den cold snap, with snow enough to cover the sloping
banks, had provided both skating and coasting.

Well protected with warm mittens and leggings the girls set out and had
the jolliest kind of a morning. At one end of the ice, the younger folks
did their coasting, the sloping sides giving a flying start and the smooth
ice a glorious finish. At the other end the older boys and girls did their
skating, so there was no mix up or interference.

That morning was the first of many happy Saturday mornings spent on the
ice. Even Mary Jane got some skates and, with the help of Dadah when he
could get away from the office, she learned to be a fine skater.

But winter fun never lasts very long. Just about the time Mary Jane
learned to skate well enough to challenge Alice to a race, the spring sun
sent the ice to nowhere land and the while-ago ice pond turned to green
grass! Spring had come.

With the coming of spring, Mary Jane grew very restless. She wasn't sick,
but something was wrong. Something was making her very solemn and
sober--quite unlike her usual lively self.

"I know what's the matter with me," she announced one warm sunny morning,
"I want to dig."

"You want to dig?" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in amazement, "well, why don't
you go down and dig in the Holdens' yard? You know Mrs. Holden said you
might."

"But I don't want to dig in somebody's yard," answered Mary Jane, without
a spark of interest, "I want to dig in my _own_ yard and have flowers and
a sand pile and everything right in my own yard, I do."

Mrs. Merrill didn't reply but she did do a lot of thinking and that
evening she and Mr. Merrill had a long conference.

As a result, at breakfast table the next morning Mr. Merrill said, "How
would you girls like to have a summer home of your own? A place in the
woods where we could go as soon as school closes and where you could wear
bloomers and play in the sand and gather flowers and make garden and all
the things you love to do but can't do in the city. How would you like
that?"

Mary Jane and Alice stared at him. Would they _like_ it? anybody could see
by their faces that they would _love_ it!

"But we wouldn't want to leave you here in Chicago, all summer," objected
Alice.

"And I wouldn't want to be left," Mr. Merrill assured them. "But I am
sure, somewhere in the suburbs around Chicago there must be _some place_
we could get a summer home. And we'll make it our business to find that
place."

"I