Mary Jane never quite remembered. It was one long
succession of excitement and fun. The unpacking of boxes and crates, the
piling up of rubbish, the finding of cherished belongings and putting them
where they belonged in the new home, and the gradual change of the living
room from a mess of boxes to a place that might some day really look like
home, all seemed thrillingly interesting to a little girl who had never
moved before.

But by half past four or thereabouts, even Mary Jane began to get a little
tired.

"I'll tell you something to do," suggested Mrs. Merrill, when a pause in
her own work gave her a chance to notice that Mary Jane was getting
flushed and tired. "Here is a box of doll things I have just come across.
Suppose you take them out into your own little balcony and sort them over.
Put in this box (and she handed her a little box) all the things you must
surely have upstairs; and leave in the big box all the things you will be
willing to put in the store room. Now take your time, dear, and sit down
while you work."

Mary Jane was very glad for that advice. For even though moving men are
wonderful to watch, and even though rubbish and boxes and barrels are all
very fascinating, a person _does_ get tired and sitting down isn't at all
a bad idea.

One of the men who was unpacking gave her her own little chair that he had
just uncrated and so she sat down in state, in her own chair, on her own
balcony and opened the box of doll things. But that's every bit that got
done to those doll things that day, every bit.

For at that very minute, who should come out of the house around the
corner, the house with the back yard and garden and chickens and
everything, but--yes, you must have guessed it--the same two girls that
Alice and Mary Jane had seen on the Midway the day they arrived in
Chicago. Think of that! Right under Mary Jane's own balcony and, moreover,
it was plain to see that they lived there.

"Now I guess we'll get to know them," whispered Mary Jane to herself
happily. But of course, she didn't say a thing out loud. She only sat very
still and watched.

And as she watched, two boys came out on the back porch of the house
around the corner and one of the boys called, "Say, Fran, did you feed the
chickens?"

The girl who was about Alice's age answered back, "No I didn't, Ed, I
thought it was Betty's turn to-day."

"Now I know a lot," Mary Jane whispered to herself. "She's Frances, I'm
sure, and he