Mrs. Merrill laughed. “I guess you could,
dear, but you mustn’t think about it because
you are not going. I’m afraid you have made
trouble,” she added laughingly to Dr. Smith,
“because when Mary Jane starts thinking about
something, she doesn’t easily forget.”
“Never you mind, Mary Jane,” said Dr.
Smith confidently, as he set her down and prepared
to go, “you talk about visiting your great-grandmother
all you want to, and some day you’ll get there—you
just see!”
“Will I really?” asked Mary Jane after
the guest had gone.
“Really what?” said Mrs. Merrill.
“Really go to my great-grandmother’s where
the chickens and strawberries are?”
“Dear me, I don’t know,” replied
Mrs. Merrill. “I know you’ll not go
till you are way, ever so much bigger girl than you
are now—that’s settled. Now
run along with your school. I think Tommy needs
you.”
So Mary Jane went back to the nursery and played school.
And being the kind of a little girl who knew it was
not polite to tease, she didn’t talk about the
country—much. But she didn’t
forget—indeed, no! Not even when she
was having a good time with the surprise that came
a few days later.
Great Aunt Effie lived way off in New York City, so
far away that she had never before come to visit at
Mary Jane’s house. So, when one fine morning
the postman brought a letter saying that in five days
Aunt Effie would be at the Merrills, Mary Jane was
quite excited.
“What does she look like and how long is she
going to stay?” asked Mary Jane and then, before
Mrs. Merrill could answer she added, “Will she
like to play with me?”
“Don’t ask me!” laughed Mrs. Merrill,
“I have never seen her either. She’s
your Daddah’s auntie, you know, ask him.”
“That’s funny,” said Mary Jane,
“How can she be just my Daddah’s auntie?
Isn’t she yours and mine too?”
“To be sure she is,” replied Mrs. Merrill;
“she’s our auntie now but she was his
auntie first and we haven’t had a chance to see
her since she belonged to you and me. When father
comes home this noon you must get him to tell you
all about the good times he and his brother used to
have at her house when they were little boys.
Then you will know that you will surely love her very
much and that you’ll want her to stay at our
house a good long time.”
When Mr. Merrill came home for lunch he gladly told
her about many of the good times this same auntie
had given him when he was about as old as Mary Jane.
So no wonder Mary Jane was interested in the coming
of their guest. She helped clean the guest room
and all by herself fixed the vase of violets for the
dresser. And then she put on her second best dress
and drove with her father to the station to meet the
unknown auntie.
Mr. Merrill locked the car and then he and Mary Jane
went through the station and clear out to the tracks
so they might see Aunt Effie the minute she got off
the train. Pretty soon the great engine with its
long trail of big Pullmans came snorting and puffing
into the station; the porters stepped off the cars
but not a single passenger appeared—except
one small, lonely-looking little woman in black who
climbed out of the last car.
