Mrs. Merrill said they had nothing to hurry them, so Miss Burn drove them to her pretty home on one of the tree-covered streets in Winchester.
"We'll go through the house," said Miss Burn as they left the car, "but I want you two girls to go to the garden. You'll like to see my pet goldfishes."
"Pet goldfishes!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "do you keep 'em in a bowl?"
"Wait a minute, and I'll show you where I keep them," replied Miss Burn, and she led them through the hallway of her beautiful home and out, through French doors, into the loveliest garden the girls had ever seen. It was in the middle of the house—almost—for the house went around three sides. French doors opened from the hallway, on the north, from the dining-room on the east, and from a long, low library living-room on the west, while on the south side a rose covered pergola connected the ends of the house making the garden appear to be surrounded with the house. The edge of the garden, near the house, was filled with bay trees, privet and vining roses, next, on a lower terrace, were flowers with brilliant bloom, hollyhocks, delphiniums and marigolds, while around the fountain in the center was a great bed of gorgeous roses making a mass of fragrant bloom.
"Oh!" cried Alice, "think of living here!"
"It's like a palace!" echoed Mary Jane.
"I thought you'd like it," said Miss Burn, much pleased with their frank enjoyment, "we love it. I do a lot of the work in the garden myself. I love the flowers so, and mother and I would rather be out here than anywhere else in the world."
She led them over dainty gravel paths to the center of the garden where, peering into the white fountain, the girls saw dozens of goldfish swimming about in the sunshine.
"See?" said Miss Burn, pointing into the water, "I have one silver fish—that's for luck they say," she added laughingly. "Don't you think it's better to have fish here than in a bowl on a table?"
"I think everything's better here—if you have a 'here' like this," agreed Alice. "I suppose Mary Jane feels like a princess again, now. She always feels that way when she sees something wonderful."