d it was about done and must be tested. She put
her spoon in and then, holding it over the pan of jam, let the hot jam
drop off.

"Almost done," said Grandmother, with a satisfied nod; "now you try it,
Mary Jane."

So Mary Jane dipped her spoon in just as her grandmother had done and
again the jam dropped off, this time a little slower and with longer
drops. Grandmother told her to put the glass on a chair, on a paper,
and by the time she had done that the jam was ready to pour into the
glass.

When Alice and Grandfather came home from their errand the glass of jam
was all done and was on the table near the window, covered neatly with
its tin cover ready to give to Mrs. Merrill when she should come.

"And that won't be so many days now either," said Grandmother. "I
declare, how this summer has gone!"

THE PICNIC AT FLATROCK

On the very day that Alice counted out her money and found she had the
seventy-five cents she needed for her much wanted camera and that Mary
Jane had fifty cents, there came a telegram from Mrs. Merrill saying
that she and Mr. Merrill would arrive the next morning for a stay of
ten days.

"Now this is something like old times," said Grandmother happily as she
and the two girls bustled around making ready for the guests. "Lots of
cooking to do and two nice girls to help me do it. Seems like the days
when our own girls were here! Mary Jane, you've done plenty of dusting
for today; you go and get your grandfather to pick out two nice fat
chickens for frys while I teach Alice about making her cake. She's
going to have a beauty to show her mother, that's what she is!"

Mary Jane liked doing things with her jolly grandfather, so she skipped
out happily and found him in the barn.

"Pick out some frys, should we?" he said. "All right, that suits me,
only we'll fool her, Mary Jane; we'll get _three_! I believe in having
enough, I do."

"What we going to do to-morrow, Pussy?" he asked when that job was done.

"Why, we're going to get Mother and Father at the train and then we're
coming home."

"Oh, yes, I know that," said Grandfather, "but let's do more than that.
Let's have a picnic to celebrate their coming."

"Oh, Grandfather!" exclaimed Mary Jane, "could we?"

"We certainly could," said Grandfather, "and I think it would be a fine
thing to do. There's a full moon and we could go about four and come
home by moonlight. Let's see what your grandmother and Alice think
abou