60

"But it's all down my dress," said Mary Jane, trying
her very best not to cry 107

This year, seeing Mary Jane was such a _very_ old
person, she was allowed to put the gold star on the
top of the tree 188

------------------------------------------------------------------------

MARY JANE'S CITY HOME

FINDING THE NEW HOME

The late afternoon sunshine sent its slanting, golden rays through the car
windows on to the map that Mary Jane and her sister Alice had spread out
on the table between the seats of the Pullman in which they were riding.

"And all that wiggly line is water?" Mary Jane was asking.

"Every bit water," replied their father, who bent over their heads to
explain what they were looking at; "a lot of water, you see. You remember
I told you that Chicago is right on the edge of Lake Michigan. And Lake
Michigan, so far as looks are concerned, might just as well be the ocean
you saw down in Florida--it's so big you can't see the other side."

"And does it have big waves?" asked Mary Jane.

"Just you wait and see," promised Mr. Merrill. "Big waves! I should say it
has!"

"And all the green part of the map is parks," said Alice, quoting what her
father had told them when he first showed them the map.

"Then there must be a lot of parks," suggested Mary Jane with interest. "I
think I'd like to live by a park," she added thoughtfully.

"I think I should too," agreed Mr. Merrill, "and it's near a park we will
make the first hunt for a home."

"Oh, look!" cried Mary Jane suddenly as she glanced up from the spread-out
map; "what's that, Dadah?"

"That's the beginning of Chicago," said Mr. Merrill. "Let's fold up the
map now and see what we can of the city. This is South Chicago; and those
great stacks and flaming chimneys are steel mills and foundries and
factories--watch now! There are more!"

The train on which the Merrill family were traveling went dashing past
factory after factory--past an occasional open space where they could see
in the distance the blue gleam of Lake Michigan and past great wide
stretches where tracks and more tracks on which freight cars and engines
sped up and down showed them something of the whirling industry that has
made South Chicago famous. No wonder it was a strange sight to the two
girls--they had never before seen anything that made them