“Here comes Aunt Helen looking as if she had some scheme afoot. Perhaps she has decided about the summer plan.”
“How would you all like to drive to Fort Myer to see the cavalry drill this afternoon?” said Miss Helen coming in.
“We were just talking about that very thing,” cried Mary Lee. “It would be fine, Aunt Helen.”
“I think you would be interested and it is a lovely afternoon. Your mother doesn’t care to go out for she has been shopping all morning, so if you will get ready we can start off in about half an hour.”
It was already June and there was a feeling of summer in the warm air. The season comes early to the capital and the gardens were gay with flowers; roses clambered over porches and windows, fountains were playing, and grass was green in the parks. Those who summered away were fast leaving and the streets were not so full of people as earlier. Old Georgetown retained its usual quiet, broken at intervals by a passing trolley-car or an automobile climbing up the steep streets.
“There is one thing I like about Washington,” remarked Nan as the carriage turned to cross the Aqueduct bridge, “we need only to pass over the Potomac and we are in Virginia, and we can, moreover, see the shores of our native state any time we choose. How lovely the green banks look, Aunt Helen.”
“And the river, too,” said Jack. “I like those places where the trees bend over to look at themselves in the water.”
Nan smiled at her little sister. Jack was wont once in a while to surprise her by some such remark. She was a harum-scarum little somebody, very sociable and impulsive though warm-hearted and with a fearless spirit.
“And now we are in Virginia,” she went on as the carriage left the bridge for the road.
“I don’t feel a bit different,” remarked her twin.