"Yes, I can, mother," cried Mary Jane happily. "I'll get the old scissors to cut out the papers while Alice begins."
"Will you cut the bread for me, mother?" asked Alice. "You cut it evener than I can."
"Gladly," replied Mrs. Merrill. "Then I'll skip up to the grocery with my order so that things can be delivered in time, before we lock up the house."
She cut the bread and set it in neat piles ready for the sandwich making; then she hurried off on her errand and the girls set to their work.
Mary Jane cut the papers and chopped nuts in a chopping bowl and got the lettuce from the ice box and wrapped up the sandwiches Alice made. She could do that nicely—wrap them just as nice and neat as though they were packages from a store. She set them at the back of the table ready for the baskets; three nut sandwiches, three celery sandwiches, three lettuce sandwiches and three jelly sandwiches all ready to be put into Alice's and mother's and her own baskets.
"There, now," said Alice, as she made the last one, "that's four for each of us and mother said that would be plenty with all the other good things we'd have to eat. But, Mary Jane!" she added in dismay, "we haven't a single meat sandwich! And I do love meat sandwiches! How could mother have forgotten that?"
"She didn't forget it," said Mary Jane, "she—" And then she clapped her hand over her mouth and ran out of the room for fear she'd tell the secret.
But Alice was so interested in her sandwiches that she didn't notice, which was a very good thing as Mary Jane wouldn't have wanted her secret guessed, indeed, no!
Mrs. Merrill came back from her errand just then and, meeting Mary Jane in the hall she whispered, "I brought your package from the grocery, dear. It's all wrapped up and hidden in the bottom of your basket." Then aloud she added, "Now run along and get your wraps, Mary Jane, I saw Frances and Jane coming as I turned the corner."
She helped Alice tuck the sandwiches in the baskets, one of each kind in each basket; she put the big, beautiful cake in her own and the plate of deviled eggs in Alice's and covered the napkins over the tops.