“I’m after tangerines,” called Alice as she spied a tree of her favorites not far away.
“Well, I don’t want lemons—sour old things!” exclaimed Mary Jane when she saw that she had picked the wrong tree; “I want those little things.”
“Kumquots,” said Mrs. Merrill; “I do too, dear. Here’s a tree.”
It was fun to pick the fruit directly from the long hanging branches; and still more fun to suck the sweet juice with which the golden fruit was filled.
“Who’d have guessed,” exclaimed Alice, “that tangerines could be so juicy—not I!”
But after a little while, appetites were satisfied and the children wanted to play.
“I’ll tell you what let’s do,” suggested Mary Jane after she had eaten about a dozen kumquots and had decided that she simply couldn’t eat another suck; “let’s play house and each tree’ll be a house and that great big old tree’ll be a hotel.”
“And we’ll dress up and be queens and go to visit,” added Alice.
“How you going to dress up in an orange orchard where there aren’t any clothes?” asked Katherine.
“Oh, you don’t have to have real clothes to dress up in—not every time, you don’t,” said Mary Jane scornfully; “Alice can fix it—you see!” and she turned to hear her sister’s plan.