The girls stood in the center of the bridge and Mrs. Merrill took their picture so Alice could show it to her teacher at school, then they sat down in the shade close by and Mrs. Merrill told Mary Jane the story that made that little bridge so famous; how the brave farmers stood there waiting—right there on the spot Mary Jane could see; how the Redcoats crept up through the darkness to the very tree (no doubt it was the very tree for its wide spreading branches and great trunk told of its old age), the very tree under which they were sitting, and then there was fired the shot "for freedom," the shot which the poet said was "heard 'round the world."
Reluctantly leaving the interesting spot that charmed them so, the Merrills climbed back into the big auto and drove away; through Concord, through Sleepy Hollow and to the house where Louisa M. Alcott had lived. There Mary Jane felt at home immediately. She saw the lilac bushes, the old trees and the quaint old house she had heard about. They went through the rooms, upstairs and down, and saw the very books and dishes and kettles and clothes that the girls in Miss Alcott's story had used and worn.
"Why they were just regular girls like we are, weren't they, Mother?" she exclaimed in surprise. "And they didn't know they were going to be in a story and everybody read about them, did they?"
"To be sure," said Mrs. Merrill, "and that's what makes them so interesting. They did all the things that real folks do, and we like to hear about such things in books."
"Wouldn't it be funny if we'd get into a story book," said Mary Jane, laughing at the ridiculous idea, "and somebody'd read about how we came to see Miss Alcott's house? I'd laugh if we did!"
"Well, you never can tell what'll happen," said Alice as they wandered out through the yard. "I expect Meg and Beth never thought of being in a book either. I wonder if they picked roses from this same old bush?" she added as she looked at a rose-bush that rambled high overhead, "it looks old enough to have been here then."
It was hard to leave the quaint old house with its interesting associations, but the honking of a horn out in front warned them that they had lingered long enough, so they hurried out to finish the drive.
"When I get back home," said Mary Jane as she snuggled down in her front seat again, "I'm going to read all about Concord and all about everything—if you'll read it to me, Mother, I am." Mrs. Merrill promised, so Mary Jane tried to look very hard at everything they saw so she could remember it a long, long time.
"Now then," said Mrs. Merrill briskly, as they got out of the auto at Copley Square, "we'll just have time to hurry up and pack our things and get our lunch before the train leaves. And we won't have a bit of time to spare, so it's a mighty good thing we haven't left anything else to do. That Wolverine leaves on time whether we are on it or not."
"Won't we have time but just only to pack and to get lunch?" asked Mary Jane disappointedly.