y finger tips and not a single thing to be seen looked like spring.

"Now just look at it!" exclaimed Mary Jane as she stared out of the
living-room window, "and we were going to take a trip through the parks
and I was going to wear my new hat and everything. And look!"

"And we can't go to the parks again for another whole week!" bemoaned
Alice, "'cause there's school!"

"Just look!" exclaimed Mary Jane again as a hard gust of wind tossed the
rain against the winds exactly as though Mr. Rain was saying to Mary Jane,
"Thought you'd go out, did you? Well, look what I'm doing!"

"You girls talk as though parks were the only things to see in Chicago,"
said Mrs. Merrill as pleasantly and comfortably as though there was no
such thing as a disappointment in the world.

Alice and Mary Jane turned away from the window quickly. Something in
their mother's tone of voice made them suspect that the day wasn't to be a
disappointment after all.

"It's funny to me," continued Mrs. Merrill in a matter of fact voice,
"that you folks haven't asked to go to the big stores--wouldn't you like
to?"

"Like to!" exclaimed Alice.

"Would we?" cried Mary Jane. "But we didn't think about it!"

"Then we'll think about it now," replied Mrs. Merrill. "If you can hold an
umbrella down tight over your head so as not to get your hat wet, I think
we could manage to get to the train without getting soaked. And once down
at the store, we could check our wet umbrellas and shop and sight-see
through the stores all we wished to without a bit of hurry."

"Oh, may we really go?" asked Alice.

"Well," answered Mrs. Merrill, pretending to hesitate, "if you _really_
care to--"

That settled it and there was no more time wasted talking about weather
_that_ morning. Dishes were washed and beds were made and dusting was done
so quickly that the little flat must have been quite surprised and pleased
with itself--it got put into rights so very quickly. Then Mary Jane got
her hair fixed nicely and a pretty hair bow put on--the bow wouldn't show
very much under the new hat, but even that little had to be just
right--and then, while mother fixed her own and Alice's hair, she put on a
pretty dress--not a party dress, of course, but a nice, pretty, dark
dress. Then they all put on rubbers and raincoats and locked up the doors
and took their umbrellas and started for the train.

Going down town on the train was fun. In the city where Mary Jane lived
before, o