“So we are,” laughed Mr. Merrill, “but going takes a while. We start South to-night. Then we ride all to-night and all to-morrow. To-morrow night we get to Birmingham. You remember we are going to stop a day with Uncle Will there. All day Friday you’ll be seeing wonderful things in that city. Then Friday night we’ll get on a sleeper train again and Saturday morning we’ll be in Jacksonville.”
“And there’s flowers,” added Mary Jane.
“Just so,” said Mr. Merrill.
“And alligators?” asked the little girl.
“Oh, lots of alligators they tell me,” laughed Mr. Merrill. But just then the traction came along so Mary Jane didn’t have a chance to explain her plan of bringing alligators home to Doris, which was perhaps just as well, for Mr. Merrill had plenty to think of as it was.
With buying hats and shoes and getting lunch and dinner the day went on wings and nine o’clock came before Mary Jane had had time to think of being tired.
The big train pulled in just on time, its lights all a-blazing and the observation car looking most inviting. The porter had the berths made up ready and, in spite of the fact that Mary Jane had just declared she was not tired a bit and could sit up for two hours yet, that soft white pillow and turned down cover looked very nice. She decided that the observation car could wait till morning for inspection.
The last thing she said, before Mrs. Merrill pulled the heavy curtains together for the night was, “Mother, may I have anything I want for breakfast? If I may, I’m going to have two orders of hashed brown potatoes and not anything else!”