ABOUT BOSTON
You may be sure that Lucy and Dora did not oversleep next morning. For
supper there had been pink ice-cream and a proper birthday cake with nine
pink candles, and the holiday feeling lasted all night.
Father took them to the station and put them on the train. He spoke to
the conductor and then to Lucy.
“Now, Lucy,” he said, “if Miss Chandler is not on the platform where the
train comes in, you and Dora are to walk right back to the car where you
got off, and this gentleman will bring you home on his next train.”
“But, Father,” said Dora, “Aunt Margaret will be there. She _said_ she
would meet us.”
“Yes, I know,” said Father, “and I think she will be waiting. This is so
you will know what to do if anything happens to prevent her being there.”
Father kissed them and the conductor said, “All aboard!” Father stepped
off quickly.
Neither Lucy nor Dora often went on a train. They traveled so seldom that
it was great fun to see the farmhouses and cows and hens as the train
scurried past, and to watch the telegraph poles swooping down to gather
up their wires.
Before long, the farms grew fewer, and the houses came closer together
and instead of having only two tracks, one for the trains going to Boston
and the other for trains going in the opposite direction, there were
many tracks on both sides, with engines puffing past or cars standing in
long lines.
Quite soon the trainman came and took their suit-case. Lucy looked at it
anxiously for it contained a clean white dress for her and one for Dora.
These were to be worn on Sunday if Aunt Margaret wished to take them to
church. Lucy was not sure what the man meant to do with the suit-case.
Dora did not notice his taking it. The train was moving across a bridge
with water coming quite close on either side. In the air, gulls were
flying, and in the distance she could see some big ships.
The trainman saw that Lucy looked troubled. “The conductor told me to
take this,” he said. “I’ll go with you to meet the party you are looking
for.”
Lucy didn’t know what he meant. “But we aren’t going to a party,” she
said shyly. “We are going to meet Aunt Margaret.”
The trainman smiled. “I’ll help you meet her,” he said, and he looked so
pleasant that Lucy was willing he should take the suit-case.
When the train stopped, the children followed the other people to the
door and there the trainman stood with the suit-case. He lifted Dora
down and took Lucy by the elbow to help her just as he did the grown-up
ladies. Then he walked with them down a long platform.
Lucy and Dora were glad that he came with them. The train was standing
under a big shed with a very high roof and many people were hurrying
about. Huge engines snorted and made so much noise that it seemed most
confusing.
Miss Chandler stood by the gate which let the people through from the
train-shed into the other part of the station. She kissed the little
girls and thanked the kind trainman for helping them find her.
The first thing was to dispose of the suit-case. Miss Chandler called a
messenger-boy and sent him to take it to her rooms.
“Now,” she said to the children, “we will go by the elevated train.”
Lucy and Dora had read about the elevated railways in big cities, but
neither had been on one. They went through the big station and up some
steps and through a turnstile and along a corridor above a street where
the trucks and electric cars were, and up some more steps to a platform.
Soon a train of cars came, but it did not have a smoky engine. This train
ran by electricity.
“Is this the evelated train?” asked Dora.
“Yes, this is the elevated,” said Miss Chandler, laughing. “We will step
into this car.”
In half a minute the train was again moving, but the children were
surprised because it did not stay on the tracks above the street.
Instead, it promptly plunged underground, into a lighted tunnel which ran
under the street instead of above it.
“It is a funny kind of elevated train which runs underground, isn’t it?”
said Miss Chandler. “But it does in Boston.”
Lucy and Dora thought it was odd, but they liked the brightly lighted
stations where the train stopped. Quite soon, Miss Chandler said they
would get out.
When they left the car they were still underground and climbed many
stairs before seeing daylight. When they came out, it was on a sidewalk
in the midst of tall buildings, much higher than any in the city where
Mother went shopping. The streets were very narrow and at almost every
crossing stood a policeman. He told the automobiles to stop and let
people cross the street, or he told the people to wait on the sidewalk
until it was safe for them to come. Everybody did exactly what he told
them to do.
“I think it is very kind of that policeman to stand there and help the
people,” said Dora.
Miss Chandler smiled. “Do you, Dora?” she asked. “He says we may cross
now.”
Such wonderful shop-windows! Lucy and Dora were really obliged to stop
and look, for they had never imagined anything so beautiful. One big
window was draped with silks of different shades of orange and flame.
“Is it a fairy palace?” asked Dora. “It is like a story I read once.”
No, it was not a palace, only a big shop and people could go in and buy
those very silks if they liked. Miss Chandler let the children look in a
number of windows and then she called their attention to an open space
across the street.
“Let us go over on the Common,” she said. “Perhaps the squirrels will
come to be fed.”
Directly across from the beautiful shops was a big park with great elms
and green grass and seats where men and women were sitting. When the
children entered, they saw three fat gray squirrels with bushy tails
climbing over a man who sat on one of the seats.
“They know he has nuts for them,” said Miss Chandler.
The man saw the children looking at him. He drew his hand from his pocket
and it contained some peanuts.
“Would you like to feed the squirrels?” he asked.
“Will they bite?” asked Lucy.
“Not if you don’t scare them. Don’t touch them nor try to grab them, but
just hold the nut in your fingers.”
“Thank you,” said Lucy and took one nut.
“May we?” Dora asked Miss Chandler, and when she smiled, Dora took a nut
and thanked the man.
The squirrels came at once. Dora shivered a little when her squirrel put
its paws about her fingers to steady the nut. Its wee hands felt so queer!
The third squirrel sat on the man’s knee and nibbled a peanut. When it
was eaten, it put its paws over its heart in a beseeching way. As well as
it knew how, it was begging for another.
Perhaps it was lucky that the man did not have many peanuts, for Lucy and
Dora would have stayed until they were all gone. When there were no more,
they thanked the man again and followed Miss Chandler across the Common.
[Illustration: DORA SHIVERED A LITTLE WHEN THE SQUIRREL PUT ITS PAWS
ABOUT HER FINGERS—_Page 102._]
“Who takes care of the squirrels in the winter?” asked Lucy. “Who would
feed them if the people didn’t?”
“The park commissioners feed them,” said Miss Chandler. “Did you know
that the State legislature of Massachusetts once stopped some important
work to provide for a family of orphan gray squirrels on Boston Common?”
“Did they really?” asked Lucy.
“They really did. So you see that the squirrels would be looked after
even if people didn’t like to feed them with peanuts. Did you ever hear
of the Frog Pond?”
“I have,” said Lucy eagerly. “I have just studied about it in my history
class. Dora hasn’t had history yet, but we can tell her.”
Dora looked at the small pond before them. She didn’t see any frogs.
“Just think, Dora,” said Miss Chandler, “that pond has been here since
the first people came to Boston. The boys always slide on it in winter.
Once during the Revolutionary War, British soldiers camped on the Common.
They spoiled the ice where the children wanted to slide.”
“I know what happened,” said Lucy proudly. “The general in command of
the British army was a very cross man, but the boys didn’t care if he
was. They went straight and told him what the soldiers had done. And the
General said they were to let the slide alone. Didn’t he, Aunt Margaret?”
“He did,” said Miss Chandler.
Dora looked respectfully at the Frog Pond. There were better places in
Westmore for sliding when winter came, but it was interesting to know
that children had played with the Frog Pond ever since there were any
children in Boston to play there.
Beyond the Common lay a pretty park, called the Public Garden, and here
they came to a larger body of water with white birds swimming on it. Some
were ducks and some were swans, and the children stopped to watch them.
Miss Chandler kept looking at a wooden platform not far away. Part of it
was on the bank and part floated on the water.
Presently a boat came in sight, but it was like no boat Lucy and Dora
had ever seen. It was not like the launch on World’s End Pond nor like
the one at the beach. It looked like a tremendous great bird, floating
lightly on the water.
“Would you like to go in the swan boat?” asked Miss Chandler.
Would they like to! Dora and Lucy could hardly speak for joy. But Dora
asked one question.
“There won’t be any waves, will there?” she inquired anxiously. “Not to
tip the swan about?”
“It will be perfectly smooth,” said Miss Chandler, and it was. Dora
enjoyed every second she spent in the swan boat.
Next, Miss Chandler took them to the Boston Public Library. The children
were very fond of the library in Westmore, but they had never imagined
a library as big as this great building. Miss Chandler told them that
Boston was a large city and the people needed many books to read.
They stayed a long time in the Public Library. In it were many rooms and
in some were beautiful paintings. To see them, they climbed a marble
stair where great lions kept guard. Dora at once revised her ideas of
fairy palaces. If only that windowful of silks could be hung on the walls
of the marble stair, it would be better than any palace of which she had
read.
On the walls of one room were paintings about Sir Galahad. Lucy and Dora
knew his story and how he went to seek the Holy Grail. Miss Chandler
explained each painting.
Then she took them into a pleasant room with low bookcases and small
tables and chairs and told them that it belonged to the children of
Boston. All the books on the shelves were books which children liked to
read.
Dora looked at the shelves carefully. It would be nice to have a library
just for children, with no grown-ups at all. Still, the Westmore library
was nice, and a little town didn’t need a big library like Boston. Some
of the books she saw on the shelves were in the children’s corner of the
Westmore library.
“Now I think it is time for luncheon,” said Miss Chandler. “We will have
it rather early because I have a plan for this afternoon and I don’t
want you to get too tired.”
Lucy and Dora had not thought about eating, but now it was mentioned,
they both felt hungry.
Miss Chandler stopped an electric car near the library. To the amusement
of the children, after running a few blocks down a wide street, the car
dived underground. Cars in Boston seemed to have this habit.
When they came out of the subway they were in a different part of town,
one which was crowded with people and had many large stores.
Miss Chandler took them into one of these stores and up in an elevator to
where there was a restaurant with music playing.
First they washed their hands and smoothed their hair and then sat at a
pretty round table with two pink asters in a vase.
In every direction were tables with people eating luncheon. The
waitresses wore gray linen uniforms and white caps, and boys in white
suits carried away trays of used dishes. The place was so large and
strange that Dora was glad Miss Chandler was with them.
“What would you like for lunch?” Miss Chandler asked.
“Ice-cream, please,” said Lucy.
“Oh, yes!” said Dora. “I would like that best of anything, Aunt Margaret.”
“We will have ice-cream for dessert,” said Miss Chandler, “but we must
eat something else first.”
Neither Lucy nor Dora cared especially what they had for lunch. There
was too much to see for them to feel interested in the paper which had
printed on it the things to eat.
“We will have fricasseed chicken and baked potatoes and rolls,” said Miss
Chandler. “I will have some coffee and you girls shall have milk. Then
we will all order ice-cream.”
The luncheon came on pretty dishes and the chicken was gay with green
parsley. The potatoes sat in white paper boats. Most unusual of all, each
lump of sugar for Miss Chandler’s coffee came wrapped in smooth white
paper.
Miss Chandler said she did not use sugar in her coffee and that the
children might each have one lump. Lucy ate hers while waiting for the
ice-cream, but Dora tucked hers into a coat pocket. She thought she would
take it to Mother.
“What is the nice plan for the afternoon, Aunt Margaret?” Lucy asked when
she had finished her chocolate ice-cream. Dora’s ice-cream was strawberry
and Miss Chandler’s vanilla.
But the afternoon of that day must have a chapter to itself.