Part 4

"Look at that child!" exclaimed Alice. "Look, Mary Jane, at what she's doing! She's trying to make her doll sit on the edge of the dock, and anybody would know a doll couldn't do that!"

Evidently everyone around there except the little lady herself was of the same opinion as Alice, for the other children were trying to tell her that the doll couldn't sit there; that she would fall in surely, surely, if such a thing was attempted.

"And it's such a pretty doll too," worried Mary Jane. "Come on, Alice, let's get off and tell her not to do it. Maybe she'll mind us 'cause she doesn't know us."

But they were too late. Just as they stepped off the swan boat ready to hurry over to the end of the dock where the children were, the little lady succeeded in getting the doll set stiff and straight at the very edge of the dock. For a breathless instant the doll sat there. Then, so quickly nobody could reach out a hand or do a thing, the prettily-dressed doll tumbled over on its face--splash!--into the lagoon.

For an instant the children all stood motionless in amazement. Then the little mother began to cry, "My dolly's drowned! My dolly's drowned! I didn't want my dolly to drown!"

"Then what did you sit her on the edge of the dock for?" demanded an older boy who had tried with the others to tell her that the doll might fall in.

"'Cause I wanted her to sit there!" retorted the girl, "that's why!" Then with a sudden recollection of her loss, the impudence left her and she sat down on the dock and began to cry.

"Let's call for help," suggested Mary Jane, and she looked around to see just where her mother and uncle were sitting.

"Call nothing!" exclaimed the big boy, "do you want to get us all run in? Ain't you got no sense?"

Mary Jane looked at him in amazement. What was "run in" and why not call for help when a beautiful doll was drowned?

Alice, too, was surprised at the boy's attitude but being his own age she wasn't backward about asking for an explanation.

"Why not call for help?" she demanded. "How are you going to get the doll out?"

"Don't you worry about that," he said tartly, and then, more politely, he explained, "the park cop told us not to stay close by the water, and here she went and let her doll fall in and if we holler he'll hear sure as shooting and come and order us on. You just stop crying now," he said to the little mother who, frightened by his order to keep still was crying softly to herself, "we'll get her out for you--you just wait!"

"Is she your sister?" asked Alice.

"Sister--nothing!" replied the boy, "think my sister would have such a fine doll? That's my sister," he added, jerking his thumb toward a ragged little girl on the edge of the group, "my sister ain't got no doll--but she ain't a cry baby either!" he added.

Alice looked interestedly at the child thus pointed out. She was a bright, pretty looking little girl with oh, such a poor dress--and no doll? Why she was just Mary Jane's age--but this was no time to stand looking at other folks, and she turned to the water to see what could be done.

Mary Jane, in the meantime, had crept up to the edge of the dock and was peering down into the clear water.

"There it is," she said, pointing, "see? It's right down there! Now, don't you cry, we're going to get it out in a jiffy. I wish I had a long stick to poke with."

"You don't need a stick," said the big boy, peering over beside her. "See how shallow it is? And a stick would just stir up mud and get its clothes all dirty."

"I could pretty nearly reach it without a stick," suggested Mary Jane as she sat on the pier and reached down into the water.

"That's an idea," exclaimed the boy, "that's just what I'm going to do." He proceeded to lie down flat on the narrow dock and stretch his hands down into the water.

"You almost touched it!" exclaimed Mary Jane excitedly, "just reach a little more--"

"But I can't reach any more!" said the boy, "see?" And he looked up for a suggestion. "Oh, I'll tell you what!" he added, "I'll reach over farther and you hold my feet so I won't fall in. Then I'll reach down with one hand and I'll bet I get it."

He wormed himself closer to the edge of the dock and while Alice held tightly to his shoes, he reached down, down, down into the water.

"He's got it," reported Mary Jane, who was watching, "he's touched it and he's got it--look!"

Sure enough. The boy wiggled back a bit from the very edge and lifted the dripping doll out of the water.

"Oh, my dolly! My dolly!" cried the little mother, "but she's all wet!"

"What did you expect after such a soaking?" chuckled the boy, "but water'll dry. My coat's wet but it'll dry in this warm air." He took off his coat and spread it out in the sun on the dock.

"And that's what you must do to your doll," said Mary Jane. She loved nothing so much as mothering folks--children, dolls--it didn't matter which just so they needed something done for them. "Here, let me help you and we'll have her fixed in a jiffy."

She sat down on the dock, with the little mother beside her, and began to undress the soaked dolly. "Now we'll take off her dress--so. And then her petticoat--so. And we'll spread 'em all out in the sun--so."

"Why don't you spread 'em on a bush?" asked the boy practically, "that's what I do when I go swimming."

"Here, I'll do it," said his sister, and the shy little brown-eyed girl forgot all about herself and being afraid of strangers in her eagerness to touch the doll's pretty wet clothes.

"Then you do it," agreed Mary Jane. Very carefully she took off stockings, shoes, underclothes, every stitch the doll had on and the little Italian girl spread the things on the bushes in the sunshine.

"You ought to spread the doll too," said Alice, "she's so wet the clothes get wet as soon as you put them back on."

"I'll tell you," suggested Mary Jane jumping up hurriedly, "let's get mother and Uncle Hal to hold it in the sun while we take a ride on the swan boat."

"Y'haf ta have money to ride those boats," replied the boy, "and we ain't got none."

"You don't have to have money if you have tickets," answered Mary Jane, "and I've got plenty of those--see?" And proudly she displayed the tickets she had put in her pocket when she began undressing the doll. "Come on, lets!"

Holding the undressed doll in her hands, she ran around the lagoon to where her mother was sitting. "Mother!" she exclaimed suddenly, "will you please hold this doll in the sun so it'll dry while I take these folks for a ride?"

"What in the world?" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in amazement as she saw the strange children, the dripping doll and her own excited little girl.

"She drowned," explained Mary Jane, pointing to the doll, "and he rescued her," pointing to the boy, "and we're all going to take a ride."

Hal looked at the children and suspected that they were to be Mary Jane's guests--with the exception of the little girl who owned the doll they were ragged and poor looking, so he asked, "Have enough tickets, Mary Jane?"

"Just enough," replied Mary Jane, "with Alice's and mine together."

"Then we'll hold the doll and watch you ride," said Mrs. Merrill.

The children scampered over to the dock and got aboard a boat. The little Italian girl sat with Alice and Mary Jane and the others took the back seat.

"Oh!" exclaimed the child rapturously, as the boat slowly moved away from the shore, "ain't it just like a fairy story?"

"You like stories too!" cried Mary Jane delightedly, "so do I and I feel just like a princess. I do every time I ride on 'em."

"I never rode on one before," said the stranger, "but I feel like a princess now, I do."

"Never rode on a swan boat, never had a doll," the thought kept running through Mary Jane's head during the rest of the ride and while they were getting off and going back to her mother, "never had a doll--" How funny that would seem!

The rescued doll was not dry yet, of course, but Uncle Hal had procured a paper to wrap it in, so that it could be carried home safely.

"We'll get the clothes and wrap them up too," said Alice, and Mary Jane, and the mother of the doll ran and brought the clothes from the bush at the other side of the lagoon, and Alice wrapped them carefully so nothing could be lost out on the way home.

While she was doing that, Mary Jane whispered to her mother, "Won't you please find out the name of that little girl with the brown eyes, and the boy, Mother dear, and where they live, and I'll tell you why when we get home to the hotel?"

Mrs. Merrill pulled out her tiny notebook and tactfully asking the boy for his name and address, wrote them down in the book. Then they all said a good-by to their new friends, for it was now high time they were getting back to dress for dinner.

"Mother dear," said Mary Jane as she skipped along beside her mother five minutes later, "that little girl never had a doll and she never went on the boats before though she lives right here in Boston. And as soon as we get home I want to send her a doll, all dressed in pretty clothes and everything--may I please?"

"Indeed yes, dear," answered Mrs. Merrill, much pleased with the idea. "We'll do it just as soon as we get home, and you and Alice may make the clothes and have it a really gift of your own."

When, an hour or more after dinner that evening, Mary Jane snuggled down in her bed for a long night's sleep, she said to Alice, "Didn't we have fun to-day? Winning the game and going boat riding and rescuing the doll and everything? Now I wonder what'll happen to-morrow?"

*COMMENCEMENT IN THE STADIUM*

The first thing Mary Jane did when she wakened the next morning was to run and look out of the window. All their plans for the day depended upon the weather. Year after year the Harvard commencement had been held in Sanders Theatre, one of the rooms in Memorial Hall, and as the graduating class was always so large and the theatre so small in comparison, it was impossible for each student to have more than one ticket--and of course that meant that Mary Jane was not to go. But this year, partly through the influence of her own Uncle Hal, it had been decided to hold the exercises in the Stadium--if the weather permitted. And that meant that Mary Jane could go; in fact, she had the ticket all ready, the ticket marked so plainly "not good in case of rain."

A glance at the sky showed her she was not to be disappointed. It was clear and blue and the few dainty white clouds scattered about looked as unlike rain clouds as could be. It was a perfect June day.

"Goody!" she exclaimed, as she ran back to take a peep at the precious ticket. Not many little girls of six ever went to a Harvard commencement, and Mary Jane guessed that she was very fortunate.

Mrs. Merrill suggested that as both girls had had a good night's sleep, they dress and take a bit of a walk before breakfast, stopping on the way for Mary Jane's shoes which were to be ready. So Mary Jane slipped on a dark gingham dress after her bath, and they started out. There was only time for a short walk as they were tempted into the library and lingered to enjoy the pictures. Mary Jane knew the story of the Holy Grail, as every girl should, and she and Alice both enjoyed looking at the lovely paintings.

"Let's come again!" exclaimed Alice as her mother reminded them that they simply must not stay any longer now, as Uncle Hal would be waiting.

"Oh, I just love it here!" whispered Mary Jane as they walked down the broad marble staircase. "Doesn't it make you feel like a princess in your own castle? I can just see my subjects walking behind holding up my train and thinking how grand and lovely I look."

"Seems to me a good many things make you feel 'like a princess,'" said Mrs. Merrill smilingly, "the swan boats and now the marble stairs of the library."

"Well, I guess Boston must be a princess-y sort of a place," replied Mary Jane, "'cause I never felt that way in Chicago. I like Boston. I like Chicago too," she added loyally, "but Boston is more princess-y feeling."

They crossed the Square and hurried up to their room to dress. The girls were to wear the dainty little organdies they had worn on Class Day. Mrs. Merrill had had them pressed and when the girls stepped into the room there they were on the beds--as fresh and crisp as new. And now that the new shoes were fixed with a soft pad of leather at the heel to keep them from slipping up and down and making a blister, there was nothing likely to mar the day.

It didn't take long to dress as everything was laid out ready, and soon the three Merrills were in the subway, dashing out to meet Uncle Hal at Harvard Square. There wasn't much time for visiting; and anyway, Mary Jane didn't feel much like visiting just "common-like" with a queer-looking uncle who wore a long black dress and had a funny pointed cap on his head. Her mother explained that it was a "gown" not a dress, and that all the students who graduated that day and all the men of the university wore them. Mary Jane had, of course, seen a good many of them on Class Day but she couldn't get used to her own Uncle Hal having such a funny gown.

They all went over toward the Stadium together, and as they stepped upon the bridge across the Charles River, Uncle Hal picked her up and set her on his shoulder while Mrs. Merrill took a picture of them.

"There now," said Hal as he set her down again, "if anybody ever doubts that you came to my commencement they can just look at that! There's the Charles River in it and the Stadium in the background and you and I in front--if we didn't break the camera."

In the row in front of them, in the Stadium, sat Hal's friends, Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey. Alice and Mary Jane had never met them before, though Mrs. Merrill had known them some time.

"I'm so sorry you've been here all these days and we've been away," exclaimed Mrs. Humphrey, as the Merrills were seated. "We just got in this morning. I'm wondering if you and these nice girls wouldn't like to go for a drive this afternoon? Have you been down on the south shore? Toward Nantasket?"

"We haven't done a thing but Harvard!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, "because Hal wanted us to go to all the exercises and parties. We've had a marvelous time, but aside from one short ride, we haven't tried to see anything of Boston--I thought that would keep till the job of graduating my brother was over," she added.

"That's just the way I knew you would feel," answered Mrs. Humphrey, "because I know how Hal's been counting all winter on your seeing everything. But now that it's so soon over you'll have time for a ride with us. You're not going to the boat races are you?"

"No," said Mrs. Merrill, "I thought that would be almost too much of a crowd for the girls, so we've planned to go to Plymouth to-morrow while Hal and some friends go to the boat race, and then I want to stop over night with a dear cousin in Marshfield."

The talk was interrupted just then by the arrival of the first of the long procession of men entering the Stadium. Mary Jane could hardly sit still she was so thrilled by the sight of the long line of marching men--all in black gowns relieved here and there by the capes of scarlet or blue or purple some wore. And the bands playing and the crowds of people all interestedly watching--of course she couldn't understand it all, but she loved seeing it--it seemed like a scene from an old time pageant.

But by the time the exercises were over Mary Jane was tired enough from sitting on the hard stone seat and from watching and trying to understand. So the idea of lunch at some place in Cambridge without waiting to go back to Boston, sounded very welcome.

"We'll go where Uncle Hal goes sometimes," suggested Mrs. Merrill. "I know the very place on the way back to the Square. You may have a sandwich and some ice cream and anything else they have, that you'd like."

"And is it all over?" asked Mary Jane as she ran along beside her mother, glad of the chance to hurry a bit and limber up the muscles stiffened by long sitting.

"All over, I think, honey," replied Mrs. Merrill. "All over for us anyway, as we're not going to the races. And won't we love that ride this afternoon? Hal will be busy packing up, and we'll get just that extra bit of fun thrown in."

Mary Jane found just what she wanted for lunch and was much refreshed, so, leaving a note in Hal's room in order that he would know their plans, they took the subway back to their hotel to change and make ready for the drive. White organdy dresses were not the most suitable frocks for an all-afternoon motor trip.

Promptly at two o'clock Mrs. Humphrey arrived in a beautiful limousine. Mary Jane, who wasn't used to a car of her own, had puzzled considerably as to what sort of a car Mrs. Humphrey might have, and had insisted that she wanted to wear a grown-up-lady veil so as not to muss her hair.

"You won't need a veil, dear," Mrs. Merrill had said, positively, "little girls don't need veils when their hair is short, no matter what kind of a car they ride in."

"But I saw a picture that had a little girl with a veil and a lady with a veil," said Mary Jane, "and I want to wear the big pink one, I do."

"Suppose you take it instead of wearing it," suggested Mrs. Merrill. "Then you'll have it if you need it, and you won't be bothered taking it off if you don't need it."

So Mary Jane went out to the car carrying a long floating veil of pink chiffon, and from her grand manner it was plain to see that again she felt "just like a princess."

Mrs. Merrill sat with Mrs. Humphrey in the big back seat and Alice and Mary Jane sat on the chairs just in front of them.

Mary Jane was much thrilled by the dignified looks of the middle-aged chauffeur and when Mrs. Humphrey said, "We're ready now, Higgins, drive down the south shore the way we like best, you know the route?" she couldn't keep her enthusiasm to herself.

"I think Higgins is an awfully nice name," she confided to Mrs. Humphrey. "I read a book, that is, mother read it to me, and it had a Higgins in it and I liked him a lot. I always thought I'd like to talk to a Higgins.

"Does yours talk again?" she added as she saw no sign of conversation in the straight shoulder before her.

Mrs. Humphrey's lip twitched. How explain to eager little Mary Jane that Higgins was so dignified everyone had to be careful of his feelings? Higgins was the most dignified of all the story-book Higginses ever invented! So she merely said, "I think he's rather busy driving just now, and we want to have a careful driver, don't we dear?" And then, in an effort to change the subject she added, "Isn't that a lovely garden?"

But Mary Jane wasn't that easily diverted and Higgins was very much on her mind--as Mrs. Humphrey was to discover later.

*FUN ON THE BEACH*

The drive down the south shore was very beautiful; the girls both enjoyed the glimpses they saw of Quincy, Hingham and Neponset--the quaint old-fashioned houses, so different from anything they had ever seen before, the lovely gardens and the view of the bay and various inlets that they caught from time to time. The road was good and the powerful car dashed along under the wide spreading trees that edged the roads. The girls were much refreshed by this sort of entertainment.

But Mary Jane was disappointed by one thing--it wasn't really windy enough to _need_ a veil. And she did want to wear one. As they neared the ocean though, they felt a stronger breeze, a breeze that came gustily through the open windows of the limousine, and she felt justified in using the veil she had carried over her arm. It wasn't particularly easy to adjust a veil two yards long while they were driving so rapidly, and Alice had to help her sister, for Mary Jane insisted in putting it entirely over her hat and tying it under her chin.

Mrs. Merrill and Mrs. Humphrey were busy talking and didn't notice what Mary Jane was doing till the veil was almost fixed. Then Mrs. Humphrey noticed it, and was all regret for coming this route.

"My dear!" she exclaimed to Mrs. Merrill, "I didn't know your little girl was so delicate! We should never have come this way! We could just as well have driven west and then she wouldn't have felt this awful wind from the ocean! Why, it's just too bad! We'll have Higgins turn around at once! I should have asked you, only your little girl _looked_ so strong and I thought she and her sister might like to go in bathing at the beach. Such a dear little thing to watch and put the veil on herself at the first breath! My nephew's children are so careless--they never _will_ wrap up as--"

There seemed no hope of the good lady ever stopping, so Mrs. Merrill interrupted to say, "Don't be a bit concerned, Mrs. Humphrey, Mary Jane is not delicate--in fact she is very strong and vigorous. But she did want to wear a veil and pretend to be grown-up, and she has taken advantage of the first breeze to think she must put it on."

Mary Jane was panic-stricken. She wasn't sick; she'd love to go swimming in the ocean, and the very thought of leaving that pretty beach they were just approaching and turning west made her sorry. What _had_ she done by putting on her veil?

"Don't you worry 'bout me," she said to Mrs. Humphrey, "I'm never sick. But I like to wear a veil--a big lady veil. Don't you like to, too? But I like to go swimming too, I do."

"Very well then," said Mrs. Humphrey, smilingly, "you shall go swimming. I guess I don't understand little girls very well. But I know they always like to come to the beach and they like to eat--oh, 'most anything."

"Then you know them pretty well after all," said Alice laughing.

"But they can't eat before they swim," said Mary Jane, "little girls can't."

"To be sure," agreed Mrs. Humphrey as the car came to a stop on the shining sand, "but if they go in the water at once--they won't have to wait long to eat, will they?"

As the girls climbed out of the car they decided that Mrs. Humphrey knew considerable about girls even if she didn't happen to understand Mary Jane's notions about wanting to dress up like grown folks.

At the right hand end of the long beach was a private clubhouse where Mr. Humphrey had a membership, and there Mrs. Humphrey took Alice and Mary Jane to fit them out with bathing suits.

"I wish someone we knew was here to go in with you," said she worriedly, as they walked toward the beach after the girls had dressed. "Of course Higgins is bringing lap rugs down close to the water and your mother and I will sit right there near. But you could have more fun with the big waves, if someone could take you out."

They threaded their way through the crowds of folks on the sand to the spot where Mrs. Humphrey thought the cleanest, nicest sand was found, and there--just as though he had been there all afternoon--was Uncle Hal and three of his friends!

"I thought you were going to pack!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in amazement.

"So I was," laughed Hal, "but why pack when I could go in swimming?"

"But how did you happen to come here?" asked Alice.

"I didn't 'happen,'" Hal assured her. "Art came over and said you were coming down here, and as it turned off so hot, wouldn't I like a swim, and I would--so here we are. Want some good company?"

"'Deed we do!" Mary Jane assured him, and much relieved, Mrs. Merrill and Mrs. Humphrey sat down on the rugs to continue their visit while the two girls, with the four college men for escorts, raced down into the water.