Ed, who had started back into the house, looked around and, seeing his sisters had made a small start toward conversation, called a question on his own responsibility. "Going to use 'em all?" he asked, pointing to the boxes. "Dear me, I guess not," said Alice. "I don't see how we could!" "Then will you give me a box?" he asked, running back in the yard till he stood right under the balcony. "We're going to get some rabbits, John and I are, and we want a box for their home." "Come on over and see which one you want," suggested Alice, "and I'll ask father." Ed and his brother John lost no time climbing over the fence and inspecting the boxes. By the time Alice brought Mr. Merrill, he had picked out just the one he wanted and was very grateful when it was given him for his own. "Don't you want to come over and see 'em make the rabbit house?" suggested Frances shyly. "Oh, maybe you're busy." "I'm sure we can come," replied Alice, "because mother just told me she wished we'd get some fresh air." So Alice and Mary Jane followed the others to the back yard and helped hold nails and boards and make the rabbit house. When it was nearly finished the children's mother, who proved to be very charming Mrs. Holden, came out with a plate of cookies and a welcome for the two little strangers. "Thank you for the cookies," said Mary Jane politely, "but we're not strange--that is, not any more, we aren't, we know each other--all of us do!" And so it really seemed to all the children. They were friends from the first day and making the rabbit house was just the beginning of many nice times in that friendly back yard. VISITING WITH BETTY Three days of hard work for everybody and then the little flat into which the Merrills had moved began to look like a real home. The unpacking was all done and the rubbish cleared away; the furniture was polished and set in place; the closets were in order and every cupboard and shelf held just the right things for comfort. It wasn't such an easy matter to stow away all the things the Merrills had used in their pretty house--the five room apartment was much smaller than the house of course--but with everybody's help the job was done. "Now then," said Mrs. Merrill, happily, in the late afternoon of the third day, "if you'll run the rods in these curtains, Mary Jane, I'll hang them up where they belong and then we'll all three go to market and then--guess what? We'll have dinner in our own new home!" Mary Jane thought that would be fun, for, much as she loved eating in the hotel where they had been living while getting the new home fixed, she liked better to eat her mother's cooking. So it was a very happy little girl who slipped the rods into the living room curtains and then put on her hat and hunted up the market basket from the pantry.