Before she could answer, the warning bell rang and clerks began to cover up counters and to straighten up the store for its Sunday rest. So the Merrills four hurried down to get umbrellas and to go home.
On the train going home Mary Jane was so tired looking at things that she didn’t care a bit about looking any more. She watched the lake some, but mostly she simply settled back in her little corner behind the door and just sat. Thoughts of all the wonderful things she had seen that day raced through her mind—the lunch, the ride, the lake, the park—but most of all, that wonderful doll cart, and she couldn’t help wondering (and of course hoping) if she really truly would, possibly, get that lovely gift for her birthday.
THE BIRTHDAY LUNCHEON
As soon as they got home that evening, and had dinner and rested up a bit, Mary Jane hunted up a calendar so she could find out about her birthday. And she discovered that two weeks from that same day was “her” day.
“It’s Saturday, so you can do something too!” she said to Alice. “Now, Mother, let’s plan.”
So they talked over all the nice things a person might do for a birthday, but long before they could decide which was the very nicest of all the plans, bedtime came. Then the next morning there were interesting things to do, and nobody thought about plans for a day that was two weeks away. That is, nobody but Mary Jane thought about it, and, if the truth must be told, she thought more about the doll cart she had wished for than she did about what she might do to celebrate.
Monday noon, when Alice came home for her luncheon, she was much excited.
“Who do you s’pose I saw at recess this morning?” she demanded. “Guess!”