Mary Jane - Her Visit | Page 7

takes quite a little time. Wait till you get
through dinner and then you may hunt all afternoon if you
like--egg-hunting is fun!"
So the minute she was through with her apple dumplings, Mary Jane
asked, "And now, please, may I get the eggs?"
"Got you hunting eggs already?" asked Grandfather. "Well, I wonder if
you'll like it as well as your mother used to. Have you your basket?"
"Not yet," said Grandmother. "I mean to let her get it herself. She'll feel
more at home when she begins to find her way around alone. If you
locked the pigs in, she can go anywhere she likes all alone."
"They're locked up fast," Grandfather assured her--much to Mary Jane's
relief.

"Then, Mary Jane," continued Grandmother, "you go out to the barn
and up the little ladder you'll find in the middle of the barn. And in the
loft somewhere, I'm sure you'll see it easily, you'll find a little, covered
basket. It's the very one your mother and your Aunt Cornelia used to
carry egg-hunting. If it's too dusty, bring it here, and I'll clean it for you.
Now run along, Pet," added Grandmother with a kiss for the up-turned
face, "and don't be long. I'll miss my little girl."
Just as Mary Jane opened the screen door to go out, a beautiful big
black and brown dog came running up to the door.
"Well, Bob!" exclaimed Grandmother, "where have you been all
morning? I wanted Mary Jane to get acquainted with you right away
and you weren't anywhere around! Mary Jane, this is Bob, our good
dog, and he's the best creature friend a little girl can make." She
stepped out of the door with Mary Jane and they both sat down on the
steps and talked to Bob. Mary Jane liked him from the first. He had
such a pretty face and such friendly, kind eyes and he looked as though
he would be good to little girls.
"May he go with me to the barn?" she asked.
"Indeed, yes," replied Grandmother. "You just start along and watch
him follow you! He'll go wherever you go from now on. You won't
even have to call him!"
Mary Jane jumped up and, just as Grandmother said, Bob jumped up
from the steps too and together they started off to the barn.
"Can you climb up a ladder?" asked Mary Jane gayly, as she skipped
along by Bob. "I can climb a ladder all by myself! I did it one day when
Mother hung curtains."
But dear me! When Mary Jane saw the steep ladder that went up to the
barn loft she wasn't so sure she could climb a ladder after, all! She had
been thinking of a nice little step-ladder such as her mother had and
this was a steep, narrow ladder made of funny little pieces of wood
nailed on to narrow strips that were fastened to the barn. Not a bit like
any ladder Mary Jane had ever seen before.
"But the basket's up there, Bob," said Mary Jane, glad of some one to
think aloud to, "and my grandmother she wouldn't tell me to go up if I
couldn't, so I guess I'll try."
She put one foot on the ladder and then the other. "Why, it's just like
climbing a gate only it isn't a gate," she announced proudly, "and I'm

way up a'ready!"
It was easy to step from the ladder to the loft because the sides of the
ladder went on up high and she simply held tight to them and stepped
off onto the floor Of the loft.
And that was the funniest place Mary Jane had ever seen! Hay
everywhere, and a pleasant, fragrant smell that pleased Mary Jane even
though she hadn't an idea why. She looked around a minute and then
hunted for the basket.
Over in the corner, under a funny little, cobwebby window she found it,
half hidden by the tossed up hay.
She recognized it at once because of the curious little cover
Grandmother had spoken of. But, dear me, Grandmother would surely
have to clean it before it was used for cobwebs and scraps of hay were
all over the top!
"I wonder if the cover comes off, or just opens like a door," thought
Mary Jane as she bent over it. "I guess I'd better see."
She moved the cover the tiniest bit and found it was fastened to one
side. "It's like a box," she said aloud, "and it opens easy, I know!"
She opened it out and what do you suppose she saw down in the bottom
of that basket? You'd never guess!
Four of the cunningest little gray mice! All snuggled down together
into a little ball of fur--Mary Jane would never