he morning," said John, as
he and Mary Jane climbed upstairs to bed. "I'm going to get out that
picture and see if they did everything it said."

"Well, I know they did," said Mary Jane positively, "and they did more
too, because they did all the noise; I heard 'em!"

LEARNING TO COOK

John stayed a whole week at Grandfather's and every one of the seven
days, he and Mary Jane had a beautiful time. They fed chickens for
Grandmother and gathered eggs; they visited the rabbits, carrying with
them tit-bits of lettuce so they could the easier make friends with the
little creatures; they played with the lamb and watched Mary Jane's
ducks and rode in the car with Grandfather and altogether had a
wonderful time. But the thing that both Mary Jane and John liked the
best--well, anyway, _almost_ the best of all, was playing circus in the
barn.

They pretended that the downstairs was the animal tent and that Brindle
Bess was the elephant--"she waves her hind tail just like he did his
front tail, so that's almost the same," John said--and that the hogs
were lions and little pigs, tigers. And they pretended that the loft
was the performers' tent and that they were the circus folk. Mary Jane
learned to turn a summerset in the hay and she tried to walk a rope but
that didn't work very well because the rope came down; evidently it
wasn't tied tightly. John stood on his head and did tumbling and was
learning to throw three bottles at one time. They tried to do the
elephant-eating-his-dinner act with Brindle Bess but she didn't seem to
understand (maybe because she hadn't been to the circus herself) and
tipped the table over and broke two dishes so they had to give that up.

But finally Cousin Margaret came to take John home and Mary Jane was
left without a playfellow.

"No use moping around, Mary Jane," said Grandmother briskly as she saw
Mary Jane sitting dolefully and idly on the back steps an hour after
John had gone. "Find something to do as you did before John came and
you'll feel happier."

"But everything I know to do, needs two to do it," complained Mary
Jane. "I don't know any children's things for just one!"

"Listen to the child!" laughed Grandmother, "when she played the whole
day long, all by herself and as happy as could be! Well, then, dear,"
she added kindly, "if you don't know a children's thing to do, how
about a grown folks' thing?"

"Oh, Grandmother!" exclaimed the little girl happily, "is t