“This is the living room and here’s the dining room and here, where you can see the river bed, is the porch” Page [58]
Three children darted off shouting “Yes! We’ll get it!” all in one breath and in a few minutes they were back with great prickly branches.
“Goody! Goody! Goody!” shouted Mary Jane happily, “now we’ll have time to make the whole house before mother gets back, ’cause those are so nice and big.” She reached out for a branch so as to begin building her share.
But dear me, she didn’t know much about Florida “prickers” or she wouldn’t have been in such a hurry! The branches had tiny, queer little prickers far different from any she had ever touched or seen and in a second her fingers were full of itching barbs.
“Wait, wait, wait!” called one of the bigger girls, “don’t rub it! Don’t touch it! I’ll get them out for you.” She must have had them in her own fingers before, because she seemed to know exactly how to get the troublesome things out. And then, when Mary Jane’s hand felt all right again, the big girl, who said her name was Maggie, showed them just how to handle the pricky cactus branches without getting the sharp spines into fingers.
Then Alice showed them a plan of making the walls and the children set to work. It was fun making a tree house in the crooked, gnarled, moss-covered old tree and it was fun playing with new children who so quickly learned to play just as the Merrill children did.
“What’s yer doing?” asked one girl as she saw Mary Jane apparently pinch herself.
“I’m just a-pinching myself,” laughed Mary Jane; “couldn’t you see? I’m a-pinching myself to see if I’m me! I feel like I was somebody else I’m dreaming about ’way down here playing.”
“Well, you’re you, don’t you worry,” said Alice gayly, “and you better hurry if you want to finish sticking flowers in this wall because I can hear the folks coming back as sure as can be.”