It was a lesson to Ann with how little confusion the exodus was accomplished. It came partly, she decided, from the excellent self-control which Grandmother, her mother and her aunt always exerted, with good plans and management. On the other hand, it was partly due to the fact that there was plenty of help in every line, each servant knowing the particular line of service he was expected to give. But Aunt Sue made a good general, Ann admitted.
Part of the family were going straight through, to Palm Beach, where Mrs. Tyson had finally persuaded her mother to engage suites at a fashionable hotel. But Mr. Sterling wanted to see something of the state in general. Accordingly, he and Mrs. Sterling, with Ann, Suzanne and Maurice, were stopping at Jacksonville for a few days. From that center they would visit the interior towns and the West Coast on a motor trip that Ann anticipated with great delight, and would also make a short stay at St. Augustine. Weather and whatever seemed the best order of things would be determined after their arrival at Jacksonville.
It was interesting to travel, Ann thought, with every comfort that money could procure for them. Ann was sure that her father would be bankrupt, keeping up with the Tyson and the LeRoy style of doing things. But when she said as much to her father, he only laughed and said that he had been getting ready for some years to be extravagant when Ann should go to school, and that he had lately “struck oil” in more ways than one.
Just what her father meant by that Ann did not know, except that her mother had mentioned an oil investment as having turned out well, a result which is quite likely not to occur. At any rate, Ann, who remembered their more careful days and the simple way of living, felt assured that financial matters were secure. The three young people were in the highest spirits to start and Ann thought that Maurice must have laid aside his worry. And if the truth were told, Maurice had little trouble in doing it. With the sweetest girl in the world, on an interesting trip,—surely anything else could wait. But purposes were forming in Maurice which would make him a far stronger man than if he had remained the careless boy which Ann first met. He had already spoken to his father about a “job” in the mills, as soon as he should receive his diploma, to Mr. Tyson’s surprise and pleasure. Plans for a summer out West with Ann had gone glimmering.
Suzanne was more interested in a good story or two and the chocolates with which Maurice had furnished the girls. But Ann, always alert for new things along the way, listened to Maurice and looked with both her eager eyes when the scenery began to grow a little tropical. “Those are mostly palmettos,” Maurice told her, when she began to exclaim over “palms”. “Wait till we get further south for the beautiful palms,” he said.
“Just look at all the buzzards!” exclaimed Ann, as they passed a wood where many turkey vultures were circling.
“You’ll see a lot of them in Florida,” said Maurice. “Watch for the black vultures. They are different and show some white on their wings.”
“I thought that you said you knew nothing about birds!”
“I know a few,” said Maurice, “but last summer what did I know about your Montana birds?”