Then they drove around a corner with a flourish that almost sent Mary Jane from her seat and out through the opposite window, and drove up in front of a grand-looking hotel right close to the ocean. Folks in pretty light dresses were walking on the broad porches. Children were playing in the great sand-pile out under the trees, and young folks were having a croquet match over near the beach.
"Now that must be where we're going," thought Mary Jane. But it wasn't.
At last, when everyone but Mary Jane and her mother and sister were out of the bus, the driver whipped up his horses and drove away down the beach and then turned down a short road and stopped in front of a rambling, old New England farmhouse. It was painted white, with green shutters; the porch had comfortable chairs enough for a big, big family and rambled around the front and sides of the house as though it was in search of the kitchen door. But out in front, close by where the bus stopped, was the most interesting sight of all—a great willow tree. It had half a dozen trunks all grown partly together and each big enough to make a tree of itself; it had wide spreading branches that arched over the roadway, over the house and over a wide, grassy yard. And under the tree, just past the porch steps was a swing, a big sand pile and a small merry-go-round and a slide place so that little folks who slid down it would tumble gently into the clean white sand.
Was Mary Jane glad that they hadn't stopped at the other places? You should have seen her happy face!
"Oh, Mother," she cried, "let's not just stay here over Sunday! Let's send for Daddah and stay and stay and stay 'cause I know I'm going to have a good time here."
But before Mrs. Merrill had time to answer, Mrs. Bryan, the hospitable lady who owned the cottage, came out to greet them and to say to Mary Jane, "Oh, my dear! I'm so glad you're here! Because I have the nicest surprise for you! Come right into the house and see. I know you'll like it because it's just what your mother and your Uncle Hal always liked to see."
And Mary Jane, followed by Alice, both wondering what in the world the surprise might be, hurried out of the bus and into the house.
LOST! ONE MARY JANE
"Can we see it right away?" asked Mary Jane as she hesitated by the newel post at the front stairs. (It was a lovely long, straight stairway with a white banister made of dainty white spindles and a mahogany railing wide and shining on top—just exactly the right sort of a banister for sliding down, and Mary Jane resolved to take a trial slide the first time she could get the hallway to herself!)
"If it's what I think it is," said Mrs. Merrill, looking laughingly at Mrs. Bryan, "you'd better run upstairs and wash off the stains of your journey before you go to see it, because once you get out in the kitchen with Mrs. Bryan you won't want to bother with washing and combing. Is it what I think?" she added.