“THOSE girls won’t be awake for an hour yet!” said a voice just outside Mary Jane’s window the next morning; “I’ll bet I see the first alligator all right!” But Ned Ritter shouldn’t have been so sure! He little guessed that as he was taking his early morning walk around the boat with his father, he made that rash remark just outside the Merrill girls’ window. And still less did he guess that Alice, just waking up, heard him.
“Mary Jane! Mary Jane!” she whispered; “let’s get up!”
No answer.
“I’ll have to wake her,” said Alice to herself. She bent over the edge of the upper berth where she was sleeping and gave Mary Jane’s elbow a vigorous pull. Mary Jane was that surprised she sat straight up in bed even before she opened her eyes.
“Where is it?” she asked, evidently thinking of alligators.
“Goodness knows!” laughed Alice in a more natural voice now, for Ned and his father had walked out of hearing. “But if we want to see anything first, we’d better be getting up, Mary Jane, because Ned’s out on deck and maybe Katherine is too.”
“Let’s ask mother if we can’t get up now,” suggested Mary Jane and she tapped on the partition. They had made up a code before they went to bed the night before so Mrs. Merrill knew exactly what they meant to say. One tap meant “Mother, are you there?” two taps meant “Please I want a drink,” and three taps meant “Is it time to get up?”
“I was just listening for those taps,” said Mrs. Merrill, at the door of the stateroom; “open the door, girls, and I’ll help you dress. I’m all ready and you want to get out doors as soon as you can—it’s a beautiful morning!”
With her help at buttons and with their hair the dressing business went very quickly and in a very few minutes all three were out on the deck.
“No alligators yet,” Ned’s disappointed voice greeted them.