Mr. Merrill led her to the very seat where he had
left Mary Jane and then, to the surprise of all the
clerks and curious shoppers who had become interested
in the search, Mrs. Merrill didn’t rush around
and hunt as the others had. Instead, she sat
down in the seat as though she had all afternoon and
not a worry in the world. And then, sitting down
as Mary Jane had been, she began to look around.
And the very first thing she saw was the shelf, way
back out of the way; and on the shelf, huddled down
in a sleepy heap, her own little girl!
How the people did stare as she jumped up quickly
and hurried over to the between aisle where no one
had thought of looking. And how every one did
smile as she reached down and picked up Mary Jane—Mary
Jane all sound asleep!
The little girl opened her eyes and slipped her arm
around her mother’s neck and then, as she noticed
so many folks looking at her, she hid her sleepy eyes
in her mother’s shoulder.
“Don’t you be afraid, little girl,”
said the floorman, in great relief, “we like
little girls who know enough not to get lost.
It was better to stay right there and go to sleep
than to run around and hunt your father. You
and your sister take this slip,” and he wrote
hastily on a scrap of paper, “and go upstairs
to the lunch room. Maybe a dish of ice cream will
help you to wake up.”
So that was how it happened that Mary Jane had a trip
and an adventure and some new clothes and two
dishes of pink ice cream all in one day.
Bright and early the next Monday morning Mary Jane
went over to Doris’s house to ask if she could
come and play. Fortunately the chicken pox was
all over and Doris was well and was allowed to play
again. Mary Jane had had so many things to do
during the time that Doris had been sick and she was
anxious to tell about them. And she was oh, so
very glad to have her little friend to play with again.
“Come on over to my house,” she urged
Doris, “I can play all morning.”
“Are you sure Doris won’t be in your mother’s
way?” asked Doris’ mother.
“Monday morning is a busy time, I know.”
“It isn’t at our house,” said Mary
Jane positively, “because this day isn’t
wash day to-day—it’s just getting
ready for my sister Alice’s party this afternoon
and mother said we wouldn’t bother if we played
in the nursery, so please do let her come.”
“Very well,” laughed Doris’s mother,
“if you’re as sure as all that I guess
I’ll let her go, but I should think getting ready
for a party would be almost as much work as
wash day! What are you going to play?”
“Paper dolls,” said Mary Jane. “I
have two, five new sheets and two scissors that don’t
prick that my Aunt Effie sent to me and she said that
Doris could play with them too.”
“That’s fine,” said Doris’s
mother much relieved. “I should think you
little girls would have a very happy time because you
haven’t seen each other for so long. Run
along now, Doris, and be sure to come home when the
big whistle blows for noon.”
