With a slight bump the swan boat touched the dock and Uncle Hal took her hand to help her off.
"Oh, do we have to get off?" she exclaimed in dismay, "we've only just begun to ride!"
"Like it so well?" asked Uncle Hal, "then you shall have a ride every day while you are here. I remember when I was a little kid and came to visit Boston, I liked them a lot. That's why I brought you here first thing this morning. But I guess we'll have to go now if you're going out to Cambridge with me."
Very reluctantly Mary Jane stepped off the boat and with a promise to herself that she would ride again every single time she possibly could, she trudged along behind the others.
A short walk brought them to the entrance of the subway. Of course Mary Jane hadn't an idea what a subway was, for there wasn't any such thing in any city she had ever lived in or visited, but she gathered from what Uncle Hal said that it must be something that took them out to Cambridge. But such a funny something as it was she never would have imagined!
They went down some stairs, through a turnstile and onto a platform. Before Mary Jane's eyes were used to the queer, half-darkness of the platform, and her nose to the funny, dank smell, there was a rumble and a roar and along came a car. They were crowded aboard and again there was a rumble and roar and away they dashed—past red lights and green lights, past platforms and more platforms till in no time at all (or so it seemed to Mary Jane) they were up on a street, dashing across a long bridge, down again in the ground and Uncle Hal saying, "Time to get off! We're at Cambridge!"
They hurried off and up the stairs to the fresh air.
"That's better than the old, slow, surface car," said Uncle Hal as they crossed the street.
"Then the surface car must have been pretty bad," said Mary Jane positively, "'cause this one smells awful and hurries so fast you can't see anything!"
"You're right about those two things," laughed Uncle Hal, "and I suggest that you take a surface car to go back because then you can see all the sights you want to on the way. But of course, Mary Jane, you wanted to ride in a subway once."