Fortunately it wasn’t far to go. The beautiful trees along the river bank, dripping with streamers of Spanish moss, made such nice play corners that Mary Jane was much more interested in playing house than in seeing famous sights!
“Please let me stay here and play while you look at houses, Mother,” said the little girl. “I’ll stay right here, ’deed I will, and I can’t get lost because in front there’s only the river and in back there’s only the road and the house and you.”
“And let me stay too,” said Alice; “I could make the nicest play house here—see, Mother, those twisted branches and the view across the river?”
So the grown folks went on with the sightseeing and the two girls and about eight of the neighbor children stayed by the river bank.
“Now,” said Alice, who was quite at home making playhouses even though they were located in Florida, “this is the living room and here’s the dining room and here, where you can see the river best, is the porch.”
“Where’s your walls?” asked one of the neighbor children who evidently wasn’t used to making up houses as the Merrill girls were, “looks like all one room to me!”
“But it isn’t,” explained Alice, “you have to pretend the walls.”
“You can’t pretend walls,” laughed the boy, “walls is real! Can’t you make ’em?”
“Yes, we could if we had burrs,” said Alice thoughtfully looking around. “Have you got anything here that will stick together easily?”