what she saw as Mary Jane had been when she came from the
city. But she was interested and she told Mary Jane many things about
the farm creatures and the fun she had had with her own pets.

Then one day Grandfather took Mary Jane to see Frances and Mary Jane
had fun every minute of the two hours she was there. The Westlands
kept many cows and Mary Jane saw twenty little calves--such gentle,
soft-eyed little creatures that were so tame the girls could pet them
and feed them all they wanted to. And chickens! Mary Jane had thought
her grandmother had a good many but the Westlands had more!

"May we feed them all?" asked Mary Jane eagerly as she saw them.

"I guess Frances would be glad to have you," laughed Mrs. Westland
kindly; "she has to do it so much that I'm sure she'll be glad for help
at the job."

So the girls went to the bins and gathered great handfuls of corn and
oats for the feast. Frances gave a peculiar call which the chickens
seemed to know and immediately they came a-running, hundreds of them,
so fast that Mary Jane dropped the corn she held and tried to run away.

"They won't hurt you," laughed Frances, "see? I can let them eat right
out of my hand!"

Mary Jane looked and thought that if Frances was safe she would be too.
So she took some of the grain Frances handed over to her and bent down
for them to eat out of her hand too. It wasn't more than a minute
before she had lost every trace of fear and could let the biggest
rooster gobble up his grain right out of her hand. The girls tried
dropping kernels of corn on their shoes and then holding up one foot
for the chickens to reach for the grain. And they tossed occasional
kernels way to the outside of the feeding group and then giggled to see
how quickly the greedy ones whirled around to get all they could.

Then, before it was time to go, Mrs. Westland called them in and gave
them each a big glass of rich milk and a plate of fat sugar cookies to
eat on the porch. Altogether Mary Jane thought she had the most fun
during that visit of any visit she had ever made! And before the
little girls separated, Frances had promised to come over to Mary
Jane's house very soon.

The day after the call at the Westlands the postman brought a letter
from Mrs. Merrill which said that Alice could come to her grandfather's
in two days if that would be convenient. Grandfather was very fond of
Alice; she had visited there before and he was hoping she would