"So you can, so you can," agreed Grandmother much pleased. "You're a good planner, little girl. Now turn the box on its long side, so; and climb on it; then--"

"What's that noise?" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly as through the quiet of the little room she heard a queer, "Peep! Peep!" So many "peeps,"

so soft and low that she was hardly sure she heard them.

"Never mind!" cried Grandmother, who was looking into the big case that Mary Jane had thought was a desk. "Climb up quickly and look!"

Mary Jane needed no second urging. She set the box on its long side and, grasping her grandmother's hand firmly so it wouldn't tip over as she stepped on it, she climbed up and looked into the "desk."

Such a sight as met her eyes! Tiny little chicks! Rows and rows and rows of them! Under the gla.s.s cover of that queer looking case.

"They's about a million!" she gasped in amazement, "all in one box!"

"Not a million, dear," laughed Grandmother, "but a good many and they're almost ready to take out."

"But how did they get in?" asked Mary Jane much puzzled.

Grandmother explained that the queer looking "desk" was really an incubator--a box in which eggs were kept warm till the little creature inside each egg was big enough to break the sh.e.l.l and take care of itself.

Mary Jane looked and looked and looked and thought it was the most wonderful of all the many wonders she had seen at Grandmother's. She thought of a dozen questions she wanted to ask, but Grandmother seemed so busy tending to this and that and the other that she decided to wait till some other time to ask them.

"Now, dear," said Grandmother, "you stay here and be deciding which you want for yours while I get your grandfather to help me take them out.

I was so in hopes you could see this, pet, because I knew you'd like to."

She bustled out of the room in search of Grandfather, and Mary Jane studied over the rows of chickens. And just at that minute she spied _them_! She knew the second she saw them that there was her family.

They were huddled down in one corner, all six of them and they seemed lonesome and--well, different. Of course Mary Jane may have imagined that, but so it seemed to her. Their bills were funny and their eyes were different from the eyes of the other chicks, and the shape of their tails and of their wings seemed different, some way.

"I'm going to have you and give you a nice time," said Mary Jane, whispering tenderly above the case cover. "I'd like to take care of you, so don't you mind if you are funny!" And with the tip, tip of her finger, she touched the gla.s.s directly over them.

Just then Grandmother Hodges came back into the room with Grandfather right behind her.

"Grandmother!" cried Mary Jane eagerly, "may I have any ones? May I pick them out? May I have these funny little ones? These that are all by their lonesomes in the corner?"

Grandfather and Grandmother both looked to where Mary Jane pointed.

"The ducks!" they exclaimed together. "They came out all right!"

Then Grandmother added, "To be sure you may have them, Mary Jane.

Those are ducks, and I put in six eggs so we could have a bit of roast duck, come winter. They'll be sure to get into trouble with the chickens and I would be so glad if you'll make them your family and look after them for me. Here, Father," she said to her husband, "let's take them out for her first." So Grandfather got the basket Mary Jane and her grandmother had brought out with them and then he held up the gla.s.s cover while Grandmother tenderly lifted the tiny ducks, one by one, and set them inside. Then she covered them all over with a thick cover.

"But Grandmother," cried Mary Jane in dismay, "they can't breathe!

They'll die!"

"Not they," laughed Grandmother. "Run along now, and set the basket in the sun by your rabbit box. I'll be right out and fix them up for you."

So for the second time that day, Mary Jane found herself carrying a basket of living creatures. "Wouldn't Doris like to be here!" she said to herself as she thought of her little friend back home, "and wouldn't I like to show her my family!" She walked slowly and carefully so as not to tip the baby ducks and it was with a sigh of relief that she finally set them down by the rabbit box.

Fortunately, Grandmother came along in just a few minutes so Mary Jane didn't have time to worry about the "peeps" that were coming more and more loudly from the basket.

Grandmother took the ducks one by one from the basket and set them on some soft bits of old wool in the corner of the box. "We don't need a cover for this box," she said, pulling at the screen Grandfather had tacked on, "till they get bigger. We'll take it off so you can take care of them easier. There now!" she added as the screen came off, "we'll cover them up so," and she laid the soft cloth that had been on the basket over the little ducks; "now we'll let them be for a while."

"But we didn't feed them, Grandmother," objected Mary Jane.

"To be sure not," laughed Grandmother. "They don't want anything to eat just yet. Not to-day. All they want is to be warm and cozy."

"Don't they want anything to drink either?" asked Mary Jane.

"No," replied Grandmother, "nothing to drink either. To-morrow you can fix them a drinking dish and I'll show you about their food, but now, we'll just let them be. Listen! What's that?"

Grandmother straightened up and counted the rings of her telephone bell.

"Yes, that's our ring. You take this basket back to your grandfather while I answer it."

But before Mary Jane got out to the chicken house Grandmother was back at the kitchen steps calling, "Father! Father!" And then as she got no answer she called to Mary Jane, "Mary Jane! Tell your grandfather it's long distance and he should come quick!"

Mary Jane hurried in to tell her grandfather the message and then she waited, wonderingly, till he should come back. Had anything happened?

COUSIN JOHN'S VISIT

But the minute Mary Jane saw her grandfather smile as he came back into the chicken house, she knew that if something _had_ happened it was a nice something--for he was smiling a nice sort of a smile.

"Good news for us, p.u.s.s.y," he said. "Now you're going to have some one to play with."

"Another Bob?" asked Mary Jane.

"Another fiddlesticks!" laughed Grandfather. "Haven't you enough animal friends as it is? What would you do with more? No, sir! This is a real playmate."

"Who is she?" asked Mary Jane.

"_She_!" laughed Grandfather, "is your cousin Margaret's boy John--or rather, she's your mother's cousin. They live over in Benset, you know, p.u.s.s.y. They promised that if you came this summer, they'd let John come over for a visit so you two could play."

"Oh, goody!" cried Mary Jane happily, "how big is he?"

"About as big as you are, I expect," said Grandfather thoughtfully, "but I can't really say because I haven't seen him for a long time.

But you'll know all about him to-morrow."

After that Grandfather and Grandmother fixed the little chickens as quickly as ever they could, and then Grandfather went out to clean up his car and Grandmother and Mary Jane hurried off to the kitchen to see about the baking of good things to eat, for Cousin Margaret was to bring Tom herself and would stay part of a day before going back.

How Mary Jane did love the work and bustle! Grandmother made a big jar of sugar cookies (she let Mary Jane put the sugar on them herself, and you know that's fun!), and a big cake with thick chocolate icing (and Mary Jane sc.r.a.ped out the frosting bowl), and then she "dressed" two chickens (and Mary Jane thought that the most wonderful performance she had ever seen).

Then they went upstairs and got out fresh bedding, and Mary Jane herself put out the fresh towels in the guest bathroom. And by that time it was six o'clock--time for bread and milk. Everybody went to bed early so as to be up and feeling fine in the morning.

Next morning Mary Jane helped Grandmother with the morning work; then she put on her pink gingham dress and got out her biggest pink plaid hair ribbon for Grandmother to tie. And in no time at all, they were off to the station.

When the train stopped and left a pretty lady and a rosy-cheeked little boy of about Mary Jane's age on the tiny platform, Mary Jane suddenly felt very shy. She had never played with little boys, except Junior, and he was so much younger she didn't count him, and she didn't quite know how to talk to a little boy cousin she had never seen before. But she needn't have worried about what to say because the grown folks talked all the time and the two children on the front seat beside Grandfather Hodges, simply sat and looked at each other all the way home!