Mary Jane's City Home Part 10

No, they hadn't.

"It's almost four o'clock," said Mr. Merrill, looking at his watch, "and Mr. Holden said they ate at four and we should meet him there, so let's hurry."

It was a good thing they did hurry for other folks seemed to know, too, that the seals were fed at four. From all directions, folks could be seen walking toward the big enclosed pond where the seals were kept. But, by hurrying, they got there in time to stand close to the iron fence where they could see the antics of those queerest of animals, the seals.

One would suppose that even the seals knew it was nearly four o'clock, dinner time, for they were so excited and eager. They barked and swam and flung themselves around vigorously as though they could hardly stand waiting for anything. Then, just at four, a man came out of a near-by building. In his hand he carried a basket of fish--a great, well-filled basket. He came over to a little platform close by where the Merrill and Holden children were standing; so they could see everything.

He picked up a big fish, tossed it over into the rocky island in the middle of the seals' pond and then! such a scrambling as there was till the middle-sized seal with a few ungainly flops, grabbed the fish and gulped it down in one bite.

Then he threw another fish and another and another--one after the other so fast that Mary Jane felt sure the seals must get all mixed up about catching them. But they didn't. Those seals must have been smarter than folks had thought for they seemed to know, every time, just about where the fish was to hit on the rocks and to know, too, just how to get to that particular spot the quickest. Mary Jane thought it very wonderful.

But one thing worried her. There was one small seal, who for some reason or other, seemed to be always just a second too late to get a fish. Mary Jane was sure he had had but one and all the others had had, oh, a lot.

And she couldn't help wis.h.i.+ng all the others wouldn't be quite so grabby.

When the man who was feeding the seals got almost to the bottom of his big basket, he stopped and looked at the crowd of children a.s.sembled for the feeding. And as he looked, he spied Mary Jane's sober little face.

"Don't you like to watch them?" he asked her in surprise.

"Yes, I like to only they're so grabby," she replied promptly, "and he hasn't had but one." She pointed out the little seal who was a bit too slow.

"We'll fix that," said the keeper, kindly, "you just watch."

He tossed a great big fish close to the crowd of waiting seals, then, quick as a flash and before they had had time to get that one, he tossed another, straight at the little seal who was on the edge of the crowd.

"He got it! He got it!" cried Mary Jane happily, "he got it before they had a chance!"

"And he's going to get another," said the keeper as he threw another and still another, straight at the hungry little seal. "There!" he added as he looked at the now empty basket, "that ought to do him till to-morrow."

Mary Jane thought he looked so comfortable now that surely he had had as much as he needed for the day.

"Better hurry if we're to see the lions eat," said Mr. Holden, who during the seals' dining hour had come up behind his little party.

"Lions!" exclaimed Mary Jane.

"Yes, hurry up!" called Betty and she and her brother who were quite familiar with the park because of many previous visits, ran on toward a big brick house near by.

Mary Jane wasn't afraid, but all the same she thought it would be more fun to hold her father's hand and even though they were a bit behind, they got into the lions' house in time.

Here the dinner was of meat, great big chunks of raw, red meat that the keepers tossed into the cages. And it was so funny to watch! Just before the keeper appeared, the lions and tigers and jackals and leopards were pacing up and down their cages with such weird roars and grunts and growls that Mary Jane held tightly to her father's hand and didn't go very close to the iron bars. But when the keepers appeared with the meat there was a wild scramble, and then silence except for the crunching and smacking of eating. It certainly was different, oh, very, very different from anything Mary Jane had ever seen before!

"Let's not wait here any more," suggested Alice, "let's show Dadah the monkeys."

"Yes, and the foxes--the white ones," said Mary Jane, "they're my favorites of all."

But before they had had time to show Mr. Merrill every single creature they had seen, the Holden boys announced that they were hungry and that it was long past dinner time. And sure enough! Even though it wasn't really long _past_ dinner time, it _was_ half past five--the time they had agreed upon for dinner. So a very jolly party seated themselves at a big round table on a second story porch of the Park restaurant. That was the nicest place to eat Mary Jane had ever seen--unless perhaps a diner on a train.

For after they gave their order, she discovered that they could look right down on a small lake where ducks and geese and swans lived. The children got so interested watching the pretty creatures that for once they didn't have time to think the waiter was slow!

They stayed there eating and watching the birds, till the sun set back of the trees. Then, when there wasn't another sc.r.a.p of cake or teaspoonful of ice cream left, they gathered up wraps and hats and started for home.

"I know one thing," said sleepy Mary Jane as they waited for the bus that was to take them to their train. "I know there're a lot more animal folks in the world than I thought for--oh, a lot more! And I think I'd better come again to see them all."

A DAY IN THE PARKS

A whole long vacation begun! Alice home all day and plenty of time for walks and playing together! It seemed almost too good to be true. For although Alice was several years older than her sister Mary Jane, the two girls had always had very happy times playing together and they had missed each other very much during school days. Now that the Holden family was away, for they went off, bag and baggage, to their country home up in Wisconsin the very day school closed, the two girls had no one near by to play with, so more than ever before they needed and enjoyed each other's company. Frances Westland had gone back to the country and the Merrill girls had not made friends with anyone who lived near enough to make a convenient playmate.

They didn't do as some girls and boys do in vacation, get up late in the morning. No, they thought it was more fun to get up promptly and have breakfast with Dadah and then, when the afternoon got hot, as often happened, they took a nice long rest and dressed fresh and clean for dinner. On many a day Mrs. Merrill packed a basket of dinner and they met Mr. Merrill over by the park, had their dinner near one of the small lagoons or close to the big lake. After dinner they played ball or tennis--Alice was learning to be very good at tennis.

"I wish there were swans in our park," said Mary Jane as she sat on the edge of the lagoon and watched the row boats and the electric launches gliding about on the water. "I liked those swans at Lincoln Park."

"I was just thinking to-day," said Mr. Merrill, "we haven't seen all the parks and I promised you, that you should see them--all the big ones anyway. I wonder when we could go, mother?"

"I wonder _how_ we could go," said Mrs. Merrill, "the parks are so far apart that a journey through them all would be a hopeless task, seems to me."

"Depends on how you do it," laughed Mr. Merrill. "I'll tell you what I thought. I'll take the whole day away from the office so as to go along.

We'll start fairly early and take the elevated out to Garfield Park--you know we promised the girls a trip on the elevated and we've always taken the train! We'll see that park well, you know it has gardens and greenhouses and lakes, and then we'll get a taxi and go to two or three other parks and ride home."

The girls thought that was a wonderful plan and they wanted to set the day for that very same week. So Thursday was decided upon.

"Now there's one thing besides getting a good lunch ready that I want you folks to do," said Mr. Merrill as they picked up their baskets and b.a.l.l.s ready to go home, "I want you to get out that map of Chicago we had on the train the day we came up here and find just where Garfield Park is and how we get there and how many interesting sights like rivers and parks and boulevards we pa.s.s on the way." And of course the girls promised that they would find the map and get all that information first thing in the morning.

Riding on the elevated proved to be great fun. Mary Jane was afraid for a few minutes she wasn't going to like it--the stairs were so very high up with holes in each step to see down to the ground; and the train dashed to the platform with such a roar and bustle and people crowded on and jerk!

the train rushed off. But when she settled down in the seat, comfortingly near her mother, and looked out over the roofs of houses and stores, and down long streets, one after another, she found she wasn't a bit afraid and that she liked it very much. She liked watching for children on folks'

back porches. Some played on the porch and some played in the dining-room windows--it was easy to tell which were the dining-room windows because always there were three big windows and always she could look right through the curtains and see the big table in the middle of the room. The only trouble with watching folks from an elevated was that the train dashed by so quickly she couldn't any more than see, till--flash, flash, and they were gone and there was another street and another set of back stairs and some different children playing. It really was awfully queer.

Pretty soon they reached the big down town and there they got off their train, climbed over a big bridge to another elevated train and away they went whizzing again. It certainly was a queer way to travel, Mary Jane thought.

But finally father announced that they had come to Garfield Park, so they got off, walked down the stairs to a park that looked so much like their own park that Mary Jane had to rub her eyes and look twice to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Here were the same winding driveways, beautiful trees and small lakes.

"Did we come back to our Park?" she asked in surprise.

"Oh, no," answered Alice who had run on a little ahead, "look at the big greenhouse and look back there! Now don't you see the swans?"

No, it wasn't their own neighborhood park, Mary Jane soon realized that, because there were many new things to be seen. The wonderful tropical greenhouse where palms and bananas and wonderful ferns such as the girls had seen in Florida were growing. And then there were beautiful out of door gardens--Mary Jane liked those even better than the greenhouse gardens, wonderful as those were. She seemed to feel, someway, as though the flowers must like the out of doors better.

Right in the middle of the many lovely flower beds in the out of doors gardens, there was a lily pool in which grew water lilies of all colors and sorts. Mary Jane had never seen water lilies before and she thought them very lovely--and rather queer too, if the truth must be told. She decided she would stay right there a while and let Alice and her father explore the rest of the gardens--they wanted to know names of flowers and names didn't seem a bit interesting to the little girl.

Just after she had decided to stay there and play, she spied a boy of about her age who was watching the lilies too.

"Can you walk all the way around the edge?" he asked her.

"Edge of what?" asked Mary Jane.

"The edge of the pool," he replied, "see," and he put his foot up on the stone rim of the pool, "all the way around on this."

"Can you?" asked Mary Jane. She wanted to see what he would say before she answered his question.