Part 1

Produced by Al Haines.

*MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND*

BY

*CLARA INGRAM JUDSON*

AUTHOR OF "MARY JANE--HER BOOK," "MARY JANE--HER VISIT," "MARY JANE'S KINDERGARTEN," "MARY JANE DOWN SOUTH," "MARY JANE'S CITY HOME."

_ILLUSTRATED BY THELMA GOOCH_

GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

Copyright, 1921 by GROSSET & DUNLAP, INC.

Mary Jane In New England _All Rights Reserved_

_Printed in the United States of America_

To my brother, DWIGHT HAROLD INGRAM, with happy memories of his commencement week

*CONTENTS*

Plans for the Journey A Day of Wetness First Glimpses of Boston An Unexpected Visit at Wellesley Class Day Fun--and Troubles Winning the Game The Adventure by the Lagoon Commencement in the Stadium Fun on the Beach A Day in Plymouth Visiting Cousin Louise The Willow Tree Cottage Lost! One Mary Jane Tea on the Terrace The Last Day in Boston--and Home

*LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS*

"Can we ride on them?" asked Mary Jane breathless with excitement . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

She sighed with relief as the offending shoe came off

"You almost touched it!" exclaimed Mary Jane

"My dear child! Where were you? We've hunted and hunted!"

*MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND*

*PLANS FOR THE JOURNEY*

"Then are we really going?" asked Mary Jane eagerly.

"To Boston and Harvard and Uncle Hal's Class Day and everything?" added Alice.

Mr. and Mrs. Merrill looked at each other and then at the long letter in Mrs. Merrill's hand.

"I do believe we are," said Mrs. Merrill thoughtfully.

"That's right!" approved Mr. Merrill heartily. "You'll never regret it. I am sure the girls are old enough to remember the interesting sights they will see and they may never have another chance to go to Harvard Class Day and all the 'doings' Hal writes about."

"And then," added Mrs. Merrill, "I always promised brother Hal I'd come when he graduated. One doesn't have a 'baby brother' graduate from Harvard every summer. Though I would like it better if you could go too."

"Sure you can't, Dad"? asked Alice, wistfully.

"Certain sure," replied her father. "With all the changes in the office just now I wouldn't think it wise to leave my work for men who are already loaded up. And then, too," he added when he noticed how disappointed the two girls looked, "remember we'll need somebody here to see about the new house--don't you forget that!"

"Of course we travel easily," said Mrs. Merrill, "and Hal promises to look after us so well."

"And makes good by sending that list," said Mr. Merrill. "I never saw the like of the way he has everything lined up for you--you couldn't get lost if you wanted to!"

Alice and Mary Jane Merrill, who with their father and mother had moved from the small town where they had always lived, to the big city of Chicago only a few months before, were having a most interesting time. Not only had they seen city sights, played in the parks and done good work in school; in addition they had made a number of fine friends and, partly through some of these friends, had discovered that they could have an even happier time if Mary Jane had some place to dig, and garden and play out of doors. Girls who live in flats can't very well have gardens--at least at Mary Jane's flat one couldn't. So the Merrills had started exploring and had quite suddenly bought a small piece of land on the edge of one of the outlying suburbs and there they planned to build a little "shack" where they could go every summer and play at being farmers. Such drawing of plans and studying of seed catalogues there never was--the girls found it wonderful fun.

Then, as though going to the country and making a garden was not enough to keep one little girl's head busy, there had come a letter from Mrs. Merrill's brother reminding her of a promise made long ago that she would come to his graduation from Harvard. At first it seemed as though such a trip wouldn't be possible. There was the house in the country to see to--and though it was to be only an unfinished cottage there were a thousand and one details about its building and furnishing that needed attention--the girls were in school and they had planned no summer dresses suitable to the gaieties of commencement week at Cambridge.

But a day or two of careful thinking and planning made Mrs. Merrill decide that they would go. Last year's "best" dresses had been let down and were very pretty; new ginghams for traveling surely would not be hard to make or buy and she loved making the dainty organdy dresses each girl would need for Class Day. The trip wouldn't take long and soon they would be back to attend to the new country home which would hardly have time to miss them.

Alice reached for the list Mr. Merrill had referred to and read what Uncle Hal had written out for them.

"Arrive in Boston Monday morning; Class Day, Tuesday; Baseball, Wednesday (tickets for you all) Commencement, Thursday and if the weather is fine you can all go, for it will be in the Stadium; Friday, sightseeing and anything you want to do." And below was a notation telling them he had had rooms engaged for weeks ahead at the Westminister Hotel, which was a very wise and thoughtful provision for their comfort, as Boston hotels are always more than crowded commencement week.

"It sounds like a lot of fun, Mother," she said happily.

"And are we going to sleep on the train and have hashed brown potatoes in the diner and live at a place by the ocean just like when we went to Florida?" asked Mary Jane.

"It won't be just like in Florida," explained Mr. Merrill, "because Boston is a big city like Chicago, and big cities have different sorts of hotels from any you have been in. But I'll venture to say you will have a good time. And if you stick to Uncle Hal's program you won't have much time for either napping or being homesick!"

"Dear me!" cried Mrs. Merrill suddenly glancing at the clock, "I don't know why we are sitting here all day dreaming! We ought to be making out lists and deciding what to take and do and everything. We're going to be busy people these next two weeks, let me tell you that."

Alice dashed to the desk for pencils and pads.

"Let's make out a list of what we have to do for the new house," said Mrs. Merrill, "and what we have to take and what I have to make or buy. And I can tell you this much," she added a few minutes later when the lists were well under way, "if I'm to do all those things before we go, you two people will have to do a lot of helping."

"Oh, we'd love that!" exclaimed Mary Jane eagerly, "I'd get breakfasts and Alice can wash all the dishes and--"

"What's all this?" demanded Alice as she looked up from the list she was finishing, "_I_'ll get breakfasts, and _you_ can wash dishes and--"

"Let's both do 'em both," corrected Mary Jane, "but I _can_ make toast and cook eggs; I just _know_ I can, mother dear, and I want to help a lot."

"I know you do, dear," said Mrs. Merrill, as she drew the little girl toward her, "and you're going to in just every way you can and will."

So it was decided that the two girls should do every bit of the housework they possibly could and let Mrs. Merrill have lots of time free for sewing and shopping and tending to the new house.

How those two weeks did fly! It really seemed no time at all since the four Merrills were sitting there deciding that they could go to Boston, till the last day had arrived and Mary Jane was having a dress up "try on" of her new organdy dress to be sure it was exactly right before it was packed. How they had all worked! Mary Jane had cooked--toast on the electric toaster and coffee in the kitchen and eggs boiled just as father liked them. And she had taken her turn with Alice at washing dishes and drying dishes and making beds and cleaning the bathroom (Mary Jane liked that the best of anything except cooking eggs with her own three-minute-glass to tell when they were done) and dusting and marketing and pulling out bastings--they had done all those things and more and Mrs. Merrill declared that never, never in the world, could she have finished so much work in two weeks' time if she hadn't had two fine assistants.

"Come here, dear," said Mrs. Merrill as Mary Jane danced off to look in the mirror, "I'll have to tack that bolero--there. Now let's tie the sash and try on the new shoes and be sure everything is just right."

But Mary Jane could hardly stand still. It was so thrilling to try on her first organdy dress--long pink ribbons, a white hat with pink streamers just like Alice's yellow ones and white stockings and brand new pumps, yes, truly, pumps like big folks. She could hardly wait to get everything on, she was so anxious to see herself.

Just as the last bow was adjusted, the bell rang three short taps, father's ring, and Mary Jane, looking all the world like a fairy dropped onto the stairs by some magic mistake, dashed down to greet him.

"Everything fits and it's all just right and don't I look nice and we're waiting for you to bring the trunk up from the basement and Alice has made apple dumplings--green apple dumplings for dinner so you'd better hurry," she finished, breathlessly.

"For that I will," laughed Mr. Merrill, "my! but you do look grown up, pussy!" he added as he looked her over carefully. "Shoes fit all right? Everything has to be just so for Class Day you know, young lady, for folks want to be comfortable as well as beautiful when they go to all day 'doings.'"

"She thinks everything is all right," explained Mrs. Merrill. "You look pleased about something. Is there anything new?"

"Maybe so," said Mr. Merrill so mysteriously that Mary Jane stopped in the hall to listen. "Think you could get off Saturday evening instead of Sunday morning as you had planned?"

Mrs. Merrill thought a second. "Yes, I guess we could," she decided, "it wouldn't make a lot of difference either way. But I thought you had our reservations?"

"Changed them," said Mr. Merrill. "How would you like me to go along as far as Niagara and spend Sunday with you there and then you folks go on east Sunday night?"

"Really, Daddah?" called Mary Jane happily, "then you could eat in the diner with us and sleep and everything!"

"Wouldn't Uncle Hal be flattered," teased Mr. Merrill, "if he knew that you talked more about the diner than you do about Class Day!"

"Oh, I like Class Day too," declared Mary Jane fingering her new sash, "but I'm glad we have to eat on the train to get there."

"For my part I'm glad to eat now," said Mr. Merrill as he sniffed the aroma of Alice's dumplings, "I know I could eat three, so you'd better hurry off with that finery, Mary Jane, if you want your share."

Just twenty-four hours later, the four Merrills boarded the train for Boston. Much to Mary Jane's interest, the conductor didn't call "all aboard!" and there wasn't a bit of excitement at the station. The great train dashed into the residence station where they had decided to board it, hesitated only long enough for the porter to assist the Merrills and their bags onto car 201 and off they went--through the factories and suburbs the girls had seen when they came to Chicago for the first time.

Mary Jane pressed close to the window and was eagerly watching the sight of busy city life she could see on the streets as they flashed by, when a white-coated man walked through the car calling "Second call for dinner! Second call for dinner!"

"Why we missed the first call!" exclaimed Mary Jane in distress.

"Cheer up, pussy," said her father, "that doesn't happen often."

"Well, we won't miss anything more," announced Mary Jane positively, "'cause I washed my hands the last thing and my gloves kept 'em clean."

It didn't take long to tuck gloves into coat pockets, put hats in a safe place and walk to the diner. And here Mary Jane had a dinner such as she loved, with hashed brown potatoes, and salad and ice cream--to say nothing of meat and bread and butter and a big glass of milk in a creamy white tumbler.

"Now tell us what Niagara Falls is going to look like," suggested Alice when they were back in their own car.

"Oh, I couldn't do that," said Mrs. Merrill, "you'll have to wait till morning. As soon as the porter makes up your berth, you can go to sleep and then, when you wake up, you can see it all for yourself--water--rivers of water! The most water you ever saw! That's what it is."

Mary Jane thought of that sentence the next morning when she wakened. She was alone in the lower berth--evidently mother was out and dressed--and she couldn't hear a thing but water. Water dashing against the window, water dripping in through the tiny screen at her feet, water sounding on the roof of the car till she couldn't hear another thing.

"Why, we've stopped right in the Falls," she cried to herself, as she whirled around to look out of the window, "and it's like she said, water, water--everything's water!"

*A DAY OF WETNESS*

"Alice! Alice! Wake up!"

Mary Jane reached her hand behind the curtain into Alice's berth just ahead and pounded briskly on the cushioned sides.

"Alice! Hurry and wake up 'cause we're stopped and we're right in the middle of Niagara Falls and it's a-falling down!"

Alice stirred drowsily and then, as she realized what her sister was saying, she sat up straight with a start of amazement.

"Why, Mary Jane Merrill, what are you saying?" she asked. "The train doesn't stop at the Falls--it doesn't even go close enough for us to see them from the train. I asked Daddah last evening before I went to sleep."

"Well," said Mary Jane, not in the least disturbed by her sister's doubt, "you just raise your window curtain and look out."

Alice did as she was told and for a minute she was inclined to believe Mary Jane must be right. Water, water, water was all she could see. Water in the air; water dashing against the window; water running off the roof of the car in great streams; grayness and wetness everywhere.

"Looking at the landscape, ladies?" asked Mr. Merrill as he poked his head through the curtains and saw Alice's amazement.

"Morning, Daddah!" whispered Mary Jane as she clambered over from her own berth, "it _is_ the Falls, isn't it? I told Alice we were right in 'em."

"You've reason enough to think so," laughed Mr. Merrill, "but as a matter of fact, you're not quite right. The 'Falls' which you see is rain--common everyday rain."

"I'd never call _that_ common everyday rain," said Alice as an extra hard beating of rain actually made her afraid the window pane wouldn't be enough to keep the water out of the car, "we never have rain like that at home."

"They don't have it like that often, anywhere," said Mrs. Merrill arriving from the dressing room, "and I hate to invite more gloom, but do you happen to recall that this party decided they wouldn't 'bother' with umbrellas?"

"What ever'll we do?" exclaimed Mary Jane with a gasp of horror.

"Swim, like as not," said Mr. Merrill comfortingly. "We might as well, because it's Sunday you know and no store open to buy umbrellas."

"Isn't it _lovely_!" sighed Mary Jane in a voice of perfect content.

"_Lovely!_" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill.

"_How_ lovely?" asked Alice.

"And she thinks it's 'lovely'!" mimicked Mr. Merrill.

"Well, it is," insisted Mary Jane. "When things look perfectly awful and you're sure they're all wrong, then we always think of something to do different and we have a beautiful time--we always do."

As though to prove her right, at that very minute the porter came along the aisle to Mr. Merrill and said, "There's a taxi man outside at the steps, sir, and he says if you want a cab sir, he can back right up to the steps and the ladies won't even get damp."

"Well, if there is any man living who thinks people won't get 'damp' this morning," said Mr. Merrill laughingly, "I'll engage him on the spot. As a matter of fact though, porter," he added, "the ladies aren't ready yet. Could your man come back in half an hour?"

"He means us when he says 'the ladies,'" whispered Mary Jane joyfully, "'cause mother's all dressed and ready to go."

"Don't you feel sort of _grand_?" Alice whispered back.

The porter, who of course hadn't heard these asides, promised to have the driver there in thirty minutes, and Alice and Mary began to dress in a rush. You see, the car of folks who were going to get off at Niagara had been dropped from the eastern train and put on a siding so there was no hurry about getting off. That was nice too, for it was much easier to dress when the train was standing still than when it was dashing along through the country.

In less than twenty-five minutes, all the "ladies" of Mr. Merrill's party were dressed and combed and ready to go and, promptly on time, the porter announced the waiting taxi. By that time the rain had abated a trifle though it was still coming down very hard.

"He has backed his car close up to the steps," said the porter, "so the ladies needn't get a bit of wet. Can't I lift the little girl out, sir? And here's an umbrella, sir," he added as he unfurled a huge cotton umbrella at the vestibule door.

Seeing them coming, the driver opened the taxi door and Mrs. Merrill slipped in safe and dry. Then Mr. Merrill helped Alice the same way and the porter set Mary Jane beside them.

"Well, so far so well," said Mr. Merrill as he stepped in after them and the car started off. "That was a clever plan. Now if we only don't get drenched getting into the hotel, we can at least get breakfast, no matter what the weather."

At the hotel they found a wide porte cochere so they were safe and dry there.

"You're going to like this," said Mrs. Merrill, as she looked around the lobby. "There are lots of little shops over there and you girls can look at the souvenir things even if it rains too much for you to see the Falls!"

"But breakfast first, please," suggested Mr. Merrill, "and you can eat all you like for we don't have to hurry to go anywhere."

Breakfast was served in a charming "sun parlor"--which of course was gray and dark because of the rain and mist but was beautiful anyway with the dainty furnishings and gay cretons. The windows that in clear weather looked out on the rushing river a bit above the Falls, showed nothing interesting now. But perhaps that was just as well, for folks don't care much about sightseeing before eating--at least Mary Jane didn't.

A delicious breakfast of fruit and chops and French fried potatoes kept the party so busy that it was with surprise they noticed, three-quarters of an hour later, that the rain had cleared away and that rifts of sunshine were coming through the clouds.

"Why it isn't raining!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "come on, let's hurry up and see everything."

A walk of five minutes and they found themselves standing on a great rock at the edge of the Falls. It was a good thing that Mrs. Merrill was close by Mary Jane, for there was something so vast and powerful and terrifying about the mad rush of those roaring, tumbling waters that even the iron bars around the edge of the rock couldn't quite make a little girl feel safe--it needed the hold of a person's warm hand to make one feel comfortable enough to stand there and watch.

For five minutes or more the four Merrills stood there looking. There wasn't any use trying to talk--the roar of the falling water make words seem fairy whispers that could not be heard by human beings. Mary Jane thought of a number of things she wanted to ask about--the boat, riding so close up to the foot of the Falls; the great bridge over the river so near by, how had men built it there? And the hotel across the Falls, could they go there? But it was not till they had turned away from the rocky observation point and were walking through the park again that she tried to talk.

"That boat down there," replied Mr. Merrill, "is called 'The Maid of the Mist.' Folks who like to do queer things think it's great fun to ride up close to the foot of the Falls, but we had enough water this morning to last us a while, didn't we? We'll take the Falls from the top this trip!"

As though to play a joke on him, at that very minute there was a patter on the trees overhead and pell-mell--down dashed a thousand raindrops. Great, round drops that pounded right through the trees and seemed to shout, "there's more to come, more to come, more to come!"

There was no use staying under a tree and there's no telling what would have happened to hats bought for Boston if Alice hadn't happened to spy a bandstand close by. A hasty dash for its shelter and they were safe--at least for a while.

"If it ever stops again," suggested Mrs. Merrill, "let's go over there and take the trolley that runs across the bridge Mary Jane was asking about, and ride down the gorge."

And of course it did stop in a few minutes and they hurried over and boarded a car. That was the most interesting trolley ride Mary Jane had ever taken or even dreamed of taking. Across the wonderful suspension bridge, along the very tip edge of the high bluff on the Canadian side of the river the car made its way--so close sometimes that Mary Jane held her breath lest it tumble over. Then, several miles down the river, they crossed another bridge and came up the American side. This wasn't so exciting as the banks were not nearly as high, but it was even more interesting, for from her seat in the car Mary Jane could see the rapids where the water dashed over the great jutting rocks and the whirlpool that was so fascinating to watch.

"Oh, let's get out here and wait a while," she cried as the car stopped at a tiny station. "I want to watch that water a-whirling around."

"Good idea, dear," said Mrs. Merrill, and she signaled the conductor that they wished to get off. But as though to make sport of them, the rain clouds which had appeared to be blowing away, opened up again and a shower of rain fell on the car roof.

"No sightseeing for us to-day," laughed Mr. Merrill, "except under cover. I think we'll keep under a roof while we have one handy!"

So they stayed on the car and rode on into the city. But there was a lot to see even from a trolley car and Mary Jane thought she never could forget all the wonderful and curious sights of that trip.

They got off at their hotel and the girls spent a happy two hours looking at the curios in the shop windows and then they had luncheon.

Again the sun tried to come out and the party took a carriage to drive to Goat Island. But just as sure as they attempted to get out of the carriage to have a close view of some sight the driver pointed out to them--just that surely would the pattering drops descend and drive them scurrying to shelter.

At five o'clock they drove to the train that was to take them to Buffalo where father was to put them on the train for Boston.

"I know one thing I'll never forget about Niagara," said Mary Jane as the train pulled out of the station, "and that is that Niagara Falls is awfully wet!"

"And next time we start on a trip," added Mrs. Merrill, "we'll carry umbrellas instead of packing them."

Mr. Merrill waited and had dinner in the Buffalo station with them and then saw them off for Boston before his train for Chicago pulled in.

"Have a good time," he called as their train pulled away, "and remember, I shall want to hear everything about Harvard and Class Day and Boston."

Mary Jane promised to see and remember every single thing, then she turned back to their section which the porter was already making up for the night.