THE MAY SURPRISE
Marjorie’s May surprise was a paper May basket, of course. You know all about that. And the story pocket that came in May, Dotty had labelled:
“Open on May Day, too.”
Marjorie opened it right after the first pocket, but she had to keep the story till afternoon to read. She read it to Dotty after they came home. “I chose it because the little girl in the story was named after you,” smiled Dot. And so they had the funny story of “Marjorie’s Mystery.”
VII
Marjorie’s Mystery
Upon Marjorie’s list of good resolutions, not-to-be-too-curious was a failing hard to remember and conquer. In the first place, Marjorie was very wide awake. She always saw everything that was happening. In the second place and in the third place as well as the tenth and thirteenth place, Marjorie couldn’t bear not to know everything that she wanted to know. Sometimes, she went quite too far in her attempts to find out. At any rate, Daddy and Mother and Mark and Dotty made fun of the failing and Marjorie, when she stopped to think twice—which wasn’t so very often—tried hard to overcome unnecessary curiosity. Sometimes it is a fine thing to be curious and again, it’s bad. But upon a very memorable day in May, once upon a time, something mysterious came to pass at Marjorie’s home and this is to be the story of The Great Mystery of Curiosity, Unanswered.
It happened this way: Daddy was away; Mark had gone off since Friday to make a visit at a boy friend’s just out of town a little way; Dotty had also gone away. She spent the night with the little girl next door and had not yet come home. It was a Monday morning and May Day.