Alice dashed into the house with a flurry of good spirits.
"Oh, mother," she exclaimed, "the girls say that the violets are out and we do want to have a wild flower hunting picnic up Clearwater! May we? And may I go?"
Mrs. Merrill dropped her work and looked up at her big girl in surprise.
"A picnic up Clearwater!" she said. "Is it warm enough for picnics? Oh" (as Alice started to exclaim), "I know it is warm enough if a little girl has been running home from school—I don't doubt that it is! But you must remember that the ground stays damp a long time in the spring and that a picnic usually means sitting around on the ground."
"Well, this wouldn't be a sitting around picnic, mother," said Alice eagerly, "because we're going to hunt violets and you can't sit around much if you do that."
"No, that's true," laughed Mrs. Merrill, who very well knew how Alice loved to flower hunt through the woods. "Who are 'we' that you speak of?"
"Oh, Ruth and Marcia and Frances, of course, and maybe Virginia and Jane," replied Alice.
"And whose mother is going along?" questioned Mrs. Merrill, who always liked to get all the information she could before making a decision.
"The girls all hoped you'd go, mother," said Alice, proudly, "because you're such good fun at a picnic."
"Jollier!" teased Mrs. Merrill. "What would I do with Mary Jane?"