For some time the girls were really discouraged. They passed factories, and tenements, and more factories till Mary Jane was sure they were never coming to country--real country. But suddenly, when she was about to give up, the factories were gone and from the window the girls could see wide fields and strips of woods and an occasional brook. Two or three little stations were passed and then the train ran through a beautiful stretch of woods--rolling woods all leafy and budding and flower decked. The ground was fairly covered with early blossoms and trees of wild crab were just bursting into pink bloom. Mary Jane grabbed her coat and started down the aisle. "Make 'em stop the train, Dadah," she said, "this is where we want to live!" Fortunately at that minute the train really did stop at a small station and the Merrills got off and looked around. It didn't take long to explore into the woods far enough to find that they had come to the very place they were looking for--a spot not too far from the city for Mr. Merrill's daily trip and yet wild enough to give the girls some real woods. The girls picked flowers as they explored and had such a happy time that it was hard work to persuade them to go back to the city when the twilight came. But they had found the very place! Three weeks later Mr. Merrill bought a lot in the heart of the woods, and the summer home was no longer a mere dream--it was to be really truly. "Now," announced Alice, "we'll draw the kind of a house we want. I love to draw plans of a house!" She cleared off the dining table, sharpened pencils, brought two tablets and insisted that everybody come out and help. And just then the door bell rang. "Telegram for Merrill!" shouted a voice through the tube and Mary Jane pressed the buzzer in a hurry--a telegram usually meant something exciting. It was addressed to Mrs. Merrill and said, "Have all tickets and hotel reservations. You and the girls must come." And it was signed by Mrs. Merrill's brother. "If that isn't just like a college boy!" laughed Mrs. Merrill. "For weeks he doesn't answer a letter and then he telegraphs! Girls," she added, "let's go! Wouldn't you like to go to Boston and see the college and the ocean and the White Mountains--and--everything?" "Oh, mother, _really_?" exclaimed Mary Jane. (She felt as though she must be dreaming, things were happening so fast!) "But what about the summer home?" asked Alice. "Don't you worry about the summer home," Mr. Merrill assured her, "we'll have that summer home just the same. You girls take your trip east. You won't be gone more than a couple of weeks--and what are two weeks out of a whole summer? And before you go, we'll get the shack all planned and when you come back we'll move out." "Goody! Goody! Goody!" cried Mary Jane happily, "then I can see Uncle Hal and ride on the train and dig a garden and _everything_!"