Mrs. Merrill didn't reply but she did do a lot of thinking and that evening she and Mr. Merrill had a long conference. As a result, at breakfast table the next morning Mr. Merrill said, "How would you girls like to have a summer home of your own? A place in the woods where we could go as soon as school closes and where you could wear bloomers and play in the sand and gather flowers and make garden and all the things you love to do but can't do in the city. How would you like that?" Mary Jane and Alice stared at him. Would they _like_ it? anybody could see by their faces that they would _love_ it! "But we wouldn't want to leave you here in Chicago, all summer," objected Alice. "And I wouldn't want to be left," Mr. Merrill assured them. "But I am sure, somewhere in the suburbs around Chicago there must be _some place_ we could get a summer home. And we'll make it our business to find that place." "I thought," began Mrs. Merrill, and then she hesitated. "Something nice?" asked Alice, encouragingly. "It would have been nice," admitted Mrs. Merrill, "but likely we couldn't do it. I'd been thinking how pleasant it would be to take another trip this summer. You know how you girls enjoyed going to Florida. And you remember Uncle Hal graduates from Harvard this June. I had been wondering if we could go east in time to be there when the festivities are going on." "Oh, mother!" cried Mary Jane, "what fun! I do want to ride on a train, a big train with a sleeper and a diner! But then I want to dig, too," she added, insistently. "Then we'll take one thing at a time," suggested Mr. Merrill. "We'll look into the question of a summer home--we know we'd all like that. And you folks don't know that a very popular uncle would _want_ a grown up sister and two small nieces hanging around at commencement time," he added teasingly. "How do you find a summer home?" asked Alice thoughtfully. "That's what we'll have to discover," laughed Mr. Merrill. "And we'll begin this very Saturday afternoon if the weather is fine. We'll take a suburban train and ride till we see a place that looks homey and there we'll get off and hunt." The next Saturday was warm and sunny, the kind of a day for bringing flowers into bloom and for making little girls want to play out of doors. Mrs. Merrill and the girls met Mr. Merrill at his office so as not to lose a minute's time, and they hurried right over to the station, and got aboard the first suburban train they could find. "I think this is lots of fun," said Mary Jane as they found their seats, "we don't know where we're going--we're just going!" And the train was off.