As the boat pulled up near the down town pier, the Merrills saw a taxi dash up near where the boat was to land: saw a woman get out and, followed by a policeman, hurry up to the side where the boat would pull in. "Look!" exclaimed Mary Jane excitedly. "Look!" The little girl, whose name was Ann, looked along with the others, and then she gave a happy cry. "Mother!" she shouted, so loudly that her mother, waiting on the pier could hear and was so very relieved! When the boat pulled into the dock, the captain was the first one to step off; he met the mother and the officer and brought them aboard at once. Mary Jane was called upon to explain all that she had seen and the officer, as well as the mother, was satisfied that the whole thing was an accident and not an attempt to steal the children. "But how did you get up here so quickly?" asked Mary Jane, when the first excitement was over. "My dear child!" laughed Ann's mother, "a person can do a lot when she thinks something is happening to her children! I took a passing taxi, dashed to a police station and then on up here. And nothing has happened at all--except you nice people have given my little folks a very pleasant trip. Next time, Bobby," she added, "we'll leave your toy boat or we'll all go together to find it. We won't take any chances of losing each other!" "Well," laughed Mr. Merrill when the mother and children and officer and captain had all gone on about their own business, "what was it we were going to do to-day?" Everybody laughed at that! They had been so excited that they had forgotten, yes, actually forgotten, that this was a sight-seeing trip for grandma and grandpa. But once they remembered, they knew just what to do. They climbed aboard a waiting launch, rode up to Lincoln Park, had a wonderful dinner and fun all the rest of the day. "I don't see," remarked grandma, as they neared home, late that evening, "how you girls are ever going to settle down to school again! Did you know that school was only a few weeks away? Vacation will be over before you know it!" SCHOOL BEGINS When grandma suggested that it was nearly time for school to begin, on that day of the boat ride, she guessed better than the girls suspected. At the time they laughed and thought she was joking, but, after she and grandpa had gone home, they got out a calendar and counted up and there, to be sure, only one and one-half weeks of vacation were left. "I didn't realize school began so early," exclaimed Mrs. Merrill in dismay. "I thought summer was a long time!" cried Alice, "but it isn't any time at all!" "Goody! Goody! Goody!" Mary Jane said happily, "then I get to start to school like a big girl." It was no wonder Mary Jane was happy, for she remembered that the plan was for her to start in the really truly school, not the kindergarten where she had gone in her other home, and any little girl likes to start to school like her big sister.