Books: Mary Jane: Her Book
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Clara Ingram Judson >> Mary Jane: Her Book
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But something didn't seem just right. Instead of liking it, and being very
still because they were getting a good cold drink, those stupid robin
babies chirped and cried and acted far from pleased.
"I know," thought Mary Jane, "they want it like rain," and she turned the
hose nozzle high and straight so that the water would come down on the top
of the nest.
But that wasn't any better or even as good as the first try; for the water,
instead of coming down on the apple tree, came straight and wet onto Mary
Jane herself! She was so startled that she screamed and dropped the hose
without a thought of the robins she had meant to help.
And then there _was_ a commotion! Mr. Merrill, who had come home for some
papers he had forgotten, came running around the house; Father Robin darted
out from the hedge and made straight for his nest; Mother Robin hurried up
from the pine tree in Doris's yard and Mrs. Merrill, tea towel still in
hand, ran out from the back porch.
"What ever is the matter?" she cried.
"I was just giving the baby robins a drink," sputtered Mary Jane, "and they
didn't seem to like it!"
Mrs. Merrill gathered her into her arms, wetness and all, and held her
close. "I thought something had happened to my little girl," she said. "You
must come in and get dry clothes on, dear; then I'll tell you more about
the babies and you'll understand why they don't like too much water."
"And _I'll_ tell you something," said father. "If you like to learn about
creatures and everything that grows, you meet me here at the back door step
at five o'clock this afternoon and I'll tell you a secret."
"Oh, goody!" cried Mary Jane, as she clapped her wet hands. "Can't you tell
it to me now?"
"I should say not!" said father importantly, "it's a secret! You'll have to
wait till five o'clock!" And he hurried off to his work leaving Mary Jane
to a day of wondering what might be coming--a pleasant sort of wondering,
for father's secrets were always jolly ones.
FATHER'S SECRET
Mary Jane thought that five o'clock would never come--never! She looked at
the clock and _looked_ at the clock and she asked mother and Alice to tell
her the time so as to be sure she herself wasn't mistaken in what the clock
said. But finally lunch time was passed, and rest time, and then Mary Jane
knew it wouldn't be very long till five o'clock.
"Now, I'm going to dress for my secret," she said when her rest was
finished.
"That's just what I came to see you about," said Mrs. Merrill, who came
into Mary Jane's room at that minute, "you'd better put on this little
dress." And she held up a little, old, dark blue morning dress--not at all
the sort of dress that a little girl would wear to an afternoon secret,
Mary Jane was sure of that.
"Why, mother!" exclaimed the little girl, "you don't mean me to wear
_that_!"
"I surely do," said Mrs. Merrill, pleasantly; "it's just the right kind of
a dress for this secret."
"But Daddah's secret is a _nice_ secret," said Mary Jane positively.
"His secrets always are," agreed her mother.
"And nice secrets ought to have nice dresses," said Mary Jane.
"Nice secrets ought to have dresses that belong to them," corrected Mrs.
Merrill. "We don't talk about things that are decided," reminded Mrs.
Merrill. "Put on the blue dress and come downstairs, Mary Jane. I'm sure
you will be glad--when father comes home."
So Mary Jane put on the blue dress, but she wasn't very happy about it; she
felt sure, certain all the time that she was dressing, that Daddah would be
disappointed when he saw her. And she began to wonder if the secret _was_
so very wonderful after all; it didn't sound so wonderful if an old dress
went with it--in the afternoon!
But even though she was disappointed and a bit doubtful, she went down to
the front porch and sat on the step where she could see father the minute
he turned the corner of Fifth Street.
"Isn't this a fine day to be out of doors!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill,
contentedly. "See Mr. Robin out there, digging away for his family? He has
a hard time hunting worms in the grass. I expect he wishes we had a newly
dug garden around this place." Mary Jane looked up indifferently, just in
time to see a twinkle in her mother's eye. Did the twinkle have anything to
do with the secret? Mary Jane wondered.
"What would he do with a garden?" she asked.
"Get worms out of it," answered Mrs. Merrill.
"But isn't he getting worms out of the yard?" asked Mary Jane, looking out
to where the robin was industriously pecking at the ground.
"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Merrill, "of course he is; but see how he has to work!
Now if that yard was all dug up nicely for a garden, the worms would be
plain to see and all he would have to do would be to pick them out. Think
how much easier that would be."
Mary Jane didn't answer. She looked out at the robin, but someway, she
couldn't quite take an interest in his affairs; she was too busy thinking
about her own secret and how disappointed Daddah would be when he saw that
old dress.
And then, just as she was going to ask the time, she spied him coming
around the corner. And she forgot all about dresses and remembered only
the secret. Down the steps, along the walk and out to the street she ran,
reaching the curbstone just as he pulled the car alongside.
"Hop in and ride around," he said, gayly. And then, as she climbed in he
added, "Lucky you put that dress on. I forgot to tell you to be ready with
something old. Now that you are we won't have to waste time changing."
Mary Jane stared. But seeing he seemed pleased, she said nothing about all
her worries over the old dress.
"Do we have the secret in the car?" she asked.
"Dear me, no!" laughed father, "it's plain to see that you haven't guessed
what it is. We'll put the car in the garage and then, while I slip on some
old clothes to match yours, you may open that bundle in the back, there.
It's part of the secret."
Mary Jane peered over the back of her seat at the queer looking bundle in
the car. It was about as tall as she was, she decided, and bigger around
than her two hands could reach and wrapped in brown paper and tied three
times with very heavy twine. Now what could that be?
Father set her down in the garage and handed her the package and then
hurried off into the house.
She tried to pull the strings off but they wouldn't pull; there seemed to
be a bunch of the wrapping paper at one end and a hump inside the parcel at
the other. So she decided to run in for mother's scissors.
But just as she got to the back steps, she met father coming out--it hadn't
taken him long to get into old clothes, that was certain.
"Never mind about the scissors, Blunderbuss," said he laughingly, using a
name he sometimes called her, "I'll take my knife."
Just three slashes of the sharp knife and the strings were off. Mary Jane
opened the paper with shaking fingers, she was that excited. And what do
you suppose she found?
A garden set--a spade and a hoe and a rake all just the right size for a
little girl to work with and so pretty and clean and new that Mary Jane
knew that they had been purchased on purpose for her.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands and dancing around, "it's a garden!
I know the secret now! It's a garden! That's what mother was trying to make
me guess and I never thought! May I have one all my very ownest own?"
"That's the secret," admitted Mr. Merrill, "and the garden is for you
only--just as long as you take care of it. Now you take your tools and I'll
take mine and we'll see where this garden is to be."
They paraded out of the garage and over to where the last summer's garden
had been. "I've been meaning to get at this for a week," said Mr. Merrill,
"but I hate to work alone. If you'll help me, we can have the finest garden
ever. Now where do you want yours to be?"
Mary Jane looked around thoughtfully. There was the rose bed--she surely
couldn't have that, it belonged to mother. And the asparagus bed, it was
already showing shoots of green. "I guess I'll take next door to the
rose bed," she decided promptly, "because I like roses. Can I dig it all
myself?"
"Pretty soon," said father. "I dig first with the big spade. Then you dig
with yours. Then I hoe it--I'll show you how when we're ready; and you hoe
with your hoe." And he set to work.
"Then do the things just grow?" asked Mary Jane as she watched him.
"Not till we plant them," answered her father. "What are you going to
have?"
"Worms for the robin so he won't have to work so hard," said Mary Jane
promptly, "and a lot of flowers."
"I guess you won't have to worry about the worms," laughed Mr. Merrill as
he turned over a big spadeful of earth, "Mr. Robin will find plenty--see?
I'll make a guess that he's watching us from the apple tree this very
minute! Suppose you run into the garage and look on the table there. You'll
find packages of seeds. Bring them out here and we'll see which you want in
your bed."
While Mr. Merrill gave the earth its heavy spading, Mary Jane got the
bright colored seed packages and spread them out on the sidewalk. Then
as she spelled out the letters, her father told her what each package
contained. Lettuce and radishes and nasturtiums and carrots and candy-tuft
and--
"Here's one that's me!" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly. She knew a very few
words and her own name was one of them.
"I thought you would find that," said Mr. Merrill, "so I bought that on
purpose for you. It's Marygold and you may have it in your bed, if you
like."
By that time the earth in her garden was turned and Mary Jane set to work
spading and hoeing just as hard as ever she could. She worked on one side
and her father worked on the other and very soon the earth was ready for
planting.
"Now," said Mr. Merrill, "while I loosen the earth around mother's rose
bushes, you make your trenches for the seeds." And he showed her just how
it was to be done.
[Illustration: "Here's one that's me!" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly.]
Mary Jane never felt so big, and grown-up and important in her life as when
she made those trenches with her bright new hoe. She worked and worked till
they were neat and even and exactly right. Then her father stopped his
digging and together they opened three packages and planted the seeds. The
nasturtiums went in front, because they were the smallest plants, father
said; then the Marygolds that grow so straight and tall; and then, because
father said every garden should have something useful as well as something
beautiful, back of the Marygolds, a row of early lettuce.
Just as the last bit of earth was patted down over the last row of seeds,
Mrs. Merrill called from the back door that dinner was about ready.
"And we're hungry enough to eat it, aren't we, Mary Jane?" asked Mr.
Merrill. "You put away your tools and run in and wash while I tend to my
big ones and get myself ready. Let's see who's the quickest!"
How Mary Jane did hustle! She set her new tools in the far corner of the
garage and then ran skipping into the house.
"Scrub your hands good, dear," said her mother as she hurried through the
kitchen. "Wash your face and then run upstairs and get your blue smock and
plaid ribbon. Dark blue dresses are the thing for gardening, but we like
gay frocks for dinner, don't we, sweetheart?"
And yet, with all that washing and dressing, Mary Jane reached the table
first--that just shows how fast she could hurry when she was racing with
father. Or maybe it was because she was so hungry. For she had three big
helpings of her favorite mashed potatoes--think of that!
"First thing in the morning, know what I'm going to do?" she announced as
she ate the last bite, "I'm going to get Doris to see my garden, she'll
like my flowers, I know."
"You can get Doris," laughed her father, "but don't expect flowers in the
morning. It will take them ten days to peep out of the ground. But don't
you worry, you'll like to show Doris the garden before it grows."
"I will," replied Mary Jane, "I'll do it tomorrow."
MARY JANE PLAYS SCHOOL
"Mother, may I go over and get Doris this morning?" asked Mary Jane as she
finished her breakfast. "I want her to come see my garden right away!"
"Not to-day," answered Mrs. Merrill. "Doris has the chicken pox so you will
have to stay home for a while," And then she was called to the telephone so
she didn't notice that Mary Jane ran straight for the window that looked
out over Doris's yard.
"I think that's funny that I can't go over and see Doris's chickens," she
said to herself rebelliously as she peered through the window. "I'm going
to look, and look and _look_ till I see them anyway, so there! And then
I'll telephone to Doris." She curled up on the window seat and watched and
watched her neighbor's yard but not a sign of a chicken did she see. "I
should think she would have to feed them now," she said to her big sister
who was hurrying off to school.
Sister Alice didn't quite understand what Mary Jane said and was in too big
a hurry to stop and inquire so she merely replied hastily, "Maybe you're
too late for breakfast," and ran on to school. So Mary Jane still sat at
that window and still watched for chickens. Finally when her legs were
beginning to get pricky and she was about ready to give up, her mother came
into the room.
"Where does she keep it?" asked Mary Jane.
"Where does who keep what?" replied Mrs. Merrill, "and what is my little
girl doing all this time?"
"I'm watching to see Doris's box of chickens," said Mary Jane, "do you know
where it is?"
"Box of chickens!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in amazement, and then she
suddenly realized how Mary Jane had misunderstood her. "Doris has no box of
chickens, dear, she has chicken POX--it's a sickness and Doris will have to
stay in the house for a few days."
"Oh-h-h," said Mary Jane slowly, "so that's why I can't play with her."
"That's why," agreed Mrs. Merrill, "and now what are you going to do?"
"I guess I'll play on the porch."
"I guess _not_" laughed mother, "because it's beginning to rain. I'm afraid
you'll have to play in the nursery. Why not play school?"
"I'm going to," replied Mary Jane, who always made up her mind very
quickly. "I'm going to right now because Alice showed me how." And she
skipped off gayly to the nursery.
There she pulled out every doll she had and set them in a long row on the
floor.
"Marie Georgiannamore, you shall be lady-come-to-visit because you're the
biggest and you are clean and new. I'll be teacher because I know the most.
My sailor boy and Mary Jane, Jr., shall be the graduating class like Alice
is and all the rest shall be the baby room."
Such a bustle and a hurry as there was after that! Mary Jane got out
all her doll chairs, every one, and set them in two rows--one for the
graduating class (a very short row of two chairs) and one for the baby room
(a very long row of many chairs). She dragged out her little piano to play
the songs on and got out fresh chalk for the blackboard.
"There, now, I guess we're ready to begin!" she said and she sat down in
the teacher's chair up front.
For a while everything went splendidly. The sailor boy must have known his
lessons well for he received very good marks--right up on the blackboard
where everybody could see they were, too--and the teddy bears sat up
straight and minded the rule about no whispering. But the straighter the
teddy bears sat, the more particular their teacher became about the others.
"Tommy!" she announced suddenly (Tommy was the sailor doll), "I should
think you would be ashamed to sit so slouchy when this good little bear
sits so straight--sit up nice now!" She picked up Tommy and sat him
straight in his chair, oh, so very straight--that he couldn't sit still
that way, he just tumbled off onto the floor!
"Tommy! I'm ashamed of you!" she said firmly. "Sit up!" And again Tommy was
pulled up straight. But evidently Tommy didn't have as much back bone as a
sailor boy should have, for he tumbled right down again.
"Tommy Merrill!" cried Mary Jane, now all out of patience, "I should think
you'd be ashamed to have a teddy bear sit straighter than you do! I think
I'll sit you up on" (Mary Jane looked around the room to see where he had
better be put) "on this radiator till you learn to behave." So, without
giving Tommy a chance to explain that his back was made differently from
the teddy bear's back and that he was sitting just as straight as ever he
could, Mary Jane put him up on the radiator.
"There, now, you sit there for a while, Tommy, and if you're good I'll let
you come down at recess time."
But as it turned out, there wasn't any recess in school that morning. Tommy
had no more than been set up on the radiator before Mrs. Merrill called up
the stairs to Mary Jane, who quickly dropped her piece of chalk and ran to
the top of the stairs.
"Did you call, mother dear?" she asked.
"Yes, Mary Jane," replied Mrs. Merrill, "come downstairs at once. Somebody
is here to see you."
Mary Jane dropped the book and chalk at the top of the stairs and ran down
as fast as ever she could--somebody to see her often meant a very good time
and she didn't want to miss a minute.
"Dr. Smith," said Mrs. Merrill as Mary Jane stepped into the room, "this is
my little girl, Mary Jane."
"I'm glad to know you, Mary Jane," said Dr. Smith.
Mary Jane made her very best courtesy; held out her hand and then looked up
into the stranger's face and asked, "Why does she call you a doctor?"
"Why shouldn't she?" asked the visitor curiously.
"Because you're not a doctor," answered Mary Jane positively. "Doctors wear
funny white coats and rub their hands together and say, 'Well, little girl,
what can I do for you to-day?' doctors do."
Dr. Smith and Mrs. Merrill laughed and the doctor sat down in the big
Morris chair and took Mary Jane in his lap.
"I'm sorry to disappoint any little girl," he said pleasantly, "but,
you see, I'm on a vacation so I don't have to wear a white coat and ask
questions. I can sit down in this comfortable chair and have a good time."
"Can you make Tommy behave while you are having a good time?" asked Mary
Jane.
"Who is Tommy?" inquired the doctor.
Mary Jane told him all about the school and Tommy who had trouble sitting
up as straight as the teddy bears did.
"I'm afraid I can't do much for Tommy this morning," said the doctor when
she had finished, "for I'm only here between trains. But I'll tell you what
you might do. You might pack Tommy and all the bears into a trunk and visit
your great-grandmother. Then I could help you."
"My great-grandmother!" exclaimed Mary Jane; "she lives way off in the
country!"
"To be sure!" nodded Dr. Smith, "and so do I--I live next door to her.
That's the reason I came to see you. Now ask your mother to let you go home
with me and then we'll have plenty of time to attend to Tommy."
"Oh, no, we couldn't think of that!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, before Mary
Jane had a chance to say a word. "Mary Jane is much too young to go so far
from home without me and I can not possibly leave home just now."
Mary Jane looked from one to the other. A new idea, a brand new idea, was
growing in her mind; the idea of making a visit--it had never occurred to
her before.
"Does my grandmother live in a big house?" she asked.
"In a great, big, white farm house," replied Dr. Smith, "and she has lots
of chickens and pigs and cows and strawberry patches and milk and--well,
about everything a little girl could possibly want. And now she wishes a
little girl named Mary Jane Merrill to come and visit her."
"And could I have really truly chickens of my own--not Doris's kind of
chickens?" asked Mary Jane.
Mrs. Merrill laughed. "I guess you could, dear, but you mustn't think about
it because you are not going. I'm afraid you have made trouble," she added
laughingly to Dr. Smith, "because when Mary Jane starts thinking about
something, she doesn't easily forget."
"Never you mind, Mary Jane," said Dr. Smith confidently, as he set her down
and prepared to go, "you talk about visiting your great-grandmother all you
want to, and some day you'll get there--you just see!"
"Will I really?" asked Mary Jane after the guest had gone.
"Really what?" said Mrs. Merrill.
"Really go to my great-grandmother's where the chickens and strawberries
are?"
"Dear me, I don't know," replied Mrs. Merrill. "I know you'll not go till
you are way, ever so much bigger girl than you are now--that's settled. Now
run along with your school. I think Tommy needs you."
So Mary Jane went back to the nursery and played school. And being the kind
of a little girl who knew it was not polite to tease, she didn't talk about
the country--much. But she didn't forget--indeed, no! Not even when she was
having a good time with the surprise that came a few days later.
AUNT EFFIE COMES TO VISIT
Great Aunt Effie lived way off in New York City, so far away that she had
never before come to visit at Mary Jane's house. So, when one fine morning
the postman brought a letter saying that in five days Aunt Effie would be
at the Merrills, Mary Jane was quite excited.
"What does she look like and how long is she going to stay?" asked Mary
Jane and then, before Mrs. Merrill could answer she added, "Will she like
to play with me?"
"Don't ask me!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, "I have never seen her either. She's
your Daddah's auntie, you know, ask him."
"That's funny," said Mary Jane, "How can she be just my Daddah's auntie?
Isn't she yours and mine too?"
"To be sure she is," replied Mrs. Merrill; "she's our auntie now but she
was his auntie first and we haven't had a chance to see her since she
belonged to you and me. When father comes home this noon you must get him
to tell you all about the good times he and his brother used to have at her
house when they were little boys. Then you will know that you will surely
love her very much and that you'll want her to stay at our house a good
long time."
When Mr. Merrill came home for lunch he gladly told her about many of the
good times this same auntie had given him when he was about as old as Mary
Jane.
So no wonder Mary Jane was interested in the coming of their guest. She
helped clean the guest room and all by herself fixed the vase of violets
for the dresser. And then she put on her second best dress and drove with
her father to the station to meet the unknown auntie.
Mr. Merrill locked the car and then he and Mary Jane went through the
station and clear out to the tracks so they might see Aunt Effie the minute
she got off the train. Pretty soon the great engine with its long trail
of big Pullmans came snorting and puffing into the station; the porters
stepped off the cars but not a single passenger appeared--except one small,
lonely-looking little woman in black who climbed out of the last car.
"She didn't come!" exclaimed Mary Jane in dismay.
"Yes, she did, and here she is!" laughed father as he stepped up to greet
the little lady. "Welcome, Aunt Effie! This is Mary Jane come to meet you!"
Now Mary Jane had never seen her grandmother or any older auntie, at least
she hadn't seen them recently enough to remember them because the Merrills
lived many miles from all their kith and kin. So she was much puzzled at
the little old lady and far too shy to do more than to drop a nice little
courtesy as her mother had taught her to do. Then they all climbed into the
car and drove home.
Aunt Effie was tired from her long journey so she didn't talk much that
evening and Mary Jane went off to bed feeling not one bit acquainted with
the auntie she had thought and talked so much about.
"I don't believe she likes little girls," she thought sadly. "I don't
believe she even _saw_ me because when grown folks see little girls they
always say, 'How old are you, little girl?' and then they say, 'My! my!
you're almost big enough to go to school!' and she didn't say a thing to
me!" And she went to sleep thinking about how fine it would be to have a
really truly "play-with" auntie come to visit.
Aunt Effie hadn't come down to breakfast yet when Mary Jane had finished
hers so she started playing all by herself. "I think I'll play dress up
to-day," she said to her mother as she slipped down from the table.
"That will be fine," said Mrs. Merrill; "the attic is plenty warm and you
can play up there all you like to, only you must remember to put everything
away neatly when you have finished playing."
"I will, mother dear," answered Mary Jane and she kissed her mother and
started up the stairs.
Now up in the Merrill attic, off in a nice comfortable corner where it
wouldn't be in any one's way, was the girls' "dress-up box." In it were
kept all the clothes that Alice and Mary Jane were allowed to play with.
There were old coats and wonderful old hats that were so queer one would
never guess real ladies had worn them! And slippers and hair ribbons and
petticoats and shawls and silk dresses and morning dresses and parasols
and--oh, the most things you ever saw! Whenever Mrs. Merrill had something
that she couldn't use any more and that wasn't worth giving away to some
needy person, she put it in the girls' box. And whenever the girls, either
Alice with her big girl friends or Mary Jane with her little playmates
wanted to dress up or have a show they helped themselves out of the box--it
was great fun as you can see. Many a morning when Mary Jane was tired of
being Mary Jane, she slipped off to the attic and dressed up to be somebody
else.
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