappointedly.
"Why Mary Jane!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, "haven't you seen enough of
Boston?"
"Oh, yes," replied Mary Jane, "I've seen enough but I haven't done
enough."
"What more is there to do, child?" asked Mrs. Merrill. "Seems to me
you've done about everything a person could think of already."
"Yes, I guess I have," admitted Mary Jane, "but I wanted to do some of
it over again. I wanted to take another ride in my swan boat, I did."
"My dear child!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill sympathetically, "and you shall
if I can get you down there. Hurry now and we'll get our packing done
in a jiffy and then before we eat we'll go to the Commons and let you
take a ride."
Up in their room Mary Jane helped all she could with the packing. She
stuffed the tips of all the shoes, she folded hair ribbons that had been
mussed and put clothes in neat piles on the bed. Alice took everything
from the drawers, picked up personal belongings from the bathroom, and
brought the clothes that had been hanging in the closet. With such good
help Mrs. Merrill packed in a very short time, and sooner than she had
supposed possible the trunk was ready to go, and they were dressed in
traveling frocks ready for the journey home.
"Now a wire to Dad," she said as she took a careful look over the room
to be certain that they were leaving nothing behind, "and I believe we
are ready to go."
"Let's not stop for a big lunch," suggested Alice, "because we can have
early dinner on the diner. Let's get sandwiches and milk some place and
then let Mary Jane have two rides on the swan boats."
Mrs. Merrill telephoned Hal and he promised to call for their bags at
the hotel and then to come for them at the entrance of the Commons
nearest the lagoon.
A very happy little girl bought tickets for six rides and, with Alice
and her mother, Mary Jane took two last blissful rides on her favorite
boat.
"When I grow up to be a big lady and have a little girl of my own," she
observed between rides, "I'm going to bring her to Boston and let her
ride 'n ride 'n ride."
"Seems to me that's about what I am doing with my little girl," laughed
Mrs. Merrill. "I believe you like the swan boats better than anything
you have seen or done on the trip."
"I do," agreed Mary Jane, "unless," she added, thoughtfully, "unless
eating in the garden or seeing the goldfishes or swimming or playing
with John or--well, we've done a lot of nice things, Mother, but swan
boats are my favorite, I guess."
Hal's taxi was chugging briskly when they reached the street and they
dashed off to take their train for home.
"Now there's a whole day to ride without getting off or hurrying or
anything," said Mary Jane luxuriously, as she settled herself in the
comfortable sleeper and leaned back against the cushions with a deep
sigh of satisfaction. "I just _love_ riding on a train, I do, Mother."
It _was_ fun to sit quietly and watch the towns dash by. For ten busy
days Mary Jane had been the one to do the going, hurrying from one good
time to another and now it seemed the best fun of all to sit still and
think about all the fun she had had.
In an hour though, she began to want something to do. Alice, deep in a
book, was close by, while her mother and Uncle Hal, who seemed to have
an endless amount to say to each other, were just across the aisle.
Should she bother them--or what should she do?
Suddenly she remembered! She had brought something for just such a
time, and so busy had she been all the days in New England that she
hadn't once thought of what she had carried around. She slipped her
hand back of her till she touched her own little handbag that was on the
seat between herself and Alice, opened it and spread out on her lap her
precious paper dolls.
Mrs. Merrill, glancing across to see that her little girl was all right,
saw what she was doing and said, "Press the button there between the
windows, dear, and the porter will bring you a table to spread the dolls
out on."
Five minutes later Mary Jane had a table all to herself and on it spread
her whole paper doll family. All the time the great train sped through
Massachusetts, she played with them, acting over again the Harvard Class
Day parties, the tea party in Mrs. Burn's pretty garden and many other
things that she herself had done on her trip.
At five-thirty they went to the diner for dinner, and Mary Jane had some
good chicken and hashed-brown potatoes and apple dumplings with ice
cream, before she went back to finish playing with her dolls.
"I think paper dolls are the nicest dolls for on a train, I do," she
told her mother, as together they neatly tucked the dolls away for a
night's rest in the handbag, "'cause they don't break and they don't
take up a lot of room, and I can have them all along--every one of
them."
Mr. Merrill met his family at the station the next day, and there was a
happy reunion and a lot of talk about the fun they had had since they
last saw him.
"But nobody asks me what _I've_ been doing?" he exclaimed with mock
grief at the first pause in the conversation.
"Oh, Daddah," cried Mary Jane, "I'm so sorry! But you see we had so
much to do--graduating Uncle Hal and seeing everything, we did. Now
_you_ talk--it's your turn."
Then Mr. Merrill told his surprise. The builder who was to do their
house in the woods had been able to get to work sooner than he had
promised, and the house, while it wouldn't be finished for some little
time yet, was well on the way.
"The roof's on," he told them, "and that's a lot, for it means we can go
out there and picnic and not worry about rain. And if all goes well, we
can pack our trunks and move into the shack in a very few days."